Trivia Night at Joe's IC

[Maquise]

It's Tuesday night, and that means Trivia Night at Joe's!

You can't remember how long you've been stuck in this armpit of a town, but it's been so long that you can't remember the name. Things have fallen into a routine: get up, head to the stuffer shack for breakfast, off a gaggle of gangers, hit the soycaf stand for lunch, tangle with toxic mages, and be back home in time for dinner and Combat Biking on the trid.

Same ole everyday humdrum.

But tonight, it's Trivia Night! The one thing you have to look forward to all week! You spring down the foggy, neon-lit street, a new spring in your stride and pep in your step.

[TheJudicator]

The distant sounds of a low, revving engine could be heard in the distance, growing closer with each passing second. Screeching to a halt upon arriving to their destination, the tires of a rather ostentatious Harley-Davidson Scorpion could be seen giving off a touch of smoke as the rider killed the engine, flipping out the kickstand with a deft snap of the foot. The bike itself was quite a sight: painted flames decorated the chassis paneling whilst the handlebars were fashioned to look not unlike the horns of some great bull.

The rider, a woman known on the streets as Arc, looked much more normal in comparison, one leg swinging over the seat, heavy boots connecting to the ground with an audible "thud." Heavy cargo pants rustled into a settled position around this woman's legs, the loose garment held to her hips with a thick synthleather belt, a large buckle holding it all together. A dirt-scuffed, tattered tanktop and thick jacket framed her toned, compact frame, giving off an aggressive tone as she locked up her ride, raven-colored hair flipping out of her face as she whipped around, sauntering down the street and its fog.

Grinning toothily, Arc took one pause, eyeing the establishment to contain what could easily the highlight to her week of the blahs. "Allllrighty, time to have some fun~" Fiddling through her several pockets, she checked to make sure she had her personal effects, her left hand withdrawing a toothpick. Placing it gingerly between her teeth, she heaved a sigh as she pressed on.

[Odentin]

Even as Arc climbs off of her bike, the low hum of a pesudo-performance engine can be heard coming from down the street, in the direction of the more middle-class area of town. A moment later, a midnight blue BMW pulls around the corner and comes to a stop behind the motorcycle. The door opens, and a man that seems horrendously out of place steps out. A tall elf with dark skin, wearing a tailored suit (of which he buttons the jacket as he stands), the only part about him that makes sense at first glance is the large pistol on his belt. He turns to Arc and smiles before stepping up onto the sidewalk with her.

"Arc." he states with a thick Aztlani accent, "Glad to see you were able to join us tonight."

His voice is smooth and controlled, hence his street name of "Suave." He smiles charmingly at the orc as he opens the door for her, ever the gentleman.

[Fibinachi]

Trivia Night at Joe's. The one Tuesday that made the other six days of the week almost useful. Get in, sit tight, order a something-something from the what-his-face, try to remember facts about bettles. No explosions, but good soykaff. With the inability to sleep came endless excuses to marathon late-night Trid shows, which, while not making sleep any easier, paid dividends once some wise-ass busted out the old "What's the tallest building in the American sub-continent?" or asked about para-critters of Australia. Yeah, life was good. Fine excuse to put on a finer suit, a grab a duffel bag full of tools (trivia: What's in the bag? Answer: Oh ha, ha, ha, you don't need to know friend) and have fun not-sleeping somewhere other than a run down habitat.

You even got to meet people like... whathisfaceagain and the orc lass rocking the bike who was called... err. Bike-lady and suave door-guy? All Devenna could actually recall right this moment was that the Australian winged dog had a very varied fur color pattern and was renowned for it's impeccable hunting instincts. . Really had to get the days fourteenth pick-me-up, everything was starting to flow together. Wait, no. Suave and Arc. That was it. People with style, and class, and vehicles. If someone hadn't surgically removed the ability to feel jealousy, Devenna would almost have felt a spike of envy. Vehicles tended to have comfortable seats, which was just great for naps. With a fancy car, there would be no need to jog the couple of kilometers to Joe's with a duffel bag in one hand, which was beginning to be a bit old. Half a click back her system had registered a minuscule increase in oxygen consumption, according to the bio-read out in the corner of her vision. Tsk. Devenna squelched the little AR monitor with a thought, flicked of the active camouflage on the suit and adjusted her pulse downward a few beats. There. Ready for socializing, soykaff and obscure arcana.

"Hold the door, please gentleman, gotta bag. Fancy suit, there. Your teeth are positively whiter than last time, did they got shined up? Ah, Arc, sure I could hear your engine a few blocks out. Tuned? Today is day your clearly superior knowledge of vehicle mechanics is finally beaten by my frantic reading of old car manuals."

[Saulk]

Stone Bear enjoyed feeling the wind through his black hair as he drove his heavily customized motorcycle towards the local watering hole. Heavily customized, of course, because he was a troll and needed a more substantial bike. The heavy polearm holstered upon his back cut through the wind, leaving an eerie whistling, not unlike the keening of a banshee. It was designed so to do. Stone Bear frowned, thinking about that deliberate choice. He knew, more intimately than others gave him credit for, who and what he looked like. He was monstrous. It was a part and parcel of his profession that one always had a roll to play, and his was to be dangerous and scary. He preferred to think of himself as travelling along a path of enlightenment.

He followed the Bear, and the bear was a teacher, and a protector, rather than a vicious brute. Stone Bear enjoyed the finer things. He was not lacking for money and rather than the usual pursuits people believed of trolls, he tended to his plants and his dogs with a tender affection. It had been ten years since he had travelled from the tribal lands, and he was making a name for himself as a runner of some renown. Tonight though was his night off. Tonight...was the game.

He saw the vehicles of the others and nodded. Good. They were there. This boded well. He dismounted his bike, and adjusted his heavy leather jacket over his tribal armoured vest. He walked towards the door, mentally going over the list of facts he would have to recall for the night's game.

[TheJudicator]

Arc blinked a few times, her smirk growing wider at the sight of the dark elf holding the door for her. Standing at a petite 5'4" and lacking most of the usual features of her race, she almost passed off as human, but her known friends and acquaintenances have identified her as the orkette she is. Holding her arms outstretched, she crossed one leg over the other, bowing dramatically.

"Well don't I feel welcome. You still catching leg with all that honey, eh Romeo~?" Her own accent, denoting some mixture of Aztlani in her heritage, was nowhere near the elf's level of thickness, but just enough to give her tone a bit of edginess to it. "Well come on, the night ain't gettin' any warmer.."

"Oh, wuzzat now?" she blinked, sidestepping the fast-talking lady with the bag, whom she quickly recognized. "Eeyyyyy, Com-pos-ite! You seriously think you stand a chance of beatin' me at my own lifeblood, omae? Grinning, she dipped her knees and leaned to one side, arms splayed in an aggressive stance, the steel chrome of her exposed right hand and wrist reflecting the dim light. "Methinks you took one too many vatjobs to make y'self that loco, but I guess we shall see!" In truth, Arc only went to nights like this for the drinks and the entertainment, never expecting to win. Then again, she knew she had a chance whenever the talk of motors, engines, guns, or explosives came in, so that was a boon for sure.

Laughing heartily, Arc fully entered the establishment, her violet irises dilating as they calibrated adjusted to the dim lighting, pausing as she heard the thrum of Stone Bear's engine, causing her to smirk. She knew an engine when she heard it, and his was certainly unique. Turning her head, she flicked the toothpick to the other side of her lips, grinning. "And that makes four. Must be a good week then~"

[Fibinachi]

A tiny AR warning flashed across the field of vision.
Threat. Arc was displaying her teeth, which could only mean she was about to go for the jugular. Good move, hard to avoid in the close quarters of the entrance if you didn't see it coming. Good jaw muscles. Must be why Suave was holding the door itself, he was in on it, the second-hand in this impromptu hit squad. Probably had a gun primed to go, hence the vehicles, they were get-away cars. Effective, but not good enough. Shifting the bag a fraction of an inch away from the door, Devenna prepared to counter, adjust and beat everyone to unconscious with their own molars.
Danger.
No, Arc had seen the beginning counter strike and was leaning to avoid it! Commendable effort, but if Devenna ducked like so, then...
Danger!
Arc had seen that too, she was bringing up a hand of metal and wires strong enough to crush bricks in a chromed death-grip. Drek, she was good.
False positive. Non-hostile entity.

Oh. It was the grinning thing, not a prelude to death by mastication. Right, yes, and one responded to that by smiling (like so) and nodding (like so) and not breaking anyone's spines (her instructors had emphasized this repeatedly after the first incident). For the second time in a few minutes, Devenna asked her endocrine system to dial things down a notch.

"Negative. Blood is an inefficient bludgeoning tool, I'd use a ---"

A large shadow fell, as a particular ugly piece of mountain capped with a mane of black hair strode towards the doorway to Joe's. In the wake of the glacial onslaught came a keening sound, like bad feedback screech.
Maybe if she broke everyone's spines that damn noise'd finally stop. It was always there with Stone Bear, but how? Why? Did he whistle? Was that the secret? A ventriloquist troll whistler? No. Was her communications compromised? Devenna started taping at the commlink on her wrist, flipping through frequencies, isolating sounds. No dice, the thing persisted even when her audio-filters were set to only react to the sound of a hitman sneaking through an opera rehearsal. Bloody mojo.

"Good evening, Modern Lancer. Did you joust anyone on your way here, with your lance and steed? Arc's inside. Suave is being a gentleman, so I suggest we enter before a gaggle of swooning elven rappers come block our passage while they admire the only man left in town who'll open doors for a lady. "

Was elven rappers still a thing? Drek, really could do with a pick-me up that wasn't emergency adrenaline.

[Odentin]

Suave gives Arc a smirk and a wink, "Pues, si, mi amor. Remind me to tell you about my latest trip to Hong Kong later." That had been a fun trip. Any vacation that causes you to burn a near-perfect SIN is one to remember. Of course, getting a new one has made money tight. Need to get a few good jobs and build his cushion back up...

He glances over at Composite as she approaches, his deck automatically popping up an AR window giving him details on her gear, just as it had for Arc. Always an odd one, Composite. Generally seems exhausted and running purely on caffeine. Perhaps a night of pasión might allow her to sleep properly for once...

Suave has to suppress a laugh at the thought. Considering he's about as strong as cooked spaghetti, and she's a walking killing machine...even if she didn't tear his heart out for proposing it, he doubts he'd survive a night in bed with her.

