Hello there, Ome. Thank you for listening to the Hard Knocks Sorority Podcast. We value
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and hope you will continue to do so. And spread the word to your friends. Stay safe, conserve
ammo, scrub that data trail, and need I really say it, don't make deals with dragons.
We will have to do it. You should do it consensually on both of your times. The Empire will not
pay for this on board. On fucking board! Anyway, where were we last time we left off?
Well, last time we left off, you were standing on a sidewalk downtown Renton discussing your
next moves. You had approached the living quarters, the apartment complex that a Miss
Kimberly Antonson had left as her last address and you were attempting to track her down.
The guards at the entrance gate had told you that Kimberly Antonson was no longer a resident
at the community.
I think we were about to call her parents.
You had tried to call her parents already. Turns out that it's something like it's midnight
right now in Seattle. So there are a couple of hours ahead of you. So it's like three
in the morning and nobody actually answered the phone.
Damn. That makes fun to make people up at night anymore.
I said, questioned whether we should try to or you should try to surreptitiously enter
the apartment complex. And right about now, Cecile's comment goes off.
The answers immediately.
Who's this? Asks a sort of brusque male voice.
Hi, is this Mr. Antonson?
Is this Mr. Antonson?
No. And who are you?
Is there is there a voice ID? Do I know who's on the other end?
It's an unknown number.
Right. Okay. So is it the same number like com code that we did we dialed?
Not when you were trying to get in touch with Kim's parents.
Who is this?
Who are you?
Waiting for you to tell me who you are. You called me earlier.
No, who are you? No, who are you?
Who dat dare who say who dat dare when I say who dat dare?
Hold on. I this is very weird.
You can make a memory test real quick.
Cecile would remember.
Cecile should remember.
Too good. Too hips.
You remember that you actually called somebody this morning.
Oh, yes, I recall. Hi. Yes. Sorry. Things are a little weird right now.
I was hoping to establish an anonymous account at your bank.
And you are a friend of the clan?
I'm a friend of...
Procops.
I'm a friend of the owner of the Samovar.
Ah, yes. So you have a means of identification?
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Very well. For a friend of the clans, we can help you.
Good. Should we set up a meeting to sort this out fully or what do you need on mine?
Well, we value the privacy of our patrons.
However, we will need some form of biometric data from you so that we can assure your identity
as you make deposits or withdrawals from your account.
That is okay. As long as you ensure that no one gets access to this, you understand it's
a matter of safety.
Absolutely.
Good.
We don't personally maintain access to the data, so there is a third party blind cutout.
So even if our servers were raided, access wouldn't be denied to your account.
Perfect. Will this end it?
Yes. And some other form of identification, either a voice print or a retina scan. Some
people go so far as to provide a DNA sample.
Perfect. A voice print will be fine for the moment.
Very well.
Shall we hand wave setting the bank account up past that point?
Absolutely. Because at this point, Grace, you are, you realize that there is someone
approaching in the astral from the direction of the apartment block that you just came
from or that you were attempting to get in.
Is someone approaching as in an astrally projecting metahuman or?
It is definitely an astrally projecting metahuman. And they are very definitely traveling towards
you at a fairly slow rate.
Well, if I can see them now and they're clearly approaching my location, they have already
seen me.
I can probably raise it to the group. Maybe a little bit anxious as I noticed them. I
imagine they could probably tell. Grace is a little spike in stress and she looks over
and immediately says, hey, it's someone's ghost right over there. She just kind of makes
a little nod in the direction.
Cecile gives you a weird look when you say ghost.
She looks back.
Yeah. So the person has approached fairly close to you. They appear as a human male,
fairly young, not overly powerful. There's not a giant beacon of magical energy beaming
out of them. And of all things sort of oddly styled in the astral, they appear to be wearing
a night-errant security uniform. And this person, he's approached you. They've got
their hands up. He's got his hands up sort of palm towards you in sort of the universal
gesture meant to convey that they mean no harm.
Hi there. She waves a hoof, a forehoof very awkwardly.
So in the astral, what would he be seeing of you again?
Well, if I recall correctly, Nightingale is not actually disguised currently. So it's
just plainly obvious that she is an extraplanar.
She's just physically disguised because isn't she still in the guise of the dog or is it?
No, she would have dropped that whenever they got into the car and whenever they pulled
away from the apartment and they're just kind of standing out. I forget where they were
exactly. Does anyone remember?
You're in Renton outside of sort of a fancy sort of hipster style, new hipster style apartment
building.
New hipster.
Well, they're standing somewhere where eyes are unlikely to wander, I'd say, but she's
not disguised physically or otherwise.
Okay. So he's standing there. You can tell without even making any kind of perception
test that he's not hiding his aura anyway. So you're seeing that he's mainly just curious
and maybe with a background of being tired and a little bit anxious and also a little
bit bored and he says, you can see me?
Yeah, I can see you. You can see me? She suddenly points a hoof at herself and looks at herself
and looks around all dramatically and then she turns back, obvious, playing across her
and she says, hi, yeah, I can see you. I think.
And you can talk.
Yeah, I can talk. They can hear me, by the way. I don't think that either any of them
can see you though.
Oh, yeah, that was weird. The shift sergeant asked me to come out and look at you guys
after you came to the gate and we thought you were, well, we just thought you were a
pet, but I'm just out here to make sure that you guys aren't thinking of causing any trouble.
Is the seal still on the phone?
Yeah, it's sort of happening the same time as you're on the phone.
Okay, this feels like paying attention.
Oh, oh, oh, well, no, no, we don't plan to cause any trouble. She's a little bit concerned
now, obviously, it's a more advanced form of anxiety. It's not an immediate fear, but
perhaps a little bit of dread.
He says, you know, your your aura is really weird, not what I was expecting when I saw
you on the security cameras. And then he sort of blushes in the astral and said, Oh, well,
that that was sort of rude. Sorry.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, could you? Um, could you not tell anyone about me?
