[Shadowrun] Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Request

[Oath]

The populuation of Negi's was thinning out, a few regulars continued their revelry into the early morning hours. Machiavelli stumbled in behind the group, looking a bit worn out at this late hour. Shinji seemed to be running on fumes himself. His trademark smile replaced by a drowsy nod of approval. "Thanks again." He tossed a key towards Roland. "Treat her kind, will ya? After that he pointed at Takumi. "How'd you enjoy your field trip? That'll be all for tonight fellas. Thanks again. It's nice to have some stuff getting done quickly. If we need anything else done, I'll be sure to be in  contact."

Machiavelli waved half heartedly. " Yo, Shinji, mind if I crash in one of the VIP rooms, its gettin kind of late. I'll be outta here before business picks up of course. "Sure, Machiavelli. you're a clean guy and ya helped out tonight. Kept Takumi safe. Shinji pointed over to one of the rooms and Machiavelli started to make his way over to it.   "I'll talk to you guys when I hear back from my guy. Hopefully tomorrow. Let me know if any work turns up on your end of things. With that he stepped into the room and bid the group good night. Within minutes you could hear some snoring despite the door being closed. 

[pringerbeam]

     Roland took the keys and jingled them in his hand.  "Thanks Shinji, don't you worry.  I'll treat her like a classy lady" He waved farewell to Takumi and Machiavelli.  "I'll see you guys later.  If i hear anything on my end I'll call you guys up.  Oh that reminds me."  He pulled out his comlink and projected his comcode into the AR space in front of Takumi. "If you need any freelance help with your clan duties my rates are reasonable.  Other than that, stay on your toes Chopstick.  I'll make a man out of you yet." With that he took his leave of the VIP room and made his way out of the club.  At the door he raised the keys and an eyebrow at the door guard who pointed him to the car.
     It was what he asked for but he gave the car a nice looking down anyways.  He unlocked the car and hopped into the front seat.  Wriggling about to try and get a feel for the seat he frowned. "Ugh who's car was this... a dwarf?"  He tried to get comfortable but the seat was just a tad too far forward.  He tried to adjust the seat but nothing seemed to get the right distance.  The next farther setting was just too far away.  He tried sitting further forward on the seat but then felt like he was being choked by the seat-belt.  He let out a frustrated sigh. "Guess this is what I get for cheating on you El D." He pulled out his comm and put a command to El Diablo to return home with its full security system online. 
     He drove back to his place in Auburn.  The house was a decent place in a far from decent neighborhood.  His home in the working-poor neighborhood was chosen more for having a decent garage space and neighbors that wouldn't ask questions about his personal security modifications to the building than for its neighborhood association.  He waited around in the loaner for El Diablo to show up and opened the garage door up for it to make its way in before pulling in along side it.  He let the garage door before getting out of the car.  He stretched.  "Hopefully that doesn't need too much use." He looked to the garage door and the reinforcement plates lining the interior.  He thought back to the first time his place was burgled which prompted him to reinforce the doors.  These days the bars on the windows and security doors he was able to get on the cheap keep out the riffraff and the odd job for the local gang tends to keep away everyone else.
   Roland walked up the stairs into his house, tossing the loaner keys onto the kitchen counter as he walked by before pivoting around on his heel.  "Almost forgot..."  He walked back into the garage and opened El Diablo's trunk and smuggling compartment to take out the bags of drugs from the earlier job.  He made his way back through his messy house to his bedroom.  He opened up his closet and moved aside some shirts to reveal the safe stood up in the back corner.  He typed the entrance code into the numerical display and opened up the safe.  He frowned at the barren interior.  He liked to keep his backup funds in the safe but after trying to keep off radar for a bit things were looking slim.  He let out a long breath. "Well it's a start."  He tossed the bags of drugs into the bottom of the safe before closing it up.  He pulled off his holster and removed the gun.  He hung the holster up in the closet and placed the gun on his bedside table.  Going into the bathroom he took off his shirt and turned on the lights to get a look at the bruise covering the side of his torso which collided with the wall.  "Ew..."  He pulled open the drawer to see if he had any first aid supplies but there was nothing but band-aids and a bottle of tequila.  "Figures, might need to see Shanks about that I guess."  He made his way back to his bedroom and flopped face down into his bed to sleep off the day.

