A Game of Killers, Round 1

[Eurus]

Forum post, January 8 2101

Posted on "Blacklist", the largest international forum and job listing for Users and employers.

Blacklist > Job Listings > North America

Seeking multiple individuals or small team for long-term employment based out of Chicago, 800k annual salary each plus significant benefits including medical care, safehouse, and company car. Unaffiliated with major corporation. Intelligence, investigation, sabotage, and acquisitions involved, possibly wet. No assassinations. Send resume to the linked node.


The initial exchange with your would-be employer was conducted over e-mail, polite but awkward. Negotiating a mercenary contract isn't exactly something any of you are experienced with, but the whole thing is surprisingly mundane. Your employer is initially hesitant about your lack of experience and reputation, but the fact that you actually live in Chicago is a plus, since it means they don't have to pay to relocate you. In fact, there's some brief awkwardness since many of the benefits your employer is prepared to offer -- a safehouse, a vehicle -- are more or less irrelevant to Antoinette's situation.

Despite salary being equally unimportant, in theory, it's something of a sticking point when you push for commission rather than contract work. Your employer is initially extremely reluctant to accept that, but eventually comes around for whatever reason.

Eventually, the details are mostly hammered out, and your new employer expresses the desire to speak with you through more personal channels. A face-to-face meeting would be awkward and impractical for everyone, but a video conference is the next best thing.

The call is scheduled for today, and hopefully your entire "group", such as it is, will be present. If there are any last-minute doubts or preparations, now would be the time.

[Forrestfire]

Antoinette sits in one of the comfortable chairs situated around the room's large semicircular table. The room would normally be very impressive, designed to hold videoconferences using the wall of large screens across from the table, but currently only one is on, currently displaying an unconnected face to face call.

Their to-be employer, Aaron Cannon, was schedule to call in roughly eight minutes. The red-haired and red-eyed girl had been waiting in the room for a while, more than a bit excited and nervous about the conference. She could barely contain her excitement. I'm we're getting a real mercenary job! This is gonna be great!

The clock moved forward another minute as Antionette struggled to gain some composure. Seven to go...

She says to the other two, "I wonder what he'll be hiring us to do."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko paced the floor, shaking his head. He didn't like this, a proper meeting with your employer happens in person not over the phone. He crossed his arms in an extremely Genji like pose and frowned over at Antoinette for a moment. If the older ninja could see Takehiko right now, he would actually be proud. Not that Takehiko would appreciate if someone pointed out exactly how much he was emulating his father right now.

He sighed and looked down, while some of it was definitely apprehension at the situation, he was also nervous. I mean... he'd never done anything like this before, and sure having parents like Genji and Misato Yamamoto you live your whole life expecting something like this... but he had always assumed that putting his ninja skills to use would be later. The rapid metamorphosis of "later" into "RIGHTNOW!" was making his stomach knot a little.

Takehiko squeezed Byakko to him and sighed. Without looking up he began to speak to Annie. "Hey, Annie... remember when Levi Tsung asked me out on that date and the entire week before hand I was so nervous I could barely sleep, and then he came to the door and I ended up throwing up on his shirt when I went to let him in?" He looked over at his friend and technically employer and smiled half-heartedly and half-reassuringly. He didn't want to do this anymore, but if Annie was insistent, he would be by her side no matter waht.

[Forrestfire]

"What, are you about to throw up? I can go get a bucket or something... We'd probably want to get that over with before the call... Maybe we could delay it? No, that'd ruin the whole deal, gotta just run with it then..."

Antionette trails off toward the end of that, not sure what to do here. Six minutes!

[Starsinger]

"What? No. God... you throw up all over a guy once and suddenly you're a vomit machine? I just meant... I was nervous. You know we could just not do this. We have plenty of money, and we already have a car and a house...

But also I brought it up because I just need to let you know, that we can't get killed... because I actually have a date next week... with Levi Tsung... apparently being thrown up on is not a permanent mood killer? I dunno, it was kind of awkward... I was at the store picking up some inks, cuz Mom's birthday is coming up... and I was making her a really nice wall scroll, and I ran out of ink so I went to get some more... and there was Levi and he ran up to me and asked how I was feeling... I guess he thought I had the flu or something?

Well he asked if I still wanted to go out... and I said sure, and we were originally going to do something today, but then I remembered we had this thing... so I had to postpone and now it's next week..." Takehiko rambled on, a nervous habit of his. Once when he was younger, he knocked over one of Misato's vases and explained what happened in detail for about fifteen minutes before he finally realized his parents were not that upset with him as it was a mistake.

He hugged the tiger again and looked at Annie. This was probably as close as he was going to get to asking her to call it off, and he had a feeling she wasn't going to go for it.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette half-smiles with a bit of a let down expression on her face, completely missing half his point as she replies.

"If... if you don't feel comfortable with this, you don't have to join us. I won't mind."

[Taveena]

Kasumi shifts, somewhat awkwardly, in her seat, glancing at the two happily-babbling Users. She's got her hood up. her mask on, and her gaze darting between exit points every few moments. She's pointedly sitting a fair distance away from the other occupants of the room, and while she hasn't made any moves to leave yet, she's obviously very jumpy. Her eyes fixate on Antoinette for a few moments as she concedes to Takehiko, but she says nothing.

[Eurus]

Before anyone can completely chicken out, the shrill electronic beeping of an incoming call interrupts you -- a few minutes early, as it happens.

[Forrestfire]

"Ah! Here we go, then."

Antionette composes herself for real this time, then gestures, hitting a virtual button in the heads-up display projected into her eyes by her contact lenses. The video call should be connecting now.

[Eurus]

One of the screens fades in to reveal someone who is definitely not Aaron Cannon. It's a woman, in fact, sitting at an old-fashioned wooden desk and apparently looking into a monitor sitting on top of it. The desk is currently empty, and the dark green wall behind her is featureless, providing no visual indication of where she might be and no personal effects.

The woman herself might be in her twenties or thirties, and is wearing an expensive-looking cream colored suit. She's reasonably attractive, in a conventional way; fair skin, straight black hair, light brown eyes, relatively symmetrical features. Light makeup, little jewelry. She seems calm and businesslike, for the most part.

"Good evening. Is this line secure?"

[Forrestfire]

Did not expect this but it's probably something I should just roll with maybe she's an intermediary or Cannon was the intermediary oh this is SO COOL ok gotta keep a straight face and respond calmly I can do this...

Antionette takes a breath, then replies calmly, "Yes, the line is secure."

[Eurus]

The woman nods, but doesn't respond immediately. There's an awkward second of silence before she speaks again.

"...Normally I'd exchange introductions at this point, but in the circumstances I suppose that would be a faux pas. I believe Ms. Johnson is the traditional alias. What should I call you all?"

[Starsinger]

Takehiko briefly gives Annie a look like she stabbed his puppy and then turns away when Ms. Johnson began speaking. "I'm Toramizu." He said a little curtly, there still being some hurt in his voice from Annie's comment.

[Forrestfire]

"Bubblegum."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko snerks at Antoinette calling herself Bubblegum.

[Taveena]

"... Magpie."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette gives Takehiko a bemused look at his amusement at her chosen name, while the boy looks at the screen, trying to make sure Byakko is hidden by the table. He says "So Ms. Johnson, what's the sitch?", trying to act all cool and Kim Possibly... but it comes out feeling a bit weird.

If Ms. Johnson finds any of them amusing or odd, she's too polite to show it. "Pleased to meet you all, then. I believe the price we've negotiated was fifty thousand dollars each for the first job, with follow-on work if successful?"

Her expression is mostly neutral, but it's obvious from her tone that she's still not enthusiastic about the lack of committment.

Antionette nods and says "Yes, that is correct." to the screen.

The woman on the screen replies with "Very well. You haven't expressed interest in the other benefits, but they're still on the table if you decide to take a contract later. A company car, a well-appointed safehouse, and an expense account."

Antionette nods again and smiles a bit before replying. "Noted."

Takehiko: "Wait, company car... so we would belong to you and be prohibited from working for other Johnsons?"

Ms. Johnson: "That would be part of the contract, yes. Granted, it's virtually unenforceable in practice. For now, I'm willing to accept keeping this to a trial basis."

Takehiko nods, saying "Sorry, I just wanted to clarify. You seem like a nice respectable woman and I doubt I'd need to work for anyone else. Just wanted to make sure."

Kasumi frowns, shifting somewhat, before speaking up. "Will, uh, future jobs have the same setup as this one? Still no killing, right?"

Ms. Johnson: "I will not request that you perform an assassination, terrorism, or anything of that nature, no. I'm not going to forbid you from killing, either; you're free to act as you feel is best within the context of your mission, although I may not be able to continue our professional relationship if you make a habit of causing too much collateral damage."

Takehiko sighs a sigh of relief, before saying "Oh good, I was afraid you'd want us to be ganking creeps left and right..."

Right after, Antionette replies "That's good to hear. I was a bit worried."

The woman on the screen's lips twitch up in a faint smile for just a moment, but her eyes are melancholy.

"My last agent refused to use lethal force under any circumstances, which I approved of. It ended badly for her. I suppose she valued the lives of the people trying to kill her above her own. So I've grown a little more pragmatic. But I have no desire to order someone's death."

Kasumi: "... Oh, um, wow. Uh. Honestly, I'm more likely to, y'know, hurt myself if anyone gave me a weapon, so, yeah."

Antionette ***** her head a bit, putting together a theory, but not saying anything

Ms. Johnson: "...I apologize, that tangent was unprofessional of me." She takes a moment to smooth a wrinkle from her skirt or trousers under the desk. "At any rate, you have freedom to act as you feel best."

Takehiko nods, saying "My dad used to tell me that sometimes you can't make a martini without cracking a few skulls. At first I thought he was just bad at metaphors..."

Antionette: "To be fair, he is also bad at metaphors... In any case, what is the job?"

Takehiko: "Hah, yeah... 'A shuriken in the hand is worth two dead intruders'... wait, maybe he was onto something with that one..." Hiko looks down at Byakko for a moment while he thinks about it.

Ms. Johnson: "The first job I have you hired for is unfortunately a complicated one."

Antionette: "Complicated shouldn't be too much of a problem..."

Kasumi bites her lip, though it's hard to make out under the mask.

Ms. Johnson: "I need you to retrieve a file for me. Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure where it's currently located."

Takehiko: "That'll be fun."

Antionette: "I see. I'd imagine it's a faux pas to ask what the file is, so I won't... What other information do we have?"

Ms. Johnson: "The file in question belongs to a company called White Rabbit Entertainment, a local subsidiary of Paradigm International, a relatively small multinational. Specifically, it's the information on a new VR product being developed under the working name Pocketwatch."

Kasumi: "... hooboy."

Antionette perks up. "I've heard about that one. Are we dealing with a sci-fi doomsday scenario where the VR device takes over peoples' brains?"

Ms. Johnson considers the question for a moment. "...Nothing so grandiose, or -- with all due respect -- I wouldn't be relying on an uncertain asset here. But it won't be good."

Antionette cheerfully says "No offense taken. So, where do you think we should start?"

Ms. Johnson: "Now, I suppose. Obviously the data will be irrelevant once the product is released, so consider that your deadline. I'd like to see how you handle this yourselves, but if you legitimately have no idea where to start, I do have a few lines of information in mind."

Antionette: "I have a few ideas, but I wanted to know if you had anything in mind. If not, then we can start now."

Kasumi takes a deep breath. "... This isn't gonna affect my performance, but. Any chance we could know if this is bein' done for business, altruism, or... whatever."

Ms. Johnson gives Kasumi a thoughtful look. "I'm not entirely sure that's a professional question to ask. Would it stop you if I said that I was intending to release a knockoff product and undersell shares in White Rabbit?"

Takehiko: "That's for business. If you wanted to stop it because it's bad wrong, that's altruism. If you wanted us to steal this so you could implant suggestions to murder people in the software... I think that's the kind of thing she was asking about..."

Ms. Johnson: "If I did, I certainly wouldn't tell you. I'm not sure I see the point of the question."

Antionette gives Kasumi a bit of a befuddled look, but the girl just laughs. "Nah, I've done that kinda thing all the time. I just find it interesting, y'know? Plus, ****, if you WERE willing to tell us that, we'd know a bunch more about how open YOU were."

Antionette: "... Well I guess that's that, then. When we have the data, how do you want it delivered?"

Ms. Johnson: "...I suppose so. Well. You can send it to my wireless node, as long as it's properly encrypted."

Takehiko: "I'd imagine she'll give us encryption software and we'll upload it... yeah."

There's a short period of awkward silence, finally broken by Takehiko speaking. "Well okay... I think that's everything Ms. Johnson, guess we'll go hunt down that file for you."

(Antionette is completely lost, etiquette-wise)
(Kasumi may be trying to be disruptive just to counteract her ****ing supernatural heritage.)

Ms. Johnson seems as lost as you. This clearly isn't quite how she'd expected things to go. So she just nods. "If you have any problems, you can call me."

Takehiko says "Okay, yeah. Probably won't do that unless it's something extremely dire. But good to know... we're going to go now..." before awkwardly ending the call from their end.

Antionette: "Will do. Have a nice day-oh."

Takehiko looks at Kasumi. "What is this file going to be used for? God, what if she said something incredibly awkward, like she's going to use it so pedophiles can get their jollies off without actually endangering real children or something?"

Antionette quietly says "... Well, it's technically better than the alternative...", giving a sideward glance.

Takehiko facepalms and pulls Byakko up from under the table. "Ms. Johnson probably thinks we're idiots... and in fact, had we not signed a contract, I imagine she'd have us fired... I wouldn't be surprised if she hired another team to follow us and make sure we don't do something stupid... Oh God... it'll be like having Dad on the mission after all.."

Antionette cheerfully says "Oh, she definitely thinks we're idiots. This just means we need to do the mission flawlessly."

Kasumi: "It's more satisfying if you get the job done when they think you're a mouth-breather."

Antionette: "And we'll prove her wrong completely!"

Takehiko: "Don't you guys have any pride as ninja? ... Wow, my dad's voice just crossed an entire city to jump out of my mouth..."

Antionette gives him an amused look. "I am literally made of cheating. Like-" She smacks her arm with her hand, making a 'tink' noise. "-I don't think I'm allowed to have pride as a ninja."

Takehiko frowns. It must be nice not having something to prove..

Kasumi: "... I'm not a ninja, I'm just a thief."

During this conversation, Antionette navigates her web browser in the HUD to White Rabbit's website, finding the address of their main offices.

Antionette: "I wonder if they have the file stored on their network... Doubt it."

Antionette hrms as she waves her arms, probably looking quite silly to everyone else for a moment, before the site she's looking at shows up on the wallscreens.

"Well, that's their site... I can get into their network, given some time. Probably. And I'd need to borrow Take's computer because it's awesome and nicer than mine. And maybe have you two helping. Even if the file's /not/ on the site, I'll hopefully be able to find something to point us in the right direction... Kasumi, how are you with computers?"

Kasumi scratches the back of her head. "I can remember the command that flips the screen upside down and I know how to work Google?"

Antionette: "I see. Well, you can help me figure out what I want to steal from their network when we get in. Give me two hours or so."

Antionette taps the table and a panel opens, a wireless keyboard stored underneath. A moment later, she's typing on it, writing a program to help her break the security of the site.

Takehiko starts talking as they type, "You know, Annie... we're probably going to have to go to the physical location of their file and wipe that information, right?"

Antionette: "Yes, but I can probably get maps. And time schedules. And passcodes."

Kasumi: "If we DIDN'T have to go there in person I'd be pretty useless."

Takehiko bites his tongue. A few hours tick by, and Antoinette's programs start running. Before long they're following one connection to another, slipping through vulnerabilities and scraping quite a bit of useful data. The most immediate return is the names, e-mails, and addresses of all of the company's local employees. It's soon followed up by addresses of a number of buildings that are owned and used by White Rabbit, but relatively little information on each one. Through the city network, Antionette also gets the floor plans of the buildings, before eventually she stops, covering her tracks and logging off.

After bugging the other two, she tells them about what she found. "Well, I guess that's what I'm able to get. I think we've got two buildings to hit. The four buildings in town owned by the company are an HR office, a Factory, and two Development offices. The latter two are probably where the files would be..."

Kasumi: "Unless they're already mass producing them, yeah."

Antionette: "I personally am not sure how we'd want to go about this, but I'd imagine that's something you're quite good at."

Takehiko: "Well, the problem is... once we hit one place, security is going to be all over the other one... Like... corporate security guards after someone raided one of their buildings..."

Antionette: "Yeah... Kasumi, thoughts?"

Antionette displays the floor plans of the two buildings on the table (which is also a screen because why not)

Kasumi: "Obvious answer is to make sure they don't KNOW we hit 'em."

Takehiko: "We're not killing anyone..."

Antionette: "Well no... Oh! You weren't here when I first met Kasumi. Lasted all of a few seconds before I got gen'd. Hrm. If we work fast and are stealthy enough, we might be able to hit both places in the same day."

Kasumi: "Gotta go fast..."

Antionette: "... There is always the option of trying to sneak in during the day, under their noses. Alternatively, at night. There's a trick Genji had me learn for hiding from security cameras..."

Kasumi raises an eyebow. Antionette notices and continues: "It's neat! I mold the chakra into an electric field and emit it in small aura. Anything close to me gets wiped, leaving just some interference. Kinda like an outline. I have a video, lemme find it."

The red-haired girl gestures, pulling up a video through the interface of her HUD-lenses and displaying it on a screen.

Takehiko: "Dad tried teaching me that... I didn't have the patience for it."

Antionette: "Also it's a lightning thing. I was told it's /really/ hard for water ninjas. Or... any non-lightning ninjas. I tried learning water stuff and it didn't work. Anyway..."

Takehiko shrugs. "I could do it if I wanted to."

Antionette: "Hrm... I feel like between the three of us, our talents are more suited for burglary."

Kasumi stretches her arms forward. "Y'don't say."

Antionette says "Well, I did." before realizing the sarcasm. "... Oh. Anyway, that's your area of expertise, so how do you think we should do this?"

Kasumi: "Find an excuse to scout the area out during the day, then we go in at night as subtly as possible. S'what usually works."

Antionette grins. "Well, I always did love tours of neat tech centers."

Takehiko: "That sounds fun, but we really should focus on getting into th-... oh."

Kasumi: "Ideally you want to set it up so that the events look unconnected, but that gets tricky unless you're great at improvising or willing to hold off for a while."

Antionette: "Oh, point. I'm terrible at improvising. Ish. Maybe we could hire someone."

Kasumi: "I mean, best case scenario, you manage to get in and out without them realising you were ever there." She grins. "Great part about stealing data. Nothing to ever go missing."

Antionette: "I don't know how to turn invisible... Do you?"

Kasumi: "F'r a given definition of invisible, sure."

Antionette grins. "Neat! That's so cool!"

Kasumi: "... I... guess."

Antionette: "All I've got is the ability to shoot lightning. And turn into lightning... And heal things... Actually those are pretty cool when I think about it. I can run really fast."

[Forrestfire]

Takehiko calls the White Rabbit office up on the phone. After a few rings, a female voice answers the phone with the slightly plastic cheer of those who interact with the public for a living. "White Rabbit Entertainment, how may I help you?"

Takehiko: "Uhh, hi. I'm representing Mr. Geoff Enrico. He has been expressing desire to invest some of his wealth in the electronics.. uhh, industry. And was wondering if he could send some representatives to tour your facility, because White Rabbit interests him as an investment opportunity."

Takehiko sounds kind of wooden and a little unsure of what he's saying, and something in Takehiko's tone, either his uncertainty or his youth, seems to set off the woman's suspicions. You can almost hear her frown as she replies, but she's not quite willing to risk the consequences if she's wrong.

"...Well. I'll set you up a meeting with our regional manager, then?"

Takehiko: "I'm sorry, this really isn't my job. The guy who's in charge of this isn't here today, so I'm filling in."

She might be a little sympathetic, it's hard to tell. "That's fine. But the manager is probably the one you want to talk to about this. He can set up a tour for you. Would tomorrow work?"

Takehiko: "Oh absolutely. Mr. Enrico won't be able to come in person, but he'll be sending his daughter in his place."

Phone woman: "Very well, I'll let Mr. Martin know. He takes most of his meetings at the 3 Martini Lunch, if you know where that is? His 1 PM is open tomorrow."

Takehiko: "Oh yes. Ms. Enrico and her entourage will be there at 1 PM tomorrow. Osoreirimasu."


---------------------------------------------

In the morning, Antionette dresses in some sort of elegant winter dress (with matching jacket, for when she leaves the house). She makes sure that Kasumi is cleaned up and dressed nicely instead of her normal hobo-like outfit, and double-checks that all her equipment is stored properly in her shapechanging armor necktie thing, and then eats breakfast and later a light lunch while going over the information on White Rabbit's work she researched the night before.

Eventually, she's ready to go. "How early do you think we want to arrive?"

[Taveena]

Kasumi seems rather irritable about this, unsurprisingly. She's still dressed rather casually, and she has her arms irritably folded across her chest. Without her hood, it's a bit more apparent her hair is dyed. And in spite of claiming not to have brushed it in weeks, it's silky and smooth. How odd.

"Earlier makes it seem more eager. 5 minutes late, you can play up the bored heiress who doesn't wanna be there. 10 minutes early, you're being professional. 30 minutes or earlier, excited fangirl."

[Forrestfire]

"Early it is, then."

[Eurus]

Ten minutes early, the three of you arrive at the 3 Martini Lunch bar and grill. It's clearly an upscale place, but casual enough to be fairly inviting, if you don't mind the price tag. The food smells good, at least, unless that's just the appetite stimulants the fast food place next door is piping into the streets.

Inside, the place is fairly busy, but Mr. Martin apparently has a "usual table" that the host leads you to. Martin himself, a slightly portly man with a receding hairline and a moderately expensive suit, arrives a few minutes late. He looks slightly surprised to see three kids at his table but rolls with it.

"Sorry I'm late, last meeting ran a little long. Er, you are...?"

[Forrestfire]

Antionette smiles when she sees him, answering his question as he sits.

"Oh, it's cool, we haven't waited long. Good afternoon. Mr. Martin, right? My name is Antionette Enrico, and I'm interested in investing in your company."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko follows Annie's lead, walking cool and casually. Or as casual as he can while wearing a suit. Internally he was frowning, he was definitely not a suit kind of guy... But he was raised to have manners and at business meetings you wear suits.

Takehiko walks over to the portly man and pulls a business card out of his a small silver case in his suit jacket pocket, on one side it says in English, "Takehiko Yamamoto, Executive Assistant to Antoinette Enrico." with the name of Antoinette's investment firm, "Let Them Buy Cake" at the top. The other side says the same things, but in Japanese. He presents the card to the gentleman english side up with both hands, bowing slightly as he does so. "Ohayou gozaimasu, o-genki desu ka."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette gives him a bit of an amused look at his choice of greeting.

[Taveena]

Kasumi lets out a slight groan at that. "... Goddamnit, we're not in ****in' Tokyo."

[Eurus]

The man's eyebrows arch for a moment at Takehiko's display, and he glances to Kasumi, then to Antoinette. He seems to quickly recover, evaluate the situation, and make the decision to pretend like he didn't hear Kasumi at all.

"...Hajimema****e. Okagesama de genki desu."

He returns the bow with one of his own, looks over your card, then places it on the table in front of him pulls a card of his own from a pocket. It's a completely unmarked piece of what feels like normal paper, but when you touch it, a shimmering hologram of a white hare logo and a phone number is projected above the card. He presents it in the same formal manner, with both hands, experiencing only a brief moment of loss as to which of your party to present it to before settling on Antoinette, then takes a seat across from her.

"...Well. I'm honored that you would have an interest in our little company, Ms. Enrico. I hope that any questions you have can be answered, and both of us can benefit today."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette appears to be at a bit of a loss about what sort of way to formally accept the card, but quickly decides to just take it. "Fancy."

After placing the card back down on the table, she continues speaking, giving an air of someone who on one hand has no idea what she's supposed to be doing here, but on the other hand is very enthusiastic about the meeting.

"... To be frank, I've personally never been a fan of the full virtual-reality technology, if only because I prefer my entertainment to be a bit more... Real, I guess? However, I've also always loved learning about the technology, especially White Rabbit's in the past couple of years. It's just such a fascinating field. I especially liked some of the earlier hardware your company put out, like the Cheshire headset from... I wanna say five years ago? I mean, later on, there was more miniaturization, but the easy of moddability of that helmet was amazing!"

She catches herself letting out a bit too much of her inner (normally outer) tech geek, and collects herself.

"In any case, my tiny investment firm is my main source of income, and with the latest and greatest in VR tech coming out with Pocketwatch... I want to get in on it before the inevitable increase in your stock prices after its success."

[Eurus]

Tuesday, February 1st, 2101 (13 days until Pocketwatch release)

He chuckles at her enthusiasm, and nods. "I know you won't regret that. I've seen the beta, and it really is quite impressive."

The conversation goes smoothly enough, and Martin answers any questions you may have. He's more than amicable to the idea of a tour, especially once you've confirmed your investment, and sets one up for you to take tomorrow at 10 AM. The meal is pretty good too, if you like enormous steaks.

Martin is in no hurry, but the meeting and meal eventually wind down and you're free to spend the rest of the day as you like.

[Forrestfire]

(Antionette does like enormous steaks. Hell of a metabolism and appetite on her.)

Following the meeting, Antionette is in an incredibly good mood, even though she knows she just signed off a large amount of money at a loss. When they return to the mansion, she changes into a swimsuit and practices the next step in the basic techniques she skipped, trying to match chakra to the motion of water in her mansion's indoor pool. It's grueling work, but after a while (and a short rest), she's beginning to get most of it. By the time she's finished, it's almost midnight, so she sets her alarm and stumbles into bed, exhausted.

In the morning, she wakes up early and prepares similarly to the previous day, albeit dressed in an entirely different, equally elegant outfit, before setting off into the city to visit White Rabbit's offices. She also brings up at some point in the morning that she thinks that it'd be a good idea to go on the tour alone or with just one other, to lower the number of their faces that have been seen in the building, just in case. She also notes that during the actual heist, it'd be a good idea to put on morphic diguises and/or henge to help keep from the same thing happening.

