Philosophy and Business

GM: Nightshade
Players: Nightshade, Mora, Mr.Terrific
Synopsis: Nightshade introduces Geoffrey into the Denver Scene, planting another SIN mule for herself.
Date: November 2070


Melodrama - Main Room

Relaxation seems to be the key theme in this performance house. Entering from the street, the first view that catches the eye is that of the large stage at the back of the open building. Equipped with the latest in sound and lighting equipment, the stage gleams and beckons those with artistic dreams to mount its stairs. It is raised up so that it can be viewed clearly no matter where you may choose to sit.

There is no dominant color in this hotspot. In fact, the place is a general cacaphony of color. No two furniture pieces match. Even the servers who bustle around taking orders don't wear the same outfit. The only thing that sets them apart from the customers, is the fact that they wear aprons for convenience. The aprons are monogramed with a purple letter M.

And what is on the menu? Coffees, desserts and liquers. Sorry folks, no beer or hard liqour.


A troll gentlemen and holds the door for Nightshade who then enters, pats him fondly on the cheek, and takes the arm he offers. They walk over to one of the larger sofas and sit, the gentleman ordering drinks for them both. He's wearing a rather sharp suit if it does look to be second hand and refitted for him.

Mora is sitting at the pillow area watching some one play a elertic guitar while singing. She seems to be taking notes on a old style pad.

Nightshade chats quietly with the troll who checks his timepiece from time to time, "I'll be going on in a few minutes." He says to her. Nightshade smiles and shoos him away, "Well go-on then, go get yourself ready." The troll fella gets up and moves off to prepare. While Nightshade settles back to appreciate the artist currently on. She glances over at Mora taking notes, squints a bit at her, then nods but doesn't interrupt whatever note taking she's doing.

Mora does hear the troll say she is going on stage "excue me mis, what type of preformance are you going to do?" asked in a soft Irish accent, with a soft gentle smile that would get most attion.

Nightshade laughs lightly, "Oh no dear, not me, far too much attention for me to ever be comfortable with up there, it's my boy Geoffry there, fancies himself a poet of the modern word. It's sort of a fusion of spoken word, rap and storytelling."

Mora nods "well my label usuly looks for talent of all sort, so I will take notes on him." she looks to the guy "I hope you dont mind?" asked so in hope not to be rude.

Nightshade shakes her head, "Oh no, I'm sure he'd be delighted." She reached down her fingers clinking against the metal pull of her zippers as she opens a pocket, from inside she pulls out a small silver embossed card. "Here, this is his card. He does events, you know like weddings and things. Master of ceremonies and that sort along with his own performances."

Mora moves over and takes the card and gives one of hers "now note I am not head of company, I am just a singer that likes to work in back ground helping them out." the card says Mora O'leary/

Nightshade nods, "Oh, I don't think he'll much care where the help comes from, any help is welcome in the music industry from what I understand." She then smiles, "Oh, and I think we've met, at another bar that had a bit less polish on the wood. Geoffry there calls me Bell, after the mouthful my mother named me."

Mora nods "sory I go place to place and try to meet every one I can. So I do tend who I met from time to time."

Nightshade waves it off, "That's alright dear, I don't have quite the memorable figure you do." She says with a laugh, "I'm only a few pounds shy of being considered a piece of scenery."

Mora shakes her head "you are beautiful and you do flaunt it well." said with a wink as she joins the couch. "And I say that with all honesty."

Nightshade smiles at the compliment, "Oh, I get by, but there better not be any flaunting going on." She glances down at herself, "If that boy managed to get one of my zippers down without my catching it I'll have to hurt him something fierce once he gets off stage."

Mora shakes her head "no sexy free show for me sadly." said with a wink. she then stops and adds "Sory if I am flirting to much I will stop."

Nightshade laughs, "Dear, I run with boys that start growing chest hair when they're ten. You haven't tried to crush anything against one of your bodyparts to impress me, so you're barely making small talk let alone flirting."

Mora chuckles "my wife told me I tend to be blunt in areas like that time to time."

