NOT COOL!!!

>>Irreverent Fool

---Irreverent Fool has logged off.

Who are these "children?" Is it the gangsters? I have already said that I don't really care about their lives THAT much and that I'd gladly send them crazy magical help if they needed it. Is it the kid? I've already sent him a spirit to watch over him in case the gangsters wanted revenge. And most of all, this disarmament is TEMPORARY. It'll last until they learn. And until you shoot at my astrally projecting form for asking you what you think the purpose of your life is, you have nothing to fear from me.

As for comparing me to Deus, first of all , thank you, second of all, I haven't created any biomechanical freaks or implanted mind-control cybereyes in anybody. Yet.

>>Shen

So what should I have done? You have already said that having an unseen tormentor would inspire them to beat the boy more. My best bet for protecting the child, aside from killing the gang or adopting him, was reducing their capacity for violence and keeping spirit protectors in place to protect him. And so far, the peace has been pretty much protected, with no real casualties outside of a few poignant burns that will heal within weeks without medical attention and a bunch of scared go-gangers. My spirits of man have reported that pretty much everyone is too afraid of Mr. Pyro the Burninator to hurt anybody, and outside of my astral sweeps, there are patrolling spirits at all times of the day and night. They keep the order much more impartially than a group of self-interested dumbasses who regularly mug people ever could.

What made you think I was crazy? The fact that I call the fire spirit Mr. Pyro? I give all my spirits pet names; it's kind of like a serial killer and his knife, except they aren't all girls' names.

You'll note that I don't quite take you seriously.

And adopting the kid might not have been such a bad idea, now that I think of it.

>>Shen

Did she take into account the fact that rival gangs are less likely to attack because of the Astral Thought Police and Pyro the Burninator? That as long as he doesn't hurt anybody, he won't get burned even a little bit, but that if he were to so much as wear the wrong colors on rival turf, he would have a nine-millimeter hole in his head... and in his chest... and everywhere else on his body? Or that her son was a piece of crap who was lucky to just get lightly singed, who was found beating a younger boy who himself had an older sister?

>>Shen

Did you take into account that mothers are not often rational or impartial when it comes to their children?

>>FanGirl

EDIT: Oh yeah, and her son wasn't even with those people when they beat up the ten-year-old. He was three blocks away with his patrol.

So you're saying that the whole entire point of your last post wasn't rational or impartial? That the gist of it was "You make a valid argument, but you made a hypersensitive lady cry?"

>>Shen

Edit: Is he okay? If not, I'll have a spirit heal him.

I told it to just LIGHTLY burn them. I'm sure it did just that, but I should have one heal everybody anyway.

That's not what I meant at all! How on earth could she know that your spirits are on patrol, and even if you went to visit her and explained that, why would she believe you? All she knows is that her son's friends were attacked by some crazy spell-slinger, and I doubt she can see any reason why she should trust him not to go after her child.

Also, this woman is hardly "hypersensitive." I remember when her husband left her last year--the day afterwards, she hosted a spontaneous barbeque on her balcony to celebrate "the bastard's" departure. If you attack can turn someone as tough as her into a nervous wreck, just imagine how frightened the other mothers in the neighborhood must feel. Being secure doesn't simply mean being out of physical danger, it also means having peace of mind and not being afraid for yourself or your loved ones. You may have done a little to increase the physical safety of the neighborhood, but if your plan was to make us feel less vulnerable, then it's completely backfired. In the three years I've lived here, I can't remember a time when things were as tense as they are now.

>>FanGirl

I'd love to stay and argue with you some more, but I'm afraid that I can't say anything more that would reach you. Instead, I'll leave you with the words of Emile Durkheim:

Emile Durkham is all about protecting social order. How the hell would allowing for muggings protect social order? And what about the people being mugged; should they be sacrificed for this Durkheimian sense of "organic social order?" I can understand preserving an organic economy to hold people together as opposed to a traditional punitive one, but seriously, when that organic economy involves arbitrary beatings, I really, really feel the need to step in.

