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[IC} Black Trenchcoat - Out of the frying pan...

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Redwulfe

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« on: <07-02-18/0350:21> »
The rain flowed steadily from the heavens as the man stood outside his eurocar holding and umbrella above his head as he waited. He wasn't a tall man and if it was not for the comfort in which he waited in the rain without seeking the shelter of his car he would not stand out much. He had typically features for a Japanese American, black hair and a slightness to his complexion that would set him apart from the more anglo fair skin of the Seattle plex's human population.

His eyes, which were currently covered by a pair of antique aviators, stared unwavering at the door of the restaurant that the luxury car was parked in front of. Most passerby huddled under protection didn't pay him much attention as they darted passed trying to hurry their way out of the rain. Even if they where to look passed their own misery in that moment the nights cover would have shielded him from their notice save for the red glow of the cigarette his smoked to pass the time.

It wasn't long before the light shining from the restaurants door was broken by the form of the man's employer. His employer was not alone in the restaurants waiting area inside the door. The two both elder in age, asian and sharp fo feature bowed deeply to each other out of respect before they attempted to exit the comfort of the exterior for the contrasting bleakness of this damp Seattle night. The Man quickly crossed the sidewalk to meet his master at the door the man flicked the cigarette away into the street with his remaining four fingers of his scared hand and opened the door for his employer. The man was not alone when he reached the door for his counterpart who waited silently next to a second car in the darkness had appeared to great his master as well. The two elderly men separated and followed their mens to their respective cars to leave.

The man shut the door as he sat in the driver seat and looked into the mirror at his passenger in the back as the elderly man spoke.
it is time to call the asset and set a meeting. The usual will do.

The man programmed the car to access grid guide and head to the compound as the display in his glasses pulled up his contact list with but a thought. the images of several people scrolled before his vision as it finally settled on a single picture of a man labeled Ban Dolo. the image flashed brighter twice in rapid succession as it shrunk to occupy the lower right hand side of the drivers vision as the car moved down the street, the soft ringing of the receiver heard only to Ichirou as he drove.
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« Reply #1 on: <07-02-18/1808:35> »
"Another night on prep sugar".
That's what Mincess Preia, his cheapass Stuffer Shack AR agent had said when she woke him to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody this afternoon.
Blinking twice he zeroed in on the upper right of his AR feed where a 5 second thumbnail clip of an old flat-vid looped.
Batman? No way that's too kitsch.
Bruce Wayne? What a downer that freak is.
It took him a second but then he recognized the clip's source, the final scene of Batman Vs. Superman, a totally downer of a flat-vid.
Ok that's better, he was more of a "Kark Clent than "Wuce Bayne".
He was happy this one wouldn't show up for at least another Year, he fraggin' hated that Kark.

So it came to be that a mild-mannered caucasian in a cheap suit wearing, corrective lens' with gelled back hair ran con prep that day. Which consisted of hanging out for hours on end at a certain fern bar on Washington that catered to the corp crowd. Ban needed a wageslave persona in Renraku for a daily-collect con he was setting up and Kark was just the guy to make the connection.

Two hours into the second attempt he had progressed past the background info gathering and was about to proceed to palming the mark's ID badge when his comlink started chirping in his ear, playing the Main Title to Showdown in Little Tokyo.

Breaking character Kark stood straight up and uncharacteristically barked "fraggit, money talks and this mark's balked" right into the astonished face of his drinking partner, Steve from Renraku Sewage Inspection Team 6. Spitting his vapor-stik into Steve's beer and knocking back his shot he headed for the plasti-curtain leading to the rain-slick Seattle streets.
Switching vocal tone to something more Ted Williams'esque he cooed into the line "Ban here, how much you paying?".
« Last Edit: <07-02-18/2244:13> by adzling »

Redwulfe

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« Reply #2 on: <07-03-18/0204:00> »
Ichirou smiled slightly at the comment, "Enough that we will not be collecting a finger this month. We need a team, do you have a man to find such a thing for you?"
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« Reply #3 on: <07-03-18/1057:36> »
"Null sweat, I got just the guy. Let me know if you want me playing Johnny or if the Gumi will be sending one of theirs"

Looking up into the falling rain Kark's glasses quickly fogged (cheap dime-store props, sigh), but no matter, he was already sick of Kark. He glanced at the thumbnail video in the upper right of his vision, it was looping a scene of a dude wearing a thread-bare blanket as a jacket and chomping on the butt end of a cigar. Or was it a cigarillo? Hard to tell. He'd have to do a bit of digging to get that detail right. Still he was pleased, this was the perfect person to call Cowboy.

