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I think Julie needs the clinic upgrade. I think lone of the contacts for a second prize, but I'm not sure which is better at the moment.
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Dec 14, 2017 18:10
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Work with Horizon. -Changing the news. -clinic upgrade  CLAIMING THE TEETH OF OUR RIVAL for the second reward.Mr Apollo fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 18:37
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I am a little confused by the wording of the rewards given, I assume that Julie only gets two, but you say first normal reward is free and then she can pick two horizon rewards? If she gets three rewards then Changing the news, Internship, and Clinic upgrade. Prioritized in that order from highest to lowest in case she only gets two rewards. Julie is a hard workers, she wants a normal life, and she wants to do tangible good for her community these options seem to best reflect her personalty.
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Dec 14, 2017 18:38
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Oh good lord don't take the goddamn internship of all the choices, why the hell would we sell our soul to the corps when we've done nothing but fight them up to this point and are well established in Touristville?
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Dec 14, 2017 18:54
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Yeah, can safely say that while all of these are tempting, internship is a huge exception. Julie has a carreer she's going for. Why would she work for a company that definitely ahs more than just Minuette as a racist there. She doesn't really have the skillset to really flourish there either. By all means, let's not get into a a war with Horizon, but don't tie ourselves to them. I can see working with them in a way of trying to make society less racist. But kinda hesitant on that one.
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Dec 14, 2017 18:57
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Yeah, we really want to minimize our involvement with Horizon in any way possible. Take their deal to keep out of their crosshairs, for sure. But don't accept any of the gifts they're offering either. Just let it go away. Take the win without complicating it. Anything we accept from them is going to come with strings attached.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:01
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MinutePirateBug posted:I am a little confused by the wording of the rewards given, I assume that Julie only gets two, but you say first normal reward is free and then she can pick two horizon rewards? If she gets three rewards then Changing the news, Internship, and Clinic upgrade. Prioritized in that order from highest to lowest in case she only gets two rewards. Julie is a hard workers, she wants a normal life, and she wants to do tangible good for her community these options seem to best reflect her personalty. Sorry. She only gets one free reward. The other reward is for working with Horizon. Selling out is not free, but if she does sell out she gets that second reward. GenericGirlName posted:drat... I really wanted Clinic Upgrade and Kenji Upgrade and $$$$ but Change The News is so good it's really hard to decide.... I'll give it more thought. When will the cut off be? 10 pm EST tonight. I want to wrap up Julie's story tonight so I can launch into arc 4. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 19:18
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Ice Phisherman posted:Sorry. She only gets one free reward. The other reward is for working with Horizon. Selling out is not free, but if she does sell out she gets that second reward. Oh. So only one reward from the first set, and optionally one second reward from the next set?
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Dec 14, 2017 19:20
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I think she’d not war with Horizon. Her feud is decisively over.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:28
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jagadaishio posted:Oh. So only one reward from the first set, and optionally one second reward from the next set? Two rewards from the list. Doesn't matter what set (the second set is "unlocked" by selling out)
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Dec 14, 2017 19:29
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jagadaishio posted:Oh. So only one reward from the first set, and optionally one second reward from the next set? If she works with Horizon she can choose any two rewards. However if she doesn't she can only choose from the normal rewards set if she doesn't deal though it looks like the thread says deal. If we deal, we can choose any two rewards from either list.  Some twice if they make sense such asking for more money. Even shifting the news cycle can be done twice. Loyalty can be chosen twice (one Marco one Kenji). Teacher respect can be chosen twice. Julie just walks away with nothing but a little cash in these scenarios though.She can really milk Horizon for favors as they're desperate to keep a troll corporate elite pacifist Christian preacher in training being shot by their racist corporate elite out of the news cycle. The only reason they didn't launch shadowrunners to get it is because there were two corporate kids who both have access to the data. Horizon figured it was better to knuckle under. Julie has a brief window where she has the upper hand on the powerful. That upper hand will evaporate the instant that video hits the news cycle. Horizon is currently spinning the news as hard as they can because they're waiting to see if Julie Freeman will deal or not. She's making them wait because her friends are waiting on her. Horizon is waiting on her friends because they're backed by powerful corporations who they simply can't browbeat. They have to either deal or take the hits.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:31
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Alright, then I think my vote is going to be: Deal with Horizon. Upgrade the clinic. Kenji Loyalty 6. That's in order of most to least important. This way Julie, Fuzzy, and most importantly Kenji get to walk away clean. Spanking Horizon would be satisfying, and getting a Teef Focus would be kicking rad, but it's not worth the entanglement. I'm really over-eager to see Chip keep improving, but taking a step back I think that those options will be the best for the story, and the best for Julie, for reasons I've already mentioned. They're both game-changers in really important ways that will affect Julie's story in particular and the story as a whole in the short, medium, and long term.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:38
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Just to be explicit, deal with horizon, voting Changing the news and Internship. I am too much of a contrarian at heart, the internship being a underdog vote and the visceral reaction against it make me really curious to see what the result would be.
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Dec 14, 2017 19:45
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We should be able to learn that a dragon funded our scholarship. 
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Dec 14, 2017 20:08
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My second vote goes to Teachers. So that's Deal, News cycle, teachers in total. It's a hard choice though
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Dec 14, 2017 20:11
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Since I was going piecemeal with my vote I'm going: make the deal - clinic upgrade - Teacher loyalty I think people aren't realizing how big it is to get the non corp student an income stream. We can always get someone else's teeth anyway.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:12
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Double news Being able to influence the world media (and the people they have blackmail on), is bullshit OP. Like, multiple orders of magnitude beyond any other choices. This will affect the entire planet, we'll never have another chance like this. Plus, the world media being sympathetic when Year 2 and all the attendant bullshit rolls around will be invaluable - we're gonna end up taking on the corps one way or another, having a Top 10 slant our direction could tip the balance of power.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:14
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I think you're overstating the magnitude of the influence. It'll have a global scope, but I'd expect something more along the lines of 'somewhat less racist' than 'on our side.' And, personally, I don't see us as being on the side of the protestors. They're sympathetic, sure, but Julie's 'side' is 'team Sasha and Kenji don't die.' This is a caught in the crossfire situation, not one where we're trying to play up a winner.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:22
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Ok my vote is Deal with Horizon Upgrade Clinic Upgrade Kenji Because I'm seriously concerned that we have not made enough progress in finding out how Kenji dies. Changing the news is the next best option for our second prize and I bet it will win.
