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See her.
I've just-
like a corner? Yeah, there are no booths. It's literally just very minimalist white
and black metal chairs and tables. And most of them are full and the bar is packed. Right.
Oh, but you do catch a D&D and ice coming in behind you.
The seal will move towards them. You can tell by the look on ice's face that he is extremely
displeased. The seal probably politely waves them down. I think upon seeing the seal,
Dinder says in Berthil probably, oh, so the normal goal made it here alive.
Why? The seal doesn't react.
So at that point, I guess both Boxer and Grace are getting into a grid guide to get there on time.
Yes. And Nyingiel works just to sell it to the recording that she is in fact a dog.
I think any bark that Nyingiel would make would be just slightly off. It would be the wrong pitch
for the size of dog or something. Yeah, the size of dog she is should be like,
like, you know, she's just like, it's like, that's not right. Pretty big youthful, isn't it?
How are you guys? So you're a dog and Boxer, are you making any effort to dress for the club scene?
Did everyone cut up or did? I think that's okay. I think. Did I just cut out?
No, I hear you. I think we're all here. Okay.
Boxer, any special considerations? Are you taking anything, any gear, any special gear with you?
No, she's keeping it concealed, low visibility, low conspicuousness. As for her dress, well,
Boxer and Giresi are concepts that do not exactly miss.
Hey, maybe gas masks are in this season. That's right. Boxer does wear the gas mask.
You know, you could like, you know, some vaguely military when they ask, say it's in the season,
totally. It's in the season, I swear. I don't think Boxer's that cool.
No, she doesn't even think to do that. She's like, fuck it. I don't care. I'm just going in here.
This is my job. Wasn't even a consideration. You wouldn't know, but this is the new Ares line.
Yeah, it's hot shit where I come from, not where I come from. It's hot shit nowadays.
It's like modern interpretation of an SS uniform. Oh, no, no. That's what I come back to after cutting
out. Yeah, you know, with friends like these, Boxer is not in fact a Nazi with friends like me.
She's not a Nazi. No, she's kind of like, not anymore. Oh my God.
She's rehabilitated. Since the war.
I don't know if she's that anxious. So I just had to do things we weren't proud of.
Oh my God. All right, it's a seal in D in there. What are you guys doing in this absolutely
unsuited location for a meet? A seal has sat down in one of the uncomfortable chairs and is making
that like reading a book in a club kind of kind of deal. She has that kind of body language.
As she turned off the AR at this point. Yeah. Let's see. I know the approximate size of the
outside of the building, right? Is there like, is this room big enough to come to fill all of that
on the outside? Probably not, right? No. Okay. So I think she's going to note where Cecile is and
then attempt to warm her way up to the bar. Okay. Ice is doing a very similar body language arrangement
to Cecile sitting at that in the same area and you're headed to the bar.
In the next 30 minutes before Grace and Boxer get there, did you guys have any special specific
plans? Cecile's probably going to crack open that research paper with ice in it.
That sounds like you're talking about a drink. A research paper on the rocks.
That sounds like an actual, that's a really good name for a drink.
Dindre is going to like, she's basically going to in the most non, I wouldn't say it's inconspicuous,
but the most non-conspicuous way she can ask if there is a back room and if she has,
if anyone has been said to use it specifically under the name Mr. Johnson. Oh, wow. Yeah,
you managed to pull, get one of the bartenders to pay attention to you and he listens to your
little pitch and then he sort of shakes his head and emotions back towards the back of the club.
Dindre orders a soy calf, the most popular item and something with ice in it. Okay. And then she
tips extra to the bartender. Yeah, that gets you a grateful smile. And then she walks back to the
table that the other two are at and gives the popular drink to Cecile and the something with ice in it to Ice.
Very clever. Ice looks at it, looks at you and, okay, I'll drink this.
What did you get to Cecile? I don't know. I asked for something popular at the, at the bar.
That's legitimately what Dindre said to the bartender. If this is some kind of super,
super popular and high traffic bar, that's going to be like bottom shelf alcohol.
Yeah, I'm sort of picturing something in a very long fluted glass, sort of a bubblegum pink color,
but also at the same time sort of billowing some kind of steam or smoke.
Oh, so the bartender was like girly drink for this one?
Well, he saw Dindre and that's what he gave her.
Cecile kind of takes it with a suspicious look.
And I kind of say to the group, oh, and all I got about the Mr. Johnson is a,
and the teacher just points over towards where the bartender pointed.
Back to the back. So we're all together at this point? No.
No, they're, they're waiting for you guys to arrive in your grid guide.
You'll be there in one turn. I'm a little foggy.
Yeah, sorry, it's sort of a little bit disjointed because you guys are all scattered about.
They're split the party. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying.
So, Ice nods at you guys and gets up and it's really loud in here.
So, you know, verbal communications, especially without any kind of
comlinks, which he doesn't have, are not possible.
And he motions to the, to the effect that he's going to go do a little bit of a walk around,
look around and pushes off and disappears into the, grace and boxer.
Your grid guides pulling up into the area that you think the mine must be at.
And it's a really, obviously a really popular area of rent for nightlife.
Completely different boxer than your neighborhood in Auburn.
Whereas that's a, you know, a very blue collar, gritty, working man's kind of place where,
you know, you just got a bunch of dive bars and mcquees, soy burgers and stuff like that.
This place is all upscale. This area is all upscale retail and
fashionable clubs and restaurants and the streets are filled with fashionable people
and expensive cars and lights and the grid guide pulls up in front of what seems to be
probably the most fashionable or popular place in the area. As you get out, you observe that there's a
long line of people waiting to get into this, this club and every time the door opens, you,
you get blasted by this or exploitation rock that is pumping out of the, this club. And
yeah, that's, that's your impression as you pull.
Let's see if Boxer has a filter to not get her ears absolutely destroyed.
She does. So congratulations Boxer. You don't have to suffer noxiously loud music.
