Emergence (Shadowrun)

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby.

The mage responds just via commlink.

[Spirit. Unless you're willing to spend the Nuyen on a fancy binding ritual, I'll only be able to manage one.]

He smiles

[Meh. If it is simple, and we move tomorrow night, I'll have a spirit ready. If it's not, I'll just call another one up nearer the time. Should just need an hour or two to prepare, not days.]

[Technically I could call one just before the mission, but... well, I'm not good with spirits, and it could be taxing. Not so good when you've got to end up slinging spells, or dodging fire. I prefer to be well prepared ]

[Conners]

Luke makes general agreeing-noises to Aki's reply. ["Anything else you guys want to say before we split?"] he asks, getting ready to leave, again. If no one has anything to say, he leaves then (attempting to contact George Charlton at his apartment).

[OverWilliam]

Alviss

Alviss follows the digitally painted line on the ground along the route to the Lucas Street Insane Asylum and pauses once the final destination comes into view. He toggled the Mapsoft's overlay off and examined the 6 building compound for a moment.

Then looking around, he scanned the area for a suitable perch from which to make a nest. Preferably a building a little bit taller than the asylum, and far enough off that he would not be spotted while still being in position to peer down at the compound indefinitely. Also quite high on his list of priorities in a safe location was shade...

[Sicarius]

Ciel

At around 4 AM. Every commlink that attended the Paradise meeting receives an incredibly convoluted, jumbled message that appears to be nothing but a nonsense string of letters and characters from Paradise. Jumbled and garbled, it doesn't even have a virtual avatar of Ciel to deliver the message.

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It is Encrypted. Let me know if someone doesn't have a Decrypt program.

[Conners]

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Decrypt program? No dice.... h**l, Luke might not even know how to use it even if he did have on.

[Moral Wiz]

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Aki doesn't :p

Well, I'm going to head on off. If someone can comm me as soon as we know when the party is, I'll be grateful

With that he heads into the garage, and mounts up Ika. With a light purr, the bike jets of, with it's owner smiling. He wants to take a look at the Asylum in the flesh. Or... something like that

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Going to detour to ride past the asylum slowly, whirlst using astral perception. See if I see anything.

[Suzuro]

Ah'm out, too....someone'll catch me before the get tagetha, Ah'm sure..

The large ork picks himself up, readjusting his belt once again, and slowly walks down the street, not really caring where he was going. away was good enough for him.

When he got to a dark area he pondered back on he got to where he was, all of his life, leafing through it like pages of a forgotten scrapbook, he examined his every option and though what could have been if he'd made different choices.

With this idea his shoulders slumped down, but, he decided if he could do it all over again, he wouldn't change a thing, and begin walking again.


-Suzuro

[Name_Here]

Aki looks out over the Asylum. No signs of spirits or any other kinds of Awakened defenses can be seen from the street. It really is a beautiful campus though.

[Moral Wiz]

Meh. Shame I can't get committed there, I'd like to chill out a bit in this place

With a laugh, Ika revved up into high gear, and Aki headed home.

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(7d6)[31] (I think) Recovery roll

[OverWilliam]

Alviss

Alviss spotted a two-story building across the street across from the compound that looked like it fit his needs, and so he adjusted the strap across his chest and headed toward it.

The corner on the asylum side was half-demolished and littered with debris. It looked like there had been an explosion; heavy scorch marks scarred the walls and the ground, and sloppy police tape faded and shredded by time dangled half-heartedly on jagged support beams and under rubble where the wind couldn't take it away. The building looked as though it had not seen use of any kind since the incident, and an insurance notice on the inside of the cracked glass on the door made Alviss think that whoever had owned the place had been forced to cut their losses and leave the building to rot, not having the money to repair it.

Alviss tried the door first, finding it piled behind with rubble, and so he simply scaled the crude stepladder that piled down from the exposed corner, trying his best to remain undetectable from the asylum. Once he got into the bombed out room he scanned quickly and discovered a perfect spot for his nest, an accidentally shielded spot to the side where the roofing above had fallen down in such a way as to protect to the front, but still allow him to peer out at the target buildings. He worked himself into place and began mating the Vision enhancements that he had installed into his Commlink's goggles with the Sniper rifle's smartgun system and scope. Once he got everything the way he wanted it, he settled into a comfortable position, one that he could remain in for hours if need be, and peered down the scope to see what he could see...