Two four hour training sessions, taking 10 on the learn check gets me higher than 5 on the result, so time is halved. One training day left until technique is learned.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko takes notes of everything said by Antoinette and Mr. Martin in the meeting, while somehow managing to also politely eat his food.

After the meeting, back at Antoinette's mansion, Takehiko braced himself and made a call.... and then hung up. Twice did he call and hang up before finally forcing himself to stay on the line for the third call. The phone rang a few times before it was answered by Levi's tired but cheery voice. "Hey 'Hiko! What's up? I haven't seen you in a while."

"Oh... yeah... I uhh... have taken a lot of time off from school lately... Been kind of busy with stuff.... heylisten." *giggles a little at saying Hey Listen!* "Hey, listen! So.. Annie and I were going to go on this tour of this place... andmaybe... uhh... if you're ot like... I mean I'm sure you have better things to do... like but uhm.. would you maybe... wanna go?If it's not too lame? And I can understand if you think it's lame and don't wanna go because it is kind of lame, I mean wahtkind of a date is a tour of a software developer anyway. I'm sure you'd much rather do something fun and exciting, and I can'treally blame you but I thought maybe it might be cool, I dunno. Like I said if you don't want to I totally understand." He started rambling again

Levi managed to patiently wait through the entire ramble before replying with a chuckle. "Sure, why not. Annie always has the weirdest ideas, heh. But it gives me an excuse to hang out with you. We can all stop somewhere for lunch after,or something."

Takehiko sat there for about thirty seconds dead silent. "So... you wanna go?"
"...Yeeees?"
"Oh wow... okay... I... wasn't expecting that uhh... sure, fantastic! It's tomorrow at 10 AM and then uhh... Annie's friend is coming along, so... If you want to maybe we can leave them to hang out alone... Or not. You know... that's fine too."
"Heh. Sure, whatever you want. You know I'm not picky as long as I'm out of the house."

Takehiko sat there again, silent. This time he wasn't sure what to say. "So... see you tomorrow?"

"Mhm. Have a good night, 'Hiko."

"Oh... yeah... goodnight Levi."

[Eurus]

Despite Antoinette's suggestion, Levi ends up invited, and at that point there's little reason not to just bring everyone. The White Rabbit R&D lab turns out to be a pretty generic looking building, and there's an excitable young woman waiting to serve as your tour guide.

"Hi, you're Ms. Enrico's party? Right on time! Sorry in advance if I don't know what I'm doing, we don't do tours much."

Levi is there to meet you, dressed in a nice pressed pair of slacks and button-down shirt -- as if his parents would let him be seen in public in anything else -- and with the rings under his eyes of the perpetually sleep-deprived student. He's cheerful, though, and has enormous cups of Starbucks for everyone when you arrive.

The tour is about as dull as you'd expect for anyone who's not sufficiently nerdy. The woman occasionally lapses into technobabble, either assuming that you'll understand or just forgetting herself, as she shows you around what looks like a bunch of offices featuring people working at computers. Some of them have electrodes attached to their heads, granted, but other than that it's pretty typical. The medical lab is a little more interesting, and the woman uses some of the imaging equipment to show you your own brainwave patterns, and the way White Rabbit's immersion tech reads and influences them, with the absolute conviction that this is the coolest thing ever.

As the last exhibit, your guide brings you to a room that's dominated by a few comfortable-looking chairs and some deep maroon walls and carpeting, a sharp contrast to the fairly typical corporate aesthetic of the rest of the building.

"So, I'm sure you've all heard of the new product we have coming out, right? The project name is Pocketwatch -- a little more of that sense of humor I mentioned, see? -- but we're releasing it as Dreamtime Connected. It's sort of a refinement of our last Dreamtime product, with a focus on collaborative experiences shaped by the user. We're all really excited about it here, and even though it's not on the market for another few weeks, I got the go-ahead from the boss to let you all give it a spin!"

You're free to accept or decline, and anyone who accepts is treated to a harmless (as far as you can tell, at least) but incredibly trippy ride. As soon as the headset hums to life, you slip into sleep. It really does feel like sharing a dream, and once you get past the initial confusion, you're able to shape it consciously or let your subconscious bleed through. The soothing harmonics produced by the headset make sure you're in the right mindset to enjoy a good trip, your tour guide goes under with you to show you how to manipulate it (and possibly make sure nobody accidentally shapes anything embarrassing), and the device monitors you and pulls you out if your stress level spikes for any reason. After thirty minutes, the timer trips and the device slowly dissolves the dream and brings you back to the waking world.

"So, what did you think? Pretty great, huh?"

Whether you enjoyed it or not, you at least know that the data you're looking for is here. After that, the tour is pretty much over. Levi immediately suggests hitting up an Ethiopian place a few blocks away for lunch. As you leave the building, though, he leans over and nudges Takehiko.

"...Hey, Hiko. Don't look now, but I think someone's totally checking you out. Cute guy, freckles, red hair, sitting next to that scary Mexican lady."

Sure enough, there's a young man who appears to be eying your group sitting across from a woman in motorcycle leathers and sunglasses in a cafe on the other side of the street. None of you recognize him... but Takehiko finds that the woman actually looks oddly familiar, until he places it.

Name: Evangeline Reyer
Alias: Razorgirl (Shredder, Molly)
Rank: #651
Strengths: Medium to long range combat, combat support, tech proficiency, sensor.

A veteran mercenary with an impressive record of completed jobs. Considered competent but unremarkable in a direct fight, but has an unusual knack for teamwork and combat support in a field mostly full of solo acts. Formerly worked as part of a team with another mercenary called Hellhound, but they had some sort of falling out a few years ago. Fights with razor wires or firearms, but most known for her eyes, a unique custom cybernetic of unknown origin. Exactly what they do is still a subject of debate, but she has an uncanny ability to spot or sense traps and ambushes and has been known to snipe through solid walls.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette actually enjoys the tour, and almost feels bad about the plan to rob them. She declines the VR trip, stating that she's more interested in the theory of it all and that the whole "share dream" thing kinda freaks her out. However, she's very enthusiastic about the rest of it, and agrees with the tech lead that it's all pretty cool.

At the restaurant, she leans over and jokes "Man, you just get all the guys, don't you?" to Take after the people watching are pointed out.

[Taveena]

Kasumi, having skipped on the tour, has joined back up with the group for lunch. She still seems a bit irritable, but after the other odd little party is pointed out, she grins somewhat, giving them a casual, lazy wave. Before she goes back to her food. Nomf.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko enjoyed the tour but frowned afterwords. Why is Levi telling me about this other dude checking me out? Is he pushing me toward the other guy? Why is that guy sitting with Razorgirl? OH HOLY **** A THOUSAND BRICKS! THAT'S RAZOR GIRL! Hiko tries not to register the recognition on his face and hurries them into the restaraunt, "I'm absolutely starving, let's eat!"

Takehiko frowned, Levi was pushing him towards other guys, and now Razorgirl is across the street.

[Forrestfire]

Antiontte waves at the two people and smiles, a bit oblivious other than having a faint recollection of the woman. She then goes into the restaurant and orders some sort of food she hasn't tried before.

"I feel like I've seen that woman before. Is she someone famous?"

[Eurus]

The place is fairly busy, which is probably a good sign. Levi chats amicably for a while while you all place your orders. Before they arrive, you notice the man and woman from the cafe entering the restaurant. They take seats at one of the few free tables, across the room from you, and order food. They're still acting casual enough.

Takehiko notices Levi tense up a little when they walk in, but he quickly covers it with a smile and goes back to telling a joke. At the same time, he quietly slips his phone out under the table and starts texting.

[Taveena]

"One moment," Kasumi says, before standing up, walking over to the table of the pair following them, and grinning. She pulls up a chair, right next to them, and grins. "So! Saw you staring at us. What's up with that? Not that I'm not used to stares, but hey. Still kind of hella creepy."

[Forrestfire]

"Wha-"

Antionette grimaces, surprised that Kasumi decided to go over there, and is a bit baffled about what to do here. She thinks about calling the police, but it occurs to her that getting them involved is likely to end badly for everyone.

If they're mercenaries, we need to get Levi out of here, fast!

[Eurus]

The man's eyes widen slightly as Kasumi approaches, and he tenses up. Eva just gives Kasumi a faint smile -- it's hard to read her expression under those sunglasses that she's still wearing, even indoors -- and takes a long sip of her iced tea. She seems to give the question some consideration before answering.

"...I like to meet the competition. I haven't seen you lot around before. New to the scene?"

[Taveena]

"Competing over what?" Kasumi asks, innocently.

[Eurus]

Eva adjusts her sunglasses down and gives Kasumi an unamused look over the top, revealing a pair of gleaming black orbs where her eyes should be.

"Really. That's how you want to play this? I'm trying to be polite here, and you're going to sit there and bull**** me to my face. And that's the best you can come up with. I can see at least three pieces of military-grade tech from here, and your friend back there doesn't even hide his chakra."

[Taveena]

"... I'm- I'm sorry, this- I mean- It's-"

Whimper.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette, watching the scene unfold but not hearing, falls for Kasumi's bluff entirely. She stands up and grumpily walks over.

"Hey, are these jerks being jerks to you? Should we just get the check and leave?"

[Eurus]

Evangeline just looks vaguely disgusted.

"Charming. This is charming. I'm leaving now, while I still have some self-respect."

Scowling, she drops a few bills on the table and leaves, and the man follows, looking slightly flustered. You hear her grumble something about "needing a raise if they're going to make her fight a damn girl scout troop."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko places a hand on Levi's shoulder. "Hey... are you okay? Did those strangers shake you up? I swear I wasn't even interested in if that guy was checking me out!" He sighed partially because he was worried about this situation with Levi and this other guy and also because he is apalled at the complete and utter lack of ninja pride the girls are displaying.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette is again extremely baffled. Her confusion turns to a smirk as Razorgirl leaves and she overhears the woman's grumbling.

"So that's our competition, huh? Can't wait!"

She then goes back to the table and finishes her food.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko glanced over at Annie and smiled, cheerfully saying something to her in Japanese. (Japanese)"You do know that was Razorgirl, right?" He smiles sweetly at Annie, trying to mask the anxiety in his voice as he says that before turning back to Levi.

[Eurus]

Levi smiles and tries to laugh it off.

"I know, I know. I just thought they were creepy. I'm pretty sure I saw them in that cafe when we first got here, and then they were still here when we finished the tour, which was weird enough. So then when they came in, I thought they were stalking us or something. Which is crazy, right? I don't know what your friend said, but I guess it worked."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette cheerfully replies, also in Japanese.

<"I do now! She doesn't like that she's fighting us, but I'd expect her to strike at some point soon. This was kinda a declaration-of-war-type thing that didn't happen how she wanted it to, probably?">

She then says in English: "They were just some jerks that didn't like us, I think. Ended up running off when we called them on it."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko smiles at Levi and suddenly he gets a face like he remembered something extremely important he forgot. Hiko quickly reaches over and puts a hand over Levi's hand. "I... meant to do this earlier during the tour... I just got distracted by the cool tech stuff..."

[Taveena]

"Haaaah. I love my job."

She smirks, before moving back to the table with the others.

[Eurus]

Levi does something with his phone and pockets it, then looks back up at Takehiko with a grin.

"It was pretty cool stuff. What's up?"

[Starsinger]

Takehiko grabs Levi and presses him against the wall of the booth and moves his face right next to Levi's. He pulls in really close and... kinda stops, a look of "Wtf am I doing" crosses his face and he balks. He lets go of Levi and just kind of sits there, still super close, his face a little embarassed at his own forwardness. Come on, it's just like on TV... you just have to stop being a scaredy ninja and act like a real man. What would Otosama say... no, don't think about him right now. Just... come on, everyone is staring at you like you're an idiot. Takehiko looks like he's about to cry when he makes a quick hand gesture and where he was sitting is now a log and he is hiding around the corner.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette gives a bit of a blank, surprised look at the entire thing that just happened.

Where the hell do Genji and Take get these logs from...

[Eurus]

Amazingly, most of the restaurant doesn't seem to notice, but a few people do, and flinch at the sudden replacement. Levi himself just sort of stares blankly at the log for a minute. Eventually, he looks up at Antoinette with a horrified expression.

"Did... did my boyfriend just turn into a log?"

[Starsinger]

"Did... did my boyfriend just turn into a log?" Boyfriend? He... but... Takehiko bumps into a waitress causing her to drop the tray full of dishes she was carrying which drops to the ground with a large crash.

"Ahh!!! Sumimasen...!" An even further embarassed Takehiko runs out of the restaraunt and locks himself in the jaguar, curled up in the back seat.

Smooth...

[Forrestfire]

Antionette isn't sure how to answer this, but after a moment bursts out laughing.

"Ahaheh... No, no he didn't. He ran away. I'm honestly not sure where he got the log from. He's- Well, he's been trained since he was little to be a ninja butler. I think he panicked. Pffff..."

[Forrestfire]

Following that, Antionette pays for the meal (picking up everyone else's meal because she's ridiculously rich), and Take, Antionette, and Kasumi return to Antionette's mansion. Takehiko does not talk as he drives, but Antionette fights to stifle laughter for a while... Eventually apologizing for the laughter and congratulating Take on the being-a-boyfriend thing. After a bit, she starts to talk about the planned heist, then abruptly breaks out laughing again, apologizing through breaths.

When they return to the mansion, Antionette hacks into the city of Chicago's network and tries to get at least a few of the city's security cameras around White Rabbit's building and surrounding buildings linked into a backdoor for easy access. Can't be too careful...

She also gets some equipment to sweep Take's car's outside for bugs and trackers once she gets home, kicking herself for not thinking to do that beforehand. When she finds the inevitable beacon, she puts it in a Faraday cage for use later.

During the planning stages, Kasumi suggests that they take tonight and use it to scout the guards' schedules, then hit the place another day. Antionette agrees with her logic.

Eventually, the group piles back into Take's car and goes back towards the city proper. Antionette suggests they park away from the building, and also recommends that everyone keep a lookout for Razorgirl and her team.

[Starsinger]

Once they were in the car heading back, Hiko's mind was in mission mode. He put off all his concerns from earlier's fiasco, now he was a ninja on a mission. As they drove to the city he frowned, "Hey guys, what if Razorgirl breaks in tonight to steal pocketwatch?" he had been thinking about it, and it made sense. She said they were competition... why wouldn't she try to take it first?

[Forrestfire]

"... That's a good point."

[Taveena]

"Then we have to steal it from her instead of a megacorp, and at a guess, she's got less security than them. Problem is, of course, that we gotta get to her before she uploads it." Kasumi shrugs.

[Forrestfire]

"So we'll just definitely need to keep an eye out, then."

Antionette pulls out the Faraday cage'd tracker beacon and gives it a thoughtful look.

"We could just invite her to come fight us."

[Taveena]

Kasumi just stares at Antoinette.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette gives a sheepish grin back. "Well we could!"

And then we kick their asses!

[Taveena]

"I am not a direct combatant."

[Forrestfire]

"The other two of us are, though! It could work! ... From what we know, it's probably at most the two of them. I'm betting ginger was the guy with the sword who helped take out Red Widow... So they're likely to be using him as the main fighter with Razorgirl supporting. We're probably going to have a numbers advantage, and if we set up the battlefield and ambush them, we could take them out before they know what's happening!"

Antionette thinks for a moment, then mumbles, "Oooor they could kill us. Hrm. Tough choice, really."

[Taveena]

"... you've- you're going to try to kill a super famous ninja one on one without even the element of surprise.

That's... I mean, you can if you want, but I'm bailing without your threat dangling over my head straight away."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette looks something between embarrassed and guilty. "... Yeah, it was a stupid idea..."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko sits there bored and his mission mode starts to wear thin. "He called me his boyfriend..." Takehiko stares at the building across the street, conjuring up a small globe of water and just playing with it. Totally doing the Labyrinth thing with water globes instead of glass spheres.

[Eurus]

The party parks a few blocks away, puts plenty of change in the meter, and sets out to find a good spot to watch the place from. The roof building immediately across from it proves to be a good spot; there's no door up to it, so you're able to fly, jump, or wall-walk up and be fairly confident in not being intruded on.

The stakeout proves to be incredibly dull as the hours tick by, but you note every person that goes in and out and form a pretty decent idea of the shifts. Most of the employees leave by 7 PM, with a few trickling out as late as 8 or 9. Cleaning staff works until 10:30 then locks up. Other than that, there are two security guards who come in at 6 and stay until midnight, at which point they're replaced by a new shift that goes from midnight to 6 AM, when the building opens. They don't seem to keep security around during the day, when the building is staffed.

After a few hours, Takehiko notices an unusual shadow on another rooftop two buildings away. He can't see it well from here, but his instincts tell him that someone's set up an observation post like their own, or possibly a sniper's nest.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko looks over at the sniper's nest. Tut tut... looks like rain. "Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen." As Takehiko said each word he performed the seals necessary for the Miracle of Rain. He was sure Genji would be proud of him, as he was making it rain for a practical and useful purpose, and not just to get out of gym class. He stood there repeating the mantra and the seals for a minute, as the sky darkened and clouds rolled in.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette watches the sniper nest once it's pointed out, preparing to move the moment her suspected target does.

[Eurus]

The rain makes the already cold night so much more unpleasant, but if there is anybody on that other roof they don't budge. More hours slip past, and eventually, having the information you need, you all return home wiser but with a distinct feeling of anticlimax.

[Forrestfire]

When she returns home, Antionette tells HAL to wake her if any sort of intruder arrives, then goes to sleep, planning on sleeping in to be awake for the heist the next day.

On the next day itself, she prepares her gear and makes sure that the others are ready as well. She also double-checks that her backdoors are still in the city's systems (and adds them again if they aren't).

"If that was Razorgirl there last night, she's probably going to be waiting for us when we go back."

[Eurus]

Antoinette finds that her security backdoors have been eliminated at some point, apparently due to a system-wide crash last night. While resetting them, she notices one one camera that the lab she'd been watching last night now has a car in front of it with the logo of Chicago's privatized police force company, White Knight.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette rushes to bring this feed to Kasumi and Takehiko. "I... I think Razorgirl got our data before we did."

At the same time, she's multitasking, trying to get the city's face-recognition program to look for Razorgirl.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko bounces over to Annie in a particularly good mood. "Hey. Hey, Annie. Hey, listen. So I was talking to otosama, and he brought up a very good point. We left, and Razorgirl probably outwaited us and took the stuff and left." Despite the words coming out of his mouth, his tone is rather upbeat and excited, like a kid on Christmas.

I have a boyfriend! We might get fired, but so what? I'm only doing this because I have to keep an eye on Annie, but if I get fired I won't get in trouble with my BOYFRIEND he grinned like an idiot as he thought that to himself. for doing something illegal like being a ninja thief.

Takehiko looked down at his phone and sent another text to Levi. So it really doesn't bother you that I can... do stuff? I was kind of worried, my dad said that regular people get kind of... strange when they find out. Hey! Do you wanna see if I can teach you stuff? Annie learned some stuff you know.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette unintentionally tunes out her friend, focused entirely on scanning through the possible matches her feeds are giving her.

[Eurus]

The cameras seem to have inconveniently gone down last night about twenty minutes after you guys left that roof. Scanning the footage since then with pictures of Razorgirl pulled from your contact lenses, you eventually find some clips:

3:31 AM: Razorgirl and the male from before walking down the sidewalk, a few blocks away from the lab.

3:59 AM: Razorgirl and friend entering a McDonalds.

4:22 AM: Razorgirl leaves the McDonalds and enters an arriving cab. Male not with her.

4:22-4:48 AM: Razorgirl in cab passes several street cameras, eventually dropped off on a random looking corner.

5:02 AM: Razorgirl seen entering a motel.

[Forrestfire]

As it scans, Antionette's mind races. Crap crap crap we screwed up shoulda just gone in and taken the data DAMMIT how'd we manage to screw up this bad! Now Razorgirl's got Pocketwatch and hopefully the I can find her and then...

... And then what!? I can't just take it from her, it's just data! She's probably already uploaded it to her cloud and is ready to sell it to the highest bidder! What am I supposed to do here?! Shoulda just gone in and taken it last night, we would have won... What to do what to do what to do what to do how can I fix this...

Then the first of the hits arrives, and shortly after the second, and the third. HA! FOUND YOU! Wait, crap. Still don't know what to do. How can I get the data from her without her just... Dammit, why is this so hard!

Finally, the fourth (Come oooonnnn, show me where you stopped running) and fifth (YES!) hits arrive.

... Wait. Why am I so lost here. I trained for this. This is what I did all this stuff for. For this moment... But she's a veteran assassin, on the List! She's probably ready to kill me the moment I enter that motel... Hold on, what do I do if the data's already been sold. Should I just give up here? After all this? ... Can I do that...?

Antionette stares off into space for a few moments, mind blanking out.

... No. I can't do that. I've come too far for this. If she's sold the data, then I'll just have to take it from whoever she sold it to... If she tries to kill me...

I guess I'll just have to kill her first.

Antionette stands up, saying to Take: "I think I found her. She's at a motel in the city."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko sighs and grabs his keys, "Whither thou goes, so shall I go... Am I picking up Kasumi?" So much for his quiet day sitting around texting his new boyfriend. He giggled a little at the thought.

[Eurus]

Another text eventually comes from Levi.

It doesn't really bother me, as long as you're not doing anything illegal or dangerous with it. My dad would probably freak out, though. What kind of stuff can you do, anyway?

[Forrestfire]

While they drive, Antionette gives Kasumi a text and lets her know that they're going to this address to possibly catch Razorgirl.

Going to [motel address], Razorgirl suspected to be there, could use your backup if you want.

[Taveena]

Kasumi sighs, pulling her equipment on.

omw abt 5 mins away

[Eurus]

The place is only a short drive away. It looks pretty generic, but comfortable enough, not especially sleazy. There's no way to tell at a glance which room is Eva's, which leaves you with the decision of how to approach.

[Forrestfire]

When they arrive, they park the car about a mile away from the motel and quickly jog to meet up with Kasumi. Antionette's currently wearing a morphic disguise to change he hair color to black and her face to something a bit different, just in case she's seen before 'suiting up', so to speak (although she's currently wearing a white suit, and hoping that she it doesn't get destroyed in the event of a fight). She also has a folded up sign prepared that says "I'm here to talk, not fight, unless you make it one", and has set up a backdoor into the hotel's systems to trigger the fire alarm if needed.

When they arrive at the motel, Antionette asks Kasumi to see if she can get the guy at the front desk to tell them where Razorgirl's room is.

[Taveena]

Kasumi blinks a few times. "I... I guess I can try? I'm not- I mean, sure..."

[Forrestfire]

"Or something, anyway. I mean, we could always go kick down doors or something, but I'd like to try to talk relatively peacefully first..."

Antionette looks to the side a bit. "... Also, even if you're not good at it, you kinda have an effect on people..."

[Taveena]

Kasumi frowns, before sighing. "Alright, sure, whatever." So she moves over to the clerk and decides to ask about a girl matching Razorgirl's description!

[Forrestfire]

23:33:54 <•Eurus> The boy behind the desk is probably eighteen, and puberty hasn't been kind to him; he'll probably have some nasty scars from that acne. This works to Kasumi's advantage for now, since he just kind of gawks at her. "Uh... yeah, okay..." He gives her the room number, 112.

Kasumi gives a surprisingly warm smile, before blowing him a kiss and heading back to the other two. "I feel dirty."

Antionette grins. "Well it worked!"

23:40:06 <•Takehiko> "Why do you feel dirty? It's not like you used magic to manipulate him or something. He was just a boy who couldn't resist a pretty face."

23:40:17 — •Antionette starts walking towards Room 112, pulling out the sign she made. "I'm pretty sure she can see through walls. Hopefully this works."
23:40:53 <•Antionette> When she gets there, she knocks on the door and presses the sign to it.

23:44:02 <•Eurus> There's silence for a moment. It stretches out into several. After a few minutes, the door opens maybe two inches inches. The chain isn't engaged, but she has one hand on the door. The slice of her face that you can see looks tired and pissed; she seems to be wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and has serious bedhead.
23:44:12 <•Eurus> "...What are you doing here?"

23:45:00 <•Antionette> "I want to know if you've sold the data yet."
23:45:13 — •Antionette gives her a blank-ish look

23:46:28 <•Eurus> "Sold... the ****? Seriously? Why do you even care?"

23:46:47 <•Antionette> "Because I need a copy of it, mostly."
23:47:04 — •Antionette says this as if it's the most simple concept to understand and that Razorgirl is dumb for not getting it

23:47:23 <•Eurus> "So get it from the damn lab! I assume they've got backups, somewhere. Why are you /here/?"

23:47:58 — •Takehiko looks at Antionette when Razorgirl asks that

23:48:04 <•Antionette> "Because I assumed that you had destroyed it. Have a good day, then."
23:48:10 — •Antionette starts to walk away, then stops abruptly.
23:49:52 <•Antionette> "Oh right, and also because the company I'm representing likely doesn't want more competition than the original."

23:50:51 <•Eurus> She watches you with an expression that's mostly neutral and maybe a little puzzled. When you stop, she sighs. "I... you're ****ing with me, right? You're not /this/ dumb. I refuse to believe that anybody in this city is desperate enough to hire someone who's as ditzy as you lot act."
23:51:13 <•Eurus> "For my own sanity, at least, I refuse to believe it."

23:51:43 <•Takehiko> "Maybe we wouldn't be here had you not killed Widow."

23:52:48 <•Eurus> She gives Takehiko a suddenly narrowing glare. "It was business. What does it matter to you, anyway?"

23:53:48 — •Takehiko sighs, "Now you're ****ing with me, right? You're not /this/ dumb."
23:54:42 <•Takehiko> "Let me see if I can piece this together for you. You kill Widow. Shortly there after, a bunch of newhires show up at your doorstep. Do you really not see the connection here?"

