A Few Odd Jobs -IC-

It's early, its to fraggin' early for your phone to be ringing.

What time is it?

10.....AM!!!!!

Whoever is calling better have a good fraggin' reason for calling otherwise you'll rip their lungs out.

You press the go button and are greeted by the smiling cheerful face of your fixer, how (s)he manages to be so refreshed this early in the day is beyond you.

"G'Morning Chummer, now before you go ballistic on me for calling so early, we have work. Its a bit unusual but the cred is good. The meet is this afternoon at Virtual Meetings Inc. 4 pm don't be late, ask for Mr. Johnson"

"Oh and umm... dress nice, VMI is upscale."

"Hold on a sec there Scooter. You gotta give me a little more than that. i need atleast a few details about the job.
what do you mean by 'a bit unusual', and how 'good' is the cred?"

Chuck waits for Scooters response, while he starts getting his breakfast ready.

@NickelB

Scooter says, "Chuck, my friend, buddy would I steer you wrong? Ok, so you've learned to be a little more cautious after that last fiasco but that's a good thing, you'll last longer this way. It's a missing persons case, someone with your skill set would be an asset to the team. The pay was in the 20-40k range. You were at the top of my list of people with your skill set, but if you don't want it I'm sure that Night Raven could use the cred, its ok I'm sure that another job would come along soon...

Oh ummm fair warning though, this isn't a professional Johnson, so no rep, no references, seems legit enough but no background to check. Maybe that's why the pay is so juicy."

"It's good to know you're thinkin of me Scoot. Forget about Night Raven. I got this one. I'll be there."

Chuck thinks to himself man i hate these shady Johnsons, but cred is starting to wear thin so i dont have much of a choice, lets just hope this guy is as legit as he seems
Chuck finishes up getting his breakfast ready, and sits down for his measeley breakfast.

"Jeb, it's 10 AM. I'm glad you have work for me, but not so early next time. Now, I've got six hours until this job. How about a few more details, like if weapons are allowed or not?"

Ravian gets out of bed, shaking his head clear of the groggy mix between asleep and awake, and makes his way towards the closet of his condo in Bellevue.

@himora21

Jeb says, "Ravian, the meet is early and I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to get ready for the meet. If you want to go back to sleep there's nothing stopping you."

Jeb looks down at something, you hear the shuffling of some paper.

"Alright more information. Its a missing person case, these are always fun and never turn out how you'd think. Did I ever tell you about the time that.. right right the task at hand, remind me to tell you about the run some other time. Anyway missing person and the money is pretty good."

More shuffling of paper, some typing on a keyboard.

"ok so VMI, it's a pretty classy joint. Used by several corporations and businesses for secure teleconferences. Pretty nice setup and a good rep on the security front, a decker i know says it pretty much impenetrable. I would leave the guns in the car, I'm sure there a SotA MAD in the doorway and a hotline straight to the Star."

It's early, its to fraggin' early for your phone to be ringing.

What time is it?

10.....AM!!!!!

Whoever is calling better have a good fraggin' reason for calling otherwise you'll rip their lungs out.

You press the go button and are greeted by the smiling cheerful face of your fixer, how (s)he manages to be so refreshed this early in the day is beyond you.

"G'Morning Chummer, now before you go ballistic on me for calling so early, we have work. Its a bit unusual but the cred is good. The meet is this afternoon at Virtual Meetings Inc. 4 pm don't be late, ask for Mr. Johnson"

"Oh and umm... dress nice, VMI is upscale."

Pockets... Seriously? Hey... got a job for you... money is good... You got up way to early this ... afternoon. Who's the J? I know you checked him out before you called me? You know... references? And you have to be a bit more specific than 'good'. Are we talkin buy a house good or I'm eat'n good prepak good? Kaneis replies as he pulls on a pair of pants and heads to the bathroom.

Pockets to Kaneis:

Well the Johnson isn't you normal run of the mill Suit. Don't even think she work for any business. Yes I said, 'she.' Not a pro J, so no background no references. 20-40K free and clear sound to you?