And speaking of walking killing machines, Suave immediately activates his sound filter as he hears the wail of Stone Bear's imminent arrival, dulling the sound as far as is possible so that his head doesn't split in two. Glancing over at the souped up bike and marveling at the AR window showing all of the troll-bike's statistics. Always a sight, when that one opens up. He does allow a chuckle at Composite, "I should hope not. I come down to this sh¡thole neighborhood in order to get away from those girls..."

[Maquise]

You recognize the usual dregs that hang around this place, chugging the swill this "Joe" character calls booze. You don't seem to remember ever seeing anyone actually named Joe in all of your time in this town.

On a completely unrelated note, where's Crazy Dany? Is that drekhead running late again?

[Marius]

Average height and built with tight packed muscle, Dany walk to the bars entrance. He knows he's late but the night was just too nice not to walk, you can almost see the moon! The others are probably already inside so he just walks straight in. "Whatcha doing chummers, already missing me?"

[Fibinachi]

Ah, the fast one. A man with a curious and slightly mysterious ability to never quite be where the bullets ended up, positively gifted with making everyone around him assume they were walking through a sea of treacle. Another one of those mysterious little bits of reality warping brain caltrops. Magic.

"I wouldn't. I think. I mean yes. "Lack of your presence" was the emotional state I was in, my favorite other bundle of violence. Was wondering if you had run into a gang and was slowed down because you had be positive civic influence. Suave was just regaling us with tales of us of his career doing rap. I understand he was positively in bed with the titans of industry."

Did Joe's sell cups of joe? Could Joe fit into a cup? What was the wingspan of the short-tailed Aztlan crow? Was tonight's questions going to involve anything with beetles, because that would be free, easy points. Slinking through the door, bag first, her eyes pinged back with a short blurp on the usual suspects. That guy in the corner, as usual, that ork still drinking the usual pretend-liquor, some slack-jawed somebody looking either half out of it or three hours into a complex BLT, still No Joe anywhere at Joe's. Home, sweet home. Delightful place, as soon as you turned your nose off.

Now, to find a place that seated a troll followed by the sound of a banshee, an ork probably packing an awry bundle of plastic explosives, a man, his suit, the force field of likability pheromones around him, another chap who could see soundwaves, dodge bullets and herself.
Oh.
That table looked nice.

If it's relevant or adds flavour, I'd like to do a simple action Observe in Detail at this lovable little place. I get the feeling it's about to be blown up, surrounded by mercenaries, collapsed into a sinkhole, or that Trivia Night is regularly attended by four dragons, their bodyguards and the CEO of at least two big corporations. Or possibly that someone posted tonight's questions on the wall somewhere.

[roll0]
9 + 3 Vision enchancement, wireless bonus

4 hits.

[Maquise]

The usual dregs are in the house tonight.

Behind the bar, everyone's favorite busty, cherry-red haired, pigtailed, skimpily-dressed elf is pouring a shot of some sort of industrial detergent for an ork that's busy enjoying the eye-candy. Her name's Cherry Blossom; the elf that is. If the ork's stained tank-top is anything to go by, he goes by the name of Splitter.

Next to a broken-down jukebox, a fellow in a black trench-coat with red goggles eyes the place. Right, he's probably a poser.

There's a cheery looking dwarf woman (dwarfette?) at one of the tables. She's polishing off what appears to be the latest of several alcoholic beverages.

The rest of the crowd's simply too mundane to hold your attention for long. Not that there are many of them anyway; the bar's mostly empty tonight. Odd, given the popularity of Trivia Night.

[TheJudicator]

In an exclamation just cheesy enough to make it into an old bar-comedy on the trid, Arc splayed her arms wide as their final compatriot came strolling through the door. "Dan-y! And here we thought you was gonna bail on us again. Get over heah, ya lug!" Cheerfully, she spun and nodded in approval to their choice of table. With a bound, the short girl hopped to a seat, as if it were some race to claim their place at the table. Flicking out her toothpick and catching it with her left hand, she stowed it away in some pocket before settling in.

"Hmm...if I didn't know any better, I'd say our competition be lookin' a little light tonight, chummers. Probably for the best, cuz' they ain't got nothin' on, this, here~" Her head bobbed from side to side to emphasize each word at the end, the orkette grinning and flicking her jacket behind her, the flash of a pistol tucked into her back above her rump briefly visible. Reaching up with her right hand, she made a few flicking motions, her eyes shimmering a bit as she pulled up a few AR displays, setting the sensors on her bike to surveillance mode as security for their collective rides before resuming the conversation.

"So la Composite y el Dany, when are yous gonna let me trick out rides for you, hm? Cuz this walkin' around drek's gotta be gettin' old, know what I say, omaes? At least let me pick you guys up, it'd be less awkward that way, chip truth." One eye flickered as she took note of the Ork at the counter. Nothing personal, but experience has shown that her 'weak blooded' nature tends to piss em off. "And Suave, arn'chu in for a tune-up with that suiter-cruiser of yours? When you gonna stop by my shop for a visit, eh?" she winked, the happy grin on her face denoting how much she enjoyed the social interaction. Frag the trivia, this was what it's all about!

[Fibinachi]

"So ka, you find our ambulatory ways curiously odd in the age of the vehicle. Car seats are supposed to be soft. I'd be amenable to that. Something with synth-leather, and extra padding, with full lumbar support. How good are you at installing emergency trigger explosives under a seat? Passenger side, obviously."

Carefully setting the duffel bag down, then sliding it under a nearby chair, Composite remained standing. Had to, needed to see where other people put their hands, their legs, if there was any sharp sticks within their field of movement. It was good to meet with friends, it meant you could relax and only worry about the little things like snipers, get-away routes and being shanked with a sharpened fork. Near-safe in the company of people almost trustworthy, Devenna allowed herself to yawn. It went on for quite some time, jaw muscles popping audibly.

"Bit light; yeah. Normally get more people jandering in to match wits with the mountain. Maybe they've heard of our combined prowess and decided they'd rather try Bingo at Billy's? Drekheads."

Only enough people here for a medium-strength barbrawl if it came to that. Most of them faded into the background, assigned a threat rating by her cyber-eyes with a final value somewhere in the deep, mathematically improbable decimals. Possible that the dwarf(ine?) would go on an alcohol fueled beserk rage, or that the trenchoat wearing lad in the corner would pull out a piece and try to rob a store (just like the trids, man! I'm Secituron The CyperCop!)

"Got a trid-watcher with a trenchoat, probably a streetliner for ambiance or an Ares for feel under there. Dwarf...ette? Dwarfale? Fe-dwarf? Well, eh, bet she'd give my liver a run for it and I can chug aerospace fuel. Aftertaste like a hospital bed. Don't recommend it."

Ah, fond memories of that one time in a cupboard in Denver.

"Say, Suave, why don't you work your magic on Cherry? No, the other magic. I mean ask where all the usual assorted mongrels are. "

[Odentin]

Suave holds the door open until his companions are inside, then takes a moment before following to throw a command at his Beamer to watch the street and alert him of anyone approaching the bar (particularly en force). As he takes in the sights of the bar, along with the AR windows displaying the dirty little secrets of everyone foolish enough to keep themselves running loud. For those who have a shred of intelligence, however, he commands his Novatech to scan for hidden signals. At the same time, he fires a flirty message to his favorite bartender and removes his suit jacket before sitting down with the others. Anyone with a quick eye might notice the small bulge in the small of his back, under his vest, denoting the holdout pistol he carries in case his big fμckoff hand cannon fails him.

He shrugs at Arc's question, "You know I don't worry about it until it tells me I need to take it in. Besides, I've been working from home a lot this month, haven't been putting the miles on her."

He then nods at Composite and fires another quick message to Cherry, inquiring about the lack of usual crowd, "Done, and done.". He tosses her a wink, just to make his meaning clear.

Current Configuration: F:5 D:6 A:4 S:3
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Shell, & Sneak

Matrix Perception: [roll0] - 4 hits

[Maquise]

You notice some odd static in your Matrix connection. Normally, you get more bars in this part of town.

That being said, you do notice some rather interesting business concerning your trench-coat friends. It seems he's chatting with someone and would rather keep this on the down-low.

Cherry ignores your first message. At the second message, she says, "It's Tuesday night. What did you expect?"

[TheJudicator]

Taking a deep breath at Composite's preference, Arc let it out slowly in a low whistle. "Huuu, chica let me tell you when you let Arc work on your ride, you get nothin' but first class. You get the synthleather, climate control, custom rims, paint, plus a little extra somethin'-somethin' for that road rage. Lemme take you on a ride in Tiburon de la Tierra, you'll see what I mean~"

She paused, growing a little quiet after listening to her chummers remark on the atmosphere of Joe's. Flicking her wrist, she pulled up an AR window with Joe's menu, ordering a round of drinks for the table while leaning back. Heaving a sigh, the orkette drummed her right fingers on the table, the chrome making the noise just a little bit louder than she intended. Using her peripherals, she took a glance towards Trenchcoat-and-Goggles, keeping an eye on his position as she rocked back in her chair, the legs tilting up as her boots clacked off the ground.

"Fair enough, Romeo, but it's not just maintenance I speak of, y'know? Man, a couple SCK's behind the headlights and you'd be set for real work, aha~" Her voice trailed, picking up the bit of tension building in the room, her left hand trailing to her pants pocket as she casually scanned over the room.

Forgive my noobness, but following prior post leads I'm guessing that whenever one posts something that may involve a skill test that they include it in a spoiler. Under that premise, would a Perception test be appropriate? I'll put it under here, but should it be unnecessary, out of protocol, or need changing, let me know ^^ ooc or pm

Perception (pool of 4): (1)(4)(5)(6), 2 hits

[Fibinachi]

"Your face is twitching, Suave. Are you experiencing a stroke? Did you get tapped with a nerve agent? I have antidote--ah. Yes."

So he'd be sending (passionate) messages back and forth across the invisible, paranoia inducing wireless world, which was somehow different than the invisible, paranoia inducing world of wossname whatsit Stone Bear did. Invisible things were so difficult to get a proper grip on, never knew if you were breaking the slender fingers or slender neck of some half-invisible, mojo slinging mage. Giving Stone Bear the quick once over, she ran a few scenarios through her head. Could she break Stone Bears neck? It'd take some serious pressure, up near the upper curve of her safe limits. Solid guy, that, and even if some of it was image, more of it was muscle and unknowable power of uncertain ability. Probably should start suppressing the thoughts of violently murdering her friends. It was definitively approaching extra-strength soykaff time.

