Alright then, the brain eaters it is then.

Who else is with us in the van? I thought Wheely was coming, but am not certain. he would be a better escape driver than Simone due to his rigger skills. But is Sovereign here?

Sorry to disappoint but Wheely is heading to the Brain Eaters to get some extra recon (as soon as I can find the inspiration to IC that). Although I can do it over distance if needed, RCC give enough Noise Reduction to ignore the distance.

Heh, no, it is fine if you want to go to the Brain Eaters. I can manage the driving. I had just been unsure of when you were heading out there.

BTW you can use some maneuvers from cutting aces I think - though Kynos should get away with the taser one way or the other.

Simone has a sapphire knife in a thigh sheath. Are the guards going to go that high on her?

I'll let you automatically sneak the knife.

@Jack you should consider the 'good listener' quality from cutting aces. Replacing cha for Int in etiquette.

At any case, yes Andu would consider Kynos as a contractor. If I recall correctly, Kynos has never heard Strawberry speak. Athos and Minnie had I think.

Simone is blithely unaware that Strawberry or anyone else is sending text or voice messages. She does not have an implanted 'link and turned hers off so as not to be rude and have it ding while talking to the Yak boss.

Carry on Strawberry will eventually move to mind linking. I anticipate a few texts by then.

Thought about it and dismissed it. It's only a two dice difference (Kynos actually has a decent charisma score of 4 thanks to being an elf)




WHY!!!!! Why would you turn off your comm during an operation where you need to coordinate with your team mates? Especially after Andu told you that Strawberry only would communicate via comm. He can't be offended by you keeping your comm on when he explicitly stated that you'd need it.

@Jack_Space feels like a normal day in IT support

@Kuirem

Yepp, I think you nailed that pretty accurately

Sorry. In my life, personal and professional, it it quite rude to leave a cell phone on during a meeting, and even more rude to leave it on in an important meeting. She does not need to take a call and interrupt Andu as he is talking. I think that it sets the absolute wrong tone to be holding her 'link up to her mouth and talking on it. Even just looking at texts while she is supposed to be dealing with a big mobster is rude, no matter WHO is doing it.

Simone does not know Strawberry and has no idea that she would even want to talk to her at all so why would she leave it on for that purpose? As it is, the conversation so far has not really included her at all, from either Andu or you, so why should she assume that she is going to be part of the conversation? From her standpoint, both women seem to be window dressing.

Kynos has constantly kept communications with her and the team. From my personal and professional perspective Simone's behavior is like shutting off your radio while you try to navigate a burning building with a fire crew.

Contacts with an image link or a discreet trode net would be enough to make sure no-one notices.

Yes, I understand that now. Gilga has also pointed that out in a separate PM. Sadly, I was not smart enough to know that and did not buy any.

Look, just have Kynos realize that Simone has been stupid enough to do this and lean over to tell her to turn her 'link on.

Kurim you are pretty sure that it is tuna. Which is also an expensive fish.

Thanks, Gilga, for posting for me. I would have sent that before the description that we have been betrayed by one of our own. Lowest of the low. Jack, Simone's text was just to volunteer to stay a bit, not give herself over completely. She will leave with you if you wish her to. I guess that we do not yet know we have been betrayed?

Been living in a near post-apocalyptic environment for the past 3 weeks. This has probably been the longest stretch of the absolute worst possible outcomes to happen since last year for me. I've had to contend with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Homeless Muggers, Motorcycle Gangs, and other less savory characters during that time.

I come back and see a lot has transpired since my absence. Let me see what I can do about that.

Welcome back.

I was going to compile a mega-post detailing and deconstructing what everyone has said/done and then have it turn be interpreted in character as Sovereign but I think i'll hold off on doing that for a moment. It seems I've been captured while I was on my "vacation" or something like that. In an effort for consistency sake I'll make the assumption that I went it alone after the events at the farm settled themselves. I was hoping to be apart of the fancy meeting taking place currently but I missed that window a week or so ago.

Is there anything else pertinent I might be missing? Were we compensated for our efforts at the farm outside of what Grail had given everybody? Where is everybody in relation to each other?

How was Sovereign captured asleep when he is technically homeless again? Was he snoozing at the Brain Eaters HQ? Simone's Van?

Yeah, not sure how it all worked out, to be honest.

I think Gilga had you staying at the safehouse while Kynos and Simone went to the meeting with the Yaks. I think that he had the damned traitor within our ranks take you. To my knowledge, the only compensation is about 21K per person we received earlier. I have no idea yet how the negotiations worked out to get us more.

That would make the most plausible sense I suppose. Sovereign received 24K. Because 150K split seven ways rounded out evenly for six people getting 21K and one getting 24K. Although that doesn't really mean anything at this current point.

Anyway, if that's the case then there isn't really a whole lot for me to say/do IC other than quasi-prepare the setting for his inevitable kidnapping.

