"Now, who is any good with the interwebs? Those astral extractors surely have a presence in the webs!"
Confidently, Kotora walks up to the nearest terminal. Clearing her throat, she speaks aloud from several feet away. "Interwebs. Show me Astral Extractors."
Patiently waiting, she glances back to Dribble. "I saw it on a motion screen once. Sometimes it's takes a minute. Oh! I forgot the key word..."
Turning back to the terminal, still several feet away, she speaks again, loudly. "Computer. Show me Astral Extractors on the interweb!."
Pulling out his little custom rig and tapping away the goblin searched through the public records for a way to get in contact with Astral Extractions.
Allain watches from over Ack's shoulder, lofting a brow at the little goblin's obviously superior computer skills... "It seems you've found their information, Ack... well done! We need to go there, and arrange a meeting time and place between someone of importance in their company and the Collective."
Cha'Vishtyr looks amused at the goblin. Somehow the little one has created a working computer. Even though their kind will not read written word due to fear of stealing thoughts. And yet he is able to navigate the infosphere with ease.
He looks over the little green creature's shoulder as several questions leap to mind. "Why does the human race despise your kind so much Ack? You seem quite handy." He taps a claw on the comm device as they head to set up a meeting.
Eyeing the goblin's efforts, Kotora frowns. "Woulda been cooler if it were voice activated."
A smile creeping across her face, she adds "Well, at least its done. Lead on 2 arms!"
"Now, who is any good with the interwebs? Those astral extractors surely have a presence in the webs!"
Jaxy gives Dribble a slightly disgusted but confused look. "Webs? Why would they be in spider webs? Ewwww!"
He gives upo on the line3 of conversation when Allain draws everyone's attenntion to Ack. Jaxy moves around the little cgoblin trying to get a good view of the device he is holding. When Jaxy finally gets a good look he gives the gobling a hearty three handed slap on the back. "Wow! that's amazing Ack! I don't think i could ever do that!"
His look turns into one of horror when Cha comments about humans not liking goblins. As if trying to shield the goblin from the words, Jaxy quickly wraps him in a hug. "What do you mean? There's no way someone could not like Ack! He's so smart, and cute, and the perfect size for a hug!"
Releasing Ack from the tight hug, Jaxy pops his fingers, and neck, a slightly angry look crossing his small face. He looks to Ack, before asking in a slightly menacing tone, "Okay, where are these humans? I'll make them see your good sides!"
Ack easily finds the location of the corporate offices of Astral Extractions in Bluerise Tower in the Ring, one of the most expensive
pieces of real estate in Absalom Station.
Ack was uh... taught very well. Um, says we should go to place in ring center.
"Let's go!" Dribble calls one of the robocabs "To Bluerise Tower!"
In the robocab Dribble looks outside, occasionally pointing to an interesting landmark of weird looking alien. At the tower she gets out of the cab and walks up to the tower.
Cha'Vishtyr looks high up at the tower. "Anyone else have a bad feeling about this?" Seeing several people going in and out of the building Cha'Vistyr follows them in as the mechanical doors open via a motion sensor.
He looks around for a receptionist.
"Who should we talk to here? Who is going to freely admit to hiring local thugs?"
You arrive, and see what appears to be the office of a prosperous large business. Opening the door, you find yourself in a fancy lobby, with a receptionists' desk in front of the passage forward. The receptionist is not paying any attention, because her eyes are riveted on what sounds like a soap opera on her computer screen.
Cha'Vishtyr opens his mental link with the group. "Ack. See if you can cause a distraction for us to get past."
The goblin looked around a for a moment. Hearing a different voice in his head was always an odd feeling. He scratched at his head for a moment as he looked around at the lobby; thinking and speaking as the same time, ahg, what kind? What for? We can just ask tall lady.
Out of curiosity he sifted through his backpack to see what he had to work with.
Ack was uh... taught very well. Um, says we should go to place in ring center.
Jaxy smiles at Ack's comment. "Of course you were taught well! You're Ack!" He drags the goblin with him into the robocab Dribble called them. He soon forgets about Ack's problems with people and enjoys spending time with Dribble seeing the interesting sights along the way.
Outside of the building, Jaxy responds to Cha's worries with an almost stereotypical skittermander response of: "Nope, not at all!" and following him into the building. Inside he stares at the giant and impressive building in wonder until Cha'cha's next message comes in.
With a barely suppressed excitement, that results in an almost giddy bouncing, Jaxy half-mentally, half-out loud responds, "OOOHHH, I can blow something UP!"
Glancing towards the distracted receptionist, and back to Cha, Kotora whispers "Why a distraction? Seems their is enough distraction already."