"That sounds wiz, Arc. I'm in. Show me the wheels, do some driving, I'll bring my rifle, we can shoot some cans, bottles, gangers. Can't savvy the name. The only phrase I know is "Tengo rehenes y explosivos potencia en todo el edificio , no entre.", which I don't get to use ever since I quit beer. You're riding the... eater of roads? Devourer of miles? "

Maybe if the amount of contestants for the trivia night was low, the ability to recall beetles fact would be proportionally more useful. Excellent! Her compatriots did seem more enthused with Trench-lad (Or Cherry) than the prospect of a hard-fought trivia battle. Flexing her hands to limber up, Devenna glanced from the table to the trenchcoat and back.

"Tell me if you want me to waltz over and poke through his pockets, yeah?"

Yeah, that's the gist of it. I think it's the preference to concentrate it one place, because it makes managing the overview easier.

Also there's an in-forum dice roller, in case it's relevant! Here! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360837-This-is-how-you-use-the-Dice-Roller)

[Marius]

Ah the dear Composite, same kickass ability, different methods. He envied her sometimes, The Way of the Chipped seemed like a lot less work. "Luckly most gangs seem to look the other way when I walk by."

A little awkwardly but Dany returns Arc hug and takes a seat. "I was running late because I went to that ****ty garage that took what was left of my bike after the last run. According to them it's an "unsalvageable wreck". The bastards wanted to lend me a piece of drek kiddy bike. Next time I'll give it to you baby."

He tried to watch closely the other patrons of the bar, he wasn't the most paranoid runner in the business but like most of them, he mantained a healthy amount of it. "How about Stone, can you see anything around?"


Perception (Visual) [roll0]
4 successes

[Odentin]

Suave shakes his head at Composite, "Sometimes it's a wonder to me just how bad you are at innuendo..."

As he works up another message for Cherry, he modifies his deck's configuration and focuses on T&G. Being ever the bored hacker, he allows his curiosity to get the better of him, and fires up an algorithm to find out what's being said in this oh-so-private conversation. Really, people put so much effort into hiding secrets, it just makes those secrets more enticing...

Anyways, that message for Cherry, -It's trivia night.- he corrects her, -I expected the usual crowd to be set up.-

Current Configuration: F:5 D:3 A:4 S:6
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Shell, & Sneak

Hack on the Fly to get a mark on T&G: [roll0] - 5 hits

[Odentin]

((Note that this all assumes that Suave gets a Mark on T&G. I'll delete this post if that's not the case.))

As soon as he has his mark on the Trenchcoat and Goggles fool, Suave pulls up an AR window to eavesdrop on his conversation, while at the same time tracking the call back to the other end of the line...

Snoop: [roll0] - 3 hits
Matrix Perception (if other person is more than 100 meters away): [roll1] - 2 hits

[Maquise]

Marius and Arc don't observe any new details, save that Cherry gets an agitated look as she prepares your drinks.


Cherry Blossom shoots you back a message as follows: "Oh for frag's sake. Look, I don't know how many times I have to tell this to you deluded jackasses. Joe's is not, and never has, hosted a Trivia Night!"

Oh that Cherry, such a kidder.

You succeed in getting in T&G's commlink. It's rather cheap quality reinforces this guy's status as a poser. Still, he has a fairly interesting conversation on the line.

>>Sorry friend, but the op's a no-go.
>>What? We had a deal!
>>There's bad mojo rising tonight. Smoke on the water, black cats wandering the graveyard, that sorta thing. We're rescheduling.


You try getting a bead on the other end of the conversation, but no dice. The Matrix is too messy tonight.

[Odentin]

1. I think you meant 'deluded.'
2. Is this a situation where we're all sharing some mutual hallucination?
3. When are we getting an OOC thread?

[Maquise]

1. Fixed.
2. No comment.
3. We've had one for a while. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?370909-Trivia-Night-at-Joe-s-OOC)

[TheJudicator]

(2d6)[1][5](6)
1 hit, glitch.

(sorry for the wait,had a RL commitment. Back to it!)

Arc breathed a gentle sigh, oft forgetting that her companions didn't all speak Spanish as fluently as Suave and herself. "Shark of the Land, that's what she's called, omae. And trust me, once you've seen her teeth, you're not gonna accept no substitutes, and you can take that credstick to the bank!" Whipping around to Dany, she gave a wink. "Oh baby, you should know better than to go to someone else. Am I gonna have to put some incentive charges in ya ride to remind ya, hm?" It was hard to tell if she was joking, but any experience with her could denote that she did have a sort of attachment to engines she worked on...she practically loved them more than their owners!

Glancing around, she watched Suave off in his own digital world, assumedly snooping around our elusive T&G figure. Composite's direct comment spun around in the Orkette's head as she balanced her chair on two legs, her left hand darting up to brush a dark lock of hair from her still dirt-scuffed cheek. Then, all of a sudden, her chair came back to rest with a -slam!-, her right hand smacking flat on the table. Head bowed low, her lips curled into a foreboding grin as she rose up from her seat. "Excuse me, chummers..." She turned on her heels slowly, coming to rest as she faced directly at T&G, her grin remaining as she strode confidently towards him.

"Hoi you. Yeah, you! Hoi, you have ears, stupid?" Her hips swayed with a heavy swagger in each step as she approached, hands out at her sides as she bobbed her head with every few words. "Yeah I see you lookin' at me. Ya got a problem, huh omae?" By this point, she was within arm's reach of the man, and getting closer, only stopping once she was up in his face. "Well, do ya? I'm right here, chango, so what's it gonna be? What's it gonna be? What you want? What you want? You just gonna stand there, eh stupid, or are ya gonna use that tongue of yours, hm?" She was dipping and swaying from side to side, giving him little room for retort with her aggressive verbal jabs.

[Odentin]

Suave frowns and looks at the others, "I'm not gone loco, right? Trivia Night is the reason we're all here? Cherry says they've never had it here..."

[Maquise]

In response to Arc's aggressive acts, T&G Guy whips a canister out of a quickdraw sheath on his arm, and an ugly red-orange mist engulfs the orkette's face.


(Body + Willpower): [roll0]
Arc is Disabled for 3 rounds, Takes 7 Stun damage

[Fibinachi]

Composite straightened up from her reflexive half-crouch, having puckered up in preparation for a high caliber bullet impact following Arc's sudden chair-scraping. The orkette (oh! Dwarfette! Right) strode past on some impulsive venture, hardly news. Maybe she was getting their drink orders from Cherry, and soon, glorious warm soykaff would be chasing away the waves of fatigue. That same fatigue was that only half-relented between as it was replaced with growing annoyance.

"Don't be absurd, Suave. I wouldn't spend nights watching re-runs of "Ares Gone Wild" to get facts on how big cockatrices can get if we didn't all go to Joe's to belt down liquid crud and talk about it. I mean, come on! It's Joe's! They have a Trivia Night every Tuesday in the good whatitswossname. Someplace? Wherenow?"

Mentally rooting through the dustbin of seldom used memories, discarding facts about the great Mediterranean hornbull, Composite came up short with something else. She plowed on anyway, rapid firing objections.

"I always forget the name of this town but that's not important. You always beat me on Matrix Stuff, and Arc there wrestles some poor sod to the ground and declares herself empress of the Joe's, you regale us with stories of conquests of exotic locales and their inhabitants, Stone Bear there scares off everyone who thinks they're tough an Dany does that thing where he stands in one part of the room and is suddenly seated next to you in the other side without having bothered to cross the middle-distance and I actually go home and get a good night's sleep, for once. ."

Blessed sweet embrace of sleep, not possible through medication or meditation but happily achieved with some camaraderie and strange questions about elf cuisine. Losing that would be a price too much to steep. Suave was pulling some kind of prank, clearly, obviously, with no appreciation for how hard she was trying to repress the urge to start pulling arms out of sockets. Jittery with agitation now, pulse spiking so suddenly her eyes lit up with a general system alert, she ran a hand that was actually shaking through her hair, clammy with sweat.

"I can't lose that, man. I just can't. It's the only time of the week I get to unwind. There's bound to be a standing Matrix invite to the evening, and Cherry's just pulling a fast-one for a lark. Besides, we're all friends, I wouldn't wanna miss your company in... wherever it is we are. Where are we anyway? Someplace, whatsit. You'd think I'd remember after---"


"Hoi you. Yeah, you! Hoi, you have ears, stupid? Yeah I see you lookin' at me. Ya got a problem, huh omae? Well, do ya? I'm right here, chango, so what's it gonna be? What's it gonna be? What you want? What you want? You just gonna stand there, eh stupid, or are ya gonna use that tongue of yours, hm?"

Composite stopped shaking, freezing with a hand entwined somewhere in the greenlights of her hair. Twitching exactly once, she spun and stomped across Joe's, a missile with a target lock on something else, stopping short before she plowed the weathered bar. Up close, Spinner's stained tanktop was no small assault on the chemical sniffers that had replaced her sinuses a long time ago, yet she endured, drumming her fingers rapidly on the bar.

"Extra-extra strength soykaff. Please. Cherry. Large mug. Larger. Are we starting soon? Tell me we're starting soon. It's Tuesday. It's Trivia Night. Joe's. Goold old Question-Mark-No-Place. Just get me that soykaff."

Wait a sec. It wasn't just Splitter's wellworn tanktop that was prickling her nose. Why did the room suddenly smell of Pepper Punch? Soykaff forgotten, Composite turned her head...

Couple of questions, since this is now approaching hilarity.

Given that we're dealing with complete stereotypes (beautiful elf, alcoholic dwarf, brutish troll, poser human), is there any features on Cherry Blossom and Splitter here that are more apparent once you're right next to them? Like they're bland, or flicker, or happily display themselves as being holograms, or are they perfectly normal people?

Players; For ease of reference, can we establish a commlink-net? Suave can run security, and if we slave devices to his amazing cyberhackor leetzor skills, we can share Matrix traffic with nary a problem. That'll mean we all get the extra messages if they're shared (and can message each other! ARO's are wonderful), so it'll make communication easier.