23:52:35 — •Antionette turns and leans against the opposite wall and waves a hand for Take to stop talking for a second, then begins her own speech
23:56:19 <•Antionette> "Ok, fine. I'm here because I need a copy of that data to give to my employer. They hired us to take it, but since you beat us to it, I doubt that it'll be easy to get at their backups. I have a stake in that company, and I've seen bits of their systems. I doubt they'd store it in an area I can easily access, so I reasoned that it'd be simpler to just bug
23:56:19 <•Antionette> /you/ for it. Whether or not you're willing to give it up, or how much you planned on selling it for in the first place, are parts of further plans. Not as ditzy as we look, definitely as new as we look. So. Have you. Sold. The data. Yet?"
23:57:14 — •Antionette ends the last bit with a tone that only someone well-trained on looking down on people could manage

23:58:15 <•Eurus> She looks from Takehiko to Antoinette, glancing briefly at Kasumi as well in a quiet, threat-appraising way. "...I didn't /sell/ it, but yeah, I sent a copy to my employer as soon as I got out of the building. I don't just raid random offices."
23:59:16 <•Eurus> "And for the record, Red Widow was one of the most disturbingly competent Users in the city, possibly the country, despite that sentimentality that got her killed. If you three are her replacements, this industry is going seriously downhill."

00:00:49 — •Antionette sighs. "Well, the next step would be to figure out where to go from here, then. Could go rob the place, could offer to buy it from you or something, could try to murder you and take it, although the last a bit of a last resort..."

00:01:04 — •Takehiko glares at Razorgirl, having spent the last several years sick and tired of hearing other "better" ninja telling him he was incompetant

00:02:00 <•Eurus> "I can't sell it to you, that kind of **** ruins reputations. I'm working on contract. It's not like I'm going to just let you kill me."

00:03:51 <•Antionette> "That's why I said 'try'. Even if I kill you, there'd be the issue of you having protected the data. I could threaten but you're not going to fall for that..."
00:03:51 <•Antionette> Antionette grins a bit madly. "I mean, I'd /love/ to fight. To have a real fight, to finally test my mettle. If you want to oblige me, I am all for it."

00:04:57 <•Eurus> She looks surprised, then suddenly snickers. "That explains that, I guess. I was wondering why a rich kid like you would be in this line of work."

00:05:13 <•Antionette> "Indeed."
00:05:44 <•Antionette> "Course, if we plan on fighting, I'd like to trigger the building's fire alarms first."
00:06:00 <•Antionette> "No point in bringing bystanders into it."

00:08:09 <•Eurus> "...Cute thought, but I don't normally like sweating unless there's pay involved. On the other hand..." she trails off, "...might not be a bad idea..."

00:08:54 <•Antionette> "Could fight with the intent of not killing each other completely, to keep your reputation clearer when I beat you and take the data."
00:09:02 <•Antionette> "Or we could try and murder each other."

00:09:23 <•Takehiko> "I think getting beaten by a bunch of girl scouts would make her reputation worse..."

00:09:35 <•Antionette> "Not as bad a hit as selling out a contract."

00:10:55 <•Eurus> She gives you each a searching look. "...Three on one seems a little lopsided."

00:11:23 <•Takehiko> "Oh, isn't the cute guy with freckles nearby?"

00:13:12 <•Eurus> "...In about two more minutes, yeah."

00:13:32 <•Antionette> "To the death or to the surrender?"

00:13:40 — •Takehiko looks at Antionette

00:13:50 <•Antionette> "Hey, it's an important question!"
00:14:00 <•Antionette> "If she's going to come at us trying to kill I'm going to try to kill her right back."

00:14:47 — •Kasumi seems to have been paying no attention to this entire conversation, apparently checking her nails.

00:14:49 <•Antionette> "Also, three-on-one kinda /is/ unfair. I'd be open to a duel, but that is on her."

00:16:05 <•Eurus> "I'd rather not get killed over something this stupid, and I /do/ know how to disable, even if I don't have to do it much. How good are /you/ at pulling your punches?"

00:16:05 — •Takehiko turns back to Razorgirl

00:16:28 <•Antionette> "Stun setting."
00:16:50 <•Antionette> "And he" she gestures to Takehiko "is quite adept at it. Although it's unpleasant."
00:19:51 — •Antionette messes with her tie for a few moments, running a tiny (not even a point's worth) amount of chakra through it to trigger its ability. A few moments later, her suit is wrecked and she's wearing a flight suit, with gas mask, goggles, and a pair of gauntlets that quite obviously have lasers built into them.
00:19:56 <•Antionette> "Two minutes."
00:20:30 <•Antionette> "Also, waaaaaaay more than three pieces of military hardware. You should see if you can get your eyes to see through that."
00:20:56 — •Antionette then triggers the fire alarm

00:21:32 <•Eurus> "Alright. Two minutes, and if you three can beat us, you can take the files. But fair's fair. If /I/ win... you lot tell me who the hell you're working for."

00:21:45 <•Antionette> "Deal."
00:21:49 <•Antionette> "The roof?"
00:22:18 <•Antionette> "Or the hallways."

00:25:47 <•Eurus> "...Roof favors the jetpack, and makes it easier for you to apply your numbers."

00:26:17 <•Antionette> "And the halls favor the x-ray-vision eyes."
00:26:42 <•Antionette> "Could just call the entire motel the battlefield and leave it at that."
00:27:20 <•Antionette> "Oh, and Kasumi, if you don't want to get involved in the combat, then it's probably good to go outside. I doubt they'll go after you."

00:27:27 <•Eurus> "That works. We'll call the parking lot the boundary."

00:27:36 <•Antionette> "Not like I can force you to fight someone."

00:28:32 <•Eurus> Soon enough, the boy shows up on a slim blue motorcycle. He's in a full suit of blue leather, somewhere between armor and racing gear, complete with a motorcycle-style helmet, and has two swords strapped to his back.

00:28:38 <•Takehiko> "Why not the swimming pool? Large area for maneuvering without overly favoring the jetpack, the pool in the middle creates an obstacle..."

00:35:44 <•Antionette> "Nice swords!"

00:35:48 <•Kasumi> "Are you two setting up a cage match now?"

00:35:52 <•Antionette> "Yes."
00:35:55 <•Antionette> "Four now."
00:36:30 — •Antionette spins her very masterwork large knife/short sword out of her armor then back into the gauntlet it's integrated with

00:36:45 <•Kasumi> "God, eugh."

00:37:05 <•Antionette> "Which is why I said to go hang out outside with the rest of the people who left to the fire alarm."

00:37:13 <•Eurus> He hops off the bike looking confused, and Razorgirl waves him over. They confer quietly for a moment. He looks unhappy, but resigned.

00:37:40 <•Kasumi> "It's fine. I'll just drag your ass out once you're done."

00:37:41 <•Eurus> "Just follow my lead, kid."

00:39:43 — •Takehiko hands Byakko to Kasumi, "If you lose him, I will destroy you."

00:41:19 <•Kasumi> "Cute."

00:42:04 <•Eurus> Razorgirl thinks for a moment, then pulls out a tiny can of something and tosses it to Kasumi. "In case anyone starts bleeding out."

00:42:22 <•Kasumi> "... I need one of these."

00:42:27 <•Takehiko> "He's the Lord of the West, he's not cute."

00:43:06 <•Antionette> "Oh yeah, probably a good idea to have those."

00:43:21 — •Antionette unseals a bottle of blood-clotting pills and hands them to take. "Just in case."

00:43:44 <•Eurus> "Let's do this before the fire trucks get here, I guess."
00:43:56 <•Eurus> Razorgirl grabs a jacket from her room and shrugs it on.

00:45:46 — •Antionette murmurs to Take "Let's do this like that one time we tried to sneak up on Genji, except make it work this time."

00:46:29 — •Takehiko looks over at the biker guy and gives a lame nod of recognition. "H..hey"

00:47:12 <•Antionette> "Ok then. Let's go."

00:50:09 <•Eurus> He flicks down his visor, making it impossible to read his response.

00:54:05 — •Takehiko frowns

00:54:52 <•Antionette> Antionette pats him on the back. "Next time."
01:01:06 — •Antionette 's eyes glow from under her mask. She's got a huge grin but no one can see it but Razorgirl probably.

01:02:12 — •Takehiko makes some hand seals and a shield made out of water floats around him.

01:04:47 <•Eurus> Almost as soon as the shield forms, Blue is moving, swiping his blade in an iaijutsu strike so fast that it's hard to fully follow.
01:10:35 <•Eurus> The sword shears through the water, but rather than slicing into Takehiko's torso, it simply slams into him, and it becomes suddenly clear that it's a reverse-bladed sword.

01:11:06 — •Antionette steps to the side and makes a flurry of seals, sending out tighly-controlled chakra through the air at Razorgirl and Blue
01:14:29 — •Antionette feels the technique take hold on Blue and smiles.

01:14:55 <•Eurus> Razorgirl grimaces, but seems to shake it off. Blue immediately goes rigid before he can even recover from his slash.
01:15:26 <•Eurus> Razorgirl nods. "Not bad."

01:15:41 <•Antionette> "Good job resisting it!"

01:15:58 <•Eurus> She pulls a small sphere from her pocket and tosses it down, and the hall rapidly fills with smoke.

01:17:49 <•Antionette> "Aaaaand of course. Because x-ray vision. Right."

01:18:48 <•Eurus> There's a sound of soft footsteps, and a hum of wire under tension.

01:21:35 — •Takehiko fires off some handseals and a swirling blast of water shoots out from his hands rushing down the hallway toward Blue and Razorgirl.

01:24:03 — •Antionette watches them go. "Not what I had in mind, but ok."

01:25:16 <•Eurus> They both get washed away, along with the smoke. The glass door at the end of the hall fails under the sudden pressure, and they end up halfway into the parking lot before Razorgirl gets out.

01:25:43 <•Eurus> She frowns. "This is still in bounds, right?"

01:26:03 <•Takehiko> "Parking lot is out of bounds. I think I won."

01:26:10 <•Antionette> "... That's [I]cheating."

01:26:10 <•Eurus> Blue is still paralyzed and stuck in the water.

01:26:13 <•Antionette> "..."
01:26:24 <•Antionette> "Ok."

01:26:29 <•Takehiko> "If we wanted to play fair, we wouldn't be ninja..."

01:27:37 <•Eurus> "Well that's dull."

01:27:58 <•Antionette> "So... what, then. The data?"

01:28:00 <•Kasumi> "(Goddamnit, I'm not a ninja.)"

01:28:22 <•Eurus> She flicks a hand at Blue, and a wire tangles him and holds him in place while the wave rushes on past.

01:29:23 — •Takehiko walks over to Blue, "Are you alright? I know you can't speak right now, but this usually wears off pretty fast."

01:29:26 <•Eurus> "...Feel like doubling up?"

01:30:08 <•Antionette> "No. We've got a job to do. We'll rematch some other time."

01:30:15 <•Takehiko> "I'm kind of seeing someone, and I think you're a bit too old f... oh you didn't mean me."

01:30:49 <•Eurus> "Heh. So you can be professional. Alright." She tosses you a flash drive.

01:31:12 <•Kasumi> "Check the data," Kasumi says, nodding at Antoinette.
01:31:23 <•Kasumi> "Preferably on an isolated drive, could be a worm."

01:31:36 <•Antionette> "Mmhm."

01:32:12 — •Antionette pulls out a scroll and unseals a small drive with a rollout screen, then checks to make sure the data is real and scans it for viruses

01:32:23 — •Takehiko prods Blue gently to see if the paralysis has worn off yet

01:33:06 <•Eurus> What loads up certainly looks like the technical specs. It takes Blue another few seconds to shake it off and get up, glowering.

01:33:17 — •Takehiko offers a hand to Blue

01:33:17 <•Antionette> "Oh yeah, I think this one's yours."
01:33:27 — •Antionette pulls out the faraday cage'd tracker and tosses it to Razorgirl
01:33:42 <•Antionette> "No reason to waste it."
01:35:09 — •Antionette listens for firetrucks

01:35:16 <•Takehiko> "That was Iaijutsu back there, right?"

01:35:27 <•Eurus> Blue accepts the hand and pulls off his helmet, revealing his new drowned-rat aesthetic. Razorgirl sighs and takes the tracker. "You seriously need to learn to sweep for bugs /before/ you get home, but I guess I'm not one to talk after last night."

01:35:52 <•Antionette> "Be a bit more careful about cameras."
01:36:17 — •Antionette points to the one across the street that showed her entering the motel

01:35:53 <•Kasumi> "But it's FUN pretending to be incompetent!"

01:36:55 <•Eurus> "Yeah. I normally disguise on the way out, but I was going close to thirty hours without sleep. Got a little sloppy."

01:37:49 <•Antionette> "What element are you? Lightning? There's a trick to be invisible to cameras."
01:37:52 <•Antionette> "And probably your eyes.'
01:39:01 — •Antionette demonstrates, trying to see her reaction to see if it /does/ make you invisible to her eyes

01:39:57 <•Eurus> Blue just looks frustrated and embarrassed, and Razorgirl chuckles at him. "We'll get you some more practice with illusions, kid. And I'm wind. Doesn't work on me, though."

01:40:08 <•Antionette> "Good to know."
01:40:13 <•Antionette> "Nice eyes, then."
01:40:19 <•Antionette> "Mine only glow."

01:40:45 <•Eurus> "Thanks. I've been told they're my best feature."

01:42:08 — •Antionette waves a hand in front of razorgirl's face just in case
01:42:38 <•Antionette> "Do they figure out tech or just see it?"
01:43:30 <•Antionette> "Oh****, firetrucks. We should move, or say goodbye."

01:43:39 <•Takehiko> "I'm a big fan... of Iaijutsu I mean, not yours... not that I don't think you deserve fans or anything... I just don't know you... I mean I saw you on a video... but that's not really my thing..."

01:43:58 <•Eurus> She doesn't respond to the wave. "Ah ah, no spoilers. We'll probably fight for real soon enough. I was hoping to see more of what you kids could do in that fight, but I guess I've got enough to make this worth it."

01:45:23 <•Antionette> "Ok, well, stay safe... I guess? Until then? We owe you a rematch for cheating. Or something."
01:45:23 <•Antionette> "... Or at least I want a rematch."
01:45:28 <•Antionette> "At some point."
01:45:31 <•Antionette> "Goodbye."

01:46:33 <•Eurus> Blue looks vaguely confused by Takehiko's ramble, not quite picking up on it. Razorgirl sighs, though. "No hitting on my protege. He's scatterbrained enough already. Come on, let

01:46:43 <•Antionette> "I'm going to go wreck the motel's tapes, by the way."
01:46:49 <•Antionette> "Save us both the hassle."

01:47:15 <•Takehiko> "I'm not hitting on him! I was just trying to make conversation."
01:47:29 — •Takehiko turns bright red and sulks over to Kasumi to take his tiger back

01:47:31 — •Antionette shunpos into the motel, saying "You totally were" as she passes Take

01:47:42 <•Kasumi> "I'm coming. Seriously, if I can't screw SOMETHING up-" she hands the tiger back, "I think I might go stir-crazy."

01:47:53 <•Eurus> let's get lunch, I'm starving." She grabs her own bike from the parking lot and Blue, now blushing faintly, hops on his. "Oh, thanks. I appreciate it."

01:48:16 — •Takehiko takes out his cellphone and texts Levi, I totally wasn't, whatever Annie says!
01:50:20 — •Takehiko follows Annie and Kasumi still flustered. "I WAS NOT!" he calls down the hall after them

01:54:46 — •Antionette double-checks that this is, in fact, the specs she wants, once she gets some spare time
01:55:00 <•Eurus> Indeed they are.
01:55:26 — •Antionette sweeps them for viruses and malware, then copies them to another drive, just in case

01:55:39 <•Antionette> "Ok then. Time to call Miss Johnson."
01:55:44 <•Antionette> "When we get home."
01:56:58 <•Antionette> "That was an awesome waterfall, even if it was cheating."

01:57:35 <•Takehiko> "Damnit, Annie. It wasn't cheating, and I wasn't hitting on that guy with the pretty red hair and the adorable freckles."

01:57:50 <•Antionette> "You totally were. Technically that's also cheating, mister boyfriend."

01:58:46 <•Takehiko> "It was not!"

01:59:38 <•Antionette> "Hitting on someone while you're in a relationship is cheating unless that relationship is open. You should talk to Levi about that if you want to be flirty."
02:00:38 — •Antionette is surprised that she's being the voice of reason for once (honestly super surprised, because she does realize how ridiculous she is sometimes)

02:00:51 <•Takehiko> "I wasn't hitting on anyone."
02:01:07 — •Takehiko stalks off to car

02:01:10 <•Antionette> "And sorry for almost dragging you into a fight, Kasumi."
02:01:33 — •Antionette smiles
02:01:38 <•Antionette> "Thanks for showing up to be backup, though. Really helped us when you found the room we were looking for."

02:02:27 <•Kasumi> "I'll... uh... no... problem.

02:03:09 — •Antionette cheerfully walks to the car, almost skipping

02:03:28 <•Takehiko> "I was not."

02:03:35 <•Antionette> "Were too~"
02:03:50 <•Antionette> "He was blushing though. Maybe he'd reciprocate."

02:04:05 <•Takehiko> "No, I clearly couldn't have been. Because when Razorgirl asked us on a double date, I said no because I was seeing someone."
02:04:25 — •Takehiko hides behind total oblivion that he was flirting and that shakey logic

02:04:34 <•Antionette> "So because it wasn't hitting on him or flirting, that means I could tell Levi and it'd be fine?"
02:05:25 — •Antionette gets out a phone and starts texting

02:06:08 <•Takehiko> "Except the part about what we did being illegal, yes. BECAUSE I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING."

02:07:39 <•Antionette> "Aaaaaand sent!"

02:08:35 — •Antionette is in full-teasing mode
02:08:48 <•Antionette> the text: ｢Takehiko's been trying to think of a good place to take you for a date. Is there somewhere I should suggest in particular? Sorry for prying, just... trying to help out.｣
02:10:54 <•Eurus> The zoo. I never get tired of tigers.

02:11:35 <•Takehiko> "But no, seriously. He said nothing illegal, so uhh... at work we... make balloon animals or something?"

02:11:35 <•Antionette> ｢Thanks. I'll hint at it. Have fun on the date!｣
02:12:58 <•Antionette> "On a side note, you should totally take Levi to the zoo. Maybe you can see the tigers."

02:13:02 <•Kasumi> "Tell him I'm a stripper."
02:13:35 <•Kasumi> "Wait for him to blush, and then say I literally remove paint from things."

02:13:36 <•Antionette> "I'm sure if you were, a significant population of chicago would be very happy."

02:14:08 <•Kasumi> "'She removes graffiti. What did you think I meant?'"

02:14:11 <•Takehiko> "See? That. That is hitting on someone. I merely complimented his technique."

02:14:27 <•Antionette> "Shush you."
02:14:43 — •Antionette blushes and looks out the window

02:14:47 — •Takehiko stops the car.
02:14:55 <•Takehiko> "Wait, seriously?"
02:15:17 <•Takehiko> "I never get to win when we do this."
02:15:26 — •Takehiko drives home and grins

02:17:09 — •Antionette looks at both of them, blushes furiously, then opens the window and teleports through it. "I'll race you home!"

[Starsinger]

After Annie runs out of the car, Hiko turns to Kasumi, "So... do you want to stay for lunch and dinner or something?" Afterall, it's not Kasumi's fault that Annie decided out of the blue that she needed two friends one day, and besides Kasumi was part of the team. He felt like he should reach out and make an effort to be friends with her.

[Taveena]

Kasumi blinks a few times. "... I... I mean, if it's not a problem? Better'n reheated pizza, I guess. Probably. Even if it WAS reheated pizza, s'probably hella fancy."

[Starsinger]

Hiko smiled in the rear-view mirror, "My mother would kill me if I served a guest reheated pizza, even if Annie would order the fanciest of pizza. Like, the pizza comes in a little top hat and monocle."

He grinned playfully as they pulled into the driveway, no doubt Annie was already there. He opened the door the palatial manor and bellowed, "Ms. Enrico, you have company~" his voice became rather sing-songy toward the end as he pulled out his phone to text Levi.

Well... did you wanna go somewhere and talk about my magical ninja powers and like I said, maybe we can teach you some stuff... I was thinking, maybe the zoo?

[Forrestfire]

Antionette opens the door, wearing what looks like about half of her normal armor setup (mostly the jetpack). She's a bit out of breath, and the dress she had changed into after the fight is pretty ruined. "Beat you~"

[Eurus]

Levi texts back after a minute.

Sure! This weekend?

[Starsinger]

"Hey, Annie, your girlfriend is staying for dinner." Takehiko sticks his tongue out at Annie. "So what do you guys want? I was thinking something nice and celebratory, maybe even giving Okaasan a heart attack and making sushi? Oh also Levi might be coming to dinner, since I'm a good boyfriend, AND DO NOT FLIRT WITH OTHER GUYS!" He fakes glaring at Annie with that last part but he's smiling as he says it. Hiko does a little twirly jump and heads off to the kitchen to look around.

He sends another text to Levi. Sure! This weekend sounds great, also do you want to maybe have dinner with us tonight? Annie has her friend over and I was thinking it would be nice for the four of us to have a meal together, plus... I'm sort of kind of a fanitastic cook.

[Forrestfire]

"I... uh. Ok. I think we should get the data transmitted before we eat, or while you prep or something. I'll go send the message requesting the preferred method of sending it.

Antoinette then dashes back into the house to do just that, leaving the door open.

[Eurus]

Annie's message from Ms. Johnson actually comes back before Hiko's message from Levi.

Upload the file to this site, it's secure. Log in with username knight13, scan your ID chip for a password. I've already set it up for you.

I'll see if I can. Trying to wrangle the parents right now, they're in a bad mood.

[Starsinger]

Oh, what's wrong? Am I a bad influence? Is someone's magic underwear in a twist? Can I say that? Is that rude? I'm sorry if that was offensive. I hope you can make it... I've never had aboyfriend over for dinner before...


Hiko looked up at Kasumi, "I'd offer you a tour, but you've been here before. Uhh... help yourself to some snacks and a drink? Maybe check in on Annie? Do you have a preference for dinner?"

[Taveena]

Kasumi blinks. "Uh. Not really, I guess. Whatever's easiest." She gives a slightly awkward grin. "I mean, hell if I know what you guys'd have."

[Starsinger]

Takehiko leans over and whispers conspiratorially, "My boss is kind of rich, we can have pretty much whatever..." He pulls back and winks at Kasumi.

[Forrestfire]

Man, I wonder what'd happen if I wasn't one to spring for cybernetics...

Antionette activates and scans her chip, then uploads the data, after triple-checking that it hasn't spontaneously turned into computer viruses or something.

She then waits for a confirmation.

[Taveena]

"Um. I... I really don't know?" Kasumi blinks, scratching the back of her head. "... don't really do fancy stuff that much." At all.

[Eurus]

The file still seems to be perfectly intact. A few minutes after Annie uploads it, her house hums with the indication for an incoming video call.

Meanwhile, Levi replies to Hiko again.

No, not that. They're just on me about my studies again. I'll be able to sneak out in an hour or so.

[Starsinger]

Oh, I can help you study, you should talk to them, tell them that one of the top students in the school is willing to spend plenty of time tutoring you... It'll be nice to see you more often and if we get your studies done quickly, maybe we can have time for some other stuff?

"Not a problem, Kasumi. Why don't you see what Annie's up to and I'll get started on dinner. Sushi good? I feel like making sushi." Takehiko heads off to the kitchen, a bounce still in his step. First ninja mission go, and nobody got hurt! He looked down a the bruise on his chest from Blue Steel's sword. Well, that's going to leave him tender for a bit, but otherwise noone was seriously hurt, and they got the data. Oh and he somehow managed to get a boyfriend, life was awesome.

As he started making the sushi, Takehiko took some pictures of the stuff and sent them to his mother, might as well make her day too.

[Forrestfire]

Antoinette grins, then composes herself and answers the call.

[Eurus]

The nearest screen glows to life, and Ms. Johnson appears. She's dressed identically to last time, in what seems to be the same room, but this time she's smiling.

"The file checks out. Congratulations on your first success. The money is being transferred now, it should be in your accounts within a few hours. White Rabbit seems to be suppressing news of the break-in to keep the investors calm, but from what I've heard it went very smoothly. It seems you're going to take to this career well."

Levi replies as well after a moment.

Heh. How's your conversational Arabic?

Everyone gains wealth as if they'd sold a DC 30 item.

[Starsinger]

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but when Ms. Albed was out for her maternity leave, they had me help cover her classes during my free periods... So if you want to grab your books we can make this a legitimate study date. You could even stay the night if you wanted." Hiko resumed his work preparing the dinner when he realized what it sounded like he offered.

In one of the guest rooms... I mean you could stay in my room, I just... I wasn't inviting you for... you know... that. Because we haven't even kissed yet. Not that if you kissed me I'd just... jump into bed or anything. Not that I don't want to, I mean... it's something I've thought about... I mean, not often, it's not like I think about it frequently or anything... Sometimes when... nevermind. The point is uhh... I was inviting you for a sleep over, not sex. Unless you... really want to or something... it wasn't my intention. I'm sorry if I just lead you on! I like you but... Someday the little ninja may realize that his phone does include a backspace key. His face was flushed bright red, he was fairly certain that if he blushed any harder, the heat radiating from his face would cook the sushi.

"Annie! Kasumi! Levi is joining us for dinner!" And maybe staying the night, if I didn't just scare him away by being such a spaz... Takehiko sighed and funneled his work into the fish, every moment Levi didn't reply was both a relief and a source of further dread and frustration.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette smiles at the compliment, then frowns.

"In the interest of transparency and trust in our hopefully continuing relationship, I'd like to mention a snag we ran into during the op. Specifically, that White Rabbit was also being targeted by Razorgirl, who I surmise is the woman who killed your previous operative."

She pauses, then continues: "The reason this matters is that Razorgirl beat us to the data, although we were later able to ambush her and take it back. She'd made a copy by then, though, and sent it to her employers."

