<> <> (*goes sailing* WHEEEEEEEEEEEE*CRASH*) (*rolls a giant 4x4 truck over Cham) (*hands Roch a pair of Nano-assist Asprin* I feel like I've been shot out of a cannon too.) ( No, you're riding the elephant. ) <> <> <> (I hate to say this, but my log says September 16th.) (... It's gotta be more like the 16th. Last Wednesday was the 11th.) (The mysterious voice is right. I just can't type.) (Yeeeah.) (Sorry. It seemed like you'd wanna know and I just opened it to read it again.) * Vera goes! And probably gets there. * Katherine looks like she just got out of the shower. Normal t-shirt and jeans, and she's hanging onto a bottle of water which she's drinking from fairly frequently. * Ian arrives in the apartment, after buzzing in and so forth. He looks quite normal, aside from the drink umbrella in his hair and the squid costume. (God will one day punish you. And by god I mean me, and by you I mean I will burn your genetalia off.) * Katherine looks at Ian with suspicion. "... Did you ever stop drinking last night?" * Ian nods. "I certainly did. Why do you ask?" * Vera looks like she always does, complete with hat. Hat! * Katherine takes a drink. Of water! "Because you're wearing a squid costume. Makes you look worse than I did 30 minutes ago." Oh, this? Nah, it was just convenient. Besides, it's so relaxing. * Ian slowly drifts across the room and onto a sofa. (...you're fucking dead.) (^_^) * Rochelle is sprawled on the couch, rather in a daze. She's half paying attention to TVNet which, of course, is on, and half to the ceiling. Her feet are bare, and she's wearing a tank top and jeans. Anyone paying much attention would notice they're the same set she's worn before. (And it's jellyfish, anyway, you two-bit hack.) (.... so dead.) * Katherine smirks. "I hope you're wearing something under that?" (I know it is.) * Leopoldo walks in soon afterwards after going thru the ritual of getting up to the apartment. He's got a Dunnoburrito in one hand and waves to the present company. "Good morning to all of you." Hey, Leo. Of course. Squid costumes aren't like kilts, in most respects. A tartan pattern, for one, would just be strange. * Ian waves a tentacle in the air idly. "'morning." * Fitzroy shows up, and after being buzzed in says "Mornin'.. " He eyes Ians costume. "Nice getup there." Thanks! * Katherine mutters, "Thank god," and turns to Leo, giving him a nod. * Leopoldo sighs and takes a seat on something that won't break and is supposed to be sat on. * Rochelle says, without looking from the ceiling/television, "Hey guys. Thought you were gone, Leo." <> * Fitzroy smiles "What's the occasion?" It seems that someone has leaked information about us to ATC. They've trashed Leo's ship and my skimmer, searching for "stolen art." * Leopoldo takes a bite and quickly swallows. "Yeah. They're onto us, though. I could hear it over their communication units." * Rochelle blinks, sitting up. She takes a deep breath and wrinkles her nose. I would say it has to be either the Concordat, or Anders. If it's the Concordat, I'm surprised they haven't come after us personally. That's some professional grade paranoia. * Katherine takes a sip. * Ian shrugs. "Who else would tip them off?" * Rochelle rubs at her nose and reaches for a tissue before she lets out a little sneeze. She sniffs, flopping back onto the couch. The fact that a bunch of dumb cops ran into us outside the operahouse seems like a great way to tip off the... uh, cops. Uh-huh. How would you explain them talking about the artifact then? * Fitzroy seems lost in thought. He's connected to his TSM machine, like usual. * Ian thinks back. "I believe they actually said it was an outside tip, though..." * Ian says "Bless you" to Roch. * Vera folds her arms and taps her foot. "Funny thing is, if they know we have the arguments, why haven't they searched our homes?" Because I was the only easily identifiable person. * Rochelle gives a halfhearted "thanks". Ooh, ceiling. (Did you say arguments on purpose? >.