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Got it. Thanks. 
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May 12, 2023 21:07
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 15:16 |
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Hello, thread. Sorry to get people all excited about there being a new post in this thread; this isn't a story update, just another fan of this series saying hi. I'm about 12-13 pages behind on the thread at the moment, but I have read this thread straight through from the beginning up to that point, and it is fantastic. Ice, I'm enjoying this story very much. As someone who read Harry Potter books 4-7 as they came out and is now very disillusioned with the whole thing, this story is a joy to read. It brings some of that old feeling of wonder, excitement, and enchantment from those days back, but it's so much better in so many ways. (Fully-fleshed-out, non-stereotypical POC and LGBT+ characters! Unflinching explorations of real-world politics!) I am 100% on board with this story and excited for future updates. This story sparked my imagination so much that, for my recent trip to Seattle, I put an outfit together that roughly approximates what I imagine a Blake Island school uniform might look like. (Disclaimer: I know this is probably not what Ice Phisherman or anyone else imagines they might look like, but that's how narrative prose works.) I made an Imgur album (non-public, of course) with the pictures I took on Saturday, May 20 that I felt were worth sharing. The outfit is from the Land's End store on Amazon, with a heat-transferred logo that I made with Craiyon (one of the most cyberpunk things I've ever done) and then edited and fixed up in Photoshop. Rock on, Ice Phisherman. You've created something that I think is really cool. Whatever you're up to lately, I hope you can get back to writing eventually.
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Jun 4, 2023 09:17
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Julie, Fuzzy, Tek and Pyg - Thursday, August 30th, 2075 – Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex Julie, Fuzzy and Pyg arrived at the pier after an hour long boat ride and stepped onto dry land. A few hundred feet to the east was the Gates Undersound, a luxury hotel, known as such because the first six floors are actually built under the Puget Sound itself. So while it was technically twenty stories tall, six of those stories were underwater. “Ugh,” said Fuzzy, disgustedly. “What?” asked Julie. Fuzzy made a face. “Just remembering that student party on top of the hotel where I accidentally ate a bunch of drug cookies,” she said. Julie looked up at the hotel. “Oh yeah,” said Julie, “You were really sick. I’m surprised your danger sense didn’t trigger before you ate the edibles.” Fuzzy had gotten ridiculously high by accident while dodging reporters at a party for the wealthy after defeating a toxic fire spirit in Touristville. She’d managed to lose them but at the cost of accidentally eating a bunch of marijuana cookies and getting extremely motion sick afterwards. This was made worse by the fact that she’d taken the school boat on the way home. “My danger sense magic doesn’t keep me from doing stupid things,” she complained, “It just warns me if I’m going to get attacked or if my life is in danger.” They’d chosen this pier in particular because it was the one that the school boat normally dropped them off at and that was because security was incredibly tight. The owners of the Gates Undersound didn’t trust the police to guard one of the most expensive and most exclusive hotels in all of Seattle. Not due to the protests and riots, but in response to the bombing at the Grand Terrace, a restaurant that primarily served well-to-do elves that had been bombed by human supremacists. Since it seemed that even the wealthy were targets, security was strict. So instead of the police, the Gates Undersound had paid through the nose for private security. Black clad mercenaries patrolled the docks and the only reason that Julie and Fuzzy weren’t bothered was because they came to this pier several times a week and had been pre-screened. Though one mercenary in particular approached them. He was tall and masculine in shape but otherwise indistinct behind his helmet and black armor. He carried a submachine gun but not with any malice. “I’m sorry girls,” said the mercenary, in accented Russian, “I see that both of you are authorized to be here, but we’re not allowing any unauthorized drones on the pier.” Everyone but Fuzzy looked at Pyg, who’d somehow been clocked immediately as a drone and not a person. Fuzzy didn’t take her eyes off the mercenary or his gun and sized him up out of habit. And though he was intimidating, Julie was used to mercenaries enough by now from her time getting on and off the boat that she could actually talk to him. “The drone is with me,” said Julie, “And we’re just passing through.” They waited for the mercenary to move aside, but he didn’t. “Then I must ask you to get back on your boat and go to a different pier,” said the mercenary. The boat was already leaving as it had been switched from manual piloting back to the Gridguide system. So despite its lack of a pilot and the fact that Gridguide was currently unreliable, the boat piloted itself away. “Yeah that’s going to be kind of a problem,” said Julie, “Can we just leave?” The mercenary shook his head. “There have been malfunctioning drones near here,” he said, “We take no chances.” “You mean car accidents?” asked Julie. “No,” he said, completely uninterested. “Then what…” No,” he repeated, “No drones. Find another dock. So Julie waited for a moment on the off chance that he’d volunteer some information but none was forthcoming. So they walked back towards the now empty pier as their boat sped away, without any passengers whatsoever as it was being guided by the currently unreliable Gridguide system. Julie tried to call it back but it was already on route to another customer. The next closest boat to rent was twenty-two minutes away. “Looks like someone else already rented our boat,” sighed Julie. Fuzzy folded her arms and frowned, then pursed her lips in thought. “Can you just levitate us all again?” asked Fuzzy, “Like you did that first day of school?” Julie nodded and then noticed that the mercenary was following them, but at a distance. There was nothing sinister about it, but they probably wouldn’t be let off the dock again. And when Julie decided that maybe they could wait twenty-two minutes and tried to rent the boat, it’d jumped to forty minutes. Apparently with the Gridguide malfunctions, people had the same idea that they did that boats would be a safer way to travel. “I could, but I really don’t want to leave Pyg here,” said Julie, “Legally she doesn’t belong to anyone since she’s not registered and I don’t want anyone stealing her.” Fuzzy hooked a thumb behind her at the pier. “Well I can just walk over to the other pier and meet you and Pyg there,” offered Fuzzy, “Really annoying that they won’t just let us pass even though we come through here all the time for school.” “Yeah,” said Julie, “Plus can’t you turn into a bird or something now? Can’t you fly over there?” “I could maybe turn into a bird,” said Fuzzy, “But I’ve never done it before, so I probably won’t be able to fly. All I can turn into reliably right now is a wolf. Also the only piece of clothing that will change with me is my special leotard that I ordered so I have any clothing on at all when I change back. All of the rest of my clothing and all of my gear just falls down into a pile.” “That sounds like a really big pain in the butt,” said Julie. Fuzzy shrugged. “Yeah, it kind of is,” said Fuzzy, “But Julian said he’d help me with some workarounds so I could take my gear with me.” “Magical ones?” asked Julie, suddenly interested. Fuzzy shook her head. “More like planning or having a flying drone on hand to carry my stuff,” said Fuzzy, “Anyway, meet you at the next pier?” Fuzzy pointed southeast but then Julie pointed towards the sidewalk between the two piers. “I don’t want to run into the same problems with more mercenaries,” said Julie, “How about I levitate Pyg and myself to the sidewalk?” Fuzzy nodded in agreement and she briefly left Julie and Pyg alone as she walked past the armed mercenary that had stopped them without being hassled. “I apologize if I’m causing undue hardship for you, Julie,” said Pyg. “Don’t worry,” said Julie, “We’re bpth going to levitate over there. Stay still so I don’t drop you.” Pyg nodded and when Julie cast her levitation spell on Pyg, the drone allowed herself to be moved without a fuss. However, Julie found herself distracted for the barest moment. Just a stray, wandering thought and she fumbled the spell for a moment. She pulled it off, but the drain from the spell was massive and a headache bloomed behind her eyes. “Oh fu…Urgh…” groaned Julie. Julie stumbled for a moment but Pyg steadied her as a wave of dizziness came and went. “Are you okay?” asked Pyg. Julie waved her away, recovered and cast another levitation spell, making sure to focus this time and came away with just a bit more magical drain which made her headache even worse. Most awakened casters couldn’t sustain more than one or maybe two spells at a time, but even with her headache she was only slightly distracted in the slightest by sustaining both spells. It was just something that she had a knack for, even through the pain. It was a good thing too. The added drain threatened to tip her from headache to a full blown migraine. “I’m fine,” grunted Julie, “Let’s just go. Don’t struggle or I might drop you.” “I understand,” said Pyg, worried. And so they both lifted into the air as they did on the first day back to school and floated southeast to the nearest pier which took about five minutes as levitation could be slow. Moving over open ocean worried Julie, because again, she didn’t know how to swim and figured that maybe she should learn as she lived most of her days on an island. As they got closer to the pier, Julie spied Fuzzy leaning against the wooden and chain link pier fencing and set both Pyg and herself down as she ended both spells. A few people pointed and stared at the open display of magic, but once the show was over, everyone quickly moved on with their day. “Good job,” said Fuzzy, “Oh…Hey, are you okay?” Julie rubbed at her temples. “Stupid mercenaries,” grumped Julie, “And their stupid guns. Telling me what to do. I ought to levitate them all into the water.” Fuzzy took a closer look at Julie and almost instantly noticed Julie’s grimace of pain. “Drain got you,” said Fuzzy, “How bad is it?” Fuzzy was already directing Julie towards an open bench and sat her down before sitting down herself. Pyg stood by, a cooler in one hand containing all of their extra food and a bag holding the glass jar full of reagents and their very expensive maple syrup. “Halfway between a headache and a migraine,” said Julie, through clenched teeth, “No more magic until the headache goes away.” Fuzzy nodded in understanding. “Might’ve had something to do with being so close to the ACHE,” said Fuzzy, “Remember, it interferes with magic?” The astral around the ACHE was warped from all of the pain and horror that had taken place inside of the black megastructure. Unless you were adapted to the ACHE by living there, the area around it was essentially an anti-magic field that became weaker the further you got away from it. The only person that Julie knew who could do any magic at all in the ACHE was Kenji because he’d lived there for so long, but the field only extended a mile out. “No, the dock is far enough away,” sighed Julie, “I just botched a spell. No excuse.” They were closer to the ACHE now and well within that damaged astral space that made casting and maintaining spells and summoning spirits harder. And that field only got worse the closer they got to the ACHE. Not that it was easy to tell how close they were to the ACHE anyway. It was so massive that if they looked southeast, it consumed their entire field of view that dwarfed even the skyscrapers around it and gave a feeling of unreality when looking at it. And against the black background, it was hard to notice plumes of smoke from what was probably the riot they’d seen on the matrix stream. “Lost your focus?” asked Fuzzy. “Yeah,” admitted Julie. They were close to the main road that ran up and down the coast of the Puget Sound, Alaska Way, moving northwest to southeast. Traffic on the road ran smoothly even though Gridguide was malfunctioning, but some people just walked. And the majority of the people that were on foot looked well to-do as this was one of the wealthiest districts in Downtown Seattle. So people were visiting the tourist area that was Pike Place Market and buying things. The fact that a riot was ongoing maybe a mile from here didn’t seem to bother anyone. “Maybe we should head home and come back another day,” said Fuzzy, “Store Pyg somewhere.” It was the sensible thing to do, but Julie was feeling particularly stubborn. Still, they shouldn’t linger. Affluent areas in Seattle didn’t look well at orcs and trolls just hanging around. They could be seen working and they would be allowed to buy things if they didn’t linger, but anything construed as loitering would eventually attract attention from the police. It was easy to forget how racist Seattle was while working and living in Touristville. The ethnic enclave was the exception, not the rule when it came to feeling respected and safe as an orc in seattle. “I’ll be okay,” said Julie, through her teeth, “I just need a few minutes.” This was a flat out lie and both Julie and Fuzzy knew it. The kind of drain that causes a near migraine would need at least an hour of rest to recover from and more likely two or three. Either that or a stim patch, but that meant an hour of feeling better against a crash after the stimulants wore off that would almost certainly guarantee that she get that migraine. “People are looking at us,” said Fuzzy, quietly. Julie didn’t look up and instead grumped. “I don’t care,” said Julie, testily, “Let them look.” Fuzzy sat down and took one of Julie’s larger hands in her own. Unsurprisingly, Fuzzy’s hands were rough and strong despite how small they were. “We should keep moving,” said Fuzzy, simply. But she stroked her thumb on the inside of Julie’s palm. At first Julie was worried that Fuzzy might be coming on to her, but the movements weren’t tender. They spelled out a message and Julie caught it the second time that Fuzzy spelled it out. Bad feeling. Julie felt a thrill of fear run through her even though she didn’t know why. She wasn’t even sure if Fuzzy knew why, only that the feeling was bad enough that she wouldn’t even say it out loud. So for the moment, Julie would follow Fuzzy’s lead until she felt like she could ask. “Okay, fine,” sighed Julie. It wasn’t hard to complain because as Julie stood up, the sudden movement tipped the headache fully into migraine territory as light joined sound as a source of pain. Luckily the day was overcast so the light wasn’t too awful. Despite the pain, they joined the crowd and Julie tried to walk northwest back towards the pier with the Gates Undersound, but Fuzzy pulled her in the opposite direction instead and Pyg followed. “Not that way,” urged Fuzzy, “This way.” Unwilling to argue, Julie reversed direction and tried to keep up with Fuzzy. They dodged just a bit faster than the crowd so they had to weave in and out of foot traffic. It wasn’t quite agony to Julie, but it was extremely unpleasant and growing worse by the moment. “Are you experiencing pain, Julie?” asked Pyg. Pyg of course was following them. “Migraine,” said Julie, through her teeth. “I see,” said Pyg, “I’d suggest a dark, quiet place. The Seattle Aquarium would be both and it’s not that far away. You could find a spot to rest inside.” Julie figured that actually wasn’t a terrible idea, but it seemed that Fuzzy had other plans as she had her eyes on the next pier over and not the aquarium, which was slightly further. “Maybe later, Pyg,” muttered Julie. Julie, Fuzzy and Pyg had to dodge around a tight knot of Asian tourists who’d stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. They posed with light skinned but absolutely ripped busker wearing nothing but a loin cloth with a fake sword dressed as Neil the Ork Barbarian from the trid flicks. “How about we call another boat to get home?” asked Fuzzy, “Pyg, what is the earliest we can get a boat to Vashon Island?” There were a few beats from the drone before she responded. “The latest ferry departed fifteen minutes ago and there is an expected delay, possibly due to Gridguide malfunctions,” said Pyg, “It will be seven o’clock before the next ferry leaves and one hour and forty-one minutes until you arrive at Vashon Island. There are options for chartering another boat, but only the most expensive options have immediate availability.” Pike Place Market was coming up on their left and it seemed that Fuzzy was intent on steering Julie towards it. The market spilled out