Switching his voice before bothering with the rest of Kark (or was it Ban? Fraggit, did it matter?) he pipped the icon of a dancing cowboy toy figure in his address book.

"Hey, Cowboy..." he spat out in a low, slow western drawl. "I need a crew, what can you pull together that's not fresh of the boat?" Kark-with-voice-of-The-Stranger grunted and chewed on an imaginary cigarillo (he was sure it was a cigarillo now, too small for a cigar), "I fking hate the rain".


Redwulfe

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« Reply #4 on: <07-03-18/1454:00> »
Ichirou was a man of business and loathed talking with Ban in any capacity but he knew the price of failure to the Oyabun and his aching hand who's listen ached more when the humidity was high kept him on task. Muting the call in his AR as he looked to the back seat where Hanzo Shotozumi sat looking out the window."The asset is in place and he will gather his team. Who are we sending to meet them?"

Hanzo master did not turn his gaze which looked longing into the city, nor did he speak. Ichirou knew that he would have to take care of this himself and returned his eyes to the road ahead as he unmuted the call. "I will meet your team, at Lou's Tattoos Downtown. Tonight, in three hours. The Oyabun is personally putting this task in your hands, do not fail him." with that he ended the call.

Answering the Kark's call cowboy spoke with a joy to his tone that was in stark contrast to the mater of fact manner that Ichirou had taken. "Anata no akusento wa haruka ni yoku natte imasu Ban-san. Ichi-Byōkan hōrudo shite, Watashi wa Akurosan ga watashi no tame ni hon'yaku suru yō ni naru." though Kark's japanesse was better spoken than understood and cowboy spoke in a natural rhythm Kark understood that Cowboy was happy to hear from him and he was bringing Akuro his female companion in to the conversation. Akuro's icon appeared in next to the dancing cowboy in Kark's AR a moment before she spoke. "Cowboy says that you accent is improving and you are in need of a crew for a job. Please tell us of this job."
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« Reply #5 on: <07-03-18/1851:06> »
"Ahh-koo-roe" he drawled in his perfect reproduction of The Stranger ne' Clint Eastwood, "tha Goo-mee will be sending their own Johnson I reckon.
Only snag is short notice, which Cowboy shouldn't mind as it usually means top dollar.
Gotta meet at Lou's Tattoos Downtown. Tonight, in 2 hours and 59 minutes.
Ping me the deets on each runner you pull and tell them to run an AR icon of a black raven.
Be there or be square."
« Last Edit: <07-05-18/1851:49> by adzling »

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« Reply #6 on: <07-03-18/2030:20> »
Akuro replied with a small chuckle that cold warm the heart of even the hardest of killers. "Cowboy would like to note that, they did not contact Cowboy so you will need to secure his cut 15% for short notice.  He has instructed me to send you the files after you have been cleared to contact. Cowboy will stay out of contacting the others so their is less confusion in the process. He also says, Thank you for this, we will not forget you as you did not forget us."

After hanging up with Ban, Cowboy looks to Akuro and nods his head approving her to send the invite on her behalf. She bows slightly to him and then turns to walk to the kitchen as she beens a mass message to the runners she was sent by him.

"This is Akuro, Cowboy has asked me to contact you for a job that has a meeting that is in a few hours. He would like to greatly apologize for the rush that this puts you in and will understand if you are unavailable on such short notice. If you accept his proposal we will send you contact information and dossier to the face that will be representing you in the negotiation with the Johnson. This face is well known to us and his desecration is vouched for by cowboy himself."
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« Reply #7 on: <07-04-18/0047:53> »
The Rain poured down, Ace's windshield wipers ran on high attempting to keep the BMW's view clear, as Ace made his way across town, the sound system play "The Touch" from the Oldies Rock Stream. Ace paused the music and listened to message, and laughed to himself; Who knew the Shadows would require a resume? He was still getting used to the feel of his new wardrobe, having worn Paladin armor for so long it felt strange to be dressed in something totally different. The Sleeping Tiger might be en Vogue in the Shadows but wearing one was a very different experience from security armor.

He continued to cruise the streets, the music resuming, calling his skillwire interface, he accessed the skill database and started sorting through possible skills that could assist, secretarial? Didn't seem to fit, HR management now that sounded more like the ticket. He downloaded the option and activated the skills soft. Just like that he felt like he had good idea of what would be need for such a CV.

He switched the Car to Autopilot and composed a quickly response:

Ace-
Elven Augmented Violence Prevention Specialist and Professional Combatant.

