Charm City [IC] Options

[pbangarth]

Willie responds, <<Got it. I'll work out a wish list and get back to you for contacts. >>

Willie sits down with a piece of jerky that had hidden earlier in a corner of his pocket and considers the possibilities.

[sunnyside]

"Aw. Well, we did say to try and keep it fun"

Mike joins in, matching Selina's energy (buying hits) But still with a big smile. He shifts from dancing on his own to dancing with Selina. However not very aggressively in the sense of not going for lifts or fast twirls.

In contrast some people are getting pretty crazy. Taking the music as a reason to throw each other around. The staircase gets crowded as folks give each other more space than usual in the small club.

Mike gives he a look. "I guess it's the planner in me. I figure we need to talk if you want to try anything like that out here. But I can do lose too. "

He goes back into a more Charleston type dance, but with a lot more sway. Letting his knees swing wide and getting lower to the ground.

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

(OOC: So I've been thinking about this, and I think the intent might be that the magic just helps guide movements into something that happens to hit metahumans as hypnotic. So it translates through recordings, just with generally a reduced effect depending on the medium. I'm not sure about hard and fast house rules, but maybe a couple hits off for a cheap holo. Still, that's enough for a pretty significant effect on most people. I'll give you a bit of leeway in how it affects Bongo. Though his higher perception dice pool might make a difference compared especially to people whose pool goes to zero. )

[Thanee]

"Loose is fun. Fun is good!" Selina smiles happily as they dance and gives Mike a sly wink. "Fortune favors the bold. Isn't that what they say? Let's see what we got!"

[sunnyside]

Frank looks confused for a moment as he parses out the seeming contradiction in her statements, but then focuses on the latter quote saying "Alright Kim, I can do bold. I could try and lead, but I don't know what you can do so just whisper a lift or point at somebody else. let's start with straight lift to between legs and back"

He then moves to execute the move trying to get her to fly up in the air a little ways. It's a pretty easy lift in terms of not having anybody fall nor hitting another dancer. He shows he's got the strength to move the relatively light Selina around, and, more rarely, hand control to keep from hurting her sides while he does it.

Though Selina notes he doesn't have the above average strength his frame indicates.

[Thanee]

"Just do what feels right is what I meant. Don't overthink it."

As Mike lifts her up, she leans back a bit and pushes her arms out showing that she trusts him there.

"Yeah, that was a good start."

She continues their dance, doing a bit more fun stuff, even though that more acrobatic dance style gets exhausting pretty quick.

[sunnyside]

"Hmmm. I think maybe I don't like moving you so far away" He smiles and gets a little silly, but is clearly enjoying having his hands on Selina as he starts incorporating more short quick lifts, often with a spin into the dance here and there. (OOC: I actually make him roll for that but he picks up a couple hits). Not exactly the typical ones, for example holding under one leg and other hand under Selinas arm so she can almost sit and he spins her around himself.

Without practice they aren't always be best, but it keeps up the pace of the music better than a grander maneuver. Selina does notice some others starting to copy his style, especially if a more acrobatic move got them some dirty looks if they came close to or hit other dancers.

However as Selina noted it's a more exhausting dance, and pretty soon Mike says "A drink waiting in the ice pale seems nice right about now. How about a couple and then maybe we can see about this upstairs, it should be opening soon." He still has that uncharacteristically goofy smile on his face from the dancing.

[pbangarth]

Bongo watches himself perform, and of course he is impressed with his technique. Oh, wait, there was one bobble in the timing. To paraphrase Tennyson, Bongo's improvement is a world whose margins fade ever and forever while he plays.

But the recording is a bust as far as his magic goes. Nothing of it comes through. I figured so, he thinks to himself.

"You get anything out of the recording? I get nothing."

[sunnyside]

She doesn't speak for a moment. "It was still really good percussion. "

She gives him a smile. Not quite as bright as usual, but reassuring.

She continues.

" But yeah, it isn't the same. I can definitely say the thought that it's only drums never occurred to me when it was live. "

She then smiles more brightly as a thought occurs to her "But I can say that I've never ever sat through a whole full length drum solo before! So you have that on everybody!"

She pauses and gets that more serious look that she gets "I guess the question then is how it works with everybody else. Do you know anything about that? Like could I grab the mic, put a big band on the holo, and have your drumwork still do it's magic? "

[pbangarth]

"I figure anyone present during my performance would be affected. I know that people who are forewarned can function relatively normally, like my teammates in my other gig can. Probably you would be able to be free of the effect if you prepared for it, or at least use it to get in the pocket for your own performance.

"Yeah, drums, marimbas, garbage cans, kitchen table, anything I can beat on can be the instrument."