Now I'm going to go get my morning coffee.

[Odentin]

Suave allows another rare frown to mar his features as his concern for Composite grows. One good night of sleep per week? That's not enough. That's FAR too little for a metahuman to get in a week. His mind briefly travels down a dark road, wondering if downloading a blackout program might allow him to "help" her find unconsciousness more times in a week, though that would more than likely just piss her off even more. From there, the hacker's mind flows to more...erotic options, though with Composite's lack of appreciation for innuendo and her lethality in combat, he still doesn't think that that is a viable option. As he tries to clear his head (and take his eyes off her body as she talks to Cherry), he hears the canister go off in Arc's face.

"¡Pendeja chingando!" He growls out as he stands and throws his jacket on, raising a hand to Composite in a (likely futile) attempt to prevent her from killing T&G. As he steps up, he boots up his Hammer program, dropping Shell. In the Matrix, his shirtless Aztec Warrior persona drops his shield, materializing a flaming and feathered spear in its place. In front of his teammates, a small ARO pops up, inviting them to link up to his Deck in their usual Run security configuration, just in case T&G has a hacker watching his back.

Suave gives T&G a confident smile as he walks within range for his pheremones to overtake the human and stops, readying his data spike to turn any weapon the poser draws into a paperweight, "Alright, hombre. What say we calm down and back up. I don't need to tell you that my crew has the desire-and capability-to tear out your spinal cord and beat you to death with it, so I won't insult you by making threats. Just take a step back and let us collect our uncouth friend, and we'll all be able to walk out of here tonight. Or stagger, depending on how much we have to drink, I dunno. But no one wants to cause a scene. Whattya say?"

Negotiation: [roll0] - 5 hits

Current Configuration: F:5 D:3 A:6 S:4
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Hammer, & Sneak

Action is readied to launch a data spike if he attacks.

[Maquise]

Suave (and co.):
T&G appears to have a Black Scorpion concealed on his person, along with several other "gadgets" that a real runner would pass over at the bargain bin. His commlink's firewall is rated 2.

The guy lowers his can. "Hey now, I didn't start drek. Your friend here outta the blue just got up in my face for no reason."

[TheJudicator]

It took a few minutes, but having Suave show up to iterate their strengths both emboldened the orkette and calmed her down. "Now donchu go lying to me, omae, I saw you looking at me funny. Whatever, you know you ain't even worth my time~" She started to turn away, but swiftly darted back, lifting her arms up and bringing her face within a couple inches of the man. If she weren't so short, it might actually pass off as menacing. Grinning, she let a breath out at his face before backing away, arms splayed wide aggressively as she sort of danced with each backstep. "What, nothing, chango? Yeah, that's what I thought, you ain't got nothin' on this!"

She kept backing away until her hip bumped a table rather abruptly, the girl turning to face forward from the momentum. By chance, the table happened to be the one occupied by the dwarfette, but she wasn't paying attention as she hopped over to the counter, adlibbing street-style beatboxing confidently until she hit the counter. "Hoi, Cherry, how's our drinks coming, ha? You keep us teased and waiting, we may just never leave, comprende?" Ah, so easily drifting to rude, but anyone who knew her could tell when she was being endearing, especially when she hit the sing-song voice she was beginning to have. Shooting a look back at T&G, she gave a snarl with a wink, showing her teeth and giving a You ain't got nothing gesture.

[Maquise]

Cherry sighs. "Keep it up, and you'll get maced again," she says and hands Arc her drink.

The drunk dwarfette goes into a laughing fit at Arc's antics. T&G tries to quietly slip out the back.

[Saulk]

The entire time, Stone Bear stood and sat, as motionless and placid as the stone from which he got his name. In fact, he was biding his time until he was called upon to act in defense of his crew from any particular conversation. When the man in the long coat stood down, Stone Bear let the words that would summon his spirit to him slip from his mind, returning to the relative tranquility of the bar.

"I am glad there was no violence." The words rumbled out of him, their bass tone echoing somewhat. Still, that being said, he at least had the presence of mind to sit back, his eyes evincing the barest glimmer as he shifted his perceptions to the astral world. That was his area of expertise, and if Suave had gone to the defensive by offering their defensive network, he thought it prudent to do the same.


I am going to shift to astral perception and see if there is anything hinky on the astral plane

[Odentin]

"Hey now, I didn't start drek. Your friend here outta the blue just got up in my face for no reason."

"And that's the only reason you're still alive, comprende? She didn't attack first, though. You did. So back down." His voice is ice, and his face stone. Every moment just itching to smack the little punk with a data spike. He doesn't flinch as Arc starts to stand.


She started to turn away, but swiftly darted back, lifting her arms up and bringing her face within a couple inches of the man. If she weren't so short, it might actually pass off as menacing.

As Arc comes back, Suave throws out an arm to stop her. Or clothesline her, if she isn't careful. Unfortunately, it seems he's used this trick one too many times, as she deftly avoids his arm. Suave rolls his eyes and growls at Arc, "Siéntate, o voy a matar a tu motocicleta. ¿Comprende?" He watches her walk away with a look of disdain. Always, she had to go and make his job harder. Always. He turns back just in time for...


T&G tries to quietly slip out the back.

Suave smiles and holds up a hand, "Five nuyen worth of free advice, kid. Keep your cool. You won't last too long if you can't tell the difference between an idle threat and an actual attack."

Once Trenchcoat and Goggles is gone, Suave returns to his seat. He keeps the window with T&G's info open, but drops his Hammer for Baby Monitor and goes back to his normal browsing configuration. Not worth bringing the wrath of GOD down for mild curiosity. Something else is bugging him, too. The Matrix is weird tonight. So as long as he has time, he'll try to figure THAT out. "I'm going to jack in. Wake me up if something interesting happens."

With that, he leans back and relaxes as he slips into VR...

Current Configuration: F:5 D:6 A:3 S:4
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Baby Monitor, & Sneak

Going into VR, Cold Sim.

[TheJudicator]

A childish cackle could be heard escaping Arc's lips as she grabbed her drink, winking at Cherry before knocking back a swig. "Ahhaha, good times, good times~ You know how I like things spicy! Taking her drink, she flipped a gesture to Suave before he left his meatsuit in retort to his threats. That was her baby he was referring to, after all, and she made a mental note to do a little paint job on his ride later..free of charge.

Abruptly shaking her head, she glanced over at the dwarfette, her smile growing wider as she decided none-too-shyly to take a seat across from her. "Hoi, some Tuesday this is, eh chica? And to think tonight's event was supposed to be rockin', y'know omae? She paused, finally noticing an AR blip at the corner of her vision. With a flick of her wrist, she pulled it up, reading Suave's invite for job-mode. Huh, whateva... With another flick, she accepted, letting her devices integrate under his protection: bike, drone, gun, grenades...detonators...

Upon noticing T&G left, she did one other thing. Casually pulling up an AR window, she booted up one of her Fly-Spy's, stored in a saddlebag on her bike, instructing it to fly up and locate T&G, hoping to keep a tail on him physically. But back to meatspace: the dwarfette before her. "I don't think I recognize ya, though I think I would given the fact that one, you drink enough to put an ork to shame, and two, you're laughing at me, which means ya don't know me. Name's Arc, you?"

[Maquise]

As Suave enters the Matrix, he notes that whatever interference is going on, it seems to be getting worse. The static is making it difficult for him to to perceive much of anything, and the surroundings are laggy and unresponsive. (-2 Noise penalty)

Stone Bear, upon perceiving the Astral Plane, notices a... shadow... in the distance, rapidly approaching.

As Arc takes her drink, the dwarfette says, "I-You can call me Betty, and Betty when I call you I can call you Arc♪..." she giggles as though she made a joke. Arc sends her drone out, noting how fuzzy the feed is. To make matters worse, the fog seems to have thickened.

[Fibinachi]

The raised hand meant minimum havoc, less collateral, a benevolent nicity towards preserving metahuman life. Since Arc didn't launch into a triade after she was done rolling on the floor of Joe's, it figured the Google-poseur didn't deserve a (terrminal) lesson in digesting cannisters of Pepper Punch.

Softies. Wonderful, well intentioned softies. Composite slithered back to the bar, leaving T&G alone to hustle out the back.
For now.

"Wiz. So if your clearly wrong idea is right, and Joe's holds no Trivia nights, what do we keep coming back here to do, Cherry? Lollygag and loiter? I'd like to know what we did last week.

[Maquise]

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Cherry Blossom says. "Last week we had this same discussion. And the week prior. And then you drink, pass out, and the troll carries you home."

[Saulk]

Still in the astral, Stone Bear calls silently to the spirit who has offered its aid to him. Sensing her form bubble at the edge of his consciousness he smiles.

"Sister...a shadow approaches in the spirit world. If it means my friends and I ill, protect us."

Stone Bear slipped out of astral, and reaches down to his cannon of a gun. He flicks the catch off of the holster. He breathes deeply, looking at those who remain at the table.

"There may be a problem. Something approaches, its intentions unknown."

[Odentin]

Suave's persona frowns and looks about, waiting a digital blink for his deck to filter out the increasing noise in the area. Looking out over the landscape of the Matrix, at all the different icons, and at the strange interference. Wondering just how far the strange phenomenon reaches, he opens up a back door onto the Ares grid and hops over, just to see if all of the grids are affected, or simply the local one.

Current Configuration: F:5 D:6 A:3 S:4
Programs: Signal Scrubber, Baby Monitor, & Sneak

Hack on the Fly to hop over to jump grids: [roll0] - 2 hits

[Maquise]

Suave successfully hops grids. Though the interference is still present, it at least appears to be entirely from his end, as opposed to affecting other, more distant devices.

[TheJudicator]

Arc gave a wry smirk at Betty's behavior, raising her glass in approval. "Hell yeah, I"ll drink to that." Quaffing a generous portion of her drink, she slammed the glass down on the table as her smile, for the first time it seemed all night, faded. Her violet eyes half-lidded, she seemed to stare blankly in front of her. The fog was definitely unusual, along with the static haze she was getting through her drone's camera feed. With a disgruntled murmur, she shoved that AR window off to the side, nodding to Betty as she returned to the group's table.

