Slippery Devils

GM: Pith
Players: Renegade.
Synopsis: Renegade attempts to collect on paydata leading to an Ares Laser III but the target evades her. (Log still in process)
Date: October 2nd, 2070


The Lower Downtown area is a melting pot of two countries, blending like oil and vinegar. They go well together, but they do not mix. The building architecture practically draws a line of contrast through the district. The UCAS style has a 'corporate' style of uniformity to it. This is not to say that the buildings look drab and boring, quite the contrary as a good deal of effort went into making this a shining example of life in the UCAS.

In juxtaposition is the Sioux controlled area of the Lower Downtown, where the buildings have a more organic feel to them, a greater attention to individualism and detail. While the UCAS strives to set an example of their ideas, the Sioux allow their ideals to make themselves apparent in their application. Carefully manicured greenery grows around many of the buildings giving this part of the district a more comforting, softer edge.

A center of entertainment and culture, many venues such as night clubs, theaters and music halls dot the area. The Arts are well represented here, with many galleries catering to the wide range of tastes and styles. Next to a Haute-Couture retro styled screening room, a modern cineplex displays bright holographic images shows trailers for the next blockbuster Trid.

Security: KE/Eagle Security (Gov)
Sec Rating: AA

McAffrey Towers, two gleaming towers rise up out of the urban landscape, pillars of shining steel and mirrored transpex. In between the two towers, a glassed-in lobby acts as an entrance for both towers. Just another couple of skyrakers competing with the Ares Macrotechnology building for prominence in this area. At the top of tower B in Stage Perilous an exchange will take place, an Laser III is scheduled to change hands between a smuggling team, and a guard member of Wolfware. Renegade has data on the subdermal display the Wolfware guard will be wearing and the symbols that will signifiy him as the recipient, as well as the code phrases the smuggling team will be using.


Renegade arrives at the tower at an earlier-than-usual five PM on Thursday evening. By this time, the lobby to the club is usually absolutely desolate. Some people might even say there's no point coming to a club this early, but others will say early is the new fashionably late. Rene comes veritably unarmed, wearing only her ruthenium FFBA, a skirt, and some boots. The clothes are nova hot. Using her ruthenium, she's able to synthesize an image of her outfit with flashing and pulsing colors.

A fishnet over-shirt pulsates in smooth transitions in random colors to the reverberations of sound over a neon green bikini top. The fishnet shirt itself having long sleeves but ending at the bottom of her rib cage, leaving belly exposed. The tribal tattoos on her body are incredibly visible with this outfit. Adorning her lower body is a red-plaid miniskirt along with thigh-high boots fitted with an assortment of belts and D-rings.

«Auto-Judge[]» Pith (#2175) rolls 4 vs TN 20 for "Troll Guards detecting Renegade's FFBA, Shock Hand, or cyberarm.":
1 3 5 8 = 0 Successes

The security downstairs glances over at Renegade as she enters with the professional disinterest of men that have been trained to look at what the lady is carrying, not the lady. The trolls upstairs are more thorough in their appraisal but that's what they're paid to do. The club itself is already starting to fill up with folks that arrive early so they can get in…the later it gets, the more exclusive it gets.

Stage Perilous - Bar

The interior of the dance club is darkened, but spotlights and track lighting illuminate parts of the club well enough that the darkness doesn't seem to be much of a problem. The strobe lighting going off also helps illuminate in its disorienting flashes in time to the music.

Here, the bar dominates the area, a long U-shape done up in blue glowlight and pink neon which makes the bar plainly visible to those out on the dance floor, but doesn't make it obtrusive. Behind the bar, two metahuman bartenders pour drinks and do tricks with two drone autotenders in a strange mixture of mixology, dance and stage magic. The bar is always packed - this show's almost as good as what's on the floor.

Some tables with chairs sit in the bar area, each glowing faintly blue with a faint neon pink tracery up the main post of the table, offering respite for the exhausted dancers who've come from the floor. The dancers sit out a song of two, then head back out onto the floor, because that's what they've come here for. The air is filled with the beat of the music, the synthesizer hum and the melodic tunes of whatever DJ or band is playing the Stage this night.

