Once everything is done at the cemetery and Paul is heading off, Selina will return to her body, while Fiona will stick around near the van, just in case.

Looking around, she spots Lenny nearby.

"Oh, hey Lenny! I'm back. Paul is on his way, but might take a bit longer to arrive. Where's the rest?"

Taking a quick glance at her commlink, she sees a bunch of messages. "You guys have been busy as well. Any new developments?"

Bongo's sharp ears catch the faint sounds of Selina's voice. He messages her, <<Check out the last few messages and let me and Willie know if you want to explore the next level down with us. It looks like the others are busy with their own work. >>

<< Sure. Just gimme a sec to catch up. >>

Selina lets the two spirits at her side go back to their own corner in astral space, placing them on "stand by" for the time being.
Enough, that one of them gets a headache from all the astral pollution around here. But she still has a job to do.

Paul carefully lashes the drone down, and then drives back to the safehouse. Time to refit, refurbish and refuel.

<<Just pulling up, chummers, I'll be right around.>>

After reading her messages and checking that all her stuff is still there, Selina contacts Bongo and Willie again.

<< Okay, so you guys off to the 98th then? I will be right there. >>

She heads down to meet up with them to further explore that vague clue they got.

Once Selina joins Willie and Bongo, they head to the kitchen and check out the way down under the carpet. Opening the trap door, Bongo listens to see if anyone is down there in the immediate vicinity, and also looks to see if there is some kind of ladder to get down, and then to see if there is someone quiet down there.

Looking around, Bongo can't see any sort of ladder that's meant to help. Unlike the first trap door, this one seems like it's less used and not supposed to be so obvious. Though the room has tables and furnature someone could scoot over if they wanted to. Otherwise, getting back up from the 98th to the 99th floor would hinge on being able to jump a little and do a chin up. With a brief check of his memory, Bongo suspects that wouldn't be a problem for most of the gangers, who he has been able to inspect rather closely while working with the medkits. These guys tend to have good upper body strength but look like they would be healthier with a little of grandma's cooking to put some weight on, but Bongo hasn't seen any grandma looking orks on these floors yet.

Opening the trap door makes Bongo the most interesting thing happening in the kitchen.

A large Ork with an AR visor looks at Bongo looking down and says, "And who are you and what do you want? We've had enough trouble from up there today? If you need to do biz it's going to cost extra, we're busy dealing with all the 100th floor drek rolling downhill."

Besides his voice, Bongo can make out the grunts of someone trying not to scream with an injury, maybe because they're getting moved or treated.

Bongo hangs his head into the hole and responds.

"We're part of an independent crew looking into what is going on here in terms of the repeated attacks on the bunch on the 100th floor. We three are trying to track down potential leads on other floors besides the top. We got involved in the recent drone attack, helped repel it, and now are continuing our investigation. Along the way, we have helped a few of the injured with healing. Anybody down there need some help in that regard?"

The Ork looks a bit suspicious, but maybe that's how he always looks. He replies, "A couple folks caught some lead. If you have supplies to share, you can come down. You can bill Monifa for them later."

(OOC: A little short I know but this time I am having trouble getting the forum to work. If Bongo comes down he'd find that this floor looks relatively intact. No explosions or anything that tore up the walls. Just a few holds here and there, and a puddle growing around the refrigerator. A crowd is starting to come in. But if Bongo gets out ahead the Ork with his own medkit in the doorway will let Bongo go first. In the main bedroom there are a three wounded people. A female ork is the most serious, and everyone is focused on her on a bed with a medkit that they have. A guy holding his arm and another holding his side are trying to look tough in chairs in the same room as they slowly leak from flesh wounds. )

Once Bongo made it down, Selina follows. She nods to the ork who is eying them with suspicion.

"We can help with the injuries."

She takes a look at how bad the wounds seem to be, and also checks astrally to see what the situation is like down here.

Bongo goes down first and follows the direction of the ork in the doorway. He moves to help the most injured resident. "I'll use my medkit first. I know the workings of it."

