@Rowan: Jan. 28, 2058 -- 11:00am

Your wrist phone rings with that annoying classical piece it came with from the factory. You always meant to change it to something a little more .... your style, but you haven't gotten around to it yet. "Rowan," you answer.

"Rowan, This is Michal. Michal Rosseli. We have a job for you. Are you able to work now?"

"Now!? You mean ... today?"

"Yes."

Shit. Rown thinks to himself, I knew they'd come back to haunt me. "Yeah, I can work right now."

"Good. Meet at the Rose, 4th and Hamilton, at 20:00. You're looking for Jimmy. You know Jimmy, right?"

"The fish? Yeah, I know him."

"Good. He speaks but we think. Capiche?"

"Yeah. I understand."

"Good."

The phone goes dead. Fucking mob ....

@Lex: Jan 28, 2058 -- 1:30pm

You have 1 new message ... You have 1 new message ... You have 1 ne ...

"Alright already. Check it."

Mark. Jimmy the Fish. You working? Good. Got a job for you and the others. Meet them at the Rose. 8:00. If you're late, you don't get paid. You don't show up, we assume you're not interested. Details come later.
-- Jimmy << 580128122234 128.180.43.21 >>

@Akuma, Alice, and Mojo Jan 28, 2058 between 12:40 and 1:00pm

You each get essentially the same phone call:

Hey! Jimmy here. Got work for you an the others. Meet me at the Rose tonight at 8:00pm. Ah -- no. No questions now. Details later. You don't show, we assume you're not interested. You show, you are! Sound good? Good. See you then.

Rowan goes back to reading "The Secret Agent" by Conrad, its an old paperback with delicate yellow pages, dog-eared and worn. When she finishes the chapter. She dresses up, putting on a nice outfit and strapps on her Gaurdian, and goes for a run around the block to release pent up frustration.

Akuma Spends a good deal of his time in meditation and tai chi exercises. An hour before the meet, he gets all his gear together and heads down to the bar, always liking to be early to events such as this.

Finally, I was getting bored...

With a thought, Lex's inbox changes back to the smooth, green-felt of an old style Texas hold'em table. 8 o'clock, huh? I've got some time then, better finish up here first... Looking over the other icons at the table, Lex's icon, a thin young man wearing a black suit-vest with a handlebar moustache and monocle, deftly shuffles a virtual deck of cards. "This is my last hand, guys. Got business to take care of."

A couple of hours later, after leaving the 'parlor', Lex does a quick test of his programs to make sure they're all in working order. Sporting boot-cut jeans and a black vest, Lex hops on his Rapier and makes his way to the Rose around 7. I might as well get something to eat beforehand, anyway...

In a cramped basement apartment, Mojo turns a page in A Beginner's Guide to Talismongering, Volume 3 while carefully holding a steaming beaker in one hand. "And then... you add the material to the mixture and stir..." RING The beaker suddenly boils over as just a little too much mixture gets added to the tube and foam goes everywhere. Mojo drops the beaker which clanks on the floor, spilling partially dissolved materials everwhere. A few choice curse words and a phone call later and Mojo picks the mess up.

He goes back to working materials but knocks off about five thirty to take a shower and get "in character". He shows up at the club about a quarter till looking quite the part of the shadowrunner.

The Rose is not in a bad section of town, but it's also not in a good one. It has a reputation, however, of being on no one's turf and stepping on no one's toes. The bartender, Large Mike, has a reputation for turning a blind eye toward less-than-legal activities within his establishment, though it's widely rumored that he takes a meager 15% host's fee for that service. He doesn't put up with any nonsense in the Rose, and he and his two Troll bouncers, Tiny and Slim, are quick to turn any fights out of the bar and into the street.

