[gilga]

AM texted >>I really need the money to survive...25k pays the interest...  but I still need to make rent.  So I tell you what, let's take the car and sell it if this is to be our only paying job this month. We won't lose much, but we'll benefit if we get to keep it. Then again, as the car is very expensive to him,  I think I can reach a better compromise.

She suggested To Liu "I'd hate to take your brand new car because you are a little short. Perhaps you can pay 32k and the Xenon? Like a trade-in deal? "

[Lorebane24]

He raises his hands briefly.  "Yes, fine.  32,000 nuyen, and a used Dodge Xenon - paid upon delivery of my son, reasonably unharmed.  I know that these groups, these... Halloweeners, are not gentle men.  I know..." He looks away and massages the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger.  "I know they may have already hurt him.  He may be scraped and bruised.  They may have taken that ridiculous hand of his...  But I expect him to be protected, and delivered in a condition no worse than when you find him."

[Beta]

"Of course we'll take good care of him.  If we find him in dire condition, however, would you prefer that we take him straight to a hospital, or contact you first for instructions?"

<<Any objections to the offer?>>

[Lorebane24]

"I would insist that you contact me as soon as he is retrieved and out of imminent danger.  Here, I have a private commcode you can call for this purpose."  He sends you the number for a cheap Azi brand knockoff link, probably a burner.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby nodded along, both to the real-life conversation and to the subtil matrix one.
<<Fine by me. I've got to pay taxes and loansharks. It can't hurt to keep our eyes open for paydata during this operation - lot's of people want a piece of the reformed Helloweeners.
I suggest our spell slinger calls up a spirit asap and has it search for the boy directly. When we have his position pinpointed, we can see how we get this done - although I suspect strongly that we'll have to use some kind of distraction to even the odds a bit.>>

To the Johnson he said: "For me these terms are acceptable. Just make sure you have the money ready when we call. We are no charity."

[Lorebane24]

Liu nods.  "Of course.  I'll have the Xenon professionally cleaned in the morning.  We are in agreement then?"

[/color]OOC: It seems like everyone is on board with where the negotiations have panned out, so in the interest of moving towards the legwork, I think we can move wrap the meet up.[/color]

After finalizing terms with and an awkward handshake, Arthur Liu sees himself out, leaving with you a contract in your office with a contract and a deadline.

[gilga]

AM seemed satisfied... her share of 8k would pay for rent, and for interest on the debt. If they pulled it off she survives another month, and a new car is some step forward, either they keep it or sell it.  If they find another paying job this month, she'll be able to repay some of the capital, but for now, she was content in knowing that she can survive another month... If they pull it off.

"Of course, we will start looking for your son right now! Nice doing business with you"


After they remained alone she replied.

"I am an aspected sorcerer so I can't summon spirits. I can create a watcher if I am lucky, but it requires reagents and I barely sustain myself as is.  Jawsi, perhaps you can summon a spirit? It is cheaper than a watcher, and even at low force, I can augment it a bit to make ends meet, but we'll need to know at least roughly where they are keeping him.

... It is also worth talking to the Nova hots, especially that guy with the nasty comment. Perhaps they know more, the closer we are to where the kid is held the more likely we are to find him with a watcher or a spirit."

[Beta]

Jawsey nodded along with Amy Maka's suggestions, then replied "I'd suggest we follow all avenues."

"I could contribute some reagents to the cause to help with your watcher -- perhaps when we get some time you could teach me enough ritual magic that next time I could help.  I can only safely summon and work with weaker spirits, but I can certainly ask one to search anyway.  Certainly we need to talk to the person who made that post, preferably on his own, somewhere that nobody can hear him call for help.  And we should start checking out the Halloweeners."

"But first, just to be paranoid, I'm going to follow our customer for a bit and make sure his activities match the story he told us.  I have no reason to doubt him, but it would be an hour well spent, I think."

With that he stretches himself out onto the floor along one wall.  Knowing his body will complain when he comes back, wishing he had his weapon focus with him, but not willing to take the time to return to his room, in case that makes him lose their employer.

In a flash he is out of his grumbling meat, and is whole and pure in his astral form.  With a thought he is out on the street and looking for the aura of their employer.

(ooc: Amy Maka and Jawsey are both shamanic tradition)

[Tecumseh]

Mato is silently impressed. ¥32k plus any car is a good result.

