The team moves into their new home, and learns some new skills. They meet with Mo Ashina about their next run.
Support the show at http://patreon.com/funcityventures
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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
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Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
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.
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CC-BY Licensed SFX used in this episode
https://freesound.org/people/pscsound/sounds/71260/
https://freesound.org/people/ACorcuera/sounds/185311/
This transcript was exported on Nov 13, 2019 - view latest version here.
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Artemis:In the early 21st century, magic reawakened on earth and alongside it a new human racewith orcs, elves, trolls, dwarves and others, humanity became meta humanity. Astechnology proliferated and greatly advanced in the awakened wild global megacorporation seized ever more power becoming de facto states with their ownlaws, courts and armed forces, the corporation's attempt to control all aspects ofmodern life. This has led to a vast and complex criminal underground, whichworks for and against corporate interests. The Independent career criminals whodo what others can't or weren't are called shadow runners. The year is 2101,welcome to Fun City.
Mike Rugnetta:Previously on a Fun City, the team was hired by New Jersey Johnson your aid tosteal a boat from Jast Reclamation run by Jast Columnar, a supposedly heattolerant dark mage. The team infiltrated the yard with the help of and in Lux'scase disguised as Jast's head of security, Balto [inaudible 00:01:23]. Gaberesurrected the ship as the others extinguished Jast's flame, pepper puncheddemon dog mold and finally wave clapped Jast collapsed on his home turf. Yuriawaited his boat delivery in the shadow of the monuments, four massiveabandoned high rises, but it turns out the vessel was not his prize rathersomething in it. Upon obtaining his mysterious quarry he gifted the 250 footwarship to the team as thanks for their hard work.
Mike Rugnetta:We'll soon hear about moving day as the team has now vacated Viv's crampedhouseboat for more spacious quarters but first we joined Lux as he approachesBalto Cuddle's house to return Balto's comm link as promised.
Nick Guercio:So he pulls up in a dinghy, ties it to the small dock that is there and walks up to hisfront door and knocks.
Mike Rugnetta:You hear some footsteps and latch unhook from the back of the door, and the doorslowly swings open and you see a very familiar face, the orc woman that youkissed pretending to be her husband. She looks at you confusedly.
Nick Guercio:Hello ma'am, is Balto home?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, who were you? What do you need?
Nick Guercio:I was-
Mike Rugnetta:Is this related to that Jast stuff that happened because I told the last guy that camehere that he wasn't even there, so all your questions have been answered.
Nick Guercio:Which last guy that came?
Mike Rugnetta:I don't know. Some other guy that looked like you. Don't take this the wrong way,I have trouble telling you apart.
Nick Guercio:That's okay. Yeah, I just want him to know about the-
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, hold on. I'll just go get him, all right, hold on. She walks away and you hearsome more footsteps and Balto comes around the corner and he sees you and hegoes, oh, hey, how's it going? How did it go? How did ... And he gives you a bigdramatic wink ... it go?
Nick Guercio:It went well, we got the boat. How much do you know?
Mike Rugnetta:I know there were some big fireworks and we'll close today, but we're opentomorrow. And Jast apparently is having an all hands meeting, he called somemeeting, so I don't know. Yeah, that's what's going to happen.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, it'll probably be a big meeting. Here's your comm link by the way. I reallyappreciate-
Mike Rugnetta:Oh, God! Is it ... did you ... is it wet?
Nick Guercio:It got pretty wet, yeah. I got thrown actually by the Jast character into the water.
Mike Rugnetta:Wait, you and he ... you know what? I don't even want to know. I don't want toknow.
Nick Guercio:So I did-
Mike Rugnetta:He shakes his comm link and you see some droplets of water fly and he puts it upto, he's examining it.
Nick Guercio:In full disclosure and I know you know this, I was dressed as you and reallythought I was you but I was very polite to most of the people there-
Mike Rugnetta:Except for Jast who threw you into the water. Wait, hold on, did he throw you intothe water, or did he throw me into the water?
Nick Guercio:It was me at that point because my mask had fallen off and there was no pies on theboat. So I don't know if he's got his dog back or if he's alive, those are the twothings I don't know. I think you still have a job. I think, so we're going to see,cross our fingers for the big tomorrow.
Mike Rugnetta:I mean, he called the meeting.
Nick Guercio:He did, he's alive. Oh, that's not good.
Bijan Stephen:[crosstalk 00:05:02] Cross our fingers for the big tomorrow?
Mike Rugnetta:Tori, if you're going to opine, at least do it into the microphone.
Bijan Stephen:That's gloom, album titled cross our fingers for the big tomorrow.
Mike Rugnetta:I think [crosstalk 00:05:15]
Shannon Odell:That's going to be on the T-shirt for our show.
Mike Rugnetta:That's our first piece of merchandise is a very attractive hand crossing its fingers-
Nick Guercio:And with cheekbones?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah.
Nick Guercio:Like in tin cans.
Mike Rugnetta:So anyways, Balto looks at you confused. He's like yeah, I mean, now that I gotmy comm link back. I'm going to call some of the guys and I'm going to find outif he's mad at me. Because if he's mad at me, I'm not going back there. But what Iknow is that someone called my wife, they told her that there was a big meetingtomorrow, and as far as I know, Jast is the one that called the meeting. I mean, themeeting's tomorrow and it's not tomorrow yet, so we'll cross our fingers for that.But that's what I know.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, I'm surprised to hear you. She's a nice woman, don't get me wrong, she's anice we work with, she made his dog attack him and then she clapped him realbig with a big water. I don't know how else to say it.
Mike Rugnetta:Wait, hold on, you're telling me that you saw [inaudible 00:06:13] and you live totell about it?
Nick Guercio:She took his mind and then the dog attacked him. It was-
Mike Rugnetta:You guys, you got to write a book about this.
Nick Guercio:Well, I don't know. I mean, some of this stuff is illegal. But I appreciate. I'm reallysorry about this whole thing. I hope everything works out. Obviously-
Mike Rugnetta:Me too. And if it doesn't, and I don't have a job, then you are going to be hearingfrom me.
Nick Guercio:Well, you can't really contact me and I made sure you couldn't. So yeah, I mean,but, yeah, anyway, I have just a little small gift here for you. I gift him anenvelope-
Mike Rugnetta:He takes the envelope?
Nick Guercio:Yes.
Mike Rugnetta:He opens the envelope immediately.
Nick Guercio:There's 250 new yen in there and just a note from me that says-
Mike Rugnetta:He holds up a cred stick, and he drops the envelope and holds up a note. Whatdoes the note say?
Nick Guercio:No, it says good luck for the big tomorrow. And I was going to leave that here andif you didn't answer the door, but I wanted you to have a little something, just totreat you and the family and everything like that. I know that there was a nastysituation obviously, this job, these run ins happen and people like you are thegood guys and we would never want this type of thing to happen, but it did. I'mglad everybody's safe. I think it looks like you still have a job, so that's good.And yeah, I hope you all the best, find anything in the house that may belong tous?
Mike Rugnetta:There are some holes in the wall that you left from gunfire.
Nick Guercio:Yeah. Well, that's what the 250 is for, so I hope that's good enough. I know youreally like that bar-
Mike Rugnetta:Mad Marties.
Nick Guercio:Mad Marties, that's right. But yeah, I'm over there all the time so I might see youthere and I'd love to buy you a drink. I'm going to go-
Mike Rugnetta:Just say bye though.
Nick Guercio:Sorry.
Shannon Odell:Just see you sitting [crosstalk 00:08:11] what do you want then.
Mike Rugnetta:So what else you got going on?
Jenn de la Vega:Boy, Balto's like why are you still here?
Shannon Odell:I know you're going to recommend your contractors.
Bijan Stephen:Darling, is that weird guy still here? What's he talking about?
Nick Guercio:No, just leaving ma'am, good bye.
Mike Rugnetta:This is very nice of you. You are obviously one of the good ones and by ones Imean criminals so get off my property. I don't ever want to see you around myfamily again.
Nick Guercio:Understood.
Mike Rugnetta:It is a beautiful spring day on the deck of a twice stolen warship. It has been acouple weeks since the gang was rewarded with their new quarters by a Mr.Johnson that they know only as Yori, it floats ignored by the citizens of NewYork City in the shadow of four derelict skyscrapers, called the monuments onthe western coast of Midtown Manhattan. Having previously lived in thecramped quarters of Viv Lakewood's houseboat and hermetic Lodge, I assumethat you all were very eager to make the transition to larger quarters. Is that true?
Bijan Stephen:Yes.
Shannon Odell:Yes.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, of course.
Mike Rugnetta:You want to tell me a little bit about how moving day went?
Bijan Stephen:TK had one bag of stuff mostly clothes, they're all the same, same color. And someshoes.
Mike Rugnetta:Just black speedos? Bags of-
Bijan Stephen:Well, so he's the black speedos but also he wears slightly two different shades ofblack but it's really hard to tell.
Mike Rugnetta:It's like charcoal and midnight?
Bijan Stephen:Yeah. And he wears tactical pants and a semi tactical shirt. So yeah, just his duffelbag, and was out the door ready to go.
Shannon Odell:Lash spent most of moving day asking people to time her as she ran from one endof the boat to the other because she doesn't really feel comfortable in a place untilshe knows how fast she can run it, and she doesn't have much because again shelost all of her belongings to a bet with a teenager.
Nick Guercio:What was her time?
Shannon Odell:From front to back?
Nick Guercio:Mm-hmm (affirmative). Or she did side to side too?
Shannon Odell:She did it from all angles. She needs to know, up and down?
Nick Guercio:Yeah.
Shannon Odell:It's based on the size of the boat, which we all know-
Nick Guercio:Is a bank line.
Mike Rugnetta:Is a bank line, yeah.
Shannon Odell:Is a bank line-
Bijan Stephen:It's pretty big.
Shannon Odell:Knowing that she runs about a quarter of a bank per second, it was four seconds.
Bijan Stephen:That is extraordinarily fast.
Shannon Odell:Well, she's [inaudible 00:10:42] you got to be aware of your surroundings andknow how fast it's going to take you blocks this is what I'm telling you, I couldtrain you.