He looks sort of puzzled. You get the sense that he's probably not the sharpest tool in
the shed. But he is definitely astral. He's definitely a mage of some minor ability, you
know, probably just been assigned by night air into this block. But he he looks at you
says, Sure, yeah. I mean, as long as you're not going to start any trouble. I mean, you
know,
I'm sure.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. No, no trouble. None at all.
We're actually kind of friends. Well, we're we're we're on a job to help one of the people
that lives here. That's the only reason why we're here. We're going to get going soon,
though. So we'll be out of your hair. And we won't cause any trouble for either one
of us, me or you.
Okay, good. Yeah. So but who are you? Who are you helping out? Maybe I know them.
What was her name? She says looking back to the group of meta humans around her. Who are
you talking? Yeah. Oh, the person. All of you. You you and you. No, but who were you
talking to before? Are you are you on a comm link? No, no, no, there's a there's a security
mage right there. Oh, you don't you don't see anybody where you don't see anybody where
grace is pointing to do you do? It's like she's talking to the air. I kind of turned
to the boxer and go, is the horse crazy? No, she she does this. It's magic. I don't percent
of understand. What was the girl's name? I honestly can't remember. Who is it you're
talking to? He's a security mage. He said that he might be able to give us some info.
So what was her name? I think her name's Kimberly and Hudson. The danger is I'm trying to figure
out if this would be useful to tell my errands that we're looking for this person or not.
Did he say that it was night here? He only said it's a security mage. The security before
that was that we walked up to the security guy. He was night errands, right? He was night
errands. Yes. OK. And that's something Deandre would remember. Yes, for sure. So I think
Deandre kind of walks up next to the horse and then not looking directly at wherever
it is. She kind of just like says her name is Kimberly and since she moved out a couple
months ago, we've been hired by an acquaintance of hers to make sure she's OK. That's about
it. Can this language translate from physical into astral? No, sound waves and light, they
do have a they have astral substance, but they do not translate the same way. You would
need dual natured sound and light like what Nightingale has to engage in conversation
both on the astral and the physical at the same time. What Deandre just did was like
slap her jaws in the general direction. Deandre has no idea about any of the astral stuff.
It's something she's avoided for her entire life. Nightingale, understanding these things,
would immediately relay what Deandre just said in shorter words, who they're looking
for by name. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I know, Kimmy. She moved out like six
months ago. This is the only lead we currently have. We think something bad may have happened.
Oh, no, no. We don't think anything bad may have happened to her. We just have an acquaintance
that's a little overly anxious and wanted to check in. That's a reaction. We just want
it to do a welfare check. We don't suspect anything's going to miss. Oh, yeah. Nothing's
going to miss. Kimmy's fine. Yeah, I don't see any harm. Well, yeah, she's fine. Is there
any way we can confirm that? Yeah. I don't know if I can give you any more information
about that. But she's, he chuckles a little bit. He's like, oh, Kimmy's fine. I talked
to her a lot, actually. Oh, okay. Well, that's good to hear. I thank you for your help and
your discretion. You should probably go ahead and get on with the rest of your night and
we need to keep moving in our work. It was nice meeting you, Mr. Security Guard. Yeah,
you can call me Jimmy. Jimmy. Jimmy, that's a nice name. Jimmy, I like that. Okay. Well,
yeah, it was nice meeting you too. Thanks for, yeah, thanks for not making anything
any trouble. And I got to, like you said, I got to go do my patrol now, but just, you
know, I wouldn't worry about Kimmy. Just tell her friend that she's fine. Yeah, I got you.
It drips off. Before he dies, she summons up a small construct of like astral energy
with her magic just to give him like finger guns and then waves him off. Yeah, he smiles
and drifts away. All right. Well, that was help, very unhelpful. But apparently she's
safe. According to Jimmy. According to Jimmy. Well, let me know when Cecile's off the phone.
Yeah, you're off the phone. You're off the phone about this point. Okay. What was going
on? You all were very loud. The horse was talking to a ghost. Right. Okay. You, what
were you talking to? Oh, so it was an Ashley projecting security mage named Jimmy. Yes,
and he spoke about. Oh, he just like wanted to come check up on us. He asked about what
we were doing. I told them that we were looking for the girl. He said that she was all right
and that he talks to her quite a bit, which probably means she ends up she ended up going
into. Well, it could just be that they they have some personal relationship, but that
could also mean that she ended up working at a the same like location or like the same
company as him. I'll put his name down and I'll see if I can find anything when I get
my rules. Jimmy the ghost. When Grace says what she just said, that sort of thought process,
it rings a bell with you Cecile about something that had come up in your, your matrix search
that you did. Do you think something about it is ringing a bell? You want to go back
and take a quick look at your matrix search? Oh yeah. She's pulling that up on the side
with her left hand. Yep. So you had sort of done a search parameter, you know, for, for
Kimberly Antons and you had a picture of her and you see that there's a combination sort
of out in one of the outer circles of, of outer rings of your search where there's an
entry for a Kay and Thompson and the combination occurs. Combination occurs with the timeline
that you're looking at and it's a data entry on a publicity statement from the Knight Aaron
Academy and rent sort of around the same time where Mr. Johnson said, Kimmy disappeared.
There's a publicity statement from night that's welcoming in the most recent class of inductees
and about midway down that list of inductees, you see an entry for a K and Thompson. Hey,
all right. I think I know where Ms. Antonson is. Yeah. Bring up the van. We're heading
to night. Aren't we? Academy. Where did I leave the van? I think it's, I think it's
there right there in the vicinity. Cause you, I think you guys pulled up and you got out
and you went and talked to the security guards at the gate. I think I was going to go get
back in and start it. And then totally get it. Get it. The van losers were going shopping.
