Episode 24: Insights and Investigations - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

17-18 Moskva

The Team’s had a quiet week since the completion of the Romulan sculpture heist. Carbide’s been working on the cat stuff. Star thinks they need a secretary to manage all the plots they’re working on. But Carbide’s not down with them being a corporation! “I can’t argue with your definitions, and that pains me.” Vir thinks it’s all slightly itchy. Paragon and Star are comfortable with their capitalist success. Vir suggests they and Carbide do some popup repair work to balance out all the profiteering. Paragon says that pro bono work is good PR for any firm. “You stop that right now! It’s weird being suddenly reminded you grew up in corp-land.” Star: “I’m fabricated to purpose!”

Paragon dips into her education in history to work on the nanobot issue. Since the tech was a descendant of World War 3 Asian Coalition tech, and NeoTokyo was founded by survivors from the Coalition, she decides to look founder’s names and founding corp names. She’ll then do deep dives into those, for who would have had access to the tech, who would have brought it, and who would still be working on it. And she has Netwatch permission, but people don’t know she has permission. Companies aren’t willing to give up that info because it could be fatal. But historical documentation shouldn’t be a problem for anybody. Star is on good terms with people at a uni, and Paragon has a lot of money. Maybe they’ll fund research in the history of cybernetics. Having a world’s history scholar might look good to the Federation! She’s choosing not to talk to Chance, the economic historian.

Star notes that Nixietube might know people, as her research was used in Data’s trial. History nerds have picked Nixie’s brain. Carbide suggests cross-referencing Chances’s and Nixies’s contact lists. But Paragon doesn’t know what to ask a specialist yet. She needs to become a historian for this.

Meanwhile, Star’s working on the disappearances. She thinks about who would deliver prisoners. Looking through her own investment portfolio, she discovers she Star owns stock in the company that probably had the contract, Oto-Nishi Specialized Logistics, a BADI Corporation. She bought into it because her parents are locked up somewhere. This is why she’s skeptical that the sisters are alive and that Tiffany knows about it. Her entire life was shaped by her parents being held for her good behavior.

Star calls Sue and asks her to gather more info on Oto-Nishi. She takes the issue to the Team. Night is included, as a Fixer. Night’s willing to sort through info on the street. Star says they’re not going to get more imprisoned, and in reality it’s not like they’re going to die this week or anything. She assumes the girls are dead. Night says it’ll take about a week.

Paragon’s down a history rabbit hole. Vir’s heard of the mountain escapee story – they’re saints and cannibals, and the team should visit! They’re foreigners and can’t be saved by the great Midgard serpent. The team can because they’ve adopted them as aunt/uncle: they can die trying to jump on the tongue! Or freeze to death in the mountains. But it’s a noble cause! We’re smarter- we wouldn’t get eaten. Paragon suggests bringing mayonnaise and bbq sauce, and grow some vat-meat. And tell them the vat-pork is vat-human, to suck up to the cannibals. Carbide thinks the Spire must have a business that doesn’t advertise their vat-human menu.

Paragon suggests prisons also need food. She’s already researching the nanobots, which are vaguely food-related. She might come across something, but unless it’s a ConBrands prison, nobody would want to give them that kind of leverage, so it might be non-ConBrands food.

Star notes it was a corporate military takeover that generated the capture. And there aren’t that many of those. Carbide suggests looking back to the corporate wars, and which corps were disappearing people back then. That’s a personal issue for him, b/c his entire neighborhood was disappeared then. Star remembers that the kidnappings were after the corporate wars should have ended, but not a lot later. She’s definitely not asking the Rackhams. She only wants to ask them how large a caliber of bullet they’d prefer in their head.

Vir’s going to go to Tratlen Ridge, and asks Paragon who’s most likely to pass on their fake ID. Paragon will go – and will actually think about clothing, but not borrow from Star. She comes up with a cool outfit! Vir’s slightly sorry about having been so suspicious of Svetlana, who turned out to be really helpful.