<<OOC: Since you'll all be reaching the bar at some point, the following paragraphs apply to everyone. I'll put any specifics for each person below. Follow this link for a visual representation of the Rose in Flash 6. You'll need Macromedia Flash Player 6 to see it. Download it here if you don't have it. >>

Tiny, one of the two bouncers, is seated outside the main door and looks at you with a close eye as you enter. As you walk into the bar, eyes turn toward you through a haze of synthnic cigarette smoke. If your nose doesn't deceive you, it almost smells like some people here tonight can afford real nicotine! They quickly turn away, perhaps recognizing one of their own -- or perhaps recognizing that you are no threat to them.... There are perhaps two dozen people in the room, mostly human males, in small groups and a few loners at the bar. The other bouncer, Slim, is seated to the right of the bar next to a flight of stairs leading up. There is also a bathroom located to the left of the bar, a sign reading "Use at your own risk!" has been hung on the knob. There are tables in the center of the room as well as booths along two walls to provide a bit more privacy. Two waitresses, a blonde and a brunette, shimmy their way between the tables, avoiding the grabs and sometimes returning the glances, as they serve drinks and sandwiches to the patrons this evening.

The room is a dark color -- it looks like it was brown at one time, but the grime of many nights of smoke and alcohol have stained them a black, gritty color. Prints hang on the walls behind greasy, stained glass; the ever-popular dogs-playing-poker hangs over a booth on the right while the left hand wall seems to feater expressionist paintings of either a bottle of beer or a oddly shaped woman. The tables are synthetic wood and topped with plastic sheets for easy cleaning. The floor is covered with a thin layer of sawdust that Tiny and Slim lay down every evening before opening and sweep out the back every morning after closing. The night is young enough and the patrons sober enough to avoid spills to allow the cedar chips to fill the air with an almost pleasant undertone to the cigarette smoke that is much more prevalent.

Tiny is dressed in a black pair of pants with a white t-shirt. Her is obviously packing some kind of heavy pistol in a under-arm holster and it looks like he might be wearing hardliner gloves, though they could also be just regular gloves as well. Slim, on the other hand, is better dressed in the same black pants and white t-shirt, but has added a fashionable black double breasted vest to the combination. He is also packing a gun under his arm, but doesn't appear to be wearing gloves. Large Mike behind the bar wears a greasy white apron over the now ubiquitous pants/t-shirt combination.

@Lex
Pulling into the parking lot of the Rose at 7:06pm, you look around the lot. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, you lock your bike, grab your helmet and move into the bar. As you pass Tiny, he gives you a look, but then nods and says "'Evening. Special tonight is the tomato soup," in a rough, gravely voice. When you enter the bar, it doesn't look like you see any of your regular partners in the shadows, but you recall Jimmy saying that the job was for "you and the others." Whatever, you think, they'll be along later.

@Mojo
You arrive at the rose about 7:45pm. Entering the front doors you find yourself in a hallway with Tiny, one of the bar's bouncers. He gives you a funny look as you pass him, but only lets you know that the special tonight is the tomato soup. As you pass through the doors and into the bar itself, you think you hear him mumble, "We've got a live one tonight, Slim." When you enter the bar, a quick glance shows you that Lex and Akuma have beaten you here.

@Rowan
You get to the bar right at 8:00 and ready to go. You go through the front doors and turn to enter the bar but Tiny stops you. "Sorry," he says, "but you'll have to leave your side arm with me. I'll give you a tag and you can pick it up on your way out. Mike don't like having armed patrons -- only armed bouncers, see?" When you finally get by Tiny, you enter the bar and see a slightly overweight but impeccably dressed man speaking to Lex. He has the look of an Italian, but you can't be sure that he's one of the Rosseli. You also see Akuma, Alice, and Mojo. [I]The gang's all here...[I].

<<OOC: phelious fogg, let me know if you want to try to fast talk your way past Tiny with your gun or if you'll surrender it and move on. Also, Grey, I need to know what equipment you brought with you. Then I'll let you know what happens to Akuma as he enters. Last, if Kurb posts about Alice, then I'll add her info in later.>>

Rowan flashes a smile at Tiny, "well so long as none of the Partons are armed.." With that she unbuckles the holster and hands the matt black pistol to Tiny. "don't scratch the finish." She chuckles, wishes the bouncer a good evening and continues into the main room to sit with the rest of the group

@ 7ish: Lex finds himself an unoccupied booth (preferably the corner one) and tries to make eye contact with either of the waitresses. Tomato soup, huh? I'm starving, I'll need a bit more than that...hmm, I wonder what kind of beer they have? Lazily scanning the room, paying a little more attention to the barflies, Lex pulls out a well-worn deck of red Bicycles, Damn, left these in my pocket again? Ah well..., and just shuffles them as he's waiting for a waitress.