Nick Guercio:You know, you can't train me. I can't use any other way to use, they're too heavy,and I feel like you take great joy in showing me that.
Shannon Odell:And you show up to training day in a suit, every time-
Nick Guercio:That's what I'm going to be in, that is what I'm going to run in and you know that sowhat point is it training in what you're wearing?
Shannon Odell:I know, you could pass on my shorts, they'd be too big on you.
Nick Guercio:But anyway, Lux actually was helping everybody move on to the boat with noplans on moving in himself. He was very generously spending his day helpingeverybody else as he wished them bye he goes back to his condo, which issupposed to be ready at this point, and he walks in the front door and there is twolarge bathtubs.
Mike Rugnetta:Your contractor, remind me of his name again?
Nick Guercio:Is Rick Jones.
Mike Rugnetta:Rick Jones. A very nondescript man comes around the corner, staring off intospace as though he is checking some messages on his comm link. It's easier andhe goes, hey, I was just going to message you, we got an extra bathtub, you gotcharged for it. Sorry.
Nick Guercio:It looks like you've installed it.
Mike Rugnetta:Well, I mean, well, yeah, what else am I going to do with it?
Nick Guercio:This is supposed to be the kitchen, Rick.
Mike Rugnetta:I will not-
Nick Guercio:Where I'm I going to cook?
Mike Rugnetta:Well, I mean, come this way. And he leads you to where your bedroom is downthe hallway. And you go, and you see your palatial master bedroom with a bigcathedral ceiling, beautiful heated marble floors. And he opens up the on suitbathroom in which is a sink and an oven with a stove top. So I mean, this makesperfect sense, right?
Nick Guercio:So I get the feeling Rick, that you got an extra bathtub, and you thought I can't fit itin this bathroom, so I'll make the kitchen the bathroom, because of how largethose bathtubs were. Is that what happened Rick?
Mike Rugnetta:Listen, I don't come to your place and tell you how to wear a suit.
Nick Guercio:That's what you did basically, because you did come to my place and you changedmy rooms around which is worse than telling me how to wear a suit, all right? Doit like it says in the plans, okay?
Mike Rugnetta:Okay. But I mean, we're going to have to knock down some walls. I mean, it'sgoing to add up another couple months.
Nick Guercio:Do it in a month, and I will forget this happened, okay?
Mike Rugnetta:Smash cut back to.
Nick Guercio:And hey guys, I am going to be moving in. There are some problems at the condo.Sorry, TK. I know you had plans to come back with me as well. But it's just awhole they switched the bedroom and the kitchen and the bath.
Bijan Stephen:So where are you going to move? Because Lash I have a gym now.
Nick Guercio:Are you guys sleeping in the gym? No, we have our bedrooms.
Shannon Odell:No, I would love to sleep in the gym, but TK says that's not appropriate.
Bijan Stephen:It's not, we've talked about this.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, I mean, if he wants to use it then-
Bijan Stephen:No, we're saying there's ... you don't have ... because we thought-
Shannon Odell:For the fourth room, we made the gym of it.
Nick Guercio:Right. Okay, so typically battleships have four bedrooms and you're saying[crosstalk 00:13:58]
Bijan Stephen:It was the brig, we didn't think anyone was going to stay there, because we took allthe good rooms.
Shannon Odell:But you could maybe sleep on the ab machine.
Nick Guercio:I'm not sleeping on the ab machine-
Bijan Stephen:It's got a bench.
Shannon Odell:It's got a bench.
Nick Guercio:Who sleeps on a bench? That's worse than the ground.
Bijan Stephen:TK gives Lash a look, confused like, what!
Nick Guercio:Guys it's okay I know there's a there's an engine room, there's a spare engine roomthat I noticed that I'll actually fixed up and stuff I'll go get ... I have a contractorthat's actually a good one.
Bijan Stephen:So you're saying we can keep the gym?
Nick Guercio:Yeah, just keep the gym guys okay, I'm sure I'll be able to find something.
Shannon Odell:We hi five.
Mike Rugnetta:Viv, how was moving day for you?
Jenn de la Vega:Viv actually was not present. She was on the other side of Manhattan, still on herhouseboat. She was meditating alone until she had an encounter with the sea andit shook her up a little bit. So she decided to move the houseboat to whereeveryone else was, in ... Was it the Hudson Yards area? So early in the morningwhen the sun was rising, she stood on the deck of her houseboat and just stoodthere arms akimbo with her eyes closed. And she had already untied the boatfrom the dock and lashed to the dinghy to the back, and she unfurled her armsand the boat started moving forward.
Jenn de la Vega:And she spent the morning looping down the bottom of Manhattan and slowlymaking her way to where everyone else was on the boat. So it was a very calmmorning, the seagulls were in full force, they had found some dead stuff, and soshe had to swerve around it. And so upon arriving, she saw the rest of the crewon the deck talking about where they were going to sleep, and she wasn't exactlyplanning to move onto the boat, but maybe keeping some things like a toothbrushand a hammock near the deck. So she brings her houseboat close to the ship andstarts walking up the gangway.
Mike Rugnetta:So before we get too far and get into what you all have been up to, for the lastcouple weeks, we have some actual game mechanics related business to take careof since you finished a run, we need to reward you with karma, which is like[inaudible 00:16:23] version of XP, you get karma for completing runs. And thenafter you've spent a little while training new skills, you spend karma to be able toactually do those skills.
Mike Rugnetta:So karma unlocks new skills that you've trained for a little while to learn. Karmais awarded per player. It's not awarded, the same amount is not awarded toeveryone in the team. The core rule book has some recommendations on how todo this. I have my own way that I like to do it. So we have some house rules thatare happening. So here it goes, everyone gets three karma for completing themission, which you all did. Congratulations.
Shannon Odell:We did it, the first mission.
Mike Rugnetta:Everyone gets one additional karma for completing Yuri's additional objective oflearning what the deal with Jast Reclamation was. Remind me because I actuallydon't remember. You have to be honest. We have a recording. Did anyonecompletely fill up their physical damage track at any point during the run?
Bijan Stephen:No.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, so no additional karma awarded there. So this one is I leave it to you. Andfor the next couple we need consensus. Does the group believe that it is likelysomeone died as a direct result of your actions during the run?
Bijan Stephen:If Jast isn't dead, probably. No, because he did mark a few of his own dudes, but Idon't think that was us.
Shannon Odell:Didn't we kill the guy in the bathroom?
Jenn de la Vega:No, he was passed out. You stabbed him with a needle.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, and then I broke the lock, but then he got hit by that poison wave.
Nick Guercio:Personally my vote would be it is not likely.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, I think we're at the 49%.
Nick Guercio:Yeah we're at the 49%, the most likely would have been Jast but we've gottenconfirmation from Balto that he's alive.
Mike Rugnetta:So everybody award yourself and additional karma.
Bijan Stephen:Oh shit, we got that heavy karma.
Mike Rugnetta:Two more, the group has to come to a consensus as to who in this run the MVPwas and they will get an additional karma.
Bijan Stephen:Viv.
Jenn de la Vega:What? No.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, that was quick.
Bijan Stephen:The fact, and she tamed the demon dog.
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah, that was pretty fun. I would have voted for Lux because he did so muchtalking.
Nick Guercio:And then the shit hit the [crosstalk 00:18:53]
Jenn de la Vega:And recognizance while we were there.
Nick Guercio:That's true. I mean-
Jenn de la Vega:Lux you are in the running.
Mike Rugnetta:We got one more we got one more, which is just to be clear, we all agree on Viv?
Nick Guercio:Viv yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay-
Jenn de la Vega:Oh, thank you.
Mike Rugnetta:So Jen please award Viv an additional karma. And the last is similar idea, not theMVP, but who in a particular situation performed the best assist?
Bijan Stephen:If you're talking about assisting the mission I would say Lux with the wife kiss.
Jenn de la Vega:The wife kiss, the whole Balto situation.
Shannon Odell:Right. Yeah, I think that-
Bijan Stephen:That was the mission assist.
Shannon Odell:... going into Balto's wife's house and convincing him or her.
Bijan Stephen:That he was her husband.
Shannon Odell:That he was her husband and that there was, yeah.
Nick Guercio:I think it was a good assist. But I do want to bring up the fact that Lash did a clamflip.
Jenn de la Vega:That's true.
Shannon Odell:Clam flip, oh [crosstalk 00:19:48]
Nick Guercio:My efforts would have been for nothing if that real Balto wasn't clam flipped backon the ground after a lot of unsuccessful but very valid [crosstalk 00:19:57]
Shannon Odell:But I agree Lux.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, I think Lux.
Jenn de la Vega:I think so too.
Mike Rugnetta:So there you go, Nick, please award Lux an additional karma.
Jenn de la Vega:Well, thanks guys.
Nick Guercio:Will get them next time.
Jenn de la Vega:So just to be clear, so every time you finish your run the karma calculations willnot be exactly the same. But it'll be things like this. The next question I have is,what has everyone been up to between moving day and now? Which is anotherway of asking, is there anything that you decided to spend your karma on andtrain and if not, what were you doing instead of training new skills?
Bijan Stephen:I think TK went back to the house but and asked Viv to train him in spell casting.So TK being an adept, he uses magic by using moving his body he wanted to geta better grip on what exactly what's happening. So obviously, he went to theresident mage, and he was like, teach me in his brusque way was like, will youplease teach me what you know? And yeah, I think the lessons were fruitful. Ithink it took a little while for TK to get a handle on what it was like to cast aspell, what it felt like and the way he would do it. And he only knows one spellright now. And it's heal because he thought that would be useful, because nobodyelse in the group has a healing spell. We have some med kits.
Mike Rugnetta:I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, right? An adept can basically only learn onespell.
Bijan Stephen:Only learn one spell.
Mike Rugnetta:You're basically an athletic magician who can pull all of their concentrationtogether to do cast one spell that they've learned. Yeah.
Bijan Stephen:Mm-hmm (affirmative), he's not very good at it, but he can do it. And he's justbetting when the chips are down, he can pull one of his buddies up.
Mike Rugnetta:Viv, what was it like training TK in the ways of spell casting?
