[Trespassers IC] Shadowrun: Seattle By Sundown: Breaking Point

[StormLord]

Freidhold enters the apartment without much to say or add.

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun, moving towards the fringes of the group deliberately, brushed past Mar on her way to cower in the corner. She let out a small "oh" at brushing the elderly orc, then peered at him curiously for a moment. He didn't look human, but would it be rude to ask. . . ? "Um, sorry about that, I can be a bit clumsy at times." She waited a moment or two before speaking again, continuing to awkwardly shuffle backward slightly. "I hope you're right. You seem like you're a little calmer than the rest of the group, not that I mean to offend anyone else in it."

[Powder Miner]

Navin massaged the bridge of his nose more as they all walked into the apartment. Well, at least they were being let inside now, so he supposed that was in all fact progress, but... well, he was going to have to keep at this line of questioning with some persistence, he realized, because whatever had gone down the previous time Solomon had been here was probably even worse than he thought it was.

 

"I get the feeling that this is going to turn out to be a headache we are going to have to deal with the fallout of. Am I wrong, Solomon?"

[Strider]

Liliya entered the apartment, because why the hell would she not have? "Alright, so I don't know the fine details of your stuff Halley--ain't making any judgements till I have a full story from someone not the cause--but can I makea request everyone? Could we, maybe, like tell our plans among the group before executing them whenever possible?"

 

"Oh, actually! Solomon, Ms?, could we get comms or something to stay in contact?"

[Hal Henderics]

Mar looks at her straightly, with a stiff face, and poor posture.

 

"Even among berserkers, 'Age tires what youth awakens'.  Or so the old saying goes."

 

"If someone were to misbehave..."

 

He creakily shrugs with a glint of hidden mischief.

 

"They may be put in traction for weeks."

[Chevaleresse]

"Well, hopefully it doesn't come to that." Even among berserkers? Perhaps the elderly-looking orc(?) was more of a physical hazard than he seemed. Not that she was personally afraid of him, or at least no more than the others; he didn't seem like the type to get angry for no reason, though she was, of course, wary of what would happen if he learned about her secret. "And even if it does, I'd like to think I could stop it from taking quite so long. I-If I may say so myself, I'm known as quite the talented healer, where I'm from."

[Hal Henderics]

He nods at this.

 

"That is good to hear.  Healers are always in short supply."

 

"No matter how great an abundance of them there is."

 

"My own healing may be effective, but it would be nice to avoid wasting my precious liquor on lesser ailments."

 

Mar pulls out a flask of vile, black liquid which radiates maliciousness and unease.  He looks tempted to take a nip right then and there, but thinks better of it, and puts it away.

[Yours Truly]

On 2/1/2019 at 5:45 PM, Powder Miner said:

Navin massaged the bridge of his nose more as they all walked into the apartment. Well, at least they were being let inside now, so he supposed that was in all fact progress, but... well, he was going to have to keep at this line of questioning with some persistence, he realized, because whatever had gone down the previous time Solomon had been here was probably even worse than he thought it was.

 

"I get the feeling that this is going to turn out to be a headache we are going to have to deal with the fallout of. Am I wrong, Solomon?"

The door quietly slammed closed the moment Navin walked inside of the room after Solomon made a slight gesture in it's direction, and the librarian swiftly took the opportunity to recline onto his usual gaudy seat before he replied with, "Hopefully yes! Mostly because I don't think that anyone here's capable of fucking up that badly anymore."

On 2/2/2019 at 8:44 PM, Strider said:

Liliya entered the apartment, because why the hell would she not have? "Alright, so I don't know the fine details of your stuff Halley--ain't making any judgments till I have a full story from someone not the cause--but can I make a request everyone? Could we, maybe, like tell our plans among the group before executing them whenever possible?"

 

"Oh, actually! Solomon, Mr. Quin, could we get comms or something to stay in contact?"