Once in, Rena moves over to the u-bar after pretending to look interested at the dance floor. Being that the club isn't too full, she does what any sensible partying woman would do. She moves towards the bar and orders a beer. While sipping at her drink, she watches the show with the bartenders while carefully watching the entrance to the club for any of the participants that match her description. She also carefully times her drinks for one every thirty minutes.

As the hours pass by the club starts to come up to speed, the 'in' crowd begins arriving and the bar real estate value skyrockets. Boys with shades that cost more than most families make in a year perched on noses that cost more than than the families would make in a decade try to get their hands on breasts that cost more than it's really polite to think about. The dance floor goes from a happening place to a happening and trid feeds pick up the young movers and shakers of Denver moving it and shaking it. When eight approaches Renegade notices her mark, a professional looking troll that moves through the crowd with a grace that belies his size. He's not particularly good looking, a bit militaristic, but he seems comfortable enough in the crowd. His suit however must have cost a mint, done in fringe style with each hanging line done in ruthenium the suit looks like the wearer is a walking rainstorm. The fringe style providing a depth and presence that the ruth alone could not and adding that 'designer flair'.

Across the back of the troll's neck several symbols and messages run on a subdermal display. Closer to his ear partially sheilded by the curl of his horns are a datajack and chipjack, but these would be hidden from a more casual inspection.

Renegade pays up the last bits of her bar tab as she inconspicuously moves to get within 4-6 meter range of the target troll. Occasionally she stops to look at something interesting, complement someone on their outfit, or sleaze by the crowds. Her moment of triumph will come when the troll actually says something so that she can prepare her sound filter.

The troll approaches the bar, calling greetings down the line as a spot gets abandoned and asking someone to get him a beer, he doesn't use any names or seem to know who he's talking to other than the good natured comraderie of people at the bar helping eachother get lit.

Renegade takes back her seat at the bar and orders another beer. From her periphery she watches for the troll to talk to various people, deactivating her sound filter only to add the voices of those he's talking with to the list. She's almost 'voice surfing' to get a tip.

The conversations are nothing more than bar talk for the first few minutes then a snippet catches your heightened ear. "Hoi, told you he'd be over here! Leave it to this bumbling blockhead to come in on his birthday and make straight for the bar rather than finding his mates." The troll's look of surprise appears genuine when he is accosted in this manner by a smallish human woman. Who steps up and hugs him, then takes a step back closer to the sharply dressed ork who bellowed, "Come along dear, we're holding a table with your presents." The woman says holding out her hand towards the troll. The ork's outfit is 'passable' for the club but the woman's is stellar. The woman herself is fairly plain but the dress makes up for a lot.

Renegade freezes up in a not so not-inconspicuous way for the briefest of moments. She doesn't actually make to follow them, instead continuing to drink her beer trying to get a good feel for where they're headed.

The table isn't far away, a few small clear plastic boxes already sit on the tabletop. Made to fit the decor the boxes glow from within and appear transparent and empty until the troll pushes down on the bow of one of the boxes under the tutelage of the human woman, at which point the glow changes and the contents of the box are revealed showing a small but expensive looking poc-sec. "Aren't they just the most?" The woman exclaims, "We had them made just for tonight, we've got cake too but it wouldn't fit through the club doors so we've got that waiting in your room for you…don't keep your cake waiting too long though, or she might get impatient." The wicked grin on the girl's hints at good natured trouble. "Cheers, Duck!" She exclaims holding up her glass toasting with her friend's apparent pet name.

Pleasantries are exchanged and the Troll makes a big deal of looking through each present, eventually with some good natured ribbing the human woman and orkish man push the Troll off to go 'meet his cake' first loading his arms with the presents and insisting that when he was 'done with his cake' he absolutely must come back and dance…if he can still walk. There's a lot of sniggering on the girl's part and the ork seems to be enjoying it but has the expression that reads, 'Yes, it was clever the first time, it's still fun but get over yourself.' It might not actually be that clear from his expression, but he's actually said it twice now.

Rena pays for her drink once again and begins moving for the point between the Green Door and the troll. Along the way she gets mixed up in a crowd and loses her skirt. To that note, her 'clothing' changes to a leather tank top with mini-shorts which complement her 'fishnets' and thigh-high boots. The back of her top begins streaming letters from some amusing trideo.