[info]Rolls for stun damage healing overnight.  Each takes 1 hour. I will just throw out 2 on the assumption that I can manage to cover 2 hits in that amount of time.
[blockquote]Rolled 8d6 : 6, 5, 6, 3, 5, 1, 5, 3, total 34[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Rolled 8d6 : 6, 3, 6, 1, 1, 2, 6, 1, total 26[/blockquote]

Physical healing check in the even that nothing happens tomorrow and my character gets a chance to rest all day tomorrow. Takes all day.
[blockquote]Rolled 8d6 : 2, 6, 3, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, total 23[/blockquote][/info]

[InhumanRonin]

Takumi adds Roland's information into his own comlink. "I will keep your rates in mind if I end up needing something. I will also if Shinji or anyone else gives us some work I will keep you in the loop. Takumi nods to Roland as he heads over to see if there was anything else Shinji had lined up or see if he could turn in for the rest of the night.

"Hey Shinji just making sure before I head out for the night are we good for the night or is there something else you need done?

[spoiler]If nothing I head to my bike and head back to my place to heal up[/spoiler]

[info]Rolling to heal up stun damage taken earlier in the day [blockquote]Rolled 7d6 : 5, 5, 1, 3, 2, 5, 4, total 25[/blockquote]
[blockquote]Rolled 7d6 : 3, 3, 2, 1, 6, 6, 1, total 22[/blockquote][/info]

[Oath]

[info] the party will have roughly 4 days of downtime for healing/whatever you want to do, so post away![/info]

[Mysticsage]

Zephyr watched from behind the bar serving the occasional customer as Kyoko preformed in her full regalia on the small stage with the band. The sounds of tiles and cards on the upper floors providing a slight background noise. It was moments like these that he marveled at the beauty of  the place that this proprietress had managed to put together. They shared a similar odd and stubborn perspective on the world, and while some of her activities may be considered unsavory she was fair and creative in her thinking. In terms of Fixers there were few that enjoyed is eccentricities like she did. He was grateful for her ability to keep him clothed and feed where he would often be at the whims of his own desire's and that of his mentor.

He waited until she finished her set and did her rounds before he nodded for someone else to take over for him and he headed back to see her with a small note in hand. Knocking on the door as he walked into her office he called, "Kyoko, do you have a moment. I realize that I should be laying low after finishing that last heist but I'm going to need to do some work without the mask as you know. But I've done some stock of left over gear I had from the job and came to realize I need to restock a lot. Miss Private investigator left my costumes and most of my equipment in tatters with her crew. Still got the better of her but it will take a while to get me back to fighting wait to tango with her again. I figure that at least getting my hands on the basics would be a place to start things over again."

He handed her the scrap of paper, the list was small and modest only the barest essentials for any upcoming missions. He doubted she would have much difficulty getting the goods.

[info]
Zephyr is looking to obtain
50 stick n shock rds
10 smoke grds
lockppicks
[/info]

[pringerbeam]

     Roland walked into the clinic.  It seemed like any other small time medical clinic except for the troll in a cheap suit with a large piece in an unconcealed shoulder holster who was eating out of a takeout box where the receptionist would normally sit.  Roland waved at the troll.  "Hey Pauli, just looking for some supplies and a consult.  Shanks busy?"  Pauli grunted and put a fork full of salad in his mouth.  "Some kid broke his arm or something. You're gonna have to wait."  Spoke the troll through a mouthful of food before frowning at the screen he was looking at behind the counter.  "Lose a bet?"  "My favorite horse took a trip to the glue factory and now I can't find a winner."  "Try Blue-eyed Star.  I hear they have a good pedigree."  The troll grunted again and continued to eat.  After a few minutes a woman came out from the rear of the clinic with a young kid in tow, a cast on his arm.  "Alright, no parkour until that arm heals up kid..."  Shanks paused upon seeing Roland  "Yeah kid otherwise you get stuff that looks like this."  At this Roland pulled up his shirt to show the purple bruise covering most of his right side.  The kid looked at the bruise.  "Cool!"  His mother then rolled her eyes and dragged him out of the clinic.  The troll let out a low chuckle and Shanks let out an exasperated sigh.  "Great, thanks now I'm going to see him in a week with shattered ankles...  I guess I know why you are here though."  "Kinda, I figure at this point I will survive.  But I have become acutely aware that I am out of first aid supplies.  Got any on hand?"  "I'll see what I can do."