Ravian chuckles lightly as Jeb mentions one of his own runs, sorting through his closet for a nice set of dress clothing, finally deciding on a pair of black slacks and a grey long-sleeve dress shirt, coupled with a white tie. Finally, he pulls a long black jacket out, feeling the weight of it's armored lining, and lays it across the bed.

"That's it, Jeb? Come one, we go way back. Don't tell me you can't help me out a bit more than that."

7d6 Cha + 4d6 Etiquette = 11d6 - [1,6,6,6,1,2,2,6,6,2,3] = 5 successes

Kaneis fought hard not to smile. 20-40k was a big score, but it also meant big headaches. That or this Johnson was a weelfe with cred to burn. Either way Kaneis wasn't about to turn it down... not yet.

Doing a quick search on the net, Kaneis pulls info on VMI and grabs a taxi to the offices. He spends some time walking the streets surrounding the VMI offices, mapping out streets, looking for fire escapes, choke points, etc... After an hour or so he heads home.


There, he reaches out and begins pulling magical energies to himself, wrapping his body in a swirling cloud. When the cloud dispersed, where once stood a pale gnome now stood a swarthy male human dressed in business casual. The figure was non-descript; avergage height, weight, build; Brown hair, brown eyes, light brown skin. Nothing to draw attention... Kaneis though as the headache started. He grabbed a bottle of asprin 2.0 and downed a couple. There was plenty of time to shake it off. Twenty mintes later he was feeling much better so he busied himself with some trideo.

[15:45] Kaneis walks into the VMI offices and smiles at the receptionist. I'm here for a meeting with a Mr. Johnson...

Spoiler:

@Himora
Jeb continuing the conversation.

"Man Rav you are never satisfied are you. I don't know what else to tell you, theres something strange about this job. The money is to good for a simple missing person case, but of corse they are never simple are they, maybe 20 grand should be the asking price for the 'find my daughter who ran off to the Archology' gigs. That and I have no idea who the J is, everything has been done via the matrix, had a decker try to backtrack it and he got smacked something fierce, now i owe him a favor."

"keep your head down if the drek hits the fan, find whoever the J is looking for then you can take me on a nice vacation with you, you'll probably need one."

Not the most reassuring report a fixer could give, then again it could be worse....

After the call ends, Chuck finishes his breakfast slowly.

He goes through the rest of his routine, stretching and such, before he picks out the better looking clothes he has. He finds a pair of old slacks in his closet and he pats the dust off them and shakes them out.

wow, its been a while since i've had to wear these. then he grab a button up shirt and gets dressed. lastly he straps his knife to his ankle and drops his pant leg over it.

he heads out the door to find the place. ready to enter when its closer to the time.

You finish making your preparations and make you to the downtown Seattle office of Virtual Meetings Inc. It’s a very nice office space taking up the lower level of a high rise building. I am assuming that people go in unarmed unless otherwise noted.

[Entering VMI.]
@Kaneis
You are fraggin’ exhausted by the time you get VMI. You woke up at some ungodly hour, you have been sustaining a spell for the better part of the afternoon and today is one of those rare cloudless days in Seattle. You walk into the lobby and tell the receptionist that you are here for the Mr. Johnson meeting, she gives you a strange look when you mention ‘Mr. Johnson’ but checks the computer.
“Ah you must be Mr. Smith, have you ever been here before sir?”
“No, ok. You will be in Suite 4a, just take the elevator to the 4th floor and follow the markers; someone will be by soon to assist you.”
@Ravian
You walk into the lobby and tell the receptionist that you are here for the Mr. Johnson meeting, she checks the computer and looks up at you with a very nervous look.
“….Ok Umm….you must be Mr. Smith, have you ever been here before sir?”
“No, ok. Please take the elevator to the 4th floor and follow the markers to Suite number 4b; someone will be by soon to assist you.”

