A Most Interesting Proposal

GM: Kassandra
Players: Air, Adam, Holtzclaw, Malamute
Synopsis: The runners are hired for a job that they cannot believe.
Date: March 6 2070

+ Consent and Rules

You are contacted via your normal sources with word of work. They will tell you that someone is paying good cred for a high threat mission, but it is within the city bounds. They don't have much other information than that, but can tell you that you'll be meeting at the Expo Center in the CAS Sector on the north side of Colorado Springs. You'll be met by a tall man and a short man there. They say you cannot POSSIBLY miss it.

Air packs light for a meet in the city, climbing into his silver Beemer and heading off. Stopping to pick up another passenger on the way the sleek silver sports car pulls into the Expo Center shortly after. Finding a place to park he steps out, waiting for his passenger before heading towards the main entrance, figuring that to be the likely spot.

"Mmhm. High risk? Yeah… REALLY, jeeze, 'cuz, I should be fine." The woman pulls the pocsec away from her face and begins packing up. Throwing her gear into her rucksack and gettin' armour on. She heads out of her apartment and into the hallway, pausing for a couple seconds to gather her thoughts.

The other passenger would be Adam. He heads to the city-meet light— which is just his usual robe outfit and his electronics gear. After a certain level of traveling he flicks his hand and puts the PhysMasks on himself and Air. It goes without saying he is going to be a little quiet until he reaches the point where they are no longer needed.

Inside another apartment in The Crank, Holtzclaw was prepping up some thick black sludge he called coffee, when he got a call. "Hello, Yeah I'll be there." keeping the conversation short. He grabs his things and heads out, meeting Malamute in the Hallway. "Hey babe, just heading out."

The night is relatively calm, with a faint breeze from the east and mild temperatures, right around the freezing point. The moon is a sliver of itself, heading towards the New Moon next week, allowing a good view of the stars if/when you get out of view of the city lights. Air traffic is heavy tonight as there are several shows in town and six parties, so air taxis are getting a work out.

Mal raises a hand to Holtz in greeting, "Me too. 'Cuz wanted somethin' done. So.. Would'ja mind givin' me a ride?" She slings the heavy rucksack over her shoulder and starts heading down the stairs, wanting to hurry whether the answer was yes or no.

Air, in his new 'Agent Air' persona, fancy suit and different features, takes a moment to look up and breathe in the fresher smelling air. Frivolities over he gets back to business and walks sedately round to the front doors, hoping to spot Little and Large. "Think we are first?" He asks his fellow Agent, Adam, quietly.

The Phil Long Expo Center sits atop a small hill overlooking the north side of the Springs as well as the nearby megamall complexes. The parking lot is relatively empty this tpime of night, with perhaps twenty to thirty vehicles in all. The lights are on out front, however, lighting up the various old school physical banners as well as the holographic and digital displays.

Standing near the front door is a strange sight, even for Denver: two men, you believe, are standing near the doorway. One is perhaps 10 feet tall with extraordinarily long legs and a strange gait as he walks. The other is maybe two foot tall, if that, and not the sort of body type one might associate with the dwarven metatype. They are currently having an argument as you approach.

Tall Man: "He said wait!"

Short: "What's my weight? That is a dumb question!"

Tall Man: "WAIT NOT WEIGHT!"

Short Man: "What?"

This seems to be an old argument, and one that they are having great fun yelling back and forth. The tall man is dressed in some sort of checked pants with glowing green and yellow fibers and matching top while his small friend is wearing a tiny tuxedo and top hat.

Agent Adam pushes his shades further up the bridge of his nose. Before answering Agent Air, he looks around to survey the area. Then there is a small nod. He thinks they may be the first— the first of many— on this dark darkly night of darkness.

Nodding to Mal he'd follow her downstairs, and make his way over to his Chrysler. Once they were both in the car Holtzclaw would drive them to the Expo Center, getting out to walk in on some sort of argument. Not being able to miss them was right.

Air agrees that this is certainly a shadowy night for a run. Approaching the two men he stands politely to one side and awaits the culmination of their argument. Taking the time to examine them, but happy to be polite and wait. Surely this job wasn't going to be done by only him and his colleague.

Malamute slides on her ballroom mask before stepping out of the car. She's survey the area, listening to all the little sounds, before following Holtzclaw inside. An arguement? Jeeze, what did she walk in on. The woman approaches the two men, coughing lightly in an attempt to get their attention.

