://the.respite|timecode:xxn.00.01.21.0945
Beatrice waved a hand and a section of her data haven partitioned off, black walls extending upward and downward into infinity. She laced her fingers together, the sleeves of her robe covering her hands as she turned back to the figures arrayed nearby. "This should suffice for your palaver," she says, in a soft alto. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the Respite's TOS still applies."
Four members of The Flow all nodded their understanding. Three of them had opted for something approximating anonymity, using basic off-the-shelf avatars. One of them had covered his face with a scarf/mask, while the other two wore helmets and outfits that made them look robotic. The fourth's avatar wore loose robes of his own, but open to the waist, revealing a gleaming figure of light, vaguely androgynous, with highly stylized facial features. "Of course not," Zero Shade replies, even his voice modulated to add to the faint androgyny of his avatar. "You may need to remind our counterparts when they arrive."
They stepped into the darkened partition, within which a long slab of a table was set with eight chairs divided to each side. The Flow took their seats, and had scarcely done so when a slot snapped open on the other side of the partition. Three figures made their way in, one wearing a hood and asymmetrical cape, a helmet or mask underneath obscuring his face, the whole thing black with yellow trim. The next had to turn sideways to get his massive bulk through the opening, for he stood twice as tall as anyone else present, his avatar a green-skinned brute covered in armor and cybernetics. The third was a woman, her avatar likewise green-tinted, her hair seeming to consist of cables and fiber-optics, which stirred in a non-existent wind, her lips painted a metallic color, twisted in a sardonic smirk.
These three took their seats at the table, staring at The Flow, and then a fourth figure emerged from the slot in the partition, light seeming to distort around him, a static filling the air as he folded his gloved hands behind his back. He wore a coverall that seemed to be made of plastic or rubber, but over this was a leather butcher's apron. His head was a featureless black shape, until an AR screen snapped into being in front of the 'face,' displaying a monochromatic image of a bespectacled man with an empty grin. The partitioned closed up, isolating them within. "So," Ink said as he took his seat with the Crashers, "you summoned us here, Zero. What do you want? As if I don't know."
"You must stop what you're doing, Ink," Zero Shade said flatly. "The consequences if you succeed will be dire."
"Precisely," Ink's smile seemed to grow wider. "The status quo will be upended and from the chaos will emerge a better world."
"A better world for whom?" This came from The Flow member in the scarf. "There's no guarantee that it will even the scales--"
The Crasher woman hissed. "Silence yourself, 'Dog," she spat.
The scarf-wearer tensed, but Zero Shade raised a hand. "We will accord ourselves in compliance with our hostess' wishes. This is what amounts to a peace talk."
"Zero's right, Becca," Ink chuckled. "But I'm sorry to tell you, old friend, that we will not be deterred by mere words. You expect us to sit idly by, and paint the walls in this world and meatspace with graffiti and hack the AR grid to drop 'truth-bombs' like you? You've been doing it for years, and to what end? What have you accomplished? Nothing."
"And yet, by disrupting the data flows and crashing markets and mainframes," Zero Shade returned, "all you have accomplished is causing the Corporate Court to put a bounty on your heads. You have people afraid of your actions. We make the people, both great and small, ask questions. Questions that get answered. There's a reason we're called activists, while you're called terrorists."
The other three Crashers seemed to bristle (inasmuch as one could tell with the masked one), and the towering brute slammed a metal fist on the table as he rose to his feet. "I won't sit here and listen to you preach your insipid soft ways!" He roared, and from the armor on his shoulders extruded glowing barrels and apertures. Light glowed within them--
--and then one whole side of the partition vanished, as the Lady of the Respite strode forward, eyes ablaze. "You will not cause violence in my haven," she stated, with cold flat fury.
"I am Hellborn, construct," the brute snarled. "I have broken the security protections of Tyr, and crashed K-MG five times running. I am not afraid of--"
Beatrice snapped her fingers, and light crashed down onto Hellborn's avatar. All those present shielded their eyes as Hellborn let out a brief scream that cut off abruptly. When their vision cleared, the brute was gone. Beatrice turned her gaze to Ink. "Consider this a warning," she told him. "If you or yours acts in this manner again, you will not be welcome in my haven ever again."