@Chuck
As you walk through the doors into VMI the receptionist practically jumps out of her seat, you can see her hand hovering right above what you can only assume is a PANIC button. A sec guard who appeared to be half asleep is on his feet, gun in hand and trained on your chest.
“Hands where I can see them. Move slowly and do exactly as I say.”
“We detected a weapon on you, sir.”
You see another Sec guard coming out of a backroom. While the first guy was friendly looking, this guy was business: wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a combat shotgun.
The first guard comes over and starts to frisk you, going straight to the knife and retrieving it. He seems to ease a little as he backs away.
“Please step out and come back through the doorway sir.”
After you do so both guards and the receptionist relax.
“I am sorry for the trouble sir, here at VMI we pride ourselves on the safety and well being of our clients as well as their information. I am sorry but I cannot allow you to bring this into the facility. I’ll have it right here, you can get it after you are done. Please check in with the receptionist and we can put this little confusion behind us.”

The receptionist checks you in as Mr. Smith and directs you to suite 4c, her hands are shaking and she types in the information. She wouldn’t like 2 minutes in the world you come from.

@Sundance
You pull up outside of VMI and see that a guy with his hands in the air and two security guards with guns trained on him. You watch as the guards do their job and appreciate their skill and professionalism as they disarm the man. That it you think and pull off your gun belt and stash it in its cubby. You wait a few minutes to give the receptionist a chance to calm down before you head in.
As the door opens the receptionist jumps up and her hand almost comes down on the PANIC button at the sound. She catches herself and then takes one look at you and almost finishes the job.

“Yes Sir?” She asks in a shaky voice.
“Mr. Johnson, ok Mr. Smith suite 4d”

Then she sits down in her chair and starts rubbing her face.

[VMI Suites]
All characters.

You walk into your assigned suite to find a nicely appointed room with very comfortable lounger next to a large computer unit with several cords running out of it. You don’t have much time to gawk before a tech shows up.
“Good afternoon sir and welcome to VMI…”
He proceeds to tell you about all the benefits of VMI and runs through the procedure of how the meeting will run. The fact that there is a real person standing in front of you is just further evidence to the level of clientele that they are used to dealing with. For the most part none it matters except the follow line really stands out to a couple of you.
“We have found that magically active clients experience significant discomfort while in the simsense environment. We are sorry but despite our best efforts there is no way to reduce or eliminate this effect. While the effect is uncomfortable it is not life threatening in any way.”
After receiving consent to continue the tech will then hook you up to the simsense equipment and throw the switch.

[The Meeting]
Teak. That’s certainly what it looks, smells, feels and by god even tastes like. The larger details of the room are a similar marvel: high vaulted ceiling, recessed indirect lighting, deep plush carpet, and gold brushed walls covered with priceless Impressionist paintings. The finely upholstered chairs on which you sit are as fine as they come and a precise mater for the classic teak of the large conference table.

You look up to see several other figures seated at the table with you, obviously your teammates for this job.

You all wait for a while, you marvel at how well the room is virtually constructed but yet no one else appears. You use a fancy antique phone to contact your hosts and the assure you that the other party is coming but has not yet arrived.

Suddenly, the walls of the room shimmer, bending and twisting under the laws of pure mathematics rather than physics. The Sense of unreality increases radically and your minds begin to rebel, logic intruding and dismissing the simsensual hallucination before you.

You look around and find a figure standing behind you. Seemingly constructed of milky glass, she wears finely constructed translucent gold armor in the ancient Greek style over a tunic of sheerest silk. Her hair is spn gold, wispy and floating lightly in an imaginary breeze, her eyes the cool blue of sky. Behind her, the construct of the conference room wall flickers uncertainly as it regains it stability.

She appears confuse, her gaze unfocused, flickering across each of you and around the room. After a moment, she takes a halting step forward and her mouth opens as if to speak, but at first no works come forth.

Then you hear her voice. It is a crap and powerful voice laced with undertones of rushing water. “My apologies,” she says, “I could not find the door…”

The figure moves with faltering motions and has erratic speech. She appears as if she is not comfortable in her own skin. She moves to one of the seats at conference table and look at it, makes a faltering motion, and continues to stand. She turns and faces the group, again her voice moves but no words come out.

“I have asked you here today because I need you to find a young girl by the name of Fayette Myers. She has gone missing this morning from the Rhododendron Conservatory School for girls.”

An image of the girl appears above the table.

“I will give you each 10,000 nuyen for accepting this job. And an additional 20,000 for her safe return.”

