The Game Thread

[Bjorn]

1.24 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Waving a hand at Sean dismissively, Finn drawls, "Nah, don' thank me.  Hell, fer all I know about benowhattapunc, ya really were gunna try to do Big Mr. Rigger in.  But I don' like suits, and I don' like Riggers, so him shoving a tool up in yer face didn't go over too well wi' me.  Besides," she winks, "anybody who'll lip off to a suit like ya did is good by my slate.

"As for what's gunna happen to us," Finn adjusts herself to address Jim, cocking one foot up over the other knee, "I figger they're gunna grill us good, then let us go.  Ain't no good in haulin' up people who didn't have punc to do with it -- won' make the suits happy, cuz they'll want the real thing, and won' make anyone else happy, cuz too many people saw what happened."

Laughing, she adds, "Less, o' course, ya actually did have somethin' to do with it."  She winks again.

Finn:  No T'sa this time.

[Brian]

1.25 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Jim shakes his head at that, sighing. "I just don't want to miss meeting my client," he mumbles. "This could be a huge deal, and if I'm wasting good time rotting in this box while my client's getting pissed and scared, then the contract ain't gonna go through, and--" Eyes blinking as though he suddenly realized he's said too much, Gammel rolls his shoulders in an uneasy shrug. "Fuck all I can do about it now. The sooner this is over with, the better."

[Corwin]

1.26: THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Sean snorts. "I don't kill people while on vacation. Didn't really plan to work at all, but you don't pass something like that without a second glance. The Hippocratic oath, and all that."

Sighing, he tussles up his hair. "'Course, if you're right, they don't care who did it, but who to pin it on. Just my luck."

<Edit: Sentence no makey sense. Yay!>

[Prince Herb]

1.27 THE USUAL SUSPECT

"I'm Nancy Harrison, master of the Principia Mathematica.   This is my robot pal Zippy.   I guess we were all in the wrong place at the wrong time."   Nancy shakes her head, and looks at the registration papers she still has to work on.   "I guess I might as well get on and deal with the admin side whilst I'm detained here, though."

[thepanda]

1.28 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

“Which way are you headed, if you don’t mind me asking?”

[Prince Herb]

1.29 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

"The Principia is a tramp freighter, so she'll go wherever I can get a cargo for.   Any place but here, when it comes down to it, honey."

[Dracos]

1.30 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Beep.  "Pleasure to meet you."  Zippy automatically responded to the introduction.

Dracos

[Bjorn]

1.31 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

No longer able to restrain herself, Finn's fingers twitch as she stares almost hungrily at Zippy.  "So tell me," she says, absently, "where exactly did ya pick yer robot up?  What make is he?  What's the power source?  Is there an on-board diag-kit?  Can I take 'im apart?  I'll put him back together better'n new, I guarantee ya.  Can't figger out how they got away with that small a lever-moment on th' elbow joint...."

[Prince Herb]

1.32 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

"I don't think so, honey.   This isn't going to be the best place to overhaul a robot.   If you ship with me, though, I reckon you'll get an opportunity to riffle through his innards soon enough.   As for the rest..."   Nancy turns to her robot.   "Zippy, hon, tell Finn about yourself."

[Dracos]

1.33 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Beep.  Beep.

Loading Parameter data.

Advertisement output rejected.  Basic Info stats loaded.

#BASIC INFO DEFINITIONS

"I am Rapid Reaction Mobile Defense Bot, Zippy.  Programmed to deal with swift assaults from multiple foes and for the protection of designated owner: NANCY HARRISON.  I am currently programmed for the usage of a variety of ranged assault weapons for use in ship and ground combat."

#END BASIC INFO DEFINITIONS



Bah.  Hey Bjorn, if you want to go ahead with that reprogramming thing later on, go ahead.  It'd be fun to play.  Trying to play emotionless yet quirky bot is a bit difficult ^_^

Dracos

[Bjorn]

1.34 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Whistling softly, Finn comments, "Geez.  The hardware might rock, but didja hafta get th' Baby's First AI?  I've seen better end-user interfaces onna sabot tool."

First chance I get, "Zippy."  You want a name upgrade while I'm at it? :P

[Huitzil]

1.35: THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Uncerimoniously, the door is opened and two uniformed guards escort you to the interrogation room (Zippy, being a robot, is left behind). There's a long, white table and a few plastic chairs surrounding it, with a one-way mirror on the far end of the room. Sitting at one of the chairs is the security chief from earlier, with a holo-player sitting on the table in front of him.