Yeah. So you, you quickly adjust your, your filters to filter out those particular frequencies
that are blasting out of this place and instantly it, everything quiets down and you start to hear
some of the other ambient noise going on. So Boxer, you roll up, trailed by, by a large dog and
the, an orc steps in front of you and sort of holds out his hands as, and he sees this, the sign that
you, you know, the, the calling card and he starts to motion you in and then he looks at
Grace and he's like, is the dog with you? Yes.
Uh, makes a, she makes the biggest puppy eyes she possibly can up at the, the orc.
The dog is an associate of the utmost importance. She says this with a completely straight face.
Oh God, hang on a second. Yeah, he waves one of the other guys over and then they wave another
security person and elf over and they come over and they say, what's going, you know,
that's sort of what's going on here. And the, the orc motions to Boxer to show them the, you know,
the, the signal that you've gotten. They look at it and like they look perplexed and then they,
you said, well, you better call Mike and he looks at Boxer, the elf looks at Boxer and says,
sorry ma'am, we don't usually let pets in, but I understand there's some special
circumstances. We just want to make sure we have clearance and, you know, there's a little bit of
this hit back and forth and some calm calls and then they get the okay and they, they wave you
and the people in line who are not getting in start, you know, the laboring the, the security team
with all sorts of manner of anger and disappointment and frustration and yelling about, you know,
letting a dog in here. You can't let us in. What's this place coming to?
It's turning into a full on riot at this point. Yeah. The lion's starting turning into a riot
at this point. Kind of tempted to be like, this is a changeling shut up.
You guys, you guys see Boxer and a large dog enter the club.
Boxer, you see them, you see Dianne there and Cecil sitting on the table.
She'd go to join them. Dog in tow.
She, the dog like scooters underneath the table.
She's going to cast mind net on all of the party with another board.
Who'd we lose?
That was Dianne there. You guys can hear me now, right?
Yep.
I don't know when, but when I like cut out, I couldn't speak for a while.
Does mind net work on Dianne there?
Let's check.
Why wouldn't it?
Magic resistance.
I'm glad this complicates every single spell we cast.
Except maybe kept out of a loop.
Except for invisibility.
Now we argue, we went over it for a little while. It's just that it didn't have an effect.
It still causes us to pause the game and talk about it.
That's just chatter, right?
Yeah, that's just, yeah. Welcome to the game.
No, because it's specifically for a voluntary group of people.
So because you cannot be a willing target to any spells, don't work.
The spells automatically fail when used on the target.
I need to go run through the restroom.
So I think doesn't the whole spell fail or does just my leg of the spell fail?
I think it's just your part that feels...
Yeah, it would just mean that you're not targetable.
Basically, she kind of goes around and bumps into everyone's shins and knees
with her snoot while she casts a spell.
And the two of them that are reasonable people with reasonable shaped souls
feel the probably still kind of alien sensation of being linked together.
A sort of astral bridge, a thread flowing from their psyche to the others.
The Ender definitely feels Nightingale bump into her knee.
And there's like a strange fizzling feeling like on the skin that makes her hair stand up,
but nothing else, and then a girl proceeds to continue to act like a dog underneath the table,
working and panting.
D'Andre picks up the dog.
She borks very loudly in a way that sounds more like a young woman just screaming bork.
Which nobody can hear anyways, because it's just maddeningly loud.
I think D'Andre like pulls the dog up and whispers into the ear.
You can still speak, right?
Yes.
Earlier you were trying to do some kind of like communication magic, right?
Just now?
Yeah.
Yes.
It doesn't work on me.
Just tell me what they say.
And like D'Andre just tucks the dog under her arm.
This is a lot funnier when you remember they're going to have to be shouting all of this.
They're like, they're not shouting.
They're yelling at each other.
They have elevated voices.
And they can still barely hear each other.
So she just has the dog in front of her face and is shouting at it?
All right.
It's 8 p.m. which was supposedly the last communication you had.
The meeting was going to happen at a pro cop or not pro cop.
ICE has gone off to scout the area.
And nothing happens.
Nobody's approaching you.
You don't have any picture of the Mr. Johnson.
You don't know what he's supposed to look like.
Time is passing and nothing is happening.
How long are you guys going to, would you think you're going to wait?
Cecile wouldn't wait more than like eight minutes before she goes up to the bartender.
Okay.
That happens.
You hit the eight minute mark and Cecile gets up and goes to the bartender.
Excuse me, bartender.
Yep.
You managed to catch one of their eye and she comes over and says, you know, what do
you need?
What do you want?
Is there a meeting room somewhere in this club or?
She looks you up and down sort of quizzically and seems a little puzzled.
And then she motions somewhat distastefully towards the back of the club.
Thank you.
Cecile smiles at like practiced thank you smile, you know.
Mm hmm.
And then goes that direction and texts the rest of the group like, okay, this way.
Follow me.
A phone buzzes against Deandre on the dog.
I guess it calm.
Deandre pulls out her calm and looks at it and starts and gets up to go back to the
back room and shouts at the dog.
I guess you should probably explain the spell to them.
You nerds are so analog.
Yeah, she comes after going.
Um, no, no.
Nightgales tucked under Deandre's arms.
Still carrying her.
Yep.
Just she goes.
She does.
She does like make like remind them that they have a mind link.
They don't have the text.
Yeah, we're still missing Valerie.
I'm here.
Have I not been audible?
No, no.
Ah, that is unfortunate.
I wasn't saying anything for the last few minutes though.
Alright, so Dean there's gotten up carrying grace.
Grace is heavy by the way.
I feel like I should say.
I think all of her equipment.
She's probably like 120.
Pretty heavy.
I'm imagining she's carrying her like you would carry like a fat cat.
Like.
In front of her.
Like one arm.
Underneath her chest. The other, the other way.
Coming in to hold her.
And like pressing her to her body.
That is a much that is very funny. I had like the idea of it was like
very long dog.
And the images had the dog like under one arm and it drooped out of
the other arm.
So we've got the, the dryad clutching a giant dog.
Followed by boxer.
The cat.
Not just a dog.
It's a dog in which she attire.
Passing through this club with the music and the lights and the live
music and people dancing.
Got it.
Nothing to go.
Yeah. So you guys are headed back following seal.
Seal your head to work back of the club.
