Selina nods towards Bongo. "Fiona will also stay with the van, just in case."

She takes another look at the girls to judge their sizes. It won't matter too much, as she can certainly make pretty much anything fit.

Towards Tubesnake she says: "We won't be long."

"Some drinks and snacks might also be a good idea," she comments as they stand in front of the vending machines, though Selina is mostly looking for some usable clothes.

Bongo concurs. "I'll do the food, you do the clothes." He selects an assortment of items, for all of them not just the girls. The most nourishing he can find in such an establishment. And maybe something that helps ease a hangover. He has experience with those.

(OOC: For clarity is Fiona inside or outside the van. Otherwise I think either Koekepan could elaborate on the arcade, or you can just spend appropriate amounts of nuyen and head back to the van).

"Remember to keep the receipts, Selena. Hopefully the team agrees to allow for expenses out of our pay."

Bongo waits for Selena to make her selections, and then returns to the van, sharing quick energy with the two women and the rest of the team.

The arcade is a pretty typical managed environment. It's not quite as locked down as a gated community, but it's a corporate investment and as such it is well-kept, architecturally manicured in the same egregiously artificial way that a theme park is, and tightly monitored to keep undesirables out. On the other hand, the mere fact that someone passes through in the quest for vending machines is uninteresting because it's close enough to the heartbeat of the city that that is a common occurrence.

The vending machines themselves offer everything from hot and cold beverages, hot and cold food items and bottom-tier electronics to clothing and umbrellas. From the corporate point of view it's ideal because it's a quick, low overhead transaction. That makes it very easy to bounce out, grab a compressed protein on a stick and a fresh coat, and hit the road.

As Selina makes her decision, she mostly looks out for the fabric, and roughly the size, as she is fully aware of her own capabilities to change pretty much everything else. It's like buying raw materials rather than a finished product for her. For Sophie, it is mostly to wrap the girl into something presentable when they deliver her back to her parents. For Nari, on the other hand, the shaman is a bit more considerate, as that girl clearly can use some happiness in her life. She wants to make her a set of clothes that are really enjoyable.

Sophie is still resting in the van unconscious. But her vitals are still looking good, if anyone looks. From outside the van Fiona isn't seeing anything amiss either.

Angel pings Bongo <<Hey. So, I won't really touch anything. But if you give me access to the medkit I think I could just keep and eye on her. I'm looking it up and it says that many medkits can even be operated remotely. Not that I would. That's what I meant by the not touching things... But still.>>

(OOC: Since the place is downtown and not looted, there are probably some excessing but concealed security measures, but you're paying the smallish tab, so presumably not a problem).

Nari is still crying, but has shifted to doing so relatively quietly. While the others are making selections, she looks at the back of her hands, which are still covered in some sort of body paint that isn't smearing much.

She says to tubesnake. "Is there any way to clean up in here. Any way to get a little privacy?"

Bongo returns with snacks and drinks. Clearly, Sophie can't get any of that yet. They'll have to wait for her to wake up. He hands a selection to Nari and says, "Here. get yourself some food and drink. You'll feel better. Tubesnake and I will keep our eyes elsewhere while you put on what Selena brings for you.

"Tubesnake, you got any of that hand-cleaner-in-a-can tradespeople use? Nari's got some kind of body paint to remove."

<<Sure, Angel. Good idea to keep tabs on Sophie. >> He allows access to the medkit to Angel.

""Sure thing. Check the shelves, one level up, on the right hand side. There's a label for Personal Sanitation. If you open it, right up front you should see a jar of waterless degreaser. That should take a moment, but then you can use the sanitiser to do a clean-up round. It's propanol-based, so it should do a good clean-up. In the same drawer there's also a box of shop rags. Good clean fibre, they will help.""

Tubesnake looks around with the AR view of the sensors. ""Everybody ready to go soon? I'll need an address again once we take off.""

Even with everything being as insane as it's been, the rote social training is still there as Nari says "Thank you" to Bongo in a relatively normal way. Still that edge of tears sound in her voice though.

Once she isn't being looked at, Tubesnake and Bongo can hear Nari messing around with cans and rags in the small space between the shelves and workbench in the back of the van. She's a little taller than Tubesnake. So she can't just stand up tall the way he can in his van, but she's sounds like she's managing.

