GM: Adam
Players: Smoke, Anjali
Synopsis: Smoke and Anjali search around about the Fortunates only to find that the need to seek out a 'Herald' to get entrance to a lucrative game.
Date: 03/31/2070
Smoke checks his pocsec and after talking to Anjali about the fifty-thousand nuyen credstick, looks at her and asks, "So you want to go help me figure out this puzzle? I want to ask a few people some questions. And you know how I am with my contacts since that other thing so I'd like it if you came along." He looks geared up and ready to go.
As Smoke researches The Fortunates through Talismonger and through Fixer— the Talismonger doesn't have much to say on it or does not get back to him in good time. The Fixer, Lady White, however, texts him back after a couple hours. She says she may have something that will be of use and asks that they meet for a drink in the Cybered Arms where she can say more.
Anjali had been sitting on the couch of the apartment that she shares with Smoke as she rather blankly stares at him during the conversation. She shrugs her shoulders as she rather slowly slides her hands down onto the edge of the couch as she rather slowly pushes herself to stand up, letting out a rather small, "Yeah, sure." toward the man as she immediately begins to head toward the tiny apartment's bedroom, possibly to 'gear' herself up as she lets out a rather plain, "Only take me a moment, yeah. Jus' gotta get some stuff first." as if she were going to actually go with the man.
Smoke checks his pocsec and texts back to Lady White that he will be meeting her shortly. He also texts that he is bringing a close friend. Smoke waits for Anjali to get ready and grabs the keys to her car off the hook. "You're driving."
The fixer, Lady White, texts back a simple « Ok. I'll be waiting. »
Immediately as she enters the bedroom, Anjali turns and heads for the closet as she rather quickly opens it up and reaches inside, pulling out one of the hoodies that she is rather often seen wearing whenever she is 'working' before she turns herself around and begins to approach the bed. She holds her hoodie up as she begins to put it on rather quickly as if she were in a rush as she slides her arms into the sleeves of it, one at a time, finishing with it before she kneels down onto one of her knees beside the bed and bends forward as she reaches underneath it with one of her hands, pulling back a rather small, plain black case of somesort. She opens it up on the floor infront of herself, reaching her hand into it as she pulls back her remake of an H&K USP, a handgun, and a single small magazine for the weapon as she moves her hand behind herself at her waist line to conceal it, as well as the magazine before she simply stands up and moves her foot to the side to kick the box back over underneath the bed before she begins to leave the apartment with the man.
Smoke stays pretty quiet as they head to her car. Slightly nervous since he's never really 'worked' with Anjali before. He tosses her the keys after opening the passender side door and smiles at her. "It'll be cool, this Lady White was the one I helped last fall. She is a spirit, kinda different. She has a rather natural way about her though." He slips into the car and checks his pistol in the holster and the small bandolier of expendable foci.
Anjali had caught the keys of the dark green Honda 3220 as the man had tossed them to her; one of her hands moving down to the handle of the door immediately after as she slides her fingers underneath it and pulls the driver-side door open rather gently, as if she were afraid of damaging her car. She lifts one of her feet up and steps into the vehicle as she lowers herself to sit down and immediately closes the door behind herself as she continuously stares at Smoke with a rather small smile on her face before she shifts her attention forward. She lifts her hand up onto the steeringwheel of the car as she slots her key into the ignition and turns it, starting the motor rather quickly as the stereo of the car activates rather loudly; her hand immediately moving over to the enter console to drastically lower the volume as to have a conversation of somesort with the man, or possibly to properly gather her thoughts as she begins to pull out of the parkinglot of the apartment building. "She's not th'one 'at tried t'straight black ball you, was she?" she asks the man rather plainly as she casually pulls into the street and begins to drive toward the destination; the inside of her car having been cleaned up quite a bit incase of any sort of police interaction.
Smoke shakes his head, "No she's the one I helped defeat the other free spirit that had the slaves. She's cool. Just wanting to be careful." He gets quiet on the way after that, thinking about the pattern of how the announcements were made on the trix. He grins over at Anjali a few times and lights a cigarette when they get close to the Cybered Arms. "There's always some pretty rough bastards in here. You probably have less to worry about than I do. I mean there's probably nothing to worry about but like having you with me makes me confident." When she parks, he gets out of the car locking the door behind him and waiting for her to go with him into the building.
It is the Cybered Arms. It is always busy. There are even a few chummers hanging outside the building smoking something or other as Smoke's ride pulls up.