The reference to garbage cans reminds Bongo of the time at the Rex in Toronto after he aided the team that hired him to get into the nearby Club Rojo. Finished his work, he returned to the Rex and struck up a relationship with one of the patrons that night. A fond, fond memory.

[sunnyside]

She nods "Alright. Let's give this a try. I assume you know the old jazz standard "It don't mean a thing" or is the full title "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing" whatever. I'm hoping you know what I mean. If you don't just fake it and try not to embarrass yourself. I guess you have a minute while I find a track without vocals or drums"

She shuts down the image of Bongo on the holo, to be replaced by the frozen image of a guy with a trumpet. Bongo can see her further messing with some stuff in AR. After a minute she sashays over to the microphone, turning her back to Bongo to look out at the non-existent audience and her cameras. She continues to move her hips as she gets into her stage persona. With a flick of her hand the holo starts playing, though the image isn't shifting on her practice track. After a bit of piano she drops in with the vocals.

(OOC: I'm figuring she'll manage to function properly, especially since Bongo wants her to. She's giving a solid but safe "buying hits" sort of performance. That's forced a little since the digital band isn't going to adjust to any changes she might want to make. You can sling the die and RP based on that. If Bongo keeps it going after the track ends, she'll keep going with him. )

[pbangarth]

Bongo says, "Oh, yeah. I know it." As the Backup band starts, Bongo dives in with the rhythm right away, as the backup is more like Ella fitzgerald's fast pace from just a few decades ago, rather than the slower original from the 1930s. Once he synchs with the backup, ( which is odd because they should synch with him, but he can handle it ) Bongo calls up the magic.

[ Spoiler ]

Enthralling Performance 20 dice: 8 hits

That should do.

He can feel the strong flow of the mana through him. He almost thinks he could will the background recording to follow him, but it doesn't matter. It sounds as if they were tuned in to him all along. He wonders if there is a way to adjust the recording on the fly. Hmmm. Maybe a sound tech affected by his magic could do that. He will have to investigate.

He checks on Rose to see how she is handling it. She's got a pretty good voice.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Bongo would remember Roses band had a guy "playing" what looked like an old cyberdeck. Presumably he's doing just that for them. Certainly the software exists regardless, Rose just isn't using it. )

Rose manages to hold her tune professionally, clearly a song she's done before. As the recording ends she keeps going with the refrain, and switches to her Jazz scat style, and starts heading over to Bongo.

"We'll have to think about how to get you to go viral. Maybe flash mob type stuff that could catch views? "

She keeps sashaying as she goes behind the drums.

"Of course the question then is how well you deal with distractions..."

She starts working her hands under Bongo's shirt. Bongo then has to also resist laughing as she starts giggling as she starts having some difficulty with Bongo's armor (OOC: I guess she could just have trouble with any clothes and go with that if Bongo is unarmored. What occurred to me was that Bongo probably rolls out with his Urban explorer jumpsuit under other clothes blocking not just bullets and knives but playful hands.)

[Thanee]

"That was fun! Selina comments. "Especially without any practicing.

When Mike suggests to get back to the table, she nods.

Sure. A drink sounds perfect right now. And we can certainly use a little break."

[pbangarth]

Bongo is a young man. He relishes the ... pleasures of the flesh. But he is on a mission that could take him anywhere a clue to his Great Purpose might lead. Or get shot. Getting in a relationship with a talented woman who is talking about future work together and clearly interested in those same pleasures could tie him down.

But, Bongo is a young man. Oh, this is hard on the guy.

[ Spoiler ]

Willpower test, with Edge: WIL 3 + 6 = 9 exploding dice: 3 hits Well, he gets control.

Now ...

Explaining himself to Rose: Influence Group 4 + CHA 6 = 10 dice: 2 hits Not so clear.

Once he gets control of his giggles, he helps Rose free herself from the densiplast and liquid reactive armour of his urban explorer jumpsuit. He had thought of switching to his lined coat, but hadn't done so.

He turns to face her, takes her hands in his, and says, "You just found out something of my other line of work. The one that right now is paying a lot better than music does.

"I could be called away at short notice to anywhere nearby. One night I might not come back. My long term goal could take me to any part of the world. Making a commitment to anything long-term would be unfair to others. Or, the other. I respect you, and would love to work with you in any way my path allows. Getting physical would muddy that."

[sunnyside]

Mike starts moving slowly towards the stairs, but then realizes himself, smiles again, and starts heading up them often a few at a time, attempting to jump or dance between the many patrons still avoiding the floor. This makes a path for Selina and a couple scowls, but Reggie slowly following without any of the dancing is good for keeping things at scowls.

The group soon is back at the table. Instead of heading to the far end he steps to the side at the bottom of the steps to let Selina past and Mike pours a glass of Champaign for her. Then he does a quick shot of Absinte. "Ugh. I really need to remember not to do that with this stuff. I'll make some up properly in a moment, I just need to step out for a bit to freshen up. I'll be right back. Enjoy the view."

