DiscoDude: ---BEGIN SESSION---
DiscoDude: Session logging commenced
Ryusui|GM: Last time...
Ryusui|GM: Casper: “This is the EXACT OPPOSITE of what was supposed to happen! HE WASN’T SUPPOSED TO SUSPECT A GODDAMN THING UNTIL THE VERY END! Your behavior was embarrassing out there!”
Reality Glitch: ((That's not quite where we were.))
Ryusui|GM: (whoop. hang on)
Ryusui|GM: Michael: "Not as much as we humilated Dino. Look, you make it sound like a petty theft against a guy who host the the equivilancy of The Great Gadsby parties to believe someone would walk in to that gold mine, and either, not take everything not nailed down, or know what exactly couldn't be tracked down.""
Casper: “It would be better than leaving a damn SIGN PAINTED IN NEON saying “WE’RE COMING FOR YOU” on the wall like with your antics!”
Ryusui|GM: (there we go)
Reality Glitch: My breathing has been getting steadily heavier over the past few exchanges be fore finally, "AAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!" before I make a beeline out the door, not caring that I slammed past the scary bird hard enough to spin them around. I just keep running down the hall, running down the stairs; I just need to get out of the building, out of--I NEED OUT!
Ryusui|GM: Well, then. <@!Casper>, <@!Michael>, <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>, <@!Susan>. Eli just bolted past Casper and out the door.
Casper: Casper does a full 360 before snapping back to attention. “Michael, what is your job?! Melissa, what is your problem?!”
Susan: Susan looks to the door. She'd been able to tell Eli needed some comfort, but a full meltdown like that was... hard to see coming. She wasn't sure what that meant. Given the drilling Casper was giving, she was a bit afraid to address the matter without his blessing.
Reality Glitch: ((Heartless monsters, the lot of you. :P))
Susan: ((I mean yes, Susan's whole schtick is being manipulative.))
Michael: "To put it bluntly. We trick assholes into screwing themselfs over."
Casper: “I should have been more specific; what is your role, Michael?”
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: Melissa is taken back a bit by Eli running off, but quickly got back to Casper "M-my problem?! We are taking down a royal asshole!"
Reality Glitch: ((Wow! Didn't expect the "heartless monsters" comment to have nearly that much merit.))
Ryusui|GM: Eli, when you compose yourself, you get a ping on your smartphone.
Casper: “Melissa, personal feelings should not factor into this! This is a MISSION! In a mission, where I come from, you act as a professional! You’re careful, or you’re DEAD!”
Reality Glitch: ((That's not happening anytime soon.))
Ryusui|GM: (In due time, then.)
Casper: “Now are you a professional, or just a petty child pretending to be one?!”
Reality Glitch: ((read: Not without P.C. interference.))
Michael: "In this paticular case, it was to secure information, while making it look like I was there for something else."
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: "That's like asking a cat not to chase a yarn ball! This guy has been a pain in my butt for the entirety of my childhood, I'm at least obligated to pay him back!"
Casper: (I was looking for “Hitter.” XD)
Casper: “No, not this time; just in general, what is your role?!”
Ryusui|GM: There's another ping on your smartphone, Eli. After a minute or so, there's another on <@!Susan>'s.
Casper: “And you are not Melissa the Brambilla scion while on this mission, you are Melissa the Thief and member of Leverage! As far as personal SHIT is concerned, you are obligated to NOTHING!”
Michael: (It feels kinda wierd asking for that in specific, paticularly when I don't think Michael just thinks of himself as just muscle)
Ryusui|GM: ( <@!Susan> ?)
Casper: (Let me rephrase it, then.)
Casper: Michael: “Tell me; are you the Mastermind on this operation?!”
Susan: "Calm down all of you! We're getting nowhere here. Eli just ran out of the room screeming for Christ's sake," Suan shouts, "Casper, we're not on your payroll, you can't court marshal us, stop acting like you have authority over us, you don't. Michael, Baillie, your actions made Casper's job harder, pretend to sympathize. If you all can't stop acting like children, we're fucked, calm down."
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: Melissa holds her chest, now taking a step back dramatically.
Reality Glitch: ((Did she *gasp as well?))
Ryusui|GM: After a moment, Susan, the message on your smartphone deletes itself, its job taken care of for it.
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: yes she did gasp
Michael: "... yeah, fine. It is your job to come up with plans."