(OOC: I've been figuring a low roof height for passengers but a high roof van overall, with the difference being taken up by stuff to make the shops conveniently work. Like a tig welder where the welding gun is on a spooled tether in the ceiling you can just pull down as needed and things like that).

She does manage to get out "Thanks for the supplies. This is a real mess. I'll try to do the best I can to get the floor nice. " This gets her back to crying, but at least not as much.

If Tubesnake or Bongo turns around or Selina returns it'd be pretty obvious that she's having a hard time with this, and doesn't have a great way to get the paint off her back.

[OOC: Would Selina's Makeover spell clean off that stuff?]

When Selina gets back, she puts some of the clothes at the side for Sophie later, and hands what she got for Nari over to the girl.

"Nari, listen. I just got some clothes that we can use, but there is a lot that we can do with them. You need to help me a little here, though. I am a professional fashion designer, actually. Well, that, and a mage. Shaman, to be precise. Don't freak out, this is nothing like the situation you were in earlier. I know a few spells to clean you up, and also to change the clothes to almost anything. There are some limits, of course, based on what we got here to work with. But most importantly, we need an idea of what you would like. What kind of clothes do you like to wear, what colors, cut, something like that. I can show you what it would look like with a simple illusion. Here, how is that for example?"

Selina than creates a rather obvious image of Nari wearing a cute dress.

Nari stares at the conjured image. A bit of that happy look from earlier creeps back, but then darkens. She gets her manners back and says. "Thanks. Thanks a lot. I'd like to get cleaned first though. And...maybe something with pants? Can a jacket happen? I really liked my jacket..."

Somewhat contrary to wanting to get clean she sets down the towl and wraps herself in the tarp again while she and Selina talk behind Bongo.

There are a smattering of folks around, taking advantage of the late night option. However nobody seems to be paying any attention to the van.

"Alright, let's get you cleaned up. This spell only works, if you allow it. So, don't fight against it, okay?"

Selina uses her Makeover spell to help Nari get cleaned up, maybe add a little polish, if she wants to.



"Pants and a jacket, sure thing! How is this?" Selina changes the image, and works with Nari to also get her engaged with the process and hopefully taking her away from her sad thoughts. Pants, jacket, cut, colors. Once they have settled on something, she can use her Fashion spell to actually change Nari's new clothes to what they have come up with.

Bongo resends the address Brewster gave them to the team members. "Let's get Sophie back to her parents and get the contract done. Then maybe we, or I, can take Nari to some place safe for her."

He muses whether Rose could help in that regard. Maybe a lot to ask someone he just met, but surely she would understand the predicament of a girl who had been abused.

""All aboard? Flight 714 is headed for takeoff on the way to some place nobody has told me yet. Remember to stow any loaded weaponry and keep a sharp eye out for any fly-alongs. We ready to fire up the turbines?""

"We're to take Sophie to her parents staying in a houseboat at the docks where Brewster keeps a slip or two. The address should be in the feed I just sent you. I'll let Brewster know we are coming so the parents can be ready.

"I hope Sophie is awake by the time we get there."

Bongo sends a notice to Brewster. <<On our way with Sophie. She is unconscious at the moment but OK. Let her folks know we are coming. >>

Nari eventually gets into the magic despite herself and her circumstances. She and Selina work spend some time on the outfit. The jeans, top, and jacket start off fairly basic with a standard cut, but having lost all her stuff she's interested in some pattern around her ankles on the jeans and fox themed art in the fabric of the jacket on the back and the upper left in the front, and that takes a bit of sorting out as it starts shaping up Selina even gets a smile out of Nari.

On the coms Angel tells the group. <<People are weird, but I like the medkit interface! As far as I can tell her vitals are good, but I guess magic might be weird when it knocks out you>>

Brewster replies shortly after that, his replies coming quicker now <<Good Good. I'll do that.

From some of your earlier concerns, her being unconscious might be quite convenient. Things are quiet at the docks, hopefully you aren't brining any trouble?>>

Once Nari seems to be happy with the result, Selina will drop her illusion and get to work on her clothes to match the image they collaborated.




Nari's affinity to foxes gets Selina thinking and she takes a moment to focus her senses into the astral and ask Fiona to take a closer look at her aura as well, helping her ally spirit in the process, who is way more adept at understanding them than the shaman herself.