[Taveena]

"... Oh. Uh. I guess sushi works? Haven't... I mean..." Kasumi trails off, coughing as she runs a hand nervously through her hair.

[Eurus]

Levi takes a few minutes to presumably read all that, and ends up responding vaguely anyway.

Sure, that'd be cool. I'll work on getting the go-ahead, hopefully I'll be able to head out soon.

Ms. Johnson frowns, then nods.

"I see. You're all alright, I hope? From what I've seen of her, Razorgirl is a dangerous operative. The fact that she has the data as well is unfortunate, but I doubt there's much you could have done to prevent it. We may need to run some damage control in the next few days, though. I'll have to analyze this data and get back to you with a plan."

[Forrestfire]

"We're alright, thankfully. I'll make sure we're ready to act whenever you need. Have a good day."

Antionette closes the call, then dashes off to her room to get changed into something less destroyed. Not trying to impress anyone, just wear something normal, Take's just messing with you you totally weren't hitting on her or anything. Just want to be friends with this awesome person.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko gently sets his knife down and runs off to the computer room looking for Annie. When she's not there he runs to her room and knocks on the door rather frantically. "Annie! Annie! Let me in! It's important. I think I maybe ruined everything or made it so much better. I'm not entirely sure... I uhh... might be having sex tonight without intending to?" Takehiko sits at the door for a moment and sighs. Was he ready for this? I mean, they hadn't even kissed yet... He puts his head back against the door with a thud. He really couldn't see what Levi saw in him.

After a moment Takehiko shrugs, too late now. "Oh hey, Annie. Wear the red dress, it looks the nicest with your eyes." He sits there for another minute.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette calls back through the door. "What red dress! I have like seven red dresses! I should just wear normal clothes! I wasn't hitting on her! Wait is she out there ohgodwhathaveIdone-"

[Starsinger]

"How are you even thinking about your crush on Kasumi, who is not out here by the way, when I quite possibly just told a man I haven't even kissed, who I turned into a log and ran away from the other day, that we're having sex tonight because I'm an idiot and didn't realize the implication of what I said? He's probably buying... like sex things as we speak. Or what if he already has them? What if he was prepared for this already? I mean, he kind of told me I was his boyfriend before we discussed it... was he planning this too?!" Hiko resumes panicking for a moment before taking a deep breath. He taps his feet impatiently as he thinks then an idea springs to mind.

"I know! I can serve bad sushi, noone will want to have sex with food poisoning! Wait, no. I have a reputation as a good cook to consider. Also, Annie, seriously, any of the red dresses. Or even a t-shirt and jeans. She's already seen you in your swimsuit..."

[Taveena]

Kasumi picks her nose, inspects the contents, and then flicks it at a bin.

At least, she hopes it's a bin.

[Forrestfire]

The bin moves on a small hover module (barely a millimeter above the ground) to center itself around the booger.


Upstairs, Antionette opens the door, wearing a pair of jeans and a sleeveless red turtleneck. "Congrats on the sex. Or not-sex. Don't make bad sushi."

She then closes the doors again and sounds of rummaging through clothes can be heard.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko gets up and sighs, "So helpful. You have five minutes to stop panicking and pick out an outfit or I'm flooding your room."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette then opens the door again, this time wearing a red dress, this one more than a bit slinky. She's got a bit of a different look of panic on her face now.

"Don't do anything and go keep Kasumi busy or something I need to go answer the door because the police are here please don't make bad sushi ok?"

She then runs down the hall and down the stairs, at a bit of a more human pace than a ninja pace, and looks through the camera at the door.

[Eurus]

Before anyone can manage a full-on nervous breakdown, Annie's HUD pings her that a car is approaching the house. It's a rather worn looking brown sedan, the incredibly ordinary sort of car you might see a dozen of on the street every week.

[Taveena]

Kasumi's eyes dart towards the door, but she makes no motion to move.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko chases after her, "Whoa whoa! It's my job to answer the door, Ms. Enrico! You go uhh... keep the thief out of their sights or something?" Then he heads over to the door, why were the police here? He gulped as he was pretty sure of the answer, and he was ready for them at the door.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette stops, called to her senses. "Right. Ok. Good idea."

She then rushes down to wherever Kasumi is and says "Hi the police are here Takehiko's gonna try to handle it stay quiet ok?"

She sits down in a chair to take a few breaths. What the hell am I wearing? When did I even buy this?!

[Taveena]

"... I'm pretty damn tempted to just disappear right now, to be honest. Lot easier than getting out of cuffs."

[Eurus]

The car's driver doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry. He slowly pulls up, takes a minute or two before he gets out of the car, then slowly meanders up to the door and presses the doorbell. Through the camera you can see him, a man in rather wrinkled clothes with dark circles under his eyes, the rough stubble on his face, and a cigarette that he's already working on by the time he gets to the door.

[Forrestfire]

"Probably a good idea. Shame about dinner."

Antionette frowns, then watches the outdoor cameras in here contacts.

[Starsinger]

Takehiko opens the door and looks at the officer. "It's not illegal you know. I mean technically it is because he's 18 and I'm still 17, but it's only two months until my birthday, and besides that we didn't have sex yet, I mean I don't even know if we're going to." He spits all that out in about... three seconds and then blinks twice slowly before looking up and down at the officer.

Takehiko inhales and puts on his best butler voice, "The mansion of Ms. Enrico, how may I assist you today?"

[Eurus]

The man is silent for a moment after Takehiko's surreal tangent, and takes a thoughtful drag from his cigarette.

"...Is Ms. Enrico home, then?"

[Starsinger]

"Might I inquire as to the motivation behind your visitation this evening, sir?"
I think that sounded formal enough. Takehiko did his best to give one of Genji's trademark stone cold facial expressions to the officer.

[Eurus]

He flashes a Chicago PD badge. "I'd like to speak with you and Ms. Enrico about a visit you made to a lab the other day."

[Starsinger]

"So, this isn't about totally consensual relations between two consenting people of age? Well then, certainly do come in and I will escort you to the parlor and then I shall fetch Ms. Enrico. Would you like anything, officer? Some water? Lemonade? A sandwich? I'm afraid we have no liquor to offer, only soft drinks." As he speaks Takehiko leads the cop to the parlor as promised, purposely avoiding a route that would take them by Annie or Kasumi.

"So, have you been an officer long? Is it as interesting as I assume it would be?

[Eurus]

The officer follows Takehiko inside, making no attempt to be subtle as he continually surveys his surroundings. He frowns slightly at the expensive-looking parlor furniture, and glances up into several of the security cameras as he picks them out. He ends up sitting rather carefully on a sofa that probably cost as much as he makes in a year. He continues more or less ignoring Takehiko's sex comments.

"...Not really, no. A lot of paperwork. But sometimes. Water's fine, thanks."

[Starsinger]

"Is this the part where I tell you to watch the furniture? Because honestly, we don't care. We never have guests important enough to use the parlor, I mean... besides you of course. There are some hard candies in that bowl, and one second... Takehiko sets an ash tray on the coffee table infront of the officer.

"I will fetch Ms. Enrico and your water presently, and with no small modicum of haste. Please, make yourself entirely comfortable in a manner to which you are accustomed." Takehiko gracefully closes the doors behind him and visibly looks panicked. This is so not good!

Takehiko quickly walks to where Annie was sitting, "Ms. Enrico, there is a member of Chicago's finest awaiting your presence in the parlor. He wishes to discuss our recent sojourn to that computer tech laboratory. I will join you in the parlor momentarily, after I make my way into the kitchen to prepare some refreshments for us and our guest."

And with that Takehiko heads to the kitchen.

[Forrestfire]

22:42:54 <•Antionette> Antionette thanks Take for letting her know, then starts walking to the parlour. /ohgodwhyamIwearingthisthing/
22:43:15 <•Antionette> After a minute or so, she enters. "Ah, hi. I'm Antionette Enrico. Good afternoon?"
22:43:31 — Kasumi goes back to plumbing the lost depths of her nasal cavity.
22:43:46 — •Takehiko grabs some storebought snacks and arranges them on a tray along with some glasses two with water and one with pepsi before heading into the parlor
22:44:04 — •Antionette notices the cigarette and sighs. "HAL, low-power vent in this room, please."
22:44:31 <•Antionette> "Sorry. Just... not a fan."
22:44:34 — •Antionette sits
22:44:47 — •Takehiko sets the plate of cookies and pretzels and chocolates on the coffee table and hands the glass of water to the officer, and the second glass to Annie.
22:44:55 — •Takehiko dutifully sets two coasters infront of them on the table
22:45:02 — •Antionette takes it and places it down
22:45:21 <•Eurus> The vent kicks to life without so much as a faint hum, and the smoke is silently drawn upward and out. The cop nods. "Sure. My apologies." He glances around for an ashtray.
22:46:16 <•Antionette> (there's one on the table)
22:47:17 <•Eurus> He uses it. "...Lovely house."
22:47:36 <•Antionette> Antionette grins. "Thanks!"
22:49:19 — •Takehiko grabs the glass of pepsi and then stands by the door
22:49:30 <•Eurus> "Family money?"
22:50:48 <•Takehiko> "No, I'm just the butler."
22:51:11 <•Antionette> "Kinda? I have an investment 'firm' with... Like, two employees. Most of it's paid for by the results of that. The startup money was family, though."
22:51:11 <•Antionette> "I try to stay relatively independent. Just seems like a good idea, you know?"
22:52:05 <•Eurus> "I can respect that." He chomps on a cookie.
22:52:48 <•Antionette> Antionette takes one too. "Anyway, what brings you here?"
22:57:46 <•Eurus> "Mm? Oh, that. I just came to ask about a trip you took the other day."
22:58:02 — •Antionette thinks
22:58:41 — •Takehiko sips his soda and grabs some chocolate
22:59:00 <•Antionette> "White Rabbit? That's the only trip I can think of. I mean, we went to grab lunch one day, but..."
22:59:05 <•Antionette> "Why, what happened?"
23:01:41 <•Eurus> "There was a disturbance there, the night after you left. Why were you there, out of curiosity?"
23:02:49 <•Antionette> "I invested. I've been paying attention to a /lot/ of their stuff-I mean, they've made so many neat advances in the field of virutal reality. Jabberwock was awesome, and moddable, and- Sorry. And with Pocketwatch coming out shortly, it seemed like a good time."
23:03:11 — •Takehiko nods, "Plus, she was chaperoning my date because I didn't want to go alone..."
23:04:33 <•Eurus> He raises an eyebrow briefly at Takehiko. "A date? Who with?" Right then, Hiko also gets a text from Levi. [On my way, be there in a minute.]
23:05:16 <•Antionette> "With his new boyfriend. He's actually coming over for dinner, I think."
23:06:10 <•Eurus> "Oh, convenient. I can talk to him too."
23:06:20 <•Eurus> "Was anyone else with you that day?"
23:07:16 <•Antionette> "I met with a... uh... um. Friend. That's the word I'd want to use. For lunch."
23:07:19 — •Antionette blushes
23:07:39 <•Eurus> "Hmm. Can I get that friend's name?"
23:07:47 <•Antionette> "Kasumi."
23:08:03 — •Antionette /oh god this is the worst thing/
23:08:51 <•Eurus> "Does she have a phone number?"
23:08:55 <•Takehiko> "His name is Levi Tsung and he actually is on his way here. And yes, he's the one I was discussing at the front door."
23:09:06 — •Antionette looks at Take, puzzled
23:09:37 — •Antionette writes down a phone number for one of her dummy phones. /I'll give this to Kasumi later/
23:09:39 <•Antionette> "Here."
23:10:05 — •Takehiko looks at the number
23:10:13 <•Eurus> He looks back at Takehiko with a deadpan expression. "I hope you're using protection."
23:10:17 <•Takehiko> "Oh, no wonder Kasumi doesn't answer my texts... I've been texting the wrong numb-"
23:10:27 — •Takehiko turns red and leaves the parlor shouting something about swearing he heard the doorbell
23:10:37 — •Antionette chuckles a bit
23:10:57 <•Eurus> "Well. While you were there, did you see anything or anyone unusual or suspicious?"
23:11:53 <•Antionette> "No, I didn't. I mostly just got a tour of their facility to show that everything was up to spec for what I was investing in. They had /really cool/ computers, though."
23:12:24 <•Eurus> "The new product, right? Did you get to see it?"
23:12:28 <•Takehiko> [Hey, it's a good thing you're swinging by. There's an officer here, wanting to know if we saw anything strange on the tour of that tech company. Apparently there was a disturbance... and he'd like to talk to you to.]
23:12:43 <•Antionette> "And a Pocketwatch, although I didn't use it. As much as it's cool to read about, but the VR stuff kinda freaks me out..."
23:13:03 <•Eurus> [Oh ****. If my dad finds out that a cop was talking to me, I don't even want to think about how he'll overreact.]
23:13:28 <•Takehiko> [Good thing he's already here and waiting for you instead of heading to your house.]
23:13:51 <•Eurus> [I guess so. What happened? I'm pulling up now btw]
23:14:25 <•Antionette> "I think Levi and Takehiko did, though."
23:14:29 <•Takehiko> [He didn't say, just that he wanted to ask us some questions because there was a disturbance there yesterday.]
23:15:47 <•Eurus> "I'd be curious to hear about that."
23:16:07 <•Eurus> Sure enough, Levi starts pulling up. A minute later, he's knocking on the door.
23:16:48 <•Antionette> "I might be, but at the same time I'm kinda scared to ask."
23:17:01 — •Takehiko opens the door and pauses for a moment thinking. With the officer here, this might be his last chance...
23:17:19 — •Takehiko pushes Levi against the door and kisses him before grabbing his hand and heading toward the parlor.
23:17:31 <•Takehiko> "Hey handsome, great to see you, the officer is this way and like I said he wanted to talk to you as well..."
23:17:47 — •Takehiko doesn't actually look at Levi after that
23:18:00 <•Eurus> Levi looks rather anxious, but turns on the charm as he enters the room. "Good evening, officer."
23:19:10 <•Antionette> "Hi. Oh yeah, I'm not sure I caught your name, sir."
23:19:29 — •Takehiko frowns
23:19:33 <•Takehiko> "Annie, you know Levi."
23:19:38 <•Antionette> "..."
23:20:58 <•Eurus> The cop nods to Levi and then back to Antoinette. "Oliver Atkins."
23:21:09 <•Antionette> "Nice to meet you."
23:21:17 <•Antionette> She offers a hand to shake.
23:21:39 — •Takehiko hands Levi his glass of Pepsi, which is half drank, his hands are a bit shaky and he still won't actually look at Levi
23:21:50 <•Eurus> He returns the handshake. Levi seems to be mostly focused on the cop right now.
23:22:37 <•Eurus> Officer Atkins scans you all. "So, you were all at the lab. None of you saw anything unusual?"
23:23:02 <•Antionette> "Hrm. Wait! Right! There were two people stalking us after we left."
23:23:27 <•Antionette> "They followed us to the restaurant, then left when we noticed them and called them out on the following."
23:23:46 <•Eurus> He raises an eyebrow. "This is something that slipped your mind?"
23:24:20 <•Antionette> "Honestly? I've had suspicious people follow me before. I'm rich. This is common."
23:24:24 <•Antionette> "This is why I have a bodyguard."
23:24:49 <•Eurus> "...Fair enough, I guess. Not something I have experience with."
23:24:49 <•Takehiko> "I didn't even notice them until Levi told me that the guy was checking out my butt."
23:25:58 <•Eurus> "Can you give me a description? What did they do after you noticed them?"
23:26:19 <•Antionette> "I can give you better than a description, actually."
23:26:37 <•Takehiko> "He was a guy with... blonde or reddish hair... and she was a lady, I didn't really look at her too much because she didn't check out my butt..."
23:26:54 — •Antionette waves a hand and navigates through her recordings of razorgirl and blue steel, going back and getting a good shot of them.
23:27:18 — •Antionette then presses a button under the table and it lights up as a screen, showing the image
23:28:24 <•Eurus> "...Interesting. The woman is a known criminal. Extremely dangerous. Why was she interested in you?"
23:29:28 <Kasumi> "Because you were wearing high-tech gear you bought for ****s and giggles," Kasumi says. No-one will notice this. No-one will notice the leg of chicken she took from the fridge and is now eating raw, either.
23:29:45 — •Antionette /**** I'm going to have to be very careful here/
23:29:59 — •Antionette arrives to the same conclusion
23:30:09 <Kasumi> "You're rich. It's just like those dumbasses with fancy cars or gun collections."
23:31:42 <•Antionette> "Because I was wearing high-tech gear, probably. These contact lenses are custom-made, and could probably buy one or two of these mansions if you took them apart and analyzed them. And because Takehiko-" she gestures "-pings highly on a chakra sensor."
23:32:14 <•Antionette> "Bodyguard. Long line of ninjas."
23:32:44 <•Takehiko> "I have papers."
23:32:46 <•Antionette> "He can do the log thing and everything!"
23:32:54 <•Antionette> "... I'm not sure where the logs come from."
23:33:00 <•Antionette> "They haven't told me."
23:33:54 <•Eurus> "You have a ninja bodyguard? Interesting."
23:34:07 <Kasumi> "Yeah, those logs are ****ing weird. Is there just a tree with a massive chunk out of it now in someone's garden?"
23:34:11 <Kasumi> "... I should look for trees."
23:34:17 <Kasumi> "... hah. Like Minecraft."
23:34:19 <•Antionette> "I'm not entirely sure why the Enrico family has a ninja bodyguard family hired. You'd have to ask my dad."
23:34:21 <Kasumi> "Just this big chunk missing in it."
23:34:38 — •Takehiko sighs and recites it like it was something he had to memorize for school
23:37:00 — Kasumi takes another bite out of the chicken.
23:38:16 <•Takehiko> "A long time ago, during WWII, great great so many greats, grandfather Yo****sugu Yamamoto was being rounded up for an internment camp. Annie's just as many greats grandfather used his wealth and influence to save the Yamamoto family from the internment camps. Out of gratitude Yo****sugu swore an oath, that his family would always look out for the Enrico family, and then he told Mr. Enrico a secret (cont)
23:38:37 <•Takehiko> the Yamamoto family were a line of ninja that could trace their roots back to the infamous Iga ninja of the Sengoku period... I have that memorized as well if you'd like."
23:39:04 <•Antionette> "... How did I never learn that? Did I just miss it and/or not pay attention?"
23:39:09 — •Antionette is genuinely surprised
23:39:29 <•Antionette> "Well, uh. That. Ninja bodyguards."
23:39:36 <Kasumi> "Why are you asking him. Are you expecting him to have memorised your history too?"
23:39:52 <Kasumi> "... damnit, I should have cooked this." She doesn't stop eating it, though.
23:40:51 — •Antionette nervously says "Anyway, you said this woman's a known criminal. What'd she do? Am I in danger?"
23:41:49 <•Eurus> "I see. Well, that all seems to check out. I'd be careful, though, if I were you. The woman you met is extremely dangerous, one of many such people in this city. I'd advise you to stay clear of people like that, if you can help it. Not the kind of company you want to keep."
23:42:19 <•Takehiko> "We don't make it a habit of purposely hanging around with known criminals."
23:43:06 <•Eurus> "She has a number of warrants. Hasn't been caught to stand trial yet, but her suspected body count is... impressive."
23:44:53 — •Takehiko reaches for Levi's hand.
23:45:01 <•Antionette> "That's... HAL, can you widen our security area, please? Just in case."
23:45:10 <•Takehiko> "Don't worry, I can keep us safe..."
23:45:10 — •Antionette says to the ceiling
23:48:15 <•Eurus> HAL beeps affirmatively. Officer Atkins gives you each a final, probing look, including Levi, then sighs. "...You kids stay safe. Don't do anything you'll end up regretting, alright? It's a lot easier to dig yourself into a mess than out of one."
23:48:28 <•Antionette> "... Ok..."
23:48:34 <•Antionette> "Thank you for coming out here."
23:48:46 <•Takehiko> "Don't worry officer, I'll definitely take your advice."
23:48:56 — •Takehiko turns slightly red and walks to the officer to the door.
23:49:09 — •Antionette tries to suppress laughter and fails
23:49:39 <•Eurus> Shaking his head, he stands up. "...Hopefully I won't be seeing any of you again."
23:49:49 <•Eurus> And he takes his leave.
23:50:04 <•Eurus> Levi winces. "That was... strange."
23:50:24 <•Antionette> "I wonder what happened at White Rabbit. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow."
23:50:33 <•Antionette> "Or next week. Probably should wait until it's sorted out."
23:50:42 <Kasumi> Kasumi is suddenly worth noticing again. She's still eating the chicken. "Think that went well."
23:50:45 — •Takehiko finally looks at Levi since he let him in.
23:51:30 <•Eurus> Levi flinches. "...Were you here the whole time?"
23:51:57 <•Antionette> "... Huh."
23:52:34 <•Antionette> "Do we want to call officer Oliver back to talk to you, too?"
23:52:39 <•Takehiko> "No."
23:52:42 <Kasumi> "I was getting a snack."
23:52:53 — •Takehiko turns to look at Kasumi
23:52:55 <•Takehiko> "WHAT?!
23:52:55 <•Antionette> "How did you miss the entire conversation."
23:53:00 <•Eurus> "Oh. Ok."
23:53:11 <•Takehiko> "I have perfectly good sushi sitting in the kitchen ready to be eaten and you were getting a snack?!"
23:53:21 <•Antionette> "Ooh."
23:53:45 — •Antionette realizes she's still in the slinky dress
23:53:48 <•Antionette> "Excuse me"
23:53:56 — •Antionette speedwalks away awkwardly
23:56:30 <Kasumi> "... I didn't want to start proper dinner without you?"
23:56:45 <Kasumi> "... appetisers are a thing, right?"
23:58:52 — •Antionette returns a few minutes later in something more casual
23:59:06 <•Antionette> "Officer Oliver had the /worst/ timing to show up."
Monday, January 12th, 2015
00:00:24 <Kasumi> "So your first instinct was to put on the hottest dress you could find and try puppydog eyes?"
00:00:44 <Kasumi> ... There's a hint of approval in her voice.
00:01:04 <•Antionette> "No."
00:01:16 <•Antionette> "I was trying to figure out what to wear and rushed out in that."
00:01:21 — •Antionette grimaces
00:02:12 <Kasumi> "... Eh, you looked great anyway." Shrugs.
00:02:31 — •Antionette beams "Thanks!"

[Eurus]

The rest of the dinner is relatively peaceful, a good chance to relax and celebrate a successful mission. Levi stays the night, most of which he insists on using to actually study.

At exactly 8 AM the next morning, another call comes in from Ms. Johnson.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette, having been half-asleep in bed at the time of the call, routes the call to a unicom device and answers it as she quickly gets dressed. She also inputs into a panel for HAL to wake up Takehiko and Kasumi if they aren't up already, and to direct them to the video room. A few moments later, she's dressed and walking there as well.

"Bubblegum speaking, how may I help you."

[Eurus]

"I analyzed the file last night, and I've figured out the next step I need you to take. It's a little more straightforward this time, but likely more difficult."

"On the midnight leading into February 14th, Pocketwatch is going to be released and promptly downloaded by an estimated thirty thousand people nationwide within the first twenty-four hours. After that last break-in, they're using the servers in their other lab to host the file for download. They presumably have the program backed up in enough places that eliminating it completely is impractical - they'd just restore it and we'd succeed in delaying them at most - so we're going to have to jump through some hoops. I'm sending you a phone with a program on it. I need you to get into the lab, connect the phone to the main server, and run the program."

"Timing is important here. If you do it too early, there's no point. You need to do this job on the night of the release. The closer you cut it, the less time they have to notice and fix or abort the launch. Also, Razorgirl may be trying to do the same thing. Above all else, keep her away from that server."

"I can't offer you the same fee as last time; as we discussed in negotiations, that was something of a bonus to get you interested. Twenty thousand each this time, if you succeed."

[Forrestfire]

February 4th, 8ish AM

"We'll do it."

[Taveena]

Kasumi had, for whatever reason, disappeared home after the night, presuming her obligation fulfilled.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette, when she realizes this, sends her a text. We've got another mission, February 13th, will keep you posted on details.

She then asks HAL to cancel the request for Take to go to the videocall room, and goes to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

[Forrestfire]

After eating a quick breakfast, Antionette thinks about what to do in the intervening time, and decides to send another text to Kasumi.

Do you want to hang out? Go see a movie or something?

[Taveena]

did you get the wrong number
The response takes a few hours to come. Maybe she was asleep.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette is a bit confused when she gets the text back. After a bit, she responds It's antionette.

[Taveena]

yeah i know im just kinda confused by the text

not really sure how seeing a movie plays into things

[Forrestfire]

Antionette frowns when she gets the text back. Huh. I'm... Hrm. I think that's a hint that she doesn't want to hang out.

Oh wait, this actually is the wrong number my bad.

[Taveena]

Kasumi sighs, going back to her cup of instant noodles.

yeah figured
have fun

[Eurus]

The days slip by surprisingly quickly, with time for school, training, lazing about, or whatever else you decide to occupy yourselves with. Eventually, it's time to act.

[Forrestfire]

Over the next eight days, Antionette spends most of her time training. She's still trying to work her way through learning martial arts, and also spends some time practicing fighting in places she cannot see, reasoning that if when she fights Razorgirl again, there will be more smoke grenades. She also finally gets around to learning Henge no Jutsu. At one point in the week, she spends an afternoon helping administer some especially nasty and effective drugs to Takehiko, channeling chakra to help him recover much, much sooner than he normally would be able to. She seals some extra gear as well into her fuinjutsu scrolls.

On one of the evenings, she goes home to visit her family, eating dinner and playing with her younger sister. When she gets home from that, Antionette writes a will, just in case.