(OOC: I guess the forum never quite goes down, but still a crapshoot how long it takes until it works instead of throwing up an error. Also I took it that Bongo meant the most injured but currently untreated patient. If you meant he was shoving away those working on the more critical woman to show how it's done, we could move onto that next. )

Bongo finds himself getting a lot of attention with his clearly superior medkit as it talks him through the actions he needs to take. (OOC: Maybe Bongo would have had a modifier for watching his back, but he's got Willie and Selina backing him up.) The ork he's treating moves his arm around afterwards. The foam holds his muscle fibers together, and the painkillers take the edge off. "Geez, I feel like I could fight as well as before I got hit."

The suspicious Ork from earlier says, "That's because you didn't get hit very hard."

A female ork that had been watching said, "We really should get a model like that ourselves. They aren't even that expensive if you guys would just do more biz than snorting all the profits."

The suspicious Ork shoots back, "I don't see you doing any better bitch."

The three might notice that the Orks on this floor don't have the armor and jackets worn by those on the higher floors. Lots of t-shirts and jeans. Some armored, many not.

Selina sees that between the recent chaos and the usual malaise of the tower the astral on this floor is pretty murky (BC 2), but otherwise nothing obviously special about it. The orks here haven't received any magical healing. Neither does anyone on the 98th show signs of the gift.

(OOC: Good call. I didn't catch on that the woman was already being worked on.)

Bongo moves on to the next injured person who is not yet being treated.



There wasn't as much the medkit could do for this one. Or maybe Bongo was distracted, as he chatted up the woman who dismissed her teammates as using up the profits.

"We do some biz sometimes ourselves. What kind do you get going?"



He's healing her buddies, and he ... he just has a way, doesn't he?

Willie leans back against a wall, one that doesn't have any holes in it, and keeps an eye out, watching the healing and the dealing going on. He understands only too well how valuable that medkit would be to those without the money to buy one.

He marvels at Bongo. Really? Of course it would be the woman you chat up, wouldn't it?

Once the orks realize that they are actually helping them and things are a little more relaxed, Selina also offers magical healing to those still in need after physical treatment. Those with minor to moderate wounds should be no problem to heal, unless they are heavily chromed.

She will not overexert herself, though, as using mana under these circumstances is draining. Luckily, the spell she is using to heal is not the most strenuous of magics she can work. Still, if a patient is suffering from more severe injuries, there is just so much she can do to reduce their discomfort, as she won't try to heal them completely and harm herself in the process. Natural healing will have to do the rest.

The Ork with a wound in his side had been handling himself pretty well through Bongo's treatment. However as Selina makes his wound glow slightly as it closes up his eyes get bigger, despite the pain going away. (OOC; Figuring she could buy her way to fixing two boxes with no drain. Especially since she could rest after if she had to. Also assuming a few social hits).

The orks are wowed at seeing magic. Always somewhat rare, with the poverty and background count it would make sense it's even rarer here. Though mixed in with the awe are some sneers of angry envy of the beautiful elf in their midst.

Some quickly indicate that she should do something about the woman who is in much worse condition, their voices and specific requests blurring together.

With all the distractions, the female ork slides down on her worn boots next to where Bongo had been kneeling on the floor next to his medkit in order to treat the wounded ork. She bats her brown eyes and says "Boy, you really are clueless about this place, whatever other skills you might have. Biz almost entirely means drugs, though here that's usually nasty broken BTLs or whatever you can make in a bathtub. There is some pimping too, but less on this floor. They'd probably get into other stuff if there were good targets for it. " She leans in closer to whisper. "But if you're asking around you need a friend here. For a hundred nuyen I could be your friend. Maybe help you with whatever you need around here? Maybe I'd know people if I don't have your answers? "

Willie is getting disgusted, yet again, by Bongo's ease with women. Oh, fer the love of .... Now she's whispering to him.

