Charm City II [IC] Options

[Thanee]

Once everything is done at the cemetery and Paul is heading off, Selina will return to her body, while Fiona will stick around near the van, just in case.

Looking around, she spots Lenny nearby.

"Oh, hey Lenny! I'm back. Paul is on his way, but might take a bit longer to arrive. Where's the rest?"

Taking a quick glance at her commlink, she sees a bunch of messages. "You guys have been busy as well. Any new developments?"

[pbangarth]

Bongo's sharp ears catch the faint sounds of Selina's voice. He messages her, <<Check out the last few messages and let me and Willie know if you want to explore the next level down with us. It looks like the others are busy with their own work. >>

[Thanee]

<< Sure. Just gimme a sec to catch up. >>

Selina lets the two spirits at her side go back to their own corner in astral space, placing them on "stand by" for the time being.
Enough, that one of them gets a headache from all the astral pollution around here. But she still has a job to do.

[Koekepan]

Paul carefully lashes the drone down, and then drives back to the safehouse. Time to refit, refurbish and refuel.

<<Just pulling up, chummers, I'll be right around.>>

[Thanee]

After reading her messages and checking that all her stuff is still there, Selina contacts Bongo and Willie again.

<< Okay, so you guys off to the 98th then? I will be right there. >>

She heads down to meet up with them to further explore that vague clue they got.

[pbangarth]

Once Selina joins Willie and Bongo, they head to the kitchen and check out the way down under the carpet. Opening the trap door, Bongo listens to see if anyone is down there in the immediate vicinity, and also looks to see if there is some kind of ladder to get down, and then to see if there is someone quiet down there.

[ Spoiler ]

Listen: Perception 3 (hearing +2) + INT 5 + Enhanced Perception 4 + earbuds 3 = 17 dice: 7 hits

Look: Perception 3 + INT 5 + Enhanced Perception 4 + contact lenses 3 = 15 dice: 6 hits

[sunnyside]

Looking around, Bongo can't see any sort of ladder that's meant to help. Unlike the first trap door, this one seems like it's less used and not supposed to be so obvious. Though the room has tables and furnature someone could scoot over if they wanted to. Otherwise, getting back up from the 98th to the 99th floor would hinge on being able to jump a little and do a chin up. With a brief check of his memory, Bongo suspects that wouldn't be a problem for most of the gangers, who he has been able to inspect rather closely while working with the medkits. These guys tend to have good upper body strength but look like they would be healthier with a little of grandma's cooking to put some weight on, but Bongo hasn't seen any grandma looking orks on these floors yet.

Opening the trap door makes Bongo the most interesting thing happening in the kitchen.

A large Ork with an AR visor looks at Bongo looking down and says, "And who are you and what do you want? We've had enough trouble from up there today? If you need to do biz it's going to cost extra, we're busy dealing with all the 100th floor drek rolling downhill."

Besides his voice, Bongo can make out the grunts of someone trying not to scream with an injury, maybe because they're getting moved or treated.

[pbangarth]

Bongo hangs his head into the hole and responds.

"We're part of an independent crew looking into what is going on here in terms of the repeated attacks on the bunch on the 100th floor. We three are trying to track down potential leads on other floors besides the top. We got involved in the recent drone attack, helped repel it, and now are continuing our investigation. Along the way, we have helped a few of the injured with healing. Anybody down there need some help in that regard?"

[sunnyside]

The Ork looks a bit suspicious, but maybe that's how he always looks. He replies, "A couple folks caught some lead. If you have supplies to share, you can come down. You can bill Monifa for them later."

(OOC: A little short I know but this time I am having trouble getting the forum to work. If Bongo comes down he'd find that this floor looks relatively intact. No explosions or anything that tore up the walls. Just a few holds here and there, and a puddle growing around the refrigerator. A crowd is starting to come in. But if Bongo gets out ahead the Ork with his own medkit in the doorway will let Bongo go first. In the main bedroom there are a three wounded people. A female ork is the most serious, and everyone is focused on her on a bed with a medkit that they have. A guy holding his arm and another holding his side are trying to look tough in chairs in the same room as they slowly leak from flesh wounds. )

[Thanee]

Once Bongo made it down, Selina follows. She nods to the ork who is eying them with suspicion.

"We can help with the injuries."

She takes a look at how bad the wounds seem to be, and also checks astrally to see what the situation is like down here.

[pbangarth]

Bongo goes down first and follows the direction of the ork in the doorway. He moves to help the most injured resident. "I'll use my medkit first. I know the workings of it."

[ Spoiler ]

First Aid test: First Aid 1 + INT 5 + medkit 6 = 12 dice: 4 hits

[sunnyside]

(OOC: I guess the forum never quite goes down, but still a crapshoot how long it takes until it works instead of throwing up an error. Also I took it that Bongo meant the most injured but currently untreated patient. If you meant he was shoving away those working on the more critical woman to show how it's done, we could move onto that next. )

Bongo finds himself getting a lot of attention with his clearly superior medkit as it talks him through the actions he needs to take. (OOC: Maybe Bongo would have had a modifier for watching his back, but he's got Willie and Selina backing him up.) The ork he's treating moves his arm around afterwards. The foam holds his muscle fibers together, and the painkillers take the edge off. "Geez, I feel like I could fight as well as before I got hit."

