[AffreuxLex]

The world is red, pulsating with black.  Your ears are filled with a terrible and undefinable noise.  For a moment it seems as though the sun itself has ceased to exist and the world as you know it has gone insane.  It takes a few moments to regain your senses.  As you struggle to open your eyes you are met with a blinding white light.  Instinctively, you shut your eyes again and turn your head.  After several more tries you are finally able to bring your eyes into focus and for the first time since waking up you are able to look at your surroundings.  You seem to be sitting on the floor of a round and windowless white room.  The room is so clean and white it seems nearly impossible.  Through the almost blinding brightness you can see that there seems to be no door and that the floors curve up into the vertical surfaces of the walls making it difficult to define where one begins and the other ends.  The only real definable feature of the room is a single white globe hanging from the center of the roof, illuminating the area.  In opposite ends of the room are another 3 people who also seem to be experiencing the same effects that you are.  The background noise has subsided to merely irritating which gives you a moment to think about what could be going on.  The last thing you can remember was heading off to the Stuffer Shack but you don't really remember much after getting there.  With no windows or other sources to the outside world you can't even tell if it is night or day so you check the time on your commlink only to discover that you are missing nearly 12 hours of your life.  Additionally, that noise you've been trying to ignore has been your commlink telling you that you have a new message.


>>> Congratulations on passing the test.
>>> Welcome to round 2.

     // MATRIX ID UNKNOWN //

[Ren]

One of the men in the room was a thin elf, in ordinary clothes and a black raincoat. His pale skin and white, long hair showed he was an albino, and wearing tinted glasses even inside a building just strengthened that image. He wore no apparent weapons, but from under the raincoat, several small charms dangling on his black jacket could be seen time and again. He read the message on his commlink, holding it with slightly shaking hands, disorientation and the lack of understanding showing through a serene front he desperately tried to keep.

After checking the message, he looked at the other three people also in the room. Routine started to take over his uncertainty, as he tried to determine who and what they were, first by simply looking, then opening his eyes on the astral world.
[spoiler=physical checks]JDA: INT(5) + Perception(1) + Mentor(2) + Enhancers(3) (11d6.hits(5)=3)
Gustovness: INT(5) + Perception(1) + Mentor(2) + Enhancers(3) (11d6.hits(5)=4)
CSJarrat: INT(5) + Perception(1) + Mentor(2) + Enhancers(3) (11d6.hits(5)=7)[/spoiler]
[spoiler=assensing]JDA: INT(5) + Assensing: Aura Reading(5) + Mentor(2) (12d6.hits(5)=6)
Gustovness: INT(5) + Assensing: Aura Reading(5) + Mentor(2) (12d6.hits(5)=2)
CSJarrat: INT(5) + Assensing: Aura Reading(5) + Mentor(2) (12d6.hits(5)=5)
checking the immediate surroundings for any astral signatures and the general feel of the place:
INT(5) + Assensing(3) + Mentor(2) (10d6.hits(5)=4)[/spoiler]

[Gustovness]

Ouch.

Cuco worked his was up to all fours, knees and hands on the floor. He shut his eyes hard and didn't dare trying to shake the disorientation away.  His brain ached and his eyes burned.  He coughed and spit onto the ground. He spit again. He looked up and saw two elves and a human female in the room.

Bitches... sweeeeet...

He coughed and spit again onto the floor. He looked up again at the obviously albino elf.

Bitches and... a... err... and a weirdo?

He rolled over and away from the pool of accumulating spit and onto his back right after wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his dark green long lined armor coat.

He could open his eyes now.

[spoiler]Puppeteer's assensing shows him that Cuco is definitely awakened and that he has no obvious cyber implants installed.  His mood has regular fluctuations, probably due to the confusion, but is overall rather positive.[/spoiler]

[Csjarrat]

The light was blinding, she couldnt focus. keeping her eyes open for more than a milisecond was a struggle, so much so that kyoko had to will her flare compensation to kick in to give her some respite.
to her amazement, they responded, dimming the brightness of the room to an acceptable level.
"Chikuso my head hurts, what the hell is happening here?"
kyoko could see the other 3 occupants of the room looking as disoriented as her, one looked as if he was going to hurl his guts all over the floor. they were beginning to be active but werent an immediate threat right this instant.
kyoko needed to get a grip on the situation and try to think back to what had happened.
she had popped downtown to get some new boots. she had parked up the bike in the secure underground parking, and then blam, nothing.

as the grogginess and aches began to subside, flea realised she had a message waiting for her in her AR notifications. opening it and seeing the time display on her commlink AR feed, she realised she'd been out for roughly 12 hours.
"Fakku, that must have been some strong chikuso they gave us! double frakku, that was metered parking, that is gonna cost me a fucking fortune when i get out of this place!...Round 2? what the hell is round 2? i dont even remember round 1!!!
Forcing herself to go back to her IJA training, she focuses in getting a sit-rep done.

