Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - IC

"I like long stories." Darkon said with a wink. "I can't promise anything, but I may be around in an hour." Depending on how well my talk with Victor goes. He took a sip of his drink. "Well done." He said, saluting Vance with his drink. "I'll go look for Victor, delivering the message." He gave Vance a greeting nod. "See you later."

With that, he went upstairs.

The upstairs area of the bar turned out to actually be a two story affair. The first floor was given over to a simple coat and weapons check along with a pair of bouncers dressed in obviously reinforced and armoured but otherwise real leather suits, an oval shaped bar where one couldn't possibly miss the 'star attraction' of the bare chested Minotaur that couldn't possibly be anyone but Victor as well as another bartender who was clearly human. Next to the bar area was a reasonably sized dance floor complete with lights, large speakers built into the walls in a sort of 'retro' style and of course the usual assortment of lights, AR and holographic displays. Notably there were actually very few places to actually sit down save fairly traditional and lightly bolted down, single pillar stools that circled the bar itself. There were however a number of waist hight wooden shelves lining certain sections of the wall where patrons had already set their drinks down for a moment, or simply left empty bottles and glasses. Beyond that was a staircase that followed around the edge of the room to bring one up to the second floor. The staircase itself had, instead of a typical bannister, prison style bars that followed the stairs and reached all the way to the ceiling before dropping down near the top of the stairs to a waist height level, and then once more going ceiling high into an obvious large 'cage' area at the far end. All of this looked out into the empty space above the bar so that patrons above and below could catch some glimpse of what ever may be going around. In set contrast to the bar below this bar was clearly geared towards various outright fetishes, most of which the top floor seemed to be geared towards where as the second floor with the bar seemed to act more as a sort of middle ground to.

The music here was practically deafening, meaning that conversations tended to be fairly private in nature, even if you had to almost yell to the person standing right next to you. While AR was obviously in use here, as almost everywhere in the 6th world these days, it was surprisingly (or perhaps less so given the nature of the bar) minimalistic. Judging by the crowd this place served pretty much anyone and everyone that dared step foot though the crowd definitely heavily leaned towards those who were part of the so called 'leather culture'.

This was certainly not the sort of place Darkon had expected of a hangout some one like Spade would be found in, or at least not based on what he or the rest of the team had known about the man's private life. This however would possibly hold true to the stories that after the artefact job, the man had changed. That or the real him had perhaps simply been exposed?

As Darkon retreated to the shower, Sha'hGrim retreated to the bench she had been occupying before they had all slipped in to a brief period of sleep. She was back in the dream world by the time he returned, in no condition to join him for a "good time".

"Aunghh...." Sha'hGrim groaned, rolling over after a moderately long nap. It was much more than a 20 minute "power nap" though still quite a bit shorter than a full sleep cycle, of which Sha'hGrim needed several. Soon enough, though. Soon enough.
She sat up, momentarily forgetting that she had not managed to pack an overnight bag before stealing away from her home. Which meant that she was not wearing pyjamas. But, the chill air hitting her bare skin reminded her of that in no time, and she quickly pulled the blanket up around her shoulders. She suppressed a shiver. It wasn't actually cold in here, it's just that the air, being just below "room temperature", was a surprise to her mostly because she wasn't fully awake. Or, rather, hadn't been. The goose-bumps on her shoulders were an effectively quick way to wake up.
Looking around the room, Sha'hGrim could see that Alexia had indeed left, as she had said she would. And that Darkon was out as well - perhaps taking a walk in the junk yard or something. Sha'hGrim swung her legs over the side of the bench and stood, pulling the blanket around behind her as well. She wandered over to the bathroom and availed herself of the shower, letting the warm water slowly work some of the aches out of her body, and washing the sleep from her eyes. Shower finished, Sha'hGrim walked over behind the ancient bar to the breakfast machine and programmed a SoyCaf. A few minutes later, she was sitting in what would have once been the bartender's chair, dressed in her battle gear for lack of any alternatives, sipping slowly at a steaming cup of SoyCaf, and enjoying every relaxed moment of it.

"Ok, so, what do I do?" She asked herself, looking around the bar blankly. She hadn't actually been looking for hints or clues, since this wasn't her space. Surprised, though, the space afforded a clue, or hint, as to what she should be doing just the same. Her eyes settled on the Dragon Figurine sitting next to Darkon's stuff.
"Well then," She said, picking it up and rotating it in her fingers.
"Let's have a look at you then, shall we?" She quickly switched her vision to Astral, taking a quick look at the figurine in the Astral as well. Then it was time for a careful look, a study, to see whatever it was she could see.

Sha'hGrim sat down, taking the Figurine and setting it on one of the ancient bar tables in front of her. She got up close, peering at it carefully, rotating it occasionally. To her surprise, her eyes seemed to be better than she expected.
"Perhaps a peek in the Astral might help?" The Spirit possessing her suggested.
"Oh my goodness!" Sha'hGrim took a sharp breath, sitting up straight and shaking her head. She'd known the Spirit was with her, of course, but she'd momentarily forgotten as she'd studied the Figurine. And it had startled her with it's comment.
"What?! Where?" The Spirit responded with mock excitement. - I love that they can joke... She thought to herself wryly. There were some marked advantages to working with advanced spirits - their intellect was very certainly one of them, though some of the time quite uncomfortable.
"Nothing, I'd just forgotten that you're here with me. You are a tremendous comfort, as always." She responded, choosing not to joke back. Her gratification was entirely honest.
"Well, then, let's be about it, shall we?" The Spirit responded, reminding Sha'hGrim that she was doing something.
"Of course..." She responded, returning to her study of the Figurine. This time, spending equal time viewing the Figurine in the Astral as in the physical.