"Hellborn has ever been an impulsive sort," Ink smiled. "Pardon the breach of protocol."
"I will not," she said. "Just take care it does not happen again." With that, she turned and walked back out, the partition snapping shut behind her.
The two spokesmen looked at each other. "Ink, one last time, I ask that you reconsider your course of action. There is no way to predict what will happen, by its very definition."
"As you've said, Zero," the renegade hacktivist shrugged, "everything else we've done has only galvanized the megacorps, and only made the people more afraid. What other course do we have? We won't be passive like you." He rose from his seat, and beside him, the hooded man and Becca stood as well. "We will do what we must. As will you, I'm sure."
He turned, lifting one hand and tapping it on the partition wall, which slid open to let him out. "We will stop you," Zero Shade warned him, "if only so that we may be more certain of what may happen if you were to succeed."
"And it is because we both want the same thing," Ink said, his AR screen swiveling around his avatar's featureless head to look at him, "that I hope you will be spared the worst when the Singularity comes, that you may join us in a better world." His screen winked back out as the Crashers took their leave.
://sprawlfeed|timecode:xxn.00.03.13
"Simsense is better than its ever been, but it's never been a replacement for the real thing... until now! Introducing Yutan Simtek 10-BTR. Experience the Interlink and AR like you've never experienced it before. It is even compatible with existing trideo and simflick releases! Contact your local aug dealer about price plans to fit your lifestyle. The new Yutan Simtek 10-BTR. It's not simsense. It's Better Than Real. Only from S-YZ."
"They took away his badge, but they can't stop him from dispensing JUSTICE! Jacoby Armstrong returns in 'DEADLOCKED TWO: LOCKDOWN.' Starring Dane Victor as Jacoby Armstrong, with Rita Nolakov and Gary Europe. 'DEADLOCKED TWO: LOCKDOWN.' Coming soon to a simtheater near YOU!"
"You've all heard his sick beats and musical flow all over the Interlink, now's your chance to stream it and see his show performed livefeed! The Bard will be casting from The Pulse in two days! You gotta see this livefeed! I'm FoxZee, and I'll be collabbing with The Bard himself at The Pulse! The Bard, casting livefeed from The Pulse! Plug in and scope it out! The Pulse: Interlink 'Clubset', substra 'Radbeatz,' hash 'The Pulse'! See ya there, simfreaks!"
"--BOUNTY NOTICE--BOUNTY NOTICE--TYR INDUSTRIES IS WILLING TO PAY TOP CREDIT FOR ANY INFORMATION THAT LEADS TO THE APPREHENSION OF THE NET-THIEF KNOWN AS 'NiteShayde.' IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW CAN PROVIDE INFORMATION REGARDING NiteShayde's WHEREABOUTS-- WHETHER IT IS INTERLINK OR REAL-WORLD-- CONTACT TYR SECURITY: @TYRSEC-900 OR INTERLINK 'TYR', SUBSTRA 'SECURITY', HASH 'BOUNTIES.' REWARD NEGOTIABLE, NOT LESS THAN 10,000C--END NOTICE--END NOTICE--"
"It's never fun to get stuck in traffic. But now, that need not be a problem. The new KMW Firefly 3G Cosworth is an aircar for everyone. Fast, economical, safe, and best of all: affordable. Why be chained to the ground, when you can fly in a Firefly?////How affordable is your life, really? You buy what they tell you to buy, because they tell you it makes your life better. But your life is only as good as they let it be. How many people were displaced and disenfranchised when K-MG built their new facility in Grove Hills? The Flow knows this: Thousands of people were forced to move, at gunpoint, to Beggar's Reef to make room for that manufactory. So how affordable is a Firefly, really? #AskQuestions////--the new Firefly 3G Cosworth. Only from KMW: Driving Done Right. KMW is a part of Knight-Meinhardt Group."