Areas of Expertise:
Unarmed Combat (Skill Rating Exceptional)
Pistols (Skill Rating Professional)
Stealth (Above Average)
Driver (Above Average)
Professionally Grade Martial Artist
Special Abilities of Note: Skillwires, and access to skillwire network for rapid skill download.

Areas of Weakness:
Lacks any awakened talents.
Not a strong communicator
Extreme dislike and likely violent reaction against Humanis Poli Clubs.
Limitedly Restricting Personal Code.

Ace Finished the message by appending his Comcode and sent it off.

Areas of weakness, probably a poor choice of words, honest may count for something but I need a better way to phrase that.

Calling up his PAN control, he googled and downloaded a raven image and attached the image to his broad cast ID.
Then pulling up a mapsoft he carefully made a rout that would get him on location a little over 40 mins early. Locking in the rout, he doubled check the Gridlink spoof chip was working and started paying close attention to his 6. No one wanted to be be the guy who showed up with an ambushed following behind. As anyone in his profession knew, truly skilled tracers runners could be very different to detect and even harder to shake. But over the course the next two hours, he made as sure as he could that he was clean, then turned and head back downtown, toward Lou's tattoo's. Upon reaching it, he a spent 20 mins, circling the local area,  checking for ambushes, another 20 mins finding a parking spot on the street down from the restaurant. After parking the BMW, he trigger the Kata Slide wirelessly. He had found it necessary to disable the wrist trigger as yet, it would take awhile to get up to to speed with the new gadget. When he trigger the slides on the bracers, and out came the colt coral snakes, and he put them in the glove compartment. Next he drew out A Ruger Superhawk, and Champion Cavalier, from their respective shoulder rigs, and slid them under the driver's seat. 

While he suspect many runner disobeyed the etiquette,  he knew showing up to the meet armed to teeth was contraindicated. Getting out of the car he walked once around the parameter carefully one last time, searching, cycling through Nightvision, and Thermal imaging seeking anyone who looked a little to threatening or interested at the meetup address, and at the exact time he walked in the tattoo parlor, Raven Icon active.
« Last Edit: <07-04-18/1151:40> by Marcus »
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Csjarrat

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« Reply #8 on: <07-04-18/1530:36> »
Ryu banked and weaved, the BF109E following closely but unable to draw a bead just yet. Sensing a moment, Ryu slammed the heavy stick to the left as the aeilorons screamed in protest and pulled up into a split S, making a dive for the cover of the cloud bank several hundred feet below.
A burst of tracer lashed the fuselage and he saw the 'schmitt was right on his tail.
Radioing to his wingman yielded no reply, the unit was dead. Jinking to the right, he caught sight of the antenna flapping furiously in the backdraft of the prop, limply hanging on in his rearview.
The 'schmitt pushed hard now, out-diving him, but it barely mattered as he banked the spit hard into the cloud, losing his assailant in the process.
Although his privacy mode was set to "on", the sender's priority level over-rode it and the message from Akuro filtered into his cockpit, pausing his game.
Flicking through the message he killed spitfire ace, tallied up the XP on the home screen and logged out, shaking off the VR rush and coming-to on the sofa in his flat.

He read and re-read the message before pinging back a reply.
//<<Yep, count me in, had nothing else planned and plenty of bills to pay. Do we need to be ready to go from the off or we got prep time?>>//

He'd never heard of Lou's tattoo's before and ran a cursory matrix search on it whilst booking an autotaxi on his fake SiN from around the other side of the block, casually flicking through the search results as they flicked up in AR.

He had a couple of hours to burn to get ready and get over there, opting to don the form fitting armour and his decent clothing, plus a hooded rain jacket and loaded up his running gear in prep for the run, wireless off for the time being.
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« Reply #9 on: <07-04-18/1618:59> »
Upon entering the Tattoo parlor, and seeing the female attendant, Ace nods respectfully, gives her, his second most charming smile. Saying Thank you but I already have an appointment for Midnight. If you can direct me, it should be a small business meeting. Once Buzzed through. Ace enters the room, nods respectful to each person present, finds a seat with his back to wall, sits down in silence and waits patiently for things to get started. He carefully maintains a neutral posture, keeping his hand visible, and clearly empty. Calling up his link, he downloads a several knowsofts on Tattoos and tattooing and attempts to cross reference any interesting data that might reveal.
« Last Edit: <07-04-18/1622:32> by Marcus »
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« Reply #10 on: <07-05-18/0042:46> »
Ryu receveid a message back very shortly after sending his. "We feel that it would be a safe assumption to be ready to run as the time frame for the meet was very short. We do not know the Johnson or job on this one but the contact that reached out to us is well known to cowboy and myself"
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blackshade10

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« Reply #11 on: <07-05-18/0601:28> »
Crow groaned awake as the AR call hit him, rubbing some hair out of his face as he looked at the message, opening the file and listening to it as he stared up at the ceiling.  He mentally sent back a sweet and short message to Akane.

