Sean's Downtime
Sitting alone in the car after dropping off Oppenheimer, Sean immediately felt very alone. He didn't like it. He didn't like it at all. It didn't paralyze him or make him fully freak out, it just made him uneasy. He felt out of his element. He felt like he was slightly off-center in the universe.

Knowing the team was all out, including Sally he had no mind to go back to the office by himself either. He found himself back at his favorite haunt, Mikey's Pub. Once he entered the room, a wave of calm washed over him. He didn't know what it was about the presence of other people, it was just one of those things that he couldn't explain about life. There weren't even very many people left at Mikey's by that time of the morning, but that didn't matter much to him. It allowed him to spend some time talking to Mikey, nothing in particular, just the weather and local news.

Eventually, the team made in back into the city and Sean met them back at the office. A job done, good rep and a little yen. Once back at the office, Sean relays most of the specifics to the Doctor. He tells the Doctor to add the value of the information to his account. He knows this info won't go far and the names of his team will not be compromised. He also knows dropping this info now will provide some goodwill later.

Over the next few days, Sean follows up on his primary concern: armor. He started with a full set of form-fitting body armor, but when that proves too cumbersome with his armor jacket, he supplements that with an armor vest and shin/forearm guards. He spends not only his earning from the last assignment but dips into his savings.

Next on his list is to make good on his promise to Alisha Monroe (Assessor's Office Clerk) . A little wining, a little dining, a little- The next morning he sends her off to work with a smile, leaving her doss with one himself. Not having a car, he catches a bus where a pair of woman are speaking in Spanish. as he rides across town with them, he begins to pick up some of what they are saying. Understanding them. He ends up following them, taking the same connection they do. They go to an market where the majority of the people are speaking Spanish primarily. Not wanting to spook the ladies, he begins wandering around, casually following one group then another, no one for very long. Shortly after lunch, he's ordering a simple lunch in Spanish, never having spoken it before.

Over the next few days, he spends quite a bit of time away from the office. He checks up on Rita (Transient Contact) most days, insuring she gets at least one meal and the times he can find her, he makes sure she gets to the City Union Mission and to Monica (Shelter Manager). He also ventures out to China town. The incident with the Mexican women and his new found ability to speak basic Spanish has him curious. Several days in Chinatown and he has picked up several dialects of Chinese.

As the week winds down, Sean makes visits to both Luke Walberg (fixer) & Marsha Revent (Property Manager) trying to drum up a little work. An afternoon with Luke, reminiscing old cases keeps Sean from getting into trouble while his visit with Marsha is more a short all business visit.

The last night before the next run finds him back at Mikey's Pub with Rocko, drinking and hanging out. The morning finds him once again with Alisha Monroe; He hates to be alone.


Karma:
12 Starting Pool
+1 Narrative for Downtime
-4 Active Skill Dodge R1
[0] Spanish R1
[0] Guan (Mandarin) Chinese R1
[0] Yue (Cantonese) Chinese R1
[0] Min (Taiwanese) Chinese R1
----
9 Current Karma Pool

Cash
+3200 Starting cash
-1200 Team slush fund
+1460 Run #1 payout
-1600 Full Body Form Fit
-600 Armor Vest
-200 Forearm Guards
-150 Shin Guards
-100 Food for Rita & donations to the City Union Mission
----
810 Current Cash

Questions:
- With my table-top group, focused time with contacts raises their loyalty. We also are very conservative with designating any reactions from the contacts beyond their loyalty rating with the players erroring on the conservative side, allowing the GM to add details to increase their interaction level and provide for any contact with the PC initiated by the contact. Let me know if this works with your style and if I should make any changes in the interaction level with the contacts between games.

- Was the use of his adept ability Linguistics ok?

- Is it possible to pick up one or two random contacts from Mikey's Pub or else where during the downtime, perhaps during his venturing out seeking new languages?

