(Little letters flashing against the bottom) GCI HQ 10:15 1ST Lieutenant Dejiko Katsuragi's office. ( No Saiken? ;.; ) (We love you, Saiken!) ( We could be Saiken's Angels ^_^ ) (... *snerk*) You are all standing at attention in front of Dejiko's desk. Or trying, anyway. She was pretty angry about the way things went yesterday, but she seems alright now. (Don't give me ideas, Brett. ^_~) -sandiego.ca.us.sandwich.net:@#ChibiRPGLite- Yu-Mei invited Dicesuke into channel #ChibiRPGLite. *** Dicesuke has joined #ChibiRPGLite (Wai.) * Sayuri is as 'at attention' as you can get when you're slinging backpack. Dejiko sits drinking her coffee for a moment longer, looking the lot of you over. * Shiori stands still, staring at her feet. * Rina fidgets, glancing around the room. "So," Dejiko says after a while, still glaring at you all. "I'm curious. What should I do with the lot of you, after the way you performed yesterday?" * Rina rubs one of her arms. Um. I don't know? * Sayuri shrugs. "Yer the boss, Dejiko. I dunno how we could have stopped a seemingly external teleport." * Shiori glances at the others out of the corner of her eyes, then speaks up. "Ah... It was my fault..." * Rina blinks at Shiori. "No it wasn't. Nobody saw where the teleport thing came from... how could you stop it?" "I've never trained cadets before, you see, so I don't have any set punishments all ready to go. When I did poorly, my swordmaster would strike me with the flat of his blade, but you are spies, not soldiers, and so I do not think physical punishment in the literal since would be the best means of reproach." * Rina rubs the back of her head at being called a spy, but doesn't say anything. Dejiko glances at Sayuri. "You could have kept the subject moving. Teleporters cannot lock onto a moving target." "And no, Shiori, it is not your fault." "I suppose it is at least partly mine, as I willingly sent a nearly untrained group of people out to deal with a moderately serious threat." * Sayuri huhms to herself... "Interesting fact that I was not informed of... but I digress." * Yu-Mei looks at Sayuri. "If you'd waited for the others, Asa would have known to take such a precaution." (Bleah.) ( Asa also fired a rocket-launcher in confined quarters... :P ) (Shhh. ;P) ( That's true, but that's Asa's problem, not yours. ;P) ( And trust you me, Dejiko will chew him out spectacularly for it.) * Sayuri looks back at Dejiko. "That's no guarantee he wouldn't have ran had he saw them coming." Dejiko sniffs. "Ran where? You were in an enclosed area, and the only viable exit was clogged with hostages. If you'd gotten to him quickly enough he wouldn't have had time to escape via teleportation, either." Dejiko sets her coffe down and stands up. "At any rate, since I cannot remedy the fact that I sent you out yesterday, I should at least remedy the part about you not being properly trained." * Sayuri chuckles, but cuts off the coming comment. "Everybody to the simulator room. Now." * Rina nods. "Okay." She exits and heads toward the simulator room (hopefully not getting lost). * Shiori turns and heads towards the room. * Sayuri sighs, and starts walking. "Wonderful." Eventually you arrive at the simulator room. Dejiko directs you inside, and follows afterward. * Rina plays with the hem of her t-shirt, waiting for Dejiko to say something. * Sayuri looks around at whatever enviroment exists, and taps her foot. There is no environment as yet. Dejiko pulls out a keypad and punches a few buttons. The usual holo-display comes up, displaying three pictures. * Shiori looks just like she did in Dejiko's office :P One is of an ugly little blue cabin in a forest, and is marked "Grandma's House." One is of a beach decorated with explosions, pillboxes, and razorwire, and is labeled "Operation Overlord." The last shows a cheerful theme park on a sudden day, and is marked "Saturday in the Park." (Er, make that a sunny day.) * Rina eyes the choices, and gets really nervous when she sees the Saturday in the Park one. * Sayuri mms, and says nothing. Dejiko speaks up, saying "I'm giving you a choice between these three scenarios. If you don't pick within an acceptable amount of time, you will default to Saturday in the Park." I'll take anything but the park one. Anything. * Rina looks pleadingly at the other two girls. * Sayuri looks at Rina quizically, and shrugs. "Okay, no park." After a pause, she continues. "I would have rather given you some personnal training, but I fear that I might take my frustration out on one of you at some point, which would be rather bad." * Shiori looks up briefly. "It... doesn't matter to me." * Rina breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay, thanks. And it's fine with me, Katsuragi-san." * Sayuri mms. "And I don't think Operation Overlord's anyone's style here..." Grandma's House, then? * Rina peers at the top choice. "It reminds me of a fairy tale." (If you want, I can fill you in OOC and/or IC about the different scenarios.) * Sayuri mms, and nods. "I don't think Operation Overlord's anyone's style here..." She pauses and glances at Shiori very briefly. "I could be wrong." (You have... three minutes.) (Shiori, wake up!) ( What? We decided, didn't we? :P ) (I thought so, mostly. ^^;) ( I already said it didn't matter. ) (Oh, good answer. :P) * Rina glances at Shiori, then shrugs. "Grandma's House, I guess." (There. ^_^) (Grandma's House would be the lightest in terms of combat, mind you. It would also *definitely* take more than one session, maybe three or four.) * Shiori shakes her head. "Anything is fine." ( Personally, I wanna do the park one :P ) (I note that the two other choices are pretty damn out, Yu. ^^;) ( But that'd be OOC. ) (Heh. Rina's reaction is IC, too. :P) (Okay. Granma's House it is, then? ^_^) (Well, yeah. :P) (As we have indeed said. ^^;) ( Looks that way. :P ) (Sure you have. :P) (*twitches at the I word*) Dejiko clears her throat. "Well? Have you all agreed?" * Rina nods. "I think so. Grandma's House?" She looks up at the other two. * Shiori nods silently. * Sayuri looks about. "It seems so." Dejiko nods. "Very well." She punches a few more buttons on her palmpad, and you're in the middle of a forest. Directly ahead of you is a terribly ugly little blue cottage, which contrasts unbearably with the colors of the forest around you. * Rina wrinkles her nose. "Who painted that thing?" * Shiori glances about. On the porch of the ugly little blue cottage is an old, smiling woman who seems to be in the middle of waving her hand, although she idn't moving at the moment. She looks to be at least seventy. Next to her is a dog who seems to be in the middle of wagging his tail. * Sayuri shifts her bookbag. "Any objective, Dejiko?" Dejiko gestures. "The woman's name is Beatrice, although most people call her 'Mother'. She is something of a doctor in the small, imaginary hamlet of Podunk, Maine. She has a small button locked in a box that you cannot open. The button will declare you the winners of the scenario." * Rina blinks. "A box we can't open?" ( That's not fair! ;.; ) (Heh.) "She will tell wou what you have to do to have her open the box. It will likely take quite a while." "The dog's name is Buddy." * Sayuri looks at Dejiko quizically... and shrugs. "Whatsever." * Rina scratches her cheek. "Mmm, okay." She punches a few more buttons. A small cylinder appears in front of each of you. "Each of these, when used, will give you one clue, twice. I don't suggest you use them right away." * Shiori takes it, putting it inside her trenchcoat. * Rina nods slowly and takes the cylinder, peering at it. "So mine'll give me the same clue twice, or different clues, depending on when I press it?" * Sayuri looks at hers in a curious manner, and puts it away in the backpack. "Two miles fown Farmer's Road 13 is the mid-sized down of Charlsburg, also ficticious. One item of note, Sayuri, is that since Podunk has only one phone line, you'll have to go to the larger town to use the internet, although they do have a few small cafes with high- speed access." * Sayuri nods absently. * Rina stows the cylinder in her pocket. Dejiko nods at Rina. "Different clues, unless you use the same one twice in a row." * Sayuri mutters, "So wireless doesn't work out here. No surprise." Ah, okay. "Actually, we just haven't found a way to make wireless access work in the holosim without disrupting it." Be... the Last Ninja! ( Oops. Mischan ) ( >.