Bongo replies to Brewster, << No pursuit as far as we can detect. Heading there now. >>

Tubesnake quietly pulls into traffic once everything is sufficiently buttoned up for it to be safe. No fancy routing here, unless there's a report of something following.

""Hey, anybody in a position to assess what's going on in the apartment? Maybe now his game has been figured out, he's running out of town. Oh, and yeah - could we try identifying his party participants?""

<< Not really. Going back there astrally is too risky now that they are aware. And there is still the ward, which either takes time to get through, or will immediately alert him. >> Selina replies to Tubesnake's question.

<< The only one who might have some options is probably Angel. >>

While the rest of the group gets to enjoy the relative comfort of Tubesnake's Pilot's driving, Fiona has to keep "running" in order to stay in the van in the astral. Fortunately there isn't much traffic in the astral and movement is fast.

If you have time, you can find a lot in an Aura. Mages working for the police with relatively weak gifts can manage quite a bit over time. What you really need talent for is to spot what you aren't looking for.

Nari's aura isn't very interesting, except for the residue from manipulation spells and a level of exhaustion and intoxication, but that was expected. Simply mundane as far as they can tell.

However Fiona manages to spot from the corner of her astral vision that something seems off with Sophia's aura. Moving over and starting more closely at it, there's a little thread forming within.

Ritual magic. Not very far along yet.

Between being on overwatch and the moving frame of the van it'd be really hard to have been using a spotter. Fiona is pretty confident there isn't one.

While Fiona is dealing with that in the astral, in the physical world Nari seems impressed with the clothes. "Wow. They look great. Especially considering what they were a moment ago! That'd be quite a story to tell people. I'll wear this jacket all the time!" She gets a bit sad again, but not nearly as much as before. "I'll leave out the other stuff." She sets about getting dressed, keeping her fox ear headband, which has been the only constant through all of this.

In the Matrix Angel replies <<Sorry Mr. Snake. I logged out of everything and tried to cover my tracks, so I don't have log in access anymore. If they haven't changed comcodes I could get back into stuff. But they know they got hacked. If the Tourmaline figured out the cameras don't show you guys showing up or leaving with Nari they'd know those systems were messed with too, so IC and Spiders are probably on alert and busy dealing with all that. Frank didn't have a lot of cameras and stuff anyway, mostly we were relying on your drones. >>

Unaware yet of the ritual magic link forming, Bongo is settling a bit. "That looks nice, Nari." To the group he messages, <<Should we send an anonymous report with imagery to the authorities? Probably won't do much, but a little harassment might slow Frank's activities for a while. >>

"What do you mean, you leave the other stuff? The rest of the clothes? Take it, please!" Selina says to Nari.

<< Frank is not quite giving in, it seems. Fiona just informed me, that there is a ritual spell being cast on Sophie. This will still take a while, hours, before it takes effect, and Fiona can, at least, offer some protection against it. But there is no guarantee, of course. >>

<<I dunno what that involves, but if it's anything that keeps his head down, would distracting him disrupt it? I'm pretty sure I could figure out some dirty tricks given a few minutes and a free hand.>>

Nari holds up her hands and says "No. I'm thankful for anything I can get now. I wouldn't turn much away. I just meant I'd like to share the story of how a mage made my cool jacket, but I'd leave out why I needed a new one. "

She looks around. "Maybe I can be a little helpful? I can help get some clothes on the other girl. At least she got a chance to clean off her paint. "

She moves closer to Sophia. "Oh, and you guys can turn around now if you want. "

On the coms Angel gets excited to show off her professionalism! <<Brewster did say I ought to keep track of comcodes and access ID that I pick up. I could let somebody call Frank or one of the "heavies" as Mr. Snake called them. We didn't shoot a window out or show off a cool van. But sneaking people out seems like stealthy scary shadowrunner stuff.

Um. I'm probably not the person to make the call...

But some of you seem to like to talk. I could make you up an anonymous avatar and bounce the signal around some>>

"Ahh... totally misunderstood you there. Sorry!" Selina grins sheepishly at Nari.

"Yeah, if you could help me with her clothes, that would be nice."