[info]Roll to see if Roland's sports advice is good.
[blockquote]Rolled 6d6 : 6, 6, 3, 2, 6, 4, total 27[/blockquote]

Shopping List
2 Rating 6 First Aid Kits (1500 each)[/info]

[Oath]

[info] Shanks Vs Medkit.

Shanks: [blockquote]Rolled 7d6 : 2, 3, 1, 5, 1, 4, 2, total 18[/blockquote]

Medkit: [blockquote]Rolled 6d6 : 3, 6, 3, 5, 1, 1, total 19[/blockquote]

[/info]

[Oath]

"Sorry Roland, fresh out of what you're looking for. Been trying to get some more for myself too, but the pickings are scarce. I've got a few.. less well supplied kits that I can sell you. If you're interested."

[info] Shanks is willing to sell 2 rating 4 medkits for 1,000 a piece. [/info]

[pringerbeam]

     "It'll have to do.  Better than nothing right?"  Roland handed over credsticks for the kits.  "I've got another errand to run today so can't really stay and chat.  Good luck on the races Paulie."  Taking the medkits by the handles he took them out to his car where he stowed one under the backseat and the other in the trunk.  Hopefully I wont need these that soon.  He thought to himself as he got into the driver's seat as he drove off to his next errand.

     Roland pulled into the police station public parking garage.  He looked around the garage as he unstrapped his holster before opening up the glove box and putting his still holstered gun in.  He looked around to make sure that nothing incriminating was laying out in the open one last time and got out of the car.  Arming the security system he headed for the stairs down up to the street across from the station.  He strolled across the crosswalk with a smile on his face, giving a nod to the uniformed officers giving him puzzled looks and scrutiny as he made his way to the front door.  Inside the door he stopped at the security check where an officer gave him a looking over before speaking.  "Put the jacket, keys, comlinks, and whatnot through the scanner then walk through the detector with your arms raised."  Roland emptied his pockets into a small bin and unzipped his jacket.  "Yeah I know the drill.  As you can see..."  He nodded at his right arm while he pulled off his jacket.  "I tend to set alarms off."  He tossed his jacket into the bin with the rest of his stuff and fed it into the tunnel of the scanner before walking through the detector.  The guard looked at the detector's screen and then waved him along.  "Scanner says he's got the arm, eye implants, and 'jacks.  Anything in his stuff?"  The guard looking at the scanner shrugged. "Nah nothing here.  He's clean."  "Thanks officers for not patting me down.  Slow day?"  Remarked Roland as he gathered up his stuff from the bin.  "Yeah, should have been here last night if you wanted someone on your junk.  There was an explosion.  Turns out to have just been some methhead fuckups though.  You can go on in."  Roland nodded as he pulled his jacket back on and walked through the doors into the precinct.  The officer at the desk looked up at him.  "What do you want?"  "I would like to meet with Detective Long."  "You got an appointment?"  "Nope, the name is Roland.  Let him know I have a tip on a case."  The officer sighed and leaned up to a comterminal.  "Detective Long, you got a Roland here with a tip on a case."  The officer nodded at whatever he heard come back.  "Alright, he says you can go on in.  Don't touch anything.  Don't make any contact with the lowlifes."  "I know the drill.  Take it easy."  Roland walked into the bullpen and made his way through the chaos of officers and recent arrests to the back corner where Detective Long sat at his desk, tapping away on his terminal.  "Hey Craig, how's it hanging?" "Busy..."  The detective stopped typing and leaned back in his chair.  "So Roland, do you actually have a tip for me or are you just here to say hi after whatever vacation you seem to have been on."  "Both actually, and a little bit extra.  I am back to work and my first job seems to be a bit of a surprise considering my usual area of expertise.  Some guy named Benette got killed yesterday and I have been hired to help figure out whodunit.  I don't suppose you are on the case?"

[Mysticsage]

It was a new day and zephyr had finished going through a rather large stack of papers the night before for the paper lantern and actually managed to get a good nights rest for a change, Drinking his soycafe he walked ibnto his aromatic day job with actual pep in his step. Plus, today was payday at the Holly and Mistletoe so that was always something to look foward to even if everything he made here and more got sucked up in rent for his now Negative energy rich apartment at least Kyoko had agreed to help Kiera stay safe for the time being.

"Good morning Anders" called Zephyr as he went by the counter and his boss to grab one of the aprons with  a unicorn monogram on.

