Eclipse Phase (Private)

[TrashRabbit]

Vidar had started his mesh search for the good ship paper Airplanes as soon as Upload the Nematode could get station mesh access. So in truth it was not a quick mesh search, taking most of the time going through customs, down the spar tram and the long elavator ride and he's about to post it up to the tacnet when the elavator doos open and the veiw however knocks his breath away- the horizon wrapping around above him isn't something he expects to hit him so hard.

"Wow," He says, craning his neck back

I'm on a space station
[Boss, you live on a space station.]
Penny. This is different.

He bumps into Mach awkwardly, still looking up and backs into Devin.

"If you keep this up, I'm gonna pick your pockets you fucking tourist," Devin says stabilizing him by the shoulders.
"I don't have pockets," Vidar snaps. Devin looks at him like he's stupid.
[yes you do?] says penny in absolute despair.
Vidar pats himself down to locate them, then realizes that smart fabric responds easily to his request for some. "Fuq." He mutters under his breath feeling like an idiot Devin pats his shoulder sympathetically and Vidar tries to pretend the conversation never happened. He is saved by RJ posting to their Group Eye-

Heliotrope {The eye}: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I did a quick mesh search and found a lead.
Heliotrope: The Paper Airplane is docked on a fairly sleepy private berth owned by the port authority. There's no good cams on it, but you can see its still docked. X
Heliotrope: Also did I not tell y'all its the Night Cartel who are sitting on the Cache? Any one got any ins with that lot? I don't know much about them.

 

[Graystone713]

‘Dai ruogang might’ve relaxed a lot during the flight, but he wasn’t idle, either. He had Nanti poke some people he spoke to before the Arabella mess started, and see who actually found anything on the Titan tech supply. He’d asked, and surprise surprise, Laoban was the one who actually knew something.

Spoiler: Laoban’s message

—
The first thing to know is that the Night Cartel found something big out there, big enough to want to keep a tight fucking lid on it. They’re drip-feeding new hardware onto the black market, and the shit they’ve got has got buyers from all over the system fucking slavering. Shit’s going for fucking millions, just ungodly amounts of cred. Any one of the artifacts that have sold so far are fortune-making, and the Night Cartel’s hoarding it all for themselves, sellin to who’s got the cred to pay.

They’re also clamping down *hard* on snitches. No one’s been able to figure out where the cache is, and it’s starting to look like they either got some power players backing them up or they’re closing ranks like no outfit’s ever done before for them to keep their find so quiet. There’s a lot of fuckin money on the line for the cartel, and obviously that tech is worth a lot, so they’re doing their best to keep their pie fucking hermetically sealed. There’s lots of speculation on what they’ve found, of course, and what few artifacts have been exposed make it clear this is TITAN shit. You got dormant nanoswarms, antimatter warheads, hardware for war machines and weapons, weirder shit, and then fuck only knows what else is out there behind VPNs and black labs.

Still, rumors get around. There was a ship that tagged along with a scum swarm heading for Earth-Luna, said to have been carrying shit for the Cartel? I guess things got out of hand, because the ship *exploded* out there. The Cartel’s still pissed about it, word is they’ve been trying to find out what happened - and no wreckage for them to sort through means they’re squeezing what info they can get out of people. Lots of folks seem to think every black lab project that gets out of hand is connected to the tech, and they may not even be wrong, but there’s something going on up in Olympus that might actually be connected - rumors are flying about a lockdown up there or something. There’s also talk about someone knowing too much on the lam, but whoever they are, they’ve fuckin vanished - cartel seems to think they’re still on Mars, and they’re sure huntin for the fucker like they are.

That’s what we got without getting burned - like I said, the Cartel’s been fucking ruthless in trying to keep this shit capped off, and folks who ask too many questions have been disappearing lately. I know this shit’s your bag, but you better know what you’re doing out there. Night Cartel aint fuckin around and they’ve got the cash to start a war if they want. Even learning this much put us at risk. There’s talk among the 49ers of trying to cut a piece out of the pie, but the bosses are a-hunter-is-patient about it, eyeing for opportunities. If you think you got one, then good luck to you brother - but don’t get in over your head, or it’s all our asses.
—

Well. Damn, that was good info. And PLENTY of leads. Mach’s reply was short, but he had to keep it that way. The things they knew now had to stay a secret. If word got out, it could start a war. Not just a gang war, but one involving the big powers. Or at least Mach thought so.

[Learned a lot about the specifics from my freelance work, and I know dangerous shit. Shit dangerous enough to get worried if anything but Tacnets, brain-to-brain links, or a face-to-face in a really deep offgrid bunker is secure enough to talk about it. Scary people are throwing hitsquads with farcasters at us, and we don’t know who they are. If I die and boot from backup, show me this convo and make damn sure I read this part: “It’s lost for good but there could be another. Play DM-AL-ST-WNW. Open the door. Close the door. It’s walnut. Turn. Open the door, close the door. It’s cherry. Turn. Open the door, close the door. It’s oak.” You aren’t supposed to get it for your own sake.]

A code breaker AGI without access to Mach’s media library might take a few hours to get it. One with it might need as little as thirty seconds, if they had the conversation as context.

[Did you just encode that message with-]
YES. I don’t even like that song!
[C’mon, wouldn’t you show me, A WHOLE N-]
Damn it, Nanti.
[Don’t you dare close your eyes!]

Then, as Nanti took another minute to sing in his head, he messaged the Tacnet.

Sleipnir{Tacnet}:[No direct cartel contacts, but one of my Guanxi guys knows a lot- This tech is from a new cache, or a dig site. Nobody knows where it is, and they’re keeping it so damn secret that there’s about a 50-50 that Gray selling anything from it was against orders-Maybe that’s where the farcaster guys came from? Anyway, it’s also clear they’re killing snitches, and one is definitely loose on mars somewhere. Plus, something’s up on Olympus and it’s possibly connected to the cache. Even the 49ers want to get access to the new cache. Plenty of leads to follow, and I doubt we’ll find them up here on pontes. What’s the call, guys? We gonna rent a car and check somewhere on pontes in person, or should we just ferry to the surface ASAP? I think we oughta head planetside, but if someone knows someone up here, say your piece. I got the zoomies and I wanna DRIVE.]

He sent, impatiently hopping from foot to foot as he stepped onto Pontes, looking around...
“Didn’t spend much time up here before now. Just messed around the spaceport until I could get surface-side. Maybe I should get a smoothie before we go anywhere. I am thirsty A-F.”
He said, running over to a maker and queuing up a strawberry banana smoothie. The tasty kind. Nice.

 

[CelticSol]

As they’d gotten closer to Mars, Devin had started checking in with his contacts in the Night Cartel who had anything to do with Mars. They were understandably silent on anything about TITAN tech when he moved the conversation in that direction, but he got other info from them by the time they landed.

hara: oh,oh pick me!
hara: around here they’re mostly smugglers out of vinci aerospace.
hara: drugs, tech, illegal gear
hara: u know
hara: the good shit
hara: everyone stops being able to read when i ask about titan tech, but i’m sure they’re interested in that too, so we’ll have to keep eyes peeled if we snoop around the paper airplane
hara: ALSO apparently the lady in charge of the cartel on mars is called “valentina the viper” and she ripped a man’s throat out with her teeth once!!!
Heliotrope: Is she single?
Heliotrope: And I mean sometimes I forget how to read when we mention titan shit so that tracks
Heliotrope: How many pockets is too many pockets.
Heliotrpe: Wrong chat.
hara: i know this and i love you
hara: also no such thing as too many pockets!!
jukeboxmaiden: oh!!!!!!!!!!!
jukeboxmaiden: ohohohohohohoh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jukeboxmaiden: shes not single, and her bae is my brother!!!! !
hara: ??????
hara: excuse??
hara: your brother is dating whomst????????
Heliotrope: Hachi machi.
jukeboxmaiden: FUCK YEA HE IS BABEYYYYYYY
hara: ...this is an unexpected development from the pinkest person in several galaxies
jukeboxmaiden: i am an intergalatic woman of intrigue and mystery
hara: oh i see
hara: ...your brother wouldn’t happen to ALSO be in the cartel, would he?
Heliotrope: You know, the responsible part of me thinks maybe we should actually avoid the woman who ripped out some guys throat with her teeth. Like I know that’s hot. But maybe...consider no?
hara: we don’t have to talk to her, just the dude brave enough to get that
Heliotrope: you right.
Heliotrope: Also- any one clever enough to follow up on Gray Xu? If she’s got good people she could be reinstated again by now and pissed as shit.
jukeboxmaiden: yeah my brother is chill so its fine, but like about cartel stuff,,,, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
jukeboxmaiden: wait i have a horrible idea

Welcome to a new G-Network chat!

twointhepink has added th3r4tk1ng, Guest42069-20, maddmaxxx, and BR04DS1D3_NO92 to the chat! Say hi! ​

maddmaxx: Oh God.
twointhepink: ( ͡◉ ͜ʖ ͡◉)
maddmaxxx: Oh God. What the fuck are you doing on Mars? Who are these other people in the chat - WHY THE FUCK IS THE RAT KING IN THIS CHAT???
twointhepink: oh, you know
maddmaxxx: For once, I really, really don’t. Eppie blease.
twointhepink: well these are my bffs and we happen to be on mars bc of reasons and long story short we need to meet. anyone got anything to add????
BR04DS1D3_NO92:
th3r4tk1ng: holy shit eppie u could have said ur brother was fucking maddmaxxx
th3r4tk1ng: why are u so full of secrets
th3r4tk1ng: anyway, hello my dude, we are doing a small crime and would love some professional assistance
maddmaxxx: What, and I cannot stress this enough, the fuck?
maddmaxxx: I understand why you are doing a small crime, but why is my sister involved, and how are you involved with each other????? If you fucked my sister I’m kicking your ass.
twointhepink: ive fucked half the solar system, the ship to be mad about that has sailed my dude.
maddmaxxx: Blease. Put me out of my misery. Just tell me what the fuck y’all want.
th3r4tk1ng: whoa whoa whoa
th3r4tk1ng: first of all, have you met your sister? she could kick my ass herself if she wanted to
BR04DS1D3_NO92: its true, she fuckin beat a synth with a wrench once
th3r4tk1ng: we’re planning an earth drop, and i’m looking for a new fence. eppie thought you might be able to point us in the right direction
maddmaxxx: … Disappointed but not surprised. Listen, I wouldn’t be able to help you with that. I don’t have the contacts to fence off that sort of tech, but I know someone who might be able to help you out. We would just have to meet up in person.
th3r4tk1ng: you’re a gentleman and a scholar

maddmaxxx has pinned a location to the local map!
​

maddmaxxx: Meet me here.
maddmaxxx: Wait, why is there a mature content warning on my map?? The fuck???

Guest 42069-20 has left the chat.
​

maddmaxxx: … What did I say?
th3r4tk1ng: oh, sorry, vidar is 600 years old and was traumatized by a map on the lewis & clark expedition
th3r4tk1ng: hasn’t been the same since
maddmaxxx: … Just meet me at the marker.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Fucking hell-" Vidar says abruptly as he leaves the Grep chat. " I'm getting a milk shake too," he adds and follows Mach to do just that. It takes him a moment to calm down- though in the grand scheme of map tantrums this one was minute, Penny had censored it and he had rage quit the app but managed to keep his mesh on. Mach's following words in the tactnet ground him. The Night cartel was big, and meant bussiness and reminded him of the few uncomfortable times he had to deal wtih any of the more powerful crime rings from outside Norway. Non Asshole Mach seemed to know what he was about in this moment and he felt Eppie and Devin could more than handle dealing with her brother and his informant. So maybe he should focus on something else;
Heliotrope{ Pm to Sleipnir }: If Gray Xu was acting against orders, do you think its worth while to see what she sent back to mars on The Paper Airplane? It could be something good, or it could be a false lead. I could infiltrate it pretty easy with Abby's help I'm just not sure if its priority.
"Shit. This is a good milk shake," He said getting the same one Mach had. The snitch loose some where planet side was also a tempting mark- but one thing at a time. And to be honest they didn't need a snitch, not if Mach or Devin could give him a enough context to know what to look for- then they just needed some ond with a bio brain who knew things. He stirred his straw around in milkshake pensivly, he was not looking forward to telling a highly suspicious, over plan for every scenario, ex-sigularity seeker that he could probe brains at will.

 

[Graystone713]

Right. The Paper Airplane. An odd loose end... but well worth tying up.

Sleipnir{Pm to Heliotrope}: There’s a chance it’s more stuff from the cache, and if there’s another gate key in there, it’s worth the risk. But anything sold apart from her ‘catalogue’ is either going to be a direct purchase at high price-and thus too heavily guarded to snag-or less marketable, which means low chance it’s worth it, but if she couldn’t identify the gate key, there might be a hidden gem in there. But this is all assuming that this has something to do with her Titan Tech cargo. Bringing that on a scum barge no questions is dicey, especially if you’re gonna have armed guards at your door 24-7. They might’ve made a more mundane bribe of some kind involving the paper airplane, and it’ll be guns, drugs, or... Well. ‘Living’ cargo. If we’re staying here on Pontes a while, take the time to carefully probe the defenses, see if they’re serious about keeping people away. If they aren’t, you might be able to figure out what’s up without the whole team. If they are, we can talk about a hard look.