Nightshade laughs, "If you club me over the head with something, you've brought too much blunt to the table, anything short of that you're welcome to do if it amuses you. You're all kinds of not my type but that doesn't stop me from enjoying hearing nice things about myself."

Mora chuckles and says "I sing I dont hit things. and if I beat you up then you must of been sick after some other guys worked you over."

Nightshade looks over at the stage as the previous performer steps off and Geoffrey takes the stage. She glances back over at Mora, "I think you'll enjoy this, Geoffrey's…sort of an innocent, he was raised outside the city so he's got like…depth to his performance, he can speak about loss without anger, you know? You just don't get that out of the boys from the sprawl, they can't seperate what's been done to them and see what's been done to everyone."

Mora nods "I dont sing of things like that since I grew up in a rich noble family in a country that suports the elven needs first."

Mora she now watches the stage for the preformance

Nightshade glances over at Mora, scowling for a moment before pulling it off her face, "Sorry dear, can't blame you for being born to priveledge, just…well you're damn near a poster child for 'the enemy'."

Mora shakes her head "no I help real talent make it, I use all my knowledge so people like him can make it big. And I dont get anything but the hope for some good karma."

Nightshade laughs, "Oh, sweetie…that's just it. Geoffrey there loves to perform, but if he didn't make money at it he'd be out on his rump inside a month and living in a cardboard box within two…and they don't make refrigerators much bigger than us, dear. If you can do things, 'just for kicks and karma' well you're definitely not one of us…and if you believe the propoganda, there's only us and them."

Mora shakes her head as she is taking notes in short hand "never for kicks, and I dont do this for the money. Most that do this is for the fame and fortune, and eather doesnt mater to me. When I get on stage I do this for the true love of the music."

Nightshade is sitting on the long couch, another troll is performing a fusion of spoken word, rap and storytelling on stage. The performer is quite talented, though the story is a little niave. It's missing the polished edge of a seasoned performer.

Mr.Terrific clomps along in for to engage with the help to see if they have the ethiopean jurgacheffe that he asked about the last time he was in here. Amazingly enough, they do, and he rewards them with legal tender and a fine tip while remaining nicely quiet. It's not wise to interrupt the troll.
Mr.Terrific is tempted to snap his applause hen thwe troll finishes, but since that custom is from the 1950's, he might get shot if he did that.
Mr.Terrific follows the applause-methods of others.

Nightshade claps her hands together lightly, her gloves muffling the click of her fingers. The troll on stage smiles at her then steps offstage to speak to an elven woman of stunning beauty. Nightshade smiles at the pair then glances around the room spotting Mr.T she lets out a little laugh. "T." she calls, "I never thought you the bohemian type, what are you doing here?"

Mr.Terrific says "I'm a jewish cowboy wizard, how bohemian is that? And any way, this is one of the rare places that sells real coffee around here, not re-engineered soy stuff made with recombinants. I swear I can taste them."

Mr.Terrific says "And there's nothing wrong with the performances either."

Nightshade laughs, "If you're thinking this stuff is 'real' coffee I've got this great bridge for sale."

Mr.Terrific hms. "I could have sworn. Is it Seattle that's got the real coffee?"

Nightshade shakes her head, "Oh I'm sure there's a few grains per gallon of 'real' coffee in there somewhere, but I wouldn't suggest paying premium price unless you see the plant it came from…cause I'm telling you most of the plants that coffee comes from round here, are the industrial chemical type."

Mr.Terrific erghs. "Well, it tastes better at least. It's supposed to be smuggled from Ethiopia with the usual weapons made by the slave labor there."

Nightshade nods, "Yeah…now about this bridge."

Mr.Terrific says "All right, all right, I admit defeat. Clearly I need better contacts."

Nightshade laughs, "Ahhh, just enjoy your coffee and stop worrying what's in it."

Mr.Terrific does exatly this thing. "Do you perform here?" he asks.

Nightshade shakes her head, "Oh heavens no, I'm not the spotlight type at all." She gestures towards the troll speaking with the elven woman, "But performers cast long and profitable shadows when standing in the spotlight."