Finally, on the morning of the 13th, she wakes up and makes final preparations for the mission. She had texted Kasumi details of the mission and meeting place a few days back, and texts during the day to get a confirmation. During the morning of the 13th, she hacks into Chicago's network again, and clears out any backdoors Razorgirl might have put in, while setting up a camera killswitch backdoor herself around the lab they're about to hit, and the road leading up to it.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette and Takehiko leave during the early afternoon to drive to the city, parking somewhere across town and walking to the place they're meeting Kasumi. When they meet up, the first thing Annie does is pull out a small metal plate marked with a fuinjutsu seal, and cheerfully says:

"I'm so sorry I forgot to give you this. It's fifty thousand, in a briefcase. I sealed it into here, but you just need to run some chakra through it and it'll open back up. Tonight's job's pay is only twenty thousand each, because it's a followup. Your call if you want in on it."

[Taveena]

"... What."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette continues holding the seal with a look of confusion. "What? I don't have your bank info, and I felt the briefcase full of money was traditional, so..."

[Taveena]

"... Carrot and stick. Right," Kasumi murmurs. "... Yeah, I'm not exactly in any position to turn down another."

[Forrestfire]

"What."textextext

[Taveena]

Kasumi glances up from the briefcase after taking it, glancing at Antoinette. "Hm?"

[Forrestfire]

"Why wouldn't you be in a position to turn down the job? Isn't that the point of doing this sort of thing on commission?"

Antionette is genuinely confused. (Also, the briefcase's lid glows gold when you open it. Tradition!)

[Taveena]

"... because you implicitly threatened me by tracking me to my house and making an 'offer' while in full combat gear?" Kasumi says, somewhat confused.

[Forrestfire]

.................................................
.................................................
.................................................
................................Crap.

Antionette gives a look somewhere between horror, shock, and a blank stare.

[Taveena]

Kasumi seems... confused by her silence.

[Forrestfire]

"Nnnoo...? That's... Not what was intended at all."

"****."

[Taveena]

"... You... you're not really...

Oh god, Razorgirl was RIGHT."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette just keeps the blank look, obviously completely embarrassed here.

[Taveena]

Kasumi groans, glancing at Takehiko. "You knew. You had to know, right? You can't BOTH be that oblivious."

[Starsinger]

"Oh, about Annie's crush on you? Totally. I mean... why else would she have chased after someone who broke into her home? Course... after that we came to like you, but yeah. That's totally what motivated it initially." Hiko looks relieved like he just let go of a big secret.

"Wait, what's this about an implicit threat? Kasumi... Annie goes to the bathroom in full battle gear sometimes."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette continues just kinda standing there blankly, except now with 200% more embarrassment.

[Taveena]

"... What."

[Forrestfire]

Eventually, Antionette stops being frozen and says "Aaaaanyway, fifty thousand dollars already. Twenty thousand dollars for tonight's. The mission is to get into their lab and upload a program from this phone." -she produces the phone out of nowhere with sleight of hand- "And I think that you're perfect for the job, because of the whole 'really freaking hard to notice when hiding' thing."

"Razorgirl will probably be there, too, and Takehiko and I will be running interference while you work, if you join us."

[Taveena]

"... ssssure. Okay. Why the **** not." Kasumi sighs, glancing at Takehiko, then back at Annie. "... May want to be more careful about who you follow to their houses heavily armed in the future."

[Forrestfire]

"I... Ok. Right. Anyway, I've got a map of the city blocks around the lab we're hitting and stuff. Our goal is to upload the program as close to midnight as we can, but we probably want to err on the side of 11:55ish or something."

Antionette pulls out a rollable screen and bluetooths her map to it.

[Eurus]

This building is laid out similarly to the last one, it shouldn't be too hard to navigate. The area isn't ideal, though. There are several good places for someone like Razorgirl to stake out from, and police response will be fairly rapid if there's too much of a commotion.

[Forrestfire]

The disconnect halfway through meant I wasn't able to save logs for the fight with Rook and the escape, so I'll write up a description of what happened later, but not right this moment.

18:44:19 <Antionette> "So, to reiterate the plan, Kasumi is going to go in and upload the file, while we provide support from outside and stop Razorgirl from interfering?"
18:45:14 <Violet> "Stop her how, exactly? Got any preference...boss?"
18:45:29 <Kasumi> Kasumi twirls the USB between her fingers, grinning. "This'll be a pushover."
18:46:01 <Antionette> "We're not trying to kill anyone, but if she forces us to, we're not going to get ourselves killed trying to not-kill-anyone."
18:46:24 <Antionette> "And we're going to try very hard to not get civilians or police killed. They're just doing their jobs.":
18:46:31 <Antionette> "Or being unlucky. For civilians' case."
18:47:35 <Violet> Violet shrugs. "Okay. Fine."
18:47:56 <Antionette> "Cool."
18:48:07 — Antionette runs through the cameras in the area again to check for Razorgirl
18:48:51 <Kasumi> Kasumi shimmers for a moment, before being replaced with a svelte blonde European man.
18:48:58 <Antionette> "Neat!"
18:49:02 — Kasumi is still very pretty. 25 Charisma doesn't ever stop happening.
18:49:14 <•Eurus> The cameras don't have perfect coverage -- they're focused on streets rather than rooftops -- but you don't see any sign of her.
18:49:16 <Kasumi> "Call me Yuri."
18:49:48 <Violet> "Okay. I don't remember your name anyways."
18:49:57 <Kasumi> "And that's how I like it."
18:50:23 <Antionette> "Hrm. Well, it's almost time. We'd better get ready."
18:51:00 <Antionette> ((I guess we then leave the apartment and take a circuitous route towards White Rabbit's building?))
18:51:42 — Kasumi uses Shadowmeld Technique, but doesn't yet activate it.
18:54:13 <•Eurus> As soon as you arrive, you can see that this building is inconveniently located for a job. The buildings around it provide a number of good sniping spots, and police response will be quick if an alarm goes off. Fortunately, most of the surrounding buildings seem unoccupied and there's only one car on the street. An oddly familiar car, actually.
18:55:24 <•Eurus> When you get close enough to see the plate, you confirm that it's the same old brown sedan that the cop who visited your house earlier drove. It seems to be empty right now, but it's parked right in front of the White Rabbit building.
18:56:37 — Antionette mumbles "Also, don't hurt the guy who owns that car. He's cool, and again, just doing his job."
18:56:45 <Antionette> "Actually, if we can deliver Razorgirl to him it'd be hilarious."
18:57:00 — Violet glances at the others. "...who is that, exactly?"
18:57:07 <Antionette> "Police officer."
18:57:16 <Antionette> "Investigating White Rabbit's robberies."
18:58:04 <•Eurus> It's 11:30 by now, so your window is shrinking.
18:58:14 <Antionette> "We'd better get started though."
18:58:41 — Antionette Its Morphin Times her armor, then climbs to the nearest roof
18:58:45 <Violet> "And you don't want to kill him, huh...fine. I'm not going to like it if he comes sniffing around my place, though."
18:58:49 — Kasumi activates Method of False Invisibility.
18:59:13 — Violet shrugs again. Pulls the storage seal from her sleeve and conceals it in her hand.
18:59:52 <Violet> ((Guess she'll go up on the roof with Antionette.))
19:02:41 — Antionette is going to carefully go from roof to roof around the main building, Shunpo + Hiding, and scanning with her motion sensor and looking around with night vision goggles to try and locate any enemies (or spring an ambush)
19:06:25 <•Eurus> Annie doesn't so much /find/ something as eventually just trip over it. She's shunpoing across a rooftop when she hears a soft, rapid beeping noise start up. Quickly looking around reveals a shadowy alcove concealed by some sort of camouflaged foil sheets, a perfect sniper's nest. Except there's nobody there. Just a beeping motion sensor and a camera.
19:06:42 <Antionette> "Lovely."
19:06:58 — Kasumi is going to just walk in through the front door, then head for the offices - until she runs into any guards.
19:07:16 — Antionette waves at the camera, then fries it with a laser
19:07:46 <•Eurus> Kasumi walks in and finds a lobby with a bored-looking security guard behind the desk, playing some sort of game on his phone. He naturally doesn't notice her.
19:07:56 <•Eurus> He /does/ notice the door opening, and frowns.
19:08:23 <Kasumi> It stays open. Maybe it wasn't closed properly.
19:08:38 <•Eurus> After a few seconds, he gets up and walks over to close it.
19:09:14 — Antionette also fries the motion sensor, then moves on
19:09:15 <Kasumi> Kasumi moves onwards!
19:09:17 — Violet takes a slower, less stealthy approach, ambling across the rooftops almost as if she were on a stroll.
19:09:24 <Violet> Responsibility!
19:09:51 <•Eurus> Antoinette doesn't find anything else in her search... but a few seconds later, she sees motion in the street below, as does Violet.
19:10:07 — Kasumi LOOKIN FOR THE OFFICES DOOT DO DOOT
19:10:15 — Antionette looks at the street
19:10:37 <•Eurus> A white truck rolls up in front of the building, and six bulky men in tactical gear hop out of the back.
19:10:44 <Antionette> "That's not good."
19:10:51 <Violet> "...hmm. Trouble.
19:10:53 <•Eurus> They seem to be heading straight into the building.
19:10:56 <Violet> ...fun."
19:20:14 <Antionette> "New plan, intercept these guys"
19:20:23 — Antionette draws and throws three grenades in their direction
19:20:56 <Kasumi> "Wait, what?" Kasumi says.
19:21:01 <Violet> "Fun." Violet repeats in the same tone. "Playtime." She activates the storage seals, summoning her puppets and animating them..
19:21:52 — Kasumi groans, and activates Concealing Camoflage.
19:25:36 <Antionette> "There's gonna be a firefight, just concentrate on getting that uploaded, we'll be fine."
19:25:44 <•Eurus> The ice spikes form a sudden wall in front of the door, and the grenades land in the middle of the guards, spraying them with gummy adhesive.
19:26:14 <•Eurus> They immediately turn and spot their attacker.
19:26:46 — Antionette waves, eyes glowing red in a probably menacing manner as she grins under the mask
19:27:36 <•Eurus> The guard inside immediately freaks out, of course, and pulls out his phone.
19:28:12 — Kasumi begins sprinting for where she HOPES the offices are!
19:30:34 <Violet> "You don't mind if *these* guys die, do you?"
19:31:09 <Antionette> "/I/ mind, but they're probably jerks who are about to start shooting at us!"
19:31:33 <Antionette> "And were probably gonna start shooting at people inside! That makes them fair game."
19:33:21 <•Eurus> Kasumi quickly makes it to what she's fairly sure is the server room in the basement. As soon as she bursts through the door, there's a sound of rushing water and splintering wood behind her, and a spiky wall of ice suddenly bursts from the carpet and blocks off the door completely. At the same time, the room suddenly starts to fill with smoke.
19:33:55 <Kasumi> "... Server room was trapped," Kasumi mutters into the mic.
19:34:10 <Antionette> "Lovely."
19:36:28 — Antionette yells down from the roof. "Stand down and no one gets hurt!"
19:37:08 <Violet> ((...she said, before the psychopath opened fire))
19:37:13 <Antionette> (heh)
19:37:37 <•Eurus> In the server room, Kasumi hears an amused-sounding male voice from a few feet away. "I do hope there's someone in here, because if that thing went off for a stray cat, I'll be /very/ disappointed."
19:37:37 — Antionette is mostly doing it for the sake of her own conscience, and does not expect them to stand down
19:38:15 — Kasumi activates Camoflage Technique!
19:38:35 — Kasumi attempts to Hide In Plain Sight.
19:41:07 <•Eurus> "Ah! Wait, you're not who I was expecting."
19:42:01 — Kasumi stands, sighing. "You had someone in mind?" she says, through a thick russian accent.
19:46:50 <•Eurus> "I was expecting the angry one with the sunglasses. But this is a pleasant surprise, really. I don't believe we've met, are you new?"
19:47:15 <Kasumi> "New to country. Not job."
19:47:18 <•Eurus> Through the smoke, Kasumi can see the silhouette of a humanoid figure leaning back in a computer chair behind a desk.
19:47:51 <Violet> Immediately after Antionette yells, a shot rings out in the night lancing towards one of the soldiers. Clearly somebody did not get the memo.
19:48:04 <Antionette> "Okay. Some of you."
19:48:22 <•Eurus> He says something in Russian. Or it sounds like Russian, anyway.
19:48:35 <•Eurus> Something eastern european, definitely.
19:50:30 <Kasumi> "(You get that,)" Kasumi mumbles, barely loud enough for the mic to pick up.
19:50:37 <Violet> The second puppet is directed off of the building (Violet winces at the audible crunch upon landing) and towards the enemy!
19:51:11 <Violet> And Violet repositions herself in order to best control the melee puppet once it reaches the enemy, taking care to stay in range of her gunner as well.
19:51:31 — Antionette panickedly mumbles "I don't speak russian"
19:52:42 <Kasumi> "... Oh, well," Kasumi says, dropping the accent. And the shapeshift entirely. "It was fun while it lasted."
19:53:24 — Kasumi uses SLEEP TECHNIQUE.
19:53:49 — Antionette shunpo-jumps down off the building, then across the street, ending about 40 feet from the enemy squad, before readying an action to fire a lightning bolt at them
19:54:04 <Antionette> "Seriously, stand down. Don't feel like killing you all."
19:54:31 — Kasumi rushes forward, and attempts to put THE FIGURE to sleep.
19:54:33 <Violet> "I do..." Violet grumbles to herself. "Could do with some fresh stock."
19:54:53 <Antionette> "Do electrified corpses count"
19:55:46 <Violet> "Have dealt with it before. Bit of a bother, but better than nothing."
19:58:24 <•Eurus> The guards seem oddly calm. They don't panic or even flinch. Wordlessly coordinating, one of them turns and sprays one of the building's windows with bullets, shattering it. A loud alarm goes off immediately, and three of the soldiers move to enter through the window.
19:58:37 <Antionette> "No!"
19:58:54 — Antionette makes a flurry of signs and points a finger, firing a blast of lightning through the squad
19:59:50 — Antionette panics for a moment when she realizes the implications of what she just did. [Holy **** this could kill someone what am I /doing/]
20:00:05 <•Eurus> All three freeze when hit, and immediately go down, smoking and twitching slightly.
20:00:18 — Antionette [****************]
20:00:23 <•Eurus> The two remaining guards respond by attempting to fill Annie with holes.
20:02:02 — Antionette stands there for a moment, not even trying to dodge the bullets that impact into her and do nothing, before coming to her senses and remembering she's in a firefight right now
20:02:40 — Antionette then glares at them, eyes still menacingly glowing red. "Bad call, *******s."
20:02:51 <Antionette> (not that they'd see the glare beyond body language)
20:04:12 <•Eurus> A hole suddenly appears in the pavement next to Annie.
20:04:21 <•Eurus> A bullet-sized hole.
20:04:21 <Antionette> "Lovely!"
20:04:30 — Antionette turns to look at where it came from
20:04:50 <•Eurus> There's an office building with several open windows. Presumably, one of them has a sniper.
20:08:57 <Antionette> "And there's Razorgirl."
20:10:02 <•Eurus> When Kasumi rushes forward, she gets a closer look at the man. He's slender, pale, and pretty in a perfectly-muscled sort of way, kind of Nordic-looking. You could imagine him modeling underwear, or something. And he's wearing a pair of impractically tight white leather pants and a shirt that's made mostly out of belts.
20:11:07 <•Eurus> He pushes back from the desk with one foot, and the chair rolls out of Kasumi's way before she can poke him. "Why the hurry? I'm more than willing to chat a little, before I kill you."
20:11:38 <Kasumi> "Guess I've just got a death wish," she murmurs.
20:11:49 — Antionette listens on the comms
20:11:57 — Antionette panics
20:12:33 <Violet> "Should we get inside?"
20:13:05 — Kasumi sighs, and activates BODY CONCEALMENT TECHNIQUE.
20:13:09 <•Eurus> "Well I knew /that/ from your choice of occupation."
20:13:18 <Antionette> "We need to keep Razorgirl away from the building too. I can get in fast, if you take out these remaining guys too.":
20:13:50 <Violet> "As long as I don't get a bullet in my skull," Violet grumbles.
20:14:11 <Antionette> "If it's to that point, abandon the mission, it's not worth your life."
20:14:24 — Kasumi shimmers into TRUE INVISIBILITY, cranking her Hide bonus up to +54 against those who can see Chakra, +69 against those who cannot.
20:14:56 <•Eurus> The man blinks. "...Rude."
20:15:07 <•Eurus> He casually walks over and stands in front of the server.
20:15:24 <Kasumi> "Yeah, I'm just a bitch like that," she says, and re-uses Sleep Technique. Now a touch attack against flat-footed AC!
20:17:04 <•Eurus> He doesn't even try to dodge, since that would require no longer physically blocking the server. She pokes him.
20:17:12 <Antionette> XD
20:17:18 <Violet> "Didn't need to tell me that." Violet makes a series of hand signs, promptly a shield of flame to spark to life around her.
20:17:20 <Kasumi> "... Thank ****."
20:17:39 <•Eurus> "Hey now. Look, but don't touch."
20:20:04 — Antionette Shunpos past the last two of the squad and into the building. "If you follow me, I will do that to the rest of you."
20:20:22 — Antionette then sprints through the building, half-shunpoing and half-jetpacking
20:20:49 <Violet> "...and if you don't follow her, I'll kill you~"
20:21:17 <Violet> ((*prompting wow))
20:23:15 <Kasumi> "... ugh."
20:23:20 <Kasumi> "Okay, let's talk."
20:23:58 <•Eurus> "Lovely! You can call me Rook, by the way. It's what I've been going by, the past few years."
20:24:48 <Kasumi> "So why can't I do **** to you? You an illusion which I'm blanking on, or am I just way out of my league?"
20:25:17 <•Eurus> "I'm not sure. What exactly were you trying to do? That magic you lot do is all greek to me."
20:26:21 <•Eurus> The soldiers focus their fire on one of the puppets, slowly retreating back toward the building.
20:26:25 <Kasumi> "Put you to sleep S'kinda my thing. I'm a thief, not a killer."
20:26:57 <•Eurus> "Ah, that explains it. I don't sleep, really."
20:27:18 <Kasumi> "Robot or vampire?"
20:27:30 <•Eurus> "Ooh, you're good. It takes most people longer to guess."
20:28:44 <Kasumi> "Most people don't know how much is out there."
20:29:12 <•Eurus> "What's your story, then? Not a typical hired gun, I take it?"
20:29:12 <Kasumi> She sighs. "And frankly, it could still go either way."
20:30:04 <Kasumi> The slight grin is visible even underneath her gasmask. "Hired guns tend to have more... gun."
20:30:20 <•Eurus> "You never know, in this city..."
20:30:36 <•Eurus> "I've been attacked with everything from razor wire to a half-ton cement brick."
20:30:47 <Kasumi> "And you're still standing, huh?"
20:31:07 <•Eurus> He grins, and you catch a glimpse of pointed canines. "I tend to land on my feet."
20:31:30 <Kasumi> Kasumi reaches forward, poking at the canines with her finger. "Cute."
20:31:51 <•Eurus> "That really is /very/ unsettling. I'm not used to not being able to spot people."
20:32:30 <Kasumi> "I'm VERY good at not being noticed."
20:34:56 <•Eurus> "Talented /and/ charming."
20:35:18 <•Eurus> Right around then, Antoinette finds the icewall.
20:36:35 <•Eurus> The sniper's second shot is true, but Violet manages to flicker out of the way and another neat little hole cracks the asphalt.
20:36:57 <Kasumi> "I'm about as charming as a canetoad on the side of a road, but the compliment's appreciated."
20:37:00 — Antionette stares at the door, continuing to listen to the comms
20:37:22 <Violet> Violet glares up at the general area where the shot was made, hissing through her teeth.
20:37:27 <Antionette> "Kasumi, is the server in front of the door."
20:38:42 <•Eurus> The vampire seems to hear Annie's approach, and glances over. "Oh dear. I guess we're about out of time."
20:38:42 <Kasumi> "... I'd point out killing me is going to result in a lot more monsters running loose, but I'd hazard a guess you'd be all over that, huh?"
20:38:42 <Kasumi> "(We're probably good.)"
20:40:28 <•Eurus> "Hah! I suppose I might be. I won't patronize you by giving you the chance to leave, because I'm sure you wouldn't take it. And frankly, all this chatting is making me hungry."






[and then the good stuff happened]




22:05:01 <Antionette> Oliver Atkins
22:05:27 — Antionette says "Sorry." before dropping the wounded merc and shunpoing away very fast
22:05:32 <Violet> "Good, good..." Violet does a quick once-over with Elias and makes sure he's not damaged.
22:05:50 <•Eurus> He's a little charred, but nothing a coat of paint won't fix.
22:06:06 ⇐ Antionette quit ([email protected]) Quit: http://www.mibbit.com ajax IRC Client
22:06:18 <Violet> "And now for Torsten...hrm."
22:06:19 Forrest → Antionette
22:06:54 <Violet> ((Took 21 damage. Expected him to fall over once. XD ))
22:08:00 Antionette → Forrest
22:10:23 Forrest → Antionette
22:10:47 <Antionette> after she gets home and collects herself, and disposes of some of the destroyed clothing, and checks to see she's not dying from internal bleeding after that hit
22:10:49 <Antionette> she calls Nova.
22:12:40 <•Eurus> Despite the late hour, Nova answers, looking satisfied. "The upload seems to have gone off without a hitch. Congratulations."
22:12:48 — Antionette video-calls Nova from the conference room with lots of screens, her face still showing a spiderweb-shaped wound
22:13:01 <Antionette> "Glad it worked. Did you know that Chicago has vampires?"
22:13:39 <•Eurus> She frowns. "Plural?"
22:13:56 <Antionette> "One confirmed. He called himself Rook. Was waiting in the server room."
22:14:24 <Antionette> "Specifically, waiting for Razorgirl. We beat her to the building, though."
22:14:35 <Antionette> "ANYWAY, holy crap, vampires. Please tell me you didn't know this."
22:14:52 <•Eurus> "I'm aware of Rook, yes. As far as I know, he's the only one. Are you alright?"
22:15:41 <Antionette> "We're fine. We got out alive, there was a fight with him. Probably would have died if I wasn't special, myself. He had an ally, called 'Agni', who threw around Katons like I've never seen."
22:15:46 <Antionette> "Melt-a-building level."
22:15:55 <Antionette> "Literally. You can turn on the news and see the aftermath."
22:17:05 <•Eurus> She frowns, and reaches toward the camera. You realize she's communicating with you through a laptop webcam, as she presumably opens a news tab. Her eyes widen very, very slightly. "...Oh dear. I thought he was still inactive. I would have warned you, otherwise."
22:17:10 — Antionette says it with a bit of a jitter in her voice. She's badly putting on an act of being unshaken by all this.
22:17:35 <•Eurus> "This seems to have been a case of extraordinary bad luck. I would imagine it was a trap to kill Razorgirl, and you stumbled into it. But you handled yourselves admirably."
22:18:02 <Antionette> "I-thank you."
22:18:02 <Antionette> "Who /are/ they? Are these actual, legit vampires?"
22:19:46 <•Eurus> "...That's a complicated question. Agni is a user, like you. Rook is a little more complicated. I don't know what he is. He may be an anomaly. I can't give you concrete information on his capabilities; my last operative had files on Chicago's operatives, but I don't have access to them."
22:21:24 <Antionette> "Okay. I'll start looking into that myself, then." -Antionette sighs and gives a look something between exhaustion and excitedness- "But what matters is that the mission was a success, I guess."
22:21:57 <•Eurus> "Indeed. Take some time to rest. I don't have anything for you right now. If the pattern holds, it should be at least a few weeks."
22:22:24 <Antionette> "Kay. When should I expect the 20k for each operative?"
22:22:39 <•Eurus> "I'll transfer it when the banks open in the morning."
22:23:07 <Antionette> "Thank you. Have a good night, I look forward to your next call."
22:23:12 — Antionette ends the call
22:23:52 <•Eurus> Annie notices that she has an email from a long, generic-looking email address.
22:24:06 — Antionette scans it for viruses and opens it if it's clean
22:27:09 <•Eurus> It's clean, and short. [Welcome to Chicago. My only regret is that I didn't get to see the look on your face when you met Rook. >Razorgirl]
22:27:23 — Antionette responds
22:27:37 <Antionette> [Mostly panic. He went down pretty easy to lasers and fireballs though.]
22:29:36 <•Eurus> [He'll be back. I suppose I should thank you. That could have been bad, if you hadn't blundered into it first.]
22:30:58 <Antionette> [Those soldiers would have]
22:31:08 <Antionette> [Not that it helped them in the end :(]
22:32:13 <•Eurus> [You do carry a /gun/, don't you?]\
22:32:32 <•Eurus> [You're obviously not that pacifistic.]
22:33:01 <Antionette> [Well, yes. I just haven't killed anyone before. And it didn't stop me. But it doesn't feel good to have.]
22:33:05 <Antionette> [I carry four guns]
22:33:25 <•Eurus> [Don't feel too broken up, anyway. They weren't real people. The bodies melt in about six hours.]
22:34:14 <Antionette> [Ah. Well that's nice. There is a doctor who will be very annoyed at me in a few days]
22:34:57 <•Eurus> [I had an idea, by the way. Seeing as I'm sure you've suddenly got some money to spare.]
22:35:25 <Antionette> [I always have money to spare. If you got my personal email, then you should know this.]
22:37:48 <•Eurus> [I know, I saw your house. I have one like it in Florida. I've never been there, but the pictures are nice. Anyway, you're mostly flying blind right now, right?]
22:38:08 <Antionette> [... Yes]
22:39:56 <•Eurus> [I've been working this city for two years. I might be willing to share some of my files, for enough money.]
22:40:58 <Antionette> [How much?]
22:41:40 <•Eurus> She quotes you a number. It's a pretty ridiculous number, but it's well within Antoinette's ability to afford.
22:42:29 <Antionette> [And how much intel am I getting for that?]
22:43:27 <•Eurus> [I'm not giving you files on /my/ team. Nobody who works for my employer. But everyone who doesn't is fair game. The way I see it, if you're better informed you might end up doing my job for me and killing them.]
22:47:58 <Antionette> [Done. Cash, right? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you won't just snipe me if we meet. Although given that lovely shot you took tonight, maybe I shouldn't worry.]
22:48:45 <•Eurus> [Nothing personal, it's just business. I can send them electronically, or we can arrange a drop if you prefer paper.]
22:49:48 <Antionette> [Would prefer a drop, myself, but electronic seems simpler and safer.]
22:50:06 <•Eurus> [Up to you.]
22:50:51 <Antionette> [The latter, then. Where/when/how do you want your money?]
22:53:20 <•Eurus> [Send it through Blacklist. I'm setting up a transaction, code #5592100.]
22:54:19 — Antionette sends a few minutes later, drawing from a supposedly untraceable offshore account that stores her illegal-things money
22:55:06 <•Eurus> As soon as the transaction goes through, the files are released to her.
22:55:26 <Antionette> [Thanks]

[Happy Gravity]

Violet's home was made in an old morgue in a skeezier part of town. It's not exactly prime real estate, but for her purposes, it's convenient. The front door appears to be massively reinforced and most other entrances have been carefully sealed. Petitioners to the clinic run on the ground floor are both brave and desperate - she has a reputation for effectiveness, discretion, but with a touch of madness.