They arrive at Tratlen Ridge to discover that the Andorian restaurant is built entirely out of ice! There are complimentary snowsuits at the door, which Paragon wraps up in, having gone with a bare-midriff outfit. They head to the bar, past a rowdy group of Andorians doing shots. Paragon advises Vir to ask for the specialties. They engage with the bartender, an Andorian named Avrittas, in a long discussion of Andorian ales. Vir suggests something spicy and buttery. Avrittas takes down a lavender bottle, and pours a pale lavender drink, a Deshna Pale.

They each take substantial sips. Paragon just gets a little sweaty, and Avrittas suggests she shed the down coat, and compliments her on her outfit. Paragon tells her stories about the Gorn in cosplay, busting up a local bar. Avrittas is amused, but the two agree that endothermic reptiles probably wouldn’t be comfortable in Tratlen Ridge. Paragon tells her that her outfit was selected by a friend who’s also friends with the Gorn.

It hits Vir like a ton of bricks: they break out in a sweat, and their cyber-eye keeps zooming in and out of focus.. Paragon take’s Vir’s glass and empties it into her own. Avrittas serves Vir a raktajino to try to steady them out, but it just leaves them super wired and wasted, to Avrittas’s dismay. The group decides that a warm milk with nutmeg might help, and it seems to take the edge off.

Paragon tells Avrittas that they are in fact locals. They wanted an adventure! Vir says they just found out, like Just found out, from a genetics test, that they’re significantly Betazoid and have an offworld parent, a culture they don’t know about. So that’s why they’re here, to see if they can find information, because Vir wants to get in touch with their heritage.

Avrittas is deeply touched, and offers to pass on Vir’s comm info to any Betazoids who come in who might be willing to help. Vir gives her their comm info and a nice tip.

Both Paragon and Vir, somehow, clock they’re being watched. Paragon tells Avrittas to send a drink to the guy watching them, and tell them it’s from the people he’s staring at.

Vir wishes they brought Eely. Paragon notes they feel better with Eely around. Vir will need Carbide to make a warmed jar, with festive colors! They drunk-type Carbide. “Eely! Lava but not real lava! Bubls!”

“Did you mean you wanted to put Eely in a baking soda volcano?”

“We did establish that Betazoids exist!”

They’re approached by an Idanian who introduces himself as Keren Zot, an embassy clerk. He recognized the two of them from Arcade’s show: he lost a lot of money betting against them. He’s happy to help make introductions, but he could use help with a problem of his own, and they’ve proven themselves capable.

He wants the Team to infiltrate an Exanic Engineering R&D lab on the Myatna-Nyseth Drift Arcology. See if they have specifications for a small fusion generator with particular characteristics. Delete all related files, and any mention of one of their trade representatives, Karten Zadder, who was compromised. He’ll pay NB 4000 for the job. For a substantial bonus (NB12,000), document and destroy any prototypes under construction. Then he’ll deliver your contact.

Vir gives their background. “I’m from Gilead 777, a creepy cult in the middle of nowhere. I’ve learned our doctrine is a little confusing for outsiders- I was rejected when I got a full genetic match prior to being married to a person of their choice. I am at least half Betazoid.”

They ask for more information about the situation leading to the job. Paragon asks about his colleague: “Did she try to spy on a corp without knowing how the world works? Poor baby!” She notes a wince, and is proud of her insight – she was right! Paragon asks him to zap contact info to her internal agent, and digs into Vir’s pocket to get their agent out for them. They’ll discuss the issue with the rest of the Team and get back to him. He fades into the crowd.

Paragon’s more psyched about getting Vir their answers than the pile of money from the job. Vir thinks Carbide’s going to want to keep the prototype. Paragon says that she thinks Zot knows NeoTokyo well enough to know any netrunner good enough to do the job is going to keep their own copy. Or, he doesn’t know how the planet works, and this will be a valuable lesson. Vir’s glad Eely wasn’t along because they might have dropped him, from vibrating. Paragon would have taken Eely. Or sat in their lap so they’d had to be still. Or both.

They return home and brief the team. Star wants to know what an Idanian is. She wishes she’d been there to assess the guy who was clearly skeevy. She thinks the whole thing sounds like a setup. Paragon thinks it was just him taking advantage of an opportunity, having seen them on the pinball. She totally believes his friend botched the op, having seen him wince. She almost never catches stuff like that!

