1. Shooting, Beating, Stabbing

[tibbius]

I think they're female.

Clark and Angus are in an alley behind the coffee shop. Louis and Shift are in another alley a block away. There's a growing noisy commotion on the main street.

What you do?

[BackworldTraveller]

Angus

This doesn't look like it's going to go well - Its rowdy all ready and this meet hasn't really started. I had hoped we might talk to people holding a vigil - but that doesn't look like it's going to be possible. So which way is "Away"?

[Lance]

Clark texts "Meet you half way. Maybe contact Stevie or her office directly?"

[thenewflesh]

Louis scrunches up his face from the smell and the distasteful circumstance.

"I know..." he says. "Not productive. Look, why don't I try to fuck up the weather, see if it cools tempers? Open-air magic isn't a strong suit of mine, but maybe it's worth a shot."

[tibbius]

You all hear sirens converging on the street in front of the coffee shop. Amplified voices crackling and echoing in the four-story canyon of the main street. Continued chanting. Ste-vie! Lu-iz!

Are Louis and Angus communicating with Shift and Clark?

[shaidar]

Shift

"Louis and Angus. I hear Sirens. Perhaps now is the time to leave rather than being subject to police brutality. I have attached the location of what I believe to be a safe meeting point to this message"

[thenewflesh]

"Yeah," Louis messages. "We're getting the fuck out of here."

He turns to Angus. "That business with the weather was an ill-advised idea anyway.

And he books it to the safe meeting place as fast as can be done with at least minimal decorum. Where is that place?

[tibbius]

24-7 House is a long-time establishment, a classic chrome-dome diner located near the Lizard Lounge, right beneath the railbridge for the Purple Line metro. All sorts of people gather there at all times of day. You get there about half an hour after following the alley away from the demonstration site and the odor of tear gas.

On the way you've been watching live streams. Gas canisters ... flash bangs ... batons ... frozen water bottles ... bricks ... a firebomb ... a chanted name and amplified shouted commands. Hundreds of protesters/rioters, dozens of cops. Phones getting ripped or smashed out of the hands of people running streams.

"They're kettling us!" a young-looking woman with dreadlocks said urgently as she choked and wept from fumes of gas. "Break the cordon!"

Sirens echoed, orange and green lights flashed, as yet more patrol cars raced past you northward to the scene.

What do you order in 24-7 House?

[Lance]

Clark lost his appetite. "So what now? Do we continue the serial killer investigation? Do we pivot to the Luiz riots? We should at least reveal that the perps were GovSec."

[thenewflesh]

Small club sandwich and a dribble of tea. Just enough to justify being in there. Louis has little appetite, either.

"What could we even do about the riots, you know? It's a bloody mess. But the people deserve the truth. I can release the high-rezzed footage, let that controversy stew, maybe the govsec employees will even get fired, who knows? But we're actually getting paid for the murderbots - sorry, Shift - and at there are lives at stake there."

[shaidar]

Shift waits in a nearby alley, connected to his friends electronically

"We should release the improved video, the truth should be available for all to see. As terrible the attack on Ms Luiz is, I think we should pursue the murders, there are potentially more lives at risk. As for XK7-8JR, it is unclear as to whether this entity is just a troll or connected to the murders. Louis, is it possible to find a physical location for XK7-8JR so we can learn more about them? If there are reservations to examining this person more closely due the limited evidence we have, then we could try to analyse their posting patterns more closely to see if there is a change in pattern just prior to a murder. If we see a pattern then this strengthens the case against them and may help us identify more clearly when the next attack might take place. I also have video records of the murder sites, these could be analysed offline to determine any common elements that might help us to identify the next murder location. Of course, I am making an assumption that these murders have some kind of logic behind them and are not just random acts."

[thenewflesh]

"Loud and clear." Louis goes. "Well, at least I can post the juiced footage when I get home, let the masses do with it what they may. And yeah, I'll see about tracking down X's IP, at least."

He finishes the sandwich, and the tea. "We done here? I have a sex party to get ready for."

[tibbius]

Another metro rumbles and thumps and screeches above you, brakes grinding as it slides into the station nearby.

The unliving waitress brings another pot of tea. "Anyone?" she asks flatly.

[thenewflesh]

Louis shakes his head absently. "No one. Just the check, please."

[Lance]

Clark nods "Okay, once we have any info on 8 Junior, we'll decide our next course of action." He'll try to figure out a way home that avoids the protest/riot.

[tibbius]

Everyone makes it to their next destination uneventfully.

Where and when do each of you pause?

[BackworldTraveller]

Well, I'm supposed to be in the training facility taking a class...Seems a good time to take the temperature of the feelings of the class!

[thenewflesh]

Turning and turning in the narrowing streets, Louis slouches towards Flat 467. It occurs to him that he once read a similar line in a poem once. Was it about the end of times? He'd spent most of his English classes high.

He gets home, jacks in, and slumps. His digital avatar scrubs his digital signature off his rezzed footage, hops onto a different VPN, and posts it to the net.

Then he gets to work triangulating IP-addresses associated with XK7.

I'm having trouble getting into my die-roller account and don't have the time to sort that out, so I just rolled a d8 (for Connections - I'm connecting dots on a map) on my desk, and got a 2.

[Lance]

Clark walks home, kicks off his shoes, takes his suit and tie off, puts on a pair of comfortable pants and sits down in a big old armchair. He takes a long, hard look at his GovCorp ID. He throws it away, then thinks better of it, and puts it back into his jacket pocket. He spends the rest of the evening watching the news footage of the protests, the cleaned up footage that was posted, and the reactions to the two events.

[tibbius]

Louis winnows the IP addresses to several things that look like public wi-fi spots in coffee shops and a shopping center, all arrayed in a rough pentagram around a residential tower in Ward 6 - about two miles away, on the waterfront south of the Wall. The White Line metro stops near there.

As Louis wraps up his triangulating, he gets an e-mail. The subject: XK7 8JR. It's from noreply@erewhon.net.