Mr.Terrific ah ha has. "I begin to understand."

Mr.Terrific says "Again, I need better ontacts."

Nightshade smiles, "I'm really a very simple girl, T. If you assume that I'm always doing something to my own advantage and lying to at least three people in the room, you know the truth of it."

Mr.Terrific says "Oh, but I prefer to see you as kind, gentle, and innocent of all but a certain necessary self-defense. That way I don't have to continually remind myself that I'm likely one of the three people in the room you're lying to."

Nightshade smiles at Mr.T, "Oh dear, I'd never lie to you…why there's only three people in this room right now that I'd even feel comfortable talking to and you're one of them."

Mr.Terrific grins. "Now I'm starting to think that I count for two of the people in the room that you're lying to. But I jest. I will totter along safe and secure in the feeling that I'm so low to the ground that I'm not worth lying to."

Nightshade grins wickedly, "Oh, no…Geoffry and Mora count as one each." She says gesturing to the troll and elf speaking closer to the stage.

Mr.Terrific wipes his brow. "Oh, excellent. Now the count is easy to understand. No longer a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Nightshade looks affronted, "I assure you sir my webs are in quite good order, organized and easily navigable so long as you're aware which lines are sticky and which are safe to climb upon."

Mr.Terrific says "Being but a mouse, or a fly, or some such; I will have to keep well clear. Although, actually my totemic animal is rather different from all of that insofar as i have a totemic animal - mostly for the purposes of Matrix surveys about 'what spirit animal are you!'"

Nightshade laughs, "Really now?" She looks over Mr.Terrific carefully. "Let's see…you've got a lot of snakeskin on, but I'm not sure you're the type to wear your patron…perhaps a bird then of some sort…was it an eagle that was holding the snake in Mexican lore, or a hawk of some sort?"

Mr.Terrific says "First guess is right - rattlesnake."

Mr.Terrific tings the bolo tie, "This is pewter with a wash of silver and turquoise chips, and the boots are just a painted pattern, not real snake, or even fake snake - both of them are horrible horrible horrible in wet weather and are pretty much destroyed on contact with water.

Mr.Terrific says "No matter how much of an annoyance they cn be, i wouldn't wear real rattlesnake."

Nightshade laughs, "You've got more love for your patron than I do then, if it had a form that could be skinned I'd make a pair of boots from it's visage just so I could step on it's face with every stride."

Mr.Terrific chuckles. "You seem to have one of those semi-adversarial shamanisti relationships that you read about in the funny papers. Name of?"
Mr.Terrific asides, "Based on that I should guess coyote."

Nightshade chuckles, "If the bastard has a name he doesn't give it, and those he gives mislead. Coyote is one of his faces but it's a recent one and only covers a small facet of his personality." She gestures towards the couch, "Sit, this one takes some time how much depends considerably on what you believe the truth to be. So let me start by asking if you know why we exist."

Mr.Terrific says "You're talking religion, and so I'd answer you bibilically."
Mr.Terrific says "In the beginning was the word, and the word was God."
Mr.Terrific says "Logos."

Nightshade chuckles, "Alright, let's go with that. My patron, is God's self-doubt. It's the insecurity that keeps God going back to the same well, unwilling to move on. But at the same time forcing God to constantly evolve its creation thinking that there must be a 'better way'."

Mr.Terrific is about to say something, but then cuts himself off because he is being explained to. He empties his mind so it can be filled. "Okay. If God is jewish he's got a lot of that. But more seriously, what allows you to claim that God is unable to move on and has to go back to the same well?"

Nightshade smiles, "We're still here."

Mr.Terrific says "You seem to think that God has a goal. If so, what is it? How do you know we aren't reaching it?"
Mr.Terrific says "By the way, the ancient greeks called part of this the Titanomachia."

Nightshade laughs, "That an all powerful all knowing being has a goal is the proof of it's own self-doubt. If you can do /everything/ the only thing keeping you from making things perfect is your own doubt. In the end, God's only flaw, is that he has no-one to reassure him that what he has done is correct, no-one can ever tell God, 'Good Job, you got it right' so God just keeps trying over and over again, one perfectly imperfect creation after another cycling endlessly."
Nightshade adds, "And god only has one well to go to, himself."

