Avryl Grimaldi's page

Both are zero, but I get it, I should've chosen one, not to mention defining which was INT and REP. Let's go with the Media in this case. Sound okay?

"Hmmm…Caitlin Moss…"

Reputation Check: 2d6 + 8 ⇒ (4, 6) + 8 = 18

Avryl stares at the package like it's a potential bomb, sitting on her desk, trying to look innocent. Nothing had happened in the 2-and-a-half weeks, and now, with police observers gone, this shows up. Coincidence?

"BART," she begins, "Is there a return address, by chance? Or am I being paranoid all of the sudden?"

Avryl looks at B.A.R.T., rather confused. "I beg your pardon? Think of what?"

I got nothin'

After studying the screen for a little bit, Avryl shrugs. "Well, if your people are there, I can't tell. It all looks rather routine, truth to tell.

Shakin' dem bones

perception 1: 2d6 + 15 ⇒ (2, 5) + 15 = 22

perception 2: 2d6 + 15 ⇒ (3, 3) + 15 = 21

perception 3: 2d6 + 15 ⇒ (2, 3) + 15 = 20

Avryl is kind of…blown away at the news of at least SOME of her travel restrictions could be lifted. She's not at all surprised that they can't get her Off-World restriction lifted; nothing short of a bona fide miracle or a deal with the Devil could do that.

"Why not," she says, shrugging. "Brainstorming is something of a hobby for me. But we need our priorities met first. I'm getting peckish."

For now, Avryl decides to keep her mouth shut and concentrate on something she might do: Break her own encryption. As she figures it, if she's going to survive what's coming, then helping Detective Eteki is probably better than running.

”I’m afraid I can offer little on this person’s motivation,” Avryl freely admits. ”At the moment, Emily’s explanation of ‘why us’ is as good as any. I certainly couldn’t think of an alternative—at least not a credible one.”

She takes a drink of water as a way to give herself a moment to collect her thoughts.

”And in deference to both you and Mr. Transit, I had no intention of leaving the planet. As long as I fail to meet the terms as laid out by the heads of House Grimaldi, she seems to say that last part with sarcastic intent, then returning home is off the table as an option.

”That being said, and considering at the very least the lives of two of the few friends I have seem to be at stake, please consider me at your service, Detective.”

"Dwight Kaplan," Eteki says. "And Carrie Mendez. Both Thrillers, both dead from seemingly environmentally-related accidents. Except, as you've clearly been made aware, there's evidence to show they weren't accidents. Kaplan's gear didn't fail, and Mendez didn't slip. They were murdered, and we think we know who did it."

Eteki pauses, shaking his head sadly.

"Except for the fact that we don't know who did it."

That strikes Avryl as a strange statement. They know who, but not who?

"Or unless you get a video file like that one. The same kind Candy Kane got. The same kind that got her killed."

There is, to Avryl, a pause that seems to last for hours, but she's sure it's only a few seconds.

“Chatelain…originally an old Euro nobility title, meaning ‘keeper of the castle’,” she says, with a slight flutter in her voice, as the weight of what Eteki has told them begins to assert itself. “I’m sorry…the strangest trivia seems to pop out of my mouth whenever I get particularly nervous, and I find it hard to stop running off at—“

She does manage to stop herself before she goes too far, takes a deep breath, and…

“So…it would seem the killer has picked their new targets. Is that what it all boils down to?”

"Officer Christian Renaux," he smiles. "Detective Eteki sent me to pick you up and give you a heads up."

"You're not being taken to the local Precinct House," he continues. "We're going to be swapping ident-tags when we hit the Mission/Central mainline tunnel, where another cruiser is waiting to take our place. I'm taking you to City Central. Detective Eteki will explain more when we get there."

"I...see," Avryl says a bit haltingly. "Well, I take it you and your superiors know what's best."

Inside, Avryl is wondering why the switch-a-roo, and why City Central. She's having a bad feeling about this. What's Emily gotten her involved with this time???

"Emil Eteki, Homicide, MetroPD San Francisco," he says, waving you all to the various seats around the table. "I know who you all are, thanks to your POS-ID scans in the cruiser. Legal introductions are out of the way. Have a seat. Tell me what you know. I'll do the same."

How do you do," she says. "I think Ms. Carter might be the best one to start this off, while I and the others add details as needed.

"Emily?"