onto the sidewalk so Fuzzy stopped and got in line at a stand that promised “cold pressed apple cider” at a sixty nuyen punch to the heart for an eight ounce cup that they didn’t even fill up all the way. Even if it was real, that was a lot of money and it made Julie appreciate that on Blake Island, she could get that for free. “How much is the boat?” asked Fuzzy. “Three-thousand three-hundred nuyen for a priority booking,” said Pyg. Fuzzy’s eye twitched once but she didn’t hesitate. “Book it,” said Fuzzy. Julie’s eyebrows shot up. Fuzzy had some money from hunting pigs through the rice farms of Snohomish all summer but she wasn’t loaded. Outside of her gear, the most money Julie had ever seen Fuzzy spend money on were meat buns and most of them didn’t even have meat in them. Julie had no idea how bad Fuzzy’s feeling was, but it was really, really bad if she was going to drop that kind of money instead of waiting for the next ferry. “I’m sorry,” said Pyg, “But it seems that it’s no longer available. There is another boat that I can charter that would cost five-thousand and nine-hundred nuyen that’s thirty minutes away. Would you like me to book that instead?” “Book it,” repeated Fuzzy, though through gritted teeth this time. Then Fuzzy looked directly into Julie’s eyes. There wasn’t anything particular about the look but the hair on the back of Julie’s neck rose in alarm. “I’ll need access to your commlink for bank account information,” said Pyg. “Sure,” said Fuzzy, without looking away. Fuzzy brought her commlink out of her pocket and Pyg pushed its index finger towards one of the plugs and a tiny plug slid out of the tip of the drone’s index finger and into the commlink’s jack. Then Fuzzy pulled her goggles briefly over her head and tapped her commlink before slipping them back over her head once more. “Done,” said Pyg, “It’ll be here in half an hour.” “What pier?” asked Fuzzy. “The one we’re walking towards now,” said Pyg, “You may follow me if you wish.” Fuzzy nodded and put her commlink back in her pocket. Pyg began walking into Pike Place Market and then Fuzzy grabbed Julie’s hand and guided her into the throng of tourists and past shops both permanent and pop-up. They passed by a row of merchants selling kitschy art of at best middling quality with subjects like the Seattle skyline, pictures of mountains and killer whales. Buskers played music and the noise of them and the crowd was agony in her ears. They made their way into a building, past an upscale food hall and down to the docks where Pyg pointed to a private dock. Fuzzy nodded and turned back towards the food hall with Julie still in tow. “Let me know if there are any more delays,” said Fuzzy. “Of course,” said Pyg. Instead of sitting at the dock, they instead went back into the upscale food hall. There were open tables but half eaten food was on almost every single one of them. Normally a cleaning drone came by to collect the food and throw it away but apparently it hadn’t done its job. So Pyg cleared the table as Julie and Fuzzy sat down. “Oh, it’s so loud,” groaned Julie, “Why?” “Pyg,” asked Fuzzy, “Can you buy a stim patch for Julie?” Pyg shook her head no. “Why not?” asked Fuzzy. “Certain items that are restricted for minors can’t be purchased by drones at all for legal reasons,” said Pyg, “Stim patches are one of them. I could buy some over the counter meds though. Maybe Tylenol? There is a pharmacy nearby.” “Sure,” said Fuzzy, “Hurry please.” Pyg left and Julie put her head down on the table. It wasn’t loud in here, but people were talking, she could still hear music and it was bright. So she shut her eyes and tried to block out the noise. “Buy food,” said Julie, into the table. “We have food,” said Fuzzy. Julie grumbled in complaint. “Buy food so we don’t get told to leave,” said Julie. “Oh, right,” said Fuzzy. Fuzzy ordered something so they wouldn’t be asked to leave or attract any more attention than they already were. Just a single basket of fish and chips. Though the “fish” were actually reconstituted krill and the “chips” were soy fries. They had a few minutes while Pyg got the meds and their food was being prepared, so Julie just kept her head down. She knew that she should keep watch with Fuzzy for whatever scary thing that was giving Fuzzy her bad feeling, but Julie had no idea what it was and Fuzzy didn’t want to talk out loud, so they couldn’t communicate. Fuzzy had probably figured out that something was happening but she couldn’t communicate. All that Julie knew is that Fuzzy thought they were being watched. “Tek is on his way,” said Fuzzy, a few minutes later. “Why?” asked Julie, without looking up. “To bring you a stim patch for your migraine,” said Fuzzy. Julie looked up and frowned at Fuzzy. “That’ll just make..” began Julie, but she paused. As soon as Julie opened her mouth, she understood why Fuzzy wanted the stim patch. Yes, it would make Julie’s migraine unbelievably bad an hour after taking it, but for that first hour she’d be at her best and capable of defending herself and watching Fuzzy’s back as the stimulants suppressed her migraine. Julie winced as a tourist family of elves arrived. Not that she saw them, but she heard them as they immediately let their children run around and scream at a pitch that only children can reliably hit. The parents ignored them and they were only three tables away. “Oh, that’s awful,” groaned Julie, “Nooooo…” “What?” asked Fuzzy. The young children’s shrieking felt like someone was driving daggers into Julie’s temples. Fuzzy looked at the kids, then back to Julie and then shrugged, though again, Julie didn’t see it. “Sorry,” said Fuzzy, “I lived in a house with a lot of kids growing up. I just block it out. Need something to block it out?” Julie covered her ears as the children continued to run around and screech about something, she didn’t care what. “Mhm!” she said, her voice reedy from pain. So Fuzzy cast an illusion spell, audio only. Suddenly it was as if she were surrounded by a white noise generator. Not a very good one because she could still hear the children but… “No, not good enough,” said Fuzzy, still audible through the noise. So she dropped the spell and the children’s shrieking came right back to her ears before Fuzzy recast the spell again. This time it was much, much better and Julie sighed in relief. “Oh,” sighed Julie, “Oh…Oh that’s nice. Now if I could only do something about that light.” Fuzzy thought about it and got close enough to Julie inside of the magical white noise generator that Julie could hear her. “Yeah, I can do something about that,” said Fuzzy, “Sit up for a second.” So Julie did and she felt Fuzzy take off her glasses and put her own goggles on Julie’s head. It was uncomfortable but Fuzzy readjusted the straps. At first Julie could see perfectly out of the goggles which was a problem because everything was so bright, but then Fuzzy dimmed the visuals on her goggles. Julie sagged with relief and laid her head back down on the table. “You relax for a second,” said Fuzzy, “Tek and Pyg are on the way with meds and we’ll get the boat. Don’t move too much though. The spell is just around your head and mine and I’m going to shrink it so it’s just around yours.” Julie felt Fuzzy squeeze her hand but then she quietly wrote on the back of it three letters. CPS. At first Julie was confused because that was supposed to be over. In fact, Julian was suing the city on their behalf for breaking several laws. However, she quickly figured that this was the same kind of situation. Someone was trying to take sneaky shots at them and Julie was too incapacitated to do anything about it. Any further thinking about their situation wasn’t going to help so Julie did her best to relax. To her surprise she found that she could. After all, she’d been in worse situations and while she was worried, she didn’t let it keep her from resting. Also the fact that Fuzzy’s magical white noise sounded less mechanical and more like a rainstorm, complete with the sound of raindrops hitting the roof of a cabin helped enormously. The sound of the crowd and of the screaming, unattended children faded as she let the sound of the rain wash over her. Sometime later, there was a sudden vibration on the table that woke Julie with a start. The smell of hot food on her table wafted through the magical sounds of rain. Through Fuzzy’s dimmed goggles, she saw the “fish and chips” meal, though the fish were reconstituted krill and the fries were slices of fried soy. Julie saw Pyg open a bottle of Tylenol, say something that she couldn’t hear, but her intention was clear. The resident medic took one more pill than the recommended dose, which she downed not with the Fizzychug soda that Fuzzy had bought. In fact, Pyg slid it away and pushed a cup of water towards her. Belatedly she remembered that caffeine would probably make her migraine that much worse, so she drank the pills down with water. Her task done, Pyg sat down and since neither Julie nor Fuzzy were eating, Pyg began to eat the fish and chips to burn as fuel for her internal batteries while Fuzzy drank the Fizzychug soda. “How long was I asleep for?” asked Julie, as she wiped some drool from her mouth. Belatedly she remembered that no one could hear her because of the magical white noise generator around her head, but Fuzzy got the idea and moved her head close to Julie’s. “Fifteen minutes,” said Fuzzy, “Tek is almost here. Do you feel better?” Julie actually did and more than a little. Now she only had a headache though that could easily tip towards a migraine once more. “I do,” said Julie, “Better, but not okay.” “poo poo…Okay, those kids are getting worse,” sighed Fuzzy, “I asked Pyg to go and talk to the parents but they just brushed her off. I’d try to talk to them but…” Julie looked at Fuzzy’s outfit: Devil rat armor jacket, leather pants and steel toed boots. She usually didn’t really notice how Fuzzy dressed since that was Fuzzy’s style, but her friend looked like a hooligan. The armor jacket especially was worn by people who actively expected trouble like street toughs while Julie’s armored vest fit under her top and was much more low key. Fuzzy’s armor was better overall, but it earned her looks. The only reason Fuzzy tended to get a pass was because she was a short, young, human woman that otherwise didn’t look like much. “They’d just call security on you,” sighed Julie. “Yeah,” said Fuzzy, “They’re getting a lot of dirty looks because of their kids but they keep right on screaming about some game or something. Anyway, I need to drop the spell. I’m splitting my concentration and that makes it hard to pay attention. Are you going to be okay? I’ve got some beeswax that I use for my bowstrings and some cotton balls if you…” “I’ll be fine,” said Julie, “I’ll…” A familiar face from yesterday made his way through the crowd and towards their table. Tek, wearing blue jeans, black boots and an armor jacket that looked of a similar make to Fuzzy’s, pushed wove his way through the tables in the food hall. Unlike Fuzzy, Tek was a large ork and he’d come in armor that was usually reserved for street toughs or gangers, but of course he wasn’t wearing any gang colors. Still, he was attracting looks and people were far more nervous around him than Fuzzy. He threw an upward nod to Fuzzy, who returned it kind. Then winked at Julie, who did not feel at all like flirting or being flirted with. Though he really turned on the charm for Pyg, the drone, as he stepped back and gave the high end drone, who looked like a stunning, blonde drone who looked like an, a good looking over. “Oh drat,” he said, “Fuzzy, who’s your friend?” “This is Pyg,” said Fuzzy, “She’s a drone.” Pyg flashed a charming smile at Tek, whose own smile evaporated immediately and Julie found that she had just enough energy for the tiniest giggle. Last night he hadn’t hit on Julie since she and Fuzzy were dealing with the fallout from the magical equivalent of a school shooting. Though Julie figured it was to his credit that he’d just drank with them and listened instead of flirting as she’d been in no mood for any amount of flirting then either after seeing Joyce pierced by several spikes of ice. “Huh,” said Tek, who scratched at some stubble on his chin, “Never would’ve figured.” He was a bit embarrassed and before he could decide if he wanted to try his luck with Julie again, the two annoying children pelted towards their table. “It’s mine!” shrieked a little elven girl. A light skinned little girl of about seven was chasing her brother, who looked to be about five and wore shorts and some sort of red shirt with a cartoon cat from some children’s show that she wasn’t familiar with. Her blonde pigtails flew as she ran around, bumping into people and scrambling under tables as he, the smaller of the two ducked under them with ease. He held up some sort of handheld gaming system in one hand as he ran away from her. “It’s not your turn!” he shouted. The little girl, who wore a white skirt and a periwinkle t-shirt that had cartoon animals on it that read “Sea-lebrities”, which was probably from the aquarium, barely managed to grab her younger brother and took him viciously to the ground right next to Julie’s table. He cried out but apparently both children were pretty scrappy. So ensued a brutal, little kid fight to the death over who got to hold the game system. “You broke yours!” shouted the girl, “You don’t get a turn on mine!” “Nooooo!” shouted the boy, “It’s not your turrrrrrn!” Julie covered her ears as the migraine threatened to come back. Fuzzy looked like she was about to do something but she didn’t know what. Tek looked from the kids, back to Julie and then down at the kids again. “Want me to take care of this?” asked Tek, obviously annoyed, “I’ll just fling that loving game thing across the room.” Julie almost said yes, but Tek had already gathered enough attention and an ork that looked half a step away from a ganger messing with wealthy children almost certainly caused more trouble than what it was worth. But since he just arrived, Julie remembered that time in spring when she and Fuzzy went to a concert to go find Oli and Tek and make sure that they were okay. How that problem had been solved. Part of her just wanted to leave but she was feeling the slightest bit vindictive. “Hey Fuzzy,” said Julie, hands still over her ears, “Remember how you helped out Oli the first time we met her?” Tek’s face darkened, because Oli had been kissing a gang member who was in his early twenties and she’d been fourteen at the time. It’d ended in a fight that Tek won and then the losing gang got mobbed by the crowd at the concert. Fuzzy grinned and nodded, then worked her illusion magic again and spelled out in large, flashing green neon above the children, “Bratty children” it read and then above their parents, “Their lovely parents”. The little kid’s fight at their feet continued but Julie laughed despite her headache and Tek joined her. Then a few other people who’d also been annoyed by the children looked up and began to laugh as well, who nudged their friends and pointed at the magical sign in midair. Soon, dozens of people were laughing because they’d all been annoyed by the kids for the last fifteen minutes. That laughter didn’t initially get the parent’s attention as the father seemed to be paying attention to augmented reality and the mother seemed more interested in her third glass of wine, which seeing as they’d arrived not much more than fifteen minutes ago was impressive. Then someone from the laughing crowd threw a french fry at the father’s head. The french fry struck true and it landed perfectly in one of the mother’s empty wine glasses. Both parents were startled and the mother, who was tall, overweight and a tourist, made obvious by the fanny pack and enormous bag at her side, made some angry noises until it slowly dawned on them that everyone was laughing at them and their children. The fatter and slightly shorter elven father was roughly smacked on the shoulder until he lifted his oversized goggles. The mother pointed at their children and they had a brief argument as the magical sign flashed above their heads. Finally the mother, obviously drunk, stood up, took the handheld gaming system and hauled both of the protesting children away. “That’s a spell!” she called out, shrilly, “That means that there are toxic mages in the crowd, don’t you know! You shouldn’t…” What they all should or shouldn’t do, according to her, was lost as laughter drowned her out. She shouted something at her husband, but he wasn’t budging and only shrugged in indifference at her anger. But the kids soon quieted down under the severe gaze of their mother and the threat of further public humiliation. Fuzzy figured the show was over so she released her spell. No one could tell where the illusion spell had come from and so the parents had no one to vent their anger on. “Nice,” said Tek. Fuzzy brushed some imaginary dust from her armor jacket, though Julie could tell that Fuzzy was still paying attention to her surroundings by the way that her eyes moved. “Thanks,” said Fuzzy, with a smug