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[Synik]

You find yourself propping up a support beam on the cusp of Necroville. You can feel the cold of the stonework pull the warmth out of you. After a time, you shift position and fold and re-fold the kelp-paper news sheet you've been pretending to read for the last ten minutes.

Eventually, your mark leaves the bank. She makes a double loop of the block - like she does each night she comes down here - and then starts to head out towards the Stack. That's no place for a women like her. A good haircut and an even better smile. She's had work that you only see in fancy stims. Why's she down here? Pah, corporates slumming it. It never ends well does it. They're not down here visiting their ma that's for sure. People from down here don't get to go upstairs. The only way is down - just like Blue Razor sang.

Dressed in cheaper clothes and with her hair tucked under a baseball cap, your target heads off for her meeting. At least you hope that's the case. The last few tails you did on her she visited a ****ing kid's home. What the hell was that about? The time before that, it was a soup kitchen. This job is wacked. Still, maybe tonight the Loa will smile and you'll find who she's meeting. Wouldn't that be nice. Then you can make your remote to Mr Williams - like that's his real name - and finally this case will pay out.

S***, she's just hopped on the street-car.

[currymaniac]

Hayden dropped the news sheet as he moved away from his spot after the woman. Why was she getting on the street-car? If this was yet another wild goose chase he wasn't sure if he could take any more of this, but of course he would endure, he couldn't let all this work go unpaid after all, and there was of course his reputation to think of. He moved as nonchalontly as possible, following his mark as she hopped onto the street car, and made his way to the same carriage as she was on. Again he was struck by the fact of such a woman as this slumming it here. He hopped into the carriage and stood near her, training his eyes slightly to the left of her so that he could both watch her and appear not to at the same time.

[Synik]

The street car is packed with people heading home and people heading out for a good time. Your cred-stick vibrates as you pass through the charging gate and take up a position by your mark. No name had been given, just a couple of hastily taken holos and some grainy footage ripped from a CCTV stream. Your instructions where to follow her and record her movements whenever she came down-town. Sometimes you'd get an email or a 'blurt' on your telephone when she was due to come down-side.

Rumbling through the street on the greasy tracks, the street car makes its way through towards the fringes of The Stack and starts to swing out on a route towards the docks. People get on and off at various points. A gang of SHARCs pile on; their CitiDef uniforms ironed so sharp you'd probably cut yourself. Silver eyes scan the crowd looking for trouble, but if they're looking for a ruck, this isn't the time or the place.

After a few more stops, the street car draws up outside a row of shops and a small covered market. The air is rich with the scent of food and alive with the sounds of people buying goods. Your mark gets off and she heads into the throng.

[currymaniac]

The throng was both a blessing and a dismay for Hayden. On the plus side he would be much less noticeable in the crowd, of course unfortunately the same would be true for his mark. Squeazing past the people on the street car, he got off, keeping himself a good ten or eleven paces behind this woman. He gently wonders whether she knows about his presence, that perhaps this may be the reason for this unforseen journey? He swiftly pushed that thought out of his head, as he knew that if she did indeed know about him that it was too late to worry about it now. He silently followed the woman, watching in case she decided to make a swift change of direction.

[Synik]

OOC

Please make a Shadow test against difficulty 15 or a Perception test against difficulty 20.

[currymaniac]

[ July 8, 2008, 9:26 pm ] - currymaniac rolled 1d10 ± 11 and obtained 21 ( 10 ). Reason : shadow (agil + hide -1).
[ July 8, 2008, 9:27 pm ] - currymaniac rolled 1d10 ± 11 and obtained 13 ( 2 ). Reason : got a 10!!!.

OOC

Not sure if I was just supposed to roll a d10 or the D10 with the modifiers, so I did the latter

[Synik]

OOC

A ten? Lucky you. That's more than enough

You wait until your target has reached the first stall and then slip down another route through the market. The place is a riot of noise and smells. The rich smell of food being cooked to order. The smell of fresh vat grown fish on one stall. The sweet scent of ozone from a black-tech repairing a battle glove. The SHARC owner stands over him. Two young kids stare up at the SHARC, but he ignores them.

Threading your way across, you pause by a fruit stall as your mark stops to examine a batch of knock off mobiles. She pulls out a few notes, no credstick here, and pays for the device. Did she give too much? The young oriental kid serving her starts to give her a quick demo.