Avryl rolls her eyes. "'And that's when he killed her, your Honor' will be what I'll be reciting. A little diplomacy, please?"

She frowns at B.A.R.T., not at him per se, but at the logic of his argument.

"Point taken," she sighs. "But by that same logic we should all be going, don't you think?"

She looks at Zerin. "You saw the same material I did. Moreover, you understand this old technology better than I do. And I'm pretty certain they won't have a specialist in antiquities waiting around at the station."

"It seems almost too good to be true," Avryl shrugged. "Still, if this can be wrapped up with a visit to the PD, all the better. Sounds like you won't be needing me, though…but thanks for the free food, Emily."

Avryl freezes in mid-task as Emily's inquiry hits home. "Now that you mention it…no to both. I didn't assume for that, considering it was an unopened package."

Of course, now that you mention it, I'm doing my best not to kick myself.

And so she reverses course, and begins to take out some of her tools for delicate work, but then thinks about it.

"Zerin…considering the age of this, do you have some more appropriate tools to take the reader apart?"

Avryl hurriedly packs her gear. "Well yes, I suppose I should, but I don't really like—I'm sorry, Zerin…what's unusual?"

Avryl will see if anyone in the Eggheads is still willing to talk to her

reputation, 2d6+1 (Eggheads): 2d6 + 1 ⇒ (2, 1) + 1 = 4

"Well, there's only one way to find out."

With a little caution, Avryl opens up the file she received from…whoever—the creepy voice that had haunted her AR. Maybe she and Emily could do some sort of cross check.

I'm going for it. I'm engaging the Major Useful Action vs. my Eggheads rep.

"Bugger all! Not one damn hit…"

She's more than a little frustrated that she can't get what she needs, hems and haws a little, but finally comes to a decision…

"I'm about to put myself on the outs with some people I hold in high regard," she says. "Considering however that, if I don't, the future survival of two people I give a damn about goes down quite a bit, I'll hope that you appreciate what I'm about to do."

And with that, she makes a call to ask a really BIG favor.

Sorry 'bout that. This has clearly not been my week.

networking check, 2d6+2 (Eggheads)+3 (Hackers)+1d6 (1 action point): 3d6 + 5 ⇒ (3, 4, 3) + 5 = 15

Okay, I'll use my Freelancer's Network to find someone in my hacker's group (?) to see if there's someone who can help me get the info without getting arrested. My rep with the Hackers is 3, and with the Eggheads, it's 2. I'll also burn 2 action points to better my chances of making a success.

networking 4d6+5: 4d6 + 5 ⇒ (2, 1, 1, 1) + 5 = 10

I think I blow'd it.

Let's try the former. Maybe Wally?

Well, there is the fact that I'm surrounded by a bunch of odds and ends. I could put together a small device that gets attached to the pylon that allows me to hack remotely, maybe even create multiple ones that misdirect attempts to backtrack me.

Oh…well, I suppose I could mind meld with the Hacker collective to see what can be done to find this info. Maybe bring fellow Eggheads into the mix if we need to invent something off the cuff. Was that the idea?

The who what and when is what I think we're interested in, but the only alternative I can think of is if there's a public surveillance system I could get access to. If we could get an image, Emily could do something with that.

What I'd like to do is break into the payment system to see if I could get any information on who might've hired BART for the courier job. Avryl has both keyboard and processor add-ons for her AR gear, as well as a hacking suite. Can she do this from where she's at, or is it location specific?

"What I need from you is not to verify delivery of package," she requested. "At least not yet. We have one chance to do this right, and it hangs on the fact that the data is still somewhere in between. Even so, this is going to be difficult at best."

She started taking activating all the goodies that turned her AR gear into a hacking suite. It wasn't her desktop rig, but it was what she had going for her right now.

Avryl's eyes go wide in surprise as she realizes their opportunity. "Whoever's doing this just might've left us a clue to their identity, though I confess that finding out about it might be close to impossible in this situation…

"What the hell? 'Close to impossible' isn't the same as 'impossible'."

She looks to Zerin. "Mind if I do a little creative hacking while I'm here?"

Perception Check, 2d6+15: 2d6 + 15 ⇒ (5, 1) + 15 = 21

Avryl sits there, staring at the end, wondering what "And baby makes five" means, and being more than a little scared. "Um…right…I can do that…I think. The system's a little more antiquated than I'm used to but someone got that data on that chip in the first place so it should be elementary to reverse the process to more modern media and I'm babbling again, aren't I?"