The suspicious Ork from earlier says, "That's because you didn't get hit very hard."

A female ork that had been watching said, "We really should get a model like that ourselves. They aren't even that expensive if you guys would just do more biz than snorting all the profits."

The suspicious Ork shoots back, "I don't see you doing any better bitch."

The three might notice that the Orks on this floor don't have the armor and jackets worn by those on the higher floors. Lots of t-shirts and jeans. Some armored, many not.

Selina sees that between the recent chaos and the usual malaise of the tower the astral on this floor is pretty murky (BC 2), but otherwise nothing obviously special about it. The orks here haven't received any magical healing. Neither does anyone on the 98th show signs of the gift.

[pbangarth]

(OOC: Good call. I didn't catch on that the woman was already being worked on.)

Bongo moves on to the next injured person who is not yet being treated.

[ Spoiler ]

First Aid 12 dice: 2 hits

There wasn't as much the medkit could do for this one. Or maybe Bongo was distracted, as he chatted up the woman who dismissed her teammates as using up the profits.

"We do some biz sometimes ourselves. What kind do you get going?"

[ Spoiler ]

Not sure which Influence Group member applies here, but Bongo has them all at Rating 4.

4+ CHA 6 = 10 dice: 5 hits

He's healing her buddies, and he ... he just has a way, doesn't he?

[pbangarth]

Willie leans back against a wall, one that doesn't have any holes in it, and keeps an eye out, watching the healing and the dealing going on. He understands only too well how valuable that medkit would be to those without the money to buy one.

He marvels at Bongo. Really? Of course it would be the woman you chat up, wouldn't it?

[Thanee]

Once the orks realize that they are actually helping them and things are a little more relaxed, Selina also offers magical healing to those still in need after physical treatment. Those with minor to moderate wounds should be no problem to heal, unless they are heavily chromed.

She will not overexert herself, though, as using mana under these circumstances is draining. Luckily, the spell she is using to heal is not the most strenuous of magics she can work. Still, if a patient is suffering from more severe injuries, there is just so much she can do to reduce their discomfort, as she won't try to heal them completely and harm herself in the process. Natural healing will have to do the rest.

[sunnyside]

The Ork with a wound in his side had been handling himself pretty well through Bongo's treatment. However as Selina makes his wound glow slightly as it closes up his eyes get bigger, despite the pain going away. (OOC; Figuring she could buy her way to fixing two boxes with no drain. Especially since she could rest after if she had to. Also assuming a few social hits).

The orks are wowed at seeing magic. Always somewhat rare, with the poverty and background count it would make sense it's even rarer here. Though mixed in with the awe are some sneers of angry envy of the beautiful elf in their midst.

Some quickly indicate that she should do something about the woman who is in much worse condition, their voices and specific requests blurring together.

With all the distractions, the female ork slides down on her worn boots next to where Bongo had been kneeling on the floor next to his medkit in order to treat the wounded ork. She bats her brown eyes and says "Boy, you really are clueless about this place, whatever other skills you might have. Biz almost entirely means drugs, though here that's usually nasty broken BTLs or whatever you can make in a bathtub. There is some pimping too, but less on this floor. They'd probably get into other stuff if there were good targets for it. " She leans in closer to whisper. "But if you're asking around you need a friend here. For a hundred nuyen I could be your friend. Maybe help you with whatever you need around here? Maybe I'd know people if I don't have your answers? "

[pbangarth]

Willie is getting disgusted, yet again, by Bongo's ease with women. Oh, fer the love of .... Now she's whispering to him.

Bongo continues his work and gesticulates as if he is explaining something about the medkit. He whispers back, "That sounds amazing. You get nowhere without friends. My name on the street is Bongo Slade. When it's a little less obvious, I'll get that hundred nuyen to your credstick."

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Thinks have been really bad these past couple days. I keep thinking the forum is dead. Taking a few liberties for pacing. Though Bongo could be streaming telemetry or other information in case he worried about a setup or trap.)



The ork woman whispers back to Bongo, "I'm Lana, and I think everyone will be paying attention to the magic user for a while, let's get out of here. " She helps him put away his medkit and leads him out of this bedroom and into the next, which actually has a bed but is currently empty. She isn't wrong about the crowd paying more attention to Selina.



Any worry Willie might have had about him being murdered or...something else that the other Orks might assume is happening are quickly put to rest as she takes out an old credstick, somewhat less common these days in the better parts of town. Bongo would note the display seems to indicate it's empty.



She holds it out to him and asks, "Anyway, what do you want to know?"

[pbangarth]

Bongo transfers the hundred nuyen, and seeing the receiving credstick started empty, he adds 50 more.

"Yeah, Monifa's crew either don't know or won't share who is after them. We've been hired to figure it out. By them, so maybe they really don't know. While looking into the goings on up above, we ran across a clue that could be nothing, but we have to check it out. We heard about some deaths in the building where the bodies had flowers stuck in them, or growing out of them. You know anything about that weird shit?"