And to attack the very foundation of his philosophy of society. It is almost entirely based on making the individual feel insignificant and part of a group. I abhor this; I acknowledge individual rights. In fact, I acknowledge individual rights that I would be willing to take these social norms and incinerate them if they were indeed physical. Outside of "Don't hit people or be a dick," very few rules need to exist, and yet you support the existence of the most microcosmically oppressive social order outside of a family, and that's the gang with its colors and its turf and its guns just waiting to kill you over an unkind word.

And as for the "Big Brother" remark. I don't recall telling my spirits to read the minds of anybody but gangsters. If you accept that they die every so often, then you have to accept that they get mind probed, too.

>>Shen

Actually i don't have to accept either of those things if accept the other. What gives you the right to decide who and what a group of gangers can fight? Your methods sound like someone trying to usurp control rather than cure the problem. Gangs happen for a few reason, mostly fear, people want to feel safe being in a gang gives you a whole host of people who'll back you up if someone goes for you. Sure they threaten other people but most gangs protect their own neighborhood and cause trouble elsewhere. It's just yet another expression of the human tribal instinct. You want people to stop being gangsters? Give them what they need not more fear.

I like your basic ideas, you want to improve the world, thats cool, so do I. Random brutality will not do it. Save the boy fine, but then enact a reign of terror, hmm I knew you reminded me of someone.

Phoenix@thecentrepoint

So random beatings for protection money isn't terror?

I don't hurt people if they disrespect me; I don't tell them they have to allow ugly racist scribblings to exist; I don't ask for money. All I ask is that people don't knife each other in alleyways. I'm surprised that you somehow find that more oppressive than constant, if low-key, warfare, with all the doublethink and propaganda intact.

>>Shen

It isn't that you righted a wrong, it's how you did it. You've only removed one danger and inserted another. Humans, even those in gangs, are something the average person can understand. They may or may not like trading money for protection from outside gangs, but at least they know what's going on. Now they're beset by spirits walking the streets, accosting anyone that "thinks bad thoughts."

From what little I understand of spirits they don't always understand everything that's told to them. Sometimes they act like computer programs, interpreting things literally and sometimes they act like aliens not understanding the world around them.

I'd love to hear the instructions you gave these spirits, as I think it's only a matter of time before one of them assaults an old lady for thinking about beating up her alcoholic husband.

What I don't understand is that you talk about how much you hate oppressive social structures in which the autonomy of the individual is stifled, then go and turn my neighborhood into a dictatorship. A benevolent dictatorship, but a dictatorship nonetheless. Sure, people did obey the gang out of the fear of being mugged and shot before you came along, but now they're obeying you out of the even more intense fear of being burned and mindraped. How is the ganger's oligarchy any more oppressive than your absolute monarchy?

>>FanGirl

Spirits aren't really like computer programs; they just embody whatever plane they come from. Fire spirits like to burn things, water spirits like oceans, and spirits of man understand people and very little else. When I'm not there, the ones actually making decisions are spirits of man; the fire spirit is really only there for muscle; when I'm not astrally projecting myself, it takes orders from the spirits of man when they themselves have trouble.

They don't mindprobe anybody outside the gang that I torched and people assensed as having truly murderous intent, and my spirits can easily tell the difference between seething hatred and intent to do mischief especially after a mindprobe. The spell they know works perfectly, and this confusion is VERY unlikely. They are, after all, spirits of man, so they can probably tell the difference better than you or I could.

I've set up an astrally lurking watcher in an empty lot; if anybody has a complaint against anybody else, then they can literally knock on wood, and I will come flying back to listen. The spirits of man have instructions to assense anybody before they mind probe them, and to mind probe them only after they're more or less sure they aim to harm. They could sense intent more accurately than a lie detector, or either of you, for that matter.

Nobody has to OBEY me. They just have to not kill each other. The gang, though, you had to obey. Don't ignore that.

As for the fear of gangs vs. fear of spirits. If you threw a rock at one of my spirits, or gave it the middle finger, it wouldn't care. The rock would bounce off of its physical form, and the middle finger doesn't threaten something that could manabolt you with a thought. Hell, you could spraypaint it, or even shoot it, and it would be perfectly fine. It's not until you mug somebody or knife them or actually harm the spirits themselves (VERY unlikely) that there's a problem. And as for your right to flip off the gangsters for all the shit they've given you, they would definitely protect your right to do that. They won't try ANYTHING with the threat of Mr. Pyro hanging over their heads.

