The Found Arcana - Chapter 11 [IC] Options

[Jack_Spade]

"So, seems we need to stake out Philip's office also. I'll get on that next. Anyone giving me a lift?"

Bobby asked.

[Gilga]

"I wonder if the current assistant has history ... did they lumber him with a handler? Or gift him with someone above his station? Well, a bit of searching might tell us more. AM, maybe we can divide and conquor on the matrix searching?"

With a combination of VR/AR techniques, I continue Trixing the Duck's assistant, unsuccessfully trying to get the phrase "getting lucky with Ducky" out of my head as I do.

[ Spoiler ]

Trix search: 18d6t5 6

To Bobby I say "I'll come... Perhaps there is something I could do on the tech-side. Though we either go on autopilot or after the Trixing is done I can manually drive."

[Tecumseh]

AM finds that Potter's new assistant is named Bonnie Melani. She has a robust P2.1 presence, mostly fueled by photos of her wearing cute outfits. It seems she's a fashion influencer, or at least thinks of herself that way. She has a healthy follower count, but probably not to the point where she could make a living off it. Her account is several years old, so she's been at it for a while.

(Raven and AM are both well-versed in fashion. Their opinion is that Bonnie is pretty good at being pretty. She effectively enhances her strong points and cleverly minimizes her weak points. Her outfits are a savvy balance between traditional fashion and creative evolution. She has an alluring, coquettish smile that doesn't give too much away. Her swimsuit photos are tasteful without being too overtly sexual. She's good at this.)

There's not a lot to find in terms of her professional credentials. AM can't find any records of her education, or any notable work experience. As best she can tell, this might be Bonnie's first office job.

<<Sunday Night - 22:55 - April 9, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Phillips office is in a cheesy strip mall. The building is 50 or 60 years old and not very attractive. His neighbors are a laundromat, a nail salon, a Chinese noodle place, a body piercing shop, plus a jeweler / rare coin dealer who has bars over its windows. Through the window of Phillips' office you can see a garish mural of him standing in a majestic pose in front of a flapping UCAS flag with a bald eagle perched on his arm. The humble nature of the place seems to scream, "I'm a man of the people!"

Yet to a trained eye the story is very different. In addition to the formidable host guarding the place, there is a very thorough array of sensors monitoring the place. There are no holes in the camera coverage, and through the window you can see drones on patrol inside the office. Even the roof is bristling with sensors. AM can tell that much of the tech is new, with some of the sensors only being available to the public over the last year or so. The tech defenses seem to shout, "... but I know how the world works!"

There's probably a gap in their somewhere that a professional could exploit, but it all seems overdone. At least, it's much more than you would expect from a councilor's office.

[Jack_Spade]

To Bobby I say "I'll come... Perhaps there is something I could do on the tech-side. Though we either go on autopilot or after the Trixing is done I can manually drive."

"No problem, I'll drive."

Bobby parked in some distance, staying well out of camera and other sensor range. He opened his third eye to take a closer look at the astral as well, making sure that his aura didn't reveal his magically activity. He stopped quickly after getting a stabbing headache from looking at the place.
He knew quite a bit about security procedures and the setup looked remarkably like the one he had seen in Potter's flat.

"You know, it almost looks like Potter and Philips are involved in the same drek. They have the same setup at their respective places. It would be very interesting to see if he also has a specially warded room at his place.
If that is the case, we are dealing with some kind of cabal."

Bobby concentrated and used his spatial sense to learn what he could about the wards that were no doubt around here.

[ Spoiler ]

Assensing: 10d6t5 2 - try again with -2 penalty
Assensing: 8d6t5 1 yeah that was to close to a glitch - I'm stopping here

Extended spatial sense F3: 19d6t5 6
Resist Drain: 11d6t5 5

No drain

[ Spoiler ]

[Tecumseh]

Bobby doesn't notice any external astral security around the building. There aren't spirits on watch or watchers on patrol, at least outside.

Bobby's spatial sense gives him a layout of the office, which appears to be fairly normal in terms of size and equipment. There are chairs, desks, a soykaf machine, etc. There is a safe in the wall of Phillip's office. Besides that, there aren't any secret rooms or hidden spaces.

One of the rooms is warded, but it's not as strong as the ward at Potter's place. It looks more like something that's designed to deter astral eavesdropping rather than to conceal a deep, dark secret. In fact, you can see into the warded space through the front windows. It appears to be a conference room with glass walls. From this distance, it doesn't appear to be anything sinister.