He sent, frowning as he sipped away at his frozen drink.
“It is. But I really wish these printers could get Lemon Lavender right. Even with a proper fab blueprint, most printers can’t get that flavor down. I’ve even seen some throw up an error message saying that it doesn’t have the materials.”
It really was a good strawberry banana. But he liked something with both punch and complexity, and this wasn’t quite it...

 

[CelticSol]

Devin ( wickedlittlecritta ), Eppie ( CelticSol ), and Rushing Jaws ( ValtheStarGal ) present, live from Pontes Station:
“The Works” ft. Elias ( ValtheStarGal )
​

AR directionals lead Eppie, Devin, and Rushing Jaws to a dive bar not far from the entrance to the spaceport, just off the tramway. The Works has AR and physical signage advertising its bar grub, beer, and stronger spirits, and has the well-worn look of an establishment that caters to working-class clientele. The windows into the Works are tinted, and the patio space outside the bar is only lightly used, with a handful of transhumans smoking, drinks in hand, that eye the sentinels as they enter.

The interior of the Works is where the majority of the patrons can be found: several dozen vacworkers and maintenance techs are here to spend their cred on low-end beer, ruster soju, and aromatic, well-spiced meals. AR guides the trio over to a booth near the back, where Elias awaits. More than a handful of sidelong looks follow the sentinels to Elias, but their gaze quickly returns to their drinks as they arrive at his booth - particularly with Rushing Jaws looking back hard at them.

Eppie pays no mind to the dangers of the unknown number of many possible criminals in the room. She walks with her head held high, shoulders square, swaggering into the bar with an easy confidence. As they peer into the dive bar, Eppie spots a platinum blonde head of head attached to a tall, skinny man.

Eppie shrieks, hopping in excitement. She closes the gap between herself and her brother in rushed strides, and crows loudly, with no thought to the other customers in the bar, “LOOK AT YOU, YOU ALBINO LOOKIN’ ASS TWINK!!!”

Elias, who visibly winced at Eppie’s flagrant display of affection, seems to think he’ll get away with a quick, detached hug from his older sister, which is absolutely incorrect and he was a fool to think that was viable. Eppie leaps into his arms, securing herself like a koala to his chest in a bone crushing hug. As soon as he can extract himself with an appropriate amount of little brother complaining that she’s embarrassing, Elias is back in the booth and beckoning the sentinels to join him quick.

“Fuckin’ christ, you really gotta do me like that? Whatever - you guys were looking for a sponsor for an Earth drop or something?”

“Less a sponsor, more of a fence,” Devin says, sliding into the seat across from Elias. “Getting down there isn’t hard, but we’ve found something...rather out of our area of expertise.” He pauses, as if weighing his words, and adds, “I’m a red market kind of guy. We’re looking to move something distinctly black, once we get it up.”

How did you catch a TITAN dealer? You baited them with TITAN tech. Maybe Elias was smart enough to avoid that end of the cartel’s dealings, but he’d have to be very stupid to not know who he had to avoid in that case.

“Getting down to Earth isn't h…?” Elias starts to repeat, unable to finish the sentence knowing as well as anyone about the Cordon. He laughs it off with a wave of his hand, then glances around the bar; although subtle, Eppie and Devin can catch a blink-and-you-miss-it nervous tick in the way he scans the Works.
“You picked a hell of a time to try fencing something big around here. I’m guessing you aren’t trying to fence keepsakes - and I don’t do that kind of shit, but I might know someone who can hook you up.”

Turning to Eppie, Elias asks: “First, though, what’s your involvement with all this - and none of this ‘you know’ shit either, what the hell have you been caught up in??”

The coy ‘oh, you know’ is on her lips, begging for her to say it. She bites her lip with a huge smile to not say anything, holding her hands up in surrender, “I won’t say it. I’m dying to say it. But I won’t. But I’m dying to.”

Eppie leans back in the booth, kicking her feet up to rest on the seat beside Elias, “Well, I did use to do a Crime, back when I was working for Gatekeeper. Is it so hard to believe that I wanna become an outlaw? I wanna be space catwoman, Elias. Don’t take this from me.”

“Eppie, this isn’t a fucking game - if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you’re in way over your head. There’s someone down on Mars, right fucking now, who got some bright idea and now he’s hiding for his fucking life from the scariest people I know. Seriously Eppie, what is this about?” There is an edge in his voice, but clear concern besides.

“It’s a bit of a game-” Eppie starts, but Elias’ bone dry look stops her from continuing further with her older sister style antagonism. She looks to her Firewall comrades with a deep sigh, then says, her voice tight, “Listen, I just… I has to fucking do something with my time, after everything with Mirri. What did you expect me to do, Elias? Keep working for Gatekeeper and risking running into Miranda on both sides of the gate? Earth is the closest I get to going gatecrashing now, and I stuided AGI in college before the Pandora Gate opened, so I am qualified.”

hara, pm to Azathothwakes: [who’s hiding for his life, I wonder?]
Azathothwakes, pm to hara, jukeboxmaiden: [Mach said something about a snitch on the loose, ‘reckon that’s him?]
hara: [oh, poor baby ]
jukeboxmaiden: [interesting how a criminal doesn’t know the intergalactic rule of ‘snitches get stitches’]
Azathothwakes: [that joker could be our ticket to the cache, if we play our cards right]
hara: [i love drawing a joker]

“Jesus, Eppie… does Mom know you’re running the Cordon?” Elias asks, softening. “Couldn’t you have gotten tenure or something on Titan or gone to the Vulcanoid gate or even Pathfinder city? Look, I’m sorry about what happened out there, but this shit? It’s dangerous, and I say that having done it for the better part of a decade now. I know you, and I know you can handle yourself, just-”

Elias takes a breath, eyebrows coming back down from the heights that his concern drove them to.

“Alright, your fence - if you want ‘em, you’re gonna have to go through our, uh, public relations manager right now.”

Turning to Devin, Elias asks: “how much do you know about Valentina the Viper?”

“I hear she ripped a man’s throat out with her teeth,” Devin says promptly.

“I was in the room when that happened,” Elias says. “She’s the one you’re gonna have to talk to if you want connections.”

“God, I love the way y’all do business,” Devin says sincerely.

Elias mostly succeeds in stifling a chuckle at that; “Yeah well, can’t snitch if you ain’t got a voicebox. Dude couldn’t afford a new biomorph either, had to go back to a case. Valentina… she is genuinely not someone you want to fuck with or fuck over, she will tear your goddamned throat out with her teeth, and that won’t even be the worst of what she can do. If you’re serious about this, then…”

Elias takes a long look at Eppie, clearly not wanting to say what comes next.

“I can probably get you a meeting with her, on one condition.”

“There’s always conditions,” Devin says. “What is it?”

“You keep her-” Elias says, pointing to Eppie “-as far away from the business side of this shit as you possibly can. I know I can’t stop her from throwing herself onto dangerous planets, but if I’m going to do this for you, then you gotta keep her safe - got it?”

Devin turns and considers Eppie a moment. “She’s a terrible liar anyway,” he says. “Deal.”

Elias smiles, just a little, as he takes another breath. “Okay. You let me know when you want the meet, and I’ll set it up. Might take a day or so to get it set up, Val’s a busy woman these days... I hope what you got’s the real deal.”

“I’ll need to check in with the rest of my crew before we settle on a time, but I’ll let you know,” Devin says. “And thanks.”

Eppie kicks Devin in the shin, first of all, keeping a pleasant smile on her face as she looks at Elias, “First of all, you’re not my real dad; second, Mom definitely doesn’t know; third, Rat Boy said himself that I could kick his ass. Ask him-” she jerks her head in RJ’s direction, “-about Eppie-keeping. Look at his concerned eyebrows. He’s way more concerned about me doing crimes than Rat Man here. No offence.”

“Thank you for proving my point,” Devin says, pulling his legs underneath his ass on the seat, and safely out of range. “Won’t even lie to your brother.”

Rushing Jaws’ silence is broken at last by a hearty laugh, nodding back at Eppie as he says “I share some of your concerns about this one.”

“I’m almost certain Mom knows everything there is to know about us,” Elias counters after sharing in the laughs. “Listen, Eppie, it ain’t about me trying to boss you around or anything. I know you-“

“‘I’m not trying to boss you around or anything,’ he says, bossing me around,” Eppie says mockingly.

“-listen here, you little shit-“

“Suck my dick, I’m an adult with a PhD, TAU says I can do whatever I want-”

“-Eppie, you get upset by nature documentaries. The shit that happens in this life-“

“Okay, true, but the penguin fucking died, Elias, with sad orchestral music and melancholic David Attenborough. This is just people, y’know? That’s chill. Like, people death literally can’t squick you anymore once you see an alien eat your wife, you feel me?”

“It ain't the people death, Eppie, it’s what people do to one another - also I don't buy for a second that you’re not affected by people death.”

“Shhhhhh,” She leans over the table to put her entire hand over Elias’ face, “I’m still a badass gatecrasher to these guys. Also, have you ever been through the gate? I’ve seen almost every death there is to see out there. Aliens, TITANS, exsurgents, gatecrashers that went insane and just murdered each other - you name it. There’s nothing a bunch of Martians can present me that I haven’t seen before.”

Elias makes an I-wouldn’t-be-so-sure face at that. “Listen, I know I can’t talk you down from a bad idea when you’ve set your mind to it-”

“-how dare you say that I have bad ideas, when I am perfect and have never done anything wrong in my life -”

“-just - be careful, okay?”

“Absolutely not. But my friends here-” she extends her hands to pat RJ’s arm and to ruffle Devin’s immaculately styled hair into ruin, “- will take care of me. Well, at least he will,” She gestures to RJ with another affectionate pat to his arm, “Ratman is plotting my untimely demise as we speak for fucking up his hair. But, ‘tis the life of a seasoned criminal such as myself, you see…”

“...Eppie, why are you like this?”

“Only God really knows, and even He got exsurgents to throw me into space. But jokes on Him! I’m a bad bitch, and not even God can kill me!” She pauses a long moment in thought, then sheepishly adds, “... Well, like… I guess I did die… So, uh… Knock on wood, in that case. Anyway, if my boy Jesus didn’t let me die by TITANS then, then like this crime shit is gonna be a game. Don’t say anything, because I know I’m right. God is in my heart, unlike your heathen ass heart, and tells me secrets and stuff. It’s why I don’t die nearly as much as I should.”

“Why am I ratman,” Devin mutters, fixing his hair. “I’d sleeve a jenkins if I wanted to be called that.”

“You want me to scream your real name in a den of criminals? I’ll keep that in mind next time someone asks me for your social security number, Rat Man.”

“I have several much better fake names you could use.”

“Ask for his what?” Rushing Jaws asks. “Eppie, you’ve been hangin out with the team fossil, haven’t you?”

“God, I wish. Elias, how many times have you used antiquated shit with people because of mom? A billion? A trillion? Also, your fault for not providing me with a list and forcing me to think on my feet here. Can you put any name you have but Rat Man into a spirited parody of ‘YMCA’? Don’t think so.”

“First of all, he’s from Norway, he doesn’t have one of those. He has no idea what it is. Also, I changed my mind, I’m feeding you to a monster.”

Elias looks at Devin with a distinct look of Oh, Now You’ve Done It.

Eppie grins the sort of smile one would make before something cursed is about to be said, “Vore me, monster daddy~”

Deadpan, Devin says, “I’ve done that before, it’s not as fun as it sounds.”

“I’m a gatecrasher; how bold of you to assume I’ve never been vored by a monster before. This would hardly be my first rodeo. Catch me doing a backflip down his throat, babe.”

“No, that’s being eaten. I’ve been on Carnivale, I’ve been properly vored. Different things.”

“Okayyyy, I’m gonna need a real strong drink if I’m gonna have to listen to this-” Rushing Jaws says as Eppie and Devin delve into a debate on the logistics of what is considered ‘getting eaten’ and what is considered ‘vore’, rushing to pay for a round of whatever drinks will help him cope with this conversation.

“God, same,” Elias groans, rising to assist RJ and escape this godless conversation.

Somewhere else on Pontes station, Vidar sips a milkshake and is terribly glad to not hear any of this.

 

[Sophos]

Shortly after settling in for milkshakes alongside Vidar and Mach, Abby receives the last message she ever wanted to see. A message from her father.

“My dearest Abigail,

If you are receiving this, it’s because we have been waiting - and hoping - you would return to Mars someday. We know not why you have returned, but I hope you would be inclined to come home and tell us. We have kept a place for you at our home since its completion, and have missed you dearly since the unfortunate misunderstanding that drove you to depart our house. We hope you are inclined to come and visit us at our estate, in Mars orbit, as soon as you can. A shuttle can be at Pontes within hours to pick you up and bring you to our orbital habitat within hours of you accepting our invitation, and we may proceed from there.

What we tried to impose on you was short-sighted, and not a day goes by where I do not feel some pang of regret for having driven you away. Your star shone brighter than we could appreciate, and while those were difficult years for all of us, we did not truly appreciate what we had in you until you were lost to us. I know we cannot make amends in one swoop, and you are of course under no obligation to accept this invitation, but I do hope you will come home to us, that we can begin the process.

We could write the future together.