[Name_Here]

I'm ruling that Thermographic vision will allow you to see warm bodies through interior walls but not exterior walls which would be insulated.

As Gres sweeps the buildings with his drones he finds that the main building has very small windows which look like they can't be opened and they have strong looking bars over them, 3 of the buidlings have windows that open to the outside and aren't barred at all and the last 2 buildings have big steel bars in the windows. Beyond that he can see a few people inside the buildings sleeping. He can't find any open doors to insert his drone nor does he feel confident that he could sneak one in as somebody enters the building.

Alviss is there as the place starts up for the day, He sees several people walking around the grounds without escorts but their manner of dress clearly shows they are the patients, Every so often he sees a staff member walk by in their body suits. He doesn't see any security operating during the day.

[estradling]

Warning!!! Contained with in the spoiler is a very long (10 pages word) conversion between two very stubborn people... Both believe they a absolutely right, and neither really wants to listen to the other.

Don't click on the spoiler if that doesn't sound like your idea of good time... Or if you think you might have a problem with IC versus OOC... Because your character knows nothing of this. :)

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The call woke Gres up. Pulling up his image link he wondered what was up with his drones. He checked their status. The swap of SkyHighs 1 and 2 went off without a hitch and none of the other drones where active... There was nothing wrong. So he looked over his displays again. Then he noticed the little new message indicator. Pulling it up, he notes it is from Ciel, and he recognizes encryption all most immediately.

He looks it over briefly and then goes checking to see if he had missed any more messages from her with the key. Nothing. “So she expects us to know it, huh.”

He tries the paradise passcode... it didn’t work... He tries a few other phrases he remembered from the meeting... they didn’t work either. He stopped... Sometimes encryption could be touchy about too many failures.

Only one thing left to do... He dials up Ciel commcode.

The window that opens is a large, golden gate, infinitely massive. In front of the gate stands a massive claymore, burning with brilliant red fire. Along the top of the gate flutter men and women with four wings, bright halos around their heads, and smaller, but also flaming swords.

"Who knocks upon Heaven's Door?" comes a booming masculine voice that must have been issued by the sword itself.

Gres rolls his eyes at the ostentatious display, “Its Gres calling for Ciel.”

The sword flares brilliantly for a moment, focusing the light upon you. In a moment, it dies down, and a sound of trumpets comes forth from the heavens. Six statuesque winged fingers blow a fanfare as the familiar blonde seraph flutters down from the sky. She makes sure not to be directly above you, and lands neatly in front of Heaven's Door. Her halo was now a concentric circular rainbow, with the outermost circle red and the innermost violet. Her white dress was puffy and appeared more like a marshmallow or cloud than a garment, yet it was still draped about her to showcase her bust and legs. The wooden sandals now burned with brilliant fire, almost to swallow up her dainty feet entirely save for a dim outline.

"And lo, she came down from Heaven, clothed in a cloud. And a rainbow was on her head. And her face as the sun. And her feet as pillars of fire."

Gres is in his little clockwork robot avatar, “Yeah yeah yeah, nice, pretty, showy even. So what’s the code?”


"A supplicant should be more specific." The glowing eyes of the angel watched the clockwork robot lazily. "You speak of the key to my last missive?"

The robotic one snorts and the whole supplicant idea. “Of course I do... Unless you’ve sent more then one to me since the meeting.” He quickly double checks his messages just in case.

"My Word is issued many times. But I can draw the key from our last meeting. 'And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure cherubim, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.'" Ciel quotes Genesis for the clockwork robot in what could only appear to onlookers as eight kinds of strange. "Remember to be vulgate, not vulgar."

