Trophy draws a small cylinder from her purse, removes a silver cap and twists the case to reveal a colored nub. She presses the nub to her bottom lip, applying a thick layer of some kind of paste or cream, before pressing her lips together. She checks her reflection in a nearby piece of chrome, running a long nail across the edge of the dark pigment.
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The guard stands, smiles directly at the camera and responds. Of course, Ms. Kosto. I will escort Mr. Gimble directly to the Abattoir. She curtsies and exits through the rear of her security station.
What do you do?
Afraid, my dear? Hardly. I only wish to see to your every desire, as I always have. He interacts with a minority report style interface and the elevator doors open.
Apologies for the wait. I wanted to give you the proper welcome.
The door opens and you are greeted by six security bots, not unlike the units that accidentally killed a few innocents in the previous assault on your company.
His voice continues in your ear. You really did not need to bring these sacrifices, but no matter, they will not be harmed. My servants here will guide you to my office . . . assuming you still wish to meet in . . . person.
The security bots march three in front of your group and three behind.
1. What about this level suggests that it was not designed by a human mind?
2. What atmosphere is the company trying to create?
3. Do you have any pictures that would evoke this level?
After about fifteen minutes you are led into a large conference room. Lew is waiting alone, and smiles warmly as you enter. Four of the bots go outside to guard the door, while two sit down, one on either side of Lew.
You really didn't need to send your prototype all this way for a chat. It is a bit of wasted effort, as I can't imagine you would waste such a useful gift by installing it in your telepresence unit. We can send a tech to your offices for a personal install at your convenience.
He sits expectantly.
Okay she's gone. Na-zo says, interfacing with the retinal scanner that blocks the way past the security booth... a quick scan reveals that it can't be hacked, to primitive to be vulnerable.
Their quick fingers get the case off it, exposing the lens and wires, moving quickly, heart pounding, knowing the attendant could return at any moment, they try to hard-switch it to read that a matching retina has been input... it was almost like being back a few years, throwing Joywires together from anything. except now, there was a time crunch.
Na-Zo, the door pops open, but in your rush you manage to reveal something to Rache that you would have preferred to keep hidden? What is it?
The door opens into a long hallway and you quickly find Umi's door. Listening at the door reveals soft sounds of some sort of machinery, but no signs of life. This door is also locked by a retinal scan.
What do you do?
Rache stepped to the side of the door and mimed knocking. Hopefully their target was home...
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At this point in the episode, LaChessa will have edited in one of the Dead Ringer's confessionals.
The guy looks thin, and uncomfortable, and not at all what one might classify as muscle. He probably has some skill to make up for it. "Quinoa. Like the grain. -look, I'm just here cuz my moms is sick, and there ain't no other way to order her s++* but through a datajack. If I live through this, the money's going toward a new one. Mine got back-doored by some corporate redhat, so I got blacklisted by the supplier."
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Trophy laughs, gently. "You're not installing that thing in me. No. I'm having you install the jack into Quinoa here. -for battery-testing!" Her eyes shine enthusiastically. "I can't go gallivanting around in industry-changing technology if a basement-dweller with new tech can hotwire it. As I'm sure you wouldn't want your name behind a jack which a veteran could hack into through a satellite proxy."
She pauses for effect. "I mean, I'm doing it either way. I just thought you might want to install it yourself. You know... do it right."
As Na-Zo retracts their eternal interface, Rache would have a good view of the readout, including the gate-locations in her house (and LaChessa's, and a few others), and their open line with Coil
Rushing away, they reach Umi's room. Their knuckles rap on the door thrice, and they call through the door Umi?
Lew actually looks surprised for a moment.
Him? That seems a true waste. But very well.
He sits motionless for a moment and then a robot of less severe design enters and escorts Quinoa out of the room.
So .... this isn't why you came. Is this a pleasure call, or a poorly planned assassination?
Na-Zo and Rache. As you knock you hear a muffled scream and then fast foot falls.
What do you do?
The scream startled Rache a bit. She takes a deep breath and kicks the door open.
Shaking like a leaf, Rache slams helplessly against the door and...
After a few embarrassing attempts the door remains closed. It finally relents when both Rache and Na-Zo kick it down in unison (hopefully some clever editing can still make this look badass.)
Inside, it is apparent that someone has just left here in a hurry. Warm, half eaten fast food sits on a desk next to a drink that still has ice floating in it. On the desk sits an older model physical interface system, which appears to have been modified with some sort of IA branded adaptor that you haven't seen before. The window is wide open.