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Dec 14, 2017 20:38
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Here are the vote tallies so far. Let me know if I missed you or screwed up in some other way. Teeth: Deadmeat, Chip: Deadmeat, Clinic Upgrade: HiHo ChiRho, Jagadaishio, GenericGirlName Change the news: Mr. Apollo, MinutePirateBug, Nothingtoseehere Kenji loyalty: Jagadaishio, GenericGirlName Internship: MinutePirateBug Teachers: Nothingtoseehere, HiHo ChiRho Double news: Crazycryodude It looks like the clinic upgrade and the news are leading by narrow margins. It's totally okay to change your vote. We're not going to do runoffs because there are a lot of choices, so again feel free to change and choose what you like and attempt to convince others to what you want.
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Dec 14, 2017 21:56
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gonna cast my vote for Teeth and Change the news
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Dec 14, 2017 22:02
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Is there anyway we can get an IOU for when the Lonestar and tempo news breaks? Like try to mitigate the news to the masses in the future? Clinic, Kenji, Teeth seriously the teeth should be the easiest thing to negotiate for, get the clinic upgrade and just one teansy winsy other thing the teeth she left behind. Who processed the scene? Knight Errant?
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Dec 14, 2017 22:07
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Toughy posted:Is there anyway we can get an IOU for when the Lonestar and tempo news breaks? Like try to mitigate the news to the masses in the future? Yep. Knight-Errant wanted to get that toe hold, but they weren't allowed to stay. Hard to police a populace holed up in man made caves that can go completely dark and that the hate corporate cops. Also, we only get two rewards. I know some of them don't seem equal, but thems the breaks. Sorry Toughy. And no, if she had more dirt on them she could call in an IOU, but they -really- want that footage destroyed right now. Julie has leverage, but it's fleeting because the news cycle will eventually end. It won't have the same explosive impact in a month or a year. Still bad, but they can handle it then. She's got to strike while the iron is hot. This news doesn't have an expatriation date, but it has a best by date. It'll be crazy hard to collect on an IOU without enough leverage. Corporate entities really only respect money, influence, power and leverage. The longer Julie holds onto her leverage the weaker it gets. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Dec 14, 2017 |
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Dec 14, 2017 22:14
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Take. The. Deal. How are we even considering 'sticking' it to a AAA Corp?? Let's not have this momentary victory go to our heads; we're an Ork with a criminal past who wants to run a clinic in the underground. That's as tenuous a backstory as it gets. Clinic Upgrade: I see this as something very difficult to achieve independently and benefits Julie directly. It also satisfies my need to have Julie free to pursue other goals while still maintaining a presence and a home in the underground. Teachers Upgrade: Again, I see this as something very difficult to achieve independently and benefits Julie directly. Momma Bear will become our healer consultant, Mr. Peters our talismonger, Juilian or shadowrunner contact., etc. That's a lot of contacts for just one choice. The other choices I see as either we'll achieve in time, or, doesn't benefit Julie directly, not really; Internship and Changing the News really is for the benefit of Horizon, so that they can spin it into being a 'Corp that cares'. Deadmeat5150 posted:Edit: So I was reading over Dunklezahn's Will again, because it's hilarious, and I realized how exactly our three misfits really got into school. Please elaborate? While I am aware of this will, I haven't read it, and I doubt it will make much sense to me if I did. Please explain to a SR newb.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:20
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CourValant posted:
For those who are unaware: Dunkelzahn is a dragon who got elected president of UCAS and got assassinated. Dunkelzahn's Will posted:To the Randall Grant Memorial Scholarship Fund, I leave 1 million nuyen to further the education of worthy but financially deprived applicants with magical potential.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:30
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^^^^^^^ We had the same ideaCourValant posted:Please elaborate? While I am aware of this will, I haven't read it, and I doubt it will make much sense to me if I did. Please explain to a SR newb. The best part if Dunkelzahn's Will is that it can provide a ton of plot hooks for adventures beyond the usual shadows. You have passages like: Dunkelzahn's Will posted:To the first party to identify the victim in the accompanying photo and bring his five perpetrators to justice, I leave the access codes to my property in Paris. The Draco Foundation will release the codes upon receipt and verification of a complete account of the investigation, including the fate of the victim and the perpetrators. Dunkelzahn's Will posted:To the first party to determine what lies behind the door of room 5B78 of the Aztechnology Pyramid in Tenochtitlán and file a report of their findings on Shadowland, I leave 5 million nuyen or medical care for the remainder of their natural life, whichever seems most appropriate. It also contains such gems as: Dunkelzahn's Will posted:To the owner of the sky-blue Chrysler-Nissan Jackrabbit that was crushed by a falling chunk of plascrete on October 26, 2045, I leave my 1964-1/2 candy-apple red Ford Mustang convertible. Sorry for the inconvenience—I had an itch that I couldn’t reach and caught the corner of the building with my claw. But what drew my eye specifically was: Dunkelzahn's Will posted:To the Randall Grant Memorial Scholarship Fund, I leave 1 million nuyen to further the education of worthy but financially deprived applicants with magical potential.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:35
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nothing to seehere posted:For those who are unaware: Dunkelzahn is a dragon who got elected president of UCAS and got assassinated. Deadmeat5150 posted:Dunkelzahn's Will posted: Thanks. So, one million nuyen doesn't go very far here does it? Blake Island tuition is 300,000 a year; one mil isn't even enough to put one student through all four years of high school.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:42
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CourValant posted:Thanks. Shhhh, the ambegueity of the value of nuyen in the setting isn't supposed to be mentioned. Also that was 20? years ago, so the fund has probably grown from other sources, and Julian did say several sources were responible for funding us: the School itself provided a good chuck of the cash, and Julian got top-ups from other funds to stretch to all three of us.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:54
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CourValant posted:So, one million nuyen doesn't go very far here does it? Add inflation since the 80's, 1 million used to go a lot further.