With love,
Adam Hammond”
Along with the message, there is a simple prompt: (yes or no?)

She's mildly disappointed she can't reply "fuck off", but instead hits the "no" and hopes that's the last of it. Unfortunately for her a few minutes after Abby declines the invitation, a follow up message arrives:
"We are saddened by your decision, but we understand. Enclosed with this message is a routing and account number linked to a spending account of 50,000 credits. You need only link it to your inserts, and you will be able to access the account and spend the money how you see fit.

Consider the invitation open. Do not hesitate to call us if you need anything.

We miss you."

Abby makes a disgusted face and shoves the message away, before starting to poke at her milkshake mildly dejectedly.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Noctis-Qianjiao, 24 and a Half Hours Earlier…​

Veronica Jhadav was enjoying a well-brewed cup of chai at her favorite cafe on Renrakubrug when the scramble order arrived. To look at her, Veronica would simply be another well-dressed resident of Noctis-Qianjaio, in a good-looking sleeve of Indian phenotype, seated to a light breakfast with a colleague; beneath her synthetic mask, however, Veronica is steel and circuitry - a custom commissioned Steel morph, masked to blend in with the biomorph majority of the city. Scowling initially, Veronica let the verification codes she wrote herself do their work before being able to read the decrypted message.

Spoiler: Operation in Progress

To: Mekhajakumaar
From: Antique Zhuangzhi
Subject: Operation in Progress

Sentinel, we have a mission for you. In one day, a team will be arriving at Pontes station. They are currently on the trail of a cache of dangerous technology, and will require your assistance. They will have more information for you upon your arrival, and you will receive your instruction from a different router than myself. We will have arranged transportation from Skyport Qianjiao to Pontes within twenty four hours, and will forward your ticket to your CivicNet profile; ensure you are ready to depart as soon as possible.

Veronica sets aside her initial chagrin, considering that Firewall missions have thus far offered unprecedented opportunities to put her skills to the test. She takes another sip of her chai, her muse Brumaro already setting to work notifying her regular clients that she will be on a short-term contract of indefinite length that has extreme NDA terms, and that she will be unavailable to provide her regular services for the time being.

“What’s the matter, Vernie? Someone on Fame bugging you again,” asks Charani Moody in a musical Hindi, a sleek-yet-colorfully-dressed friend of Veronica’s (and the only person in the solar system who gets to call her that), no doubt asking with one mind while working on her robots with another; the creepy bot on her shoulders scans the stream of foot and cycle traffic as if equally concerned for Veronica.

“Not this time, Machi” Veronica responds, also in her native Hindi. “Got a job call - real secretive client, wants me all to themself.”

“Really? I guess you couldn’t tell me who?” Charani asks.

“Not without immediately breaking my NDA,” Veronica answers.

“I hope they’re paying well,” Charani says, a little chagrined herself.

“I usually learn a thing or two that helps down the line with these folks,” Veronica says. “That, and I usually get to work with some real characters.”

“That so?”

“Mhm,” Veronica says. “Out there Fame-artist types.”

“Fun!!” Charani says; Veronica can’t help but smirk, imagining what Charani might be thinking versus the reality of missions for Firewall.

As much as she doesn’t care for these surprises, Veronica does quietly savor the chance to test her mettle against… whatever it is that Firewall needs her to take down. As well, she can’t very well lead the life she wants to if everyone and everything is being devoured by TITAN-spawned abominations, so while the work doesn’t pay like it probably should, she does take some pride knowing she isn’t simply sleepwalking through life, pretending like everything is fine and that there aren’t serious threats to transhumanity out there. So, as Charani’s attention is called to whatever work needs getting done, Veronica uses the pause to respond to Antique Zhuangzhi’s dispatch.

Mekhajakumaar: [Understood. I’ll be ready when you need me.]

---

Now, Pontes Station​

Veronica’s shuttle has just docked to the spar when the message from her new router arrives; it is a list of I-rep handles that are a part of “Sentinel Team: Rincewind,” the team that arrived here not too long ago. Although microgravity is not her native environment - Veronica being more acclimated to gravity or infospace - she is able to pull herself along the handholds out of the shuttle, into the dock, through customs - a mercifully short affair given her freelancer status - and onto the trams that take her down the spar and into the spin gravity of the cylinder. Stepping off the tram, Veronica settles into the comfortable gravity of Pontes station, taking a moment to admire the horizon that bends in on itself before opening a new window on the Eye-

-someone who looks to be in quite a hurry nearly shoulder checks her, Veronica having to step out of the way to avoid getting hit. Veronica can hear them muttering to themselves about their “fucking family,” and while she can’t make out what they’re saying specifically, they seem in an awful hurry to get to the spaceport. Pulling up her rep profile to ding her, Veronica stops when she recognizes the name Abigail Hammond, daughter of none other than Adam Hammond and an infosec prodigy in her own right.

Oh.

Closing her profile, Veronica proceeds to PM the first name she was given with Team Rincewind.

Mekhajakumaar {PM to Azathothwakes}: [Hey, routers sent me up here to join your team, what’s up?]
Azathothwakes: [Yo! Yeah, router PMed me sayin' you might get tapped. Long story short, shit came up with our hacker n' we need you takin' point in cyberspace. Couple of us, myself included, are tied up with somethin - you got TacNet software loaded up?]
Mekhajakumaar: [Yep, standing by for your network (attachment: authentication codes).]
Azathothwakes: [Kk, pluggin ‘em in now. You cool takin over as Admin? You got the most infosec of any of us.]
Mekhajakumaar: [As long as your last Admin hands me the keys.]
Azathothwakes: [Why, reckon you couldn’t take ‘em?]
Mekhajakumaar: [Oh I absolutely could, but that would be rude.]
Azathothwakes: [Ayyyyyyyy that's the spirit. Stand by for transfer.]

On one side of the line, Rushing Jaws laughs; on the other, Veronica’s codes are accepted, and the TacNet opens up on her entoptics. Rushing Jaws wastes no time passing off the Admin rights to Veronica, and Brumaro takes the wheel on that for her while she catches up and gets situated.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [Hello everyone! Code jockey extraordinaire, reporting for duty; If it needs getting hacked, getting repaired, or getting shot, let me at it and I'll get it done.]
Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [In fact, I understand my services are needed right about now?]

 

[TrashRabbit]

It takes Vidar a moment to change gears. He and Mach had been on a roll, exchanging what they were digging up on the paper airplane, and the ship that docked with it before heading to the surface. not to mention the boat wasn't registered as docked on Mach's Grep sources. A picture was emerging, one he was about to pitch to Abbey before she departed.
"I can be your dad," Felt like such an empty promise in the wake of her departure and the gravity of her family's nonsense. If it was anything except firewall pressing for his time, he'd have gone with her. He's rereading Abbey's rushed good byes and Mach's thoughts on the possible cargo on the Paper Airplane and Veronica's entrance onto the tacnet when he feels a big picture start click into place.

Heliotrope:{tacnet}[Hi. Hello. We have milkshakes and fires to put out: Active Mission Notes]
Heliotrope: {tacnet} [Mach dug up that another ship docked with the paper airplanes before heading to the surface, if you could track where it landed that would be lit, Mekhajakumaar. I think we can skip putting boots on the ground at the Papper Airplane- who or What of value is already gone. This is just a shell game at this point and I aim to win it. ]

 

[TrashRabbit]

Pontes Station
Spaceport
(Collab Post with TrashRabbit , Graystone713 )​

Mekhajakumaar: [You got it - guess I’ll have to head back to the spaceport to get at it. Tell you what, I’ll find a spot in the terminal to hang around - meet me there and bring me a mango fruit smoothie blend?]

Veronica turns right around and waits for the next tram to take her back out to the spaceport, waiting until she can fish for a reliable connection to the spaceport’s mesh network and using the downtime to read over the intel the team’s gathered up so far. Transitioning to microgravity takes her by surprise, but she is able to find her handholds and cast out for a comfortable little nook to tuck into like she’s waiting on someone. Uninterested in the public mesh, Veronica searches the radio waves for signals specific to the spaceport...

It takes a few minutes to get the third smoothie made, and for a play argument to brew up between the two.

“-Star fruit aint real,” Vidar argues with Mach as they make their way across the station, “They’re from kingdom hearts, stop sending me links.”

“I actually played them, Kingdom hearts call’s ‘em ‘Paopu’, and they look nothing like star fruit. I mean… Fair, real star fruit look like someone tried to make an origami mango and failed, but I ate star fruit. It was trendy in Cali before the fall for some fucking reason.” Mach said, rolling his eyes at Vidar. It was so weird that Vidar was supposed to be the party dinosaur, and yet he actually knew that thing about kingdom hearts.

To be fair, Vidar’s knowledge of the game was from childhood memories of his mother replaying it- but it had too much Disney and not enough moomins to hold his attention or his heart as he got older.

“No. I don’t buy it, but origami mango is the name of my new art collective,” He said just to be difficult.

Heliotrope{tacnet}: In coming. I’m the cutest girl in the worst vacsuit double fisting smoothies and insisting Starfruit is fake.

Veronica smirks to see she’s caught a link to the spaceport’s network, just as a cutie with vintage splatterprint on and a dark-haired security pod in red freefall into view. Exploits queued up, Veronica looks up and pings the two of them over TacNet to call their attention over to her, waving as they catch sight.

“Star fruit, real or fake?” Vidar asks, handing her the mango and starfruit smoothie.

“Real, probably,” Veronica answers, taking the smoothie with a nod.

“Sunovabitch y’all, fine. Its real,” He says dropping a full formed Y’all into his rapid Norwegian and then pretending to sulk.

Mekhajakumaar{TacNet}: [Thanks for the smoothie tho! I got us a way into the spaceport network, how are y’all with infosec?]
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: Useless :/
Mekhajakumaar: Cool, I’ll take point on it. Networks like these usually got teams of white hats to protect them against people like us, so if you can even crack a cypher or run an exploit, that could help.
Heliotrope: Oh! Cyphers I can do.
Mekhajakumaar: Nice! I’ll loop you in. @ Sleipnir what about you?
Sleipnir: I’m okay at it, I can try to lend a hand. No pro, though. Not with the computing side at least.
Mekhajakumaar: Good to know.

Veronica takes another sip of her smoothie; “Anabelle” and “Kieth” did well with the flavors, and she takes a few more seconds to savor it before diving into the code.

Mekhajakumaar: We’re not in a rush and we’re up against some solid firewalls, so I’m gonna take this nice and easy, minimize risk of detection. I’m gonna try to get a security-level clearance, since we’re looking for data on where that ship went. Expect this to take around fifteen minutes or so.
Mekhajakumaar: Here we go.
Heliotrope: Yee and haw.

Sure enough, fifteen minutes go by as Veronica carefully probes the network firewall for weaknesses. The windows are available for Mach and Vidar to see, and she occasionally sends them numbers to crunch or code to examine while she moves on to a different tack.

Considering that he had self identified as useless Vidar was quick at matching lines of code and could crack open an encryption with his proverbial mental teeth in a way that was far from useless. However, it became apparent that he lacked even the basic understanding of modern mesh coding when he was asked to rework a bit of code and passed it on to h muse who floundered with it as well.

Heliotrope: Get me something in C3++ and then maybe I could do that.
Mekhajakumaar: Takes me back to my days in Delhi!
Mekhajakumaar: @ Sleipnir need you to take a look at this glitch (x) think you can do something with it?
Sleipnir: Uhhh lemme check

Mach, for his part, wasn’t that helpful. He looked hard at the glitch and twiddled with it a bit, but he couldn’t make it go away until Nanti lent a hand. Mach was not that good at coding. He mostly just knew how to unlock stolen cars.

Slowly and carefully, Veronica leads the team in probing the firewall, careful to roll back any possible attacks while searching for a way to snag security privileges. The Pontes Port Authority’s firewalls are definitely nothing to sneeze at, and it takes patience, some clever exploits, and a pinch of luck to pull off the hack. By a stroke of luck, Veronica and Vidar are able to crack open a data packet and use the data on it to fool the firewall, defeating it and opening the network.

Brumaro, you’re on deck.
[Understood.]

Mekhajakumaar: Okay, that was the easy part - this is going to be hard and fast, we gotta make sure their active security doesn’t catch us. I’m expecting a team of competent infosec monitors, once we’re past them we are in.

Veronica always relishes this part of the hack. Firewalls are just that: walls, some harder to bore through than others, but passive things. Someone else monitoring the system, on the other hand, means someone who knows it. Someone who knows what the protocols are, what to expect, and when something is amiss. Fooling them is considerably harder: your hacks have to be bulletproof, your codes and your exploits razor-sharp to keep the system or anyone watching it. This is where the real action is, and Veronica is ready to put her - and her team - to the test.

The other thing with active security is that you often know within seconds if your intrusion has worked or if you’ve been caught out. A few tense seconds go by as Veronica uses the support of her team along with her own expertise in exploiting the network vulnerabilities, doing everything she can to secure access. A few more seconds go by, and then a new window on her entoptics opens with a map of the network - an inelegant thing, more a flowchart than any kind of UI - and awaits their input.

Mekhajakumaar: We’re in.Covert status, security-level access to the network.

[That’s not even a ma- ] Penny does not get to finish her thought before the Mesh inserts go off.