Bongo continues his work and gesticulates as if he is explaining something about the medkit. He whispers back, "That sounds amazing. You get nowhere without friends. My name on the street is Bongo Slade. When it's a little less obvious, I'll get that hundred nuyen to your credstick."

(OOC: Thinks have been really bad these past couple days. I keep thinking the forum is dead. Taking a few liberties for pacing. Though Bongo could be streaming telemetry or other information in case he worried about a setup or trap.)



The ork woman whispers back to Bongo, "I'm Lana, and I think everyone will be paying attention to the magic user for a while, let's get out of here. " She helps him put away his medkit and leads him out of this bedroom and into the next, which actually has a bed but is currently empty. She isn't wrong about the crowd paying more attention to Selina.



Any worry Willie might have had about him being murdered or...something else that the other Orks might assume is happening are quickly put to rest as she takes out an old credstick, somewhat less common these days in the better parts of town. Bongo would note the display seems to indicate it's empty.



She holds it out to him and asks, "Anyway, what do you want to know?"

Bongo transfers the hundred nuyen, and seeing the receiving credstick started empty, he adds 50 more.

"Yeah, Monifa's crew either don't know or won't share who is after them. We've been hired to figure it out. By them, so maybe they really don't know. While looking into the goings on up above, we ran across a clue that could be nothing, but we have to check it out. We heard about some deaths in the building where the bodies had flowers stuck in them, or growing out of them. You know anything about that weird shit?"

Paul finally pulls up at near the safehouse, and eyes it thoughtfully from a distance. Send a drone to scout it first? Just in case someone, somewhere, knew something or dropped security? Why not?

He sends a FlySpy to go buzzing around and looking for any signs to cause concern.

Lana smiles as she sees the numbers show up on her credstick. She looks a bit more downcast for a moment after hearing the request, but then her eyes brighten and she gives Bongo a broad smile. It manages to be warm, though she's missing a few teeth.

She holds up a finger for him to wait and takes out an old banged up comlink. With how fast Orks, age, Bongo wonders if she's all that much older than it is. It has old trodes dangling, but she's just using the outdated touch screen interface.

Eventually she says, "Well, I guess I can find some pictures, and the floors they were found on were mentioned. Maybe you expect more for that much. But I can see some of the people who posted stuff. We might be able to find them. At least we could find where the pictures were taken? You might want to not be quite so pretty there though. I can get you some oversized shirt you can throw over all that. People start getting weird with asking questions, but get 'em having a good time and they can get talking. Nobody trusts shared drugs, but they really want 'em so they're trying to convince themselves of any BS line about why they're getting any. Think you could put another 50 nuyen towards that? I'll come back with the stuff and we can head down."

She looks at him hopefully.

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

Back at the safehouse, Paul can pull up the external door cameras in addition to getting a wider view at better angles using the flyspy. The Boyz are getting up to some nonsense, but that also means they're around the area if anyone was up to something obvious on the parking lot side. There are also a few hanging out on the sidewalk on the other side of the house. Of course it isn't like they're catering to the most selective clientele in the speakeasy or flop house that serve as the safehouse's neighbors.

Angel is still there if Paul wants to et some eyes form the inside. She also might be useful if Paul wants to power up an hack into the hardware. Paul can take some precautions like making sure the radio isn't working and there isn't a physical self destruct. But getting through the ice and potential data bombs would be more her expertise.

When Selina is done keeping the populace busy, so Bongo can do his thing, and also doing what she can in this limited environment to help those with injuries, she heads over to the others to figure out what's up next.

"I believe we have done what we can here. Let's see about the other places."

Bongo hesitates only the shortest of times before he proffers his credstick and transfers the extra 50. Might be an idea to let Lana know that the money is not without limits. He smiles," Sure. Thanks for the camo idea. I'll be happy to do that. If you can find a couple more for my friends here that would be awesome." As Selena comes over, he adds, "We'll wait for you to return with whatever you have."