Peering down, down, down at the cough, the Tall Man waves a hand to silence the smaller and waves to the runners, "Well hello there! Fancy seeing so serious of faces this evening! Tiny Tim, are these the folks we were waiting on?"

The Small Man looks up, up, up to the faces and pulls a wadded up piece of paper from his fine tux, looking at it for a long moment, then back to the assembled runners. "Yes?" he ventures, shrugging to the Tall Man.

The Tall Man groans and bends down, one leg skittering back for balance as he moves to open the door for the runners, "Go on in, he is waiting for you." He laughs at that .. not a nervous laugh, either.

Air nods politely in thanks to the two men and then proceeds inwards, none of this old fashioned chivalry stuff, man coming through, make way! Except he does it more calmly than that implies. He goes inside.

Agent Adam crosses his arms across his chest— a simple digital watch peeking out from his tailored sleeves. When the two men are done talking, they go back down to his side, following Agent Air's lead inside to meet the mysterious benefactor of benefits.

Holzclaw hesitantly stepping through the door bows to the tall and short man. He sips his soycaff and watches the other members of the group.

The woman with the ballroom mask smiles sweetly up to the tall man. "Thanks for the entrance, pop. And if I may say so, you have a sweet style of dress." She flashes the two a thumbs-up then heads into the room that the others have entered.

The inside of the Expo Center is dark with the exception of the light pouring in through the door. You are perhaps a step or two into the darkened building when, without warning, floods in the ceiling will snap on, blinking in and out of time with each other in a chaotic pattern. Red, Blue, Green, and so on across the spectrum lead towards a closed set of double doors perhaps sixty paces away. It is almost silent, but there feels to be a bass thrumming in the air from behind that door.

Air dims his eyes to reduce the impact of the wildly flashing colours and frowns. "Humpf, fancy trick." He advances towards the doors while flicking on a couple of hearing mods, intrigued with the bass thrum.

Holtzclaw blinks some as he is blinded by lights. Once his eyes adjusted he started to dance to the beat of the bass. "Yeah!" He looks over to Mal and smiles, but keeps a look out for the one they are supposed to be meeting.

"Very," Adam replies to Air in a dry tone. He parlors tricks like that all the time, though a proper trid phantasm is too intense to envoke on a casual basis. His head turns towards the 'Yeah' a moment later— and then back to being in step with Air for the real work.

Malamute's eyes follow the patterns of light, distracted for a couple moments. As the thumping catches her attention she activates her hearing modifications. She flashes a grin to Holtz and continues approaching the double doors. Fancy light tricks were awesome.

As the doors open, you are blasted with music, some old song from years ago:

Must have been a dream I don't believe where I've been.
Come on, let's do it again.
Do you…you, feel like I do?
How'd ya feel?
Do you…you, feel like I do?

The room is arranged like some massive tent inside this box-like room where the music blasts out. Lights flare and flash in wild patterns much like the lights in the hallway, except in here they are reflected off mirrors and other reflective surfaces.

Pillows are tossed haphazardly around the room where a number of scantily dressed women and two possibly very feminine men sit, their attention on the center of the room. Dancing their and playing air guitar is a man perhaps six, six foot three. He has a shock of blond hair that seems to fountain from his head and spill down his back, and is only wearing a pair of bell bottomed black velvet trousers. He is screaming out of tune with the music while playing air guitar, "DOOO I DOOO!? FEEL YOU TOO!!!!!"

Almost as an afterthought are two men and one woman against the far wall, dressed in dress clothing, jackets, and so forth. One of them has a cybercam on a shoulder mount watching the action.

Holtzclaw shrugs and slows up on his dancing still tapping his hand to the beat as he looks to the doors that the lights led to. As the door blasts open he says "Hell yeah!" probably not heard to well over the music, but he runs into the room and starts playing some air guitar along with the guy a bit energized by the moment.

Air steps into the room, leaving enough room behind for the others to enter and then stops. Happy to remain some distance away from all the action going on in here. Looking around he hums to himself with something of a grimace on his face.

Adam doesn't share the same enthusiasm. The blast of loud music momentarily disrupts the spells he is sustaining on the Agents— causing a distortion that could be contributed to the light show. He reaches into his pocket and slides ear buds in to dampen the volume.