He’s lucky they’re in micro gravity or what's left of his milkshake would have hit the deck as both hands go over his mouth like he’s seen something in a horror movie. The spike of adrenaline in his chest decides to squat there convincing his heart that yes, absolutely we should have a panic attack. It wasn’t even a real map- Penny was right, just line and boxes.

[Boss, something’s wrong - Heliotrope just dropped off of TacNet]
What?

With their covert status on the network and hence nothing to worry about while they do nothing, Veronica minimizes the window on the network and catches sight of a fetal-position “Annabelle” suspended in microgravity.

“Annabelle? What the f- everything’s fine, what’s the matter??”

“I have a really fucking amusing phobia- give me ten,” He snaps.

“Jesus- alright, fuck, just- c’mon, get over into the nook.”

Brumo, what are we looking for?

[According to their intel, a ship stopped by the Paper Airplane six hours after its arrival before departing for the surface. We are trying to find out where the ship landed, as much as possible given the scanning ability of Pontes station’s long-range sensor arrays.]

Perfect. Station this size with this much traffic ought to be able to pluck that needle out for us.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [@ Sleipnir can you take care of Heliotrope here?? This could take a minute and the last thing we need are good samaritans checking in on someone having a panic attack in the spaceport terminal.]
Sleipnir {Tacnet}: [I’ll… Try? I’m worse with people than computers.]

“It’s gonna be okay, Belle. Just keep breathing, keep your eyes shut, and I’ll pull you to a nook.”

Said ‘Kieth’ as he pulled the terrified girl away from the crowds and towards… Well, the only thing around was an AR Phonebooth. So he pulled Vid in there, closed the door, and leaned against the station map on the wall to cover it.

“Just… Take your minutes, I guess. You won’t see any maps if you open your eyes, okay?”

First of all who the fuck was belle? He thought doing his best impression of a carbon based life form that knew how to breath, Oh, he means me. It takes him another moment or two to get it somewhat together, just letting the adrenaline run its course for a minute or two. It’s a cramped space and he tries to get some space from mach, because it's Mach and he’s a bio weapon having a panic attack.

“Can you just-” He manages to say, “Make sure the network chart is censored so I can turn penny back on.”

“I’m doing it now… Censored. You uh. Wanna tell me why cartography is evil, or keep it close? You don’t have to say anything, actually. Just… Curious, I guess.”

“Oh, don’t I wish I knew, Mr. Keith,” He says with a dry laugh. He takes one more deep breath and brings his mesh back online.

Heliotrop{Pm to sliepner}: I got that good old PTSD of things I can’t remember. I’ve got 8 years of lack and a crippling phobia of the stupidest thing. Sorry I flipped out.
Sleipnir{Pm To Heliotrope}: Look, I still get this recurring nightmare of being locked in a car in a traffic jam as the Titans roll into cali. Everyone who left earth has scars.
Heliotrop: Yikes. God, I don't miss traffic. Thanks for understanding.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Pontes Station
Spaceport
(Collab Post, continued, with TrashRabbit , Graystone713 )​

[Boss, Heliotrope is back on the mesh.]
Go ahead and add them back into the TacNet.
[On it.]

DJXCV440: [Run: Data Retrieval. Parameters: Paper Airplane, dock D, berth 32, 02/09/30, 1730-2130 hours. +Dock Services (External Cams), +Traffic Control, +Long Range Sensors]
Spcpt_spdr: [SEARCHING....]
Within seconds, data starts flooding onto a tab in her infosec window: recordings from the external cams, data from the long range sensors, and logs from traffic control, all within the specified period given to her by the team. For a long moment, it’s nothing, nothing, nothing… and then a sudden flurry of activity, before yet more nothing, all in the span of a minute.

Got it.

DXJCV440: [Isolate: 1916-2044 hours on External Cams + Traffic Control, retain Long Range Sensor data. Jettison extraneous data.]
Spcpt_spdr: [EXECUTING…]
Just like that, the long stretches of boredom vanish, isolating the footage visible from private spaceport cams that look right down the berths, providing a front view of the Paper Airplane and out into space. Traffic control logs for the same stretch are retained, but Veronica thinks better of throwing out the long range sensor data, keeping that in the hopes of tracking the ship to and from the surface.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: [I’ve got some data, the search didn’t take long but now comes the hard part. I’ll work as fast as I can.]

DXJCV440: [Playback external cam footage at the beginning.]
Spcpt_spdr: [COMMENCING PLAYBACK…]
Starting with the external cam footage, she watches as an SLOTV slowly thrust-vectors its way into near-stillness. The ship has no identifying marks, but Veronica notes the ship profile and positioning for later as she watches something - a crate, large, painted black and opaque to scanning - emerge from the airlock and puff its way up to the SLOTV. It disappears into the ship’s hold, and the robot handling it returns to the airlock and back into the berth. The SLOTV departs in short order, the handoff taking no more than an hour and a half. Veronica takes her time looking over the footage in order to make sure she doesn’t miss anything, but the handoff itself takes no more than a half hour before the transport vectors out and vanishes the same way it first appeared.

DXJCV440: [Access Traffic Control logs]
Spcpt_spdr: [ACCESSING…]
The logs take some time to trawl through, even with the spar and berth to refine the query, due to the sheer number of ships coming and going from Pontes. Curiously, once she’s able to isolate the logs for the SLOTV, Veronica finds that the ship’s registration has been redacted…

...which is telling enough in itself.

There are some curt records of the transport moving into a non-docked position, of it receiving an unspecified kind of cargo from the Paper Airplane, and then of it vanishing from the record. Veronica copies the tags over to make the next part easier on herself.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Whoever’s transport that is, they paid for anonymity on the traffic control logs. If I had admin level access, I might be able to find out who it belongs to, and if we think it matters, I can work on digging that up. Otherwise I’m going to focus on tracking down where it went.

Vidar looks over the data Mekhajakumaar has rounded up, and realizes with a sinking feeling, that if he could look at a map, he could probably pin point where the thing was landing based on its trajectory. But no. He was useless.

Heliotrope {tacnet}: If you can get me a visual on descent I can get you a trajectory, but some one else will have to plot it on a

Spoiler

map.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: That shouldn’t be difficult! Should I ask why you can’t, uh, plot it out?
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: I’m starting to suspect I was a miss-used GPS in my past life. I have the stupidest phobia, for no good reason. Though give me a hot second I might be able to pysche myself out if I use satellite footage instead of like. You know.
Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Em, okay, let’s see here. You can’t do m- you can’t see the thing itself, so the sensor data might not make much sense to you otherwise...I can probably find some spar cams that look Marsward? Might take a minute to find the right ones.
Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Would linking the raw data be helpful at all? I still gotta comb through it, but like, once I’ve got it, I can post that too?
Heliotrope: You know what. Give me the raw data.
Mekhajakumaar: Comin’ right up!

Veronica instructs the spider AI to trace the SLOTV’s trajectory from its float-stop by the Paper Airplane down to the surface, drawing up a visual representation of the data in order to get a sense of it herself. The process takes time, and so does trying to extrapolate where the ship is headed, but with the aid of a few ultra-high-resolution spottercams, she is able to watch the ship accelerate toward the surface. Eventually it winks out of sight, but the sensor feeds are able to track it much further out than the cameras can, and Veronica ‘borrows’ some processing power to extrapolate its further course...and the visual shows the ship going somewhere in the western Noctis Labyrinthus canyonlands, east of Mariner Valley. She tries to run the numbers a few more times, but eventually has to concede that a five-hundred square kilometer range of canyonlands is a start.

Vidar thinks about trying to use a real map or a satelite image to assist him- but after his recent scare he just thinks better of it, just knows he can’t pull it off. Not today. He opens up the data package and hopes he wont make a fool of himself.

[Aw fucking shit-]
That is a lot of numbers, Boss.
[No shit, Penny, is it?]

Vidar makes a face as he does a first parse of the raw data from the sensors- it takes a moment for that feeling of flow he associated most with candy crush to hit. But when it does it’s not a series of little satisfying calculation its one big one that pushes his personal thoughts rudely aside for on terrible moment. The world falls away, and he locks up in the real while he processes, then shivers, picks up where he left off for a moment and repeats as he does a second pass, trying to lock it down to a single coordinate- wich would be more satisfying- but no dice. He blinks back to reality again, like nothing happened and asks Mach: “Hey, where the hell did my milkshake go?”

“Uhh… I’ll buy you a new one.” He said, watching a space roomba grab the cup out of the air and vacuum the floating blob of strawberry banana deliciousness.. The milkshake was gone for good. But they could get another.

Heliotrope: So, you’ll have to look it up, but it should be with in these five coordinates, I wanted to get it down to a single point but no dice. (Coordinates)
The coordinates pinpoint a 3 sqr mile area inside the Noctis labyrinthus canyon lands.

“Fuck me…” Veronica mutters aloud, applying the coordinates to her own map and watching as the surface area shrinks to much more manageable dimensions.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: How did…? You really got it down that much? Fuckin hell, there’s your shell game - how did you pull that off with raw data?? You running Math Boost over there??
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: I’m very good at Maths and swords, and not a whole hell of a lot else.
Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: No kidding. I think we got what we came here for, but I can keep rooting around if we need before I clean up and close out - is there anything else we need off this system?
Heliotrope{tactnet}: I’m satisfied. Sliepner?
Sleipnir{Taxnet}: Yeah, I think that’s all we need. Our tickets are bought… Well, actually, do we got access to internal cams? I’d bet the mystery mercs were here, and any info on them would be useful.
Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: You mean the dock cams? Ought to be simple enough, what am I looking for? I mean, I read over the notes, and I know we have spooks out there, but the external cam just showed the drone.
Sleipnir: Yeah, but if we have access to the inside cams, we can check those. Just around the entrances. We’d be looking for a suspicious amount of borgmorphs wearing the exact same uniforms, all carrying the same model of pistols. Well, maybe one would have a pulser like the last group.
Mekhajakumaar: Okay, I’ll give it a look. Gimme a little time here…

Cameras around the Paper Airplane are pulled up and rolled back, and everyone on TacNet can watch as the ship arrives in dock - and an attendant flurry of activity - and then hours later when a simple servitor equipped with a thruster pack scoots the black crate out through an airlock. After that, the only regulars visible on the feeds surrounding the ship are of three transhumans that come and go at irregular intervals, with no sign of any groups like the interlopers back on the scum swarm.

Mekhajakumaar: Not seeing anyone matching that description, although I could probably assemble a collage of the Airplane’s crew if we need to find them?
Sleipnir: Your call, I’m satisfied. I’m ready for a trip to the surface, however long it takes to set up. Question now is where the hell to go first. We could follow that last box and see if it’s another key… Or hit up the terrifying lady who… Honestly might be Vidar’s next girlfriend. Is this a thing you normally do? Is the Meg just another in the long line of sword ladies you can’t stay away from?
Heliotrope: I’m disappointed that I’ve left an impression that my tastes are restricted to sword ladies. I am also into sword men and sword non binaries. The occasional twink even. Thank you for inquiring.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Veronica simply chuckles as she proceeds to scrub any trace of her intrusion, taking another sip of her smoothie. As it goes, this was a simple job: get in, peek at some data, then get out. Not much room for things to go wrong, but the less chances you give the monitors, the better. Veronica leaves no trace of her intrusion, and then - satisfied they have what they need - terminates the connection.

