Living in the Shadows: IC, your run might be over... Options

[Sedna]

0802 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush, and aching with her disrupted sunrise

I hate being condescended to.

"Sumimasen ga, I'm tired an' blanking, an' I didn't catch all of that, an' I should have." She's beyond irritated at herself as well, and she lets it show. "Means you're right, can't continue doing two jobs. You're busy, I'm screwed up, just say what you want me to do with the matches an' card an' I'll do it, please?"

As a rule she hated wards as an unpleasant necessary part of existence, and she'd always avoided building them for the far more practical reason of not wanting to draw attention -- but -- every rule has its exception.

This qualifies.

[Sedna]

1429 January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

"I'm sorry, son," says Father Bremen, and his tone tells you that he means it. "I don't know more than what I've told you. I wish I had a perfect memory, but I don't. I wish I could understand everyone perfectly, but I can't. I wish I could tell you what you're supposed to do, but you know more about all this than I do, now."

At that moment Tiffany returns, camera in hand. Her voice is hard-edged: "We're getting out of here. Now."

Not even the woman on the bed says anything, but Father Bremen steps forward, takes her arm gently, leads her to a chair.

She's shaking.

[WinterRat1]

0803 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush, and aching with her disrupted sunrise, and paranoid over who this voice could be

Hobbes smiles gently at her. "We know. That's why it's time for you to move on." She pauses, and continues, "If it was me, I'd keep them, if only because they are your only leads, unless you have reason to believe they're dangerous. Or better yet, keep the information, especially on the card, and get rid of them."

"Now go home and get some rest. We can talk about other matters when you aren't fading so badly."

[WinterRat1]

1429 January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Great...just fragging great...it never ends, does it? Dragon mutters in his head. "Tiffany, what's going on? Give me the executive summary of who's after us now and why we're in danger." Turning to Virgil, he adds, "Apparently, if you're going to do something, you better do it fast."

Fastening the straps on his armor bit tighter, he ensures all his weapons are in their proper places. "You still got that gun with you?" he asks Sybersnake absently.

She nods, and even though she doesn't say anything he knows she is both angry and scared. Scared that they just seem to constantly be in danger, and angry because she knows it's her fault.

Sighing mentally he thinks, well, here we go again. "OK Tiffany, let's hear it."

[Sedna]

0803 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - tired

And because she's who she is, without another word Alleycat sets the tray neatly to one side, throws her coat overtop, and walks out, flinching visibly as the sunlight hits her, before she vanishes into the underground PATH.

A kapuseru hoteru would do best, just now, and she remembered a couple along this route. Most of those in Seattle didn't seem to be picky about replacing all one's clothing and proper toilet slippers and all that before slotting access: you just slotted your credstick and you were go. Wards, or sleep? While she'd been willing to spend the hour to put up at least minimal wards, she'd realised on the way that they'd end up sticking around a lot longer than she'd want them to, and her signature would be all over them. Seems her subconscious had recognised this a lot faster than it had taken to filtre through to her brain. Sleep, then: and if anyone else wanted to go whispering at her in her dreams, at least she wouldn't wake up feeling half-strangled again.

Probably.

Fragging hell, Hobbes, I'd been trying to ask you if there was any reason to believe anything dangerous about them. Reluctantly she adds to herself, because she can't not, not and be honest with herself, I'd been trying to get your help because I don't know what to do next.

And she'd probably given it too, only Alleycat hadn't heard more than a couple of words here and there. Damn the man!

Interesting -- she'd apparently started thinking of the voice as "him". Have to watch that. Later will be soon enough, she thinks irritably, and again reluctantly adds, I hope. At least it hadn't had her feel. If it had, Alleycat would have been across a couple of borders by now.

Suddenly she's actively looking forward to the run.

All the locks and security systems active, she sets her internal alarm for 1030, and the capsule chronometer for a minute after that (just in case), and in the cramped, claustrophobic coffin, she falls instantly asleep.

[Sedna]

1429 January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

"Kid died," says Tiffany flatly. Now she's really shaking ... so hard that the cam's in serious danger of falling from her hand.

[WinterRat1]

1430 January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Slowly and gently, Dragon steps forward and takes the camera from her hand before she actually does drop it. "You've seen death before," he says softly, "what makes it different this time?"

She's starting to really shake now, so he gently puts an arm around her, careful to not do anything that might be interpreted as romantic, especially in front of Sybersnake. Giving in to the shakes a little, she starts trembling and clings tightly to him a few moments, as the dry heaves come, which typically signify crying with no tears, and are no different this time.

After a few moments, she makes a visible effort to regain her composure, and takes a few deep breaths to steady herself.