“Huh?!? I only got one and you’re going to make me do a fragging scripture search to figure it out the code for it.” He really shouldn’t have been surprised given the rest of her imagery. He pulled up his browser and searched on the phrase as well as her key vulgate

He found the verse she was quoting then he found the Latin or ‘vulgate' version

Given how she seemed to like that kind of stuff he plugged it in to the encrypted file and tried it out

By using the Latin Scripture as the cipher key, the file becomes translated into a communication.

"I've broken into the system. They haven't detected me. It appears our patient is on the fourth floor, surrounded by at least four heavy security, and no computer network exists on that floor for me to get a better look. AIPS sufferers would have that. I have a layout of the building, number of security, lockdown procedures, everything needed to perform an extraction until you get to the fourth floor."

Accompanying the text are floor plans, pictures of the heavy security outside the fourth floor, and a little chibi drawing of Ciel the seraphim winking and playing with tiny servers as if they were building blocks.

A quick glance showed him the real files, he returned to Ciel, “Seriously Ciel you need to get your head out of the virtual clouds, and breath some real air once in awhile.”

Ciel's avatar shoots a coy glance and wink at Gres. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

The dwarf might had blushed at that had that been any where near true. As it was he used it. “It wasn’t my intent, but if it got you out into the real flesh and blood world, it might be worth it.”

Ciel's face soured. "Charming isn't your middle name, is it? Well, is there anything else you wanted?"

“If you wanted charming you should get yourself an elf diplomat, not a dwarf grease monkey.” He paused just a bit before diving in, “What was your purpose in having us all meet in your ‘paradise.’ "

"Didn't you like it?" Ciel answers his question with a question. "Was it not beautiful?"

“Yes it was very pretty, but I am a more practical kind of guy so what purpose did it serve?” He keeps his voice low and soft.

"It's beauty was it's purpose. It brightens everyone's night. More than an inside-out bar ever could. There are precious few beautiful things in the world anymore. That's all." Ciel's digital angel smiles as she explains. "Perhaps not practical, but there is more to life than what is."

Ok he wasn’t expecting that, “So... no overriding security concerns? No... this is more protected. It was more kind of like you showing off?” He had kind of a wondering/disbelieving tone.

"Of course, there were security concerns. I wanted to go into the Matrix because I would notice anyone snooping. But I have a number of servers I could use for that. I picked Paradise because it was beautiful. That is what you asked, right?"

"No... not really. I was meaning why you wanted it to VR only."

"Ah. Well, I'm more comfortable here. Security is better on a server that I own rather than a public bar that I don't."


"Better security and greater comfort just for you or better for the whole team?"

"Better security for everyone, of course. Anyone snooping your commlink would be seen by me as long as you were in Paradise. As far as comfort, well, don't you think it was more comfortable than a crowded, dingy nightclub?"

The robot smiled, "Security and comfort where your goals. Do you know how many of your teammates voted not to go into VR?"

"Of course not. I wasn't there when the voting happened. I was double-checking Paradise's security. I can only assume a good portion voted no, otherwise you wouldn't bring it up. You seem spiteful like that."


He chuckled at that last bit. "The number was three out of the seven. Not a majority clearly, but what does that tell you?"

"That there's such a thing as free will. That not everyone is as comfortable with the Matrix as I am? That we have seven people working on this job? Nothing I don't already know." Ciel stretches her wings a little, the tips of the top two fluttering slightly.

It was a dodge on her part and he just stayed smiling, “How about for your goals of Team Comfort and security?”

"A majority of the team didn't mind, and it was much more secure than that bar would ever be." Ciel sat down upon the grass and from behind her body, produced a sketchbook, which she began drawing into with minor interest.

At this he laughed out loud. “Seriously that is what you take? Six members showed up in the ‘meat’ so they had some level of comfort with that being in the meat and being in the bar. Given that they literally risked their lives to do so, not just some code and hardware. Three of those comfortable people said no to VR. Three said alright. They had voted with their bodies, and again with the VR. Its pretty clear they could go either way. As for security I am sure your code and hardware are top of the line. But in the end your paradise had a ‘meat’ leak do to being uncomfortable to some members. All the important details of our meeting were given in the bar, and therefore only as secure at it was."