Mekhajakumaar: That’s that! We got the data and out like bandits. Not bad, if I do say so myself!
Mekhajakumaar: Also if you’re into sword people, you can’t spit without hitting a martial arts dojo in Elysium city.
Heliotrope: For real? What kind?
Mekhajakumaar: Lots of new-agey ‘center your mind’ type places looking to hustle people out of cred for “inner peace,” but there are some legit places where they train stunt fighters. Hand to god, the hand-to-hand training they do rivals NQPD training regimens, and they even have some actual, honest-to-god swordfighters.
Heliotrope: as an honest-to-god sword fighter I’m intrigued, but.; Too bad. We won't be staying long enough to check it out.
Heliotrope: Please don’t get me talking about swords on main, I wont shut up.
Mekhajakumaar: Oh yeah? Maybe later, on the shuttle ride down to the surface then - I wanna hear how you learned how to use a sword in the Year after our Fall 10.
Heliotrope: Try the year of our lord 2043.
Mekhajakumaar: what
Mekhajakumaar: No way.
Mekhajakumaar: You’re not a hundred years old, are you??
Heliotrope: minus lack, I’ll be a hundred this february.
Mekhajakumaar: wh
Mekhajakumaar: Are you fucking with me or have you been an oligarch this whole time??
hara: show some respect, he was on the lewis & clark expedition!!
hara: that’s where the [redacted] got him
Heliotrope: Sacagewea is my best friend.
Heliotrope: But, no, seriously, I’m not fucking with you. And I’m not an oligarch.
Mekhajakumaar: Okay, what- how? You would’ve had to have been like, what, seventy, when cortical stacks hit the market? How did you afford one?
Hara: He’s a vampire but it’s rude to mention it in public.
Heliotrope: That’s a story.
Mekhajakumaar: I’ll fucking bet.
Heliotrope: For context I feel like I need to start with the fact that my mother was a hacktivist during the trump years and left me an inheritance of crypto curency that while large was not enough to purchase a cortical stack. Our daughter however scored big, she manage to get a contract with a series of non-disney entities and eventually she got a pair of cortical stacks as a god damn signing bonus. A god damn signing bonus. So there’s one extra of this cursed item and two sword goblin parental units. So Five looks me dead in the eye and is like we use your inheritance to get a rejuvenation treatment and enter the MMA world championships. And I’m like; talk dirty to me honey because its been twenty years since we’ve almost gotten arrested. So that’s how we fixed the 2106 world MMA championships and won enough money for a second cortical stack and a one way ticket to the future.
Mekhajakumaar: I was four years away from selling my soul to Mahanta Infotech in 2106.
Mekhajakumaar: That is fucking astounding.
Heliotrope: We barely dodged Disney, condolences.
Mekhajakumaar: Yeah well, we’re here and they died screaming.
Mekhajakumaar: Mahanta better be dead, anyways.
Mekhajakumaar: If I find out that motherfucker survived the Fall I’ll find his last stack and broil it myself.
Heliotrope: I’ll hold him down.
Sleipnir: I just won a few big races and got my family stacked up. It… might’ve been a bad decision financially but if I hadn’t had a stack
Sleipnir: Fuck I don’t wanna think about my dad or Rob or the people I’m missing.
Azathothwakes: i feel you dude
Mekhajakumaar: The infopocalpyse made the perfect cover to cut and run for Mars and start over, I’ll say that much.
Sleipnir: You dare sympathize with Rob, I’ll beat you blue and black and red and maybe bone white if nobody stops me.
Heliotrope: That’s the most american thing I’ve ever hard anyone say. Did george washington pay you?
Hara: Listen.
Hara: The fall was best getaway car I’ve been in.
Hara: I would probably live here if the scum hadn’t taken me.
Hara: and for this I will pour one out.
Mekhajakumaar: I’m not ‘sympathizing’ with the TITANs. I lost people in the Fall, too. Hara has the right idea though - I escaped a shit deal and found a better one out here.
Sleipnir: I’m pretty sure *I* was lost in the fall.
Heliotrope: M O O D
Heliotrope: Over here living in my personal 2 AF like fuck me whats up felow future people I can’t use a fucking nano fabricator.
Sleipnir: On bad days I literally remember the face of the Rob that just. Yanked my head off. *cr-pop*.
Azathothwakes: oh fuck. All’s i know is that i died more than once, and i didn’t get to keep any of it. Plenty enough i did get to keep that, uh, ain’t so great, so i dunno if that’s a mercy yet.
Mekhajakumaar: I wasn’t even in a body. Infolife. I’d gotten used to it by then, but when the TITANs made it into orbit I knew it was time to run. I did what needed to be done, hacked a farcaster, made it to Mars, started over - the incursion almost made me regret choosing Mars - and now I’m in much better shape then I could’ve looked forward to back in Earth Orbit.
Heliotrope: Now that’s impressive.

Vidar pauses for a moment, he and Mach finally getting out of the AR phone booth- He is thinking about Five more than he generally likes to because it came up. He remembers letting go of their hand with a certainty that he trusts means he knew was about to eat it- and that doesn't bother him so bad. He’s had enough pyscho surgery to be able to look at whats left of that moment. What he realizes though, is that he has never asked too many questions about his reinstatement- he had thought it was because being an asset for a secret conspiracy was dicey. What the fuck was the map zone actually and how come he’d never asked? That felt...very unlike being a detective. So he made a mental note of the obvious; being an async with eight years of lack and fear of maps was very fucking suspicious.

“Well, it’s pretty clear they’re not coming,” Veronica says aloud, more for the benefit of passive surveillance than for either Mach or Vidar, “so we should head back into the cylinder and figure out what the next move is from there. Oh- and thanks again for the smoothie - just the thing to tide me over!”

“Still don’t think starfruit is real though, just so we’re clear”

“If I find the sorta pretentious grocery store that would have ‘em, I’ll chuck one at your face.”

“I’ll treasure the fucking day.”

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Pontes Station
The Works​

“Fuck…” is the first thing Elias has said in a while - Eppie and Devin dominating the conversation that has taken some truly upsetting twists and turns over the unmarked passage of time - as something calls his attentions to his entoptics; initially pleasantly buzzed, Elias snaps out of it fast, going tense and alert as he reads something over.

“Hey, uh, guys,” Elias says: initially ignored, he raises his voice to get the table’s attention, any trace of intoxication gone: “guys, y’all - YO, listen up!”

As soon as he’s sure he has the booth, Elias takes a second to steady himself.

“You wanted a meeting with Val? Looks like you got one, ready or not.”

As he says that, a message arrives for every sentinel on the team - not just those present at the Works - with a Guanxi profile.

From Valentina the Viper herself.

Black_Mamba: [I see you, you fucking snoops. Who we deal with isn’t your concern, so stop putting your fucking noses where they don’t belong. Elias tells me you want a meeting? Come to Elysium City, ping me when you’re here. You got a day to get down here, don’t keep me waiting.]

“Well shit,” is all Rushing Jaws says.

“Yeah,” Elias says back.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Hey why did I get a message from Valentina the Viper? I’ve been with y’all for all of an hour? (message)
Azathothwakes {TacNet}: i dread the answer
Azathothwakes: should we ping starglass about travel arrangements?

 

[TrashRabbit]

Heliotrope{Tacnet}: Did one of us get hacked or do you think they've been keeping tabs on us since the swarm?
Heliotrope{tacnet}: Concerning but...
heliotrope{tacnet}: making them sweat can be to our advantage. I doubt they have any idea we've tracked them down to a 3 mile radius.

 

[CelticSol]

Devin ( wickedlittlecritta ), Eppie ( CelticSol ), and Rushing Jaws ( ValtheStarGal ) present, live from Pontes Station:
“The Works, pt. 2” ft. Elias ( ValtheStarGal )
​

Eppie eyes twitch as she reads the messages in her entopics. The words are rather… well, aggressive. Anger and venom seem to be clear in every line, a threat of impending death across every word. Very suited to a kingpin. Or a boss? Capo? Eppie’s speciality isn’t crime, so the exact terminology is lost on her when attempting to describe Valentina.

RJ sums up the general, tense atmosphere at the table. So does Elias’ reply.

Instead of staying on topic, Eppie says, “Now I finally know who stole that rep name. It makes sense for the woman who robbed me of having the same crime code name as Beatrix Kiddo to be, well… Like that.”

She tunes into her tac-net as she gets a handful of messages, her lips pursed in thought as the gang tries to figure out avenues of travel, what they should do, and what exactly tripped the alarm and brought Valentina’s rather furious attention to them. She’d heard of Veronica’s skill in profile, so while it’s possible, Eppie finds it doubtful that she, Vidar, and Mach tripped any sort of alarm during their sleuthing. She looks to the table of those sitting around her - RJ takes op-sec to seriously to have caused a leak, Devin plays the talker but the likeliness of him spilling that information is unlikely, and for herself, the only contact she’s had about this has been…

Her eyes slide over to Elias, unimpressed.

“Boy…” Eppie growls as she reaches her hand across the table to her idle, terrified brother, attempting to snatch his hand in hers as she feels the buzzing of the Song in her mind.

Elias catches sight of Eppie reaching for him and reacts as though it’s an attack: “Eppie, what-?”

Half climbing onto the table as he recoils from her touch, Eppie stretches across the apparently endless table to extend her reach. Eppie snaps at Elias sharply, “Give me your fuckin’ hand, you fuckin’-”

“Eppie, what the fuck are you doing, this is the Works-??”

“Fine, be that way-” Eppie huffs, before she fully climbs on the table to put her entire hand onto his entire face. He recoils as far back into booth as he can, but Eppie barely registers his complaints and confusion in that moment - the Song in her mind has become a deafening chorus, singing louder and louder, a million voices carrying the single tune, rising and falling in beautiful tandem, but they all fall silent as Eppie thinks:

Show me Valentina.

It starts slow, soft, like a lullaby, but grows louder as images begin to flash behind her eyelids -

- “The shipment came in, Val,” Elias says to a dark haired woman. She turns to where he stands in the doorway, smiles, then presses her lips to his cheek -

The scene changes the light is low, and Eppie can smell burning weed, can feel the pleasant numbness of comfurt in her body. The dark haired woman turns to look at her - to look at Elias - and she looks distraught, golden eyes burning bright in the dark with anger and fear, “What the fuck am I supposed to do, Eli? They’re all looking at me for that damn ship going down-”

The scene shifts again - they are in a room together, a screen before them. The screen is an infinity of the same image as her current line of vision, over and over again. Her head turns to find the golden eyed woman smiling at him sympathetically. She can see the image on the screen move to a view of Valentina’s face in the same moment.

“Still don’t trust me, Val?” Elias asks, his hurt poorly veiled by his joke.

“You know I do. I just don’t trust the world around you. It’s just so I know that you’re safe. It will help me sleep easier at night on the days that I am without you.”

Elias sighs, turning back to the screen-

Eppie gasps as the visions give way to her reality, her hand gripping Elias’ face. She breathes heavy, a small headache forming at the middle of her forehead, before she shoves Elias’ head back in his seat, “Elias was the fuckin’ leak. He’s got an Xcast back to Valentina. I can see it in his eyes that he’s a snitch.”

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

"Eppie, Eppie stop trying to pull your brother's face off, I want to use it for a minute," Devin said, tugging her back. "Elias. I'm going to talk to your boss a hot minute. Can you scowl for me? I imagine she's scowling and I like visuals. Perfect, thanks. Valentina. Hi. You want to talk? We're all right here! We don't have to waste time. Let's talk. What's on your mind?"

There's no response for a good 40 seconds, and then: [Elysium city. Ping me when you’re here. Face to face.]

"Coward," Devin said.

Over pm, Vidar pipped up. [Why don't you just shoot him?]

[You're right. You're so right.]

"Hey Eppie," Devin said. "How mad would you be if I shot your brother?" He drew his gun, but kept it pointed at the ceiling, fingers off the trigger. "I admit I'm not a scary man, but I think having a gun in his mouth gives me an advantage."

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Pontes Station
The Works, Pt. 3
(Collab post with wickedlittlecritta , CelticSol )​

“Really, Devin,” Elias asks, an eyebrow at the pistol. “How far do you really think that’s going to get you?”

“Far enough,” Devin drawled.

th3R4tKing, to Black_Mamba: [You think you can follow my people around and try and strong arm me? I’m the fucking rat king. You’re not in the top five scariest things I’ve seen this week.]

“I promise you, this is not a good idea,” Elias says, not totally able to hide being impressed with his boldness.

Over a minute later, Black_Mamba responds: [What are you going to do? Shoot at Elias? What is it you’re trying to accomplish here, rat man? Do you want a meet with me or not?]

[I just came looking for a fence, and you’re fucking stalking us? Not a good look, friend. I don’t appreciate being treated like third rate trash.]

Devin holstered his gun. “Well, this has been illuminating, but I like a little more trust in my business partners. I think we’re done here. Sorry about your face, Elias.” He stood up.

hara, to tacnet: [you know how you prove you’re willing to walk away? you walk the fuck away]

“You got backbone, Murphy, I’ll give you that,” Elias says in parting, laughing and shaking his head as the sentinels depart.

Heliotrope{Pm to hara}: MY GOOD DUDE.
Heliotrope{Pm to hara}: I was joking. I was joking I was joking.
Heliotrope{Pm to hara}: I didn’t know you were fucking hardcore?!?!
hara{pm to heliotrop}: I’VE DIED 3 TIMES ON EARTH, I’M THE MOST HARDCORE PERSON ON THIS TEAM???
hara{pm to heliotrop}I just like sequins!!!!!!
Heliotrope{Pm to hara}: I GUESS FUCKING SO.

jukeboxmaiden [pm to Hara]: threaten my little brother with a weapon again and i’ll melt your brain with my space powers :-))))
hara: don’t you have him backed up??? he’ll be fine. dying’s good for you. builds character!!!!

Eppie, in real life, grips Devin’s bare wrist, her hands trembling around his hand. She smiles pleasantly, but there is promise in the low tone of her voice, jittering and unsteady as it is, “Keep talkin’, rat boy. We’ll see how eldritch space alien builds character for you. Don’t pull that shit again.”

Devin grins at her and puts his hand over hers on his wrist. “I don’t think anyone’s told you yet, but you’re only scary when we don’t see you coming. I almost got eaten by a nanoswarm last week. Please try harder.”

Rushing Jaws, still seated, takes a long sip of his rum and coke before setting it down and rising to start breaking this up. “Alright alright, that’s enough - both of you. You wanna go, let’s go.”