Pulling up a browser, she looked up the weather forecasts for the night...expecting not to find heavy fog rolling in. Nodding to Stone Bear, she watched him unclick his pistol holster, the corner of her smirk lifting again as her hand twitched. "Makes too much sense, ese. Meatspace is all wonked up, can't get a good look around. You getting the party feeling too, ha?" Winking at the troll, she nudged at his leg to emphasize her point, her right arm coming to rest limp at her side, fingers twitching expectantly. Glancing over, Arc rolled her eyes at Suave's resting meatsuit, briefly sending a text message to his comm for him. "Hoi, the fog is going loco. El oso grande says the mojo space is funky as well. Trigger finger's gettin' itchy, Jefe."

[Odentin]

Arc's message pops up as Suave searches the matrix in the local area for the source of the strange noise. He fires back at the speed of thought, his reply appearing before the entire group an instant after Arc sends hers, "The Matrix is fragged up something fierce, too. And it's centered on Joe's. We should vacate."

With an uncomfortable twitch, he switches back to AR and looks over his crew.

Matrix Perception: [roll0] - 3 hits

Not that I think it'll actually find anything, but it's the logical thing to do...

[Maquise]

Suave fails to locate anything.

As you are preparing to leave, the motion trackers on Suave's and Arc's vehicles trip.

[TheJudicator]

The orkette's eyes snap open as her bike's motion alert went off. That, combined with the increased level of tension in the room from their findings, was almost too much for her to bear. Downing the rest of her drink in one go, she slammed the cup down with her left hand, her chromed right hand darting to her lower back. "Well, whatever it is, the fiesta is here, chummers. That or a sewer rat...I'd take that, though, could do for some meat, aha~"

Her right arm whirred quietly as she snapped it back, fingers clasping around the grip of her pistol as it slid easily out of her holster. Bringing it to rest on her lap, she flicked her wrist once, activating the Predator's smartlink, readying her for the one thing she expected in most odd stuff: shooting things. And getting shot at. Usually a bit of both. Finally, she flicked open one of her pockets, where her grenades were kept. Bad habit of hers, but in a situation needing grenades, everyone loves the one who has em!

[Fibinachi]

Intentions unknown.
Composite, leaning against the familar (unfamilar?) bar, sipped gratefully from some liquid which might, once long ago, have been a sort of soykaff.
Party feeling
The crew proked and prodded the world with queries, interogating their various amourphous fields of specialty. Composite gulped down another chunk of almost-fluid. Contributing.
fragged up
A fog enveloped the world and seemed to seep its tendrils through their memories, some major drekking mystery whoose resolution nested somewhere in a brain now reflexively untrustworthy.
black cats in the graveyard
So the answer was to wait. The erratic opening stages would condense into concrete finality, mysteries being ultimately just firefights by way of different bullets.
Mojo-space
Composite drained the last few bits of black sludge, set the mug down with a little thud, rolled her shoulders to the sound of shrieking metal-laced tendons and smiled.
Fiesta

"Splitter. Betty. Rest of you dregs. Bad moon rising. You might want to kip out the back"

The crew was arming up, troll-portable people demolishers joining Arc's ever present high explosives. Both too unpredictablely dangerous right up until they became the perfect answer to a predicament best solved by the tactical removal of a city block. Composite didn't pull out some lethal piece to mesh, she didn't carry any.

Guns didn't do much to make her more dangerous.

Her eyes fell on her bag, nestled near Stone Bear, a little package of violence in the shadow of a modern knight.
Well, if it was a night for festivities then she could explore the happy distance between more dangerous and "differently" dangerous.

"Talk to me, you dashing rogues. What's the play? Arc, fly a drone out and link me. Suave, give me car-eyes."


Composite moves towards her bag, and will take out her Ares Alpha, slap on some Securetech kits (3), her ballistic mask and kit.

This takes some compex actions for each bit, so interupt if there's a time element with the shadow(s) riiight outsiiideee

[Marius]

Dany finishes his drink and cracks his knuckles. "Well, let's hope whatever is coming for us it's vunerable to lead poisoning." He takes out his Ares Alpha, checks it and puts his ballistic mask on, although it looks more like a carnival mask of some sort of demon.

He focus his senses, trying to see if someone is trying to sneak up on them. Just tell me where to shoot Comp, I can't see drek.


Using Ultrasound.

[Odentin]

Swearing quietly under his breath, Suave pulls up an AR display of his BMW's visual feed and distributes it to the team. His hand falls to his Predator, but doesn't draw it just yet.

[Maquise]

As Suave pulls up the feed for his car, he sees a group of silhouetted figures emerging from the mist. They move with a stumbling gait, as though blind. You cannot yet make out any distinguishing features amongst them, but they approach relentlessly.

[Odentin]

"Merde. Anyone recognize these chingathos? Cherry, you got a saferoom? Escape route? Get everyone out of here, we've got a group of unfriendlies incoming."

[Fibinachi]

And suddenly then her eyes weren't showing her Joe's, but a foggy, fuzzy static-stained introduction to the perspective of a car in burgeoning crowd. The Matrix pipeline was seriously fragged, and the feed probably only salvageable because of their hacker's comically illegal cyberdeck modifications. Composite continued her motions by routine and feel. No, no those, that was the soft-capped gel rounds. Better load the pointer stuff.

"Maybe they're here as our Trivia Night competition."

Had to adjust the sight on the Ares, the groove was off by a fraction of an inch. Better load a fragmentation grenade, which wasn't one of these knobbly ones.

"One on the right is a fumbler. No weapons. Peaceful. Or unnecessary. Not the gait of a fighter. Suave, can you hit the lights when they come closer? Stone Bear, what's the mojo?"

An indistinct memory clawed for attention. Something something blind in the night with claws and the... whatits? It faded too quickly, washed away by the first waves of an ingrained biochemical response to impending violence. For the third time that night Composites pulse starting rising, and this time she didn't re-adjust any damn thing. Her oft-abused veins filled with fire, each little heartbeat pounding another spike of violence into her brain. She could smell the old motoroil-stains on Arc's cargo pants (And the much more potent chemicals involved in the explosive components in the pockets), the now prickling little molecules of affability that Suave exuded, almost grasp the little bouncing waves of near-sound that Dany played (Freaky). Even that bloody damnable keening sound from that bloody damnable pole-arm verged into musicality, which was a clear sign of utter madness enveloping Joe's. Or her.
Ah.
Good times all around.
Almost as good as answering question about the wingspans of bats.

"Oh. Arc, when I said "Drone", I meant "Your credit-bankable heavily modified BullDog transport with the great sea hunter motiff". I got the technical terms mixed up because I'm no good with auto-mobiles, being an ambulatory curiosity from a former age."

[TheJudicator]

Without another word, Arc nodded in approval, her teeth flashing in a grin as she pulled up a window for her Bulldog, starting the engine up from its parked spot a few miles away. Accessing Grid-guide, she instructed it to bring the van to the back entrance to Joe's, waiting to see what the arrival time will be. "Understood, omae. I'm bringing her here. Shouldn't be more than a few minutes..." Gritting her teeth, she brought her Fly-Spy's feed up, sharing it with the group whilst moving it over the shambling group. Fingering a grenade, she stood up slowly, turning towards the front door, leaning confidently on one hip.

"Tiburon de la Tierra will fit all of us, I should think. Meanwhile, we got a bit more pressing problema here, y'know? Ah, who am I kidding, we got this~" Twirling her Ares Predator, she clicked her tongue a few times before turning to glancing over her companions. Suave, keeping his cool as the impending threat approaches. Dany, scanning the area with his unnatural senses. Composite, gearing up all the weaponry she has, her chrome whirring as it prepared to fight. And Stone Bear, giant revolver at the ready, polearm shimmering as he left his meatsuit for mojospace. "Been a while since we did a job together, chummers. Feels good, let this fiesta get started, yo~"

[Maquise]

Cherry starts herding the denizens of the bar towards the back. "Hey, do you guys have room for a few extra passengers?" she asks.

As Stone Bear enters the Astral Plane, he immediately notices that the shadow has encompassed the immediate area. It swirls around like a black blizzard, threatening to pull him from his physical shell. He can no longer make out the form of his spirit guide in the immediate area. The blackness clings to him with icy tendrils.

Arc's van revs up and starts for the back entrance. As her drone takes a closer look at the mob, it gets more details on one of the figures. Stained, tattered clothes, pale, gaunt skin, thin wispy hair, glazed eyes.

Looks like a feral ghoul infestation.

[Fibinachi]

Composite killed the feed with a brain-twitch, riding out the nausea from being catapulted back into the limited perspective of her own two eyes. Ghouls! Joe's was surrounded by ghouls! Not here for Trivia Night either. Bloody feral man-eating children-biting organ-legging liver-devouring fava-bean aficionados, dammit, Tuesday was supposed to be their day off and now the fog came ferrying in fearful creatures of the damnable night. Ghouls that could smell an invisible meal, hear a heartbeat and bloody ghouls with great big bloody claws for ripping out tiny scoops of delicacies that was formerly their bloody hearts.
Fiesta indeed, to steal a phrase.
Composite secured the final strap on her ballistic mask, an angelic mirror image of Dany's, and took a second to feel grateful for the implanted gasmask underneath the metallic weave. Ghouls! Fragging infectious drekking ghouls with their filthy poison-laden claws.

"Cherry, I am going to start wrecking Joe's now. Can you seal the door somehow?"

Rising to the clatter of the assault rifle scraping against the SecureTech plates, Composite had transformed from a wiry woman in a nondescript suit to a masked mercenary covered in bits of high-tech violence.
She moved towards the doorway while scouting for debris. They'd be coming through there first if all, and so she'd better put a table, a chair and a high calibre rifle in their way. Better hope they didn't have a suave gentleman-ghoul of their own to open the doorway.


Hopefully the tables aren't bolted down. Composite will attempt to block the door (I'm assuming there's just one) with a table, or chairs, or anything that works. STR 6, human maximum.

Failing that, at least position herself to intercept any first comers from the more tangibly delicious fragile members of the team.

[Saulk]

Stone Bear exits the astral plane with a shiver. He rises from the table and looks to the others. "Lifeless things. The astral space here is tainted by them. Their presence must be purged." With some degree of reverence, he places the catch back down on his Ruger. These creatures may require a thing of mana to sever whatever animates them. His staff will provide such a power. He draws it, and proceeds towards the door, ready to exit and begin establishing defenses, calling to mind some spells that will aid him and the others, should he require them. "I am glad to fight with you once more, my friends."