"Wait...you actually talked about breaking the law in that bar? Where everyone could hear you? I had assumed you would just save a record of the chat and give it to them later, not...transmit all that sensitive information in that bar. Do you want to go to prison?" Ciel angrily scribbled on her sketchbook and turned it around. It was a cariacture of the robot avatar in front of her, now with a very sad face, behind bars.

"If you were that apprehensive about going to a place that was secure, why would you go to a place that wasn't and be so reckless?"

“Please... we accepted the job in that bar... We accepted a B&E and abduction with only the bar's security and our personal security being in play. If anything will get us tossed into jail it would be that. Clearly the precautions were good enough for Johnson and the whole team... Then.” The robot shrugged. “The only thing that changed was that the Johnson left. Now she might well screw us over but not before she gets wants, and I really doubt that happened within 30 minutes of her leaving the bar.”


"If some plainclothes or off-duty cop overheard you, you'd be singing a different tune. But that's your risk, not mine. After all, the AccessID I was using was spoofed, so it's not like they'd find me." Ciel shook her head in exasperation.

"I see so everyone else is idiots and your the only smart one..." Runners had been meeting in bars for years. "Somehow a shadow meet could never be held safely without spoofing an access ID."

Ciel sighs. "You can try to put words in my mouth, but unless they're pretty or poetic, you just boring me. You were talking about breaking the law in a public place. I'm just saying how dangerous it could have been. You didn't even say you got a private room. I'd never trust Ms. Johnson to take care of security. Anything else is just you thinking things up."

And I never said anything about trusting a Johnson,” [/COLOR]he said in return for the words she just put in his mouth. “Everything we do is dangerous hon. We try our best to cover our own asses, but no one person can cover everything. That’s why we form teams, so we can cover some of those gaps. But teams don’t work if 40 plus percent of them are unheard and marginalized. And that is exactly what you did.”


Ciel rolled her eyes. "From what I saw, no one didn't have a voice. I made a suggestion, and everyone voted. It's the nature of the these 4-3 votes. The group decided to meet in the Matrix. If someone had decided to vote another way, I wouldn't have opened up the meeting in Paradise." Ciel sighed. "Now, have you gotten your Daddy lecture urges out yet?"


“Bull****.” He said without heat or rancor. “It was your show, your node, and only you could answer any questions about it and you where not there when we discussed it. Do you know the names of the three and what their concerns were? No you don’t. You’re the hacker the primary infogather we followed you not because we thought it was a good idea. We followed you because you left us no other choice. And we did say something about, it, loud and clear. Did you hear? No. You didn’t”

Ciel sighed once again. "My icon wasn't there. All of you had my AccessID, you could have easily sent me a message. Would've taken no time at all. If it was a big deal, you could've said something to me. But you didn't, you just complained among yourselves. So now, tell me what you hope to accomplish? Want me to say I'm sorry? Want to laugh about minor snafus between people we've never met? Want me to say I don't care what you, Shadowbaby, and the guy who loves late entrances think? Please, illuminate me to what you want, because all it looks like to me is that you're trying to be smug and that you the right perfect team player."

“What I want… what I want is to know that you understand why. When someone leaves in the middle of a discussion, like you did, it is generally done because they are done with that discussion. If that same person has a lot of power, and let face it, in this initial stage you hold a lot of the cards, it is every easy to see it as an ultimatum. It is very easy to see your actions and say she just gave us a ‘my way or the highway’ challenge. Well that not something that can be fixed with a simple com call.”

“Then when you send out you findings, you do so with out the key. So we have to ‘begging’ as a ‘supplicant’ your throne of ‘god’ to hear your ‘high and mighty words of wisdom.’ And you challenge me for being self righteous, or Ceter for being dramatic? Seriously… All you have to do is look in the mirror to see everything you’ve accused me of. I want you to stop playing god with your teammates. You don’t have to agree with them, you don’t have to like them, but at least listen to them.”