Or did you guys take a grid guide? That's a great question. I forgot. I thought you
left the van behind. We left the van and we took a grid guide here. Yeah. I'm the only
one with my vehicle and it's my bike. Yeah. So we should call a red guide. It's weird
to have five of us show up at the night. Aaron Academy looking for someone. I have some experience
with private security. I'll stay in the van. I'll be at a cafe. Just I'll start a voice
call. Bye. Enjoy yourself. He's walking off. Mike. Ice, are you, you're not chipped or
anything, right? You don't have a, a, a sim? No, I don't have a sim. You should probably
go with Cecile cause we're going to be going to a pretty noisy place. Oh, perfect. I'll
have conversation company. Fine. This is, yeah, whatever. All right. Let's get out of
the car. So we have the three of us and there's a horse. Do you have a sin horse? What do
you think? This horse is not a sinner. No, ma'am. Okay. And I imagine you don't. She
says this like looking at boxer. Boxer does. I actually do. We got two sinners out of the
five of us and we're going to be going into a night errand academy. Oh, well we should
not all go. Yes. Um, I have a friend in night errands that he works in Auburn and is asleep
at the moment. So that won't help us any. I believe boxers got a nighter contact too.
Yeah. Vicente Vicente also knows the best boy, but uh, so do you think he could get
us inside night errand academy at midnight? At midnight? Yes. Okay. And what would we
have to do for him to get us in at midnight? I think we had the best ask him about that.
Yeah. I will call him and uh, she, she's getting on the com with Vicente. All right. So you
get on the common, you, you, it rings once or twice and then you hear Vicente's voice.
Oh, hello. Hello Vicky boxer. Oh, you got my night off. Uh, that is what's up. We need
to get into night errands training academy. Uh, this is not one of the more dubious jobs.
We are doing a wellness check and an individual who has gone dark. A wellness check on an
individual has gone dark at the police academy. The one in red. No, we need to get into the
police academy to access their record. Uh, yeah. I don't know a boxer. I mean, I know
we're chummers and all, but it's sort of a big ask. Um, I mean, you want me to just check?
You want to give me a name and I can check for you. She looks to the rest of the group.
But I mean, what, what are we talking about? Does like, are they like, do they get picked
up by night? No, there's something dubious. I deal with Aries. What the farms manufacturer?
Oh, Aries. You're confusing me boxer. So we have received a message about, about this
woman. Yes. She's gone missing. A concerned friend has been unable to make contact with
her for a bit. It was a strong word for that friend and coworker. He has been unable to
make contact with her for months and she packed up, disappeared. Her social media has been
wiped out and she suddenly signed on with night and the details of this from her parents
social media feeds is suggestive of a certain degree of lack of choice in the matter. Over
night, errant has lead on precisely where we can go to find her.
I don't know. Boxer. It sounds sort of strange. He's waking up a little bit. Um, I mean, the
training academy is just a training academy. Um, I mean, I haven't been there for a while,
but I could probably, uh, if you had a name, I could probably make it just a couple of
calls and figure out what's going on. What's her name? Kimberly and Dunson. Her name is
Kimberly and Dunson. Oh, okay. Uh, and you said she, uh, she joined the academy a couple
of months ago. So at the last, uh, in the last, uh, group of inductees. All right. Uh,
is this really a hot boxer? Can I, uh, can I get a good night's sleep on it? Yeah. You
can get a good night's sleep. Okay. Um, I'm sure it's nothing boxer. I, um, if she's,
if she's joined the academy, then yeah, she's probably gone dark. They just, they'd make
all the recruits do that. Uh, you know, it's nothing. You know me better night. Is this
a job or is this a personal friend? Hmm. It is a job, but yeah, I know how you get. Yeah.
It's a job for a concerned friend. Well, I have to do something to feel better. Yeah,
I know. I'm in the same boat. We're just working at it on different angles. Yeah. Get a good
night's sleep, man. Yeah. You too, boxer. Stop poking around in the middle of the night
and I'll talk to you tomorrow. What can I say? I'm a night owl. Good night. Good night.
Let's get back with us tomorrow to give us information. He can gather from the academy.
All right. So Cecile and ice have left Cecile called a grid guide, right? Speaking of, uh,
when is her bank account going to be activated? Um, it's probably already active. Good. Good.
Okay. So, uh, ice. Yeah. You a good hunter? Yeah. So what are we doing here? I am heading
to a cafe and after that, I'm probably going to go to my bank to acquire some money, get
some tools you came with. Yeah. I guess I'll be sticking with you. Uh, if those other guys
are going next near night air and I don't want to necessarily be anywhere near them.
So how do you know those guys? That's a long story. Um, I was kidnapped and then they kidnapped
me and now I am working for procop. You were kidnapped and then they kidnapped you and now
you're working with them. Correct. He just shakes his head. Yeah. Things have changed
from the shadows since I was running. Uh, those kidnap is a bit harsh. It's more like
they tried to save me, but did never really, you know, uh, explained that in the process
of doing it. So we were a bit busy not being shot. You can't hear this. Oh, sorry. Sorry.
Yeah, they've left. You guys are still, you guys are still standing on a street corner
discussing your next moves. Cecile walked off. I stood sort of look between the two
groups and after hearing that you're ahead for night, Aaron, he followed Cecile. So they're
headed for a cafe. Um, we'll fast forward to the cafe. You guys have gotten in a grid
guide to Cecile and ice gotten a grid guide and left. Probably tell them that we're not
going to do this till like, actually we're not even going there. Senties helping us out.
Deandre will probably try still try to go there tonight. All right. So we'll get back.
We'll go back to the guys, the three of you standing on the side of the street, trying
to figure out what you're doing. You've just gotten off the phone call with the senti and
what's happening now. So we'll wait till tomorrow on certain notice, but until then one of us
should try to do something else. And by one of us, I mean me. You have a proposal. I would
like to go to the police academy choir person. Please do not do anything ill-advised. Oh,
I'm just going to do as if I would do if I was still in Karsir. But if you think it's
ill-advised to talk one cop to another, maybe I've lost my edge. Yeah. Boxer probably doesn't
know that you were a cop. You guys have only been, you know, known each other for a couple
of hours at this point. I kind of always describe Deandre as looking like a cop. So what you're
saying is that Boxer knows, but, but nightingale probably doesn't. I mean, you could just tell
a cop by looking at their soul. It's pretty obvious. I actually, I don't know. Did they
slap the Punisher logo on that too? Anyway. What was going on? I think Deandre is going
to get on her bike and head to, is going to fiddle around with her comm link, getting,
getting directions. And then she is going to head to the police academy in Renton. All
right. The night errant training academy here in Renton is actually not that far from you.