Gently, he prods, "OK, so what's going on? What is so different about this time, and why do we have to leave right now?"

Since she's looking down, he takes the opportunity as well to shoot Virgil a 'hey just in case this is serious, let's deal with this woman from the fire and get what we need, so we can get going' look. A bit extensive, yes, but they've known each other a while, and Dragon knew Virgil already had a plan. Er, at least he hoped.

[WinterRat1]

double post

[WinterRat1]

argh, triple post, sorry

[banditf50]

1431 January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Tilting his head toward Dragon in a slight nod of recognition Virgil turned his attention back to the now startled women on the bed, noticing that he was now clutching at the rosary hanging below his sternum, his thoughts upon the young girl who had just perished.

I hope that Tiffany at least got the tragedy hear on record. That might be the only chance this clinic, and others, have any chance at stemming what might turn into full-blown outbreak.

"Miss I am going to try and help you know by trying to discover the memories that you have forgotten. This will not cause you any injury, but I will need you to lie back, close your eyes, and try to relax. To help you the best that I can I am going to need your assistance by not resisting me."

[Sedna]

1430 Saturday, January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

And quietly, unobtrusively, as Dragon is anchoring the shaking reporter, Sybersnake gently takes the minicam from him. He resists automatically for a couple of seconds, then -- with an unfamiliar reluctance -- lets her have it. After all, even without her deck, she was the best person they had for electronics, and Tiffany still wasn't in any shape to talk.

It's an unfamiliar piece of equipment to Sybersnake, but she figures it out quickly enough. It's designed to be user-friendly, after all -- there's even a jack-in option -- and functions such as Record and Erase have automatic safety guards built in. Within a very few seconds, she has the most recent memory accessed. Fast-forward over basic interviews and overviews. And then she finds it, and slows it down to normal speed, and turns it toward the hallway with the sound off so that Dragon can see, but not the others, and not Tiffany buried into his shoulder. After a moment, the mercenary nods: he could always show it to Virgil later, but to try to let him see now would also be to let the woman on the bed see it as well, and might distract him besides. Let him do whatever he does, quickly, and then he could get the executive summary.

And then, seeing, Dragon freezes.

He forces himself to watch. They'd all seen the kid starting to haemorrhage before. Even when dealing with the blood mage, he'd never seen a person's skin liquify into blood, eyes dissolving in blood, blood spewing out of her, red and pale and black black black -- and the kid was conscious the entire time, silently shrieking in pain even through the pain-diffusing magics around her until her voice and her strength gave out, shuddering, whimpering, choking on vomited blood. When the small form goes finally still, a very pale Sybersnake unplugs the cam, and hands it back to him very steadily, and steps back, and then flees down the hall.

He's seen death in combat, how many times? This is different. Very different.

Somewhere down the hall, he can hear the sound of Sybersnake retching.

[Sedna]

1431 Saturday, January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

"Finally," says the woman, but she complies, lying back on the bed in a posture that waits impatiently for Virgil to get on with it.

[Shadowrunner13]

21:59:32 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Tenmou is slightly unsettled by the change in Miss Omura, but smartly bows to his charge before holding the door for her and pulling out his cellphone to call a cab.

He double-checks his watch to make sure that time had truly elapsed as long as it had.

"So much for a half-hour appointment..." he thought to himself.

[grendel]

22:13:11 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Akiko Omura stands by the curb, left hand on her hip, the other arm loose by her side. She ignores Tenmou, and everyone else on the street, her focus distant and aloof. Her clean shirt and porcelain skin are a beacon in the night, and already the street predators are circling. Tenmou watches as no less than three groups coalesce from the shadows of the nearby alleyways, eyes glittering in the harsh sodium illumination from the streetlights. Luckily, the cab arrives before the nearest of the groups gets its nerve up to make a move. Akiko climbs into the backseat, again not waiting for her bodyguard, her face an icy mask.

"5801 West Convoy Avenue," she tells the driver.

[WinterRat1]

1431 Saturday, January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Dragon has seen a lot of things in his life time, and growing up as a mercenary, he'd been exposed to the harsh realities of the world early on. But this? This was something else entirely. Although he didn't know much about science, something told him that there was no natural disease or condition that could do that to someone. At least, he certainly hoped not. It was times like this that he was grateful for that sense of detachment that kept him emotionally distant from the world around him.

Trying to remember everything he saw in as technical a way as possible to shut out the horrifying reality of what the descriptions actually meant, he mentally inputed the condition of the girl, as well as a description of the symptoms, if you could even call them that, into the biomonitor. As it began scanning through its progams in search of what the condition could be, Dragon was once more grateful for the cold, clinical way the program ran. 'Condition'. Such a tidy word for such a horrific situation. Still, in this case, he'd take it.