"I didn't send the key yet because of a security concern of mine. I never send keys with encrypted messages, it's too much of a security hazard. I was going to send the key from a different AccessID in about an hour under the subject name, Fruits of Paradise. I spend a lot of time breaking into places and snooping calls, so security is a chief concern of mine, and I'm not going to compromise that simply because someone asks me. I'm a hacker, my hard drives have enough to put me away in a little cell far away from the Matrix for a long time."

The angel finishes sketching, but does not turn it around, instead hugging it close to her chest. "If you thought this matter couldn't be settled with a message, then you honestly wouldn't be here. We wouldn't be talking. How dare you accuse me of not listening to any of you! Every message I've received from them or you, I've listened to. I'm the one who pulled the data search when Shadowbaby asked me. So...listening to people. Send me a message, and I'll listen to it, same as always."


"Yes you are listening now... You didn't listen before or you would have known the number of people that disagreed with your plan. You'd known their names, although I'm sure you are smart enough to that guess after the fact. And you'd know the reasons they gave and if said reasons might impact your ability work with them in the future."

They didn't message me with their misgivings. They didn't vote on digitally. And Ceter never said his name on the Matrix until you mentioned it just now. Not knowing these things because they weren't said where I could hear isn't not listening, it's not being a psychic."

"Funny how that not liking the Matrix thing bleeds over isn't it. Yet everyone else seemed to know. Plus no... we don't expect you to be psyhic, but you saw me crash and burn, I was in mid conversion with you in fact. I was barely out of dump shock before you left. Yes I was able to borrow a comlink but by then it was over you'd left. And you had to know it would take me a bit to get back on-line."

"Everyone else knowing doesn't mean anything. I was attending digitally. You can't blame me for not knowing any more than you can blame a deaf man for not hearing Wagner. I saw one of your commlinks botch up. I'm guessing you don't have spares, then. My fault, I thought you would. All my pals do."


He smiles and chuckles abit at that. “Which brings us back to my opening line... I’d assume all your ‘pals’ are as comfortable in the Matrix as you are. And I do that because of that comment, and your general focus on VR. That group your in is a very small subset of the larger group. Most people even other shadowrunners aren’t as deep in as you are. Maybe they are still leery from the crash, maybe they grew up without the benefits of technology, or maybe they got some kind of magic. Who knows… But running under the assumption that everyone carries a backup commlink and cutting edge software is going to be wrong more often then not. Hell for some people assuming that they know how to make a comcall is a pushing it.”


"Anyone who can't make a simple commcall must be from the Stone Age. It's easy. Everyone learns how to do it. I don't expect you guys to have great software. I do hope that you've got a decent browser, an analyzer, an editer, maybe a scanner. If you can't, I know a guy, he'll get them to you cheap. I do, however, expect Shadowrunners to have a backup comm in case their former fries up or gets hacked. Just like I'd assume all you guys carry trauma patches and spare ammo. You...do carry trauma patches, don't you, Mr. Team Player?"


"Ammo yes... trauma patches fresh out. But don't stop with me. Ask the other members of the team. See how well that assumption of yours holds out. While your at it ask them what software they feel is important to them for what they do. You might just find yet another assumption that doesn't hold up."

"Wait...you don't carry trauma patches? You've been going on and on about taking the needs of your teammates into consideration and you don't carry trauma patches? What do you do if the guy next to you takes shrapnel to the neck, watch him bleed out or force him to tough it out? That's not a faulty assumption, and neither is having a basic browser to find things. That's...just being careless. And not having those three basic programs? Pointless deprivation. A single opti-chip can hold your program, just pop it in to a disposable commlink, load up the copies, and just make sure you break the commlink real good when you're done with it. Use the browser to find a good restaurant to eat at, use the analyzer to filter all the spam, editer, difficult to work around, but doable. Scanner's good for finding hidden nodes to see if anyone's tailing you, but I can see getting along without it. Analyzers and browsers...now you're just being silly."

The robot just grinned, "Ask every other one of your teammates those questions. Just be prepared for your assumptions to crack on the cold hard reality of what appears to you to be the illogical and irrational."