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Dec 14, 2017 22:56
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Plan Cryo, holy poo poo.jagadaishio posted:I think you're overstating the magnitude of the influence. It'll have a global scope, but I'd expect something more along the lines of 'somewhat less racist' than 'on our side.' That's still the work of a generation, dude.
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Dec 15, 2017 01:02
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Here's what we've got so far: Teeth: Deadmeat, Sheep Dodger, (sorry Toughy, can't have three) Clinic Upgrade: HiHo ChiRho, Jagadaishio, GenericGirlName, CourValant, Toughy, Shogeton Change the news: Mr. Apollo, MinutePirateBug, Nothingtoseehere, Sheep Dodger, Deadmeat, Shogeton, Bear Enthusiast Kenji loyalty: Jagadaishio, GenericGirlName, Bear Enthusiast Internship: MinutePirateBug Teachers: Nothingtoseehere, HiHo ChiRho, CourValant, Toughy Double news: Crazycryodude, Don't Be Mean to Me I've rolled the negotiation for Julian and the Horizon corporate negotiator. It fleshes out what will happen to the world in exchange for destroying the files. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 01:58
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Changing my Chip to a News. We better get them teef though.
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Dec 15, 2017 02:13
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Deadmeat5150 posted:Changing my Chip to a News. We better get them teef though. Just switched it.
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Dec 15, 2017 02:22
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News I really like. And while the teeth is metal, and I'm sorely tempted. I'm gonna go with something that'll do a lot of good in the long run and go with the improved clinic
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Dec 15, 2017 02:42
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News and Kenji. News seems pretty good in general, and this is a great opportunity to really cement Kenji into the group with Ultimate Friendship.
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Dec 15, 2017 03:19
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All right. It looks like changing the news and upgrading the clinic to a full doctor's office are the choices. Here's what we missed out on: 1. Combat magic. The Blake Island staff comes to the conclusion that these kids don’t have the ability to protect themselves from danger like corporate teens do by using bodyguards. They will all be able to learn restricted spells though they won’t be free. This includes Fuzzy. Kenji can’t cast spells, but he’ll get something too. Otherwise this will be restricted until year 3 or until we learn it on our own through unofficial channels which will come with costs if they’re caught. Pro: Julie and Fuzzy get a spell or summoning specialty of their choice which normally costs 7 karma and gives them +2 to a certain type of spell or summoning skill. Con: However, they both gain a point of notoriety as freshman learn combat spells 3. Either Marco or Kenji will move up to rank 6 loyalty. This friend will -always- back Julie up no matter what happens. It can fall to 5 again if we abuse the friendship though. Julie becomes best friends with one of her friends. Or two if we really want both. Normally this is not a big deal in Shadowrun the game, but I'm running it. These mean far more massive narrative bonuses and they'll take time to come up again. Year 2 at the earliest. Pro: Marco stays local when he goes to college. Not 100% sure if I'm going to keep him in Seattle or not yet. He also becomes a well placed corporate contact within Evo. Con: Still a goody-goody. He managed not to hit anyone and absolutely wreck them so he's not up for breaking any laws. At least not ones that he can't justify via his faith. Pro: Kenji becomes a shadowrunner contact for Julie and opens her up to all sorts of illegal muscle. Right now he wants to protect her from that. Con?: Kenji stops making perverted jokes at Julie. Blushes sometimes. No one has actually cared about Kenji this much before. He develops a crush on Julie. 4. Friendlier teachers. Julie develops her teachers not only as contacts, but friendly contacts. All of the ones she's met so far get recorded as contacts and go up to a loyalty of 3 each with Mr. Peters going to loyalty 4. Her teachers in private stop seeing her solely as a young student and start seeing her as a young peer. Pro: Julie herself gets access to restricted training ala option one, but just her. Con: Teacher's pet reputation on Blake Island. 5. Chip gains a rank in power a year early for free. He’ll also gain a new power of the thread’s choice and a spell. We’ll be able to upgrade him a year earlier each time. So next year he can be force 5 if we so choose as long as Julie has the karma. Pro: Chip learns another power and spell of my choice. Con: Chip grows up to the apparent age of 15. 6. Ork and troll approval. We gain one of the orks in Touristville as a contact as well as gain more general approval. Pro: Julie gains two of the bonuses we didn't take when she decided to put down roots in the crossroads instead of north, south, east or west Touristville all the way back in the Christmas arc. Con: Julie gains some small rivalry from one of those factions that isn't friendly with the other. These are rewards that we can access if we take the Horizon cooperation path, but we don’t have to take these, or we can take two or we can take money twice if Julie really wants to cash in. 1. They fix her bad reputation for killing her father. They’re the biggest names in media after all. I clear her bad reputation for free. No karma spent no quest needed. They just do it. This means that she’ll have an easier time talking to people. Pro: Julie gains a +2 bonus to her etiquette skill as she's coached through the documentary on her story. Con: Julie gains 1 public awareness as she'll now be recognizable. 2. Money. Julie gains 100,000 nuyen. Depending on what we do with it I’ll make up said drawback. Pro: Julie could have gotten extra funds by negotiating. 5k per hit. That's a shitload of money. Con: Sellout. Narrative bad feelings if she flaunts her wealth. 3. Minuet’s teeth. Mr. Peters designs a power focus for Julie at rating 2 (seeing as we have 23, that's why I rolled). This means all of her magical powers will get a +2 bonus. Summoning, spellcasting, alchemy, everything but assensing and artificing. It can be upgraded too, but only by him. Yeah, it’s less than money, but I’ll say that with more money it can be upgraded one more time without new ingredients, just money. Otherwise Julie is going to have to find more items before she can make something this powerful again. It'll cost 12 karma to bond though, but Julie has it. Pro: Increase the limit on notoriety from 4 to 6 for year one and so on. Intimidation! Con: Enemies get +1 to connection or occurrence. 5. I don’t think anyone will want it, but Julie can get an internship or corporate sponsorship from Horizon. In fact they’re eager to give it to her in order to appear like she’s on board with them. She always loved Horizon! Pro: Connections and money from a part time job. Julie gains the part time job quality at 3 times the pay. Con: It's a connection to a megacorp and Julie has tons of secrets. Also she needs to sink in hours to actually collect said pay. That's what we didn't get. Maybe some of these will come back up again as options some point. Or they'll just happen because we're patient. Fuzzy will get her own stuff from me as she got the final hit. She took the risk in facing down 3 spirits and 1 gun wielding teenager with her bare hands after all. Writing now. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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Dec 15, 2017 04:42
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Still waiting on "Fuzzy Nogway!" Posters. And Ratman mom.