Malamute lightly strums against her leg, as if doing a bit of air guitar. Covering her ears momentarily as the doors open. She looks a bit shocked, and closes her eyes tightly, flicking off her hearing amplification. The woman looks a bit dazed as she walks into the room, now. Somewhat watching Holtz and the blonde man dance.

The center of the room, the center of attention, the man in the velvet pants sings along even as the music is abruptly silenced, the room flooding with clean normal light. "I FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL LIKE YOU DO!!!" He plays the air guitar and speaks in a strange distorted voice, "I feel like you do.. thank you … thank…" He trails off, looking up and around as if just noticing the relative silence and normality of the lights.

"The lights are on, but no one is home." With a snort of irritation, he spins on his bare foot and looks to the door, "Are you responsible for this outrage? I can assure you, officers, these women are not underage." He pauses at that and looks to one of the girls suspiciously, "Alright, maybe one."

Dismissing her from his thoughts with a wave, the blond man looks to you all and asks, "What do I owe this visit to?"

Air folds his arms across his chest and exhales slowly. "The taller gentleman outside informed us that you were waiting." His tone is very specifically maintained monotone, holding back his natural accent which causes him to sound most odd.

A chuckle came from Holtzclaw "Rock on. Yeah got a call saying you needed some help?" he looks to Air wondering how he could possibly be so stiff after such a good show, not even a clap or anything.

Adam decidedly says nothing. The direction of the conversation is on course— though he has his doubts when you mix air guitaring with 'high payout' work. Its like working with a dragon— only dragons probably invented air guitars without us knowing it. The plot thickens.

"Tall or Short, big and small, I hardly listen to them at all." The man practically /skips/ over to the three people lurking in the corner, dragging on the camera man, "Come now, get my good side. No, no, the other good side. I want a three shot with the guests and then a wide angle of me looking sober and then .. well, we'll do a soft fade perhaps?" He considers, rubbing his chin with exaggeration as he speaks.

The woman of the trio starts to speak and he shakes his head, holding up a finger, "I'll hear no more of it my love, no more words, no more tears." He spins again, pointing to Air, who spoke first, "You there, you look like the brains of the outfit! Tell me, would you pick option one or option two? Quickly now!"

Mal shakes her head, getting used to the change of volume. For a moment, as the man skips around, she just hangs by the door. But as the blonde one gets closer to Air she raises an eyebrow. The woman's thumb rubs against the side of her hand. Deciding to wait patiently.

Air gives the man as withering of an emotionless look as he can summon. It's quite good, he's basically emotionless anyway, "Two." His tone is dry as he feeds the man's obvious derangement.

Looking between the two Holtz sips his coffee and takes a moment to relax from the dancing. He reaches out for Malamute's hand and smiles some to her but doesn't do much of anything else just yet.

Looking around at the activities, Agent Adam looks to Agent Air and says quietly to him, "I get the feeling this is cost us both in time and sanity." Deadpan voice. Not quite as emotionless as Air's, but he gives it a good run.

"TWO!" Your host claps and spins to the presumably underage woman and tells her, "Option Two, I think you know what they are supposed to do." He waves her towards the runners and wiggles a finger at the camera man, "Now you, come with me, this is something you will want to see. We are going to feed the tigers … you are about two hundred pounds, right? Did you know a tiger eats .." He trails off as he leads the man to a curtain-covered doorway, from which you will hear a faint roar of disapproval .. or hunger.

The woman indicated to speak to you is perhaps sixteen by her looks, but her eyes are much older. She is dressed in slightly more than Princess Leia wore in Empire, but not much, and has rich chocolate brown hair and eyes. She watches the curtain part and come back down, moving closer to speak with you. "Hello there. I believe we have some work for you. Pardon Gabriel, he is .. well. He is Gabriel."

Malamute steps a bit closer to Holtz, lightly taking his hand. She glances to the three who are in the corner, dressed all nicely. Mostly at the one with the cyberarm. Then her attention switches to the two agents, scanning over them carefully.

Air watches the deranged blond head off towards the curtain and flicks his attention back to the underage girl. "Continue." The request is couched politely though he remains in his closed off body language, arms crossed. Occasionally he glances around the room to ensure of the position of all the people around.

Holtzclaw nods to the girl and smiles "Well he puts on quite the show" He holds onto Mal and listens to what the woman hd to say about the job.