"Good morning Richard" called back a decidedly broader somewhat unshaven elven man flipping through the news on a comspad his short blond hair tussled and still somewhat bedridden as he nodded in zephyrs general direction. His english accent was the thickest in the morning before he had the chance to get his wits about him. Anders never was that much of a morning person. "The Elks are down again by the way." He said somewhat despondently swhipping up with a swift thumb motion.

"I keep forgetting you still get the oxford press." Zephyr chuckled as he looked through the usual customer orders to see what herbs he would need to make sure was available.

"I was a teacher after all and some of us left on good terms instead of just falling off the face of the earth." Said Anders waving his cup of tea in his general direction.

"I would get it too professor if it would not make my feed inundated with request for donations I use my tech for more then occasional reading to get it filled with that spam." Zephyr scoffed. The two continued to chat for the next hour or so until the shop opened and the tiny stream of customers began to filter in. Zephyr spent most of his time in the back today helping with the plant care while Anders did his usual thing. This space of crafted normalcy was always so nice to have and center his mind. Even if that normalcy was as obviously fake as soycafe being coffee. But like soycafe it feed the fix and that was all that really mattered anyway.

The shop was small and smelled like dryed herbs no matter what kind of new product they got in stock. He was glad to be working for someone who was honestly over qualified to be a simple talismonger but Anders and his daughter Holly had always been like family even in the UKGB. He sometimes wondered what his life would have been like if he had finished his training instead of simply disappearing once Owl had found him. But then he knew he would not feel nearly as comfortable in his own skin. Zephyr continued to work until closing time and the young teenage Holly returned from her school.

[InhumanRonin]

Takumi wakes up after a long sleep sore and stiff from the work he had done the previous day. Takumi went through his normal morning routine of eating some food and cleaning himself up. After getting himself situated for the day Takumi decides it would be a good idea to get some information about this crew he will more then likely be working with for the near future it seems. Roland seems like he might be the easiest person to start with so Takumi head out to other Yazuka hotspots in the area to see if he can find out anything more about him or the rest of the crew.

After pounding the pavement for a couple of days Takumi heads back to check in with Shinji to see if he has anything jobs or anything to do. Otherwise Takumi just spends the down time just resting up.


[info]For information gathering[/info]
[spoiler]Con: [blockquote]Rolled 6d6 : 3, 3, 4, 1, 1, 4, total 16[/blockquote]
Ettiquette: [blockquote]Rolled 6d6 : 4, 2, 4, 5, 3, 4, total 22[/blockquote]
Negotation: [blockquote]Rolled 5d6 : 5, 1, 5, 4, 5, total 20[/blockquote]
4 ranks in city-speak and city if needed[/spoiler]

[Oath]

Roland: "Things have been as good as they can get around here. As to the case you're talking about, I heard that a body was found. I'm not on the case, but from what I've heard they are drawing a whole lot of blanks. If there's anything you can share about it, I'm sure the boys would be most appreciative. Glad to see you're not dead in a ditch somewhere though."

Zephyr: "I think I can get the stick and shock for you, but not so sure I'll be able to get your entire request of smoke grenades. We don't run an armory here so it may be suspicious. Lockpicks should pose no issues however. Will have your items in the next couple days. I'm a busy woman as you know, so if you don't need anything else at the moment I'll be attending to some other business. And remember, don't get yourself in too deep."
[info] Will be able to obtain 5 of your 10 requested smoke grenades.[/info]

Takumi: You don't come across any jobs, seems like stuff has been more on the quiet side the past couple days. You asked around about your fellow runners while you had the chance. People told you things that were already fairly obvious, that you likely could have asked yourself. Roland has ties with the Yakuza, seems to know a lot of people. Zephyr works at an herb shop, nobody could tell you much about Machiavelli, but that seemed to be par for the course. Very few people had seen him in the flesh. There are rumours about the net that he has some deep triad ties, but its impossible to know for sure.

[Mysticsage]

Zephyr chuckled as he waved and left her office, it was the first step in reassembling his cowl after what had happened with his last run in with the law. His eyes glowed with a fiery passion then the sound of wings and gossamer down could be seen trailing behind him only for a moment before it was gone. He hoped that Kyoko would keep him in mind for any future work he would need alot more capital if he wanted to be fully dressed for his next moonlight rendezvous with little miss private investigator. He could not wait to see the look on her face it was better to have some kind of challange either from the mark or outsiders like his little follower. Hopefully she was keeping herself employed for the time being while he helped Bennett find rest.