You're going to be in there in about 10 minutes. It sort of, as you pull up, you know, Renton
is a fairly nice neighborhood, not as nice as Bellevue, obviously, but it's a fairly
nice neighborhood. And the night errant academy is, it looks sort of like a modern university
campus and, you know, lots of clean buildings and nicely manicured lawns and planted areas.
And there's a, a visitor center. So is that, do you want to pull up right up to the, to
the visitor center? Yeah, that's what Deandre would do since he's not trying to do anything
stupid. All right. Yeah. You pull up and, you know, it's got the night errant branding
and it's nice and clean and doesn't look overly militarized. And as you walk towards the building,
the door's open and there's a receptionist there in a very neat night errant uniform.
And she looks up at you and says, good evening. How can I help you?
I think in night errant, Deandre would give like a polite greeting in Spurthill. And then
she would continue then in English. I'm a Keon Calve. I wanted to speak to a, someone
I've been told has been listed here recently. I have a investigation that's going on about
a old coworker of hers. And I wanted to see if she knew anything about him.
I see. Well, our cadets are not permitted to speak to the public until their training
is completed and they are assigned, given an assignment. So if you would like, I can
leave your name and number and I'll take your name and number and somebody will get back
to you who may be able to answer your questions. I think Deandre would pause for a second and
then reply, that's amenable. And then as always, I guess at this point, whatever she was handed
to write with, or if she was even handed anything to write with, she'd probably start in Spurthill
and then go to English after she realized that she was speaking in Spurthill. She'd
give her real name, Keon Calve. She had like a suffix on as in like private investigator
extraordinaire. And she just put like her comlink number on there, I guess.
Okay. The lady takes your information and smiles at you and says, well, somebody will
be with you as soon as we have the information that you're looking for. So did you enter,
she looks down at the piece of paper, did you, who is it that you're looking for specifically?
Oh, K. Atkinson, Antonson, not Atkinson. Okay. Well, if this K. Antonson is at the Academy
and a trainee, probably what will happen is a public relations officer will call you back
after they have ascertained the existence and location of this person at the Academy
to confirm. But otherwise I can assure you that once the training is complete, the cadet
will be enlisted and will be free to communicate with their friends and family outside of the
Academy. She smiles, not exactly condescendingly, but sort of, you know, she's seen something
like this before. And she says, you know, it's every now and then we get this with the
new, with the cadets, friends or family don't quite believe that, you know, they can't communicate
while they are in training. But, but that's our, that's our regulation. So it's understandable.
I'm just trying to get my paycheck filled. You know, these private investigative jobs
don't come often, so you got to pick them up when they can.
Understood. Well, usually they just come to you people, but I try to pick up the most,
not what's the word, the cleanest customers I can. But thank you very much for your time.
Yep. You have a good night. You as well. Cecile, what are you accomplishing at the, the cafe?
Cecile is mostly just looking over some programs to buy when she heads over and cashes in her
cred stick. She's probably also talking to ICE. You can, you can cash your cred stick
right there with your Comlink. Cecile's Comlink does not have a cred stick reader, sadly.
So ICE, you heard about a job you did a while ago. Oh yeah. Well, we did it a long time
ago then. You were hunting paranormal critters. I do do that. He looks at you. Really? Yep.
When I first saw your, your buddy Grace or Nightingale or whatever you call her there,
I sort of wondered how much she was worth. Got an estimate? Probably quite a bit to be
honest. Enough to retire. Possibly. I mean, don't you even think about it? She is sentient
and obviously metaplanar, so. I think she's metaplanar. I had to consider that. To be
honest, I was, I was kind of hoping she was a figment of my imagination and if I ignored
her she'd go away. Oh, she's definitely not a figment of your imagination. He sounds pretty
serious all of a sudden. I don't know what you know about ProCops organization, but they've,
they had an interesting conversation about her after they left. Really? I can't say I'm
familiar. Well, that, that little pony's definitely not from around here. I had gathered as much
looking at her. Yeah, she's not, she's not from around here, but she's still a whole
lot better than some bug spirit or something. I have to look into that. I hadn't considered
that she was- Bug spirits or pony spirits? Yeah, pony spirits. You don't want to look
at the bug spirits. I'll take a cute pony any day. Wow. No, I hadn't considered that
she was extra planar. I just kind of thought she was, what's the word? Weird. He looks
at you slightly puzzled and a little bit like, really? Like he's, he says, I mean, I don't
know, but I've never seen or heard of a paracritter that takes the form of a, of a unicorn. No,
listen, I was- I wish you'd not be talking one. I was going to school at Evo. I overheard
a lot of the med students talking. There's all sorts of weird gene tech stuff they're
doing these days. I have no idea. I wasn't in a position to really question it that much
in the days following getting levitated out of a moving car by said horse. He, he, he
chuckles. That's pretty funny. Sounds like you owed the little horse of your life. Well,
I suppose you could say that. Yeah, those kinds of debts suck. Trust me on that one
too. Oh, don't tell me you have a blood debt with Prokop. Uh, not with Prokop. No, he
has maybe a blood debt with me, but yeah, nevermind. That's the eyebrow-rious moment.
What hour is it? He sits his sweet calf, looks off into this and says, debt's just accumulated.
That's all. What hour is it, Paul? Uh, you're looking at probably around 1 AM. Oh, Cecile's
going to bed. She's like, Oh, I forgot the time. I need to go. Farewell. Uh, where are
you going? To sleep. And where would that be? A hotel. All right. Uh, hmm. That brings
up an interesting point. Which is? Well, Prokop did say not to let you out of my sight. Well,
not in a weird way, just because, uh, you are in a little bit of danger. A little bit?