Once Lana goes off to get what she can, Bongo fills in the whole team. <<Getting some info from a new contact. Pictures and names, and some mufti so we can blend in better.>>

Willie wonders what the fuck 'mufti' is, but figures he'll find out soon enough.

Selina has the social skills to manage to get out of the room without a fight. It might help that they don't seem to know how challenging magic is in their building. She also has Willie to back her up.

(OOC: Presuming Willie sticks with her and both follow Bongo's telemetry. I'm not sure whether Selina is wearing her helmet at this point or not. However, wearing a helmet indoors and being a pretty elf are both socially challenging here.)

Willie is about to figure out what mufti is as, after seeing them, Lana comes back with a pile of hoodies and a large hooded blanket.

She looks at Willie. 'Sorry, I think if you're going to wear all that, the hooded blanket is all that is going to work. Not that what you're wearing isn't cool. It just says you're trouble, especially here. I think your friend is going for a chill and chatty vibe. A grey blanket with a few stains brings it down a few notches. You two should be able to manage with hoodies. I've got plain recycled grey, green and black Aztechnology, and red and black Renraku. "

She looks up, "They tend to just give these out and they make their way here. So if you'd get into some kinda corporate war where you come from you can chill, everybody knows the score here. I figure you don't wanna mess with your footware and stuff. It'd be a pain anyway."

We can get down to the floors you're interested in and see if someone useful wants to party.

Back in the room with the bodies, Lenny looks around and realizes he's all alone, at least as far as the team goes. He shoots out a message, <<Hey, so, uh, should I be somewhere or should I just hold down the fort here. Answer questions if Monfia's people have any and keep looking into that building? >> He doesn't outright ask if he's safe, but under his helmet his eyes nervously flick back and forth. Since he's fairly hidden behind a trunk freezer the gangers seem to be ignoring him for the moment.

Paul starts by calling on Angel.

<<Howdy, Angel? If you're not busy, could you run through the safehouse electronics before I fully pull up? Just to be sure that we still have integrity there. To do the major disassembly I'd want to be able to concentrate instead of watching my back all the time. Physical integrity looks OK at first glance.>>

Bongo replies to Lenny. << Sammy, Willie and I have moved a couple of levels down and have a clue to follow and a guide. It might be tricky for you to get to us now. Maybe it would be best for you to stay there, continue your investigation into the building. If more drones come looking for Monifa, someone with your skills would be a real asset to Monifa's crew. >>

Willie takes the hooded blanket and expertly flips it around his solid frame. "Reminds me of the good old days." He chuckles. It sounds like a frog regurgitating.

Bongo goes for the red and black Renraku look. Once Selina has made her choice, Bongo remarks to himself that she could wear a burlap bag and still be striking. That could draw unwanted attention. Worth it though, for her talents.

"Looks like we're ready to go. Lead on."

[OOC: edited to match colour with corp]

Angel initially responds to Paul with some alarm. <<Did something happen?!? I'm all alone in here, what's going on!?!>>

(OOC: Assuming Paul can calm her down a little for expedience.)

As she relaxes a little she replies <<I don't think they tracked us. I don't think they could even detect me. I can make myself stealthier than stealthy, and they were busy beating on Lenny. I think he got dumped twice. It was rough enough that I got dumped once.>>

She does shift her focus, and with little persuading, will rummage through the door locks and such in the matrix. She still isn't so good searching for other active radios, but can. With more persuading she might wander around the house in her wheelchair with the gun out. It suddenly feels more scary, and every "thump" from people being too raucous or out of it in the speakeasy the safehouse shares a wall with makes her jump.

But eventually Paul can gain a reasonable degree of certainty that there's nothing odd at the safehouse.