[Odentin]

As his face goes pale (slightly), Suave fires off a mental command to his BMW to pull around back. Immediately after, he finds the Lone Star node nearby and hurls a panic button alarm at them, including details about the ghoul infestation in the area. That should bring them running...

"No, Stone. We need to get the hell out of here. I've alerted the Texans. Let them take care of this. We should be literally anywhere else right now..."

[Maquise]

Cherry pushes a button, and iron bars slam down over the front windows. "Hopefully they don't think to go around back..." she says. Arc and Composite set up a basic barricade using tables and chairs.

Arc's bike alarms go off; it seems the mob has taken to tearing apart the vehicles parked up front. As Suave's car takes off, they begin pounding at it, breaking a few windows and denting the sides. One ghoul is run over.

As they begin pounding on the front door, Suave tries to get ahold of Lone Star. After a few rings, the line picks up, "Thank you for calling Lone Star Security Services. We are sorry, but all of our operators are busy at the moment. Please stay on the line, and one of our certified emergency dispatchers will be with you momentarily." Country western music plays on the line.

[Fibinachi]

"Yes."

Hands around the edge of a stained table, enhanced muscles pulling for all the worth millions of invested nuyen could buy, Composite was trying her dogged best to improve their atrocious tactical situation by way of a few tables and some elbow grease. Despite the efforts of heaving and pulling, her voice kept at a steady monotone.

"I can dent concrete or metals beams with my hands. I don't fancy my chances with ghouls. This kind of fragging drek gets you geeked wire-quick. I'm going to delay them if it comes to that, so you lot get out, but running really is our best bet. "

Guess they could hope Lone Star showed up and did their contracted duty.
Huh.
There was a novel thought - hoping for Texan Law to rear its head.

[Marius]

"The texans? I'm pretty sure their response time in this area is like half an hour. This will be over much, much sooner." Dany goes over to the bar and serves himself something outrageously expensive. "Can some of you techie chummers upload the floor plan to the rest of us?"

[TheJudicator]

Arc blinked and frowned, glancing over the headcount of the establishment....eight, nine if T&G comes running back in one piece. Yes, her van would hold them, but it'd be standing room only. Frustrated, she let out a grunt as she shoved another table into place, jumping back as the front door pounded. Pulling up her AR, she checked again the eta of her GMC...

"Well, this is great...first time in my life I find myself wishing for la policia...ah!". She cried out as she heard her bike's alarm go off, her drone's feed letting her bear full witness to the carnage. Her violet eyes flared in anger that they would dare touch her baby like that. Biting her lip, she took a few steps back towards the bar, flicking open an ARO resembling a big red button.

"Half an hour? I think I can cut that. El universal "get the drag here" signal. Oh Toro, this isn't how I envisioned you ending...". A lone tear trailed down her cheek as she grinned, broadcasting the camera feed as she pressed the button, sjgnaling the detonator cap attached under Toro del Fuego's gas tank to activate...along with 4 kilos of grade 5 commercial explosives...

Free action to activate the detonator. Simple(?)action to pull up the ETA for the van.

4kilos of grade 5 explosives calculates to base 10dp iirc. Adding the gas tank, bike, and all the ammo contained might modify that, but to what extent I am not sure :D subtle enough?

[Odentin]

Suave frowns, confused. He hadn't called Lone Star...

He cuts off the call and connects via data only, slamming them with an emergency signal, a panic button alarm including a packet of data stating that the emergency involves ghouls. Should get a reaction...

[Maquise]

Suave receives an acknowledgement from his signal, but there is still no way to know when they'll get here...

Then Arc sends a signal of her own. The conflagration that results blows out the front window, but takes out quite a few ghouls. This buys the bar's inhabitants time, that is sorely needed.

The ghouls are regrouping from the blast, and Arc's van will be out back in 4 minutes.

[Fibinachi]

Composite, staring out into the night from behind the barred windows, was trying to get a bead on any approaching targets.

"!"

The sudden explosion killed her attempts at snooping and the windows too, pelting the inside of Joe's with glass shards and dust. The bouncing pressure waves reverberated off the walls and the echolocation sensor in Composite's head kicked in, transposing a bleary after-image sound map of Joe's over her eyes. A ghostly image of wavy lines and half-blurry people, dancing near the chiptruth flesh and blood friends. She brushed a few shards off of her arms, picking a particular nasty looking piece out of her elbow padding. Shook her head to clear out the aftershock. At least she wouldn't have to smash the window now. Ought to make Cherry happy.

"Arigatōgozaimasu, mayhem maker. Is it "Te quiero"? Because I do."

Arc - subtle as a sledgehammer, twice as mean and far better at smashing buildings.

"That was a worthy sacrifice of a noble vehicle. You've convinced me of the need for a vehicle. I'll take one. Little less under the seat, perhaps."

Dipping into her tactical vest, Composite pulled out a tiny aerosol can and a not-so tiny high explosive grenade. Counting under her breath to ten, she sprayed the compact device with a thin film of industrial strength glue, muttered a half-hearted prayer to the gods of heavy ordnance and stuck her hand out through the bars of the window. She suppressed shiver at being exposed, some deep instinct even her bio-suite couldn't quite neuter. There were predators out there in the night, and she wasn't one of them. That was new. Shivering again, Composite counted down from ten again while she pressed the grenade against the side of the building. Any second now, clammy hands would rip her arms out of the socket. Any second now. How long did take ten seconds take, anyhow?

"I'm inviting you all to mark my grenade here. It'll slow them down a notch, so trigger it. While we wait, how's your eyes Arc? Full of Pepper Punch or wiz? I have medical kit in my bag, clean you up. "

Somewhere in the shivering, another few nagging questions were rustled loose. What was the average lifespan of a European daffodil? And why had the team returned to non-existent Trivia Night time and time again? No, a more pressing concern would be the ghouls. Answer that one later.

Assuming the bars are far enough apart to reach through. High explosive at the side of the building should project outwards, without, say, leaving a giant hole ghouls can creep through.

Invite marks as a simple action for the grenade, and the fragmentation grenade she's still carrying. Try not to blow the character up, my lovelies.

Ps: never leave home without a glue spray.
Or high explosives
Or a detonator rigged car
or a polearm weapon foci
or a cyberdeck
just never leave home
live inside forever
avoid ghouls

[Odentin]

"Yo quiero." Suave corrects her, "Or tu quieres. 'I want,' or 'you want.' Think you meant the former."

He throws up a pair of marks on the grenades and draws his predator, saying a silent prayer that he won't have to use it.

[Marius]

Dany shakes his head, pieces of glass falling down as he does. "No, no, "Te quiero" is quite right if she meant it as "I like you". He takes another drink of his bottle and props himself on the bar, aiming his rifle at the window. "And you were right Arc, I'll give you my bike as soon as I can, that was awesome."

[Fibinachi]

"Thank you both for that lesson in direct object pronouns. We're still having some sort of Trivia Night, then. What's the name of the CEO of Renraku?"


Going to switch to thermographic vision, to see through any smoke. Can I get a clear count of ghouls or any other visual?

[roll0]
9+3 wireless

3 hits

[Maquise]

As Composite sticks her arm out the window, there is a roar. An axe-wielding ghoul lunges out of the fog, readying to rip her arm off. Fortunately, the wired woman has time to react before requiring a replacement limb.

(Reminder, Arc has 7 Stun damage)

[TheJudicator]

Arc stood still for a brief moment, taking in the awe of the spectacle she had wreaked upon their would-be predators, but once it passed, she felt a sudden wave of light-headedness, the tough-act of shaking off the Pepper Punch dropping. Giving a smile at the banter, she let out a cackle...not a laugh, or chuckle, a legit cackle... and gave a thumbs up to Composite. "Ayyyyy, I heard her, she said she wanted me. Maybe after this whole mess we grab a few drinks, huh omae?" Ah, humor in the face of danger.

Nodding her head, she glanced back towards where the razorgirl left her bag, glancing over at Suave and Dany. Rushing over to it, she opened the zipper. "Much appreciated, amiga, though I don't think we got time for that, and I don't know how ta use one. Stim patches, maybe? We only need a few minutes, and I'll pay ya back~" Hearing the sound of disturbance outside, she frowned as she rummaged through the bag, looking for what she needed.

Using actions to search through the bag for a stim patch and apply one if able.

[Marius]

Dany shoots at the ghoul that tried to hack Composite arm so fast that he surprised himself. "Woooooo! Let's dust this drekkers!"


Burst Fire Attack: [roll0] (Acc 9)
Base Damage: 20P AP: -6
(Using smartgun & APDS ammo)
-2 to Defender
9 hits, same as my acc, isn't it nice when things work? :D

[Maquise]

A burst from Crazy Dany's assault rifle puts the ghoul down. Fortunately, Composite was not splattered with infectious ghoul guts this time.

[Fibinachi]

The little light glints reflecting off of the axhead, film of white across the eyes of feral ghoul, rot-tained teeth in a mouth open in a roaring rage, military-grade bullets streaking by to impact across pallid flesh in a skirt of blood only slightly less infectious than the VITAS plague, Composite saw all that in the split-second spent not launching herself away from the window, her basal rate of synaptic transmission heightened by a factor of twenty. Which was just as well. The ghoul died and splattered droplets of disease over the shattered window pane, the bars, Joe's, so best be elsewhere entirely while the foul goblets sprayed through the air.

It almost, almost seemed to twitch and move under its power. Bloody fragging Crazy Dany and his drekking habit of living up to his pre-fix by way of high calibre precision applied to someone's forehead.
Then again, figure that's one less ghoul.

"Nice shot. Someone check the back-way?"


Step away from the window. Step away from the window. Composite is stepping away from the window.

If that's possible, then I believe I am delaying Composite's action till initiative 13

Nevermind that. Let's do something stupid.

[Odentin]

Suave grinds his teeth at the sound of the assault rifle, mentally cursing Dany for his jumpiness. Resisting the urge to temporarily shut down the idiot's gear, the hacker instead distributes the video feed from his BMW, which should be in the back by now, to the group once again.

[Maquise]

Unfortunately, as Suave's feedcam shows, the BMW has drawn attention of the ghouls, and a group of them head around to the back door.