Azathothwakes {TacNet}: I’m sure Valentina’s very impressed by our united front here, y’all. Remember - she’s a means to an end. Piss her off and we risk makin’ this even harder on ourselves
hara: none of you have ever negotiated with criminals and it shows
hara: our cover is that we’re here to fence shit, yeah? I’m a known criminal
hara: and she comes in trying to scare us? that’s disrespectful
hara: I’m in character! and now we get to scare her
hara: she’ll find us. i promised vidar a new milkshake. let’s go
Azathothwakes: this kind of shit is why i got out of the life tbh

Eppie’s hands shake, her expression tight. Beyond the general insult of Devin completely dismissing her, Devin threatening her brother both caused her heart to climb up into her throat and fall into the pit of her stomach. They grew up together so close, they basically shared a twin instinct to each other and a bond just as strong, despite how much they grind on each other’s nerves. The thought of Devin shooting Elias here, of the shot hitting him… Eppie is close enough that the blood would have probably splattered against her, among whatever else -

Eppie clenches her fists tightly, digging them into her eyes. The Song is deafening, and she can feel her marionette strings being tugged on impatiently, the voices buzzing in her ears eager for a chance at control that seems to loom so close. She can feel the stress eat away at her self-control, can feel the singing infecting into her inserts, singing harmony to the pinging of tacnet. Her breath comes too quick, the room is too small, people are too close, and too much is happening-

Eppie shuts off her inserts to make the messages go away, to cut the stimulus as much as she can. The voices around her fade to their native tongues, Mandarin and English and Spanish, and Eppie whispers, “I need air,” Before she pushes past the group to go outside and try to pull a full breath of air into her aching lungs, and hoping the fresh air wash away the sounds of the Star’s dooming Song.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Hey, we lost Jukebox on the TacNet, what’s happening?
Azathothwakes: fucks sake
Azathothwakes: I got her

Trusting that Devin is can handle himself, Rushing Jaws turns to track down Eppie - and, being the pinkest person on Pontes, she is not hard to spot as they step out of the Works and look for her. Rushing Jaws trots over to Eppie, keeping distance when he sees how upset she is.

Fuck, Māz, comforting sapes ain’t my strongsuit…
[Guess you’ll have to make it work!]

“Hey, uh, Eppie? Eppie, hey, doe, Eppie, talk to me, you shut your inserts off- that was a lot back there, huh?”

“Do you think I’m gonna explode, RJ?” She asks, turning around to look at him, eyes wide as she trembles. “Is that why you’re standing so far away?”

“It has been this uplift’s experience that sapes react unpredictably in times of high stress - you want me to come closer?”

“I’d prefer to not be treated as a ticking time bomb, if you don’t mind.” I already feel like one, Eppie thinks to herself, crossing her arms across her chest to hold her hands under her biceps to warm them.

“Okay,” Rushing Jaws says, approaching with a little more confidence and opening his arms. “Hug?”

Eppie smashes her head into his chest, simply squishing herself into him. “Anxiety is hard and I wanna cry but my eyeliner took me a half hour, RJ. A half hour. And I didn’t remember to fab primer so it will definitely all come off if I have a crying moment.”

Rushing Jaws laughs softly, putting the Fury strength to good use in a secure hug. “Deep breaths, doe - five seconds in, seven seconds out. Breathe with me for a bit? ‘s all you gotta do, just breathe.”

“Waaah,” Eppie complains, but follows his breathing, “You know my therapist is a neo-beluga? So having a different dolphin uplift tell me to breathe through my anxiety is… The weirdest déjà-vu.”

Rushing Jaws laughs softly some more, keeping the breathing exercise going and briefly lapsing into his orca-song; “more of a paramedic than a therapist, myself. That was a big shock back there - breathing grounds you, slows your heart rate, shuts off the adrenaline valves. Works differently for neo-cets like me n’ your therapist but it works like a charm for you sapes so that’s what they tell us to do.”

“Imagine not knowing that nuzzling and petting your cetacean friend is how you calm them. Wacky,” Eppie raises her arms and holds RJ, petting his back as she does so. She shuts her eyes, pressing her ear into his chest to hear his breath and heartbeat, and uses it to keep time of her own breath, “You help me with anxiety breathing exercises, and I’ll give you anxiety affection. Deal?”

“Those terms are more than agreeable, you have yourself a deal,” Rushing Jaws replies, humming the slower, easier hymns in his repertoire along with the breathing exercise to help still Eppie.

Eppie says nothing, though she does recognize the song humming in RJ’s chest. When it carries to the portion of the tune that she knows, she joins him in softly humming its melody, swaying to the music.

[I think you figured it out there, champ]
Reckon so?
[More than reckon!]
Lemme know if anything on TacNet needs my attention, yeah?
[You take care of her and it's a deal.]
So that is what Rushing Jaws does: stand there with Eppie, letting his strength be a comfort to her, and humming a gentle tune to still the spooked sape.

 

[TrashRabbit]

Vidar starts sending mesages;

Heliotrope{Pm To jukeboxmaiden} : Hey.
Heliotrope{Pm To jukeboxmaiden} : You alright?
Heliotrope{Pm To jukeboxmaiden} : This basically my fault. I may have jokingly advised Devin to go agro and I like then he actually did it.
Heliotrope{Pm To jukeboxmaiden} : Usually no one listens to me.
Heliotrope{Pm To jukeboxmaiden} : I hope you're alright.

Heliotrope{PM To hara} : For the record you know Eppie can fucking punch a hole through your ego right?
Heliotrope{PM To hara} : You are fucking feral.

All the while he was also spinning up a plan in the group tactnet;

Heliotrope{Tacnet}: So now that we've all had some time to process that.
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: We need to focus on the next part of the game. If we really were here to find a fence for our next earth run, and Valentina 'made' this team and tried to squeeze us into a mars surface meeting and Devin just pitched a fucking fit- We'd really only have one choice and that's to contact the opposition and inquire about fencing. And you know, imply night cartel gossip comes free.
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: Its typically not going to bear well for a Cappo's rep to kill a well known earth diver cause she failed to intimidate him into meeting where she wanted to. Like Yikes.
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: We still want a meeting. That's still the goal. And she's not going to leave us alone. We want that meeting on our terms.
Heliotrope:{Tacnet}: And maybe some one on the opposition will see us as the enemy of their enemy and as friend. And barring all that, they probably don't know what we know where that crate they shipped to and from the swarm is to within 3 square miles. They would not like that info given out and that's leverage. We could be sitting pretty if we play it right.
Heliotrope{Tacnet}: also did you really need to quote 'Oceans Again' It wasn't even that good.

All the while without missing a beat he is talking about swords:

"So, the difference between a kriegmesser and a katana is mostly cultural and craftsman ship but you can pretty effectively transfer your skills between the two- save for if the kriegmesser has a cross hilt but that's a whole other thing. Just a single sided blade is a single sided blade and your going to utilize them similarly. Western MMA, of the historical variety with like Axes and war picks was designed for full armor so it sort of fell out until personal armor made a come back in Europe- any way what I'm getting at is the two styles are just going to have practical differences. And honestly the hilt has saved my life more times than I can count, so I'm always going to be biased. hilts are just good." Veronica had asked a simple question about sword types and was now getting the full explanation. He stops mid sentence to accept the milkshake from Devin. "Right Devin?"

A single blood drop crosses his vision and he realizes his nose is bleeding. He tries to pinch it back in the age old tactic, only to be thwarted by 0g. Thankfully the milkshake came with a napkin.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

hara{pm to Heliotrope}: she threatened to punch a hole in my ego in front of Valentina! I had to keep looking like a badass
hara{pm to Heliotrope}:...oh fuck
hara{pm to Heliotrope}: she threatened to punch a hole in my ego in front of Valentina
hara{pm to Heliotrope}: opsec WHO?? NEVER MET HER
hara{pm to Heliotrope}: f u c k

hara{tacnet}: first of all, you're right
hara{tacnet}: second of all, come on, we're the only two people who have seen that movie and it was GOOD

"Hilts are great," Devin agreed solidly, handing Vidar the milkshake. He stuck his hands in his pockets, because now that he had walked away from Eppie, he couldn't seem to keep them from shaking. He had personally witnessed Vidar punching holes in people's egos, and he didn't want that happening to him. And if he was honest, he was lucky not to have a brain like Swiss cheese at the moment--but he sure as fuck didn't want Eppie to know she had scared him. "They keep you from losing fingers, and stuff. Your blood should be on the inside, my dude. Do you need another napkin?"

 

[TrashRabbit]

"Exactly!" Says Vidar Brightly, and takes his replacement beverage. He crumples up his napkin and looking at it adds; "No, I got it. This morph is a just ...it does what it wants and right now the blood is on the outside. Doesn't do stress well I guess."
He gestures at mach and the AR phone booth he'd had a panic attack in not a half hour earlier.

Heliotrope{PM to hara}: Oh fuck.
Heliotrope {PM to hara}: They deal in too much T to not know that asyncs at least hypothetically exist.
Heliotrope {PM to hara}: YO YO YO YO HATE THAT :U
Heliotrope {PM to hara}: God maybe it was obscure enough no one will notice. She did gate crash you know.

Vidar's chest goes tight thinking about having to opsec wrangle the night cartel identifying Eppie as an async.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

hara{pm to Heliotrope}: god, i hope so
hara{pm to Heliotrope}: just have everyone think she's throwing me to the regular aliens
hara{pm to Heliotrope}: :UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Devin sighed and sat down next to Vidar. "You should sue somebody about that. We're on Mars. That's how it's done," he said.

 

[ValtheStarGal]

“So like, what about the swords you stab with?” Veronica asks Vidar, making a layperson’s attempt at a thrusting motion with her free arm while still sipping on her smoothie. “What do you call ‘em- fuckin- Hybleewood swashbuckling, y’know, stick-em-with-the-pointy-end, those swords?”

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: If we’re looking for rivals to the Night Cartel, we’re in good company. There’s the triads - 14K, Shui Fong, Sun Yee On, Big Circle Gang - there’s Pax Familiae, ID Crew, Nine Lives, take your pick. We might want to consider one of the triads, or Pax-F, they tend to deal more directly in hardware than ID Crew or Nine Lives.

Rushing Jaws is still holding Eppie in his arms, helping soothe her as he follows the chatter on TacNet, when an idea occurs to him.

Azathothwakes {TacNet}: speakin of leverage, i wanna know more about that snitch that’s been comin up.
Azathothwakes: if she’s tryin to bait us into a trap, might be worth having a backup plan that doesn’t rely on the good graces of Valentina the Viper

Spoiler: PM Chat

Azathothwakes {pm to Mekhajakumaar}: you seem pretty familiar with the scene around here
Mekhajakumaar: My services are available to anyone with the means to pay.
Azathothwakes: k so you could probably do some searchin around for info on the snitch
Mekhajakumaar: The Cartel’s been coming down hard on everyone asking questions, right? Do we really want that kind of attention in the middle of this?
Azathothwakes: absolutely not, so we gotta keep it quiet
Mekhajakumaar: Then how are we going to find anyone who knows what we’re looking for?
Azathothwakes: bait the hook
Azathothwakes: i got 1k in cred for the first fish that bites
Mekhajakumaar: That much, huh?
Azathothwakes: yup. i can make that back in two days back home
Mekhajakumaar: Really? Where’s that?
Azathothwakes: [redacted]
Mekhajakumaar: Fine, be that way. You’re a neo-orca, right? I can narrow it down.
Azathothwakes: im sure you could. do me a favor?
Mekhajakumaar: What’s that?
Azathothwakes: i got the cred and some G-rep, but i’ve been out of the life for a while. youre a local. you know people and you know how to cover your tracks.
Mekhajakumaar: And I have the favor to spend?
Azathothwakes: If we’re on a mission in autonomist space, i’ll spot you favors
Mekhajakumaar: ...deal.

Mekhajakumaar: {TacNet}: While y’all figure out how we handle Valentina, I’m going to do some research on whoever the cartel’s Most Wanted is.
Azathothwakes: {TacNet} lemme know what you find, i’m gonna keep workin on bringing jukebox back around to rebooting her inserts

Veronica wastes no time pulling up her Guanxi profile and searching for reliable contacts, absorbing as much sword knowledge as she can skim while accessing her contacts. The neo-orca’s point about keeping it quiet is a good one: on the one hand, Valentina finding out they’re looking for the snitch before they’re ready could make a complicated situation even worse, and on the other hand, if their quarry catches wind of someone else looking for them, that could drive them even further underground. She needs someone she can trust to keep this quiet - someone close to the source, one side or the other, who can tell her what she needs to know and then not turn around and tell anyone what she’s up to.

Only a handful of contacts fit that criteria. Of those, she pulls up the profile of someone who's tapped her for more than one job that was both profitable and engaging, someone who got her plugged in and who, on a world full of thieves, she might just be able to trust, and with a yen for mythical troll avatars.

Ringlefinch.

Spoiler: Guanxi Chat

BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG {PM to R1nGlEf1NcH}: Yo.
R1nGlEf1NcH: Yo.
R1nGlEf1NcH: whats up?
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: I need info, and I need it quiet.
R1nGlEf1NcH: what kind of info?
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: The snitch.
R1nGlEf1NcH: who?
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: There is a snitch, on the run from the cartel. I need info.
R1nGlEf1NcH: ,,,,
R1nGlEf1NcH: you know the night cartel’s been on the warpath lately, right?
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Yes.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: That’s why I need discretion from whoever’s getting my “One Body Per Mind” donation.
R1nGlEf1NcH: moon, seriously, what’s this about? You got no buisness puttin yourself between cartel bullets and a snitch
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: I appreciate your concern, but that’s not your business.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: You finding out puts us both in even more danger.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Finch, you know I’m discreet, I’m asking the same thing from you.
R1nGlEf1NcH: not trying to grief you, moon
R1nGlEf1NcH: not many folks want to tell, because most folks like being sleeved
R1nGlEf1NcH: still
R1nGlEf1NcH: might know someone
R1nGlEf1NcH: stand by

….[connecting]....