Jenn de la Vega:It was a lot of meditation, and a lot of time spent on the dinghy that we hadbrought to the middle of the water. We would maybe travel 30 minutes out toopen water and meditate because Viv's brand of chaotic magic is rooted in heremotions and the elements. So her emotions determine how powerful or howshaky a spell may be. Her chosen element is water but she is still capable ofsummoning all sorts of spirits and working with all other kinds of elements. SoTK is able to choose an element that he would like to be associated with.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, and I think TJ chooses fire because the other skill that he has, one of theother adept skills that he has is called elemental body, which he has learned howto channel some fire to enhance his attacks in his defense. He doesn't use it veryoften though, because he realized very soon after hanging out with Viv that drainwas a thing, and it sucks.
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah, after a few times, she had to take him back to the houseboat and revive himand give him some tea because he overdid it. Yeah, he over did it a couple times,he's a little singed.
Bijan Stephen:He's not very good at being bad at things, but he's getting better.
Mike Rugnetta:Very proud. We're all very proud.
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah. And so between training sessions Viv was converting the houseboat froman apartment into the rest of her chaotic Lodge. So she started to move some ofher artifacts down into the main space and actually took TK to where ProspectPark used to be where there was a lake to go forage for things because she feelsthese items give her power and if he finds certain kinds of woods or-
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, he doesn't get it.
Mike Rugnetta:It's called Park beach now.
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah, Park beach.
Bijan Stephen:TK just doesn't get it but does it to make VIV happy.
Jenn de la Vega:It is not trash like Lux says.
Mike Rugnetta:What did you guys do? Lash, Lux?
Shannon Odell:Lash took some damage, mostly she inflicted on self, wanted to try to compile usbright so she's resting up to try to regain her strength, but she also in her time, shepicked up a book on blow guns, so she has this blow gun and she has all theseblowgun darts and she didn't know how to use it just because she didn't getaround to learning so she has taken this time to really learn how to use her blowgun.
Mike Rugnetta:You definitely had to go to, wait, Lux what was the name of your contractoragain?
Nick Guercio:Rickie Jones.
Mike Rugnetta:You definitely had to go to Rick Jones' blow dart school?
Shannon Odell:Yes. I took three classes because actually the classes are 12 hours long, it's insane.But I took three of them. And the whole time it was actually in Lux's apartment,the class took place there. I did not tell Lux because I knew he would get angryabout it.
Mike Rugnetta:So that's what those bathtubs were for?
Shannon Odell:Yeah, we used his walls for practice, and he just kept saying don't worry we'regoing to have to take these down and put new ones anyway. So I'm using mykarma to get one-
Mike Rugnetta:It's an exotic weapon's skill right?
Shannon Odell:Yes, level one.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah.
Shannon Odell:But now I can use it.
Mike Rugnetta:Lux did you get up to anything during your downtime?
Shannon Odell:Lash did not tell me that she's taken the blow dart classes there. So mostly myproject has just been to make a livable space on this boat. I overestimated howbig the engine room would be. So I had to do a lot of work in the below deck onthe boat towards the rear end in order to make what Lux feels is a livable space.
Mike Rugnetta:So yeah, when you open the door to one of the compartments that has not beentaken, that is mostly filled with dials and wheels and pressure gauges and stuff,it's just full to the brim with very fancy clothing that is not yours. It's allincredibly colorful and it is of many, many different styles. There's a lot ofsequence, there's a lot of ruffles, there are more than a few full length gowns thatare made out of the, what is it? The chameleon suit material that actually has anactive camouflage, yeah, evening wear made from that material and all thatbelongs to Gabriel.
Nick Guercio:So Gabriel claimed that room.
Mike Rugnetta:He begrudgingly moves it. He'll get it out of the way, and move it into his ownquarters.
Nick Guercio:Yes. But I mean, even that room itself wasn't very big. I mean, you could have putmaybe a hammock in there and chest so Lux is hoping for his condo to be donesoon while he's in a relatively small room on the boat-
Mike Rugnetta:Careful with all of the grease.
Nick Guercio:Yes, with a hammock and a very small desk.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv has made a mini cabana on the deck, which she's hung up a mirror and a bagof forks that she uses as hair brushes and she's just dragged one of the poolsidechaise lounge, the ones that fold and flip doesn't know she's going to sleep they'renot yet but it's where she's hanging out most of the time on the boat.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay now that we've done all the business any other things anybody wants to takecare of or shall we progress?
Shannon Odell:Can we make a, my stand damage is zero now?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah. If you took any damage during the Jast encounter, you may heal all of yourwounds, no matter how they were received. There was one thing that we do needto address, which is so there can be events in the game where a player is awardeda negative quality thanks to events that have transpired. You can also workpositive qualities.
Shannon Odell:Oh my god.
Bijan Stephen:But negative one is [crosstalk 00:27:41]
Shannon Odell:Oh, but who is it?
Mike Rugnetta:So Lux, I'm sorry. You now have a mild phobia of water.
Nick Guercio:Mild phobia of water.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, and that's not like, you can get on a boat, you'll be okay. But if you are inthe water, or if you have to swim you just have this crushing visceral memory ofthe toxic wave that you witnessed at Jast Reclamation, and I think if you try toconfront your fears, you can work through it, we'll say that you can get rid of it.But for now, I'm going to ask you to just keep in mind that Lux is not a fan ofbeing in a body of water, and will do whatever he can within reason to avoid that.
Nick Guercio:That makes sense. Does this affect my dice pool at all in aquatic scenarios?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, we'll role play it mostly, we'll figure it out as the situations arise. I'm notasking if you like it, but do you think that's fair?
Nick Guercio:I think it's fair.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay. That does actually make your relationship with Viv and her various spirits,and even think about this, a little more complicated. As mentioned, the team alsolives on this boat with the semi retired shadow runner and rigor Gabriel[inaudible 00:28:59] who is an experienced pilot, Captain, navigator andengineer. In the downtime for the last couple weeks Gabriel has been workingevery day between of course his DJ gigs at the ball pit and other various locationsto make sure that the ship is tip top, that includes various design related decisionsmade by the team including a name on the boat. I think there has been somediscussion in meet space in real world about what the name of the boat will be.But you guys can name your boat and if so what.
Jenn de la Vega:I mean I want to dedicate something to Pepper.
Bijan Stephen:Oh pepper's good actually.
Jenn de la Vega:The Pepper Pan. The majestic lady Pepper.
Bijan Stephen:HMS Miss pepper, Her Majesty.
Jenn de la Vega:HMS Pepper.
Bijan Stephen:HMS Pepper.
Mike Rugnetta:Could someone say who Pepper is.
Shannon Odell:Pepper's our mascot. Pepper is our dog friend who lives here in the studio with us.
Mike Rugnetta:To be clear she doesn't pay rent. Does she pay rent?
Bijan Stephen:She leaves a lot of hair around.
Shannon Odell:And she gives the smooches you would have ever felt.
Bijan Stephen:She also lives outside of the studio just to be clear about that. Shannon, are youfrom the 20s?
Shannon Odell:Yes.
Jenn de la Vega:What is Pepper's Instagram?
Bijan Stephen:Pepper da Papa.
Jenn de la Vega:It is the cutest Instagram.
Nick Guercio:I like calling it pepper. I think in universe we should have some reason why we likePepper.
Bijan Stephen:Maybe we have group meals and we always use a lot of, I know ...
Jenn de la Vega:Because it's all soy so we got to do something about it.
Nick Guercio:But maybe we would name it after the eggs that we ate, because that is the bestthing we've ever-
Bijan Stephen:Mrs. Sandwich.
Mike Rugnetta:Mrs. Egg?
Bijan Stephen:Mrs. Egg.
Shannon Odell:Just Egg.
Nick Guercio:Wait, what did Yori call it?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, Mrs. Egg.
Nick Guercio:I'd like that. It's unlucky to have a ship without a name. So I think we should-
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, Mrs. Egg.
Jenn de la Vega:I like Mrs. Egg. This pleases in real life, Jen, for sure.
Mike Rugnetta:Great. Okay, is that decided? Mrs. Egg? Okay, so Gabriel has been working veryhard. On one side he does write M-R-S Egg and on the other side he just paints abig egg. He also spent a lot of the time scrubbing off all of the drunken animalsthat were on the side and now the boat is just a flat dark gray.
Nick Guercio:Okay.
Bijan Stephen:It's close.
Mike Rugnetta:Tactical enough. As you all are in your various quarters, whether it's on the deck,in an engine room, hanging in a hammock somewhere, or whatever you actuallythroughout the boat you hear from [inaudible 00:31:33] Gabriel's voice rumblethrough the Navy ship turned party barges bass, heavy sound system, and youhear him say, all hands to the bridge for a captain's address, followed by a lightsnicker.
Mike Rugnetta:When you guys get to the bridge, you see a site that you're familiar with fromwhen you first saw the bridge, a bunch of floating holographic charts and maps,dials, a bunch of readouts, and Gabriel is there strapped into the captain's chair,there's a short, thick black wire that's plugged into the port on the side of hishead. And as you get into the bridge, he comes to unplug the cable that retractsinto this giant captain's chair that he's in. And he stands, and he rubs his eyes likehe's been awake for a while, and he's been working really hard on the ship.
Mike Rugnetta:And he looks at you all, and he says, all right, is everybody ready for a statusreport?
Nick Guercio:Yeah.
Mike Rugnetta:I think the thing that Yuri took, remember he took that black box with a bunch ofwires and stuff? I'm pretty sure that was the ship's, it wasn't the GPS locator, itwas the onboard record for the GPS locator. So it was a persistent physicalarchive of everywhere the boat has been.
Nick Guercio:Black box.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, basically, it was a black box. I don't know why he wanted it, but seems likehe got it. I can't find that, if that thing exists elsewhere on the boat, I've beenlooking for two weeks, I can't find it. So I think just by process of elimination,that must be what it is. I do know what kind of ship it is, it is, as technology ship,this is actually from their corporate Navy. It's pretty old. I'm pretty sure theyactually don't even make this one anymore.