The troll, with some actual blushing, starts to make his way towards the door after putting the boxes and presents into a large bag. He'll pass within a meter of Rena but doesn't appear to have noticed her at all.

«OOC» Pith says, "Give me a stealth roll."
«Auto-Judge[]» Renegade (#5854) rolls Stealth for "Stealth roll":
1 1 2 4
«Auto-Judge[]» Renegade (#5854) rolls Stealth for "Stealth roll KP 1":
2 4 5 5
«Auto-Judge[]» Pith (#2175) rolls 3 for "Roll of mystery and suspense (low is good for the player)":
3 3 11

The troll continues towards the exit. His bag of presents in one hand, his other reaches up to smooth back his hair.

Rena begins to follow the troll at a distance of 11 meters. She doesn't stay directly behind him and instead chooses to stay almost at 8 o'clock. She almost tailgates another person out of the exit on purpose. "I have to use the bathroom, get out of the way." She says hurriedly.

Tower A - Stage Perilous - Lobby

The elevator lobby on this level serves as the lobby for Stage Perilous, a dance club which takes up all of this level. The room you're in is fairly large, roomy enough for a good crowd of people, most of whom would be waiting to get in. The walls are paneled in gilt wooden panels and art is hung on them, between decorative red pillars along the walls. The floor is shiny brown linoleum tile, and the ceiling is accoustic tile about 3 and a half meters up.

During the evening, two large troll bouncers stand outside a pair of double doors at the other end of the lobby, making sure only the right people get into Stage Perilous. There's usually a fairly large crowd of clubgoers outside, hoping to get in; every now and then, one gets let in.

The troll with his bag of goodies makes his way towards the elevator his hand shakes slightly as he reaches out to push the down button…nervous perhaps…he switches hands holding the bag as he waits for the elevator to arrive.

"Hey!" Rena says as she finally gets by the entrance crowd. She waves her hand at the troll, "Hold the elevator, please!" Her uniform changed again at some point, now to another tres' chic style uniform, sans boots. The crowd is getting a lot of free, expensive, clothing today. The colors in her clothing are again nova hot, fish nets everywhere under slipper-like blue shoes and a modest top with glowing circuitry that pulses with Rena's heart. Right now it's pulsing pretty quickly as she jogs at an inside speed towards the door.

The troll pauses as he's walking into the elevator, then puts his hand out making sure the elevator door doesn't close until the young woman catches up. He then takes a step back to give her room. At this time of the evening very few people are trying to get /out/ of the club so while the Troll had to wait a moment for the elevator to clear, as the doors close to take them down, the only two inside are Renegade and the trollish rainy day.

The troll reaches out and taps the button for the lobby before looking over at Renegade with an open if not necesarrily attractive smile, "What floor?" He asks.

Rena gets in just in the nick of time and proceeds to take a corner, not at first looking at the troll. No thank you or anything. When queried she responds, "Whatever floor you're heading to.." She has a half smile when she looks up at the troll but it fades quickly. She almost looks surprised by her own reply and her heartbeat quickly begins to accelerate again, as visible on her shirt. "I'm.. really sorry. That was too straight forward." She looks down again, folding her arms behind her back. "Just the lobby.."

The troll just shrugs as the elevator begins to descend towards the lobby. The trip is short only a few seconds since most of the business offices have already closed for the evening.

"I saw you a couple times in the club." Rena says, still looking at the ground. "I really wanted to say you have a nice outfit, I like how you make yourself a walking storm." She still doesn't look up, except to glance at the the floor indicator.

The troll nods, "Thanks." He glances over at her, "You look, very on the edge." The phrase sounds a little leaden coming from his lips, like he knows the lingo but doesn't use it often.

"I don't really flirt that much.." Rena pauses, "It's hard for me to really find someone I like. It's kind of why I go to clubs." She says so a bit awkwardly, almost as if she's having trouble producing the coherent thoughts. She leaves it to the troll to connect the dots why she probably left the club so quickly to catch up with him.

The troll gives the elven woman a quick curious look then nods, "Yeah, well…good luck with it, I'm sure you'll find somebody." The platatudes sound uninspired at best, "If you can excuse me though, I've got someone waiting for me with cake." He offers a half apologetic smile but it barely covers his disinterested look as the door dings open and he makes ready to walk out into the lobby.