Reality Glitch: ((<@!Ryusui|GM>; did you just imply I sent the ping to Susan?))
Ryusui|GM: (no. I mean someone sent you a ping, then another, and when you failed to respond, sent Susan a ping. But Susan did whatever the sender wanted to without reading it anyway, so...)
Reality Glitch: ((My first guess was that it was malware.))
Ryusui|GM: (you're not wrong 😉 )
Ryusui|GM: (but it was the most well-intentioned malware you can imagine <3)
Reality Glitch: ((So whomever sent it can see us right now?))
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: don't question the deus ex plot advance xD
Reality Glitch: ((I will question every and all security risks, thank you verymuch.))
Ryusui|GM: (you're free to 😉 )
Casper: Casper does take a moment to take a few breaths, but his stone-cold pants-shitting terror-inducing expression stays. “I... I just want you to understand. All that I am asking for... is the methodical disassembly of everything the target holds dear. In my experience, there is... zero room for tomfoolery. A single step out of line can jeopardize it all.”
Ryusui|GM: (in all honesty i decided since no one seemed interested in your mental well-being I had your hacker "friend" decide to try and get in touch with you, and when you failed to respond, sent Susan a poke to see what was up)
Reality Glitch: ((But, yeah; I imagine I've rigged my phone so that all incoming data is read as a pure text file so that any code on it can't be run until I say so.))
Ryusui|GM: (heh, fair)
Casper: “What I said about a careless agent in my line of work being a dead agent... was entirely serious.”
Casper: “Do you understand, Melissa?”
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: "B-but this is.....! I just wanted to..." Melissa lost some of her ground with Susan, and Casper cooling down meant she had to cool down too. So her ears lower and she looks to the side. "Ugh, I get it... I'll keep my jokes to the minimum."
Casper: “Good, and Michael... if there’s ever a time where you think you can do my job better than I can... just don’t. We can talk about the nuances and exceptions to that later.”
Casper: (<@!Michael>?)
Michael: "Yeah, ok."
Casper: “Alright. Dismissed!” Casper pivots around and steps off to his appointed room.
Reality Glitch: ((OO They truly are a heartless monster.))
Michael: would sigh "It really is a bit too late now though, odds are Dino doesn't consider this anything other then family buisness, and not just some hired out goon squad." (Is Eli still screaming?)
Casper: (Casper may be way more well-spoken than Eli, but he’s on about the same level of socio-emotional competency. ^^;)
Reality Glitch: ((I ran out of the building. You have no clue where I'm even at.))
Reality Glitch: ((That doesn't excuse a lack of compassion; <@!Casper>.))
Ryusui|GM: (well, there's still something on your phone, if you ever check it)
Michael: (Because, merely the act of getting out of the way while he was ahead might be considered the smartest choice, even if it was a panic attack and not an actually thought through action)
Casper: (Can you believe he was so angry at the time, he literally didn’t notice Eli’s exit?)
Reality Glitch: ((Even I have that. It's actually the reason for screaming.))
Casper: “Also, where’s Eli, Susan?”
Reality Glitch: ((Even after being physically interacted with?))
Casper: (Hardly even blinked. His metaphorical tunnel vision is serious.)
Reality Glitch: ((At least they're stopping to think long enough to avoid change blindness.))
Susan: Susan raises a finger, looks around a bit, and sighs. "We should probably go looking for him," She says.
Susan: Susan stands up, and walks to the door.
Ryusui|GM: (so uh)
Ryusui|GM: (do we want to rp the search for Eli, or just skip ahead?)
Susan: ((It's late, let's just skip.))
Casper: (I think we’ve detoured long enough before the operation even begins.)
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: ((do we want to be extra heartless or just cruel?))
Reality Glitch: ((I was thinking they suggested, where they tried, and if no one guessed right, I'd narrate where they found me.))
Casper: (Melissa, he implied that we’d find him either way; it’s just “do we want to dedicate time to showing that?”)
Reality Glitch: ((Also, <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>; WHAT!?))
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: ((IT WAS A JOEK I'M SORRY))
Ryusui|GM: (i'll just narrate it. Where exactly do they find you, Eli?)
Ryusui|GM: (and how long does it take?)
Reality Glitch: After about an hour, the others find me sobbing, curled into the fetal position in the alleyway between our apartment building and the adjacent one, tucked all the way against the back wall.