[ Spoiler ]

I don't know if an Influence (all his dice are the same in this group) check is due here, but if you need one:

Influence 4 + CHA 6 = 10 dice: 2 hits

Ah, charm is a fickle partner. Hopefully the extra nuyen helps.

[Koekepan]

Paul finally pulls up at near the safehouse, and eyes it thoughtfully from a distance. Send a drone to scout it first? Just in case someone, somewhere, knew something or dropped security? Why not?

He sends a FlySpy to go buzzing around and looking for any signs to cause concern.

[sunnyside]

Lana smiles as she sees the numbers show up on her credstick. She looks a bit more downcast for a moment after hearing the request, but then her eyes brighten and she gives Bongo a broad smile. It manages to be warm, though she's missing a few teeth.

She holds up a finger for him to wait and takes out an old banged up comlink. With how fast Orks, age, Bongo wonders if she's all that much older than it is. It has old trodes dangling, but she's just using the outdated touch screen interface.

Eventually she says, "Well, I guess I can find some pictures, and the floors they were found on were mentioned. Maybe you expect more for that much. But I can see some of the people who posted stuff. We might be able to find them. At least we could find where the pictures were taken? You might want to not be quite so pretty there though. I can get you some oversized shirt you can throw over all that. People start getting weird with asking questions, but get 'em having a good time and they can get talking. Nobody trusts shared drugs, but they really want 'em so they're trying to convince themselves of any BS line about why they're getting any. Think you could put another 50 nuyen towards that? I'll come back with the stuff and we can head down."

She looks at him hopefully.

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

Back at the safehouse, Paul can pull up the external door cameras in addition to getting a wider view at better angles using the flyspy. The Boyz are getting up to some nonsense, but that also means they're around the area if anyone was up to something obvious on the parking lot side. There are also a few hanging out on the sidewalk on the other side of the house. Of course it isn't like they're catering to the most selective clientele in the speakeasy or flop house that serve as the safehouse's neighbors.

Angel is still there if Paul wants to et some eyes form the inside. She also might be useful if Paul wants to power up an hack into the hardware. Paul can take some precautions like making sure the radio isn't working and there isn't a physical self destruct. But getting through the ice and potential data bombs would be more her expertise.

[Thanee]

When Selina is done keeping the populace busy, so Bongo can do his thing, and also doing what she can in this limited environment to help those with injuries, she heads over to the others to figure out what's up next.

"I believe we have done what we can here. Let's see about the other places."

[pbangarth]

Bongo hesitates only the shortest of times before he proffers his credstick and transfers the extra 50. Might be an idea to let Lana know that the money is not without limits. He smiles," Sure. Thanks for the camo idea. I'll be happy to do that. If you can find a couple more for my friends here that would be awesome." As Selena comes over, he adds, "We'll wait for you to return with whatever you have."

Once Lana goes off to get what she can, Bongo fills in the whole team. <<Getting some info from a new contact. Pictures and names, and some mufti so we can blend in better.>>

Willie wonders what the fuck 'mufti' is, but figures he'll find out soon enough.

[sunnyside]

Selina has the social skills to manage to get out of the room without a fight. It might help that they don't seem to know how challenging magic is in their building. She also has Willie to back her up.

(OOC: Presuming Willie sticks with her and both follow Bongo's telemetry. I'm not sure whether Selina is wearing her helmet at this point or not. However, wearing a helmet indoors and being a pretty elf are both socially challenging here.)

Willie is about to figure out what mufti is as, after seeing them, Lana comes back with a pile of hoodies and a large hooded blanket.

She looks at Willie. 'Sorry, I think if you're going to wear all that, the hooded blanket is all that is going to work. Not that what you're wearing isn't cool. It just says you're trouble, especially here. I think your friend is going for a chill and chatty vibe. A grey blanket with a few stains brings it down a few notches. You two should be able to manage with hoodies. I've got plain recycled grey, green and black Aztechnology, and red and black Renraku. "

She looks up, "They tend to just give these out and they make their way here. So if you'd get into some kinda corporate war where you come from you can chill, everybody knows the score here. I figure you don't wanna mess with your footware and stuff. It'd be a pain anyway."

We can get down to the floors you're interested in and see if someone useful wants to party.

Back in the room with the bodies, Lenny looks around and realizes he's all alone, at least as far as the team goes. He shoots out a message, <<Hey, so, uh, should I be somewhere or should I just hold down the fort here. Answer questions if Monfia's people have any and keep looking into that building? >> He doesn't outright ask if he's safe, but under his helmet his eyes nervously flick back and forth. Since he's fairly hidden behind a trunk freezer the gangers seem to be ignoring him for the moment.

[Koekepan]

Paul starts by calling on Angel.

<<Howdy, Angel? If you're not busy, could you run through the safehouse electronics before I fully pull up? Just to be sure that we still have integrity there. To do the major disassembly I'd want to be able to concentrate instead of watching my back all the time. Physical integrity looks OK at first glance.>>