It has an extensive basement sprawling far underneath the squat, squarish exterior of the building, which functions as a workshop, living space, and storage for Violet's projects.

Upon returning home, Violet heads downstairs to treat her wounds and repair her puppets. Once that is done, she begins planning possible upgrades or adjustments that she may require on a massive chalkboard.

[Eurus]

At some point during the night, the corpses start... melting. Unfortunately, it only becomes obvious when they start leaking. A cursory analysis determines that some sort of organic acid is responsible, apparently the product of some sort of automatic biological process triggered by death. It's a weird mod, unlike anything Violet's seen before. The acid itself isn't too hard to neutralize, but by that point the damage is too extensive to get any use out of them anyway anyway.

Some basic analysis of the... remains... sheds a bit of light on that; each of the dead men is physically identical, suggesting cloning. The self-destruct mechanism, which seems to have heavily degraded most of the DNA, is presumably an attempt to prevent them from being easily copied or analyzed by other potential manufacturers.

Finally, at about 8 in the morning, there's a sudden knock on the door.

[Happy Gravity]

Violet works well into the night. While she's applying to finishing touches to Elias' paint job, she notices the leak...rather late.

The woman takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly with a deep frown. "...what." Violet retrieves a jar and...scoops the remains of one into it. "Well. Profits from this escapade are now slightly lower."

"Clone soldiers," the doctor muses. "An efficient idea, certainly. But rather boring," she concludes, casting a glance at her puppets. With that, she decides to call it a night.

- - -

When the knock on the door sounded, the good doctor was asleep. However, her eyes snap open upon hearing it. "Hmm. Company."

She reaches over to the table on the desk to retrieve her glasses, tapping them before putting them on. The HUD blinks to life as the video connection to the door is established.

At the door, the camera, a disturbingly realistic, single eye with a purple iris opens. It blinks slowly at the knocker.

[Eurus]

Outside the door is a poorly-shaven man with bags under his eyes and a lit cigarette. He's wearing a long, ragged brown coat, and looks like he hasn't slept all night but is more or less used to it. He looks slightly surprised by the eye, and leans in to study it.

"...Uh. Hi?"

[Happy Gravity]

"No bleeding, no visible pain...well, he's not here for the usual business."

Violet throws on a random assortment of clothing and covers the ensemble with a stylish lab coat (with some unexplained red smears), so she reaches the door quickly. Instead of opening the door, however, she turns on the speaker.

Outside, there is a slight audible crackle before she speaks. "Yeah? What do you want ?"

[Eurus]

"Oliver Atkins, Chicago PD. I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."

[Happy Gravity]

Violet frowns. She considers several possibilities:
"Turn him away? He'd probably just come back, with backup.
Let him in, kill him? What if he's here for something else? What if he told someone he was coming here?"

"For now, it would be best to just let him in and see what the hell he wants.", she concludes.

"..if you like."

Violet quickly unlocks the door and gives it a shove, swinging it open. She leans against the doorway, glancing out to make sure nobody else is around. "Come in, then. Keep standing out there and you'll ruin business."

She turns around and heads deeper into the house without waiting, whistling softy to herself. The door slams shut behind the officer if he enters, without any prompting (chakra threads!). She leads the officer (presuming he follows) to what appears to be a waiting room - white walls, impersonal atmosphere, and a few lousy couches. Violet flops onto one of them and pushes up her glasses imperiously, gazing at the cop. "Ask away. This should be good."

[Eurus]

The cop looks around curiously as he enters, still holding his cigarette.

"...Cozy."

When Violet sits, Atkins seems to consider it for a moment before nodding.

"Alright, I won't waste your time. What were you doing at the White Rabbit office last night?"

[Happy Gravity]

"So he's here for that."

Violet doesn't particularly make much of an effort at deception, speaking in a flat tone of voice. She studies her fingernails instead of looking at the officer.

"...the what? Sorry, I don't especially like Alice in Wonderland. Perhaps you're looking for someone else."

[Eurus]

Instead of replying directly, he stands up and casually looks around the room, admiring the decor or lack thereof. He's difficult to read. Casual, not threatening, but certain elements of his behavior seem almost intentionally grating. The cigarette, for instance, which he casually re-lights and takes a drag on in what's ostensibly a medical facility.

"So what is it you do here, exactly? You're registered as a... medical clinic, right? But you run this place single-handed?"

[Happy Gravity]

Violet shrugs noncommittally, watching the smoke rise to the ceiling. "I fix people. I can manage things alone."

"Multitasking is a...talent of mine," she concludes with a small smile.

[Eurus]

Violet:
"Is that how you met Ms. Enrico, then? Did you... fix her?"


Kasumi:
It's another day like any other, three or four days after the conclusion of Kasumi's last job. Another impressive paycheck is sitting in her account, and there aren't any plans or obligations hanging over her head at the moment. So really, things are pretty good right now.

...Except, of course, for the problem of the girl who's been following her. The tiny Japanese girl in what could pass for a school uniform if the skirt was about three inches longer. It could have been nothing, this morning. It could even have been a coincidence when Kasumi spotted her in the parking lot of the grocery store. But now it's definitely stalking.

She's not even being particularly subtle about it, at this point. Not that it would be easy to be subtle, in that outfit, but she could try. She's just sitting in the lobby now, on her tablet.

[Taveena]

Kasumi takes a few moments to compose herself, before sighing and turning around. "So does your mom know you're walking around dressed like a hentai protagonist, or are you just assumin' I'm into lolicons cuz I'm Japanese?" she says, placing the groceries down with a sigh. "Because really, you're not exactly blending in here."

[Happy Gravity]

Violet looks legitimately confused. She scratches her head in puzzlement and raises a golden eyebrow. "...who? Sorry, I'm not good with names. Or faces."

"...but in any case, you do understand that my patients expect a measure of confidentiality from me. If you're chasing one of my patients I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere."

[Forrestfire]

It's at that point that Antionette knocks on the door to Violet's clinic, wearing something approximating street clothes, if you ran them through an "owned by an out-of-touch person with way more money than sense" filter. She's got a small, locked briefcase in her hand, and her purple tie is wrapped around her wrist like some sort of bracelet.

[Eurus]

Violet and Antoinette:
Atkins glances over at Annie as she enters, his expression mild.

"Miss Enrico, how convenient. Your new friend here was just answering a few of my questions about last night."

Kasumi:
The girl ***** her head to one side at Kasumi's question, her expression exaggeratedly appalled.

"What a rude thing to say to an innocent girl! You must be a real pervert."

Up close, she looks like she can't be more than sixteen.

[Taveena]

Kasumi's grin widens. "And yet you know what both've those words meant, apparently. Innocent my ass."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette stops abruptly when she sees him, a complete surprise showing on her face for a moment, before she gives a look like she's trying to remember something. "What happened last night?"

[Happy Gravity]

Violet takes a closer look at Antionette as she enters. "Oh. Is that her?"

"...it is!" She confirms to herself.

A murderous gleam appears momentarily in her eyes when Atkins looks away, but disappears quickly. "I have no idea. Are you here for a checkup?"

[Forrestfire]

"N-yes. I'm here for a checkup."

She then turns and says to Atkins "In any case, how are you today, officer? You look tired."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
The girl drops the offended expression and giggles.

"No, I guess not."

Hopping briskly to her feet, the girl leans in and inspects Kasumi top to bottom, hands clasped behind her back.

"You are pretty," she comments with a rather surprised tone.

"You shouldn't chop your hair off, though. You'll never get boys to buy you things like that."

[Taveena]

"Maybe I don't want 'em to. They're kinda bad at guessing what I want, anywhose," she says, shrugging. "So are you just planning to stare at my ass all day, or did you actually have a reason for stalking me that wasn't related to a throbbing erection carefully tucked away between those dainty legs?"

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"This is just a friendly visit. I wanted to see the mysterious, beautiful assassin everyone's talking about!"

The girl pulls something out of a pocket, and it floats into the air, a tiny humming drone with a camera taking up most of its body. It scans the room before focusing on Kasumi.

[Forrestfire]

20:47:52 <•Eurus> Atkins smiles faintly at Annie's comment. "Nothing coffee can't fix. Busy night, though. You heard about the fire?"
20:48:01 Deimosaur → Violet
20:50:46 <Antionette> "The gas explosion at White Rabbit? Yeah. It was on the news."
20:51:20 Taveena → Taveena
20:52:52 <•Eurus> "Mm. Not a gas explosion, though. As I'm pretty sure you both already know."
20:54:57 <Antionette> Antionette flatly (and a bit annoyedly) says "A gas explosion doesn't blow the top floor of a building clean off. Do you know what actually happened, then? I'm beginning to regret investing at this point."
20:56:23 — Violet shrugs. "Eh."
20:56:44 <•Eurus> His face twitches in another momentary smile. "Bad timing, I guess. We believe there was an attack, as it happens. I was hoping your friend here could give me some more details."
20:57:15 <Antionette> "Why, did she blow up the building?" she turns, "Did you blow up a building?"
20:58:09 <Violet> "Nope."
20:58:24 <•Eurus> "Well that's good to know. So who did?"
20:58:41 <Antionette> "Well good." Antionette sits down in a chair (I'm assuming there's a chair in the waiting room)
20:59:31 — Antionette considers just telling him Agni did it
21:02:15 — Antionette decides to
21:02:19 <Antionette> "Agni did. He's working with Rook."
21:04:42 <•Eurus> He contemplates this for a moment, then sighs. "I don't recognize those names offhand, but there's probably a file on them somewhere if they're professionals. So if they were the ones blowing up buildings, what were /you/ two doing at the office?"
21:05:31 <Antionette> "We were hired to keep Razorgirl from getting into White Rabbit's servers. Mostly, we were getting shot at."
21:05:46 — Antionette cheerfully says
21:06:31 <•Eurus> "That tends to happen, in your line of work." His tone is dry, it's hard to tell whether he believes you or not.
21:06:50 <•Eurus> "So how did you know she was going to target the office?"
21:07:10 <Antionette> "Because we were told to be there at a certain time."
21:07:36 <•Eurus> "Hm."
21:08:00 <•Eurus> He takes another slow drag off his cigarette. "You may have noticed that this city has something of a crime problem."
21:08:06 <Antionette> "Gee, you think?"
21:08:24 <•Eurus> "We do try. Know how many people are users?"
21:09:19 — Violet leans back, watches the two of them, and says nothing.
21:10:08 <Antionette> "Something like 1% is chakra-sensitive, right? I remember being very disappointed when I wasn't."
21:13:25 <•Eurus> He doesn't comment on Annie's mention of not having been one. "Estimates range from one percent to one-tenth a percent, but probably closer to the higher end. That's four to forty thousand in Chicago alone, if you think about it. Most of them never even realize; most of the corps test their employees, but they don't always disclose the results."
21:15:09 <Antionette> "Must make your life incredibly difficult. Personally, I'd be more worried about the fifty or so people who are /actively/ dangerous. Maybe more."
21:15:37 <•Eurus> He grins. "Do you know how many our department has?"
21:16:29 <Antionette> "Three."
21:16:57 <•Eurus> He nods. "Gets a little annoying, but then, not many people are willing to fight superpowered psychos for a government salary."
21:17:06 <•Eurus> "Let alone try to arrest them."
21:17:39 <Violet> "...so what are you doing here?"
21:17:46 <Antionette> "More people willing to fight superpowered psychos for a non-government salary."
21:17:51 <Antionette> "Speaking of which."
21:17:56 — Antionette tosses the briefcase to Violet
21:18:43 — Violet gets hit in the face by it.
21:18:46 <Antionette> "..."
21:19:00 <Antionette> "You dodged a sniper bullet yesterday.":
21:19:57 <Violet> "Your point?"
21:20:02 — Antionette sighs
21:20:03 — Violet pus it aside for now.
21:20:46 <Antionette> "In any case, he's here because he knows you were, and wanted to talk instead of bringing in a SWAT team, because they're woefully uninformed about what happened."
21:21:26 <•Eurus> He shakes his head. "...Call this an outreach program, I guess. Kid, I've seen what this job does to people. It doesn't end well. And I know you're not doing this for the money."
21:22:21 — Antionette stares off to the side in thought for a bit
21:22:25 <Antionette> "Okay. I'm in."
21:23:18 — Violet makes a face. "What exactly do you want, then?"
21:26:13 <•Eurus> "I want you to give us the heads-up the next time you're ordered to be somewhere at some time. Surveillance laws have gotten pretty lax, these past few years. If we have a lead, we can make sure there's enough evidence on hand to make a charge stick. That is, if we happen to actually catch someone."
21:27:16 <Violet> "And in exchange...?"
21:27:35 <•Eurus> "I don't suppose you'd take 'getting dangerous criminals who blow up buildings off the streets' as a reason?"
21:28:22 <Antionette> "Better reason: he knows we're potentially dangerous Users, and wants to work with us instead of against us."
21:28:28 <Antionette> "Or at lest just not against us."
21:29:11 <•Eurus> "Frankly, I'd /prefer/ to not see a girl my daughter's age fighting people to the death for money, but I figure I don't have a lot of say in that."
21:30:11 — Violet shrugs. "Whatever. If you're in, and I'm getting paid, fine."
21:30:34 — Antionette ignores Atkins' comment
21:30:42 <Antionette> "What am I using to contact you?"
21:31:00 <•Eurus> He pulls out a business card with his number on it.
21:31:02 <Antionette> "And I guess I'm going to need to stop breaking the camera systems."
21:31:19 <•Eurus> "It'd help. You're wearing a mask anyway."
21:31:35 <Antionette> "Two, actually."
21:31:42 <Antionette> "But yes."
21:32:15 <•Eurus> "If you manage to actually take someone down, I'd prefer if you handed them over to us instead of committing murder."
21:32:38 <Antionette> "That's a nicer plan than killing them, definitely. I don't think I'll do that if we run into the vampire again, though."
21:32:50 — Antionette grimaces
21:32:55 <Antionette> "Hard enough to run away. I'm going to try to stake the ****er next time."
21:33:44 <•Eurus> He frowns.
21:34:17 — Antionette looks at the business card, then navigates through and drops part of Razorgirl's files into an encrypted email to the address (the data, sans the joke entries on Antionette, Take, and Kasumi)
21:34:33 <Antionette> ((er, navigates through windows on her HUD))
21:34:54 <Antionette> "What?"
21:36:05 <•Eurus> "I appreciate the honesty, but planning murder in front of a cop isn't a great idea."
21:36:39 <Violet> "Is it really murder, at that point?"
21:37:04 <•Eurus> "As far as I know, the current legal definition of personhood doesn't require a pulse."\
21:37:33 <Antionette> "Well, if Chicago's resident vampire runs into us, I will try me /very hardest/ to run away again and not go Buffy on him, but given that his first step last time we met was nearly punching a hole in my chest then turning into smoke, I'm not inclined to go for nonlethal."
21:37:50 <Antionette> "I doubt it'd work on him, anyway. Running away's the better idea."
21:38:25 <Antionette> "In any case, in case your people don't have the information, I sent you the files I have on Chicago's high-level Users."
21:38:44 <•Eurus> He just sighs. "Try not to get yourselves killed."
21:38:53 <•Eurus> "I'll look them over."
21:38:56 — Antionette cheerfully says "That's the plan!"
21:40:53 — Violet sighs as well. "Uh huh."
21:43:03 <•Eurus> "...For the record, our cooperation is contingent on you behaving, to at least some degree. Clashing with mercenaries I can deal with. If you decide to branch into assassination or blow up a building of your own, I'm showing up at your house with cuffs."
21:43:22 <Antionette> "I don't plan on doing that."
21:43:42 <Antionette> "But noted."
21:43:55 <•Eurus> He looks slightly skeptical, but wordlessly nods and departs.
21:44:15 — Antionette turns to Violet after he leaves
21:44:26 <Antionette> "The briefcase has twenty thousand in cash."
21:45:04 — Violet closes the door behind the cop as he leaves with chakra threads, locking it carefully. "Wonderful."
21:48:38 <Violet> "Anything else? I didn't kill him, like you asked. Tempting, though."
21:48:43 <Antionette> "Anyway, good work yesterday, sorry about you getting shot. If you don't mind, I have fairly nasty set of cuts from where Rook smacked me... Think you could medical ninjutsu it?"
21:48:51 <Antionette> "Thanks for not killing him."
21:51:58 <Violet> "Sure, sure."
21:53:47 — Antionette has a web of nasty cuts tracing away from a small wound on the left side of her chest. She'd bandaged it and applied some first-aid, but it was in serious need of medical attention probably
21:56:50 — Violet fixes it up with...one of the techniques. Can't remember which.

[Taveena]

Kasumi snorts. "Yeah, nnnno. Pretty sure I'd remember ASSASSINATING someone. And the most mysterious thing about my is why there's blood when I wipe my ass."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"You're so defensive. You definitely need a boy. And you're definitely mysterious! I couldn't even break into your room!"

[Taveena]

"Yeah, there's a reason for that. A lot of reasons, really. I'd act surprised, but personally I'm just grateful you weren't able to perch on my bedroom table and watch me sleep again," she says. "Sides, good security systems aren't THAT hard to find." She picks up her groceries, moving to go on walking home. "If it'll stop you stalking me, I could just show you my goddamn apartment."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
She seems to give this some serious thought.

"I can't really make any promises."

[Taveena]

Kasumi groans, continuing to walk home. "Why the hell do you care? Do you seriously think I'm an assassin?"

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Well duh. Did you seriously not see?"

She picks up her tablet and shows it to Kasumi. It's on the Thousand Killers blog. The latest post, put up some time yesterday, announces that #505 has just been killed by an anti-aircraft battery, which means everyone from 506 down gets an upgrade... and slot #1000 gets filled by whichever up-and-coming User the blog's mysterious administrator picks.

A picture of Kasumi, in an old hoodie, sneaking out of a house with a haul of jewelry looks back at her from the screen.

"So... congratulations?"

[Taveena]

Kasumi pauses for a few moments, squinting.

"... Huh. Does kinda look like me. Weird," she says, before shrugging and moving on. "So, what, you think I'm secretly Catwoman?"

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Duh. If it's on the internet, it has to be true."

[Taveena]

"S'definitely how things usually go down. So, what, there's... some secret assassin-ranking website now? Is it a secret, or is this just some weirdass subculture that everyone else tries to ignore?"

"... Are people jacking off to this site."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"It's not really a secret. And it's on the internet, so, like, duh, probably."

[Taveena]

"So now there's a tonne of people who think I'm Lady Deathstroke. Goddamn JACKPOT," she murmurs. She's getting fairly close to her apartment building. "So who the hell are you, and why do you care? Because if this is a honeypot operation, again, not touching you with a 6 foot pole, and you're going to find an awful lot of empty ramen containers and not much else."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Takako-chan runs a blog about people who kill people! I was hoping you'd give me an interview!"

[Taveena]

"... again, I'm... not an assassin. I'm not sure what the hell you're hoping to get out of this, besides maybe 911 called on your ass. Also, did you just drop an honorific in English? Because I swear to god if I just got sucked into a ****ty dub I'm going to immediately drop everything and find my giant robot, thanks."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette spends the next few days after meeting with Officer Atkins training. She's making good progress through the piles of old Japanese martial arts technique books she has, focusing more on the unarmed techniques of the Shinmeiryuu school than the sword techniques. Overall, her training in that area is going exceptionally well, even if she really doesn't realize it at all.

She's also begun working on creating her own technique, inspired by Agni's bullet-melting fire defenses (If he can melt them with fire, I bet I could deflect bullets using lightning). This training is going significantly worse, because she wasn't sure where to start, so... She's set up a turret to fire .22 bullets at her while she tries to hit them with lightning. They don't have the capability of damaging her, but they hurt like hell when she messes up. Which is all she's been doing. Overall, the training is only serving to help her chakra control basics.

Around the fourth day, she notices the new addition to the Celebrity Killers list. She immediately grabs the nearest phone and texts Kasumi to congratulate her. [Hey, nice job getting onto the list! That's awesome!]

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Shinobi-chan is a very unpleasant person."

Shrugging, Takako snags her camera drone out of the air and pockets it.

"I got your picture and address, anyway. Good enough."

[Taveena]

Kasumi sighs, leaning against the wall next to the door to her apartment building. "Apparently not unpleasant enough, but hey, corpses attract flies... ****, you can rummage through my goddamn underwear drawer and you're not going to find anything except a very shocked rubber ducky and some lingerie I've never worn," she says, rubbing her temple with one hand as she unlocks and opens the door with the other. "I mean, ****, if I was able to steal that much ****, I'd be living somewhere WAY nicer."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
Takako just shrugs.

"You look pretty unlikely, yeah. But the blog is never wrong."

[Taveena]

"... even though... it says I'm an assassin. Yeah, no.

I could totally assassinate some tofu right now, though," she murmurs, opening the door and glancing back. "... You wanna come in, or?"

[Happy Gravity]

Violet spends the next few days studying an old technique that creates an eye from sand and dust that the user can see through.

Eventually, she wonders, "Why not just make a real eye?" and sets about doing just that.

After a few more days of experimentation, her lab coat is splattered with more blood than usual as she goes about her regular business. The only explanation she offers to her clients is, "...eyes are rather fragile things."

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Eh? Huh, sure."

Takako casually follows Kasumi inside, looking around at her modest home and covering a giggle.

"What do you spend all that filthy lucre on, anyway? Because it's definitely not this place..."

[Taveena]

"Food. Obviously. Really high-class stuff, too. Living entirely on caviar and... that one really choice type of beef?" Kasumi pauses for a moment at the door to her apartment. It seems slightly different from how Takako remembers it, though. "... Filet Mignon? Is that it?"

The inside of her apartment is... honestly, quite a mess. There are a load of unwashed dishes, an overflowing trash can, a cereal bowl sitting on the Ikea bought table, and an obviously second-hand DVD player which is currently paused on the middle of what appears to be some animated girl on girl porn. There's a rubber duck on the sofa (which, of course, has pieces of duct tape on it), and the open pantry is mostly full of ramen with a bit of cereal. There's also a pizza box sitting on the counter, the grease of which has managed to make its way all the way up to the lid through capillary action. Kasumi's phone sits on the table, but the message from Annie isn't being displayed.

Boudoir de la Bachelorette.

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
Takako shamelessly pulls out the camera-drone again, and it takes a 360 image of the apartment.

"You could always hire a maid."

[Taveena]

"Is this bull**** website really so trustworthy you're just gonna walk into a random college dropout's house and start taking photos of it because she KIND of looks like the girl in the picture?" Kasumi says, sighing. "****, you know what, you have fun looking around, I'm going back to my porn," she says, dumping the bags on the bench and heading over to the couch. Without any regards for present company, she presses play. And gets down to business.

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
"Yes, yes it is."

Takako happily starts snooping, but actually stops for a second when Kasumi turns on the porn. Whether genuinely unsettled or just bored, she heads out a few moments later.

"Nice to meet you, shinobi-chan~"

[Taveena]

Kasumi doesn't respond, though one hand does reach for a half-empty can of flat Red Bull.

[Eurus]

Kasumi:
At some point not long after that, Kasumi gets in touch with Antoinette, who tells her to meet at Violet's clinic.

It's not hard to find, one of the better-looking buildings in a decidedly low-rent part of town. As Kasumi is zipping up the sidewalk toward the clinic, she notices Annie across the street, and two figures in black robes moving toward her.

Antoinette:
Takehiko drops Annie off near the clinic and heads off to get lunch with Levi, telling her to call when she's done. As she gets ready to cross the street, a soft female voice calls out to her.

"Excuse me, miss. Can you spare a moment?"

Two women in what would resemble nun's habits except that nun's habits usually don't have V-necklines or a slash up the side that reveals a rather un-holy amount of leg. One barely five feet tall, if that, a tiny little thing with a gentle smile, and one an inch or two over six feet with a stony expression and more muscles than most nightclub bouncers, both intriguingly buxom.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette annoyedly responds with "Not interested in whatever book you people are selling right now. So no, I can't. Have a nice day.", before crossing the street.

She marks both in her HUD, though, in case they try to start a fight.

[Taveena]

Kasumi sighs, dismissing her SEP Field. She's in her full mission gear, for whatever reason, and she's directly behind the nuns.

And then she lets out an ear-rending squee.

"OH MY GOD I LOVE YOUR COSTUMES!" she squeals, clapping her hands excitedly and bouncing from foot to foot. "Where did you get the fabric? I mean- I know it's a bad idea to do this RIGHT NOW I mean what with not even being at the con yet but I figure you'll be so swamped with photo requests that I kind of just HAD to show up and I mean you just look so goddamn hot right now and I'm kind of just fangirling because that is the best goddamn Hitman cosplay I've SEEN and I've been doing this for a LONG TIME!"

[Forrestfire]

Antionette starts a bit when Kasumi does that, then quickly jogs across the street to watch from the other side.

[Eurus]

Antoinette and Kasumi:
The nuns are quite distracted by Kasumi's appearance, and Annie makes it across the street unhindered. The big one tenses slightly, but the little one seems to recognize Kasumi and puts a hand on the other nun's wrist.

