Cheddy arrives in his Hyundai Shin-Hyung and pings Gig to let it into his network as soon as he's parked in a local garage. He then walks to the club and signals that he's ready. In all honesty, he's more than ready. He's wanted to visit this club for a long time, but never had a pressing reason to do so. Maybe he can stay after the meeting and see what the dance floor was like...
He carried his Fichetti Tiffani Needler in its writ holster and trusted his mouth (and his fast talk pool of 14) to get him through security with it. He probably wouldn't need to though. When the pat you down they rarely feel the forearms.
Cheddy looks nice today. He's wearing a sleek autioneer's suit that Gig can quickly see is sheilded vs EM and thermal. It's a subtle statement of intent. He was protected, but not aggressive.
The outside of the club doesn't betray too much about what is inside, but it does show some hints of it's more upscale interior.
The way up to the twin glass doors is a ramp that very gradually turns upwards, ending just in front of the two uniformed Ork bouncers.
all along the outside of the building there are strips of greenery, and by all accounts proper living plants rather than plastic or other fakery.
It's not too hard to pick up the music even from a bit away, clearly the club is "bouncing" at the moment, and according to the posters outside, it's a live band this evening, and while local, it seems to have some cred on the streets.
Gig, thanks to his paranoid nature and eye for details notice that just above the doors, from an angle allowing it to cover all the front are a pair of covered gun slots, most likely packing something heavy, like Gatling guns or something of that nature.
You're meeting up about twenty minutes ahead of schedule. More likely than not you can get in now though, possibly have a drink and scope the place out if you have a mind to.
Luna seems to have a little chink in her usual happy expresion. But she still seems mostly the same as always. When meeting up with the other two she says: "Alright. So any special plans? Or do we just go in and have a bit of fun until the meeting?"
It's pretty clear that there is a line to get into the club, but it's equally clear that most of those in line aren't likely to ever see the inside.
The two troll bouncers seems pretty competent, and they are snazzy dressers as well. Not at all like Sven, though to be fair, Sven does have a slightly bigger and more intimidating presence.
Luna takes a look at snazzly-mc-grumble-troll and his friend but as usual it doesn't even occur to her that this could be a problem. In her world it is already decided that the trolls will let them in. Thus she doesn't comment and instead looks around for other interesting people, or things that happen.
Cheddy strides up to the trolls like he has a reason to be there. Because he does have a reason to be there. He approaches the trolls and gives the name of their contact quietly so as not to pass on me key name to other people in line who might want to piggy back on to him and his.
The nearest troll looks Cheddy up and down, clearly radiating a dismissive attitude.
He does however reach up and tap an earbud before rumbling something sub vocally.
While it's impossible to tell exactly what is being said, Cheddy suspects that he is speaking in Or'zet, probably because few non-troll/orks speak it.
An agonizing time period passes, probably feeling much longer than it really is, before the troll lowers his hand from the earpiece, steps aside and opens the door to allow you through.
He's not exactly smiling, but he does radiating a slightly less cold demeanor as he motions you to go through.
You step into a fairly humble lobby, where two more trolls stand waiting, flanking what seems to be a check in booth.
As the spot you, one of them inclines his head towards a large sign over the booth.
"No weapons allowed"
He then inclines his head towards the booth.
Both trolls look bored, but you are not fooled into thinking it means they are not alert.
Thankfully he only came with his concealed holdout pistol. It was supposedly scan-proof, but he wasn't about to spoil this on a stupid risk like trying to smuggle weapons into a popular club. He steps over and places the weapon in the care of management. Besides, if the interior was as chaotic as he was suspecting, getting a shot at anything more than point blank range would be next to impossible.
Gig looks about as happy as his outfit is appropriate to the situation.
Not. at. all.
He simply trudges after Cheddy and Luna, looking a bit like a stray dog following some passerby for lack of better things to do.
His thin frame looks positively alarming next to the bulk of the trolls and he is probably getting a lot of filthy gazes from the assembled would-be-party-goons as he is cutting the line with the other two.
