Charm City II [IC] Options

[pbangarth]

Bongo raises his hands in a calming gesture. "I don't want to take or keep any of those things, but it might be useful if our hacker could check out those trodes to see if anything was recorded on them.

"You know of anybody who got a hold of one of those flowers?"

[sunnyside]

Cameron again looks at Bongo a little suspiciously. "If you had a real hacker, they should be able to read anything they want off my comlink with just me standing here. Or maybe looking around to be useful. "

At that he starts warily looking around the rest of the apartment. The other two Orks watch Bongo.

[pbangarth]

"If I didn't care about using you without your permission, I would do that. I'm asking you after having paid you. Simple courtesy between co-workers, no?"

Bongo shrugs his shoulders up and puts his arms out to the side, palms up.

"How would we be able to work together some other time if I just poked around your business without your permission?"

[pbangarth]

Willie considers Selina's next move. Probably, nothing will happen, but if one of these jazzed up/BTLed down junkies were to get violent, Willie's weapons as they are would be useless. Killing someone here would be counterproductive. He'd have to duke it out.

Note to self: get some gel rounds.

[sunnyside]

"If I didn't care about using you without your permission, I would do that. I'm asking you after having paid you. Simple courtesy between co-workers, no?"

Bongo shrugs his shoulders up and puts his arms out to the side, palms up.

"How would we be able to work together some other time if I just poked around your business without your permission?"

(Ooc : short since you might be active.)

With a smile a that's a step less suspicious and more playful he says "Ok, I give you permission to your hacker to poke around in the comlink. "
He looks a little concerned then and says.


"Just don't mess anything up permanently, and leave the cash alone.."

[Thanee]

Lana whispers to Selina, "Up to you how you want to play it. The baggie should get the mood up here a little. But there are enough people I don't know if I'll be able to get a dance party going, or if that's especially welcome. Though I guess you could plop down next to anybody to talk. I don't know how things are on this floor, but they don't seem overly stabby."

"Let's hope so..."

Selina looks around for some human woman to talk to. She heads over to the group, saying: "Living the life. You seem to be pretty unfazed here from all the trouble going on upstairs. Good for you!"

[pbangarth]

"Done."

Bongo messages Lenny. <<Guy here by the name of Cameron has 'trodes he took off one of the flower victims. Might have info. Here is the link. See what you can find. Cameron wants you to leave the cash alone and don't mess anything up. Yeah. I know.>>

[sunnyside]

Since Selena looks enough like a human for people to imagine she is one in her hoodie nobody is surprised when she goes over by some humans.

They seem chill enough with her arrival. Though they seemed pretty chill before her arrival. In response to her question she gets a couple people saying, "What's going on up in 100?" Most of them don't seem to actually care. Selina notices one of the men seems to have an ulcer from lying on his side too much, though he's probably in his fifties at a guess.

The woman Selena directly addressed is younger and seems to be taking more of an interest than the others. "Are they getting up to some gang banging? Up there? Sometimes I wonder if the excitement would be worth it. But I wouldn't be welcomed up there. I guess we sort of have some gangs here. But nobody here has anything worth taking, so they have to go cause trouble on other floors. Um . It would be nice if you stuck around. But if you have nice things, don't let anybody know, or there could be trouble. Just free yourself of all that at relax. Um. Anyway what is the news, you can tell me about it."

She looks at Selina hopefully.

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

Lenny feels reasonably safe next to Willie, so he replies <<Alright, just shoot me a comcode or something to get at them.>>

(OOC: Presuming bongo shares the contact info he got from Cameron.)

Lenny takes a little while, he's not eager to taste more dumpshock or to zonk out here, though that would certainly fit the vibe, so he's hacking in AR.

Still, it doesn't take too long for him to reply back to Bongo.

<<Hey, so I got into the comlink. Looks like the memory isn't wiped. Based on timestamps on the pics and stuff Lana shared, I went hunting near to the time they probably died. What I found were some searches for prices of antique gear. Looks like he was trying to price a "Wallacher combat axe with thrusting point" and a "Novatech Sandman simsense deck." Those were probably twenty and ten years old. I don't think I like the idea of that making something antique, but Orks grow up fast. He took a pic of the axe. >>

Lenny shoots the team the pic, Bongo could tell they'd laid in on the floor in the large room in the apartment after a little wandering around and looking at the floor.

(OOC: Folks could roll memory related things or weapon knowledge skills if they'd like)

[Koekepan]

Paul, having put away all his goodies and overhauled his drones, sets back up to head out. He picks a convenient and quiet (insofar possible) nook or niche in which to park, but the target of investigation is where those drone operators had been.

Assuming that he gets there unmolested, he parks and starts quietly with a FlySpy, looking for the layout, and of course the presence of any remaining personnel or equipment that is lying around or parked around the facility.

[sunnyside]

As Paul drives into the area, he can tell he's getting into a rough part of town. But it's his sort of rough. Sure, there are still gangsters, but they're the sort one might recognize from a union meeting. It's a problem if they want something to fall off the back of a shipment, but you can work with them. Besides that, there's a fair chance Paul might recognize a few faces if he walked over to Fantasies Nightclub. Maybe he should warn some of the guys about the ghouls in the nearby forest. Best not to get kicked out of there drunk.

This area got built up fast as shipping picked up in Baltimore, but it was smaller enterprising corporations on this side of the Patapsco as opposed to the Megas consolidating sections of turf closer to downtown.