You see the lines to what are obviously the rest rooms.
And then you see another roped off cordoned off area with several
security type people standing in front of it.
And there's a pro cops mark as she walks up.
Okay.
Make me a.
Do you have any, do you have any.
Any knowledge skills related to Seattle underworld.
Absolutely not.
Okay.
Do you have any knowledge at all of anything crime related.
Forensics.
She's, I also have literature.
She's probably read a lot of crime books.
Yeah, we could take that.
Why don't we, why don't we roll that.
Or.
All right, not bad at all.
The men sitting and standing in this area and obviously guarding
the entrance way that has a big curtain across it are exclusively
oriental and very highly likely Japanese.
And you immediately recognize them from, you know,
reading the crime novels and other sort of pulp crime type stuff
that these guys are from a criminal enterprise.
And of course the most common one is the Yakuza.
That's, that's the one you know, you know, immediately.
So you immediately have the feeling, get the sense that these guys are
bad people, criminals, Yakuza.
And they're watching you approach.
So, Dindar and boxer, do you guys have any skills or knowledge
that would come into play here?
At a community area, knowledge Seattle, Japanese language.
Japanese language.
And I've got the security companies night errands.
Just foreign games.
Maybe not.
But that's what I have.
So, Cypher's, so you need to roll here.
At least in there and boxer, you immediately recognize these guys as
Yeah.
Yakuza.
Yep.
And then gal could tell you what Yakuza means.
She doesn't know these people though.
Maybe she's heard about them offhand at least she doesn't know them all enough to recognize them.
You recognize them as, you would recognize them in the sort of in the terms of
belonging to the same pack and being dangerous predators.
Oh, how does this react to this sudden realization?
Let me make a composure test.
She keeps her cool, I think.
She's not happy about it.
She probably stops short and then waits for boxer and then has boxer go forward.
That's wise.
I think Dindar would be the next one up behind you rather than boxer, right?
Yeah, Dindar walks up carrying a large dog dressed in witches clothes.
Yeah, Cecile's not going to put that forward.
Dindar hands the dog to Cecile and walks up.
Cecile immediately cannot carry that dog.
Oh man.
That dog presumably collapses from her arms with a very loud and heavy thumb.
In fact, I'll say Cecile doesn't even take the dog for me.
I think Cecile's not going to take the dog from Dindre.
She's just going to put it down at Cecile's feet.
Boxer.
The dog stands up.
Boxer's wide and forward.
Dog or no dog.
And then tries to follow Dindre.
Dindre goes up almost at the same time as boxer probably.
All right.
One or two of these men step forward.
They have sort of a sardonic grin on their face.
They're like, look at you.
Look at you up and down more than once.
And what do you want here?
Are they speaking in English?
Yes.
I think I'll remarks that these are very bad people over the mind that Dindre
doesn't hear her and says, we're here for a meeting.
Probably in Japanese actually.
When you speak in Japanese, the man straightens a little bit then in Japanese
says, this is a private area.
And then Dindre comes to the party.
Mr. Johnson.
He stops.
You're here for a meet with a Johnson.
I seem so.
The dog makes a noise that sounds vaguely like a person saying Mr.
J, but like Japanese style.
Just a.
Yeah, you get more reaction.
Some of the guys sitting down, some of these people sitting down,
stand up and start sort of moving your way.
And then the one that you had first addressed.
Dindre says.
No meeting back here.
This is any Johnson that said a meet here is either an idiot or pulling
your leg.
Well, I bet he's an idiot.
Have you seen a man, a norm?
Or whatever the derogative name for a human in Japanese is.
Do you have any ideas how that's going to work?
I'm not sure.
I don't know.
I think you're actually just be the English word norm.
And then she describes ice.
Have you seen him around?
Look, lady.
We're not here to babysit for you.
Just get that.
The way and leaving.
You don't want any part of this.
Back to you.
This is other business.
You go find your Johnson and make sure that you don't cause any
sort of tough guy, you know, Yakuza tough guy kind of stands behind you as you guys walk away.
You know, the one sort of, you know, feet apart, toes slightly pointed outward.
One game series called with the the Yakuza main character.
Yakuza.
Can't remember sleeping dogs.
No.
Yeah.
Yakuza.
Yeah.
And it's about the Yakuza.
Uh huh.
Yeah.
There's that one.
They're sleeping dogs.
I think this is like what they're talking about.
Let me post it like that.
Yes, that.
Now just imagine them doing karaoke on their off days.
Stop.
No.
Okay.
There you go.
karaoke, phone dates.
Uh, what else?
They play.
They have the...
Dance battles.
Uh huh.
They have dance battles.
That's very important.
They also beat people up and like shake money out of them.
Oh, they're also, they would also beat up people who disrespect trans children.
Wait, what?
Hey, shit.
I can't.
Anyway, Cecile's going to look at the dance floor and try to find somebody that stands out.
That looks like a Johnson in her mind.
Yeah.
I guess you can give me a perception check.
That's not going to go well.
We're about, uh, let's call it, we're about 20 minutes past the meet time.
Ice has also disappeared, by the way.
Ew.
Da da da da.
Yeah, you don't see anybody who really seems like they're there for anything other than just clubbing.
Aside from the security at the front and the Yakuza people behind you.
This all seems pretty mundane.
You've got an all orc band, you know, just blasting out decibels.
And that's about it.
Um, they're blast.
Blastin'.
They went and blast.
I imagine Nyankele's probably had her ears pinned back, pinned down this entire time.
Oh, God.
It's a dreadful noise.
Does anybody speak or is it?
No.
Then you don't understand what the people on stage are even saying.
Not sure if you want to know.
Um, all right.
Do I see anyone that seems to be looking for someone looking for something?
They're waiting on something.
They're impatient.
Yeah.
So at that point, as you've sort of, it's, you know, you've been looking and you're, you've sort of
started walking away from the, the Yakuza boys.
Um, and you're, you're sort of starting to look, you, uh, the three of you basically at the same
time, see a man come through the front door, um, who immediately looks out of place.
Like extra out of place.
Is it brown dog?
It is.