<< That's not a bad idea, we could try that. Not sure, he is going to answer at the moment, though. Also, there is one little problem. With the ritual spell slowly forming, there is a connection now between Frank and Sophie in astral space. It's like a thin line, a thread, and it could theoretically be followed. He could send a spirit along the thread to us. We should probably deal with this before we continue to the Marina. Fiona will try to dispel it, not sure if that works. >>


In the meantime, Fiona takes a closer look at Sophie and that thread that is forming in her aura. Maybe she can learn a bit more about that.

Bongo turns his back to the dressing of Sophie. "We should do something about that link to Frank sooner rather than later. Can you try to dispell that or something, Selina?"

<<Brewster, you know of any places nearby that have some background count that could block a ritual link? Looks like Frank is not giving up without a fight. >>

Tubesnake pulls over to park. <<Got it, let's fix this before we get there.>>

""Awright, I'm parking it for a bit while we fix up the details, we'll move on to rendezvous with family shortly. Less vehicle movement prolly means easier cosmetics too.""

<<Angel, if you can give me an electronic smokescreen, I can give you a line of drek to fill his ears. Can you make it look like it came from City Hall maintenance and utilities office?>>

Nari smiles at Selina and seems to be happy to be doing something useful. Though she looks sadly at Sophie. "I really don't know what to make of her. I was acting.... Well not myself. I'm trying to figure out what was real about her and what wasn't. Is she a monster? An innocent victim? I wonder if she knows one way or the other. It's really confusing. To have that happen. Even just one night. How long was she there? And for her she was just sleeping on her pillows with the others and then she's going to wake up and what?"


The two get Sophie dressed while the team communicates over coms subvocally. The slight noises lost to the sounds of the vans engine.

However she perks up as Bongo starts talking. Nari gives a little gasp "Does he...still have some kind of hold on me. " She stares at her hands as if she could somehow see any magic if she just stares hard enough.

Back on comms Angel replies to Tubesnake. <<Um. That sounds like something I could do. What's hall is this in the city? But once you let me know what it needs to come from I can probably do the thing.>>

(OOC: You can just vaguely describe the back and forth on sorting Angel out to do what you want, if you don't want to RP it in detail)

Not long after Brewster replies to Bongo <<Mages. Always using their options. Though you have one of your own, maybe this will resolve. But back to your question I do pay some particular attention to where mana is disrupted. You need to appreciate that this doesn't tend to happen in places where you can relax in the park and have an ice cream. It would probably be particularly unpleasant for you as well yes? However they can be important and are sometimes the only option. See what you can do, but I'm leaving this line open. Send me your telemetry in case it's needed. >>

Tubesnake pulls the van over. Still close enough to the L that semi's with triple trailers whoosh by, rocking the van slightly. Taking advantage of the night time opportunity to move shipping containers out of the docks.

"Not gonna lie, she will have a long road ahead of her. Definitely a victim here. What you experienced, for a short time, she has been exposed to for quite a while. She will need serious help to get back to where she was before."

Once Sophie is dressed, Selina will use her spells to make her presentable. Make the clothes fit properly and look neat.

Tubesnake explains to Angel about different organisations within the broader city bureaucracy, and how they generally comport with different parts of the matrix around the city. In terms of interface, it's pretty simple so that even the room temperature IQ crowd can get their things done. Well, most of the time. So obviously, if she can spoof a line from the office well enough that to a casual observer it looks like an official call directly to Frank's device, it will carry the ostensible markers of the kind of authority that one ignores at one's peril. He doesn't know, of course, whether this will sufficiently distract Frank, but that's up to his ability to be convincing.

Nari continues. "It's just so strange. She seemed so welcoming. And she seemed to genuinely like my style. But then she did....other things to me. But others were doing things to her too. And I guess I wasn't exactly saying no. At the time. I guess because I couldn't? It didn't feel like it couldn't at the moment. Just after. I sort of want to hate her, but I sort of want to help her. It's just so confusing. " She pauses looking at Sophia as Selina cleans her up and gets the clothing shifted into a better fit. "Maybe I'll just focus on being upset at the mage...or having to be down there in the park. There's probably a lot of ways that could have gone wrong without mages and spirits. " She laughs sadly and adds "Maybe I don't even know how to make anything go right anymore."

Selina's calm demeanor and the conversation seems to have made her forget about being worried about Frank doing something more to her.