Realising she still had her commlink and appeared to be fully clothed, she patted down her pockets to see how badly she'd been mugged...
the most baffling thing was that she had everything she set off with, her pistol was still in place.
Flea cocked it and checked the chamber to see if it was still loaded, sure enough there was a full clip of ammunition and a round in the chamber. The obvious weapon check drew a stare from the other occupants of the room, a look of trepidation on one or two of the faces.
Holstering the pistol, Flea gestured with her left hand to show she meant no harm.
"What Baka Buso kidnaps someone and leaves them in a room full of strangers still with their weapon?
any one of the dodgy clients her employer sold to would surely just have killed her or tortured her for information.
"something is definitely very very wrong here....."

The effort to get to her feet was immense. whatever had happened to her made her feel like she had slept for a week, and her muscles hadn't heard the alarm this morning.
Her satchel bag was placed against the wall next to where she had been sitting, much to Flea's relief, her helmet, tablets and gecko kit was still in it.
The helmet immediately went on her head, closely followed by her gecko gloves, leg guards and shoe adapters all wirelessly set to walk mode.

taking stock of the situation, Flea put on her headphones, enabled the audio enhancement and took a good look around. "we all got in here, therefore there must be some kind of entrance/exit. this place could easily be a room in one of those trids set on the corporate space stations":
[spoiler]Visual perception, int 3, perception 3: 6d6.hits(5)=1
Audio perception, +3 for audio enhance: 9d6.hits(5)=3[/spoiler]

Realising if she had an AR message, she must have had a matrix connection (or connection to something with matrix message protocol ability) at some point in the prior 12 hours.
Flea attempts to connect to the matrix with her commlink.
To further test her theory, Flea initiates the skinlink connection with her helmet and mentally switches her radio signal scanner to active search mode, instructing it to overlay any nodes found into her helmet imagelink:
[spoiler]rating six scanner gives 1 hit:6d6.hits(5)=1[/spoiler]
Flea also tries to coax her dummy commlink into doing something useful, and fires up its built-in scan utility to check for any hidden nodes nearby:
[spoiler]Electronic warfare R5, scan R1 gives 2 hits.6d6.hits(5)=2[/spoiler]

Wishing like crazy she had her "work" 'link with her, she waits what seem like hours for the results to come back,
in the meantime, Flea asks the other occupants:
"Is anyone hurt, and does anyone here remember anything from the past 12 hours?"

[spoiler]Puppeteer's assensing shows that Flea is also awakened and her aura feels different to that of your own. you deduce she must be an adept of similar magical prowess as yourself. there are no implants to be found. she appears calm, though you assense anxiety and trepidation within her.[/spoiler]

[JDA]

Another one in the room was a female elf, blond hair kneeling down, shielding her eyes from the bright light. As she began to regain her composure and take in  her new environment, She slowly rose to and took the posture of an accomplish business.Figure that its best to put up a good front in her new setting, important that i don't look shaken.
She quickly activates her commlink to see if any of her contacts can be reached.[/color
]Then to the group in front of her. She introduces herself as Alex and with a smile


looks like someone is wanting to play a game with us. Then looking up at where ever the voice came from, says"your Welcome, glad you were impressed." Well ladies and gentleman, do any of you remember anything?

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4053894/
It did not do what I wanted but i count 6 hits. i'll figure this out in the morning.
The roll is to the group
I don't know who the hell these people are, but strength is in numbers. so for right now I might as well roll with it"
We'll i guess we better get ready for the second test.

Red is speech
Blue is thought
Black is action

[AffreuxLex]

-- Ren --

From afar, you examine each individual carefully.

The first is an obviously elvin woman who carries herself with a sense of confidence.  She is the first to her feet.

The next one is a human male.  Younger guy, perhaps in is late teens or even early 20s.  It is hard to tell behind the big black handlebar mustache.  He has long black hair and a long coat as well.  He seems to be more affected from whatever happened than anyone else and appears to be on the verge of vomiting.

The last appears to be a young woman of Japanese decent, probably mid 20s.  She seems average in almost every way; height, build, even her plain but not ugly looks.  She appears to be mostly interested in gearing herself up and rummaging through her satchel but you can tell she has not let you and the other go unnoticed.

