Trav, as she is fiddling with her phone, is also sending a lockdown command to the TARDIS console. The TARDIS wasn't in the way of anything, but it would suck if staff of any of the nearby gaming houses decided to move it for whatever reason. The TARDIS is now fixed to that position in space, relative to everything else on the planet. No one was going to be able to move the TARDIS or simply load it up into a truck unless she wanted them to.

Trav makes a donation to the cat charity, and forwards the mission statement doc to C'Tesh as a funny.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:22, Sun 15 June 2014.

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 14):

Always nice to find money, you didn't know you had. Stanley uses the tourist information app and randomly selects one of the nearby casinos to visit. "I am going to a casino now, so see you later!" He says as he begins to follow the directions from the app.

Sereth glanced about him briefly, actually in disdain. He'd heard of such gambling dens before of course; but it would not have done for one of his station to enter such. Let humans and their ilk be weak. Draconians would be strong, always and forever.

He just snorted briefly, and shook his head.

"Let's wrap up your business and be out of here. This place stinks of corruption and weakness."

When she finally gets to the roof, it takes a few moments for Smoke Alarm to find the person she spotted from the street: they're very good at playing hide-and-sneak.

In the scatter of light coming up from below, at first it looks to Smoke like the person is a sort of huge bug with big, bulbous eyes.  Then they put their hands up to their face, and it becomes clearer that they were wearing some sort of funny eye-covers.  Smoke remembers trying on a pair that her friend Wheely Bin once stole from a Caretaker maintenance locker, but all those did was make things dim and green.

The person had been watching down on the street, but now they are looking around at rooftop level, up around where Smoke Alarm is now.

As Stanley looks around inside the main gaming area of the Valshazzar, he's struck by how much the place both is and isn't like a similar place from his own time.

He sees a variety of games that are completely mysterious to him -- there's one that seems to involve the movement of colored holographic beams in an upright cylinder; there's what looks like a card game where the cards shift to translucent colored shapes when they're played onto the under-lit table, and scoring seems to be based on the colors formed as the shapes overlay onto each other.  But these sit side by side with perfectly recognizable tables for blackjack and roulette wheels.

The patrons are of a piece with this same observation.  Of course, there are lots of different non-human species walking around, and by now Stanley is pretty well able to master his surprise at seeing these very different sorts of people, but they're standing or sitting at the tables right next to humans in suit and tie little different in cut than he could see back home.

(Though there are a few surprises there.  Stanley's eye is drawn to one attractive woman in a glimmering sheath dress of iridescent scales, and can't help but notice as the colors of the dress slowly shift and flow around her form of their own accord.)

Getting onto the roof, Smoke crouched behind an air conditioning unit and eyespied the clockroach person, realising she was just wearing goggly eyespies. She remembered they made things fuzzy and green and made it hard to outlook sideways, but some things came up all lights-on, like Wheelie Bin and ovens. Mayhaps that was that these gogglies did?

Then she or he outlooked around to Smoke Alarm, so she ducked back behind the unit. This hide-and-seek could be fun. Eyespying back, she took a chance as the person looked away and rolled to the next unit, before crawling behind some ducks. These big, warm, metal things would give her a good hide-in against the gogglies.


OOC: Sneaking up on the person to get a closer outlook: 17
09:54, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 17 using 2d6+8 with rolls of 4,5. coordination (5) + subterfuge (3).
(I reused an old roll in the dice-roller, hence it says "athletics" in error.)

Smoke Alarm sees the person stop in mid-stride, looking straight in her direction with the goggles on.

Eye-spied!

The person freezes for a second.  Then they bolt, sprinting away across the rooftop parallel to the street, and not looking like they mean to slow down at all at the edge.  Smoke can see that the next building along the way is a good long jump away from this roof.  It extends up a couple of storeys higher than this rooftop.  Smoke can see that there's a maintenance ladder inset between two columns of windows, running up the side of the building.

When the figure starts to close on the rooftop, Smoke Alarm sees them pull something from their hip.  For a moment, it scares her -- it looks like a gun! -- but she sees the running figure aim it up at the adjoining rooftop.  There's a soft hiss, and Smoke sees the figure shoot a dark line up across the gap.  They leap out into space, and the line pulls them up and across!

OOC: The Guardian, for the NPC Rooftop Person, rolled 21 using 2d6+12 with rolls of 4,5. Awareness(4) + Subterfuge(4) + Keen Senses(2) + Scan(2).

The figure will try making a stunt of difficulty 17.  Their grapple gun gives them a Story Point to use.

The Guardian, for the NPC Rooftop Person, rolled 26 using 4d6+8 ((4,4,4,6)).

Speed is 5 (Coordination 4 + Run for your Life!) and that was a Fantastic level success.

'Hey! Come back!' Smoke Alarm called after the roof-runner, but mayhaps they didn't hear her. She chased after them. Then she watched in awe as the person pulled an arrowgun and shot a rope across to the next tower and swung out and over the street and up the next tower. 'Icehot!' she cheered. She wanted one. Mayhaps the other person could tell her where she found it?