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Dec 15, 2017 04:51
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Deadmeat5150 posted:Still waiting on "Fuzzy Nogway!" Posters. And Ratman mom. Its "Fuzzy Nogway Princess Teeth-Taker now." Ratmom would be sooooo proud.
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Dec 15, 2017 05:45
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Julian - Wednesday, March 13th, 2075 – Early Afternoon - Horizon Group corporate enclave, room Julian went into the belly of the beast that was the Horizon Group corporate enclave. This was a calculated risk that he'd hope would pay off. It was a strictly amateur move to meet them on their home ground and he hoped that it would make them sloppy. He dressed in his worst teacher's outfit. It was all brown tweed with grey around the elbows and khaki pants that were just a little too tight. He'd gotten a bad haircut on purpose. "gently caress my poo poo up and make it look like you tried to fix it, but couldn't," he'd told his normal barber. This wasn’t too out of character for Julian. He even wore a pair of weathered shoes that he scuffed on occasion and clumsily polished with the cheapest shoe shine he could find. He thought it might be too much after the fact, but people bought into their own biases. On paper he was a talented but boring manipulation shaman. He'd paid good money and threatened the right people for the new identity and it had worked for nearly ten years in part because he committed to the role. He begged for stray nuyen from rich donors. He was a guardian to three troubled teens. He kept his nose clean. So he did his best to look like a dumpy, activist teacher. This wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't entirely the truth either. He wasn’t dumpy. There was layer upon layer of bullshit that made up the disguise that was Julian Smith, but there were pieces of truth amidst the crap. After all, he’d go crazy if he couldn’t be himself sometimes. It had killed more than one shadowrunner that tried to go legit. You couldn’t be another person all day every day. You had to make room for yourself in your new identity. He was stopped by corporate security several times: Once upon entering the enclave, another as a spot check and twice more in the main corporate headquarters. This most recent checking was the most thorough and professional. People waved mechanical items at him that beeped and magical items that didn't. He knew what they all were and he knew that he was being closely watched and evaluated in ways he couldn’t see. He was led by a lovely young woman whose name he didn't catch, but he stared at her butt and down her top like a rube. That was part of the act as well, though he enjoyed being an unrefined clod. There was a method to his madness. He passed by corporate propaganda disguised as commercials and motivational posters. He spied row upon row of cubicals filled with corporate wageslaves as he ascended a glass elevator with his guide. People hustled and bustled past him in the halls when he reached the correct floor. He didn't keep his mind blank, because he knew people were thumbing through his thoughts with magic from afar and would keep thinking perverted thoughts until they stopped. That was manipulation magic and he knew its touch. Instead he kept his mind on the young lady's rear end as it wiggled in her smart, businesslike cream colored pencil skirt. "She's ready to see you, Mr. Smith," the lady said, brightly. "I'm sure she is. That's fantastic," said Julian, enthusiastically. He extended her hand to shake hers. Again, this was on purpose. In his mind he was being polite. He was still being watched via magic. The young lady was startled. She didn't know what to do for a split second before she recovered. Who shakes the hand of a nobody? Julian did, or at least the dumpy teacher that he was pretending to be did. That was the point. Not only was he creating a false persona around himself, but he was making them both disregard him and doubt any intelligence they had on him. He purposefully shook her hand for just a little too long and he felt the touch of the mind magic vanish as security mages finally disregarded him. "She's um...Right through those doors..." said the woman, nervously. "Oh! My apologies," said Julian, as if embarrassed. He released her hand, banged against the glass door just once as he “accidentally” tried to walk through it, apologized again to the woman who was standing around nervously and headed on inside. The room was white with a simple brown floor, had brown, synthwood chairs and a white table. It was a boring corporate office save for the view of the Puget Sound, which was spectacular. It was also fake. He knew a trid when he saw one, but it was a good mock up. The woman who sat behind at a chair reviewing files with her augmented reality glasses was stunning in a bird of prey sort of way. Julian noticed her nails first, flawless, long and red. She looked as if she could tear apart a small rodent with them. Her features were similarly sharp. She was human, maybe in her late twenties to early thirties though looks were deceiving in the corporate world. She could be in her fifties with current beauty technology for all he knew. Her skin was pale and flawless, her black hair was feathered and blonde on one side and black on the other, shoulder length. Corporations tolerated minor eccentricities like hair color, tattoos or heavy piercings. Her brown eyes were sharp and discerning and her makeup was flawless. Not too much, not too little, as if they knew his tastes. They probably did. They were a media corporation after all. Their customers’ data was their chief product. Her gunmetal, keyhole blouse was filled out well by her body and she wore a short, black skirt. She looked up from her black designer augmented reality glasses, furrowed her brow and frowned at Julian's dumpy facade. She quickly hid her frown and gave him her very best and most fake smile as she stood up and extended her hand. "Hello, my name is Laurie. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, her voice a perfect contralto. "It's um...Lovely to be here," said Julian, nervously. He covered her hand in flop sweat as he vigorously shook it for just a little too long and just a little too hard before he let go. She froze briefly as she tried to make sense of him. He obviously didn't look like his picture. That is to say handsome, well dressed and well put together. Instead he looked like a sweaty underpaid idiot who didn't know how to dress himself. Julian had taken a small pill earlier to raise his body temperature to make him sweat for just this effect. "Please have a seat," she said, politely. Julian nodded and did so. He made a point of staring at her cleavage through her keyhole blouse. What he was actually doing was assensing her. Sure enough he spotted the dead spots inside of her. Those were either cyberware or bioware, and in a negotiator there was a common suite of technology that came standard with most high level negotiators. He already picked up on her perfect voice. He had to be sure though, so as he turned off his astral sight he made himself comfortable