Jason's Downtime

After returning to his couch in the detective agency, Jason begins thinking to himself. "Oppenheimer was really trashed when we found him... Everyone just assumed I'd be able to fix him up. I should really look into learning how to heal..." Glancing down at his commlink, he contorts his face into what might be a smile. "You know, I might just be able to afford it too." Thinking a little longer, he realizes, that he is so close, but can't quite make it. He gives Sally a call. "Hey, Sally, would it be possible to borrow some cash from the slush fund? Why do I need it? Well... I'm wanting to try to learn to heal people, but I'm a little short on the cash for the formula, it'd help everyone out though, and keep down hospital costs, ask everyone if they'd be willing to use the slush fund on it. Its 500Â¥... if they aren't willing to chip in on it, I'll buy it, but I'm still 20 short."

Heading out onto the matrix, he starts looking for a spell formula for the Wuxing method of healing. Unsurprisingly, he finds a variety of medical information on the subject, and after skimming over the previews of the formula finds one he finds especially appealing. Acupuncture.

Thrilled, he keys in the code to transfer the funds, and almost instantly receives the formula. He then starts flipping through it, realizing slowly that there is no way he can learn this without a lodge. He glumly glances around the room. "This won't do, this won't do at all." He glances at the remaining balance left on his credstick, and heads out for Ashaka's place.

Akasha's

Upon arriving, Jason is greeted warmly by Akasha, and he returns the greeting. He asks her if she has the materials he'd need to feng shui his place at the agency turning it into a magical lodge.

With some luck, they find just what he needs, a few candles, some incense, figurines, a rug, and some other knick knacks, and gathers them up, and purchases them. Finally, almost forgetting, he also purchases a set of acupuncture needles from her that are activated as a fetish for healing spells. Thanking Akasha again, he heads back home with his goodies.

The Agency

Over the next day Jason spends the vast majority of his time moving, changing, and re-moving the furniture, knick-knacks, and just about everything located in his space of the agency. Finally, he feels that it is balanced, and complete, and begins to analyze his formula.

Jason spends every day analyzing the spell, he even gets his acupuncture needles out, and practices on diagrams on his commlink. Finally, after 3 days, he cheers, "I CAN DO IT! Who wants to be first?"

Costs:
500Â¥ Force 1 Magical Lodge
500Â¥ Heal Spell Formula
500Â¥ Healing Fetish
5 Karma - Learning Heal Spell

Dice for Learning Spell:
http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/1618252/
3 days for 5 Successes

Please roll for your Augmentation Addiction - Will+Logic -4 (so 1 dice!)
If you do not get a success, you go into obessive mode. You will do everything and anything you can to get a new piece of 'ware.
use http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/ to roll and post the link.
You must also spend some money on BTLs. I think 500 nuyen is about right, but it could be slightly less if you want.

You can disagree with this, but I was thinking of having you roll an addiction test (Will+Logic -2) for your alcoholism. If you fail, you get drunk one night and tell off/piss off/otherwise injure one of your contacts (of your choice), resulting in -1 Loyalty.

Also, since you've been spendning time with Rocko, he gets +1 Loyalty

+1 Loyalty for Akasha for time spent with her.

Did you mean WIL+LOG(2) or WIL+LOG-2(1)

WIL+LOG-2(1). Will+Logic(1) is the standard Addiction test and the -2 comes from the Mild Addiction quality.

Resist Alcoholism: [2,6,2,6] = 2 hits

Friday, January 9th, 2071
Nuyen. Information. Life. The three just go hand in hand, no other way to slice it. He uploaded most of the details about the last job to the Doctor. Jeremy Mosler, his insect spirit allies, his ties to Zyac Manufacturing. He left out the specifics of the battle and Gaborov's involvement. The missing details would probably lower the price, but some secrets were worth more in the long run. Truth be told, it seemed that selling the secrets were keeping the team afloat a lot more than actual jobs were.

Saturday, January 10th, 2071
Sean sat straight up, a cold sweat running run his entire body, electricity licking off of his hands. He looked around the room. He had fallen asleep in the recliner as he always did, but when he awoke the room was empty. Panic caused adrenaline to pump into his bloodstream, in turn causing his body to spring out of the chair. Bugs had filled his nightmare. Giant bugs swarming down on them, carrying everyone away.

