Luxe reveals some of his past, the team gets spendy and then heads to Grand Central Station.
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@funcityventures is the show
@bijanstephen is TK
@randwiches is Viv
@nguersh is Luxe
and @shodell is Lash
@taylordotbiz is the bad boys and
@mikerugnetta is everything else
--
Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
Pixlriffs definitely knows how to eat a banana.
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - http://cuneiform.xyz
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kestrel and Kit
The voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton
Transcript by Ian Bird
--
CC-BY Licensed SFX and music used in this Episode:
https://freesound.org/people/producerdan/sounds/266626/
https://musopen.org/music/43373-string-quartet/
https://freesound.org/people/Meisben/sounds/488053/
https://freesound.org/people/PhilStrahl/sounds/497029/
[ Transcription note: IC indicates in character speech, OOC indicates out of character. ]
[00:00:00] [ Intro Theme begins ]
> Molly Templeton / "Artemis": *[ IC ] *In the early 21st century, magic reawakened on Earth, and alongside it, a new human race, with orks, elves, trolls, dwarves, and others. Humanity became metahumanity.
As technology proliferated and greatly advanced in the awakened world, global megacorporations seized ever more power, becoming de facto states with their own laws, courts, and armed forces. The corporations attempt to control all aspects of modern life. This has led to a vast and complex criminal underground which works for and against corporate interests. The independent career criminals who do what others can't or won't are called Shadowrunners.
The year is 2101. Welcome to Fun City.
[ Intro Theme concludes ]
[ Main Theme begins ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: Previously on Fun City, the team said, "No thank you." to Combinatorial Limited johnson Mo Ashina, who hired them to frame P.B.A. bureaucrat Verne Sollix. Ashina sent her B-Team, who attempted to show the crew the error of their ways with bullets. Two team members of B-Team died in that encounter and their leader, a dwarf named KitKat, was read the riot act by Luxe and Lash the next morning, driven one city block, given three Gatorades, and offered a job.
Mo Ashina exacted further revenge by draining the team's bank accounts, but in a meeting with everyone's favorite Eastern European chef, Yuri assured the team it had been taken care of, and offered them a new job: head to Highland Island and take care of a bug ghost. But first, visit his friend Irina in Midtown, who would give them a talisman needed for the job. Before leaving Yuri's, the team: unsure of if they even want this job given the threats of the many-armed man and Yuri's questionably violent past. Hector, a large smokin' hot minotaur, insists Yuri give them time to think. He says he'll send a fruit basket.
We join the team now back on the Mrs. Egg as they dig in.
[ Main Theme concludes ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Sure enough, you do see, on the table there, the most colorful, largest, most resplendent - resplendent? Is that the right word?
*> Nick Guercio / "Luxe Scythe": [ OOC ] *Uh-huh.
> Bijan Stephen / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: Fruit basket that you have ever seen.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] How much beef is in it?
> Jenn de la Vega / "Vivian Lakewood": [ OOC ] [ Jenn laughs ] Yeah, because Viv is not going near it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Give - be hon - Shoot us straight, Mike. How much beef is in it? [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Can you tell us what kind of fruits are in - in the fruit basket?
*> Mike / G.M.: *There is - There is, one: no meat in the fruit basket.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *[ Sigh of relief ] Wow, okay.
> Shannon Odell / "Lash Goodbog": [ OOC ] Wow, no beef.
*> Mike / G.M.: *As promised.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Wow.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Ah, no land mammals.
*> Mike / G.M.: *You can see a whole bunch of bananas. There are several oranges, some kiwis, two mangoes. Those are very, very expensive.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Wow.
*> Mike / G.M.: *And a pineapple, which, maybe none of you have ever seen before - like a real one.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Viv has. [ Jenn, Mike, Nick laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: That's true, Viv has seen a pineapple.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Whoa. They got - there's a soccer ball in this fruit basket! [ Mike laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Don't kick any of this fruit! [ Shannon laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. goes over and just picks up a banana. He's like - *[ IC ] Protein. [ Mike laughs ] [ OOC ] He doesn't know what a banana is. [ All laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: It's wild.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Resplendent!
> Taylor Moore / "The Bad Boys": I like that a lot.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *But because T.K. says it with authority, and also he knows about like, you know, working out and stuff, Luxe takes that as - as kind of fact, and he just kind of logs that away. It's like - *[ IC ] Okay, the yellow one's protein.
> Mike / G.M.: Protein.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Okay, protein, okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Lash also takes a banana, because whoa, gains. - [ Mike and Nick laugh ] - She knows about -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] She needs her gains.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *She knows about it from T.K., T.K. taught her. Previously, I think there was a comment by T.K. saying "I'll teach you about gains later." [ Nick laughs ] That has happened.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That's - yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Is this it? Is this the teaching about gains? [ Shannon laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No, I mean you can't hit your - what is it? Not ratios, your - ratios? Is it ratios?
> Mike / G.M.: You're looking at the wrong person my friend. [ Nick, Shannon, Mike laugh ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": You can't - Macronutrients.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *You can't hit your macros!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Macros.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] - with fruits.
> Mike / G.M.: [ Laughing ] Taylor, don't put your - [ Nick laughs ] -Taylor put his arms up in celebration. "Swish."
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *So is this -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Fade back.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Fade away.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *So yeah, I mean, I guess -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Are you both trying to figure out how to eat it?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *No - No?
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, do you bite - or do you know how to peel a banana?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah do you bite the peel?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think he like, he holds it
*> Mike / G.M.: *This is just balloons all over again.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *He holds it sideways and just snaps it in half, and is like - *[ IC ] *That's where the meat is.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Luxe does the same thing.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *And then like, holds up a half to cheers. [ Bijan, Nick laugh ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash does the same thing.
> Mike / G.M.: *Gabe is - Gabe is at the kitchen table watching you fumble over all of the fruit and he's just drinking a soykaf in his - I think I said - was it leopard print? In his leopard print bathrobe? And he asks - he points at it and he says - *[ IC as Gabe ] I assume this is from Yuri.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yes.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Yeah, yeah, it's - yeah.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *I'm not hungry.
[00:04:47] > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Listen Gabe, I was thinking a lot about everything you said. And I had a long conversation with Yuri. These guys were here - there too. And you know, I don't - I understand what you're talking about. I don't know how I completely feel about him. I want to believe him though. He says that the technomancers - he won't really talk about them, but he talks about it in a way where it sounds like he just kind of had to do it.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Yeah. I mean, I think that's his game. He makes you think he's the one in the - who's in the right, that he's your friend -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *You know what? It's fine. It's fine. Don't - just - I'm not going to eat a banana. I love a mango, but I'm just -
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] But gains!
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *I'm gonna - I'm gonna abstain. [ Shannon laughs ] I don't - I don't need this in my life. Don't not take the job on my account. Just, you know, I'm gonna keep an arm's distance. Let me know if you need help. I would love to help you. I don't want to help Yuri.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I respect that.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] How's everybody feeling? You don't - none of you look good!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Y'all look tired.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *I'm pretty worse for wear.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I tried my best, Viv.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *It's okay. Just need some rest.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah, Viv, I have some medkits coming - on their way, they're being delivered. So maybe I could hook you up with one of those when that happens. The other thing, too, Gabe, is that I don't know how much that red guy could do to us, really, without using illusions, but I don't know if I want to piss him off working with Yuri, a guy who I don't know if I want to work with.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *I mean, this is the business, right? Like, you kind of - you're always stuck between a rock and a hard place. You gotta - You gotta figure out who you want to make your enemy less.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ]Yeah, yeah yeah.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *A Yuri or a many-armed man. A rock and a hard place.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *The arms are pretty cool though. It was cooler - I mean, it was - it was less cool when you were maybe dead Gabe, but. It's cool now. I liked the crown.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Can we talk about this for a second? Did he rifle through very specific memories of yours? For me, he was looking for the gun that we took from Jast.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Ohh.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *And I had given it away to the sea.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Right.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] So in my mind, the thing he was looking for is gone.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] And, most likely, he's working with Jast.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Possible.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Seems right.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *I mean if he was looking for the gun -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Then also he -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *- how else would he know about it?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *He didn't ask me about a gun.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *What'd he ask you about?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [ Simultaneously ] What'd he ask you about?
** > Mike / G.M.: [ IC ]** He told me that I was to never work with Yuri ever again, and I told him, if I had my way that would exactly be the case. And I think he didn't know what to do after that. So he just started telling me a bunch of stuff about who he works for - I mean it wasn't nice. He wasn't kind about it, but he was like warning me about stuff. You know.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] What did he say?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] What did he say about who he works for?
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] I mean, he mentioned something about like, "The Seven"?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] "The Seven"?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] "The Seven".
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] "The Seven"!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Sounds like samurai.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Or seven other things.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Right.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *I don't know anything about a "Seven".
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, me neither. [ Mike sighs IC ]
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Something we have to look into.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah that's -
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] I mean he did - he did tell me that I was to never mess with Jast again, and I told him - I was like, I don't [ Intentionally vague mumbling ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] So he -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I guess we could look on the matrix.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah. So he works for a number... What else he say?
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] [ Mike laughs ] I mean, that's it. Then I got real sleepy and you came and found me. So he must have done something.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Hm.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] So he said "Don't work with Yuri" - let's roleplay it. Ready?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Okay, alright, I got it.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *[ Low, raspy voice ] Don't you ever work with Yuri again! [ Shannon and Mike laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *That's not what his voice - That's not what his voice sounds like at all! [ Mike laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [ Soft, high-pitched, stilted voice ] He spoke just like this. [ Mike laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] [ Normal voice ] Oh, I'm sorry, thank you.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] That was more like it, yeah.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Soft, high-pitched, stilted ] Just like I -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Okay, you play it then, Luxe!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [ Soft, high-pitched, stilted ] Okay. Don't ever work with Yuri again.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *I'd - Man, if I had my way, I would never.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Soft, high-pitched, stilted ] Anyway, I -
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] You ain't gotta tell me twice!