[real-world].[the hub].[ping's noodles]|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
The restaurant is small, but then most places of businesses are in The Hub, given pressures of real estate space. But there are a couple of tables and a booth or two, plus the basic lunch counter. Ping himself was always at the counter, periodically barking orders back to the steamy kitchen in Xiaglot*, then turning and pointing a finger at passersby: "You look like you could use a pork bun!" Ping's Noodles is always busy, and he doesn't take reservations for seats.
...unless the Shinsen-gumi pay him a visit. It always pays to be nice to the Shinsen-gumi. Two burly men with the glowing nano-tats common to the group stood with arms folded while an older man with a prosthetic thumb (not uncommon among the kyodai of the family) ate his noodles and otherwise waited for the representatives of the Toshioto Clan to arrive. He was called Mr. Taoka.
[real-world].[the hub].[alleyway]|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
"Come out, liddle burd," the Slavic-accented voice calls out. "It will be much simpler and less painful for you if you just give up."
Dani had tried to avoid any major confrontations with the Red Bratva when this particular group had started tracking her. But that time had passed. They had quite efficiently cut her off and herded her into this alleyway (on the opposite side of The Hub from Ping's Noodles), which was still rather expansive. But they'd also sealed off either end, with men on the ground, as well as augmented snipers up high to prevent her from going up and over the dragnet. It looked like a confrontation was unavoidable.
And then, just when Dani might have been ready to start doing her Carrie thing from her hiding place, gunfire erupted at either end of the alley. Shouts and yelling filled the air, and if Dani looked out, she'd see the Bratva fighting with a gang she might have seen about The Hub in her time here: the Hub Scraps. To their credit, despite being outclassed (materiel wise) by the Bratva, the Scraps were taking them down, probably as much due to surprise as anything else.
Even the snipers appeared to have been taken out. But that's when Dani's hiding place would have been ripped open by two massive metal claws. A towering security mech stood there, and then AR displays of a roaring mouth flashed into being around its featureless head, accompanying the bellowing roar that it emitted--
--just before a monoedge sword sliced through its neck. The mech staggered back, another roar issuing forth from its chest--
--which is when the same sword punched through its chassis, puncturing its central processor. Alarms started sounding and the sword was withdrawn. Dani would glimpse a man wearing a face-mask and covered from neck to toe in tough clothing. He glanced at her and sketched a salute. "One sec," he said, before quick-stepping back and then delivering a mighty kick to the stricken mech's main chassis, sending the thing flying into the middle of the alley, where its main body ripped apart from a small explosion as its power core overloaded.
Satisfied, the man flicked his sword and then slid it back into its scabbard at his side. "Blaggin' Bratva," the man muttered. "Bad enough we have to deal with them, they wanna bring a megacorp Zorn mech in here? Slag that." Then, as if remembering his manners, he thumps his forehead. "Sorry, what am I thinking. Jinchu Daisuke. You gonna be all right?"
://noafence.mesh|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
New messages (3)
[--1--]
yo noa u scope that nu syz simtek 10?? shway innit?? mite git me 1 if i cud pay 4 it. anyway. u goin 2 the bard livefeed 2nite?? --gu$tav
[--2--]
You told me to let you know if someone managed to jailbreak the Tyr DRM. Might have something for you. His name's Kenstern. Brad Kenstern. Couldn't get much else. Shoot me some creds if this info works out. --Lem
[--3--]
--// keep an eye out // crashers have been more active lately //--
--// word is they're targeting the flow's network // members and contacts both //--
--// might be planning a big action // something public // possible high bodycount //--
--// let me know if anything hits your feeds // mr. universe //--
** Xiaglot is a creole/pidgin language spoken among most heritage Asians in the Sprawl. It's a mix of just about every Asian language. This is not to say that the original languages aren't still spoken, but given cultural mixing and melding over the years, Xiaglot exists so that people can still talk in a language that isn't the common tongue.