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

(OOC: The azzie shirt was green and black, but null sweat. If Selina is down for it once dressed, Lana will get in an elevator for floor 52. There's still a lot of chaos, but not many people are using the elevators. It still takes a while as there aren't all that many of them given the population in the building. On the way down she'll ask if anyone is comfortable playing something like newcomers to the building that would like to party. Though with drugs you don't always have to say anything. The three of you could just start having a good time somewhere, others will come, and then others will see locals and come too. It helps if you'd good in that scene. )

Paul takes the time. He does not push Angel too hard, but does explain to her that, while they were in a fight, it's possible that a sneaky investigator might have traced their online behaviour, and found something that led back to the safehouse, and that therefore a little safety check, at least electronically, is justified.

Once the coast is clear, he gets to dismantling the drone in the back. Shifting it will just be that much easier as stacked panels and frames, than trying to muscle the whole thing in through the door. He most emphatically does not turn it on, or even put it near an inductive charging loop.

Selina looks at the clothes with a bit of discomfort. "Have those been washed recently?"

"Just give me a moment..." She waves off immediately, not taking any chances with that.

She will still take one of the hoodies and thank Lana.

Paul starts his disassembly process, in the back of the van, lifting each part out of the way using the rails in the top of the van as gantries for the purpose. Each part is scanned for tags, whether as tricky as professional tracing kit or as simple as the manufacturer's original units. However, each part is also scanned for shape, design and damage. There's a lot to be learned here. Some will be recycled - why let junk take up space - but some will turn into interesting new parts for his purposes.

Bongo and Willie check each other's outfits for suitability, making sure as much of their own material is covered or masked. Selina's fashion magic seemed momentarily attractive, but getting their own clothes and armour back to their own style might not work completely. NOT to dis her magical ability, of course.

Street boys have a certain persona to maintain.

As Paul starts pulling the drone apart, he starts stripping RFID tags. They might have come with the equipment, but he's glad he had a low level jammer on in his van. Not enough to knock cars off grid guide, but it should have prevented even stealth or security tags from being able to get a message out. Otherwise anybody trying to keep an eye on their drone would know where the safehouse was, at least if they bothered to check before Paul got to any of them they would know to check. As it is, they most they would have noticed was the drone going dark. There's even a slight chance that the forest was a dead zone, at least as far as an RFIDs range goes, so they might have seen it drop off when it landed and they still don't know it's gone. Of course who knows, maybe even the ghouls have comlinks to run BTLs about eating people.

The main radio was definitely off, though.

The drone isn't particularly modified, just an LMG and grenade launch on either side in the concealed softpoints meant to take different sorts of accessories or allow for storage. An easy mod to get weapons in there as far as Paul is concerned.

The drone is in pretty good shape. It took a few rounds onboard, but just regular lead and they must not have been well aimed, as the armor on these fliers isn't that impressive, and the bullets didn't manage to seriously damage anything important. Explains why Bongo was able to knife one of them though.

The electronics are fully intact. If they were set to boot up after a time delay, Paul figures the drone might well have been able to fly out of there. Though it also might have gotten tangled up while trying, it'd be a tricky maneuver.


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

Lana gets the vibe that the group is ready to go, so she leads them to one of the elevators. People aren't moving around a whole lot at the moment, so despite there not being nearly as many as a place like this would seem to require, they don't have to wait long.

While on the ways down Lana looks at the team awkwardly, but then gets a thought and has her comlink display her comcode for Bongo to take down. Normally someone could just flick an ARO over, but maybe she has some issue, or its something with her old software.

Eventually she says, "Uh, I guess I'll do the talking. Just, uh, try to look a little down on your luck, but not quite so far down it'd be easy to roll you."

The group gets out on the 52nd floor and she leads the way out of the elevator. There are some gawkers looking over the edge. A old male Ork says to the others, "And you were whining about not being able to get at the scavenge on the first floor. Did you see what happened to them? Kabloey! So you might get something every now and then, but it's all trouble. You just stay here on the good old 52nd."

He looks over at the newcomers as they came off the elevator and gives them an eyeing, "Speaking of trouble, I don't recognize you!"

Lana replies, "What you know everybody on the floor? I'm from the ninety eighth and we just got shot up because of whatever drek they've gotten themselves into up on the hundred. Looking for someplace a little more chill. You're making the "good 'ol fifty two" sound just like the place. "

The curmudgeonly Ork waves at her, "We're too crowded here and already have plenty of trouble."