((Assenssing individuals has been answered by the other players))

Using your second sight, you glance around the general area.  You are unable to find any astral signatures other that what is currently present.  You press your ability harder, trying to find something out of the ordinary, anything that might be different but you find nothing.  The whole place seems incredibly average and bland.  Except... something... no wait, it was nothing...   No, it was something... that long haired guy seems to have something of yours but you can't seem to tell what but you know it's yours... somehow you just know.


-- Gustovness --

You roll over on to your back and look up at the bright white roof.  Or at least you think it's the roof since all the edges are rounded out and there is no definable place where the wall ends.  As you contemplate the featureless ceiling you notice a slight bump pressing softly against the backside of your pants.
[spoiler]Gustovness perception roll (5d6.hits(5)=2)[/spoiler]



-- Csjarrat --

You look around the room and see an amazing assortment of nothing.  No hard lines, no edges, no cracks.  It seems as though the room is just one solid piece.  You close your eyes and try to concentrate on the sounds of the room instead and again there is nothing except the noises made by the other occupants of the room.

Once you decide to check your matrix connection your find only further frustration as you discover you appear to be in a dead zone.  There are no connections to the matrix to be found!  For some strange reason you don't even seem to be able to detect the PANs from the other people.

As you pull your helmet over your head, it doesn't seem to fit quite the same.  It seems tighter.  That or your head grew during whatever happened.  You also find breathing to be slightly more strenuous.  Not difficult but still a fraction more work than it used to be.
[spoiler]Csjarrat perception roll (6d6.hits(5)=2)[/spoiler]

-- JDA --

You fire up your commlink to try to reach out to someone, anyone only to find you have no connection to the matrix.

[Gustovness]

Cuco squints, half from the light in his face, half from the discomfort of whatever is his back pocket.  He rolls onto his side, reaches into it, and pulls out the object to inspect it.

[spoiler]Perception Test (not sure if the one you rolled for me was to see if I noticed the object in my pants and now I have to roll again to decipher wtf it is) (5d6.hits(5)=2)

Perception Test=2 hits![/spoiler]

[AffreuxLex]

-- Gustovness --

You pull the object out from your back pocket and discover that you are holding a doll made of burlap.  You squeeze it and can feel cotton inside.  It is a very basic doll, rounded out arms and legs with no hands or feet, and a large round head with a huge black handlebar mustache!  The mustache is far too large for a doll this size but it is such quality work you can't help but be impressed.  The mustache appears to have been made with real human hair and when you look closely you can see that each individual hair has been carefully and permanently attached to the doll.  It is obvious to you that who ever created this mustache was a true aficionado and spent many hours caring for and grooming this mustache.

[spoiler]
Doll looks very similar to https://mysendoff.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Vood-doll2%C2%A9-fergregory-Fotolia.com_.jpg
Perception test that I linked was to notice the doll because it is very soft and may have missed it.  Yes, you needed that new perception roll.
[/spoiler]

[Gustovness]

[spoiler]ok, first off, LOL...[/spoiler]

Cuco stumbles his way up to his feet...

"YO!" he starts, still half stumbling, almost looking rather drunk, holding the apparent voodoo doll of himself up in the air rather proudly, "Is this someone's idea of telling me I should pull my head out of my own ass?"

Cuco then brings the doll down closer to inspect it.

"Tremendo bigotone, asere..." He says as he approvingly taps the doll's mustache, smile on his own face.  "Let's see if this works..." he announces, as he makes it obvious for everyone to see his fondling of the doll between its legs.  His eyeballs roll up towards the ceiling and he bites his lower lip, half hoping to actually feel something.

[Csjarrat]

Flea looked at the young man and as he announced his discovery to the room, it appeared to be a mustachioed doll, perhaps it was meant to resemble him? at the very least, it was a good piss-take out of his old-skool biker facial hair.
and then, the young lad starting wanking the doll off, apparently expecting some climactic experience judging by the way he dramatically rolled his head back in expectation.
"first the retching, now self gratification via a doll? and within minutes of waking up? i think this kid had a much bigger dose than the rest of us"

leaving him to his own devices, kyoko continued with her sit-rep drills.
the wireless results returned negative unsurprisingly. though if i have a commlink, why havent the others?

Hey, i said, are you guys ok? is anyone hurt?
do any of you have your commlinks or electronics with you?

mentally shutting down the signal scanner in the helmet, Flea activated the laser range finder and willed it to display real-time measurements to her helmet image link.
she took a good look around the room, mentally copying the distances to the far wall, ceiling and the ultra-bright light into her commlink memory as a to-do note, and tagging that in a minimized display in her main AR feed.
Flea swept the range finder along the walls + roof to try and determine whether the room was indeed as spherical as it appeared to be, or whether there were any differentiations between surfaces.
the action of rolling her head around to measure the distances highlighted that her helmet didnt fit right, it felt tighter than before. it was a subtle difference but definite.