>) ( Uh... No ) Hmm... (Okay. Artifacts, then.) ( Artifacts. My head's not working right :P ) (Aw. I thought she was being clever, because it was actually kind of funny.) ( Well, they are pretty big arguments, too :P ) When'd this happen? Yesterday? Couple days ago, actually. * Ian nods. * Katherine frowns. "Yeah. I think it's gotta be something else, or else we'd be completely pegged. Ian and I should be absolute cinches to find." <> (...) (Land shark.) (Ian is a one-man firing squid!) * Rochelle glances at the door, but makes absolutely no move to get up. * Vera eyes the door. Eye... Roch, hit apartment channel 1 for me, will ya? Sure. (Vera's eyebeams set the door ablaze!) * Rochelle brings up the control and flicks TVNet to apartment channel 1. ( Showing on apartment channel 1 is a soap opera about Ian and a crab outfit. ) <> (I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille!) Oh, it's him. Go figure. * Katherine , in the meantime, collects her favorite gun, then eyes the TV. "... Great. Early morning annoyance." Mm. * Katherine goes to the door, and opens it, making sure her gun's in plain view. "Hello." (... I can't remember if I ever introduced him to y'all. Do you?) (Anders is the only one we've been 'introduced' to.) (I don't believe you did. Vera and I met him at the skimmer dock, but...) (As a group, at least.) (Not as a group, no. Better go through with it.) (Never met him before.) <> "Hi. I'm Samuel. I'm one of Ander's crew." (Can I call him Neo?) (You're on thin ice as it is.) * Rochelle gives him a wave without looking at the door. Television, yay! "Rochelle, but you know that." Wow. He CAN speak." (Mr. Anderson?) * Ian waves a tentacle in greeting. "I'm Ian." * Leopoldo waves. "Leopoldo. Good day sir." (You'd be a drop of blood in the ocean of Kat's kill list, kiddo. >.>) * Fitzroy nods at the guy. "Roy here. Hello." * Katherine leaves the gun hanging at her side. "I'm Kat, but you probably know that too. What's the occasion?" "I'm just here to watch. I had some time off and Anders said you guys'd be here now. Can I come in?" * Katherine looks stunned. "Uh. Well, it'd just be another damn person in my apartment." She grins faintly, and turns around. "Any objections?" * Ian shrugs. It's a very odd gesture in the squid costume. * Vera shrugs. * Leopoldo shrugs. (HATE YOUR SQUID) Nah. * Fitzroy shakes his head for not-a-problem. Yeah. Ambivilence all around. Try not to break anything, and don't think I won't shoot you if you do. * Katherine walks away from the door, and picks up her water bottle again. "Thank you." <> * Katherine takes a sip, then frowns. "So, back to being paranoid, or do we wanna admit that if ATC wanted us screwed, we'd be screwed, and move on?" * Rochelle has to scoot a little to make room, flips the channel, and wrinkles her nose. She gives Samuel an odd glance. Maybe Sam here knows something? <> "No, no. I'm just here to watch." Mmmhmmm... * Fitzroy hmpfs. "Leo, you said you could hear their communications? What where they talking about?" * Katherine gives Samuel a glance, then shakes her head. Watch what, exactly? Just commenting about how they couldn't find it, and also about how I had 'bad taste' in the furnishings of my ship. Something Anders can't see. Or maybe he's just curious. "Well, when you start conversing, I'll watch that." * Rochelle turns the television off. "What do you care?" (...subtle.) (LIKE A ROCK.) * Ian sighs. "Well, I guess I'm back...looks like we're already mixed up in this enough. Safety in numbers and so forth." (I meant Samuel, but yeah, sort of applies to Roch too.) (I meant Sam, too, but thanks! ^^) (Heh.) * Katherine smirks. "Fate, Ian. It's all about Fate. Fate fate fate." She takes another drink. "If I hadn't demolished most of that wine bottle last night, I'd have to have more." * Ian gesticulates with a tentacle. "I second that." So, what do you want to do? -sourdough.sandwich.net:@#atc2- Chamelaeon invited Dicesuke into channel #atc2. *** Dicesuke (akodomakot@ip68-13-175-200.om.om.cox.net) has joined #atc2 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Fitzroy (2d6) and gets 2, a CRITICAL SUCCESS!!! "o/~I love you... you love me... o/~" (...) (Hooah.) (Yeehaw.) ( Well. There's a positive start for you guys. ) (interesting..) I say pick another of the pieces of junk from the list, and keep going. Maybe Roy can try to find out what ATC really knows in the meantime? (Won't you be sad when you discover it's his "Stay awake despite hangover" roll?) (Ha.) * Ian nods. "Sounds good to me. I'd love to find out where the tip came from." Already on it, actually. * Leopoldo nods. "Speaking of which, you know how to fight, right Kat?" Excellent. * Rochelle looks over at Roy. No answer from Samuel, go figure. * Katherine coughs. ("Also, is the sky blue? Is Ian a FREAK?") Ahem. Uh.. yeah, Leo. The guns and claws are big hints. Why? That's what I thought. I was wondering if you could show me something or two sometime, so I can help out more than just run under the table and hope they go away. * Vera snickers. * Katherine eyes Leo up and down, then smirks. "Well, I think I make something out of you. I can probably find the time in between work and this." <> Or, at worst, I know at least 3 people who could teach you if I didn't. * Leopoldo smiles somewhat