He raced through the house, finding Jason sleeping soundly in his room. Panic from the nightmare and worse yet, panic from being alone slowly subsided. He stood there several minutes, comforted by the presence of another person, ashamed for the panic he had felt.

After several long minutes he went to the shower, washing the remnants of his fear from his body. He wiped down his form fit and slipped back into it. He put his vest on over the form fit and then his street clothes. He elected to leave his pistol at home.

Queen's Blvd was only two blocks away and there was life, lights and people. He spent the rest of the night, into the morning, walking and mingling. He occasionally stopped for a drink or a snack, but the purpose was to not be alone even if he was alone doing it.

Sunday, January 11th, 2071
By sunrise, Sean had found himself at a street-side Mosque. Truth be told, it was nothing more than a store front converted to serve as a place of worship. He wasn't looking for it and had no plans to stay, but he passed a pair of men headed in and couldn't understand what they were saying. He got a few looks when he went in, but no one told him to leave and when services started they pretty much ignored him. When the service was over, he was beat and headed back to the office to get some sleep.

Monday, January 12th, 2071
Sean was up before sunrise, he wanted to be back at the Mosque before sunrise. After this service, he followed a small group to a local place for breakfast. By the time mid-morning rolled around, he had a basic fundamental grasp of Arabic. He was amazed with this as he was the day he picked up Spanish. Somethings in life are just not meant to be understood.

Wednesday, January 14th, 2071
He'd been by the shelter to see Monica and drop off a donation when he'd been drawn in. He'd not gotten a block when he heard the shouting coming from the second story of the dilapidated apartment building. He was gonna ignore it until he heard the scream of the child. He stopped in his tracks and for a moment he was 10.

His legs moved of their own accord and his fingers moved to his comlink, turning it off. As he walked up the empty stairwell, his hair and skin turned dark to match his mood. His cheek bones moved slightly outward. Reaching the door, he knocked loudly. It took a second knock for it to open. The drunken man opening the door was in a foul mood. He barked something, but Sean wasn't listening. His senses were focused beyond him to the room.

There lay a young boy, bleeding, no more than twelve. One eye blackened and his arm not quite at the right angle. The door was starting to close as Sean once again focused on the man. Sean's left hand shot out through the crack in the door catching the drunk right on his right eye. He staggered backwards as Sean pressed through the doorway. The drunk swung at Sean with his left hand, a plastic hanger his weapon of choice. Anger boiling over, Sean deftly moved the hanger to the side and snaked out his right hand faster than the eye could track. It contacted the soft flesh of the man's throat, lifting him off the ground sending him flying across the room.

Minutes later, still disguised, Sean directed the young boy to proceed into the shelter and ask for Monica. He knew she would take care of the boy. He then walked off down the street the other direction.

Friday, January 16th, 2071
The week had drug on for Sean. Not even a single lead on a job and the incident on Wednesday had stuck with him. I'm no hero. What the hell was I thinking. He spent the night drinking with Rocko and eventually Mikey, closing the bar with them.

Friday, January 23rd, 2071
Another week passes without work. Sean spends his time working out, taking up a membership at a gym and catching up on his favorite serial sims. The one high point of his week was that the action star, Derek Deathrunner had a new feature-length sim out. He also spent enough time with Arilus this week to pick up Russian. His trip to the shelter had been a short one. He had little to talk to Monica about and the apartment building two blocks away occupied his thoughts. He wanted to inquire about the boy, but knew better than to draw attention to it.

Thursday, January 29th, 2071
The lack of work was digging at Sean. Perhaps its time to diversify...?
He continued working out at the gym, taking up a boxing and a kick-boxing class. Hell. I should be teaching this class. He also watched several Italian operas, in Italian and took a few meals in Little Italy. He wanted to surprise Rocko tomorrow night by speaking a little Italian. He could only stomach so much opera, but the week had born some fruit.