Perception 3, Assensing 3

Darkon zig zagged through the crowd, aiming losely for the bar and Victor. Why is the music always too loud? While sipping on his drink he nodded a greeting to a human flirting with a well built orc, only to be distracted by the nearly non existant top of an elf woman crossing paths with him. Ach wie niedlich. Wait... don't forget why you are here, or what is at stake. Still, the shaman couldn't resist a second glance.

He did look out for anything suspicious of course. Except for point eared distractions.
(( Perception Roll, 3 hits ))

When he approached the minotaur, Darkon peeked into his aura

(( Assensing Victor, 3 hits ))

On Sha'hgrim's side of things the study of the figurine didn't seem to turn up terribly much, and it was obvious it was, while rather well made, something churned out by a machine. It seemed however to be a relatively recent creation, and notably had what appeared to be a matrix address neatly lettered into it under the base.

Back over at the club, Darkon couldn't see anything particularly suspicious, depending on what one considered such a thing. Certainly while a few patrons were watching him it was either curiosity at a newcomer or perhaps simple flirting glances. Beyond that there were obviously considerably more men here than women, that much was almost immediately evident, and beyond that there were the typical formations of social circles. When it came to looking over Victor's aura, the man seemed healthy, fit, probably lightly augmented going by the mild splotching of his aura though hardly anything beyond what was relatively common and typical in this day and age. Outwardly though the only thing that was obvious was his datajack.

"Huh. Nothing..." Sha'hGrim said quietly, leaning back against the ancient wooden seat-back. She lifted her eyes, staring off in to the distance. Her facial expression would normally be called the "1000 mile stare", indicating deep thought.
" Yeah, I don't think I saw anything special either... What's so special about this object? The Spirit asked, not certain why Sha'hGrim would waste time studying an otherwise uninteresting object.
"Well, just before I called for your assistance, me and the team were attacked. The attacker was impressively capable, and actually managed to kill a team member of ours before I was lucky enough to discover a weakness, which I believe was a cause in him leaving." She responded, using her mental voice and speaking to the Spirit directly. She could feel it's recognition as it connected some of "the dots" of her situation at the time.
"I get it. That's why you were hurt at the time. Is that also why Jenny was hurt?" The Spirit asked in response.
"Yes. That's exactly why Jenny was hurt. And she only managed to survive because of Guidance possessing her..." Sha'hGrim responded, trailing off as an image of Jenny's severely damaged body was conjured up.
"So, the attacker left this?" The Spirit jumped in, filling the empty space in Sha'hGrim's mind quickly.
"Yes. This, and his Aura, though I was unable to get a strong read on it, I may return to attempt to pick up a trail.
"Well, probably not. I don't want to return yet. Which means the astral trail will have faded before I can try to trace it. So, yeah, just this." She said, standing. Sha'hGrim started pacing the room, still staring off into nowhere, but now moving back and forth with the purpose of her thoughts, and conversation. She left the Figurine on the table, ignoring it for the moment, more wrapped up in her considerations than the object itself.
"So, did we find anything?" The Spirit asked.
"Actually, yes. We do." She said, stopping mid-turn to respond.
"We have a lead. But it's not something I'll look up from here. I can't take the chance that it might be traced..." Sha'hGrim said, finishing the thought, and looking over at the Figurine. It was there on the table where she had left it. Just waiting.

On a whim, Sha'hGrim headed out to the truck to spend some time with her animals, and Jenny and Chasky. And to think.

After watching him for a few minutes, the shaman approached Victor, slipping through gaps between patrons. "Hello there." He said with. It's way too crowded here. Darkon thought to himself. For Victor, he put up his most charming smile.

A charming first impression. (3 hits)

It's always amazing how much the invisible influences how people react to each other. Nuances in the body language can already make the difference between a good first impression or not being impressing at all. Fortunately, it's an art one can learn. Turning your upper body towards the conversation partner shows interest. When the mouth smiles, the eyes have to smile too, or the expression is too cold. And of course the right intonation when adressing the other. Though in this musical maelstrom it would be lost unless I got my lips right next to Victors ear. Well, we will see.

As thoughts go, this rather long and complex one rushed through Darkons mind in a split second. It was a mere reminder of what he had already incorporated in his subconscious actions. It had taken decades to reach near perfection.

Sha'hgrim's animals thoughts seemed to be as turbulent as here own at this point, mostly due to the fact that they were upset at this strange and sudden change in environment and lets face it, no animal liked being stuffed in a cage, much less back of a car. Not even her big cats. However her presence there helped calm them down some given they saw her more or less as 'family' or as close to the concept as some of them were capable of feeling. It was however quite obvious none of them liked the present situation.