At the security checkpoint he just lifts his frail arms to show he has no weapons holstered.
The only stuff he has on him right now is his com-link (dangling from a corded wire, clipped somewhat randomly onto his overall) and cyberdeck (stowed on a flat-bag across his back), as well as a cred-stick.
Luna passes the waiting line with a grin and her usual bouncy happy step - which goes out of sync every few steps but who would know that without knowing her well?
With her armored jacket set to black leather with a firy emblem at the back she looks more like a hired biker bodyguard than a partygoer but since she's following Cheddy the picture as a whole should work out.
Still she can't help turning around and throwing a kiss at the waiting line as they are waved inside.
Inside she reaches into her jacket and hands over her Ingram X. "Be nice to her! She's not my babies but I still like her a lot!"
She doesn't move to hand over her combat blade. It is neither particularily hidden nor visible with the sheath the same color as her pants. She simply goes by the idea that in a world filled with shooty shooty gun gun having a sharp piece of metal around is not considered a dangerous weapon.
The inside guards motions you through after giving each of you a perfunctory (but professional) pat-down.
You are either just that good (or that lucky) to step through the doors just as the last cords of the latest songs dies down, thus you have the pleasure of NOT stepping into a veritable wall of sound.
The inside of the club seems to go for the fairly popular "industry chic", where the place is built like a refurbished industrial warehouse, mixing the austere concrete with more club-like bling, lights and fixtures.
It also seems to be somewhat European inspired, with posters for old classic Euroband, mixed with more modern euro core and euro punk.
There is a good crowd, and most of them are clearly party people and fairly high fliers, meaning that Gig does stand out a little, but thankfully not enough to draw too much attention.
And, in a large private booth towards the back, a hand sticks out and seems to be waving you over.
Luna looks around, checking for other ways in or out of the place, other places where bouncers are stationed and maybe good places to take cover if something goes wrong. Basically she checks the surroundings to have a rough idea if things go wrong. Then she goes on to enjoy the look of the place. Snazzy Euro music is not exactly her thing but the place looks like someone put some measure of heart into making it look nice and that's not hard to appreciate.
All the while she's following Cheddy
Cheddy, for his part, takes a moment to adjust to the atmosphere. This is his turf, and he takes to it like a shark among guppies. But nicely. In under a minute he's gliding between conversations, greeting people like they're old friends, cracking jokes in passing and suddenly he has a drink from... somewhere. He takes an indirect route over to their contact. In spite of what one might expect, he becomes very difficult to track in the crowd of revelers. He seems to become one with them much like Luna's color shifting suit.
In spite of the indirect route, he arrives at their contact in a respectable amount of time and slides into a chair. Greetings. And thanks for the invite. He says with a deferential nod and a raise of his glass.
Lunas progress is not half as smooth as Cheddys but with her slim frame and the impressive strength hidden in her bio-mented muscles its not hard for her to keep up with him. She also tries to get a seat. Sure a bodyguard type would probably stay standing but she's still Luna. She wants a part of the fun.
The booth isn't well lit (probably by choice) and this means the first you see of the Shakesperian is the glimmer of his golden nose ring, and the the gold chain connecting it to his left ear.
The second is the slow reveal of his equally golden teeth as he leans back and smiles at you, like some kind of chubby, black benevolent Buddha.
Without saying anything, he indicates the free seats with a nod of his head, waiting for you all to sit down.
Once you do, he chuckles, his voice rumbling like distant thunder.
"Good evening I give you, my friends.
Tell me, what is the be-all and the end-all for us doing business in the shadows? Nuyen, cold hard Nuyen my friends!
And an opportunity have fallen in my lap, one I am keen to pass on to you me ol' beauties!
It's not going to be an easy run though, so, before we get into it, let's get properly watered and refreshed.
Order what you'd like, it's on me tonight boys and lady."