"Oh, hello. As a matter of fact, this concerns you too. Why don't you both join us for a talk?"

[Forrestfire]

Antionette quickly texts Violet [Battle-nuns seem to want to talk to us. Maybe prep a puppet just in case?] from her contacts.

[Taveena]

Kasumi blinks. "Um, wow, um, I'm flattered, but I was gonna meet up with some friends- hang on, do you have a phone? I'll give you my number!"

[Eurus]

Kasumi and Antoinette:
"I'm afraid time is of the essence here. Our employer has a very busy schedule, and she'd like to meet you. Surely we can cooperate peacefully?"

[Happy Gravity]

[are you serious]

A few moments later, another text pops up.

[fine omw]

Violet, behind her two puppets, marches them out to the door. Given that their weapons are mostly grafted on or installed, they are fully prepared for combat, however unnecessary it may be.

[Forrestfire]

Antionette sees her arrive, then starts to walk back across the street. Haha, 'peaceful cooperation'. Man, I look like a real **** for just crossing the street like that and leaving Kasumi there.

[Taveena]

"Ugh, damnit, sorry - hang on," Kasumi says, pulling her phone out, wrapping an arm around the shorter nun's waist, and taking a selfie. "Alright, thanks!" she says, before moving to head off.

[Eurus]

The nuns don't move, but a red minivan suddenly rolls to a stop in front of her, for no apparent reason in the middle of the road. A distracted looking soccer mom type with a blonde head of curls talking into a Bluetooth headset is behind the wheel. While that slows Kasumi down for a second, the nuns continue.

"Please think carefully before doing anything you'll regret."

[Taveena]

"Right now I'd REALLY regret missing the Firefly panel. See you!" And she heads off.

[Eurus]

"They never cooperate," the tiny nun comments as if this mystifies her.

The soccer mom suddenly exits her car, leaving it idling in the middle of the road, still chatting on the phone. Almost absent mindedly, she retrieves a set of jumper cables from the back and wanders over toward Annie, causing a few cars to beep angrily as they dodge her. From the corner, two boys maybe thirteen or fourteen suddenly start walking toward the clinic doors. A bearded, probably homeless man on the opposite corner does the same. Shaking her head, the nun calls out to Annie in a hopeful voice.

"This really will be easier if you just follow us. Nobody wants a scene."

[Forrestfire]

Antionette glares at the nun as she walks across the street some more, ignoring the civilians. "What is wrong with you people."

That is all sorts of messed-up. As she walks, she uses her HUD to send an email giving her location and a message to Officer Atkins. [The battle-nuns that are listed in the file I gave you appear to want their boss to talk to me. They've involving civilians; going to try to keep bad things from happening.]

When she reaches the other side, she says "Put them back and I'll talk peacefully."

[Happy Gravity]

Violet glances out of the doorway, and closes it with a sigh. [say the word if you want me to come out.]

[Taveena]

The moment Kasumi is out of direct sight of the nuns, she's going to activate in succession Camouflage Technique and Concealing Camouflage Technique. And then head for the nuns again.

[Eurus]

"Of course!"

The nun nods, and the civilians suddenly relax. The kids and the man start wandering back to their corners. The blonde suddenly looks around in confusion, spots her car in the street, and squeaks in shock as she runs back to it.

"Really, we do apologize for the circumstances of this meeting. But our employer doesn't like to be kept waiting. I really do hate to involve civilians, but sometimes faith demands difficult decisions. I knew you would see reason, though."

She smiles brightly.

[Forrestfire]

Pff, faith... Where the hell did Kasumi go? Glad she got away, at least...

"So where's this meeting? Am I expected to follow you into a room surrounded by enemies to talk to your boss or something?"

[Taveena]

Kasumi jabs one of the nuns in the back of the neck with JUKUSUI NO JUTSU. She's still VERY HARD TO SEE.

[Eurus]

The little nun squeaks and looks around in confusion at the poke to her back, but doesn't see anything. After a moment, she seems to decide it's nothing. The big one looks suspicious, though, and moves a little closer to her comrade as if to guard her.

"Actually, she can meet you right here, if you like. She just sent us to make sure that you wouldn't do anything silly like try to shoot her."

[Taveena]

Kasumi sighs, and jabs the big one, instead. The big tough ones always have a ****ty will save, right? That's how this goes down.

[roll0]

[Eurus]

The second attempt actually seems to take effect, and the big nun suddenly sways slightly. This finally tips the little one off, who turns around and stares straight at Kasumi for a second before suddenly seeming to notice her, less than two feet away.

"Wha- hey! Stop that!"

Four cars screech to a stop in the road.

[Taveena]

Kasumi blinks. "... Huh. Hi. Bye!" And she activates Method of False Invisibility.

[Forrestfire]

What's up with them-oh, nice job there

While they're distracted, Antionette takes a few seconds to activate her armor, replacing her current clothes with a bright pink-and-white suit of body armor and mask. Okay, her technique was meant to take what, fifteen seconds to drop them? Twelve... eleven... ten...

"Look, Sisters. I don't want a fight, but if you keep mind-controlling randoms, I will be forced to shoot you."

[Forrestfire]