Down at the bar Darkon's charm seemed to not only be matched, but indeed out done by what appeared to be an incredibly smooth talking Victor. "Well hello there. What can I get you?" he responded with a voice that sounded like it belonged on TV wooing people out of their money as he saddled up oozing all the charisma you'd expect from an elf, yet he was still quite clearly mundane. Then again he was a bartender and likely got the job by being a 'people person', though it was obvious that the 'extra charm' Darkon had put on in his own introduction was being responded to in perhaps a bit more positive light than the man might have expected. "Haven't seen you around here before. What brings a cute little guy like you here?" the follow up question leaving little doubt that despite the considerable size difference he was... probably Victor's 'type'.

Jenny and Chasky demanded, and received, her attention first, though it was short lived as the other animals were less understanding about "waiting their turn" than Chasky and Jenny were.
"Hi Jenny, how are you feeling now sweety?" She asked, inspecting the formerly-gaping wound which was now completely closed up and showing what would likely end up as scaring in the future.
"Tired. Still hurt. Hurt less." Jenny responded, sending the feelings of her body over to Sha'hGrim through their link. Sha'hGrim nodded, stroking Jenny's neck slowly. Chasky was curled around Jenny's head, though wide awake at this point. They'd both had a long night - and while Jenny's experience of the night had been more uncomfortable (to say the least) Chasky's night had been much longer. As he had accompanied Sha'hGrim to the warehouse.
"Are you feeling good enough to get up and take a bit of a walk?" She asked out loud. Jenny's head lifted, and she looked at Sha'hGrim. Sha'hGrim was about to nod, accepting that she was still "resting" when she gingerly struggled to her feet. She was steady, and seemed to be relatively strong, but her movement were slow, careful, and deliberate. She was still obviously in some pain.
Chasky hopped out of the back of the truck, circling back to wait for Jenny. Jenny climbed down, stepping on the bumper as an intermediate step to the pavement. Once they were both out, Sha'hGrim knelt down and looking them both in the eyes, giving them some good petting on the back of their necks. Chasky pushed his head forward and rubbed Sha'hGrim's head with his own in his normal gesture of affection.

Sha'hGrim spent the next 2 hours talking quietly to the animals, taking each one out of their cages and letting them, one at a time, out on the pavement to "do their business", and feeding the smaller animals (Chasky and Jenny wouldn't be hungry until tomorrow). She shamelessly used Chasky to corral the animals as they were stretching their legs and doing their business. Then she returned them all to their cages, looking around at the group of them and trying to decide which of the animals she would keep with her for the day. She eventually settled on taking one of the owls, and strapping the leather shoulder pads on so that the owl could sit on her shoulder. She attached the tether to the leg of the owl, and settled it on her shoulder, ignoring it as it started to nibble at her hair. She then invited Chasky and Jenny to join her and headed back inside, locking and covering the truck again as she left.

As soon as she was back inside, Sha'hGrim gave Jenny and Chasky the "2 penny tour" (she idly wondered where the phrase had come from) and then called Darkon to see what he was up to. He didn't pick up, so she sent a short message:
Begin Message:
Took the kids out to play. Call me when you get a chance. Kisses.
End Message

"Recommendation." Darkon answered grinning. "I've heard this is a great place to have fun. A friend of mine told me he had been especially impressed by you. And I must say, I can understand him." That was accompanied by a knowing wink. He is in good shape. If I were into men... "Can you make me a Virgin Mary?" Darkon asked while casually leaning against the bardesk, the upper body slightly bending towards Victor.

While Sha'hGrim spent time with her pets calming their fears, she found too that after a while her own thoughts settled down. She still had the important things in life with her still. Her 'family' as it were, though instead of a partner and children she'd filled her life with the company of friends and her beloved animals. For now at least they were all safe, if not necessarily entirely content.

"Ah, I hear that a fair bit actually." Victor responded with a casual tone and then nodded at the request for a virgin mary. "Playing designated driver tonight?" he asked conversationally, never letting his voice dip from it's cheerful tone. It didn't take Darkon long at all to figure out why Victor was not only both popular but probably earned a fair bit of the reputation he'd already heard of the minotaur. Trolls and their sub metatypes were not well known for being easy on the eyes nor the most charismatic of individuals, however minotaurs specifically tended to have a reputation for being more outgoing than most and even among trolls the occasional one showed a real knack for having a silver tongue and a 'decent' appearance by most standards. Besides, among women and men alike some were simply into those who were either much bigger or smaller and Victor certainly worked in a setting that would... cater to people with such interests amongst no doubt many others. For now there were the subtle signs of a little flirting along with him just being an obviously genial bartender. Almost stereotypically so.

"You could say I am. For myself. Although the car knows it's way it is still frowned upon if the driver is drunk. Besides, I don't need alcohol to have a good time." He winked. "Though the particular flavor of fun depends on how crowded it is. When you take your break, I could show you some of these flavors somewhere less public." It was heavy flirting, but then again, he wanted Victors attention. And keep it for as long as needed. In private no less.