Any of you with even the slightest knowledge of law enforcement techniques -- a few episodes of "Boys in Blue of Bluefall" is enough -- know that they'd normally bring you into the room individually, with two cops or secruity officers (one to play "good cop" and the other to play "bad cop") interviewing you for holes in your story; to do what they are doing now is very odd.

Your impression of things being far from standard is brought home when all of you have filed into the room. The chief does not say a word, he just turns off the lights with the remote in his hand, then presses "Play" on the holo-player.

The player shows an area about six feet by six feet hovering above the table, seemingly devoid of scenery otehr than a small table and a few chairs. In it are illusory people about a foot and a half high. More specifically, you.

Finn stands at a table, chewing her bolt. Fenrir sits across from her, tapping away at a computer keyboard with speed only a T'sa could have. Nancy leans back in her chair with her feet on the table, staring upward. George stands off in the "corner" of the projection, smoking a cigarette, while Sean stands next to him looking at something on his dataslate. This sytrikes all of you as odd, because none of you have seen each other before today. Then, the sound kicks in.

"So, what'cha got for me, Fenrir?" asks holo-Finn.

The T'sa responds, speaking quickly. "It will be more difficult than we had planned. Cole is only going to stay here for a few days longer, security will be tight. It seems as if they have security in every possible vantage point for a sniper to strike, we wouldn't be able to get away before they got us."

"So?" holo-Harrison leans forward, putting all four chair-legs on the ground and looking at the T'sa, then the Mechalus. "They already paid in advance, right, so why do we even NEED to kill Cole? We got the money, let's just hop on the ship and fuck off to where they can't find us."

"That would be a very bad idea," says holo-George. "VoidCorp did not become the stellar nation is is by being eager to write things off as a loss, moreso when that loss is the very illegal asassination of the man between them and the rhodium of Lison."

"What about that guy on his staff, Moore?" holo-Finn continues, "You said we might be able to buy him off, right?"

"No good", says the translucent Fenrir. "He's been transferred back to Bazaar, Cole probably got wind of his earlier shenanigans."

"Shit." holo-Finn palms the bold and runs her fingers through her hair, producing faint metallic clattering noises.

Holo-Nancy puts ehr feet back on the desk and begins to twirl a strnad of her own hair idly. The T'sa closes his computer's screen, and a new voice is heard -- the voice of Jim Gammel, the only one so far not seen in the video. "So, if security is too tight to shoot him, who says we have to shoot him? They killed people back before guns were invented, you know."

"What're you talking about?" asks holo-George.

Harrison looks at him smugly, as if she'd just got the idea Gammel was talking about. "Poison him. It would be a lot easier to get to the cafeteria than it would be to get a sniper's roost, right?"

Finn shakes her head. "No good. The contract specifies we have to kill him bloody enough so that the Rigunmors don't want to come back."

Sean, now. "Just because it doesn't involve a bullet doesn't mean it can't be gruesome. I know an awful lot about poisons, Finnabog, and I could whip one up in 2 hours that would shred his guts like a fucking flechette round. Puking up pints of blood, chunks of shit, and strips of his own small intestine sound gory enough for you?"

"I like the way you think, Sean. Have it ready in an hour and a half."

The images waver slightly and then the feed cuts altogether. The lights go on again, and you once more see the security chief, sitting at the desk, arms folded in his lap.

"Care to explain this?"

Nancy and Sean, you both notice something is wrong with the video. Well, besides the fact that you never said any of that stuff -- that much is obvious -- but thate's something wrong with the feed itself that you cannot quite put your finger on.

[Prince Herb]

1.36 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

"It's a nice fake, but any kid with a decent animation package, a few holos and some voiceprints could make a better one.   You know that, or you wouldn't be showing it to us like this.   The only thing that links us is that we were all there at the time your politician's aide tried to kill him, so I guess someone's using this to throw you off, to buy some time to let the trail go cold.   But I'm guessing that you want us to play along with this, to make the real assassin think you bought his cheap trick to buy you time to find him.   Or have I watched too many episodes of The filth?"

Nancy watches to see how this has gone down with the cop.

[thepanda]

1.37 THE USUAL SUSPECTS

“Impossible,” Opium states with finality. “There’s no way, no way, that can be true. I’ve never met any of these people in my life. What is the meaning of this?”

[Corwin]

1.38: THE USUAL SUSPECTS

Sean keeps quiet. It's obvious he's being framed, and he half expected it after taken in... but something feels off to him in the holovid, and he's trying to figure out what.

Sean's using his Medical Science -- Medical Knowledge to figure out what kind of poison would cause the symptomps specified in the vid. The skill is 17/8/4, and he has a -2 step bonus for his Photo Memory.