Prelude: Rocking the Cradle [COMPLETE]

[Mister-Kent]

Fallen Angel Casino. Moving like quicksilver from system to system, the massive ex-warcruiser, cause of many a planetary-scale atrocity, has been re-fitted as the most notorious pleasure-liner in all of Tartarus Lambda. Here the rabble can forget their hellish existence, and throw their credits away for a few days' worth of oblivion.

Propulsive music lulls the patrons into a comfortable state, leading them from attraction to attraction, game to game, dream to dream.

You are the crew of the Cat's Cradle, and you've seen this sort of thing before. There is corruption, secret dealings, and--

--Ooh! Your table's ready. The comely attendant leads you all into the Lounge. "Welcome to the Fallen Angel," she coos, her dead eyes flashing something coyly flirtatious and sinister.

You've been told there's someone here with information you could use. What are you looking for?

[kmbll]

Guy leaned against the bar, giving himself a good view of the exits, nursing his "drink" that was certainly some form of crude oil. He gave an easy smile to any and all passers-by, making chitchat with anyone who lingered. He hoped his old friend, Big Booty Ho, would show sooner rather than later. Booty was a great many things but punctual wasn't one of them. But Guy had never met a man better able to sniff out takes and after their last haul, Booty had made the shift to civilian life and purchasing a low-end strip club, which had seemingly only enhanced his sources of information- even if it meant he wasn't the one pursuing it, preferring to pass on tidbits of information to his former crewmates for a piece of the earnings.

Rolled an 8 on Culture/Spacer but not really sure how I'm supposed to present that.

[Marullus]

Malachi stands by the wall -- tall, tanned, a dark sportcoat over a black crew-neck shirt. He leans there, his fingers caressing the bulkhead like an old lover. He knew this ship, but it, too, has struggled to adapt to a civilian life. He watches the room, the roughnecks passing too close to Savage. The guy making the mistake of trying to put moves on Raquel... he'll wake up with a headache. Somewhere is the contact... a lead to Pretech ruins, a cover needed to keep the military off their tail.

[Pulpatoon]

Killdozer nervously follows the attendant to their table, muttering to himself with both mouths, "Too many people in here. Can't keep my eye on 'em all." "Mebbe a table in a corner, keep our backs to a wall." "Could be a bomb behind a wall. It'd be better to have our back to a bulkhead." "It'd be better to be back in our kitchen." His eye alights on the menu. "Huh. They're serving Blanquette de Veau with real clone-veal. That'd pair real good with a burgundy."

[Mister-Kent]

Guy The Savage
The vapid-eyed beauty saunters to Guy's side, softly clinking a pair of casino markers in hand. They are poker chips that resemble little silver coins. You look up above her head--her headband projects a thin holographic halo of text. Casino updates--game adverts, new menu items, and entertainment schedules.

"Mr. Ho regrets that he will be a bit late," she says quietly, handing you the chips. "He's instructed me to give you these--some pieces of silver, on the house." As the woman leaves, her sinuous cybernetic tail waves good-bye to you, the little diamond-tip at the end catching the club's flickering prismic lighting.

***

Malachi Lykos
You paid that hacker good creds for the whereabouts of Doctor Shefelbine, so you'd better be in the right place. Any intel from those "Ad Hoc" people is nebulous at best, of course, but you had a good feeling the hacker wasn't screwing you over. It's just your luck that one of the foremost scholars of pretech re-appropriation is a total gambling addict.

***

Killdzer Catscradle
Your eye is also drawn to a Chef's Choice dish at the bottom of the menu, dubbed "Quelle Suprise!". Strange cuisine, quite different from the hyper-nutrified slop they fed you in the gladiator pens.

[Enoch]

Nikodemos, Psychic

"'And he said, 'What are you willing to give me, if I should deliver Him unto you?' So they set out thirty silver coins for him,'" Nikodemos tells Guy, sidling up next to him. "Who are you betraying, for so little?"

He walks off in the direction of Malachi, casting a final, significant look at the credit chips in Guy's hand.

[kmbll]

Guy "the Savage," Expert

Guy smirks and lets his eyes follow that fine piece of tail as she departs. He glances at the poker chips quickly before mindlessly starting to pass them back and forth between fingers as a nervous habit. No one in this 'verse gives something for nothing - especially not on a ship like this. The Gun senses his shift and begins feeding producing a faint numbing sensation. It thinks combat is coming, it might not be wrong. Booty and I were solid...