So in essence, I oppress the oppressors. The only people who are watched are the muggers and the gangsters and the murderers; everybody else is as safe as anybody could be where people are hungry, cold, and afraid. The only difference between this and an unbribable, perfectly loyal police force is that this one glows and floats around a lot.

>>Shen

You honestly think that having spirits patroling their streets and mind probing people isn't scary? It doesn't matter if it's only probing gangsters, people won't know that. you truly are a misguided delusional fool. I can only hope that the gang manages to pull together enough money to hire a team to take you out before you decide more people need your "governmental wisdom."

Let me get this straight. The gang, which actually intends to harm everyday passerbys and protect its honor to the point of killing people without a thought is less of an evil than somebody whose agents just happen to be floating, glowing people. I do less real harm than them, and somehow I suck more? Are people really that foolish?

Today, I footed the bill for an old woman's rent money for the next 3 months when she was on the verge of an eviction and forced the landlord to get away from gambling long enough to fix her shower. And I paid him for his overdue services.

A young girl from outside the area knocked on wood and asked me to take revenge for her dead brother. I investigated the matter, and I dragged the guilty party out into the street, had him stripped naked, and had my fire spirit etch his crime into his skin.

Before you condemn me, think of this. Would you have batted an eye if I just killed the man in his sleep? No. This would have been a normal gangland killing, and if I just killed him, the fact that it was normal would have somehow made it more acceptable than the admittedly medieval punishment I had for him. Even though I let him live with nothing more than a few lines of text burned lightly into his skin, I assume you would somehow find that less humane than killing him.

And should I have let the old woman get evicted and probably killed? Should I have allowed the landlord to shirk his duties while he hounds his tenants for rent he knows he can't afford?

I am not the lesser of the evils; I am simply the more visible one.

Let's face it. Your only real objection was that I shattered your social order; you are, however, unwilling to admit that your social order was truly evil and oppressive. Gangs beat up children, shoot people who wipe away their graffiti, and landlords force tenants to pay rent they can't afford while "forgetting" constantly to fix things for them, and yet I am evil for solving these problems?

I don't interfere in the normal goings-on in the Barrens, unless you consider mugging the first three passerbys in the morning part of your daily schedule.

>>Shen

--Creature of the Night (Blades) has logged on

Who does this fragger think he is, barging in on us with his mojo, and his burning man, and his do-gooding? I'd like to give a shout-out to anyone who might like to help us kill him. I know there are people who can track people like him, who have no concept of honor or family or solidarity. I can pay you.

>>Creature of the Night (Blades)

I've found the man who just posted, collected all his money, and put it in a pile on the street for anyone passing by to take. For someone who talks about honor as a justification for his history of victimizing the common man, he's remarkably light on his charity. I guess the man really needs his medicinal BTL's.

>>Shen

I have already said that the gangers know just as well as you or I do that attacking people randomly is stupid, because it invites revenge from those who are attacked. Therefore, they only attack people for "justifiable" reasons: for not paying protection money, attacking someone in the neighborhood, or encroaching on the gang's turf without authorization. You will notice that Lone Star officers also only attack people for similarly "justifiable" reasons: for not paying taxes, for attacking someone in their neighborhood, and for jandering into restricted areas without authorization. How is the gang any different from Lone Star? The only difference between the street gangs and the private security forces is that the latter are much larger and better-organized than the former. If you really want to serve justice and stop gangs from destroying people's lives, shouldn't you be going after the security corps instead of wasting your time with these small fries?

For the record, though I consider your actions towards the old woman to be very charitable and admirable, but branding and humilating the man was quite frankly cruel and unusual. I don't see why you couldn't have arranged things so that the man would get arrested, charged and convicted for the murder of this woman's brother--that's certainly what I would have done. Quite frankly, you haven't given me a good reason to accept you as our new Dear Leader; I'd gladly take the devils I know over the devil I don't.

>>FanGirl

I HATE Lone Star. I don't attack anybody for any of those "justifiable" reasons. I don't ask for taxes, and I don't consider any areas restricted except for private property.