The girl bobs her head at Air and the others, "My Master Gabriel has instructed me to offer you the following work that we need done. There is an item we need switched out with an existing item. This must be done this evening, and it would be most prudent if it were done with the minimum of fuss and muss, so that the exchange is not noted."

She takes a breath and continues, wincing only slightly as she hears a terrified shriek from the other room and a very feline roar, "Ah. Yes. There may be a number of armed and very dangerous individuals guarding the area that the item you are going to exchange is at." She considers her sentence a moment and says, "There will be guards. Better." She pauses again and says, "Oh. One more thing. I'll need you to either take our film crew with you or there will be a rather severe reduction in pay, I am afraid." She brightens, "Or one of you could film for us?"

Air ponders in silence for a moment. "To clarify, you wish us to switch an item which is under heavy guard, while also having a film crew record everything? Of note, one of your film crew seems to have been damage just now." He sighs and shakes his head with a grimace, "Where is this item? How large and heavy is it?"

There is a pause in Agent Adam. He looks over towards Agent Air a moment and then back to the 'young girl', which is a devious trap. Devious! The man makes a mental note of that for later in case he needs to PhysMask someone into something disarming— like a kitten.

Mal turns to look at the woman. "I believe that one of us filming the procedure would be better, instead'a one of your crew men. We can probably take bullets better than they can." She says in a reassuring tone. "Is this a no-kill job, or will the pay be reduced if we fight back?"

Holtzclaw hears the roar and kinda shivers some. He looks to the woman and then to the crew not really wanting to have a camera on them the whole time. "Well guys what do you think" he asks Adam and Air.

The girl gestures towards the back of the room and calls out, "Bring the present!" Two large men who may or may not be trolls pretending to be large orks come forth with a gaily wrapped cube about the size of a 32" television set. They are carrying it easily, but you have some reason to believe they would be doing the same with a Mitsubishi Runabout.

The girl says to Mal, "Well, killing isn't against our goals, but it may make them question the package and then the job is for naught. And Gabriel would probably pout." To Air she simply nods, touching a finger to the tip of her nose, "You have the exact measure of it, Mr. Brains."

Air watches the present brought out, one of his eyebrows slowly raises. "Do the forklift trucks come with the box?" He sighs again, "I think I can safely speak for my colleague and I when I say that this job is, not for us. Unfortunately we suffer from a rare allergy to being recorded committing a crime."

Adam nods his head once at that— backing up Air's statement to thier terrible allergic situation. Its quite painful. Like chicken pox, only less itchy and more jail time.

Mal watches the two large men carry out the package, before replying to the girl. "Alright, I'll remember that." Shooting a glance to the agents as they seemed to get second thoughts about the job. "Where will this film be broadcast, if we do indeed record it? Will those of the higher authority status have access to it?"

"NO! NO! BAD STANLEY! DO NOT EAT THE CAMERAMAN! NO!" ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!!!!

The girl pouts and tells Air, "Well, you don't have to film YOU, just point the camera away from you is all. And we can blot out any faces and distort your voices. I wouldn't ask, but Gabriel requires his life to be filmed for .. tax reasons." She blushes and shakes her head, "It's a horrible thing, I know, but it just has to be kept on file in case we are audited by .. them." She darts her gaze from side to side.

"Also, you don't HAVE to keep the wrapping on the box. In fact, you'll have to take it out of the box to exchange it or else the people will know."

She answers with a shake of her head, "No, no, it will be filed safely away, I swear it."

Holtzclaw nods to the decision be made by Air and Adam. He didn't think about that but it didn't seem like a good Idea to be filmed. "Yeah I'm not to trusty of people I don't know.. Babe if you want you can stay but it's not for me, Pleasure." he turns and starts to make his way back out

Air grimaces at the protests made, "I'm very sorry, but the item does not appear to be exactly portable, and the objective seems rather difficult to accomplish with such a thing in tow." He scratches his nose and sighs, "Perhaps our anxiety could be put to rest if you could explain who this 'Gabriel' is?"

Likewise Adam is curious as well— nodding just once and crossing his arms over his chest again.

Malamute places a slight kiss on Holtz's cheek before bidding the man farewell. She stays in the room, listening to the young-looking woman. "Portable for the three of us." The woman comments to Air, and then inquires, "Would it be possible for those two strapping men to assist us in moving the package?"