After the Cats had settled in, Sha'hGrim looked around, wondering what she would occupy herself with for the time being. Her eyes fell on the box, carried inside by either Darkon or Alexia, and left on one of the tables for later examination. Sha'hGrim figured that she was as good as anyone to be the person examining the box. And the contents of the box. She stood up to head over to the box and Chasky jumped up off the floor, ready for whatever she was about to do.
"He sure is eager." The Spirit said to her, exibiting a rare attempt at human humor. Sha'hGrim paused for a moment, looking for a way to reply - but it really hadn't been funny.
"It's ok, Chasky, I'm not going anywhere." She said soothingly, he looked at her for a moment, and then turned and walked around the outside of the room, examining various details of the ancient wooden benches. Sha'hGrim then responded to the Spirit.
"Indeed he is. He, Jenny, and I have been together for a very long time, and all of their lives. I purchased them as kittens, likely even before they should have been weaned off of their mother's milk. I was not given the story as to how they were come by, though based on the source, I presume they were not stolen from nature. I hand-fed them a close approximation to the milk they would have been given until they could eat proper meat. I trained them as Great Cats, which I could not have done without the help of Spirits such as yourself. And I raised them." She replied, giving him as much detail as she could. She would be re-binding the Spirit at some point, assuming it was still amendable to their arrangement. So she was perfectly satisfied with the Spirit knowing a bit more about her, and her relationship with the Cats.
"Hmm... That is a much closer relationship with Nature than I have previously observed with most of metahumanity. Elves, such as yourself, have a more willing relationship with Nature, in general, but still they are much separated. This partially completes the story of your living conditions - so separated from the city life." The Spirit commented. Sha'hGrim could tell that, while it was an "out loud" thought, it really was not meant for her to return a comment. The Spirit was musing, and Sha'hGrim was pleased that it was willing to muse out loud.

She arrived at Sid's Box and looked at it. She walked around the table it was set on, looking at it at first without touching it. She took one last look at Chasky, and at Jenny who had not stirred from her place on the floor, and then settled on one of the ancient chairs in front of the small bar-table that the box was on, and prepared herself to being dealing with it's contents.

Perception 4 Successes, Assensing 3 Successes

"Ha! Well last call is at 4am so I can duck out by then if you think you can handle waiting around that long." Victor offers. "Course I'm sure something can be worked out some other time otherwise?" he offered up. Darkon had the Troll's interest all right, or certainly seemed to. "Oop, excuse me a moment." Victor said before popping off down the other end of the bar to dole out a few drinks to other patrons. He did have a job of his own to do right now after all, though it certainly gave Darkon a moment or two unnoticed, or at least relatively so. Assuming Darkon doesn't have anything other than waiting in mind, Victor soon enough returns though he will find as the night wears on he's often darting off here and there to do what a bartender does best, and it's clear he's got a number of regulars he serves and more than a few he pours on the charm for. Probably at least a few of whom he knows as more intimate relations but for the most part it mostly appears to simply be a whole lot of flirting going on, and going by the tips he gets it's definitely a tactic that works in his best interest.



Back at the Hideout:
The Box that Sid had left was fairly unremarkable in and of itself, there was a small blood stain near the bottom corner, and on the astral it still bore some faded marks of it's recent contact with the rather violent and bloody end it's previous owner had encountered. Beyond that it was held shut by a simple latch, and was a relatively small thing, not likely to contain anything of great value, or at least not in the physical sense. Of course just about anything could hold a kings ransom worth of paydata these days, but that too was unlikely, or at least as likely as it containing a bomb that would detonate and take out the room the moment it was opened. Then again, given past events the only real way to tell was by opening it, but such a thing seemed safe enough a course of action. Assuming Sah'Grim does so, the whole thing proves fairly uneventful and the contents seemed benign enough, though raised the possiblity of some sort of pay data as the box turned out to contain two certified credsticks and several old optical data disks.