Without breaking stride, and trying to appear as though she belongs, the small purple creature hobbles past the desk. Stopping suddenly, as she realizes the larger group members may not be so easily overlooked, she sighs.
Walking back to the desk, the woman tugs on the receptionists pant legs. "Excuse me miss. We have an appointment with the bosses. They asked us to be discrete, so just keep your eyes on that terminal and we'll be out of your way." she whispers. Standing on tiptoes, she adds "It's about that nasty business with the...'Collective'."
Without waiting for a response, she motions with her three left arms for the group to follow and heads to the nearest elevator.
Cha'Vistyr holds his breath as he watches Kotora lie to the receptionist. Slowly his places a hand on Jaxy's weapon, lowering it back down. "No need to hurt anyone here. That is terrorism, not a distraction."
Cha'Vishtyr follows Kotora past as calmly as he can.
Jaxy gives a slight sigh as Cha'cha tells him to not blow up one of the statues in the foyer. "Okay, if you say so..."
Jaxy also follows behind Kotora, trying his best to look like a security detail.
__________
"Huh? Did we have an appointment?"
Then suddenly it dawns on Dribble "Yes ma'am, we have an appointment with the big'uns!"
The goblin puts his pack back in order and follows Kotora's lead and remains quiet so as to not raise suspicions.
The woman just 'ignores' you, with a little smile on her face. She also hands Ack a foil bag of cheap, broken up pretzels as he walks by, taken from a box labelled 'Emergency Goblin Rations.'
You find yourself in a hallway, where all the doors but one are closed. That door leads to a small office, where a woman in a suit sits at a desk, staring at a computer terminal.
Walking in, trying to look important, Kotora smiles at the creature. "Yes. You there. We're here to see the boss. We have an appointment." She states, starting off strong...the small skittermander begins giggling halfway through.
Cha'Vishtyr groans. "We don't even know who to talk to..." He says to his companions minds. "Ack. Can you find someone of importance on the Infosphere that works here?"
As little more than second nature the tech-savvy goblin checked the local info sphere to see what public knowledge there was on the higher-ups.
He gives off a nod as the information starts to pop onto his screen.
Surprisingly, Ack is not able to find any of the names of the higher-ups in Astral Extractions.
"The boss does not make appointments with anyone from outside the company. Perhaps I can help you?"
"Excuse me? We aren't exactly from 'outside the company'. It's in regards to that business with the Collective. The boss hired us to do some...things to protect your interests." scoffs Kotora, trying to maintain the pretense.
"Anyway, something's come up and we were told to come here directly. Boss didn't want any third parties involved this time."
"Sorry, nope, not working. The boss would tell me."
"You can either talk to me, or you can leave. If your business is important, I suggest the former. If you're just wasting my time, then leave."
"Oh, ok. Can't fault a girl for trying though, right?" replies Kotora with a wink.
"So, here's the truth. Your company hired a gang to prevent another company, who also hired a gang, from staking climb on the floating rock thing. Well, Gang 1 and Gang 2 got into it and a few innocents got hurt in the crossfire."
"So far, your names have been kept out of it as far as I can tell. Our hope is to find a suitable solution between you and the Collective that both sides can agree to. The ultimate goal, of course, being to prevent further, unnecessary bloodshed."
"Lets be honest here, would it look good if your investors found out you were being investigated for supporting, even paying for, wanton murder aboard the station?"
"That is what we wish to discuss with your superior. Now...can I get a hug?"
"As the little one said. We wish to discuss a potential murder with your boss." Cha'Vishtyr looks the woman in the eyes as his chitinous maw quietly clatters together. His voice rings in her head with a mild threatening tone. "Or would you rather we show up with the entire ASF (Absalom Security Force)?"
Jaxy looks at the two making the comments about investors and the ASF with curious eyes. "Wait, I thought threatening was 'bad.' Why are we doing that then? Can't we just ask them to talk to us and see if we can try set up a place and time to meet up? Though if we are threatening, can I use my cannon? It's everso scary!"
Dribble started to wiggle her fingers so to weave the arcane energy into a spell of friendship, but decides to wait for a bit.
"Perhaps I have not been clear enough. The boss does not ever meet with anyone from outside the company, under any circumstances. You will have to talk to me."
"Alright, you can react to what my cousin just said"
The lady looks uncomfortable at the thought of a hug, but just pats Kotora's shoulder awkwardly. "If you are able to get those ******'s at Hardscrabble to agree to sit down and talk, then yes, we would be interested. Here is my contact information, if you make any progress." She hands you a business card, which includes how to contact her in her office directly.
Cha'Vishtyr grabs the information and turns to leave. He is not much for pleasantries. "Now we need to find this Hardscrabble group and get them to agree to sit down as well." He taps on the goblins video screen. "See what you can find on them little one."