innocently. "Good to hear. Now, what about the next artifact?" ( It's made of cheese! ) (Mmm, edible artifact.) * Katherine rubs her head. "Uh." Her eye starts twitching, in a manner that people who were familiar with it will attach to someone with a head computer. "There's a whole damn lot of them to pick from." (*finds Isis saying "Fate demands it" in an ATC1 quote* ...haw.) So pick one and let's go. * Katherine does the mental equivalent of 'point at a random point in the list that doesn't involve breaking into ATC as far as we know'. * Fitzroy hmms. "Not sure about the artifacts, but I found a little info on the ATC contact." * Ian raises an eyebrow. "Oh?" There's somone who calls himself 'Deep Throat'.. He's given quite a few tips to ATC on art thefts. * Ian nods. 's a really bad codename. (It really is.) (You HACK.) (High Melodrama!) Maybe he's just a 24 with a really long neck. No info on who he.. or I suppose she.. is. * Katherine snickers at Vera. Are they all related to the artifacts? * Rochelle snerks. Funny though, that some of his tips don't match up with reported thefts. Makes me think that he's watching these so-called pieces of art. * Ian raises an eyebrow. Hmm? How do you mean? * Rochelle blinks. No proof on that though. There's a few tips on stolen art that nobody actually reported as stolen. ( Deme sneaks in on a magic flying camel. ) * Demetreia rings the doorbell. So was the art stolen or not? * Katherine frowns. "Christ. Well, if we want to take a step up on what we're doing, there's a huge cache in Red-- Who the hell is it?" * Rochelle turns the TVNet to Apartment Channel 1. (Am seeing old HB cartoon about the two whitebread kids and their Arabian genie thing. Hate you.) * Demetreia answers through the speakery thingy. "Demetreia." <> (Well I thought she was at the buzzing in point. Yeah.) (Pfah, I don't know. I don't live in an apartment :P) (Well, except for the past 5 days.) Oh. Buzz in. (Not Roch, me. >_<) * Demetreia figures out the buzzing system again and walks in. * Rochelle flips the channel a few times again. Probly nothing good on. * Fitzroy hmms. "Well, I can't tell if any of these reports are other artifacts.." but the tips that don't have matching theft reports have reports saying that the item was found and returned. * Demetreia shuffles into the apartment. "Er, hello." <> * Ian waves a tentacle in greeting. "Huh." Hey Deme. * Rochelle changes channels again. * Katherine shakes her head. "Anyway. There's a cache in Red Detroit we could hit, unless we want to stay local." * Demetreia finds a seat somewhere and listens, glancing curiously at Mr. Newish Guy a couple times. How huge of a cache we talkin'? Hmm... * Leopoldo waves at Dem. "Hello. And, um, yeah. How big?" <> * Katherine 's eyes move about again. "About... twenty. (+") Twenty? Shit. So you find them, then what? Where're you gonna put them? (*spits diet ginger ale all voer his monitor*) Hm... (Diet ginger ale? ... Sounds gross.) ( Try a nice can of Captain Crunch instead. :P ) * Leopoldo blinks and leans back. "That is quite a cache." ... Hell, I don't know. We haven't even figured out what these ones do. <> "Anders has the room." Nice of him to offer. Bet I could figure out what mine does quickly enough. * Katherine smirks. "Well, yours is easy. It's not quantum or a crossbreed inhibitor or whatever." It's a shape-shifting gun. * Ian nosd. (Er. Nods.) You sure? I haven't fired it yet. I'd like to be somewhere else when you do. Just as long as it's not in my apartment. Anyway. I guess we can shove them off on Anders. Do we want to hit Red Detroit, then? As long as ATC doesn't recognize my skimmer... * Vera shrugs. "I guess." ( *reads log* I'm not psychotic! ;-; ) Yeah, okay. * Leopoldo nods. Sounds good to me. * Katherine taps Deme on the head with the bottle. "Yo, you got any input?" * Demetreia looks around a little and shrugs helplessly. "I do hope a briefing will be available though...I apologize for my tardiness." I can't find anything more on this guy. He keeps himself pretty well hidden. ( ...artifactmon? ) I could try to find something out later. * Leopoldo smiles at Demetreia. "Nothing important happened anyways. Hmm? I guess that's to be expected, actually." zx ( Er... ) ( Ignore that :P ) I think the general consensus is yes. * Ian nods. Pretty much. It's... * Katherine snickers. "It's in a U-Stor-It. Now that's high tech." * Leopoldo gets up. "In that case, we should leave at our earliest conven- Hmmm." * Ian laughs. "Safest place, in a way." Who's holding it? It's marked Concordat, for what it's worth. * Rochelle shakes her head and clicks off the TVNet. Convenient. <> "Do you