Is that what he told you? Yeah, it's all relative. From my perspective, it's a little bit. Well,
then I guess you're covering the fare. Yeah, fair enough. What do you want to find? Just
a little coffin motel around here. Yeah. Sounds about right. All right. I need to get some
bloody product. Bloody product. Well, we can do that tomorrow. Um, so you guys go ahead.
So like basic air products. Oh, that kind of product. You guys find a, uh, a discreet
coffin motel in the area and, uh, Prokop, Trudy's word does pay for the, uh, the rooms.
And, uh, then he, uh, the one thing he doesn't have is a comlex. So you can't actually get
in touch with him. And he just basically sits down outside in the, uh, in the parking lot,
like he's standing guard or something. The seal goes to sleep and wakes up about 6 AM.
So Deandre, you've gone off to find someplace to sleep as well. Um, boxer or boxer or grace,
who's driving? Um, Nightingale would probably assume the role of driving just generally
speaking. It's her car. All right. Do you have a, uh, do you want to make a navigation
test? Uh, that would be what, what attribute is navigation covered by? Uh, good question.
I think it's intuition, but let me check that. Yeah. And add your, you can add your edge
days to that. Oh, let me go tick on edge. Get an idea of how well you find your way
out into the wilderness and how successful you are in finding a nice little secure area
to, to set up camp. I can help her if that's right. That makes sense. Absolutely. I imagine
she actually has a better grasp on nature than you do. Yeah. But like two blind people
have to find something if they step around long enough. You know, you're trying to find
something outside and you left the dry add boxes, got survival skills. No, but I can
like literally sense the woods around me. It's part of symbiosis. Dang. So navigation
is intuition. Yes. Thank you. And boxer, you were helping with this? Uh, sure. So yeah,
I always look for it in Chummer first, which is probably, uh, the best move. All right.
I'm defaulting. Yeah. I've heard, I've heard that before. Don't scroll down too. Yeah.
So you head out of Renton and actually my, uh, curious now, now you've made me curious
about what's east of Seattle. Is that Salish territory? Uh, I believe yes. We would have
crossed over the border and Salish the territory, um, leaving the, uh, the limits of Seattle.
At least I think that's how that works. Uh, actually it's a Cascade Crow area that you're
getting into, which I know nothing about. I don't either. I mean, I know what the, the
environment there should be like, assuming no like crazy climate change fuckery or magic
stuff. It's a, it's a, uh, a temperate or yeah, temperate rainforest, um, populated
mainly by conifer trees. Yeah. So, um, so east of Renton is Cascade Crow territory and,
uh, it's in the shape Salish. And, uh, don't know if there's a, there's probably a border
you're going to have to cross if you stick to the roads. Um, so you'd probably want to,
you'd probably have to make some kind of a test to get through that. Yeah. Yeah. I would
be willing to take a good bit of time trying to off road it. Um, hell like, uh, have her
have her drive boxer drive while, um, like directing her, taking my head out the window.
Um, because, uh, all right, that's operate being able to actually perceive it. Anytime
I have an easier time navigating the night because I can distinguish the ground from
the air a lot easier than most people. Well, she's a good driver. So she can, she can do
the straight line. You may not have to do just a straight line. You may have to avoid
obstacles. Um, honestly, it may be a good idea for me to like, for us to get out for
me to get out while you drive the car and like directed along. Um, I'm trying to think
of, Oh, I could just use my net cast my net establish it between me and you and we can
move until we can get back onto the main road again. All right. So you guys head out. Um,
I'm, you don't need to go into too much depth in it. You made your, you made a decent role.
So you head out into, uh, you exit the city limits and, uh, you cross into cascade crow
territory, um, fairly uneventfully. Um, so once you get out of Seattle proper, obviously
you get into more of a wild area and into the foothills of the cascade mountains. So
lots of very tall trees and forests and ravines and the roads, just a two lane road winding
up into the mountains. And, uh, after a while you sense or feel or find a, uh, a little
cutoff road that heads off into the trees of dirt road. You follow that in and then
you get, take the van as much off road as you dare without getting stuck. And you find
a nice little clearing, uh, and there is a little pond with a stream. Uh, so you've,
you've found a place that you consider to be relatively safe and away from anybody who
would be coming. You wouldn't expect to have anybody coming around looking here. How does
that sound? That sounds nice. That really does sound nice. Gosh. It's cold and it's
wet and it's dark. Obviously with a boxer, do you have any kind of low light vision or
night vision? Uh, let's see. Well, actually wait, I'm looking at the actual eye. She doesn't
have actual eyes. She, yes, she does. Um, you've got a pretty good vision of this too.
And you know, you've been, you've done enough time in the field to recognize it. This is
a pretty decent spot and grace. You're looking around, obviously the areas teaming with life,
um, you know, brickets and other insects and salamanders and frogs and, you know, field
mice and all that type of stuff. You don't see anything, you know, larger really than
a house cat around and certainly nothing awakened or sentient at the moment. I believe this is
about as good as we're going to get. Yep. It is definitely not home, but that is very
true. Nightingale, uh, at that point will probably cast light. Um, and they're just
kind of like these little like, uh, almost like flits of, uh, of light in vaguely sphere
shapes like, um, bubble out from her horn, like bubbles, actual bubbles, except made
of light. And they, uh, float about between the two of them. Um, at least one for Boxer
and one for herself. And she says, we should probably start a fire just so that you don't
end up freezing. Are you actually going to be fine? How cold is that?
It's not super cold. It's damp more than, you know, it's sort of a damp cold, but it's
not super cold. Perhaps it would be. It's cold. Like people in the South saying, Oh
my God, it's freezing. But yeah, it's cold. Like Canadians wearing short sleeves. Oh yeah.
She'll be fine. I'll be fine. I've had worse. You know, we sleep in the van. It's a big
van. It says free candy on the side. Oh no. Yes. It doesn't say free candy and it's also
black, not white. Oh, sorry. That's where you have the black fan. The big scary black
van. I mean, you can sleep in the car if you're a coward, but I'm going to set up my tent.