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] What ab -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Soft, high-pitched, stilted ] That's good. I work for The Seven.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Uhh, okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *What about the rest of you? [ Shannon, Nick, Mike laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Why are we roleplaying this?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Normal voice ] Yeah, I don't know any information! This isn't gonna -
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] [ Loudly ] I thought we would maybe - [ Nick laughs ] - find out some more information! Gabe all of a sudden would be like, "Oh, yeah. I remember you also told me where he lives, - [ Mike and Jenn laugh ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Did he tell you where he lives?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *- "and what I'm mad about, and what my weaknesses are."
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *So Gabe should roleplay the guy. [ Nick and Shannon laugh ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah, maybe! Let's try that way!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I don't know.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *I guess we didn't specify, huh?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": What kind of hallucinogens were in the fruit, Mike? [ All laugh ] Tell 'em now.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *He ba - he basically warned me that if I were to mess with - that if I were to work with Yuri, or if I were to mess with Jast, someone's gonna be very mad. I don't know who they are. And then - and then he did the mind thing to me. He, I don't know, he probably didn't find anything very good. And then, I came to tied to a chair. That's what happened. That's the long and short of it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Alright, anything else specific from anyone else's memories? Alright. Well, I feel like I'm in the clear, because the gun is gone and I have no intention of going back to Jast.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah me neither. The other thing is, we effectively got Ashina off of Verne's back, so we could go talk to him in the near future as well.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah so let's talk about what - this is Mike now - [ Mike and Nick laugh ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] - let's talk about what your current open threads are.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
*[00:09:49] > Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *So, you guys just got back from Yuri's. He offered you a job to exterminate a bug ghost from a warehouse on Highland Island, but in order to do that you need something from his friend Irina in Grand Central Station, and it sounds like she's going to need something from you.
You did manage, it seems, to get Mo Ashina, you know. Yuri said that he took care of her harassing you. You finished out her job when you got rid of B-Team, so you kind of have an open thread with Verne. Doesn't seem like he needs anything from you right now, but if you have questions for him, or if you have ideas about, you know, things that you want to do with or for the police union, he is an open contact for you. As is Odina, who seems like she's maybe too busy to continue messing with Verne anyway.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Mhm.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *She offered a kind of - Luxe you had offered maybe you two could work together.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *And she seemed to agree, kind of uneasily because you're criminals, but like, if you want to use her as a resource - her or her practice or her big law computer - those things are available to you.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Right.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *You also have, we had mentioned - as we had mentioned earlier, karma to spend. So, you're kind of in open world mode at the moment. You can go any number of different ways. If you want to take some time to spend that karma and train some new skills, you can.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *If you want to go to any of your contacts, any of these people and advance any story, you can. So it's kind of up to you. We'll consider this, for the moment, down time for you to just figure stuff out. So, Gabe is looking at you guys being - what is the phrase? "No worse for wear"? "Worse for" - "Having been worse for wear"?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": What are you trying to say?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] What are you trying to say?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *You know, like, when people look bad?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Worse for wear.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Oh, you look the worse for wear.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] You look the worse for wear. Yeah, yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *You look worse for wear?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah. So, Gabe looks at you guys looking worse for wear and he's like - *[ IC ]Man, it seems like you guys got a lot on your plate. What are you gonna - what's next?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Luxe says - *[ IC ] *Well, I want to go talk Verne and see if he knows anything else about Evo and what the fuck they're doing with people's minds
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Luxe, why are you so concerned with Evo?
*> Shannon / "Lash":[ IC ] *Yeah, you won't shut up about it. [ Shannon laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [ Sighs IC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I mean, it's cool with me.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Nervously ] Umm, well. Uhh - *[ OOC ] *Everybody could tell that Luxe looks uncomfortable. And Luxe says - *[ IC ] I guess I should... tell you what's going on. [ OOC ] Luxe puts his banana down, which he snapped open, but it didn't look that appealing to him - [ Jenn laughs ] - all squished like that.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. picks it up. [ Nick laughs ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *And he kind of looks at the group and says - *[ IC ] Yeah, uhh, guys. I, um, I feel like I should be open about something, before we go and speak with Verne or Odina. I... used to be... a doctor.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Whoa, you?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *With - medkits?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Like a - like a medical doctor?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah, umm -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Doctor Luxe!
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *I - I was a scientist and, um -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Wow!
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *- I had medical training, but I was a doctor and I worked with -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Wait, how old are you?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *35. And I worked with, um, my wife.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Wife?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Ex-wife. And it's, you know, where I actually learned how to create the prosthetics I create. As you guys know, people are very prejudiced against people with lower essence in the world. And so, it's a very, uhh, a very valued skill to be able to make people that have modifications or birth defects or anything like that, look quote-unquote "normal". It's a skill set I've used obviously, but I did that with my wife and - till she got a job... with... Evo.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Oh.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Oh.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *And after she got the job, which was, you know, we thought maybe going to be a great boon, she had to be very secretive about it. And I'm not saying it's connected to the people changing and things like that, I don't even know if she's involved with that, but I know that she had to be very secretive and very disconnected when we used to work together a lot, and within two months, she felt like a different person, and within six months we were divorced.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Do you know what - do you know what happened to her?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] It was within two weeks after the divorce that I never saw her again, and couldn't get in contact with her.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Wow Luxe, when did this happen?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] This happened over 10 years ago.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Oh my god!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So, I really have... a problem with Evo. I really didn't - like, when I heard that they could be messing with people's minds or - that was a real trigger for me, and I immediately started thinking "That's what happened to her. That's why she changed." or I immediately started thinking "That's what she was involved in and that's why she's a monster." and - but again, I don't know if any of that's true. I just want you to know that's why - or maybe that's why I can't let this go.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Understood.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. goes over and hugs Luxe.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Give yourself an edge.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Luxe!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Hm?
*[00:15:00] > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *I never knew you were married. You don't wear a wedding ring. Well, I guess... [ Shannon and Mike laugh ] You continue to wear a wedding ring, after?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *No. Nobody does that.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Does nobody -
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] It's not like when you're - when you're president and they have to keep calling you President.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Right.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We know what divorce is, right?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ Laughing ] *Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We don't know about balloons or bananas, but we know divorce. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *No, Lash does not know what divorce is.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Umm, I would be lying if I said a part of the reason I want - why I want to know about what's going on with Evo is to find out if it has any connection.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Does she - *[ OOC ] Gabe is wondering - [ IC ]Does she - she live in the arcology?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *I don't know.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Do you know what - what department she got hired into?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Uhh, yeah. It had to do with medical science, body modification... We were doing amazing things with prosthetics and gene implementation to various -
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] So she could be anywhere in there.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yes, and -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Is this -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. also, right now, feels - feels very moved, because he - I think out of everyone in the group, has probably the lowest essence because of his very obvious cyber limb.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *When did you start shadowrunning?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Well, I, uhh, didn't handle everything well, and I, um, tried to find out what was going on. And I kind of was a man on a mission for a while. And then I kind of just had to accept that she was gone. I had a lot of access to skills and equipment that were very valuable for people. I think my first job I got paid more than I made in a year just impersonating someone and that's when I - that was my way into becoming a face, and, that's when it started, within a year after our divorce.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Wow. Thank you for sharing that.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Yeah, thanks for telling us.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *So anyway, you know, if you guys want to do this Yuri job, then I know I'll be there with you, but I don't want to make decisions for the team or speak for the team. If you guys don't want to - [ Nick laughs nervously IC ] - try to take on a... one of the biggest corporations in the world.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *You will not be punished by the game world or by the universe or the D.M.s for taking concurrent jobs, and that there will be no rush for - like if you were to take a Yuri job, don't think of it as a binary. Taking a job with Yuri doesn't mean that things happen in - with Evo that you will then miss out on.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] That's what I was - yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *And if you were to take - And if you were to go and focus on Evo stuff for a while, the Yuri job will, like he said, not go anywhere.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *So don't think of it as a binary choice, but I think you can think of it as like a, you know, what is the group interested in? What things do you want to pursue? What things do you want to pursue first?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah, I think - I think T.K.'s like, definitely on Luxe's side because you know, they were roommates. *[ IC ] *Yeah, I'm... I'm with you. whatever you decide.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah Lash walks up to Luxe and says - *[ IC ] Listen Luxe, you've been like a dad to me. You know that, right? An uncle... a dad-uncle. Some would call -
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Well you left me with your dad for hours at Thanksgiving, so I can see why you would feel that way about me.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] You've been - That's true.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *You've been like my shadowrun dad-uncle.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Thank you.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I even wrote in my diary.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Luxe - [ Nick and Shannon laugh ] - is my shadowrun dad-uncle. Anyway.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *That means a lot, Lash.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I'm here to tell you that if there's a question that you need answered, I'm going to be there 100%... behind you... answering that question... for my dad-uncle.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Whatever it is - *[ OOC ] *Viv pats the - her back. *[ IC ] *You have my axe. [ Jenn laughs quietly IC ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *No one gets it. [ All laugh ]
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Damn.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] That reference is a hundred years old. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *As old as Viv! [ Jenn and Mike laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Gabe has been listening intently as Luxe has been describing this story, and he nods a little bit and says - *[ IC ] Well, that's heavy man. I mean that's one I can help with. You let me know if there's anything I can do as far as Evo is concerned. I don't know anyone there but, you know, you guys know what I'm good at.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Thanks.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Drones. Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I mean, yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Drones that kind of work.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Yeah, cube drones that kinda work.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *And looking great, Gabe.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Ayyy. [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Ayyy.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Ayyy.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Takes one to know one.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *[ Laughing ] Aww.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Takes seein' one to see... great minds think - never mind.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Aw, yeah. [ Bijan and Mike laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K.'s just thinking - thinking back to the drone, just like the fucking rickety drone.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] [ Laughing ] Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *[ Laughing ] It was the best - It was the best I could do on short notice!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] It was very short notice.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And he - he sort of cringes a little. He's - he's remembering part of the fight. *[ IC ] *Hey guys. Do you know what hap - ? What - I - I - I feel like I sort of blacked out when that drone thing happened. What - I just remember waking up and seeing Luxe? I think? What happened?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Oh. You don't know what happened?