"Huh..." Sha'hGrim said, half relieved that her face hadn't just gotten blown off when she lifted the lid of the box. Magic aside, there was enough space in the box for some commercial grade explosives to level this building. And then there was magic... Magic doesn't need any space at all, and depending on the spell, it can be far more devastating than even those mentioned commercial grade explosives. Sha'hGrim knew that perhaps as well as anyone.
Sha'hGrim took another deep breath, steadying herself.
"Was there something inside the box that made you afraid?" The Spirit asked Sha'hGrim, seeing what she was seeing, and feeling her feelings.
"There could have been." She responded, peering curiously at the contents of the box.
"There could have been something which would explode. I needed to find out what was in here, so I took the risk, but it was a risk." She finished the thought while reaching out and gingerly lifting one of the newer chips from the box. She inspected it, looking for a label, or some other marker to indicate that it was important. When she had finished her cursory inspection, she set the chip down on the table, between her and the box.
After her inspection of the first chip, Sha'hGrim inspected each of the chips in the box, setting them down on the table in a line. She inspected the datachips first before getting to the optical chips and inspecting those as well. Once they were all laid out on the table in front of her, Sha'hGrim considered the chips carefully, wondering what kinds of secrets Sid had kept inside these black books in front of her. They could be valuable. Or they could be, like the explosives which hadn't appeared to be inside the box, quite scary.
Noticing Sha'hGrim's hesitation, the Spirit took the moment to speak again. "So, I know that these things are metahuman technology, and that they're fairly common among your kind. What do they do? And why are you hesitant about using them?" It asked, clearly having tasted that last thought that had floated through her mind. Data was many things, and at times, it was scary. Sha'hGrim knew the kinds of things that data could be, and could lead to, and she knew that some of the time, those were not what she is currently prepared for.
"Well, they contain information. Or, at least, they usually do. I don't know what's in these. I am going to look at all of them, but I want to settle my fears first. As you know, there are times when information itself is every bit as dangerous as the bomb which might have been in this box before I opened it. And by looking at these data chips, I may expose myself to some very dangerous information." Sha'hGrim replied, giving as complete an answer as she was able to muster at the moment. The Spirit, of course, immediately recognized the reason for her complete answer, and by responding, allowed her to carry on the fiction for just those few moments longer.
"We don't have that sort of thing where I am from. But I have observed that exact phenomenon more than a few times among the metahumans here in your world. It is curious that information, which could be freely shared, is so jealously guarded." The spirit said.
"It is jealously guarded because it can be freely shared. You see, an idea, a thought, is infinitely reproducible. So by passing a thought on to someone else, I have no lost that thought myself. Instead, I have reproduced it. And because thoughts and ideas are so easily reproducible, they're made valuable by scarcity. See: the value of information, a thought, is limited by the number of people who already have it. So, if you have information, or an original thought, and can keep if from other people, then it has tremendous value. And in this world of Shadows, things with tremendous value are worth killing for." Sha'hGrim responded, not just giving the Spirit the answer to his statement, but illuminating some of the theory behind that answer.
"Hmmm." The spirit started to respond, pausing in the middle of it's thought. "I suppose that may be true among my kind too, except that most of the value we contain is natural. That is, we don't learn to become powerful, it simply happens as we age and gather our strength. So, unlike you metahumans, we do not need to gather external value; instead our value is innate, natural, and a part of us." The Spirit stated. And it made sense. Why should a spirit care about a gun, armor, a house, or even information. All any spirit needs to be concerned with is gathering it's strength, growing older and stronger, and the powers which make spirits so useful will simply naturally accumulate, as a direct result of the spirit's innate realized capacity. Sha'hGrim was fascinated with spirits, and the metaplanes, in general. And that this spirit was both intelligent enough to be worth the conversation, and willing to carry it, was a gift that she was eternally grateful for. But she had wasted enough time, and it was time for her to take a look at the contents of some of these datachips.
Sha'hGrim pulled out her "public" commlink, the basic low-grade model sold to just anyone. It had no security to speak of, and could be hacked by nearly any beginner hacker. But it was an important thing to keep around, because often when hackers look at you and don't find a broadcasting commlink, they get curious. So Sha'hGrim always made certain to keep a "public" version, with nothing important on it at all times. Just to be safe, Sha'hGrim turned off broadcasting on her "public" commlink, manually overriding any network connectivity. If there was a broadcast order on any of these chips, she wanted to be certain that it did not get sent out. Not, at least, until she had had a chance to figure out everything her limited knowledge of the matrix could gather. Now she was as protected as she could think of from anything going terribly wrong: she was going to load the chips on her public 'link, so if there was a "fry" order from some kind of program, it would happen to her cheapest 'link, and she was not connected to a network, she no "call for help" could be sent out.
"Ok, here goes..." She announced to the spirit, finally ready to take the next step.
Sha'hGrim picked up the first chip, stuck it in to her 'link, and loaded whatever was on it.

The first chip Gala plugged in appeared to be full of unencrypted video files that were listed only by some sort of serial number system, followed by what appeared to be a 24hr time and date stamp right before the file extension. While the specific dates varied they all appeared to have been taken within a six day stretch back in 2058. Opening any of the video files offers a break down of what appears to be shots from weapons and helmet cams as well as a small collection taken from either aircraft or drones. Each video is proceeded by a brief black screen that reads:

PROPERTY OF UCAS MILITARY
CLASSIFIED B3 Tier 1
Unauthorized possession of this material is a federal offence, if you have come across this file by accident, report it immediately to <Link: UCASGOV3>. Failure to do so is a federal offence carrying no maximum prison term.

Assuming Gala dares to forge forward to view the files in question, please post 5 Perception (Visual) tests.

5 Perception (10d6) rolls: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2; no glitches
Wow - talk about a set of low probability rolls! I guess you can just chalk these 1-hit rolls up to Sha'hGrim just simply not knowing what she's looking for... She's not military, after all.

"Huh, curious..." Sha'hGrim thought aloud, letting the Spirit hear her reactions.
"Not like it would actually stop me, but these appear to be military files..." She finished the thought. She figured the Spirit would know what "military" meant, though likely wouldn't have any idea which ones there were, and which one this chip had belonged to previously.
"Military? Now I see how information could be considered dangerous..." The Spirit replied, further proving that a strong spirit was also a smart spirit.
"Yup. And that's why I paused before forging ahead before. I like to take my risks in full knowledge. It is, after all, my life that I'm playing with." She responded, then forged ahead with viewing the chips for whatever it was that Sid had thought important.

Kesslan wrote:

"Ha! Well last call is at 4am so I can duck out by then if you think you can handle waiting around that long." Victor offers. "Course I'm sure something can be worked out some other time otherwise?"

