No; it's a big truck that does trailer towing. However, it has a crew cab, as is typical for contractors with people to bring to a jobsite.

For determining the police arrival direction...

4 (6) Police Procedures / Seattle Lone Star
3 (5) Police Tactics / Seattle Lone Star

Karma is going to contact her Level 2 Contact, Police LT Booker looking for a safehouse...

Doesn't look too good: Etiquette 1 Success? Maybe, hopefully, 3?

Bad news; Booker will tell Karmakaze straight-up that megas have access (unofficially) to safehouse lists. So, if he knows about it, so do they. This isn't to say that it wouldn't be safe, but it does suggest that if there is a super-secret witness vault or something, he's not high enough rank to know.

He does suggest that the jail is kept pretty safe.

Bastard, have you read through the thread for the data Koekepan provided regarding the contract? If not, I can dig back and give you the numbers of the pertinent posts.

No I have not. I didnt read much. I wanted to create my character and join blind. I knew I was going to be protecting and helping with an investigation, so I reused this character from another game. I originally planned on using my bounty hunter dog shaman, who has a spirit dog. : D

If there is important things your character wants to relay to me, send me the post numbers and I can add it to an IC convo this weekend.

I'm always here to help clarify things as well! Go on, tap my boundless aquifer of insanity.

Insanifer?

Amazing how nuance affects understanding:

aquifer + insanity ==> 1) insan-ifer , 2) aqu-inity

Do they mean the same thing? Seems like the first half carries more weight and, therefore, no.

OK, Bastard, here's a list of posts in the IC thread that pertain to the contract. Other stuff in the IC intersperses with these, things aboutHopalong and the other escapees, Billy and his niece, Betty and her family, etc. Story is rich with subplots.

IC thread posts:

187 - 193 : meet Mr. Johnson

195-196 : first glance at data chip

202 -203 : first read of data chip (Contract to be validated by Blue is 50 pages long! Blue is discombobulated.)

224; 226-228; 246-248 : legwork

287 :explain contract to Betty

302-306: first physical recce

316 : more explain to Betty

317-323 : first astral recce

366-368 : matrix legwork

370-372 : layout of exits from Blue's place + bar

400 : more info re: contract

401-422 : second astral recce and revelations

423 : Karmakaze appears!

That was a lot of reading.

I will try to get something posted tomorrow....

Been hell of a week. Moving sucks.

Burn it all. Start over.

It's easier.

(please don't do this, however tempting it might seem)

OK, if you have a plan to do things like research during the day, or sleeping (respectively) let me know and we can move forward with things that require rolls before more discretionary actions.

Blue's been up for about 16 hours. He's down for a good sleep.

Yeah, Karma will contact here peeps to see what they know, and who is a good contract lawyer to look over these documents. Given the judicial field her and her contacts are in, maybe they know someone she can trust, or maybe she can think of someone from her past history...

Etiquette 6

Bradshaw (level 2) - Private Investigator - Petsonal Petsonalities, PoliDemos, Contract Lawyer Recommendation


Badger - Bounty Hunter - Petsonal Petsonalities, PoliDemos, Contract Lawyer Recommendation

Jaxx - Annoying Fixer - Petsonal Petsonalities, PoliDemos

Personal Knowledge of a Contract Lawyer - Knowledge Skill: Criminal Justice System 4 [spoler]8, 5, 5, 2[/spoiler]

I will post my IC after results.



****Still trying to organize my family's move across the US, and on the opposite side from them. It makes life a bit difficult. I will be flying, packing, loading and driving from May 7th to possibly the 16th and will likely not be online too much.

Bradshaw doesn't know much about Petsonal Petsonalities, beyond the basics. They're not really on the radar, because they don't offer much scope for typical PI work.

PoliDemos on the other hand is much better-known to Bradshaw. They used to be a constant source for surveillance jobs, although those have fallen off in recent times. Over the last couple of years their leadership has changed, bringing in some very hard-edged, power-motivated people who have taken what used to be a sort of coffee club of concerned citizens and turning them into a self-driven local sub-government. Some elements of neighbourhood association, some elements of protection racket, some elements of vigilanteeism. They have the strength of the self-righteous.

Bradshaw has a small rolodex of lawyers, and is happy to share. He suggests one Melinda Christel, Esq. as being relatively young and hungry but also whip-smart.

Badger knows almost nothing about Petsonal except that they supposedly will buy weird critters for reasonable prices.

Badger knows that PoliDemos will occasionally put out contracts on miscreants, but they tend to be stingy. Still, occasionally good for some side money, and they do pay reliably.

Badger is not a lot of help on contract lawyers.

Jaxx describes Petsonal Petsonalities as being honest, and serious, and discreet. They deal with a high end clientele, but often low end suppliers because not a lot of nice people want to go crawling through nameless jungles to capture weird critters for breeding. However, if you want a trained attack cockatrice, or a team of well-behaved barghests to protect your mansion, there's nobody better in the enclave.

Jaxx describes PoliDemos as the Ancients, with better houses, rounder ears, more money and less respect for the sanctity of metahuman life.

Karmakaze knows more about the criminal than civil law, so she doesn't have any better ideas than Bradshaw.





Thanks for the heads-up; duly noted.

I will try to get a post up tomorrow. Spent all my offwork hours on discord playing Minecraft with my 7-year old on the other side of the states!

We mark the passage of veterans, such as the last one from WW I. I wonder how long till the last person who remembers life before the internet passes on.