[TheJudicator]

With a cry of success, Arc pulled the stim patch from the pack, holding it aloft for an instant before promptly using it, an audible "smack" of skin on skin as she stuck it to her arm. Her eyes flared open as the stims coursed through her veins, the lightheadedness gone in a flash as she let out a primal roar from all the newfound energy. "Uaaahhh, that's more like it!" Her grin returning, she hopped back up, mentally wishing she had brought along her AK to trivia night. Hell, even her SCK wouldn't have gone amiss, but alas, her Predator would have to do.

Hearing Composite's recommendation, she whirled around to face the back door, bringing her gun arm up to point the barrel right at the back door, smartlink displays popping her pistol's vital info onto her peripherals, eyes narrowing as she eyed the door, ready to pop off a shot should anything dead or gross come poking its head through.

Simple action to apply the Stim patch provided by the awesome Composite, removing 6 Stun damage for an hour.
New condition status: 0/12 Physical, 1/10 Stun, no wound modifiers.
Move to middle of area with view of the back door.
Delayed Simple Action to fire Predator V at a ghoul that makes it through the back door.

Here's the roll and relevant info should the action trigger:
Single Semi-Auto Attack: [roll0] (Acc 7)
Base Damage: 8P AP: -1
(Using smartgun)

Looks like 5 hits. I'll take that over a glitch XD

that being said, boggles my mind how Dany landed 20P with a rifle, haha!

EDIT note: ...I forgot I was using the cyberarm for shooting, and didn't take its agility into account. whoops, next time!

[Fibinachi]

"That's our intended escape. Suave, I'm rescuing your BMW. I'll try not to scratch it. Does this place have a floorplan, cellars?"

Dany's armor piercing munitions had turned the ghoul into so much highly infectious mist. Drekking things were lightly armored then, relying on their superior strength and hunting instincts rather than ballistic armor. Not exactly Renraku Red Samurai in battledress. Blood splatter was a problem, as was site contamination and exposure, but at least (according to that one late-night trid on "ChipTruth Terror: Biological Horror Stories!") Krieger-strain infection took a while to run it's course, so the bigger worry here was being turned into chew by predators coming in from multiple sides. Well, lightly armored?

Composite found her worst smile and a clip of fletchette rounds, toggled the safety of her rifle and headed towards the back. She passed Arc watching the area with a heavy pistol in hand and a stim patch freshly pressed on her arm, sticking to her left, out of her field of fire. Good, that was good, having hyper-alert explosive-fond orks watching your back was a good thing. Just had to find a way to get Stone Bear a Vindicator, and all would be well...




Nevermind about delaying! I had completely forgotten the back of the bar existed in a concrete form.

Composite can move 16 meters while walking, and a max of 32 while running. Should be able to reach the door!

Uses a simple action to load flechette rounds, then move towards the back.
Simple action reserved to open the door and peek into the night

[Saulk]

The momentary pulse of mana static was almost too much for even Stone Bear's constitution to bear, as he reeled for a moment, bracing himself against his polearm. He staggered, and that was only exacerbated by the burst from the heavy ordnance bombarding the ghouls. Knowing them to be nearby, and uncomfortably so, Stone Bear moves towards one of the windows, looking out it and focusing his attention on a spot near the point where the tide of ghouls is coming from. Shouting over any noise to his comrades, he announces his intentions.

"I am summoning a spirit to the front! He will take many of the ghouls with him, and we can use him for cover until our transport arrives!"

Furrowing his brow in concentration, he reaches out into the mana world and calls to a spirit, that of a great white bear. He implores his brother, his namesake, to come and defend them, manifesting on the point he looked at outside, willing the creature, with his first request, to focus on the image of a ghoul he pushes towards it, and to kill them all.

The spirit responds with a brutal cry that stuns even Stone Bear. He had called a large bear, and the magic he lent it empowered it vastly, to the point where the summoning felt like he had been hit in the back of the head. He winced, but thanked the spirit. I am glad you are here, brother...


Sorry about my delay...

Initiative - [roll0]
Summoning - Attempting a Force 6 Spirit of Beasts - [roll1] vs [roll2]

I achieved 1 net success on the summoning, therefore my order stands for it to attack anything that looks like a ghoul. The optional powers I gave it are Guard and Concealment, not that concealment much matters now. I will handle drain in the OOC thread - EDIT: I received 3 stun damage...wish the spirit did roll against me ;]

[Maquise]

Prior to Stone Bear's summoning, the ghouls up front hurl a volley of Molotov cocktails into the front of the bar. No one is immediately hurt; it appears they were intended more to flush you out that cause injury. It seems these ghouls prefer their metahuman flesh flame-kissed.

(If Stone Bear still wishes to attempt the summoning, resist the following fire damage: [roll0])

The ones in the back firebomb Suave's car. The vehicle catches fire, and takes 3 points of damage.

(Crazy Dany's Turn)

[Marius]

"There goes our getaway car... We better start thinking on something else. Is there a way to get to the roof? And where is that drekking schematic?" Dany starts moving to the back of the bar while he shoots whatever ghoul he can see through the windows.


Burst Fire Attack: [roll0] (Acc 9)
Modified Damage: 11P + Hits (3) = 14P
(Using smartgun & APDS ammo)
-2 to Defender

[Fibinachi]

A bloom of orange flame to go with the vehicular sabotage. So much for protecting the principle and being an efficient bodyguard, a little note of tangible failure. She was going to have to apologize to Suave. Never live that down. The range down to the soon-to-be-wreck was a bit off and her smartlink helpfully quipped in with a little tally of the odds of doing damage to the saboteurs, adding up the fog, the wind, the darkness, the assumed awareness of supernatural metahuman predators and completely forgetting just who it was feeding the data to. Miss? Unlikely.
"I am not scratching it. But the car is on fire. Sorry."

Bits of neon light filtered through the rising grey-out, a pack of ghouls on both sides of the building, raging feral creatures backlit by flames, no trivia questions at all so far. Joe's soykaff had been nice, so that was some net positive for the night. The adjustment system in her eyes ran through a series of filters trying to make sense of the environmental havoc, but the ghoul targets themselves were easy enough so Composite ignored the little AR probability readout and raised her rifle. Assume a standard humanoid enhanced by magic, strengthened by a virus from the worst nightmares of some EvoMedical biological engineer, fortified with tough bones, hard skin and feral rage from a feeding frenzy.

Pfh. Easy.


40/42

Door opened last time (I hope there's no ghouls right next to the building)

Free action called shot: vitals.
Using a complex action to fire a double tap at the nearest ghoul.

Fletchette ammo, smartlink.
Improved Range Finger reduces range modifiers by 1
Thermographic eyes move visibility one row up (assuming it compensates for the rising fog)

that should be no negative modifiers?

trying not to scratch the paaaaaaint

[roll0]
(14, +2 specialization, +2 smartlink eyes)

6 hits, NO dv penalties and +3 armor to the ghoul

... 21 DV (11 + double tap 1 + called shot vitals 2 + fletchette 2 + 5 hits above hit treshold )

[Saulk]

All hell broke loose as the summoning had just gotten started. Stone Bear, in addition to suffering from the effects of his drain was now suffering heavily from the flames that began to lick around him and his coat. The smoke made him cough, and he hoped that it would take far less of a toll than he feared. He did not intend to cook to death within the bar.

He spun a look to Suave, knowing that he was capable of maintaining a visual representation on their respective eyepieces of the location of all of the enemies if only he could see them. Moving towards him, out of the direct flames, he laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. He knew this was not the time to resort to his preferred method of somewhat cultured speaking. He needed to be clear. "I'm showing you the hostiles. Tag their locations for us on a map. You'll know where they are."

Focusing his concentration through occult fibers calcified by use, he casts a spell upon Suave, allowing him to sense the location of all of the ghouls now intent on killing them. That done, he began to look around, taking a look for other ways out of the building, either up or down.


Rolling to Resist Damage = [roll0]
Rolling to Cast Spell = Detect Enemies (Extended Area) on Suave = Force 3 = [roll1] (I will then sustain the spell with no adverse effects due to Focused Concentration)
Rolling to Resist Drain = [roll2]
Rolling to Look Around = [roll3]

Results: I am unobservant; Suave can now see anything that is considered our enemy; Casting things hurts

[Maquise]

Crazy Dany takes down one of the ghouls coming up the front. In the process, he notices another ghoul, this one carrying a gun and a katana, all geared up in an armored trenchcoat.

Composite shoots another ghoul, just as it's getting ready to throw a molotov. The molotov falls out of its hands, into a dumpster against the back of the building. Now both sides have fires started.

(Suave and Arc are up. I'm gonna move Stone Bear's action to next combat turn.)

[Odentin]

Suave grinds his teeth and moves to the back door, taking a pot shot at a ghoul with his predator. As he moves, he yell as Arc, "Chica, take my car. Do some damage."

Shooting: [roll0] - 2 successes, DV 8.

Inviting Arc to jump into the BMW.

[TheJudicator]

Everyone in the room could almost HEAR the orkette grin as Suave's words echoed in her skull. Lowering her Predator, she slid over to the bar area, hopping on and laying flat on her back. "Oh, Romeo, you know how to talk to a lady~ Going in hot, WHOO!"

With a flick of her wrist, she accepted the invite to link, her meatsuit falling limp on the bartop as her consciousness flew into VR, joining with Suave's BMW. Whatever its icon was, it had now morphed, bearing a flaming aura representing the enthused mechanic's presence. The sensors filled her vision, granting her a view of her surroundings as the engine audibly flared into life. In a brief moment, she pulled up the vitals on his car, making sure she knew what she was getting into and what she had available.

Call targets, let's go bowling, amigos!

Complex Action to jump into the vehicle, hot-sim.
INITIATIVE CHANGE: add [roll0] to Arc's initiative, effective immediately.
Free action to pull up status report/activate features

I will post rigged vehicle stats and appropriate rolls in the OOC thread (relatively) soon. Suave, any modifications or equipment I should know about?

Since ghouls are next, Arc's biofeedback resist pool is 9d6 unless Suave's firewall rating from our protection link is higher than 6.

[Maquise]

Suave's shots miss the fast-moving ghouls.

The ghouls in the back (Arc can detect 12) jump back as the flaming vehicle roars to life. Three of them hurl molotovs at it, and their molotovs are now spent. One hits the vehicle, causing it to burn some more (vehicle resists 8 damage.)