as he sat down in his chair and bit the inside of his cheek hard. "Thank you for coming, Mr. Smith. You are quite a difficult man to get hold of. I have been so very excited to meet you," she said, smoothly. "Tell me, have you eaten?" "Yeah, I had a Nuke-It burger on the way here. You know, with those chili cheese meltdowns? I absolutely love them. I can never understand how they keep their shape, but somehow they do!" he babbled on purpose. "I see. Well, if you're not hungry we can just proceed," she said, placidly. She launched into the standard corporate spiel. He'd heard it all before but there were a few new words he’d need to look up later. Her speech was laden with buzzwords, catchphrases and positive language without a single hint of anything negative sounding word. Without meaning to he felt his attention drift over her body and away from her eyes. She smelled amazing. Now this was a woman. High powered, classy, intelligent, articulate and most of all, attractive. He thought about how she would look without her clothes on and what her mouth tasted like. He caught himself and kept from smiling. That hadn't taken long. He checked his cheek where he'd bitten himself. He hadn't bitten himself hard enough to draw blood, but close. He focused on the opening in her blouse, that keyhole as he continued to play the rube. She underestimated him and thought she was being clever. She thought this was easy. His cheek should hurt. Instead what he felt was a sensation that drifted ever closer to pleasure by the second. She was still talking. Sure enough, his body responded in the way he thought it would. It would be awkward for him, a man, to stand up and leave now in front of a lady like this. That was the point. She was weaponizing sex. She cleared her throat. "Mr. Smith?" she asked, delicately. "Yes?" Julian asked. "My eyes...They're up here," she said, as she played the coquette. Julian shook his head and kept staring at her breasts. "And yet I'm more interested in your breasts, Laurie. I have an erection. I can't stand up without embarrassing myself, or at least I would embarrass myself if I felt like I should be. I think that you are negotiating with me in bad faith," he said, and he glared at her as he looked up, "You think I'm some sort of idiot. You sure are treating me like one right now.” She smiled and showed the precisely correct amount of teeth as she shook her head. "Mr. Smith, I can assure you that I am doing no such thing," said Laurie. "We at Horizon Group pride ourselves on..." "Winning. You pride yourselves on winning," finished Julian as he pointed to his cheek. "See, at the beginning of our conversation I bit the inside of my cheek. If I'd bitten it any harder I would've been able to chew and swallow the piece. I check the pain and find out to my astonishment that there is no pain. It feels great. I feel great. Pain became sensation and then pleasure. I want to have a tumble with you between the sheets, lady, or hell, maybe on top of the desk right here and now. That’s how I’m feeling right now and I don't like it because those feelings aren't mine." She shook her head and her nostrils flared the exact precise amount. She had some sort of body control tech rattling around in her somewhere. Maybe kinesics skillwires. Her eyes narrowed just enough to seem serious without seeming too aggressive. "If you can't take this discussion seriously I'm afraid we should attempt this conversation on another day when you're feeling more like a civilized being," said Laurie, crisply. Julian placed his hands on the desk, leaned forward and smiled woflishly. "Or maybe we just clear the air. Literally. We clear it. You've been flooding this room with tailored pheromones to distract me with sex. I came into this room as a civilized being. You did not. You my dear made this conversation uncivilized by pumping out those pheromones of yours. I wonder why you think that you can just browbeat me? I wonder why you think that you can con me with these cheap tricks? I wonder how you think you are negotiating in good faith? I wonder why I shouldn't just leave?" asked Julian, threateningly. Repetition in speech was excellent for building to points and threats. He thought he'd oversold the dumpy teacher facade, but he'd lured her into overplaying her hand and flooding the room with pheromones by conning her into underestimating him. She'd stalled with corporate double-talk while she purposefully flooded the room with genetically engineered sex pheromones from the bioware connected to her scent glands. He had no such advantage. He did have a single influence spell, but only amateurs used them on the prepared. If he hadn't lured her into using her bioware she might hit him with that sexual whammy when he wasn't paying attention and have him eating out of her hand for the entire conversation. Now he actively denied her one of her assets. What she did was considered rude after all. Everyone at her level did it, but still, it was rude to be caught doing it. It betrayed a lack of subtlety and craft. She nodded slightly to him, her eyes focused on her AR glasses and fans began to whir to life as she focused on him once more. They sucked the pheromones out of the room with a state of the art filtration system. They were there for a reason. It wouldn't do to have the next person to use this room get a whiff of her and be distracted. At least not on purpose. Minutes later he bit the other side of his cheek and nodded. There was only pain. "Now, may we begin to speak like civilized people, or shall you continue to encourage me to stare at your breasts like an idiot?" asked Julian. "We’ll both be civilized,” she said, smoothly, “Though I notice that you said you assensed me. Is that not considered rude as well? Neither of us were going to leave over mere rudeness. We're both professionals." Julian merely smiled. "You're right. I am a terribly rude person," he said, oh-so-politely. "However, I am not rude that often. I have quite a few kids to take care of at school. They're sensitive young people. It takes skill and care to teach the children of the corporate elite." "Sensitive? Really?" she asked. "Oh yes. Each and every one of them is a challenge, but a worthy one. The act of shaping a young mind to watch it grow is intensely satisfying. It's a craft and a calling. I do my best to make children into good people," he said. "Sadly sometimes there is no saving them from themselves. Perhaps you could try your hand at teaching one day. Despite the earlier misunderstanding I think that you could make an excellent teacher." "I must think about it then," she said. "Perhaps when I retire." "Horizon must have an excellent benefits package for someone of your skill," he said. "I doubt you'll retire anytime soon." "Interested in joining? We're always looking for competent awakened talent. I could refer you to metahuman resources department," she said. The two chit chatted idly about nothing much. On the surface their conversation was polite and friendly, but underneath the pleasantries they ruthlessly jockeyed for position and probed for weaknesses. They fenced with words, with body language, with small jokes and polite conversation. In