Lana doesn't miss a beat but gives her winningest smile given her shortage of gums and a complete set of teeth. "We brought some gifts to be hospitable. Coming into somebodies home and all." She flashes the baggie Bongo had paid for, which was full of little crystals of something. "That is if we had a home to chill in."

That got the attention of not just the old Ork but the two younger ones he'd been lecturing. They get another earful as the old Ork turns to them. "See you two! A little respect and politeness! You could learn something about how your treat your uncle!"

They roll their eyes, and they square up their shoulders to consider the newcomers. "Whatever. But sure. We've got a place to party." Their voices are low and they look around, apparently not too keen on having too many in attendance at this party.

Lana follows them as they make their way along the metallic promenade. With her disguise it seems either they don't not or don't care that Selina is an elf. She hasn't seen any other of her kind here though. The 52nd isn't quite a purely ork as the top floors, and there are a fair mix of at least humans.

As they go around the corner, Bongo's special memory highlights the subtle differences in the scuff and rust marks on the floor between this spot and other floors. This is where the bodies were, though that's all gone now and just looks like a regular part of the promenade.

There doors down, the group heads into an apartment. The layout is identical to the other apartments they've been in so far, except the wide open areas where Monfia had torn down walls.

A male and female human are in the kitchen along with another Orc. The fridge is powered off, and is being used to store mostly knickknacks. The trash is overflowing with the silvery remnants of the food packs, which don't require refrigeration. Old Ork says, "Hey. You know how you were complaining about not trusting being near the windows anymore? Well, maybe we have some friends that could crash in that room for a while. "

Lana interrupts their inevitable complaints with the smile and the bag again, "We brought some hospitality."

Since their friends already seemed down, their objections, at least for the moment, vanish, and see group is in the room by the main window and trellis with Lana handing out crystals like candy while starting to play some tunes on her comlink. Getting a chill vibe going with some LoFi. Or perhaps it isn't supposed to be LoFi but her speakers suck, either way it's relaxing.

(OOC: It wouldn't be to hard to fake not taking anything. They'll all be pretty relaxed soon. Lana didn't properly assemble and share intel in terms of the social media stuff she looked up. But so long as the vibe keeps going someone could mess with her comlink, or get one of the teams hackers to look into it. )

Paul nods to himself. Nothing too crazy, other than that this thing could actually have been thrown together over an afternoon with a torque wrench and a software update. He removes the weaponry and sets it aside for later use. However, he does take the time to scan and, where possible, catalogue the tags so that he can decide what fun things to do with them.

Bongo and Willie are not about to addle their minds while on the job. Between jobs? You betcha!

The two of them make motions as if they take part in the good (?) stuff, but pass it along. Bongo finds a couple of kitchen utensils and plays rhythm along with the music Lana provides. No magic, though, he wants the flow to continue. Willie takes part in any food sharing that goes on.

Bongo passes Lana's comcode on to Lenny. He includes the other two here. <<Lenny, check this commlink out for anything to do with our other task. Should be some images at least. Share back when you can. We'll slowly try to draw out any info here we can. We're on floor 52, where the bodies were found.>> While Bongo jams with the music, both he and Willie run through in their minds the clues they have about the spirit they seek.

The good news as Paul goes through the drone, is that he doesn't run into any booby traps or anything of that nature. No smuggling compartments of any size either, as he'd have found those. While the overall weight of the thing is fairly bulky, like a medium sized motorcycle, none of the individual piece parts are as heavy as a motorcycle engine since the turbines are significantly lighter. So everything can be removed by hand after taking out a few bolts. Though he'd need to flip or lift it to get the weapons and some other components out from the bottom. The unit shows distinct signs of wear. He wouldn't be able to sell it as new, but not so old. Just settled nicely somewhere in the bathtub curve of reliability.