Gig let's out a sigh of relief as they arrive at the booth, having followed Luna on her heels virtually clinging to her like a small child following a mother through a thick crowd to avoid getting simply swept away and becoming lost. While he is actually a bit taller than her, he has like less than a quarter of her musculature AND is quite terrified of so many people who, to him, are only one incident away from a homicidal panic rampage.
How anyone could actually crave this kind of crazy was utterly incomprehensible to him.
"One human is an intelligent, rational, sophisticated creature.
A group of humans is a stupid, irrational and blood crazy mob of lunatics."
He says as he sits down.
Then he looks up, quizzically.
Then leans over to Luna and whispers: "I did just talk out loud, didn't I...?"
The Shakesperian's smile turns into a grin and he nudges Cheddy with an elbow.
"Cheery fellow you hang around with, what, are you brothers and he got the smarts and you got the charm perhaps?"
His eyes seems to be firmly fixed on Luna at the moment.
There is definitively more than a little interest in that gaze.
Luna happily plops down on the seat closest to the exit and gives a quick "Hi" to the man before half turning to Gigs.
"You did. No idea where that came from tho. Pretty sure one person is plenty to be stupid, irrational and crazy. Heck _I_ can be like that sometimes. It's kinda fun if no one is around that you care about."
Turning back to the Shakespearean she says: "I like that thought. Means I get to be the pampered little sister who grows up to be a brat because the brothers spoil her too much."
She is very much oblivous to the Shakespeareans close attention towards her
Cheddy smiles at the banter and discreetly orders a round of middle quality. It's a safe bet, given the circumstances, but his compatriots were already throwing enough chaos into these proceedings as it was.
He responds, You could call us family, as deep as that runs for our kind. I wouldn't say he kept all the smarts though. Just the ones I didn't want.
After you've all ordered (or not) some refreshments, The Shakesperian takes a long pull from his tankard of something frothy to lubricate the old vocal cords and then begins his spiel.
"Ok, look, as I said, this won't be an easy thing to do, and it's a three stage affair.
Now, I'd like to cover the whole thing, but the Johnson was adamant of you only knowing the stage you're at.
My guess is that they are leaving you an out if you want it after each stage, keeping what you've earned so far, but not knowing enough to compromise the next stage if you don't want to do it."
Draining his tankard and letting it join the four already empty ones on the table, he chuckles.
"First step isn't too complicated, but it's by no means easy or safe.
You've got to procure an old tome, proper hardback, paper, probably written with a quill and all.
Problem is who has it and where they are at.
You're up against THE actual, accept-no-substitute, honest-to-goodness Yakuza on this one."
The Shakesperian pauses for a moment, probably for effect, before continuing.
"Seems our tome is in the hands of a mid-level Yakuza boss. and it's decent chance he doesn't yet know what he has on his hands, or he'd most likely pass it along for a favor from on high.
...
Unless of course he DOES know, and is planing on using it for his own purposes, which would be more trouble for us, unfortunately."
Cheddy chews on this task as he takes a steady drink of his own. Ok. If we're going to pull this off I hope you're holding a lot more info than just that, but I expect that here in a moment. First, which boss? I'd hate to get embroiled in a conflict of interest.
Gig had shut up following his slip, only to ask for a mega pint of real coffee (or soy caff) and a bacon sandwich.
Once the Shakespearin starts unwrapping his story and comes to the spicy part, he points several handful of fingers at him and looks triumphantly at Luna.
"See? See!
Group dynamics make people stupid as dreck.
Who would join a gang that is making their members ink the crimes they commit into their flesh?!
I mean, Common, that is stupidity on so many layers that even the wiring schematic of a matrix host would like trivial in comparison!"
Gig. Mind on the job, please. Cheddy gently reminds. What do you know of Yakusa networks?
"Of course I got more information, what do you take me for hmm?" The Shakesperian chuckles magnanimously, clearly playing up the benevolent Buddha a touch, but it seems genuine enough.
"So, his name is Takahashi, a Wakagashira of the Todo clan.