[Gilga]

I respond to Bobby, "The matrix supports such an assertion, let me have my own look, I can poke around everywhere in this vicinity to seek opportunities without leaving the car. We'll just need to move the car if it is too far for the spell. Would allow us to have a closer look at things without appearing in their camera feed as scouting the place.

Without leaving the car and after verifying that the door is locked, I close my eyes and shift my awareness away from my body with the bumblebee vision spell. The spell is less confusing with closed eyes since my body remembers that the vision is no longer linked to my eyes, and with closed eyes nobody expects me to see them. I sort of look like I do when I am on the Trix anyhow...

I spend some time carefully observing the office space and taking notes on the locations of all security features and any people in the vicinity, or inside the office. I then scouted the neighboring dry cleaning and buildings to locate cameras and other devices that may give me visibility in the area. Once I finish with the mundane bumblebee scout, I repeat the process with the asral clairvoyance spell verifying what forms of astral entities are found in the office and the nearby surrounding. Originally I learned that spell as a poor woman's substitute for astrally projecting but I have learned to appreciate the subtlety of poking around without actually being somewhere else.

[ Spoiler ]

I think it is the first nonrecreational use of these spells for her since the beginning of the game!

buying 4 hits for the spellcasting roll for both spells.
Both are cast at F4.
drain: 11d6t5 4
drain2: 11d6t5 3
no drain.
If I recall correctly, extended detection spells have an F*10 radius, so AM can shift her assessing and perception to any point within that radius and see what she would have seen if she was standing there. She'll then cast Improve intuition to augment her perception (buying 4 hits)
Drain: 11d6t5 4
This leaves her with 17 dice of visual perception (while trouble is sustaining the spells for brief intervals, which allows to buy 4 hits (the maximum of the spell anyhow) for the entirety of the physical tour.
She is less skilled in assessing - but with improved intuition she can buy 3 hits.

[Tecumseh]

It's late on a Sunday night, so there's nobody inside the office. Even the laundromat and the body piercing place are closed at this hour.

Peeking inside, AM finds a couple drones on patrol. First, there's a Ferret RPD-5X drone that's patrolling the carpet. Second, there's a Horizon Flying Eye buzzing about. The two drones have different routes which are not synchronized. AM also detects a certain degree of randomness in their movement patterns, so that their routes are not completely predictable.

AM does her best to spot the sensors. In addition to cameras, she also notices motion detectors and sensors that monitor the ambient temperature of the room. There's also a laser tripwire by the front door. It seems like more than what a local politician's office would have. Perhaps Phillips is paranoid, or perhaps he is a reasonable man in an unreasonable world.

Switching to the astral, AM notices a watcher on patrol. It is marching around the office in a fairly tight pattern. It's not so potent as the one Bobby saw at the animal clinic, but it's still formidable (F5). Outside, there are a couple small spirits of man (F2 and F3). Jawsey would know for sure, but to AM they look like wild spirits of the city. They nestle on the roof and seem to find comfort in the building. They don't seem to be providing any security. Or, if they are, they're doing a poor job of it.

There's nothing off about the background of the office. Perhaps there is a splash of greed, maybe a spattering of lust, but the space is not attuned. There's no evidence of any wicked magics here.

[Jack_Spade]

While Bobby kept up the spell, he spend a few moments to draw a floor plan of the office, before dropping it again.

He waited for AM to report her findings.

"Seems like pretty tight operation. I doubt we'll find much at this place. The security is remarkable, but nothing that would deter a determined attacker. There's nothing that really would prevent a smash and grab. But it's a pretty good setup to prevent someone from bugging the place or setting an IED.

You could send Trouble to talk to the two spirits, maybe they know something interesting."

[Gilga]

I fill in Bobby on what I found and then add "They convinced me at laser tripwire; one needs a good reason to poke in there. Astral security is only so-so with a single watcher, but physical security is top-notch. Was it like that at Potter's?"

When Bobby offers to send Trouble, I see the merit of this idea since there is only a single watcher inside an astrally projecting spirit on the roof of the building, and not poking inside seems like a good move. I don't have time to order the cat around, and Trouble disappears (well, dematerializes), but for all practical meaning disappears. Bobby can see my astonishment at Trouble's eagerness to find an excuse to look around. "Only the roof, love..." I think to him just in case their curiosity gets the better of them. I then sigh and chit-chat with Bobby to pass the time until Trouble reports back. How come you don't have a pet? I ask him. I sort of expected Bobby to have some animal friends, considering he knows so much about animals.