Ryusui|GM: (this scene let's RP)
Ryusui|GM: (because shame on you all XD)
Ryusui|GM: (er)
Ryusui|GM: (the four of you, not Eli)
Reality Glitch: ((Yeah!))
Casper: (I’m not there. The most involvement I’d have in this is helping to locate him through cameras or something.)
Ryusui|GM: (well fine then. Who finds him?)
Susan: Susan sighs as she catches sight of Eli. Se crouches down about 15 feet away from him. "Hello? Can we talk without upsetting you more?" She asks.
Reality Glitch: My head shoots straight up, my facial expression still very clearly terrified. "N-n-....n-no yelling?"
Susan: Susan smiles. "I promise," She says.
Casper: “Alright, don’t raise your voices, and no sudden movements to be safe,” Casper says over the comms to everyone but Eli.
Reality Glitch: I look down and away; as soon as I hear Scary Bird's voice being picked up by my laptop still back in the our room, I scramble to rip my phone off my wrist like I was brushing away a huge spider. "NO!"
Casper: (BTW, I am totally fine with someone giving me a question prompt sometime in the future along the lines of “what the hell is wrong with you?” XD)
Reality Glitch: I'm just sitting there, staring at my phone from across the alley with abject fright.
Reality Glitch: Surely, everyone else heard Fearow's voice threw it.
Casper: (I said to everyone but Eli. XD)
Reality Glitch: ((I just said my laptop picked up his voice and played it threw my phone.))
Susan: ((Can I roll a Mastermind + Alertness on Eli? Figure out how much he trusts me, how much emotional labor he's willing to do to make things better?))
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: (implying you could hide something to the hacker)
Casper: (Probably a Willpower roll.)
Casper: (Or, wait, you meant you were rolling, not Eli.)
Ryusui|GM: (eh why not)
Ryusui|GM: (bear in mind here I think his "Autistic Savant" probably works against you, Susan)
Ryusui|GM: (since she's just checking you out and you're not actively trying to resist her efforts, though, i'm thinking i'd roll resistance...unless Eli would like to just tell you? XD)
Reality Glitch: ((Because it's two P.C.'s and that could be argued as something to be roleplayed, not rollplayed. That's just a hypothetical answer to a rhetorical question, though.))
Ryusui|GM: (agreed, in all honesty)
Ryusui|GM: (just tell 'er what she wants to know)
Ryusui|GM: (if it should be obvious anyways)
Reality Glitch: ((That's not going to happen without i.C. prompting.))
Ryusui|GM: (you heard him!)
Reality Glitch: ((They're typing!))
Susan: Susan takes a close look at Eli's body language. This was a sensitive situation, she wanted to make sure she was getting a good read on his general condition - in particular, how much she could ask from him without alienating him further.
Reality Glitch: ((I was expecting a verbal prompt; hacker doesn't mean mind reader, despite how often I choose telepathy when designing powersets for myself.))
Casper: (Well, she just wants to know what your visible state is, overall.)
Susan: ((Yeah. I'm trying to figure out what Eli is saying nonverbally.))
Ryusui|GM: (he's still frickin' terrified, and Casper's voice exacerbates it)
Reality Glitch: ((I actually already gave that with the whole"fixation on the phone" quip.))
Reality Glitch: I'm just sitting there, staring at my phone from across the alley with abject fright. Surely, everyone else heard Fearow's voice through it.
Reality Glitch: ((Also, every gets that fearow = scary bird; right?))
Casper: (We get the Pokémon reference, yes.)
Reality Glitch: ((Just wanted to make sure.))
Susan: Susan sighs. "Do you need me to take my earpiece out?" Susan asks.
Reality Glitch: Sandshrew's voice grabs my attention. After a couple seconds of prolonged eye contact trying to process what they just said, I let out a very weak "yes".
Ryusui|GM: ( <@!Susan>? )
Ryusui|GM: (also <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>, <@!Michael>, any chance of you showing up on the scene?)
Susan: Susan nods. "I'm sorry Casper, I don't want to make your job harder but I don't think I have a choice," She says. She takes her earpiece out and turns it off. She looks back at Eli and smiles. "The shouting stopped."
Reality Glitch: ((Yeah, it's taking a while.))
Reality Glitch: "th-thank you"
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: ((Not really sure, but probably tagging behind?))
Susan: "This is still something you want to do, right? Being on the team, helping people?" Susan asks.