Nikodemos breaks Guy's internal reverie. "'And he said, 'What are you willing to give me, if I should deliver Him unto you?' So they set out thirty silver coins for him," Nikodemos tells Guy, sidling up next to him. "Who are you betraying, for so little?"

Guy whispers in French, Who is left to betray? His eyes follow Nikodemos as the priest walks off toward Malachi. "God save me from religion," he mutters to nobody in particular. Guy looks toward Killdozer and notices him entranced by the menu. A small smile crosses his face.

He powers through his tragedy of a drink before following in the wake of the vapid-eyed beauty.

[Glintwine]

Raquel lags behind the rest of her crew as she stares down the middle-aged gambler who has been trying to put the moves on her for the last five minutes, offering her cheap drinks and pawing at her coat as if trying to reveal what lies beneath.

"Back off, schatzi." She says, slapping his mitt away with patience that she had to force. "Unless you vant to lose zat hand." It wouldn't do to cause a scene just before the meeting Savage had set up, so Raquel hoped the threat would be enough of a dissuasion. Slightly annoyed, she shoves away from the bar and finally saunters over to the table that the crew has been assigned.

Sliding into a seat beside Killdozer, the woman follows her captain's gaze to the swaying cybernetic tail. "Should have known zat you preferred vomen vith as much silicone in zem as you." She smirks at Savage as he stands to follow the casino attendant, her tone mocking in that way that only an old comrade's can be.

Turning to her crewman with the twin mouths and sensing his discomfort, Raquel reaches out to rub one of man's scarred forearms in a placating manner, knowing what he could do if something set him off. Casting her gaze around the rest of the casino, the woman tries to catch the eye of a server and signal for drinks. "How about somesing to calm the nerves, Herr Catscradle?" She asks. "Or somesing to eat vhile vee vait for zee captain's... friend to show up?"

[Marullus]

Malachi Lykos

As Nikademos approaches, Malachi speaks to him, offering a nod back to the table. "Charon's obol? The question is... is the captain the Ferryman or the dead man?" He pauses a moment, eyes still quietly scanning the room. "Over there at that craps table," he indicates the location to Nikademos. "The skinny bald guy matches the profile. You make the contact, chat him up. I'll listen, join the game to toss the dice, if you need a roll to resolve the deal... good?"

[Pulpatoon]

Killdozer, Warrior

Killdozer relaxes at Raquel's soothing words, although his attention remains focused steadfastly on the menu. "The special's a surprise. That could be dangerous. Knew a guy, had a spring-loaded ribcage. Inside was alotta teeth and fangs and stuff. Big surprise.

"I don't recommend the special."

[explosiveghast]

Madoshi, Post-Human Scavenger (Technician/Mentor)

Meanwhile, back on the Cat's Cradle...

"EeeEEYAAAH!" Madoshi's kiai thunders off the ship's bulkhead as waves of cleansing energy erupt from his outward palm. Upon one leg, he opens one eye and turns his head only a fraction to regard the next space he intends to clean with his scrub fields. He acquires his target, closes his eye and begins the next Gentle Way kata. His legs plant and sweep in half circles as he dances through imagined assailants, attacking from every direction. His arms wind crescent rivers through his steps until he ends in another sanitary blast. "AAaaaEEEEE!" All the remaining dirt and slime in this area of the ship is eradicated from the sonic tension field shot out from the zen-like man's gesture.

He inhales.

Clean. He relaxes and starts to bow. But to whom could he bow? He decides that the ship is worthy of the gesture. The Cat's Cradle and her endearing crew have proven to be his salvation. He bows then kneels, keeping his upper body erect and he opens his eyes, staring ahead at nothing in particular. He meditates for several minutes squashing any coherent thought into a void of nothingness. Finally, his attention slips and he wonders what height of hijinks the gang are attaining right now. He inhales, ritualistically gathering his breath another time. A small cleaning bot buzzes toward the thin slurry of concentrated filth on the deck to vacuum it away, the byproduct of his efforts. It warbles slightly and Madoshi frowns. He had eked out each of the available parts to maintenance drones with a minimalist precision but he still finds the state of their repair sadly wanting.

The scavenger rises. Perhaps there are some unwanted components around this docking area that could be attained for an exchange of his repair services. Maybe there are some tools that could be bartered.

[Mister-Kent]

Guy the Savage
The attendant, whose nametag reads "Lucie", turns back and catches you following her with your gaze, but she acts as if she hasn't noticed, humming a tune quietly to herself. She steps behind the bar, gripping a tumbler of fluorescent green drink and dropping in a few cherries.