smile. There was a pause before Tek suddenly remembered why he was here and he reached into his pocket and dug around for something. He came out with a few items: A zeroed out credstick, a candy bar wrapper and a spark plug. After a bit of grumbling he found the stim patch still in the plastic wrap. It looked like a square adhesive bandage and it could be applied directly to the skin to suppress Julie’s headache. At least for an hour. “Here you go, Julie,” said Tek. He handed it to Julie and she took it. Part of her wanted to slap it on right now to make her still nasty headache go away but for the moment she just pocketed it without using it. Tek noticed and frowned at Fuzzy. “I thought you needed it,” said Tek. “We do,” said Fuzzy, “Just not right now.” Tek mouthed “what the gently caress” at her and spread his arms. After all, even though it was a short ride here it was still dangerous to be outside in Downtown Seattle right now. That went double if you were an ork. She couldn’t explain why he’d just risked his safety to him or even Julie, who only thought that she got it. Something about the situation bothered Julie though and she pulled the stim patch back out of her pocket and took a real second look at it. It appeared to be one of the higher dosage stim patches and it was in pristine shape, not that she used it much. In fact, usage of stim patches was really rare in Touristville because of the crash an hour after using it. Most people would either power through a headache or go and get some rest. So her small supply of stim patches had been collecting dust for nearly a year now. On a hunch, she slid the tip of her thumb across the plastic wrapper as she looked for dust and found absolutely nothing. It was as if the stim patch had been bought yesterday, but when she checked the back she saw that the expiration date lined up with having bought it almost a year ago. It was possible that Tek had rubbed most of the dust off the plastic wrapper, but all of it? She had to be sure. And despite the fact that she really wanted the world to be dimmer, she lifted Fuzzy’s borrowed goggles onto her forehead so they couldn’t see any more of what she saw. “Hey Fuzzy,” said Julie, “Can you come to the restroom with me?” “Huh?” asked Fuzzy, “Uh, sure.” Julie stood up despite her pounding headache and so did Fuzzy. “Tek,” said Julie, “Can you stay here with Pyg until we get back?” Tek shrugged. “Sure,” he said, neutrally, “Hey uh…Mind spotting me for some of this good food though?” “Sure,” said Fuzzy, “Hey Pyg, just order whatever he wants. Two beers max though since you’re driving.” “Come on, Fuzzy,” complained Tek, “What are you, my mother?” Fuzzy ignored him and Julie and Fuzzy left together for a nearby restroom. This time, Fuzzy followed Julie’s lead and didn’t ask any questions because they didn’t know if they were being monitored, but they did suspect it. Thankfully, the restroom was empty for the moment and also very clean. And once again, Julie grabbed the patch and ran her thumb across it, looking for any dust on either side and found none. So carefully, Julie peeled open the plastic wrap of the stimpatch. It looked like a normal bandaid that matched the color of her skin though in actuality it wasn’t a bandaid, but a transdermal patch. That meant it was a medicated, adhesive patch and the applicator where the medicine was stored was currently covered by removable plastic. Julie peeled just the barest corner of the protective plastic back and to brush her finger across it. With her diagnosis spell, she could check the drugs after they entered her body. However, Fuzzy stopped her, shook her head and then very carefully, she hovered her own finger over the medicated side. She hesitated for just an instant, probably consulting with her danger sense before brushing just the tip of her index finger against it. Careful not to touch Fuzzy’s finger, instead she took Fuzzy’s other hand in her own and through the pain, Julie cast the diagnosis spell and grit her teeth as she successfully resisted the magical drain. The spell worked but Julie wasn’t sure how well until she focused on Fuzzy’s fingertip and found the chemicals currently working their way through her skin. At first, Julie just found the cocktail of stimulants but at a minute level. There was something else though. Mixed into the stimulants was something that she’d become familiar with over the summer when she’d taken her college credit emergency medical technician class. Part of that class had been drug identification and while she hadn’t had the diagnosis spell then, she’d been taught to identify street drugs. Also some people just came into her doctor’s office high sometimes. It was Seattle after all. Hidden among the cocktail of stimulants was the street drug named bliss, which made Julie’s eyes widen in realization. Bliss was the street name used for a type of heroin that induced feelings of happiness, calm and general euphoria in its user. Someone had just tried to drug Julie and they’d managed to produce a high quality replica fast. If she hadn’t noticed the lack of dust then she would’ve been drugged. So either it had come from Tek himself or someone in her doctor’s office. “Hey,” said Julie, her mouth suddenly dry. She hesitated because someone was almost certainly watching them and Julie focused on the drugs to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. “What?” asked Fuzzy, calmly. The drug cocktail wasn’t lethal, which was probably why Fuzzy allowed herself to touch it. But as she focused on the drugs, the stimulants were interacting with Fuzzy’s body quickly while the bliss released slowly. In fact, it seemed to be on some sort of time release. Julie theorized that the bliss would kick in after about an hour when the stimulants were no longer in effect. The one-two combination of the world’s worst caffeine crash followed immediately by her first dose of bliss would render her completely defenseless, if not unconscious in an hour. Though the dose Fuzzy took was so tiny that it was doubtful that she’d feel anything. “Um…What do you think about Tek?” asked Julie. Julie’s mind raced for something to talk about because she was now certain that someone was listening in on her through any device that could listen in, including both Julie and Fuzzy’s commlinks. At the moment, she didn’t think that anyone had cameras in the bathroom, which was good and her glasses were currently in her pocket. Fuzzy’s goggles were still on Julie’s forehead as well so she hoped that this was audio only. So she thought about what someone else might assume that teenage girls would talk about in the bathroom together. The answer was obvious. Boys. Lots of people assumed that teenage girls only talked about boys when no one else was around. “He’s okay I guess,” said Fuzzy. Fuzzy wasn’t sure what was going on but she followed Julie’s lead. And the topic was simple enough that Fuzzy could talk openly and honestly about her friend without having to lie, which she was bad at. “Is he single?” asked Julie, awkwardly. Julie released the spell and spelled out the word “knife” on Fuzzy’s hand. Without any hesitation, Fuzzy reached into her boot and produced a survival knife and offered it to Julie, handle first. It wasn’t suited for the job but it’d have to do. Checking to see if anyone else was in the bathroom, Julie carefully tried to pry the knife under the applicator without damaging the adhesive part of the patch. But Fuzzy held up a hand and made a beckoning motion, so Julie handed her the knife and the patch and made a scraping motion with one hand. Fuzzy nodded in understanding. “Tek doesn’t date much,” said Fuzzy. With little trouble, Fuzzy scraped the medicated pad on the underside of the stim patch into the trash and quickly sheathed her boot knife and moved her pants to conceal it. It seemed that Fuzzy was just really good with knives because no Julie just had what was essentially a bandaid without the cotton underneath. Part of Julie wondered why Fuzzy hadn’t used her spearknife, but she’d ask later. For now, all that was left of the transdermal patch was the adhesive. “Why not?” asked Julie, “Doesn’t he like girls?” Julie wasn’t sure if her performance was wooden or not. Surprisingly, Fuzzy was doing an okay job. Nothing about the conversation was untruthful. It seemed that weekends larping had made Fuzzy into someone who was halfway decent at acting and that meant keeping cool for her part of the conversation. And the conversation was mundane enough that Fuzzy was doing a good job and Julie’s natural awkwardness helped her muddle through it. “Oh, he likes girls just fine,” said Fuzzy, “Girls like him too.” Now that Julie was left with just the adhesive, she had a choice to make. The seal on the stimpatch was broken and if she tried to put it back in her pocket, whoever had just taken a shot at her might have a backup plan. But if she could put it on with no problem now that the drugged part of the patch was gone and lull them into a false sense of security. Whoever was coming for her would wait for at least an hour until they expected her to become defenseless. Fuzzy met Julie’s eyes. Again, there was no urgency to Fuzzy’s look, just a quiet intensity that meant that Julie should pay attention. They spoke without speaking and Julie asked Fuzzy with a glance if Tek was trustworthy. “He’s a good guy,” said Fuzzy, “I trust him. I think he’d jump through a lot of hoops to get a chance to date you.” Julie nodded, understanding what she was saying. Fuzzy trusted Tek. But that left a lot of questions. If Tek hadn’t tried to drug Julie, who in her doctor’s office had given him the false patch? — CYOA Time! Someone just took a very sneaky shot at Julie and tried to dose her with heroin. And the specific type of heroin is called bliss in Shadowrun. This is a time released version and it would come after the crash of the stimulants which would have rendered her defenseless. Blake Island will take two hours to get back by way of Vashon Island and then they'd take the school boat home which would be another fifteen minutes. Touristville will take fifteen minutes to get to but the riots are ongoing in that direction. Also whoever just tried to drug Julie is quite possibly there right now. What does Julie do? Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 06:39
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I think two hours is too long. How capable is Tek if we need his help defending Julie on the way to Touristville? Is there anyone else in Touistville right now that would help defend Fuzzy and Julie once they get there, and how powerful are they? Do we have any spells or artifacts that could check for disloyalty? If Julie has enough allies in Touristville, it's probably better to quickly get to a defensible place with backup, even if it's more dangerous, than to take much longer (8x the time) to try to get to an absolutely safe place but be ridiculously exposed and without support on the way there. Can Fuzzy get her surge pricing boat money back if she cancels her Boat Stuck fucked around with this message at 07:17 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 07:08
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PurpleButterfly posted:Hello, thread. Sorry to get people all excited about there being a new post in this thread; this isn't a story update, just another fan of this series saying hi. Hi! quote:I'm about 12-13 pages behind on the thread at the moment, but I have read this thread straight through from the beginning up to that point, and it is fantastic. Ice, I'm enjoying this story very much. I'm really glad that you like it. quote:As someone who read Harry Potter books 4-7 as they came out and is now very disillusioned with the whole thing, this story is a joy to read. It brings some of that old feeling of wonder, excitement, and enchantment from those days back, but it's so much better in so many ways. (Fully-fleshed-out, non-stereotypical POC and LGBT+ characters! Unflinching explorations of real-world politics!) I am 100% on board with this story and excited for future updates. I read the HP books as well and also caught 4-7 as they came out. I remember watching the first movie, feeling bored and my little brother gushed about the series. So I borrowed his books and enjoyed them. I see the flaws now and I'm not thrilled with their transphobic author, but the books were influential for me and I've read 1-6 about a half dozen times each. Though I'll say that the main influence for me starting the story was the Persona series. Specifically Persona 3 through 5. I do like putting in LGBTQ+ characters and I enjoy writing the wlw romance between Fuzzy and Sasha. I used to be a romance writer and one of the things that always bothered me with stories that have some sort of romance element to it is that in most stories, the focus is on the chase instead of seeing a relationship begin, mature and grow as the characters in said relationship grow together. I want it to be fun and sad and sweet and for it to have all the ups and downs of a normal relationship. I also made a promise to myself all the way back in book one that I wasn't going to write in a way that was exploitative or in a way that's meant to titillate at all. Not that I'm against writing to titillate in general. It's just that I don't want that for the teens. Adults are fine. Part of what helped me write great LGBTQ+ characters is part of being the B in LGBTQ+, having great people who contribute to the story and specifically talking to people within the LGBTQ+ community about what feels authentic and what they'd like to see. Early on in the work I wanted to write a wlw romance because back then, there were very few people doing that and I knew that there was a hunger for it. Not just the chase, but to see a relationship grow and change and mature. And I find myself very annoyed with modern media where a lesbian relationship is like thunderdome but instead of killing each other, one randomly dies in a tragic way. Two lesbians enter, one lesbian leaves. As for POC representation, again that just comes down to talking to people or consuming media written by and for people who aren't white. In my rewrite I've actually been specifically mentioning the skin color of people who are light skinned or classically "white" instead of assuming that whiteness is the default. And in Shadowrun, whiteness doesn't really exist and has been replaced by humanness. So while Fuzzy would be considered "white" with her blonde hair and blue eyes and Sasha is a Latina (sans most of the culture), since they're both human, no one but the oldest of old people would consider their relationship to be interracial in the Shadowrun universe. However, Julian is a "human passing" elf with light skin and Min Yun is a human Hmong. Their relationship would be considered interracial because Julian is an elf and Min Yun is human. The fact that Julian is light skinned enough to be considered "white" and Min Yun is Hmong (Southeast Asian), would be noted upon but the vast majority of people wouldn't discriminate based on ethnicity. That discrimination isn't gone, but it's far less pronounced. The maintenance of corporate and state power is no longer wrapped up in whiteness, but humanness. A mostly lateral move from white supremacy to human supremacy. It's the same stuff with different people on the top and bottom of the racial hierarchy. Which is to say yes, I talk about politics too. And I prefer to do it in a way that isn't caught up in the very narrow focus of partisan politics that excludes quite a lot of important questions that are never addressed by those in power. I like to give attention to topics that are starved for that attention. quote:This story sparked my imagination so much that, for my recent trip to Seattle, I put an outfit together that roughly approximates what I imagine a Blake Island school uniform might look like. (Disclaimer: I know this is probably not what Ice Phisherman or anyone else imagines they might look like, but that's how narrative prose works.) I made an Imgur album (non-public, of course) with the pictures I took on Saturday, May 20 that I felt were worth sharing. The outfit is from the Land's End store on Amazon, with a heat-transferred logo that I made with Craiyon (one of the most cyberpunk things I've ever done) and then edited and fixed up in Photoshop. I have to say that this is the very first time that anyone has ever done a cosplay of any of my work. It's very flattering. I'm glad that you had such a fun time. quote:Rock on, Ice Phisherman. You've created something that I think is really cool. Whatever you're up to lately, I hope you can get back to writing eventually. I'm trying to get work out, but I'm also trying to start a new career and I've been doing a lot of studying so I can get ready for training. That's what I've been doing for the last two months. I have about three more weeks of study before I get fully licensed and begin start training. It's pretty exciting and since I'll be working mostly from home, I'll be able to write when there's nothing going on.