Trouble:
The cat spirit makes its way to the head of the building and then greets the two city spirits. "Hi there!" they say.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby shrugs at AM's question: "Actually, I've though about getting one a few times already. But between us relocating and me taking months off at a time I didn't think it would work out. Then there's the fact that I hang out with lots of different animals on a regular basis. There's a pair of crows I'm rather fond off as well as an alley cat I'm taking care off. I don't think they'd be happy living at our place - and neither would our neighbors.

So all in all, I just haven't met the right one yet. For what it's worth, I really like hanging out with Trouble as well."

[Tecumseh]

On the roof, Trouble sees that the two spirits have built themselves what appears to be sort of a nest. It's near a duct in the roof where there's some warm air coming out. Spirits don't actually need to rest, nor warm themselves, but sometimes they adopt the habits of their surroundings.

The larger spirit is something of a shadow cat, although more shadow than cat. It purrs as Trouble approaches. "Come to cuddle?" it asks, shifting its black silhouette to make room for Trouble in the nest. It would be a tight fit, but the nest looks soft and cozy enough.

The smaller spirit is rather more like a bird, maybe the cross between a crow and a pigeon. It tenses and looks warily at Trouble, perhaps wondering if the larger, stronger Trouble will treat it as prey (again, more out of habit than genuine need for predation).

[Gilga]

"Are you always so friendly with spirits you just met?" Trouble retorts, So... what is your story? Is there anything worth knowing about this location?

[Tecumseh]

The cat gives a disinterested shrug, the way that cats do.

"When I want to be," it purrs, swishing its tail back and forth. "When the mood strikes."

It looks around languidly.

"This old place? No, nothing remarkable. Just a quiet little hideaway. Nothing much happens here, which is the way I like it. If I want adventure, I'll go seek it out."

The bird stays quiet during the exchange. It looks perhaps a bit annoyed by the interruption.

Additional back and forth will reinforce the mundaneness of the surroundings. There are no reports of magical or mysterious goings-on. Well there was that one time when a couple got into a fight at the laundromat over an unexplained pair of women's panties in the laundry (the man was adamant that the previous person using the machine must have left them behind by accident), and another time when a patron of the body piercing place was so mad because evidently the wrong thing got pierced. But it's mostly just a normal little strip mall on the fringes of the Sprawl.

[Gilga]

Trouble spends some time chitchatting with the two spirits and then decides to recruit them as potential scouts or perhaps a distraction in case Bobby gets all adventurous and tries to break in. "Want to play a spy game?" Trouble offers, "Imagine you are on top of a top-secret lab with many secrets—all sorts of security measures, from laser tripwires to sneaking drones and even a spirit inside. You look at all the coming and going, and when everyone is distracted, you peek inside and see their secret for yourself. I bet it would be delicious..." he suggests appealing more to curiosity than to greed because, from what the cat can deduce, these two are kind of bored and are looking for an adventure - so this is what a sneaky cat spirit should do in such a situation.

At the car AM tells Bobby "spirits are not saying anything useful. Trouble would try to get them excited about playing spies in case you need a distraction." She says without opening her eyes.

(I imagine it happening while AM is scanning the area with her magical senses so she can hear Bobby, but her eyesight is somewhere else.)

[Tecumseh]

"No," the spirit cat says flatly. "I am comfortable. I wish to cuddle, not collude.

"Some other time, perhaps," it says, putting its head down and curling up. It seems to be shutting down for the night.

[Gilga]

Trouble
So much for that saying about cats, curiosity, and death... Trouble says mostly to themselves and returns to the car. It is unclear to the young spirit why spirits would behave like mortals. He has all of AM's memories, and still, in many ways, he is relieved for not needing rest sleep, or food. Perhaps it is fun to pretend like they belong here.

[Jack_Spade]

"Hm, looks like a dead end. Better leave the spirits be." Bobby murmured
"I can keep watch here so we won't miss the arrival of the assistant. I bet she arrives here early to get things done while no boss is around to keep her from doing her work."

[Gilga]

"I think I'll settle for a real bed tonight..." Looking at the cat spirit I add "You can stay with Bobby if you got bored of watching everyone sleep."

[Tecumseh]

AM takes her motorcycle and zips back to Bellevue so that she can sleep in her own bed.

Presumably Raven and Tamarind do too.

Bobby stays on watch over Phillips' office, meditating the night away.

<<Monday Morning - 09:27 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

There's a nice sunrise. It's a sunny, pleasant spring morning with a light breeze and a few fluffy clouds. Bobby waits for Phillips' assistant to show up.