Just as she brings the car to a stop, Anjali shifts her eyes to look around the building, examining the people outside before she moves her hand over and pulls the keys from the ignition and slides them down into one of the small, outer pockets of her hoodie before she leans herself to the side after Smoke steps out of the car. She moves her hand over to pop open the glove compartment which seems to have been filled by rather random objects like screw drivers, candy bars, and various other things as she reaches inside of it and pulls an opened pack of Noblesse cigarettes from it and closes it again before she straightens herself out. She pops her door open with her other hand and moves her knee to the side, opening the door slightly as she essentially slips out of it and stands up as she opens the pack of cigarettes and reaches inside of it, pulling a single cigarette and a lighter from it before she moves her elbow to close the door behind her as she begins to approach the door of the building; the car doors locking immediately as she steps away from it for some reason or another as she rather slowly slides the pack of cigarettes down into her pocket with her keys as she moves her other hand to place the unlit cigarette between her lips just as she reaches the building's door and moves her free hand outward to push it open and step inside, possibly as if she were eager to step in before him for some reason or another as she shifts her eyes to look around the bar.
Smoke lets Anjali lead the way and enters after her, his vision skipping to the astral for a moment to make out where his contact and others might be. He shifts his gaze back to the norm and watches the room carefully. He tips his shades up onto his forehead remembering the darkness of the bar. "She was sort of oriental looking if I remember right." He says just loud enough for her to hear. He takes a deep breath trying to stay relaxed.
And the Free Spirit fixer is candidly inside the Cybered arms with a frosty brew in her hand. She is half-leaning against the bar counter and talking to someone. The woman is a radiant Japanese female— practically a doll in a dirty place like this. And it gets attention, but she turns people away all the time. Her clothing is unnaturally white in a place that would otherwise soil it within moments and she offers Smoke a wave of her dainty hand when he sees, "Evening, Inquisitor," she says with a smoke over the noise of the cramped dive bar.
"Mmhm." Anjali lets out rather quietly through her nose toward the man as she tilts her head downward slightly and holds both of her hands infront of her mouth as she rather casually lights her cigarette with the disposable lighter. Her eyes shift toward the Free Spirit fixer as she acknowledges Smoke before she lowers one of her hands down to her side as she leaves the other up infront of her mouth to grip the filter of her cigarette very lightly between her index and middle fingers. She shifts her attention toward Smoke as she holds herself still near the entrance of the building, possibly waiting for him to approach the woman before her as she takes a rather long drag of her cigarette with a rather serious, focused expression on her face as she doesn't say a word.
Smoke approaches Lady White after glancing quickly at Anjali for her to come with him. He smiles and gives her a slight incline of his head as a show of respect. "Lady I am pleased that you agreed to meet with me. This is my associate Rielle, she is someone I trust." He smiles back at Anjali, then turns to Lady White again, "You said you might have some information for me?"
"Indeed," says the fair woman and she looks over the associate in question and gives her a small nod. The Lady reaches into her jeans and takes out a small optical data chip. She presents it to Smoke and explains, "Two things, to be precise. This one, I give for free— as it'll show the worth to the second— which will run you one kay."
As Smoke glances to Anjali, she immediately pulls her cigarette from between her lips and blows the smoke from her mouth as she holds both of her hands down by her sides and approaches the woman in a casual manner, immediately moving to stand rather close to the man as she shifts her eyes from side to side as if she were checking for anyone suspicious before her attention locks onto the fair woman as she remains quiet. Her attention rather quickly locks onto the optical data chip as the woman pulls it from her pants as she rather slowly lifts her hands up and moves them over to cross her forearms over her torso as she stares at it for a moment before she looks back at the woman and gives a very slight, barely noticeable nod for some reason or another; one of her eyes twitching very slightly for some reason or another as the woman mentions the cost of the second bit of inforation.
Smoke smiles and reaches into his pocket pulling out a cred chip. "That sounds fair to me." He doesn't even hesitate and hands the chip to her. "What is the second thing?" He stays aware of the room around him, but keeps primarily focused on the spirit woman.
The Free Spirit slash Fixer exchanges the chip for the credstick in a smooth motion. "Its about the Fortunate's Game. It has already started. Only the 'Harrier' and the 'Herald' have been chosen yet— the Players have not. The first Player would be at a severe advantage." He smiles brightly, "Roughly a fifty thousand nuyen advantage, if you've been following the 'lands." She keeps that last part to a whisper as she leans forward.