It is ten minutes before Big Booty Ho arrives. He is a rotund Asian man with a pencil-thin mustache, disgustingly resplendent in a fur coat and tophat. "Guy," he says breathlessly. He stands, arms wide, taking a moment to take you in. "What the hell brings you to my corner of the sky, you old sonuvagun?"

He leads you towards his private booth. "Sorry for the delay. Preparations for the Floor Show. You understand." He gestures to the dancefloor. "Now…seriously. What brings you by, Guy…?"

Malachi and Nikodemos
You compare the skinny little man at the craps table to the image your Ad Hoc informant sent you. It is indeed Shefelbine, the pretech scholar. He's perhaps a bit shorter than you'd imagined. At the moment he's losing spectacularly.

"Ah, frellnit!" he spits, and as he stands he kicks over his chair. The elderly croupier steps back, and a bulky security guard steps forward. "Fah! I'm fine! Leave me alone!" Shefelbine protests, and the guard backs off. The doctor retreats towards the bar--coming in your direction.

Raquel and Killdozer
A woman in an iridescent peacoat strides by with a gaggle of similarly frocked ladies, their blue hair twisted into outrageous curls. It's subtle at first, but before long you clearly see she's gawking at the pair of you incredulously.

She approaches the table cautiously. "You…have I seen you before…?" she asks Killdozer with a soft smirk. Though apparently human, her voice is croaky and reptilian. "Are you the ship's entertainment?"

[Enoch]

Nikdemos, Psi Crusader

Nikodemos smiles as Shefelbine approaches. "It looks like the table was not kind to you, friend. Come, let us buy you a drink. We have much to discuss." He gestures to the empty stool between himself and Malachi.

As they wait for their drinks, Nikodemos turns to the smaller man. "Come, let us speak of other things, scholar to scholar. Perhaps we shall have more luck than you had at craps, hmm?"

[kmbll]

Guy "The Savage," Expert

"Booty, booty, booty..." He'd always been audacious by nature so the clothes were no surprise but the weight-gain. Did that mean he'd lost his touch? "It's always so good to see an old friend." The tokens still pass between Guy's fingers and he sighs."Times have been rough and I won't insult you by pretending I came here for anything else - I'm looking for some quick and easy money. I have a crew with a vested interest in pre-tech and were hoping you'd heard some rumors in that area. Specifically armor..."

Before they part, Guy leans in a whispers, "Before we go - in all your years on the Darwin's Law, did you ever hear of a pirate with long black gloves that...morph into blades?"

I'd also like for their to learn what's happening with the pirate faction from Booty, if at all possible.

[Pulpatoon]

Killdozer, Warrior/Nervous Diner

"You…have I seen you before…?" she asks Killdozer with a soft smirk. Though apparently human, her voice is croaky and reptilian. "Are you the ship's entertainment?"

Killdozer tenses upon being approached and grips the table, ready to flip it up as a shield in case this lizard-voiced lady has poison-sacs in her throat and is about to spray him down—he's seen that happen. He nervously eyes the peacoat, estimating how much firepower it could be concealing. And that blue hair—treated with nerve toxins, used as a whip? Could be.

Red-faced, sweating, and jittery imagining all the ways the lady might be about to kill him him, Killdozer finally gathers enough social grace to answer her question. "N-no," he mumbles, "Dinner."

[Mister-Kent]

Guy the Savage
As you sit with Booty, a lone dancer takes to the illuminated floor. A beautiful woman with a very small costume like black leather bandages. She writhes to the music as Booty hollers.

Turning to answer you, Booty shrugs. "But of course! I'd be insulted if this was merely a social call. You want work--I can get you work. Provided you're still the same ruthless bastard you were when you took down The Eleven." He quirks an eyebrow.

"Pretech? Well, surely you intend on visiting nearby Amir?" he says. He takes out a thick cigar and lights it, waving it in his fingers for the smoke to fully blanket the booth. "Hm. Not much in the way or armor or weapons, though. The Amiri are mostly into terraforming."

He finally takes a drag on his cigar. "You know, I might know someone on Bittori who could help you out…ah yes." He kisses the air. "I know just the person…"

When you ask about the transforming limbs, he coughs up smoke. "B-blades? *koff koff* Y-you know…I believe I did. Just once. But that's enough said about that."

Nikodemos
Shefelbine is flushed and agitated. "Yeah...a drink would be nice. And if you got the six-thousand creds I owe the house, that'd hit the spot too."