(OOC: Well, the rulebook seems rather confusing about finding stealth tags. It's written like an opposed test with a concealability modifier, but palming doesn't seem to make sense here. I'm thinking logic + hardware or maybe appropriate mechanic skill.)

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

The room quickly gets pretty chill. Pretty good vibes, but the team is the only ones really with it. The rest can still talk, but now they seem to be able to find a corner of the room fascinating. Lana seems to be in the best mood and is attempting to dance.

This gives Lenny a little time to work.

Soon he replies to the team

<<Well, my agent and I ran around her socials that she'd pulled up. I didn't see anything there really that we didn't know.

I was really hoping there'd be some link between the two groups of bodies with the flowers in their faces, but I'm not seeing anything in the matrix.

But it's pretty general stuff that got a little popular that she has access to. Also, I don't think there's a Hemingway in the bunch. They just don't get into a lot of writing. I think two or three of them might have know them more. If you wanted to shoot them a message you could. Maybe they'd be more chatty in person.>>

With the orcs eager to get their share of the "hospitality" Lana brought, it is easy enough to pass the bag along without really taking part.

<< I will check out the astral here. Maybe there are some clues left... do we know where exactly the bodies were found down here? >>

Selina waits a bit, but then figures it might be helpful to take a look into astral space here. There is a small remnant of hope, that it isn't quite as polluted as above, but she is not holding her breath.

Paul whistles while he works. There's a lot to be said for being in his workshop truck, because not only is there standing room in the back (moreso for how short he is) but because he can use elements of the truck as a light duty workshop crane to hoist bits for careful rotation and exposing to the awesome power of his endoscopic tools. He does try to mentally assess the likely service life (and working life hitherto) of the drone, but as standard as everything looks he's tempted to mentally ascribe it to whatever was cheap and convenient to a crew that wasn't devoted to this particular drone as a tool for their regular use.

On the other hand, that suggests something about their funding.

Bongo's keen perceptions and memory allowed him to recognize the place where the photos of the bodies were taken. <<Yes, we passed the location on the way here.>> He describes it to Selina in the message.

The crew look to be well 'lubricated'. He begins to slowly work information out of the locals.

"Things upstairs on the top floor were pretty hairy a little earlier. Those folks seem to be drawing a lot of unwanted attention. You guys get any action like that here on your floor?" He keeps jamming with the music as he speaks.



If he notices Selina moving to look at the location he described to her, he will draw attention to himself to keep the others from noticing, warning his teammates as they have worked out in the past.

Even knowing what is coming, Willie is hard pressed not to be mesmerized by Bongo's performance. He adds what he can to the distraction by moving in the opposite direction to Selina's moves.

Paul manages to find a security tag in the top center of the drone near the antenna, a stealth tag in the frame near the front cameras, and another by the spring in the grenade launcher. Being stealth tags there isn't any indication of who "owns" them.

It's quite cramped with a large drone in the back of the van, given all the equipment and other drones, but Paul is fortunately compact. (OOC: Unless he opened it up.)

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

The group was already distractable before Bongo puts the whammy on them. But before that happens there's a wide mumbled consensus that nothing like what happens on the top floors happens here.

The old Ork elaborates. It takes him a while to get the words out. Occasionally getting stuck on vowel, or having to pause, but he really does seem to enjoy having an audience some he manages to struggle through getting out a set of thoughts "Sure, sometimes people show up with a knife in their side or a flower in their eye, but there's never a ruckus about any of it. No people running and screaming and definitely not bullets and magic flying every which way and tagging people. Just scores being settled in the nooks and corners. Sooner or later somebody finds the bodies and they get drug out to be picked up by the drones when they deliver the food. Maybe some pictures get taken once they're out in the better lighting of the promenade. Bored people can't always resist morbid curiosity, but they don't go in for being too curious. Things are just a little quieter on the floors here in the middle."


Everyone else mumbles assent. Though Bongo might notice that Lana agrees as well, but she probably wouldn't know. There may be some issues with relying on people on these drugs.