It is not brown dog, but, uh, yes.
It's, um, it's a rather unfortunate looking character.
Uh-oh.
Yeah.
Let's see.
I've got a picture of the man.
Deandre immediately scoops up the dog and starts, uh, walking towards the person.
The dog is fine with these rides in the human's arms.
The men of human's arms.
The elf's arms.
Don't be a very good damn dog.
I'm sorry.
The elf's arms.
In my head, you all look the same.
Deandre just gets a baby Bjorn for the dog.
What is that?
Oh, it's like a chest carrier for a dog, for a baby.
This human that you see walk in, um, is wearing an outfit that can best be described
as cheap, a cheap knockoff of a outdated fashion where people like to dress as what
they thought shadow runners might dress as.
God.
And he, so you can see, if you see the picture in the chat, he's wearing a
hood and glasses and he's extremely short.
So he's about five feet tall.
Um, everybody observing this character, give me a perception check.
I just really wear out the actual.
And to Graham to look at.
Hey, so evil, you know, one.
Oh my God.
One.
Yeah, um, Veronica and Deandre, you think you see what may potentially be a pistol
under his jacket?
Um, and the man is looking around and giving off very much a, uh, a frustrated and anxious vibe.
It's he'll goes ahead and starts walking to this man.
Yeah.
Deandre is like not full clip, but like almost an angry walk directly at this man.
The seals just walking normally dog in arms.
Wait, hold on.
Hold on.
I want to check the rules to see if I can do this.
Jojo, I'm gonna sing walk or something.
I want to.
Okay.
Hold on.
Give me.
Would this be an enemy stand?
No.
How is it?
How do you, um, you adjust like a spell like physical mask on the fly?
Is that a thing you can do?
Uh, I don't know.
Hmm.
Well, I want it to do was like make a single point of like luminescence and like kind of
flash him in the eye while we're coming over.
I think that would be an illusion.
Oh, that's unfortunate.
Yeah, you're right.
He might not see it anyways in this, you know, light show that's going on.
You gotta remember this is a, uh, there's a massive AR display that you're not seeing,
but there's a massive AR display, but there's also a, just a standard, you know,
laser light show going on here.
Okay.
Look, another part of the laser light show is going to say, uh, like a dog, like a cat,
cat actually, it's more like what a cat.
At that point, you also notice, um, as the guys walking in, you notice ice come out of
the crowd behind them and is walking up behind the man.
You're right.
The skin head emerges.
Oh, no.
Oh, what is that?
Is it, is it American skin head?
Is that the big movie?
I don't know what that is.
No, we'll talk about it later.
Yeah.
So ice has reappeared behind the man.
Um, and then the man sees you guys and starts heading towards you as well.
So at this point, I think D&D is taking the lead.
He's going on.
The man sort of postures up to you with as much swagger as he can manage.
And looks at D&D and says,
Before you can open his mouth, D&D says,
So Mr. J did ice waste your time or are you wasting ours?
What?
No, the fools wouldn't let me in.
Well, maybe you should have picked a better place.
Well, anyways,
He looks none-plussed and perplexed and then.
The dog says, maybe you should have dressed better.
Seals faces in her hand at this point.
And you see ice sort of observing this exchange behind you guys behind him
and just sort of shaking his head.
Oxtra looks and use, but in a kind of infantilizing way.
The dog then says, Oh, sorry, I meant, Park.
The Mr. Johnson says,
Would you guys get a booth?
Seals nods her head.
No, because she's tired of shouting.
He does sort of a frustrated flex like he's.
The seal motions to the door.
It is like follow.
Can't believe this.
So which door you headed for the front door?
She's exiting the club at this point.
She's like, I've had enough of this.
And he at first doesn't seem to understand what you guys are doing.
And then he's like, starts hurrying to follow you guys on his short little legs.
I think Dindre is keeping pace with him.
And this says, Listen, Mr. J,
why don't we go down to that cafe down the street?
I don't know.
Yeah, all right.
I just thought this was a cool place.
You know, we could hang out or something.
I don't think you understand our relationship.
We're here.
Shut it until we get somewhere where we can sit down.
Now, are you going to let us do the job or are you going to waste our time?
Dindre is mad at this point.
She does not like people being late.
Yep.
And he's like, all right, whatever, whatever.
Let's get this done.
Let's go down.
Let's go down to greasy bends.
Recy bends.
Sounds pleasant.
All right, you leave that.
And he's sort of puffing out his shoulders.
He hasn't even noticed ice yet.
And ice is falling.
He's puffing out his shoulders.
He's like trying to like assume the leadership role and like assert dominance and starts
heading off down the street.
This he'll follow Sam.
Dindre puts the dog down and follows.
Yep.
So you guys head down the main street a little ways and then on the corner, you see a sign
of a greasy bends.
And it looks like it's sort of a down home barbecue kind of joint.
And looks reasonably well visited as well.
And you go in and are pretty much immediately seated a nice comfy private booth.
And, you know, Mr. Johnson is taking the lead.
So he ends up getting stuck in the corner of the booth.
And he doesn't really realize his mistake until who sits next to him.
Fox are sitting.
And the end.
And then what are the seats look like?
Imagine a fairly upscale diner style booth, you know, sort of a faux leather vinyl, you
know, also sits, sits next to D'Andre.
Okay, so you guys are sitting opposite them.
And then I sit down next to boxer.
And at that point you realize that point you see that Mr. Johnson realizes his
predicament and mistake and tries to cover it up by sort of blustering around.
So I, how long were you haunting the Mr. Johnson before you showed up?
I wasn't, I wasn't haunting anybody.
I was just trying to stay out of sight of those.
Hard boys in the back.
Yes.
I'm not talking about.
Right.
Yes.
Anyway, Mr. Johnson, what is it that you want us to do?
Well, let's tell you what, first drinks on me.
I don't drink while I'm working.
You'll get a rice smile.
Boxer is getting a drink.
And the waitress comes by and takes your orders and he orders a soy beer and the cheapest
one on the menu.
Boxer reads the room and doesn't get anything much more expensive than that.
She's not going for the cheapest thing.