As the program ran, part of him hoped that it would turn something up, that it would put a name to this monstrosity, an identity for something that could be fought. The other part of him hoped there was nothing that bad on the system, that this was just an aberration. The most likely answer though, he already knew with a cold certainty. It would turn up nothing, because as of yet, at least, there was no record of man's latest way to be inhumane to his fellow man.

It almost went without saying, that they had yet another task on their hands. There was no way Virgil wouldn't want to do something about this, and Dragon could hardly blame him. For a variety of reasons, Tiffany would also have more than enough motivation to want to help as well, and despite all the troubles Sybersnake already had, he was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to just walk away from it. To be completely honest with himself, he didn't think he could either. And maybe that was a good thing.

[Sedna]

1431 Saturday, January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

It startles Dragon when the biomonitor does turn up something:

[Sedna]

1023 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - in a coffin hotel

She's just barely tall enough to bang her head on the ceiling when the call comes in, seven full minutes before she'd set her alarm for. "Hai?"

"Finally you're answering. Thought you were going to call me back ages ago."

She rubs her temples. It does nothing for the borderline headache. "Got a password for me, Avalanche?"

"Just tell them you've got a ... Mutual Interest ... with someone there. Matrix person, ork, had a troll and an elf flanking him. They've seen Blaze before, and know me as Ice Cube."

"Will you be there?"

"Don't know yet. If I'm not, start without me."

"Will do. Maybe you'd better give me Durin's contact number too?"

Avalanche gives it, then hangs up. He sounds as tired as Alleycat feels. Even so, the mana yields to her readily, this part that is as second nature to her as living in her own skin. This time, for clothing, she invests directly in a set of catsuit flats from the vending machine down the hall from her small capsule, and calls up a cab from the public telecom at the same time. She begins to dial Blaze up on her own equipment, checks -- she'll see him soon enough at the meet.

She hooks a pair of red-lensed google-shades, with an audible "smartgun" sound, to complete the effect.

She'd entered half as Anne. She left as a tall, gangly, ebon-skinned, street-sure elf with short, frizzed, white hair -- and no one at the desk to comment on the change.

I love fully automated hotels.

[banditf50]

1350 January 6th, 2063 - Outside of Leatherneck's, Redmond

"Knight, I don't mean to rush you, but the sooner I can drive out of this neighborhood the better."

Portia's Eurocar Westwind idling in the street sat in stark contrast to the less than middle class surroundings. Leatherneck's was located about six blocks south of Redmonds nicest area, Touristville, and while there were certainly more dangerous areas of the Barrens, this was not a place to be caught sitting in a flashy sports car.

Opening the car door Knight swung his legs out of the low slung machine and was then stopped a gentle pull on his left arm.

"Take this Knight." Portia insisted handing him a small fold of assorted bills. "That is the only cash that I have on me, there should be 100 :nuyen: . It's better than what you have now."

As Knight opened his lips to voice the expected protest Portia instantly cut him off.
"I said to take it. Get in contact with me tonight so that I know your still alive and well."

"I will precious. Your kindness during my most needy of hours will not go unrequited."

With a final wink Portia urged the tires of the car to a sharp chirp and Knight quickly shoved the bills into the inside pocket of his long coat as he hurried onto the sidewalk. Stepping across the chipped curb he strode with all confidence up to the steel double doors graced with the symbol of an eagle holding an anchor etched into the dented material.

Looks like a military symbol. Perhaps this is some sort of merc hangout.

No doorman was waiting outside the door, nor inside the threshold as Knight entered. Knight figured the lack of a bouncer was due to the non-upscale nature of the joint, but as his eyes roved over the small crowd of late afternoon locals he realized that this was the last place that someone would want to cause trouble.

The right wall of the bar was lined with a long counter holding an assortment of taps and serviced by a large ork male wearing a damp apron and cutoff sleeves. Across from the bar was an assortment of tables, no hint of a dance floor. One table in the far corner was occupied by a group of three roughneck appearing human males engaged in some heavy drinking and hearty laughter.

Standing in the doorway Knight quickly realized that he stood out, and not because of his race. This bar was like many of the small blue-collar pubs that dotted every other city he'd travelled through, but there was something else about the crowd here . . .something tighter than just the bond shared by the working man.

[Shadowrunner13]

22:15:01 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Tenmou quickly steps into the cab and sits down beside his charge, before the cabbie pulled away without him.

Turning slightly towards the radically different Akiko Omura, he says in a low voice.
"Miss, since I am under your uncle's charge to keep you safe and see you returned home, might I inquire as to where we are going?"

[grendel]

22:15:19 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Akiko turns to Tenmou, an icy sneer twisting her lips.