And how do you propose I get this man arrested? I hear you are quite the technomancer; did you just volunteer for evidence-collecting duty?

I don't ask to be your leader; I really just want to help people. I haven't talked to anybody who didn't knock on wood, I haven't harmed anyone who wasn't in the gang or going to mug somebody, and I don't try to draw any more attention to myself than having 6 glowing people wandering the streets 24-7 would.

Yes, I understand Lone Star is evil. But how do you propose I take on Lone Star the way I did the gang? First of all, a lot more good people work for Lone Star than work for the Night Blades. Many of the officers entering the force are idealistic, sincere, and devoted to a quixotic sense of universal justice. This says nothing of their corrupt superiors, but I'll address this later. Talk about gang honor all you want, but in the end, it just comes down to protecting the tribe at the cost of the wellbeing of everybody else. Although understandable and perhaps even rational, the urge to protect oneself or one's support group is by no means honorable or brave; it's just self-interest on a large scale. Anybody can protect the ones he/she "loves," but it takes a truly brave person to protect a stranger, which gangs don't tend to do.

Second of all, Lone Star is infinitely more powerful than this gang could ever be. I could not fill the role that Lone Star fills the way I have filled the role of the gang, and I could not "influence" anybody important in Lone Star because of their comparatively enormous magical resources. Again, your help in this matter would be quite welcome, if you will give it.

>>Shen

[OOC]This is a PM to James McMurray's character, but anyone can read it. [/ooc]
I may do as you suggest. The raids on the borders of the Barrens are a nearly daily occurence; they really serve no purpose aside from getting "proof of guilt" for crimes they can't or won't solve.

>>Shen

Perhaps you could do doubly well by solving the crimes they're using barrens patsies for. These elite hacker friends and your seemingly endless supply of money to threaten online people that disagree with you could be put to a more noble cause.

Or is it that even your online presence must rule by fear?

I didn't threaten Irreverent fool; I merely torched his car.

Plus, those hackers weren't friends; they were just very, very expensive datajacks for hire.

>>Shen

Way to go Shen. Far as I'm concerned you can kill em all and let God sort em out.
>>ChunkyMonkey

You could have pretended to investigate him off the books in order to dispel fears about him; I myself could try to find a ritual link and mind-probe the attackers from afar. I'm.... I'm horrified.... I'll see if the body needs to be moved and buried...

I won't fry you for complaining about my mission; the only person I've fried so far tried to hire shadowrunners to kill me.

>>Shen

Isn't there some sort of tie between spirit and summoner that can be followed back to the mage?

If you yourself are a mage and the mage isn't behind a force 8 ward, yes.

I have also told all my spirits currently active to nonlethally take out anyone tracking them that isn't summoned by me and to retreat to the metaplanes if anyone tries to banish them. I think you'll have a lot of trouble finding me.

>>Shen

Why would you think that? I'm pretty sure you're far from the most powerful mage out there. Whatever you can summon they can summon bigger.

OOC stuff

Whether or not I move out depends on how much order you intend to restore to the neighborhood. I do realize that you aren't representative of what I would deem to be evil about Lone Star; the framings, the killings, etc, and it would be hypocritical of me to complain about more or less any brutality short of random killings in the street. If you will do what I do to capture criminals and bring them to justice, then I will be more than happy to leave. If you institute another reign of terror, I will not. If you hurt people for protection money, I will not. If you make this spot another place where you capture random SINless to "solve' crimes, then I will not. If you will not allow me to do small, helpful things like pay the rent for poor SINless and force their deadbeat slumlords to do the work they charge them for, then I will not. These are my terms.

>Shen

OOC stuff

You're overestimating my clout. I'm just a beat cop. I swim in this shit 24-7, and spend everyday wondering how it came to this. Then you come along, and now I know. People Feeling Powerless. That's how it comes to this. Doesn't matter whether those people are gangers, cops or Joe Schmo. The effect is just the same.

I should have told somebody at the Star about your blog, but I didn't. And damn, if I tell them now it's going to come back to bite me in the ass because I didn't report it right away. But if you're going to escalate this, I'll have no choice.