102GLACON: hello.
102GLACON: i understand you need information.
102GLACON: do you have the payment?
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Yes.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Payable on delivery of the info I need.
102GLACON: awaiting query.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Do you know the snitch the night cartel is hunting?
102GLACON: yes.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: What is their name.
102GLACON: Emilo Salgado Vega.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Why does the cartel want him dead?
102GLACON: unknown.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: What can you tell me about him?
102GLACON: he is a zone stalker [profile].
102GLACON: he is known within the zone stalking ‘community’ as among the better stalkers out there.
102GLACON: rumor has it there was a score he found that “made his mint.”
102GLACON: something seems to have happened since then.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: No kidding.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Do you know where he’s hiding out?
102GLACON: rumors indicate he has fled to elysium city.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: I see.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Where in the city is he hiding?
102GLACON: unknown.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Do you not know or do you want more for telling me?
102GLACON: yes.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: I’ve got enough.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Transmitting codes now.
BL4CKM00NH0WL1NG: Remember - this conversation never happened.
102GLACON: i owe ringlefinch my freedom and my livelihood
102GLACON: any contact vetted by him i would trust with my home server

Azathothwakes {PM to Mekhajakumaar}: your contact didn’t waste any time gettin the cred, did you get anything?
Mekhajakumaar: I did!
Mekhajakumaar: (data)
Azathothwakes: fuckin well done!
Azathothwakes: this oughta be enough to start us off
Azathothwakes: and you kept it quiet?
Mekhajakumaar: Yes, I went through a trusted contact.
Azathothwakes: good good, wanna take it to the squad?
Mekhajakumaar: Sure.

Mekhajakumaar {TacNet}: Hey, if we’re looking for a little more leverage, I dug up a name connected to our snitch.
Mekhajakumaar: [Emilio Salgado Vega <info><msg><rep>]
Mekhajakumaar: I had to keep the search quiet, and the best I could turn up was that he was a zone stalker before something went wrong and he had to go to ground. I expect he won’t make it easy for us to find him, he’s probably changed his name and morph a few times now to dodge the cartel.
Mekhajakumaar: Pity, too - get a load of his old morph.
Mekhajakumaar: As for where he’s hiding?
Mekhajakumaar: Elysium City.

 

[TrashRabbit]

"That's a Rapier- Rapiers are real stabbing action kind, like Inego Montoya, and then Pirate sword type is a cutlass. Cutlass has a curve to it, rapier is a skinny Kriegsmesser on a diet with a beveled guard. And the non-swords they use in sport fencing aren't even sharp. I can't fucking stand fencers- just because the backbone of the whole sport uses fencing footwork doesn't make it good-"

Vidar was idly collecting visual ref for her while they talked and worked. One thing leads to another, his query for prop swords and antique swords takes him down the rabbit hole, until he's got prop sword forums up and some cosplayers and a couple of studio pages open-

Heliotrope{Tacnet}: Yes! Now we're ready to go Texas.
Heliotrope: Slepnier, you have a preference for any of those Triad friends? I know hara can't handle Paxfamilia.
Heliotrope: Now we don't have to agree to meet with any of these guys, it might actually be a good idea to contact a couple- Then say we've gone with some one else and hop a ship to Elysium- only thats exactly fucking where Valentina is so that puts a big fat curve ball in my play book.
Heliotrope: hest kuk and hest kuks. everywhere.
Heliotrope: So we should probably

[Yo. Boss!!]
In the real, he cocks his head and clears his Ar with a physical shooing motion, chasing aside his candy crush and the unkempt number of open tabs out his vison. For a moment his visual tacnet is not terrible to glance at.
[I thought you'd want yo know.]

Hyblaeus City Martial Arts looks pretty average, with the exception that in its long list of style is his; NKF (Norwegian style street blade; Works your core!!) taught by one J. D. "QuickSilver" Olsen. And all at once his blood goes cold.

His mouth is wrapped around an explanation of antique forging when he announces, "hold that thought.."

what do I do?
[¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Above my paygrade!]
It can't be Jenny.
[I mean, maybe some one has read a wikipage. You could ask!]
Oh yeah, let me just cold text some fucking punk or worse some one who actually thinks I'm dead-
[Well, if it is Jenny wouldn't it be nice?]
No Penny because I am dead.
[oooh I could shake you Boss!]

Heliotrope{Tacnet}: Use some extra precautions for discretion when we land. She told us to ping her, so she's gonna have her mooks on the look out to ping us instead.

Heliotrope{Pm hara}: Okay. hook me up with a G-rep I need to make some inquiries real quick.

Spoiler

Heliotrope{Pm hara}: Okay. hook me up with a G-rep I need to make some inquiries real quick.

Hara: i thought you'd never ask

Hara: happy birthday

Hara: you're now 1ew1s&c14rk1804

Heliotrope: NO.

Hara: YES

Heliotrope: DEVIN PLEASE

Hara: I GOT THIS FOR YOU SIX MONTHS AGO!!!

Heliotrope: !!!!!!


- Irl Vidar advances and puts him in a headlock

"This is me being nice, you bastard!"

"THANKS I HATE IT"


Hara: It's...distinctive."

-gives him a noogi, lets him go with a shove

"That’s for bad taste and for making Eppie cry you absolute bastard.”

“Jesus! I will apologize to your pink daughter, alright?”

"Good."

Heliotrope: And can I change it later, am I stuck with this for the next fifty years?

Hara: " suppose you can, but you'll have to consider the emotional toll.


"I'm breaking up with you," Vidar says outloud and dramatically.


Hara: That's a funny way to tell me we've been dating.

Heliotope: I wasn't going to tell you. it was a surprise.

Hara: Well, the breaking up part sure makes that less fun.

Heliotrope: Good.


Devin flipped him off with both hands.

A moment passes as Vidar uses his new rep profile to see if any one is using any variation of quicksilver/fakesilver ont eh grep. And as far as he can tell, Jenni seems to have gone legit and clean as a whistle.


Heliotrope: So serious question.

Hara: Yes?

Heliotrope: If you found someone you hadn't seen in ten years and they had gone like obnoxiously and adorable legit, would you say hi?

Heliotrope: I mean YOU would.

Heliotrope: But like should you?

Hara: Actually I wouldn't, because I hate everyone I knew ten years ago.

Heliotrope: point. But like. We're talking about me. this why we broke up.

Hara: You asked me, I'm answering for me. I'm slow.

Heliotrope: also why we broke up.

Hara: Stop mocking my suffering.

Hara: I don't know, it might be nice if they're someone who liked you to know that you're not dead?

Heliotrope: Five took her in when she 15 and I was dead. She was family. But. I mean. she's thirty and I'm bluffing the night cartel, dead, and shapped like an anime.

Hara: I mean, that seems on brand.

Heliotrope: Yeah...but what do I do?!

Hara: You...pm them and say hi, not dead, you want to grab coffee sometime?

Hara: Alternately you say nothing and know they're alright and let them do their thing.

Hara: I don't know them enough to give super helpful advice here.

Heliotrope: okay. Cool cool but what if I'm completely unrecognizable as an entity.

Hara: Is that not the dream?

Heliotrope: :<

Hara: You've been through some shit, and if she cares about you she'll still like you anyway.

Hara: If not, fuck 'em?

Heliotrope: I mean she's already killed me once, whats the worst she could right?

Hara: WAIT WAIT WAIT

Hara: SHE DID WHAT NOW??

Heliotrope: I havent told you this story?

Hara: I think I would remember you getting murdered by a 15 year old????

Heliotrope: Most people do.

Hara: vidar pls

Heliotrope: Well, where to start! I got murdered by a fifteen year old. And my spouse decided that she was their new protege and put me in a fucking ghost modual. Jenni took my sword and my title and Five gave her my credit card."

Heliotrope:Shes bascialy kid number 2

Hara: hey

Hara: from the bottom of my heart

Hara: what the fuck

Heliotrope: Oh- Oh okay right. When you duel someone and you kill them you take their shit. Their title, there sword with its access key and @rep...@rep wasn't locked to egos then we put it on the sword in a blockchain nano engraving. And So like this kid challenges me on fite and I'm drunk and I get a good laugh and I figure sure why not, I would duel noobies and not kill them so I ended up with more chalengers than like- Five of ColdFlower but like I also used to teach so sometimes you could help them, or get them to come to the studio. Except Jenni killed me. And I'll never live it down.

Hara: And your partner decided that meant she was your kid now? that...makes sense and i hate it.

heliotrope: I wish my life wasn't like this.

hara: your life is a performance art piece and it's astounding

Heliotrope: Anyway. What do I do?

Hara: shit"

Hara: I think if you don't say hi and she finds out you're here she might kill you again"

Heliotrope: fuck."

hara:I'm sorry your daughter is terrifying"

Heliotrope: God I don't know if this would be better or worse if it was Vera."

hara: I'm sorry all of your daughters are terrifying"

Heliotrope: Vera was a lawyer. And is only like 30 years younger than me and knows how real peopleTM should live there lives. so like don't want to think about that!!

hara: Sounds like she'd get along with my family. awful.

Heliotrope: Jenni is reasonable and stabs people when she's had enough of their shit.

hara: are...are you sure you didn't make that one?

Heliotrope: P. sure. Jenni was mail ordered.

hara: close enough

heliotrope: From hell. to murder me.

hara: XD XD

Heliotrope: So I go say right?

Hara: unless you're willing to risk her hunting you down to kill you AGAIN

Heliotrope: Or just a message?

Heliotrope: She cna't beat me. She got lucky ONCE.

hera: sure thing, mr. lewis and clark

hara: Send her a message first and see how that goes?

heliotrope: Yeah but on what rep?

hara: Shes on c and f?

Heliotrope: And Who the fuck is annabelle Ory?

Heliotrope: Abi could do this for me. daughter #3 come back.

hara: which one do you look more respectable on?

Heliotrope: Look at my face. I'm making a face.”

hara: I can't help you, I'm very unpopular on the c-net

Heliotrope: I don't understand F-rep and at this point I am afraid to ask

hara: I see your face with both of my eyes

hara: 've avoided it so good call

heliotrope: have the C-rep profile starglass gave us but like- that will require explaining

hara: sorry annabelle

hara: do you want me to send her a message instead?"

hara: she won't need to know mine's fake because she doesn't know me anyway

Heliotrope: Oh man. Okay!


Tavrin Callas{pm to J.D. Olsen}: Hello, stranger! My boyfriend is a weenie but he knows you. He said to tell you 1. that he’s not dead and 2. fakesilver? Want to set up a coffee date?

J. D. Olsen: That’s the nickname he gave you, huh?

J. D. Olsen: Jesus christ, I didn’t think anyone made it out of Oslo…

J. D. Olsen: Are you in the city right now??

Tavrin Callas: He said it with love.

Tavrin Callas: And we aren’t yet but will be pretty soon.

J. D. Olsen: I mean it’s funny because I won that fight fair and square.

J. D. Olsen: Fuck.

J. D. Olsen: I have breaks between my classes but usually only for ten, fifteen minutes at a time.

J. D. Olsen: The timing is really delicate.

J. D. Olsen: Do you have any idea on your ETA?

Tavrin Callas: Within a day or so

Tavrin Callas: We could always throw him in a class, he’ll have a great time

J. D. Olsen: If he’s as sharp as he was, I can maybe pass him off as a guest instructor!

J. D. Olsen: Then again, if he’s anything like I remember, he’s not going to,,, appreciate the company.

J. D. Olsen: Most of my students are XP actors or EPM Tacs.

J. D. Olsen: Anyways, I’m usually hosting classes at the studio in the afternoon - mornings are for one-on-one training for XP production.

J. D. Olsen: Let me know when you’re in town and I can get you in on the schedule!

Tavrin Callas: I’ll keep you posted!

Tavrin Callas: I’m sure he’ll be delighted to help, because I won’t tell him until it’s too late.

J. D. Olsen: We haven’t met yet, but I already like you.

Tavrin Callas: I like to put my best foot forward with people who can kick my ass : )

J. D. Olsen: XD XD XD

J. D. Olsen: Gotta go - see you soon!!

Tavrin Callas: See you!!



hara: so good news!

hara: you get to show stuntmen which end of the knife to hold!

Heliotrope: NO

hara: too late

hara: : )

Heliotrope: Oh man. She did this on purpose.

hara: Jenny is a VERY busy lady!!!

Heliotrope: I bet. I should have mesaged her myself. I'm kicking mysel.f

hara: she likes me tho

Heliotrope: ofc your a gremlin wich is nearly a goblin

hara: ) : ) : )

 

[Graystone713]

“Okay, but which is better - the rapiers or the swingy-swords?” Veronica asks aloud, while on the TacNet: [So, which of our options for the triads is looking the best? Shui Fong, Big Circle, 14K?]
Mach rolled his eyes and professed his lack of expertise with: “Swords… Pfft. I can barely swing a knife without cutting myself. I mean, gimme a laser pulser and I’m good, but… You keep your blades to yourselves.” but in Tacnet, it was a different story: [Uh. The guy who onboarded me to Firewall is a Shui Fong big league. I’m almost as much a member of Shui Fong as I am firewall. I mean, obviously the world comes before crimes, but I’m also VERY criminal. So I recommend Shui. And de-recommend 14K. Partly because they’re assholes, mostly because I’ve been an asshole to them in the past and if they recognize me, it’ll be BAD.]