Anjali turns her head to stare at Smoke for a moment as she remains quiet through the dialogue; a rather small frown forming onto her face as she moves her cigarette hand back up to her mouth as she leaves her other arm across her torso as she places the filter of the lit cigarette back between her lips again as she begins to take a very quick drag of it. She pulls the cigarette from her mouth as she shifts her attention back toward the woman and turns her head a bit to the side as she blows the smoke past her lips before she lowers her hand back down with the other as if she were possibly soaking in as much of the information from the two as possible, as if to get a greater grasp on the entire situation.
Smoke keeps the chip in his palm, tilting his head. "Is this explained on the chip? Or do you have more information about the Herald, Harrier and the Players?" He nods to himself, "I understand about the advantage possibility." His eyes dart to Anjali and then back to Lady White, "I assume the Fortunates are a group?"
"What I have," the Lady says to Smoke, "is on that chip."
The information is a loose collection of threads from other Shadowland nodes. It looks like SeaTac is in here too, from Seattle. It all starts the same way on each Shadowland node.
A group of people, called 'The Fortunates' herald thier coming. Alpha is always first— followed by Pink, Grim, Shady, Digital, Metal, and Spirtual. They bring to the region what it called the 'Shadow Games'— an event that seeks out the best of the best in the region with some heavy rewards, or 'Fortune' to be had by those who come out on top. The whole mechanic is very ironed out— and people only 'play' as defined, registered teams. The kicker is that the teams don't require any solid ID— they only require registration. Then the leader is granted 3 keycodes. It requires any 2 keycodes to accept these weekly 'Game Events' which are equivilent to very high paying Shadowruns.
The benefit to these runs is more than JUST the payout. People have reported to score some otherwise unobtainable thigns through these Games. Deltaware. Artifacts. Prototype Weaponry. Obscene money. And rep— thats what is the longterm benefit. The street cred from these games can make or break a runner's carrer.
No one is truly certain who the 'Fortunates' are, but there are theories. AIs and Dragons— bored and wanting something to do behind the scenes— ex-shadowrunners with great clout or Top Level Executives looking for private contracts. Free Spirits that are Player motivated. No one is truly sure. All they know is that the influence they wield is immense— and fleeting. The last time the Fortunates posted was two years ago, and that was in Seattle.
Anjali's arms rather slowly uncross as the expression on her face softens slightly. Her attention locks back onto Smoke for a moment as she tells the man, "Well, I 'spose we'd better get goin', yeah." in a rather casual manner, "Be best if we got out of 'is crowd an'…" She pauses for a very short moment as a small smile forms onto her face as she shifts her attention toward the woman, "Thanks for th'assistance, yeah." she finally says to her as she tilts her head slightly as if she were quite eager to leave for some reason or another.
Smoke puts the chip into his pocsec and reads it over quickly, he then looks at the spirit. "You said this was free, and the thousand to use it?" He looks at Anjali and shakes his head just slightly, needing more information. "It mentions codes and registration." He whispers that last part.
The Lady nods to Anjali and then looks to Smoke. "The ODC was free. The information on the 'Game' costs you. Seek out the 'Herald'. That person is sort of a 'registrar' for Players. As far as I know— it is already looking for Players." She looks around and says, "And good luck. I'll be rooting for you."
Anjali's smile rather quickly fades from her face as she nods very slightly toward the woman as she tilts her head downward slightly. She moves both of her hands down at her sides as she bends her wrists inward and grips the bottom of her hoodie with her fingertips as she pulls it downward a bit for some reason or another before she quickly releases it and turns her attention back toward Smoke as she shifts her eyes to look him up and down for a moment, essentially examining him before she lets out a very small, "It's all she got, s'let's go, yeah." before turning her attention back toward the woman. "Thank you very much for your support~" she says rather softly to her before she begins to back herself away from her for a moment before turning herself around and begins to head toward the door of the building.
Smoke looks at the pocsec again and nods, musing already about the GPS coordinates. "Okay Lady, I appreciate it, and thank you." He grins at her and blushes a bit, then turns to Anjali, "Okay lets go, you're right." He moves quickly to follow Anjali out the door. "I know I shoulda came the first time, but I was fishing still." He whispers. Then as they reach the door he glances back once and smiles at Lady White.
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