Working on my IC Post, saving here to finish after work tonight.

EDIT-

POSTED

It looks to me there is still time while Blue sleeps for Karmakaze to do some more work, maybe contacting the lawyer?

Hmm... the problem might be pay. Blue and Karmakaze didn't talk about how much money is still available. The only real currency Blue still has is 1000 nuyen, mas o menos, plus some pre-made spell items.

Maybe she'll do you a favour. And maybe you'll owe a favour.

Karma will contact the lawyer and request a look at the contract and negotiate a price. She will also read over the contract herself (Intelligence test?), while sending a digital copy to the lawyer.


Etiquette
Negotiate
Intelligence

Exploding Sixes

OK, I'll let you either do another IC post, or edit your one in place. Here's the information that you'll want:

Etiquette/negotiation: it's a cordial, professional call. No problems, no drama. The lawyer's happy to take a glance at the contract for an initial consultation and render a preliminary opinion. If there's more work to follow, you can work on terms based on whatever it is that you require. But the first glance is free. If it's as big and ugly as you say, then an in-depth analysis will be paid work.

Intelligence: Karmakaze is no lawyer, but she has a pretty good idea that this is not structured like a normal contract. Quite likely, it wasn't drafted by a lawyer - or if it was, then the lawyer was trying to pull something.

Not sure how long all the legwork has taken. Blue has set his burner to wake him after a generous 6 hours of sleep.

So far it has just been a couple of hours of calling a few people, and getting data back from the lawyer. Blue is dreaming of running through an eternal maze built out of corporate cubicle walls, hiding from an infinity of customer service representatives whose skillsofts have turned somehow into malevolent personafixes.

Your dream vision convinced me!

When Blue wakes up, his karmapool is recharged, and I'll hand out some good karma as well.

You set me up nicely. I just ran with it.

I think there is still some time for Karmakaze to do something before Blue wakes up.

I'm drawing a blank. Been having a stressful time the last few weeks in RL. Is there something obvious I missed following up on?

No. You got a lot farther than I did with Blue. It's just that Blue is out of action while he sleeps, so I'm keeping out of it and letting you have some fun .. if you like.

I'm happy to jump forward to your awakening to share my info. Until then Karma will read over the contract and do some matrix searches.

I'm looking forward to Blue waking up. Karma Pool refreshes! Seeing as Blue is a Dwarf with the Bad Karma Flaw, that 1 point from chargen is the only one he is going to have for a long time.

Maybe ever.

OK, we can call it the next early evening. Karmakaze wandered around to grab some snacks, did some reading, and otherwise didn't get too crazy for the following several hours.

Walking around the neighborhood, does anything stand out to Karmakaze? Also would be looking for anyone out of place or following her, and making note of anyone hanging around PetPet, and the basic vehicles in the area. Maybe even snap a few pictures or videos without being obvious about it.

Perception, -1TN Perceptive Edge: Yikes, I might have been hit by a bus.

No buses, but Karmakaze notices that in every single shot, in every single frame, there's either someone looking at her, or a vehicle with its cameras holding her in view, or a building camera trained on her.

Every. Single. Shot.

Dum ... dum ........ dummmmmm.

well... looks like I dont blend in

Is there any place in the main city that is not surveilled like this?

It looks as if we are a bit out of sync in our posts. No problem. That's why Koekepan makes the big bucks.

The city has a lot of surveillance, but the surveillance gets significantly patchier the closer you get near the barrens, or the further down the socio-economic chute you slide.

Ballard is pretty well surveilled in most of its areas, but it's not nearly as aggressively monitored as a few miles to the south, around the Space Needle.

All that being said, what matters isn't the cameras, but the analysis of the footage.

Hello? Anybody there? I did post on the IC channel as well.

I figured I should hold off till Bastard and family made it across the ountry.and B was back online.

I'm certainly interested in that news item about the restaurant. Mitsuhama clearing away loose threads?

Maybe. The news story isn't like that at all. It talks about how terribly dangerous spirits erupted from Puget Sound without warning and turned five powerboaters into chum without so much as a by-your-leave.

The restaurant workers give tearful accounts of how they were spared because of their regular sacrifices to the spirits of the sound. Very dramatic.

So this is a different restaurant from the one we damaged?

Actually, no. It's the same, identical one. Somehow your degree of mayhem was amped up and usurped by spirits.

If the media are to be believed, anyway.

"Five powerboaters turned to chum."

Same restaurant where five powerboaters accosted us and were left all five alive.

Same media showing Blue and others committing crimes they didn't commit.

Someone doesn't deal well with underlings who fail.

A certain management team handing the Biozu takeover must be getting a little worried.

Blue is not looking forward to the next five four days.

I made it.

I just drove about 2600 miles in 48 hours. Luckily I had a friend do a lot of the driving on the first 2/3rds, so we drove straight for 26 hours except 3 quick sit down food stops. I dropped him off at the airport so he could fly back, then took the last 1/3 leg solo. Needless to say I am exhausted, so I will try to catch up and post tomorrow. Getting the pets situated. My bichir will be happy to be out of his bucket and back into a tank!

You made it, and all survived. Sounds like a successful run.

At least bichirs are pretty rugged with respect to their conditions.

Hm... shaman of bichir ... hmmmmmm ....

Yes, you can swim, but mostly you just lay on your stomach and run into shit. Ha.

He has his color back now, so that is good.


I thought it would take longer to catch up. Sorry you guys had to wait on me.

No sweat, glad you're back and your fish is, too!