The woman slowly gestured at an oddly placed bedside table before she said, "You will find some disposable commlinks waiting for the...nine of you inside of that cabinet," she gave Heidrun a bit of an odd look before she said, "And tell me, does your group just enjoy picking up random strays and bringing them over to a private meeting, or did my 'father' see your presence as not being worth mentioning?"
 

There was a brief and awkward pause for a moment before she said, "...sorry about that, I just hate it when the Harlequin switches things up all of a sudden, I mean I've got everything all set up for eight and he just drops another one right onto my lap and expects me to just...deal with it, granted this probably won't switch things up too much, especially since he decided to bring Halley out of all people to this op, which means that we suddenly have a SIN free, not like I thought anyone would be dumb enough to believe that someone with her rather...distinctive appearance is an 18 year old art major named Clara Lune anyway."

On 1/21/2019 at 2:35 AM, DragonRage said:

"I should hope so," Alexandria groans, "In fact, let's just agree to not shoot first this time.  Well, not unless we are absolutely certain we're firing on enemies.  Please?  The last thing we need is to be arrested for assassination with a side of first degree murder.  Never mind that Halley evidently tried it once already.  If you get arrested for this, I will find it very hard to justify rescuing you from the consequences of your actions.

 

"On a debatably more cheerful note, I've been told you have an AI with delusions of grandeur we need to scrape out of a building's mainframe, and his creepy cult to dismantle.  Any information you could provide about the site, its inhabitants, and the cultists would be greatly appreciated.  Information about the hardware he's inhabiting would also be helpful.  I have extensive experience with AI technology, but I am unfamiliar with the 'Ultraviolet' system he is using.  My own OS is supported by a quantum storage matrix, which could not develop spontaneously in a building network as I am informed Deus' Ultraviolet core has.  More information on this system would be very helpful in shutting him down.  As would any information about the higher-level hacking techniques used in this world.  My OS should be incompatible with local hacking attempts and I do not have broadband wireless connectivity, but it never hurts to be prepared.  Hackers often have little sense of their own limitations."

The woman coughed a little before she turned towards Alexandria and said, "Now to answer your first question, I'm going to give you the chip truth here, no one actually knows what one of Deus's Otaku can do, mostly because A. That's a fucking ridiculous term for them, and B. They're practically a matrix Ghost story, a ridiculous fantasy about magical techwizards that can wave spastically at tech to take it over without even having to jack in or have a direct internet connection and even if this sounds ridiculous it's all true because my friend Dave almost died when one of those bloody teenagers decided that it would be funny to fry his deck while he's still connected I swear on my mum, and oh yeah none of them are any older than 18 for some reason." 

 

She then mimed typing something on the seat of the couch before she said, "But as I live in a world of wonders, where a fucking dragon ran for President and got his blue ass elected, I am forced to consider the possibility that technomancers do exist, and if one takes care to sort through all the drek they say on the streets, there does appear to be some truth to the matter, Deus does possess some rather young awakened individuals working for him, who indeed appear to be capable of breaking into secure systems with nothing but the power of their mind, but since I presume that none of you are dumb enough to have a WiFi connection on, they should prove to be nothing more than annoyance, especially for a woman of your...persuasion."

 

She let out a slight sigh at something just out of sight, and leaned forward a little, "And to answer your other question, in this case an Ultraviolet host is best described as every single computer inside of the East Coast Stock Exchange, the people who ran the place thought they were being clever when they made thousands upon thousands of servers work as one, but little did they know that they were a dozen servers away from putting enough computational power in once place to simulate our reality...or maybe they did know and just thought that it was 'neat', who knows with these corporate types..."

 

She shook her head before she said, "But yeah, the gist of it is that we need you to get Deus out of the Machina, and that you can't just flood the lower floors and set the stock exchange back a couple of years because we are not trying to ruin everyone's lives this time around...although personally I wouldn't mind it if you broke some of the more...expensive looking servers."