He then steps back up the stairs and Reggie follows toward the second floor bathrooms.

(OOC: The two will be back in five minutes, at which point Mike gets started on the ritual to make the Absinthe enjoyable.)

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

Rose looks at Bongo like she's broken. She starts to talk a couple times.

But stops.

She starts to get into one of the alluring poses she's so good at.

But stops.

She stares at Bongo a while. "Well. Ok. I'll just pretend you're gay. You'd say if you were actually gay right? That's be fine. It's all fine. I can respect, you know, professional integrity and goals. Let's. Let's just watch the holo. "

She shifts back to one of the chairs and starts up the recording of the two of them and the virtual band.

And pretends to watch it.

[Koekepan]

Paul shrugs in response to Enzo. ""Ideas for a different spot? Sorry, sir, but I'd have to know more about your needs. If all you want is discreet access I could build you a lockup shed up top with a dedicated access tunnel down here, maybe even with a winch lift, but screwholes in the access hatch would just turn into water fountains with the next storm that rolls in and you don't want that. I'll finish up this reinforcement job for now, and we can talk about a different ingress pattern later. Urgent work before important work, you know?""

[sunnyside]

Enzo nods and says "Uh. Sure. I'll think about that. What might be awesome is if there were some other secure place that wasn't the union. But I can't think of anything. A hatch up above might be great now that you mention it. They'd notice a shed, but maybe if we could modify a van to have a hatch at the bottom? Actually that could be pretty whiz period, if I could find a mechanic for that. But you're right. Let's get something reasonable done tonight. "

(OOC: If Paul lets him, Enzo will walk off leaving Paul free to work.)

[Koekepan]

Paul buckles down, cheerfully finishing the job in front of him before turning to new ones. That fresh lid won't fabricate itself.

[pbangarth]

Bongo notes her response. Sometimes he wonders if life would be better if he just went with the moment. Goals and morality be damned.

Yeah.

"Nope not gay. Just not willing to throw away a good thing for some fun. "

He watches the recording. And keeps an eye on Rose.

[pbangarth]

Willie thinks deeply while he munches. The other two out in the woods kept looking to him for leadership. That had never happened before. Mostly he had been a weapon someone else had pointed and been told to shoot. Since he began to be able to think deeply, much has changed.

He considers the team Brewster has amassed. He gets a quick rundown of the 'save the girl' run from Angel. They worked amazingly well together without firing a shot or even getting noticed. Wow! So the team has what it takes to get a silent run done. But what if it comes to violence? He can't think of anyone better suited to take the lead when the bullets start to fly than himself. That means he has to get better at getting the rest to follow his lead.

He dives into the Matrix, checks out some titles, and downloads "Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual, 11th Edition, by Jocko Willink." It looks to have some good stuff on how to step up in a team that has a lot of strong willed people in it. He's going to have to study this a lot.

Then he considers how the last run went. He's glad the effort he put into making him a 'tank' payed off. If they hadn't had to stay quiet there would have been little trouble. It isn't lost on Willie that he was better at keeping things away with his knife than by just dodging. That will stick. So do some of the moves he needed to pull to get past the underwater things' shells.

Maybe a bigger knife would help!

Two come to his attention in another Matrix search. Vibro blade! Awesome and cuts through armour better, but it is noisy. But, if you are going to make noise, why use a knife? A Cougar Fineblade on the other hand looks good. Oh! Oh! A Victorinox Memory Blade! When they think they've disarmed you. Yeah!

He puts together a shopping list for Brewster and fires it off.

<<Hey, Boss. Here's some stuff I could use. Let me know what's doable.

1) Cougar Fineblade knife, long.
2) Victorinox Memory Blade
3) 2 30 round clips of regular ammo for my AK - 97
4) What the hell -- APDS ammo, one or more clips of 30 >>

Once that is sent off, he practices some of the moves he developed out in the swamp. Then, armed with the HK Urban Combat SMG well tucked away, he heads out for something good to eat. A nice restaurant with a big steak deal would be perfect. Real steak.

[sunnyside]

(OOC: So Enzo heads off. Unless you take a substantial period of time and want to be around late at night when folks want to leave or go down to a skeleton crew nobody is bothering Paul, though folks do occasionally walk around down here, they have their own business and don't engage. So you can specify what Paul does, and then call up whoever you'd want to wrap things up.

As a side note I thought you might bite on the mechanic thing, but you have Enzo's contact info for later )

-------

Bongo wonders at what his magic senses can pick up. A lot is playing on Rose's face, and, if he isn't focusing a lot on the holo either, he can go back to play through it again. Probably some sort of internal discussion going on. Initially some very prickly body language, but then some resolute thoughts slide through, eventually she gets more of that hard edge, then a look Bongo has taken to associate with her ambitious side, but as the holo comes to a close she's actually smiled a little.