Mike Rugnetta:I'm not sure how it became a party barge, I tried to do a bunch of matrix searches.Try to just find anything in the boat, any manifest anywhere, I can't find anything.It doesn't look like it was ever a party barge in New York. So it seems like itmaybe just came here and went right to Jast from wherever it was shepherdingaround, bachelorette parties or something. So when it came to New York musthave been, then there's a series of events where eventually Yuri hears about it andfigures out that his ship is back in the city.
Bijan Stephen:So he probably was interested in the boat's previous locations, maybe sometreasure somewhere.
Mike Rugnetta:Or he just doesn't want, the idea is that if Yuri could tell that it's around, someoneelse could tell that it's around. And there's maybe a reason that he doesn't wantpeople knowing where it was.
Bijan Stephen:I see, because there's been some illegal things done in this boat.
Mike Rugnetta:Who knows.
Bijan Stephen:Right.
Shannon Odell:In to New York, wants to start a new life. This boat wants to raise its past.Sometimes you want to start, you move to New York and you want to start over.
Mike Rugnetta:Along those lines, I got some bad news, which is that I would say that right nowthe distance that this boat went from Jast to here is about as far as it could go. Forthe time being until further notice we are going to be stationary. I'm working asfast as I can, but it's an old boat, parts of hard to get, I got to make a lot of stuff.
Shannon Odell:Well, the great news is we're here in Hudson Yards, it's beautiful.
Bijan Stephen:We got rooms, we got a gym.
Shannon Odell:And Viv is twirling a fork in her hair like spaghetti and she says, we still got thedinghy.
Mike Rugnetta:And then Gabriel's like, we do still have the dinghy, don't worry. I'm going towork as hard as I can, as fast as I can to get this thing in tip top shape. And hepats the console and the door opens from underneath. And a bunch of cables fallout, which he then puts his finger up in the air and says, oh, which reminds me, Ifixed the ship's onboard computer. Hey, Artemis, and you hear a very pleasantEnglish voice say.
Artemis:Hello Gabriel.
Mike Rugnetta:Artemis. What's the population of New York City?
Artemis:The current population of Manhattan is estimated at 2.2 million, but the corporatearcheologists, keep that population data private. The outer boroughs have notparticipated in an officially recognized census since-
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, doom and gloom, apocalypse archipelago, I getit. So anyways, I trained her to everyone's voice-
Artemis:[crosstalk 00:35:38] doom and gloom archipelago from your Spotify.
Shannon Odell:Spotify is now owned by ASCAP.
Taylor Moore:I don't know how you all talk to your computers, but that always I'd be happy to bein my house.
Nick Guercio:Artemis just slipped into character, I think it was a comedian.
Artemis:I used to be a puppet for a racist man in Las Vegas.
Taylor Moore:[inaudible 00:36:07] puppets were bought as IP and then used to program homeAis. [crosstalk 00:36:13] It's not real. I'm doing a goof.
Bijan Stephen:I feel like I don't know that though.
Nick Guercio:[crosstalk 00:36:26] the racist terrorist puppet for the rest of our time here.
Mike Rugnetta:You guys fought a demon Glenn Danzig. And the Jeff Dunham future was moreupsetting.
Nick Guercio:Oh, yeah give me a Danzig anytime.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay so anyway I trained her to everyone's voices so she should be able to tellyou all apart, she has a different instance in each of your quarters if you want togive her a try right now, you feel free to ask her stuff see what she says.
Nick Guercio:Artemis can you give me the reviews for Rick Jones contractor in Manhattan?
Artemis:Hello Lux, according to [inaudible 00:37:02] the most popular source for contractorreviews in the tri state area, Rick Jones contracting gets four stars out of 17 stars.The top review from user lucky boy horse time for 16 reads. Bathtubs, bathtubs,bathtubs, everything is bathtubs, how many baths am I supposed to take? Whereare my children? In their beds are bathtubs. Would you like to listen to morereviews from [inaudible 00:37:35]?
Nick Guercio:Yeah, can you read a positive one? Just if there is one, the highest review, the moststars out of 17.
Artemis:Searching, searching, positive review found. I was caused by a warlock to be half fish.And now I live in an apartment full of bathtubs. I asked for parquet flooring, butnow I have nothing but bathtubs. Did I ask for this? No, but I love it. Sometimesyou don't know what you want until it's given to you, and I'm as lucky as a horseboy at 4:16 P.M, because now I can flop around from one bath tub to another. Allthe haters on here hash up, Rick Jones contracting-
Taylor Moore:Best contracting [crosstalk 00:38:14]
Mike Rugnetta:Okay that's enough.
Nick Guercio:That works pretty well.
Taylor Moore:Jesus Christ, dude, you're going to have to install a governor, or a electric collar onme.
Mike Rugnetta:So Gabriel continues ... Okay, all right enough fun with Artemis. You can also ifyou want to install a version of her on your comm if you want to ask her any easyquestions, but anything that's heavy lifting, you're going to have to ask her fromthe boat. Finally, the Jast job was exciting. But I'm getting old, and you look atGabriel and you see lines on his face. Underneath all the tattoos, you can see he'sgot some crow's feet, got some smile lines. It's like I think my running days aremaybe mostly over.
Mike Rugnetta:And I was wondering if you guys would be okay if I ... I don't know, I mean, I'mhappy to keep working on the boat. I actually love this boat. This is a funchallenge. I haven't done a fixer upper like this in a really long time. And I don'tknow, when I'm working on it, and when I'm jumped into it, it's just like, it'sreally hard to describe because none of you were rigorous. You don't really get,maybe don't know what this is like, but it's just very comfortable. It feels like I fiton this boat.
Mike Rugnetta:So I'm happy to run the show here. I don't know, maybe I can run with you if youneed me if you really need an extra hand, but, how would you guys feel ... Andhe makes eye contact with Lux. I mean, I could just be your guy's fixer, hook youup with jobs and stuff and just take care of things around the whole floatinghomestead.
Nick Guercio:I mean, I'm not going to miss it. I think that would actually be helpful. What do youguys think?
Jenn de la Vega:I'm amenable to that.
Bijan Stephen:Seems all right.
Shannon Odell:You know me, you know I love Gabe.
Nick Guercio:Gabriel, we've only known you for a couple of weeks now and I really feel likeyou're part of the family.
Mike Rugnetta:Oh, that's so nice.
Nick Guercio:You moved on your caftans and tunics and all kinds of feathers things for me, and Iappreciate that. Yeah, I mean, we definitely need a lot of work on this boat ifwe're going to live here. So it's not like we could just send you on your way.You're the only one who knows how to work the damn thing, right? So I feel likeas long as you want to run with us or be home base operations with us, and thatwould be good with me.
Bijan Stephen:When we're going you can use the gym.
Mike Rugnetta:I'm also going to use the gym when you're here.
Bijan Stephen:But I'm saying-
Mike Rugnetta:I can also use it when you're gone. I appreciate that. That means a lot to me. That'show I feel like that's a big step.
Nick Guercio:Yeah. And that applies for everything on the boat.
Mike Rugnetta:I can use it while you're both-
Nick Guercio:You can use it while we're gone, as well, yeah, because you live here.
Mike Rugnetta:That's great. It's good to hear that you guys are into that. Because I already have ajob for you.
Nick Guercio:Oh, great.
Bijan Stephen:Oh, and you're right already?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah. So actually, I got a call from an old law school buddy of mine-
Bijan Stephen:Wait, you're a lawyer?
Mike Rugnetta:Oh, yeah. I didn't tell you that?
Shannon Odell:No.
Mike Rugnetta:Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, before I did DJ things, I was, yeah, I practice a lot of law.So yeah, if you guys also, if you ever need any legal help, you can also refer tome as your counsel.
Nick Guercio:Oh, great. We're definitely going to need that.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, it was mostly criminal law too.
Bijan Stephen:We're criminals.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, that's all we are, you know that right?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah. It turns out that's not a coincidence. And that's one of the assets that I bringto the teams that I work with.
Shannon Odell:Wow, amazing.
Mike Rugnetta:So anyways, I got a call from an old law school buddy of mine this morning. It's ajob that his team can't take for some reason. He was pretty unclear about why, butthe money is apparently all right. It's a quick job. Sounds like it's a frame job.And it's with small Corp in Tribeca and they could meet with you this afternoon.So I can set up that meeting if you want to go.
Nick Guercio:I'm down.
Bijan Stephen:Let's do it.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, there's one thing though, the guy my buddy, let me know that this is anappropriate attire required situation. So you all are going to have to dress likecorporate stooges, sorry.
Bijan Stephen:No tactical gear?
Mike Rugnetta:Well, it can be tactical, as long as it's also salary man appropriate.
Jenn de la Vega:Does this mean I have to put on shoes?
Mike Rugnetta:Yes.
Jenn de la Vega:TK you can borrow one of my suits. You cannot put pockets on my suits.
Mike Rugnetta:So what I have written here in my notes is just pretty woman montage so youguys can just describe however you want. I feel like Lux maybe you're already allset.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, I look at the mirror and I nod, and then I do a fonz, what am I going to do tofix this?
Bijan Stephen:TK is standing right behind Lux as he's doing this, having entered the room midlike montage because Lux had invited him in.
Nick Guercio:Oh, I ... Yes, I look good. Come on in. Yes. So I picked out all of my, the darkestgray and black suits that I have, that have a little bit of a little bit less shine tothem a little bit more matte for you. This is actually a [inaudible 00:42:47] andthis is made actually by two [inaudible 00:42:51] brothers who actually are inspace.
Bijan Stephen:Will it fit?
Nick Guercio:Let's put them on you and let's see, I could do some tailoring.
Mike Rugnetta:They fit great.
Bijan Stephen:Girl, turn to the left. Well, how's the song? [crosstalk 00:43:01]
Shannon Odell:It's work.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah. TK walks up to the mirror and does the exact same thing that Lux did whenhe walked in the room.
Mike Rugnetta:You feel really good.
Bijan Stephen:Even if it's the cyber room.
Shannon Odell:I walk into the room say you got anything that'll fit me.
Nick Guercio:Lash, I do not have anything that'll fit you.
Shannon Odell:Come on, something that's a little baggy in the legs.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, it's definitely not going to be baggy on you, you're an enormous woman.
Shannon Odell:Let's see how tall are you?