That's first lieutenant to you and me, reporting directly to a Todo clan Oyabun or family boss.
So just a sniff away from real power you could say.
They are big on loyalty, the Yakuza, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for ambition and advancement of course."
Taking a break to refresh himself, The Shakesperian lets a sixth tankard join the previous ones on the table.
Quite a pile in front of him, the rest of you have a lot of catching up to do.
"Anyway, the tome is some kind of really ancient text, and yes, we've got "intercepted" a few photocopies of some of the pages, and it's pretty much 99% guaranteed that it's the real McCoy.
It's related to summoning apparently, and likely to be magically warded."
"Now, Takahashi is in charge of running a restaurant for the family, it's a legit business, used at least partially for money laundering, which goes hand in hand with his protection racket side business.
So you can expect some proper goons there, but not TOO many, they don't want to draw suspicion.
And yes, we suspect that he has the tome in his office above the restaurant."
"wha- oh. Ya, sure."
Let it go, breathe three times, each a bit slower than the last...
He grabs onto his back and unpacks his cyberdeck and starts tapping away on it while the man continues to explain.
Soon after the restaurant is mentioned, Gig sends a trid stream to you, showing first the location on a street layout, then a bunch of frontal captures followed by a commercial clip of the inside, kitchen and ambiente. A still trid of Takahashi is also displayed.
He looks up at the last bit with a troubled expression.
"Magic precautions, eh?"
He looks over to Cheddy.
"Not really your department either, right? We'll need a specialist for that sort of dreck then..."
Ya. This is likely more than the three of us can handl on our own. We will probably need a couple specialists to augment or own capabilities.
Cheddy takes a glance at the information from Gig before filing it away for later. But We haven't yet come to the most interesting part of this conversation: what's it worth to us?
"Well, as I said before, the pay is scaling to the stage you're at.
So here is the deal.
first stage, get the tome, preferably as hush-hush as you can.
Pay is 15 thousand Nuyen, cash on delivery.
In addition, if you can get it inside one week from accepting the job, it's a bonus of 5 thousand more.
finally, there is a pot of 3 thousand Nuyen, available upfront for you to spend on gear, down payment on hiring a runner or two and so on."
"Hmm. Is there a bonus if we can keep it quiet?
One thing that comes to mind...
Do we have good trids of the tome?
Maybe we could have someone fake it and we do that old swapdidoo and hope Mr. Jacuzzi isn't looking at his precious too often and too hard."
"I suspect the biggest bonus for doing it on the sly here is that it would make the next part of the job easier, should you take it.
This is merely an educated guess, but the longer it takes for the theft to be discovered, the longer it will be before the pressure rises.
So, yes, if you could swap it for a fake, and get out ok, then you'll almost assuredly be able to do the next part easier."
Luna doesn't have anything useful to add here, so she nips on her drink and tries to look interested
Cheddy leans back and nurses his drink. Sounds doable, with the right help. Anything more on this text we're snatching?
"It's a fairly large tome, the exact dimensions are unknown, but it's supposed to weigh at least five kilo, so it's quite the massive thing.
I would imagine it's going to reach 50 x 30 cm at the very least."
Cheddy lets some incredulity slip into his tone. So we don't even know the exact book we're lifting and trying to forge? Does it have any known identifying markings at least?
"Did you miss when I said we had photocopies of some of the pages? That includes the covers as well.
Trust me, we might not know the exact dimensions, but the looks, those we do know.
Here, have a little look."
With a gesture, Cheddy finds himself receiving a file containing photos of the tome in question.
It is indeed a large looking tome, leather bound, as far as you can tell, signs of frequent use and age, with a symbol on the front you have seen enough times to identify as a Celtic knot.
Gig makes sure to copy the provided trids and immediately sets his agent the task of searching the matrix for an affordable old, leather bound tome.
He is also composing a quick text to Al:
<< Howdy Coffee-Connesseur!