mind if I tag along? Red Detroit is rough, and I've got a little experience there." What sorta experience? <> "Avoiding the police squads, the wild dogs, and the gangs. And fighting them if the first gets too hard." * Vera shrugs. "That's easy enough if you know what you're doing." ...perhaps, on the other hand, we want to stay local? ... Yes. Closer is better. * Vera chuckles. * Rochelle almost looks annoyed at this point. "Just pick something and get it over with. We're gonna get people who want to kill us either way." You're scared of a few gangs, so you'd rather stay here, where all we have to worry about is the most powerful corporation on the planet instead. We could...er, what is the term? We could, uh, flip for it? * Katherine smirks. "Vera's got a point. Besides, where's your sense of adventure?" I think I left it in the elephant costume. Gotta be better than the squid. I left it at home along with my common sense. ( ...and where'd you leave *that*? Or rather, with whom did you leave it? @_@ ) (Ah. That would be telling.) ( Good. Please don't. @_@ ) (Seconded.) * Ian shrugs. "Either way, I guess." * Leopoldo sighs. "Just pick one then." * Demetreia pulls out a shiny bottlecap from somewhere and holds it out in case someone wants to take her suggestion. * Katherine says, "Fine. Samuel can come along to Red Detroit. Let's hope we can make this a little less risky than last time, eh?" She winks. * Ian nods. Right. Everyone bring your anti-automated turret weapons. * Leopoldo shrugs. Y'know. It probably is going to be guarded, if it's a Concordat cache. "That's part of why I'm coming along." Guess you're not here to just watch, huh? * Demetreia shrugs and disappearifies the cap again. "Well, when an opportunity presents itself..." <> Yeah. * Rochelle sets the controller down. "When're we going?" (How far away is Red Detroit?) How 'bout now? * Katherine frowns, and looks to be thinking about something. <> * Ian shrugs. "Works for me." I have nothing planned, so sure. No problems here. * Katherine nods. "Yeah, why wait? Just give me a second to grab a few things." She wanders to the back closet. * Demetreia takes advantage of the pause to figure out what's going on. "Er, would it be possible for someone to bring me...up to date with our plans?" <> "Give me ten minutes to get in touch with Anders." <> (We have plans? Oho, child.) (You have a lot to learn.) * Vera looks over at Demetreia. "We're going to Red Detroit. That's the plan." * Leopoldo hmmms. ( Well, hyeah. ) * Demetreia nods slowly. "There are...a lot of...artifacts there?" Twenty. * Rochelle picks at her nails. "Yup." Ohhh. * Katherine comes out of the closet with a large duffel bag, that doesn't look completely full until she pulls some things out from under her bed and stuffs them in there. Then she slings it over her shoulder and walks back to the group. "Set." * Leopoldo slings a small bag that you really didn't notice him walk in with earlier over his shoulder. "Shall we be off then?" * Vera nods. "Let's go already." * Rochelle stands and lazily stretches, walking over to a duffel bag shoved in the corner of the room. She opens it and roots around until she comes up with a red windbreaker and tattered baseball cap. "Yeah, I'll be out in a sec." <> "Anders wishes us luck and says to drop them off at his hotel room when we get them." That's nice of him. * Katherine nods and grabs her shoulder holster and jacket from the front closet. "He's so thoughtful." * Ian nods and extracts himself from the squid costume, then folds it up. He ends up wearing a gray shirt, blue jacket, and jeans. * Demetreia stands up, looks around and quickly takes off one shoe, then slips it back on again in an effort to make it look like she had something to do to get ready other than stand up. Mmmhmm. * Ian takes the drink umbrella out of his hair as an afterthought. ( 'Metri see, 'Metri do. ) <> * Fitzroy nods "I'm ready any time." * Vera heads out the door! * Katherine looks back at Ian, having missed the transition. "Jesus, man. Do you put that on just to annoy us?" * Leopoldo walks out. "I believe the answer is a resounding yes." Not really. It's...well, more of a habit than anything. * Ian pauses. "The drink umbrella, on the other hand, yes." He looks sheepish. "Sorry." * Ian heads out the door. * Katherine snorts. "Liar." She walks out the door after him. * Rochelle pulls on her jacket and cap, slips something in her coat pocket, and tucks a pistol away. "Being sorry for something you meant to do... uh... I'm not gonna think about it." Stand, turn, walk out. * Demetreia follows everyone else. * Fitzroy heads out and down to his car. <>