Nick Guercio:I'm six foot two.
Shannon Odell:Yeah, I'm a measly six, five.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, but you're so much bulkier than me.
Shannon Odell:Yeah, that's true.
Mike Rugnetta:Gabriel might have a really baggy playsuit that you can wear.
Shannon Odell:Oh, incredible, Gabe, you got something I could check out.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, hold on. Let me get something from my room. And he comes back with awhite base, yellow flower print playsuit with a belt around the waist.
Shannon Odell:I guess this will have to do. Yellow is not really my color, but I love it Gabe.
Mike Rugnetta:So do I, don't mess it up.
Shannon Odell:I'll try not to.
Mike Rugnetta:It has pockets.
Shannon Odell:Oh, this is great. And how can I stretch my legs? How big can I push my legs outin this?
Mike Rugnetta:You can have a slight, a very quiet rip that no one else hears.
Shannon Odell:Okay.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv is on the houseboat with her hand in the water, she's grabbed up a blowfish,she spooks it a little bit so it blows up. And she puts it on her head and wrapshere really long hair around it. So she has a little beehive with a little, a tinyblowfish face to [inaudible 00:44:34]
Bijan Stephen:Is the fish alive or dead?
Mike Rugnetta:We're going to say that because magic is involved, yeah, it's fine.
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah. The only shoes that she has are designer knockoff Roman sandals thatwrap along her legs, it's the fanciest things she has, they're called Jimmy hooves.And she just runs her hands down the length of her caftan and as it passes it turnsinto blowfish scales.
Mike Rugnetta:As you all get dressed and meet again on the boat, Gabriel espies you all and says,you all look great. I think that this is definitely appropriate attire.
Shannon Odell:Can you take a picture of us all dressed up for the boat?
Mike Rugnetta:I would love to and he snaps a little photo using this comm and then messages itto you all.
Shannon Odell:Oh, that is great.
Nick Guercio:Guess I'm going to do a fun one.
Jenn de la Vega:And Viv was already caught unaware with the photo so she's clearly blinking.
Bijan Stephen:Where's the blowfish looking?
Mike Rugnetta:Directly into the camera.
Jenn de la Vega:It's just staring forward.
Mike Rugnetta:Dear, don't cause too much trouble while you're there, just hear him out, got topay the rent somehow. And by rent, I mean, got to this fix this boat.
Bijan Stephen:Cool. Thanks, Gabriel.
Mike Rugnetta:Good luck kids.
Nick Guercio:Thanks Gabe.
Jenn de la Vega:Hey, Shannon, has this ever happened to you? You got to get your familypresents for the holiday but you don't know who they are as people.
Shannon Odell:So much so, what do I do?
Jenn de la Vega:Get them a shaker and spoon subscription, it's so good. You get a box of cocktailfixings every month, mixers, garnish, you name it, enough to make 12 servings ofthree cocktails. Well all you need is the base liquor, which I mean, let's be honest,everyone's family is plenty of base liquor.
Shannon Odell:Oh yeah, you are correct. How much is it?
Jenn de la Vega:It's 4050 bucks a month but get this if you go to shakerandspoon.com/funcity,you'll get $20 off that first month. And you don't need to tell your family youused the discount code on their present.
Shannon Odell:Oh my gosh, I'm going to shakerandspoon.com/funcity right now. Send.
Mike Rugnetta:That was an ad [crosstalk 00:46:34]
Mike Rugnetta:The address that Gabriel gave you is in Tribeca, I don't know why I wrote downthe actual address, do we care about [crosstalk 00:47:05]
Jenn de la Vega:It will be like Russian doll, we know where it is.
Taylor Moore:Is it upper or lower Tribeca?
Mike Rugnetta:It's on Calister between beach and Hubert.
Taylor Moore:But is it on the superstructure or is it?
Mike Rugnetta:It's on the superstructure, yeah. So actually, it's in a portion of the city that wascompletely destroyed. It was entirely leveled almost down to the dirt. Andseveral decades ago, it was rebuilt to exacting specifications to look exactly likeit looked in the 18th and 19th centuries, shipping depots, which have never held ashipment warehouses, which have never housed anywhere is only exceptionallywealthy startups, a bunch of real estate agencies, architectural firms, all in thesepristine 18th and 19th century style buildings built in the last five to 10 years.
Mike Rugnetta:Henry drops you off in front of an immaculately detailed brick and slab stonebuilding complete with a shuttered loading dock platform that is in pristinecondition, nothing has ever backed into this loading dock ever. And at the top ofa set of corrugated metal stairs, which have been painted black, you can see asmall lobby with a receptionist and a massive troll security detail.
Mike Rugnetta:The building is actually for the most part unmarked, you know you're at the rightaddress. You can see the number but there's no business name on it.
Bijan Stephen:Let's go inside.
Mike Rugnetta:So the lobby is about a 15 foot by 20 foot space, it's pretty small. It's got a gentlycurved white stone desk, behind which sits a very pleasant looking human man,in a light short sleeve blue shirt. He's got a long blond beard and has a singlecharm woven into it. And you can see his eyes flip back and forth as he scans theAR display that's beamed into his wireless contacts.
Mike Rugnetta:He taps a few buttons on a keyboard that's recessed into his desk, and he looks upat you and he says, ah, you must, and he squints a little bit, the [inaudible 00:49:06] group. And you all look grand.
Nick Guercio:Was that a question?
Mike Rugnetta:No, you all just do-
Nick Guercio:Okay, it sounded like a question, but thank you.
Mike Rugnetta:Now that you're in the lobby, you can see that further into the building, there's agiant, they're called mad scanners. And these are pieces of technology that scanall of your credentials that are on your comm links. And also scan to make surethat you have no weapons on you. The man gestures towards the troll securitydetail and says if you have any implements of destruction on you, you can leavethem here with Reginald.
Bijan Stephen:TK takes out his combat X and hands it over.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv stumbles over and does the same, she rummages from underneath hersparkling caftan.
Mike Rugnetta:Forget that Viv has a combat X.
Bijan Stephen:Fucking good weapon too.
Nick Guercio:Lux's bracers are designed to not be detected by these things, but I know that thesebetter ones can detect toxins. So I remove the toxins themselves that means thatthey're just armored bracers but underneath my suit so they're no longer weapons.And so I put the little capsules with, what's his name, Gregory?
Mike Rugnetta:Reginald, with Reginald.
Shannon Odell:Lash takes her blow gun out of the one boot and then a handful of darts out of theother boot and drop somewhere in the basket.
Nick Guercio:Lash, you just have those darts and they're loose?
Shannon Odell:Yeah.
Nick Guercio:That doesn't puncture your legs.
Shannon Odell:No, my legs, it's got to be parallel with my legs, the two shall never meet, parallel.
Mike Rugnetta:Fabulous. And so just one more thing. I'm sure you're used to it in your line ofwork and he looks directly at Viv, and says, but for safety and I'm sure youunderstand it, is company policy, a counter speller will be assigned to the magicuser in your party for the duration of your visit. Because I mean, you can'texactly be disarmed. We mean no disrespect Miss ... and he taps on his keyboarda little bit ... Lakewood, it is like I said, company policy. And you hear a set offootsteps coming from the other side of the hallway. And then you see.
Taylor Moore:The human woman that approaches you is tall, a fierily thin with an aggressivepink hook of a nose and black flitting eyes, it is not the case that a shaman turneda pale and wicked Flamingo into a human woman. Nevertheless, anyone whosees her is forced to consider it. She is bald and wears a gray scent flannel skirtsuit with a brass name tag on her lapel that simply reads Martha. Hello?
Nick Guercio:Hey, Martha.
Taylor Moore:Good afternoon.
Nick Guercio:Good afternoon to you.
Taylor Moore:And let means I sense you.
Jenn de la Vega:Hello Martha.
Taylor Moore:It's a pleasure to meet you. She extends her hand and her fingers are long and pinklike the legs of a barbie doll.
Mike Rugnetta:Oh God.
Bijan Stephen:What the fuck!
Jenn de la Vega:Vivian, the pleasure is all mine. And Viv extends her hand underneath, butinstead of clasping she just runs her fingers under her palm.
Taylor Moore:Martha matches the action on your hands.
Mike Rugnetta:This is turning into a very different podcast.
Bijan Stephen:TK stares like what the fuck! Looks over at Lash.
Mike Rugnetta:Perfect. Now that we are all acquainted, Miss Ashna will see you on the fifthfloor. And you hear a distant elevator ding on the other side of the mad scanners.
Jenn de la Vega:Good day, thank you.
Bijan Stephen:So I get through?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, you all get through. So out of game, you got to tell me the universe youdon't have anything on you that is a weapon, is that true?
Bijan Stephen:I mean aside from his whole body.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah I mean you have a whole body but, yeah, you sir everybody have a wholebody.
Bijan Stephen:Still arm.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah. But yeah, no one has anything that is literally a weapon. Okay, cool, great.All of you get through the scanners without incident. They beep happily and youget your way into the elevator and Martha just tails behind Vivian but is ifincredibly disturbing to be around, perfectly pleasant.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv just has her hands clasped in front of her as she walks, but stumbles a littlebit because she hates wearing shoes.
Mike Rugnetta:This place is really well appointed, it's very 20th century designing. There's a lotof sticks in big vases and fake plants around and very innocuous almostrestaurant style paintings, you know what I mean? It's abstract but not even reallyabstract, just shapes.
Bijan Stephen:As hotel like the 21st century?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, I mean, that's actually pretty cool. But without the pretense of being cool,there's no wood grain anywhere. It's all white marble, it's all glass, white steel,very simple. And there is no identifying mark, there's no name of a company.There's no advertising, there's nothing anywhere. You get in the elevator, you goup to the fifth floor, the elevator opens onto a thorough floor office. So this officetakes up the entire floor of this reconstructed shipping warehouse. It is verydifferent from everything you've seen so far.
Mike Rugnetta:It actually does have a lot of that old wood grain charm, so very convincing. Thewood beams look like they're very old, their wooden floor is very rough. It's allunfinished, wide grain, it's magnificent. It's a gigantic space, exposed beams, it'sgot those old cloudy warehouse windows with the thin frames. It's mostlyunfurnished except there are two directly in front of you freestanding walls thatyou're looking at the side of, they're near the middle of the space a few metersaway from either side of a huge executive desk. It's made of dark wood and has avery thin steel top.