Smoke Alarm kept running. She didn't have a rope-gun, but she had legs. Skipping onto the ledge, Smoke Alarm simply jumped right off the tower, letting her momentum carry her across the gap. She fell, of course, but she'd hit the fire-escape a few storeys down before she hit the ground. She was outgoing at it very fast. Mayhaps this wasn't such a good idea—


OOC: Speed 5 (no Run For Your Life, since I'm the one doing the chasing this time). Matching the stunt, 19, a "Yes, But..." success.
11:15, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 19 using 2d6+13 with rolls of 4,2. Coordination(5) + Athletics(4) + Jumping(2) + Kang Fu(2).

Smoke Alarm smacks into the ladder across the way, full tilt, and there's an awful moment when her hands are flailing to get a grip on the rungs.  At last, though, she catches hold.  She's about three storeys from the top, seven from the ground.  Looking up, she just sees the person she was chasing as they vanish over the lip of the roof.

Then she notices the lights reflecting off the walls and windows around her.  Red lights.  Blue lights.  One of the flying eye-spy machines seems to have noticed the unusual movement here, and is slowly making its ascent from close to street level, making sleepy bloop bloop noises.

Hanging off the fire-escape and catching her breath, Smoke Alarm outlooked down to see what was making the pretty red and blue Kang lights. Flying cleaner! Quickly, she swung herself around onto the fire-escape, and footed up the stare-way at all speed, three steps at a time. Hopefully she could catch the rope-gun person before the flying cleaner caught her!

Space Vegas was fun!


OOC: Moving up, Speed 6.

Stanley decides to check out the game with the holographic beams, so he walks up to one of the cylinders where it is played. Most casino games are purely luck-based, but it couldn't hurt to see how the game is played before trying it.

Trav is accompanying Stan, because this is an alien planet and she wants to make sure that he doesn't get ripped off, as well as a certain degree of curiosity.

Smoke Alarm scampers up to the top of the building, outdistancing the flying cleaner, although it is still coming up.

Jumping over the lip of the rooftop and coming to a wary crouch, she hears a voice very near her.  "Krev!  Who are you?  I had a nice quiet riff running and now you've got flashers after us!"

Watching several rounds of the game play out, Stanley's best appraisal of the game is that it's something like a semi-competitive mash-up of Jenga and Tetris.

Two players stand on opposite sides of the holo-tank.  Each puts up a stake and the house puts up a stake.  As new beams come in from the top of the tank, the game reads the players' mental concentration as they try to take control of the piece from the other, and add it to the structure they're building on their side of the tank.

First player to build the structure to the top of the tank takes the opponent's stake, minus a share for the house.  The strategy comes in where players can actually connect out to the opponent's tower across the tank, either bracing it or destabilizing it.  If both players reach the top of the tank with a connected structure, they split the house's stake, but if both players have their tower collapse, the house takes the whole pot.

As the current game ends and the players step away, there's a vacant space on Stanley's side of the tank.  He sees the woman in the color-shifting dress step forward on the other side.

Trav actually thinks the game is kind of cool. She makes sure that she's that distance away so that it's clear that Stan is single.

This reminds her of when she was in the crowd at the arcade in Macross City, when she watched Max and Miriya duel for the first time!

Smoke Alarm spun around to outlook at the talker. 'I eyespied you riff-running and wanted to say how-you-do. I'm Smoke Alarm. The flasher is a slowpoke. Where'd you get that icehot rope-gun?' she said in quick succession, because pace and flow were needless luxuries for those with cleaners on their heels.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:54, Tue 17 June 2014.

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 34):

Stanley quickly steps forward and smiles politely at the woman. He wasn't really here to win money, so it didn't matter that he didn't know all the intricacies and tactics of the game yet. "Good evening! My name is Stanley, Stanley Newton." he says enthusiastically as he stands "I am kinda new here, but this game looks fun. Have you played this before?"

The figure uncoils from its crouching position, backing away from Smoke.  "'Smoke Alarm'?  What sort of handle do you call that?  I thought sure I'd been swozzled by the Ryzhkovs -- thought Old Nikolai had sent a spetsnaz after me.  Who do you run for?"

Now that Smoke is closer she can see that the figure is wearing a mask over the lower part of their face, leaving just their eyes exposed.  The stranger is a bit taller and bigger than Smoke, but not much -- not as quite as tall as Doctor Stanley, much less Leg-it Sereth.  The figure is standing poised to run, with their hands spread out at their side for balance.

And despite the dark clothes and the hood, Smoke Alarm is pretty certain that he's a boy.

Reflections off the surrounding buildings warn Smoke that the "flasher" is nearing the top.  The boy comes to the same conclusion at about the same time she does.  "Krev!" he swears.  "It ain't in pursuit mode yet.  That'll change when it gets up here -- and worse luck, flashers got cameras."