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun couldn't help but tilt her head suspiciously at the brew Mar showed. Something just didn't feel right about it, nevermind how unappetizing it looked. Though, potions could be rather strange-looking (and smelling,) so maybe she shouldn't be so hasty to judge. . . Before she could respond, however, their host started to speak. "Ah, um, sorry, I actually came here rather unexpectedly, and walked right into a gang of thugs. I-I'm here to help, though!" She somehow doubted she was going to make the greatest impression on this woman, but then doing such a thing might've been difficult for anyone, judging by her attitude. Setting that aside for now - it's not as if there was anything she could do about it - Heidrun considered what she knew of computers. She wasn't an expert, by any means, but her world at least had them and the Internet; judging by the expressions of some of the others, they did not have that fortune. "How are we supposed to get him out of there, though? If he's spread out amongst a bunch of machines like that, I don't see how we could do it without destroying the whole thing. A-and it really would be good to avoid something like that." 

[Yours Truly]

The woman turned ever so slightly to better address Heidrun, shifting slightly in her seat as she let out a sigh and tried to put on a straight face before she said , "Alright, this is going to sound like a load of drek based on everything you've heard me say about Deus and the Matrix before, and I'm only saying this because I've been in one of those things before, but Ultraviolet hosts are....strange, they attempt to model reality as accurately as possible for it's users that it basically *is* real, which gives you a killer headache when you jack out, but more importantly; by default an Ultraviolet host will let you attempt any action you can perform in real life inside of it, including say...taking out a gun and shooting a particularly powerful man to death in his new home."  

 

"....what, that doesn't sound like how the Matrix works at all," Solomon exclaimed after he heard the woman's statement; leaning in slightly as he sent computer themed publications flying her way; causing her to casually bat them away before she replied with, "It's how an Ultraviolet node works, you're still going to be slinging programs instead of actual bullets at Deus of course, and the eight of you will need a deck and some trodes to interface with the Matrix, but I can supply the programs at least, and as long as Deus hasn't fully compiled himself the eight of you should stand a chance of beating him..."

 

"Or of course, the eight of you could take out several floor's worth of servers and send the entire Ultraviolet Host crashing and burning down to a lower grade, that'll prevent Deus from ever fully materializing in it as well, except of course, that's only going to inconvenience him if you don't rout his followers as well."

 

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun side-eyed Solomon as he reacted. Did he really think throwing books around like that was appropriate? Though that was beside the point. They did at least have some way of accomplishing their goal, even if some kind of assassination was a bit. . .outside her usual expertise and comfort zone, to say the least. Apparently it would be a good thing, but it still didn't feel quite right, and there were other concerns besides. "What about those technomancers? Doesn't putting ourselves in a virtual world mean leaving ourselves vulnerable to them?"

[Powder Miner]

Navin didn’t even blink at the casual tome-tossing, instead scratching his head, in thought for a moment. Okay, this was a bit strange even by his standards. He had never been in any sort of simulation, inside-of-a-computer scenario, though one or two of the Japanese heroes he’d worked with in the past had. Or so he’d heard, anyhow. Well, things being strange wasn’t enough to shake him. He would just have to act intelligently — and while Navin did not consider himself a very smart man, he could at least avoid being stupid around combat. This meant he’d have to ask smart questions, too.

”Well, going in through this Ultraviolet host is more than a little better than punching a giant hole in a stock exchange and murdering a bunch of teenagers, so let’s go with the simulation option, yes? That leads to a question, then: you say an Ultraviolet host will let us do what we could in reality, but also that we need some set of programs that you will supply us with? What will those programs do?”

[Yours Truly]

On 2/17/2019 at 5:14 AM, King Murdoc said:

Heidrun side-eyed Solomon as he reacted. Did he really think throwing books around like that was appropriate? Though that was beside the point. They did at least have some way of accomplishing their goal, even if some kind of assassination was a bit. . .outside her usual expertise and comfort zone, to say the least. Apparently it would be a good thing, but it still didn't feel quite right, and there were other concerns besides. "What about those technomancers? Doesn't putting ourselves in a virtual world mean leaving ourselves vulnerable to them?"