Mike Rugnetta:The walls reach almost but not quite to the ceiling. The wall to the left is linedwith books. The one to the right is covered in multi channel projection of whatlooks like security camera feeds, local news reports and at least one cartoonshow. You're about maybe 10 or 15 feet away from the desk and you can see thata woman is sitting there, and she is working intently. And as you exit theelevator, she beckons you wordlessly not looking up from the work on her desk.
Jenn de la Vega:We move into the room, and as Viv approaches, well she knows that the woman'snot looking at her, but she's still bows, so that the blue fish is making eye contactwith her.
Taylor Moore:Martha says, please this way. And she notices, you're having trouble walking inyour shoes Viv, and she says, first time in the city?
Jenn de la Vega:No. I just don't wear shoes very often.
Taylor Moore:You'll get the hang of it.
Mike Rugnetta:As you approach the desk, you notice that the woman who's seated there ishuman. She's Japanese, she's in an exactingly tailored gray suit with a white shirt.Her hair is long, and it's dyed a dull blue gray, and it's pushed behind her ears.You can see that she, like Viv has a pair of rose gold AR glasses however theyare huge. And as you move across the room and she turns her head this way andthat to look at the materials on her desk, they glint like beacons reflecting someof the light from the room. You see the giant lenses flashing both with reflectedlight and with the material that is projected on them.
Mike Rugnetta:And you can see open windows moving around, you can see text being spelledout, you can see videos playing in reverse on the other side of these glasses thatalmost cover this woman's whole face. As you approach she raises her hands andyou see her similarly very well tailored, mid forearm length gray haptic glovesthat are matched perfectly to her suit. And as she brings her hands together,knuckles touching and pushes them violently aside, everything on her glassesdisappears, as does all of the material that's on the projected screen to the right ofthe desk. She takes her glasses off, puts them on her desk looks at all of you verycarefully and says, ah, yes, awesome and right on time, please have a seat. I havea meeting in five minutes, so we're going to have to make this pretty quick and infront of you, there are four very comfortable looking mid century leather andwood chairs.
Bijan Stephen:TK sits.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv also takes a seat with a sigh of relief.
Nick Guercio:Luxs sits as well.
Shannon Odell:Lash sits down.
Bijan Stephen:I mean, TK also gets ready to do some matrix perception.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, you let me know what you want to do, and then-
Bijan Stephen:I think he's just checking things out narrowly.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, all right.
Bijan Stephen:Looking at the exits.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, I mean, there's nothing out of the ordinary. You don't see any of heraccessories, or not broadcast.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, he's not suspicious, he's trying to be aware of what's going on.
Nick Guercio:Now, if you're doing a matrix, perception check, you'll see that one of Martha'seyes is an implant that she uses to go into AR and VR.
Mike Rugnetta:That Martha's a complicated lady, got those doll hands, got those doll leg hands.Got those doll game hands.
Nick Guercio:I wish you hadn't had any of that.
Mike Rugnetta:Me too. Alright, so first things first, I don't know what Mark told your fixer butwe're going to get this going with the utmost discretion. So don't go blabbingabout any of this to anybody et cetera. I'm not going to make you sign a contractor anything because you're criminals just know that if this gets big, or even if itgets small, you are all obviously the weak link and we're going to come after you,first you and your ... She picks up her glasses again and holds them an inch ortwo in front of her face and wiggles her hand around a little bit to the side. Shesays you and your [inaudible 00:58:30] I don't know how to say some of theseletters art lower class as technology warship currently anchored at northwest 35thStreet on Manhattan's West Side ... She puts her glasses down and looks at youand says, [inaudible 00:58:45]
Jenn de la Vega:Indeed.
Bijan Stephen:TK doesn't say anything.
Mike Rugnetta:You there, [inaudible 00:58:48]
Bijan Stephen:TK nods.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, that's good, that's what I like to see, I like to see some gumption.
Bijan Stephen:Very tight nod.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, she appreciates it.
Nick Guercio:Lux is writing down the ship name that she said, and he says, what can you tell uswhat the name of the ship is again?
Mike Rugnetta:You don't know the name of your own ship?
Nick Guercio:Absolutely not.
Mike Rugnetta:Great. They we're off to a great start.
Nick Guercio:Yeah. Could you repeat it though?
Mike Rugnetta:She rolls her eyes and picks up her glasses one more time and says A-T-L with across through it, A-U-U-A.
Nick Guercio:Okay, great. I haven't ... This is new comic. Anyway what can we do for you?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, so that's a yes you understand that this is a [crosstalk 00:59:27]
Nick Guercio:It's pretty standard. I mean, you called us criminals but we haven't actuallyadmitted to that just in case this is being recorded, but alleged criminals is fine.
Mike Rugnetta:She puts her hand up and makes like a talkie, yappy, motion and taps her wrist-
Nick Guercio:Absolutely what would you like us to do?
Mike Rugnetta:Just want to make sure we're on the same page here, loose lips sink ships, as theysay. Mo Ashna head of special projects [inaudible 00:59:49] limited. It's verynice to meet you. I'm sure that you're already aware we represent a consortium ofsome of the larger and more well resourced corporations here in New York City.And we need you to frame this man for various misdeeds and on the screen thatwas just previously populated with a bunch of security footage, you see a bunchof photos pop up of one man.
Mike Rugnetta:It's a male troll. He's got a particularly pronounced set of horns. He's got reallydramatic features. He's got very high cheekbones. He's got a giant square jaw inall of the photos, he's wearing the same black and gray suit and he's wearing thesame massive bright gold watch. In some of them he is wearing a pair of, I don'tknow how to say it, is it [inaudible 01:00:35]
Nick Guercio:[inaudible 01:00:36]
Mike Rugnetta:[inaudible 01:00:37] oh pins, that makes perfect sense. Those glasses and they arecomically small on his gigantic head. She gestures at the screen and turnstowards it and says this is [inaudible 01:00:50] he goes by Verne. He's a Germanexpat. He is currently the liaison between the Police Benevolent Association,which is basically like the NYPD Incorporated Union. Which is sometimes calledthe PBA and the city's Office of Collective Bargaining, the OCB. You follow meso far?
Nick Guercio:Yes, he's the go between the PBA and the OCB.
Mike Rugnetta:Like this guy ... taking notes ... Love it, appreciate it. We need you to plantfootage of him transgressing some sworn orgs as a representative of the policeforce, not like shooting innocent people or doing drugs or anything, that's somereal breakfast cereal shit, we mean more like fraternizing with and helping thecompetition. So we got footage of him playing cards with gang members, takingmeetings with some high up Yakuza dudes, paying off some pirates in Gravesend, et cetera, [inaudible 01:01:36]
Nick Guercio:So you have all the stuff?
Mike Rugnetta:We have actually spent considerable production resources in creating the basefootage, but there is a problem, and she wiggles one of her fingers, and the screenclicks over from photos of [inaudible 01:01:50] to videos of various, a darkbasement, a back alley, and in each there is an obvious large troll sized gap.There's a massive empty chair and a card table. There's a giant gap in a semicircle of heavily tattooed Japanese men with samurai swords.
Mike Rugnetta:Cold city storage where we need you to plant all of this footage recently upgradedits spec and will only accept footage that combines biometric data of cityemployees, which includes things like depth maps, fingerprint footage, IRS scansand all that. So [inaudible 01:02:27] being of a very unique size and proportion,we don't want to risk any modeling errors, we're not going to guesstimate at this.So we need you to go get high quality 3D scans of his body. We need you to bakethose scans into the footage. And then we need you to plant the footage at Citycold storage on Roosevelt Island.
Nick Guercio:So we kidnap him?
Mike Rugnetta:I don't care how you do it, just get it done. Remember what I said, you got to keepit quiet, it's got to be small.
Nick Guercio:So no kidnap.
Shannon Odell:City cold storage?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, it's the document archive that the city has, it's on Roosevelt Island. It's inthe big octagonal building. I'm sure you guys know about it, you guys wouldknow about this building.
Nick Guercio:Right. So basically you shot stock footage, missing a big person, and you want usto do the rest?
Mike Rugnetta:Mm-hmm (affirmative). I mean, not the rest. We have other teams on this workinga bunch of different angles. For instance, we don't need you to leak the footage,you're going to put the footage in City cold storage, and then someone else aweek or two later is going to find it. You don't know who they are, they don'tknow who you are, that's how this whole thing works.
Nick Guercio:What's the timeline?
Mike Rugnetta:Timeline, well, I mean, you got to get everything in there, let's say by next week.
Shannon Odell:Anything we should know about this Verne?
Jenn de la Vega:Does he have a family?
Mike Rugnetta:I don't know.
Jenn de la Vega:Where does he live?
Mike Rugnetta:Upper West Side, but actually, you're in luck. He's a pretty reclusive guy. He's likea wake up, go to work, go home kind of dude, doesn't really do a whole lot,doesn't go on a whole lot. And because of his position, actually has a lot ofsecurity around him or, hangs out with people who are security. And so getting tohim is pretty hard. This weekend, however, he is giving a talk at ... hold on, andshe picks up her glasses again, and starts floating around ... It's this thing, it's atthe Javits Bloomberg center. It's like a conference, it's got this extremely long andvery, very stupid name. It's like the international policing and securityprofessionals trade and labor consortium annual exposition, blah blah blah. Itkeeps on going like this.
Mike Rugnetta:Anyway, he's going to be at this conference and you might actually be able to get... I know it sounds weird that going to the police conference might be easier andsafer than just getting him at his house, but who knows? No one's going to beexpecting it. That could be the place that you get them. Oh, which also remindsme. And she reaches into her desk and she pulls out three gadgets. One is like along metal bar, one is like a short handle with a circle on the end, and the otherone is a shorter stumpier handle with a glowing green square on the top.
