The team (sans Caduceus) roll out to the apartment. On the ride over, Noruas has time for a little data digging. So far most everything seems to check out. Tee Hee was a student at US and regarded as brilliant, if socially inept. He didn't keep a lot of serious friends, with the exception of a professor Hendrix who taught matrix geometry. Hendrix went by the decking name of Flair.

The party arrives at the apartment complex without incident. It's not much; three squat, brick apartment buildings with a fence around protecting an inner courtyard (at least, they would be, if part of the fence hadn't collapsed). White Duck has no issue jumping the fence or tailgating someone in, whichever he pleases. The courtyard and the buildings are in disrepair, scattered with take-out food boxes and empty plastic bags. A pair of shoes dangle from the complex's high-density data lines. White Duck enters into Tee Hee's building and moves up to the fourth floor. Finding his flat is easy; it's the one with the eviction notice attached to it. The room has a simple keypad. Given the hour, there's not much traffic in these hallways yet.

Caduceus makes his way through the barrens. Driving a bike, he has to be a little more cautious than Copperhead in her battle wagon. Rounding the corner, he pulls up sharply as he sees a member of the Blood Rumblers spray-painting "Blood Rules" over the Brain Eater gang symbol that normally adorns the wall of that building. Caduceus feels confident once the 'artist' is done, she'll move on. It's easier to hang tight for a moment, rather than risk a confrontation.

Orion's is a cute little shop, smaller than many Stuffer Shacks. Glass windows are protected behind chain link. The light over the doorway is on, but it's clear the place won't be open for a few hours yet.

Astrally the place is a little oasis of calm amid the normally roiling barrens. It has the faintest color one might expect of a garden or a forest, rather than a store.

"First trick I learned, actually. Oldie but a goodie though." he explains casually as he peers at the keypad, setting down the briefcase as Copperhead instructed. He brings his fingers up to an ear.

"On-site, package is in place. Door's got a keypad and an eviction notice, which means if we can't spoof the pad I may be able to get the landlord to let us in." he explains, removing the keypad's cover and taking a crack at the device himself.

13:05, Today: White Duck rolled 1 success using 5d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 ((1,2,2,(6+1)7,1)).

"Gots a pad breaker if ya don frag it up too bad"

The dwarf stands by and watches the hallway.  If White Duck doesn't succeed, then he'll give it a try.

It takes a bit. Not the cleanest job Noruas has ever seen. But White Duck does eventually get it, without tripping any obvious alarms.

The apartment inside is empty, clearly already swept for valuables and prepared for the next tenant. There's imprints on the vinyl floor from old soda spills, but nothing tangible to give you a lead.

Presumably makes sense for only one of us to roll perception, perhaps with a modifier for multiple people looking?

The scorpion skitters around, focusing on those areas that are hardest for a human to inspect, looking for anything potentially of interest.

The rigger's voice comes over the radio and provides a bit of guidance on alignment of the briefcase, recommending a position on a bare counter near the door.

"Whitey, mebe once da place is checked an Noruas is deckin away, ya can 'ave a frenly chat wit da neighbors an da lanlord.  I kin watch 'is meat wit da case an my drone.

Oh, an Noruas, put on yer resprator for ya jacks in - just case."

After seeing that the place isn't quite open yet, Caduceus double checked that he had a good view of the place from his parking spot, then got to work on making contact with his relevant contacts.  It was still early and he hated to interrupt anyone who might still be in bed, but he was on a time crunch.  They could deal with it.  Besides, any of his contacts who actually kept a normal sleep schedule also knew that he would only call at odd hours if it was necessary.

He decided to start with Romaine Éclair, his expert in "the biz."  The man was probably up doing his morning routine or something anyway.  He waited for the man to pick up then said, "Hey hey, Romaine!  It's your favorite reptile calling.  I was hoping you could help me out with a bit of info pertaining to Urban Brawl.  Figured if you don't have the answer for me, you could point me to someone who does."

He will then proceed to ask Romaine about about local games that someone might be especially interested in if they bought tickets to last week's game.  And which ones would be a good choice for someone trying to lay low.