< ) (Mistell, Shiori? :P) ( Sorry ;.; ) * Sayuri chuckles. "Oh, also of note is the fact that there is a light to moderate Mafia presence in Carlsburg. They are, I should add, out to 'get' you, although it is likely that you will be able to operate without their notice for a while. She hums and thinks. "Let us see, what else. Ah, yes." A man named Roger Fyres died roughly a week ago. He was a shipwrigt-- Carlsburg has a small port, you see -- and he was also an entreprenuer and small buisness mogul. He owned numerous local buisnesses, in fact." (One sec.) Dejiko nods. "Alright. I believe that is it. If anything else comes up, one of your clueboxes will hum and divulge the necessary information for free." * Rina nods. "Okie." * Shiori nods. * Sayuri waves her hand absently. "One more thing. Despite the fact that this scenario takes place in America, everything will be in Japanese for your convenience." Whew. That's good to hear. ( But I speak English ;.; ) * Sayuri chuckles. ( And Spanish, depending on what part of America. ) ( ^_- ) (*snerk*) Dejiko says "Good luck to you all," and smiles as she does so. A door appears behind her and she walks out through it. (*laughs*) * Rina blinks. "She smiled. That can't be good." * Sayuri sighs, and looks at 'Mother'. "Maybe so. She'll probably enjoy our frustration." Eh, if we really made her as angry as I think we did... Sorry... The world around you begins to move. Mother waves at you all, saying "Why, hello there! Are you the youngn's sent to help me?" * Rina waves her hand. "Whelp, we'd better get started. Wanna go ask he-" She whirls on Shiori. "Stop saying sorry!" * Sayuri mutters, "Sorry already?" Eh? S-Sor... Ah... I mean... * Rina blinks and turns to the Mother. "Aheh. Hi. Um... well, I think so." Buddy barks twice and runs up to you all, sniffing at you all. He appears to approve of Sayuri and Shiori, but Rina has him puzzled. * Rina edges away from the dog just a leetle bit. (Oh! Ohohohohoh!) (You jerk. :P) (I forgot to give you your CP. ^_^) * Shiori glances at Rina. (You want 'em now, or later?) * Sayuri looks at the dog, and turns back to the Mother person. "Sure we are." ( We get CP already O.o ) Mother claps excitedly. "Oh, that's marvelous, marvelous! Please, come in! I've made lemonade and cookies!" ( Wai! Lemonade and cookies! ) (Yes. While in training you will accumulate CP at a greatly accelerated rate, to reflect that you're, well, training.) And then Arwen's connection died. Okie. [Session Start.] (*prays that the internet connection holds this time*) You are standing inside the holosimulatorthingietypedealroom. Currently, it is made up to look like a forest. Directly ahead on a dirt road as a small, horribly ugly blue cabin. On the portch of the cabin is an old, smiling woman who seems frozen in mid-wave. Next to her is a shaggy dog frozen in mid-wag. (Let us know when it's action time. :P Is Dejiko here?) Dejiko speaks up, saying "The woman's name is Beatrice, although most people around here call her 'Mother'. Many people come to her for treatment of colds and such, so she has something of a reputation as a doctor. She is technically part of the imaginary hamlet called Podunk, which is in the state of Maine, in the United States." (Feel free to talk anytime, now. ^_^) (We've gotten all the information we had before?) * Sayuri looks about the rustic surroundings, and sighs softly. (Actually, if you have all that info it would save me from having to say it all over again. ^^;) (but if you don't, I'll merrily type it out once more.) * Rina tilts her head. "Is something wrong, Sayuri?" (Does everyone have it all? Or should I just keep typing? :P) * Sayuri looks up at Rina, and chuckles to herself, before saying somewhat sarcastically, "Of course not. I mean, why would the complete lack of civilization bother, or make worthless, a wired freak such as I?" * Rina blinks. (I can look up the log for myself. ^^;) We can stop into town, y'know. She'll probably make us go there anyway. ( I don't have a log, but I think I remember most of it :P ) (Yah. ^_^ I'll find the log.) (Wai! Okay, I'll continue from the last point, then.) (Well, almost.) Dejiko clears her throat, and asks, "Are there anymore questions, before I leave you to this? * Rina shakes her head. "Not from me." She looks at the other two. * Sayuri yawns. "Can't think'of none." ... You said before that if, ah, if Sayuri wanted to use the internet, we'd have to go to a larger town. How far away is the next one? (I"d make a sarcastic comment, but that was told to us two days ago, so I'll be light on you. ^_~) (You'd better. ;P) ( It was? Phooey. ) ('2 miles from Farmer's Road 13.') ( I thought that's where the main town was. ) "Two miles down Farmer's Road thirteen, which can be reached by following this dirt road thataway." She points off behind you. (That is the 'larger town'. ^^;) (The 'main town', Podunk, is right here. ^^;) Oh ( Ooc. ) ( Not that it matters :P ) (The 'main town' *is* the larger town; Charlsburg. There's only one phone line in Podunk.) * Rina stretches and swats a bug away. Dejiko looks around. "Well, if that's all, I'll leave you to it. Good luck." Dejiko smiles as she walks through a door that dissapears behind her. * Rina blinks. She smiled. That can't be good. The world starts up around you. Beatrice is waving, and Buddy is approaching the bunch of you, tail at Full Wag. I, ah... I guess we should start with asking, ah... Beatrice... "Hello!" calls the old lady. "Are you the three young'ns sent to help me out?" * Sayuri chuckles. "Could be. She could be in a good mood becausse she got laid last night. But you're probably right." * Shiori blinks. * Rina snickers. "Dejiko? Hmm." She reaches down to the dog. An unusually large acorn falls on Sayuri's head. * Sayuri chuckles. "Some would find her attra-," she says, interrupted by the falling acorn. * Rina grins at this and looks up at the lady. "Hi!" The dog inspects you all. He seems to find Sayuri and Shiori acceptable, but is puzzled by Rina. * Sayuri then mutters briefly to herself, before turning to the woman, "Yep, we're the young'uns." * Rina sighs at the dog and withdaws her hand. The old lady nods. "Good, good! Please, come in! I have fresh lemonade and cookies!" * Rina blinks. "Cookies?" ( Wai! Lemonade and cookies! ) (Wai!) Sayuri's Hint-O-Matic hums. Neat! I haven't had cookies in... * Rina counts on her fingers. * Sayuri says softly to herself, "I wonder if they're fattening... the hell?" * Sayuri pulls open her bookbag and retrieves the humming thing. "Oh, it's just this thing." * Rina shrugs. "Wanna go in? Some cook- what's going on?" It's probably... from Dejiko. She did say it would react if she forgot anything. * Sayuri looks at it. "Probably." Yup. Better press that button. I was getting to it, yanno. * Sayuri presses the button. "Alright, whaddya want?" The left side of the device unfurls and straightens, becoming a smallish LCD screen. On it appears the text; "Oh, and since you're going to be in here for a while, any food that Mother makes you or that is ordered from restaurants in town will be replaced with real food. - Dejiko" * Rina smiles widely as she reaches the most important part of that message: "Real cookies!" Further down the screen is "Oh, and keep in mind that I'm monitoring your progress at all times." * Sayuri chuckles. "So it would be fake food." Would be, but isn't now. That's good enough for me. Wanna go in? * Shiori nods. "After you..." You smell the cookies. They smell cookie-licious. * Rina follows the smell of the cookies. *_* * Sayuri nods. "Yeah, we'd better stop scaring the normals," and walks in the door (since the woman seems to have gone ahead?) (Sayuri> Yeah.) * Shiori grins slightly and follows at the end. If the ouside of the cottage was bad, the inside is worse. Every piece of furniture, and every door and drawer, is made out of wood carved in a way that suggests the artist was trying to see how much he could actually fit on there. It's all made with a great deal of skill, but with little sense or taste. * Shiori looks around in awe. * Rina completely ignores the surroundings. Cookies. *_* * Sayuri looks over at Rina, chuckling. "Sweet tooth, eh?" * Rina grins. "You could say that." Oh, and right in front of you is the (similarly carved) dinner table. On it is a large plate of cookies, and a pitcher of lemonade. Beatrice is just taking a seat at the far end of the table. "Please, help yourself," she says. * Rina sits at the table and smiles at Beatrice. "Thanks!" She grabs a cookie and starts munching on it. * Shiori takes a seat. Rina> The cookie is nummy. ( What kind of cookie? ) (Chocolate chip with pecans. ^_^_v) * Rina polishes off the cookie, sighs happily, and grabs another. (Like Rina cares. ;P) * Sayuri sits at the table as well, and pours herself some lemonade. "So. You need help with a box, is it?" Beatrice shakes her head. "No, dear. *You* need help with the box. *I* need help with something else." * Shiori takes a cookie and nibbles on it slowly. * Rina finishes off that cookie, too, and pours herself some lemonade, trying not to spill. "What do you need help with?" * Sayuri mms. The old lady sighs. "I'm being evicted." * Shiori blinks. * Rina stops mid-sip and blinks. Um. *puts the glass down* Why? Ah... For what reason? * Sayuri sits back and sips the lemonade some more, listening. The old lady presents her hand. "I don't know. The land was supposed to have been paid for in full by my late husband. But yesterday a messenger from the bank came by and told me that I had a month to move out." Needless to say, she looks saddened by the prospect. (Damnit, now I want cookies. ;_;) * Sayuri sits forward. "Did they tell you anything about it, or just kinda give you an ultimatum?" Ah... Did they present any documents? She sighs. "Just the ultimatum." * Rina reaches for another cookie. "That doesn't make sense... did you ask, or anything?" * Sayuri looks over at Shiori, "You thinking some sort of strongarm too, right?" Ah... Well, I wouldn't say for sure yet... But it's a possibility... She sighs. "I tried. If it's money they want, that isn't a problem. I should have plenty left over in a savings account Roger -- that