@ 8ish: Man, this guy uses more grease in his hair than Mike does in his food...

Mojo, his sidearm apparently going unnoticed by the trog, slides in to join the crowd. A place like this seems to suit his style pretty well, a nice place but not so nice they'd keep a tusker out. He slides up to the bar and orders a Meltdown, a deceptively weak drink popularized by the Trid "Against the Hive".

@Akuma
Arriving at about 7:20 at the Rose, you enter through the front doors and are confronted with Tiny, one of the bars two (im)famous troll bodyguards. He gives you a quick once-over and asks for your katana and your predator, handing you a small ticket to allow you to pick it up when you leave. Entering the bar, you see Lex sitting at a booth in the corner to yoru right munching on what looks like a sandwich with a side of tomato soup and nursing a Justa Beer. The rest of the bar seems pretty open and you can sit where you like.

<<OOC: let me know if you want to fast talk for your weapons or if you'll surrender them and move on. >>

<<@Everyone: if there's anything that someone wants to do between the time they arrive and 8:00pm when the overweight greasy man talks to Lex and Rowan arrives right on time, let me know in the OOC thread. >>

Akuma steps inside, his inhuman eyes going over every detail of the room. Spotting Lex, he goes over and has a seet next to him, giving a silent nod for a hello. When the waitress comes by, he just waves her away, not really having a taste for this type of food.

Lex nods to Akuma, finishing off his Justa Beer. "Serious as always, arent'cha? You should really try the soup, it's not half bad."

@ 07:49 Mojo spends a few minutes trying to chat up a completely disinterested human woman. She gives him the brush-off but he seems not to care as he orders another "cool" drink and takes a swig.

@ 7:55 The ork finally wanders his way over to the booth Lex requisitioned. He gives the other runner a curt, professional nod. "You ready for the fun stuff?"

Lex scoots over in the booth to give the ork some room. "Depends on your idea of fun" he adds with a mischievous smile.

"Oh, you know, fast times, hot women. The usual." He gives a toothy (err.. tusky) grin. "If it's anything like the last one, we'll be gettin' free drinks off it fer weeks."

@7ish Alice showers and perpares herself for the meet. She slips on her Armante "Starlight" Dress and slides her quick draw concealed holster up to her inner thigh, the places her Ares Predator III w/ Gas Vent into it. She puts her blonde hair into a ponytail and heads out the door. She hops into her Saab Dynamit 778 TI and heads over to the meet. She walks in and finds where everyone is and has a seat.

@ Mojo : "And if it's anything like the one before that, we'll be paying the bar back for weeks"

Lex looks up to see Alice saunter past the bouncer at the door and lets out a low whistle. "And look at you my dear," he gestures to an empty spot in the booth, "Suddenly I feel a tad underdressed."

@Lex. The ork shrugs. "Eh, how was I supposed to know about the hellhounds in the basement. It's not like there was a big sign out front of anything saying "Warning: There are Hellhounds in here!". " He grins again, "But hey, we got out alive."

Chuckling, "You should take those 'Beware of Dog' signs more seriously in the future.

The Demon just sits in silence, watching his co-workers go on and on, not really thinking anything of it or judging, just... being. He checks his watch finally, wondering when things will get started.

@Everyone but Rowan
At 8:00 almost on the nose, a slightly overwieght gentlemen dressed in a black business suit, whit shirt with a long black tie approaches your table. He introduces himself: "Hello. My name is Alessandro Rosseli. I am also known as Mr. Johnson, though my Family has asked me to make you aware of my true identity as a measure of trust as well as a token of the seriousness of our need."

<<OOC: Rowan you hear the conversation from this point forward having reached the group just after Alessandro began speaking.>>

He looks up as Rowan, who entered the bar at about the same time that Alessandro began speaking, approaches the table. "Ah, Rowan. You were described to me. The description does not do your beaty justice." He licks his lips. "I'm afraid, however," he continues turning back to the group, "that I'm not familiar with the rest of you." As you all move to begin the introductions, he raises a hand, "That is of no moment."

Looking around at you, he idly plays with a small chain connected to his belt. "Why don't we adjurn to a more private room upstairs to conduct any further business?"