In VR, Angel still doesn't exactly get how the city is governed and why hallways are particularly important pieces of architecture to it. She always figured rooms were the important thing. However she can understand the matrix topology tubesnake points her at.

Soon she replies. <<Ok. Since it isn't a specific person. Just government logos and iconography it's pretty easy to spoof. I should catch the reply without having to do any further hacking if they don't cross check the comcodes.

Uh. Everything is going straight to messages though. I think he has his comlink in some do not disturb mode or off.

Nobody seems to be able to resist their comlink for long though right? Right? So if Selina can do anything about what's going on, I bet he'd check before making his next move. Especially since he probably put out calls to building security at least on the cyber side of things. So maybe that could keep him from doing whatever he's thinking of next? >>

Bongo sends everything he has to Brewster. He adds notes from his own perceptions to flesh out the imagery.

<<If Frank is genuinely distracted, he might have set his 'link aside indefinitely. OK, scratch that plan. Can you trigger a smoke detector in his apartment? If not I can fly in the FlySpy again and trigger something, but if you can do it remotely that's faster. If it looks like an alarm at least bots should arrive. That's plenty distracting.>>

Angel thinks a moment about the matrix setup of the Tourmaline. The paint at Gatsby's had frustrated her to a brief mental breakdown. But now she can see that they had options to stop her. The Tourmaline almost doesn't. I suppose they could just shut everything down, but that and other measures like scrambling comcodes and accessIDs would mess up everything for all the other people. Angel imagined being without those connections and good matrix connectivity and function. They'd move out!

Still, maybe they could mobilize and army of agents and spiders? That still couldn't exactly stop her from getting in. But it might be really unpleasant to drop into a node. But they might have a hard time figuring out what node she'd drop into, since she could access quite a few. Maybe they'd be more worried about the cameras or something? But what could they do?

She replies to Tubesnake <<I'm pretty sure I can do that. But to be safe can you get the van in motion? I really really hate it when matrix stuff starts shifting. I'm hoping any spider that tries to trace my signal hates it too.>>

<<You got it. I'll take a circuitous route in the direction of the port that swings near the Tourmaline in case I need to send up a fly to buzz things.>>

He starts up the van again, and gently eases back into traffic. <<Dunno if this will faze a mage, but it might confuse a spider. Let me know what you need.>>

Bongo asks Nari, "You have a place to go that Frank doesn't know about?"

While Tubesnake drives, Angel floats in cyberspace. It all feels so real to her. Even when she isn't in something sculpted. Even the default iconography feels like a place, where she can just float. Which she does, because she isn't exactly sure what to do. Tubesnakes request to activate a firealarm seems straightforward enough. But after the drek she pulled in the apartment after Tubesnake told her to lay out some distractions, she figures they probably wouldn't buy it. At least she wouldn't. Not when she knows how easy it is to spoof things. Also the Spider is probably on alert, and might squelch the signal...and maybe her. She hasn't really focused enough on cyber combat yet.

Maybe sprinklers would bother them. But she doesn't know where they are, and maybe it's just like getting a shower?

Luckily at VR speeds she could float quite a while before Tubesnake can get many blocks.

Eventually an idea hits her. They'll be watching the main systems. The fire alarm idea is right. But just for the firefighting drones! She knows she saw something about that.

Without asking she whisks off to get into their systems. She'd much rather take her time, but that astral link sounded scary and this is probably a time for seconds instead of hours.

She needs to get back into the main server for their info, but she hopes that's something so fast she can just be in and out. She gets lucky and hacks in quickly. There's a spider and an IC actively scanning the area, but she just needs the drone info and she's out.

The drones are easier to hack. She could have just spoofed the command, but she wants to be there to intercept anything they'd send to the system or Franks apartment. She threads up her stealth just in case too.

The drones, much like the delivery drones but "armed" with sprayers, head to the apartment.

For all that, what Angel doesn't understand is that firefighting drones aren't the biggest issue. They have authorization to override door controls, but, as she quickly finds out, one of Frank's furry goons or whatever can just kick them over.