<<No objections. Good negotiating.>>

Now that there's no real danger of his personality scuttling the negotiations, Mato stands to shake the Johnson's hand and say, "We'll be in touch soon."

He looks into Mr. Liu's eyes, perhaps searching for a trace of his own father. Mato's parents had loved him, but he had certainly been a disappointment. It had taken his parents' deaths to make him the capable ork he now is. Maybe he can make their spirits proud by helping this father. or maybe they are dead and gone and past caring. Either way, Mato will take the job; he needs the nuyen.

Bobby's comment about not being a charity is true, but not particularly diplomatic under the circumstances. Mato doesn't know much about the man other than he's quick with a barb or a backhanded compliment, he doesn't have any cyber, and that he has one of the strangest suits of armor, one that one never fit a person. Mato doesn't know what that's all about, but figures that he'll likely find out soon.

[Lorebane24]

OOC: Normally I'd call for a few rolls here, but this being a PbP, I want to get us a little closer to run's real meat.

Jawsey: You leave your body and a mild sense of nausea washes over you as you enter the not-yet-familiar astral space Redmond.  The neighborhood lights up with a myriad of auras, like fireflies on a summer night in Snohomish, but a malaise hangs over everything.  You glance about and your eyes fall on an aura you recognize as Liu's - he's heading towards the subway.  He gets onto a train, but in the astral the signs are too distinct to make out exactly where he's going.  Fortunately, it's an on an overland rail, and you can follow it without risking bumping into other auras on a subway car.

He disembarks in Bellevue and you think you see him make a call on his com before taking a seat on a bench.  After a moment, a taxi pulls up, delivering him to a modest (for Bellevue) apartment complex.  You can't be sure of the physical security, but wards are lightweight and sporadically placed - likely personal measure a few tenants have added within their own apartments.  Arthur steps onto an elevator, and exits one what feels like the 7th or 8th floor.  He pauses at a door and fumbles punches a code into a keypad.  As the door slides open with a muted hiss, he pauses and slowly turns.  His gaze falls upon you and for a moment he seems to be staring straight through you, but he continues to scan the hallway before shrugging his shoulders and entering his home.  The apartment is spacious.  Two floors and what you think is a very modern decorating scheme.  And a single ward.

It's upstairs, and as soon as he enters the door, Arthur Liu makes a beeline straight for it.  He enters a room and locks the door behind him, though this is no barrier for you.  As soon as you follow him inside, the astral goes stale again.  Someone has been doing a lot of brooding in here lately.  Looking around, you realize this room is in utter disarray compared the rest of his home.  Half-empty cups and meal trays have been left in one corner, and the furniture along one wall has been shoved aside to make room for a couple dozen printouts he has on the walls, connected with little bits of string.  From the astral, you can't make out what on the pictures, but it's like something out of a flick about a serial killer or something.

On a desk next to the poster-wall is a small box - warded.  Liu sits before it and clicks open the lid, and produces something that you're not entirely sure how to make sense of.

It's a card, maybe 3x5 inches, and unlike every sign, picture, or piece of graffiti you've observed on the way over here, the image on its face is crisp and clear in the astral.  It shines like a beacon, in fact.  Glancing over Liu's shoulder, you can make out a portrait, painstakingly detailed, of a muscular shirtless man sitting on a set of steps against a concrete wall.  He sports a deep purple flattop and red cowboy boots, with a masterfully crafted katana in one hand.  He gazes contemplatively to the left.  Behind him, almost looking over him, is a statue of an angel with tears in her eyes, and a small but musclebound dog sits calmly at his feet, the Japanese character for the number four carved into its forehead.

Arthur Liu looks at the card for a nearly 5 minutes before setting on the desk before him and his aura shifts to... wistfulness?  He proceeds to pull out his 'link, and begins (presumeably) browsing AROs, frequently looking back to the wall before him.

[Beta]

With some relief Jawsey found his body without any real trouble.  He always did find it easily enough, but he always worried all the same.  And then he connected with his body, with the aches and pains, and like always he wondered if some day he should just not come back?