"where the fakku am i and why is it hard to breathe in here?"
Flea's heart heart began to race, and instinctively she reached for her anti-histmanines. she popped her daily dose patch onto her skin, removing the old one and discarding it onto the floor, but felt no relief.
"drek, drek, drek!!! she thought of her father and imagined him comforting her as he did when she was a child. "it's ok my cherub, be calm little one. think of your mother, what would she do?", she'd be tough, she'd be strong and she'd find a way out of here dad" she mentally replied.
the thought of her dad made her wonder; does this have something to do with him? is this a renraku lab? but why would it be? FOCUS FLEA, THIS IS ISN'T HELPING YOU

The helmet came off, kyoko inspecting it at length, willing her vision magnification to let her eyes pry into the details of the fitting mechanism and the attachment ports for her built in electronics. Her breathing felt easier, though it was difficult to tell whether it was just because of her focus, the anti-histamines or removing the helmet

"guys i asked you a very simple fucking question, do you have any electronics on you? if so, get them out, check everything. i think these guys are fucking with our kit.. and you, QUIT WANKING THAT DOLL!!!"

[spoiler]perception test, looking at helmet sizing (6d6.hits(5)=1)[/spoiler]
putting the helmet down, kyoko immediately draws her machine pistol and lets her instincts take over. her old field maintenance drills, committed to muscle memory during training have the weapon dis-assembled within seconds.
Kyoko pays particular attention to the firing mechanism, manually unchambering the rounds as they are fed in and letting the mechanism "fire" and pick up a new round from the magazine. she zooms into the ejected rounds and looks for any signs of tampering, verifying that these are her rounds and that they are still viable. She tests the fit of the rounds in the barrel, making sure the barrel hadn't magically been made a tad smaller in her sleep. Having your machine pistol jam or backfire is the last thing you need when the shit has hit the fan.
[spoiler]perception test, MP + ammunition (6d6.hits(5)=3)[/spoiler]

with her focus on her old military drills, an idea pops into mind. check the atmospheric pressure. she felt like she did the day after she landed in korea. they had been on an op to disrupt the korean people's liberation army's communications and supply routes through the mountain passes and the altitude had made her feet swell and breathing tough.
She mentally initiated the connection to her jacket's weather sensor, questioning for a second why it had been turned off. it had been on and telling me it would rain tonight (last night now i guess?). she queried the device's logs and set it to active mode, hoping for an accurate reading of the atmospheric pressure....
Flea turned to the group, expecting an answer to her questions

[Ren]

As he started to piece his immediate surroundings together, so did the disorientation disappear from Puppeteer's behaviour. I don't know who i crossed but this needed some serious preparation to pull out. What he saw in the auras of the others mostly convinced him that they were also victims of the same sick joke as him. The rest of his suspicion could wait for another opportunity.

As he heard the voice of the Japanese woman getting more agressive, he addressed her first. The guy with the doll could wait, though Puppeteer couldn't shake that feeling that the doll was significant. "Peace, woman, we heard you the first time clearly. I for one, had to gather my bearings, because this situation, as you also might understand, takes a heavy toll on us all. I'm not hurt, physically at least, and i don't sense that there was spiritual damage done to any of us." When the pistol suddenly appeared in her hands, he jumped a little. O, spirits, make sure she doesn't snap just right now. Then the routine of her movements assured him, this was a method for her to calm down. "Unfortunately, i don't remember any details about how i got here, or what the first round was if this must be the second." Puppeteer watched the other's faces closely, as they surely would betray if they knew about the message he got. And he seriously racked his brain, trying to call back any events of the last twelve hours.
[spoiler=memory]i'm just trying, if the roll is not appropriate, please disregard it
LOG(3) + WIL(5) (8d6.hits(5)=3)[/spoiler]

Then he turned to the man with the doll. As the little item was clearly visible he checked it in the astral. Is there some apparent reason why i feel that belongs to me?
[spoiler=assensing the doll]INT(5) + Assensing(3) + Mentor(2) (10d6.hits(5)=2)[/spoiler]

[JDA]

Alex, studying everyone carefully and judging their reactions, speaks slowly and surely,"Okay, everyone needs to calm down. I could be wrong here but if they wanted us dead. We would be. No need to draw weapons at this point"Sure wish i had my though, but to survive this its going to have be done with diligence and thought. As my pappy once said the secret to negotiations is being able to lie faster than the other man can think.I'm Alex, native of Tir tangiere? and Who's company am i with this evening?We need to take inventory of our personal items and began to figure out our circumstance. I need to know though any of you have experiences with he corporation? are you running from any of them? I know that's asking quite alot from complete strangers, but we need to find the common thread that links us. I don't believe in coincidences"
Yes, I have a comm link, No i have no connection to the matrix. Nice doll by the way.
She begins to do an inventory check of her personal items . If they are there she will load the following active softs: [b]Survival, Tracking, First aide, locksmithing She then looks at each other and gives each a comforting smile.