was my husband's name, you see -- set up in town. "The lady who came to the door didn't seem interested, tho." * Sayuri chuckles. "Gottsa start somewhere." She turns back to Mother and blinks. "Would that be Roger Fyres?" * Rina nods as she eats the cookie thoughtfully. She looks up. "Uh? Oh, no dear. Roger Darvin. He made furniture and things. He made everything in here, in fact." Oh. (she seems proud at the notion.) * Rina takes a look around for the first time. "He must've been very... um... talented." * Sayuri smiles sheepishly. "My mistake. I jump to conclusions." * Sayuri mms. "So. Did you at least get the woman's name, Mother?" She shakes her head. "I couldn't talk, I was so stunned. She just handed me the notice, told me I had a month to get out, and left. Eustice down the road had the same thing happen, too." Hmm... Can we see the notice? "Of course, dearie. Let me get it for you." She stands slowly, and shuffles over to the living room, where she picks up a piece of paper off of a table in there. She returns with it, handing it to Shiori, and sits down again. * Shiori inspects it thouroughly. * Rina tries looking at it with a cookie in her mouth. * Sayuri mms. * Sayuri yawns. "On a different subject, Mother, what is this box thing all about?" Once all the legalese garbage is sifted out, the paper basically says "We're taking your land, so sorry, you have a month to get out." Beatrice waves her hand. "Oh, it's just something I keep around." Sayuri's Hint-O-Matic hums. Ah... ma'am, you own the land, correct? * Sayuri frowns at her bookbag and pulls out the hint-o-matic again, and hits the button. "Now what?" She nods. "Yes. I have the deed somewhere in the attic, I think." I see... * Rina hums as she finishes her cookie. "You said this same kinda thing happened to Eustice?" Sayuri> The screen unfurls. "The only thing that is special about the box", it says, "Is that it is your only way out of this simulation." Beatrice nods. "Yes, dear." Who is she? And where can we find her? * Sayuri rolls her eyes at the screen. ( Isn't Eustice a male name? ) * Sayuri then shoves the stupid thing back in her bookbag. (I think so. ^_^ Rina can screw up if she wants to, though. :P) The person was from the bank, correct? (Eustice can be either. :P) She shakes her head. "No, no. The bank doesn't hold the land. I can't remember who does, but it ought to say on the deed." But... If you own the land... Why didn't you just wave the deed at the lady's face and tell her to go away? * Rina grabs her fourth cookie. * Shiori nods. Ah... If you own the land, they can't evict you... legally. Beatrice smiles. "Well, I don't know *exactly* where the deed is. It's up in my attic, somewhere, but..." It's... it's kind of important... "Could you perhaps go and find it for me? I don't think I could make it up the ladder anymore." * Rina scratches the back of her head. "Sure, I guess we could take a look." * Shiori nods. * Shiori then stands up, and waits for the others. Beatrice beams. "Oh, thank you. The ladder is in there," she says, pointing to what must be the den. * Sayuri chuckles and stands. "Yeah." She winks at Rina. "You wanna stay here, Rina? Won't take all three of us to search." * Rina laughs as she finishes the cookie. "If you want, I guess I can keep her company. You sure, though?" I'm sure we'll be fine, right Shiori? * Shiori nods. "It's only an attic." (Thereby dooming us for certain) Okay. (I'd make a Lich joke, but this isn't D&D.) * Rina waves them off as she picks up her glass of lemonade. "Holler if ya need me." (Hee. ^_^) * Shiori grabs the ladder from the den. ( Wait a sec. ) ( Hm? ) So, where's the attic, Mother? ( Is this one of those types of ladders where you can bring them along, or does the den go into the attic itself? ) (Yeah. Reading it like the 'bring along' is why I said that. ^^;) (The ladder leads to a hatch in the cieling of the den, which in turn leads to the attic. It's tucked away in a corner. (Aah. I think I'll retcon that pose, then, if that's possible. ^^;) ( I'll retcon taking the ladder :P ) (Suuure. ^_^) * Sayuri walks into the den, then. * Shiori follows. Once inside the attic, you are struck with the notion that this must be the repository for every scrap of paper Beatrice has ever dealt with. * Sayuri coughs. "Good lord. I hope this place has some sort of organization." Cardboard crates, each of them marked 'papers', literally fill the room. ( Are there lights? ) Your astonished that the cieling can even support so much weight. * Shiori stares. "This... will probably take a while..." There is a light bulb with a pull-cord directly above you. * Shiori turns it on, then. There is also a window to your back, letting in sunlight (and you can probalby open it to let in a breeze, too.) (one second...) -sandiego.ca.us.sandwich.net:@#ChibiRPGLite- GM invited Dicesuke into channel #ChibiRPGLite. *** Dicesuke has joined #ChibiRPGLite Sayuri and Shiori; roll 8d6. 8d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (8d6) and gets 33. (Good lord. @_@) 8d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (8d6) and gets 32. (Haw.) ( Heh ) (Oh my. :P) Midway through the third day of searching, Sayuri finds the deed. ^_^ (...) (...) (Your Dice Roll = Number of Hours Spent Searching. ^_^) (Naturally, Rina can help if she wants...) (Um... yes. >.> Actually, wouldn't all of us searching speed up the process?) (Good lord. She'd probably help after the first, say, hour or two, I'd think. Just to make sure we didn't get lost. ;P) (Yeah. @_@) (Go ahead and roll, Rina. ^_^) 8d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (8d6) and gets 27. (Okay. ::rolls some numbers around in his head::) Late that night, Rina finds the deed. (Slightly better. Cheee-rist. @_@) * Rina yawns. "Yay, we found it. Can we go home now?" * Sayuri sneezes and yawns too. "Thank fraggong Christ." * Rina opens the deed and holds it to the light. ( I can't think of anything to say :P ) Rina> You can't understand the writing on the paper, due to the late hour and it's heavy use of the Lagalese dialect. Ah... Can I see that, Rina? * Rina wrinkles her nose. "I don't get it at all. Sure." She hands it to Shiori. * Sayuri stretches. "What's it read, Shiori?" * Shiori inspects it. Shiori> The paper says that while Beatrice doesn't own the land, it's rent ought to be payed for through the next twenty-seven years. The owner of the land is Westman, Niece and Nephew Land holding Company. It basically says... (repeat) * Rina scratches the back of her head. "So tomorrow, you wanna go talk to Eustice, then maybe go to these Westman people?" * Shiori nods. * Rina looks at Sayuri. "What do you think?" * Sayuri yawns. "Sure. Tomorrow work. Today sleep." * Rina nods and nearly falls over. Sounds good to me. Let's see if the lady has any extra beds or somethin'. The lady does, indeed, have some extra beds. Two air-beds and a cot. * Rina voluntarily takes the cot. After all, she did get the most cookies. ;9 Ah... That's alright... I'll take the cot... * Rina sits on the cot and stretches. "Tough, I already did." She grins. "Night." * Sayuri shrugs, and flops onto a air-bed. "If you're gonna fight it out... nights." and falls asleep almost immediately. * Shiori frowns, "But... Are you sure?" 1d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (1d6) and gets 6. * Rina kicks off her shoes. "Sure I'm sure. After all, I got the bottom bunk in our room." She lies down. "Now go to sleep already." Ah... Alright... If you're sure... * Shiori goes over to the bed and lies down. "G-Good night..." * Rina doesn't hear Shiori 'cause she's fallen asleep. Wai. (Okie, looks like everyone's snoozin'. ^^ Unless Shiori wants to go into a soliloquy.) ( Feh. You're the one who snores :P ) (One second.) (*thwaps Shiori* ^_^_v) ( ;.; ) ( AFK a sec >.< ) (Pause.) (This IS GM approved, to inform you beforehand. Now, on with the session.) (Eh? :P) (Aaah, got something plotted. Okie.) (BRB) ( Ok, back. ) (Welcome back. ^^) ( I scared the GM off ;.; ) (Arr. I be back as well.) ( Wai! ) * Sayuri wakes up from her sleep with an amazingly loud scream, for such a small girl. (This happens at about five AM. ^_^) * Shiori jolts awake. "Eh? Wha-?!" * Rina grumbles and opens one eye. "Wha?" * Rina sits up, yawning. "What's goin' on?" * Sayuri is sitting bolt upright, panting heavily, and it would look like she was sweating if there was enough light to see it. Ah... S-Sayuri? * Sayuri continues breathing heavily... and curses, "Fucking hell!", before she starts to root through her bookbag. * Rina looks around, nearly falling off her cot. "Sayuri? What ha-" Her eyes start to adjust to what little light there is. "Are you okay?" * Sayuri pulls out her computer and, right about the time she was gonna open it, curses AGAIN and dumps it back on the bookbag, and falls on her back. S-Sayuri? * Rina peers at Sayuri. "Did you have a bad dream or something?" * Sayuri then idly looks over at Rina and Shiori and sighs. "Sorry. I'm fine." (Lordy, I feel like I'm in a slumber party. :P) (::laughs::) * Sayuri says softly, "Yeah... a bad dream, Rina." ( This happens at your slumber parties? ) (When something goes wrong. ^_^ Just the atmosphere. Five in the morning, two girls asking the third if something's wrong.) * Sayuri blinks tears from her eyes, and turns away