“Do we have a deal?”

Kaneis travels up the elevator and steps off at the third floor. He wanders down the hall toward the bright orange ‘EXIT’ sign and walks through. He scans the well for internal cameras and heads to the fourth floor. At suite 4a, he calms himself and walks to the reception desk. Good afternoon, I am here for a meeting with Mr. Johnson. A technician in a white smock opens a door and smiles. This way, please… Kaneis follows the man to a small room with a plush couch laced with cables and vid screens. The far wall is a holo-screen projecting a wheat field blown about by the wind. The technician extends a hand toward the couch. If you’ll have a seat we’ll get you fitted and ready for your meeting, Mr. Smith.

Kaneis cringed inwardly. It wouldn’t do for this tech to place the equipment on an illusion… not at all. That will not be necessary. I will handle it myself. he says more confidently than he felt. The technician frowned. I’m sorry sir. In order to guarantee quality, we need to be certain the equipment is properly fitted. he says timidly. Kaneis frowned at the man. For the price being paid, I’d expect you would want your customers happy, ne? I don’t care to have someone pawing over me. I am quite capable of handling this. You may go. The technician looked as though he might protest but closed his mouth and simply replied As you wish sir. If you need anything, please do not hesitate. and left the room.

Kaneis lets out his breath in a huff. Turning to the couch, Kaneis manages to ferret out where the trodes are placed. Not terribly different than normal trodes. Then it hits… Feeling as though the universe had suddenly disappeared, Kaneis fell… and fell… and fell. Completely surrounded by inky blackness, he became aware of the rising lights and the smell of teak. He marveled at the level of detail while at the same time felt like vomiting on the pristine carpet. Can you vomit in here? The woman’s appearance only slightly shifted his attention from his lurching stomach. He watched as she walks clumsily to the table.

A missing girl from a school for girls? Wouldn’t that be a job for the police or Knight Errant?

Sundance does his best to recline in the VR chairs and pulls his hat low over his eyes...

"10K for the job, and 20K for safe retrieval ... each? Or are we to be splittin that 20K among us? Seems like I prefer my first summation. What's so special about this here gal that she's worth so much?"

Sundance begins reaching for a cigarette and then stops, remembering he isn't really here.

"And how young a gal are we talkin' bout here? Seems to me that if she's eight its a concern, if she's sixteen you call her boyfriend."

Sundance chuckles to himself, probably the only one who thinks he's funny.

The Johnson [Virtual Conference Room]

The Figure at the end of the table looks a little confused about the questions.

She turns and looks at Kaneis, "Lone Star...maybe. I am hoping that you all will be able to find and returned her sooner rather then later, and without an official report..."

She hesitates a moment, her head twitches a little and then while still looking at Kaneis she says, "Yes Mr. Dwarf, that will be a total of 30,000 nuyen each for her safe return. And she may have a boyfriend, I do not know who or how to find him."

Sundance shakes his head slowly and glances around the virtual table.

"So you have a gal who is missing, who may or may not have a boyfriend you cannot find, and wish to avoid entanglements with the local authorities enough to offer a sum in excess of 100K Nuyen for her safe recovery. That's a lot of maybes and don't knows missy."

He stands up, at least you think he does since he begins moving slowly around the table in the direction of the Johnson though you are relatively sure his head remains at the same height as when he was sitting.

"I'm gonna to need to know a little bit more before I'm willin' to mosey down to the coral yer offerin. Like how long's she been gone? Do you have anything you DO know..."

The entire time he has been talking he has been slowly closing the distance between himself and the construct Johnson until he's standing right in front of her. He slowly lifts his head until he's looking right into her face

"Like, who else knows she's gone?"

Ravian sits and listens to the Johnson give her spiel, and waits for others to voice their concerns. It didn't take long before two others, a dwarf and a human, spoke their peace, as he was accustomed to them doing. As an Elf, he was taught to wait out the lesser questions, and press on to the more important ones. Were they going in alone? Does she have blueprints of the facility? Did the girl run away often? Things that were going to matter in the long run.