"Oh hear we go with your little patronizing talk again. Ciel rolls her eyes and waves her hand dismissively toward the robot. [COLOR="Lime]"I'm not surprised, Grandpa. Very disappointed, but not surprised. After all, I've been doing this for a while. I just thought as high as you carried yourself, you would be better prepared. Not carrying something to save your life when being shot at is a matter of course is just careless."[/COLOR] Ciel grins right back. "I guess it just means one more great reason to go full digital. You should look into buying a couple trauma patches. They're good for emergencies."

“Funny how you get, ‘Don’t think it wise, don’t care about myself or teammates’ from the simple phrase ‘fresh out.’ Instead of the more logical ‘I recently used my last one, I need to make a supply run.’ He looks around again at her godlike imagery. “I came here to ask you not to treat your follow teammates especially ones with technical hang-ups as second class citizens. I’ve even tried to explain why they might feel that way, in case you didn’t get it. Yet I’m the one that thinks highly of myself. You know you are right I do think highly of myself. But my reality filter isn’t on so tight that when faced with something that challenges my assumptions, that immediately declare everyone else wrong. If you are going to dismiss everyone on the team as incompetent boobs, wouldn’t that make it more important that you find out what they can do? After all if they we were up to your assumptions we wouldn’t be having this ‘talk.’ How many more times will we not live up to your assumptions again while on this run? And more importantly how bad will it get because of that?”

"Analysis of your argument patterns suggests you would've said something more to that effect if you actually were planning on getting trauma patches. Don't try that cheap trick. I'm not dismissing the team as incompetent. I haven't seen them do anything except for Gbi, and I think she's got her head and her voice on straight. I'm trusting Lucky John that he didn't send me people who can't dress themselves. I don't consider anyone who can't slice through a firewall like a razor incompetent. I do expect all of you to know the basics of commlinks and the Matrix, because you live in these times. I expect you to know how to message people for secret communications, how to switch your comm to hidden mode, and that firewalls are important."

Even though she didn't have to, Ciel took a breath. "And I haven't called you wrong, I said that not bringing trauma patches is careless. I can't trust everyone to know CPR or to administer it in a firefight if they do, but slapping a patch on the back of the neck is something I expect every functional adult to know. And my issue with the bar remains as it alwaysdid. Talking about a shadowrun in a public place is bad. It attracts attention that I don't like. Now of course I have high standards, I'm a professional. I don't like seeing people I work with, even once, die. So yes, I have certain standards that I operate with because of that."


“Haven’t seen anyone... Haven’t seen anyone. Do I need to add blindness as well? In your Paradise. I shared real-time video feed of the Asylum, before you even cracked its firewall. I also shared vid of what the Johnson looked like how she moved and where she went to add data to the information search. Maybe you already had that, maybe not. I do know I ‘did something’ that you should have seen. Now I’ll admit I should have had the Johnson followed, I dropped the ball there.”

“And I know it wasn’t important to you. but I also allowed all those who left their meat in the bar while in Paradise, to keep an idea on it while they were away. I am thinking they might have liked that. But apparently I’m only being an unreasonable pain in your ass. Cause you don’t see anything else.”

"Or was everything I gave worthless to you because you can get better data?"

Ciel smiles. "I noticed. Video feeds of the asylum are rather useless to me at this point in time, but I noticed. I was just not mentioning you, because I thought you wanted me to talk about the others, the 'less technically inclined' as you put it. But if you want to know my opinion of you, I think you're an argumentative, pushy dwarf who likes to think he's always right. I think you'll never back down even when both you and I know that the real reason we're having this argument is because you have a strong personality, I have a God complex in the Matrix, and that we're both guilty of just being petulant children because neither one of us wants to be the first to admit we're wrong. But you can control a basic mechanical device, likely a lot better than I can since I lack the hardware, and that means you can do half your job. Once I see how well you actually jump into a vehicle, maybe showcase some fancy moves, I'll give you a full report. And don't worry about following the Johnson, we can take care of that later. Did you get her car registration? GridGuide will have logged her."

"So, I'm getting really tired of this. I want to add a desert to Paradise and this is distracting me from arts and crafts time, so, here we go. I'm sorry that I disregarded the feelings of the other people. While I still believe Paradise was the best choice for security reasons, there was a better way to go about suggesting and implementing it."