from peoples. "It's nothing. Get the rest of yer sleep." * Rina opens her mouth to say something, then changes her mind. * Shiori glances at Rina. Out the windows you can see that the sun hasn't risen yet. Okay, I will. But... um. If you wanna talk about... whatever it is, let me know. I think Shiori'd listen, too. * Shiori nods. "I'll do... anything I can..." * Rina rubs the back of her head. "I know I don't know either of you really well or anything, but... you're pretty much the only friends I've got now. So, I'll do what I can for you." She smiles sheepishly. * Shiori blinks. Ah... It's not... too different for me, either... * Sayuri waves her hand at the two, smiling to herself (so noone can see it, she hopes). "The offer's appreciated... but really, it's nothing. Get some sleep, I doubt tomorrow'll be any shorter." * Rina groans as she flops back onto the cot. "I don't know if I can get back to sleep. I'm oh so excited about searching through more dusty papers." * Sayuri says sleepily, "Hopefully we won't have to. Night." * Shiori lies back down, chuckling at that a bit. G-Good night... Night guys. * Rina yawns and hopefully falls asleep sometime soon. (See? Slumber party. All they need is popcorn.) (Or some vodka to cut the nightmare. ;P) ( Now I want popcorn ;.; ) (*cackle*) ( Zzzzzzz.... ) (Later on... say, eight o'clock, you all wake up again, this time to the smell of bacon cooking.) (z.z) * Rina smells the bacon. * Shiori wakes to the smell of bacon. No... must... stay in... cot... *falls off* Ow. ( Now I want bacon-flavored popcorn ;.; ) (*falls over giggling*) (That's a tall order, Shiori.) * Sayuri sits up and stretches. "More than 5 hours. I could almost get used to it." Beatrice is in the kitchen, cooking eggs and bacon and toast and such. ( Hey, I've put soy-sauce on popcorn before :P ) (Not the same.) ( It's good, but only for 5 minutes, so you have to eat it fast. ) * Rina sits up on the floor and rubs at her eyes. "Wow, that smells a lot better than hospital food. ( After that, it stops being so tasty and starts being... uh, not. ) * Rina grabs her shoes and starts putting them on. Hopefully the right shoe for the right foot. * Sayuri stretches and sits up (still fully dressed, sur-prise), "I thought everything was better than hostpital food." Rins puts her left show on her right foot, and slmost gets it on. * Shiori stands up. "Well, there's in-flight meals..." Got a point, there. I guess my expectation- aww, I did it again! * Rina puts the LEFT shoe on the LEFT foot. * Shiori grins at Rina's misfortune. * Rina sticks her tongue out at Shiori. * Sayuri looks over, and just shakes her head. "Foods." I bet you do it, too. * Rina finishes putting her shoes on and wanders over to the food place. Mmm, food. Eh? I guess on occasion... * Shiori follows after everyone else. Beatrice turns around and cheerfully says "Good morning! Breakfast is almost ready." * Rina smiles gratefully as she takes a seat. "Thanks! I'm starving." * Shiori hesitates a moment, then sits down. * Sayuri chuckles, and sits down. "It does smell good." Before too long, you all have plates of food in front of you. Bacon, scrambled eggs, and toast. In the middle of the table is a small tray with butter and a few varieties of jelly, as well as salt and pepper. ( ... This popcorn idea is turning into some pretty sick stuff. ) (Give it up before you hurt yourself, Brett.) * Rina spreads a generous amount of jam and butter on a piece of toast and takes a bite. (Scrambled eggs and jam popcorn! ;P) (...) * Sayuri eats food. * Shiori eats as well. Yum. * Rina decides that the food is good and eats more. Because food is good. Before long, you're all done. Unless you decide to ask for seconds. * Rina leans back and sighs. "That was really good." * Shiori wipes her face with a napkin and stands up. * Sayuri nods. "Good stuff, yah." * Shiori nods in agreement. Welp, we'd better figure out what to do about your house, Ma'am. Can you point us to where Eustice is, so we can ask some questions there? Beatrice points off to her right. "Eustice lives a few minutes down the road, there." "I don't think Eustice knows any more about this thing than I do, tho." Well... When was she, ah... given the notice? "The same day I was. Same messenger, too." I see... * Sayuri huhms. "Well, maybe we should start the other legwork, then." You're probably right, then... * Rina frowns, which looks rather out of place. "So she probably didn't get anything else... yeah." And then Arwen's connection died. Last time, you'd just spent most of a miserable, miserable night shuffling through musty old papers to find an old woman's deed. you sort of succeeded, finding a paper that didn't say she owned the property outright, but rather that she was renting it and that the propertie's payments were payed for through the next bunch of years. (And Sayuri woke up screaming at five in the morning. ;P) (But that's unimportant. <.< >.>) Then you slept, and then you got up and had a big yummy breakfast. (Suuuuure. There was fun characterization there! Okie. ^^) (And right as we were gonna go do things, Rina dissapeared into thin ai--wait, no.) (HOPEFULLY it won't happen again. Now, get going, youseguys. ^_^ * Rina wipes her mouth with a napkin. "I guess Eustice is out, huh." * Shiori nods. "Ah.... Our best bet, I think, is to visit the holding company..." * Sayuri runs a hand through her hair and nods. "Yeah. Do we know where it is?" * Rina shrugs. ( Do we? I forget... ) Probably in that big town closeby? But we don't know where there... Ma'am? Do you know where some company called Westman is? (I don't think so. Wasn't on the deed, unless GMy left that detail out.) (Yeah.) (Hint: It's prolly in Carlsburg. :P And no, you don't have an adress, but... Hint: You can prolly look it up somewhere at City Hall, or maybe the Courthouse.) (Well, yeah.) (Yes, but Rina just asked the Mother. :P) Beatrice turns around from washing dishes. "No, dear, I don't. My husband was the one who always did the things that required going to town." * Rina sighs. "Was worth a shot. Thanks anyway." She stands up. We can probably find it if we look around in town... Yeah. They've gotta have a directory or something... and there'll be a hookup for Sayuri, too. * Rina stretches. "Wanna get going?" * Sayuri pushes herself up from the table. "Yeah. It'd probably have a web presence as well." * Rina grins at Sayuri. "Is that all you think about?" * Shiori stands (though I think I already did last session ^_^) (Bah. ^_^) (I'll go ahead and cut to town, I guess.) (Objections?) (Not from me. :P) (1 sec. ^^:) ( Nope. Cut away. ) * Sayuri rolls her eyes. "Not quite. Considering we have what looks like a strongarm setup, " she says, switching to a softer tone, "and a known mafia presence", before she shifts back up, "We might want to research before. Anyway." * Rina shrugs. "I was just joking. But yeah, you're right." (Okay, now I have no objections. Must respond to jabs. ^_~) (Cut whenever. ;P) Ah, Carlsburg. It's not much to look at. ( There's nothing here! ) (Shush, you.) ( It must have been destroyed... ) (It is empty. It is the void.) Calrsburg is the third largest city in Maine, which means it's pretty small. Currently, you are in what passes for "down-town". Directly ahead of where you stand on the sidewalk is Town Square, which is a cheerful park with a statue of the city founder that serves as a public restroom for small birds. (Let us know when you're done, Yu. ^^) To the left of the Square (from your perspective) is City Hall, and to the right is the County Courthouse. All around the rest of the square are small buisnesses, none of the buildings which house them being more than two stories in height. (I'm done. ^_^) * Sayuri looks around... "Maybe it won't take that long to find it physically after all. If it's in this town, anyway." (Er, a bit more. One sec.) The 'city' or Carlsburg is all lightly developed, with maybe three buildings that are more than three stories high, but it is very spread out. There. Sorry. ^^; We could look in City Hall. Ah... They'd likely have some information. * Rina grins. "Yeah. Wanna head there first?" * Sayuri shrugs. "Sure, why not?" * Sayuri looks around to see if there's anyplace that looks like it would be gracious enough to loan her some connection. Sayuri> There's a "Net Cafe" across the Square. It's very trendy by yesteryear's standards. * Rina tilts her head. "Whatcha lookin' for? The city hall's that way." She points towards the Town Square. (Ping?) * Sayuri chuckles to herself. "Ancient history indeed." She looks up at Rina. "I was looking for one of the rumored Net Cafes Dejiko told us about," she says, thumbing towards it. "I might be able to do some net legwork." Oh, okay. You want to go there while Shiori and I go to the City Hall, then? * Shiori (was about to suggest something like that but got beaten to it ^^) (Darn you, type faster. ;P) ( Just so ya know I'm not dead or anything :P ) I s'pose. Maybe I can find something on the whole Mafia angle, or that guy that died. Dejiko seemed to think it important. * Rina nods. "Okie." She looks over at Shiori. (Good. ^_~) She could just be giving us too much information... Ah! Not that I think you're wrong... * Sayuri frowns slightly at Shiori, and waves her hand. "Anyway. Meet back here