Coward for not liking bugs. What is in the survival kit? It's, it's non-specific. It's
and more, act on the end, just like whatever random survival kit that your GM is willing
to give you basically. It specifically says survival gear in a rugged bag includes a knife,
lighter, matches, compass, light wear thermal blanket, several days worth of ration bars,
a water purification unit and more. Yeah. So probably like some kind of rope, like two
feet, a pair of cord and a mirror. Never enough rope. There's never enough rope. You get 50
more rope. Just when I Google this, it comes up with five E every time. That'll be how
it be. All right. So you guys are all squared away for the night. What's, what's happening
next? Well, in the morning, uh, box, you should probably call a Vicente. Does she even get
signal out here by sheet? That's a good question. Uh, yes. Yeah. Cecile, when you wake up in
the morning, I used to still sitting out there in the parking lot. Uh, Cecile goes through
her incomplete daily routine. She's very upset. And then she goes out to check on ice. Dean
there, where did you end up crashing for the night? Oh, uh, I just went back to my apartment
in, uh, Auburn. Like a civilized person. Yeah. Like a real, like a real elf. I feel like
even though Dean there was the last person to go to sleep, she'd probably still be the
first person up. Yeah. I think you guys have all been sort of fighting for the, uh, for
that distinction. We already went to the last six AM today because she would otherwise won't
be get like three hours of sleep. But usually she makes up like four 30. Yeah. Last time
you, when you got up last time, ice and pro cop were just going to bed oddly enough. Anyways.
So ice you, uh, okay out here. Yep. Nothing unusual happened last night. You don't need
to sleep. Not right now. Hmm. Okay then. Um, anyway, let's go. I have to pick up some stuff.
Bank. All right. So ice, ice just goes with you. Um, Dean there, you're up to, what are
you up to? Uh, Dean there would probably go and get a soy calf. All right. I think on
her way, she'd probably call each of the members of the group and see if they wanted a soy
calf or something. Do you guys want a soy calf or anything? Let's just soy calf. Uh,
no I do not. I know I'm just going to drink from the river. Like already gone through
her routine where she drinks tea. So she's not in the mood. He has to T she missed the
point in time where she would be drinking tea. So she's just like, uh, whatever. In
the end, uh, D and Dair gets like two soy calves, one for her and the other also for
her. Honestly, the, uh, the job was the thing that brought her into town and, um, that was
her main goal and she doesn't really know what to do without money. So yeah, he'd probably
be interested in getting the money from the Johnson. The, the rest of it, did we already
get paid? No, no, he was, it was not pay upfront. Oh, uh, D and Dair probably did the like six
hour check in with him. Um, and it was just like, yeah, we're heavily, we'll get back
to you in another six hours. I'm thinking that like we can tell him we know where she
is and get the money from him. Like his request was that we deliver a message and that we
get in direct contact with her. Right. That we do that. Not that he needs direct contact
with her. Well, he asked you guys to find out what was wrong, you know, why she hadn't
been back in touch, you know, make sure she wasn't in danger. And if she, you know, if
you found her to get it, to get in touch with her, I think you wanted you to deliver a message.
If you found out that she didn't need any help otherwise, the, uh, the job was to, to
rescue her. So, uh, no, the, the job was just to find out if she needed help or not. And
if she didn't to, uh, to figure to get the message to her, but if she did, we would renegotiate
for a rescue price. Right. Yeah, that sounds right. So D and Dair probably told her or
told the creep that we found her. Um, we know she's fine. Uh, we're trying to get in contact
with her now. All right. He, uh, are you calling him or are you text messaging him? I'm texting
him. Okay. No. Yeah. I'm texting him. Yeah. Your text goes through and then a couple seconds
later, um, you get a, a wall of text that basically boils down to, you know, him saying,
you know, where is she? How can I get in touch with her? Deandre would say that's not a part
of our job. Uh, what was the message you had for her? He, uh, he messages you and says,
um, a message, a message comes back and says, can we meet later tonight? Sure. All right.
Let's meet at that same, uh, um, place that we, uh, we did our businesses last time. Uh,
called like greasy, uh, greasy bills, greasy bills. Yeah. That does not sound appealing.
Uh, I guess I'd message the group with like media, greasy bills. Uh, we've got a, um,
an update from the mr. J. Uh, I think what's, what would be the, the like shadow runner
equivalent of loose lips, sink ships. It's probably like loud dragon. Never deal with
the dragon. Never deal with the dragon. I guess. No, you're asking loose, loose lips,
sink ships. I feel like, uh, if you can't think of an equivalent shadow runners, we're
just say that like, if it's not, if it's not incredibly catchy and intuitive, they would
just say like, whatever the fuck. Yeah. I think legitimately D and they would follow
up the, uh, her text with loose lips, sink ships. Yeah. Cause D and there's old enough
to know that. Yeah. Turner phrase. All right. So, uh, grace in box or hang out in the forest
for the day to seal does some shopping. Speaking of, uh, when I run past you, everything I
have. So most of it is, uh, the highest availability rating with eight are most of them being four
to six. Okay. That's not a problem. No, I would imagine Cecile knows where to get all
that stuff. Okay. And then the, I bought an agent with availability nine, not are just
nine. All right. Running a past going to get up and go to the bathroom. I'll be right back.
Yeah. We'd talked about getting Cecile set up a little bit more, a little bit more effective
there. So I think between your contacts and your past life, you know, where to find this
stuff pretty easily. Oh, absolutely. There was probably a bloody class on it. Yeah. There
are, you might've already known where there was like a, a virtual dead drop where, you
know, most students went and downloaded half the stuff anyways. And with 150 million left
to see, let's get it out. All right. So we're going to skip ahead to meeting Mr. Johnson.