She has some taste.
Gosh, unlike certain people, I, well, so you have a problem and we have solutions to
that problem. Mr. Johnson, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's, that's a, so, uh, grace, did we establish how, well, how effective your
sense of smell was compared to others?
Um, we haven't no.
Uh, it may not be particularly strong, but she is well attuned to picking up those
that like relate to emotive responses because of the whole astral thing.
Like say the, the, the kind of tangy scent of stress, for example.
Well, you're definitely getting that, but all of you are also starting now that you're
all sitting in a booth with this guy or are catching the, the scent of a very cheap
aerosol cologne called black shadow.
So yeah, um, I need you guys to help out.
I've got a friend who's in trouble.
I think he says how much trouble.
Well, I don't know.
That's what I've got.
I need you guys to figure out.
So she, uh, she was working for me, um, in the, uh, the place where I work.
Anyways, she was an intern.
Um, and, uh, we really hit it off and then, and she just disappeared.
So she never called, she never said anything.
So something, obviously something bad's happened.
Otherwise she would have let me know.
Right.
And who is this person?
Uh, yeah, yeah.
Her, her name's, uh, Kimberly Antonson.
Yeah.
He takes the, he slides a little, um, memory stick across the table, um,
towards the seal since she asked.
And he says, I, I got a, got a picture of her on there.
Oh, lovely.
Yeah.
I hacked, uh, he's, you know, he says it was some pride.
I hacked the work, the work system and HR system and, and got her, got her home
address on there as well.
Right.
Okay.
Um, hmm.
So you're worried something happened to her and you're coming to us.
Now I'm sure you're aware that we don't work for free.
Yeah.
No, no, I'm gonna, I'll pay you.
Um, um,
I'm gonna pay you.
Actually, if you smell like that, this, this is what grace says.
Yes.
Grace just says that out loud and there's like a visible snarl when she says
it.
Oh, he, uh, he makes the Azure check.
So who, who does he want us to get again?
Some pen.
Kimberly something, right?
What's his name?
Why don't I get a creep?
His, his name is Mr. J.
Ah, Mr. J.
Well, Kimberly, what?
We don't get to know his name.
No, no, Kimberly.
What was, what was her last name?
He's looking at, uh, he's looking at grace and, uh, some sort of the math,
some of the mask of bluster and bravado is, is slipping away and he's starting
to sweat a little bit more profusely, especially as he's sort of jammed in
the corner and can't even escape.
Um,
he's trying to ignore the fact that grace is talking to him, but it's not
working.
He's sweating visibly and grace, when you started talking, you smelled the
anxieties biking off of him.
He's obviously bitten off way more than he can chew.
Look, sir, uh, we, I don't anticipate this taking very long to solve.
So obviously our rate wouldn't be quite as high as it would be normally
but, uh, how much money were you expecting to really spend here?
He looks nervously at around the table and then he, uh, he looks at, uh, he
actually ignores the seal on that one and looks at the end there and says, uh,
is the dog getting paid too?
Yes.
Frag.
My dog isn't a steamed computer.
The cat is getting paid as well.
In fact, are we paying six of us, including our fixer?
No, no, I, I, I've already got it.
I've already got it.
I've already got it handled with.
I've already got that end of it handled.
Look, I'll, I'll pay you guys.
I'll pay you, uh, uh, you can see he's doing some mental math.
Um, I'll give you two, two thousand each to find, to find Kim.
And if she's in trouble, let me know and we'll set something up to rescue her.
If she's not in trouble, I need you to pass her a message from me.
What is this message?
Well, we're, I want to know where, what's going on.
I mean, she just left and she never said anything.
Okay.
She wants to call me back.
I think we should be able to do that, sir.
Deandra, does that sound amenable to you?
Mr. Johnson, I'll make you a deal.
Split my fee with the rest of them and you'll be a favor when this is all done.
How's that?
I mean, I'm not going to be a legal, is it?
No, I mean, I'm not getting money for this.
Just split what you would pay me with the other four and we'll call it a favor
between you and me.
Okay.
Well, that doesn't make sense.
I'll still be paying the same amount of money.
Plus hello, you know, but it gives us extra incentive to finish your job.
Okay.
Frigate Kim, Kim, he's worth it.
I need to know she's already paid for it.
Kim, he's worth it.
I need to know she's all right.
I need her to know that I wanted to come back.
Okay.
That's good.
When did you last see her and when?
Give me an exact date.
All right.
He gives you a date that was about six months ago.
Six months.
That's quite a time to wait.
I had to save up some money.
I tried to find her on my own, but I couldn't find anything.
This space won't be more difficult than I imagined.
But we shall do our best.
Is there anything else you can tell us that you think might be pertinent?
He goes on to describe Kimberley's qualities.
You know, she's nice.
She's pretty.
Oh, God.
She's a lot younger than him.
She's also a lot younger than him.
And she was an intern in his organization.
Exactly what I think is a low level manager somewhere.
And when her internship was over, she left and never returned his calls.
I had this peg the moment he said she was an intern.
I was like, oh, this is going to take a lot of work.
I have to do that.
Don't shoot him down. Don't shoot him down. Let's get the money.
I have one more question for you, Mr. Johnson.
I'll be satisfied. I don't know about the rest of my friends.
Was this six months ago. Did that happen to be the end of this Kimberley's.
Internship period.
She had the option of continuing it. I expected her to continue it. We got along so well.
Of course.
And then she just disappeared and her comms not working.
And yeah, something's happened to her. I know it. I just know it.
Thank you, sir.
If we could get your comm code just so we can stay in touch.
If we get any leads on this case.
Oh yeah, yeah, of course. And he sort of flips you the, you know, his.
Thank you. We'll be in touch. It seals leaves quickly.
Hang on. We didn't even, we haven't even had our drinks yet.
I'm not having anything. Sorry.
Keep mine. I'll think you'll need it.
And then D'Andre gets up kind of looks back at ice and does the like you come in with any emotion.
Ice is just sort of shaking his head and yep, I'm coming with you.
I'm sure you do not want to see what happens when she isn't.