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Jun 6, 2023 07:16
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Boat Stuck posted:I think two hours is too long. How capable is Tek if we need his help defending Julie on the way to Touristville? Is there anyone else in Touistville right now that would help defend Fuzzy and Julie once they get there, and how powerful are they? Tek is somewhat capable in both receiving and doing violence and he has about 8 dice in combat skills and he's tough and well armored, so he can take a few hits before going down. If you're familiar with Shadowrun example NPC's, Tek is about as strong as your average npc ganger. Not a gang leader, not a gang lieutenant, just your average mook. Where I think he shines wouldn't be on the NPC sheet though as he won't hesitate to use violence. As a house rule (when I remember) I make most characters roll composure to actually attempt to hurt or kill someone. So he won't lose a turn if someone attacks him or Fuzzy or Julie. He'll begin to attack immediately and won't hesitate to shoot someone in the face. Though it probably will gently caress him up later if he actually kills someone. Also there are plenty of people who can and will defend Julie if they get there. The Touristville militia is about 50 people strong and people from the community have both guns and hand weapons if called upon. Shotguns in tight quarters will make a fine mist of anyone if the community is pushed that far. The problem isn't protection exactly. The problem is that someone just took a shot at Julie and it came directly from her doctor's office. The problem is knowing who to trust because if they put their trust in the wrong person or persons, that's extremely dangerous. I rolled dice to see if Fuzzy can get some money back. With a glitch with one hit, she can get half of her money back eventually. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 07:29
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It'd be dangerous, but what about laying a trap for her attacker? If Julie puts the adhesive-only, defanged stim patch on her skin, in a slightly visible place, it'll look like she took the drugs. This will buy them an hour. Blake Island is too far away, so that leaves Touristville. Deliberately go to Touristville, and have Julie find a place to "crash" somewhere that looks isolated, but has places for Fuzzy and maybe Tek to hide, magically or otherwise. Communicating clandestinely with Tek may be difficult, not sure if that will work. Assume their comms are bugged. Get Chip on standby too. Go and "crash", wait for the attacker, then ambush them. Film the entire thing. Try to act as unaware as possible in the interim. There's two obvious motives for the attacker's actions: * Someone wants to frame Julie for taking drugs to provide plausible reasons for CPS to do their thing, or to otherwise discredit her. * Someone wants to harm or kill Julie, but finds her too dangerous to take on with her faculties intact. Julie's headache is too convenient and the bliss'd stim patch is too elaborate for it to be capitalizing on an opportunity in such a small amount of time. Someone planned this. Time to find out who. I don't know if this is a particularly wise idea. Anyone else have any opinions?
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Jun 6, 2023 15:12
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I feel like this trap plan has the bait part worked out better than the trap part. What would be the plan if someone actually shows up? What if they only want video evidence of her being blissed out? Question for Ice: How easy is it to tamper with whatever contains the stim packs? Anything else in the clinic that could have been tampered with is also suspect.
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Jun 7, 2023 21:55
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Dr Subterfuge posted:I feel like this trap plan has the bait part worked out better than the trap part. What would be the plan if someone actually shows up? What if they only want video evidence of her being blissed out? It is entirely possible that she'll be attacked if she was drugged. She'd be extremely vulnerable and only have Fuzzy and Tek as protectors that she could count on. It is also possible that her being high on bliss (heroin) would be used to reopen the CPS case and use the courts to transfer legal guardianship away from Julian and back to Julie's mom. I haven't mentioned it in a while, but Julie's mom does not like Julie, is not doing well financially since Julie's dad died and would love to sell Julie's property for tens of millions of nuyen. Also if Julie died, her property and her share of the business (Kenji owns a large percentage as well) would revert to Julie's mom as next of kin. quote:Question for Ice: How easy is it to tamper with whatever contains the stim packs? Anything else in the clinic that could have been tampered with is also suspect. I'll say that if you sealed the plastic after opening it, you could pretty easily tamper with and seal the stim pack wrapper. You'd just have to have the right drugs on hand. I will say that dosing the stim pack would take some kind of medical knowledge. Also, I'll say this for free. Most drug users wouldn't want time released bliss/heroin. At least not the kind that wouldn't get you high quickly. The fact that it takes an hour to get high after getting dosed means that the drug isn't a street drug. It was made in a lab for a purpose. But yes, absolutely, if her doctor's office is compromised, anything else in her doctor's office or dentist office could be compromised as well.
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Jun 7, 2023 22:23
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Dr Subterfuge posted:I feel like this trap plan has the bait part worked out better than the trap part. What would be the plan if someone actually shows up? What if they only want video evidence of her being blissed out? This, Julie/Fuzzy don't have enough resources to strike back or spring any traps right now. Is there anyone left they can call for help? Can they call Sasha for emergency matrix overwatch, or is she busy? I'm also leaning toward waiting for and taking the boat back to the island.
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Jun 7, 2023 22:38
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Question Time posted:This, Julie/Fuzzy don't have enough resources to strike back or spring any traps right now. Is there anyone left they can call for help? Can they call Sasha for emergency matrix overwatch, or is she busy? I'm also leaning toward waiting for and taking the boat back to the island. Sasha would most likely be back in the vat by now and contacting her would be very difficult. Not impossible, but it would take about an hour and it would require talking to her over the matrix. Julie could leave her body via astral projection, fly around like a spirit and attempt to talk to people. She could even go to Blake Island and ask for help. Travel to any part of Seattle would take roughly a minute, but her body would still be wherever she left it last. Julie could also attempt to communicate to Chip. The communication is emotional only, but it can't be intercepted.
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Jun 7, 2023 22:55
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In terms of the trap itself -- maybe something low risk like this: Fuzzy and Julie go back to Touristville. They go somewhere somewhat isolated where Julie could lay down, then Fuzzy says her "goodbyes" and she leaves. Julie follows Fuzzy with her improved invisibility spell and finds a place to stake out the entrance to the place where she's supposed to be. Fuzzy leaves, then she herself uses her improved invisibility and rejoins Julie as soon as she's reasonably certain she isn't being tailed. Stay there for an hour or two, and leave if nothing happens. There's two potential ways that can go down: 1) Malefactor is mundane. Unlikely for the malefactor to notice Julie skulking about invisibly, and obviously Fuzzy probably doesn't even need the spell with her skills + stats + magic. Looking at her sheet, Julie actually has a rank in Sneaking so she wouldn't be completely useless at this. 2) Malefactor is awakened and is astrally active (either physically present and perceiving or projecting.) In either case, the ruse would be up. Auras can still be seen in the astral, even if you're invisible. Likely, the malefactor would scrub the attack/defamation attempt at this point, since they went to so much trouble to disable Julie before moving in. As long as the scoobies don't let themselves get boxed in, this should be a low risk strategy. Identifying the attacker is the primary goal; do not engage. A question -- is Chip up to speed on his commlink yet? Obviously Julie doesn't need to use a commlink to communicate with Chip, but Chip having the ability to use a commlink at all is a wildcard that most wouldn't expect. Who gives their ally spirit a commlink?
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Jun 7, 2023 23:36
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:A question -- is Chip up to speed on his commlink yet? Obviously Julie doesn't need to use a commlink to communicate with Chip, but Chip having the ability to use a commlink at all is a wildcard that most wouldn't expect. Who gives their ally spirit a commlink? Chip is up to speed with his commlink, yes.
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Jun 8, 2023 00:12
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Hm, the time table is kinda strict, so getting Chip to surprise contact a bunch of people probably wouldn't do anything useful. Scratch that idea, then. I think the observation thing will still probably work as-is. Gonna have to talk to Tek about how exactly he got the stimpatch later.
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Jun 8, 2023 01:05
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Considering that the patch came from Julie's office, whoever is targeting her has a worrying amount of access to T-Ville and Julie's life in particular. I'd propose making a rather unexpected move and moving to the Gates Undersound. How much would it run our teens to get a daypass for the spa or rent a room for a night or something similar to become legitimate customers of the Undersound for at least the next six-ish hours? Because as has been demonstrated they have actual corporate security who'd be on call if anything happened. If the point of the attack was to get Julie drugged and the CPS case reopened then the attempt has already been foiled and escaping their matrix overwatch (since presumably the Undersound is a harder target than a random food court) could lead to them still trying to push the angle later on when a drug test will come up negative. If the point of the attack was physical harm then having a bunch of mercs around is gonna make the whole attempt a lot harder and probably lead to them calling things off.
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Jun 8, 2023 08:26
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sheep-dodger posted:Considering that the patch came from Julie's office, whoever is targeting her has a worrying amount of access to T-Ville and Julie's life in particular. I'd propose making a rather unexpected move and moving to the Gates Undersound. How much would it run our teens to get a daypass for the spa or rent a room for a night or something similar to become legitimate customers of the Undersound for at least the next six-ish hours? Because as has been demonstrated they have actual corporate security who'd be on call if anything happened. Here's a table cost table for services in Seattle. Julie is currently wealthy enough that most of these costs are trivial. I'm more letting you know what people could buy. https://ratsnest.obsidianportal.com/wikis/cost-table I'm going to say that a suite at the Gates Undersound will cost 1000 nuyen a night and security is extremely tight. Pyg could also be shut down, searched and stored as part of the 1000 a night. They could shut off their commlinks and be reasonably certain that they're no longer being actively spied on, so Julie and Fuzzy could begin to compare notes. They could also make secure calls out for a fee. I'll also say looking at the list that bodyguards will run 1000 nuyen each for a 24 hour period. They are not cheap because it is a sellers market. Julie and Fuzzy are both minors but Tek is old enough to rent a room for them. Though the Gates Undersound absolutely will look down their nose at all three of them. Holing up somewhere safe like in the Gates Undersound would buy them safety.
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Jun 8, 2023 10:18
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I think bunkering down for a night is the safe play here, also cheaper than the surge pricing on getting a boat. Hopefully by tomorrow the immediate danger has passed and/or Julian has managed to pull his head out of his rear end, freeing up him and Kenji to come join up if need be.
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Jun 8, 2023 13:03
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sheep-dodger posted:I think bunkering down for a night is the safe play here, also cheaper than the surge pricing on getting a boat. Hopefully by tomorrow the immediate danger has passed and/or Julian has managed to pull his head out of his rear end, freeing up him and Kenji to come join up if need be. I love this idea. Great out-of-the-box thinking. Let's do that.
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Jun 8, 2023 21:02
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Sleepover at the Gates Undersound-time
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Jun 8, 2023 21:36
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Yeah, I can get on board with the maximum safety option. However, keep in mind that the scoobies still need to do a bunch of summoning for their environmental cleanup project tomorrow. Can they expect to do that in the Gates Undersound hotel room, or will magical security tear them a new one? If not, then they probably need to leave sooner rather than later.
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Jun 8, 2023 21:44
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Okay, it looks like we're camping out at the Gates Undersound. Writing now.
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Jun 8, 2023 22:19
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Gwyneth Palpate posted:Yeah, I can get on board with the maximum safety option. However, keep in mind that the scoobies still need to do a bunch of summoning for their environmental cleanup project tomorrow. Can they expect to do that in the Gates Undersound hotel room, or will magical security tear them a new one? If not, then they probably need to leave sooner rather than later. presumably they won't be able to do any summoning at the Undersound, but they need to do some calls anyway to see who they bring along from the broader friend group, iirc they haven't asked around yet, so they can probably get that done this afternoon, get an early night and start tomorrow early I'd imagine.