Any spellworm runners good withagic traps and such dreck you know of? May have some business opportunity for him.>>
Shortly switching back to meatspace he asks:
"Any known weaknesses? Skinny girlies, drinking, cards, pride in his little place...?"
The Shakesperian leans back in the couch, leather creaking ominously under the ponderous movement of his girth.
"Well, we can infer from his ambitious plans that his status is probably his main weakness. That would translate to pride no doubt.
I would say that status and pride in status is most definitively his core characteristics.
How useful that will be to you, well that is up to your ingenuity.
Of course, Yakuzas in general are quite prideful in their "manliness" so that could also be a chink in his armor."
After a few moments, Gig gets a response from Al, it's a short list of four names, with a few side notes attached.
Howling Jackal: Competent, expensive, mainly combat related capabilities.
Lena the Dream: Competent, mid range cost, utility
Bite yer face off: Competent, psychotic, cheap, utility
Jack O' Shadows: Competent, skilled, devious, negotiable prices, all around skills.
During a moment of silence, a hard, sharp cord shatters the ambience.
It's clearly very discordant, but the way the musicians slip back in to tune and continue makes you suspect it was deliberate.
Perhaps it was a ploy, something snuck in there to sort of shake up your audience, make sure to keep their attention?
Either way, it worked on you, in as much as you were paying attention to the music in the first place, you ARE here on biz after all.
Another round of drinks arrive, paid for ahead of time of course, The Shakesperian has a reputation as a good host to maintain after all.
And his 24 carat smile is sure to remind you how successful he is as a fixer.
It's pretty interesting in a way to be here, as far as clubs go, this is supposed to be in the "Lower upper" class, which means you still have ways to climb before you can rub elbows with the really powerful people.
But still...a few months ago you were nobodies, and now you are at the Jagged Nail.
Doors are opening up for you, and faster than expected perhaps.
Luna takes her glass and swirls it around, making the liquid inside a small whirlpool while staring somewhat absentmindely around the club
"Sooo complicated. If someone really looks at the decoy book they'll know it's fake. Because if we could get enough information to fake the book then no one would need to steal the book anymore, just look at all the information already out there. So all we can do anyway is make something that looks like it while... let's say looking through some kind of glass window. And add a bit of magical wolo wolo so mages are also fooled.
The rest is just me sneaking in while you try to distract them. Preverably in a way where they can't trace the comotion back to you because otherwise they'll likely pay you a visit just because that comotion happened roughly at the time the book go yoinked. When they find out it got yoinked that is."
Already, Gig's mind is racing through approaches, plans, countermeasures and, most prominently, the prospect of creating a fake magic tome.
He is calculating the required materials and techniques and also tries to rank the usefulness of Al's mage contacts.
So it really is not a surprise that a noticeable lack of response slips in, with Gig muttering under his breath, his fingers dancing over the table as if he were typing on a real keyboard.
Eventually he snaps about as another round of trunks are served and he coughs then laughs his trademark chuckle and shows a toothy grin.
"So, I really am looking forward to fake that tome and I think we will attempt it. Which gives us, that means your ... Ehhh, guy, the chance to slip in some kind of surprise into the fake. Now I don't know jack nothing about all that magic nonsense but surely you could lay all kinds of nasty surprises into a magic book, right? Maybe your... Employer, 's the right word, Cheddy?"
He breaks off for a moment before talking on.
"whatever, your guy may want us to casually slip a special something inside the tome? For a little extra ... Bonus, fee, ehh, help me out here Face..."
The Shakesperian raises a fascinated eyebrow for a moment, then chuckles, a deep rolling sound that can easily be heard even over the music.
"You sure are sounding like you are engaging with this little contract, but don't go overboard here.
Don't lose sight of the objective, that isn't healthy in the long run.
Remember, the book is the key, and getting it is the most important part.
Yes, it would be good if it could be done on the sly, it would certainly help a bit with the next part, and it will look good on your resume.
But the book is the goal, the players aren't interesting at all.