I don't know about magic stuff and I don't know if they can get you or not. My guess is that the magic division hasn't even picked up your file yet, but don't ask me how long that'll last. Why you, you're wondering? Why not the gangers etc? Because as you demonstrated the gangers are smallfry, but you are something else. Sure, your crimes might not be as bad as theirs, at the moment, but with power like yours the crimes could get so much worse. Power + mystique + zero respect for the law is going to get you killed, chummer.

>>Evil

P.S. The body's taken care of thanks. We might be evil but we don't leave dead bodies lying around to rot.

OOC

I am escalating nothing; if anything, I'm proposing a truce. I don't think my terms are by any means unfair. I'm guessing that the middle of the Barrens where people have guns isn't the best place to stage patsy raids, and the SINless don't pay taxes or your salary, so no need to rough them up for protection money. And I doubt you really care whether or not the landlord fixes an old lady's sink with or without a fire spirit floating right behind him. So my terms aren't that bad at all.

>>Shen

Negotiating with terrorists is never a good idea, no matter how palatable their terms may be.

Oh sure, your terms sound just peachy to me. But that doesn't change the fact that I'm a nobody and I don't get asked to negotiate anything with anyone.
>>Evil

Then all I need is this: you tell me whether or not I'm right about what the Star would do. They don't need to avoid doing all the big bad things I'm afraid they'll do out of contractual obligation; all I need is to know whether or not they'll do those things, period.

>Shen

[OOC]The following is a PM to Evil. FanGirl, you can be privy to this, since you're probably trying to track Shen down.

If you come up positive on everything, then I will help you with your career. You call a few of your boys about a random disturbance, a gang war or something, and don't tell them it's magical so they don't bring a mage. I summon the spirits and rough them up a bit, conjure up an illusion of myself, and you shoot that illusion. The fire spirit gets ordered to pretend to go on a rampage upon becoming "free," it eats my "body" out of rage at being summoned, and you get promoted for saving the lives of your fellow officers. They don't even need evidence, since whatever body there may have been was just torched by 5 bajillion degrees of magical fire.

I think I can trust you; you seem like a nice, if self-hating, guy. And if there isn't any trust, there's always mind probe.

>>Shen

They're not fools at the Star, and definitely not in the magical division. I've heard rumors that they will leak information to a corp if they think they can persuade the corp to deal with something for them (and save themselves some grief and some money). So what you've got to ask is: what might I be worth?
>>Evil


[Response to PM]
So you want me to be a dirty cop, huh? Or you'll rape my mind.
I don't think I want to deal with you anymore, Shen.

How would they persuade a corp to deal with me? I haven't done anything to any corps besides Lone Star, and I did that only by policing an area they themselves don't police, not by attacking assets of theirs.

And I'd like a straight answer; would they or wouldn't they do the usual evil shit that they're famous in the shadows for if I were to leave?

>>Shen

[Re: Career Advancement]
The way I see it is this. I don't want to leave this neighborhood to the gang, and I don't want to leave it to Lone Star if they'll do bad shit. If I were to negotiate with them, they'd send a mage with a force 10 power focus and kill me, and then do the bad shit because they have such an especially shitty impression of this neighborhood.

As for your moral apprehension about being advanced through your career in this way: you yourself have said that Lone Star is run by "deals." There are dirty cops all over who hurt people more than they need to be hurt. And yet it is these deals and these dirty things that will get them promoted within your company.

If a promotion were to come of you doing this, you would actually deserve it MORE than 80% of the people who get them. In reality, it would be your dealing shrewdly with unknowns that got your promotion, not that shot you took. It would be your ability to not see this solely in terms of black and white, law and anarchy, but in terms of human decency that got you promoted. That fake kill would really only be outward sign of all the things that you did to deserve it that nobody at Lone Star would be smart or decent enough to appreciate. And chances are, they'd put you in charge of this precinct, leaving it in your care. Think of yourself as the Gordon to my Batman.

Or you can back off and say "Not my problem, I can't handle the responsibility." But I don't think you'll do that.

P.S. The mind probe thing was a joke. Or not.

>>Shen

It's just rumors that's all. Sometimes if there is a magical threat I've heard they'll let a corp deal with it, and whatever the corp catches is theirs to do what they like with. I don't know. Magical experimentation maybe? You probably think that's evil of the Star too (even if it's true). Me- I know the pressures, the targets, the budget limitations...