She looks at the dwarf robot expectantly.

“Don’t even know if she had a car, like I said, I dropped the ball on that one.” He had also fried a comlink and got dumped at the same time. Still had he been fine, he still would have spaced it. “I did have external feed on the bar and her face I could see if I can find a match.” His robot gets a brief no one home look, as he sets the search into motion.

As he continues to listens to her his smile comes back. “Fair enough... That all I wanted to hear really. Good luck with the Ceter, even in the meat discussing it I never really got a good bead on why, just a general dislike for it,” he offered. Then he said, “So from one stubborn grease monkey dwarf, to one godmoded hacker; may your hardware never short.” He initiates the call termination procedures. Before it takes hold he quips one last time, “Because a short a such a pain in the ass.”


OOC: you want to add your final thoughts and post it?

"There's a joke in that, but it's in poor taste, so I'll just leave it to your imagination." Ciel winks and licks her finger suggestively. She waves the robot goodbye and then as he's logging out, flashes the sketchbook around very fast so he gets a brief image of what she was drawing.

It's him, in chibi form, playing with little toy cars just like Ciel was playing with tiny servers.

[estradling]

Gres

Once his search returns images of the Taxi he composed to messages to the hacker he had just left...

First one was an encrypted file with all the images of the Johnson getting into and out of a cab that he had. Along with a note. "Hope you can do something with this. Hacking the cab company is a bit out of my league."

The second one was a simple text file that said, "This time be vulgar."


OOC: Encryption 5 on the first file

[Sicarius]

Ciel

With the exception of Gres, everyone's commlinks that Ciel has the contact info of gets the following message from a different AccessID at about 5:30 AM.

Subject: Fruits of Paradise

Message: The Key to Your Salvation

emisit eum Dominus Deus de paradiso voluptatis ut operaretur terram de qua sumptus est eiecitque Adam et conlocavit ante paradisum voluptatis cherubin et flammeum gladium atque versatilem ad custodiendam viam ligni vitae.

When used as the cipher key, you get the following message.

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"I've broken into the system. They haven't detected me. It appears our patient is on the fourth floor, surrounded by at least four heavy security, and no computer network exists on that floor for me to get a better look. AIPS sufferers would have that. I have a layout of the building, number of security, lockdown procedures, everything needed to perform an extraction until you get to the fourth floor."

Accompanying the text are floor plans, pictures of the heavy security outside the fourth floor, and a little chibi drawing of Ciel the seraphim winking and playing with tiny servers as if they were building blocks.

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

Aki's been relaxing in his house, expecting something like this to happen.

He smiles at the message, in spite of himself. He replies to the hacker quickly

Subject;On the head of a pin

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It is said that the knowledge of Angles knows no limits. That no wall or ward can bar their sight. This is true. It is as I have seen.

Then he sends a second message

Subject;....Angels Dance

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Do you wish me to gamble? Not even I see everything. And when knights and stars cry out, the trees watch and cry.

[Sicarius]

Ciel

The hacker responds quickly.

Subject: As many as they want

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"Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Yet where angels are forbidden is where the greatest promise lies. Nothing is gained without risk, but everything is lost with risk. I do play God with other people's money."

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

The mage laughs. He'd known a few Christian Theurgists, and they lived this sort of mysticism.

Subject;And on they march.

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An angel is forbidden not from the Houses of Heeling. I have seen this.

Still, you espouse the right philosophy, I think. When shall the promise of Eden be renewed?

@Name

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Just checking, but Aki did see that there were no wards on the floor in question, right? (At least not on the exterior.)

[OverWilliam]

Alviss

Alviss, barely moving at all, keyed a button on his Commlink that overlaid the message into the scope's reticule, and he read through it before typing up a reply and sending it, never once moving any more than his fine motor control as he laid motionless, examining the building on the other end of his sights.

Subject: Guardian Angel

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Ich habe einen Schutzengel,
Sie gewährt Wünsche nicht,
Oder Nieselregen-Magie-Fee-Staub.
Eher erzählt sie mir, wenn ich sollte,
Als ich nicht sollte,
Ands, wenn ich muss.