in, say, an hour?" * Shiori nods. Yeah, sounds good. * Rina grins. "Let's get this over with." She glances at Shiori, then starts walking to the Town Square (trusting the other girl to keep up). * Shiori keeps up yet lags behind at the same time :P (Okay. Split, Rina and Shiori go ahead, and I'll handle Sayuri via /msg.) (Wow, she's got talent! ;P) (Do you wanna cut us straight to the City Hall, then, since that's where we're going?) Ah, City Hall. The hardwood walls, the bored-looking clerks, and you could swear that's a band of red tape running along the walls. * Shiori looks around timidly, waiting for Rina to make the first move. (Go, Rina! For everlasting love and peace!) And then Arwen's connection died. But she came back eventually. Rina and Shiori have entered City Hall. A bored looking clerk is sitting in a reception office type thing to your left. * Rina looks around, shrugs, and walks up to the clerk. "Hi!" she says cheerily. "Would you mind helping us out?" (Question: what was that place they're looking for again? I don't have logs to look at. ^^;) ( Westman Holding Co., I think. ) (Thankee. That sounds right.) (Westman, Neice and Nephew Land Holding Company. ^_^) ( I was wrong ;.; ) The clerk looks up at Rina, still looking bored. "Hmm?" (You were close. *patpat*) ( There goes my self-confidence level again. I think it was almost positive this time, too ;.; ) (_) We're looking for Westman, Niece and Nephew Land Holding Company, and we can't find it. ( Beat me to it again ;.; ) (*snerk*) (Sorry. ^^;) The clerk stares vacantly at you until something clicks in his head. "Oh. Title and records are down the hall and through the vault- looking door at the end of another hallway to the left." Down the hall, through the vault-looking door... * Rina looks almost dizzy as she tries to keep track of those directions. ( Vault-looking door? ) Ah... I think I can find it... Okay, Shiori, lead the way. Aheh. * Shiori leads the way (for the first time!), following the clerk's directions. * Rina smiles at the clerk. "Thanks. You're a lifesaver." She follows Shiori out. The room on the other side of the vault-like door is much cooler than the rest of the building, and filled with the smell of musty old leather-bound books. * Rina shivers and resists the urge to sneeze. "Okay, so the address should be here?" 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 6. (Heh. ^^) ( Are there any official-type people here? ) No official-looking people, although there are semi-casually dressed people with briefcases milling around and looking things up. Some of them seem to really know their way around the place. I, uh... I guess we can just start on our own... * Rina boggles at all the records. "Start where? They must have every record possible in this room." There are thousands of great big old leather-bound books, as well as many more newer platic-bound ones. One book shelf however, is labeled "Indexes". * Shiori points to that shelf. "We might start here..." ( ^_^ ) * Rina blinks. "What, the whole shelf?" She wrinkles her nose. It's... probably in alphabetical order... * Rina nods. You really know your way around this stuff. It's kinda intimidating, though. Eh? N-Not... really... Upon incpection, the book shelf is split into different categories, each detailing different kinds of transactions and court cases. The entire right side is devoted to books describing who owns what parcels of land and which buisnesses, etc. * Rina laughs. "You're better than me." * Rina grabs one of the books, opens it, gets lost in the legalese (if abbreviated for index's sake), closes it, and puts it back on the shelf. The books are all in alphabetical order within their section. * Shiori scans the "W" records, looking for information on the Westman Co. You find Westman. * Rina watches Shiori look through the book. She isn't gonna try reading one of those again, no siree. * Shiori pulls it out and opens it, absorbing the info. The company has no address, and very little in the section marked "articles of embodyment". It's owner is not named Westman, but a company called Bousard Exchange. * Shiori looks for that company as well. Brugan exchange also lacks an adress. It has no description. It is owned by Carlsburg Securities. ( No description at all? ) Nothing worth notice. * Shiori looks for the next company. Very strange... None of these seem to have addresses... Carlsburg Securities has almost nothing on it. No description, no owner listed, and a completely illegible scrawl where the paper asks for the owner's name. But, O Wonder of Wonders, it *does* have an address. ( Progress! Wai! ) The adress is listed as #31 in the Fyres building. * Rina looks around Shiori's shoulder. "Really? That's weird. All those entries just connect to each other somehow?" * Shiori nods. "This one has an address, though... But I wonder why the name's like that. * Rina peers. Carlsburg Securities... why would they own land? They don't... They own a company that owns a company that owns the land... But... why would a security company own those companies? * Rina shrugs. Beats me. Maybe we can get Sayuri to find something out? Possibly... I think we should be careful, though... It's not legal for them to submit a form without all the information. And then Arwen's connection died. But she came back soon enough. * Rina scratches the back of her neck. "It's illegal? This is getting *really* weird." (Anyway, there. I put that in before it told me I disconned.) ( Has it been an hour yet? ) (Hello? x.x Don't tell me I'm going boom again.) Shiori> You've been in there for a little over forty-five minutes. ( You're here, I think. ) ( Yup! Wai! ) (Wai. @_@) I guess... We should meet with Sayuri about now... Yeah, we found out everything we could here. I think. * Shiori nods. * Rina starts to the exit, then blinks. Aheh. Um... could you lead us out? * Rina smiles sheepishly. Eh? Ah... I'll try... * Shiori leads the way out, letting Rina take over when they get back to the lobby. (Change party leader?) ( Yup. ) * Rina leads the way back to the meeting place (dun dun dun!). ( This way, when we get attacked I'm already behind someone. ) (*snicker*) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 10. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 11. Meanwhile, back at the meeting place... Sayuri isn't there, but you're a little early. (I hate your guts, Dicesuke. You suck.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 10. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 7. * Rina looks for a place to sit while they wait. There are park benches all over town square. C'mon, we'd might as well not get sore feet. * Rina wanders over to the closest park bench and checks it for pigeon droppings. * Shiori follows. The park bench is dropping-free. These being civilised pigeons, they all use a designated area on the statue. (*snerk*) Before too long, Sayuri is slouching her way out of the Net Cafe across from you. You, like, all notice each other, n' stuff. Ah... There she is. * Sayuri slouches on over, and waves half-heartedly. "What glorious fun." And then Arwen's connection died. But she came back soonish. She wasn't happy, tho. (ARGH! ARGH! ARGH!) (I feel better.) ( Wai! Rina-chan! ) ( You left me alone with the scary computer person ;.; ) (The amusing thing is, now, that GM's gone.) (*snicker*) (Go figure.) ( Come forth, O GM! ) (Whee, my friend on this situation, since he's in the other tower: phoenixshiba: then the god damn stupid fucking peice of shit demonic rat faced larges pile of useless of electronics gave out and now she is not online) ( X.x ) (He's annoyed. ^^;) ( Looks that way O.o ) (If I get disconned after midnight, don't wait too long for me. I don't want to keep you guys up. ;P) ( I'm gonna be up anyhow :P ) ( And it is after midnight, for me ^_^ ) (Heh. ^_^;) ( Good news is I can listen to music again! ) (Woo hoo! ^_^) ( The program I normally use crashed the computer when I used a modem at the same time, so I tried winamp, which normally crashes my computer at school, and so far it SEEMS to work fine... ) (Mmm hmm.) (That is good. ^_^) (And I hope I'm not disconning again.) (Yer still here.) Alright! A cold front it moving through! It'll prolly be nice and brillig tomorrow. ^_^ And, wai! Ard's back! XD [RESUMING GAME] *** GM sets mode: +v Rina (Seriously, I doubt the server will be reset so I can connect past midnight CST. Sooooo... don't count on me coming back.) ;_; We'd better do as much as we can while you're here, then. (*nods* Okie. ^^;) (Er... where were we?) * Sayuri slouches on over, and waves half-heartedly. "What glorious fun." (reit) (You're all in Town Square.) And then Arwen's connection died. But it didn't stay dead long, thankfully. *** Rina has joined #ChibiRPGLite WAAAAIII!!! XD *** GM sets mode: +v Rina (*yawns* I'm annoyed and I'm tired, and I bet this connection time won't last more than ten minutes. ^^; In which case I'm GOING TO BED.) (^^;) (^^;) ( Ah, what the heck... ) ( ^^; ) (Shall we?) (Heh. ^^) Let's. ^_^ (Okay, but I'm disoriented, so someone else make the first action this time.) * Sayuri yawns. "Alright. Well, I've managed to find out all sorts of irrelevant stuff, so why don't you guys go first?" Ah... We found the address of the place... but... There's something fishy about