Noruas nodded and put on his gas mask before looking through the place.

Yes, if the person with the highest perception can make a test, and add two die for each person who is helping. That'll probably be easier than the other method :P

Romaine's phone rings for a bit. A woman picks up, "Helloooo?" Caduceus can hear some noise in the background, "What is this? What have I said? Don't answer my phone. Give that to me."

Then, a moment later, "Hello. Who is this. Reptile? I don't know any.... Oooohhh... You! Caduceus! Yes, hello, hello. How are you? It seems a little eehhh.... early for your type, no? A little early for me too, you know. You are lucky I pick up the phone. Maybe next time, don't push it.

"Urban Brawl? Yes! Yes! I know Urban Brawl. You need tickets? You want to play? You have the type for it, eh? Big, big. Need a better name though ehh.... Blades? No... Viper! Viper? I like Viper. Okay Viper, what do you need with Urban Brawl?

"Local games... No games this week. Next game is Assassins/Arrows in Montreal. You want to go? I've got good odds. If you're there, I get you a discount, maybe you help my odds? Good deal?

"Local games no... There's two minor teams in Seattle. Neither too good for business. But they don't play much now. Their games are before the pro season. You know, try to sell their players. Right now it's mostly practice stuff."

While Romaine is talking, an older woman approaches the grocer and unlocks the front grate. She heads on inside and a few lights flicker on, as she prepares for the day.

At this point, I doubt anyone is higher than 6.

quote:

10:22, Today: Copperhead rolled 6 successes using 10d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 3,5,4,5,2,5,4,3,(6+6+2)14,3.  Perception (White Duck & Noruas helping).

You find dustbunnies. You find stick spots. You find the sun-bleached outlines of furniture. You find tiny dead spiders. You find fingerprint powder and the plastic wrappers of something. You find the data outlets have been recently opened and examined. You find luminol.

You do not find Tee Hee.

"Ya wanna jack in?  Der's frag all left 'ere.  Whitey can chat wit da lanlord an mebe da neighbors."

See if you can grab any security footage for the last week or so to see what visitors Tee Hee has had.  Same thing for call logs if they're available. Then research on Tee Hee, the Johnson, the orc and the Prof.  As well as anything else you figure would be useful :>

Alright.  Duck, I'll need you to watch my body.

Noruas sits with his back against the wall and plugs his jack in.

"Da case kin watch yer body."

"Thanks Romaine, I think you gave me all the information I needed.  Hate to rush out on you like this, but another lead just arrived.  I'll let you get back to bed, since we both know how much you need your beauty sleep."  Caduceus smiled as he hung up the phone, knowing his subtle insult was just noticeable enough to irk Romaine, but lighthearted enough not to damage their relationship.

After putting away his phone, Caduceus secured his bike and headed over to the shop.  He heads inside if the door is still unlocked, or knocks politely if it isn't.  "Good morning madam.  I was wondering if you would be so kind as to let me speak with you for a moment?"

Noruas has no trouble connecting to the apartment's matrix connection. It's quite fast! There's a small SAN for apartment services (nothing personal to TeeHee). But it's a quick hop out to the greater matrix.


Caduceus enters Orion's. A buzzer sounds in the back of the shop. He's almost overwhelmed by the wide variety of smells. Is this really a food store?

Inside the door are two caged checkout registers, both locked and empty. Farther inside are four long aisles of canned goods and a small section of organic products that give the shop its name. The barrage of smells comes from this little section.

The gray-haired lady you saw earlier shuffles about the store. Hearing you enter, she comes over to meet you. "Yes, yes, what can I help you with this fine morning?"

Duck lights up a smoke while Nouras slinks into unconsciousness, hoping that the other members of the team have better luck. He looks over Tee Hee's various collections of media as he idly makes his way around the apartment, checking for anything of interest.

Caduceus attempted to gain the woman's favor by showing interest in her store's home brand of tea. "I hear you have a great tea here.  Orion's Special Blend?  I was wondering, what makes the blend a "special" blend?  Is it healthier than normal?" After spending an appropriate amount of time listening to her answer (assuming nothing noteworthy pops up) Caduceus began to shift the conversation toward Tee-Hee.