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Jun 9, 2023 00:58
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Julie, Fuzzy, Tek, Carl and Pyg - Thursday, August 30th, 2075 – Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex Julie emerged from the women’s bathroom with Fuzzy and had decided not to put the fake stim patch on her skin. At least not for now. Instead she’d stored it in her pocket sans plastic wrapper as that likely still had trace amounts of drugs on the inside. It seemed prudent not to carry any amount of drugs on her at all. Together, Julie and Fuzzy wove their way through the crowd in the food hall and back towards their table where Tek and Pyg sat. To Julie’s dismay, Tek was gathering attention because he looked like an ork hoodlum in an affluent place. The fact that he was basically a street tough was beside the point because at the moment all he wanted to do was get the food he ordered, stay until Fuzzy no longer needed him and then leave. Tek minded his own business but the wealthy tourists minded him, which Tek seemed keenly aware of. “I think maybe we should be somewhere else,” said Julie. Julie had noticed the increased attention as well and decided that they really should move along. Tek waffled between wanting to leave and waiting for his promised food. “The food is better at home, Tek,” said Fuzzy. Tek made a face as Fuzzy’s opinion finally pushed him unwillingly towards caution. “Fine,” he complained, “I’m just hungry.” The attention of so many people on Tek had set Julie’s teeth on edge, but the weight of that attention suddenly lessened. The crowd didn’t become more accepting, far from it. They just found something new to pay attention to. So Julie looked and then suddenly caught the faintest whiff of burnt trash in the air. At first she thought the wind had changed and the smell of the riot had drifted towards them somehow, but she couldn’t smell fresh smoke. She held her nose but it didn’t help much because the smell was strong enough that she could smell it by breathing. As each second passed the smell became increasingly offensive to the nose as the trash smell built in intensity. “Ugh, what the gently caress is that smell?” asked someone in the crowd, obviously disgusted. “Yeah, where is that coming from?” asked someone else. “Did someone fart?” asked one of the nearby children, “Mommy, someone farted real bad.” When she sniffed out where it was coming from, she heard the grumble of more tourists complaining. A few occupied tables were suddenly vacated or at the very least, people leaned away from the smell while trying to figure out where it came from. What was left in their absence were two people, a man and a woman, both filthy and ragged. The crowd stared and Julie and her friends finally got the full brunt of their smell. A smell so foul and intense that If it was a sound, she would’ve covered her ears or yelled to turn it down. One was a woman in filthy looking flats, the disposable vending machine clothing that was common to only the poorest people in Seattle. She was an ork with short, greasy, disheveled hair but it was legitimately difficult to determine age or even skin color. Though she was clothed, she was barefoot. The human man on the other hand was in better shape and so she could tell more about him. He was definitely older, maybe in his fifties or sixties. His skin was light and he was less dirty, with better kept but still filthy flats that looked like they’d been repaired. On his feet were what looked like black sandals made from tire treads. As people left, they left behind food and the man noticed. Immediately he went to a mostly uneaten basket of fish and chips and began hungrily devouring them, picking up the basket so he could better defend it while wolfing his food down so fast that Julie was certain he might choke. The woman looked at the food for a good five seconds, approached and then stared at the food and then began to eat like he did. Though it seemed like there was some sort of strange lag time between her decisions. And unlike him, she sat down at the table and didn’t pick up her own abandoned basket of fish and chips. She even put some malt vinegar on her food after yet another few moments of staring at the bottle and then shaking it on the food. “Oh man,” said Tek, “That’s bad. What the gently caress are they doing here?” The father of the previously loud children finally stood up. He was a fat, light skinned, elven man in a Hawaaiian shirt, khaki shorts, flip flops. He also had a few cybernetic augmentations, namely his silvery, cybernetic eyes and a datajack in the side of his temple that was easy to spot since his blonde hair was close cropped. “Hey,” he called out, in a deep and nasally voice, “Get out of here. Shoo.” It was as if the tourist was talking to two wild animals that had stumbled into the food hall. The man didn’t look directly at the tourist and just kept eating while the woman took a moment to register that she was being talked to. She looked up at him and then after a few seconds, back down at her food, then made a conscious effort to eat once more while he continued talking at them. “You hear me?” he demanded, and pointed emphatically towards an exit as he raised his voice, “I said go! Get out of here! You’re scaring people!” “We should do something,” said Julie. Fuzzy looked at Julie, her mouth a firm line. It seemed that she didn’t want to disagree, but she didn’t fully agree either. “Are we going to take them on the boat?” asked Fuzzy, quietly. It was a good point. They had maybe ten minutes until the boat showed up, but Julie wasn’t so sure about taking it. Whoever was targeting them would have almost two hours to set something up when they made the transfer at Vashon Island to get to the school boat. And that’s if they didn’t just get ambushed on the boat itself. In fact, if they were going to play it safe, not only did getting on the boat seem like a bad idea, but so did going back to Touristville. So Julie made a snap decision and decided on a third option. “No, we’re not going to take them on the boat,” said Julie. And she stepped into the situation, fully knowing that she had her own problems and that this wasn’t the smart thing to do. What struck Julie first about the situation, besides the smell, was the current interaction between the tourist and the older man from the ACHE. The tourist was aggressive and entitled and the only thing that kept him from getting closer to them was the smell radiating off both people from the ACHE. In contrast, the older man had a blank expression now that he’d finished his food in record time. He didn’t look directly at the tourist but didn’t look away either. Everything about his posture was carefully neutral, neither aggressive or defensive, giving nothing away. At least that was what it looked like to someone who hadn’t been to prison. To Julie, his body posture screamed, “Don’t gently caress with me or I will hurt you”. And the woman didn’t even seem to notice the fact that they were both being yelled at. She just primly ate her scavenged meal. “Did you hear me?!” snarled the tourist, “I paid good money to go on my first holiday in three years and you’re screwing it all up! Do I need to call security?” To Julie’s dismay, there were murmurs of agreement from the crowd. If security was called, and odds are they already had been, the armed mercenaries would probably work to capture these two and hand them off to the police who would shove both of them back into the ACHE where it was currently impossible to breathe. And they were both so easy to spot that if they weren’t captured here, they’d definitely be captured elsewhere. The way they were both dressed, the filth on their bodies and most importantly the smell marked them as escapees from the ACHE. “Hey, there you two are!” exclaimed Julie. Her mouth had just started moving without her thinking. And she’d stepped between the two escapees and the tourist, who looked confused at her sudden appearance, his blotchy red face now contorted in confusion. So she briefly turned her back on him, put her hands on her hips and spoke to the two people from the ACHE. “I’ve been looking all over for you two!” she continued. Then she turned back to the tourist. “Hi, I’m Julie,” she said, cordially, “Pleased to meet you.” She extended her hand to the tourist, whose moment of confusion quickly passed. He didn’t shake her hand and she instantly felt his disdain not just for the people from the ACHE, but her as well. Was it because she was an ork? A woman? Young? She had no idea. All she knew is that he did not like her. “Who are you?” he snapped. Julie had zero plan but one was forming in her head. She pulled out her commlink, tapped on it a few times and pulled up a “free coupon” design she’d made from a stock template for her dentist office before realizing that the “pay what you want” business model had made it useless. So she put her commlink in her hand and began flicking her other hand over it, shooting the worthless free coupons at everyone here, including the fat tourist. “I’m Julie,” she said, “I work at the Crossroads Dental Clinic and we are doing a promotion. My boss is so confident in our work that he says that our technicians and drones are so good that they can even fix the teeth of someone from the ACHE. Here, everyone, I’m so, so sorry. Free teeth cleaning for everyone who wants it.” Since her mouth was moving on its own and she was a young woman and an ork, she figured that no one here would believe that she owned her own business. In fact, most days even she didn’t believe it. “You…What?” asked the tourist. The lie had crystallized into something that certainly didn’t seem plausible, but her presence and the promise of “free coupons” had bought her time due to how confusing she currently was. “Like I said. I work at the Crossroads Dental Clinic and we hired these two for the day,” she said, and waved back at the still eating escapees, “They just got away from me is all. I’m so sorry.” “You’re…Fixing their teeth?” he asked, stupidly. Julie nodded quickly. “Absolutely,” said Julie, “I mean, it’s not my choice. My boss just got this idea in his head and now I’m the one making it happen. You know how it is. I just stopped in for a quick bite to eat and I guess they followed me in.” The lie tripped off her tongue so easily, she couldn’t believe it was her doing it as she was usually a pretty terrible liar. Still, if she had a boss and she’d done something wrong like coming here to get something to eat, something she probably wasn’t “supposed” to be doing, it would give him someone else to yell at in an attempt to get her in trouble. She hoped that would help deescalate the situation. “Fine. I want to speak to your boss,” said the tourist, authoritatively, “Give me his number. I have a few words for him about your conduct, young lady.” Julie winced and tried to give the appearance of someone who’d said too much and was trying to weasel out of this, but sighed and pretended to cave. “His name is Devin,” she said, “Here’s his comm code. I’ll just get them out of here. Sorry.” So she sent him Devin’s comm code. The fat tourist didn’t bother speaking to her and instead grumbled under his breath about “stupid loving orks” and walked back towards his family. She felt a twinge of anger but decided to let it go as she had better stuff to do with her time. Julie turned on her heel and to her surprise, she found that both escapees were still there. She figured that at least the older man would have left already, but he peered at her with calculation in his eyes. She approached slowly because he was still in that neutral posture and she suppressed a gag as she got close. “Hey,” she said, “We don’t have a lot of time. Do you two want to get the gently caress out of here?” “Yeah,” said the man, immediately, his voice hoarse. Julie narrowed her eyes in suspicion because that had been way too easy. “As easy as that?” she asked. He’d already grabbed another abandoned order of fish and chips while she and the fat tourist had been arguing and finished off that meal too. Then he tossed aside the paper plate and shrugged. “Anything is better than here,” he said, “Got chased in by cops but we lost them. No food in days.” “What’s your name?” she asked. “Carl.” “I’m Julie.” The man grunted and nodded in acknowledgement. Meanwhile, Julie’s attention drifted towards the woman who seemed completely lost in her own world. She ate her food primly. “What’s her name?” asked Julie. “No idea,” he said. “What’s her deal then?” “Not sure,” said the man, “The patch on her temple says she sold some cyberware though. Probably a datajack. Bad way to get a few creds, selling ‘ware. Most of the docs in the ACHE aren’t gentle about it and their tools are almost never clean. A lot of people get hosed up or die if they go to the wrong doc.” Julie looked for where a datajack would be on the other side of her head. Apparently the woman had once worked with computers of some sort because where a datajack would be was covered with some bloody looking duct tape. Julie gagged because none of that looked clean and if there was an open wound in her head, that meant the hole in her head was about the thickness of a pinky finger all the way down to her brain. “Is the brain exposed?” asked Julie, in horror. The man only shrugged. “Probably,” he said, “Like I said, cyberdocs in the ACHE aren’t gentle.” Julie knew that she and her friends should go right now, but she was fascinated and horrified by the damage. Besides, she probably needed to give them a quick looking over to make sure they were good to move. Which was when Julie realized that was sure that she was going to take both of them. “You know her?” she asked. “No, she just had enough sense to follow me,” he said, “We got chased here together.” Julie considered. These two not only smelled awful, but they looked awful as well. However it was also possible that they were part of another ploy to get at her and Fuzzy. While she was fully aware of that fact, they were in real need. “Mind if I take a look at you really quick?” asked Julie. Julie figured that they wouldn’t send someone after her who was actually starving and in her case, possibly brain damaged. “You a doc?” he asked, skeptically. “Sanalogist in training,” said Julie. The man stared blankly at her. “Magic doctor,” she said. His eyes narrowed. “I don’t pay for no doctor,” he said. “Free of charge,” she said, “Just want to check you both over really quick before we go.” His eyes narrowed in suspicion but he nodded. Julie decided to cast her spell at a lower intensity since she still wasn’t feeling great. The spell thankfully went off without a hitch and she got a full medical workup of Carl as her mind expanded to understand the entirety of his body. What she got was a kind of history of extreme stress, starvation, violence, recent smoke inhalation and some blunt force trauma to his left leg. He had quite a few old scars as well as a few new ones. He wasn’t just starved of calories, but of almost all of the essential nutrients in his body were low, though the fish and chips were adding precious protein, fat and calories. His stress hormones were through the roof and he was crashing after an adrenaline rush. He also had a number of tumors inside of him, but upon inspection they were benign. Still, he was at very high risk of cancer from all of the cancer causing carcinogens that he’d likely picked up from the ACHE. What caught her attention though were some strange holes in each of his fingers, like cyberware had been there before and then taken out. Not recently, but decades ago. So she flipped over his dirty hands and inspected the pads of his fingers, which were heavily scarred. She’d actually seen this before. Not in her clinic, but in prison. “Hand razors?” she asked. He looked surprised. “How’d you know?” “Magic,” she said, “And I knew people who had them in prison.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “Where?” “Darrington Correctional.” He looked down at her hands. “Where are your scars then?” he asked. Scars on your hands were common for those who were locked up at Darrington Correctional. It was the metroplex’s largest recycling center and prisoners weren’t given protective gloves. “I was on the magical block,” she said, “Even though they had us wearing shock collars, awakened riots weren’t worth the extra labor.” After a moment of discernment, the admission that she’d been in prison helped create some measure of understanding between herself and Carl. Which is why she also didn’t judge him for his hand razors. The cybernetic claws were popular among gangers, often called razorboys or razorgirls since people who fought in close quarters with cybernetic claws tended not to live very long. Apparently Carl had gotten out of the life somehow before that life killed him. “I did time in Redmond at Hollywood Correctional,” he said, “Grand larceny. It was a lifetime ago though.” Julie grunted, unwilling to talk about what she’d been in for. Plus she didn’t have all day to talk to him. At least not here where she was aware that people were still staring. She knew she was taking a risk in talking to him but if they left because she hustled them along too quickly, they were probably going to be captured and killed. “And did you take some damage to your leg very recently?” she asked, instead of answering his question. There was some sort of bad bruising on his left leg that looked very recent. “Yeah, cops shot me when I got out of the ACHE,” he said, “They were just spraying rounds at everyone and everything. Thought they were using live rounds, but I think it was just a gel round. Don’t want to murder us out in the open where people can see. Hurts like a motherfucker but whatever.” Julie nodded. Carl was tough and while he was hurt and starving, he’d be able to move. He needed good food, plenty of rest and maybe, possibly some preventative medicine in a gene therapy vat someday. And for good measure, she ran a bit of healing magic through his leg and felt the bruise vanish entirely. He squirmed and moved away from her touch, startled by the tingling feeling of the healing spell. “The gently caress?” he asked. “Healed your leg,” said Julie, “How does it feel?” Carl blinked in confusion a few times and then stretched out his leg. Though no one could see it under the filth, the bruise was gone. “Better,” was all he said. Julie nodded and took some hand sanitizer in her pocket, which she liberally used on her hands because touching him left her hand filthy. Once she was clean she approached the woman. “I’m going to check you out, okay?” asked Julie, “Can you hear me?” The woman just kept eating and after she wasn’t acknowledged. “Hi, I’m Julie,” she tried again, “Are you okay? I practice medicine. Would you like me to check you out?” The woman blinked and slowly turned her head to Julie, as if realizing she was there for the first time. “Oh, hello,” she said, her voice raspy, slow and slurred, “Have you seen my boyfriend?” “No, I haven’t,” said Julie, soothingly, “I’m going to give you a very quick checkup. Is that okay?” The woman stared in confusion at Julie. “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to slow down,” rasped the woman, “I can’t understand you.” “I want to give you a very quick checkup,” repeated Julie, “Is that okay?” “She doesn’t understand,” said Carl, “She speaks English, but she doesn’t understand it.” “Hey, can we do this somewhere else?” asked Fuzzy, “People are still looking at us.” Julie ignored her friend for the moment because she needed to know the extent