The woman waited for a while to see if anyone else had a question to ask; idly typing something on her sofa's arms on an unseen screen, before she tilted her head slightly to the left, and cleared her throat to say, "You are....correct unfortunately, outside of the Matrix one might be able to take a couple of pot shots at you or take control over the automated defense system, maybe even mess with the doors or the way a room is arranged, but inside of the matrix? Trawl around sites in the matrix long enough and you'll hear stories about some punk kid with a piece of drek cyberdeck hacking into a corp's system on a dare, getting discovered by some overzealous wageslave, and 'accidentally' frying their deck and brain on their way out; of course sometimes it's the other way around, and they'll add in a bit about some poor janitor finding the punk's body inside a maintenance closet or a bathroom just to mess with you."

The woman lets out a slight sigh before she moved on to say, "Of course the truth is you while you can die in the Matrix, and there are programs and intrusion countermeasures that'll try and kill you, they're not inescapable in a regular system, and let me tell you, they're a lot easier to handle when you have direct control over how your avatar moves, and in the end of the day, you're just making them switch from actual guns to virtual ones...except they might also have grenades or fireballs or what have you."

The woman took a deep breath for a brief moment, as if to let her statement sink in before she continued with, "They're not going to suddenly become invincible deities once you jack into the Matrix, especially not in an Ultraviolet system, everything that worked against them in real life should still work once you're inside, and they're still mostly bound by the same rules the Ultraviolet Host imposes on you, so you know...just act the way you would in a gunfight and avoid getting booted out of the system like your life depended on it, because it does."

On 2/20/2019 at 1:44 PM, Powder Miner said:

Navin didn’t even blink at the casual tome-tossing, instead scratching his head, in thought for a moment. Okay, this was a bit strange even by his standards. He had never been in any sort of simulation, inside-of-a-computer scenario, though one or two of the Japanese heroes he’d worked with in the past had. Or so he’d heard, anyhow. Well, things being strange wasn’t enough to shake him. He would just have to act intelligently — and while Navin did not consider himself a very smart man, he could at least avoid being stupid around combat. This meant he’d have to ask smart questions, too.

”Well, going in through this Ultraviolet host is more than a little better than punching a giant hole in a stock exchange and murdering a bunch of teenagers, so let’s go with the simulation option, yes? That leads to a question, then: you say an Ultraviolet host will let us do what we could in reality, but also that we need some set of programs that you will supply us with? What will those programs do?”

She turned slightly to face Navin as she immediately segued into saying, "And as for your question, my programs are there to do just about everything, in the end of the day all of you will still be inside of a computer after all, what would you do if you didn't have an OS that could interface with such a powerful system? Or a nice set of offensive programs to tell the system that each and every single one of your blows is meant to fry the other decker? The system will accept you pulling out a gun and shooting it as a command, but you still need to tell the system what pulling the trigger does."

[Strider]

"When do we start then?" Liliya had nothing else to add on the subject, so now it was a question of whether they were starting immediately, or going to go have dinner at a local restaurant first, or what.

[DragonRage]

"Seems simple enough, if not exactly easy," Alexandria agrees, "What's our next step?  We can go out, walk a search pattern until we find the stock exchange, and storm the place, but I was under the impression that you hoped for us to be discreet."

[Powder Miner]

Navin passed his fingers through his hair for a few moments as he considered his next question, but eventually he nodded.

”Okay, one last question before we go... in my personal experience, I have found that there are three kinds of supervillains, and murderous artificial intelligences have been no exception so far for me. These three kinds are: supervillains that are not very clever at all, and who are usually fairly predictable because they do the same things most other supervillains do, supervillains that think they are very clever but are in fact only a little bit more clever and can usually still be predicted with a little experience, and then there are the supervillains who are in fact very much smart and cannot be predicted much at all. In your estimation, which of these would you say that Deus is?”

[Yours Truly]

On 2/25/2019 at 5:37 AM, Powder Miner said:

Navin passed his fingers through his hair for a few moments as he considered his next question, but eventually he nodded.