As it ends she says. "Well, at least I was able to sing alright. Maybe for the next thing you could pick something you think might work well. Like think of a scene where you might be able to work well and we could get something going, and then pick a song and we can try that. We've got some time. We could even try just some karaoke before being up to speed enough to really try it together. "

Eventually she adds " I suppose I should address the other bit. I think where I've gotten myself is to realize I don't know that I've ever really had an actual just friend that was a guy. Maybe I have. But, you know, I've always assumed they were just waiting for an opportunity or the right mood you know? Even the really old ones. " She laughs a bit at that last part.

"That's wrecked a few things. Maybe more than a few, I don't know. So. Maybe this is actually a good way to make it big. " Her smile is a little sad, but it's still a smile.

----------

Brewster sends back a message <<I'll have to look into sourcing some of those. I haven't had a request for a memory blade and the streets eat APDS as fast as it drops. At least they made a lot for the AK-97 across the pond. >>

(OOC: I'll roll that stuff up later. I'm not sure if you want to mess around with him trying to avoid getting into trouble with his manners and AK in the kinds of places with real steak. I might let you freeform some of that if you'd like. )

[Koekepan]

Paul makes sure that the pipe is strapped, that the scaffolding is in place as props, and uses a drone to check that the concrete patching and other internal repair work was completed. He then devotes himself to the fabrication of the lid, making sure that the match of the lid insert is tight and exact to the curve of the pipe and the shape of the hole. Then he matches that to a covering section that affords a flange that he can use for vault-style bolts around the perimeter. Finally he installs mating hardware all around the edge - standard industrial bolts would do fine. This takes a few hours, and then he puts the sucker in place. Enzo has the ability to lift it unaided - good for him. Paul just uses the scaffolding and a come-along to hoist it.

And there you are. Job done as per specification, time for signoff, payout and a beer.

[Thanee]

Selina chuckles. "Yeah, I will rather stick to something like this." And takes another sip of champagne.

She leans back in her seat and watches the dancing crowd for a moment, until Mike is back.

In the meantime, she sends Fiona to the entrance on the third floor, to check if they are opening up there. And to check, whether the astral barriers are still in place.

"So? Are we ready for the great reveal?"

[pbangarth]

"Yeah, 'just friends' is a stranger to me, too. But I've seen too many competent groups explode because of personal attachments or breakups." Bongo considers Rose's ideas. "You think voice and percussion are enough? Usually there's something like a keyboard or a guitar in there. You know anybody who could sit in for a jam tonight?"

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Care to make a roll for all that Koekepan? I'd be interested in what pool you end up with. Been a few years since I've had someone doing construction. ).

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

Scouting ahead Fiona can get an eye on folks starting to be let in upstairs. At least there are a fair number of them, casting their shadows into the astral. There does seem to be some negative energy in the air though.

There are a few things that pop out immediately as she moves into the area. The first is that the wards are still there, clearly visible through the open doors. The second is that there are a pair of spirits hanging out over the crowd. A dog and a flame. In the moment Fiona enters the area they're stationary and facing each other.

She could slink away unnoticed if she wished.  

On the balcony Selina might notice that people here seem just more interested in having fun than normal for the sixth world. With dancers trying acrobatic movies they do not have the skills for, the incidents of folks bumping or kicking each other, mixed with trying to impress other and booze, would usually result in trouble and bouncers getting involved.

(OOC: Although perhaps Selina tended to frequent places without the exuberance or violence? I'm assuming she's been in a variety of places. )

Mike seems refreshed as he returns and smiles "Well Kim, if you're ready they're probably getting ready to start upstairs. I'm afraid I've probably cost us getting the first spots in line, but I think today that might not be the best thing anyway. We'll be able to scout things out a bit. "

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

Rose thinks a moment. " I suppose I'd be entertaining notions of running off and trying to make something magical happen just to the two of us. Maybe that wasn't the nicest to my existing band. We're a bit of a weird bunch anyway with basically two singers and a "performance decker' as Renee calls himself managing everything else. Tomy and I have a bit of history and maybe a strained musical relationship. We can each manage some instruments a bit to let each have a turn as lead. You might need to use some charm on him to keep from butting heads too. He wants to be the star, but don't we all? "

She things a bit longer 'Outside of Retrostack I suppose I know all sorts of musicians in the scene. A few try to go solo and become a matrix sensation. Most of the good ones would claim to be in a band or two I think, but it isn't like they're married. "

She laughs "It doesn't even feel like going steady until somebody asks you to go on tour. And people don't go on tour like the used to. Also nobody says "going steady" in real life anymore now that I think about it. Maybe this friends thing will be nice. "