<<OOC: Assuming no one objects to the chane of venue. >>

Following Alessandro up the stairs, he leads you past the first few doors, pulls a key from his pocket and opens the third door on the left. Inside is a conference table big enough to comfortably seat about a dozen people. He moves around the table to take the seat at the far end, facing the door and moves the chair to accomodate his waistline. Seated now, he opens the front of his jacket. Cliped to the double-breasted, black-with-grey-pinstripes vest are a number of small, gold pins.

"The job that I would have you perform for my Family is rather urgent, and I'm afraid that I can tell you no than this until I have your concent: one of our Family crossed paths with our rivals. That member has been .... incapacitated shall we say? My Family wishes for you to remove that member from the public hospital where he was taken and bring him to us so that we may care for him ourselves in a location we deem more ..... secure."

He looks down for a moment to concider his words before continuing, "We must ask, however, that you move quickly on this. We need to .... recover .... our family member with much haste. Within 36 hours if possible. We feel that our rivals may attempt to finish the job that they started and fear for his safety should he remain where he is. Jimmy the Fish, one of our regular operatives, assures us that you all are capable and able to act fast and with professional quality and we expect no less in this."

"Our Family member must not be killed. If he were to be killed, the resulting war between our two families could spill out into the streets disrupting life from Philadelphia to New York, and we would like to avoid that. For your troubles, we are willing to pay you 10,000 certified credsticks."

"I'm afraid that before I go further, I must have your concent to work for us. I can answer questions, but I can't garauntee I'll tell you the whole truth," he says with a smirk. "Of course, that's better than you get from others, no?"

___________________________________________


@Mojo
There are no notable awakened individuals in the bar. A few have a spark, but probably not enough to throw even the weakest of spells. They probably aren't even aware of their power.

Mojo takes a moment to revel in his superiority to the disinterested normals at the bar before the group heads upstairs. Once there, he peeks into the astral and takes a glance at the host as well as ordering his watcher to alarm (manifest and say something) if anyone shows up on the astral during the meet, saving Mojo, of course.

Finally he settles in to listen to the Johnson's spiel. When the Johnson gave you his real name, it was always a big deal in the trids, so this must be a sweeps-month-like run. The rest of the team can tell from the way he's sitting that he's already accepted, even to the point that he doesn't ask the one question that someone always asks at a meet like this when a dollar figure is thrown around.

"Well, you know I am up to it," Rowan grins, "How about the rest of you? Mojo you seem interested." She pauses for a bit to see if anyone says anything. "After all, it'd be a terrible shame to turn down an honest mans hard earned money."

Alice crosses her legs reveiling more of her thigh in her beautiful gown as she scans the room. Thinking briefly to herself before speaking. "I'm in, but I'm going to need more details." She then waits to continue to allow those involved to say so.

A simple snatch from a public hospital shouldn't require 'runners...

Lex leans in on the table, showing little emotion over the price offered.

"Excuse me if I'm overstepping my mark here, Mr. Rosseli, but why would a family such as yourselves requre runners to do a pull from a public hospital? Is the Star involved, or maybe your rivals have the hospital marked?"

Alessandro smiles a bit when Rowan mentions "an honest man's work" and seems to chuckle to himself. He seems to have lost himself for a moment in Alice's hemline but becomes all business again when Lex begins the questioning.

"As I said: we expect that our rivals may attempt to finish what they started. Our two Families are ... traditional we'll say, and the actions of our hospitalized friend and a member of the rival house have 'overstepped a mark,' to use your words. While my Family feels that this problem could be solved, our rivals do not seem to agree."

"As for the Star, I can't guarantee that you won't see them. Ah ... damn, trying to remain this vague is a pain in the ass." He smiles sheepishly, "I'm not used to this kind of thing, forgive me. We'll call our errant family member Greg for now. Greg was arrested. If you watch the news, then you probably saw the killings over the past few days. The actions of Greg have caused these deaths. His actions also go him arrested. Between his wounding and his arrest, we want to get him back into the Family fold, so to speak. But, because of his arrest and because of his affiliation with my Family, the authorities are probably going to want to keep him where he is."