"The friend who recommended it to me, you wouldn't happen to know if he stopped in recently, would you?"  He took out his pocket secretary and showed a picture of Tee-Hee from the holocube.  "I was thinking about getting him some for his birthday as a surprise, but don't want to if he just bought a whole bunch."

The dwarf logged back out not long after, he shares what he had found a lot of, nothing.

Duck tamps out the remainder of his cigarette under the sink, letting the ashes wash down the drain and pocketing the butt in a small baggie that he apparently takes around with him.

"Don't want any ritualists barging in after us and paying me a visit during my off-hours." he explains, having made efforts to tidy any trace of he and Nouras' passing while the dwarf was unconscious. He holds up a similar baggie, one containing what was presumably Tee-Hee's toothbrush, and shrugs.

"Not much saying we can't employ a ritualist ourselves though, eh? Not my bag personally, but I have a friend who might be able to put us in touch." he re-pockets the toothbrush, then puts a finger up to his ear, triggering comms.


"C, it Looks like we've found ourselves one red herring and not much else. I think we should roll out before we start attracting attention." he says, smirking to himself as if he'd told some private joke only he found funny.

So no intel on either Johnson or their company or Junior (or his dad) or Tee Hee or his teacher?  And no-one interesting showing up on the security tapes in the last couple of weeks?

"Ya gonna intraduce yerself ta da neighbers an da lanlord?  Dey mighta seen somethin er know somethin bout what 'e likes a eat er drink er frag dat'd 'elp us track 'im down."

She refrained from muttering that he could have been doing that while the dwarf was sitting comatose.  Practically speaking, it had been a bit early to be knocking on doors and hoping to have a productive conversation come out of the exercise.

Duck sighs, then pulls his hand back up to his ear.

"Well, I *can* do that, but it'll compromise the fact that we've been able to get in and out without being seen. If you really wanna know about his eating habits, I suppose I can bring you his trash. Otherwise, who the heck even knows their neighbors these days?" he asks, wondering if his teammate thinks of him more of a chess piece more than an individual. It seemed from the sound of her voice like she grew irritable when he didn't obey her requests in a drone-like fashion. Then again, he couldn't hold it against her, she wasn't exactly a social butterfly. Out of curiosity regardless, he grabbed the plunger from the bathroom with a gloved hand and poked it through the garbage.

"Yeah, we can get lucky and find a random break, but I'm more concerned we'll end up discovering he don't want to be found, and probing the neighbors could tip him off and drive him further down whatever hole he's hiding in. If you're unconcerned with this line of thinking or you know something I don't, please inform me, but once the seal of discretion is broken on things like this, there ain't really a good way to re-seal it and make things discrete again. I'm just not so sure I want to risk it this early on before our other leads are exhausted. We can always come back and do that." he reasons, lighting up yet another smoke as he fishes out a bottled sports drink from the fridge and hands it to Nouras.

"My siblings always preferred the 'Dew after they came to out of the grid, but this is all I could find, chummer. No nosebleeds though, so that's a plus, ya?"

The rigger snorts in derision, though the effect is somewhat lost over the radio.  "Ya gots udder leads?

Dis ain a sneaky-sneaky run.  Dis is a smack da fraggin bushes 'til we fines da rabbit run.

E's alreddy got 2 corps on 'is hoop.  Da boy's got anythin 'tween 'is ears, e's alreddy down a hole an is ed ain't poppin up fer weeks.  Our job's ta fine da hole, stick in da water hose an have ta bag ready when 'e comes up fer air.

Ya gots better 'deas, spew."

Arching a brow, the young man replies.

"Firstly, yes, we *do* have other leads. Our boy Cadeuces is currently investigating one, last I recall, and we ought to check in with him. Secondly, I do recall our J saying he wanted things done quietly *because* of that issue with two corps being on his hoop. In fact, LoneStar isn't my primary concern if we stir the pot too much, I'm worried the other two corps will catch wind of independent operatives. Lastly, I already gave you my better idea, we wait to see if our other leads pan out prior to risking the compromise of our discretion, then come back later if Cad turns up nothing." he takes another drag of his smoke, holding the cancerous pollution in his lungs for as long as he can without coughing prior to making a smooth, practiced exhalation. He looks around at the shithole conditions and wonders if Copperhead's logic might be different if she saw the surroundings.

