Living in the Shadows: IC, Jan 8th-14th Options

[bclements]

13:11:27 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Tony is roused from his watch by Todd's voice. Go in? Has he gone cuckoo for soypuffs? Tony thinks to himself. "You're the boss, kid, but I'd get that gun ready for whatever may come out." Walking up to the smooth, absolutely freezing marble door of the crypt, Tony pushes in...

[grendel]

13:12:08 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Tony squares up against the door when his first push isn't enough to dislodge it. Applying a steadily increasing amount of torque, he is rewarded with a harsh grating sound. The end plate shifts half a centimeter outward to the left. Breathing deeply, a thin sheen of sweat forming from the effort, Tony sets himself again and pushes, exhaling sharply. The retaining pins shear with a series of sharp cracks, almost like gunshots in the icy air, and the entire endplate comes free, sliding to the ground.

The stench rolls across him like a wet blanket, and he stumbles backwards, coughing. Curled just inside the crypt, wedged between the coffin and where the endplate was mounted, is the body of a man. The decomposition process is advanced, his skin a sallow putrid color. The corpse is dressed in faded securetech clothing and boots, and its arms are crossed over its chest as if to keep in some piece of warmth. Tony can see that the corpse's right forearm is synthetic, the dull chrome standing out against the decaying flesh.

[Ecclesiastes]

13:12:15 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Todd looks at the body with disgust, but not fear, he has seen far worse than this before. "Oh man, thats nasty... Ok. This is my deal, I'll check it out, just make sure nothing jumps up and eats me."

His feeble attempt at lightening the mood is quickly passed over as Todd steps inside the tomb to have a look around.

[grendel]

13:14:28 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Doing his best not to disturb anything, or even to touch the corpse, Todd leans into the crypt. The stench is almost overpowering, but he is driven by an intense curiosity as to what could possibly be worth this much trouble to conceal. The corpse appears to be empty handed, and a gentle pat-down reveals only a ruined pack of cigarettes in its jacket pocket. Frowning, Todd notices that the corpse's synthetic arm has a built in cyberdeck. Gently lifting it away from the body's chest, he turns it over to check and see if anything is slotted in the chipjacks. A throaty growl from his right makes him freeze, and he glances over. Tony stands ready outside of the crypt, but the threat is already past him, it is inside with Todd. Red eyes glow in the darkness, and as Todd opens his mouth to shout for Tony, a black shape explodes from the shadows, the force of the impact throwing the youngster out of the crypt and onto the frozen ground. Tony spins around at the commotion, eyes widening in surprise at the creature looming over Todd. Sleek muscles bunched along its flanks, and steam curls from vicious looking fangs.

[bclements]

13:14:29 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS


“What the hell..?” Tony said to himself as he swung around. His eyes widened as they took in the scene. Thinking quickly, and seeing that the dog? What the frag is that thing?!? was only paying attention to Todd at the moment, Tony reached in his pocket for the pistol that he had put there. Drawing it quickly, he fires off 2 shots at the dog standing over Todd’s prone form, hitting the dog twice. The loud reports of the gunshots echo across the graveyard.

[grendel]

13:14:29 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Howling in pain, the hound staggers to the side before catching its balance. Snarling, it leaps at Tony claws outstretched. Todd blinks, half-blinded and deafened by the unsilenced gunshots only meters away. He glances down, realizing that he's still holding the cyberarm in his hand, the rotted flesh and bone holding it to the corpse having torn away as he tumbled from the crypt.

[Ecclesiastes]

13:14:30 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Todd chokes on the screem that wants to escape his lips as he scrambles to his feet. He turns and flees for Tony's car while calling over his shoulder, "I got the key!"

[bclements]

13:14:30 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS


The dog’s leap catches Tony off guard, but doesn’t do as much damage as it could have, clawing him on the face and making a long, jagged scratch on the outside of his longcoat. Fragging dog, I just got this damn coat! Tony thinks to himself, a trickle of blood running down his face, as he launches a hard kick at the dog…

[grendel]

13:14:31 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

The hound dodges aside from Tony's kick, snarling. It seems to feel its wounds all of a sudden, backing away and circling to the right. It seems to be favoring its left foreleg slightly.

"I got the key!" shouts Todd again, running flat out for the car and waving the cyberarm at Tony.

[bclements]

13:14:33 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Finally hearing Todd's call, Tony points his gun toward the dog and begins backing away from the wounded animal. "You sure that you've got it? You ok?" he yells over his sholder, keeping one eye on the dog.

[Ecclesiastes]

13:14:33 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Todd calls over his shoulder while he continues to run for the car, "I'm fine! The cyberarm has a built in deck built into it! Its gotta be what I'm after!"

[bclements]

13:14:35 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

"Good, kid. I'll unlock the car for you, be right over. Get in the car and lock the door 'till I get over there" Tony yells, continuing to glance between the car and the dog. Reaching in his pocket for the keys, he hits the "Unlock" button on the alarm fob. The car's lights blink twice in response.

[Bastard]

2200 Monday 08 January 2063- Cooper's Condo, Hidden Oaks, Downtown-UCAS

It's getting late, so Marquis sets his work down for now. You never know when youre going to have a busy day in this line of work. He should get up very easily, but he sets the alarm for 0800 anyways. You never know when your body is going to try and steal a couple hours of sleep.