Enjoy your drinks.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, guys. When are you, how long, how long are you guys going to, when are you guys going to get back in touch with me?
When it depends entirely on how difficult it is to find her.
Well, we'll send you a message in six hours at the latest.
Oh, okay. That quickly. Okay. Good. Good. Thank you.
As soon as every one of us is outside of the, of greasy gusses or whatever.
Greasy bends. Greasy bends. D'Andre turns and goes, he had the wrong idea. Didn't he?
Oh, he, I, yeah, that would, no, this is going to take like, I don't, this isn't going to take very long.
This man is a predator. Predator? No, he's just stupid.
He wasn't malicious. He wasn't malicious. I think that's important to say.
I'm just love-struck with someone who isn't in him.
I like him with some of the women I have known.
I, and like him with the women I have helped and you are aware of the capacity in which I help people.
Look, at the end of the day, his money's good and all we have to do is find her, say, yeah, she's fine.
She works somewhere else and then we can go back to proc up and quite frankly give him a piece of our mind for this.
No, we won't be doing that last part. Oh, we will.
Ice is looking at you guys going, oh, yeah, there's broke up new about this. There's, there's, this guy's been trying to get a bunch of fixers in Seattle to take this job.
But this is an audition job, but I'll tell you one other thing about this job.
It actually is a, it's a, think of it as a key to another thing.
A key to a lock we don't know we have yet.
Gotta love that.
Yeah, whatever the case, I have to find in the victim's house.
I have to get working finding this person. I will be in touch. I'm going to go call your guide.
They have an address, right?
He had an address.
Yep.
Yeah.
Sure. Let's go there.
I imagine for shadow runners showing up on someone's doorstep is a little frightful. Let's say.
And then I'll go.
So needs to be shot. It is probably better than I not.
You were going to do.
Let me just look up if she still lives there.
You know how to character here. Met again for a second with boxer in the shape of a dog. It seems like she'd be the perfect infiltration expert for some things.
Oh, grace being a dog.
Yeah.
Grace being a dog.
Boxer being very defensive compared to a dog.
Sorry.
But imagine you're like, you let the dog run in and then you're like, oh, my dog got away, got off the leash. Could you help me find him?
Exhiltration would at least be easy.
I found the dog. Thank you.
You'll know it's them because they had a wizard hat on.
And they spoke sometimes.
And they make funny something, Barb.
Don't worry if they talk to you. That's just a program I loaded them up with.
It comes out of their collar.
It's a cyber dog.
We really like that dog.
Actually, fun fact, cyber dogs, not a thing.
They are, but they're like horrifying.
Yep.
No, they're violent.
Cyber cur.
Cyber no.
It specifically mentions that if you try to augment animals, they don't take to it and they just like freak out.
Wait, wait, what?
Yeah.
Understandable.
Not not metasapiens.
Animals.
You try to plug animals into the matrix. They're like, no, if you like even try to implant them with cyber.
Oh, that's where it doesn't.
No, no, no, no book with it.
Mm hmm.
Because there have been dogs implanted with. Yeah, there are definitely dogs that have been planted.
Well, you can, you can't implant them and have them retain their own agency.
It's in a running wild. If you want to check my source.
I don't know about to we or before, but for he says, Nope, animals can't take it.
It's too much stress, or they're not crazy enough, or it makes them more even worse.
Fuckers their souls.
All right, so Cecilia, you're going to do a quick, you're going to pull up the, you're going to slot the memory stick and pull up the address.
Yeah, and probably do a matrix search for like, I don't know, records on who lived there or anything.
Yeah, so the you pull it up real quick and you're actually not that far from the place.
It's here in Renton. It's pretty close to the Renton Center Mall.
So.
Walking distance.
It's not really.
Okay.
Maybe a 10 minute drive from where you guys are.
Nightingale, do you have the van?
Bikes nearby.
I'll see if someone still lives there on the way over.
You know, I still head over now.
Tell us on the way there and the end result turns around.
Make sure ice opens the door.
The van is at that one place where we met the guy with the vaguely foreign accent.
That's fine. Let's go.
Okay.
That's a ways away. You guys are going to have to get a grid guide there.
Oh, we might as well just get a grid guide to the share a grid guide over.
There's also Johnny cab.
This is the local equivalent of the seal would not be taking that.
Yes, it's for me.
It's the one I had been coming,
Basically written all over her.
Right.
Ice falls, 450 leaves.
You guys grab a grid guide.
About five minutes later.
I should say since you're already in a upscale area, but this is sort of a more residential area
You know gated apartment buildings
fences gates
security guards and
That's also where this
Addresses is in one of these sort of fancy
Hip-looking apartment plexus
It's got a stout security fence around it and a guarded gate
You know, it's this sort of colorful modern architecture that you know sort of hints at community nights
You know in live and by young up-and-comers drinking fruity soy cocktails and discussing corporate politics
What's your move?
Can I do a metric search to see who lives there currently?
at the address
Mm-hmm
As far as you can tell from the matrix search
The address is not occupied at this time like no one lives there, right?
There's you see that there was indeed a Kimberly Anton's and who was registered as living there
But no longer lives there no longer has the lease and I pull up
Footage like just free Susphalence footage or something
You can you find?
You know like most of these apartment places they have a nice little matrix site that shows all the amenities and you know
shows footage of the
the nice the pool and the tennis and the the pretty people enjoying themselves
But nothing like current or live
Matrix views of the place right okay?
I'll message the group saying just no one currently lives there
She probably moved to escape this guy and I do a search for her then just on the matrix. Yep. You sure can
Mm-hmm at that point you guys are pulling up Dindir and ice are there ahead of the grid guide
Dindir you realize as you're pulling up that in order to get to the address itself
You'd have to pull through the security gate. Do you want to do that or do you want to just sort of cruise by it?
I think Dindir would open up her
Calm link and check whatever seal has messaged us before that and then she'd turn to ice and go
You're not running a sin. Are you nope? I don't even have a calm on me. Okay?