[00:19:56] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I - No, I don't, I can't. I can't remember. I just - I just... Yeah, I just remember running and then that was it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Well... Uhh, T.K. you... you lost it? And -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *[ Softly ] What happened?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *She was shooting you, with bullets, and they were hitting you, but it didn't look like you felt them. And then you stopped her from shooting you by punching her... A lot.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Repeatedly.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Oh.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *And um -
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *T.K. if you could roll a logic plus will test for me?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *We were all really... worried.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Four hits.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *I'm sorry. You, as Luxe is describing this to you, - [ Rainfall sounds start ] - it's almost like electrical shocks. You get these really violent flashes of images from last night where you can almost feel the mud underneath your knees and the rain water soaking up through your pants and you can feel how your abdomen is really warm and your shirt is getting wet.
And you can feel again, your fists are aching, and you get just one image of you just clocking Sunshine - [ Electric shock sound ] - directly in the chin, leveling her, knocking her out. And then another flash - [ Electric shock ] - that's you straddling her and just punching her in the jaw. And then another flash - [ Electric shock ] - that's someone just picking you up and bringing you into the Mrs. Egg. And it's like every time one of these images hits you, it's like - it's like being dunked with - in cold water.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. is just clutching his head and - [ IC ] Uhh... I think I have to go lie down. [ OOC ]And he just, he goes back to his room and lies on his bed. [ Rainfall stops ] Trying not to think about it and still remembering things, and he's - he's like curled up in the fetal position just wracked with like guilt and anxiety and he's not sure what to do.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I think we should give him some time.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah, I think that's a great idea Viv. Viv, how are you doing?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *I also need to take some time. *[ OOC ] *She like coughs up a little bit. [ Jenn laughs ] It's a little pinky like, pinky spit on her hand.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Is that kelp in there?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *[ Groaning, Raspy ] Yeah. [ Shannon and Jenn laugh ] I try to eat it for nutrition.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Oh, Viv, you need to rest.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I - I shall. I shall.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I haven't seen you this way since that battle in the museum.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Well dear, that dart didn't help. *[ OOC ] *And she leaves the room. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh yeah! I forgot I hit Viv with a dart.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, it wasn't even -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *I'm gonna work on that.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah... [ Nick, Shannon, Jenn laugh ] Definitely - you definitely should. Let me know if you go to my condo to work on it, because I'm curious if that's still happening there.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] [ High-pitched ] What? No, I never went to - what?
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] You could - Lash is obviously lying. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *What?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *You... what?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah, remember when you - with Rick Jones and my condo, that he was using?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Nooo... Yeah, I did that. I'm sorry. I know you told me not to go.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right. [ Shannon laughs ] Well, maybe next time you bring out your blowgun.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Make sure that no - none of us are around.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Sure.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Maybe we could all get in the car first -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] - and then you could use it.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Like go somewhere where no - just you guys aren't around?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [ Laughing ] Yeah.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *[ Laughing ] Okay, cool.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *So, as the conversation has progressed, people have started sort of peeling off. Luxe is kind of in his own world, you know, considering the possibilities that lay before the team. T.K. needs to take a moment and sort of gather his thoughts. Bijan, I'm very sorry that you rolled really, really well on a memory test. [ Nick and Mike laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah, I had a feeling that was gonna happen.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh no!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *I mean, it's probably for the best.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Viv is going to go tend to her wounds and maybe go float in the ocean for a little while. I don't know what's - whatever Lash is going to do this afternoon. Kick a soccer ball against the wall?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I think she's gonna - well it depends if we're gonna karma.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Well, I guess that's the question. In the longer run, what is the thing that you, as players and characters, want to do next? You have the options that I laid out in front of you.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Mhm.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yuri, Verne, Odina, and karma.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Well, spend karma before we do anything else.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Well - Yeah. Cause then we'll be better at it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah. Cause we'd be better, yeah. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Okay.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *But also it feels like, I mean, it feels like we've sort of hit like, a natural sort of pause in the story.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] And if you need to train some things over a couple days, you can do that right now.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah, okay.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *So, the way that we do karma is going to be different from now on. We are going to have another conversation where we get into the real nitty-gritty, all the details, and we also talk about house rules that we are going to instantiate from this point forward. We're going to do that in a recording that will be for Omae patrons only. So, we're going to take a quick break right now. We are going to have that conversation and release it on our Patreon feed, and then when we come back from it, we are going to summarize everything that we decided in that long conversation. So, we're going to put some intermission music right here and we'll see you in a minute.
[00:25:15] [ Intermission Music plays ]
> Mike / G.M.: Alright, everybody, we're back. So, let's do a quick wrap-up of everything that we just decided in our house rules and our karma spending conversation. I think the big house rules to talk about are: we're going to start doing exploding sixes, which means every time you roll a 6 as a hit, you will re-roll it. We are going to have a mandatory one drain cost, one stun damage or physical damage cost, for casting spells. So even if Viv, or any other magic user, fully resists their drain, they're still going to take one box of damage minimum.
We're also not gonna have any penalties for running silent, which is when a decker is hiding from sight. They can do something called "running silent" and that incurs, up until this moment, a minus two dice pool penalty. So we're going to nix that. We're changing the way that marks work. Previously, in order to get three marks you would have to roll three times, roll three tests, or take a minus ten dice pool penalty on one test, and now we're changing it to an opposed test. So, if T.K.. for instance, wants to get a mark on something, he will roll, the system will roll against him, and if he gets two net hits he gets two marks, if he gets three net hits he gets three marks, and so on and so forth.
We've also changed the way that medkits work. That's kind of a more complicated one, so we'll just talk about that the next time we get to it. And we are restricting the total number of edge uses - usages to two per game session. So that means that every time we sit at the table, we will allow edge to be spent to re-roll a dice pool only twice. So that means that it becomes a little bit more of a serious thing to roll an edge and we'll have to negotiate about it.
I think those are - those are - those are the really big ones, right?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay. And as always, if you have access to the world documents, you can go and see all of the house rules that are in effect, and those are things that patrons have access to.
Now, let's go around the table and talk about what skills you guys trained and how you spent your karma. Luxe just nursed his wounds and thought about his feelings.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah, and ate fruit.
> Mike / G.M.: And ate fruit.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *By snapping it in half. [ Mike and Bijan laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That's how we eat bananas now.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] How we eat bananas.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. is - he takes - he's really haunted by what happened with Sunshine because he, you know, it's still coming back to him and coming back to him in flashes. And he gets, like as a way to cope, he gets really into reading forum posts about coding, like he's like, "I need to become a better hacker, the Mo Ashina stuff has really bothered me. She took some of my stuff." So basically he's like, he's been scrolling forums, GitHub, watching like video tutorials. He's just - he's trying to escape his sadness by learning something. So he worked on his hacking skill.
And also shopping online. It's late at night, he saw something called a "grapple hand" and he was like, "I need that".
> Mike / G.M.: Gonna have that drone delivered to the -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Drone delivered to the boat!
> Mike / G.M.: - to the Mrs. Egg.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Baby! Yeah, so he has a - now his hand is a grappling hook.
> Mike / G.M.: I'm gonna assume that over a long enough time span, you would roll high enough on the hardware threshold test -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah, he's got -
*> Mike / G.M.: *- to install your own grapple hand.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] He does have a fairly high hardware skill.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay, I'm not gonna make you roll for it then.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: How does it feel having a grapple hand now?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I - I think he's like -
> Mike / G.M.: Does it feel any different or is it -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *You know I - I think he hasn't really tried it out that much because he's been mostly like typing away. He knows it feels a little like, feels a little bit different, but I mean he's - because he was very used to his old - his old hand.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *So it still has five digits. It still -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah, it's a hand.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *- looks like your old hand except for -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *The wrist attachment.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] - it can pop out and fly -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *At high speed.
*> Mike / G.M.: *At the wrist.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *At high speed, at the wrist.
*> Mike / G.M.: *And grab onto something.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yes. And it could support your whole body weight? Does it have a pull force, or what?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I - you know, I haven't - he hasn't tested it out yet.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think that's up to the G.M.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *He ordered it online. [ Nick laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, I'm going to say - I'm going to say that it is strong enough to carry T.K. and not an additional body.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Okay.
*> Mike / G.M.: *You can probably be carrying some things, but there -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *- will be a limit to the amount of weight.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *I can't wait to say "Go go gad-" [ Nick laughs ] No, I'm not gonna say that cause that's copyrighted.
*[00:30:00] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Don't. Don't.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That's copyrighted. But he's gonna - he's gonna have some - I think he's like testing it. I don't know if he's - I don't know if he's told anybody yet. Like, anybody on the team.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Oh that's a - that's a fun thing to lay on 'em!