[The_Eyes]

17:45:01 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Unit 303, Winlock Apartment Complex, Tacoma, Seattle, UCAS

Images of stone walls and black holes danced through Eyes's head as he jacked out tiredly. For whatever reason--either this guy was ridiculously good at covering his own tracks, or someone else didn't want him to be found--finding info on Casimir was like trying to pull water out of a rock. All he had managed to come up with, after eight hours and nearly 200 :nuyen: worth of anonymous subscriptions to various data-mining sites and databases was the man's main Shadowland handle--Oracle--and the fact that he frequented Schrodinger's, a chess bar in southern Downtown. And both of those he could've found in fifteen minutes! It was like this guy just didn't exist other than those two details, which didn't make an ounce of sense unless there was something truly massive going on... but that's just getting paranoid. Isn't it? At least he had managed to confirm Jane's data from yesterday, whatever good that did him.

Eyes sighed in frustration and glanced at the address to Schrodinger's that he had loaded into his PSec. It may not be a very good lead, but it was all he had; maybe someone at the bar might know something. Grabbing a quick bite from the fridge and the keys to his bike, he got ready to leave. "Keep your eyes open while I'm gone," Eyes said to Jane, who was still floating on the terminal screen, "And be careful. I don't want that Revenant character or whatever he was fighting with to mess with you." Not that I expect you to actually find anything, he didn't say, as he walked out of the room.

[grendel]

18:15:01 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Schrodinger's Chess and Coffee Shop, Downtown Seattle, UCAS

The artful sign over the door has a neon cat's face smiling out where the two e's in coffee should be, and a real bell announces the opening and closing of the door. The interior is uniformly dim, although the shaded lamps on each of the two dozen or so tables spread small islands of bright illumination. Almost all of the tables are filled, as are the couches tucked between the floor to ceiling bookshelves. Most of the customers appear to be older; gray haired gentlemen in worn sports coats and slacks talking in low voices over chess or backgammon. Eyes could pick out a table or two of college students, but they seemed to be the exception, not the rule. The bell on the door jangles again, and Eyes turns in time to see an older woman dressed in a multicolored gypsy dress brush past.

[Ecclesiastes]

13:14:35 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Todd jumps into the car and slams the door behind him. For the moment he ignores the cyberarm and watches out the window to make sure Tony is ok. What the drek was that thing?

[bclements]

13:17:04 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Tony makes it to the car without incident, all the while keeping one eye on the dog that was now licking its wounds 20 meters away, taking his time to bleed off the shakes that he usually got from the aftermath of pulling a gun. Getting an antiseptic wipe from the medkit in the trunk and scrubbing the still bleeding cut on his face, Tony gets into the car feeling a bit calmer. "You sure that you got what you want, and that you're ok? You took a pretty good whack from that dog. If we have to come back here, I doubt that that thing" Tony gestered toward the dog "will be alone" he says to Todd, wincing from the stinging of the alcohol compound in the wipe. Hell, I just don't want to have to give something else to that wacked out old man or whatever the hell it was

[Ecclesiastes]

13:17:34 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

"Give me a sec to check this thing out and make sure."

Todd reaches into his backpack, pulls out a spare t-shirt, and places it over his lap. That done, he sets the cyberarm on his lap and boots the installed computer up. He looks up at Tony and smiles a bit, "I'll be right back."

He then plugs his datacord into the cyberdeck.

[bclements]

13:18:40 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Tony continues to scan the outside of the car while Todd is out. Damn, but that doesn't freak me out that that dog was in there. I shouldn't have skipped taking that Astral Theory and Sight class back at the academy; it would come in handy right now. Instead, I took the business strategy one with Andie. Good times, that, but it ain't exactly helping now. Tony thought to himself as he started the car. Better to be ready to go than not he thought as he reloaded his pistol with a fresh clip from the bag in the backseat and continued to look for anything approaching the vehicle

[grendel]

13:18:57 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

[The_Eyes]

18:21:35 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Schrodinger's Chess and Coffee Shop, Downtown Seattle, UCAS

Eyes went to the cashier and ordered a cup of coffee while considering his strategy. It would look really suspicious if he just started asking people questions about Casimir; maybe it'd be a better idea to just loiter around, acting as the curious young chess newbie that he really was, and interject questions about Casimir with others about the game. It might even be a good idea to play a few games; besides, he hadn't played a game of chess in awhile. For a moment he considered the backgammon tables--dice games tended to be a bit louder and more prone to gathering crowds--but the "gentlemanly bets" on the table looked a bit more than he cared to pay for this job.

Picking up his cup of strong black coffee--the first real cup he'd had in weeks, if not months--Eyes grinned and went to have some fun.

[Bastard]

0930 Tuesday 09 January 2063- Cooper's Condo, Hidden Oaks, Downtown-UCAS

After a nice soy-free breakfast, Marquis is ready to go for the day. Nothing business wise going on today, but there wasn't yesterday either. Before heading out he places a call to Kaiser.

"Hey Kaiser, I'm coming by for a visit, unless youre busy."

[Sedna]

1235 Tuesday, January 9, 2063 - Land's End Magic Shop

It's clear to see the question's caught Andie off-guard. Solomon smiles as he shrugs on his heavy longcoat. "When I return will be soon enough. Good luck with the circulation."

With that, he steps out of the small shop into the snow and the cold. Andie shivers as the brief gust of wind catches him before the door closes and is key-locked from the outside with a soft "click".

What will I name it?

[grendel]

09:30:43 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Cooper's Condo, Hidden Oaks, Downtown Seattle, UCAS

"Not so busy that I can't spare you a minute or two. Are you in the market for something or is this just a social call?"

Noise in the background of the call washes over Kaiser's voice for a second until the adaptive comm program deadens the interference.

[Ecclesiastes]

13:19:17 Tuesday 09 January 2063 - Sacred Heart Cemetery, Redmond, Seattle, UCAS

Todd shuts down the cyberdeck and looks over at Tony with a look that doesn't hide his confusion. "This has got to be it man, I ain't never seen anything like it. Lets get the frag outta here."

Man oh man, I can't wait to get this thing home and tear into it!