”Okay, one last question before we go... in my personal experience, I have found that there are three kinds of supervillains, and murderous artificial intelligences have been no exception so far for me. These three kinds are: supervillains that are not very clever at all, and who are usually fairly predictable because they do the same things most other supervillains do, supervillains that think they are very clever but are in fact only a little bit more clever and can usually still be predicted with a little experience, and then there are the supervillains who are in fact very much smart and cannot be predicted much at all. In your estimation, which of these would you say that Deus is?”

The woman took some time to ponder what her answer should be for Navin's question, and she sat there, staring intently at a part of the wall that you were all quite sure had nothing on it before she took a deep breath and tiredly said, "If this was four-five years ago? My father would have told you himself that Deus was a nightmare, and indeed he was then as he is now, after all what else do you call someone who seemingly came from nowhere and immediately took over one of the largest arcologies in Seattle over night, and kept control over it for two long and bloody years before disappearing into the ether, leaving behind a charnel house filled with tens of thousands of corpses, and I would have told you to be very afraid indeed."

She let out a slight sigh before she continued with, "But these days? At best Deus wants everyone to think that he's a drekhead, and let me tell you, if he is? It's working really well." The corners of her mouth curled downwards slightly as she said, "Blowing up the Aztechnology Arcology was a mistake, as your librarian over there can attest to, and within my estimates, unless we free the Stock Exchange from Deus's influence within the next three days, the Azzies will have everyone inside of that building killed. Just to spite him you see....just to remind him that they can."

She had a deadly serious tone in her voice when she said, "With that in mind, I'd say that Deus thinks he is very clever indeed, and that unless we stop him, he's going to get everyone else killed just to prove it."

On 2/23/2019 at 9:51 PM, Strider said:

"When do we start then?" Liliya had nothing else to add on the subject, so now it was a question of whether they were starting immediately, or going to go have dinner at a local restaurant first, or what.

The woman gave a sidelong glance in Alexandria and Liliya's direction before she raised her index finger up, at first seemingly to ask them to wait for a moment, before she proceeds to mime pushing a button and a hidden niche in the coffee table slides open to spit out printed sheets of I can't believe it's not paper from an unseen printer, "The eight of you will need to fly to Boston tomorrow, and unfortunately enough we only know of one man who has the resources to charter a black flight this quickly, and he wants to meet you Solomon, knows you by name in fact."

The woman's statement caused the librarian to raise one of his eyebrows before he worriedly exclaimed, "What? You can't be talking about-," before the woman proceeded to talk over him with, "The seven of you will be meeting him tonight at the Fortunate Son, an Ares adjacent gunstore and barbeque that he has a controlling interest in, it's just off Union street, and trust me, you won't miss it," Solomon started to slowly back his throne closer towards the door as he muttered some swear words, as the woman seemingly ignored him and continued with, "And don't you worry, he says that he's made a full recovery, and that he has no hard feelings for you or your group, after all, they only fragged him to bits the last time they met."
________________________________________________________________________

A very dead man and also some multiversal nerds I guess-Union Street, Seattle-October 31 2064, Apparently still 8:24 PM somehow.

Smell of the day: Barbequed meat and pollutants

Theme Song Big Iron
 

The seven of you had to take three separate cabs to get here, with one taxi cab being reserved for Alexandria after her attempt at sitting in the back with everyone else caused the car's chassis to creak. Paying for the ride with the creds that the appropriately named Frosty shoved into your party's hands along with some fake IDs, cheap commlinks, andinvitations, and a thumb drive containing the programs you were supposed to use before she 'politely' ushered you out of her house so that she could change into something a little more comfortable.

As you step out of the cramped and sweaty confines of the taxi cab, and stepped inside of the damp and smoggy expanse of the streets, you saw the silver, black and neon lit edifice of the fortunate son awaiting you, briefly inhaled the inviting smells of purified air and barbequed meats of varying authenticity as the doors briefly opened to let out a very satisfied looking orc...and heard classical country music and cartoon openings from deep inside of it. None of you knew why a gunstore would need to be attached to a department store or have a 3 star restaurant, and honestly; by the time you saw the pictures of this place, the fact that you needed to reserve a table paled in comparison to the fact that you were about to enter a very large revolver.