On the street below the window, you can see that the pavement has been cracked as if something heavy has been dropped from a height. The depressions vaguely look like two footprints.
What do you do?
Rache took a few calming breaths, grabbed the PIS and looked down at the ground below.
First floor wasn't too bad. Rache trained on rolling from falls worse than that. Her record was 16 feet without injury and this didn't much worse than that.
She leaps with full confidence in her training and the protection that comes with her higher purpose.
And safely lands on the ground, rolling with her impact and leaping to her feet. Was she fast enough to catch a glimpse of their target before she takes off?
Na-Zo looks over the apartment, fuming slightly. So close! they though, no realizing until now how much they wanted this reunion. but something wasn't right... they pick over the appartemnt, trying to figure out what.
Na-Zo looks over the apartment, fuming slightly. So close! they though, no realizing until now how much they wanted this reunion. but something wasn't right... they pick over the appartemnt, trying to figure out what.
[dice=analyze + mad]2d6
You remember Umi as an extraordinarily neat and organized person. These living quarters are a disgraceful mess. Umi has let this place go.
Searching through the apartment you do uncover a series of schematics for the enormous cable that runs through each level of the scrape.
You may not know exactly where she is, but you do know where she is headed, and it is about to get much worse.
What do you do?
First floor wasn't too bad. Rache trained on rolling from falls worse than that. Her record was 16 feet without injury and this didn't much worse than that.
She leaps with full confidence in her training and the protection that comes with her higher purpose.
[dice=risk/peaceful]2d6+2
And safely lands on the ground, rolling with her impact and leaping to her feet. Was she fast enough to catch a glimpse of their target before she takes off?
Rache,
You land without injury, but there is no sight of her. You do hear shouting in the general direction of the central cable spire.
What do you do?
Rache’s heart leaps to her chest when she hears the shouting and she takes off at full clip toward the spine.
"See, this is why me and Lews would never work. He doesn't get how his question makes no sense at all. Assassination attempts are pleasure calls. -and this show wouldn't have a following at all if I just ran up to every mark and stabbed them in the face. No. Lews, if you're watching, honey, I'll have you watch your empire crumble before I even touch you, and your little jack will be the first fruit to rot on the vine. You've proven a well-placed elevator can't snuff you out, so I have no choice but to break you until you're scavenging dross in the basement."
Flicking off the recorder, LaChessa shifts in her seat. In a few hours, maybe even a few minutes, she would be spinning up old routines again. She honestly hadn't tried hacking over satellite relay, at least not intentionally, and certainly not with so much on the line. "ChLover, pull MatroskaController.cs out of the archives and make sure the MVC framework is building cleanly. I forget what the dependencies it uses. Also, pull back the last few minutes of Trophy's recording RAW. I don't like how Lews is acting. It's... unsettling."
Trophy's sensory suite kicks into deep-processing mode, chewing through biometric and deep audio data to try and peel away the layers of the Veil without alerting the level security of the breach. Maybe it was paranoia, but there was something unsettling about Lews' statuesque demeanor.
Crap Crap, Crap Na-Zo moves quickly, gathering up all the schematics and anything that looks valuable and is easily pocketed and rushes for the door. Umi had gone mad... or someone was pressuring her enough that she was acting it. either way, what she planned was insane.
is it though? a small voice in the back of their head asks. She's being hunted, she's cornered... trying to make her own safehold.
But I can't let her, not like this, now when it would strand Rache and I, and everyone on this half-damned level
They get up on the roof, making more noise than is advisable, and start going from rooftop to rooftop, marginally safer than running in the streets, as they head for the cable.
Rache and Na-Zo:
You race towards the central cable spire and you arrive only seconds behind Umi.
Umi stops for only a moment at the high security door before it opens and she slips inside. You enter only a few seconds after her.
She has her hand on a deadman switch and looks at you with a wild look in her eyes. Back! Stay back! She continues to scream threateningly at you while she tosses sticky packages onto the cable itself.
What do you do?
While closely watching Lew, you notice that his movements are, for fleeting moments, almost perfectly synched with the movements of the robots at his sides. He also seems entirely too comfortable with the situation given that he does not appear to have any weapons.
Hmm, I always did enjoy our awkward silences. Tell me, why did you try to kill me anyway? I truly thought there was something more between us.
Rache began transmitting directly to her studio. If she didn’t make it, they should still have the footage.
