Session 9: Smells Like Fish - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

304 Rand 2 Water

The team heads back to the Gorn fishing boat. They need to get back to port before dusk to avoid kraken attack, so they lay on the speed. Good thing everybody has a second round of anti-nausea drugs from Big Al’s.

Lane checks in with everybody about trying to keep Jiefan: they’d like her to teach them to drive, so they can weaponize running over people. Rina: “Just another service we offer!” Rook: “She keeps us from dying, and I like that.”

Lane makes a good case and Jiefan’s in. She suggests they buy the car, and take over payments to her brother in law and her buddies, who’ve been guarding the building. She gives them some negotiating advice.

They get back to shore and head straight to Radiant Impressions. Lane asks for clothes for a meeting at about the 100,00 NB contract level. The consensus is high fashion vintage Earth. “Remember, their stuff is made of wood!” Rina asks what the Triad’s like style-wise. Nanheen overhears, but digs out a 1940s cheongsam in blue, with a matching clutch for her pistol in deep midnight blue.

For the second outfit she asks for something to impress two of the finest dressed women she’s ever seen in her entire life. Rina suggests something in black, Kestrel suggests matching jewelry. Rook just says, “not boring Federation clothes.” Lane pays full retail, since they did bring the fish smell into Reel’s establishment. Reel has warmed up to them a bit, and the team wants to continue a nice business relationship.

Kestrel picks out an outfit as well: he wants to look like the senior samurai in the room. He splurges for the flowing cape on top of it. Rook wants a nice black jumpsuit. Rina gets a modern take on vintage Chinese student.

They head back to Ruin Island to get the fish smell off before changing. Jiefan scent-sprays the car once they get out. Rina leaves her deck at home; Kestrel brings a gun to hand over and carries the substrate case.

They return to the Wo Shing Wo audience chamber. Lane greets the Dragon Head noting they’re presenting the case six days early. The Dragonfly is on there. Lane explains the Dragonfly is a security measure to keep the AI slowed down well below human computational speeds. They have confirmed that the intelligence inside is very dangerous, and the Triad was incredibly correct in keeping it locked up, and they should continue to do so.

The Dragon Head is impressed.

Lane pulls out the holographic marker that said the team was under the protection of the Triad, and offers it back. The Dragon Head lets her keep it, with a very serious warning about appropriate use.

They begin to haggle for Jiefan’s contract and for the car. The Dragon Head says that since the car is Zhai Be’s pride and joy, he’ll be loathe to part with it. Lane says they’d like to contract with him for maintenance. She allows it. Lane offers 100k, and the Dragon Head is almost insulted. She points out that she’s extended a security guarantee as well. Eventually they settle on 175k.

A minion returns with the paperwork.

Th team decides to go do karaoke at their own hideout to celebrate, but when they stop off at their quarters, Lane has a message: a text from a random alphanumeric address, but it bypassed her spam filters. It’s a shitty 8 bit cartoon graphic of somebody getting gunned down in the street, with a red-cross sign in the background. It looks like an image of Deadman’s death, and she has gotten cryptic digital gifts from him in the past. She turns it over to Rina to analyze.

Rina quickly determines that there’s a lot of steganographic data imbedded in the graphic. There’s a cover note signed with a heart emoji and an x-eyed smiley with its tongue sticking out, along with a note: DiZzy Definitively Dwells Deep: BADI Bucks Bonanza???” Behind that is a lot of documentation. It looks boring at first, just purchase orders for office supplies, but as she digs deeper she discovers “This is a supervillain lair!” It’s all the contractor information for a hidden undersea base.

Lane figures out that the message means it’s Zhukov’s base, and likely paid for from funds embezzled from BADI. This could give her a lot more leverage in negotiating with Tiffany!

Rina plans to stay up late digging deeper into the documentation. She plans to package it into a portfolio of presentation materials.

Lane feels bad she’s putting the team into danger with Zhukov over something from her past. She asks for their help. They’ve got her back. And now karaoke time.

Most of the group is just okay. Lane is not having a good vocal night: as a vocalist, Lane is a great writer 😊 Kestrel’s AudioVox is the star of the evening, singing a male and female duet with himself. He gets a prize: “don’t pick the Lucky Cat, they’re bugged.” Rina finds that offensive! He takes the gift card to a family restaurant.

Jiefan heads back to the Triad dorm to pack, and returns late in the evening. Rina has built herself a computer desk that looks like a cat tree – it’s multi-level and she climbs up and down it all day.