First: Good to read you again. I was actually worried that something happened to you. But as it sounds you had to content with RL being a dystopian future.

Second: Now comes the important question: Does Sovereign still have the pebble on him that Kynos gave him to prevent exactly such a situation from happening again? Because Kynos didn't tell you the whole truth when he said you had to push it to notify Kynos he should come looking for Sovereign. Kynos can at any time use a trace action to locate the stealth tag. He might need a bit more Noise compensation than usual, but he can find his mage friend.

Yeah he still has it. Nothing has changed as far as I know or can remember at least.

Well, thank god for small mercies

Hell no! That asshat creates hurricanes and lets mormons survive outside the womb!

Wasn't that storm created by Sovereign's spirit? I think you are going a little too far to RP Mulcarn. Glad to have you back and see you are managing the go gangers IRL.

No Mormons where I live (but door to door Latter Day Saints unfortunately)
But I hear that pentagrams are very useful to ward of that kinds of nuisances.

And to be fair: The severity of Hurricans is correlated to the rising global temperature - so "No fate but what you make" is what I want to say

Curse Wheely and his 2 Charisma, looks like everyone is getting some action but him! Oh well he wouldn't be as Nerdy if he had I guess

@Jack_Spade
"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world because they'd never expect it."

Greatest. Signature. Ever.

Hey Wheely, don't feel too bad. I have had to make up two of Simone's lovers.

Oh is that it? And Kynos was just gaining some respect for Wheely for not starting romances during work




Jack Handey is a treasure trove of funny quotes

@Jack the transmitter is where the Joke used to be.

@Kuirem - Sorta. Florida got the bigger hurricane while the one Houston was hit by was redefined as a tropical storm. I might be outmatched by some other kind of wizard or spirit somewhere else.

Yeah, about that, a bunch of motorcyclists confronted me on my way to work asking if I had any drugs on me. Which is really, really funny considering I don't know how or where this rumor started that i'm a drug dealer because this wasn't the first time something like this has happened. Anyway, I told them no I don't have any and I said something they thought was extremely hilarious and they all left laughing.

@Jack - I'd have JWs come and visit my grandmother and to talk about their mythology from time to time. Back when she was still alive that is. She was eighty-something at the time and had Alzheimer's so it wasn't hard for them to get a foothold in. This eventually culminated with the hucksters convincing her to donate 500 dollars to their 'cause'.

I've held an extreme distaste for the cultists ever since. I'll ask my landlord later about the pentagram idea later when/if I get the chance to.

Be thankful you don't have people who think climate change is a myth in Germany. I quite literally had an old job where a few of my co-workers thought Santa Claus was a real person and that the Earth was flat.

@Mulcarn Whenever you are ready, I will start posting for you.

As ready as I can be. Assuming a blizzard and a volcanic eruption won't happen overnight or I get gunned down in the street walking home.

@Mulcarn Thanks! About time we got a summary of what happened before

@Gilga did the Trace Icon action found anything?

Which icon did you trace, I will post about it today thanks for reminding me.

Ayato and Irris have still the Hazard Suits that Kynos organized for them. Those have gasmaks with wireless capability. If Irris or Ayato still have the suit (or just the gasmask) they might be traceable.

These are not currently online, so not traceable.

By the way - you do have the device Simone gave Strawberry and tracing it shows that she is close by.

From the timing it seems there is little chance of the Strawberry they met at the restaurant being the same as the one with Sovereign, not sure. Now that I think about it there might be a little problem of time shift, unless Maxwell got transported and woke up really fast, so we should have received the comm text later maybe.

Either way, still trying to track the phone!

Yeah, I was under the impression that this was one of the dummies/doubles Strawberry likes to use. Also, Kynos did reboot the tag with a six hour delay so it wouldn't be found through a matrix scan directly after the meeting.

Maxwell must have slept at least an hour before he woke up by himself (unless there was a stim patch involved)

Let's say he spent 3-4 hours sleeping.

Hum, that's pretty much impossible. If you don't already have Marks on Strawberry's 'link, there's no way you can follow the data flow. Not unless Kynos sends a file you Marked, but even then, it would require the file to be accepted as is, and not copied over / deleted as soon as it gets to the destination, which seems to me to be what the standard for such things should be.

To be communicating the two devices should have some kind of contact between each other, I guess? Maybe it depends if it's running silent or not. Matrix rules aren't too clear about that... Should I make a Matrix Perception first?

There is a flow, but nothing you can follow, it's completely lost in the huge (HUGE) amount of traffic.

It's kind of weird.. like if someone is attacking you with a Brute Force from afar you have no way to spot him because he is lost in the traffic? Matrix Perception specifically have rules for spotting device far away and in that case we have some data on it.

If the person failed to Brute Force you, there's nothing to see. If he succeeded, that means he (his Persona at least) is nearby. Matrix Perception narrowed to "last matrix action was Brute Force", and odds are you find the one you're looking for (unless running silent etc.)