of the damage before they moved. But she also needed consent from the woman to treat her. Not obtaining consent and treating someone anyway could result in a lawsuit and she didn’t want one of those. Especially when she was already being targeted. “I’m sorry,” said the woman, “My head really, really hurts. Everything is so much…Too much…Can you help me?” Julie took that as consent, cast her spell and gently touched the woman’s hand. The spell wasn’t cast even half as well as the one she had cast on Carl, but Julie didn’t need the deep nuance of a well cast spell to know what was wrong. Just as Carl had mentioned, her datajack had been roughly removed. Instead of extracting the datajack with time and care, it was like someone had cut through her temple and into her brain like someone might cut the core out of an apple. The brain was not only exposed behind that bit of bloody duct tape, but it had been damaged by some sort of sharp instrument. To make matters worse, her brain itself was one or two days into an infection. And though she didn’t know much about the specifics of infections of the brain, she knew that they were bad. So she swallowed back her bile, not because of their smell, but because of the amateur hour brain surgery that left her brain exposed and infected. Cyberware, bone, brain, all gone, leaving only a hole and some duct tape over it. She needed to be in a hospital right now. Not her little doctor’s office either. Julie could pay for treatment, but this kind of damage was far beyond what magic could do to help and what her general practice clinic could accomplish. Julie outwardly kept her cool though despite her headache, sanitized her hands and turned back to Carl. “I’ve got some things going on right now,” said Julie, “I know the cops are stuffing people back in the ACHE and I know at this time of the month that’s a death sentence. Don’t gently caress me over and I’ll get you both cleaned up, fed, watered and have a safe place for you to sleep. Got it?” He gave her a thumbs-up. “You got it, chief,” he said. The neutral posture was gone and he seemed less tense than before. Still tense, but less tense. “Get her up and moving,” said Julie, “We’re leaving.” Julie looked up and found that people were still paying attention to her and the escapees both, but besides a few people who’d either left or moved, the attention no longer had a feeling of malice to it, just disinterest. Fuzzy looked annoyed as Julie walked back with Carl and the woman in tow. “You’re taking them with us?” asked Fuzzy. “Yeah,” said Julie, “Is that a problem?” Fuzzy looked around Julie at the two escapees and sighed heavily. “Are we going back to Touristville?” asked Fuzzy. “Yeah,” she lied. Then she leaned in to Tek and whispered in his ear. “We’re going to the Gates Undersound,” whispered Julie, “I’ll give you the money and you’ll check us in. Get them in the back of the pickup.” That was Julie’s plan. Touristville wasn’t safe to go back to and the boat would leave them exposed and unable to help this woman. The Gates Undersound on the other hand was well defended by their own private mercenary force and close by. Sure they couldn’t take Pyg inside while she was still on and normally they couldn’t take the two escapees in either, but with enough money Julie figured that the Gates Undersound would accommodate Julie, her friends and any request no matter how strange. The fact that Tek was with them and old enough to rent a room made this simpler. So they could find a room, dig in and try to figure out their next steps. “Uhh…Okay,” said Tek, unsure, but going with it. Julie nodded once to Tek and then once to herself, now sure of what to do. Then she turned around and found a black clad mercenary approaching them, with a hand on his sidearm. Julie swore because he was way too close for them to get away. She’d taken too long and so she decided to intercept him instead. “Oh hi,” she said, hand outstretched, “My name is Julie and…” “These yours?” he said, in heavily accented Russian. Julie couldn’t see his face because it was behind a helmet. The mercenaries that were here looked like a military unit and not customer friendly, though no one really seemed to care. Except she felt the interest of the crowd grow once again as they watched to see if something interesting would happen. So Julie put on her biggest, brightest smile and nodded at his question. “Yeah, I work for the Crossroads Dental Clinic and…” “Don’t give poo poo,” he said, both bored and annoyed, “Want take with you?” Julie looked back at the two escapees and nodded. “Oh yes,” she said, “We were just leaving.” “Not until you loving pay me,” said the mercenary. Bribery was common in Seattle and Julie usually didn’t have to have to deal with it because she was either on Blake Island or in Touristville, where bribery wasn’t tolerated. There was an art to bribing people like a government official or a police officer. Pay too little and they might not help you or turn hostile. Pay too much and they might try and shake you down. Julie had never developed the knack for the intricate social dance of paying off though. She wished Kenji was here to do that. However, even though this was scary, it was also relieving in just how direct the mercenary was. There would be no intricate social dance because it seemed that this mercenary just wanted to get paid and didn’t give a poo poo about niceties. “Right,” sighed Julie, “How much?” Julie resigned herself to getting shaken down and was very glad that she’d given Fuzzy all of those credsticks she’d gotten from Paul, which were currently secreted away in the many pockets of her armor jacket. The mercenary tilted his head while still keeping his hand on his sidearm. “Hmmm…Thousand nuyen,” he said, “Take trash with you.” Julie suddenly burned with anger. That was too much. In fact it was a ridiculous amount of money. “What?” she asked, “That’s way too much. Five-hundred.” He shrugged, completely uncaring. “Could detain,” he said, “Call police. Put back in big building, yes? Still uh…I fine you. Seven-fifty, yes?” Julie could feel that he was testing her to see how much she cared. Mercenaries were often paid to do some pretty evil poo poo, but she could also pay him not to do evil poo poo as well. Mercenaries really only cared about money. It was in the job description. But Julie decided on a different tactic than trying to bargain him down further. “Seven-fifty if you escort us back to our truck,” said Julie, “I don’t want to run into more of your friends who will just shake us down again.” The mercenary made a note of displeasure at the prospect of having to walk anywhere instead of just getting paid and leaving. “Escort duty is extra,” he said, “Five-hundred extra. Twelve-fifty.” Julie sneered at him. “Fine,” she said, not wanting to negotiate with this armed thief for longer than she had to, “Take us back to our truck and we’ll pay you there.” If her pursuers were listening, which they almost certainly were, they now knew that Julie and company were heading back to Fuzzy’s truck and not getting on the boat. Though if she was lucky, they probably thought she was heading back to Touristville. It would make sense since she was now taking two people who’d escaped from the ACHE. That’s where they could get basic medical treatment. Meanwhile, the mercenary stalled as he likely tried to think of more ways to squeeze Julie for even more money. So Julie decided to try and end the negotiation. “The longer we bargain, the more likely one of your…Comrades shows up,” she said, slowly, “If they show up, they’ll want more from me and you’ll have to split less money.” She could hear him grumble through his helmet. “Fine,” he said, “We go now.” Julie nodded and turned around. Apparently enough time had passed that Tek got his food. He crammed an entire fried “fish” in his mouth and handed the rest of his food to Pyg for the moment. Fuzzy came along, looking suspiciously at the mercenary. Meanwhile, the older man ushered the young, profoundly injured woman along with him while Pyg took up the rear. Tek led the way since he knew where the truck was while the group plus their mercenary “escort” moved through the crowd. Said crowd parted easily and were collectively shocked and offended as a group by the smell of Carl and the younger woman. So getting through the crowd was easy, though hearing the disgusted sounds and the random hatred of strangers wasn’t fun. They made their way to where Fuzzy’s well armored, monstrosity of a barrens-style pickup truck was parallel parked on the street just outside of Pike Place Market. Tek apparently had a ton of luck in finding a great parking space and there were even a few tourists who were taking pictures of it since it looked like it was from some post-apocalyptic trid flick. Then Tek swore as he saw that someone had ticketed him in less than twenty minutes. An augmented reality sign let him know that the damage was two-hundred nuyen. “The gently caress!” groaned Tek, “I paid for parking!” “It’s fine,” sighed Julie, “I’ll pay for it.” The mercenary took a step in front of the car and unbuttoned the holster on his sidearm. “And you pay for me,” he said, coldly, “You pay now.” Before anyone could say anything else, there was a screech of tires half a block down the street. Julie watched as a Gridguide cab smashed into the back of another Gridguide cab. It stalled for just a moment, the driver inside miraculously asleep while on his commute before the automated cab turned sharply left. It jumped the median and smashed directly into a pharmacy in Pike Place not fifty feet away. People screamed and ran away from the accident. “Huh,” said Tek, placidly, before he looked at the mercenary, “Maybe you should go look at that.” Julie thought he’d said it to her at first, but instead he was speaking to the mercenary. The mercenary turned his head and then turned back to them, his body language tense. “You pay!” he screamed, “You pay now!” Julie wanted to go to the site of the crash to see if she could help. After all, she was a first responder. She didn’t have her medkit on her but she could cast spells. But before she could think about that any further, Fuzzy seized her hand and gripped it tight. “You should go,” said Fuzzy, to the mercenary. And Fuzzy shot a look at Julie that said they were leaving right now. No more delays. “Yeah, we’ll stay here,” said Tek, unconvincingly. Julie could almost feel the rage emanating from the mercenary. He had to actually do the job required of his contract instead of just taking a bribe. It was a close thing but he swore loudly in Russian and turned away. “You stay here!” he shouted, over his shoulder, “You stay! Then you pay! Or else!” And he ran off towards the accident. There was a moment of stillness as they all watched the armed mercenary hustle away. Fuzzy was the first to act. “Truck, truck get in the truck,” hissed Fuzzy, “Tek, you drive.” There was a mad scramble as they all began to pile into the truck. The cab up front could only hold three, maybe four if they squeezed in. That meant some people were going to need to be in the bed of the truck. Tek didn’t get in, but instead went to the back and found a giant, black bag stuffed with grass clippings which he took to the front as he popped the hood. Meanwhile, Fuzzy decided to help out the two escapees from the ACHE. The woman had been able to walk with help from Carl, but she was so lost and weak that she couldn’t hop up into the bed of the truck despite several tries. Despite their smell, Fuzzy handled it with some help from Carl, who also jumped in the back of the truck. “Okay,” said Julie, “Pyg?” Pyg smiled at her from the center seat, as if they weren’t about to escape from an angry mercenary and whoever had tried to dose her with bliss. “Yes Julie?” she asked. “Power down,” said Julie. Pyg nodded and her head lolled as she powered down without a word. Though unless the magic words were “power up”, Julie had no idea how to turn Pyg back on again. That was a problem for another time though. Tek had messily dumped grass clippings into the multi-fuel engine of the truck, which would run on anything that would burn. They wouldn’t get very far on the grass clippings, but it was efficient enough to get them down the street. Then he pulled a rip chord like one would start the engine of a lawnmower. After a few pulls the engine roared to life, Tek quickly shut the trunk and hopped into the driver’s seat. They pulled into traffic and Julie got a good look at the mercenary staring at them while standing next to a car that was halfway inside of a “natural medicine” pharmacy. “Suck my dick from the back, motherfucker!” shouted Tek out the window, middle finger extended. “Woooo!” shouted Fuzzy, from the back of the truck. Julie laughed despite herself and felt instantly bad a moment later as she saw someone lying on the ground near the truck. Then she felt her body jerk as Tek pulled a U-turn the first moment he could and whipped the truck back around. Tek merged badly into traffic, but one Gridguide taxi slowed down and another sped up, smoothly making space for him. Julie was very glad that at least these ones were functioning correctly. “Hey, be careful, we got people in back,” said Julie. “Right, sorry,” said Tek, excitedly, “gently caress that guy though, am I right?” “Yeah, seriously,” she said. After that U-turn and abandoning the boat ride, it was now obvious to whomever was targeting them that they were no longer heading home by boat and they were also heading north, away from Touristville. So Julie began to search for medical facilities that could take a look at the two people, especially the woman who’d had her datajack ripped out of her. The closest facility that could take them was actually in one of the six underground levels of the Gates Undersound. That is if they could even get in the door. After a short drive down Alaskan way, Tek slowed as they turned towards the Gates Undersound. Though they’d been able to leave, getting back, especially in a vehicle like Fuzzy’s was another story. There was a checkpoint and an armed and armored mercenary stepped in front of Fuzzy’s truck. With a beat up pickup truck that looked ready for combat, two people who looked like street toughs, one deactivated drone and two horrible smelling escapees from the ACHE, they couldn’t have looked more suspicious if they tried. “Let me do the talking,” said Julie. “I can do it,” said Tek, “S’fine.” “Just let me,” insisted Julie. Tek shrugged and waited for the mercenary as they approached, his hands very much on the steering wheel as black clad mercenaries flanked the vehicle while one stayed in front. Julie rolled down her window. “Hi, it’s me again,” called Julie, “I know…” The mercenary closest to Tek spoke up, completely ignoring Julie. “Sir,” said a mercenary, to Tek, a hand on his weapon, “We’re going to have to ask you to turn around and leave.” “Hey, I’m talking,” insisted Julie, “My name is Julie. I was just here less than an hour ago. We want to stay.” Tek gulped once as he did his best not to offend the heavily armed mercenaries. “She’s talking,” said Tek. The mercenaries confirmed for a moment before the one closest to Julie stepped towards her open window. “Ma’am,” said yet another mercenary, “We’re going to have to ask you to turn your vehicle around and leave the premises.” Julie shook her head. “I get on and off the docks here all the time,” she said, “I’m already precleared. I’m also fully aware that the situation looks strange and that I have very strange friends, but I’m also going to spend quite a lot of money to make up for that fact.” The mercenary looked at her and she could see her reflection in his dark helmet. “I’m going to rent a suite,” she said, “I’m going to get secure storage for my drone. I’m going to pay for medical treatment for one of my guests and a spa day for the other so they don’t smell so terrible. We’re going to eat a lot. And…All sorts of other stuff that I probably haven’t even thought of yet. I’m going to make liberal use of your concierge service because I have a lot of other urgent needs. So do I get to spend a lot of money at the best hotel in Seattle or not?” Julie really only wanted to spend money on a room and medical supplies, but if she got turned around then she had no idea what she’d do next. So she panicked and offered to spend more to get in the door. “One moment,” said one of the mercenaries, “Please turn off your vehicle.” Tek killed the engine and they waited in silence as the mercenaries confirmed with what Julie hoped was an exceedingly friendly hotel representative. As they waited, other vehicles went around them and the people in their expensive cars stared at their odd and intimidating pickup truck full of equally odd and sometimes intimidating people. Nothing happened for the next ten minutes except that Tek plucked his food from Pyg’s unresponsive hands and had an early dinner. “You hungry?” he asked Julie, around a mouthful of food. “N-no,” said Julie, awkwardly, “Thanks.” After the ten minutes were up, one of the mercenaries approached and Julie did her best to smile. Not for the mercenary, but for herself as she was hoping that this wouldn’t just fall apart. “You will proceed to the service entrance around the back of the hotel,” said the mercenary, professionally, “Do not exceed a speed over five miles an hour. Leave your drone in the truck and keep it powered down. Leave any and all weapons in the truck. Do not cast any hostile magic or summon any hostile spirits. Failure to comply will be dealt with severely. Do you understand?” “I understand,” said Julie, nervously, “I’ll need an escort to the medical facility for the woman in the back as well as immediate medical treatment. She’s not well enough to get there on her own.” “A Gates Undersound Hotel staff member will accommodate you,” said the mercenary, “The AR file we’re sending your driver will guide you in. Please proceed.” Julie and Tek rolled up their windows and watched as a black security vehicle followed closely behind them. “Man, what the gently caress are we doing,” said Tek, to himself, “Fuzzy asks me to deliver a slap patch during a riot and now we’re at some rich-rear end hotel with armed to the teeth mercs. Sheeeeeyiiiit.” Julie didn’t really have an answer. All she could do was relax for a minute until they reached the back. Then she’d need to be back on her game again. “Yeah,” sighed Julie, “Just…Yeah.”
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Jun 29, 2023 19:37
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Wow, that's an interesting turn of events. What was the creative impetus behind adding the two ACHE refugees? Also how were the rolls?
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Jun 29, 2023 21:55
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Boat Stuck posted:Wow, that's an interesting turn of events. You'll see. quote:Also how were the rolls? I'll post that in a little bit. I just want to keep writing for the moment.
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Jun 29, 2023 22:11
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Well, that's a way to throw the enemy for a loop.
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Jun 30, 2023 13:14
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GimmickMan posted:Well, that's a way to throw the enemy for a loop. If we didn't just invite an enemy trojan horse into our close presence
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Jun 30, 2023 15:20
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Tek is great. Love that bit at the end.