Avryl half seriously glares at Zerin. "Surprises…that's exactly what I'm more than a little worried about—the stuff no one can predict."

Back at Zerin's shop…

"What have I gotten myself into," Avryl almost moans. "I haven't dated anyone in…well…damn. Nothing's happened since I called it quits on my fiancé—which I was perfectly content with, thank you very much. Now I've given my PERSONE chit to a complete stranger.

"What was I thinking!? This chip of yours better be something, Emily. I don't care for total strangers barging into my life all of the sudden. I mean…does he even know, let alone like, classical music? Bowie? Mercury? Puddles?"

It's fairly clear the poor girl needs to vent.

I turn to her with a sympathetic grin. "At least he agreed to to do it. Who knows? In the meantime, perhaps we should consider relocating back to Zerin's place? We don't want to stay in the way, right?"

I'm completely caught offguard, not really wanting to be this far into downtown in the first place. It feels as if I'm suddenly cornered. "I…I um…"

What a quandary! If I brush him off, the story ends here. Then again, it's not my story now, is it? I'd only have to lose one important contact, and…

Oh, grow up, silly girl. I'm just giving him my PERSONE, not stripping naked and boffing him right on the spot.

I reach into my frock coat and pull out one of my signature PERSONE cards, prepared/resigned to hand it over. "Would this be a bad time to mention that some people consider me 'high maintenance'?"

Hopefully the wry smile reveals that I'm at least half joking…

Avryl turned to Emily. "Well, sounds like the ball's in your court, dear. What do you want to do next?"

It seems we're introducing ourselves now. I should probably join in. "Avryl Grimaldi, ma'am. And what Ms. Carter has yet to explain is that we need a specific piece of Old era technology to read this data card—a smartphone, actually."

Avryl makes a bit of a grimace as she steps on who-knows-what on the way to Zerin’s workshop. Even after all these years, she still doesn’t like coming to DownTown, and she still feels like an outsider even in MidTown.

One look at the shop’s interior does little initially to reassure her. ”Are you sure about this, Emily? The artifact we’re looking for is rather…obscure.”

I wish sometimes I could stay in bed, but I know I can’t.

I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and get back to work. That’s why I’m trying to finish up this coding job. It’s customizing and adapting the Ultra Unity Engine for this new game that’s “sure to be the next big hit”. I’ve heard that too many times from too many clients, but at least this one is promising to pay up front, and coding like this is fairly simple.

I’m 3/4 of the way there, when I get a message. Emily…she has a WHAT!?

She can’t be serious. Nobody uses that antique protocol anymore. ”Get serious, dear.

I go back to work, back into my zen mode. Code like this is easy. You don’t even need to write it all from scratch. If you’ve done enough coding, you had resources of your past to borrow against. Just use them like pieces of a puzzle, and what you can’t fill with that, you write—

Emily’s second message. Same thing, but with promises of caffeine or junk food. I look around my tiny cube and realize that my supply of both are rather low.

I text her back. I’ll be there. And I expect the good stuff when I arrive.

I grab up my coat, and all the essentials—including a bag of odds and ends, since I’ll probably have to make something to read that artifact.

Avryl Grimaldi: Master of all things computer. She codes software, she designs hardware, and she hacks. Hers is a unique story lost in a city full of them.

Originally hailing from the orbital high rise, her technical acumen made her an ideal candidate for designing the next generation of quantum-holo-organic AI or whatever, but her refusal to marry a cheating narcissist would have reverberations in her family and those above her. Ultimately it led to her downfall to midtown (not even uptown, dammit).

She was determined not to crawl back, though. She was still “master of all things computer”, so she’d code, design and hack her own way in life. If she couldn’t get back to the hallowed heights she was born to, she’d at least make her own way, on her own terms, determined not to be controlled by anyone else again.

She had a number of friends and contacts that helped, despite constantly feeling like a square peg in a town of round pegs. Among her handiest is Emily Theora Carter, who found Avryl’s uncanny abilities to find information that didn’t want to be found very handy for her breaking stories. Occasionally, she would get a semi-regular visit from BART to re-balance his high body’s high performance machinery (it’s amazing how fast he can wear out high endurance calipers).

Now she’s onto something potentially hot…and after 6 months of some variation of snake flu and a month of “why me” self pity, what she could really use right now is a nice piece of intel to boost her bottom line and self esteem.