Angel's little heart sinks and she figures she failed to accomplish anything. Oh great, and here comes a spider hacking into the drones. He doesn't spot her though, especially since he isn't actively scanning. She also instead aparent as the drone controller was active, versus her being jumped in. Curious about what is going on, she intercepts his traffic. He's sending something out about a weird door and to call on the intercom. After a few moments, she sees Frank come out of the room that had been locked earlier.

She logs out.

<<I think I distracted him! She announces proudly! Good idea Mr. Snake. I can fill you in on the details sometime>>

(OOC: Fiona and Selina could watch the astral thread fade away. Any spirit trying to follow it would find the trail has gone cold.)
-------

Oblivious to all this, Brewster replies back to the annotations Bongo has been making with a message <<This is...actually I'm very interested. We should debrief in detail later. Let me know if you think your situation is dire enough to merit high background count >>

---

In the Van Nari thinks for a moment, and then gives a sad chuckle. "I think all Frank would know of where to find me is in the park with all the other newly homeless. And I guess some not so new, but they usually at least get a box or something and move onto the street"

(OOC: I could make it a roll, but I think especially since Bongo had Angel look Nari up and had been watching the feed, he'd be aware that Frank has her link, and even if it might not have much detail if someone hacked it. The thing currently is open and directs people to her socials, where she had exibited either a lack of understanding about privacy or simply didn't not care. )

Bongo replies to Nari, a little sadly. "Yeah, you're going to have to build a new persona with more safeguards. You post on your old persona and Frank or his agents could track you down.

"Give it some time. I might know someone who can help."

Bongo messages Rose, knowing full well this is asking a lot of someone he just met tonight. << Just pulled our target out of trouble. Got another young woman out with her. This one has no place to stay. You know anyplace she can hole up for a few days till she gets her act back together? >>

<< It seems like Frank has stopped his ritual for now. Nice distraction, Angel. Good job! We will keep watching Sophie's aura, just in case, but it might be time to head to the marina. >> Selina communicates to the team.

Looking over to Nari, she asks: "Newly homeless... wanna tell us what happened?"

(OOC: I'll leave it for Tubesnake where he drives folks. )

Ruby does pick up for Bongo. However she gives something of an exasperated groan when she hears what he wants to talk about instead of the call she was hoping it was << Ugh. Do you have any idea what time it is to be asking drek like that?!?! If not, I'm betting you know how to use the fragging matrix, and so you know there isn't drek out there for free that isn't overcrowded and dangerous or that has a waitlist. The ones with a waitlist are probably overcrowded and dangerous too come to think of it. Dropping her off on some street corner with a little cover from an uptown structure is probably as good as there is. At least then it's only dangerous instead of overcrowded. Just make sure she knows the nearest spot the city drops off nutri packs. >>

(OOC: Depending on the following ask, this is probably time for Bongo to make a big social roll. Things that might sweeten deals with Ruby include agreements to play together. )

Nari replies to Selina starting with a shrug. " College was an amazing time until it wasn't. I guess I never really thought I'd get kicked out. Even then, I thought I had tons of friends. I'd be able to stay with them until I sorted something out. Besides that, I figured my family was willing to pay for college to keep me away from their new homes. I didn't think they'd really cut me off.

But after a shouting match with a guy fried who turned out to be a bastard expecting way too much just to let me sleep on a couch all I had left was hoping I could get some arrangement with the housing authority to get set up somewhere and get my life sorted out. That's why everyone is down there. When you look stuff up on the matrix, you make your way to the building and they waste your time with forms and talk about waitlists and hitting you up on your comlink when something opens up, and then when it's closing time you're on the street.

And then you notice the other kids trying to get a place for the night, and getting some rough treatment for that, so you keep going until you reach the park. Fucking pimps and predators treat the park gate like a window on a fucking store, and a lot of the folks are desperate enough.

But with Frank he didn't say anything about me being expected to do anything...he just thought my outfit was cool and he was having a party.... "

She then seems to jolt in surprise. "My comlink! Even if the housing department got me a place I wouldn't know!"

"The worst kind of predator is the one you don't see coming."

Selina cannot really make any promises about the commlink at the moment, so she doesn't. Maybe Angel could keep an eye out for it, and get the information off it, if it gets switched on. Or, maybe they will pay Frank another visit, after Sophie is safe. The whole thing does not feel entirely finished just yet.

Nari gives a quite nod and slumps down on a work stool in the van. She wraps her arms around herself and seems to just be thinking.