Killdozer
The lizard-voiced woman purrs, squinting at Killdozer curiously. "Pity. You're quite the specimen." She looks over her shoulder, and her girlfriends nod in agreement. "Mr. Ho could use someone like you in the Floor Show. I sense something of a killer about you."

She smiles, and hands you a card. "Augmentine Layva, of LAYVA-COMBINE ENTERTAINMENTS, darling," she greets. She eyes Raquel up too. "You want a card too, doll? I manage all the up-and-comers on the circuit..."

[Enoch]

Nikodemos, Psi Crusader

Nikodemos offers Shefelbine a predatory grin, glancing at Malachi. 'Enter not into debt, or you shall be trapped by your own words, snared like a bird in a hunter's snare.' I can't offer you money, Shefelbine; but perhaps you will gamble on us as well, hmm? We need information, and if your information pans out perhaps we could reach an agreement."

Nikodemos leans against the bar, his fingers interlaced across his chest and leaning on one elbow.

[Glintwine]

Raquel von Seelenfreund - Psychic Renegade

Raquel glowers up at the strange, ostentatious woman, unappreciative of her words toward the poor mutant and her assumptions. Spacefarers - a people without an ounce of culture or subtlety. As a kind of mutant herself, Raquel had had learned a pitying respect for those who were had rolled poorer than she on the genetic dice.

"I vill have you know zat zis man is entertainer to no one. Zat life is behind him now...." She pats one of Killdozer's anxious hands comfortingly once again, trying to extend soothing thoughts to him with her limited power. The psychic's face remains stony for a moment, but quickly relents as she remembers the poor luck that the crew has been having and the lightness of her purse lately - it would be prudent to perhaps consider as many options as possible. "But... ja, I will take your card, danke" With that, she reaches over and snatches up the card that was given to Killdozer.

"Vat is zis 'circuit' of vich you shpeak? Is it 'broadcasting' or live shows or...?" Raquel speaks somewhat stiltedly now, still not entirely used to using such words in her lostworlder vocabulary. As she carries on the conversation however, she begins to reach out with her mind to taste of this Augmantine's thoughts, trying to get a sense of what she's really after, if anything beyond simple advertising.

Activating "Empathy" on this strange woman. She gets a mental effect save to resist me reading her aura. First psychic power of the campaign Hype. ^^

The concentration required for the power causes Raquel's face to harden slightly, her gaze becoming almost frighteningly intense and her hairs raising slightly - even her mane of curls seems to swell slightly with energy as if charged with static electricity.

[kmbll]

Guy "The Savage," Bounty Hunter


Guy tilts his head, "The Eleven were their own undoing - I merely pulled the trigger. C'est la vie. But as it were, if you have a job that needs doing - I'll get it done, no questions asked." There's a pregnant pause while the cogs in Guy's head audibly turn as he weighs whether to ask this next questions, "Have you heard any news out of Raboud? Have the new Twelve been chosen? Has a new flagship been chosen in Versaille to replace the Law?"

As the smoke fills the booth, Guy takes a pro-offered cigar and lights it. As he deeply inhales, he posits what wonders this must be doing to his pressure sheathing. "Amir? Tell me more. The sort of terraforming that might fetch a penny or two on the market? As you're well aware - not all pretech is so...marketable."

Guy gathers the information for the contact on Bittori and mentally inputs it into this integral commlink. "What's his line?"

As Booty awkwardly turns to watch the next dancer and obviously avoid the topic, Guy maintains eye contact and lets the topic of the Gloved Man sit in the air. Guy smiles big after a moment of reverie and joins Booty in his admiration of the dancer.

[Marullus]

Malachi Lykos

Malachi stands opposite Nikademos, framing Shefelbine as they talk. He leans back on the bar with his elbows, unbuttoning his black sportcoat and comforting their contact with a smile. "One of my friends... he had always wanted to work with a functioning cryostasis pod from the before-days. You know how tough that is. Couldn't get one, not for any credits, not near his world. We brought him one from this destroyed planet, too dangerous for anyone to consider... that's the kind of nice we are. He got to study it, then sell it, and shared the profits." He tumbles a poker chip over his knuckles, between his fingers, in and out of his hand as he talks, the action reflexive and without concentration. "A good crew willing to help with such needs. Sometimes it is a safe bet for everyone." He sighs wistfully. "It was a good time. LOTS of profits. I was just glad to help the guy out, you know?" His casual tone is metered to the thumping beat, calming, in a way, as he hopes to help with the agitated man. "I'm fascinated by such things, myself.... studied your essays on post-replicative cloning in university. An honor to meet you."