The waifish elf boy with the crazy eyes walks out of the cornerstore, looks back and forth to make sure he isn't being followed, then turns left out onto the street. He keeps one eye on the people walking around near him, and the other one on his hands. He's pulled his small knife from it's hiding place near one of the many holes in his faded jeans, and is working on getting his shiny new Meta-Link out of its clear plastic shell.
I should have bought one of these things years ago! Finally, he's got it free and he immediately powers it on and sets it to run silent. Next, he extends the cheap earbuds and places one in his left ear, letting the other one dangle. Finally, he deposits the comm in his front right pocket, running the cord to the earbuds inside his ratty, longsleeve Tshirt. With a bit more confidence in his step, Xem begins the twenty minute walk to Mario's cigar shop.
Now, let's see if I remember that commcode he told me last winter...[spoiler]
What was that commcode? Memory (Log 5 + Will 7):
12d6t5 3 I'm gonna treat this like a "win", cool?[/spoiler]
About half a block away from the shop, Xem pauses on a corner for just a moment. He pulls the dull green comm with the woodgrain sticker on it out of his pocket, unplugs the earbuds, and raises it to eyelevel, getting himself in the shot framed up all nicely. He uses a low angle to make himself look more menacing and when he's satisfied he's got it right, he hits
<Record>> He speaks as ominously as he can directly into the comm.
"The mad one needs to plant some seeds, my good friend. Please have an assortment of your finest, smallest, and fastest gardening implements available for perusal. I shall make it worth your while..." Then a big, crazy, toothy smile, and...
<<Stop>> Dropping all hint of emotion from his young, troubled face, he sends the file to Mario's commcode, pockets the comm again, takes a long look back and forth to make certain he isn't being followed, then slowly walks the final block to CDT, Caldone's Discount Tobacconist.
Mario is going to shit a brick when he sees that! Then he's gonna shit another one when I come walking on in!If Mr C is impressed or weirded out in any way by the message or Xem's entrance, he doesn't let on. In fact, he looks and sounds bored.
"Heya kid." is all Xem gets for his whole plan. The disappointment must show on his face, cause Mario throws him a bone and at least acknowledges he got the message.
"So... Yaneedapiece?" The elf boy surrounded by racks of cheap imitation tobacco filled cigars smiles a bit.
As the two of them walk into the backroom, Mario closes the door behind them, saying,
"Figured once you got some money to spend, you'd get a jack first. Figured, y'know? You already got a piece, right?" Xem doesn't answer. His eyes focused on the weapons laid out in front of him, one in particular.
A thing of true beauty. There's almost a moment of peace, but it's broken when Mr C asks,
"You aint finally pickin up Kournikouva are ya?" Xem only wishes.
"No, Mr C..." Mario always hates it when he calls him that.
"I'm afraid I'm dealing with rather limited funds right now. Another day, another day." He crunches his brow up as he goes over the weapons within his price range and finally settles on a little machine pistol with a folding stock; A scorpion or some such nonsense. It's nothing like that fabulous Russian weapon he's been eying since Mario first showed him this room, but it's something.
It will have to do."I'll take this little beauty, an extra clip, and enough standard ammo to fill em both up, wiz?"A few minutes later, everything is assembled and ready to go. Xem pulls out his credstick to pay the 420 nuyen he owes and comes up 5 short. He gives a sly, goofy smile to his friend Mario and says,
"Think you can let a keeb slide for a fiver?" With a disapproving groan and his head tilted to the side, Mario eventually says,
"Sure. Whatever," and slides the stick again for 415. Before Mario can even hand it back, the little elf pipes up again.
"Y'know, while we're on the subject of lettin me slide and all..." Mario raises his eyebrows, perhaps stunned and impressed by the spine on this little one.
"I got some rough riders I'm going up against tonight. Can't say who. Part of the biz, y'know? But... Just in case I aint lay all these hoopfuckers down before they get a few shots back at me, I was wondering if you had maybe, a vest, or a helmet, or like, and armored shirt or somethin layin around I might could borrow for, say, 24 hours. Just a little bitta 'just in case' y'know what I mean?""Sorry Xem, I don't have a spare loaner vest right now, and truth be told, you wouldn't want some crappy gear giving you a false sense of security. I'll tell ya what, give me that gun for a second and I'll fix you up a with a brand new spare part I have lying around."
Eh. So be it. Twas worth a mawfukkin try, right? Xem doesn't answer, just nods. As Mario works on attaching the sight, Xem picks up a roll of mechanics tape from his workbench and tapes the two clips for his scorpion together, each facing a different direction. He saw it in a trid once when he was really little. Made it look like you could reload it way faster. He's not sure if that's true, but he's always wanted to try it anyway. At very least, he figures, he won't drop his empty clip, and that'll save him five nuyen. As Mario finishes up, he loads all of his bullets into them, then folds up the box they came in and puts it in his pocket.
--------------------------
It's 10:08pm when the homeless little elf finally makes his way back to the ramshackle little shit-hole he's been sharing with Rat, Chaim, and Werner for the last few weeks. He's got his brand new gun carefully tucked away in his ratty, baggy clothing as he walks across the street to reach the place.
It's time to find the others and get down to planning out how this is all gonna go down. He finds himself a dark, shadowy corner to crouch in and waits for the other three to arrive.
[spoiler]
Hide the Ceska (Agi 6 + Palming 1):
7d6t5 4Stay un-noticed in the shadow (Agi 6 + Sneaking 4 + Spec [Urban] 2):
12d6t5 6 Physical limit is 4 though, so I lose 2 hits.[/spoiler]