Karma
9 Karma pool
+4 Mission #2
+1 Downtime Narrative
[0] Arabic R1
[0] Russian R1
[0] Italian R1
---
14 (Career Total = 18)


Cash
810 Total: Misson #1 End
5000 Mission #1 information sold to the Doctor
1350 Mission #2 payout
[200] Donations to the Missions
[40] Food for Rita
[3000] 1/2 Of Lifestyle for a month
-----
3,920

3,920
[1500] Additional Lifestyle costs
--------
2,420 remaining

The Doctor thanks you for the information, but there is little of interest, aside for topical Insect Spirits information. He offers you 300 Nuyen.

<<@Doctor [Sean] 300 works for me. Also if there is something specific you are looking for, let me know.>>

Cash
2,420
+300
-------
2,720 Current Balance.

Maxwell "Max" Stark
Technomancer

Max is an odd character, had to determine his age, or mindset

at any given time. Max had a life changing experience as a

young teen, his conscience trapped online, for a week, during

the last matrix crash.

On his return to the "meat world" he realized that he was no

longer in his home, but was lying in an alleyway, stripped of

all but his pants, he was sick from exposure to the weather,

and lack of food or water for seven days, his parents were

missing and the apartment ransacked. It turned out that his

parents were mistakenly tagged as criminals during the crash,

and his own identity was lost. The result of his ordeal was a

weakened constitution, a streak of white in his auburn hair,

symptoms of AIPS that include realistic nightmares, and,

unknown at the time, a profound change to his brain chemistry,

allowing him to connect his conscience to the coming wireless

matrix.

Bod 3, Agil 2, Reac 2, Str 2, Cha 4, Intu 5, Log 5, Wil 4, Res

4

Skills
Cracking GR 4, Elec GR 4, Task GR 4, Dodge 3, Ettiq

(Matrix) 1 (3), Pilot Grnd (Wheel) 1 (3), Pistol (Holdout) 1

(3)

Qualities
Technomancer, Addiction (Mild) Long Haul, Combat Paralysis,

scorched

Contacts
Online only, infobroker alias Maddi$on333 (L:2 c:3)

Equip

Armor Vest, Comlink Renreku Sensei w/Renreku Ichi OS,

Electronics Kit, Mini Flashlight, Rating 4 fake SIN, (Used

20%) Honda Spirit.

Complex Forms

Analyze 2, Browse 2, Command 3, Armor 4, Stealth 4, Spoof 4,

Exploit 3, Track 3, Edit 3

Maxwell "Max" Stark
Technomancer

Max is an odd character, had to determine his mindset at any given time. Max had a life changing experience a few years back, his conscience trapped online, for a week, during the last matrix crash.

On his return to the "meat world" he realized that he was no longer in his home, but was lying in an alleyway, stripped of all but his pants, he was sick from exposure to the weather, and lack of food or water for seven days, his apartment ransacked. It turned out that his identity was lost and he had been dumped in his comatose state and the landlord denied any knowledge of him. This would be a harsh story of caution in the big city, if, the story ended there.

Everyone has nightmares. The doc tells me this, weekly, might be better if he was a real shrink, but most real shrinks work for real people. I'm one of the non-people, the "sinless". A SIN is a personal identification number, assigned to every poor slob born to anyone who's in the system, "on the grid", as it were. i was one of those poor slobs once. You've heard the short version, crash, homeless, sinless.

The long story is uglier. The week spent "away", well, time moves differently when a conscience is immersed, they call it virtual reality, VR for short. You're mind works at the speed of data, and when unbound from the constraints of you're physical being, loosed on the matrix, thoughts can form and play out in less than the metaphorical blink of the eye. I wasn't the only one trapped, and there were "others" non metahumanity, non terran, beings of data, artificial intelligences they are called. It was odd, like real life only in high definition and low resolution, at the same time, 2D, 3D, 4D, no dimensions, I was going out of my mind, but had found my way home. I was trapped, separate from my body for about 175 hours, operating at data speeds, but without any means of rest, no sleep for my mind, even as my body lay, wasting away.