Suddenly Rena looks heart broken. She sort of slumps against the wall of the elevator as the troll meanders out of it. She waits until the doors are about to close before pressing the button to reopen them and she sort of sulks out of the elevator. Meanwhile, however, her thermals flare back up so she can glance over at the troll occasionally and head for another exit while still tracking his position.

The troll makes his way across the lobby to the bank of elevators for the residential side of the tower.

Rena continues to sulk towards the exit, waiting for the door to close on the troll's elevator before twisting to move briskly towards another residential elevator adjacent to the one the troll went into.

The trolls elevator readout dings up four floors before stopping.

Rena watches the numbers tick by on the elevator counter, watching to see if it goes any higher than four or if it comes back down.

It pauses at four for a few seconds, then continues upward.

Rena takes note of all the numbers until it starts back down.

The elevator stops at four, eight, ten and then comes back down.

Rena waits for the elevator to come back down before grabbing a random person with a, "Hey, excuse me."

A yong man smiles at Rena, "Yes miss?"

"Did you see a storming troll on that elevator?" Rena smiles.

The young man shakes his head, "No miss."

Rena frowns, "Which floor did you come from? I think he told me the floor number but I can't remember it… Maybe if I narrow it down.."

The young man replies, "I got in on ten…I think we all did."

Renegade nods towards the young man, "I'm sorry for bothering you. Have a nice night." She begins walking towards the elevator but slips away a "Thank you!" Once inside the elevator she presses 8.

A few seconds later, the elevator opens onto floor 8 of McAferty Towers.

Residence Level J is one of the many levels of Tower B where people live. The basic layout is simple: a circular hallway circumnavigates the tower, providing access to many apartments on either side of the hallway. The hallway itself is painted a light blue, and has video monitors set at a pleasant height for viewing for most metahumans, displaying various prints of artwork. (The art changes every now and then.) The carpeting on the floor is a much darker blue, and lighting is indirect from wall sconces that double as security monitors for building security.

Rena slips out of the elevator immediately and flickers back to thermal in hoping after being in the club, the troll will have left some sort of heat signature. She even glances at door knobs while looking 'lost'.

There's no clear sign of use on any of the doorknobs that you're able to make out.

«OOC» Pith says, "Give me a perception roll please."
«OOC» Pith says, "Visual."
«Auto-Judge[]» Renegade (#5854) rolls Intelligence for "Visual with Thermal and without thermal. Microscopic vision too, not that it may or may not be useful.":
2 2 4 4 9
«Auto-Judge[]» Pith (#2175) rolls 4 vs TN 5 for "Roll of mystery and suspense part 2.":
1 1 1 5 = 1 Success

Rena turns around as if she were just lost and gets back on the elevator for the Lobby floor.

Lobby at McAfferty looks about the same as it did several minutes ago.

Rena heads out of the door towards her bike, opening up the storage compartment to move her deck. Most of the hacker-house vinyls have been removed making it look like a custom-case deck which may or may not be illegal, not that it matters. Casually she begins walking towards the alleyway behind the building after re-locking her bike. Once at the back of the building she checks to make sure that no one is there.

Rena switches from her normal outfit to ruthenium stealth. With the best of her ability she attempts to modify the stealth display to not include the deck. With that she begins to ascend the building.

«OOC» Renegade says, "Gecko tape gloves. Rating 12 Ruthenium with thermal dampening."
«Auto-Judge[]» Renegade (#5854) rolls Stealth for "Stealthiness":
1 1 2 4
«OOC» Renegade says, "All my rolls suck. Don't care."
«Auto-Judge[]» Pith (#2175) rolls 6 vs TN 16 for "Noticing?":
1 3 4 5 10 14 = 0 Successes
«OOC» Pith says, "Up you go."
«OOC» Renegade says, "I'm going to slip in, tap an empty room, hack it from that room."

Mcafferty towers is a secure building, as such it does not feature windows or open air patios. Instead relying on trid displays mounted on the walls. You find the 'glass' of the building is an optical illusion used to hold solar cells to help power the massive building.

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