it... * Rina nods. "The place we found the address to is a company that owns a company that owns Westman. Or something like that." Some security place. They didn't fill out the owner's name legibly, which should be illegal... yet it was in the records anyhow... * Rina nods. "It's weird." Also... These companies... the one owning Westman, and the one owning that one... Well, they don't seem to do anything BUT own each other. Strange. * Sayuri huhms. "Well, fishy business seems to abound today. Remember that Fyres' guy Dejiko mentioned? Some federal guys closed the investigation on his death in two short days, as not a homicide" * Shiori nods. * Rina hrms and nods. Ah... The building these companies are located in is apparently the Fyres building... Really? * Shiori nods. * Rina wrinkles her nose. "I forgot that." No autopsy information, no names on the agents. And Fyres made quite a bit of money for a simple shipwright. He was even contracted to make Corvettes for the government. Huh. (Corvettes being "The smallest class of Naval capital ship", not "A sports car made by Chevy". Obviously. ^_~) ( He didn't build cars than ran over water? ;.; ) Nope, sorry. :P * Rina sighs and leans back on the bench. "This whole thing's givin' me a headache. There's more to this Fyres guy, and for some reason this company which we're not even sure *is* a company is in a building he was either in or is named after him and augh." * Shiori nods. "It's probably too early to make assumptions, but..." What I wonder, though, is what they want with Beatrice's land... It's not just her. Her neighbor, too... so it's not her house. Weird as it is. I tried to figure that out, but it eluded me. Like a lot did, really. The sheer lack of information was appalling. * Shiori nods. I guess we'll have to go to the Fyres building, but... we should be careful. Yeah, really careful. They don't know to look out for us, though. * Sayuri rolls her neck, and then nods. "Okie. We've also got the government agent lead, and it would be nice if we could get an autopsey report on that Fyres guy." The government agents were supposedly in the top of the Town Hall. Or somewhere in there. *shrug* * Rina reaches down and plucks some blades of grass. "The top of Town Hall? Hrm." How are we gonna snoop around in there? I don't think they'd just let us in. * Sayuri mms... I... I might be able to get in... * Sayuri chuckles. "A little BnE, eh?" * Shiori blinks. "A ... what?" Breaking n' Entering. Although it would probably be easier to get the report from the police. Ah... Autopsies aren't generally available to the public, though... * Sayuri looks at Shiori oddly. "I didn't say it would be simple. Just easier." Ah... Sorry... * Rina tosses grass into the air. "So what? We sneak in, pretending to have access to that sort of thing?" Roll mind. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 7. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (2d6) and gets 5. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (2d6) and gets 5. ( Made it. ) (I hate you, Milkman Dicesuke.) (*snickers*) Ah... Either way... I think we should check into the company itself, first. * Sayuri nods. "I was about to say that, actually. We can do the sekrit stuff later." * Sayuri waves her hands. "Lead the way, Shiori." Yeah, let's not get in trouble until we have to. * Rina grins and stands up. "After you, Shiori!" Eh? B-But you know where it is too, Rina! * Rina grins. "Do you really want to trust my memory? 'Sides, you did a great job in that hall with those weird directions." (Shall I cut to the Fyres building?) (As you wish. ^_~) Not really... It was luck... (Or would you all like to try an' find your way there? ^_~) ( Sure. Else we'll never get there. ) (Hee.) (Yeah, they're just gonna argue all the way. Go! Go!) ( Are we there yet? ) (If you don't stop asking that, I'm going to turn this channel around right now!) The Fyres building is probably the single largest structure in the city, standing at ten floors. It reeks of money, from it's polished marble base and floor to it's gold-framed cherrywood doors. On one of the marble slabs forming the wall near the door, the single word "FYRES" is carved in large letters, each lined with silver within. You idly wonder who they get to polish it. * Rina looks up at the building. "Wow, I didn't this this town could have something like this." For the center of power for a small-time shipbuilder, it is not only very big, but fairly far from the docks, too. Damn. Why didn't we see this earlier? Hmm... I think we did, but we didn't really care. We were looking for Westman, 'member? This Fyres person... Do you think he might have been part of the mafia? Or maybe the government... Or both. The doors beckon. Or maybe working with the government... * Shiori nods. Blah! C'mon, let's get going. (That's the GM's way of saying "Hurry up!" without sending the ghost whale at us.) Alright, but... * Rina blinks at Shiori. "But?" I... I just think we should be careful. Well, yes. * Rina smiles and puts a hand on Shiori's shoulder. "Yeah, we'll all be careful. At the very least, none of us are waving around plasma blasters or anything." * Sayuri chuckles. "And thank Goddess for that." * Rina groans. "No kidding." You're right... Sorry. (^_^) * Rina grins. "I don't think I'm offended, and I kinda doubt Sayuri is. Let's just go in, okay?" * Sayuri chuckles, and starts a'walkin'. * Shiori nods. * Rina wanders into the BUILDING OF FYRES. * Shiori follows at the end. The inside of the building is just as lavishly done. To the left is a receptionist with a desktop computer plated with something shiny and metalic, and to your right is an index of which company is on which wide of which floor. ... * Rina glances around and steps over to the index. (What did I do this time?) * Sayuri scans the index, and yawns. (Looking for Fyres' company.) (Nothing. It was just a long time before any of you said anything. c.c;;;) * Shiori does as well. (I was wondering if you were gonna say anything more. ^^;) (All of one whole minute. ;P) ( If you don't see me talking, it means I'm doing my job right ^_^ ) Fyre's Shipwrights Inc. occupies the entire tenth floor, and is marked as being off limits. * Rina hrms. She flips through, looking for something with 'Securities' in it. #31 is on the third floor. (That's Carlsburg Securities.) That's where we wanna go, I think, if we're going to ask about the land in Podunk. Or whatever. * Shiori nods. (Yes. She remembered the important part. ;P) ( Aw. Not gonna make me do it? ;.; ) (Do what? Ask? :P) ( Remember :P ) (You are remembering! ;P) * Rina stretches. "Now, the tough question: stairs or elevator?" She grins. Eh? Well... I don't think they'll object if we take the stairs, but... I don't really see why we would... * Sayuri chuckles. "Elevator will probably do fine." *jumps to the elevator* (Thank you. ;P) The elevator has ivory buttons, a marble floor, polished brass doorframes and hand-rail, and a four-piece Bose sound system in the cieling, which pours beautiful classical piano music down upon you. * Sayuri leans against a wall and waits. * Rina blinks. "What, none of the normal elevator music?" She presses the button for the third floor. There is a *ding* as you reach the third floor. The door opens, and directly ahead of you is #31. A plaque above the door says "Brownberry Insurance". * Rina steps out. ... * Rina stares at the plaque. "What the hell?" * Sayuri looks around. "So, where's it?" * Shiori follows. "It was listed down stairs..." It... should be... here. *points* Number thirty-one. I think. Ah... we could ask... Although... Although? * Shiori shakes her head. "It's too early to be certain." It's likely that the security place was just a front, though. * Rina throws her hands into the air. "It looks like *everything*'s just a front!" Right... Sorry. Yeah, well. Might as well make the step. C'mon. No, don't be sorry. You're right. * Rina grumbles. "Yeah." She walks over to the door and yanks it open a bit faster than a normal person should. "After you." * Shiori glances at Rina nervously. * Sayuri nods to Rina, and attempts to plaster a happy smile on her face as she walks through. "Sure." * Rina snickers at Sayuri's reaction. "Go in, Shiori. I won't hurt anybody, promise." I- I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry. * Shiori enters timidly. * Rina shakes her head. "Not upset at you." The door opens easily, and manages not to come off it's hinges in Rina's hand. A man at a desk just inside jumps in startlement and looks out at you all. "Uhm, muh-may I help you?" * Rina steps in and closes the door behind her, all traces of frustration gone. "Hi, we were wondering if you could direct us somewhere... well, the directory said that it was here, anyway..." * Sayuri continues smiling. (Does the man got a nameplate?) He blinks. "Yes?" * Rina looks confused. "Anyway, we were looking for Carlsburg Securities? Do you know where we could find it?" He has a nameplate. His name is B. Smith. Behind him is another door. "Ah, yes. I can help you with that." * Rina sighs. "It's very important, you see, and-" She blinks. "You can? Great!" He gestures. "It's right behind me, see. This office used to belong to a larger company." * Sayuri continues to smile (although it wears, as she is not quite the 