"Ever been to a place like this? I'm from one, so I'll share a few reasons why this idea of yours is a bit off. It certainly ain't the suburban utopia you seem to think that this door-to-door strategy of yours would work in. There's a reason you don't see anyone around recruiting for the Universal Brotherhood or trying to sell cleaning supplies here. It's a shithole. In your average shithole, the landlord ain't gonna be super familiar with his tenant's habits because he or she's gonna be more concerned with rent, which is probably late. In your average shithole, neighbors ain't gonna know drek because folks keep to their own business in places like this. If anyone DOES know our contact, it's REALLY likely they ain't gonna dime on the guy, especially if we ain't the first group of suspicious, probably armed individuals that came looking." As he lists the reasons, he counts them off on his fingers, even though no-one but Nouras would be watching. As he gets to his thumb, the fifth reason, he continues.

"Lastly, can you tell me the last time you randomly opened your door for some mooks in trenchcoats that you didn't know, handsome or not? I don't think you can because you're too smart for that. I think these folks will likely be too smart for that too." He idly hoped that he was able to get his perspective through to the rigger, who seemed to not handle disagreements so well. Deep down, he worried that something like this would occur when the situation was a bit more dire, and he'd hoped in that case her level of vindictiveness wouldn't get the best of her.

He didn't know what to make of her, but she sure was fascinating to him. On one hand, she demonstrated a cold, objective logic that didn't allow much to slip past her. That level of perception was highly valued in the shadows, especially in a leader, but on the other hand, her objectivity made her come across as abrasive at times, and she wore it on her sleeve when she disagreed with someone, at least with Duck personally, on an issue. To him, this served to counteract the positive traits that would make her a good leader, and he understood why she wasn't designated as such during introductions.

She was like a high-quality million nuyen racer with a tank full of sugary fuel- so much potential shot to hell because of the simple, yet at times devastating social drawback of an attitude problem.

"She's probably lost people. That's usually the cause." he thought.

"From her disposition, she may have even been at fault for it. Likely scenario, considering the bitterness." he postulated, making a personal note to tip-toe through the minefield that was Copperhead on the next occasion in which he disagreed with her.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:07, Thu 11 Feb 2016.

"Our udder leads is a tea bag an some old tix.  Sittin on our hoops while da snake does da work ain mucha a plan.  If he found drek, I spect e'd have called us.  Da clocks tickin.  We don know if e's even local still.  We gonna catch 'im by Friday, gotta fraggin make da leads.

Dis guy skipped out.  Probly owes da lanlord a drek o nuyen.  E'll be 'appy ta get 'is hands on da fragger.  An e'll spill 'is guts if we pay 'im what's owed.  Mebbe e'll even tell us where e' fenced TeeHee's stuff.  Mebbe some clues innit dat da J's folks missed.

An yer not lookin ta chat wit da dude's mates.  Yer lookin ta chat wit da snitch who'll sell out 'is mamma an da lit'l ol' lady what's got nothin better ta do den ta snoop on her neighbors an who'll talk yer arm off if ya pet one a her 20 cats.  Decker boy kin probly run a check on da locals an fine ya som candates.  Ya jus need ta make up yer story ta get the chattin' started.  Da better da story, da less Nuyen ya gotta spen.

Ya's a face right?  So start facin."

If Copperhead hadn't been jacked in, she'd have been shaking her head in disgust.

Lazy dreckin' mage.  Probably doesn't want to chat up anyone not in a suit or a skirt.

She'd attempt to do it herself, but she knew from experience that she'd have no hope.  Even if she concealed her face, people tended to shut down and shy away from her.  Her only chance of getting information from someone off the street was if she had a predator in their ear.  And they weren't desperate enough to try that.  Yet.

Ten points for getting the motivation pretty much bang on, though there's a few other factors in play.

One other plan of attack is to reach out to your contacts.