Dankeschön, Meine Dame.

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If translated out of German:

I have a Guardian Angel,
She doesn't grant wishes,
Or sprinkle magic fairy dust.
Rather she tells me when I should,
When I shouldn't,
And when I must.

A Beautiful Thanks, My Lady.

[Sicarius]

Ciel

Ciel, turning a stretch of Paradise into rolling dunes of sand, giggled as she read the two messages.

To Shadowbaby, she wrote:

Subject: Return to Eden

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"The doors to Paradise open for those who seek sanctuary. Speak with the other pilgrims and arrange a time so that we might sit and break bread. Even angels need their rest."

And to Alviss, she pens no message. Instead, she draws something in her sketchbook and forwards it to him.

Subject: Engel

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A high-resolution image of his meat body as she saw it, in platemail, carrying a bloody battleaxe and dented shield, with appearance enhancing battle scars, sitting upon a stump surrounded by the aftermath of a medieval battle. Behind him hovers Ciel in her seraphim form, draping her right hand over his right shoulder whilst pouring water into his mouth from a golden chalice with her left.

[Name_Here]

OOC: Sicarius and Estradling you 2 are insane just freaking insane.

@Moral Wiz: You didn't notice any wards.

[Moral Wiz]

This one makes the mage fume slightly. He spends a bit longer on this one

Message; Rally the Inquisition

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Pilgrims? No, I think not. Pilgrim implies subservience, simple blandness. Permit me a tad of heresy, and I will be far happier, for heresy is the path of thought. A lack of introspection ruins the mind

For the Kings of the world hold iron and steel
And the priests sit in halls of gold.
The common man stands angry
And spirits come in from the Cold

So many threats, so many foes
Yet still, from what I've heard
E'en now the man of thought can fell them all
with naught but a single word.

And it is better that those who know such things send ravens that no eye can see, or shot can fell. I stand ready.

[Sicarius]

Ciel

Subject Peace

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"Ah, you speak of an interpretation. No, I speak literally. A pilgrim is one who is on a journey of great moral significance. But if you wish a different word, call yourself and others travelers."

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

Subject; Dissent

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I'll stick with Heretic. A word, irrespective of what wise men say, means what people believe it to mean. And Pilgrim implies... such blandity, such blind faith, such absence of thought and total trust in their lord.

Will the Ravens fly?

[OverWilliam]

Alviss

Alviss overlaid the picture onto his scope, and sat looking at it for a while. After a moment of thought, he brought up his own Sketchbook, still unmoving in his sniping position, and with only a few minutes of fiddling, almost seamlessly overlaid in deep blood red a symbol upon his own shield:

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His finger hovered over the 'send' button indecisively, debating with himself whether or not to return the picture. However, as though making his final decision, he discarded the changes to the picture, feeling that his modification, while bearing truth, ruined the intent of the delicate artwork. He stared at the unchanged picture for a little while longer before saving it to his Commlink and trying to return his thoughts to the asylum in front of him.

[Sicarius]

Ciel

Subject: Cry Havoc

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"We were merely flying overhead and seeing the ground beneath. If we are finished, let us share with the others so that we might decide on the best plan of action before we let slip the dogs of war."

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

Who is this woman anyway?

Subject; Vigil

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Very well. I stand ready to enter paradise at your word.

[Sicarius]

Ciel

A global message goes out to everyone at the bar with a commlink.

"Now that we have all of our information, we should meet and discuss our plan of entry, extraction, and exit. Paradise can be used as a meeting point if you wish. I'm just doing the finishing touches on the Desert that is Seth."

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

huh. Well, I like this new note of "Slightly Humble"

Password the same? He transmits in response

[Sicarius]

Ciel

The response is simple, yet infuriating. "If we decide to go to Paradise, you'll find out." It is signed with a winking Ciel head.

[Moral Wiz]

Shadowbaby

The mage sighs

Oh, now your for democracy?

I don't care. I've got Ika if I need to go somewhere physical. Just forward me where we'll end up meeting.