Mike Rugnetta:And she throws the first one to TK, the second one to Viv and the third one toLux. And she says that's a depth scanner. That's an iris scanner. And that's afingerprint scanner. Those work very quickly, though you need to be very closeotherwise, they're basically foolproof that the results of a bunch of R&D withsome of the best resourced organizations that we work with, some of our largestclients. They are also extremely expensive so do not lose or break them I needthem back when the job is done, [inaudible 01:05:11]
Jenn de la Vega:Yeah.
Nick Guercio:Got it.
Mike Rugnetta:I assume because you accepted the items that you are taking the job?
Nick Guercio:What's the pay?
Mike Rugnetta:We pay a base rate of 5000 new yen each. I will double it if you can get scans ofhis irises and his fingerprints, other than that, we'll see how quickly you do it andhow big of a stink you make. We're not above increasing our pay to show ourappreciation for quick, efficient and discrete work.
Nick Guercio:So the main thing you need is his depth?
Mike Rugnetta:Yes basically a 3D scan of his whole body.
Nick Guercio:Right. So in order to have that how far away do we need to be from him?
Mike Rugnetta:Couple inches.
Nick Guercio:We have to have this wand get his whole body a couple inches, okay.
Shannon Odell:Do they need to be still or no?
Mike Rugnetta:Yes.
Shannon Odell:Then he needs to be still.
Mike Rugnetta:He needs to be still.
Shannon Odell:And are these guys hooked up to anything or these guys run in silent?
Mike Rugnetta:These will pair with your comm and they will be slave devices to your comm.
Nick Guercio:Okay, I got a question about this guy in general and about why you want to do thisto him, what stick do you have in this? What do you want to frame this guy for?
Mike Rugnetta:I like you because you're clearly a perceptive person. If you can convince me whyyou need to know, then I will tell you.
Nick Guercio:For me, it's whether or not I want to-
Taylor Moore:Know something about me real quick.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, well, there could be a lot of implications I could tell you that. But, big onemight just be well, do I want to take the job? To be honest with you if this issome a union busting move, then I'm not for it. My dad worked for the traincatchers union, and, so I-
Mike Rugnetta:You're the train catchers.
Nick Guercio:Yes. We all know that when that bad train I took over and they were runningthemselves. People had to go out to catch them because they could only bestopped on the trains themselves. And they didn't want to pay them very well, didthey?
Mike Rugnetta:A real value in order to the train catchers?
Nick Guercio:Yes. So I'm not going to stand for it. And you could have these guys and these guysmight be able to help you, but I'm going to be out. So I just want to make surethat none of that is going on.
Mike Rugnetta:I'm just going to ask you to roll straight charisma.
Shannon Odell:Is it first impression?
Mike Rugnetta:It is.
Nick Guercio:Plus two, so that's eight, total dice.
Bijan Stephen:While you're doing the dice, Mike, the Javit Center survives apocalyptic floods.
Nick Guercio:The Javit Bloomberg Center.
Jenn de la Vega:It got airlifted, maybe.
Bijan Stephen:That's how you say, oh, it's September and we found a snowman that survivedsummer.
Mike Rugnetta:Yes it is.
Nick Guercio:Out of eight dice, I got four hit.
Mike Rugnetta:She frustrated late picks up her glasses and wiggles a finger and puts her glassesback down and look like closes her eyes looks up at the ceiling breeds afrustrated sigh. Okay, fine. There's a little bit of background. He does work forthe policeman's union. However, that union hasn't been a union, has only been aunion in name for decades. It's been essentially an extortion arm of NYPDincorporated for the city. They're not really interested in workers rights as if sucha thing even exists.
Mike Rugnetta:Over the last couple months, though, [inaudible 01:08:13] has been trying toarchitect a strike. He's got the ear of some of the upper brass. He is talking withsome folks at the OCB. The rumor is that it's working and it's all scuttlebutt rightnow. Nothing is confirmed. No one knows how far along he is. No one knowshow much support there is in the ranking file. All people know is that it's gottenthrough some of the channels to some of the corporations that NYPD andcorporate has private contracts with that he is trying to put together a strike.
Mike Rugnetta:It seems like all of his reasons are the same thing that it's always been every singletime the police have threatened to strike. The pay raises don't come quicklyenough or the pay raises aren't enough. The shifts are too long. The city doesn'tinvest in new equipment. The city doesn't invest in marketing and so recruitingnumbers are low and so there aren't enough police on the streets. And it makesthe current forces job even harder.
Mike Rugnetta:But none of that makes any sense because NYPD Ink gets almost no money fromthe city at this point. It's essentially a show of support. It's a pittance. It's just likea piece of performance art for the mayor to show NYPD Incorporated that he's ontheir side. So the money doesn't matter. They get all of their money from theircorporate contracts. So obviously, the PBA is crooked. They're looking to extortto the city. Whatever the reasons, a strike would be bad for business.
Mike Rugnetta:We got a bunch of big companies, many of whom we represent in the city. Theygot private contracts with NYPD Incorporated, they can't deal with a strike. Theydon't want one of their security forces, no longer protecting them. So they figuredjust, disgrace this guy. Disgrace him and ruin his reputation, and then he's goingto be ejected from the PBA or something. Who knows, they're working a bunchof angles. This is just one of them. But that's the plan.
Nick Guercio:Who you're going to try to replace Verne with?
Mike Rugnetta:What do you mean?
Nick Guercio:Well, you want to get them out, who are you trying to replace him with?
Mike Rugnetta:That's not my job, that's someone else's job. We just need some quick talkers,some keyboard cowboys to just take care of this.
Nick Guercio:Sounds like some video editors.
Mike Rugnetta:I mean, yeah, keyboard cowboy. That's under the umbrella of keyboard cowboycome on, keep up.
Nick Guercio:I guess.
Bijan Stephen:How was Lux sitting when he says I guess like that.
Nick Guercio:He just, you know, he crosses his legs, he crosses his arms, he looks up at theceiling, which is very much like something from the 18th century. And he's justlike, I tell you, I don't like union busting, and you say this is just a bad union. Allright, I don't know. It sounds like a pretty kind of a piece of shit, guys, so I don'thave any objection. Anybody else have any objection?
Bijan Stephen:Is the cops for cops.
Nick Guercio:TK is all about cops. What about you Lash?
Mike Rugnetta:I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. But if it inspires you to do the job thengreat.
Nick Guercio:Okay.
Shannon Odell:I am down.
Nick Guercio:Lash is so down. Viv, do you have any other questions? I mean what are youfeeling?
Jenn de la Vega:No, I'd like to get started.
Mike Rugnetta:So it's Wednesday right now. [inaudible 01:10:59] is going to be at the conferenceon Friday, he's giving a talk in the mid afternoon, I will send you a map of theconference center and his schedule so that you can see when and where he willbe if you can get a scan of him sometime that day and plant the footage withintwo days after that, and then another team will find it next week. We will knowthat everything works when the footage is recovered by Team B. And so we willwire you the money when that happens.
Bijan Stephen:Does that mean, we're the A team?
Mike Rugnetta:With no trace of knowing, she looks at you and says yes.
Bijan Stephen:I mean, TK doesn't know either.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv stands up, if there's nothing else?
Mike Rugnetta:Oh, however you get him, make sure you bring me back those [inaudible 01:11:42]
Jenn de la Vega:Absolutely.
Mike Rugnetta:Uncharacteristically unsure of what she's saying, however what happens do makesure you bring me back those gadgets.
Nick Guercio:And I'm guessing there can't be any proof that we mess with this guy or else thatruins the whole.
Mike Rugnetta:Well, like I said, if you get the footage planted and then they figure out it's youand we figure out that someone figured out it's you, you've solved one problembut then made another problem. The second problem is one that we're very goodat solving. Am I being clear that I'm threatening violence?
Nick Guercio:Yeah, no.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, great. Just want to make sure we're-
Nick Guercio:If you didn't get a reaction from us because we're very used to that, that's part of thejob. Everybody thinks that they could kill us. That's a very-
Shannon Odell:People are threatening your lives left and right.
Mike Rugnetta:I know, right? Are you telling me-
Bijan Stephen:Many have tried, non have succeeded.
Nick Guercio:Not saying you can't, that's fine. You got great glasses, just to be doubly clear here,we can't get this guy, hogtie him, throw him in a truck and do this to him, becausewhen he gets out of that he's going to report this and then people are going to beon the lookout for fakes and things like that and he's got an accountable ally thatsays is a fake because he's been kidnapped. He can't be aware that he's beenrecorded in this way, is that correct?
Mike Rugnetta:Listen, that's sounds like detail work. I don't do detail work.
Jenn de la Vega:We will figure it out.
Mike Rugnetta:I mean, what do you got? You got two, I got ... She puts on her glasses fully nowand starts typing in the air with her gloves, she's like, you have a battle Decker,techno [inaudible 01:13:07] a water magician, looks over at Martha, okay, and a... Is your condo under construction? What does this mean?
Nick Guercio:Yeah. Do you have pictures of it right now?
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah.
Nick Guercio:Can I take a look at them?
Mike Rugnetta:Whatever, it seems like you guys have a lot of resources at your disposal I'm sureyou can figure out something.
Nick Guercio:Yeah, we do. I just want to make sure that we're doing the job to the requirementsthat you're specifying. I mean, because we could just kill this guy and then getyou all the information that obviously wouldn't do anything good for you becausethen you can't frame him.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah, we could, yes, if we wanted him dead, we would hire you to kill him.Unfortunately, we have reason to believe that if he's killed the entire NYPDIncorporated-
Nick Guercio:We'll try to be discreet, if he-
Mike Rugnetta:I do not like being interrupted sir.
Nick Guercio:Sorry.
Bijan Stephen:But now that it's happened. Can we go?
Mike Rugnetta:Yes.
Nick Guercio:Goodbye. Good gloves. It's always looks good when your gloves match your suit,exactly. That doesn't look like a cartoon.
Shannon Odell:It was lovely meeting you.
Nick Guercio:Bye.
Shannon Odell:Martha. Lovely meeting you.
Nick Guercio:Martha genuinely love you, you're great.
Taylor Moore:Well, we'll still be together as we ride down the elevator.
Nick Guercio:I know, but I wanted to start the compliments now.
Taylor Moore:Please allow me-
Jenn de la Vega:Viv clears her throat.