"Oh I'm sure I can spend the time somehow." He winked. "It's still early. Though, don't you get a break every now and then? I mean, you're clearly one of the best assets this club has. It's in your bosses best interest to keep you in good shape and happy."

All I need is five minutes with you alone, undisturbed from everyone else. I promise you'll like it.

Darkon sat and waited, watching Victor and the patrons. Still keeping an eye out there for any possible threats.

Perception test, possible threats Int5+Perception2=7d (7d6. hits(5)=1) (Verdammt. A glitch. )

At the Bar:

Victor laughed and shook his head. "Nah, your cute, but I gotta run the bar, sides I like it. Don't need a break when you love your job. Not like my brother, hates his but then again I suppose anyone would down in Chicago. He's hooked up with some sort of medical group down that way but runs security for em." He seems about to say more when he breaks off to serve several other patrons before once more returning. "Anyway, as I was saying, don't need breaks when you love the job and I'm paid and treated well here by management, I get all the free booze I want, I get to flirt or just shoot the drek on the job... what's not to like? Hell, what's not to love?"

Back at the hideout:

Sha'hgrim doesn't pick up a whole lot from the files on the chips though it seems easy enough to tell that they all seem to have some sort of sequential order. It's hard to figure it out at first as none of the stuff is labelled externally but the file names soon match up and each one seems to cover a set of approximately 8 different individuals with the odd additional video file from drone, helicopter and fighter craft feeds. Near the end of the set there's even a video feed from an Ares make weapons satellite that seems hauntingly familiar to the kind that fired on the team at the start of this recent mess. Beyond that at least on the first pass through most of what she is able to pick out is that the files cover some sort of covert operation though the locations seem to be hard to pinpoint with all the action going on. In the end she also comes to the realization that there is almost a good two months worth of footage to go through once all the play time is added up, but more importantly near the last set of disks Sha'hgrim spots a trooper showing one of the viewers a notebook containing a drawing of a most familiar looking artefact.

As Darkon spent the night at the bar occasionally chatting and flirting he was soon able to see how Victor was able to be so successful at what he did, and it was clear he had a passion for the job. It didn't hurt either that for a Troll variant he was probably good enough to be a male model that even non trolls would probably find attractive, and more to the point he had the wit and charm to go with it making him quite unusual indeed, especially as he seemed to have at most very basic augmentations going by his aura. As the night wound on it wasn't hard for Darkon to get Victor alone, and though he found Victor had a fairly resilient mind, he was in the end still a mundane and one who had no additional safe guards against any form of magical interference or attack. Given how powerful a magician Darkon was, this made subduing the Minotaur a fairly simple affair even if only somewhat harder than he had perhaps expected. The interrogation itself didn't take terribly long either and revealed several small key facets though of primary interest to the elf was that Victor knew nothing about any missing girls, much less Darkon's own, knew nothing about the artefact specifically though one seemingly relevant memory bubbled up of Spade asking Victor to talk to Victor's brother about it though it wasn't clear if Spade ever actually talked to him as the memory made it quite clear that Victor's brother was in the still mostly matrix dead wasteland of Chicago.

More relevant to Darkon's interest however was that Victor did know Spade, and knew him perhaps a lot more well and intimately than Darkon had expected. Spade, for a man who had been as seemingly as straight as a razor had a considerably different take on life when the team wasn't around it seemed and there were numerous memories of time spent together mostly doing things of a most certainly sexual nature. However even there Spade had apparently always been cautious. While Victor had been to Spade's home once or twice he wasn't entirely sure where it actually was. He did however know that he would often meet Spade outside of of a small warehouse in an industrial park near the fringes of Seattle, and even knew the address and that the building was supposedly converted to run some sort of server farm. He didn't have too much of an idea about what kind of security was there as that had been the last thing on his mind in those meetings but it gave the elf enough information to easily track the place down on the matrix and continue his search from there.



Sha'hgrim meanwhile had continued to pour over the footage from Sid. While she didn't spot anything that indicated who these individuals were, her experience in the shadows told her enough that it was clearly combat footage from some sort of black ops missions that were clearly all connected some how and given the assets deployed it left little doubt that it was the UCAS military or at least some one's military doing it. She even spotted a shot of Sid at one point kitted out in a full suit of military armour when he'd had his helmet off at one point, giving a clear indicator that at least at some time or other he'd been deeply involved in what ever was going on, and that's when she found herself pausing one particular video when she saw something she had not expected to see.

It was the artefact the team stole roughly two years after the date listed on the file.

There were still three more videos following the present one before she apparently reached the end of them.



Meanwhile in a cafe near downtown Seattle Mississippi and Rachel settled on the first target they would investigate. After some discussion and debate they decided to check out a small warehouse in an industrial park as that seemed to give them the best odds out of the three locations of possibly having what their employer was interested in. This in turn set off a chain reaction of events that lead to two entirely different teams crossing path at roughly 2am when Sha'hgrim and Darkon went to check out the warehouse and see if they could find more information on Spade, while Mississipi and Rachel had just arrived around the same time to see if this was the building their employer was hoping to trace the mysterious matrix activity back to...