And waits. And waits. She finally arrives at 09:27 on the dot, driving a luxurious BMW X89. She is carrying a cup of soykaf from one of the hip, upscale cafes. She's wearing heels, a tight pencil skirt that shows off her trim waist and full hips, and a stylish suit jacket over a breezy blouse.

Phillips is nowhere to be seen. After unlocking the door, his assistant takes her seat behind her desk, and promptly checks her makeup in a mirror. Once she has her eye shadow and lipstick just so, she makes a kissy face and takes a selfie with her soykaf.

Then she's hard at work: she does her nails, then she works on her eyelashes, then she checks her commlink. Every once in a while it looks like she might answer a phone call, but nobody comes in or out. She seems to have the place to herself. Bobby can see her staring into space and swiping her hand through the air; perhaps she is browsing an AR catalog.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobb had waited for this exact moment: When the commlink became visible, he immediately tried to tag it for AM. That would enable her to find it on the matrix for the next steps.

[ Spoiler ]

TAG: 5d6t5 1

Repeatable
TAG edge: 8d6t5 4

Edge explosion: 1d6t5 1
Edge explosion: 1d6t5 1
Edge explosion: 1d6t5 0

Alright, I 'd call that edge well spent 😄

The first attempt didn't catch on, but the second one seemed to log on an open port, left behind by a particularly ruthless data collection algorithm of a beauty and wellness matrix site, the assistant frequented.

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 09:42 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Bobby gets his tag and is able to send it to AM and Tamarind.

<<Monday Morning - 10:07 - April 10, 2079 - Printing Office - University of Washington>>

AM, Rachel, and Tamarind find their way to a building marked 'UW Creative Communications'. It's a bit difficult to find because the office is in the basement of an old brick building that's well off the beaten path. Not many people are around; it seems more like the industrial part of the campus, indeed the Physical Plant Services department is nearby. They're the ones who keep the lights and heat on, the walls painted, the grass trimmed, and so on. It creates the impression of being in the underbelly of campus.

The interior of the printing office is a bit of confused mess. There's printing machinery everywhere, but - as best you can tell - none of it is being used. In fact, based on appearances you're not sure if most of it has been used in the last 10+ years. This place almost looks like a warehouse to store it all. But, mixed in with that are a bunch of workers - mostly younger people, maybe students - who seem to be working in AR and VR on different communications projects.

There's a young man behind a desk. He's as tall and skinny as an elf, but his ears around round and his skin is terrible. He looks like a gangly, awkward human, maybe 19 years old, and as pale as if he had never seen the sun. He gulps hard when he sees Rachel and AM.

"Uhh... may I HeLp you?" he asks, his voice breaking awkwardly. He grimaces, embarrassed.

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 09:44 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Anyone taking a look at the device will see that it is a Transys Avalon. The persona is Phillips' assistant dressed as a queen, with a golden crown and a luxurious ermine robe. The persona's features are slightly exaggerated: the eyelashes are a little longer, the eyes a tad larger, the chin a bit stronger.

[Thanee]

Rachel is dressed casually, white jeans and a modest top, also white, she does not want to draw too much attention here, after all. A short, black jacket, red sneakers and a black ball cap with the Seattle Screamers logo complete her outfit. Still, she certainly understands that the young man is a little nervous. She gives him a warm smile.

"Yes, you may help us."

She waits for a moment... maybe they should have figured out how to approach this before, but for some reason they havn't, so she quickly comes up with something to explain their presence...

"Okay, so, we are on this scavenger hunt. Yeah, I know. It's a little juvenile, right? But, hey, it's actually pretty fun. And now we think that the next piece of info we need to dig up is buried in here. Would it be okay, if we take a look at your archives? Just the public stuff, of course."

[Tecumseh]

The young man gulps hard.

"The aRcHiVeS?" he says, his voice breaking again. He grimaces.

"Wh-what are you looking for?" he stammers.

He still has a deer-in-headlight look to him. He seems flustered and confused. From her experience conning people, Rachel realizes that he might do better if he has a concrete task, something that he's familiar with that he could readily accomplish without his lizard brain getting in the way.

[Thanee]

"If we knew that, already, we wouldn't really be here now, would we? Anyways, one of the clues was "He was here long ago, even before two point oh.", that has to refer to the Crash, right? So, typical ways of getting information are out, and we were looking for any places, that still have stuff from before... in some form. You do have that here, correct? So, what do we have to do, so we can get in here and browse the paperwork?" Rachel continues to talk quickly, not giving him too much time to think things over.