Michael: (To behonest Michael was probably of the mind, that Eli needed some space.)
Reality Glitch: "Who helps me?"
Susan: "Me, I hope. I'm trying to, at least," Susan says.
Reality Glitch: I look down. "Thank you."
Susan: "We all have to help each other. We forgot that for a second, but I think we've learned our lesson today," Susan says.
Reality Glitch: "Only you?"
Susan: "I... didn't ask why they're not here. Do you want my help talking to them?" Susan asks.
Reality Glitch: "Yes."
Susan: "Can we start with Casper?" Susan asks.
Reality Glitch: "MMMMMMMM!"
Ryusui|GM: (so when do we want to skip ahead back to the apartment?)
Reality Glitch: ((We don't, I'm pretty sure, we're about to start walking there on our own.))
Ryusui|GM: (i mean if you wanna keep going here that's cool too XD)
Reality Glitch: ((Besides, there's nothing wrong with a character focused episode without any heisting; don't want to get too formulaic.))
Ryusui|GM: (fair enough!)
Casper: (Melissa’s right there, I think. Why not start with her?)
Reality Glitch: ((<@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>?))
Casper: (Also, this can be an excellent time for prompt questions.)
Susan: "Alright, we don't have to right now," Susan says, "Wanna walk with me to find Baillie and Michael?"
Reality Glitch: "Yes." I crawl over to my phone to pick it back up .... and immediately freeze. There were to blocks of code from an unidentified sender plastered on the notifications, which means someone try to send more than just a text. My mind is racing with who could have sent them.
Reality Glitch: ((Now might be a good time to have the others try looking in the alley themselves.))
Ryusui|GM: (no, all they sent you was text)
Ryusui|GM: ???> hi again :3
???> u ok? :(
Ryusui|GM: Those are the only two messages.
Reality Glitch: "Uh-Oh...."
Susan: Susan anime-sweatdrops. This wasn't a great time for 'uh-oh'. "What's wrong?" Susan asks, trying to sound calm if still concerned.
Reality Glitch: I perch on my hunches. "Black hat."
Ryusui|GM: Your phone pings, Susan.
Susan: "And things were just looking up," Susan says. She pulls out her phone.
Ryusui|GM: It's just two messages.
Ryusui|GM: ???> thx for helping him 8D <3 :3 ???> sry to butt in
Reality Glitch: "She knows."
Susan: "I... think you have a secret admirer," Susan says, "There's a little ASCII heart and everything."
Susan: "It's kind of cute, in a creepy, worrying way."
Reality Glitch: I shoot her a quick glare and sign "<No talking.>" out of sight of her phone's cameras.
Susan: ((Does Susan know American Sign Language?))
Ryusui|GM: (do you? :3)
Reality Glitch: ((That's for you to decide.))
Susan: ((Huh. Maybe she has a half-remembered class on it in college?))
Reality Glitch: ((But something that simple should be obvious, even to a non speakersigner.))
Ryusui|GM: (that depends. have you ever seen Galaxy Quest? XD)
Ryusui|GM: ("I gave you the signal to kill [the transmission]!" "No, you gave me the signal for 'dead!'")
Reality Glitch: ((Nope.))
Reality Glitch: ((Heard of it, though.))
Susan: Susan puts her phone back in her pocket. <Need to tell Casper. Sorry.> She signs.
Ryusui|GM: (i think we can skip ahead a little now, right?)
Reality Glitch: ((I was honestly excepting <@!Michael> and <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla> to join the seen first, but I'll wrap this up.))
Reality Glitch: I strap my phone back to my wrist as I stand up before looking at Sandshrew. <You first.>
Susan: Susan shakes her head "Yes".
Reality Glitch: "mm...." <Please; let me stay back.>
Susan: <C a movie> Susan says.
Reality Glitch: <Not now. Where are the others?>
Susan: <Don't know>
Reality Glitch: <Let's find them.>
Susan: ((Is this a good spot for a time skip?))
Ryusui|GM: (Sure. To the apartment, for the next part of the job?)
Ryusui|GM: (or did you have something different in mind?)
Susan: ((Probably to after Casper getting debriefed))
Reality Glitch: ((Well, will <@!Michael> and <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla> be there?))
Ryusui|GM: (let's assume that the whole <@&466676711379959808> is back together for the next scene)
Susan: ((Yeah))
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: ((yeah))
Casper: (It’s getting late, though...)