the end Julian felt like he'd gotten the better of her when he managed to drag a tiny, imperfect laugh out of her. He capitalized on his success and ruthlessly flattered her, charmed her and convinced her little by little that she was more competent than he once more. He thought that she was all too reliant on those sex pheromones. This hadn't been easy, but it had been fun. It had been some time since he'd negotiated at such a high level. However, he felt like she'd been softened up enough to finally raise the subject of the day. "So, pleasantries aside, my ward, Julie Freeman, has a list of requests for the destruction of her commlink containing not only Minuet's arrival and shameful behavior, but her attack on Marco Ivanov. Would you care to see the footage? Since I'll be negotiating on behalf of Fuzzy Smith as well we can both watch from separate angles," said Julian. "I would, yes, my superiors and I are intensely interested in seeing the footage," she said. "Seeing them costs," said Julian, bluntly. "Come now. I have seen Mr. Ivanov and Ms. Oliver's footage. There is nothing new here for me to see," said Laurie. "That is neither for you or me to decide. Both of these are from different perspectives, one within melee range. It's graphic," said Julian. "No, I open with what Julie would not bend or break on. You see, her father was a horrible racist and responsible for nearly choking her to death before she killed him in self defense with her very first spell from a hospital bed. Now when I asked her what she wanted I balked at first, but then I thought about it. This is very personal to her you see. She believes that the man who reinforced her father's views, who fed his racism, who confirmed his warped biases about the world was the man her father watched from seven to eight o’clock every weekday Monday through Friday. She believes this person ultimately contributed to her near strangulation and murder by her own father." This topic of conversation made Laurie shift ever so slightly in her seat. Julian decided to press. "Do you have children?" he asked. "I have one," she said, smoothly, the discomfort already gone. "My congratulations. Now I know Horizon Group is a business, and as a young corporation just over a decade old, the youngest of the megacorpations, much of your content has been grandfathered in from different sources. Newsnet was full of polite racists once upon a time. That was twenty years ago. Ten years ago it was filled with horrible human supremacists who hide behind age old defenses of "just asking questions" and "saying what everyone else is thinking" to excuse their behavior. This man a crypto-human supremacist and Julie holds his words accountable in part for her attempted murder. Ms. Freeman wants Aiden Ferdinand fired effective immediately." There was a pause. The corporate negotiator did not frown, but she did drum her perfectly painted and manicured nails across the simple table just once. Then she laughed. "You are aware that he is one of our most popular personalities with the humans 65 and over demographic?" she asked him, pointedly. "A shrinking demographic, and yes, I am aware. Further she wishes for there to be mandatory racial sensitivity training and at least one new ork or troll commentator on Sunrise with Horizon," said Julian. Laurie frowned and her perfectly plucked eyebrows knitted together. "You're serious?" she asked, dubiously. "I am her guardian and can only tell you what she told me. Julie is very serious. I cannot persuade her of anything else other than to release the footage and fight which I have counseled her against. She believes Mr. Ferdinand's words are a clear and present danger to others as his speech evokes and reinforces hatred in the masses, that Minuet Lemieux was the product of a disconnected and sick corporate hierarchy and that having at least one ork or troll on your flagship morning show would better humanize, or may I say metahumanize orks and trolls. She is an activist you see," explained Julian. "A sixteen year old girl said all of this," said Laurie, the corporate negotiator. "More articulately, but less eloquently," admitted Julian. "She's going to be terrifying one day. Now I know that you can't authorize this on your own, but I will wait as you run it up the chain. Remember that she will not budge and neither will I as I am her proxy. I would rather negotiations not break down. If you wish though I can waste your time arguing and overshooting what she wants, and you can waste my time arguing me down until we both arrive where Julie wants to be. I think by now you and I both realize that we’re professionals, so let’s just cut the bullshit. She wants what I said with no changes. Fluff up the amount of orks and trolls on shows if you need to sell it to your superiors or claim she wants outrageous training programs, but I’m done arguing for the moment. My dick is still hard and I’m too grumpy to spar with you at present.” Who knew how many levels Julie’s request had to go up to find someone with authority to make the decision? The Oliver girl and the Ivanov boy of Ares and Evo, respectfully, kept Horizon from simply browbeating Julie and her teacher into submission with threats and bribes as was customary in situations. The time to cash in was limited. News cycles wax and wane and no one pays attention forever, especially in the age of the 24 hour news cycle. However, the amount of delicacy needed to handle one of their corporate elite’s children shooting the child of yet another corporate elite in a different and more powerful corporation was extreme. No one wanted a corporate war. On top of that Marco Ivanov was a pacifist, Christian, troll healer and activist on top of being a corporate elite. His description as a person contained far too many sensitive adjectives for a video this damning to hit the news. Yes, Julie had to sell out or fight a battle she would lose. However, what made this situation special was how high a price she could sell out for. Not just money, but she could briefly leverage her video for real power or change. An hour later Laurie informed Julian of the decision handed down from somewhere above her. “Mr. Ferdinand is retiring to spend more time with his family due to ongoing health concerns. Horizon group already planned for the sensitivity training. Everyone will be participating in it including our CEO. Mr. Cline wants to set a good example,” she said. They were planning on doing this anyway, but there was no point in telling Julian about that. She sincerely hoped she had not come to the attention of Gary Cline, Horizon’s CEO. She realized she hadn’t been doing her “Horizon Best” as they called it during team building exercises in her corporate workgroup and wondered if her current “Horizon Best” was going to get her demoted or fired. “Also we’ve announced a new position on Morning with Horizon, but have mentioned that we are looking to engage more broadly with ork and troll audiences to better facilitate metahuman understanding through one of our social media shines. The media, which is us, should be alerted momentarily as we read our own shine,” she said, the word shine referring to the corporate word they