--The next day before work.

He awoke to a box with his previously paid for supplies at his door step Kyoko did always take good care of him. Checking over the contents quickly he took the lockpick set and stowed them away in his side pocket. He grabbed the old man's stick off the wall and headed into work at the Holly and Mistletoe

[previous post for beginning of work]

As the day came to an end and Zephyr finished his usual duties as Holly had already gone upstairs to he grabbed the staff from the back room where he had stored it. "Hey Proffesor I have something I could use your help with." Handing the older elf the staff he let him look it over a second before continuing. "If you don't mind I would love if you could do a full rundown of its astral signature figure out the school it was used for, magical formula's that can be salvaged that sort of thing. Any detail that you can pull from it would be helpful I have a feeling someone was trying to use spirits to get my attention. I'd like to leave this in your care for now and you can take all the time you need and do whatever you want to get at whatever this thing can tell you as long as it doesn't involve vision quests if that comes up let me be the one to do it while you take readings."

He slipped the handful of drams across the counter then as well as his credstick, "And I'll be putting some money back into the shop just in case these spirits get a bit out of control. A friend of mine died recently and I'm looking into it."
[info]
Looking to buy 10 drams of reagents which are considered extremely common for book price of 200 nuyen

Giving anders key item staff for study
[/info]

[pringerbeam]

     Roland took a bit of a look around the bullpen before leaning in a bit to get closer to the detective.  "Well I might have a lead of some kind but I don't know how useful it might be.  It's part of the reason I came here to you.  See, the thing is that I'm tied up in this trying to pay off a favor I owe to a 'colleague' who is not directly involved in the case."  Roland emphasized the term with curled finger quotes.  "Now, the person that my colleague is working with is a bit of an unknown to me.  Normally I would not have any problem with that.  You know the kinda guys I deal with.  Everyone has some secrets, but this guy?  He seems to work hard to have ALL the secrets.  That just doesn't sit right with me.  So I'm here to see if you know anything about him.  Maybe you guys have a file on him already.  He goes by the name Zepher, at least that what he gave me."  Roland scrolled through his cybereye footage on his comlink for an image to display.  "Here's a shot of him.  He says he works for the Manzoku but never said what he did for them. I had trouble trying to get much of a work history out of him so I don't know much about what kinda capabilities he has.  He's got magic  That's for sure.  He can at least turn stuff invisible, beyond that I'm not sure.  The magic is more your department anyways so you probably have a better idea if that means anything.  Oh yeah, he said something about owls and stuff, mentors or something.  That might be important to you but I don't have the magic touch.  I don't think he outright killed the stiff but when I tried to gauge how involved he might be in the murder things got...  Well lets just say that things got heated.  So I'm thinking that something is up and would like to find out if its a sandpaper covered dildo an inch from my anus.  Considering how my last job went, I don't want to wind up with a rep for being easily double crossed."  Roland's tone took on a more serious note.  "Look Craig, I don't want you going too far out on a limb here on looking into this guy.  I only know a few names associated with this guy and one of them is a corpse.  I'd rather not have you join him in the morgue so be careful."  With that Roland pulled away to lean back in the chair.  "Oh and if you need to collar him give me a heads up.  I might be up for helping out depending on what you want him for."  Roland stood up and smiled.  "Well I got to fly.  You ever need my help just let me know.  Take it easy Craig."

[InhumanRonin]

Its been a few days since the drug lab work for Shinji and not much has been going on for Takumi since then besides finding no work and learning little about those he was working with. Takumi thought to himself, "Well looking for work has been harder then I had anticipated but at least this down time has given me a chance to learn a small bit more about who I will more likely then not be working with in the future." Takumi decided that he better get out of bed at this point no use laying about. "Probably should head over to Negi's to see if Shinji might have anything else lined up cause bills arent going to be paying themselves if I dont get some work soon."

Takumi then showers eats some breakfast and heads out to his bike to head over to talk to Shinji. Upon arriving at Negi's Takumi parks his bike and locks it up before heading inside the club. Once inside Takumi finds Shinji and heads over to talk to him. Before Takumi opens his mouth he bows slighty and askes Shinji, "Been a few days since the last job I was wondering if you had anything I could to make up for the other day."