*> Mike / G.M.: *That's fun.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Mhmm.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think he's - yeah, I think he's - I think he's just like, you know, like - he's been - he's been hiding in his room like, alone, and he got something delivered by a drone. Nobody knows what it is.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *What's the spool on this bad boy? How long does the cord let it go?
> Bijan / "T.K.":[ OOC ] That is a very good question. Hold on, let me see.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Because if it's like 20 feet? Or is it like 100 feet?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It doesn't - it doesn't actually say. It just says -
*> Mike / G.M.: *I'm going to say it's 90 feet.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Nice.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Shit, yeah!
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *90 feet's nice. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Nice!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That's nine stories of grapplin'!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I like 90 feet.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Hell yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Maybe that's too high?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Nahh.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Nahh.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *I liked it. [ Nick and Jenn laugh ]
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Nahh.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. needs this. [ Bijan and Nick laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *How - how much - how much line is 90 feet of like, monofilament, essentially? Because it would be a very skinny...
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *90 feet of monofilament wouldn't be long.
> Mike / G.M.: It wouldn't be monofilament, but it would be like a very skinny -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Like your - Lash has a manual grapple, right?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *A grappling hook!
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: And how long is that rope? Does it say? It would be the same.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I don't know.
*> Mike / G.M.: *It's either 90 or 60 feet.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I have... I didn't write it down.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean it also may not have...
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I don't - and I have a stealth rope as well that's invincible.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ Whispered ] *Stealth rope.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": An invincible rope?
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah that's what it - it would be a stealth rope.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *[ Laughing ] It's an invincible rope, you can't cut it.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, let's actually, I - I take it back. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Nooo!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] What? Nooo!
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Nooo!
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, takesies backsies.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Boo.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Takesies backsies. So I'm gonna say 60 feet. 60 feet.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *That's cool.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah! 60 feet!
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Still far, still cool.
*> Mike / G.M.: *That's still really far. That's still really far.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *That's 20 yards.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": *That's 6 stories?
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah, so he hasn't told anybody yet but he's been sort of like - [ Nick laughs ] - he's been like - he's been shooting it like, in his room just sort of - [ Mike laughs ] - I guess you're probably hearing like - like occasional thunks coming from - [ Bijan laughs ] - [ Mimics thunks ] Thunk, Thoomm [ Thunk, Thunk sounds ] - And then a -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] [ Mimics mechanical whir ] Dwrooo - [ Shannon laughs ] - Like [ Sucks in air ] - [ Mike laughs ] - I don't know how to make that noise but Mike you can put it in post.
> Mike / G.M.: [ Mimics mechanical whir ] Zzzzzut! [ Mechanical whir sound, as of a cable retracting ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] [ Mimics mechanical whir ] Zzzzzup! - Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Alright what everybody else get up to? Viv? Lash?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Okay, Viv is - [ Jenn laughs ] - doing - she's doing an old home remedy - [ Jenn laughs ] - because she's very injured still. She's sitting in a chair with her feet in the bucket full of hot salt water and just rocking back and forth a prayer over and over again.
[ IC ] [ Quickly, breathlessly ] Heavenly mother almighty, Sea Lady Mara most high, I'm using water to wash myself and drinking with. [ Fast inhale ] I just want to thank you for this precious gift. I bless water in your name and ask you to bless it once more so I can continue enjoying this gift. [ Fast inhale ] Please mother Mara.
[ OOC ] So she's just like rocking back and forth, hoping to cleanse the injury from her body, and the water that her feet is touching in the bucket starts to turn black.
> Mike / G.M.: Eww.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Ew.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Ugh.
*> Mike / G.M.: *And Viv also uses some of her downtime to enhance her axe wielding skills?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yes. Yes. She asks Artemis for the best axe training videos online and in the matrix, and she lands on Greg Axeman's virtual reality training session. What was it called again?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": I think you'll have to listen to the - [ Nick and Mike laugh ] -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": - karma session to find out!
> Mike / G.M.: It was Gregory Axeman's "Axe Me No Questions, I Will Axe You No Lies"?
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Or not! We're giving it away! [ All laugh ] We're giving it away! It's the jubilee here at Fun City.
*> Mike / G.M.: *So Viv is now slightly better at swinging her axe.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *And your certificate's in the mail. Could arrive any second.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *By drone!
> Mike / G.M.: Sure enough, at this very second - [ Bijan gasps ]
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] While she is sunbathing. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *- a drone flies in through the side window and deposits a small envelope in the middle of the mirage and then flies out.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Y'all gotta make your security a little tighter - [ Mike, Nick, Jenn laugh ] -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *I know!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": - around those porthole windows.
> Mike / G.M.: Lash?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash walks back into her room, she's thinking about the last thing Viv said to her, which was basically kind of like a nudge at her about how she essentially blow - blowdarted Viv, and it cost her a lot of damage. So - or it hurt her a lot - so she decides "Okay. I got to get a little bit better at this blowdart. I thought - I thought that once I did the training session, I'd be fine. I'd be able to do it. I mean, how hard could it be? You just blow on the frickin' tube? And the dart comes out. Well, it's a little bit more complicated than that." So, as she didn't really pay attention to Rick Jones' training session, she decides to go and look back on the notes. And so she looks through them and essentially trains to get a little bit better - just a little bit better at that blowdart gun. Just a little bit.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Lash hits the books.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *She hits the books.
> Mike / G.M.: And she succeeds?
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Was she aiming at the books?
*> Mike / G.M.: *At getting a little bit better.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah, I mean she didn't -
*> Mike / G.M.: *What did you say Tay - sorry.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Nothing.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I mean -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": It was dumb. [ Taylor and Shannon laugh ] I said, was she aiming at the books? [ Mike laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Oh, boom.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Burn.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *You got it.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *So she, you know, she didn't she didn't read every page of the book, but she read like the beginning of every chapter.
*[00:35:04] > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *The most important part.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] [ Laughing ] Yeah the first - the first page.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Listen, I got a lot of books that I tell people I've read that I've only read the intro and the first chapter. [ Nick laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": Exactly!
*> Mike / G.M.: *It's, you know.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *There's a lot in there.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, it's...
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *It's a summary.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": His name is Ishmael!
*> Mike / G.M.: *Ughh, I get it! Jeez!
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Yeah, we get it. Whales. [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *So she's a little bit better at it now.
*> Mike / G.M.: *So before you guys make your next big move, is there any additional stuff that you want to purchase or go out and get, other than a grapple arm - or grapple hand, are there other things that you need or want to purchase?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yes.Yes, T.K. wants to buy a mini-welder because - because he like, was thinking about the fucking - the door that was locked that we couldn't get through. Because this - the mini-welder is like a very - it's like a small welder, that can run for like 30 minutes on a fuel canister, but its like, damage value against barriers is 25. Yeah. So like he doesn't - he doesn't want a door incident again. He just wants to like be able to cut around a lock and push something open.
> Mike / G.M.: Alright.
> Bijan / "T.K.": He also wants to buy a jammer.
> Mike / G.M.: Like a comms jammer?
> Bijan / "T.K.": Comm jammer, yeah. With a rating of like four, probably, because they're pretty cheap. I think he was browsing online, as you do, and was like "Hm."
> Mike / G.M.: "criminal-goods.org" [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.":[ OOC ] *"criminal-goods.org/vehicle-modifications". and I was - there's a - there's a - there's a modification that could turn Henley into a hovercraft -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Hm!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *- and I was really - really thinking hard about that one.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Whoa.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Could also give him legs. [ Bijan laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Hoo!
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *[ Laughing ] Ew!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Should I give the car legs?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *The essence of the car would go down to zero. [ Nick, Bijan, Mike, Jenn laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: It's weird. I'm - I'm sure that it is mechanical legs, but my brain -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Mike / G.M.: *- just immediately went to "going to the store" style, bendy, flesh legs?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Ew.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think I'm going to get Henley the legs. I think I've decided that.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh, god.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] It's like one of those Toy Story toys that what's-his-name had?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *He's not going to - T.K. is not going to tell you. Like it's just -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *[ Mimics squeaky springs ] Eh-uh Eh-uh Eh-uh Eh-uh.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *It's just gonna happen in battle one day. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *In battle. So legs for the car, a jammer, and a welder.
> Mike / G.M.: *You take Henley the Bentley to the mechanic that you go to that's around the corner, and they weirdly have all those parts in stock and they're like - *[ IC as mechanic ] Yeah, you know it's weird! The leg thing has been real popular this season! [ Bijan and Nick laugh ] Everybody really's - a lot of - I mean, you know, it's one of those things, you see it once and then you feel like you start to see it everywhere. I feel like, everybody's putting legs on their car this year!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I am so excited for this. [ Bijan laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *[ Laughing ] You - you see - you see a Porsche very literally step off the lot.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Jesus.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *When you have a Por - when you have a Bentley going 60 miles an hour, with legs, - [ Mike laughs ] - how -
*> Mike / G.M.: *It sounds - it sounds -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *[ Laughing ] So wait, do you wanna -
> Mike / G.M.: - like a Charlie Chaplin sketch.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Do you wanna -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *How smooth is the ride? Is this like riding a horse now? Like everybody inside is being jostled, or does it have gyros?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Do you wanna hear - do you wanna hear about this? Okay -
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] [ Laughing ] Oh god.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *[ Exasperated ] No!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I kind of don't, but - Eh!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] For truly exceptional demanding terrain, some riggers install a walker system of secondary propulsion on their vehicles. Using a variable number, 4 to 8, as needed, of retractable mechanical legs, the vehicle can deploy the system to give the vehicle the versatility and mobility of a walker.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Ohh. So it doesn't always use them, but they can pop out.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *No no no, yeah. Exactly.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I see, okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh, it's like a Boston Dynamics - [ Jenn laughs ] -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *So - Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] - machine.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So when deployed, the body of the vehicle is lifted about a meter off the ground to provide clearance -
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I like this.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *- for the terrain, with each leg able to move backwards or forwards independently to provide a walking action.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Here's -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Interesting.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": You chose eight legs, right?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Duh.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": So now your car can run upstairs. [ All laugh ]
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Here's - how would you feel about this? I'm going to - I'm going to let you do this, but I'm going to incur a slight cost -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Oh, god.