Mr.Terrific hms. "Do you think his creation is making progress of a sort?"

Mr.Terrific says "Do you believe in free will? Or are we just robots programmed by god with just an illusion of autonomy?"

Nightshade holds up her hand, "Slow down dear, I'm working within your framework at the moment. My view of things is a bit different, I don't tend to express things as 'the word and god' I feel more that there is a unversal consciousness an awareness shared by all creation, and that for nearly an eternity all was pure energy. Then a mistake was made, and the tiniest piece of energy moved the slightest bit off the straight line. That mistake spawned my patron, and that energy, seeking to understand itself curled in on itself, chasing it's own tail, till it was no longer a line of energy, but a circling bit of matter, disturbing those around it causing a reaction that created all this.

Nightshade smiles, "And when it comes to it again, and all that remains is the last bit of matter, just before it uncurls and reality is undone for eternity it will be my master's last act to start it all again by planting the seed of doubt that will lead the next piece of energy countless years from now to chasing it's own tail and restarting the cycle.

The troll gentlemen concludes his conversation with the elven woman then moves back up to the stage, replacing a guitarist as she finishes her set. He begins another performance, this one longer than the first, a recitation akin to that of the epic poems of the bards of old. A steady flow of words telling the story, the building flow and cadence lending to the impact of the words, a rap like segment of words fired back and forth the trolls voice changing pitch abruptly, then falling back to the spoken word cadence of storytelling.

Mr.Terrific saith, "It is a fine belief. But I must admit that it makes it feel kind of like we are wasting our time here. In the Bible, for example, the God there is pretty clearly, in the Old Testament, not all-knowing. He can be outwitted and back-talked to by humans, and he is known to give in when he is shown to be in the wrong."

Nightshade nods, "I've always thought that to be a facet of the all-knowing, much like Coyote is a facet of my master. A limited version made so that we might know it more easily."

Mr.Terrific says "I would agree with that limited part. In my conception, which I will admit has just been extended by your challenge, in the beginning the word, the logos, the symbol, is god. This symbol has to be all-encompassing. It has to enclose every possible concept that will ever be and more because it is outside of time as we know it. But then, I ask you, what does a word 'know?" Based on that, that part of god that is all encompassing does not necessarily think, or process, or compute, not in any way we understand. it just is."

Nightshade nods, "And my patron, my piece of that word. Is the portion of that all encompassing knowledge that said to the rest. Are you sure that we really are everything and know everything? Shouldn't we double check, shouldn't we test, shouldn't we change?"
Nightshade smile, "My patron is the part that, by definition, lied to the rest."

Mr.Terrific says "I have to agree. For example, a lot of people live in shitholes now, and I think that should change.""

Nightshade laughs, "On a microcosmic scale, I guess that's true…"

Mr.Terrific adds, "And the bible is pretty clear that God can e lied to and can lie to himself. To say nothing of the Qur'an."

Nightshade smiles, "Oh, I don't think there's anything that exists that's incapable of lying or being lied to. By my belief, doubt and deception are the basis of our existence."

Mr.Terrific says "In any case, the thing about all this macrocosmic stuff is that most of the time we are living in the microcosmic world. Too much macrocosmic thinking is a trap in and of itself to keep you away from the real world in which one lives."
Mr.Terrific says "Quantum theoretiians agree with you about doubt and deception."
Mr.Terrific says "Fundamental building blocks of matter itself maintain rigidly defined fundamental doubt about their statistics."
Mr.Terrific did just say that Coyote is in every electron. "But it still doesn't stop you from skinning some coyotes to wear."

Nightshade laughs and their discussion continues through the set till the troll is done his performance and he leads Nightshade back out into the city. A few more visits to a few more clubs over the next few days and Geoffrey is accepted into the scene. He and his daughter, another pair of SIN Mules for Nightshade's collection of aliases and a pair of contacts to work with her in the shadows.

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