"I'll take it." The response was short and curt, but hey, he was still waking up.  Slipping out of his bed- as quietly as possible so as not to wake up Sophie who was asleep under the covers next to him, he snatched his clothes, dressed, and slipped out the door after grabbing his gear. 

"You know I hate short notice like this, I'm probably not gonna have prep time." He threw back to Akuro and Cowboy, everything he sent in natively fluent Japanese.  It had a touch of light-hearted sass.

He hopped onto his Cyclops monocycle as the autopilot pulled it up next to him, sliding his milspec helmet on followed by his hood, the hood stiffening a bit as he revved the engine and tore off to the tattoo parlor.  Maybe if he hurried, he could get a spirit ready.  He had his machine pistol and his machete stored underneath the seat in the small store compartment, with his shock gloves firmly on.  He grabbed the dossier he had and forwarded it as requested.


Crimson Crow(Crim or Crow is fine.)
Spirit Summoner/Mundane Combatant

Talents:

Close Range(Unarmed and Blades)
Mid-Range(Automatics)
Stealth
Awakened(Aspected) - Capable of Astral observation and perception.
Personal Transportation/Novice Driver


Restrictions:

Child of the Morrigan- Will not harm Corvids, will not offend the Great Queen. 



After it was sent off, Crow turned on to the highway and raced down the road on his monocycle, enjoying the rush it gave him.  He wanted to get there early.  He bobbed and weaved between cars before sliding off onto an exit, driving by the Tattoo Parlor, eyeing it for a moment, circling the area and assensing everything he could see.  After he was relatively sure this wasn't an ambush, he found a place to stash the bike, stashed his helmet in the storage compartment with his machete and machine pistol, and slowly sauntered on over to the parlor, pulling his hood up to protect him from the rain, adjusting his scarf a bit. 

First priority was to find someplace quiet and out of the way to observe the parlor while he waited. 
« Last Edit: <07-05-18/0736:32> by blackshade10 »

eryrwyn

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« Reply #12 on: <07-05-18/1144:41> »
The young elf of mixed racial heritage moved through the crowd quickly, seemingly at random. He didn't want anyone to think he was there for any particular reason apart from just passing through. His eyes were, however, already fixed on his mark. The wealthy-looking gentleman was getting away from him... and he didn't like that even one bit. He had a job to do and debts to pay. He had it on good authority that the datastick the man was hiding contained secrets wanted by some... interested party. And Baron intended to acquire it. Sure, he could probably track him down later since he had already taken a look at the man's astral aura and committed it to memory. But why do it later when you can do it at this very moment? He reminded himself the teachings of the lwa. Live in the moment and seize the opportunity.

Whispering a prayer to the lwa under his breath, he looked about and realized that there were simply too many people here. He needed a distraction. The elf moved faster, maneuvering through the crowd as he closed in on his mark. His hand reached to his pockets filled with Fifth World coins. He wasn't even sure if they were worth anything. He usually used them as offerings for the lwa. Some lwa liked it shiny. Other times he used them for the other kind of magic that he did. More... mundane but equally difficult.

"Wanna see a magic trick?" he asked loudly at no one in particular... but he really was directing it at the man just passing him by. "A moment of your time," he added as he played with a coin in his fingers. Seeing the unwillingness on the man's face, he knew he needed to up his game. The coin found its way into the man's hands despite his protestations, while his other hand found and palmed the datastick. This... was not the best he could do but he was in a hurry. Normally, he'd have more preparation and would not force anyone to view his prestidigitation tricks. Normally he'd convince them with his honeyed words. But this time, that would have to do.

Astrally, Baron's aura faded and became in tune with the background count of the place, even as the mana flowed from his body into the man's mind, rewinding his perception of time. As the man was leaving, he looked at the coin in his palm, wondering where it came from. He had no recollection of getting it. Must have picked it up somewhere. No matter, he shrugged, as he continued on his way to his meeting.

