Sorry, We're Open!

Posted on Tue May 2nd, 2023 @ 1:18am by Team Leader Arani Ravenlocke & Regular Haren Moira & Regular Asa Nox

Mission: Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress)
Location: Hideout

It'd been about a week since the team, such as it was, had come together. An effort went to trying to spruce up the place, but there was only so much that could be done on a limited budget. The front area was as much as an office as it could be, the garage area would take more work to split into a living area. As well, she was trying to give each of them a place to call their own inside the former repair shop but leave room for growth.

All Arani knew at the end of the day was that if she ever saw that relator again, she'd stuff him in a used oil drum and launch it down the tallest hill in the city straight down to the harbor.

There was a bang at the door and Arani got up, greeting the young Dwarven TastyStep driver with the bag full of lunch. Slipping him a $20, she headed back in.

"Chow's here!" Arani called out loud enough to be heard as she started pulling out the items from the bag.

Moira made her way over, lost in thought looking out the window through the haze of the neon sign, and whatever it was that was covering the windows. Tactical obfuscation, let's call it that. Rather than burnt on dirt. Even though the latter rhymed. "I heard a dwarf, did you order Dwarven?" the rabbitess inquired as she sat. No. Dwarven was too rich for the upstart startup. The universal first meal of a start up business greeted her: Chinese.

Boxes of rice, noodles, stir fry. As though to remind the rabbitess that no matter how far she fell, a soft bed of rice would catch her. "Well, say what you will, but can't go wrong with Chinese food. Thank you." she offered up to Arani. At rock bottom, one still has their manners.

Asa sidled up to the other two and chose one of the boxes of pork fried rice. She slid around to sit down at the rusty metal table that had been purposed as their kitchen table. Around it were several mismatching chairs in varying degrees of decay. "There is pleasantry in sharing a meal, and appreciation to those who provide it." She bowed her head and closed her eyes for a moment in front of her food before opening the container.

The rabbitess gave Asa the moment of silence before perking up slightly. Resisting the casual urge to scour the subnets for a name, a face, a driver's license, history, past, birth. Her old ways called to her like a warm pair of slippers. But she was a co-worker, and while in the past the rule was never fuck the company..... right now the rule was don't fuck your co-workers.

So instead of scouring the Etherealnet for answers, she opted for the more direct, analog approach. "Moira." she offered, "Looks like we're both the new blood here."

"Asa Nox," Asa replied after turning to face her speaker. She stood back up and bowed slightly to Moira. "It is a pleasure to meet you. Are there others besides us and Arani?"

"At the moment, not yet. At least, not that I've met." he moonfolk rabbitess mentioned. "I'd rather not raid the payroll on day two." she offered with a smirk.

Arani grabbed the container that had her order of General Tso's Chicken as she found a seat.

"We're the only ones right now, yep. Didn't get a lot of responses it seems but that could change. But the question too is when we'll get our first job. Hopefully I posted in the right place or I might be out of touch with things more than I thought." The half-elf mercenary veteran replied with a half chuckle.

"The message didn't seem to be meant for everyone, which is probably why 'everyone' hasn't shown up yet. Sits fine with me, I hate the interview process." Moira commented, punctuated by a slurp of noodles. "Background checks are the worst. I mean on one hand, you find out a lot about a prospect but on the other hand, you find out A LOT about them." she rolled her eyes.

"Hell, knocking on that door is half the interview." she paused, glancing towards the door as though challenging fate to knock on that door. "Huh, imagine that."

Arani finished her bite as she looked at the door. The problem was that Moira's challenge had been met and there was a light knocking at the door.

"...had to be in the middle of when we're eating." Arani grumbled as she went to the door, opening it.

Standing outside was a rather elegant woman - she was not only elegant in dress but in poise. Her raven black hair had a sheen to it that reflected the lights of the city, her black dress that looked way too nice to be worn here sparkled like a clear night that no one in Grace Point ever saw.

She looked more like her Uber had left her at the wrong address, that there was a gala being held at the other address.

"I hope I've come to the right place. The post mentioned troubleshooting?" The woman asked in a melodic tone.

"Yes, that's right. Come on in." Arani said, making sure to keep herself partly behind the door. Both Asa and Moira were in a better position to see that was deliberate - Arani had the back of her jacket lifted up and her hand resting on the grip of her hidden pistol.

Her movement was also to keep that less apparent to their guest as she let her in and closed the door behind the woman.