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun did her best to keep a close eye on her bag as they stepped into the streets. Their group was. . . eclectic, to say the least, and to some people that meant they would have valuables for the taking. Of course, there was also the factor of intimidation, but she wasn't so naive as to totally rely on that keeping the various undesirable elements out of her purse. The streets didn't bother her unduly; sure, they were unpleasant, but living on the outskirts of Midgar (and having experienced a bit of everything the city had to offer before it collapsed into a radioactive crater) had toughened her nostrils a bit to this sort of experience. That didn't mean she was comfortable, per se; it was still a strange town and her safety relied similarly on almost complete strangers, one of which seemed to have some kind of unfortunate history with their contact. "So, er, Solomon, who is this man that we're meeting? And. . . to bits, she said?"

[Strider]

"Wait wait wait, don't tell me, is this the senator that got shot last time? This is gonna be awesome. . ."

 

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, until you've got a reason to. Sometimes people really don't hold a grudge and sometimes they do, and it's hard to tell ahead of time. So we just put on our nice faces, and try to make a good impression! I'm sure you'll be able to do that." Heidrun was rather demure, that'd definitely help, right? If the guy only respected strength of course, that could be a problem, but then they wouldn't have to worry about hard feelings, cause he'd have respected someone trying to kill him! Maybe. That seemed like some shaky reasoning to Liliya.

 

 

 

[Chevaleresse]

They were going to talk to a person they had tried to assassinate? That was. . . questionable, but the man had to have some reason to work with them, right? "Well, I'll do my best. . . but I do think I have a reason to worry already. Maybe there's something I could say to get in his good graces? I don't know if asking if I could help with his recovery would be a good idea, or just draw attention to the cause of his injury in the first place." Good impressions. She could do that, right? She just had to stay calm. This wasn't the most relaxing situation, and the idea of what might happen if she couldn't relax, somewhat frustratingly, made it harder to do so. 

[Yours Truly]

On 3/3/2019 at 1:27 PM, King Murdoc said:

They were going to talk to a person they had tried to assassinate? That was. . . questionable, but the man had to have some reason to work with them, right? "Well, I'll do my best. . . but I do think I have a reason to worry already. Maybe there's something I could say to get in his good graces? I don't know if asking if I could help with his recovery would be a good idea, or just draw attention to the cause of his injury in the first place." Good impressions. She could do that, right? She just had to stay calm. This wasn't the most relaxing situation, and the idea of what might happen if she couldn't relax, somewhat frustratingly, made it harder to do so. 

Solomon was on the lookout this evening if the general...twitchyness of his motions seemed to be any indication, whoever they were going to meet, it certainly made their guide see long knives and long rifles behind every shadow, and every single glint of light in the streets surrounding them, "Wwwell a good way to start might be to deny that you had anything to do with his attempted assassination, and uhhh....you know what? Maybe it would be wise if I sit this one out as well, let the rest of you butter him up with your...competence first before they bring me in for my execu-nnah, I mean I didn't know that Halley was going to do that, that...counts for something right? Wwhat do you guys think?."

[DragonRage]

"I think you should stay outside with Halley and make sure nobody else gets shot," Alexandria suggests, "That way, at least our first impression will be slightly less terrible."

[Chevaleresse]

Heidrun glanced between Alexandria and Solomon, then nodded. "That, um, might be a good idea. Surely he already knows that you're involved, but maybe not reminding him is a good idea." She sighed slightly. The healer was in way over her head already, and she was well aware of it. "I'd like to think I'm good at first impressions," she started, nodding in Liliya's direction, "but I'm not sure I've been doing so well lately. Still, I'll do my best! I'm sure it won't go too poorly as long as we act reasonably." She seemed to be mostly trying to convince herself of that. "Reasonable" didn't sound like it was this group's strong suit.

[Powder Miner]

As they entered the extremely large gun, Navin heard the sounds of music of a genre he recognized as country, and smelled barbecuing meat (including beef, drawing a brief wince from the white-jumpsuited hero). "This," he muttered, "is the most American place that I have ever been in my life."