Action
Speech
Thought

[Gustovness]

Cuco clutches the doll close to his chest and frowns at Flea's outburst like a concerned parent holding their child.

"You're asking if I'm okay? Besides for the date rape? Yeah, I'm peachy." 

Cuco puts the doll into one of his jacket's inner pockets, inconspicuously checking for his extendable baton while he's there so the others don't see him reaching for a weapon.

Still there... won't do much good against the heat though...

He spits on the ground one last time before shouting at the walls in the room, addressing no one in particular, "OKAY!  We're up! I don't like suspense so start talkin' or we're gonna start clawin' out way out of here by force.  I get the feeling you know exactly what I mean, and I'm gonna start with that hideous lamp."

[spoiler]Searching for recording devices (camera, microphone)-> Perception 5 + actively looking 3 + object stands out in all white room 2 = 10 (10d6.hits(5)=4)

Perception Test= 4 hits![/spoiler]

He then directs his attention to the others, "When you remember something, say something, otherwise, assume no one remembers shit.  Anyone notice any type of recording device in here? A microphone? A camera? Jujuman..." he says looking at Puppeteer, Since I'm here, and I ain't no poser, I figure you ain't either.  Anything you wanna tell me about this?"

He pats the outside of his own jacket where the doll is kept, then cocks an eyebrow up.

"I ain't one for holdin' grudges, but I get the feeling that unless we get instructions from our host to start beating the shit out of each other, our fates have suddenly become intertwined..."

[AffreuxLex]

-- Csjarrat --

On the surface your helmet appears to be the same as before.  There doesn't seem to be anything obviously new or changed that would alter the fit although it does feel slightly heavier than you remember.

You take your time and carefully examine your ammunition and barrel.  There is no evident tampering and everything is working as it should.  You sincerely doubt anyone other than yourself has touched this weapon.

Your atmospheric readings show an ambient pressure of 101.4 kPa and holding steady.


-- Ren --

You close your eyes and concentrate hard trying to find any fragment of a memory from the last 12 hours.  You are unable to find even a glimpse or a flash of anything, according to your brain the last 12 hours didn't even exist.  In your internal timeline you were on the street outside the Stuffer Shack and then on the floor in this room in the next moment with nothing in between.

You turn your gaze upon the mustachioed doll and are able to get a quick look before the human man puts it into his jacket.  You are able to see that it is a bonded drain focus with an incredible and surprisingly familiar aura.  Though you have never seen this doll before, it has been bonded to you by you!  There is no mistaking your own handy work.


-- JDA --

You do a quick inventory about yourself.  All your equipment is exactly how you remember it when you went out.  Your gear is intact, your software is in place and your pair of dice are still in your pocket.  No wait, you didn't have a pair of dice in your pocket when you went out...

((You now have your survival, tracking, first aid, and locksmithing active softs loaded.))


-- Gustovness --

As you carefully examine the room you are unable to find any recording devices of any sort.  The walls, floor, and roof are all featureless save the lamp hanging in the center.  Your surroundings are flawless and you are confident that if anyone had tried to hide something in here, you would have found it by now.  One detail does catch your eye though, the lack of detail.  You had to have gotten in somehow so why are there no seams anywhere?  Even a well hidden door couldn't have escaped you with this thorough search.

[Ren]

Puppeteer cocked his head to the left, expression like when someone has a mild headache. He answered Alex in that position. "I don't remember any occasion when the spirits of any megacorporation collided with mine." After a moment of deliberation, he added "Although, considering how the last twelve hours are lost in the fog of mystery for me, i cannot be sure what transpired during that period." Just then, he suddenly snapped his head in the direction of the other guy. Complete bafflement permeated his expression, silencing him almost mid-sentence. He tried to answer the man when he asked about the doll, but only something incomprehensible came from his mouth at first.

Then, with an almost visible effort, he pulled himself together, again. "That doll in your pocket," he said with quavering voice "it somehow seems to be... well, its spirit talks to me in a familiar way." All the while, his thoughts were racing. How is this even possible? O, Lord of the Great Unknown, help me with thy wisdom, and show me the way out of the mist of despair.