used for posts. “You didn’t say which ork or troll so we’re currently having test audiences review who to pick.” “That’s fine. Julie was non-specific. I’ll need an outside line to confirm that this is true,” said Julian. Minutes later after Julian verified with several trusted sources and one source he’d picked at random that it was done. He didn’t dare back out now that they’d committed which is why he started big. The cure for the last of the tailored hormones came in the form of a gunshot and his students screaming as he watched the video yet again with Laurie. He felt horrible, but this was meant to unnerve him. If Laurie was affected she didn’t betray her feelings. They watched each commlink video once, but he was sure that somewhere entire teams of PR people were analyzing every detail of the videos. “Does Julie have any other requests?” asked the corporate negotiator. “Yes, I’ll forward you my itemized list,” said Julian. He direct messaged her the information from his burner commlink. No way was he connecting to the matrix with his personal one. Otherwise he’d have to smash it with a hammer. It would be guaranteed to be riddled with worms, trackers and malware by Horizon hackers if he left it on for more than an instant. “This looks like hospital equipment. We don’t deal in these goods. We’re a news corporation,” she said. She looked down her black, designer glasses at him. Text continued to scroll faintly along her glasses. Again, it was a perfectly practiced move. “There’s an itemized bill at the bottom along with personal funds for Julie for pain and suffering,” said Julian. “I see. Well I can get behind everything save for a year’s pay for a doctor. You can just invest in skillwires. A doctor is an unnecessary expense in this day and age when you can simply use cyberware to emulate them. The rest seems acceptable.” Julian felt good enough to bargain for a while longer. She wouldn’t budge on the doctor, but maybe he could use his contacts to help subsidize one. Not fully of course, but maybe in part until he got Julie’s new clinic…No, new doctor’s office off the ground. They came to an agreement. “I believe that’s all then,” said Laurie. “Ah, no. I am also Fuzzy Smith’s guardian,” said Julian. “We’re not done yet.” Laurie smiled dubiously. It looked like Julian wasn’t the only one who was tiring out. She’d stood up, but sat right back down again. They’d been at this for hours. “I’ll make it easy and quick. Fuzzy is a huntress. She appreciates trophies. She wants a specific type of egg, some teeth and five seconds of her fist impacting Minuet’s face as an animated gif,” said Julian. “Sound would be appreciated too.” “I assume the teeth and the punch are related?” asked Laurie. “Yes. Yes they are,” said Julian. “Well, it’s Minuet. I doubt anyone but her parents will care. Maybe not even them,” said Laurie, harshly. Julian was happy that this was going so well, but he wasn’t particularly happy about bargaining for teeth. He was going to skin whoever told Fuzzy about how shamans could use teeth. She’d been insistent on having Minuet’s teeth to enchant that drat spearknife of hers. End of Arc 3 CYOA Time We have a number of questions as we enter into arc 4. 1. I’m assuming that the last arc is going to be Fuzzy’s story. However if any of you don’t want it to be let me know. We are going to have asides focused on other characters though as always. 2. There’s a time skip of a week, but there was also a time skip in Julie’s story from late January to around mid-March. What were Kenji, Fuzzy and Julie doing during this time? 3. Spring break is coming up. 03/24/2075 to 04/01/2075. Any suggestions for what the teens should do? I’m not going to dwell on it for a long time, but I’ll dedicate a chapter or so. We’re going to stay in Seattle. If you want me to explore a particularly cool area or place let me know. Here’s a map. Click things. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1_1ES7tdzvO65eeErMFvEu_uedVM&hl=en_US&ll=47.17082464072266%2C-122.30607570002286&z=11 4. Julie’s doctor’s office gets a specialty. What kind of specialty does she get? We’re also coming up on the last day of school for the year in the last arc. That would be June 22nd. 2075. Here’s what we got for negotiating: Julie gets a revenue stream in her doctor’s office, it serves Touristville, it’s a medical facility that offers +2 to all medical checks made inside of it and she can draw free items like medkits, trauma patches and stim patches (we’ll get into those later, but they’re expensive) for free as long as they’re for personal use by the Blake Island teens. She’ll get startup money for a staff of nurses, but they’ll have skillwires which will need surgery. Any real doctors she’ll have she’ll have to partner with and share profits with as doctors are expensive. Julian didn’t do that well. Also, finally, Touristville’s prosperity increases as it brings in medical tourists. Mo’ money mo’ problems though. Before it was just an ork ghetto with some decent shops. Now it’s becoming prosperous. As for the news, imagine someone from a certain racist, jingoist, state news propaganda source and telling them that they’re fired. The old racists are going to be mad. This won’t effect this year. This is more long term. Instead it’ll effect year 2. The human supremacist crowds are going to be smaller because the olds won’t show up as much. The fash won’t be able to use simple racist right wingers as cover to look legit. The problem is that without them around to moderate them they’re going to be more violent. The crowd size from Julie’s vision on the human supremacist side dropped, but they’re going to be more violent. This is both good and bad. At the same time orks and trolls haven’t had as much to be angry about as they’ve had some wins lately. They’re going to be more peaceful. They’re not going to be the only faction though. None of these groups are monolithic. poo poo gets complicated when I use my story to tackle Charlottesville as a topic come year two. I will pull no punches and will do my research as I always do to make it as authentic as possible. It's not going to be exactly the same, but I'm going to base the events heavily on the shitshow that was Charlottesville. --- Julian is negotiating on behalf of Julie. I thought it would be a fun scene to end the book. Julian gets 6 hits on 14 dice on an impersonation test due to his preparation and skills, but -1 for the negotiator being suspicious. He's pretending to be a dumpy teacher, but Horizon Group isn't a AAA corp for nothing. However Horizon has a file on him. They're not an old company so they were just getting started when he'd quit shadowrunning. There's little chance of discovery. They would've done their legwork on him, but he wants them to simply ignore the files once they see him. Who read files on a dumpy, activist teacher? Laurie, the corporate negotiator, rolls. She's at 11 dice for perception + intuition. She rolls. 