But that's over right? When I connect my mind to the matrix now, I am in control, I am not trapped, and everything has some structure too it. That is, except when I sleep, I relive it, constantly in my dreams, nightmares. I think there is something in there I should know about, one of the AI's. I fought with it, and it nearly destroyed my mind, but I survived, and there is something my mind wants me to remember about that, but I don't want to know, long haul helps, keeps the dreams away, sometimes alcohol helps too, makes the dreams muddled, more like normal nightmares, but better not to sleep.

During my waking hours, I try to research all I can, the crash, the second crash, the new matrix, the "wireless way", but as good as I am, research doesn't pay the bills, or does it? Heard through the underground, a group of "investigators", real, old fashioned, private dick types, they need a good researcher, com skills a bonus, well, com skills in the traditional sense? No, but I can speak to the ghosts in the machines, and they speak back.


Bod 3, Agil 2, Reac 2, Str 2, Cha 4, Intu 5, Log 5, Wil 4, Res 4, Edge 3

Skills
Cracking GR 4, Elec GR 4, Task GR 4, Dodge 3, Ettiq (Matrix) 1 (3), Pilot Grnd (Wheel) 1 (3), Pistol (Holdout) 1 (3), Auto Mechanic 1

Qualities
Technomancer, Addiction (Mild) Long Haul, Addiction (Moderate) Alchohol, Combat Paralysis, Scorched

Contacts
Online only, infobroker alias Maddi$on333 (L:2 c:3), "Clive" Bartender at local dive (L:2 C:2)

Equip

Armor Vest, Comlink Renreku Sensei w/Renreku Ichi OS, Electronics Kit, Mini Flashlight, Rating 4 fake SIN, (Used 40%) Honda Spirit (Used according to arsenal rules for 40% reduced cost chance of breaking down every time lifestyle costs incurred), 3 x Low lifestyle

Complex Forms

Analyze 2, Browse 2, Command 3, Armor 4, Stealth 4, Spoof 4, Exploit 3, Track 3, Edit 3

Knowledge Skills
Engl Lang N, Russian Lang 3, Internet/Matrix History 3, NY

area Dealers 1, Area Knowledge NY 2, Background Computers 4,

Security Systems 3, Security Procedures 2, Security Design 3,

Economics 2, Accounting 2, Local Dives 2, World Religions 1,

Japanese Corps 2

Since Max essentially suffers from a form of somniphobia (fear of sleeping), or more accurately, night terrors, can he have the phobia flaw at common 7 + severe 13 = 20 points. Essentially he would have to pas a will+int test (3) in order to sleep or suffer a whopping -4 penalty for trying to avoid sleeping while exhausted. His dodge for this is Long Haul, which has it's own problems, sure you can stay awake and go for 4 whole days while avoiding that nasty -4 penalty but after the crash and passing out, then you have to experience the nightmares automatically, and you would have to deal with the disorientation and additional -2 penalty (-6 total) until meeting the required crash time.

Having said all that, we could skip the test to sleep just causing the -4 penalty when trying to operate exhausted, but able to sleep at will with a common + moderate 7+8 = 15 points phobia Just let me know, yay, nay, or specify other, thanks.

Ok I gave this some thought. The problem is that if the penalties are too severe, it would essentially write out your character from play every 4 days or so. As it is, after Long Haul wears off, you get -2 until you sleep. That's a flaw, but it doesn't put you out of the game. If we stack a Phobia on top of it, even if it's mild, your penalties become too great for you to be of any use to the team. It would be better if other penalties were disjoined, so as to spread them rather than concentrate them. So while I agree it makes sense character-wise, I'm gonna say No to have a phobia on top of the Long Haul addiction. It'll just stay as fluff for your character.

I don't know if you picked up Unwired yet, but of the new negative qualities in there, perhaps level 1 AIPS or Reality Impaired could be part of your character.