But he was back, and he had news.  Still lying on the floor he fired off an ARO to the team <<The other shoe just dropped.  Of course we might be dealing with a fragging centipede by the time we're done, but the other shoe from this afternoon's interview has landed.  Something didn't feel quite right, and now I think I've got a clue about what.  I'll be in the kitchen soon and I can tell the details over tofu fritters.  I'll send a spirit out searching after sun-down, that will give it all night.>>

Later, after he's stretched out his back and gotten to his feet and cooked and eaten and gone over the story with everyone who wanted to hear it, he just needed to do one more thing before he could lie down in bed.  He gathered his good cane and a pouch of reagents, and returned to the living room. 

<<Amy Maka [Jawsey] I think you wanted to put a spell on the spirit that I'll be summoning?>>

[gilga]

She replied: "Yes, an improve intuition spell... Eagle's blessing as my old mentor called it."

[Tecumseh]

Mato clicks his tongue at the description of the card that Jawsey brings back. He doesn't know much about magic, but he can usually sniff out when things don't smell right.

"That doesn't sound like something an accounting director for Fidelity Mutual Insurance would have.

"He said the ransom was to be paid in certified credsticks, but one wonders if the real demand is for the card, or if the value of the card is high enough to pay what the Halloweeners actually asked for."

He glances to Bobby. "I'm not opposed to a two-pronged approach, if we want to go converse with some Halloweeners in person. We can put that sharp tongue of yours to use, maybe get the spirit a head start on where to look."

[gilga]

While Jawsey was on his astral quest, Amy Maka did some research. She invited the other team members to help if they liked. She searched for Nova Hot members, including their house address, or current location if they uploaded a geotagged picture or something of the sort.  Then she searched about the Haloweeners to understand where in the Barrens these guys call home and tried to conjecture at least which blocks are more likely to contain a high valued prisoner.  Lastly, it was a long-shot but she expected that a super shiny bike would make some waves in the Barrens. So she searched to see if anything surfaced about the bike.

She used a combination of magic, and hot simulation to get the best results. Unlike common folklore that the two did not mix, Amy Maka felt like she needed them to blend so that she would have a chance to blend in. She sustained the spell with her focused concentration, a capability which she worked years to develop. Then, when her mind was extra sharp from the spell she configured her deck with the proper programs, took a deep breath and submerged herself deep in hot simulation,  an experience unlike any other... 

In general, AM studied the arcana rigorously, and such a combination of occult and technology was her forte. She was different than her traditionalist shaman mentor - as she used her magic among other things to access the matrix better. She aspired to see all her abilities and skills as part of something harmonious where everything blends into its place. Clearly, she was deeply influenced by the harmony with nature philosophy which she was taught by the Sioux shaman - but she took it a step further.


AM laid on the couch, completely submerged in her own world. The only telltale sign that she did not fall a sleep where her rapid eye movements as she galloped massive amount of information.She did not just read, she touched the letters and pictures, smelled them and felt their emotional content as they pass through her. It felt to her as the out of body experience that her mentor described as an astral projection. The kind of experience that she was told would be forever out of reach for her, due to her inflexibility with magic.



OOC: Spell to prepares for the search:
improve intuition: 2#10d6t5 3 4
Hot simulation search:
Computer 6, intuition 8 (5+3) + hot simulation (2) = 16 dice.

Search  1: Nova Hot members, who they are, where do they hang out, where do they live. Especially the one with the nasty comment but not just.
Matrix search: 16d6t5 6 (Her limit is 5)
Search 2: Where are the Haloweeners? What are their recent activities.
Matrix search: 16d6t5 7 (Her limit is 5)
Search 3: Was the Kid's bike spotted recently. (perhaps sold, or adopted by some ganger)
Matrix search: 16d6t5 6 (Her limit is 5).

[Lorebane24]

Mato  It actually doesn't take you long to find something that soynds a lot like what Jawsey reported.  You're actually a little surprised you havent seen anythig about these before.  Over the last year or or two, there's been this meme or prank quietly gaining traction.  People have been reporting these weird tarot cards turnig up all over the world.  They seem to be a moder  take on the classic Rider Waite tarot deck, and people have taken to calling them the Sixth World Tarot. 

No serial number has been found, no source of production located, and no artist has claimed credit.  Images of them are on all over fringe and conspiracy sites, but they dont match up well - details are all a little different, so people arent quite sure which images match the real cards.  Still, it has become the object of interest, even obsession, with certain conspiracy theorists, wealthy execs with too much time on their hands, and more recently some fringe magical researchers.  Some people have reported seeing places and people they know, amd even themselves on the cards, but few respected researchers are taking it seriously.