The ones in front start running out of the open, up to the non-burning sides of the building and behind cover. Trenchcoat Ghoul hunkers down behind the smouldering remains of Toro del Fuego.

[Fibinachi]

The autopilot in Suave's BMW, which Composite guessed to be otherwise kindly and programmed for nothing more vicious than an aggressive highway cutoff, was replaced by an irate ork demon intent on collisions, the engine roaring through the flames. Composite felt suddenly absurdly grateful (ah! That emotion still worked!) for the happy enclosure of four solid walls seperating her from the nightmare on wheels outside.

Call targets, let's go bowling amigos!

The night was a target-rich environment of twelveplus ghoul-pins lit by vehicle sensor, more coming in from all sides. They'd made the logical conclusion as well as her - it'd be better to be stuck inside Joe's with them than outside of Joe's with that car and no cover. Joe's was about to be stormed by feral ghouls. Oh drek to the lot of it, then, tonight wasn't going to be one of those halcyon nights where Composite got some sleep. With a thought, she flipped a mental switch and a tiny gland in her stomach spat out fire and hate. The AR danger monitor superimposed across her vision grew by twenty zeroes, froze, then erased itself with a dejected burst of static.

Composite screamed at the top of her lungs and raised her rifle to fire, intending to clean away the ghouls around the BMW. Two clicks of the trigger, head-chest, next target, head-chest, next...

"Road's yours!"


34 / 42 fletchette rounds

The three ghouls closest to the BMW need to die so there's room to play bowling with the rest. Composite spends a point of Edge.

Simple action to activate auto-inject the single dose of Kamikaze (I've fluffed that as being part of her adrenaline gland, which I hope is okay) - speed immediate, so next combat turn.

Free action to Multiple Attack
Spend a point of Edge to add 5 dice to the pool
18 dice + 5 = 23
Simple action full auto - which soaks 6 bullets, all remaining recoil.

Split pool in 3, 3 targets (Easiest, closests)
[roll0]
-5 defense penalty, 4 hits, 16 DV +3 armor (adds)
[roll1]
-5 defense penalty, 2 hits, 14 DV, +3 armor (adds) (Whew, almost glitched :smalltongue:)
[roll2]
-5 defense penalty, 5 hits (4+1 extra in ooc), 17 DV, +3 armor (adds)

[TheJudicator]

This isn't an action post, but reacting to the damage inflicted by the ghouls and the roleplaying to go with it.

Damage resistance of vehicle turned up 6 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4658919/).

Condition of vehicle: 5/17

Biofeedback to resist 1P damage turned up 6 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4658921/). No damage incurred to Arc.

The molotovs flared to life as they impacted around Suave's BMW, littering the streets with the resultant blaze. Luckily, the one that impacted off the hood of the engine deflected most of the burning substance harmlessly away onto the street.

On the bartop, Arc's resting form twitched in response to the burning, an occasional small spark traveling between strands of her hair as her rig responded to the feedback. It seemed far from severe, however, and the pain was managed with relative ease.

Tch, that tickled. Cheeky slitches.

[Marius]

Dany silently thanks that girl that made him buy a respirator, it already paid for itself, but the fire is still a concern the have to move fast. But that trenchcoat guy... He has to kill him before he leaves it's fate or something.
"You're mine big boy, let's see you move!"


Simple action to aim and another to shoot trenchcoat ghoul.
[roll0] –1 for recoil, +1 for aim.
-2 defense
Modified Dv 16P -5 armor

[TheJudicator]

Arc's virtual grin grew into a cackle as she heard her comrades through her comm as the sound of the BMW's gears shifting could be heard over the roaring flames. The tires screeched, adding the smell of burning rubber to the cacophony of stimuli this onslaught wrought upon the surrounded runners. Given the situation at hand, she knew she couldn't hold back, and with her extensive knowledge of car workings she torqued the axles, adding that little tension to increase the responsiveness.

And just in time, too, as she pealed out of the parked position in reverse, accelerating as much as she could muster. The engine roared as her voice, the tires her feet..and the fenders and bumpers her fists. After gaining some speed she timed her maneuvering until a ghoul or two came into view. Slamming the handbrake, she turned and whirled the car around into a swift J-turn, swinging the front of the car to swipe at a target or two. With luck, they'll get a nice taste of their flames too. "COMING THROUGH!!

Ah, shifts in initiative are disorienting!

Activating the Gearhead quality to add 1 to the Handling limit and +2 to tests for 5 minutes (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4660512/).

Speeding in reverse as much as possible, J-turning into (hopefully) at least one ghoul. Driving test yields 8 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4660513/) against target's Reaction+Intuition.
Base damage looks like 10P with AP -6. by that rule, the BMW takes 5 damage and resists with 6 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4660514/), so no damage. 7 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4660515/) to remain in control (threshold 2).

HOLY MOTHER OF ROLLING @_@;

[Maquise]

The armored ghoul ducks behind the wreck, and Dany's shots are deflected by the scrap metal.

Composite misses two ghouls, and only wounds her third. Arc on the other hand manages to splatter two more, leaving ten in the back. And... Suave's car is also a biohazard now.

[Fibinachi]

The rush of chemical hate flooding Composite's system throws off her aim, the little jittery muscle spasms hard to counter. Unthinkably, impossibly, she actually misses two thirds of her targets. The canny buggers must be getting wise to the fact they were being picked off one by one. Resolving then and there to spend at least the next month on the range (pre-supposing no terminal, sudden encounter with the ravaging claws of ravenous ghouls in the next few minutes), Composite was so thrown by this utterly astounding turn of events that it took her an entire milisecond to shake off the shock.

No matter much anyhow, because what tightly packed clusters of military munitions utterly failed to do the flaming soon-to-be-wreck of Suave's car managed just fine, throwing ghouls hither and dither. The area at the back of Joe's was now certifiably a biological hazard area best cleansed with liberal application of napalm. Forlornly, still trying to parse the fact that four of six shots had missed, Composite reached out from the wall she was hugging and tried to slam the door.

"See? Marked targets. All yours now, gearhead"


Better make that a complex action to close the door and wisely leave the alley to the rampages of Arc-bot.

[Marius]

Dany curses his bad aim but keeps his sight on trenchcoat ghoul. Taking the time to relax and aim carefully can do wonders for your precision but Dany always had a hard time doing it. But he manages to do it now, he keeps his breathing in check and unleashes a burst of lead at the small target left open without cover.


Another simple action to aim (the third one in a row) and then a simple action to shoot a burst.
Attack [roll0] (+1 smarlink +3 aiming)
Modified DV: 11P+hits(8)= 19P
-2 to defender
-5 AP to defender armor

[TheJudicator]

After the satisfying splat of the two ghouls against the BMW, Arc continued the curve, skidding into control and rounding the parking lot, headlights facing the pack as she revved her engine. Her meatsuit grinned as she identified her targets, marking them on her display while doing what all self-respecting drivers do in this situation:

Play the music. Loud.

The speakers vibrated as the volume turned up to blaring, a rhythmic, familiar, and classic drumbeat thrummed out as she sized up her quarry, plotting her route as the engine roared.

~Can you feel that?~ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wA5NmQESx8)

Complex action to pay my driving tax and remain in control. Fluff action to set the mood. Appropriate music is appropriate.

[Maquise]

With a roar, the Spirit of the Bear that Stone Bear summoned appears, in the Astral Plane to those who can see it at the front of the bar. The Shadow curls around it, its tendrils ensnaring it. (Force is reduced by 2).

It swipes its astral claws at the nearest ghoul, wounding it.

[Odentin]

Suave looks around, not worrying about his car so much at the moment. Arc will buy him a new one...he'll make sure of that. Not seeing what he's looking for, he rounds on Cheery once more, "Mi amor, where are your fire extinguishers? We are going to need them."

[Maquise]

Cherry points at a corner. Unfortunately, it happens to be fairly exposed if the ghouls have guns. You're not sure why they would, being blind and all, but with the way the night's been going it wouldn't surprise you.

[Odentin]

If Suave still has an action, he will move to get the thing and ready it.

[Maquise]

As Suave heads for the fire extinguisher, Trenchcoat Ghoul opens up on him full-auto. The corner, being exposed and all, doesn't have much in the way of cover besides the iron bars of the window.

Suave Ranged Defense (-9 FA, +4 Full Cover, Threshold 2): [roll0]

[Maquise]

Before Suave can get mangled by bullets, Composite steps in as a human body shield!

Amazingly, one of the bullets actually hits Suave! Or maybe it's amazing that only one of the bullets hit him.

Suave Physical Damage Soak: (-2 AP, vs DV 11): [roll0]

Suave takes 8 Physical Damage.

One of the ghouls breaks through, and charges Composite with an axe. Composite quickly counterstrikes, managing to slightly wound the ghoul.

[Marius]

Despite the burning buildling, the ghouls rushing in and the bullets flying around, Dany looks like he's having the time of his life. His smile can't be seen, hidden behing his breather but his laughter blast through the commlink as he keeps shooting trechcoat ghoul.


Simple action to aim (+1 attack, +1 acc) and then a simple action to shoot a burst.
Attack [roll0] (+1 smarlink +1 aiming)
Modified DV: 11P+hits(4)= 15P
-3 to defender (-2 from burst and -1 because he already defended this action phase)
-5 AP to defender armor

[TheJudicator]

Now that the music is blaring from the BMW's radio, Arc finished sizing up her target pool and now opted for action! Her meatsuit's fists clenched as she bared her teeth in an all-out grin as the engine roared, the tires spinning as it took off. As a quick aside, she sent a quick message to those in the building:

<Got 3 HE's and 2 Frag's in my pockets, motion sensor. Pull and chuck, chummers, they're yours if ya need em!>

And with that, she got back to driving, straight through the thickest patch of ghouls like some giant bullet of metal, gore, and flames.

Yep. Safe to say this half of the building is under control...

Free action to send message.
Complex action to perform a ramming maneuver. As before, 10P + net hits damage, -6 AP. 6 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4674862/)
Vehicle must resist 5P damage if ram is successful. 4 hits (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4674866/), resulting in 1 damage. New condition: 6/17, handling reduced from 7 to 6 after this pass.
If damage above is accrued, 1P biofeedback for Arc to resist. 1 hit (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4674881/), so no damage. Whew. Sparky sparky.

[Maquise]

The Bear spirit continues to struggle against the Shadow in the Aether, and makes no progress against the ghouls.