"Oh. I'm sorry if I'm interrupting...it's just...I'm in need of some help and the police have been their usual useless state." The woman said as she gracefully sat down on one of the available chairs, further punctuating just how little she fit the room.

Asa watched her carefully through the whole scene. She was both impressed, and thoroughly unimpressed, with the dress of the person. Her paw gently set down the chopsticks she had been awkwardly holding, shifting her body to better face the newcomer. She looked at the other two of the team before looking directly to the newcomer. "Do you wish to introduce yourself? And trouble needing aid?"

"Oh. I'm so sorry. Yes, my name is Linette. Linette Clearspring. I apologize, things have me a bit..." Linette paused, "Well, once I explain."

"Go ahead." Arani said, leaning against the wall next to the door.

"A couple of days ago, my sister, Natalie, was taken, for ransom we thought. But no one contacted us, no demands for money or whatever. The police found her in some grubby basement in the Drake Garden Projects, dead. Said they'd butchered her but there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the case." Linette explained.

"...I think it's because there's enough small gangs in the DGP that they don't want to. Or they know something and have to cover it up. GPD is in half a dozen pockets." Linette scoffed.

"So what exactly do you want us to do?" Arani asked.

"I want you to find who did this and...well..." Linette trailed off.

"Kill them?" Arani finished.

"Yes. I know that's murder but they could have and will do the same thing they did to Natalie to who knows how many people. I can give you the info the police gave me and payment won't be an issue. Please." Linette pleaded.

Arani looked to the others first, "It's a team effort. I won't say go unless we're all interested."

Moira gave the matter some thought, sipping what passed for coffee down here. She used to watch corporate reps from occults receivable fabricate tea from thin air. She now had Mister Coffee to do the same. The notion of street gangs doing terrible things to opulent society struck her specifically. In another time, in another place that would have been her reaching out for help. Her griping about the ineptitude of local law enforcement, and her lack of surprise to see that someone else had bribed them first. "There are worst things than death." she offered as she closed her eyes, focusing on the coffee. Focus on the coffee. The bitterness. The...

ACCESSING ETHERALNET NODE 57b99be0. ACCESS ATTEMPT 1 OF 3
USERNAME: K4GUY4_A5END4N7
PASSWORD: ************

CONNECTION FAILED. RUNNING PURPLEWURM.EXE
LEVEL 12 BARBARIAN BRUTE FORCE [************] SUCCESS!

USERNAME: ********
PASSWORD: ********

***************************************
* WELCOME TO DGPD USER ACCOUNT SYSTEM *
***************************************

PARAMETERS PASSED. SEARCH INCONCLUSIVE.

Execute Mordenkainens_Disconnection.EXE
logoff


Nothing. Like she said. A scrubbed file, a hidden lie. Down here, where the money was a trickle, everything was trickle down. She'd need more intel on the sitch, more names, more access. More. Always more. Moira gave Arani a nod, the shine in her eyes nearly faded as she did so. A peek into the world, and the methods, of the Harengon Lunus. "Well, I'm in."

Asa frowned slightly at the idea at the outset. Subtle, probably not noticeable unless one looked. To kill was something she knew was a possibility, however not so quickly. Was it against her teachings? Or is a evil person on the same plane as a well? She clasped her paws and settled them into her lap. She pondered the truism that there are worse things than death. She looked at Linette and back at the team. "A life for a life."

"If that's what the client wants." Moira offered, perhaps to put Asa's soul at a slighter ease. This isn't something THEY wanted, it's what SHE wanted. The three of them weren't the intent, just the implement.

Asa nodded. "I am in."

"Alright. We'll take the job. Let's put the starting price at $6,000 plus expenses and open to increase if we deem the costs have become greater." Arani said.

Linette nodded, "Yes, of course. But please, time is of the essence, I don't want anyone else to suffer like we did."

She reached into the small fancy purse on her shoulder and produced a much larger handful of documents clipped together, setting that on the table. She then pulled out a pen and scribbled a phone number on the corner of the top document.

"Is there anything else I can do?" Linette asked. Arani shook her head.

"Given you've had no contact with the killer and this I assume is your copy of the police report with your phone number, no. For now, go home, lock your doors and wait for our call." Arani replied.

"Okay. And thank you all." Linette took her leave. Arani waited a couple minutes before grabbing her General Tso's Chicken again and sitting down at the table.