Baron's commlink rang not a moment too soon. He was safely out of the crowd, having acquired what he needed. He clicked on the bracelet and his sound link relayed the message from Akuro. He remembered her. Pretty, intelligent, Cowboy's assistant. He didn't really know much about him, the guy seemed eccentric, but the word was he was trustworthy and could get good jobs. Jobs someone in debt desperately needed.

"Anything for my favourite fixer." Baron smiled in response as he sent the message.

Back at his place, he quickly stashed the datastick. Looking at his... spiritual workplace, he put a couple of shiny coins on the eerily syncretic altar as offering to the lwa. He sent a command to the commlink's speakers to play. The air was filled with his favourite, if a bit unorthodox, ritual music. Elias, or at least that's the name he was using nowadays, grabbed his gris-gris as he sang his prayers. "Oh great spirits, accept my sacrifice and look into my soul, bestow upon me your blessings one more time, for the times ahead so I could seize the day in your name and with your breath on my skin!"

His body danced with joy as his spirit felt a lower lwa entering his astral presence. A spirit of ancestors, surely, led here by his song. Elias smiled as he welcomed his astral guest. As always with beings such as these, he was polite, generous, almost deferential. After all, they were the ones controlling the fate of the world, so why wouldn't he?

His ritual done, he forwarded the dossier he had prepared earlier. It was definitely shorter and probably brever than the usual.

"Baron. Stage magician. Illusionist extraordinaire. Conjurer, both mundane and spiritual."

He wrote no lie, but he was always very careful with the information he let others know about himself. An intelligent person would be able to decipher the actual meaning of these descriptors. And shadowrunners didn't tend to be stupid. Or, at least, those who wanted to survive in the biz shouldn't be.

His appearance was just the usual Baron-style. An immaculately clean and elegant suit, with a white shirt, black vest, black trousers and black coat. He took his bag -- you never know when you need to put on some last minute changes to the persona. He checked his gris-gris, fingering its contents and thanking the lwa for it, then hid his houngan talisman under his shirt. He had prepared an improvised vessel for the spirit to possess... if there would be a need. He didn't really have the skills that a proper houngan or mambo usually possessed, but he did his best. The spirit he had summoned stayed on the astral plane, watching with interest what the little elf was up to. Just before going out, he grabbed two last parts of the masquerade. His mask that he put in the bag and his hat.

He arrived at the place a couple of minutes before the time. He would usually try to be earlier, but he needed to thank the lwa and ask for their assistance. His astral eye opened as he pierced the veil between the worlds and noticed the wards. Rather powerful for a place like this -- but that's precisely why they were probably going there for the meeting. Less of a chance it's going to be astrally breached and compromised.

Just before he entered the building, his fingers touched his bracelet as he downloaded a raven lwa icon and substituted his own with the new one. "Here for a meeting. Maybe you can direct me?" He smiled at the receptionist.
« Last Edit: <07-05-18/1146:40> by eryrwyn »

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« Reply #13 on: <07-05-18/1955:21> »
Counting crow, Ban, nee The Stranger, nee Clint Eastwood hung out on the opposite street corner to Lou's Tattoo's chewing on his imaginary Cigarillo while he watched the four metahumans bearing Black Raven AR icons over their heads enter the shop.

"Well ain't that dandy" the scowling human growled to himself in the light rain.

"a human, two farking daisy-eaters and a...<not sure what Ryu is?>. Counting me that's a whole passle o pointy ears in this pickup squad. Pity we didn't end up with a Trog, they make such great patsies if the drek hits the fan."

Shrugging to no-one he stepped lightly across the street, dabbing some Black Panther cologne behind his ears and on his wrist he then quickly popped a hit of Novacoke, which brought a huge shit-eating grin across his previously dour face. It took him a moment to get control of that but that was more routine than anything else. Mindset, it was all about mindset. And right now it was...

"Business time" he said to the aether, pushing open the door to Lou's tattoo's and heading straight towards the "backroom"

Entering the backroom he turned his head to quickly take in the small group assembled therein, "I reckon my murder is one short, I ordered five but I count four."
« Last Edit: <07-05-18/1959:05> by adzling »

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« Reply #14 on: <07-05-18/2216:12> »
One of Ace's blonde eye brows rises as Ban Dolo walks in. He shrugs he's shoulders, crosses his arms over his chest and says I hear some get lost in the rain. Ace's suit is currently white with a black shirt and a white tie. His blonde short hair is highlighted with rainbow colors, and spiked. Eyes nearly the color of storm-clouds careful scans everyone one at the table, making eye contact with those willing and moving on from those who aren't. With this many Elves we can fake being a boy band *chuckling*.
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