"You certainly are in a rush to get us going, aren't you? There's several important details you've left out. What were the girls habits prior to disappearance? Did she tend to stray away from the school? Also, would you happen to have a blueprint of the school for us? It would come in quite handy."

Ravian paused for a bit, waiting for answers to both the dwarfs questions and his own, before continuing.

"You say thirty thousand a piece for a search and rescue. I say that unless we know exactly what we're up against, that price is too low to risk life loss. So...who would have a reason to take the girl? Who exactly is she involved with?"

Kaneis' eyes widen slightly at Ravian's comment. I'd risk my life for alot less at the moment...

I assume you have enough information to get us started?

Kaneis begins rattling off a barrage of questions withough waiting for the answer...



Can you provide us access to the school as well as any of her teachers?

Do you have any personal items, preferably something recent?

Are there others who are also interested in her recovery and might object to our search? Who?

Shut up... You sound like the weef that you are

Does the girl have any cyberware?

What is it and do you have a ID for it?

Where are her parents? Are they involved? Can we question them?

Can you give us access to the child's home?

Nearly out of breath, Kaneis finally paused to calm himself...

Oh... I'm in... He smiles

The Johnson [Virtual Meeting Room]

The Woman's avatar stutters a little and she takes several steps sideways (knocking over a chair) as Sundance approaches her. As you continue to ask her question after question she seems to get more nervous and more confused, the avatar stutters and jerks.

She looks at Sundance after trying to upright the chair and giving up.

"I'm gonna to need to know a little bit more before I'm willin' to mosey down to the coral yer offerin. Like how long's she been gone? Do you have anything you DO know..."
"Like, who else knows she's gone?"

"I do know that she has been missing since this morning. I do not know who else is after her if anyone."

Turning away from the group she addresses the back wall to answer Ravian's questions:


"Yes sir, I would like for her safe recovery sooner rather than later. She has been talking about the world outside of the conservatory lately though that could mean several different things. And no I do not have blueprints for the school either."

"I thought that 30,000 each was a very generous offer for this type of job...."

Spoiler:

She then turns and faces Kaneis looking more and more confused at his barrage of questions:


"I have given you all the information that I have."

Can you provide us access to the school as well as any of her teachers?

"No."

Do you have any personal items, preferably something recent?

"No."

Are there others who are also interested in her recovery and might object to our search? Who?

"I do not know."

Does the girl have any cyberware?
What is it and do you have a ID for it?

"Not that I know of."


"no.no.no.no."

(Roll for negotiations) 5d6 Negotiations = [2,5,5,4,6] = 4 successes

Ravian and the figure go back and forth trying to negotiate terms and finally agree upon a total sum of 34,500. Again 10k down the balance to payed upon the safe return of Fayette Myers.

Spoiler:

I trust that we have a deal then?

DREK!! Money up front. Duh... you may have to grease the wheels Kaneis... or need equipment. he admonished himself. He looks to the others.

Like I said, I'm in.

Sundance wanders back to his seat and watches the rapid fire Q&A session. When there is a moment to sneak in a word he pipes up:

"I suppose I'm willing to hitch my pony to these folks on this one. My only real concern is that you only seem to know that this gal Fayette Meyers is missing since this morning - and nothing else. Ya say we can't get access to the school, so how are we supposed to get a looksee at her stuff for clues? She apparently has no trackable cyberware nor can we be given anything of her's to track her through magical means.

Can you give us ANYTHING? Video of when she was last seen perhaps? Cred stick information that we could look for transactions? Her favorite Combat Bike team so we can see if she goes to a match? anything at all...

If all we have is a name, I'll take yer cred and do my darndest to look for her driving around every street in the plex, but I ain't gonna find her.

Seems to me that if all we have is a name, this might get a might bit more expensive to find her.

Oh... and can we please define "safe return"? Does this mean healthy and hale - or just still breathing?"

The Johnson [Virtual Conference room]

She looks very cross for a moment.

"I have told you all that I can, Fayette Myers has been missing since this morning from the Rhododendron Conservatory, She has a boyfriend and she has been talking about things outside the Conservatory. I have also agreed to pay you more than I originally planned to. And by safe i would prefer Healthy and hale but 'still breathing'....... Just find her."