Yeah, you're right. I try and see beyond 'black and white'. I don't think the Star is inherently evil. I don't think all those bad things you mention are encouraged or even all that widespread. I don't think the Star will do 'evil shit' if you leave. But I don't promise they'll turn the area into a utopia either. Nor do I think every ganger is evil. Like I said above, it's all just People Feeling Powerless. I don't even think you are evil. I just think you're maybe misguided.

I seriously doubt anybody's going to buy my sudden elevation to hero after all these years. And I seriously doubt that I'm suddenly going to go shooting up the ranks fast enough for your tastes. And now I hear you've got the mob up in arms. I don't see this going a good way.

But you're right. Now I've got your ear I can't just back away either. So here's what I want to know, Shen. What's the plan? The big plan. What's your vision for this neighbourhood. And even if you transform it, how's it going to stay a better place when you've gotten bored and moved on?
>>Evil

Here's what I want for the neighborhood. This is going to look like a bill of rights.

1. People can go anywhere that's not private property, as in ANYWHERE, without being stabbed or robbed. Or shot. Or any of the other things bad people do in the Barrens.

2. Slumlords shouldn't have the right to charge rent without doing all the repairing that they're supposed to be doing; if they find themselves "incapable" of doing them, either Lone Star or Mr. Pyro should help them out. And they shouldn't evict people who just can't pay; this is the only option they have for survival, and property rights shouldn't have precedence over human ones.

3. Hopefully, if Lone Star has the authority to do it, they should have the option of getting legal SINs that are just as valid as anybody else's.

That's pretty much it. As for me getting bored and leaving, I don't think I'll ever get bored with getting a high-force spirit of Man to bodily lift and carry a recalcitrant ganger like a baby and hang him (nonlethally) on a lamppost.

Plus, I can always sustain a few health spells to make you smarter, faster, and stronger. As a gift. I'm sure THAT would boost you up the ladder, and I hope it inspires you to be more ambitious about self-improvement if not your career. I'll do it when you aren't in the HQ and you're patrolling my part of the neighborhood so that nobody assenses you and notices 2 sustained spells floating around your head.

And as an added bonus, if you manage to control the gang, you and the gang both get free puppies as symbols of your responsibilities to the neighborhood! They'll both be from the same litter. Aren't I clevre? I myself already have a dog. Lone Star doesn't have you register puppies, does it?

And don't call yourself "Evil"... it pains me to see somebody I'd trust with this neigborhood hate himself like that.

>>Shen

Hmm.

Just to put you straight... I don't hate myself. Not all the time. Not any more than you. Not any more than most. I've got more than two dimensions, I hope.

What you tell me sounds, well, just peachy. Puppys are cute. The world will be fabulous. Just because people buy into your vision.

But they won't. I don't. It's like a corp advert. It's shallow.

So Shen, here's what I'll do. I'll listen to your readers. I'll listen to what they think of your big plan. I'll listen to the ups and the downs and the pros and the cons. And then I'll get back to you.

>>'Evil'

Was it the puppies that clued you off? They were more of a joke, but I still intend to give you a puppy.

Is the real problem that Lone Star won't do such a good job maintaining order, or is it that they'll take too much control? If I left and you were basically Daniel Boone, Slum Explorer, what would Lone Star do? Would it patrol the alleyways, taking out muggers? Would it help slumlords evict old women and look the other way when they don't fix things? Would it not bother? I don't even have to do the whole "help you magically" thing, if you don't want. All I have to know is that whoever takes over, Lone Star, or even the gang, will do right. That's all I have to know.

>>Shen

Obviously I can't promise that. But they might not do quite as much bad as you seem to think. It all depends on how you leave this situation.
>>Evil

FanGirl, you seem to enjoy speaking for your neighborhood. How would you like Lone Star? I obviously don't like the gang.

>>Shen

Just how would Mr. Pyro "help these slummlords out?" I'm assuming more terrorizing followed by a friendly little game of torture by fire? I can't picture a creature made of flames being very effective in fixing a toilet. Perhaps if the water heater was busted.

