@Stryker:
Zach wakes you up by tossing a couple packets of Stuff'it© nutri-soy bars which, aside from the occasional roasted devil rat, has been your diet for the last month. You quickly sit up and tear open the silver plastic wrap and munch away at the bars since it's the first mouthful of food you've had for more than 24 hours. You rub your backside which is a little sore. Doc Watson did a great job of pulling out all the shrapnel from your rear-end but having your healing wound pressed up against the concrete for a whole night doesn't help you out much at all. Despite the fact your shoes and socks are still soaking from last night's rain, you're feeling pretty good. Actually come to think of it....you don't know if you've ever felt better. You managed to endure it so far roughing it out here on the streets with your only concerns being avoiding getting mugged by the Stilettos or becoming some street critter's lunch. Zach's really helped out with that cuz the old ork has a way of managing to stay alive you've noticed. Even though you feel that it's something you'd do for anybody in danger, it's quite clear Zach feels indebted to you for still being above ground and the two of you have struck up a rather functional friendship of sorts.
The Divers of the Astral Sea, which somehow contacted you based on the recommendation from an unnamed raven shaman, just recently accepted you into their fold and have also been particularly helpful in interpreting the dreams you have been having. Through their help and the guidance of your personal communications with the Eternal Ones you came to the realization that what you thought was your greatest weakness could actually become your greatest asset. Your ever keen desire to take the weight of the world onto your own shoulders needed to be put to the test and it was decided that a test of endurance would be the only way for your to turn this desire into a strength.
In a way very analogous to a training regime of weight lifting you have spent the days on the street lifting the weight of magical spells and holding them until the strain burned your mind and you felt that you could not bear the load anymore. But just as muscle grows and the weights which were once too heavy soon seem liftable, after a month of carrying around cumbersome mana constructs you suddenly realized one day that you were holding up quite heavy spells without even realizing that you were even doing it. It became second nature and with the right amount of focus you could weave a spell about yourself and hold it with only your subconscious mind doing the "lifting". Your dreams have also changed and sent you hurtling off to unknown realms deep within the fabric of the universe, following the mana stream to its source. Everytime you are about to cross over, the crushing realization of your own inadequacy suddenly wakes you up in a cold sweat.
You've also had your commlink turned off for the whole month and you've been wondering what Brick's been up to. Zach crouches next to you. "We gotta move, Stiletto's patrolling. Brick call. He has job...are you ready?"
@Zach:
Well you're alive. It could be worse. But even a vat grown type O liver just isn't the same as the old one. No matter how little you drank, you still never had a problem metabolizing alcohol. It didn't bother you in the least that Doc Watson said that it was just plain good sense to stay away from booze, but you didn't realize that he meant COMPLETELY. Well, you see how Stryker has given up so much in the last month and you decide it ain't so bad having to give up that single shot of vodka that you toast with on new-years.
Brick called about a job from Amazing Larry and your ready to take any work that's coming your way. Doc Watson called a few days ago talking about some Russians who came through looking for you. The Doc just played stupid and they bought it, but you could feel them getting closer. The Vory already knew weeks ago that you were in Seattle, it's just a matter of time before they catch up to you.
[OOC: i'm gonna go ahead and give you a Mild Alergy to alcohol to reflect the difficulty your liver has with alcohol. ]
@Brick:
You just dropped the little one off at the monorail station. Anita being the sweetheart that she is has managed to get a hacker friend of hers to move around a little paper-work and get your little girl into an Evo Urban Achievers Charter School with some state subsidies, and even though it pains you to send her to what for all intents and purposes you could call "corp camp", something inside of you feels it's what's best. Why not give her the best of both worlds. You mentally run-over what a typical day's curriculum is usually like: 06:00 wake up with 15 minutes of kalisthetics, 06:30 breakfast and go to school, 08:00-15:15 school day learning anything from factoring 3rd degree polynomials to deconstruction of Shakespearian sonnets, 16:00 arrive home and watch the trid, 16:30 Weapon's training, 17:30 demolitions, 18:00 dinner....and then the rest of the evening could be anything from situational training exercises, target practice, urban survival to a bedtime story. 21:30 lights out, daddy goes to work. As long as she knows how to separate the garbage from the real-deal, you know she'll end up being even better than you at what you do but'll have the paper-work and the book smarts that you never had a chance to get. At least she'll have the ability to choose, and especially being a human, she'll have no door closed to her.
On your walk back home a few blocks from the chinese restaurant you get a call from Amazing Larry. You put the ARO on hidden mode and take the call, talking as you walk.
"Alright listen up big guy, i've got a job, no frills and pretty cut and dry. It's a babysittin' run for a courier. New start up software company Odyssey Multimedia ain't AA yet doesn't wanna sell out yet to the big boys cuz they think they stand a chance and make a name for themselves. Apparently some heavy players don't like that kind of stubbornness, especially when the Odyssey programmers seem to have come across something pretty fresh. Don't know all the details but one of their leading programmers by the name of Dustin Manugian doesn't have much confidence in Odyssey matrix security and wants to run a hardcopy across town himself and he's looking for some babysitters. This time I got you something a lot better than that old beat up Daihatsu van, a rigger that goes by the name Wagner, here's his number. He's known to be good at hacking nodes too so he's the whole package. Manugian wants to meet the team to hash out the details. 23:00 tonight over at The Icon night club, VIP booth reservation under Parker party of 5. Should I give the green light for the meet?"
[Edited]