AIPS
Bonus: 5 BP/level
The character has Artificially Induced Psychotropic Schizophrenia
Syndrome, a psychological disorder most common to survivors of the
Matrix Crash of 2064. For each level of this quality taken (max. 3), the
character suffers a –1 dice pool penalty to Perception Tests while within
Signal range of a Matrix device (including her own). Additionally, the
gamemaster may require a successful Willpower Success Test with a
threshold equal to the level of this quality when the character must
focus her attention in a non-stressful situation.

Reality Impaired
Bonus: 5 BP
The character is so accustomed to the Matrix and AR that he has
lost any sense of what is real and what is virtual. The character tends to
mistake real objects for AROs, and vice-versa, resulting in quirky mannerisms
such as touching people in an attempt to call up information
windows, ducking to avoid AR banners, or trying to delete physical
objects. This bizarre behavior results in a –1 to all Social Skill Tests
when in the physical world (as opposed to VR or astral space).

Also, forgot to say - at the start of each mission, I'm gonna roll randomly to determine how long you've been on Long Haul. That way, it's not always "ok, we have to finish this mission in 4 days". Maybe you're gonna need to sleep on the first day, maybe in two days, etc.

Ok, with unwired, I think I'd like to take AIPS Quality (1 lvl) for 5 BP and Virtual Personality (2 lvls) for 10 BP. I'll spend 10 BP to raise resonance to 5, and dump the other 5 into complex forms which I'll adjust as follows: Analyze 3, Browse 3, Command 3, Armor 4, Stealth 4, Spoof 4,
Exploit 3, Sniffer 3, Edit 3, ECCM 3

Sleep comes quickly that night. After gently placing his jeweled acupuncture needles back into their sacred box, Jason had removed the thick garments he always wore to conceal what he could of his gross deformities. The events of the night had been tiring, more mentally than physically, and yes, sleep came quickly.

Jason Lee found himself in a lush garden. The plants of this garden were bizarre and fabulous, coloured hues of greens and other colours vivid and deep, though the sky was the deep purple of a starless night. Out of the corner of his vision, the mage saw a movement, catching only the wave of a robe as the figure was obscured by the garden's gnarly trees and flowery bushes. Jason went after the figure, but always it remained just out of sight. Insisting on meeting the figure, Jason started moving faster, wobbling as fast as his deformities allowed. Though always just out of sight, the figure was easy to follow, for his movements were accompanied by the rhythmic jingling of small metal rings on small metal rings, the gentle tingle of a bell-like sound.

Turn after turn in the garden Jason followed the figure, until he reached the mouth of a cave. The rocks were a deep earthen red, but slick and glistening. The cave smelled of damp soil and copper. Jason did not want to go in the cave. Amidst the gentle hooting of night owls, a whisper flowed to Jason's ears - "Follow me".

Jason set out into the cave, which rapidly descended. Shortly, the air was acrid and hard to breathe, smelling of sulfur and copper. The air was thin, hard to breathe and hot. A radiant red glow illuminated the cave, so Jason could see, but it tainted everything blood red. Jason persevered downwards, and came upon the figure he had set out to meet. Dressed in robes of yellow and red, and carrying a wooden staff covered in metal rings, the figure turned to Jason and gave him a benevolent smile, before turning back to stare ahead.

Following the figure's gaze, Jason saw a large oily lake afire. People within in agonized and struggled, their skin red and melted, their throes of agony and wailing unending and pleading

The figure turned to Jason, who watched in mute horror. "Our salvation comes through theirs. We must pluck from the clutches of Hell our brothers and sisters. The world you live in does not have the colours of my garden nor of this place. Your world is the colour of ash, and your way difficult to find. Your chance to deliver from Hell one who suffers is coming. Do not be fooled by the wolf’s clothing, and see the braying lamb."

With that, Ti-Tsang Wang gave Jason a last smile. Blinking, Jason found himself in the garden, surrounding by hooting owls. A moment longer and he awoke from the dream. Beams of sunlight pierced through the blinds of his bedroom and washed his face in morning light. Squinting and shaken by the vivid dream, Jason reached out and parted the blind to look outside. Rain clouds surrounded the sun, and the light was soon gone as the weather changed to a grey morning.