What if the landlord truly isn't capable of effecting the repairs? What then? He's been scorched and harassed because he doesn't have money. You can't expect Lone Star to do anything about it, they're not in the slum renovation business.

Will you do something? Again, you seem to have tons of money to toss around when you decide to threaten someone who disagrees with you. Why not instead channel that money intot he community? Buy a decrepit warehouse and turn the lot into a park. Get a strong wireless receiver in the area. Fix the street lights. Hell, I've never been in the area but I can guess that it's got broken street signs, graffiti everywhere, and dark trash filled alleyways. That 30,000:nuyen: you threatened Irreverent Fool with could fix a lot of that, if not all of it.

I am overcome with guilt.

I'm serious. But on a less misunderstanding-prone note, who will I pay to do about 80% of the work you mention? Where will I get a bigass garbage truck and city work crew? How do I know that Lone Star won't be clued in by the spontaneously functioning utilities and the tools and supplies that materialized out of nowhere? You've already said that my enforcement alone is catching their attention; that's just a few glowy people floating around knocking out muggers.

As for using the city, I'm sure that even for one bajillion nuyen, which, by the way, I don't have, the city bureaucracy would not move for this.

Then again, I could always employ the people in the area; hire fences to move supplies like paintsprayers, repair drones, and water filters into the area, or even give people money to spend at the new mall for the SINless. Pay the people in the neighborhood to do about 90% of the work. Maybe splurge for soyvats and meat cultures so people could eat well. Pay riggers to do the technical stuff while I bind air spirits to carry people to hard-to-reach places. Hand out free certified credsticks so people can go out and buy things with the money I pay them.

This keeps sounding better and better as I go along. I've been lazing about and pontificating for WAY too long. I guess that pouring money into the place felt too much like a bureaucratic move to suit my quixotic, hands-on sense of justice, but really, this is the only way that I could see this working. I'll call a town meeting; that is, if people trust me enough. Possibly even make good with the gang by hiring them on for security; pay everybody's protection money and make it go places. If they don't work out, I could always hire another gang or even Hard Corps as permanent security; they only cost about 750 a week, maybe even less, since there's no need for computer security that the resident hackers wouldn't make for themselves. No wizgangs, though. They could kill me and take my money.

I still don't want to be hunted down and killed by a Lone Star initiate mage with a force 10 power focus.

>>Shen

I can gaurantee that the city would do it for a bajillion nuyen, on a serious fast track.

Heck, if you can cut them a wide enough profit margin they'll do it for any amount. Citizens have been donating to cities for over a century in order to get pet projects done. And that was in a less "money grubbing" world.

I was going to answer the questions in the second paragraph, but you seem to have answered them yourself. As for "clueing in Lone Star" I doubt very much they'll come looking for someone because they're picking up trash and fixing street signs. In fact, doing that coupled with removing the thought police will probably see all interest in you vanish.

The only thing I could see being problematic would be hiring external security to patrol the streets. that cuts into Lone Star business. Hiring them to protect private property wouldn't be a problem, but if they were to go full scale as a police force eyebrows might be raised. But then again, since they aren't thought police obviously summoned by a powerful magical entity which could easily be seen as a threat, even policing the streets might not be a problem.

Here's an idea: talk to Lone Star about hiring a police force. they're generally unconcerned about what happens in the Barrens anyway, and if you pay them an annual stipend they might just take the offer. It puts money in their coffers and is no longer "unsanctioned justice." If you're concerned about them knowing you, do all the talking through intermediaries.

So they do private security as well as city-wide contracts? How much would that cost? And I'm sure if I pay them the annual stipend, they'll play nice with the residents. Maybe even improve the quality of their prisons if I pay more than usual.

Maybe I should start a bidding war between the different security companies; see which one does the best work for a reasonable price. Even if Lone Star messes with the gangs, they probably won't try to stand up to Knight Errant.

As for long-term employment, would the people feel really good about having legitimate SIN's? Should I just keep giving them money? That's not too big a burden; I'll just have to work on orichalcum constantly.

And Evil, I guess I'll trust you to handle any negotiations; you're the only guy in the corp who knows about me, and I'm sure Lone Star won't be spending more than about 1% of their stipend on investigating me.

I like being nice.

>>Shen