Star reluctantly decides, “We can do this! We’ll just assume we’re about to be double-crossed – more than usual! This is fine! But we’re not taking Twirly on this one. “

Paragon asks Carbide, don’t you need an independent power source for what you build for the kitties? He does, and to take their house at least partially off-grid. He’d do the job just for that, honestly. She does some research into Idanians, discovering their noted for their government’s intelligence agency. Zot is listed as a minor clerk in the patents office. Smuggler? Arms dealer? Corporate espionage?

Star thinks it’s weird this is the second week in a row they’ve been recruited by an off-planet intelligence network. Are they getting a rep?

They take the job.

The next night, Star’s headed to The Violet Heart, for the fairy goth event the Gorn are invited to. She asks if anybody else is coming. Carbide’s expression at being invited to fairy goth night. She just keeps staring at him, smiling, waiting for an answer. Paragon offers to glitter him. NO GLITTER is allowed near his workshop! It comes off and glitters everywhere! He had a party girl come in to commission an implant once and it took. months to get the glitter out of his workshop.

Paragon does have an outfit good enough for clubs, so might as well give it another outing. Can Star dress her boyfriend? He’s a good boyfriend, he’ll come along. And Paragon’s wearing a hot outfit! Star gives him a light makeover.

Star does the air kiss kiss to Vika, the bartender, and sees her three companions settled in at the bar before going to work the crowd. She squees at the Gorn and rushes over to them, and hypes them up. Paragon asks Star to get a selfie with the Gorn for Avrittas. Paragon adds a note to it, this is our fashion friend Star.

Teezan takes Star aside, worried about Twirly. Star mentions her bad augments. The contracts are byzantine, it took years to get out of hers. not just the money but paying it off in a way that counts. She’s working on it. She doesn’t just want to get her out, but shut this shit down. they have an entire division for this. She tells Teezan to keep bringing her back to spend time with them. She’s had good therapy – or programming – so she doesn’t seem unhappy in her situation, but Star wants to get her out without frying her brain.

On her way back to the bar, she’s approached by a man who wants to talk. He introduces himself as Valentin Lucien Winter. He’s heard Star and her friends solved the squeeze on the pubs. Maybe you can help him out? He’s a performer for SoftShell Productions, a braindance studio that does synth/squishie porn. He’s a pretty famous squishie. Revenues are down for several of their top stars. At first they thought it was just the market wanting new plastiflesh, but the hot new stars are seeing the same thing: a spike in income as they get popular, then a drop and plateau.

Maybe it’s an accounting thing? Maybe it’s bootleg product? Can you find out if there really is something going on and stop it? He can put up a bit of cash, but if they succeed, he can talk the stars into kicking back a percentage to the Team.He works with xxxScarlettxxx sometimes – she’s been affected by it.

Star’s happy to do it: she’ll take a percentage of their revenue increase if they succeed, rather than cash up front. Valentin asks about approaching the Gorn for cosplay porn. WE’LL RECRUIT THE GORN FOR PORN! GORNCORE GORNPORN!

Star comes back to the bar and orders a whiskey. Vika’s suggested the Gorn come up with some more cosplay night ideas for the club. Star’s thrilled to make the connection.

She briefs her companions aobut the job. “It’s certainly not that people are watching less porn in the world.” Paragon asks if the Gnu would know something, as it’s net-based. Star thinks it’s a great idea. A lot of the basement dwellers will have a problem if the porn companies go out of business – what else would they spend money on?!

Vir gets their porn watching people on the metro. Star says they need to show them real porn – the metro has no production value – and no Craft Services! Or lighting!

Vir wonders what happened to Armitage – he never answers! Star notes they haven’t seen him since the raid, and she doesn’t think that’s a coincidence. And with Amelie having popped up again!

Star asks Vika to let her know if Amelie ever comes in. Vika wants to help: she asks for the photo – she’ll spread the word.

K’sassisbus thanks Star for the biz opportunity. Star kisses him on the nose.

Vir rescued a guniea pig before it made its way into the fryer. When they return home they get Paragon to translate to Mango and the kittens: “This is Vir’s kitten. They don’t understand what kittens really are, so we have to be nice, and they’ll be very sad if anything happens to their kit.” The message seems to have gotten across.