5 hits. She buys it. He conforms to her biases. He gets a +1 bonus to his final dice rolls. Julian is an old hand at lying and being lied to. He reads her in the astral, but only long enough to see her aura. No roll, it’s obvious. She has big dead spots in her. He doesn't try to read her aura for long periods of time because that's considered rude, but not rude in the way he wants to be. He rolls charisma 8 + con 7 + fast talk specialty 2 for 17 dice. 9 hits. Critical. She has 13 dice to resist his bullshit with her bullshit. 2 hits. She does not take him seriously. She turns on her tailored pheremones which he was just waiting for. He gets +7 dice on his final rolls (up to his potential of 6). Julian bites the inside of his cheek and realizes what she's doing as he becomes sexually aroused. Just as he suspected when he bit his cheek it went from pain to sensation to pleasure. She's messing with his sex drive to overawe him. Her tailored pheremones work against her instead of for her. She's at a -3 to her roll of 7 charisma + 6 con + 2 seduction - 3 tailored pheremones for 11 dice instead of 17. Julian resists with a con test of 17. They get 5 hits each, but ties go to the defender. She loses her 3 dice for tailored pheromones for her following rolls. Julian is rude. He is unspeakably rude. He tells her that he knows what's going on, that she's playing him for a fool, and he is filled with moral outrage as a good teacher who cares about his student would be. He rolls intimidation. He's not great at it though as he only has it at 12. 8 charisma + 4 intimidation. However it's versus her willpower of 5 willpower versus + 7 intimidation. After all, she's a corporate negotiator. She knows her business. He does outrage well, but she suspects that he’s not going to walk away. I roll edge and still only get 2 hits for Julian. She gets 4. They stare each other down. She gets a +2 dice pool on her final roll. She knows he's not willing to walk away from negotiation now. They make nice as they try and calm down. Julian is good with corporate types so he gets a +2 to his normally +14 dice pool for etiquette for 16. She rolls etiquette back. She gets 14 dice. He gets 8 hits. Critical. She gets 3 hits. He gets 5 hits over for the critical and lower her hits by 1 as she's lulled back into a false sense of security. Now for the negotiation. This will determine the narrative of what happens. First we go for the first of what Julie wants. Julian has a dice pool he can distribute of 16. His negotiation is a 6, so I can only assign 6 dice each time. This isn't in the rules, but I play fast and loose sometimes. What is in the rules is that he has a maximum amount of assistance dice of 6. Negotiation isn't particularly rational. It's about posturing. So she only has 1 extra die to apply, 7 charisma and 6 negotiation to resist. Julian has an 8 charisma, 6 negotiation and a +2 item bonus he can use from the film along with a total of 6 dice each time. Let's roll. Julie really wants the change in the news. Her father watched this one, particularly racist rear end in a top hat, who isn't outright racist yelling slurs, but he definitely had a hand in reinforcing her dad’s racism which poisoned her views as well through the filter that was her dad when Julie was human. She had to see him on the news every weekday. He was grandfathered in back from before Horizon was a thing and when they were Newsnet as Horizon is normally way more like CNN than Fox News. She wants his old rear end fired and for there to be mandatory corporate sensitivity training. Let's see if it works. However, Julian is at a -2 penalty. The old newscaster has many, MANY flaws, but he does have one thing going for him. It's not his audience, no, they're old as hell. He has a fantastic contract. Julian rolls 18 dice as I use 6 of that dice pool. I pre-edge to remove limiters. She rolls 14 dice, +1 because she really doesn't want to do this. Only 4 hits. gently caress. She gets 3 hits!  They argue for the better part of an hour, word has to go up and down the chain, but they finally agree to "peacefully let go" one of their newscasters for "health reasons" so he can "be with his family". We've fired someone who is definitely, 100% legally distinct from a certain newscaster. He's old, bald hates everything and likes sidebars with bullet points. Also they'll agree to shuffle some people around to put in a new ork talking head as well as some sensitivity training corporate wide. They were planning on doing that anyway. Now for the clinic. Horizon isn't into medicine. They're 100% an entertainment industry so Julian at this point is just getting money. The cost for new facilities is going to cost 50,000 alone. That's just for the space and some basic supplies. Medical devices and startup money for new, competent staff costs money. Julian is out of edge so it's 20 dice instead of 18 since he's not getting a major talking head fired. She rolls 13 dice and is feeling the heat. 8 hits versus 5 hits. Julie walks away with plenty of money enough to start up a proper doctor's office. She can't outright hire a doctor, but she can supplement one if she partners with one. Real doctors versus skillwires doctors are rare and expensive. Her revenue stream will be smaller though. Julie will also be able to afford a few skillwires nurses. Not proper nurses though. Sorry Julie. The doctor needed a lot of hits. Finally, Julie's money. 20k, 1k extra for each hit above. Julian only has 16 versus her 13 dice. Julian crits like a boss with 8 dice and she only gets 2 hits. Julie takes home 30k nuyen. Her bosses are not going to be happy with her, but Julian is satisfied and agrees to destroy Julie Freeman's footage. As the corporate negotiator is about to leave Julian clears his throat. So about his other ward, Fuzzy Smith. She has footage too...The now thoroughly angry woman sits down. Julian can't demand as much though as Fuzzy had specific demands instead of money. Fuzzy isn't huge on money. She wants stuff that she can't normally buy. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 20:48 on Aug 22, 2019 |
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Dec 15, 2017 10:28
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So I didn't give Julie the teeth, but I could see some of you were all about the teeth. And you're right, it's a small thing which is why I'm comfortable doing this. However I don't want to load Julie up with power unless the thread specifically cared about more power. Fuzzy though got the last hit and was in danger of getting shot and killed. Spearknife gets an upgrade with teefs. That said I can't please everyone. There were some people who won't get what they want. I am trying to please people within reason though without just handing out everything. Trust me when I say I'm doing my best to be accommodating.  She's also getting a super secret, super cool egg of some sort. We'll see what that is later.  And a five second gif of Minuet losing her teeth when Fuzzy punches the hell out of her. Horizon doesn't give a gently caress about Minuet. In fact giving people a (toothless) face to hate and throwing her under the bus is how they're spinning this. It's not Horizon. It's just one bad apple. Or at least that's the narrative. And they can do this because she's being tried as an adult. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Dec 15, 2017 |
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