Yes. Nightingale is in doggy mode again. Doggy mode. All right. You guys drive back into
town. Everything goes smoothly again. Um, in the light of day, you see that you've, you've
driven up into the cascades and as you're headed down to Seattle, you sort of get that panoramic
view of, of the city and Puget Sound. And yeah, it's quite beautiful. Mm. You bet it
is. You know, in spite of your knowledge of all the meta human drama going on down there
unfolding within those, within that Metroplex from a distance, it, uh, it has its charm.
You know, Boxer, originally, whenever I came here, I, uh, met a humanity, met a humans
scared the ever loving out of me. The sheer mass of you. It's like a, it's like an anthill,
except the ants are bigger than, uh, let me, let me think of a, an appropriate comparison.
I guess they're, they're, uh, in comparison to you, they're, they're bigger, the more
than three times as big and, um, they don't really have a sense of camaraderie like ants
I can see all that to be scary. Like it's, uh, it's, it's almost, it's almost like,
uh, the, the ocean. It's just this swirling, swallowing tide of people always constantly
and forever. Tide. Your right. It is an ocean of people and you see things differently,
literally differently. Yes. So I imagine you must be curious and tired, but things must
be better now that you've been here for a while. Ah, it's, it is profound. It, uh, like
it's, it's beautiful, honestly, and much the same way that those mountains are beautiful,
and how they are also kind of, you know, intimidating. Um, and I think more than anything, there's
just so much to learn, so much to experience, so many people to meet, people like you, people
like, uh, Cecile and the, the green one. Yeah, that one. Yeah, I guess it's, it's not, it's
not scary anymore. Still very interesting. Interesting. That's it. Yeah. Interesting.
You're intrigued. Also, uh, was I mean to the Johnson? Uh, honestly, most of them, at
least the smart ones have learned to expect a certain degree of coarseness from Shadowrun.
You did nothing unexpected. He really did smell bad. Yeah. Yeah, he did. And uh, they'll
continue driving if a boxer has nothing more to say. Did you think when you came here,
you would end up in this sort of situation? Yes, actually. I wasn't expecting to be such
a cog, I guess, if that makes sense. Um, and to have such little information, but I think
that's just how this world works. I was expecting adventure. I was expecting to have to bypass
local norms. Uh, yeah, bypass local norms and, uh, do things that some people didn't
want me to do to further my studies, but also to further the good here. I thought there
was some part of me that was deluded into believing that like I could bring harmony
to this world whenever I initially, you know, started learning about it whenever I, uh,
before I even came to Seattle. Yeah. Harmony. I think that's like the best way to put it,
you know? Um, not everyone just gets along. Well, not quite, but preferably if you don't
get along, you don't starve people to death or shoot them. That makes sense. But there's
just too many metahumans and, uh, they're a little bit too dangerous for that. Yeah.
Yeah. Ventress. You guys are chatting and, uh, both of you make a perception check. Perception.
Perception. What is perception governed by? Uh, intuition. And? One. She got three. So
Grace, you're, you're sort of deep in thought in this tableau in front of you guys catch
you a little bit introspective in your, your purpose here. So you're just sort of following
in traffic and watching the city approaching you. Boxer, on the other hand, for some reason
you're feeling, you know, you've got sort of your head on a swivel of it more than you.
You see a vehicle, several vehicles behind you that has a familiar logo on it or a familiar
emblem on it. It's a, uh, otherwise unremarkable, um, Aries road master, but, uh, there's a
symbol on it that you recognize. And it's a, uh, the symbol is sort of a purple, a tombstone
shape with a purple background on it and a grim reaper with a scythe and the number 61.
That's an girl. And she would make a point of stressing the fact that she was using that
name. We're about to have a tell. The muscle is a recognition signal. Oh, don't drive differently.
You just keep calm and you are going to, we are going to hope that my prudence, she pats
her back metal clinks inside is not necessarily. Yeah. Yeah. I hope that too. Just be ready.
What did they say? Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I hope it,
I hope it doesn't come to it, but, um, I can, I can work a long rifle if you have another
one of those. Yeah. Long rifle, long gun. Yeah. Long gun. That sounds right. I just,
she'd probably look over at the, uh, the rear view mirror at that point. Yeah. You see the,
you see a large vehicle, a couple of, a couple of cars behind you. Um, it's not doing anything
outlandish. I have, I don't assume you would know how to use a sniper. Um, it is a kind
of long gun, semi-automatic. Don't break it. It's like second most expensive one. Is that
like a hunting rifle? It's the kind used by marksmen in the military, but yes, you might
think of it as a sort of advanced hunting rifle. But the sight, I just line up the cross
on the target, right? Yes. I don't imagine that can be non-lethal, can it? I lack non-lethal
advance, but hopefully it won't come to that. This, she gives a habitual conspiratorial
glance around before calling that there is no one. I will just say I have, I have a history
with this group. Yeah. So as you're finishing that sort of conversation, um, race, you see
that there, um, is another van of similar size and shape and color and pulling out into
the road ahead of you. Shit. Looks like they're, they're moving into place to, uh, to block
traffic. Uh, look, nightingale is going to have to be quick. These people, good chance
they're here for me, rather than you. If they are here for me, I, I don't want you to stay.
I want you to go understand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. At that point she
rolls down the window, um, and she lets the dog brain take over fully and she doesn't
immediately, she doesn't peek out, but she's looking at the roadside. Um, what kind of
an environment are they in at this point? You're sort of on a main road, um, heading
through what basically would be sort of the outskirts of Seattle, you know, strip malls,
um, motels, restaurants, you know, sort of the, uh, you know, the kind of stuff that
you find on the outside of cities. Um, it's, and what you're on a main arterial road heading
into Seattle. Uh, now that the window is down looking like where they just pulled off from
a kid, she's just going to peak. Uh, I don't know. Maybe she now, uh, are there any other
humans metahumans like in the tree line that she can make out? No, no, there's no, you're
not seeing anybody into in standing in any kind of ambush position. As you're perceiving,
you're obviously at your dual natured. So you're perceiving what you're seeing is, uh,
you know, mostly just the normal metahuman traffic. Um, and then maybe some alarm and
anger in front of you as this fan pulls out and basically just cuts off traffic and people
start honking. And, um, yeah, you notice that the van behind you is also sort of pulled
crossways to traffic and you guys are now sandwiched between these vans. You know, there's
several cars between you that have stopped honking and people are shaking their fist
and dog brain in the van is slowed down and stopped as well. And at this point you see,
um, the van that's ahead of you, um, the driver's side door being stained, large sliding door
buttons and several get out, exit the vehicle. Um, they're wearing what appeared to be military
uniforms and, uh, weapons are not pointed at you, but they have weapons, not really
readied or anything. And then, uh, boxer, you recognize your old CEO, um, like I called
Nathan McCourt and, uh, he's looking towards you and then, uh, he's having some words
with somebody next to him and then he starts walking you through the traffic.