'smiling' type.) (*snicker* I see Sayuri replacing herself with a cardboard cutout.) (Don't I wish.) * Rina nods. "Ah, that makes sense. And you haven't gotten around to changing the sign outside, then?" The door behind him opens and woman pokes her head out. "Looking for Carlsburg Securities?" ( Wah! I was gonna say that ;.; ) (What does this woman look like?) (Good question. ;P) The man is about to shake his head when the woman interrupts. The woman is about average height, not bad looking, light brown hair and eyes. ( It's hard to type fast with all these elipses. ;.; ) * Rina nods. "Yes, Ma'am. We thought we had the wrong place, 'cause of the sign on the door." She looks a bit embarrassed. She nods. "Don't worry, that happens all the time. I keep asking them to put another sign up, but..." ( ... ) * Sayuri turns to the woman. "Well, now that we're here, can we come in?" (Whew, I live. x.x Had to put the password in again.) ( ;.; ) The lady nods. "Sure." She opens the door fully and walks in to sit at her desk. * Rina glances at the other two, then walks through the doorway. * Shiori waits for the others before following. Behind the door is a room with a desk, a filing cabinet, a computer, and three chairs facing the desk. * Sayuri takes a moment to wink at the man, before she walks through as well. (Nameplate?) ( Wai! 3 chairs! Convenience! ) ( Or did they expect us...? O.o ) (Dun dun dun!) ( It's an ambush! Augh! ) (Most likely a bit of both. Simulator and all. ^_~) (But of course. ^_^) (I was gonna make it two, but then you'd all bicker about who'd get to stand. ;P) * Rina sits quietly on one of the chairs. (Come on, you gotta admit that this group has... some sort of chemistry. Not necessarily good, but still! :P) * Shiori hesitates a moment before sitting down. ( I'd stand unless they forced me to sit down, in which case I'd feel guilt instead :P ) * Sayuri sits down as well, looking around at the office. The lady says, "Now, what are you all here to talk about?" * Rina looks frantically at the other two, then bites the bullet. "Well, we wanted to ask about some land you own, I guess." She nods. "All right. Can you be more speciffic?" * Shiori glances at Rina nervously. Yeah. Um... actually, it's a company you own that has it. It's in Podunk? * Rina fidgets. * Sayuri pipes up. "It's land belonging to Beatrice, out in Podunk." The woman sighs. "Could you give me the na-- ah, thank you." * Rina smiles at Sayuri gratefully, then turns back to the woman. She types something into her computer, and then reads off the screen. "Ah, yes. Actually, she was the next item on my itenerary. ...Are you her attourneys, or something?" * Sayuri smiles. "Grand-Nieces, actually. All she's got left." * Rina nods. "We're really worried about her." * Shiori looks at the others and nods. "Ah.... y-yeah..." "Ah", she nods. "Alright. Well, I think the terms we offered her are more than reasonable..." Um... what were the terms? She was kinda hysterical, you see, so we didn't find out. That place means a lot to her. Ah... Her husband built it himself... The woman frowns. "Are you saying she doesn't want to leave the land?" This seems to concern her. * Rina tilts her head, watching the woman carefully. "I don't think so. Why would she?" The woman bites her lip. "Well, we're offering for her to buy the land whole-sale at a quarter of it's worth, you see, and..." * Sayuri ums. "You're offering for her to buy the land for herself?" * Rina blinks. "You're trying to sell her the land?" ...Why? She shrugs. "I don't know. You'll have to ask the parent company." * Rina nearly falls off her chair. "Parent company?" (Everyone roll mind) 2d6 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (2d6) and gets 9. * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (2d6) and gets 6. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 5. (I got a roll.) (I made it! ... Yeah, right. ;P) ( I made it. ) Who is your parent company, then? She scribbles on a post-it and hands it to you. "It's Ms. Kim Marino of Marino Holding Company, room 53." "Speak to her about it, please." * Rina smiles at the woman. "Thank you." * Shiori looks at the others. * Sayuri nods. "Thank you. One last question... why, if she is being offered the chance to buy the land, did she recieve what is, effectively, an eviction notice, yet no notice of this offer?" The woman tries to shrug nonchalantly, but doesn't quite make it. "I have no idea." (Folks, I'm getting tired. x_x Wanan call it a night here or keep going?) * Sayuri nods again. "Thanks for your time." And then Arwen's connection died. The rest of us called it a night and left. Last time, on Spy Stuff Theater... Our Plucky Young Spies in Training were snooping around the Fyres Building for a lead on the land woes of the nice lady who makes them lemonade and cookies. (Cookies, wai!) When you'd finally found a company that seemed to physically exist, the woman who appeared to wholly embody the company sent you to *another* company. (Grr.) Everyone roll 1d6 for luck. 1d6 d6 ... Would help if we had a bot... (NO DICESUKE MAKE HOMER SOMETHING SOMETHING) !roll 1d6 That'd work if Daisuke was here... (NO DAISUKE MAKE HOMER SOMETHING SOMETHING ELSE) -chicago.il.us.sandwich.net:@#ChibiRPGLite- Yu-Mei invited Dicesuke into channel #ChibiRPGLite. *** Dicesuke has joined #ChibiRPGLite (Hehehehe ^^) *Now* do it. 1d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (1d6) and gets 2. 1d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (1d6) and gets 2. d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (d6) and gets 6. ... That's either very good or very bad. Okay. Shiori lucked out big time. ( Good luck? ) Yup. ( Wai. ) I'm not going to go into your meeting with Kim Marino. Or the person she directed you to. Or the person that person directed you to. And so on. ( Ok... ) You spent over three hours going from office to office, and you met with nine people. They never resisted you, really. They were all very polite, although none managed to be helpful. They all insisted that Mother could just buy the land lock stock and barrel, and despite that they were lying through their teeth when they said their price was reasonable, you figure that maybe the old lady has enough cash for it. So you go home. And in the process, the GM saves you lots and lots of time. Say, "Thank you, GM." ( Good thing I got that 6 :P ) (Thank you, GM.) (No kidding. :P) So, you get back to Beatrice's house just as the sun it setting. [Aaand, go. Or ask for more info. Whatever.] Er, wait. Roll mind. ^_^ 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (2d6) and gets 2, "That's a critical success, don't think this means I like you." 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (2d6) and gets 9. 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (2d6) and gets 8. ( Aw yeah. I made it alright ^_^ ) Shiori eventually got enough of an answer to satisfy her, and she later related this to Rina and Sayuri; A man named Fyres died recently. He owned lots and lots of companies that were really really rich... on paper. In reality, they had a nice office in a nice office building with nice office furniture, and they owned a few things, but that was it. The only thing keeping these buisnesses afloat was Fyres, and without him to make things look good these buisnesses were going bankrupt left and right. The companies that owned things were trying to sell them before the courts took controll of them and auctioned them off, because that way they could make some money for themselves before they were closed down. But, in theory, if Beatrice could come up with the money to buy the land, she'd get to keep it and everyone would be happy. So! Back to the cabin. ^^; (Where in the cabin are we? ^^;;) The doorway, silly. You just got there. :P Buddy runs up and greets you, tail all a-wag. * Rina grins and rubs Buddy behind the ears. * Shiori glances at the sun in the distance. * Sayuri looks down at Buddy, and walks on through, stretching. * Rina stands up and walks over to the door, then looks at Shiori. "Coming?" Beatrice is sitting on a couch in the den, near the fireplace. She looks very sad. Eh? Ah! S-Sorry! * Shiori hurrys after Rina. Ya OK, Beatrice? * Rina goes in and blinks at Beatrice. She looks up and shakes her head. "Did you find anything in town?" Well... yeah. Shiori did, actually. Ah... I didn't do much... She looks at Shiori expectantly. * Rina nudges Shiori with her elbow. * Shiori blushes... "Well, uh... Why don't you, ah, tell her Rina?" * Rina sighs. "I can, if you really want me to. Lesse how much I remember." ( ... Oops :P ) * Sayuri chuckles. (Ah well. ^^) * Rina tightens her ponytail. * Shiori whispers a few details to Rina (see the above narration :P) Um. It looks like this guy named Fyres died recently, and he owned the company who has your land. Actually, he owns that company, and all the companies that own each other that own the land... * Rina looks almost dizzy from her own statement, but keeps going. They all said that you can buy it from them, though. Beatrice's frown depens. And... that's all I know, really. She sighs. "I can't buy the land. Not anymore. I got a notice today saying that the bank where I had all my money went under." * Rina blinks. * Shiori blinks. Can... Can we see it? That... seems very odd. * Shiori nods. Doesn't sound like a coincidence, yeah. (Pause) ( Eep. ) (Yes. Eep.) (Okay. UnPause.) (Whee. ^^; Shiori asked Beatrice a question, I think.) She hands you the letter. It essentially says "Sorry, but we're broke so you're never gonna see your money again. So sorry. Have a nice day." ... * Rina peeks around Shiori's shoulder. Isn't there a law protecting this...? Yes, there is. Supposedly, any account up to $100k is insured under federak law. Federal, even. ( That's what I thought. ) The bank, however, doesn't seem to care about this. Hmm... * Rina wrinkles her nose. I guess... tomorrow we should go there. * Sayuri sighs, and mutters, "And we were so close..." ( You didn't think it'd be that easy, did you? ^_- ) (Shall I jump ahead to tomorrow?) * Rina nods. "If we have to go to ten different companies again, I'm gonna scream." (If you like. ^^) 1d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (1d6) and gets 6. * Sayuri (sobs.) (*patpats Sayuri* ^^;;) ( And the next day... ) (Do we want to play the nightmare, or no? ^^;) ( What's the GM say? ) Robin? Rooooooobin o/~) (The GM says y'all decide. :P) (I was asking you because he didn't seem to have an opinion. ^^;) (Doh! Well, whichever you prefer. ^^ Seriously. :P) ( No opinion here :P ) ( Let's just do SOMETHING soon :P ) * Sayuri (shrugs. "Okay, let the bot decide. 