Minutes pass and you swap stalls as the old lady guarding the fruit starts to get edgy. You pass the mark by and head for the news stand. A totem pole to the media, a hundred channels flick across the toughened flatpanels glued to its ceramic core. United lost again to ICS's footy team. Useless sh***.

You mark pockets the mobile and heads deeper into the market. Perhaps she's cutting through to Sinners Row. You spot someone else taking an interest in her. A young white kid in a too large longcoat. He looks away nervously as she looks over her shoulder. He hasn't seen you yet. What an amateur.

[currymaniac]

Hayden sighed as he watched the kid be as inconspicuous as he could manage, smiling to himself. Now what could a kid like this be doing following a woman like that? And why exactly did he have such a long coat? The word pickpocket sprung to his mind, but he was also aware that perhaps there was another motive behind this kid's interest. He decided that rather than make a move on the kid just yet he would keep an eye on him, see what he would do. If he started to get too close to her or if there were signs that he might be part of something bigger then he would step in, but for now he found it quite relaxing to watch this kid playing at his own work.

[Synik]

Your mark moves away from the stall and puts the mobile into her bag before rejoining the slow ambling stream of punters. You give it a heart-beat or two and then fall in behind her and to the right. The young lad has moved the other way and you catch sight of him in a parallel gap between the booths.

The market begins to thin out and you reach a row of boarded up shops. The road heads left and right towards busier parts of the city. She turns right heading towards a street of reproduction 3 story town houses. There's another street-car stop at the end of the road.

There are a few people about, some laden with shopping, some looking after kids and others on their own.

OOC

Please make another visual perception check against difficulty 15.

[currymaniac]

As he noticed the street-car stop at the end of the road thoughts of yet another ride around the city to a place that this woman really shouldn't be enetered Hayden's mind. He wondered whether the kid was still trying to not be noticed, hiding between two booths, perhaps he was giving up? Or was there something more sinister at work here? Right now though, his main concern was where this woman was going, and so he ignored the niggling thoughts in the back of his brain and followed after her.

[ July 9, 2008, 5:11 pm ] - currymaniac rolled 1d10 ± 7 and obtained 12 ( 5 ). Reason : perception.

[Synik]

Distracted by your thoughts the kid in the long coat barges you out of the way in a surge of speed. Where the hell did he come from?

Your target doesn't hear him coming and she turns at the last minute, only to have him crash into her. She goes sprawling into the gutter. The kid slashes the strap of her handbag with practiced ease and sprints down the road. A few people look but no-one intervenes.

OOC

Curry, I note your PI character doesn't have perception as a skill. Do you want to swap Drive for Perception: Visual? It would be more useful! PM me if you want it swapped.

Edited by Synik, 09 July 2008 - 09:31 PM.

[currymaniac]

Torn between chasing after the kid - who knows what might be in that bag - and keeping watch on his mark, Hayden pauses for a moment. Then, a thought strikes him. He moved forward to the woman and offered his hand out to her to help her up. "It's a dangerous area this," he said in a nearly accusing tone.

[Synik]

The kid is gone. Perhaps he should consider sports rather than mugging. Then again, unless he's sponsored, mugging's going to pay more.

On offering your hand, your target looks up and after a moment's hesitation, takes it to pull herself up. "Thank you," she says. "I can't believe I was that dumb!" She puts her hands to her head and looks down the street. "I had my travel pass in there and my cred-stick. Godammit." There's no false emotion here, she looks and sounds really ticked off.

The knee has been ripped on her jeans and there's a greasy mark on the elbow of her jacket. Even dressed down you can smell money. No wonder the mugger went for her.

[currymaniac]

"Hate to say it," Hayden said calmly, "But I don't think you're going to be able to get it back, at least not without the police."

He paused for a minute, "Where are you headed, if you want I can pay for a ride on the street-car for you."

[Synik]

The woman makes a dismissive noise as you mention the police. "They'll not come down here," she says watching the end of the street; perhaps in some crazy notion that she could see the boy's desintation. "You can get away with murder in some places."

Her attention swings back to you. "Sorry, I'm a...I'm a bit thrown. A ride? Yes. Well. I was supposed to be meeting a friend, but I think that's out of the question now. I've no way to reach her." She wipes the muck on her jacket and sighs. "A ride to the nearest mono-rail station would be perfect, thank you. That's very kind of you to offer, Mister?"

The nearest mono-rail station is Karlatt and it is about 10 streets away. It is on the board of DogTown - a popular Breed hangout. Lots of wild clubs, X-sports and bod-mod parlours.