Mekhajakumaar: How did that come about, out of sudden curioisty? I know 14K and S-F’ve been at each other’s throats since before the Fall but you gotta do something spectacular to be singled out.
Sleipnir: Well, aside from being a consistent thorn in their side on the illegal racing market, my entrance into the Shui Fong involved me getting one of their T-tech dealers into a really damn big firefight that ended with us both dead, but… Well, I was put in the gang. The 14K guy… well, I never asked what they did to him. Probably wasn’t pretty.
Azathothwakes: haha nice
Mekhajakumaar: Probably best not to think on it.
Azathothwakes: yeah those triad vets are hardcore
Mekhajakumaar: So, we have our play and we have our players - how should we proceed?
Sleipnir: Well, we could ask my boss. He’s firewall, and we could tell him exactly what we need to happen, IE giving out the three miles thing and making it seem like she’s got loose lips while getting one of our SF buyers excited about fencing what we got. Then again, if we’d rather not get him super involved, we could play it semi-legit to him.
Azathothwakes: in theory, that seems better than chattin’ up someone not in on the con and riskin’ fuckin them off
Azathothwakes: ‘specially if your guy’s a dude with pull, he can probably put up a good front for us to force the Viper’s, uh, hand
Mekhajakumaar: It makes the most sense to me for hara and Sleipnir to speak with S’s boss, work out the con, and then set it up - are we agreed?
Sleipnir: Makes sense, Mecha.
Heliotrope: +1
hara: sounds good to me
Sleipnir: 3-2-1 let’s jam
Heliotrope{Pm to Sleipnir}: do do do do do doooo

The ping went out on Guanxi, and Mach started the conversation how he should: With an apology to his boss.

Sleipnir: You’ll have to forgive the grim tone from earlier, Doraxis. This mission is the most dangerous I’ve ever been on for Firewall, and the information involved is highly destabilizing. Not Infohazardous, but the sort of info that starts wars.
Sleipnir: Anyway, to the point: Our investigations need us to cuck the SHIT out of Night Cartel by making it look like we’re fencing some prize shit to you-and making it look like they’re sloppy about their secrets.
Sleipnir: One of their T-tech buyers has something juicy, and we need the leverage for a deal on our terms, especially since she threatened and disrespected us. You in?
Doraxis_Go: Sure, what the hell
Doraxis_Go: I’m gonna have to put on my best Irritated Boss act seeing as how shit’s real volatile right now, but if it gets y’all out of the shit, then pass my G-rep on to whoever I gotta put on a show with
Sleipnir: I wouldn’t say you’re getting us out of the shitter, but you’re definitely a big help, bossman. We’re looking to spook Valentina the Viper, G-rep Black_Mamba She is pulling some serious bullshit.
Doraxis_Go: Oh shit
Doraxis_Go: Yeah we’ve had dealings in the past
Doraxis_Go: Tread lightly around her, she’s been on a real tear lately
Doraxis_Go: But yeah, if it helps, then let’s set it up (LomaxWu)
Sleipnir: Yeah, trust me. If I tread on her, it’ll be a combat morph’s armored boot backed up by a beam. Still, I greatly appreciate this. Oh, uh, almost forgot-she let her location slip HERE [RoughTtechCoords]

The pregame was set up, So now it was time to swap to Guanxi and allow Laoban to take the first shot.

LomaxWu {PM to Dai/ja/vu, th3r4tk1ng}: my forty-niner here tells me you want to deal with me? what have you got, hm?
th3r4tk1ng: first, thanks for hearing us out
th3r4tk1ng: we have information on the location of some very interesting items down on earth you might be interested in.
LomaxWu: is that right?
LomaxWu: it’s a seller’s market for “interesting items”
LomaxWu: might I ask what sort of items you’ve located?
Th3r4tk1ng: Well its either a really great paper weight
Th3r4tk1ng: or some kind of wonder gadget
Th3r4tk1ng: the other one is definitely cursed
Th3r4tk1ng: opens up and makes whir noises
Th3r4tk1ng: killed a guy
Th3r4tk1ng: not opening it again
LomaxWu: i see.
LomaxWu: and if I were interested in procuring these objects
Th3r4tk1ng: you’d buy them from me
Th3r4tk1ng: i’m a simple man
LomaxWu: very well.
LomaxWu: name your price.
Th3r4tk1ng: 160k for the cursed whir machine
Th3r4tk1ng: Wonder gadget doesn’t look so pretty and doesn't whir
Th3r4tk1ng: so a generous 80k
LomaxWu: you understand, for those prices, i will need to inspect them
LomaxWu: in person.
LomaxWu: do you have these items somewhere near Mars?
Th3r4tk1ng: listen I usually sell vinyl records
Th3r4tk1ng: i got the location and want to know I’m risking my neck for a price
Th3r4tk1ng: this isn’t shit I want to sit on in this economy
Th3r4tk1ng: and of course you’ll inspect it in person
LomaxWu: those prices will definitely get you somewhere.
LomaxWu: name a time and a place.
Th3r4tk1ng: 3 weeks tops
Th3r4tk1ng: pontes docks I can ping you when we’re in
Th3r4tk1ng: and for being so goddamn reasonable
Th3r4tk1ng: a bird fucking told us where the night cartel is keeping a little somthing [coordinates]
Th3r4tk1ng: you do with that what you want
Th3r4tk1ng: and show up when we get back
LomaxWu: understood.
LomaxWu: we will be here.
LomaxWu: happy hunting.
Th3r4tk1ng: O7

There it was, one faked deal to make any vipress squirm. One last swap back to Firewall's network, and they'd be done with it.

Doraxis_Go {pm to Sleipnir}: That ought to give Valentina something to sweat over
Doraxis_Go: I hope you all know what you’re doing
Doraxis_Go: If it helps your mission, then it will be worth having to deal with angry bosses for a couple weeks
Sleipnir: It will. I owe you one.
Doraxis_Go: Damn right
Doraxis_Go: lining up a big race in a couple weeks’ time
Doraxis_Go: You can start by makin it through this and winning big for me, deal?
Sleipnir: Easy if 14K stays the fuck out of it. They probably won’t but eh, nothin new.
Doraxis_Go: I’m sure they’ll find a way to make the race interesting
Doraxis_Go: first things first
Doraxis_Go: do what you gotta do and watch yourself out there
Sleipnir: Be home soonish, I hope.

Mach smiled as he finished up. He would need some serious race time once this was over, and making Laoban happy with it was nice. Now they just had to use the false convo correctly...

 

[ValtheStarGal]

Pontes Station
(Collab Post with CelticSol )​

Intel procured, and Rushing Jaws out a thousand in cred, he returns his attention to the pinkest doe on Pontes, who seems to be responding well to him holding her. They have just finished singing ‘Dance on the Moon’ together, an old song he can’t believe they both happened to know. As the last notes wing their way out into Pontes, he gets an idea.

“Hey doe? ‘d you ever get a milkshake?”

“Like… Ever? Yes. Today… I don’t think so. Why? You offering?”

“Indeed I am - I missed out on the frozen treat run and I’m aimin’ to correct that. What’s your pleasure?”

“Strawberry, of course. Have you seen the rest of me? It’s gotta be pink.”

Rushing Jaws laughs a hearty laugh and gives her an oh, you squeeze; “Strawberry it is!”

One order of Strawberry and one of,,, hm.
[I’m not seeing ‘Salmon special’ on any of the menus here]
Fucking animals.
[What’s the fallback?]
Chocolate explosion.
[On it]

“What’s your poison, RJ? What really just, y’know, chowders your clams in the land of milkshakes?”

“Well, it would be salmon n’ chocolate, but there is a distinct lack of civilization aboard this station because I am not seeing anyone offering salmon flavorings.”

Eppie looks up at him, her brows furrowed, “How dare they! Hm… There is a place here I know that caters to uplifts… Damn-” Eppie boots her inserts back up, then thinks:

Sezé? What was the place where we got snacks with the crew a few years back?

A pin appears on Eppie’s map, and she forwards the location to RJ, “It’s a little hole in the wall I encountered with my friends at three in the morning and drunk off our tits. My sape shake was very good, but based on the review of the neo-cets I was with, their milkshakes are unmatched.”

“Well fuck me corkscrewing, let’s go!!!”

Maz?
[Orders cancelled and re-placed at the new location!]
You’re a lifesaver.

“It’s not too too far. Are you willing to walk together, rather than ordering it here?”

[Already sent the change in]
you keep this up n’ you’re goin’ places.

“For sure! If we’re gonna be in grav, I need to practice walkin on two feet again anyways. Besides - this hab ain’t half bad if you can look past all the hypercorp nonsense.”

Eppie grins, stepping back from RJ’s warm embrace as she opens the directions briefly to make sure they go the right way before closing the window in her entopics. Sure she knows the way, Eppie extends her hand to RJ for him to take, “Shall we?”

Māz.
[You take her hand and walk with her to the snack shop like a gentlebeing.]
Māz.
[Think of how sad she would be if you turned her down.]

Rushing Jaws can’t help but smile himself as he takes Eppie’s hand, and follows her down the streets of the borough they’ve found themselves in. The initial buzz of anxiety settles into a more confident feeling, and something pleasantly warm besides, as he and Eppie make their way to the shop. Rushing Jaws can’t - or maybe given the record, chooses not to - remember how the last time a one-on-one walk with a sape went, but in his line of work, you take the quiet moments you can get with people who make you feel good to be around. He even thinks he catches Eppie glancing at him from out of the corner of his eye, but she has an uncanny way of looking straight on when he checks, and so he lets it go, and gets back to consciously singing the songs his subconscious habit has him humming as they make their way to the cylinder.

As she peeks behind her - to check on RJ, as he seemed so hesitant to take her hand - she spots Vidar alongside Devin and Mach and a woman she has never seen before. She pauses a moment, the rhythm of her steps broken for a brief moment as her mind hyperfocuses a moment on the profile of Vidar’s face. There is a buzzing, which might be a hum of an alien voice catching onto the melody of her most recent sleight. If she could listen closer without her headache getting worse, she may be able to distinguish it’s lyrics. It’s meanings. But in that split moment, her eyes linger on Vidar.

The buzzing fades, the headache lessens, and her anxiety seems to feel less daunting from before, and she smiles to herself to know she has such good people around her that could inspire such calm, even surrounding the new strangeness of her life. Her lingering gaze causes RJ’s dark eyebrow to raise, so she squeezes his hand and looks up to him, “You excited for milkshakes? I can’t even remember the last time I got some. It was probably the last time I stepped foot on Mars, if I really think about it.”

“Yeah! Ice cream can be real tasty, but it’s way different when it’s gotta be engineered to maintain flavor and texture underwater. I usually try to get a little somethin’ when i’m sleeved sape, just to mix it up. Also, if it’s my place to ask - what in the system’d bring you to Mars? I know you’re a gatecrasher, but Pathfinder seems like it’d be an awful fit for you.”

Eppie makes a face that could only be described as ‘autonomist disgust’, “You’re right. Ew. It was… Well. I deal with every single aspect of aliens; culture, biology, language, behaviour, everything. When everything seems to be dead and gone, all you really have to work with is artifacts, right? I… How do I put this very delicately…?” Eppie twists her mouth, trying to consider her words, then, hoping RJ would appreciate the action more than he would choose to condemn, she confesses, “I got an all expenses paid trip here, along with a few of my crewmembers, to help the cartel make fake artifacts to sell to rich people.”

The sound Rushing Jaws makes in response to this is a single guffaw that echoes down the street with its volume. “Careful who ya let hear that out loud, holy shit.”

MurderSurfer {pm to lilpinkpunk}: [Holy fuck that is outstanding though??? Now i get how you have G-rep. Wow. Absolutely outstanding how much did you make???]
lilpinkpunk: [deceiving the rich into spending exorbitant amounts of money on something that is worthless is priceless, rj]
lilpinkpunk: [that being said,,,, one mil split five ways with my crew,,,, i walked away with two hundred grand]

Rushing Jaws just stops in his tracks, eyes wide.

MurderSurfer: [Fuck me but am I in the wrong line of work!! What’d you do with it all??]

The sudden stop causes Eppie to get jerked back a little with a yelp, but she’s grinning.

lilpinkpunk: [bamboozling the rich while doing science was a dream come true, honestly]
lilpinkpunk: [but tbh? i didn’t and still dont need that kind of money. my mom convinced me to throw some in the bank for interest or whatever, but i donated most of it to an autonomist colony in the outer system. they do some really incredible things out on their station, and they needed it more than i did]
MurderSurfer: [You are a credit to the Alliance, lil pink.]

“Fucking incredible. There are worse reasons to visit Pathfinder City, for sure. Where were we- okay- fuck- well, glad you had a profitable time, knowin how tough it can be. I, for one, could never see this red planet again and be happy, but while we gotta be here, may as well go in for shakes.”

MurderSurfer: [God damn outstanding,,,,]

Without realizing it, Rushing Jaws’ grip on Eppie’s hand is just a little more firm, his smile just a little more admiring. Eppie squeezes back twice, intertwining their fingers together as she leads them into the milkshake parlour.