That also seems to be the case in terms of Selina opening her third eye. There's still a background count, but the murk obscuring everything isn't as thick (OOC: One instead of two that she'd run into at both the top and bottom of the building).

Hmm. Maybe there is a chance for Selina to sense something where the flower thingy actually happened, seeing as the bodies appear to have been dragged out into the promenade.

Bongo shakes his head. "Man, upstairs I heard about some flower thing down here. But, did somebody actually get killed with a flower? Here in this room?" He keeps up the rhythm.

Easing out of the magic allows the people in the room to be able to listen again. Bongo's adept abilities lack the pizzazz of spells, but turning it on and off doesn't create a visual effect. Just a subtle thing, where he then feels like he could leverage some of his other powers even within the challenging astral space he's in.

Lana pales a little at the thought of somewhat recent death in the room she's in.

The Orks and humans don't seem so worried though. One of the younger Orks says, "Chill. Chill. It was two doors back the way we came."

The human manages to get his spindly fingers into Lana's bag and pops the crystal he manages to get ahold of like candy. He adds, "Hey. We'd. Well, I mean. We'd. Well, it would be cool if you stuck around. And you'd need a place to say. If you don't want to try and squeeze into the stacks in a corner I don't think the central tower has rekeyed anybody to that room yet. Weird to be afraid of flowers. I think they messed with people. So maybe somebody snuck in, or, like, a friend wanted to rob 'em after a score. But something so they could be done pretty quiet like. So, I mean, whatever it was it shouldn't matter to you. "

Selina is relieved a little to feel the pressure on her astral senses lessen a bit down here. It's similar to the refuge where Lisa likes to go to work her magic. Still present, but better, at least.

<< @Bongo: He mentioned pictures being taken. Maybe that is also something we could look into? Or do you think those are the ones we have seen, already? Either way, getting access to the room seems good. >>

Well, there's a stroke of luck. They are offering the team (or at least Bongo) a place to stay that happens to be where the flower attack might have happened!

As he finishes with a flourish of percussion, Bongo answers Selina, <<Yeah, pictures were taken in the hallway. Let's get that room. Hopefully we can detect something.>>

He responds to the offer. "That sounds good. Kind of you to offer. We don't actually have a place to stay given to us, yet, so, If you don't mind, we'd love to have a look at the room. If we're here for a while, maybe I could put together a little music for the folks here, or even a jam session with anyone here who likes to play music."

The crowd is less articulate to Bongos question. But he takes it the groans and waves mean they don't want to go to the murder room.

But they make much happier noises at the offer of music.

"Can you at least let us into the room? We're not picky."

(OoC: They don't want to leave in their current state. But Bongo and Selina can be very persuasive. However Bongo should be able to find the place from the directions he's gotten)

"OHHH Kayy. You guys look really comfortable here. How about you give us the key or the code and we will go look on our own? That work for you?"

The Old Ork managed to say "Prob Probly no code. You can try to sign up at the machines on the ground floor, like when you came here. Just, Just don't select random. Type in that you have family here. Something like that, so you can be on 52. But if ....door open you can just jam the door with a chair. " He got a bit more energy for the jamming part holding up his hands like he was waving around a chair, but then deflates into the effects of the drug.

(OOC: For expedience, I'll point out that the door has been closed. But it's just a low rating maglock. It's screen indicates the room is unallocated. With some astral scouting or maybe listening you could determine the room isn't occupied. Inside, it seems whoever removed the bodies also removed anything of particular value. But they didn't clean it out. There's still trash, furnature, and personal effects like old clothes, pictures, odds and ends. You can make various tests, but there aren't any obvious signs of a fight or anybody having bled. )

Bongo's maglock passkey makes short work of the lock, and the three of them enter. "What a mess." Willie keeps watch at the door while the other two do their thing. Bongo studies the room and tries to find anything that could be a clue.



Once that is done, he checks the photos and personal effects to see if there is any correlation with the bodies in the images.