*> Mike / G.M.: *- which is that in order to use this, Gabe needs to be remotely piloting the car.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, that seems fair. Seems fair.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Okay.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Because it's - because it's complicated and Henley the Bentley doesn't have the computer system on him to use this -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, okay.
> Mike / G.M.: - without help.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *So that - yeah, so it's highly maneuverable but - but its speed is severely limited. When using the walker mode of secondary propulsion, the vehicle - whatever, uses whatever stats.
> Mike / G.M.: I can't imagine what you're gonna use -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But it has the basic maneuverability of a metahuman, meaning it can stop instantly.
> Mike / G.M.: Can I - Can I make -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *On the spot.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean not to add more time to a thing where I was like, hopefully we can do this quickly, - [ Nick laughs ] - but like, does it not make more sense to turn Henley into more of a boat?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Oh, you know what? That's a better idea.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *[ Loudly ] Oh, Jesus!
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh my god!
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *No! Give him legs!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] It's gotta be both, it's gotta be both.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Nah, we'll just do - we'll do submersible.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That's like - it's easy.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Submersible!
> Mike / G.M.: Do both. Do both. I mean you could, surely.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah, do both.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah. We have - we have -
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I love the legs!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": You gotta give me the full Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-a. [ Nick, Mike, Bijan, Taylor laugh ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Wow.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I wonder how much this is gonna cost but T.K. has like 70,000 fucking nuyen he's not using. [ Bijan laughs ]
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *There you go.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Legs call.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I'll figure it out.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Your Italian mechanic is extremely into all of this.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Anybody else need to buy any supplies?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yes. Viv doesn't like to go shopping. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Mhm.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *She also doesn't really wear the - she wears this - she was wearing the same outfit for years. And now -
*> Mike / G.M.: *R.I.P. the caftan.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah. *[ IC ]So, where is it that you go shopping? Is it Soho? *[ OOC ] *She asks Artemis. [ Jenn laughs ] *[ IC ] *Where is it that you go shopping in person?
*[00:40:00] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Online.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Well, she's an elf. And so, I think she wants to find like elven vendors.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah tall - Yeah tall skinny lady stuff.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Oh boy this is gonna cost -
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Would it be in Soho?
> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] Accessing. Cross-referencing mercantile database. I think you're looking for Van Der Meers.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Van Der Meer?
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Van Der Meers is a three story by three story by three-story department store on top of the superstructure.
*> Mike / G.M.: *I mean everything's on top of the - on the superstructure. So -
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *No, there's some things down under it.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Oh, yeah, but you - no one goes there.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Well, hey, yes. I know.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Oh, okay. Are you arg - Is God arguing with Artemis again? [ Nick and Mike laugh ]
> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] Please reboot me. I can hear and fight with God. [ All laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *I can relate to that. [ All laugh more ]
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *[ Laughing ] Yeah! Yeah, yeah. Artemis is gonna put herself in a little stone room off the copse of some little Buddhist Church and only accept food through a tiny hole once a year. I've been reading a lot about the anchorites recently, folks. [ Taylor laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Look it up!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Anchorites! [ Taylor clears throat ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Alright, Van Der Meers.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *Oh, yeah.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Okay, so Viv heads over to Van Der Meers.
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *I can call ahead and let them know you'll be coming.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Oh, no need.
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *There is actually very much of a need.
*> Mike / G.M.: *You go in - When you get into Van Der Meers you realize why, and it is that you are assigned - is that every guest is assigned a personal shopper. [ Jenn laughs ] So there is -
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": I think because Artemis called ahead and gave your relevant details -
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *- I think that - what's the name of the elf liquor?
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, "tan-gelli"? "Tan-jelly"? "Tan -" Something like that. [ Word is spelled Taéngelé ]
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *"Tan-jel"? "Tan-en-jiel"?
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": I think they have a - a champagne flute of this waiting for her.
> Mike / G.M.: When you get in, there is a similarly, not quite as old as Viv, but an experienced, let's say, tall, skinny, elven woman and she has a tray on her hand. And on it - in it is a small crystal glass full of a golden liquid and you get - as you get closer you get a sniff of it, a waft comes in your direction, and you can smell honey liqueur and cardamom and a little bit of anise, and it is the ceremonial drink of elves. You would be very familiar with it. And she welcomes you and she's like - *[ IC as Personal Shopper ] *Welcome to Van Der Meers.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] And Viv just answers in the elven language, if she can speak it - [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Sperethiel, yeah? Yeah.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah. And - but she knows - she's like uncomfortable because she hasn't been in a store like this for many decades and she's visibly dirty from living on the boat. [ Jenn and Shannon laugh ] And so she knows she's like leaving a trail as she walks into this place barefoot.
> Mike / G.M.: So what does Viv leave with?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Viv leaves with - because she's burned all over her body, she actually starts - wants to - she wants to start covering her - her body and get armor because she's been mostly unprotected this whole time. She has waterproof boots, matching fish-scale breeches, and "Vashon Island, Steampunk" - red-black corset with billowy white sleeves.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Whoa.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Which is plus 10 armor, plus 1 charisma!
*> Mike / G.M.: *Wow!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Oooh.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That seems cool as hell.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Because Viv doesn't have any charisma. [ Jenn and Nick laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *And I imagine you will pay a hefty price for these things.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh, yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay, great. Anyone else? Lash?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash would like to buy some darts.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay. You get some darts from your dart guy. [ Taylor and Nick laugh ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah. [ Taylor, Mike, Nick laugh ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ IC as Dart Guy ] Nothin' else? You don't want nothin' else? [ Taylor, Mike, Nick laugh ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *You know, she's been looking into how she can kind of make her own darts and put some drug in the darts. Because with the standard darts, you can get your narcojet - with narcojet.
*> Mike / G.M.: *You want to make a Gatorade dart, don't you?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *[ Laughing ] I want to make a Gatorade dart. And I dart all my friends, and they hate it, but I say, "And that's the Gatorade way, baby."
*> Mike / G.M.: *I think what you say is, "It's in you."
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oof.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Get the fuck out of here!
> Shannon / "Lash":[ OOC ] Oh, no, we never say that! [ Mike laughs ]
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *I'm gonna go.
*> Mike / G.M.: *What kind of darts do you get?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *I get three... Gamma "scopolo"? Darts. [ Gamma-Scopolamine ]
> Mike / G.M.: Those are the ones that will knock someone out and then when they wake up, they can only tell the truth?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yes, but after an hour.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yep.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] So it's like one of those drugs that you probably - if we're kidnapping someone we would maybe use? Because yeah, it would take a while. And then I'm gonna get three narcojet because those are - that's just -
*> Mike / G.M.: *That's just knocking someone out.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *That's just knocking someone out. It's a neuromuscular agent, yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay, you got it. You have those.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Cool.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Your dart guy is happy to see you, but wishes that you would, you know, at least ask him how his day is going.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Okay, bye! [ Shannon and Nick laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Everybody has everything that they need?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yep.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. just spent like 40,000 nuyen.
> Mike / G.M.: Does the car both float and run now?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yes it does.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay, great. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yes it does!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": [ Sung ] Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, we love you! [ Bijan laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Gabe -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *I didn't - be happy that I didn't get the rocket boost.
[00:45:00] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys": Why would I be happy that you didn't get a rocket boost? [ Bijan laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: Gabe will spend some time installing the necessary software on Henley. He - because of his background, he will be able to install all the necessary autosofts for it to pilot itself as a boat around - around the Brooklyn archipelago and surrounding area. But yeah, if you want to have it run on legs through rough terrain, he will have to pilot the car, either while in it or from afar.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. is like - *[ IC ] *Hey guys, I got something to show you. Been working on Henley, but -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *I can't wait to see it.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Yeah, you can't wait to see it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Well -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *And then he just walks - he walks out of the room. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Alright. Now you guys are at the point where it's time to decide the next thing that you want to do. Just to review, your choices were: Yuri gave you a job to go clear out a bug ghost, but you gotta talk to his friend Irina first. There is an open relationship with Verne, who has not asked anything of you, but you seem to be curious about what he could help you accomplish as far as learning things about Evo. And then there is an open relationship with Odina, who is a resource for you if there are things that you think her skills would be useful for.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I think I'm healed up enough. Are we ready to start working again?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I'm so excited to get working again, and I had a dream last night about a giant tarantula, but this tarantula... was a ghost. [ Shannon, Mike, Nick laugh ] You get what I'm saying?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I think that's a sign, in the business.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I didn't re - I didn't really have this dream. I - this is me trying to tell you guys...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right, right.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Lash, Lash, you know - you know that like, in magical shit, dreams - dreams, you know, like - as a magical person myself, I know that dreams mean stuff.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah, but I kind of just wanted to say it - [ Nick laughs ] - to signal to you guys that I wanted to go mess with some bug ghost.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Oh, yeah, we can do that.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, I'm down. If you guys aren't afraid of the many-armed man and have no misgivings about working with Yuri, I'm with you.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I mean, I think we should just do it anyway. He sent us a nice basket.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah, I - what I'm thinking about the many-armed man, this is what I'm thinking. I did not like him at first, but then when I saw -
> Mike / G.M.: [ Laughing, Under breath ] What just happened?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *[ Laughing ] You've come 180 on the guy? [ Shannon laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Listen.