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Jul 1, 2023 02:42
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Blasphemaster posted:Tek is great. Love that bit at the end. Tek is just kind of an average guy and I like it that way. In a story where two of the three main characters are women, Tek stands out as a young guy who's kind of an idiot. He's loyal, means well...Ish, works hard, is kind of a dipshit and will absolutely kick someone's head in for Fuzzy if she asks. He rides through a riot zone because a friend told him it was important, crams an entire fried fish into his mouth all at once because he didn't have the time to enjoy it but he still wants to eat it and yells obscenities at people he doesn't like out of his friend's borrowed truck. I'm already writing the next update and I have a few ways in which I think he shines as a paragon of your average guy in his early twenties who doesn't have a ton going on in his life. Tek is ride or die for Fuzzy and the stat sheet that I use for him is basically just your average mook in Shadowrun. Just the kind of guy where if he got into a fight with shadowrunners (especially players), they'd just waste him without a second thought because he'd be standing alongside half a dozen guys just like him, shooting poorly and confusing the difference between cover and concealment and that's if they even used any. Tek really wants to find a community that accepts and respects him. He doesn't really have that in Touristville on account of beating up Fuzzy despite Fuzzy being fine with losing. And Fuzzy has decided to be his friend instead of his benefactor while Tek figures his poo poo out. Boat Stuck posted:Also how were the rolls? There are a couple that I won't share because the main storyboard that I wrote was full of spoilers and it's kind of a mess to boot, but I'll summarize here. Just an FYI, I'm writing this before I get to bed. So Julie takes 5 hit of stun straight out of the gate while trying to cast a levitation spell. That's roughly half of her non-lethal or stun track and she is at a -2 to all rolls. In a roleplay sense I call that straddling between headache and a migraine. The next one and the biggest roll was that I had Fuzzy roll a survival + intuition roll and she got 8 hits, which I treated as a double crit. Without any apparent source of information, Fuzzy understood that they were being observed and "hunted" for lack of a better word. There was no magic to it, just instincts. So this set the tone for the rest of the post. I've barely been using Fuzzy's survival skill which kind of bugs me since it's one of her highest skills. So I've started to use it as a general skill for instincts where perception wouldn't apply. I rolled Julie's intuition + logic and Fuzzy's intuition + logic numerous times to see if they could intuit information from the other without speaking. Sometimes they succeeded and sometimes they failed, but there were no glitches so no one got the wrong information. Fuzzy actually got a bonus to her roll by spending a lot of money, which called out that something was really weird because Fuzzy doesn't make frivolous, big ticket spends. I rolled Julie's edge on both of the people from the ACHE (Carl and the as of yet unnamed woman) to see if they were hostile, neutral or friendly to her (which are hidden). And I also rolled skills to get an idea of what their defining trait was to give me an idea about how to start off with their personality. I randomly rolled survival, so Carl is a consummate survivor. The unnamed woman has pilot aircraft (heavy cargo drones to differentiate herself from John the pizza delivery guy) as her main skill. And then I rolled edge again to see what kind of shape they were in. Carl was lightly wounded with no hits and no glitches and the unnamed woman received a critical glitch, so she is profoundly hosed up. She has considerable damage to the temporal region of the brain where the datajack would be. She can't form new short term or long term memories, but she still has long term memory prior to the injury. She can't understand language, though she can speak it. She has problems understanding what some objects are and she can't choose not to pay attention to things, so she is constantly focusing on everything she can see, smell, taste, touch and hear while not understanding much of it. And I also rolled how much it would cost by thumbing through the Chrome Flesh book and trying to figure out how much a very specific kind of brain damage would cost to fix. An amount which I won't share because it slightly informs the narrative in the next update. Fuzzy won a spellcraft check to create an illusion to quiet the children so Julie could heal up her stun damage. Julie then rolled body + willpower and healed up the majority of her stun damage after a catnap, so she no longer had negatives after that. Then Julie talked down the tourist father of the rambunctious children at a -4 disadvantage because is was a racist (not an open elven supremacist, but close) at 2 v 1, aided by an item bonus of coupons, because boy of boy schlubby tourists do love coupons for free poo poo. And then Julie recognized that something was really weird with the stim patch with 3 hits on 6 dice on a medicine check. And she succeeds on a diagnose spell, confirming that it was drugged. Julie consistent won her etiquette checks, first to calm Carl down, which she succeeded 3 v 1. She then rolled diagnose and got 5 hits on Carl, so she understood everything. And she only got 1 hit on the unnamed woman, but that was enough to understand the basics that she was really hosed up. Julie took too long and was looking at getting shaken down by a mercenary. He technically won, 3 v 2 but glitched and I decided that something was going to pull his attention away. That being, him actually having to do his job instead of getting an easy payday, the bane of every mercenary's existence. So Julie and friends escape. Finally, I roll a negotiation test with some pretty heft negatives for Julie to get a room at the Gates Undersound. Especially since she's a minor and rolls up in a Mad Maxmobile with an unregistered drone, two people who look like street toughs and two smelly people who'd escaped the local concentration camp. Technically she failed the negotiation roll, but that just means she pays more money as they upcharge her for rolling in like she did. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 08:40 on Jul 1, 2023 |
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Jul 1, 2023 08:03
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Julie, Fuzzy, Tek, Carl and Ambrose - Thursday, August 30th, 2075 – Afternoon - Seattle Metroplex “Take this one to the spa and wash the street off him,” said Ambrose, importantly, as he tugged on his white gloves, “Keep him in the maintenance areas so as not to offend any guests. Burn the clothing afterwards.” Carl clad only in his filthy, disposable clothing and tire tread sandals glared at “senior concierge Ambrose”, as per his golden nametag. Ambrose was in his late twenties to early thirties and was as crisp as a newly pressed suit. He was a hum with cream colored skin, blandly attractive in the style that was popular with those who served the wealthy. His hair was short and he had perfectly parted dark hair. Despite his blandly handsome face, his features looked chiseled. Literally so as he looked like he’d had plenty of cosmetic surgery. He wore a two button notch lapel jacket, white cotton dress shirt, black slacks, a black tie, black dress shoes and pristine looking white gloves. “It’s fine, Carl,” said Julie, “We’ll get you cleaned up, fed and clothed.” “Please,” begged the woman from the ACHE, in a voice roughened by smoke inhalation, “I don’t understand any of you. What’s happening? Where’s my boyfriend?” There were tears in her eyes and Julie held back her own. Unless her brain got fixed somehow, she’d still be able to speak but she’d be completely unable to understand the spoken or written word. And that’s just from what she knew about her condition so far. The two staff members that had accompanied Ambrose the concierge seemed completely unwilling to touch her due to how filthy she was. She also seemed not to understand what had happened to her. “Please,” begged the woman, “Please if you could just talk to me in a language I understand.” “Carl?” asked Julie, as she blocked out the woman’s voice, “Could you accompany her down to the medical facility? Keep her calm?” Carl nodded, but continued to glare at Ambrose, who smiled self-importantly. “The staff can take care of these…Well…” said Ambrose, “I just have a few documents that need signing and…” “Ambrose, is it?” interrupted Julie. “Yes Miss Freeman?” “Being poor doesn’t make you a thing,” said Julie, “They’re people. They’re my neighbors.” Ambrose’s customer service sneer faded and instead his brow creased ever so slightly in mild confusion. Julie remembered that unless one stepped inside of a church, calling people your neighbor was taken literally. And these days, very few people have anything to do with church. Most people worked long hours and most people only got a single day off, if that. They were also paid too little money to tithe when that money normally had to go towards making rent or having food to eat. “They’re my guests,” she rephrased. Ambrose looked back to his staff, who were already guiding Carl and the woman away towards the service entrance, though they were going slow as the woman remained frightened and confused and they were unwilling to touch her. The only other person here that might be considered “on his side” was one of the black clad mercenaries who’d followed behind them in an equally black car. “I…See…,” he said, quickly, before recovering, “They are The Gates Undersound’s guests as well. The state that they’re in isn’t a state that is acceptable for the most august hotel in Seattle. My sincerest apologies if you were offended at all.” Though he’d sounded flustered for just a second, he’d quickly recovered. Julie didn’t want an apology “if she was offended”, she wanted one for the two people he hadn’t even referred to as people. But she didn’t press him as it’d probably take a lot to pierce that customer service shell and she didn’t have the time or the energy to waste on him. Meanwhile, Tek began to sign on a datapad for the room and mouthed out the words as he read. “I’m sorry to say that our normal rooms are all booked for the evening,” he said, “However, we have a luxury suite available that should be suitable.” Julie figured by the way he sneered at her that he was lying. She’d shown looking rough and someone with authority disapproved and so they were just billing her for a more expensive room. Quite a lot more expensive in fact. The normal rooms went for a thousand a night, but the total bill was three-thousand and included a number of expensive and useless looking luxury services. She was politely being told to go away or pay extra, take it or leave it. It made her wonder if she were still a human instead of an ork, would she have been treated this way? She didn’t know, she only knew that she didn’t like it. Julie decided not to show that it bothered her as Ambrose kept flashing that ghost of a sneer at them. She hoped she only had to stay here for a single night. Three-thousand nuyen a night was expensive for anything long term. Tek looked ot Julie for confirmation, looking a little ill and Julie nodded and paid. “Also, there’s the matter of the spa day,” said Ambrose, “That’s five-hundred nuyen. And of course you will be contacted about the ah…Lady’s medical condition once she is assessed.” Julie didn’t let her anxiety show, but she was worried about just how much time in a gene therapy vat would cost. Certainly more than the room. She knew very well that medicine was expensive, which was why she’d worked so hard at her doctor’s office and now her dental office not to charge people more than they could pay. But now she was dealing with a severely injured person without insurance in one of the most predatory medical systems in the world. All she could do was hope that she could negotiate it down. “Please contact me the moment there’s any news,” said Julie. Tek handed Ambrose back the data pad and the concierge collapsed it into one tenth the size and stored it in his pocket in a single, smooth motion. “Excellent,” said Ambrose, “Your luggage will be brought up shortly, no need to carry it yourself. Please follow me.” They left behind Fuzzy’s truck with their luggage, a deactivated Pyg and all of their weapons including Fuzzy’s spearknife and a few more knives she had on her as well as a small pistol that Tek had hidden in the back of his jeans just under his coat. Technically Julie and Fuzzy weren’t completely unarmed as they had spells and could even summon spirits, but even though they were powerful compared to people their own age, they were students. Since they’d been taken around the back of the hotel, they’d been ushered through the main service entrance. It looked like a loading dock that kept the twenty story hotel functioning. People and drones hustled and bustled as Julie and company were taken not into the main hotel itself but in the back way. They briefly emerged into the hotel itself. They saw a pristine looking hallway with fine paintings and lined with doors before they were urged into an elevator. Only when they were inside the elevator did someone speak. “We’re being hosed with, aren’t we?” asked Fuzzy. “The Gates Undersound would never be intentionally rude towards its customers,” said Ambrose, insincerely. He tugged on his white gloves and let them see a hint of a sneer once again. “Was I talking to you?” asked Fuzzy. The sneer disappeared and instead he dipped his head in deference. “My apologies,” he said. “Yeah, we’re getting hosed with,” said Tek, “Can’t just let an ork show up with money, drat.” “Let’s just get inside,” said Julie, “Ambrose, I’ll need a list of your concierge services.” The elevator dinged and opened, and the customer service smile was back on his face. “Absolutely,” he said, smoothly, “Here’s the file of all of the services we offer.” Apparently his white gloves were wirelessly enabled because with a hand command, he brushed the file at her with a well practiced flick of the wrist. Julie checked the file on her commlink since she wasn’t wearing her smart glasses at the moment. There she found a list with a number of tabs and clicked over to the security tab. What caught her attention immediately was that she could rent bodyguards to watch the door. She hesitated for a moment before paying not just for one, but two at a heart wrenching one-thousand nuyen a day, each. It was better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them. There was also an option for end-to-end encryption for her calls which she selected. When she tabbed back, she saw that they’d already billed her for room service, an “Undersound Executive Gift Basket”, an in-room drone tailoring service and something called a “soap concierge service”. They’d just been tacked on without her asking and they’d already billed her which was why her room had cost three-thousand nuyen instead of two-thousand. So now with security and the spa, she was looking at a fifty-five-hundred nuyen bill before the medical bill came. Ambrose continued to lead them towards their room and the doors were much more spaced out on this level, meaning that this level seemed to have a number of suites on it. The hotel up here also seemed far more opulent than it had from the brief look at the first level. Their concierge, who Julie suspected was only there to keep them away from other customers and sneer at them, opened the door to their room. And…It was actually quite nice. The color scheme consisted of grays, blues and seafoam greens. The windows gave them an amazing view of the Puget Sound from their place on the tenth floor. There were a number of extremely comfortable looking upholstered chairs as well as a large, sectional couch that surrounded a glass table etched in gold. There was the largest trideo tank that Julie had ever seen in a room, currently in its screen-saver mode as a fish tank with fake, yet real looking three-dimensional fish swimming about in it. And there were also glass doors to an enormous balcony with plenty of fine looking furniture as well. “Wow,” said Tek, mouth agape. “The Gates Undersound is the finest hotel in the Seattle metroplex,” said Ambrose, “And this is one of our finest rooms. Please let me know if you have even the slightest of whims and we will do our utmost to fulfill them.” “Mhm,” said Fuzzy, unimpressed. Ambrose stood there in the doorway as if waiting for something. Julie looked at him and wondered if he really did have the balls to ask for money after continually snubbing them. Tek closed his mouth and noticed Ambrose, still standing in the doorway. “You still here?” asked Tek, testily, “Get lost.” Julie to Fuzzy but she was already in the process of closing all of the blinds on the windows. Ambrose didn’t seem to pay any attention to Tek, so Julie approached Ambrose, who seemed to be quietly enjoying his role as someone else’s tool to rip them off and humiliate them. “Your tip,” said Julie, “Of course.” His smile was slight, but smug while also pretending to be professionally deferential. That smile was polished and had likely been practiced many times in a mirror. Or perhaps he was running some sort of software program and the smiles had been professionally designed and run like any other program on a cybernetically enhanced face. Either was possible. “Any consideration would be greatly appreciated,” he said, as Julie approached him. Julie nodded and briefly thought about how to deal with him now that he waited on her. Then she remembered a number of articles that were written about her dentist office in the past few days. Few of them were flattering or truthful, but she’d hate read them until she found one that actually said nice things and had been relatively truthful about her dental office. When she’d drawn close enough, Ambrose held out his hand like he might get actual paper