(OOC: Koekepan is sick so we might be holding for a bit. Although if he wanted to he could do a quick one liner getting the van to the docks. Tubesnake would probably stay with the van anyway on overwatch, so the rest of the team could head out and keep going. )

Bongo replies to Ruby, sensing her disappointment. He had considered asking that 'big favour' for Nari, but, let's face it, even his charm might fail on a big ask so soon. << Thanks. Once this is over, in a day or so, I'd like to take you out to dinner and drinks. Or maybe lunch if your schedule requires it. We can talk about doing a gig together, maybe work through some titles. How does that sound? >>

He had also considered offering Nari one of the empty rooms at the safe house for a night or two, but it wouldn't be much of a safe house if Frank traced her there. Pulling her out of his immediate orbit looks like the best that they could do right now.

"Nari, we're new to town, and don't have many contacts. One I tried has nothing to offer you in the way of a safe place to stay. Best I can think of right now is we pick up a blank credstick and give you a little cash to find a safe place for a few nights. Our matrix expert will see about destroying Frank's ability to trace you through your commlink. Beyond that, your future is up to you. "

Tubesnake glances around. Obviously, people are in hefty negotiations. ""I can make the first dropoff wherever's convenient, but I reckon we don't have one yet for one young lady. Is the other safe to go yet?""

<<Good work, Angel. Everybody looks happy so whatever you did, I guess it was the right thing. Stay on your toes in case we need a follow-up, though.>>

Angel wiggles in cyberspace at getting some praise and shoots Tubesnake a smiley and thumbs up. She lets out a digital sigh. In some ways this has been the hardest day for her. Hitting the real world was pretty stressful, but in some ways she just felt like she was along for the ride. Once he figured out he had a technomancer on his hands, Brewster sort of took charge of the situation.

It occurred to her that while he asked a lot of question it seems like Brewster never seem to really be giving her any choices. Maybe it just seemed that way, Angel thinks. She often misses cues from people still, and the real world is sorely lacking in menus and dialogue options. She's kinda been going by default. Even this whole thing about the fire was all Tubesnakes idea.

But at least this time she made it work! The camera stuff worked pretty well too. That might be important if anyone would try and track the team down. It seems like they're really worried about that sort of thing. Still, everything has been so stressful and confusion and hard to make work.

Thinking about the conversation tree thought she goes through the teams logs. Seeing an option she decides to take it any replies to Tubesnake and the group.

<<Hi. Uh. Selina said we ought to head to the marina, so maybe we should do that? Brewster indicated he was going to wake the family up already. >>

While she had gotten herself worked up about being too passive, Angel regrets sending that immediately as her calm vanishes. She also misses Bongo talking about her, since he's doing it with his meat mouth and she isn't paying attention to that at the moment.

-----------

Ruby sighs sleepily. <<mmmhmmmm That sounds good, and might make up for waking up me after a long long night. I'm going back to bed now. >>

-----------------------

Nari isn't in that group chat or call and so isn't aware of any of that. She just responds to Bongo, and mostly with a shrug. "At least I'm not still there. And that Orc lady was hitting people back at the park. At least I've got a cool jacket now I could post about. Maybe build up a media presence somewhere else."

Bongo scratches his chin for a moment. "Well, there is that place near Frank's building where for a fee you can flop. I saw a bouncer turn away someone who couldn't pay. Once we get you a little cred, you could try there. At least the thug at the door will keep the creepier creeps out. "

"Yeah, Tubesnake, let's head out to the marina and drop off Sophie. After that we can get Nari some cash, I'll spring for that, and then we can call it a night."

""Right, next stop marina. Y'know, I used to know this girl called Marina. Pretty face but like a rattler with a scorpion tail. Queen bee of the cheer squad, but couldn't keep a boyfriend for more than two weeks. Once word got around, couldn't get a date. When she was stuck without a date for junior prom, she went on a tear and the drama from that would have been a TriD show by itself. Whole senior year was her dishing up hot and cold rumours about everybody around her until somehow, suddenly she shut up. Wish I knew 'xactly what happened, but she got a new boyfriend who was this crown prince of a big political family and I reckon he told her what the rules were gonna be, and she liked the smell of money too much to go against him. And just like that, peace returned.""