Beatrice waved a hand and a section of her data haven partitioned off, black walls extending upward and downward into infinity. She laced her fingers together, the sleeves of her robe covering her hands as she turned back to the figures arrayed nearby. "This should suffice for your palaver," she says, in a soft alto. "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the Respite's TOS still applies."
Four members of The Flow all nodded their understanding. Three of them had opted for something approximating anonymity, using basic off-the-shelf avatars. One of them had covered his face with a scarf/mask, while the other two wore helmets and outfits that made them look robotic. The fourth's avatar wore loose robes of his own, but open to the waist, revealing a gleaming figure of light, vaguely androgynous, with highly stylized facial features. "Of course not," Zero Shade replies, even his voice modulated to add to the faint androgyny of his avatar. "You may need to remind our counterparts when they arrive."
They stepped into the darkened partition, within which a long slab of a table was set with eight chairs divided to each side. The Flow took their seats, and had scarcely done so when a slot snapped open on the other side of the partition. Three figures made their way in, one wearing a hood and asymmetrical cape, a helmet or mask underneath obscuring his face, the whole thing black with yellow trim. The next had to turn sideways to get his massive bulk through the opening, for he stood twice as tall as anyone else present, his avatar a green-skinned brute covered in armor and cybernetics. The third was a woman, her avatar likewise green-tinted, her hair seeming to consist of cables and fiber-optics, which stirred in a non-existent wind, her lips painted a metallic color, twisted in a sardonic smirk.
These three took their seats at the table, staring at The Flow, and then a fourth figure emerged from the slot in the partition, light seeming to distort around him, a static filling the air as he folded his gloved hands behind his back. He wore a coverall that seemed to be made of plastic or rubber, but over this was a leather butcher's apron. His head was a featureless black shape, until an AR screen snapped into being in front of the 'face,' displaying a monochromatic image of a bespectacled man with an empty grin. The partitioned closed up, isolating them within. "So," Ink said as he took his seat with the Crashers, "you summoned us here, Zero. What do you want? As if I don't know."
"You must stop what you're doing, Ink," Zero Shade said flatly. "The consequences if you succeed will be dire."
"Precisely," Ink's smile seemed to grow wider. "The status quo will be upended and from the chaos will emerge a better world."
"A better world for whom?" This came from The Flow member in the scarf. "There's no guarantee that it will even the scales--"
The Crasher woman hissed. "Silence yourself, 'Dog," she spat.
The scarf-wearer tensed, but Zero Shade raised a hand. "We will accord ourselves in compliance with our hostess' wishes. This is what amounts to a peace talk."
"Zero's right, Becca," Ink chuckled. "But I'm sorry to tell you, old friend, that we will not be deterred by mere words. You expect us to sit idly by, and paint the walls in this world and meatspace with graffiti and hack the AR grid to drop 'truth-bombs' like you? You've been doing it for years, and to what end? What have you accomplished? Nothing."
"And yet, by disrupting the data flows and crashing markets and mainframes," Zero Shade returned, "all you have accomplished is causing the Corporate Court to put a bounty on your heads. You have people afraid of your actions. We make the people, both great and small, ask questions. Questions that get answered. There's a reason we're called activists, while you're called terrorists."
The other three Crashers seemed to bristle (inasmuch as one could tell with the masked one), and the towering brute slammed a metal fist on the table as he rose to his feet. "I won't sit here and listen to you preach your insipid soft ways!" He roared, and from the armor on his shoulders extruded glowing barrels and apertures. Light glowed within them--
--and then one whole side of the partition vanished, as the Lady of the Respite strode forward, eyes ablaze. "You will not cause violence in my haven," she stated, with cold flat fury.
"I am Hellborn, construct," the brute snarled. "I have broken the security protections of Tyr, and crashed K-MG five times running. I am not afraid of--"
Beatrice snapped her fingers, and light crashed down onto Hellborn's avatar. All those present shielded their eyes as Hellborn let out a brief scream that cut off abruptly. When their vision cleared, the brute was gone. Beatrice turned her gaze to Ink. "Consider this a warning," she told him. "If you or yours acts in this manner again, you will not be welcome in my haven ever again."