Michael: (Yeah Michael would be there)
Ryusui|GM: (well, we can at least fire off the briefing for the next part! <3)
Ryusui|GM: Okay, so. After Susan returns with Eli and reports to Casper about the messages from Eli's "secret admirer" (prompting a mandatory security upgrade for the whole gang's phones), the <@&466676711379959808> assembles at the apartment to review the spoils of Melissa and Michael's investigation.
Reality Glitch: The entire time, I have myself positioned on the other side of Sandshrew from Fearow.
Ryusui|GM: The data stolen from Dino's laptop revealed several suspicious-looking email communications, though Eli couldn't tell anything by the sender alone - anonymized for security's sake. The guest list, on the other hand, helped Eli put together the pieces...
Ryusui|GM: One name stood out - a known criminal alias for a rather prominent underworld figure. Some stills of the camera feed from Melissa and Michael's communicators confirmed it.
Ryusui|GM: <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>, <@!Michael>, you two were within ten feet of a man on Interpol's most wanted.
Ryusui|GM: He's known as "Scowling" Xiao, a high-ranking member in the Five Golden Daggers, one of Hong Kong's most dangerous Triads. You both recognize him; there's no way you could forget that face. The story goes that a rival once shoved his face into a piranha tank, which left him with scars that gave him a permanent frown. Out of a twisted sense of poetic irony, it's said he killed the guy - and anyone else who crosses him - by dumping him into that same piranha tank.
Ryusui|GM: (think the Grumpy Cat meme, but in a black suit and a look in his eyes that says "I will cut you just for looking at me funny")
Ryusui|GM: With that info, the emails tell the rest of the story. Dino - with diplomatic language that has to be Alicia's doing - has been negotiating a deal with Xiao. The Triads have been trying to operate in Santa Francisca for years now and Dino is offering them a way in, in exchange for a sizable cut of whatever business they do. Judging from the numbers Xiao's promising, Alicia's negotiation skills must be very good indeed.
Ryusui|GM: Brambilla resources and protection will be available to Xiao and the Five Golden Daggers for whatever kinds of crime they want to get up to. And while the Brambillas are, y'know, the mafia, the Five Golden Daggers are known for dabbling in things like human (anthro?) trafficking and other really nasty shit the Brambillas traditionally have never touched.
Susan: "Well, this is going to make our job harder," Susan says, "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be charged with interfering with an Interpol investigation."
Ryusui|GM: (i do have it right that the Brambillas, while definitely not people you want to cross, have at least some standards in their villainy, right, <@!Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla>?)
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: (YEAH, definitely have standards sheet fumbling sounds)
Casper: “I’m under the assumption that it won’t be as simple as just sending all this to the right people?”
Reality Glitch: "Mm...."
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: Melissa is shocked "H-he is willing to let outsiders in..."
Ryusui|GM: Well. Strictly speaking the official investigators have been stumbling across evidence like this for years now, though they've always either been two steps behind, or they've run into a web of bureaucracy and legal wrangling and just plain coercion that keeps them from nailing them. Dino could be a weak link; if Interpol has reason to nail him he might be what they need to take down Xiao, but he's still Mr. Golden Boy, and the bosses are still willing to spin his actions as just "forward thinking" for the time being. It'll take an embarrassment they can't sweep under the rug to make them drop him like a hot brick.
Michael: (I hope you don't mind, but I really want to call it a night.)
Ryusui|GM: (it's fine. folks are free to respond to this bombshell :3)
Casper: “Well then. Melissa, how’s this for satisfaction, since it’s so important to you: Your uncle said it himself that Dino views himself as this comic book criminal mastermind...”
Casper: He turns around, and actually has a smile... or at least an attempt at one.
Casper: “Let’s promote him to super-villain.”
Casper: (Essentially, I plan on pinning him to something so perceptively evil, not even the triads could stomach it.)
Casper: (Can that be my final line?)
Melissa "Baillie" Brambilla: (Oh hell yes)
Susan: ((Good for me))
Susan: ((Can I assume Susan dodged Casper's wrath for turning off her earpiece?))
Ryusui|GM: (by all means. last lines, anyone else?)
Reality Glitch: "Big Damn Heroes, sir."
Ryusui|GM: (then this feels like a good place to...)
Ryusui|GM: !end