*> Mike / G.M.: *This is a real Lash take.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Listen, I did not like him at first! But now I'm thinking about him and I'm like -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *You're not supposed to like him now, Lash!
*> Mike / G.M.: *I'm gonna - Lash -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *What?
> Mike / G.M.: Lash, give yourself an edge for just being - [ Nick and Jenn laugh ] - unpersuadable in the fact that everybody is good.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Listen. He didn't do anything bad to us. He could have, it seemed like, and he didn't! He just scared us a little bit. Like we've never scared someone by sending a many-armed man - [ Nick and Mike laugh ] - to go get them and, you know!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *In other words, intimidation is a tactic we use.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Exactly.
*> Mike / G.M.: *He was just doing his job.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] True.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright, well, before we disobey this guy, should we at least search what The Seven is? Does anybody - Have you guys pulled up anything on that? You know I'm not great with the...
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Oh! Yeah, I was busy, in my room. I can look now.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay. Lash, did you look in the -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Oh, I - I did not look it up either.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Nobody was curious about The Seven?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *We were - We were busy. I - I was doing stuff, and I saw Lash doing stuff.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Okay.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Listen! Luxe, you have a computer, you're -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *You also have - you could ask Artemis!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright, this is what I could do - this is what I could do, alright? Watch this. Okay? Just - just so you know. Artemis.
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Hello, Luxe.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Hey, Artemis. Can you - do you have any information on The Seven? It's probably a criminal enterprise or something.
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Matrix searching for "The Seven".
*> Mike / G.M.: *The only thing that Artemis can find is a Korean boy band from the 2050s.
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *I found a Korean boy band from the 2050s. Would you like me to add them to your weekly playlist?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yes!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] No.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Yes!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I've already got it on the weekly playlist, alright? I thought -
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *The Seven has been added to your weekly playlist.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yes!
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Would you like me to replace these tracks, or add them in addition to the tracks you already have on this playlist by The Seven.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Don't - I - I've already got all of their albums in my weekly playlist because I -
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Songs doubled.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Okay. Thank you. [ Bijan laughs ] Alright. That's what I could do guys, alright? That's it. Alright? I thought there might be clues about the Seven like they were named after the Kor - there's not. They sing about -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Luxe, do you want me to try it?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *- three things. What?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Do you want me to try it? Do you want me to look for it?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Please do.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Listen, Luxe, we still don't know for sure. He could have worked for this band.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *He couldn't have worked for the band, alright?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *He could've worked for this band.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I was alive then.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *They sing about a large juicy pear sweet that they all share, they sing about dancing with their best girls. It's like a - it's like a doo-wop revival kind of Kor - K-pop band. I - it's - it's nothing that has to do with anything! I promise! I listened to all their songs and some of them I like a lot! [ Nick, Shannon, Bijan laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I only got one hit on that that Matrix search. So, do - [ Bijan laughs ] -
*> Mike / G.M.: *Well, yeah, I mean this Korean boy band has a lock on - [ Shannon laughs ] - any search terms for The Seven.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Guess we - So I just - I just looked -
> Mike / G.M.: If, Lash, you want to roll computer plus intuition I could - if you'd -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Sounds like a - Sounds like a boy band to me.
[00:50:00] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys": You all look at your weekly discover playlist and it's just The Seven.
*> Mike / G.M.: *And looking at the photo -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K.'s like mindset energy. *[ IC ]Know your enemy.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, I got one hit.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, same. Yeah and looking at the photo on your playlist, it's weird, it looks like there's nine of them? [ Bijan laughs ]
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] [ Laughing ] Not seven? [ Taylor, Shannon laugh ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I know what you guys are thinking, there's nine of them, alright? But they never - they don't count the drummer. [ Bijan laughs ] And the other one is just their PR guy.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Wait, do you work for The Seven? [ Mike laughs, Taylor laughs loudly ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *No! I just know everything about them! Alright, because I was trying to help. Do some of the - pick up some of the slack on like the research stuff.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Are you - Thanks for - we've - I appreciate it.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Meanwhile - [ Shannon laughs ] - while they were all bickering, Viv felt some energy in her pocket - [ Low, Ominous Music begins ] - and remembered - she forgot about them for a while - Cairn's rings. And usually, they're supposed to disengage when someone passes out. So she decides to assense them in her hand, you know, while everybody's talking, and she got two hits.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Roll one more assense.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Mhmm. Three hits.
*> Mike / G.M.: *One of these is a masking foci. The silver one.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Mhmm?
*> Mike / G.M.: *One of them is silver and one of them is silver with a red stone in it.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Mhmm.
*> Mike / G.M.: *The one that is silver is a masking foci. You don't know what level, but a masking foci is what you use to hide your astral signature from other people.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Right.
*> Mike / G.M.: *So this defeats someone else's assensing test, to a level that you are not sure. The other one, the red one, is a power foci, which is a focus that you use to momentarily increase your magic rating. You, again, do not know what level it is, but what you do know is that you are a little scared of it. It, when you look at it, even the slight just, movements of your hand as you're holding it, you can see that it leaves a ghostly trail and you can feel that it's - again, it's a similar feeling, even though you're looking at it in your hand and you know it's not going anywhere, it just feels like it's hard to hold on to. You're worried that you're going to drop it or you're worried that something's going to happen. You can't really tell, but it just feels very strange.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah Viv is spooked, because she knows - she hasn't had one for years, but foci are - are bound specifically to that person. They have their own specific signature and it costs a lot to have them and to bound them to you. [ Ominous Music fades out ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Is it weird that this person was melted and died and they still radiate or is that just like...?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I think that just might be the nature of it?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *That's just normal? Okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *But they are technically disengaged.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Okay.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah like they were -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *From that person.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, like they were his -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *They're off right now.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *But now that he no longer exists, they're not his anymore.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, and like they still are - they still are themselves -
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: - and you could artifice them such that they work for you.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Mm.
*> Mike / G.M.: *But yeah, like if you were to put them on - I actually don't know what would happen. [ Nick laughs ]
> Jenn / "Viv":[ OOC ] It would feel like putting on the wrong pair of pants.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah. [ Nick laughs ] Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Counterpoint -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *We've all done that.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Counterpoint: what's the right pair of pants? [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Mhmm.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Viv doesn't like pants in general.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *No.
*> Mike / G.M.: *So it sounds like you guys are going to go visit Irina.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Mike / G.M.: *How does that feel with regards to Luxe's concerns about Evo? Are we gonna like - are we going to sort of like, take care of the short-term job and then maybe check in on the big stuff? Or maybe like -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Well, we could -
*> Mike / G.M.: *- you thread them, like see what the deal with Irina is, decide what you want to do?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *We could also like, just get in touch with Verne again and just see what's going on.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, I'm not - I'm not saying that there's a rush. I just want to make sure that I from a planning perspective -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: - understand what - what it is that you are interested in doing.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] It might take a - look. I mean the thing - the job that he had for us was to get her to stop being on his case. So if she's off of it for a day, he might not consider the job, the favor, done for him because he's like, yeah, there's been plenty of days where she hasn't bugged me. But if - what's the satisfying prolonged period where she's off his case? So it may be a little bit of a waiting game before he's even okay with us moving to the next step with him.
> Mike / G.M.: Mhmm.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *So like I could send him a message and be like "Verne, I think - I believe we took care of the problem. Let us know when you feel like our - the favor has been completed." or something like that.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *So we - might be a waiting game there. And -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah that seems fine, and also it's - I'm thinking of them like - like this is the monster of the week thing where we go kill a bug.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *And also the overarching - the overarching plot is like the -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Sure. So we -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *- Verne stuff. So A-plot, B-plot kind of.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Sure, yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah. I - Yeah, we're definitely not leaving it behind.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] It's very pressing on our minds.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Also, you could learn more about the rings.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
[ Low, Percussive Music plays ]
[00:54:45] > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] So that - the bucket that Viv had - [ Jenn laughs ] - the bucket that Viv had been soaking her feet in, she had purified it and filled four - four tiny glass bottles and tied little leather necklaces around all of them and corked them. And she brought them to Gabe, T.K., Luxe, and Lash. And she said - and she says - *[ IC ] *Keep these with you. At all times.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC as Gabe ] Why?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *It's saltwater.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Why is it a weird color?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Never you mind. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. puts it in his arm.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Gabe starts to open it up.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Do not - !
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Oh!
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] - open that. There may be a time when you need that.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Thanks.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Wow!
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Is this like uhh -
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Just consider this my protection over you.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Oh, so it's not seasoning.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *No! [ Mike laughs ] This is not to be consumed.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *There's salt in it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *And you didn't pee in four bottles for us?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Not this time.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Okay. [ Nick laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Is there like a lanyard on it, or is it - ?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *It's just got a little leather stringy.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Nice.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] You can keep it wherever you want.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash puts it on and tucks it underneath her shirt.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah, Gabe - Gabe put it around his neck.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *So does Luxe.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *So does T.K. Although T.K. realizes when he's doing this, he needs a chain. [ Nick and Jenn laugh ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah T.K. definitely needs like a big Cuban chain.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *This is great, Viv!
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *With like a little padlock on it?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *And as you're saying that Viv is just quietly like muttering to herself.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *I've been thinking of making Gatorade - [ Mike and Nick laugh ] - necklaces for you all as well.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] *Ah.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Next time you have karma to spend, maybe you should spend it on a knowledge skill for ancient soft drinks. [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah. [ Bijan laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Okay, you guys ready to go to Grand Central Station?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Can we take -
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *You realize, now that you have a car that has spider legs and - [ Bijan laughs ] - amphibious capability, you can just -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": - you can drive to the river, spider leg down the rocks - [ Mike laughs ] -
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": - in the river, cross the river -
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Mhm!