"Hellborn has ever been an impulsive sort," Ink smiled. "Pardon the breach of protocol."
"I will not," she said. "Just take care it does not happen again." With that, she turned and walked back out, the partition snapping shut behind her.
The two spokesmen looked at each other. "Ink, one last time, I ask that you reconsider your course of action. There is no way to predict what will happen, by its very definition."
"As you've said, Zero," the renegade hacktivist shrugged, "everything else we've done has only galvanized the megacorps, and only made the people more afraid. What other course do we have? We won't be passive like you." He rose from his seat, and beside him, the hooded man and Becca stood as well. "We will do what we must. As will you, I'm sure."
He turned, lifting one hand and tapping it on the partition wall, which slid open to let him out. "We will stop you," Zero Shade warned him, "if only so that we may be more certain of what may happen if you were to succeed."
"And it is because we both want the same thing," Ink said, his AR screen swiveling around his avatar's featureless head to look at him, "that I hope you will be spared the worst when the Singularity comes, that you may join us in a better world." His screen winked back out as the Crashers took their leave.
://sprawlfeed|timecode:xxn.00.03.13
"Simsense is better than its ever been, but it's never been a replacement for the real thing... until now! Introducing Yutan Simtek 10-BTR. Experience the Interlink and AR like you've never experienced it before. It is even compatible with existing trideo and simflick releases! Contact your local aug dealer about price plans to fit your lifestyle. The new Yutan Simtek 10-BTR. It's not simsense. It's Better Than Real. Only from S-YZ."
"They took away his badge, but they can't stop him from dispensing JUSTICE! Jacoby Armstrong returns in 'DEADLOCKED TWO: LOCKDOWN.' Starring Dane Victor as Jacoby Armstrong, with Rita Nolakov and Gary Europe. 'DEADLOCKED TWO: LOCKDOWN.' Coming soon to a simtheater near YOU!"
"You've all heard his sick beats and musical flow all over the Interlink, now's your chance to stream it and see his show performed livefeed! The Bard will be casting from The Pulse in two days! You gotta see this livefeed! I'm FoxZee, and I'll be collabbing with The Bard himself at The Pulse! The Bard, casting livefeed from The Pulse! Plug in and scope it out! The Pulse: Interlink 'Clubset', substra 'Radbeatz,' hash 'The Pulse'! See ya there, simfreaks!"
"--BOUNTY NOTICE--BOUNTY NOTICE--TYR INDUSTRIES IS WILLING TO PAY TOP CREDIT FOR ANY INFORMATION THAT LEADS TO THE APPREHENSION OF THE NET-THIEF KNOWN AS 'NiteShayde.' IF YOU OR ANYONE YOU KNOW CAN PROVIDE INFORMATION REGARDING NiteShayde's WHEREABOUTS-- WHETHER IT IS INTERLINK OR REAL-WORLD-- CONTACT TYR SECURITY: @TYRSEC-900 OR INTERLINK 'TYR', SUBSTRA 'SECURITY', HASH 'BOUNTIES.' REWARD NEGOTIABLE, NOT LESS THAN 10,000C--END NOTICE--END NOTICE--"
"It's never fun to get stuck in traffic. But now, that need not be a problem. The new KMW Firefly 3G Cosworth is an aircar for everyone. Fast, economical, safe, and best of all: affordable. Why be chained to the ground, when you can fly in a Firefly?////How affordable is your life, really? You buy what they tell you to buy, because they tell you it makes your life better. But your life is only as good as they let it be. How many people were displaced and disenfranchised when K-MG built their new facility in Grove Hills? The Flow knows this: Thousands of people were forced to move, at gunpoint, to Beggar's Reef to make room for that manufactory. So how affordable is a Firefly, really? #AskQuestions////--the new Firefly 3G Cosworth. Only from KMW: Driving Done Right. KMW is a part of Knight-Meinhardt Group."