Well, we can't even go in here. They don't even need to I don't think so. He looks over so this is where the
Whatever her name was lived or lives previously lived
Uh, looks like she ended her lease is what Cecil says. Yeah, just just the first time I have canonically used the seals name
Just stop the bike for a second. I'll go up and talk to them. Okay. All right
Dindre stops the bike and walks up behind ice. All right
Boxer grace and Cecil your guys are pulling up at this point in the grid guide and see the same thing
Are you gonna stop the grid guide from driving right up to the gate or are you gonna?
bit short sure nine and gal uh
Probably has a eureka moment and she says suddenly he knows that magic. No, I like over the mind mind net
She she says basically she know he knows I'm magic. Um
You know since this girl probably wants to avoid him
We could like tell him that she died and then have him touch me and I cast my net on him
And I give him an impression that her ghost is speaking to him
And give him a nice happy ending with that. Is that how my net works? Oh, oh see there
Yeah, it's you can just share thoughts basically
So you can presumably trick someone who doesn't know any better into believing that it's sensory data from like something else
You know like kind of like knowing in their heart, you know, he would get a chance to resist mind net, right?
Uh, no, he didn't have to be a voluntary participant
He could have a chance to resist my my tricks with like logic or perhaps intuition depending my
He has a very high intuition
Yeah, that would be sounds like it would be an easy task
Yeah
Okay, it has all the uh self-awareness of a bag of rocks
My favorite. All right. So you guys stop the grid guide short and you see dindare and ice
dismounting
for motorcycle and and heading towards the uh the gate and the uh the security booth
Ice just walks up and uh starts talking to the guard and uh, he says basically just says uh, hey chummer
um nice night out
The guy sort of non-committally responds and because we're looking uh, it's a nice night out
We were thinking of going out and uh our friend uh kimberley lives here
He was wondering if we could uh if you could give her a call for us and and see if she wants to go out and
He is not the most charismatic of people but for some reason he thought this was a good idea
I think
Dindre being a more charismatic person would immediately stop ice
All right
um with uh what my brother means to say
is
that uh
That we we are from out of town from kerasir
um our friend kimberley used to live here
Uh, we think we haven't been in contact with her very much recently
Uh, we were seeing if we could stop by and say hello, but we wanted to give her a warning burst
The guy looks at you the york security guy looks at you like oh, all right. Um, what's her name again?
Uh kimberley last name
antonson
Antonson yeah, hang on a second
He uh, you see he goes and looks he's looking at a screen and sort of scrolling through some names. Yeah
Uh, you don't know what uh, you don't know the apartment number. Do you?
Uh, yes, we do actually
We have her address
Okay, you give him the address and he says yeah that that unit's vacant guys
Sounds like your friend might have moved on well. It's good to know they've moved on to greener pastures and
Uh, dindre kind of goes. Thank you for your time and kind of turns off turns away
Ice ice follows you
Really?
We know this girl's been gone for six months
And she doesn't live here anymore and do you expect at her to just change apartments?
Oh, you know it was worth a try
Going out for drinks doesn't usually work for people who have been gone for six months. Yeah, I was hoping he was looking to let us in actually
What do you want to search the place?
Uh, that's what I was thinking. Yeah
Hmm. Well, if it's been six months either they've cleaned it up themselves
Based on the apartment complex or they've hired somebody to clean it out already. So yeah, it's likely spotless
That's a good point. We're worth the shot good save there. Well chummer and uh
Dindre kind of elbows him somebody needs to look out for you every now and again
Yeah, let's not make a habit of it
All right, so you guys are the teams re
assembled
Mark, okay. I'm going to look and see where she lives now if I can find that on the matrix
Um, can we go ahead and do a data search for that?
All right. Um, you've been doing a little bit of that already on the way here
and
You find a good bit of uh, of social media. Um, she has a
Persona 2.0
account
Are you going to dive into that at all? Yeah, definitely see if she's made any posts
All right, um, yeah, it's uh, it's a pretty healthy feed up until about
Six months ago when you
get a couple of
cryptic posts about
an amazing new opportunity that she's excited about and
Excited to begin a new chapter of her life
All of these posts are tagged with images and and trade clips of kimmy and uh in a sort of a training suit running or otherwise exercising
She looks uh, she looks trim and determined and I haven't described you to yet
So I think you're the first person or the only person who's seen pictures of her so far
Probably I'll send a picture of her from our social media to the group or just communicate it via mind link and leave de-entry on the dust
And ice
Can you repeat that for me? Uh, basically she mentioned a mysterious opportunity
Yep, so kimberley kimmy antonson is a as a petite physically fit and attractive human woman
She's blonde about five six about 50 kilos and
She's got you know what you're finding on her
On her
She's five six
Persona 2.0. Yeah, thanks
Persona 2.0
is you know, she's uh, she's the daughter the only daughter of a
Um
Of a couple who works in for aries in detroit
Um, she worked she had an internship in detroit at aries for a while and then she came here to do this internship at federated bowing
Um, which gives you a clue as to where the mr. Johnson met her
Um, but beyond that, you know, she's obviously a charismatic and gregarious person because
Her pictures of her in seattle over the last
Uh year or the the yeah the six months before she disappeared quote unquote
You know, you see pictures of her with people out and about doing things
And uh, you know as you spend a little bit more time
Matrix searching you you uh,
end up with a father's and mother's name. Um, they're both accountants for aries macro tech in detroit
And uh, that's sort of uh, you know the extent of what what's easily and quickly available
Okay, and I'd have to spend like more downtime searching. Yeah, I mean not necessarily more downtime searching
But probably just reading what you found. Yeah, okay
I'm gonna go ahead and forward the context for the next two weeks
Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and forward the context for the uh, the
Two parents and also mentioned that she apparently left for some new opportunity and hasn't updated her profile since
So we have two options and we call the parents and
Tell me if they've spoken to her recently simply
Or we just tell mr. Johnson to just add and move on
While I am sympathetic to frustration about this job. I am a professional
And I don't think we should lie to a client
Professional
Do you think it's actually a good idea to tell him?
No, of course not
Anything
Truthful?