You want to slip in something, go ahead, but if you do, it will be for YOUR benefit."
Cheddy nods. Sounds like we have some preperations to make. We'll do it. And sooner rather than later, I think.
The Shaksperian's wide grin disappears, and his previously so friendly Buddha face becomes deadly serious instead.
"You've taken the task then? Excellent.
Now, repeat back to me what your task is and the basic idea you expect to follow."
Luna grins and can't help but interject with her version of the task:
"Steal wolo wolo book. Be hush hush if can."
she sticks out her tounge at the corner of her mouth, indicating she knows very wenn that's too dumbed down to count and that the others should do the parroting better
Cheddy raises an eyebrow. Acquire a certain Hardback book of magical wololo from Takahashi of the Todo clan from above his restaurant, quietly. This is part 1 of 3 and is a precursor to the other parts. The quieter we can do this the better.
The grin comes back, the benevolent Buddha is once more with you.
"Sounds like you are professional about it.
As you've noticed, the goal is specific, but the means you'll use are more or less completely up to you.
The only hard limit is of course the time limit, and the quieter the better.
Runners are usually a bit more micromanaged than this..."
He ponderously leans closer, and once more stops smiling.
"The fact that your reins are so light IS cause for concern, but since the Johnson is most likely hoping for you to continue on to part two and three, I don't suspect any treachery...at least not yet."
"Ahhh. You're saying Mr Johnson might in fact be a proxy to that Takahashi guy. They want to see how well their little prize is protected. So they let us do what we want so we can think of something they haven't. And the whole bit about it being hush hush is so we don't just go on a murder spree which would make that test a bit pricey for them."
Luna tosses out this idea without the grin leaving her face. In fact she talks about it like discussing the hidden plot of the latest trideo romance show. She just finds it a funny possibility.
Gig looks bewildered and somewhat confused at the exchange between their (intermediate) employer and Luna with an expression that seems to say:are you serious or is this some kind of joke?
Then he shakes his head and adds his own summary in that odd voice he uses over the comlink in times of danger or stress - a curious mix of forced-calm, militaristic brefity, and feverish impatience with a decent strain of bored monotony of someone having seen quite a bit too much to remain perfectly sane.
"Yes, stealing the book is first prio.
If we get a decent copy together, we'll leave a facsimile behind.
We probably will try to infiltrate the place via social and technical means before the actual coup, hoping to exploit any weaknesses of the sneak's head to keep him occupied during the actual exchange.
To increase our chance of pulling the heist off, we will look into hiring a mage of sorts to fend off any magic traps or security meadures.
We may be interested in continuing after a potential, initial success."
He sends a quick matrix checklist to the others with a series of checkboxes for quickly responding.
1. Get a bloody Mage. Al's candidates or visit the bar and talk (urgh) to runners. Cheddy [ ]?
2. Target Observation (technical). Gig [x]
3. Target Observation (in person). Luna [ ], Cheddy [ ]
4. Build a facsimile. Gig [x], Cheddy [ ]
The Shakespearean raises an eyebrow and glances over at Cheddy, as if to ask "Is she serious"?
He doesn't lose his benevolent smile however and seems more amused than anything.
"Well, it does sound like you are keen to go. Shall we make it official that you take the job and I'll inform the Johnson then?"
Make it official, my good man. We're on the case. Cheddy lifts his glass in toast. To fortune and fortunes!
The Shakespearean grin grows impossibly wider still and he nods, then he reaches one meaty hand into his jacket and withdraws a single orange creditstick which he casually tosses on the table.
"There you go, the promised seed money, use use it as you wish, nobody will want it back. Though use it wisely of course, otherwise you won't be able to collect the bigger reward, hah!"
He looks around and gestures at the table.
"Now, with the biz taken care of, why don't we enjoy the rest of the evening eh? It's too late to get any meaningful work done tonight anyway, and it's my treat anyway! Well, the Johnson's treat really, but who's counting?"