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *- spider leg up the rocks, car again.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Do you want to try that?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] This frickin' rules!
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *The -
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *But they don't know about it yet. [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah, if you wanna - if you want to climb the side of the sup - [ Nick laughs ] - go into the water at the pier and then climb the side of the superstructure.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Oh, god.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Wait, no.Can I - Can I - before we get into Henley, can I - can I make Gabe like have it climb out of the water?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Yeah, sure.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh my god.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Is it in the water?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *He would be so into that.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Oh, okay.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Alright.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I'd be like - [ IC ] Gabe, Gabe, can I talk to you for a second?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Yeah, what's up?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Are you all ready to go?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] Mont - Montage - Montage of the two of them scheming together. [ Nick laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *We just walk - we're walking - we walk outside. We are outside by like where Henley's parked. *[ IC ] Can you make Henley go in the water? I want him to - I want him to make a dramatic entrance. [ Nick laughs ]
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Absolutely. Yeah, I had a great time installing all the software to have it so - Yeah, we can make it do kind of whatever you want now.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *So T.K. - T.K. - T.K. gets in the car and is like - *[ IC ] *Alright. Take me down.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] Okay. [ OOC ]And Gabe a pulls out his rigger command console - [ Electronic beeping ] - and plugs in his universal datajack, and then you feel the car wiggle a little bit - [ Rumbling ] - and then stand up. [ Mechanical whirring ] [ Mike laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Oh god.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *And it waddles from the parking lot, down the pier, and then crawls onto the rocks and then into the water - [ Heavy water splash, whirring, burbling ] - and you feel a slight little buoy as it starts to float.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It's got - Well, I think it's - I think it has - it's a submersible, so it's - it can go underwater.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Oh so it - Oh really? [ Jenn laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And it has water jets to power it. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *So you - you hear the legs retract - [ More whirring ] - and then you see the water line rise in the window as it fully submerges. [ Shannon and Bijan laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And then I - I say to -
> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] You hear the oxygen recirculator click on - [ Click, Pressurized Air Pshh ] - as soon as you are fully under - underwater.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *I just -
*> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] *Welcome T.K. Playing your new discover weekly playlist.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Hell yeah.
> Molly / "Artemis": [ IC ] This is The Seven with "Ooh Mmm, Gon' Get 'Er, My Best Girl".
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *Great.
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *[ Singing ] Doo Tch Mm Mmm Ah Ah, Ooh Eee Mm Ah Ah [ Taylor, Nick laugh ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] T.K. sends a -
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *[ Singing ] I'm gonna get 'er! My best girl! [ Taylor, Mike, Nick laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *T.K. sends a comm message to the team, he's like "Alright, meet me outside." [ Bijan and Mike laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *When you guys go outside you see nothing for several seconds, except you see Gabe turn around with his command console cradled in one arm, and he's got a big stupid grin on his face. [ Nick laughs ]
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Viv is like tapping her - her comm like, *[ IC ] Where's T.K.? Did I break this thing?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *You s -
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *And then you hear it - [ Mike and Taylor singing ] Mm Eee Ooh Ah Ah [ Taylor and Mike laugh ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *What?
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Muffled as it comes up from the water, you see a bunch of bubbles, and as they pop - [ Bubbles popping ] - it's like notes of The Seven - [ Nick and Shannon laugh ] - being released from the depths of the river. - [ Heavy water splash ] - And there is the familiar sight of Henley the Bentley, in the last couple days completely changed, completely modified, to now be a submersible vehicle. And this would be enough to surprise you, until you also see some legs spring out - [ Whirring ] - of the front of its chassis, as it climbs up the rocky side that is, you know, 200 yards or so away from the pier and the monuments. And you can see T.K. in the interior waving excitedly. [ Mike laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *He rolls down the window and says - *[ IC ] *What's up guys?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash runs over to give T.K. the ultimate fist bump. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Luxe has a little bit of unease looking at the water in general, and so when he saw, you know, the surface break, it - it felt like a monster coming up, and - in that moment - and you know, the legs didn't help. It's like a bad guy from Wild Wild West - [ Mike and Nick laugh ] - so it's kind of a thing -
*[01:00:03] > Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Ooh, not a compliment. [ Taylor gasps dramatically ] [ Nick, Mike laugh ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *It's got eight legs.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Taylor's deeply hurt.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *That is a great movie. [ Taylor laughs ]
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *That movie was pretty good.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] And - but - but when he realizes it's not a monster, he's like - [ IC ] Oh, this is nice. Now this is something nice. *[ OOC ] *And he's really proud of T.K. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Maybe a little scared at the prospect of having to submerge in water, in the future.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah, I don't - Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there is that in the back of his mind. But yes, he does think it's very cool that this happened so quickly.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *And then T.K. looks at Viv and is like - *[ IC ]Yeah?
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Viv was - had her hand on the hilt of her axe like she really thought it was something that - going to attack them, but she relaxes and just smiles because on the handle of her axe it's etched "Here Be Monsters". [ Nick and Bijan laugh ]
*> Mike / G.M.: [ OOC ] *Very good. So you guys pile into Henley and you head to Grand Central Station?
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *We drive.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Mhmm.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yes.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah, okay you drive. You - You waddle.
*> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] *Oh god. [ Jenn laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It's apparently very slow, but you could - you could turn on a dime.
[ Low, Dramatic Music plays ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *You cannot drive directly to Grand Central Station. The area around Grand Central has been turned into a traffic-free zone in the last decade to reduce the amount of traffic in Manhattan, especially around Midtown. And so, there's this sort of like ring around the station where no one can drive. It's a car-free program, no buses, no taxis just foot traffic and bikes. But you can drive to Central Parking, is what it's called, and it is a massive parking lot that is directly underneath Grand Central Station.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Wow.
*> Mike / G.M.: *For - for about like, four or five square blocks underneath it. It hangs from the bottom of the superstructure and sort of sits above some of the rubble of old Manhattan.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So it's hanging there like a sack?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] [ Laughing ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] So is it - is it submerged in water? Like I guess I - I guess I've never really wondered how -
*> Mike / G.M.: *I would encourage you to not think about it too hard. [ Nick laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Okay. [ Mike laughs ] Okay good.
> Mike / G.M.: Some of this will become clear in the next couple minutes. But some of it is purposefully vague because we just haven't gone there yet.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Got it.
> Mike / G.M.: So, what you can do is you can drive several blocks south from Grand Central Station and enter the underground pathway that brings you to Central Parking. This is also one of a few places where you can view demolished Manhattan. This is what's left of the old Manhattan, the city atop which the superstructure was built. So the lot is really big, multi-story, and as you're driving around in it, you can see - and I think you would all probably be familiar with this - that there are viewports that detail the former locations of famous landmarks in demolished Manhattan.
There are pieces of structural and unbreakable plastic on which are illustrated outlines of former - the locations of former buildings, factoids about life in Manhattan in the 19th and 20th centuries, and you can see that tourists - Right? This is a very popular tourist location. It's one of the very, very few places where you can actually see underneath the superstructure. So tourists crowd a lot of these viewports, but as you park the car, you park Henley, you get out, and you start walking towards Grand Central Station above ground, if you walk long enough, you could find one. If you wanted to look through, you can.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I want to look.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. So you go, you know, there's one that's crowded. There's another one that's crowded. You can't elbow your way in, you turn a corner, there's a few more, but finally you see one, there's like, you know a tourist family that's there, they're all - they're talking in Swedish and they leave and you can - you can see that it's pointing - I guess this would be pointing due south?
Because you can see an outline of the former location of the Flatiron Building and there are factoids about how this is a bastion of Chicago-style architecture that was installed in Manhattan by a Chicago-born architect. You can see a ghostly image of the Empire State Building, the top 20 stories of which and the Spire, you're very familiar with, those were reconstructed to exacting detail on the Empire State Building as it stands on the superstructure, but you can see what the original building itself used to look like. And there's a little illustration of what - what the outline was, how the windows were placed.
*[01:04:50] *But beyond the very few friendly and inviting doodles, mostly what you can see through the structural plastic that you're looking through is just rubble. It's just, it's like a foot-high city. It's really dimly lit in a lot of places from some of the windows and other viewports like this that are kind of dotted around the city, and some of the side walls of the superstructure are trans - transparent or translucent in places to let light in from the sides. But mostly you see dark, a lot of detritus, one former lot of some former building indistinguishable from another, and there are neighborhoods, whole sections that you can see from this slightly high vantage point that are still underwater, that there are parts of old Manhattan that are still swimming because you know since the tides rose, they haven't gone down. So, there are places at the edge that you can see the river just leaking in.
And all of this in a slightly hermetically sealed superstructure, all sort of like it's just - it's condemned. They've tried really hard to make it celebratory with talk about history and tradition and how New York was founded and what great cultural things used to be here, but it just looks like garbage. You can see that there's - you can't see any - there's no human beings. There's no person. Nothing even evoking humanity, you know, they say it's not open for visitors because of safety concerns, but they never say anything more than that. So of course, everybody has all their own theories about what sorts of things "actually", in quote fingers, go on in the superstructure. But as far as you can tell from right here, it's not much. It's just dirt, aging.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *This is so much creepier and more eerie than I imagined. [ Nick and Mike laugh ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Yeah Lash, after kind of - she had to like squat a little bit to look through the - look through the thing - turns to Luxe and says - *[ IC ] *Not good! [ Bijan and Nick laugh ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Lash, we've been here hundreds of times and you've said that every time.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I just gotta reinforce that. Not good!
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Not good. Not good.
