Plus, well, there's actually a subway entrance half a block down to validate that, and a 7-11 across the street, where I'd imagine Duck buys smokes sometimes.

So should I just presume that someone has dropped me off and I'm heading off to work?

We will as soon as White Duck is done.  We'll drop you off on the way.  (Or if your work isn't on the way, we'll drop you off on the most viable bus route to get there quickly :>)

Or, you know, you can hit this local business owner you know up for a job. I think he'd probably understand you calling in sick too, what with him being on the run with you and all.

Well, you know that would be a viable option.  But remember how you guys are looking for a corporate or financial contact to look into Cooperman?  Guess what?  I'm the contact who is in both the corporate and financial gig.

That is a pretty sweet plot twist right there.

I totally forgot about that... but yeah, go leverage that!!

Want me to make a negotiation check, boss?

What I was actually going for was any additional information she might have which might allow us to better manipulate/influence him.  Something beyond "he has a temper".

I'm aware, and I had Duck ask to indulge you, but I'm still not sure we'd need much more knowledge than him hiring the group of runners to steal the chips to begin with if we needed to manipulate him in some way. Mind further clarifying what you're trying to get out of this? I'm not sure whether the module writers have even gone that deep on this guy, so insisting I try to find this additional non-specific information is starting to resemble beating a dead horse over here on my end, not to mention it's conversationally a bit awkward to press her on something we don't objectively need in any way. Not sure what sorts of manipulation you have in mind, but I'm going to need something more specific next time if you have some sort of idea you want to see played out. Otherwise, I'm not going to continue to pursue the avenue of discourse.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:45, Tue 19 Apr 2016.

No need to press.  Agree it's not a high probability.

I think the growing evidence of this guy screwing over his own company would suffice if we needed to blackmail him in some way. Can't see what we'd be able to get out of him that we couldn't get with kicking the crap out of him and searching through his pockets, though, so maybe I'm biased. :)

Anyway if you can think up something specific to ask/use the info for, let me know and I'll be happy to throw it in.

Were there any other things we still needed to find out/tell her, or was that everything?  Are we just eating our sandwiches and calling it a day?

I'd love to understand why she thinks he stole the chips - is he looking for revenue (in which case we have to worry about sales) or is he looking to screw over Manes (in which case he's probably holding them, though he might have destroyed them).

In reply to Caduceus (msg # 122):

I think that all we needed to tell her was that Junior wasn't to be trusted. As far as the rest of it is concerned, I had Duck not give out any info for a reason- if we fail I don't want another team to have all of the info we had prior to it. Anyone think I should clue her in on other details?

Maybe I might be paranoid, but from the looks of things, I don't think we should've told the woman too much.  Something about the way she worded her answers bug me.  It sounds almost like as if she and Junior might be involved (whether it might be romantically, or just business-wise, perhaps even hypnotically).  And if we had any leverage and or the element of surprise on Junior and his cohorts, I think we might have just shown them our hand by telling it to Ms. J here.  But that might just be me being too paranoid.  I hope I am mistaken, but could Caduceus and White Duck run a couple of lie-detection tests for me?  I think having the both of you roll might allow for higher chances of the answer being correct whatever it may be.

If you do decide to run the tests please have the questions guided towards what she thinks of Junior (gauge a reaction here), how she feels about him (this one is quite important).  And then ask similarly on her thoughts and feelings of Manes as well as her job.  (In my opinion it is often easier to detect negative emotions such as anger, hatred, and fear since they would be harder to hide.)

A shadowrunner who is too paranoid?? I'll never believe it.

That said, Duck isn't *nearly* as paranoid as you guys seem to be :>

Anyway, it'd be a bit meta-gamey to put her under lie detection when Duck doesn't suspect she's lying or that the info he just dropped would have compromised anything if she was, especially when the motivations for suspecting her are coming from someone's character whose at work:P

Also, considering the many factors and variables that can go into a conversation regarding tone, pacing, surroundings, discretion, etc, please indicate any questions you'd like to ask prior to the next speaking engagement rather than during it. Pitching out pop-up questions as they arise from onlookers isn't friendly to natural discourse, so it's not gonna fly from now on.

There's a trade-off there.  If we throw everything out-front, then you may feel we're telling you what to do before you have a chance to do anything.  Plus, some of what we want to pose may come as a follow-up to what the target discloses, so that bit can't be done up-front.

Caduceus can do some degree of lie detection from watching her aura, but he'd need to prompt you to ask the right questions to get maximum benefit.  However, he should at least have been able to read whether there was anger or surprise when you disclosed who'd taken the chips (provided he was watching and makes a roll :>)

Fair enough, I suppose. The puppeteering can only go so far before Duck doesn't comply though, be forewarned. What would I roll for paranoid lie detection, boss?

What you choose to say is always up to your judgement.  If you're unsure about the merits or of how to raise it appropriately, we can do a brief side-bar on one of the OOC threads to make sure you understand the intent/context and to see if we can collectively come up with an appropriate IC strategy that would make sense for both the situation and your character.  If we can't, then such is life.

Hrmm, works for me.

The skill would be negotiations.

A quick note, part of why everyone has radios is to permit table-talk. Right now anyone except Noruas (and only because he isn't plugged in. Being a decker, I don't see any reason he couldn't figure out how to tap into your radio even while he's at work) can hear what's happening and talk discreetly with Duck.

(Yes, this could also be my Eclipse Phase coming out :) But it does make play a little more fun because even characters who are not the center of a scene can see what's happening and have at least some level of participation.)

Oh!  That's good to know!  Thanks, PB!

Caduceus was more focused on the room overall.  He was keeping an eye on the astral, but unless White Duck asked for a reading or asked something that would very obviously provoke some kind of strong but unknown reaction, (Like, "do you think Caduceus is strikingly handsome?") Caduceus probably wasn't paying that close of attention to the Johnson's aura specifically.  I don't think White Duck asked anything that fit that description.