[real-world].[the hub].[ping's noodles]|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
The restaurant is small, but then most places of businesses are in The Hub, given pressures of real estate space. But there are a couple of tables and a booth or two, plus the basic lunch counter. Ping himself was always at the counter, periodically barking orders back to the steamy kitchen in Xiaglot*, then turning and pointing a finger at passersby: "You look like you could use a pork bun!" Ping's Noodles is always busy, and he doesn't take reservations for seats.
...unless the Shinsen-gumi pay him a visit. It always pays to be nice to the Shinsen-gumi. Two burly men with the glowing nano-tats common to the group stood with arms folded while an older man with a prosthetic thumb (not uncommon among the kyodai of the family) ate his noodles and otherwise waited for the representatives of the Toshioto Clan to arrive. He was called Mr. Taoka.
[real-world].[the hub].[alleyway]|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
"Come out, liddle burd," the Slavic-accented voice calls out. "It will be much simpler and less painful for you if you just give up."
Dani had tried to avoid any major confrontations with the Red Bratva when this particular group had started tracking her. But that time had passed. They had quite efficiently cut her off and herded her into this alleyway (on the opposite side of The Hub from Ping's Noodles), which was still rather expansive. But they'd also sealed off either end, with men on the ground, as well as augmented snipers up high to prevent her from going up and over the dragnet. It looked like a confrontation was unavoidable.
And then, just when Dani might have been ready to start doing her Carrie thing from her hiding place, gunfire erupted at either end of the alley. Shouts and yelling filled the air, and if Dani looked out, she'd see the Bratva fighting with a gang she might have seen about The Hub in her time here: the Hub Scraps. To their credit, despite being outclassed (materiel wise) by the Bratva, the Scraps were taking them down, probably as much due to surprise as anything else.
Even the snipers appeared to have been taken out. But that's when Dani's hiding place would have been ripped open by two massive metal claws. A towering security mech stood there, and then AR displays of a roaring mouth flashed into being around its featureless head, accompanying the bellowing roar that it emitted--
--just before a monoedge sword sliced through its neck. The mech staggered back, another roar issuing forth from its chest--
--which is when the same sword punched through its chassis, puncturing its central processor. Alarms started sounding and the sword was withdrawn. Dani would glimpse a man wearing a face-mask and covered from neck to toe in tough clothing. He glanced at her and sketched a salute. "One sec," he said, before quick-stepping back and then delivering a mighty kick to the stricken mech's main chassis, sending the thing flying into the middle of the alley, where its main body ripped apart from a small explosion as its power core overloaded.
Satisfied, the man flicked his sword and then slid it back into its scabbard at his side. "Blaggin' Bratva," the man muttered. "Bad enough we have to deal with them, they wanna bring a megacorp Zorn mech in here? Slag that." Then, as if remembering his manners, he thumps his forehead. "Sorry, what am I thinking. Jinchu Daisuke. You gonna be all right?"
://noafence.mesh|timecode:xxn.00.03.15.1045
New messages (3)
[--1--]
yo noa u scope that nu syz simtek 10?? shway innit?? mite git me 1 if i cud pay 4 it. anyway. u goin 2 the bard livefeed 2nite?? --gu$tav
[--2--]
You told me to let you know if someone managed to jailbreak the Tyr DRM. Might have something for you. His name's Kenstern. Brad Kenstern. Couldn't get much else. Shoot me some creds if this info works out. --Lem
[--3--]
--// keep an eye out // crashers have been more active lately //--
--// word is they're targeting the flow's network // members and contacts both //--
--// might be planning a big action // something public // possible high bodycount //--
--// let me know if anything hits your feeds // mr. universe //--
** Xiaglot is a creole/pidgin language spoken among most heritage Asians in the Sprawl. It's a mix of just about every Asian language. This is not to say that the original languages aren't still spoken, but given cultural mixing and melding over the years, Xiaglot exists so that people can still talk in a language that isn't the common tongue.
Comment