She carefully spread her fingers to show she wasn’t packing anything under her skin, but stayed silent. She’d need Na-Zo to defuse the situation a bit before trying anything.
Umi, please, calm down. Na-Zo says, holding out their hands Rache won't hurt you. I wouldn't hurt you. they approach quietly, hands raised.
You're not well. You're scared, and you're hurting, and you're so desperate for it to stop that you're about to do something really bad. please, don't. I can help you, we can help you. you don't have to do this. Na-Zo watches Umi for tells, for sudden movements.
Something wasn't right about any of this...it didn't track with what Rache had learned. As tense as the situation was, Rache had an advantage. She knew so much about Umi and Umi knew nothing about her. She tried to analyze all the information she had about Umi to take advantage of her superior position.
Trophy's eyes dim.
"I had thought so too." This was awkward, and a little risky--surely Lews had cameras here--but she did feel he deserved some explanation. At least, something more than she would generally include in her show. "You and I are just too different. We don't understand business the same way. You're not wrong- neither am I, we're still in business, obviously, but you're just so... straightforward and concrete. You didn't understand publicity stunts, or heel/face dynamics, or really any of the meaty plot mechanisms that keep me afloat. As much as I think I liked you, and in another time, maybe would have loved you, we're just not in a position to tie ourselves together fiscally. As a dance partner, you're all left feet, and I can't afford to trip."
LaChessa watches Lews through Trophy's eyes.
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No Na-Zo. You don't see it! You've never seen it! You can dance among the levels, but have you ever been to the tens?! I'm not scared, my eyes are open! She is ranting and raving at this point. The scrape is misery, Na-Zo. All lives are misery.
She continues to throw sticky packages on the cable. Her bag looks like it is almost empty.
What do you do?
I see. Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now does it. He glances at a chronometer on the wall, and leans back in his chair. The robots lean back in sync with him.
At this point Quinoa enters the room and returns to your side. He looks none the worse for wear.
Lew watches Quinoa enter. So what now dear?
Rache shook her head. No...Umidiz...no. There's suffering but also joy. Hope. All of that goes away if you kill everyone. The suffering would be...immeasurable.
A brief moment of pain against a thousand generations of hopelessness.
She stops throwing packages onto the cable and points at Rache with the deadman switch. You notice that it is a cybernetic hand of some sort, an older model. She yells, Heiress of an empire! What do you know of suffering?
She steps towards Rache and holds her off hand to her head as if she is in intense pain. Tell me!
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Later, Rache would look back and realize that it was the elevator that saved them. Elevator brakes use power to open, not to close. When an elevator brake fails it closes tight. Many older cybernetic limbs work under the same process, so that in an emergency they'll maintain grip.
That realization came later. In the moment there was just action, the confident slice of someone perfectly in tune with her purpose. She was going to save everyone.
Her sword (when did she draw it? She didn't remember, even when she reviewed the tapes later she couldn't tell when the transition happened between splayed fingers and fully armed. Her sword was an extension of her and she needed it in that moment) her sword sliced cleanly through the servo tendons that allowed Umi's hand to open, the deadman's switch still clutched tightly.
G$#$#%it Umi!, Na-Zo yells, rushing in front of Rache, before she can hurt the girl any more. They take the bag from her and carefully pushes it toward Rache I don't know how to help you. I don't know what's wrong... but I will.
With Umidiz disarmed Rache begins her speil.
Umidiz...you received a gift and failed to repay your gifter in their prescribed way. Will you return the item?
She really hopes that Umidiz says yes...
Back to her plan, her motif, and her mission. She hadn't had much luck prying information out of Lews, but that was her longest game.
"Welcome back, Quinoa. You're probably wondering why I've dropped a piece of hardware into your head. A piece of hardware you very much need, and presumably know how to use. Up until now, you have been trudging through the detritus of a lower level life, stealing to eat, eating to live, and living to support your mother. -because where would any of us be without family? I'll tell you where you might be now: you might be in the room that you die in. The device in your head is a very unique neurochip. You may be familiar with the corded models: safe, secure, reliable, cheap, but we who have the luxury of dialing up floors with four digits have moved on from such quaint, modular tech. Data jacks these days are wireless, and fully immersive. The Veil becomes less of a blanket to shroud the nightly misdeeds that lead to your jack getting blacklisted, and more like the transition between air and water... and you, an amphibian. Can your mind keep track of what's real? I see a man before me who is uncertain. Quinoa, I want to play a game..."
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