"Current operational security precuations indicate that you do not require this information in order to adequately execute your tasking. However, since you asked so nicely, I suppose I can divulge these details. We are enroute to an intermediate destination where I will receive final mission tasking. You will not interfere with this necessary deviation."

She returns her gaze to the street passing outside her window. A heartbeat later, though, she turns again to Tenmou.

"And next time, bring your own vehicle."

[Moirdryd]

13:55, January 6th 2063- Leathernecks Bar- Redmond

Knight allowed his gaze to sweep the room one more time as he steps in and clear of the doorway. Standing out as he was he was not about to appear hesitant. Casually his hand swept the few still melting snowflakes from his shoulder as his footfalls bring him nearer the bar. Ignoring the many eyes watching him he motions the bartender.

"A little something to take the chill off chummer. Brandy favorite, real if your lucky enough to have any" his voice is crisp and clear cut but humming with the lilting melody only those born in Tir Na Nog possess.

Outsider i may be. But then thats something i can use, means I`m as unknown to them as they are to me.

The ork grunts something and pours a dark amber liquid into a glass and places it before Knight. He pulls two 10nuyen notes from his pocket and places them down on the bar beneath his fingers. It`s a fith of what Portia gave him but worth it for the image he`s projecting.

"..and take a little something for yourself too." he moves his fingers tugging one of the notes away as the ork`s hand comes down and raises a brow glancing momentarily to the glass. "Real?.."

The barman growls "Real..here? you kiddin yeh?"

Knight places only one of the tens back down.

"Didnt think so, but its always worth asking" he smiles a little as the barman takes up the single ten, noting the man`s small hidden frown. "I`m generous, not stupid chummer. Not real is not worth twenty with a good tip." He takes a sip from the glass and settles against the bar looking about the place again.

[paul_HArkonen]

0945 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - The lodge.

As Blaze walks through the small park he can feel his lodge, hidden in a small copse of trees. Stepping off the path he can feel the tingling of mana that let's him know he is in the Leopard's presence.

"I failed to find her. Leopard, please I need your help, your eyes, your ears, your speed and your power to find Melissa, and to save her from the danger she is in. Please grant me that stregnth to save the last family that I know of."

Still dressed in his long coat Blaze sits down and crosses his legs in the center of his Lodge. Reaching out from his spirit he begins his daily ritual. Blaze spends the next half an hour in a meditative state, pondering how he might find his cousin, and the steps he may need to take to strike against the Megacorps in Calfree in his next run.

Leopard, grant me stregnth that I might free those people from their bondage. This quest is great, and just, those innocents must be protected, just as my family must. I have lost my mother, my father, and now I am losing my cousin and brother, please help me spare other families, other innocents from that fate.

Standing after completing the ritual Blaze feels the elation of Leopard's touch. Stepping from his lodge he walks home, planning for the meeting, and how he will protect the innocents of the camp.

[Sedna]

1055 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - on the way

She's snagged her (only) leather coat she'd picked up before she crashed, she's stopped the cab twice to buy some jangling gold hoop earrings and clashing watch from two different streetside vendors, and now she's ....

[banditf50]

1432 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Stepping close enough to the women's bed for his thighs to brush against the metal guard rail Virgil gently scooped her right hand into his and leaned within the distance of a gentle whisper.

"Close your eyes and try to breath deeply as if you were falling asleep for the night."

As impatient as the women seemed before her restless seemed be melting away now that someone was going along with her wishes. At least she's cooperating, perhaps this will be less wracking of an experience than it usually is.

Virgil had to admit to himself that he'd never used this magic on a completley 'willing' target. He hoped down to his core and with all his might that only benefit would come to the women as she placed her trust in him, but in the end he just wasn't sure . . .and few things bothered the servants of Tyr greater than incomplete intelligence.

"As you drift off please welcome your dreams. Show a bold face to all the memories that we uncover together and remember, you are in perfact safety in this room."

With that Virgil began a soft humming. He didn't need to vocalize in order to weave the threads of the spell but the even rythm calmed his mind. Soon he could hear the deep breaths of the prone women synch in-time to his humming and at that point Virgil let his sight travel to the astral world. Grasping onto the strong threads of humanity and self-lessness that peameated the walls of the clinic he felt his free hand drift around the warm touch of Jerimiah's rosary. . .and with that he began his call.

[Shadowrunner13]

22:15:59 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

"When I possess I vehicle to bring, I will endeavor to do so, Miss."

Tenmou sits back and studies his surroundings, resolving himself to be led around for now. He resolved himself to ask Zeyda to investigate the Tacoma address. Something was terribly wrong with Miss Omura and he started wishing he had let compassion win out over paranoia when delivering her to that address.