> Mike / G.M.: I can see why they called it a catastrophe! [ Jenn laughs ]
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Yeah. You hate to see it.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *You hate to see it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] It's not getting any better. [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Nick / "Luxe": *You hate to see it, Lash.
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *People are still saying, "Hate to see it!"
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *You hate to see it!
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *You hate to see it.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] *It's back in vogue.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] *Not good!
*> Taylor / "The Bad Boys": *His legacy.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Not good. [ Shannon laughs ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay, so you guys exit Grand Central Parking via an elevator onto the street level and you look up, once you're above ground, to the monstrosity that is the rebuilt Grand Central terminal. This is a history that you all would know. In the '30s, Grand Central Station was completely condemned. The once palatial gateway to New York, having survived one climate disaster, but just barely. It was way too big to elevate out of the city and rescue to Mainland, New Jersey. It was too expensive to maintain after the climate catastrophe and it was way too old and too big and too complexly built to give it a proper structural overhaul or once over, once the quakes and the floods happened.
So, in a massive ceremony, the building was completely demolished, and then over 16 years, was totally rebuilt. And so, the Grand Central of 2101 looks nothing like the Grand Central of 2019. It Is by all accounts, a much too large, ultra-contemporary, monstrosity. As the world reeled from climate crisis, there was this mostly bad faith effort by cities and corporations and real estate developers and architects to "green", often literally, the megastructures that they built, that they felt were necessary for city life. So instead of rethinking the idea of massive buildings and giant resource drains and over-populated cities, they're like, "Oh we'll just - we'll make the giant buildings more green."
So, here sits rebuilt Grand Central, a glass and faux-marble orphan of cubism. It's just these multiple, almost disassembled Rubik's Cubes of glass and stone stacked atop one another in a very strange arrangement, with terraces of shrubbery, and like, tiny islands of trees, placed as some kind of like, half apology for the blight of this giant angular mess. Grand Central is, as it has always been, a train station. It is also, unsurprisingly, a shopping mall. It's a giant, multi-floor, privately-owned, public park - indoor park and that is all owned by Saeder-Krupp, who is the one who bankrolled the reconstruction of Grand Central after it was demolished.
*[01:10:03] *There are also condos in Grand Central Station. Lots of them. It's multiple addresses and there are multiple office parks too, inside of it. So, there is a lot of office space. There are a lot of companies in there, the largest of course being Saeder-Krupp. But, by some narrowly passed legislation, a small percentage of new construction in Manhattan is required to be made available to locals - to local community members, is how the ordinance is worded - at below market price. For retail, for business, for community centers, for living, for recreation, for all kinds of stuff. It is in one of these very small, but legally obligated spaces, that you can find "Saavedra, Stones, and Foci", which is the business that Yuri sent you the information about when he told you that he needed you to go meet his friend Irina. So, the way that you get to "Saavedra, Stones, and Foci" is by going down a long skinny hallway that has a live wall on one side. You know, it's like someone smeared a Chia Pet all along one hall - [ Shannon laughs ] - Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Living wall, yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Yeah and you like walk by and some wheat just brushes by your face. And you know, you have some orchids - [ Nick laughs ] - who are - like orchids rubbing up against your shoulder. And at the end of this hallway, there's an elevator, and you push the button for the elevator, and it opens. And you get in and there are three buttons and they are not labeled by floor. They are labeled by business name and the third one, the highest one, says "Saavedra, Stones, and Foci". Is that where you go?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *Yeah.
*> Mike / G.M.: *Okay. You hear a light whir. This is maybe the newest, nicest elevator that you've been in in a while, like this place is - it's a shithole in one sense, but it is extremely well kept up in another sense. You can tell that Saeder-Krupp takes this property very, very seriously. So, the elevator whirs and opens and when it opens, it opens into a very small steel cage that you can't see beyond. It's painted a very deep royal purple. And you all leave the elevator and you barely fit inside this little cage, but there's a very small porthole in the door that's in front of you, that's built into this cage, that you can slide open. Does someone slide it open?
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *Lash slides it open.
> Mike / G.M.: *Lash, you - when you slide it open, you see like, it's just bright blue light, and you see like a bunch of cases and stuff, and you see like a bunch of pinpricks of bright bright color, but you can't really make anything out. But as soon as you do this, Luxe next to you, you hear a little squawk, and you hear a voice come through and the voice says - *[ IC as Irina ] [ Low quality, as though through loudspeaker ] Irina speaking. Who's there?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Hey! Yuri sent us. We -
*> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Oh! Oh oh oh oh oh, yeah, yeah yeah. Come in, come in! *[ OOC ] *And you hear a loud buzz - [ Buzzer ] - and Lash, you can feel the latch that you're holding onto sort of vibrates a little bit, and the door is now open.
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] *We go in.
*> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] *We walk in.
*> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] *We go in.
[ Gentle, Airy, Mysterious Music begins ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *So when you walk in, the room is very long and skinny. It's not much wider than the cage that you just left. There's a narrow pathway down at center. It's clean. There's very clinical light blue carpet. You can see a small kitchenette and what looks like a multi-level - like a multi-shelved shrine in the back-right corner of the space. That is the most chaotic - your eye is drawn to it immediately, because that is the most sort of chaotic, standout feature of this room. It's dense with plant life. It's got a bunch of statues on it. You can see that there's incense that's burning so there are little wisps of smoke.
The rest of the room is brightly lit, as you saw through the porthole, with these lamps that are hanging from the ceiling, and they're big dome lamps that cast this doctor's office level bright blue light, and they're in a pattern of a, like a U-shape around the glass cases that are in this room. The center pathway that I described is lined on either side with curved glass cases. They're almost kind of bubbles, they're like bulbous. And if you were keep - to keep walking straight, you would hit another glass case. So they form a long skinny U and the lights are lined up all above them.
*[01:14:44] *In all of these cases, there are rows and rows of very colorful like, just, gems, rocks, minerals, figurines, statues, charms. They're all placed at exacting distances from one another. They're all very, very neatly labeled. The walls of the room, on the other side of all of the cases, on the sides and the far wall, are similarly lined with thick glass shelves that are packed full, in a much more helter-skelter style, less exactingly placed. Small trinkets, marbled bulbous shapes, strange rings, things that you're not sure if they're jewelry, you're not sure if it's a charm, some of them are ringed. Some of these stones are ringed with artfully sculpted pewter and gold. Some of them are pressed into these medallions that look like they came straight out of a kiln or a forge. You can see a few pens. You can see a few knives. You're pretty sure one of these things is a comm-link charm. [ Nick laughs ] And you can see when you look closely that a lot of these items appear to be floating and some of them actually are floating.
And at the end, at the end of the - at the bottom part of the U, straight - straight ahead, is a middle-aged, muscular, very broad-shouldered woman. She's wearing a gray sweatshirt and she's got long, thick, wavy, black hair. She sits there behind that counter of her hallway-like mini-museum. She's got a visor on with a jeweler's loupe on it, and it's pushed up on her forehead. She has a small mat on the counter in front of her and on it is a complex arrangement of very colorful cards. They're in like a very specific arrangement. She's sort of, not frantically, but like purposefully moving them around and looking at them as you approach, and you get closer you can see that they are - it's a very well-worn deck of tarot cards. And she looks up and she sees you and she's got like a bright look on her face. Her eyes are wide. She looks like she's excited to see you and she says - she says - [ IC ] Ah! Come in, come in! I'm sorry. It's - it's always a little dirty. But just give me a minute. And, you said Yuri sent you?
*> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] *Yeah, yeah, yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: [ IC ] *Ah! Hm. He - he told me you would be coming by, but if I had known that you were coming by today, I would have you know, I don't know, made cookies? But here - come, come, come, come. *[ OOC ] *And she waves her hand very purposefully in a slow arc over the pattern of cards on the mat. And as she waves her hand over them, it's kind of hard to think about what happened. You don't really know when the moment it is that it changes, but at some point while she moves her hand, the cards just turn from a very strange geometric arrangement into a very neat deck and she says - *[ IC ] We have a lot to learn about one another.
[ Mysterious Music concludes ]
[ Main Theme begins ]
*> Mike / G.M.: *You are now leaving Fun City. Thanks for listening. If you want to support the show, get access to ad-free episodes, our Discord, our bi-weekly post-episode chat show "Fun Chatty", and more, head to patreon.com/funcityventures. And of course, thank you to all of our current patrons for help keeping this ship afloat. If you like the show, you can give us a rating on iTunes, tell your pals about it, or just come say hi to any or all of us on Twitter.
[ Main Theme concludes ]
[ End Theme begins ]
*> Bijan: *I am Bijan Stephen, and I am T.K. You can find me online @bijanstephen on Twitter, which is B-I-J-A-N S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Or on Instagram, and you should just google that.
*> Jenn: *I'm Jenn de la Vega! I am Viv. You can find me online @randwiches, that's the word sandwiches but just replace the S with an R.
> Nick: This is Nick Guercio, I play Luxe Scythe. You can find me on Twitter @nguersh and Instagram @nguercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
*> Shannon: *This is Shannon Odell, I play Lash Goodbog. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @shodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
> Taylor: This is Taylor Moore and I play all the Bad Boys. I'm @taylordotbiz.
> Mike: My name is Mike Rugnetta, I am your G.M. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @mikerugnetta.
You can find the show on Twitter @funcityventures. Fun City was recorded at Fortunate Horse, in beautiful Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was produced, edited, and sound designed by me, Mike Rugnetta. Pixlriffs knows exactly how to unpeel a banana. The show's music is by Sam Tyndall. Our art is by Tess Stone, and our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit, and Kestrel. The voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
[01:20:56] [ End Theme concludes ]