1 to play the dammned thing. 2 to not.") 1d2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Sayuri (1d2) and gets 2. (Not. Continue!) (Yeesh. What a nightmare. :P) (There. Decision made. Sayuri has a nightmare, screams, wakes everyone up. Whee. Next morning!) Next morning, over more breakfast like the last one. * Shiori eats. Yum * Rina wolfs down food. * Sayuri runs a hand through her hair, and sighs as she picks at her food. * Rina pauses. "Somethin' wrong, Sayuri?" * Sayuri snorts. "OF course not." She follows this by shoving a piece of bacon in her mouth. * Rina grins a bit at this and goes back to finishing her breakfast at record speed. * Shiori watches, amazed. (Rina shovels food into her mouth faster than you thought possible, accompanied by the Generic Bionic Man Sound Effect.) * Rina puts her fork and knife on the plate. "Done!" She leans back and sighs happily. (*snerk*) ( /me has never seen Bionic Man, and substitutes the sound from Bionic Commando instead. ) (We can rebuild her. Faster... stronger... hungrier than she was before.) (I like food!) (We have the technolo-- wait, we don't? Oh. Well, I'm sure we can make something up, then.) * Shiori finishes some time afterwards. * Sayuri yawns blearily. Ah... Today, we can go to the bank, or... maybe the police or courthouse. Yeah. Which do we hit first? I'd say the bank... * Sayuri shrugs, and opens her mouth to say something... and then shuts it. But... I could be wrong. I just have this feeling that going to the police would be too easy. * Rina tilts her head. "What is it, Sayuri? ... And you look like you could use more sleep." Everyone needs more sleep. And it's nothing. The bank works. * Rina blinks a couple times. Sure. * Rina stands up and puts her napkin on the table. "I guess we'd better get going, then." * Shiori nods and stands as well. * Sayuri stands, although slumping more than usual. * Rina looks at Sayuri with concern. *sigh* Let's go, then. * Shiori glances at Sayuri worriedly, then nods at Rina. * Rina starts to make her way out of the house. And off they go! (Off to see the wizard o/~) ( Are we there yet? :P ) While in the woods, they were attack by the big bad wolf, who said... wait, nevermind. ( What'd he say after that? ) By the way, you DID get the name of the bank, didn't you? ( I assume it was on the sheet. ) (I'd hope Shiori had enough presence of mind to read it off the note? ^^;) Okay. ^_^ You arrive at Carlsburg Savings an hour before noon. Two semi- trucks are closing the doors to their trailors and starting their engines. The bank has a notice on the front door proclaiming it's closed-ness. * Rina stares. "Great. They weren't kidding." B-But... It's still illegal. We'd better talk to them. The semis pull away, leaving for who-knows-where. Yeah, yeah.... and there they go. If there's anybody still in there. Yeah. * Rina runs up to the door to look at the sign. The sign says that the bank is closed, and apologizes insincerely for any inconvenience. Yup. Says it's closed. ... Should we check with the police? Or City Hall? * Sayuri rolls her eyes. "Brilliance." She looks at the doors. "Oh well, it's not like anyone will care if we look inside, right?" * Rina grins. "Y'know, that's just what I was thinking." Mind if we take a look inside, Shiori? Long as we're here, and all. Ah... I guess we can... The door is locked. But you probably have a variety of solutions for overcoming that. ( What sort of door? ) (*waits* ^^;) It's a glass door with aluminum frame. Nothing too fancy. * Rina tests the door. "Aheh. Um. Anybody know how to pick locks or somethin'? 'Cause... you know." I, um... I might be able to... Rina> You could break it real easy. But that'd make a mess. * Rina moves aside. (Yes, Yu. I know. ;P) ^_^ * Shiori attempts to pick the lock, yesseriee. Make the bloody roll, Brett. :P Oh. 2d6-2 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Shiori (2d6-2) and gets 7. One moment, please. ( That might succeed. Forget what stat it uses. ) The lock turns with a 'click'. No alarms go off. ( I should hope not, since they're "closed" :P ) (*snicker*) (Oh, they are breaking into a bank, aren't they? Hm. ^^) * Yu-Mei (drops a bank vault on Brett. :P) Um... I think I got it. ( ;.; ) Oh, goodie. C'mon, lets go. * Rina waves for Shiori to open the door already. * Shiori opens the bloody door :P * Rina peeks inside. ( The door is open :P ) (And your doom draws near!) The inside is empty, except for scattered scraps of paper. ( Aw. Not again! ;.; ) * Sayuri just walks the hell in and looks around. "C'mon, let's see if anything's left." They even took the furniture. But it's obvious that they left in a hurry. * Rina nods and walks in after her. "Wow, they didn't leave much behind. All in one move, huh." * Shiori nods and follows. "It's rather suspicious." * Sayuri searches around. "Well, if they're as rotten as they look, yes." Goodie. * Rina starts picking up scraps of paper and reading them. * Yu-Mei (oooowwws) (Eh?) ( ? ) (Headache. x.x) (x.x) The scrap of paper Rina picks up has something scrawled on it. It's hard to read. ( ;.; ) * Rina peers at it. "Hey, Shiori, you seem pretty good at this." She holds the paper out to her. * Shiori checks the offices, tellers' desks, etc. Hm? * Shiori looks at it. The desks are gone, no da. Shiori> The lighting in here isn't great, but you think you can make out that a large sum of cash was to be delivered to someone in small bills. You can't make out any names or anything, tho. * Shiori takes it outside. ( How about now? ^_^ ) * Sayuri continues searching. Nope. * Shiori comes back in. Any idea what it said? But there are lots more scraps and balled-up sheets of paper inside. Maybe more than a hundered. * Shiori nods and tells Rina what she could make of it. I, um, don't think this was a real bank. * Rina nods and looks around. "Maybe we should just get all of the paper and then piece them together." Yeah, probably not. * Rina starts gathering paper and resists whisting while she works. * Sayuri looks up from her seemingly fruitless search. "Huhm? Whazzhappening?" I guess we could... But that might take a while... * Rina smiles weakly. "Well, I guess I could try picking it all up by myself... then I wouldn't need to worry about running into you guys." * Sayuri walks over to Rina and Shiori. "So... did youse find something? Eh? I didn't mean that... Just that... Kinda. Some notes I couldn't read, but Shiori did. * Shiori pauses to inform Sayuri of what the note said. Oh. * Rina shakes her head. No, really. I can probably do this real fast if you guys just stand aside. Not too sure how fast I am, but... * Sayuri backs away. "Go right the hell ahead." * Shiori blinks. (Oh, this'll be cute.) Um... Alright... * Shiori backs off. Aheh. Okay... * Rina tries to gather the paper as fast as she can. Roll body, Rina. (Oh my.) 2d6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Rina (2d6) and gets 11. (*cracks up*) Rina does pretty good while maintaining a straight line. When she tries to turn, tho, she falls over, bounces end over end a few times, and slams into the far wall. She gets a booboo, but thankfully nothing is hurt but her pride. * Shiori winces as Rina strikes the wall. "Ah... Are you okay?" * Rina removes herself from the wall and sits heavily on the ground. "Ow." * Sayuri chuckles softly. "That was more amusing than it should have been." * Rina sticks her tongue out at Sayuri. "Was worth a try." * Sayuri shrugs. Anyway. You spend the next twenty minutes or so gathering up little bits of paper. * Sayuri looks at the scraps. "This is what we in the business call, 'information overload'." (No kidding. :P) * Rina nods, then blinks. "What business?" (My brain, it explodes!) ( Told ya we shoulda done the park :P ) (Rina would not have it. :P) * Sayuri hmphs. "My business." So, what do we do with all the paper? (Read it, obviously. ^_^) (And guess who gets to make up what goes on that paper? x_x) And then Robin's brain died.