Sha'hGrim sat up, inhaling sharply. Her eyes widened reflexively, as her gaze lengthened, somewhere a long way beyond the confines of the walls, and her mind wandered to another place. And another time. Not entirely cognizant of the fact that the Spirit may have access to the memories she was calling up at that moment (magic is funny business sometimes), Sha'hGrim recalled her last memory of the artifact, and studied it, in detail, recalling it's structure, it's tenor, even it's magical aura. With the memory now refreshed in her mind, Sha'hGrim backed the recording up a bit and replayed, again, the image on the screen, confirming, again, that this was the very same.
"Years later... Same one..." She mumbled out loud, not intending to allow her thoughts to escape her mouth, but clearly not focused on her external appearance at that moment. Sha'hGrim allowed her gaze to de-focus again, not seeing the room she was in, and go lost in the memory for a moment, replaying the horror of their final successful assault of the near-keep protecting it. Sha'hGrim was torn from her reverie by Chasky, through his link somehow.
"Unnnghhh..." He said, likely waking up for the first time since the healing. The Cats were naturally nocturnal anyway, so now was as good a time as any for him to come out of his impressively deep slumber.
"How are you feeling?" Sha'hGrim asked the Cat, searching for some sort of confirmation that Chasky was feeling better. Logically, the question was redundant, since she had seen the healing with her own eyes, and had witnessed the astonishing success that Darkon's nurse-spirit had had. But Jenny and Chasky were did not occupy Sha'hGrim's logical mind any longer. Not since the dream...
"I'm sorry... There seems to be two things going on here - can you sort them out for me?" The Spirit asked, adding his voice to the growing din in Sha'hGrim's mind. Yet, unsurprisingly, the Spirit's capacity to know when it's needed continued to impress Sha'hGrim. The question had the effect of causing her to organize her growing disarray, which ended up allowing her to pass it on.
"Hmm... Yes. I was hired previously to work on a very challenging, and very dangerous job: to locate and obtain an artefact. It appears that my dead colleague, the same one you witnessed being killed 18-20 hours ago, or so, worked in connection with that very same artefact several years after I completed my job. And he took video footage as proof." Sha'hGrim said, not really fully realizing what the Spirit had done in organizing her thoughts for her. Or, at least, causing her to organize them herself.
"What is this video footage that you mentioned?" The Spirit asked.
"Oh, right. Think of it as perfect memory of what one person is seeing, available for viewing at any time by any person. Does that make sense?" Sha'hGrim attempted to explain. The Spirit replied in the affirmative, and Sha'hGrim switched her focus back to Chasky.
"Chasky?" She asked, wondering if he had just been yawning, or if he was actually waking up now. He would likely be quite hungry today, mostly because of the serious trauma he had taken yesterday.
"MMmmmm...?" She could tell he still wasn't really awake yet, and decided to let him keep sleeping. It must have been a yawn...

"Hey," She said, picking up the commlink and direct-dialing Darkon's number.
"The kids found something. Thought you might like to see it! Call me!" She said in to the Voicemail using her sing-song wife voice, and hitting send immediately after. She was on a supposedly clean Commlink, but she still didn't want to take any chances. This was just too important. And her location. And their safehouse...
And Jenny and Chasky.

Mississippi went out to his truck, paid the parking fees, and moved it down the street to a coffee shop. There he got out and began looking over the files given them by the Johnson. It's like an old fashioned shell game you'd see the guys running in the barrens. Well what they used to run, these days it's all matrix this and matrix that. I really miss back when the Matrix was the domain of true wizards, not every Tom, Dick, and Harry.

He sits down and waits for his 'partner' to join him, ordering what has to be a severe irregularity - just a large cup of black soy-caf.

As Mississippi poured over the files given him, he noticed of the three locations listed, the last team that had tried to pin things down had apparently intended to scope it out the location just outside of Seattle next. It was a vague and at best tiny lead but perhaps it was worth looking into. Meanwhile the Soy-Caf shows up rather promptly and turns out everything it promised to be. Bitter, kinda bland, a little watery, hot, and black. At least it had caffeine in it and was passable in taste. Then again it was hard to get real coffee these days without paying an arm and a leg for it, or perhaps your first born. The location outside of Seattle appeared to be some sort of warehouse or at least a stand alone building but the prior team hadn't done much looking into it at the time, having been busy looking into other possible sites that all turned out to be a dead end. Still, he could follow the lead or take a gamble on one of the other sites, if any of them were actually real he had a one in three chance of picking the right one even if it was done on a blind guess.

Scarlet wrote:

Entering through the door she looked around and spotted Ted quickly. Giving a wave she made her way over to his table and sat down. Catching the attention of a pretty Elf serving girl, whos name tag in AR showed her name was Rachel, she placed an order for a Soy-Caf. She was smiling when she looked back to Ted. "It's been a while since we've had a chance to catch up. Did you get a chance to look over the plans for the reunion. To be honest the others didn't give us much to work with." She said with a raised eyebrow. One hand was idly fiddling with the napkin but placed it in her lap since the server returned quickly and placed her order on the table.

Sitting there in the cafe, Mississippi looks at his companion and chuckles at her mention of the reunion party. He keeps up the ruse, but that is eclipsed by a much more private subvocalized conversation going on via a private chat connection.