He hesitates for a split second.  Then he dashes toward Smoke Alarm, which she finds alarming, until she realizes that he's racing past her, and then he clasps her hand and pulls her after him, which alarms her all over again.  "C'mon!" he says.

When Smoke finally orients in the direction she's being pulled, before she can react enough to shake herself loose, she sees there's something sitting among the ducting and radiators on the rooftop.  It's a little sky-cycle, and the stranger is running straight toward it.

The woman's expression is unreadable for a moment, and then she flashes a dazzling smile.  "Well, I confess, I may have played a time or two," she says.  "My name's Vesha.  Vesha Sallenn."

She punches a few buttons on her phone and swipes it against the terminal on her side of the tank.  Stanley sees the top line of the display on his side light up, reading G$ 500.  "Why don't you step into the hotspot, Stanley, and we'll give it a whirl."  She winks.  "I promise, I'll be gentle."

After a puzzled moment, Stanley figures out how his phone's app is supposed to work with the game.  If he has the currency figured out right, five hundred dollars Gastem is somewhere between a token amount and a major one -- about the price of a nice dinner.

OOC: I actually worked out some rules for how to play this as an extended conflict (I should have known better than to put an unsuspected gambling game in as background fluff :D) but that may or may not interest you.  If you want to play, it's up to you whether you want to actually use my rules, if you want to just make a single roll to try to defeat Vesha, or if you want to try to work with her to beat the house.

'It's my name.' she returned, in a voice that suggested the boy was more than a bit of a dumb-dumb. She thought for a tick-tock, puzzled by the boy's odd speech — why couldn't everyone just talk like Kangs? — but worked it by the context. 'I run for the Traveller, but right now I'm running for myself.'

She outlooked back to the coming-in lights. 'The flying cleaner has a picture-taker?' She was startled when the man ran at her and grabbed her wrist, but she twisted her hand easily out of his. 'Why? Where are we outgoing? Will the flasher take us to the cleaners?'


OOC: Am I getting myself into trouble? Add Keen Senses for +2 if you think it appropriate.
10:15, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 10 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 2,1. awareness(4) + subterfuge(3).
This message was last edited by the player at 02:16, Wed 18 June 2014.

The boy skids to a halt, and even with his mask Smoke can read his pained expression.  "You stay for the flasher if you want!  I was just trying to do you a solid, even though you sort of busted my side-sank.  Don't know about any cleaners.  But even if you get away from the flasher, it'll send your picture to the Syndicate, and the Syndicate runs Vegas.  And they don't got so many pretty rules like cops in the outworlds."

Without waiting for Smoke to respond, he turns and runs and jumps on his bike, gunning the motor.

About that time, the drone clears the rooftop.  Smoke hears a tinny voice saying, "Attention: you have currently violated four safety and trespass regulations."

OOC: Sort of an indifferent result, but you're not getting a particularly bad vibe from him.

Now Smoke didn't know what was ongoing, but she knew what "trespass" meant and wasn't sticking around for cleaners and caretakers. She ran to the boy and the sky-bikecycle, jumping onto the back. She wished Mister Mop was here to explain these sorts of things to her. The Graske would know what sindy-cats were.

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 39):

OOC: Let's use your rules, since you already spent time on thinking them out. Oh and Stanley is definitely going to try to beat her.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:19, Wed 18 June 2014.

As Stanley steps up to the tank and swipes his phone, the machine engages.  He feels a warm sensation on his scalp: slightly prickly, but not terribly unpleasant.

He can feel another presence faintly registering through that sensation -- Vesha, doubtless.  This isn't Stanley's first rodeo when it comes to mental contact, so he's not unduly startled by this, and in fact that presence feels light and cool amid the prickling that the machine creates

The tank hums, and a glimmering golden beam appears at the top of the tank.  It starts to descend.  Stanley feels Vesha's presence grow clear and bright as she tries to seize the falling beam.

See the OOC thread for a description of how the game works.  Feel free to get any confusing things clarified before you start making rolls: Vesha started out strongly.

The Guardian, for the NPC Vesha, rolled 17 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 4,6. Trying for game control, Round 1: Awareness(4) + Resolve(3).

The sky-cycle jumps into the sky, and Smoke Alarm isn't quite prepared for the sudden motion: she has to grab onto the coat of the boy in order to stay in her seat.

The cycle quickly picks up speed and roars out across the city.  The towers seem to go on forever, lit up against the night.  Wind roars past Smoke Alarm's ears and whips through her hair.

When she glances back, she sees that the lit-up flying cleaner is on their tail, and that another one has joined it.  The boy peers back over his shoulder and gives a curse.  He yanks down the mask from the bottom part of his face and puts a hand inside his coat for a moment.

He turns back to yell to Smoke Alarm as the cycle continues to barrel through the sky.  Now he's holding onto the handlebars one-handed, and Smoke sees that he's holding something up in his other hand: it's spherical and silvery, a little bigger than one of Smoke's fists.

"How are you at ball games?" he shouts over the wind.