@Mojo
A quick glance at Alessandro reveals that he is awakened, but not in the same way as you. Probably an adept, if you had to make a guess, but his physical condition makes you feel confident ... that and the fact that you outnumber him 5-to-1!

Edited for punctuation.

Frag, Star and a family...

"So I'm going to say there'd be at least one or two armed Star by his room, if not his bedside. How wounded is this, Greg? Is he on life support or is he harassing the candy stripers?" At that last bit, you see Lex smirk at the thought of the stripers.

Mojo nods, listening to the Johnson. "I'm in." He listens to the rest, as well, mentally planning out a raid on a Star protected mafioso's hospital room. In the trids, they'd probably be saving the guy's life from a corrupt cop or something, too.

Almost as though she was reading Mojo's mind, "Do you know if the other family has tried to get to Star yet? Buy one of them off for a bit of a private interview with Greg?"

Akuma stays silent for most of the interveiw, his only outward show is the nod he gives when asked if he is in or not. Once there is a lull in the conversation, he asks, "And how low profile do you want the extraction to be? Or does it not matter at all? What about casualties from those who get in the way?"

"Personaly, Id rather not have a blood bath," Rowan says, "It makes it that much longer we have to lay low afterwards, not to mention its a thousand times more likely to get caught."

"Besides, I think I know a nonviolent way to pull this off."

Mojo nods at the suggestion of a non-violent way to pull this off. If this was going to be a real cliffhanger, the first part needed to go as smooth as silk. It'd be the doublecross that set things up for a big finale.

"Thats well and good, I'm just covering all bases. If things go bad and get dirty, I need to know what is expected of me. Ok?"

Lex nods at Rowan, "I'm not one to turn a hospital into a shooting gallery."

Looking back at the Johnson, "OK, it looks like we're all in. If we have to deal with both the Star and this rival family, we'd have to worry about repercussions from both. 10,000 each seems a little light to me for that kind of heat."

Akuma nods, "Done."

Rowan smiles, "insurance, hmm, why does that sound familiar." She then winks at Alessandro, trying to see how he reacts. She tries to make it pass as a joke to the rest of the assembly.

Alice smiles at the Johnson uncrossing her legs allowing a little peep before crossing the other back over. "I'm in."

She then thinks to herself for a minute and stares around the room at her team and begins to plan.

"Now that you have accepted our job, I have leave to provide you more information. Now this, however, if you use this information to work against us rather than for us, my Family has ways of making you regret that choice."

He pauses for a moment and reaches into his coat, "I am not reaching for a gun ... just in case any of you are the jumpy type." He pulls out a small photograph of a young Italian. "This is Giancarlo Rosseli. He also goes by the name Gio. He is the injurned 'Greg.' We do not know where in the hospital he is staying, and we don't know the exact extent of his wounds, other than that he was shot in the chest yesterday."

"This is Sophia Caroletto. If you see her she is not to be harmed under any circumstances. Her involvement in this matter is unknown to my Family, but the Carolettos seem to feel that she was mixed up in the gunfight that resulted in Gio's arrest and injury. They have accused us of kidnapping and holding her against her will, though to my knowledge, we have not done so."

"Do you have any other questions for me before I leave you to your work? I have paid Mike the price for this room from now until 11:30 tonight. If you would like, you can continue to use this room until then."

Mojo holds his stun spell ready as Alessandro reaches for something, but doesn't loose it on his assurances and lets it go completely at the production of pictures. He looks the pictures over carefully. "Sounds like a rough one." He idly wonders if a bit of healing magic might not wake up the target and make it possible for him to walk out. Being in a public hospital there was little chance that he'd recieved any.

"My first question would be regarding Sophia... if we do cross paths, how should the situation be handled? Just ignore her? Though, it sounds like there are people looking for her, perhaps helping them out would put them in our good graces?"

Flipping the credstick around his fingers, Lex looks up at Alessandro, "So that leaves us to figure out just where he is. Does he have any false ID on him to make the hospital think he's someone else, or will we be looking for a Gio?"

Looking at the picture of Sophia, "So has this beauty gone missing? Is that why they think your family kidnapped her, or are we looking at a modern day Romeo and Juliet story here?"

<<OOC: sorry about all the editing, I've got to organize my thoughts better>>

"Can you tell me a bit more about the trouble Gio got into..."