"Though so far this is ending the violence. We haven't found any proof whether anyone was out to target Kreel or if he was just an innocent bystander."
Jaxy smiles as the secretary seems to agree readily to a meeting. "Ooo, oooh, thank-you! We'll, uh, call you, maybe message if Ack is feeling up to it, later to get an idea of where and when we can hold the meeting."
He then turns to the rest of the gorup and in a self-satisfied way says, "See she responded best to Dribble jsut aasking her instead of threatening her... We should save that for the people who are being 'bad,' she's jsut doing her job!"
Jaxy then trundles to the door before getting blindsided by Cha'Cha's mental message. "Uhhhh, I don't know if there is any way we can find anything, outside of talking to the gangs again... But wasn't that information the nice lady at the front desk of the lorespear tower tell us about that?"
As you leave Astral Extractions, you find your personal coms beeping. The first one to contact you is Chiskisk, who is ecstatic to hear about your progress arranging a meeting to deal with the violence. Chiskisk offers to find an experienced and respected mediator for you. Chiskisk also suggests that at such a meeting, you might find out what happened to Kreel.
As soon as you are done talking to Chiskisk, Jabaxa contacts you. He tells you that he's talked to his employers at the Hardscrabble Collective, and they would be happy to attend a meeting you set up.
You find that it's growing late in the day, so you return to your lodgings for the night, hoping that tomorrow Chiskisk will contact you with information about the meeting.
Yawning, Kotora smiles. "Well, that didn't take long. Now...was that the hard part or the easy part?"
Looking towards Cha, she gigles. "You're right though. At least for now they aren't fighting. We just gotta make them friends and make sure they really weren't targeting the dwarfy guy."
"True. There is always a bright side with you isn't there Kotora?" Cha'Vishtyr relaxes and clatters his mandibles together. "Something just seems off. Almost too easy. I have seen a lot of hate and destruction in this world to be as optimistic as you. But I hope to make it there one of these days."
Cha'Vishtyr stands and creaks as he stretches, ready for bed.
Jaxy gives a yawn as the group finally ends back up in their lodgings. Having only half-heartedly listened to Kotora and Cha's conversation, Jaxy adds a few words of his own, giving his belly a pat. "It shouldn't be too hard to get them to make up and work together, right? Anyways that's something to worry about tomorrow, I'm more curious what we are doing for dinner!"
"Are you sure there isn't part goblin in there" Dribble jests while she pokes Jaxy. She jawns and puts one of her other hands in front of her mouth "I am tired, see you all tomorrow!"
Jaxy, not really understanding that Dribble is joking with him, considers it for a moment. "Hmmm, you know I don't know... But who wouldn't want to be like Ack, he's so smart and cute!" Jaxy then gets excited at the idea. He trundle s up to the goblin. "Hey Ack! Dribble says I might be part goblin! Isn't that cool! Anyways you want to go get dinner? I'm hungry..."
Cha'Vishtyr chooses to eat in his room. He has tray of gelatinous nectar and a feast of writhing insects. His chitinous mandible clatter and drool with each bite. He hadn't realized how hungry he had been from the day.
His mind races back to what happened back at the Lorespire. Though he was too tired to dwell on the past just yet. As much as he hated too he would have to delve into his past and bring up old wounds. Though sleep needs to come first if he is going to have a level head.
It takes several minutes for his mind to stop leaping from thought to thought as he finally finds restful sleep.
Grabbing a quick bite in the inn's tavern, between hugging random drunkards, she finds her way up to her room.
Stowing her supplies, she looks around and whispers a quick prayer before succumbing to the creeping exhaustion.
Realizing his growing hunger the goblin accepts the invitation for food and eats at a tavern close to the inn. With the hospitable rations offered throughout the day almost all but forgotten he orders some large healthy plates of delicious grub before curling off to bed.
Jaxy happily goes with Ack to the near by tavern. He orders a variety of small dishes and experiments with mixing them together. "Ack Ack! you should try these Haan grubs with cottage cheese! They're amazing! Also the fermented mushrooms and roasted acorns work better together than I expected!"
After making it back to the hotel, Jaxy spends a few minutes practicing his exercise routines, before showing all of the gel out of his hair and crawling into bed.
The next morning, Chiskisk contacts you. "Thanks to your hard work, Ambassador Nor from Eox, a skilled mediator, will be sitting down with both sides. He will also be asking about what happened to Kreel, at my request. We may have something else for you to do later today, but for now, relax and explore the station. You seem to have thoroughly charmed the receptionist, she is asking of you will come by for more 'fuzzy hugs.'"
"Of course we will come by for more hugs! I am glad we could help."