Taylor Moore:... allow me to show you out.
Bijan Stephen:TK is already at the elevator.
Taylor Moore:In the elevator Martha looks over at Viv and says that is an iris scanner, veryexpensive.
Jenn de la Vega:Thank you, Martha. And if you'd like to go for a swim some time, and she justlightly box her forehead on Martha forehead.
Taylor Moore:Oh, it looks like your hair is deflating.
Jenn de la Vega:Oh, and Viv tries to fix it.
Taylor Moore:[inaudible 01:14:54] extremely poisonous.
Nick Guercio:If you eat them.
Jenn de la Vega:Not to me.
Shannon Odell:Don't eat Viv's hair.
Mike Rugnetta:The elevator dings open.
Bijan Stephen:TK just walks the fuck out. He's done with all this.
Mike Rugnetta:You get all your stuff back from Reginald? The receptionist at the front desk justgives you a pleasant wave doesn't say anything. Any parting words for Martha?
Shannon Odell:Martha I hope we see you again.
Taylor Moore:You might.
Shannon Odell:I'm going to add you to my Facebook.
Jenn de la Vega:Viv touches hands with Martha again in the same way just slightly brushing, thesort of magician's handshake.
Taylor Moore:Okay.
Bijan Stephen:I want TK to run a matrix perception chest on Martha's eye, three hits. Hold on, Ihave to ask Martha a question.
Shannon Odell:I like Martha.
Taylor Moore:You would like Martha.
Shannon Odell:I like my thing because there's really no one in this game that I've met that I didn'tlike. That's the thing about.
Nick Guercio:You would be playing cards with Jast right now if you could.
Shannon Odell:Yeah, I just love a guy with a dog.
Nick Guercio:Buddy, I love that dog, and I love that gun.
Mike Rugnetta:You see Martha's eye, it is not running silent. You find it in the medium thick hazeof items that are broadcast nearby in AR, you see that it is actually an old model.And you know it's not a particularly cutting edge eye. It doesn't seem to havemuch in the way of capability. The one specific item that you learn is that it isnamed, Martha has given it a name and as a device it is named Cygnus.
Bijan Stephen:So I guess TK, the [inaudible 01:16:24] TK looks at her for just a little too longand then turns around and walks in the car.
Taylor Moore:She just a half smile seemingly oblivious.
Nick Guercio:Bye Martha, don't change.
Bijan Stephen:She go back to [inaudible 01:16:53].
Jenn de la Vega:So Viv is very frantically taking off her sandals and stumbles out of the car andmakes it back to the boat with everyone. She nabs the blowfish out of her hairand throws it back in the water.
Mike Rugnetta:Gabriel is on the deck of the Mrs. Egg, wearing one of TK's black speedos andsunning himself with one of those reflective boards.
Bijan Stephen:TK sees and says, looking good.
Mike Rugnetta:Thanks, man.
Shannon Odell:We got a day until the conference, right?
Jenn de la Vega:Two days.
Shannon Odell:Two days, we got to figure out a plan.
Bijan Stephen:Let's figure out how to ... Viv do you have an erase memory spell by any chance?
Jenn de la Vega:I do not.
Bijan Stephen:Well, that's out.
Nick Guercio:You can control his mind though?
Jenn de la Vega:No, I cannot, I can only control his actions, but he will know that he's beingcontrolled. I can control his actions while he's asleep.
Bijan Stephen:But if he's asleep, we don't need-
Nick Guercio:He's asleep, we don't need to control his actions.
Bijan Stephen:All we got to do is-
Shannon Odell:Then move him.
Mike Rugnetta:We can deep burn [crosstalk 01:18:01]
Shannon Odell:Yeah. We can have him move himself.
Bijan Stephen:I mean, we know where he lives, right? We can just break into the middle of thenight, [inaudible 01:18:07] him when he's asleep, get all the shit.
Shannon Odell:Sure he's around a lot of security though. She said that he hangs out with securityconstantly.
Bijan Stephen:What if we set up a fake checkpoint?
Jenn de la Vega:That's exactly what I was thinking-
Bijan Stephen:... at the conference.
Nick Guercio:That'll be good. Fake checkpoint would be good. If we said this is our shortstandard security-
Jenn de la Vega:We are a security firm.
Nick Guercio:We are a security firm, this is our standard security, thing-
Bijan Stephen:TK does a matrix search to see what security vendor is doing security for theconference.
Mike Rugnetta:Yeah. You find out that security for the conference is actually run by the NYPDIncorporated Reserve. You would also probably know that getting into the NYPDReserve is not quick or easy. You could try to forge some documents, but youwould be trying to break into NYPD Incorporated's main data center, which is alarge undertaking.
Shannon Odell:Could we try to create a panel and get him to be, or we could be a vendor, andyou're walking through the vendors and they're like, come here, check out thisnew security thing that we do.
Bijan Stephen:If we did it right beside the venue where he was doing his keynote, we could get[inaudible 01:19:23]
Shannon Odell:Convince him, with your charm, you can convince him to try to take a trial on ournew security.
Bijan Stephen:And maybe our backup plan is breaking into his house, injecting him while he'sasleep.
Jenn de la Vega:That's all else fails.
Nick Guercio:That's what we have to do.
Bijan Stephen:That's the last resort.
Nick Guercio:Lux hops on the matrix and tries to check relations of Verne to see if he has kids,older adult kids would be better, a wife, things like that.
Mike Rugnetta:Do a computer plus intuition.
Bijan Stephen:Can I assist that just in case?
Shannon Odell:Do you want me to do this?
Nick Guercio:You all should do this.
Mike Rugnetta:Odell's trying to use Google, cell phones-
Shannon Odell:It's computer plus what?
Mike Rugnetta:Intuition.
Nick Guercio:So Lux actually goes to look this up and then his comm is still stuck on reviews forRick Jones and he's just like, can one of you guys just look this up for me?
Bijan Stephen:Right, TK rolls it up, he gets four hits.
Jenn de la Vega:I have four hits.
Mike Rugnetta:So let's say I mean we can just pull your guys' resources and say that what areyour limits there?
Bijan Stephen:Six, oh, no seven.
Mike Rugnetta:Okay, so you're well within your limit. Through a bunch of publicly availabledatabases you find out that Verne [inaudible 01:20:33] does have a family, theyall live in Germany.
Bijan Stephen:Perfect.
Jenn de la Vega:So he's alone.
Nick Guercio:I would love to dress like his wife and kiss him, they're in Germany.
Bijan Stephen:So I guess that's it.
Mike Rugnetta:Guess you got to get a plane ticket.
Shannon Odell:This is my thought though. I think he's planning something pretty big. We prettymuch know that what his strike has nothing to do with workers rights or anythinglike that. Who knows what he's planning? He might be surrounding himself withsome not great people.
Bijan Stephen:Maybe what we should do is observe him for the next couple days, get a sense ofhis, yes, stake out.
Nick Guercio:Stake out.
Bijan Stephen:Get a sense of his habits. Where does he like to eat dinner, for example.
Nick Guercio:[inaudible 01:21:22]
Bijan Stephen:We could do that we could do the reverse pretty woman and I could put Lux into atactical outfit.
Shannon Odell:The important thing is that other people don't know anything about us. There can'tbe anything that links us to whatever happens.
Bijan Stephen:Yeah, it's a stakeout.
Shannon Odell:Stake out. [crosstalk 01:21:48] come on Viv.
Jenn de la Vega:Stake out.
Nick Guercio:I'll get the pistachio.
Bijan Stephen:First things first, you all need to look tactical.
Mike Rugnetta:Tactical woman montage. You are now leaving Fun City. Thanks for listening. Ifyou want to support the show get access to our discord episode stems, customsound effects and stuff that ended up on the cutting room floor. Head topatreon.com/funcityventures where you can transfer us some of your hard earnednew yen, and help keep this ship afloat. On November 19th, we're having our firstever live stream in the evening Eastern time. The first half of which will be ohmy patrons only, and the second half of which will be a public stream. We'll postabout that on our discord and Patreon and Thanksgiving week will be publishingour first patrons only mini adventure where Lash takes some of the team home toConnecticut for the holidays.
Bijan Stephen:I'm Bijan Stephen and I am TK. You can find me online at Bijan Steven on Twitter,which is B-I-J-A-N, S-T-E-P-H-E-N or on Instagram, and you should just googlethat.
Jenn de la Vega:I'm Jenn de la Vega, I am Viv. You can find me online at Randwiches that's theword sandwiches but just replace the s with an r.
Nick Guercio:This is Nick Guercio I play [inaudible 01:23:17]. You can find me on Twitter at N-G-U-E-R-S-H and Instagram at N. Guercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
Shannon Odell:This is Shannon Odell. I play Lash Goodback. You can find me on Instagram andTwitter at shodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
Taylor Moore:This is Taylor Moore and I play all the bad boys. I'm at Taylor.biz.
Mike Rugnetta:My name is Mike Rugnetta, I am your GM. You can find me on Twitter andInstagram at Mike Rugnetta. You can find the show on twitter at Fun CityVentures. Fun city was recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Itwas produced, edited and sound designed by me, Mike Rugnetta. All of theshow's music is by Sam Tyndall. Our art is by Tess Stone and our discord modsare Olivia Gulen Kit and Castro and the voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
Mike Rugnetta:The cheers of the stakeout excitement ring, off the metal and carbon fiber hall, ofthe Mrs. Egg and float out over the gray water of the Hudson. And it is there onthe river that the tears are heard. In the physical realm, yes, but also on the astralplane, where a luminous figure stands on the surface of the water. In a shimmernearly indistinguishable from the ripple of the river reflecting the bright citylights of Manhattan, a diaphanous form manifests. A hazy image coalesces in theair floating mere feet above the water.
Mike Rugnetta:A man with 1000 arms multi jointed, of differing lengths, the snake a ripplingcloud around him, through which he peers and sees and hears. His arms shudderat first with attention, then anticipation then the light. Here along the river, whereonce hawks dough from clifftops there aboard the hidden stolen ship. He hasfound his quarry.
funcity-episode06-public-ins_tc (Completed 11/13/19) Transcript by Rev.com | Page of |