I don't think that he's going to do anything good with the truth
Whether or not we
Tell him once we find her
Has nothing to do with whether or not we lie to him now
See, he's telling me exactly what he asked us for
His words
To pass along a message and make sure she's alive
And that's all we need to do
We do not need to go beyond the bounds of our agreement
You don't have to tell him where she is
And she's referring to her
She's speaking to their biographer
Does not need to know anything about her
Except that she is alive
And that she got her message
Yes
And in back a note, we can ask her to send back a note that is amenable to his interests
It doesn't matter because he will be beyond him
And well, we will have fulfilled the terms of our agreement
So there will be no need for magical shenanigans
Or any other such business
I love magic shenanigans
This is also assuming that we can find her
This opportunity she mentioned is pretty suspicious
Do you know the thing that she actually got like snatched up?
Do you?
And this guy was like actually like her boyfriend
No, but it's possible that she took an opportunity
That maybe she probably shouldn't have to get away
What do we do then?
Well, we look for her
We have to continue up
Once we find her is what I'm asking
We'll figure it out
It's been like less than an hour since we talked to Mr. Johnson, right?
Yes
Do we have any idea what the opportunity was?
Well, it looked like she was exercising more
So...
You think maybe she got like, no
Could be anything?
Well, we have one lead and then they hold out her comment
What was her profession before?
Can you remind me? What was her profession? What did she do?
She worked at federating Boeing and internship
I'm not sure if it was department, I don't think Paul said
One of the division, you did pull out one of the things as you guys are talking and discussing
You're finding as you're... she worked for a division called rotary wing security
And apparently develops rotary wing security drones
Oh, okay, so she could have been snatched up by any of the mega-corps
Or even by the past government
Maybe she's...
What? Oh, intern
Yeah, interns don't usually get snatched
People have been snatched up for less and I look directly at Cecile
Touche
That is true, you were a student and then they like grabbed you and just kind of ran away
I also happened to have blackmail material on some very important people
That's a little bit more significant than just a student
Maybe she also had blackmail material, we don't know
That seems unlikely given her persona feed
Can I see?
Cecile forwards it
Can you imagine it's just like normal intern girl things like working out, clubbing, friends?
Yeah, absolutely, I mean if you go back in the timeline you can go back to an internship that she did at Aries Macrotech in Detroit
Her parents, you know, high school, college
She's obviously studied some kind of engineering
So, option one, who should we call? The mother or the father?
I mean, calling one is probably calling the other
Yes, so...
It's about 10pm, you're coming up on 10pm Seattle time, they're in Detroit
So it's probably closer to midnight?
Yeah
I would suggest we call mom because generally speaking women are more agreeable than men
Well, weird logic, but okay
She was obviously quoting something she read online when she said that
Deandra hits a few buttons on her phone and immediately starts calling
I don't know if we should call them at this hour
They're gonna be confused
It's 2075 or something
What year is it?
2073
It's 2073
Or 2072
They can accept a call at midnight
One of the two
Alright, so you're calling...
Mom
Or Deandra is
What?
Yeah, so the...
Your com call doesn't go through
It's a...
Not in terms of it's not a valid numbering like that, it just seems like they're not picking up it
Well, it seems like we won't get anything out of that number for now
That's an answer by the way
Can I check the mom and pops persona feed?
Yeah, yep
Do they have any posts about their daughter recently?
Yes, they are very proud of their daughter
But they...
Yeah, you don't find anything specific, but they're very proud of their daughter
They're proud that their daughter is staying in the Aries fold
Okay, that's a lead
They're very much Aries...
Loyal Aries wage slaves and it sounds like their daughter is following in their footsteps
And that's more recent than six months?
Yes
Okay, so it sounds like what happened was she left R.S. to go work for Federated Boeing
Then came back to R.S. which made her family very happy because corporate affiliation
So I think what we should do is we should probably start trying to find where she works at Aries
Have you tried just messaging her on your little demon box?
We have no com code for her
Aeron box?
I know, but you have the same way they post the pictures
Can you message her on that one?
Where's the shot?
I'm dead
Well, that one she points at Dandre and looks at her
I think Dandre just passes to Seal her com link
I don't want to do a technology
You want me to press buttons?
It's more like the com link that Dandre owns is so basic it just does not have a person in 2.0 on it
I'm not affiliated with such programs
Whatever
I imagine boxer and ice aren't either
Thanks to Shrugs, I don't even have a com link
I mean, to Seal definitely has a person at 2.0
I tried to set one up a few times and it's a little too hard for me
For research purposes only
Right
Well, she hasn't posted in 6 months, at least not publicly
So that tells me that her account is either inactive, not being checked, or she's not updating it
None of those are good likelihood of getting a response back
Moreover, I don't know why she would respond to some random person messaging her through her persona
I think our best bet is to try to find the rotary drone division at R.S.
Look for some place that either had internships recently
And see if we can find some places that like shuffled personnel around recently, you know?
That was her second internship, so maybe this could be her first actual job
Possibly
Well, no way to do that in the space, correct?
I'll get looking
Can I at least sit down somewhere? Could we not stand here?
You could call her by the grid guide and go back to Greasy Benz
Nightingale calls the grid guide
And the girl in the Greasy Benz
How about August Tea House instead? At least it's nice
August Tea House is in Auburn, right?
Yeah
Why don't we just go to Boxer's apartment?
He would refuse
Refuse unprincipled, of course he would
Let's go to Greg's
Who is Greg?
I think she means Fred's
No, I mean Greg's
Who's Greg?
Greg is the guy that sells me my magic stuff
Greg Bear?
Sorry
Is it Talismonger named Greg?
Yes, he likes me
And I've crashed on his couch like once or twice
Wait, he's not the...
He's not Ice's more racist cousin, is he?
No
Not that one
Alright
Okay, so my contacts are Miss Magnumfoot, the Sasquatch
Commune Leader, Jake, the Raging Racist Gun Salesman
And Greg, the New Agey Spiritualist Talismonger
Whatever the case, Cecil starts searching
In reality, yeah
I guess it depends upon what kind of setting we're wanting
If we just want somewhere, I don't know
Honestly, I kind of want to drop this spell
So I'm saying we should go to Greg's
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