money. Instead, it seemed that his hand had been cybernetically replaced as a small slot for a credstick appeared directly in the middle of his palm. Julie pulled out her credstick and felt him judge her as it was black, the most common type with the lowest amount of nuyen that could be available on it. She gave him a hundred nuyen tip despite deep down not wanting to give him anything but a boot on the rear end out the door. But as she slotted her credstick into his hand, she sent him the link with a flick of her fingers over her commlink once she returned the credstick to her hand. “Thank you so much for your gracious tip,” he said, his tone full of false charm, “And what is this you’ve sent me?” “It’s a news article about what I do,” she said, “I own a dentist office that’s open to everyone: You, your friends, your coworkers, your family, anyone you meet. We’re very new, but we see almost eight-thousand people a day and we allow everyone to pay what they want, not what we demand.” “I’m sorry?” he asked, obviously not apologizing, just confused. “It’s all there in the article,” she said, “Feel free to make an appointment.” He wasn’t at all sorry for his behavior, just deeply confused. Odds are he didn’t read KOMO 4 news but he had heard of it as it was one of the longest running local news outlets in Seattle. And though many news outlets badmouthed her and frequently called it an illegal operation or compared Touristville to a crime ridden slum, most didn’t dispute that the dental office was at least real. In the face of all of this confusion, the sneering customer service facade broke down. Not in apology, but in confusion as what she said didn’t seem to make sense to him at all. “I see,” he said, “Please don’t hesitate to call me for anything you need.” “And don’t hesitate to set up an appointment,” countered Julie, “Tell everyone you know.” “I surely will,” he said, with a polite laugh. He left and Julie closed the door. She let out a low growl of anger and frustration before taking a seat on the couch. “What an rear end in a top hat,” said Fuzzy. “Why did you pay that motherfucker anything?” asked Tek, his tone filled with anger. Julie looked over at him and tried to cool her own anger. “Look, I live with the kind of people he serves nine and a half months out of the year,” said Julie, “They’ll either ignore him or treat him like garbage and he’s probably pretty hardened to that. Treating him well is confusing and maybe I can make him feel bad. That’s about the best I can go for.” Tek shrugged in indifference. “I would’ve just yelled at his rear end,” said Tek, “Maybe thumped him. You’re built way different than me.” “Uh…Thanks?” she asked. “And also your whole business setup confuses the poo poo out of me, and I live around it,” said Tek, “It’s great, but I don’t know what to make of it sometimes. Like when you bought all of those eggs for everyone in the community for Sunday breakfast? And all of this healing people and poo poo? I mean…That’s real nice. Weird, but nice. Thanks. Sorry I never said thanks before.” “Oh, sure,” said Julie, a bit embarrassed, “You’re welcome.” “Yeah, it’s great,” he said, quickly, “We’re all just happy that you got it all figured out because I don’t see how you make it work.” Julie laughed sharply. “I don’t know if I have anything figured out,” said Julie. “Truth,” said Fuzzy, who’d taken up a seat in a plush looking chair opposite them. Tek chuckled a bit and nodded in respect towards Julie. “All right,” said Tek, “I’m gonna hit the bathroom real quick and see how the one percent piss. Maybe see if they got a mini bar anywhere. loving thirsty after that fish and chips I ate.” “Please don’t get trashed,” sighed Julie, “We actually need to do stuff and we’ll need your help.” Tek perked up at that. “What, like a business meeting?” he asked, hopefully. “It has to do with my business,” she said, anxiety plain in her voice. Tek clapped his hands together and stood up, all smiles. “Hell yeah!” he exclaimed, happily, “I got so many ideas. I’ll grab some beers and we’ll talk.” Tek left the room and Julie exchanged a look with Fuzzy, who had her eyes on the door. “He’s all right,” said Fuzzy, slowly, “But…You know.” Julie understood it was Fuzzy’s way of saying “He’s not the brightest, but he’s my friend” without trying to be mean about it. “Are you sure he’s okay?” asked Julie. Fuzzy nodded her head. “If he was going to do anything to me, he would’ve done it a long time ago when he beat me,” she said, “If he was going to do anything to us, he would’ve done it when we got really drunk last night.” “Only you would trust someone because they beat you in a fight,” said Julie. Julie laid her head back on the couch and looked at the ceiling, which while it looked nice, was probably also ridiculously expensive. “We had a disagreement,” said Fuzzy, “And Tek is hard headed. Sometimes you can talk to hard headed people and sometimes you can’t. Sometimes getting the point across means seeing whose head is harder.” “I lived through that in prison and it’s still really dumb to me,” sighed Julie. “Yeah,” said Fuzzy, “But you meet people where they are, not where you want them to be. He beats me up, I beat him up.” “If you used your magic it’d be trivial to beat him up,” said Julie. “If I’d just wailed on him with my magic he wouldn’t have learned anything,” said Fuzzy, “Taking him on without it is me meeting him where he is. Otherwise I’d just be lording strength over him like a jerk.” “You’re what…A hundred pounds lighter than him?” asked Julie, incredulously, “He’d be lording all of that weight over you. How did you expect to win?” The question had been rhetorical but Fuzzy took it seriously. She scratched at her nose in thought. “He told me to fight him, but he actually wasn’t expecting me to do it so I had to hit him until he started taking his own threat seriously,” said Fuzzy, “I knew I was quicker than him, but not quick enough. I got a few shots on him and when he finally took me seriously, he grabbed hold of me because I got unlucky and he’s way stronger than me. I hit him hard in the face and the liver. He did not like that at all. Smashed me into the concrete and I was out. I think if I’d hit him again in the liver he would’ve been done, but he got me first. Then he brought me back to get healed up and everyone yelled at him. I wasn’t mad though. I got him out of the gang life which was what I wanted.” Julie decided not to tell Fuzzy that that’d been a rhetorical question and just go with it. Anything to take her mind off their current circumstances just for a few more minutes sounded like just what she needed before the ugly reality of being hunted reasserted itself. She figured anyone who’d try to take another shot at them would have to deal with the hotel’s security and that bought them some time to take a minute. “I guess that makes sense,” said Julie, “I mean, I knew plenty of people in gangs back in prison. I just wish they’d leave on their own. Not everyone gets a choice whether they get to be in a gang or not, but some people do.” In some neighborhoods, whether you were in the gang or not depended largely on where you lived and what race you were. Some people had choices and some people didn’t when it came to joining a gang. In her middle school, there had been a “say no to gangs” program, but it was always talked about like it was always a choice. For some people it simply wasn’t. In some neighborhoods, gangs would retaliate if they were told no. Julie had known people in prison who’d said yes out of concerns for their safety and ended up in jail anyway. “He was lucky enough to be able to make the choice after we argued, yeah,” said Fuzzy, interrupting her reverie, “Anyway, some people argue with words, some people argue with fists and some people argue with both. I had to hit him and get hit by him for him to actually hear me. I lost the fight, but I won the argument. We hugged it out later, we drank a few beers back when I didn’t really do that and he pissed blood for a few days.” Julie’s eyebrows crept upwards by a few degrees and she looked away from the wall and at Fuzzy. “How did you know that?” asked Julie. Fuzzy grinned toothily. “Oh, he told me,” said Fuzzy, “He was trying to make me feel better.” Julie rolled her eyes and Fuzzy laughed. “Yo Fuzzy!” exclaimed Tek from another room. “What?!” shouted Fuzzy, right back at him. Tek peaked his head around the corner, smiling like a kid. “They got this shower that sprays you from all different directions at the same time!” A light went on in Fuzzy’s head and she dug her commlink out of her pocket and took off her goggles as well. She beckoned to Julie for the same and so Julie quickly grabbed her own commlink and took her smart glasses out of her pocket. “That’s awesome!” exclaimed Fuzzy, and then she added in a lower voice, “You find any beer?” Tek reached around a hand that grasped three ice cold beers by the neck a second later. “Did I find any beer??” asked Tek, rhetorically, “gently caress you think you’re talking to? I always find beer. Don’t know the brand but we’re going to find out what these rich fuckers drink.” Fuzzy stood up with their pile of electronics and walked into the bathroom to drop them off. Tek looked back at her briefly in confusion, shrugged and strode towards the couch to sit near, but not next to Julie. The shower turned on in the other room and Tek cracked open a beer. “You taking a shower?” asked Tek. Tek handed Fuzzy a beer which she took, cracked open another, handed it to Julie and then opened his own. “Something that Sasha taught me,” said Fuzzy, and then lowered her voice, “Tek, poo poo is hosed up and we need your help.” Tek’s smile faded instantly and his face grew serious. He sat down next to Julie. “How hosed up?” he asked, at his normal volume. Fuzzy raised and then lowered her hand and Tek got the message, lowering his volume and everyone leaned in without having to be told. “How hosed up?” he asked, quietly, “You get in trouble because of those rich kids nearly killing each other?” “Probably not,” whispered Fuzzy. “We’re being targeted,” whispered Julie. “Hunted,” agreed Fuzzy, “We don’t know how bad it’ll be. Maybe regular bad, maybe extremely bad. We need your help. You in or out?” Without hesitating, Tek held out his fist for Fuzzy to bump. “You know I got your back,” he said. Fuzzy smiled gratefully and they bumped fists before Tek decided that wasn’t enough and drew her in for a hug. When it was over, he nodded in respect to Julie too and for Julie, that was enough. It was hard to trust, but her anxiety about trusting him finally disappeared. “Not a business meeting though?” he asked, disappointed, “Man…” “Bad business,” said Fuzzy, “We’re going to fill you in on what happened until now.” Julie nodded grimly and spoke in low tones. “Tek, we’re going to need to know who exactly gave you that stim patch.” --- Julie glitches on a negotiation test 1 v 3 and is charged significantly more by the hotel. They gave her the choice of a polite dismissal or pay triple the going rate as they tack on useless hotel services. But hey, I got to do some research on the dumbest hotel concierge services and learn what a "soap concierge service" is. I don't know how many high end hotels use it, but it's some dumb rich people poo poo. Julie succeeds 2 v 0 on a leadership and 2 v 1 on an etiquette test. Carl thinks well of Julie. Julie also surprisingly succeeds on an etiquette test versus Ambrose, who glitches, despite being at significant penalties as Ambrose is a racist (just the mild version of it). She succeeds 3 v 1 on a 6 v 12 roll. I'll roll that glitch forward into the next scene as I can't think of a way to pierce Ambrose's customer service exterior. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 10:24 on Jul 6, 2023 |
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Jul 6, 2023 10:12
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I think once she gets a moment to decompress, Julie would be cognizant enough to take advantage of the encrypted link and concierge to access what 'unofficial' information is available on Pyg's model that is in publicly listed. High-end corporate grade skill packages for your android lady, upgraded combat packages faceplate swap to blend in with the community. Be good to know, now that they have an opportunity to access something resembling the kind of services Sasha's Dad could have got on demand. Pyg as the face and bouncer of the clinic would draw a lot of eyes, but as an asset is essentially a walking talking wild card that could probably survive on grass.
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Jul 13, 2023 22:22
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Wanted to say I was enjoying the revival, and I hope you manage to finish the story.
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Sep 13, 2023 16:44
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Question Time posted:Wanted to say I was enjoying the revival, and I hope you manage to finish the story. Yeah I really want to work on this but I just didn't have time. I'm transitioning into a new job and that's been taking up a ton of my time these last few months. Literally studying for hell-tests for eight hours a day, five days a week. Seven days a week a few times. I just hit a big milestone at work (literally like an hour ago) with getting the last certification I need for the upcoming year and I feel like I can slow down and do things I actually enjoy for a while before work picks back up in fall. My job is work from home and I'll have time when I'm not doing something else to exercise, do chores or write, which I've seriously been missing.
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Sep 13, 2023 20:30
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Finally got all caught up after starting to read this... a year ago? I hope the new job is working out. This really is amazing, Ice. The way you write characters is incredible and the research you do really shows.
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Mar 26, 2024 21:57
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DCBomB posted:Finally got all caught up after starting to read this... a year ago? I hope the new job is working out. I've been busy in the last eight months with the new job. It's going pretty well, thank you. Apologies to making everyone wait so long since the last update. Work, life with my girlfriend and setting my mental health to rights has been my priority. So it's probably going to be longer. I will say that I've been rereading my work to refamiliarize myself with it because some of this stuff I haven't read in years. And I've been editing too. But mostly I've been having writer's block. I know where I want to go with the story, I just don't feel satisfied by how I get there. But I feel like this is my perfectionism talking and sabotaging me from making progress. quote:This really is amazing, Ice. The way you write characters is incredible and the research you do really shows. Shucks. Thank you. I really love this story and I don't want to let it go. I probably have a few hundred pages of personal notes since I stopped writing. Story boarding for me comes easily. Making the story not so much, at least not right now. I have been doing some other stuff though. Chiefly I've been rereading my old stuff and doing some minor editing. And I've been slapping pertinent info into a database program when something important comes up so I don't forget. There are a lot of tiny details that matter later that I want to get right. Also, frankly, the complexity of the story means that there's so many working parts that I would at times, slow down because I don't want to contradict myself three books ago. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 22:14 on Apr 1, 2024 |
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Apr 1, 2024 21:22
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Editing notes, journaling, side stories, or any other updates are welcome. I’m still hoping to see the story continue someday, and am glad IP is doing better.
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Apr 1, 2024 22:45
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Excited to see this start up again, keep on trucking!!
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Apr 4, 2024 05:43
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Hey Ice, this is still in my Top Three CYOAs ever, and the other two are there because of the artwork
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Apr 5, 2024 05:02
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Yah I can't figure out my favourites worth a drat but this is definitely up there.
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Apr 6, 2024 01:18
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Great to see some activity here again! Always wonderful to see that there's more to come from a good story. Spoilered for wall of text. tldr - Next year we will be able to get an effective nonpharmaceuticle home use gadget for mental health treatment on demand. The mental health and cyberpunk themes in this story reminded me that there is an affordable, wearable, easy to use FDA-Approved home neuropsychiatric and cognitive disorder treatment device with proven consistent efficacy. It is slated to go into full commercial production and distribution some time next year, depending on how long the official approval process takes. https://www.fisherwallace.com/pages/oak. It uses Transcranial Electric Stimulation to essentially be wearable high-efficacy mental health therapy that gives you more energy than a cup of coffee if you use the highest setting. It's pretty much very low intensity electric stim across the temples for two twenty minute sessions a day that'll clear up many conditions in a big way. Neat tidbit, if you position the electrodes just right and run it at the highest setting you can see the electricity strobing in your eyes. Blasphemaster fucked around with this message at 06:53 on Apr 18, 2024 |
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Apr 18, 2024 06:51
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