 

He then elected to chime into the conversation that the others were having, responding directly to Heidrun. "I believe that we will be fine, yes. If I am not mistaken, there are only two or three of us here that were present for the evidently chaotic previous mission here, anyhow. If I may make a suggestion, it would be to worry less. If conflict does break out despite our best efforts, then it breaks out, and there was nothing we could do about it. But what we can do is avoid it by, yes, acting reasonably. And if there is a fight, well, fights lead to conversation most of the time anyhow. We should try to avoid it, because it would probably cause problems with the police, but if we did get into a fight with this senator we could probably end up talking him down." That was just how fights based on misunderstandings went, really, except for in the worst of circumstances. A few powers slung, and then understanding.

[Yours Truly]

A very dead man and some nerd-Union Street, Seattle-October 31 2064, Apparently still 8:29 PM somehow.

(Theme: Outdoors)
Solomon nodded and said, "In that case we'll see the rest of you later then, call me once you guys are done alright?," the strange librarian turned around and started to set off to join a crowd crossing the street after he said this, and without looking back, he simply said, "Come on Halley, let's uh, go somewhere we're a little more welcome to," and their oddly silent senator shooter begrudgingly did, her sense of self preservation overcoming her desire to confront the man she had tried to kill herself, and find out just how the hell he managed to survive.

She managed to stick with Solomon for a fair bit as they headed towards the cafe right across the street, an impressive feat considering how pushy the crowd was being at the time, up until she bumped up against another familiar face, and disappeared to the sound of a truck suddenly braking and blaring it's horn. By the time Solomon noticed that the young reploid was gone and turned around to try and find her amidst the crowd, he was too little, and all too late to see her go.

 

________________________________________________________________________
The other nerds-Fortunate Son, Union Street, Seattle-October 31 2064, Apparently still 8:29 PM somehow.

The party meanwhile, felt a wave of warmth and comfort waft over them as the doors closed behind them with the sound of a fishing line being reeled in...or perhaps the sound of a revolving cylinder spinning? It was kind of hard to tell. The place itself looked kinda...normal, you'd expect a gun store specifically designed to look like a giant revolver would be as ridiculous inside as it is outside, but other than the fact that you saw more antique AR-15s set on an American flag decorating the walls than normal, and the vidscreens were trying to get you to buy inherently superior American made guns instead of whatever the fuck a NERP is, it all just came off as a gun and America themed supermarket if anything. 

The music was even pretty calming as well, the sweet backdrop of low volume country music and wide open spaces granting a nice bit of respite after the offensive barrage of increasingly better targeted advertisements and cramped crowds of the Seattle streets. The people seemed...well they're still modern day Seattleites of course, but at least the ones inside had no incentive to push or pull you around the place, and seemed to be minding their own business well enough. It was only when one of you took a closer look at the carpets when the six of you realized that they bore the imagery, symbols, and flags of thousands upon thousands of the former USA and current day UCAS's enemies, you know, for the customer's edification.

 

It didn't take too long to find the path leading to the "Americana", the barbecue restaurant you were supposed to be meeting the Senator in, the six of you were led into a tunnel and given keys in exchange for your tickets, and you soon found out what they were for once you opened the doors, and found a pair of gyroscopically stablized electric Harleys waiting for someone to climb inside of them, and easily ride the star spangled tunnel heading up, until you arrived at the Americana itself, and opened the door to a rather tastefully decorated saloon.

 

Theme (Americana)

The smell of barbequed meat hits the six of you right in the face when you entered, and the chorus of a certain song you heard in the tunnels played in the background just as you spotted the Senator himself, a tall and slightly muscular blonde haired man in a brown tailored suit, who had an American flag pin decorating his breast, and a wide and 'friendly' smile decorating his face as he stood up and bid them a 'warm', "Welcome!," before he dropped his pretenses a little with, "I assume that the six of you were the freelancers that clown of yours was talking about?."