18:55:14 — Kasumi wants to quip so badly but GODDAMNIT HER MOVE SILENTLY CHECK IS IMPORTNAT
18:56:31 <Eurus> The little nun looks at the big one in concern. "Mary, are you alright? What did you do to her?" The big one seems to be having trouble keeping her eyes open. "...sleepy..."
18:57:15 — Kasumi is going to make a similar jab at the little one...
18:57:23 — Violet opens the door and pokes her head out.
19:02:20 — Kasumi is going to deliberately flicker into view as the poke lands.
19:02:57 <Kasumi> "I'm sorry, but she's also got a very important appointment. Sleep tight!"
19:06:27 — Antionette looks at the cars in the street to see if they're still being actively controlled
19:07:17 <Eurus> People are bursting out of their cars and breaking into a charge toward Antoinette and Kasumi.
19:07:24 <Antionette> "God. Dammit."
19:07:32 <Eurus> There are three women, four men, and four kids.
19:08:02 <Kasumi> "It's fine. We can hold them off. Deal with the controllers and we'll be able to work this out."
19:08:07 <Eurus> More cars keep stopping, they've clogged the street by now.
19:08:16 <Antionette> "Lovely."
19:09:26 <Eurus> The big nun grunts as she pulls the cross off her belt and gives it a tug, telescoping it out until it's about a five-foot long cross-shaped hammer.
19:09:36 <Antionette> "Good lord."
19:09:44 <Kasumi> "
19:09:51 <Eurus> She screams something in Latin and tries to brain Annie.
19:09:56 <Kasumi> "Well, hey, that's gotta be worth something!"
19:10:57 — Antionette puts her arm up and easily blocks the hammer with a loud 'clang'
19:11:52 <Antionette> "Rude."
19:12:25 <Kasumi> "Isn't she?"
19:13:58 <Violet> The door swings open as Violet directs Torsten directly towards Little Sister, Sea of Open Hands deploying.
19:14:25 <Antionette> "Don't kill anyone!"
19:15:22 — Violet looks around. They're almost literally on her doorstep. No way she'd get away with this. "DUH!"
19:19:45 <Eurus> The hundred puppet hands fly out and wrap around the little nun, squeezing her tightly. She screams, and the scream is echoed by the people on the street.
19:19:48 <Eurus> In the distance, you see crowds charging down the street from each end -- traffic is frozen as far as you can see, and the streets are rapidly filling with bodies as people climb out of cars and flow out of buildings.
19:19:50 <Kasumi> "YOU IDIOT-"
19:21:23 <Antionette> "This is going to suck."
19:22:00 <Kasumi> "God-"
19:22:15 <Antionette> "Police should be on the way, hopefully."
19:23:38 <Kasumi> "Nice work screwing up my nonlethal and painless submission of them!"
19:28:05 <Violet> "Meh." Violet manipulates Elias forwards, and the puppet fires a net at the other nun.
19:33:39 — Antionette draws a small scroll from a pouch and runs chakra through it, unsealing a neural scrambler
19:33:41 <Antionette> "Dammit."
19:33:53 — Antionette wades into the sea of hands and attempts to put it on the nun's head
19:35:36 <Kasumi> "Oh thank god."
19:35:50 <Eurus> The scrambler hums and sparks for a second, and the nun suddenly goes limp. A second later, the entire mob stops, just... standing there, swaying slightly.
19:36:00 <Antionette> "Jesus."
19:36:19 <Kasumi> Kasumi glances at the big one, expectantly.
19:36:20 <Antionette> "Violet! Tell this puppet to stop flailing at us!"
19:36:36 <Eurus> The big one is dozing peacefully. Even asleep, her expression is a glower.
19:36:54 <Kasumi> Kasumi picks up the cross, swinging it around experimentally.
19:36:56 — Antionette calls Oliver Atkins
19:36:57 <Violet> "Yeah, yeah. Ok."
19:37:25 <Eurus> The cross is amazingly heavy.
19:37:44 — Kasumi fails to pick it up, then, just... moving to drag it inside.
19:38:04 <Eurus> The phone rings, rings, rings... then is answered by someone talking rapidly in Korean.
19:38:16 <Eurus> The phone suddenly sparks and goes dark.
19:38:19 — Violet directs the puppets to drag the two inside.
19:39:16 — Antionette calls again, this time from skype
19:39:22 <Kasumi> "We've got around ten minutes before the big one wakes up. I reckon we go for a full search."
19:39:38 <Eurus> You become vaguely aware that things are oddly quiet.
19:39:45 <Kasumi> "I can probably knock her back down again, but..."
19:39:52 <Kasumi> "... something up?"
19:40:04 <Antionette> "Dammit."
19:40:09 <Antionette> "Of course nothing works."
19:40:11 <Eurus> Down the street, you realize the crowd is parting, as if to let something through.
19:40:22 <Kasumi> "... oh boy. Something's coming."
19:40:45 — Antionette gets her weapons ready, in case she needs to shoot the little nun or someone else
19:41:15 — Kasumi moves to hide in plain sight once more.
19:42:17 <Eurus> You hear the car before you see it, faint strains of some sort of music heavily featuring violins almost covered under the soft purr of an expensive engine. The crowd, still dazed, parts enough to let a silver limousine through, which calmly drives up and comes to a stop next to you all on the road.
19:42:44 <Antionette> "Well at least he has style."
19:42:51 <Eurus> ...You're not quite sure how it got through the clogged street. You /saw/ it drive down the street, presumably. You just don't seem to quite remember how it happened.
19:43:12 — Antionette grumpily stares through her mask at the car, guns still pointed at the mind-controlly nun
19:44:37 <Eurus> One of the back windows, tinted too dark to see through, rolls down an inch. You get a glimpse of red hair, and a faintly French-accented voice rolls out. "My goodness, dears. You /are/ trouble."
19:45:00 <Antionette> ".."
19:45:04 <Antionette> "..."*
19:45:37 <Antionette> "How the **** did you jam internet phones."
19:45:52 <Eurus> "Your phone is fine, dear."
19:47:01 — Antionette dials again using her visual interface
19:47:18 — Kasumi pauses for a moment. And then shunpos off in the direction of the nearest police station!
19:47:34 — Kasumi hopes to see a police car on the way!
19:49:09 — Violet lounges against the door, still connected to her puppets, and opts to wait.
19:49:52 <Antionette> "..."
19:50:02 — Kasumi ... quickly returns to Antoinette, doesn't bother hiding.
19:50:37 <Kasumi> Despite leaving heading north, she's... coming back from the south.
19:50:37 — Antionette shoots the little nun with her stun gun
19:50:42 <Kasumi> "... We're so far out of our league."
19:51:39 <Eurus> There's a bright, tinkling laugh from the car. The song on the radio ends, and another one starts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Kvu6Kgp88
19:51:55 <Violet> "All right, all right. What do you want?"
19:52:15 <Kasumi> "And how the hell are you doing all this?"
19:52:44 <Eurus> "I can't imagine what you mean, darling. Perhaps you've overexerted yourself. Have you been getting enough fluids?"
19:53:36 <Kasumi> "Just like these completely ordinary clergy did in the middle of their conversation, right?"
19:57:47 <Eurus> She laughs again. "And you attacked them unprovoked."
19:57:56 <Kasumi> "Attacked?"
19:58:01 <Kasumi> "All I did was poke them a few times."
19:58:11 <Eurus> "I haven't even done that."
19:58:12 <Kasumi> "Not my fault they got drowsy."
19:58:26 — Antionette bends down to the nun she shot to see if she's dying, and to stabilize her if she is
19:58:38 <Antionette> "They attacked innocent people first. Good Samaritan Law."
19:58:56 <Eurus> She is, but Annie stabilizes her easily enough.
19:59:02 <Kasumi> "Yeah, that mind control thing was kind of a problem."
19:59:28 <Eurus> "Please, don't feel the need to defend yourselves to me. I thought it was rather excellent, if a bit sloppy."
19:59:37 — Kasumi glowers at Violet.
19:59:59 <Antionette> "Just putting it on the record, I guess."
19:59:59 — Violet rolls her eyes.
20:00:02 — Antionette looks around
20:00:06 <Antionette> "Teleportation or another gen?"
20:00:19 — Antionette makes a seal
20:00:35 <Eurus> Kasumi's phone starts ringing.
20:00:47 <Antionette> "Stop that!"
20:02:09 — Antionette hangs up, tries another kai
20:02:21 — Kasumi sighs.
20:02:42 <Kasumi> "... I don't have a phone on me. Stop making my crotch vibrate."
20:02:44 <Eurus> "You don't adjust your personal paradigm very quickly, do you."
20:03:03 <Kasumi> "Not that it's entirely unpleasant, but I prefer to wait until the third date."
20:04:06 <Eurus> "Your prudishness notwithstanding, all I wanted to do was meet you."
20:04:28 <Antionette> "And then your minions started attacking random people."
20:04:33 <Violet> "Make an appointment next time."
20:04:37 <Antionette> "Doesn't sound like that's all you wanted."
20:05:21 <Kasumi> "For future reference, threaten ME to get me to work with you. Threatening innocents just makes me want to stop you."
20:05:27 <Kasumi> "I mean, it worked out for Antoinette, and she wasn't even trying."
20:06:02 <Eurus> "I think we can agree that we've all acted rudely here. I, for one, am willing to extend the olive branch of apology."
20:06:43 <Antionette> "Maybe drop the genjutsu first, so we can see if you've run over a crowd of mind-controlled people."
20:07:00 <Kasumi> "To be fair, maybe he's literally part of the genjutsu."
20:07:09 <Antionette> "****."
20:07:41 <Eurus> Your surroundings change. The street is totally empty. There are no people in sight. No other cars in sight either.
20:07:48 <Eurus> The nuns are gone.
20:07:55 <Eurus> The limo is still there.
20:08:14 — Antionette makes the kai seal one more time
20:08:29 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs. "... Did you really make illusory stripper-nuns to attack us? Because I think that's even worse than hiring them."
20:08:39 <Eurus> "You really are just pitifully persistent, aren't you."
20:08:48 — Antionette grumbles
20:09:46 <Kasumi> "I mean, I feel like I just got assaulted by someone's wet dream. At least if they were physical there'd be an element of success, but no, I'm literally stuck inside a teenage boy's mind fighting off his libido."
20:09:58 <Kasumi> "... does explain why the cross suddenly when phallic, but I digress.
20:10:12 — Antionette stares off into space and says "This is bull****."
20:10:51 <Antionette> "I guess we now know who has the last few Sharingan."
20:11:02 <Eurus> "Don't be so sad. I was going to give you the chance to join the winning team."
20:12:53 — Kasumi sighs, glancing at Antoinette. "... English, please. Or Japanese with context. I'm really not fussy."
20:12:55 <Antionette> "I'm not entirely sure what that is, at this point."
20:13:01 <Antionette> "The winning team."
20:13:16 — Antionette doesn't seem to react to Kasumi, beyond keeping talking
20:13:18 <Eurus> "Not Charlotte's, certainly," she laughs.
20:13:28 <Antionette> "Okay, that's weird. So I'm still there in theirs, but... Not. Here."
20:13:47 <Eurus> "Perspective's a bitch, isn't it?"
20:14:02 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs. "So we're in a dream, right? And she dispelled her own dream but she's still showing up in ours?"
20:14:26 <Antionette> "I'm still in one."
20:14:32 <Eurus> "Darling, what makes you so certain you've ever /not/ been in a dream?"
20:14:37 <Antionette> "I dispelled myself. Not entirely sure how to actually try again."
20:14:40 <Antionette> "Don't have hands."
20:14:44 <Antionette> "Not sure how I'm talking."
20:15:09 <Kasumi> "Oh. Great. So you're just rambling incoherently also could we not get into a discussion of Platonism and instead just accept that I'm happy with the reality in which I spent most of my life."
20:15:46 <Kasumi> "It's not like I even have any loyalty to Charlotte. I'm here because of money and blackmail."
20:15:50 <Eurus> "Are you really, though? You don't /look/ very happy."
20:15:53 <Antionette> "In any case the Sharingan is a special eye that lets someone do the most powerful genjutsus on the planet"
20:16:04 <Antionette> "If it's that, then we may as well join up because they're gonna win."
20:16:05 <Kasumi> "There we go."
20:17:07 <Kasumi> "So what happens if we literally just told our boss, 'hey, there's someone out there who can trap thousands of people in dreamworlds' - just guessing at the scope, 'fcourse, - 'so you know it'd save a lot of time and effort if YOU gave up, too'."
20:17:08 — Antionette grumblegrumble****inggenjutsugrumble
20:17:19 <Kasumi> "Like... why go to the intermediaries?"
20:17:47 <Eurus> She laughs. "Now /that's/ a clever question. See, I knew you girls have potential."
20:18:14 <Eurus> "I'm curious. Why do you think? If you get it right, I'll answer one question for you. Anything you like."
20:19:02 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs. "She's as powerful as you, she's immune to your abilities, you've got potential use for us in the future... my job's stealing stuff and planting bugs, not solving riddles."
20:20:33 <Eurus> "Mm. Disappointing. Ask her yourself, I suppose. For now, consider it irrelevant. I'm offering you a choice. If you work for me, I will give you whatever you desire. If you refuse, you're free to continue trying to boil the ocean in a teakettle for Charlotte."
20:21:10 <Antionette> "What if what I desire isn't something you want to give."
20:21:12 <Kasumi> "Right, uh, quick question, sorry."
20:21:15 <Kasumi> "Are we related?"
20:21:17 <Eurus> "Try me."
20:21:27 — Antionette huh?
20:21:36 — Kasumi is directing this at the woman in the car.
20:21:55 — Antionette knows, she's just confused by the question, not knowing kasumi's heritage etc
20:22:36 <Kasumi> "I mean I'm leaning against it, but hey, lot of great aunts I haven't met..."
20:23:22 <Eurus> "Funny you should mention that, because I'm actually your father. All of your fathers."
20:23:47 <Kasumi> Kasumi inhales sharply through her teeth. "You know, that's ALMOST believable."
20:23:52 <Kasumi> "... but you're about 700 years too early."
20:23:57 <Antionette> "Huh."
20:23:59 <Eurus> She laughs. "It almost is, at this point, isn't it."
20:24:23 <Kasumi> "So. Do you know what I want?"
20:25:05 <Eurus> "Ooh. Again with the cleverness. As a matter of fact, no. Do you?"
20:25:34 <Kasumi> "Yeah. It's sometimes pretty easy to put a defined goal in your life, and I've got mine."
20:25:50 <Eurus> "I can give it to you."
20:26:29 <Kasumi> "Because you have borderline illusory omnipotence, yes. That's great, but I'm not actually concerned about my own perspective on things, so it wouldn't really work out."
20:26:52 <Kasumi> "I mean hypothetically, yes, you could in fact get me what I want, but by saying you can do so without actually even knowing it?"
20:27:12 <Kasumi> There's another sharp intake of breath. "Li'l cocky, and even more awkward, because now I can't trust you to pay out."
20:27:44 <Antionette> "She's likely the head of a megacorp. I'm not sure there's anything she /can't/ get."
20:27:46 <Eurus> "Darling, I've just made it perfectly clear that I can control your perceptions as completely as I desire. How can you trust /anything/, after this?"
20:27:52 <Antionette> "Can't."
20:28:05 <Kasumi> "Pretty much the issue there, ain't it?"
20:28:06 <Eurus> "For what it's worth, I can probably get it for you without resorting to such petty measures."
20:28:16 <Eurus> "If it matters."
20:29:00 <Eurus> "Retire on an island made of caviar? Live forever? Reunite with your dead lover? All possible, no illusions required."
20:29:04 <Kasumi> "We're kinda screwed, though. I mean fundamentally unless we remain of use to you, we can be utterly neutralised?"
20:29:27 <Antionette> "If we join up, she lets us go, because we actually /have/ a use to her, presumably."
20:29:32 <Kasumi> "Like the carrot's great but at the moment it's the promise of a carrot and we've already been bludgeoned with a stick the side of a california redwood."
20:29:36 <Antionette> "Otherwise we'd just be dunked into an endless dream. Or shot."
20:29:38 <Antionette> "Or both."
20:29:41 <Kasumi> "S'my point."
20:29:43 <Kasumi> "We ain't got a choice."
20:29:50 <Antionette> "Only way to get out and trust that we're out is to say 'yes'."
20:30:01 <Kasumi> "Because then we're useful. Yeah."
20:30:23 <Eurus> She doesn't reply.
20:30:37 <Antionette> "The illusion of choice. How fitting."
20:30:46 — Kasumi snorts.
20:30:54 <Eurus> "The only kind there is, dear."
20:31:11 <Kasumi> "Oh, god, I swear if you get into predeterminism too I'm sticking with the dreamworld."
20:31:29 <Antionette> "Hey, if what I want is to try fighting your vampire again, is that something on the table?"
20:31:45 <Violet> "...are you serious?"
20:32:10 <Antionette> "Hrm. Actually, for all we know, this is just a random User and any affiliation with Paradigm is just one more trick."
20:32:19 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs, and takes a deep breath. "... Given all we've got to work with, what I WANT here is the guarantee you'll cause more good than I'll cause harm working for you."
20:32:46 <Antionette> "Yeah, I'm serious. I've got a bone to pick with him. Don't want to kill him, just last a good hit or seven. Don't really /want/ to kill anyone."
20:33:00 <Kasumi> "I want education and societal reforms in developing countries, I want improved medicine and hospitals, I want leaders who can actually do their ****ing job."
20:33:16 <Kasumi> "And again, I want this in what I know as the real world."
20:33:23 <Antionette> "I want less megacorp-controlled crime in the streets, ironically."
20:33:46 <Kasumi> "And I've got further demands which I'm only willing to discuss in private."
20:33:58 <Eurus> "Interesting. I could do this, in theory. But you realize that it would require me /controlling/ the world, on a very temporal level. Is that an end you're willing to further?"
20:34:04 <Violet> "...I want...breathing room to indulge my hobbies. And money," she adds with a shrug.
20:34:24 <Kasumi> "So what you're saying is that at present you cannot do that?"
20:34:34 <Kasumi> "But you earnestly believe you can achieve it."
20:35:00 <Eurus> "There's no reason why not, certainly."
20:35:16 <Antionette> "So... I haven't answered yet. My guess is that you're asking us because this sort of power is limited in scope. Possibly needs to be near, or visible."
20:35:18 — Kasumi shrugs. "The thing is, given how stupid powerful you are, I'm hazarding a guess you could already do it. And if this is how I can fix ****? Damn, I'm gonna do it."
20:35:20 <Eurus> "I would project it as the work of a few decades. But frankly, I'm not sure you're worth /that/ much effort."
20:35:22 <Antionette> "Definitely not something you can beam across the world."
20:35:26 <Kasumi> "HAH. See?"
20:35:32 <Antionette> "Otherwise we wouldn't be necessary."
20:35:41 <Antionette> "If it /is/ the Sharingan, then it's keyed to a visual cue."
20:35:58 <Antionette> "It's possible it doesn't work on people like Razorgirl. It /definitely/ doesn't work on people who are blind."
20:35:59 — Kasumi grins. "And now we know a little more about you, don't we?"
20:36:01 <Eurus> She chuckles. "I can neither confirm nor deny."
20:36:42 <Kasumi> "That my abilities are not worth decades of effort reforming the world. Sounds a little obvious, but let's face it - s'more than we had before."
20:37:23 <Antionette> "If our abilities aren't worth world domination, and world domination isn't worth it for its own sake..."
20:37:28 <Antionette> "****, we're pretty worthless."
20:37:39 <Kasumi> "It's a little awkward, ain't it?"
20:37:47 <Kasumi> "I mean, maybe it's the reforms?"
20:37:48 <Antionette> "You'd think it'd be a package deal type thing. We work to help take over the world and replace with a nicer dystopia."
20:37:59 <Kasumi> "She has some interest in keeping people uneducated, sick, and/or despotic?"
20:38:08 <Antionette> "Fair enough."
20:38:44 <Kasumi> "So, again, we've already established we're kinda stuck working for you."
20:38:44 <Eurus> "Excellent deductions, dears. You haven't quite been /wrong/ about anything. World domination isn't worth it for its own sake, no. I've tried it, it gets dull after a few centuries."
20:38:57 <Eurus> "My goals are deliciously petty in comparison."
20:39:22 <Antionette> "What a coincidence, so are mine! Mostly, I want to get out of here, and never get caught in something like it again."
20:39:37 <Kasumi> "And yet you can't achieve them despite... being a ****ton stronger than-"
20:39:39 <Antionette> "I wonder if putting out my eyes and replacing them with cameras would help with that."
20:39:50 <Kasumi> "... Ugh, I swear to god, is this a betrayal thing?"
20:39:59 <Kasumi> "Do you just want to see Charlotte get screwed over by people she trusts?"
20:40:04 <Antionette> "Hah."
20:40:21 <Antionette> "I'm not sure she trusts us, though, given our terms of employment."
20:40:31 <Kasumi> "God, I hope not."
20:40:38 <Eurus> "Hah! That would be /hilarious/, given how annoying she's been, but it's really just a fringe benefit."
20:40:54 <Kasumi> "Alright, great. Can we avoid killing her, at least?"
20:41:16 <Eurus> "So tell me, why /am/ I talking to you?"
20:41:22 <Eurus> "You're so close."
20:41:51 <Kasumi> "You've got plenty of reasons to be talking to me."
20:41:55 <Kasumi> "Less so for these two."
20:42:02 — Kasumi jerks her thumbs at Antoinette and Violet.
20:42:23 <Violet> "Flattering."
20:42:33 <Eurus> "Your Homeric bosom does not constitute a sufficient reason, dear."
20:44:20 <Eurus> "Mm. At any rate, I do need an answer. Will you agree to work for me, or do you refuse?"
20:44:21 — Kasumi gives a grin. "Much as I appreciate the compliment, s'not what I'm talking about, and it ain't how long I've been at my job either. And trust me, Bubblegum, you're one've the best Users I've ever worked with. It ain't that you ain't competent - you just don't have the secrets I do."
20:44:30 <Kasumi> "I thought it was obvious. We agree."
20:44:38 <Antionette> "Yeah, not much other choice."
20:44:55 <Antionette> "Red pill, please."
20:45:05 <Violet> "Sure. Bring it on."
20:45:05 — Kasumi sighs. "Just wish you'd hired us before she did, y'know?"
20:45:17 <Antionette> "Hey, at least we're hired for commission."
20:45:21 <Antionette> "And not contract."
20:45:25 <Kasumi> "I ain't about to go honor-before-reason, it just makes me feel like a douche."
20:45:26 <Eurus> She sounds almost... disappointed when she replies. "Mm. Very well."
20:45:30 <Antionette> "Technically, we didn't break any rules."
20:45:49 <Kasumi> "... if this was a test of loyalty..."
20:45:51 <Antionette> "Rep's gonna be killed."
20:46:10 <Kasumi> "... Wait, no, hang on."
20:46:11 <Eurus> "In that case, you can consider yourselves double agents for the time being. Continue working for Charlotte, but I have a secondary goal for you to pursue in the meantime."
20:46:16 <Kasumi> "Did you just want to kill us?"
20:46:25 <Kasumi> "Please let that disappointment be because you wanted to kill us."
20:46:28 <Antionette> "If it was a test of loyalty, the answer would be to join up then betray."
20:46:37 <Antionette> "Because there's no way out unless we ourselves are masters at gen"
20:46:43 <Kasumi> "Well, yeah."
20:46:49 <Kasumi> "But maybe we were meant to be, like, stupid loyal."
20:46:53 <Antionette> "So it'd be a pretty ****ty test of loyalty."
20:46:54 <Kasumi> "Again, honor-before-reason style."
20:47:04 <Kasumi> "And it'd be weird to drop a test of loyalty on hired guns, yeah."
20:47:07 <Kasumi> "... hired... hands?"
20:47:13 <Antionette> "I have guns."
20:47:15 <Kasumi> "... Christ, neither of those are really applicable to me."
20:47:17 <Antionette> "Violet has guns."
20:47:21 <Antionette> "I can give you guns."
20:47:26 <Kasumi> "I don't WANT guns."
20:47:29 <Antionette> "Stun guns?"
20:47:31 <Antionette> "Tangler guns."
20:47:40 <Eurus> "Mm, it's nothing. I was hoping for more, but I suppose holding you to Georgina's standards isn't quite fair."
20:47:43 <Kasumi> "... I can work with tanglers."
20:48:02 <Kasumi> "... look, you know what I'm loyal to?"
20:48:03 <Violet> "Can we discuss the tactics...later?"
20:48:14 <Kasumi> "People not dying."
20:48:36 <Antionette> "That's a pretty good loyalty."
20:48:48 — Kasumi gives a little grin.
20:48:52 <Kasumi> "Little secret, just between us four."
20:48:57 <Kasumi> "That's the one reason I do this job."
20:49:02 <Antionette> "Mostly I'm loyal to myself. That's a pretty ****ty loyalty."
20:49:15 <Antionette> "You guys, too. Don't want anyone dead, either, unless they're killing people."
20:49:28 <Antionette> "Definitely not to this *******, but that's to be expected. Blackmail does that."
20:51:55 <Antionette> "Definitely not to Charlotte either. Which is awkward, now that I think about it."
20:53:22 <Kasumi> "... Would you give me a moment?"
20:53:36 — Kasumi moves to attempt to open the car door, in spite of being totally aware this is all an illusion.
20:55:33 <Eurus> The door ope--
20:55:37 <Eurus> The door is locked. Obviously.
20:56:08 <Kasumi> "Hey. Antoinette. Get in the goddamn car."
20:56:12 <Kasumi> (Bubblegum*)
20:56:37 <Antionette> "I, uh"
20:56:57 — Antionette tries very hard to float her frame of reference into the car
20:57:08 <Kasumi> "Shh," Kasumi says, taking Antoinette's hand and pulling her over. And then attempting to SHOVE Antoinette through the car door.
21:00:32 <Antionette> "Oh thank god."
21:00:35 — Antionette gets into the car
21:00:51 — Antionette waves her hands in front of her own face
21:01:50 <Eurus> The car door tears like tissue paper, and Antoinette lands inside.
21:02:08 <Kasumi> Kasumi gets into the car, too! "So, hey, joyride?"
21:02:28 — Antionette seems to be getting it, or at least is willing to be led
21:02:29 <Antionette> "I. Uh. Okay?"
21:02:31 <Eurus> "Oh well /done/, lovelies."
21:02:42 <Eurus> "Do we still have a deal?"
21:03:09 <Kasumi> "Hang on, I wanna see how far I can push this."
21:03:40 <Antionette> "Is Violet coming?"
21:03:50 <Eurus> The woman in the backseat looks like something out of a 1950s glamor shot. Her hair is in an impressive updo, her sunglasses are huge and black, her skin is ivory-pale, her nails are long and scarlet.
21:04:01 <Kasumi> "Also- hang on, I've gotta check something."
21:04:17 — Kasumi moves to poke through the woman's hair. Then try to feel her behind.
21:05:43 <Kasumi> "This is vitally important for reasons."
21:06:38 <Eurus> The car melts into smoke, as do the buildings, and the street. Everything's just an endless expanse of grey smoke. The woman is standing a good twenty feet away now, brushing off her powder blue suit and pulling off her sunglasses. "That's quite enough of /that/."
21:07:06 — Kasumi pouts. "But... I needed to see if you were secretly a werewolf."
21:07:17 <Antionette> "There are /werewolves/ too?"
21:07:25 <Eurus> "There are, and I am not."
21:07:29 <Antionette> "..."
21:07:44 <Kasumi> "I actually didn't know that, but hey, you learn something new every day."
21:07:47 <Antionette> "Are there mermaids? Did we kill them with garbage dumping?"
21:07:55 — Antionette is 100% seriously wondering
21:08:17 <Kasumi> "So we know you've been around a few hundred years, we know you're petty, we know you're an incredibly powerful illusionist, and we know you need our help for something you rather inexplicably can't do on your own."
21:08:18 <Kasumi> "Oh!"
21:08:31 <Kasumi> "And you can't actually MAKE us do ****, so you're running around with implied threats and unbankable promises instead."
21:09:04 <Kasumi> "And I've implied my great aunt is like that, for those of you keeping score at home."
21:09:14 <Eurus> "Not entirely correct. There's more than one type of force in the world, dear."
21:09:48 <Eurus> "But essentially... yes. If you refuse me, so be it."
21:10:15 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs. "Alright, great. You can pay better than her, I take it?"
21:10:35 <Eurus> "Of course."
21:10:56 <Antionette> "Fun."
21:11:10 <Eurus> "I have more powers than just illusion, as well as an international corporation at my disposal."
21:11:33 <Eurus> "It is highly likely that I can pay you whatever you like."
21:11:44 <Kasumi> "... Actually, which corp?"
21:12:15 <Eurus> "I'm going to assume you already have a fairly good idea."
21:12:48 <Antionette> "Signs point to Paradigm, but it's equally possible this is all just more tricks, right?"
21:13:01 <Kasumi> "Bull**** does kinda seem to be our mutual speciality."
21:13:05 <Eurus> She grins. "That's /always/ possible."
21:13:40 <Antionette> "I'm glad I live in City territory."
21:13:42 <Antionette> "Instead of corp."
21:13:46 <Antionette> "The politics suck."
21:14:52 <Eurus> "I may not deal fairly, but I pay what I owe. That's how I keep my staff, after all."
21:18:09 <Eurus> "So make a choice."
21:18:30 <Kasumi> "If you can pay me? Then yeah, I accept."
21:18:48 <Violet> "...I could have sworn we already said yes."
21:19:01 <Kasumi> "I am in this job for precisely one reason and if that wasn't a concern I'd be getting a goddamn degree."
21:19:35 <Antionette> "I'm pretty sure we said yes, yeah. I mean, I fully intend on turning on you if you try to order me to commit atrocities. Charlotte's 'no assassination jobs' deal was pretty nice."
21:19:47 <Eurus> "Even if your first order is to take down Charlotte's financial holdings so thoroughly that she'll never be a thorn in my side again?"
21:19:48 <Kasumi> "Yeah, I'm holding a hard line on that."
21:20:11 <Kasumi> Kasumi shrugs.
21:20:15 <Eurus> "I'm not a monster. I'll let you make sure she's out of the house before you burn it down."
21:20:17 <Antionette> "Do we have to kill people to do it?"
21:20:22 <Antionette> "Will I get to fight your vampire?"
21:20:28 <Eurus> "If you like."
21:20:31 <Antionette> "Cool."
21:20:51 <Violet> "...I would do it. Just saying."
21:21:10 <Kasumi> "... Actually, question."
21:21:29 <Kasumi> "Is there any chance instead we could replace her with someone subservient to you?"
21:21:30 <Eurus> "I'm fairly sure you all would, if there was something you wanted enough."
21:22:06 <Kasumi> "Or maybe find a place for the dispossessed employees in your company?"
21:22:28 <Eurus> "My goodness. Did you have this much concern for the people you burgled?"
21:22:45 <Kasumi> "You know, that's the thing."
21:22:51 <Kasumi> "The people who HAVE a lot of **** to steal?"
21:23:04 <Kasumi> "They tend to suffer less when it goes missing."
21:23:46 <Antionette> "So wait. Did the fight with the nuns actually happen, or was that part of the genjutsu too?"
21:25:09 <Antionette> "If it did happen, how much time did this conversation take?"
21:26:13 <Eurus> "The fight happened. This conversation didn't."
21:26:29 <Violet> "Can we keep them?"
21:26:43 <Kasumi> "No."
21:26:54 <Eurus> "And if you insist, we can do this delicately. Get into Charlotte's system and ruin her personal finances, transfer her property and shares to shell companies I own, and destroy her house and everything in it."
21:27:05 <Eurus> "I'll try to avoid excessive layoffs."
21:27:08 — Kasumi smirks.
21:27:10 <Antionette> "I can do that."
21:27:22 — Antionette grins
21:27:24 <Kasumi> "Will do."
21:27:29 <Violet> "What about just the big one? She seems like she'd be a good...specimen."
21:27:34 <Antionette> "We just need to get me to a computer and I'm god."
21:27:44 <Eurus> "And to ensure that you don't promptly go and shop Charlotte for a better offer, I'm going to make sure she's aware of this agreement."
21:28:23 <Eurus> "If that's acceptable..."
21:28:32 <Kasumi> "... I thought we were double agents."
21:28:59 <Eurus> "Change of plans. I could trust you with that when you thought I was all-powerful."
21:29:12 <Antionette> "Then we need to hurry."
21:29:26 <Eurus> "Now that you know better, I'm afraid I can't trust you quite so far."
21:29:30 <Kasumi> "Hmph. So be it."
21:29:59 <Eurus> "Very well." She walks forward and hands Kasumi a business card. "Pay me a visit when you're done and I'll see you rewarded."
21:31:07 <Eurus> The smoke starts to clear. The road and city is taking shape again, and the woman is getting back into the car.
21:31:23 <Eurus> "Oh, and let the nuns go. They're useful."
21:31:37 <Antionette> "I'd rather hand the mind-control one over to the police."
21:31:50 — Kasumi murmurs, over the comms. "(You able to bug her car?)"
21:31:52 <Eurus> "And I'd rather you didn't. You /are/ working for me, aren't you?"
21:31:56 <Antionette> "Fine."
21:32:25 — Violet sighs. "...fine, fine."
21:32:54 — Antionette walks over to the nun and yanks off the neural scrambler abruptly. She then trips the nun in the same motion.
21:33:02 <Eurus> With that, she drives off, and the last of the smoke quickly resolves. You're back on the street, with the nuns.
21:33:11 <Antionette> "Drop the mind control. We're buddies now, apparently."
21:33:37 <Eurus> The nun spasms violently as the scrambler comes off, and lands hard on her back. "I... oh! Well that's lovely news! I'm glad you saw the light. I'm sure you'll find that the path of god is far more rewarding."
21:33:52 — Antionette kicks her
21:34:35 <Eurus> She gasps, and the crowd lunges. It's only with some focused effort that she seems to placate them, and send them wandering dazedly back into their homes and cars. You hear police sirens in the distance.
21:35:03 — Kasumi sidles over to Antoinette, trying to remain out of Violet's earshot.
21:35:04 <Eurus> "You... really shouldn't do that," she manages to get out after a second.
21:35:19 <Violet> "The path of god...? Good grief."
21:35:30 — Antionette goes over and kicks the other nun awake
21:35:35 — Violet marches the puppets back inside.
21:35:37 <Kasumi> "Sorry. I'm a Shintoist."
21:35:56 <Antionette> "Agnostic."
21:36:11 <Eurus> The bigger nun wakes up fighting mad, but the little one quickly calms her. "You met her, didn't you? And you still doubt? How sad. But at least you're on the right side."
21:36:51 — Antionette flatly says "Get out of here before the cops arrive."
21:37:13 <Eurus> The little nun nods and pulls the big one with her. They climb into the nearest car, whose driver doesn't even seem to notice them.
21:37:39 <Kasumi> "Hey, Antoinette?"
21:37:41 — Antionette then walks into Violet's clinic and starts sweeping her and her allies for bugs
21:37:51 — Kasumi follows Antoinette inside.
21:38:28 — Violet closes and locks the door after the others are inside.
21:38:34 <Antionette> "Yes?"
21:38:52 <Kasumi> "Actually, lemme know when you finish your scan. S'confidential, unsurprisingly."
21:39:39 <Kasumi> "Also, jesus ****, do not text me about work stuff. You are literally using corp owned wires to transmit that ****."
21:39:40 <Antionette> when she's done, Antionette pulls out a storage scroll and shifts her armor back into its sealed form, before un-storing some new clothes to replace her currently mostly-ruined ones.
21:40:22 <Antionette> "Right. Was dumb."
21:40:28 <Kasumi> "(I mean, ****, you literally just revealed /I was 1000 on the list/,)" Kasumi hisses.
21:40:50 <Violet> "You're what?" Violet asks, as she walks into the room with the others.
21:40:58 — Antionette goes to find a room to change in
21:41:04 <Kasumi> She groans. "I had to completely DUMP that phone and the entire plan," she whines.
21:41:57 <Kasumi> "Like, don't get me wrong, you're ****ing amazing at actually doing the job?"
21:42:28 <Kasumi> "But... PLEASE think a little harder before you do... ANYTHING related to this that isn't actually part of the job you're on."
21:46:33 — Antionette returns in different clothing and flumps onto a chair. "Yeah, I know. Was dumb. Won't repeat."
21:47:45 <Kasumi> Kasumi sighs, rubbing her temples.
21:47:51 <Kasumi> "Alright, the reason I actually came here."
21:48:09 — Antionette replies to Atkins' email from a dummy account on a burner phone ["No one died. They got away. Need to talk."]
21:49:10 <Kasumi> "... A 16 year old girl showed up and knew I was on the list. I tried to bull**** her - a little easier because my place sure as hell doesn't look like Catwoman's lair, as you know - but she recognized me and said the List Was Never Wrong."
21:49:26 <Antionette> "The list /isn't/ ever wrong."
21:49:31 <Antionette> "It's scary."
21:49:59 <Kasumi> "What does it rank people on?"
21:50:04 <Kasumi> "I mean, she thought I was a goddamn assassin."
21:50:10 <Antionette> "If you're on the list, it's assumed."
21:50:20 <Antionette> "The #1000 slot is whoever the admins felt like adding."
21:50:33 <Violet> "*Have* you killed anyone?"
21:50:41 <Antionette> "Everyone else moves up if someone dies, and if you kill someone on the list, you get their spot."
21:50:47 <Kasumi> "Never."
21:51:18 <Antionette> "The criteria for the thousandth's ranking is mysterious and unknown."
21:51:20 — Violet whistles. "Impressive."
21:51:42 <Violet> "Maybe you'll have to, in self defense when people start going after your spot, huh?"
21:51:45 — Kasumi inhales sharply, rubbing her temples.
21:51:48 <Antionette> "Or she could just hide."
21:52:02 <Kasumi> "People have tried to kill me before, y'know."
21:52:03 <Antionette> "I doubt there's anyone but Razorgirl who can actually /see/ her if she tries hard."
21:56:41 <Antionette> "Also, you need more stuff to do in a fight."
21:56:41 <Violet> "Mmhmm. Is that to which I owe this...little visit?"
21:56:42 <Antionette> "Here."
21:57:03 — Antionette takes out a set of sealing seals written on cards
21:57:12 <Antionette> "Neural dampers. Tangler grenades."
21:58:13 <Antionette> "Tasers, too."
21:59:41 <Kasumi> "No, I could avoid Razorgirl."
21:59:46 <Kasumi> "Just takes a fair bit of effort."
21:59:49 <Antionette> "Nice."
21:59:56 <Antionette> "Well, the lightning trick."
22:00:14 <Violet> "Cool. We have to run into her again, I'd like to find her before she starts taking potshots at us."
22:00:31 <Antionette> "I think we're /actually/ enemies now."
22:00:37 <Antionette> "Instead of just running into each-other."
22:00:39 <Antionette> "Fun."
22:01:56 <Violet> "Gee. Glad for the update," Violet says, rubbing the area where she was shot.
22:03:22 — Antionette looks outside to see if the police showed up yet
22:04:09 <Eurus> They have. They seem to be trying to question the still-dispersing crowd and figure out what the hell went on. No sign of Atkins yet.
22:04:22 <Antionette> "Thanks for rescuing us from the genjutsu, by the way."
22:05:06 <Kasumi> "Hey, I just wanted to see if she was a furry," Kasumi says, poking her tongue out.
22:05:11 <Antionette> "Would have sucked to end up like the nuns..."
22:05:18 <Antionette> "I bet they think she's god. Or something."
22:06:01 <Kasumi> "I think one of my uncles did that, actually..."
22:06:09 <Violet> "They all-but said it. They're insane."
22:06:11 <Kasumi> "Not the Judeo-Christian one, but a god."
22:06:24 <Antionette> "Speaking of which, who /are/ you?"
22:06:42 <Antionette> "Didn't seem to be surprised that a vampire existed. Expected werewolves to."
22:06:50 <Antionette> "Normal people don't."
22:07:16 <Antionette> "Talked about a 700-year-old father."
22:07:26 <Antionette> "And now a god-uncle."
22:07:30 <Kasumi> "He's not 700 yet."
22:07:33 — Antionette stares at her
22:08:08 <Antionette> "And you're japanese. So what, are youkai real, too?"
22:08:24 — Antionette says with a joking tone
22:08:31 <Kasumi> "Oh, right. Check the list."
22:09:17 — Antionette pulls up the killers list
22:10:07 <Kasumi> "Had to come up with a concrete codename. ****in' pain in the ass."
22:10:33 — Antionette reads
22:10:37 <Antionette> "Seriously?"
22:10:43 <Antionette> "..."
22:10:47 — Violet reads it. "I don't get it."
22:10:50 <Antionette> "That's /so cool/"
22:10:56 <Kasumi> Kasumi griiiiins.
22:12:06 <Kasumi> "I'm pretty proud of it."
22:12:13 <Kasumi> "So, other reason I wanted to meet up here?"
22:12:54 — Antionette listens
22:13:11 — Antionette checks for another message from Atkins as well, and looks outside again
22:13:29 <Kasumi> "Girl in a porny-ass seifuku started stalking me. I think I knocked her off track, but I don't know at the moment. She knows where I live, and tried to break in."
22:13:47 <Eurus> There's another message. "Where are you?"
22:13:55 <Violet> "So...kill-nevermind, right, right."
22:13:59 <Kasumi> "Didn't, though. Gonna lower security. Let her bug my apartment. Gonna try to seem more normal."
22:14:17 <Antionette> "Hrm. I have to go, police are here."
22:14:37 — Antionette uses henge to turn into someone else, then activates Infiltration Current and walks out the door
22:15:04 <Eurus> Atkins is on the sidewalk, outside the clinic.
22:15:45 — Kasumi scowls, activating Infiltration Current and Body Concealment technique, before Shunpoing awaaaaaay.
22:16:30 <Antionette> She (still a she, she's not as comfy with transformations as Kasumi is) walks up to him and says "Probably not best to talk right here. We're currently immune to cameras and bugs, though."
22:17:14 <Eurus> "We can talk wherever you like."
22:19:01 <Antionette> "Then let's walk. One of the nuns has the ability to mind-control crowds. We managed to keep her from hurting anyone with it, thankfully. You wanted a heads-up if things happened, right? Well..."
22:19:08 — Antionette quietly says as she turns a corner into an alley
22:19:51 — Antionette looks around for anyone nearby who might here
22:20:05 — Violet finally relaxes when everyone leaves, reloading the net on Elias and returning to...work?
22:20:10 — Antionette decides to just write it on a sheet of paper, just in case
22:21:00 <Antionette> [We've been bought by Paradigm Corp. Hired to ruin the day of our former employer. Goal is to do it without causing lasting harm to said company, because they want the assets transferred, not destroyed.]
22:21:56 — Antionette hands him the pad and pen
22:22:09 — Antionette takes out another
22:22:23 <Eurus> He looks down at the paper, then looks up at Annie, frowning. He writes down a reply. [You shouldn't be involved with Paradigm. Bad news. Can't connect anything to them, but half the mercs in this city are working for them.]
22:24:00 <Antionette> [Got that bit, yeah. Very bad news. Can't do much to get out, right now, since they burned what small bridges we have. Likely getting targeted by current employer very soon.]
22:24:31 <Antionette> [Better to try to further police's goals. Make lemonade out of terrible lemons.]
22:26:01 <Eurus> [You're getting in too deep. The more you tie yourselves to these people the harder it will be to get out.]
22:28:44 — Antionette holds up [Probably], then pauses for a small moment and writes [Quitting's for sane people. I'd rather use this to try to fix things the police can't]
22:29:19 <Eurus> [The deal still stands. If you're hurting innocent people, I know where you live.]
22:31:26 — Antionette frowns, then writes [Right. And I'll come quietly if that happens. But for the time being, I'm making it my job to take missions and try to turn them into something less collateral-damage-heavy.]
22:31:41 <Antionette> [Lord knows the current one would have been awful if someone inclined towards hurting people was in charge]
22:32:04 <Eurus> [Where did the nuns go?]
22:32:58 <Antionette> [They ran off after dropping the mind control. Couldn't hold them, because they're 'useful' to our new boss. Had had them taken down and in dampers, too. It's a shame.]
22:34:05 <Eurus> He gives Antoinette a meaningful look, then shakes his head. [Don't die.]
22:34:19 <Eurus> If she has nothing else to say, he leaves.
22:34:41 — Antionette nods, then walks back out of the alley and back inside, before dropping the henge
22:34:49 <Antionette> "Well, now that that's taken care of..."
22:37:30 <Violet> "What did you tell him?"
22:37:50 <Antionette> "Our current arrangement, sans exact details."
22:38:16 — Antionette uses lightning chakra to burn the paper
22:38:32 <Antionette> /if nothing else, at least the bullet-dodging taught me how to do this/
22:38:43 <Antionette> "Kasumi leave?"
22:39:22 <Violet> "Maybe. Who knows. She could be sitting on the couch eating all my food and I wouldn't know, yeah?"
22:41:26 — Violet takes a seat. "Well. What now?"
22:42:46 — Antionette checks her messages to see if Charlotte has sent anything, then starts doing research trying to track the information she does have back to an address
22:51:09 <Antionette> "Oh right. I initially came here because I was wondering if you had any low-level techniques to cure bruises."
22:54:29 <Antionette> when Kasumi returns, Antionette looks up from her research and says "Welcome back."
22:54:36 — Kasumi eventually shows up again. There is, in fact, a fair bit of food missing from Violet's supplies now, and she does look quite satisfied...
22:55:13 <Violet> The food tasted like pork, but you never know...
23:02:45 <Violet> "Low-level techniques?"
23:03:10 — Violet scoffs. "Not a problem. Probably."
23:03:22 <Antionette> "Cool. Turns out, dodging bullets is harder than it looks."
23:03:49 <Kasumi> "I say we scavenge the mansion and look for any hints on what the boss wants there."
23:04:17 <Antionette> "That is a good plan. Take anything we can, and burn the rest down, and no one would know the difference."
23:05:28 <Violet> "We'll do their dirty work for now...and wait for a better opportunity to cause them trouble. For this job, at least, they'll have countermeasures for attempts to sabotage them."
23:05:47 <Antionette> "We're probably expected to."
23:06:33 — Antionette continues researching, seeing if there's any connection she can use to hack Aaron Cannon's stuff
23:06:56 <Violet> "For now, this is probably the best move."
23:10:21 <Antionette> "Yeah."

[Eurus]

http://pastebin.com/dEpkpKup

[Eurus]

http://pastebin.com/i7QdGpt6

[Eurus]

http://pastebin.com/YmmtmTV6

[Eurus]

Violet's New Sister:

Annie Meets Ashley: http://pastebin.com/FWB9jA8J (http://pastebin.com/ab9hxjRM)

Making the new puppet: [url]http://pastebin.com/2Tsp4Mqz

[Eurus]

Grandma Jun: http://pastebin.com/dFGCfQm0