The construction is dated and put in fast. Ferrocrete with old cyber terminals on the sides. It still follows the uptown/downtown pattern sometimes. More relevant to the specific building Paul is interested in is that even the "uptown" part isn't corporate exclusive or very expensive from a quick matrix search. Linde apartments are open to all, and feature very open floorplans. Essentially, you get a large square with a bathroom or two and the amenities of a kitchen and laundry room along a wall. Then you can have them put in modular walls to suit your needs, with a few suggested designs. Their advertising AROs mention on site security. Paul isn't seeing anything like the armed guards in the elevators like at the Tourmaline. There wouldn't be nearly as many people either in the seven residential stories of a more normal sized building.

Instead of the "downtown" part being residential, it's taken up by Linde Welding Gas & Equipment Center, which has expanded to include a lot of vehicle and industrial repair. This close to the water they didn't seem to want to dig down for parking, so there are a couple of parking garage levels open to the air between the Equipment Center and the residential portion, which probably also helps a lot with noise.

Nothing obviously indicates where the other team might be, if they're even here. They could have just parked next to the building in a van like Paul is and then driven away.

[Thanee]

Selina sits down near the woman. She wonders who or what caused these people to be so... lethargic. It does have the feel of some drug or chip. She also wonders what the hopeful glances might mean. Is she just eager for some "excitement".

She shakes her head. "Nice things? Nah, only the bosses got those, I guess. Not much in terms of news, but surely you have heard the fighting? It hasn't been that long. Oh, and something with flowers. What was that again. Yeah, they found some bodies and there were some weird flowers. Speaking of flowers... you can't tell me you guys aren't high or something. What's with all the lying around and relaxing? Your body needs to move, otherwise you cannot even get up anymore at some point, when your muscles are completely gone."


In the meantime, Fiona has materialized in her cat form somewhere out of sight and slowly stalks around the corner.

"Oh, look. What a nice kitty! She's probably just looking for some food. Here, kitty, kitty." Selina brushes her fingers over the floor, to make some noises to attract the cat.

Fiona rolls her astral eyes and comes closer, all curious like a real cat.

[sunnyside]

The lady seems happy to have Selina talking with her.

She leaned back against an old large pillow and said, "I guess you're new here. It's not really that. I mean, people will take what drugs or chips they can get like that nice lady was just sharing. If they can't they just trode up with whatever is free. Long as they have some trodes or something. Maybe play games on an old comlink or game thing with a screen. Whatever."

She blinks under the effects of Lana's drugs, but then continues.

"As folks say, this floor is where you head to lie down and rot. See the gangbangers decided that the higher the floor number the better you were, so they head up that way right? And then the lower floors are full of people clinging to the idea that they're going to make things better. Dreams of moving out and drek."

She says that a little wistfully and holds out her hands like she's pantomiming grabbing a dream. Then she continues, "Because, like, the higher up you are the longer it takes to use the elevator, yeah? Even this high it really sucks. So they all fight for place down there. Here I just get to lay around, wander over for food now and then, and just listen to the drama and gunshots coming form other floors. "

She looks at Selina again, worried. "I didn't mean to scare you with that whole thing about not letting on that you have any nice stuff if you have nice stuff. I mean, it seems like I'd be vulnerable out here, right? But, like, there are some Orks with family around that don't take kindly to trouble. And we don't have much, and we're out here with other people. So it isn't worth it. If people here want to make trouble, they go to a different floor for it. Like, why not go somewhere with more stuff and less trouble? So you can stay here, it's nice. We could talk."

Selina had asked a number of questions and the lady seems to be having trouble keeping track of all of them. But she manages to remember one of the threads. "I think there was some weird thing with flowers. That probably had something to do with guys causing trouble on other floors. Like it was only once here, and probably happens all the time elsewhere. "

While there were a lot of people around, there aren't any other pets, and Fiona makes quite a scene. There's a lot of oooing and pspspspsps going on. Smiles creeping onto weary faces. It seems only their distaste at getting up is keeping Fiona from getting swarmed, but most people seem eager to pet the kitty.

[pbangarth]

All this touchy-feely crap Selina is getting into is not to Willie's taste. Drek, even her cat is in on it. Lenny looks to be off in la-la land doing his Matrix wizzing. Willie would love to go get a beer somewhere, but both of his buddies are not in the most perceptive state.

He decides to go to the front door and scan around out in the hallway for anything out of the ordinary.

[ Spoiler ]

Willie's name disappeared for my Orokos list of PCs to click on for a dice roll, so this is as much to get him back in there as to glean any info, but hey, you never know.

Perception test: INT 5 + Perception 3 + vision 3 = 11 dice: 1 hit
Yeah, right. At least it's not a glitch. I've been having those in the other two games in which I play.

[Thanee]

Since it looks like there isn't a whole lot to learn here, Selina will talk a bit more with the woman and Fiona will be a nice cat for a while, but eventually, they will take their leave. There are a lot more places to visit, and at least there was a little hint that the spirit they are looking for might be interested in keeping the peace around here in the building, or some part of it, anyways. Probably somewhere below, where the gangs are not that present.

<< The people here are weird. They seem to have resigned and just lie around and wait for the inevitable end or something like that. >>

[sunnyside]

(OOC: Just making sure that pbangarth didn't miss the info for Bongo from Lenny above. Willie doesn't see anything that seems out of the ordinary....though he might not with one hit. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) The most unusual thing is the cat amusing the group in the large room in the corner. The woman will eagerly talk with Selina about anything, but she doesn't seem to know anything else potentially relevant. As she didn't personally know the guys that got "flowered").