"Alright, first things first. I don't mind Ted, especially out in public, but I need to have some idea of who I'm working with, and I imagine so do you. Name's Mississippi. My specialties are infiltration, both physical and social, and tactical guidance. I can get around computers, but I am no hacker. I've been in this business a long time, and I've had to keep up, but my heyday was back when only wizards and shamans did magic, and only deckers ran the matrix. Not saying that's the only way it should be, just setting up so you know my strengths and weaknesses. I've done time with the corps as a troubleshooter, but I've been in the Shadows for the last 15 years. Lots of changes since then, but you can't stay relevant in this biz without keeping up with the Jones and the Johnsons. So anyway, that's me. You?"

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Quote :

OOC to Scarlet: If you do any research on the name, Mississippi is the name of a Seattle player of some success in the mid to late 50s and early 60s. He then drops off the grid, though the name pops up in the credits of a few John Wayne Cyber Cowboy movies as a consultant. To be fair a LOT of runners got into those movies as consultants. Seems the director wanted the combat to seem real so he loaded up a bunch of real runners with non-lethal weapons and special effects, and then composited actor's heads over the masks they were all wearing. He's run against every corp out there, making more than a few runs against Aztechnology and Renraku, but only glaring ommission in the corps he's run against is Fuchi/Novatech/NeoNet. At the same time, few of his runs look like they would have specifically helped them, just that he stayed far away from them.

Ted, or Mississippi as he had told her another name as to witch to call him, kept up with the ruse of two old friends out for a coffee. She listened intently as he briefly ran sown his qualifications and spoke of having fifteen years experience in the shadows. When he had finished she took a sip of her soycafe enjoying the warm drink as it warmed her insides. Despite having just eaten a decent meal just a bit ago she eyed the biscotti that was displayed on the counter. They told me I'd be an eating machine with this thing implanted in me. She thought as she smiled setting the cup back down on the tables surface.

"Scarlet works as a handle for me when we're working. I've been running with that name for a long time now. Other wise Amanda works as well. It's one of many identities I have set up in case it hits the fan. As far as skills it seems that mine run along a very similar path as yours. Infiltration, breaking and entering, talking my way into just about anywhere and back out again. Couple that with having the necessary combat skills so when all else fails I can fight my way out if needed." She paused for a moment. "You are also very right about the times changing in the last fifteen years. When I left my legitimate employer..." She paused again, though only for a split second, as a memory flashed into her mind. "I was forced into the shadows in order to survive. Luckily skills like ours are in demand. And compensated quite well if I may add. A few years ago I did several runs for a employer that set me up quite well. Well enough that I'd never have to run again. So I started a "legit" job again as a security specialist. Testing physical security measures for people and companies. None of the big ones mind you but a fair share of the smaller ones. Pays pretty well but not as exciting. I still do runs from time to time depending on who is asking and what they are paying. Like you said it doesn't hurt to keep up with the times."

Quote :

OOC: If Mississippi does a search on Scarlet he will also find mention of her here and there. Having run for over twelve years is a pretty long time in this business without getting geeked. Everything that she mentioned about her skills have been backed up by other runners on Shadowland SEA. A martix posting board for runners so to speak. Rumors are out that she may have been corp trained by one of the big ones. Renraku, Ares, Fuchi but no one really knows as she's gone to great lengths to keep that part of her life buried in the past. Thankfully Crash 2.0 has helped in that.

Mississippi mentally nods at her mention of a day job. "Been there, done that. Even did some work for a few smaller corps out there much the same as you. That and a few other side projects have kept me busy and up to date."
He glances at the data again.
"Alright, this warehouse is about the best bet for our first try I think. How do you want to approach? I'm thinking we go in from separate directions and then converge. I'm going to find something non-descript to drive in. I don't like risking my own stuff for a run. I'll have it on rove mode so it can come to us if we need a quick escape in something armored. It's got a SMG mounted in it, so it can provide covering fire if we really need it to. I'd much rather have a dedicated rigger, but this job is already economical enough. We can approach together though, if you want to play the couple angle. Might draw fewer looks, though I'm sure I'd get enough jealousy to be the orc lucky enough to have a gorgeous elf like yourself on my arm. Figure we could play up the couple in love bit if we get anyone digging to close, just as a cover. We do it that way, we can ride in my rover, unless you've got something with uprated sensors and chameleon coat, plus all the nicities, then we can take yours. Hell my truck can drive itself better than I can, sad to say. Mine's the grey and blue one out front."

Scarlet smiled as he mentioned the truck he was driving. "So that's your truck. I believe I'm parked right behind you. Mine's decent its a Rover like yours. No upgraded sensors, chameleon coat or mounted weapons but it makes up for that with added armor and other passenger protections and a boosted engine. Also have a smuggling compartment where I keep the heavier firepower if it's needed. Either one should work with the young couple out for a drive angle. Besides not knowing what we may encounter being together might be better than getting caught alone. These people already know someone is looking into their affairs. If we stumble upon the right place they might be prepared to meet someone looking around."

She eyed the deserts again. Deciding to go for it she brought up the cafe's AR menu and placed an order for several vanilla, chocolate dipped biscotti. "I know we just ate but I'm ordering some biscotti. Feel free to have one when they get here".