If you take a long deep breath and look to the end of the aisle one last time, the rifle
is partially disassembled in the back. Uh, if you need to, I'm sure you can figure it
out, but I think it should be obvious that it would be best not to fight these people.
I'm going out, follow me. Uh, no, no, you are not going out there. They are going to
kill you. That is plainly obvious. If they don't, if they're not here for me, of course,
that's also a possibility. And this, um, Nathan, you know, I used to work for private security.
I guess I wasn't expecting them to, I'm going out. Is everything? No. Well, we are going
to talk and if they decide that they would rather not, well, I wouldn't. Get out from
the driver's seat, she says, and, uh, is suddenly now squirreling, uh, after setting the window
to roll up, she's scrolling her way back into the back. Oh, yeah. She, uh, she opened his
door and had a simple mis-agitation. So she were wondering what exactly she's doing. A
moment of disbelief, but, uh, she gets out. Uh, she only has her sidearm at her hip, the,
uh, handgun and the taser on the other hip. Yeah. So, uh, Major McCord is, is coming towards
you and he's, he's keeping his hands sort of easily visible to you. And, uh, as he sees
you get out, he sort of smiles. He's, uh, he's been around. Um, you remember him as a, a
very, very tough individual, but also very, um, fair and, and honest. Um, and he's thinking
back on it. You remember that there are stories of how, how Bravo Company came to be. Um,
they definitely have a code of honor and they definitely have, while they're, they're a
mercenary company, they've also got a reputation for being a fairly, um, as mercenary companies
go fairly ethical companies. Um, there was a, uh, in, uh, in the early, uh, company was
initially led by the guy's father. They were, uh, they had a couple of instances during
the, uh, the ghost wars where they, um, avoided participating in some atrocities. Have generally
tried to maintain sort of military, ethical kind of way of operating. But in any case,
you know your history with them and it's not necessarily, you didn't necessarily leave
them on good terms, right? Uh, they were being acquired after hitting some financial issues.
Yep. And, uh, you also acquired some things from them. Yeah. And you've sort of been hiding
ever since, but apparently, um, they found you. And, uh, any case, you're now approaching
within a couple of feet of each other. Major McCord looks you up and down and says, uh,
you're looking well, boxer. And you are as well considered. Yeah, it's been a while.
It is. I bet you thought we were, uh, we were done for when you decided to cut your losses.
It wasn't just me. No, it wasn't just you. We found a couple of the other guys as well,
the ones that got away. Now, the old dip's hand, don't get me wrong. I might not necessarily
like the way things went down and I might agree with the choices you made. I get it. I understand.
Um, that being said though, boxer, um, you do owe us. And I assume by the fact that you have not
shot me or my companion yet, that my debt is not going to be paid in blood. My blood. No profit
in your blood, boxer? No satisfaction to some. Yeah, that's not going to, uh, change what happened
though. So, um, I've got a mission for you. And if you accomplish the mission, then consider
our debt paid in full and you won't ever see Bravo Company again.
He holds out his hand and there's a, uh, there's a memory stick on it and it says
coordinates are on this as our contact information. Once the job is done and I assume all of the
details on this, everything you need's on the stick and this operation, this is for me exclusively
or for my compatriots as well as myself. He's for us. Boxer. I don't really care how you manage
pay off your debts or who's helped you have to enlist to get it done, but we're calling in the
marker on you. You can either get us what we're looking for here and consider the debt paid or
keep running. Personally, if I were you, I wouldn't want to get running anymore. I get the feeling I
wouldn't be running very far. Like I said, there's no, there's no benefit to us in, in killing you,
boxer. I mean, I don't necessarily have to like the way things went down and I don't like the
choices and don't particularly think they were very honorable, but hey, maybe I'll get something
out of it after all in the end. Take this job, but I'll have you know that it looked back then
like Bravo wasn't going to be yours or ours anymore. It was going to be another solid
corporate monolith that will have had this killing civilians in some fucking field in the middle of
nowhere. So yeah, it almost came to that. It almost came to that boxer. I understand, but you could
have at least, uh, follow the chain of command. You were after all soldiers. Nevermind boxer.
It's all water under the bridge. This is your ticket out from under. I accept. Good. We probably
won't be seeing each other again, boxers. So, uh, make it count. And he turns around,
it's back to his van. Wait, one last thing. He looks over his shoulder. My section, the ones
that stayed. What happens? Yeah. Say they went down like two soldiers, unlike others. All right.
So some of them made it out one or two of them made it out boxer. That's how we knew you were
alive. I'll see you in the hell. Let's just probably, probably probably a couple of minutes
later, the vans have disappeared into the traffic and traffic is flowing smoothly and your guys are
headed back into Seattle. I didn't go had a symbol of the sniper. And by the time boxer goes to get
back in the driver's seat, it is an admittedly precarious way set up to sit on the dash and
probably had been sighted in on if not the person boxer had been speaking to one of the men
alongside him. But she, uh, she immediately pulls it back and sets it into the back. Whenever she
steps in, um, rendering it safe by unloading it and, uh, unchambering the round. She is clearly
anxious, like physically very pronounced, at least shaking while she does this. And she doesn't say
anything, just letting boxer take control of the car and get it moving again. Talk about this later.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's go.
Okay.
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