The girl sighs and motions for the men to put the present down, which they do with a faint 'clunk'. She starts to answer when Gabriel tears through the room, the door closing behind him and heads across the room to go out through another curtain marked door, his words following him, "GottaGetTheMedKit!!!"

She blinks and then answers Air, "Gabriel is a rather nice fellow, all things considered, and a friend of those in High Places, which allows him a certain level of eccentricity. They don't let him attend board meetings anymore, poor dear, so he keeps busy the best way he can. They let him have the park, after all."

She glances to Mal and says, "Wellll, I guess so? But they'd want a cut of the profits, probably."

Air hmms and raises a finger, "Final determining factor. Compensation for this switch? Because while I am sure Gabriel is a "nice fellow" nobody works for free." HE gives a tight lipped thin smile at that.

Adam nods with the certain Agent-esque emotionless content that screams (or quietly expresses) 'Show me the money'.

There's a nod to the girl, but Mal waits to ask anything else, letting the nice agent men get their answers first.

The young lady, who seems even younger than you may have previously thought or else has EXCELLENT plastic surgeons, wanders over to pat the present and then lean against it. "Oh, is that the final determining factor? Excellent! Gabriel will be most happy to hear that, we've been trying for some time to get someone to carry this thing to where it needs to go, which is why it is so last minute."

She moves to one of the other girls who produces a card with some information. "It says here that we are authorized to offer 200,000 =Y= in total payment for this adventure." She considers the two large men that carried whatever is in the box in, "And they get a cut of that, of course."

Air raises his hand to scratch his nose again, "Approximately fifty thousand each, to move that unwieldy item into a place which is likely unkind to people such as us doing that. While filming it and not causing much in the way of collateral damage. And it must be done right now." He shakes his head, "No I'm sorry, the risks far outweigh the rewards from where I am standing. Very sorry to waste your time."

Mal grunts a bit and looks to the agents, then the young woman. "This doesn't seem possible with just one participant, so I guess I'm going to have to decline also." She assumed that the man's companion would also refuse the job.

The girl sighs, dropping her head dramatically, "And so it begins again." She lets out another long suffering sigh and then smiles to the trio, as if understanding, "Alright. Well. Thank you ever so much for your time and listening, and perhaps we'll have other business for you in the future that won't be so .. hectic."

She listens for a moment and then says, "If I were you, I'd go ahead and pop off now. I'll explain to Gabriel after you are gone. He's a little distracted with the tiger, so we have a little."

Air nods politely, "Have a pleasant evening." And with that he turns around and heads out of the room at an even pace.

Commlink-Lucky> Air says, "Waterboy, is it jus me or is that a mentally deranged pimp with a tiger?"

Likewise, Adam nods his head as well, following Air out.

Commlink-Aquis> Adam says, "To be honest, I just don't know, but your observation doesnt appear to be too far off."

Malamute bows her head to the woman. "See ya 'round. I wouldn't mind doing some other job for ya, another time." She turns, but then seems to rethink it, turning around again. "There was a man in the corner with a camera. Will our existence be removed from that film, since we said no?"

The young lady considers that, then looks back to where the camera man had gone off to. She tilts her head, considering the growls and dwindling screams. "I do not think the footage will survive." She sighs again.

Air calmly walks out and drives Adam home, not too concerned about the early footage, yay physical mask.

---—> Message #21 on Board Media and Rumors <---—
Posted By: Kassandra (#9777)
Date/Time: Sat Mar 6 23:03:01 2010
Subject: Gun Battle at Elitch Gardens

FRFZ, Denver —

A firefight broke out this evening at Elitch Gardens, closed until May 1st. Details are sketchy at this point, but armed and armoured men got into a fight with a number of what Knight Errant is calling 'the very dregs of the Shadowrunner world'.

Six of these so-called runners were found dead at the Gardens, shot by high tech military grade weapons. Also on the site was a gaily wrapped package, inside of which was a box with UCAS military markings, inside of which was what Knight Errant identified as the components to a launch system that may go to some sort of missile or rocket system.

Most bizarre, the device was wrapped robes that have been tentatively identified as being from Rome.

We will have more on this case as it develops!
char:air
page revision: 4, last edited: 13 Jan 2014 04:45
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