Gavin Gladwell: Swimming in Scum

[Brennor]

You find yourself on the Scum Barge Ecstatic Metamorphosis. You originally embarked on this ship because your previous job required you to meet a client here and make a delivery. You are now searching for additional work to keep yourself busy until Firewall presents you with another task. You've encountered a couple of decent leads while plying the bars, but no actual work yet.

Ecstatic Metamorphosis

This Scum Barge was previously a colony ship, but is now a gigantic floating city that lazily wanders space from port to port, and is run by members of the Scum Faction -- basically a nomadic black market where anything goes. This particular ship has a central cylinder that is rotated giving light (0.4G) gravity. The rest of the ship is without gravity. Parts of the ship are open bazaars, others are non-stop nightlife and there are even some areas where you can seek out some rest or privacy. This ship is also accompanied by a swarm of smaller craft as it goes about its business.

These anarchists fully endorse full personal control over one's own body and mind and wholy embrace body modification and experimentation. There are no police and very few restrictions. The only rule is that you can't do anything to endanger the ship itself. Anything else goes.

People come here to party, for vacations, to buy and sell illicit goods. You can find pretty much whatever you want here and it is possible to do so and do it without people finding out what you've acquired.

Since you've been on board, you've seen what you believe is the entire cross-section of Transhumanity. Members of all factions, all types of morphs and even all ideologies have been encountered.

At the same time everyone receives an encrypted message via the mesh (basically an email directly to your brain). Your notifications pop up and after all security codes are entered and checks are successfully passed, the following appears in your view when you open it:



Firewall can't come right out and say that bad things are happening, in case the message is intercepted. But you know that the following are code words. An "Art Dealer" is actually a weapons dealer, and a "masterpiece quality artwork" is actually a weapon of mass destruction. So this message is saying that Firewall learned that someone on this scum barge is attempting to sell a weapon of mass destruction and they want you to prevent that from happening.

Also included in the message is a link to a simulspace, which is a virtual reality that you can access via the mesh. In this case, this is a hidden simulspace with passcodes, which you now have. Provided you enter the simulspace, you see a simple conference room with a round table in the center of it, with four comfortable chairs arranged around it. There are no decorations, just simple grey walls with a simple flourescent light above the table.

At this moment, no one else is in the conference room. You do have a date and time contained within the encrypted message though. That meeting time is 2 hours from now.


Only TetNak should be posting to this thread...

[TetNak]

Gavin considers for a moment, thinking, "The best way is to appear a buyer, too bad I don't have the funds to flash around like a true player -- will have to talk my way around it. Easy enough."

The decision is quick and easy, "Go to one of the affluent clubs, of course totally powered by the illegal activities that go on here, and get a whiff of someone selling something that goes boom. And that's a big boom."

OOC

I assume I might know where such a place would be.

[Brennor]

OOC

As affluent a club as could be found on a scum barge, yes. No test for finding out this information either. Simple info query.

Gavin sends out a ping on the @-list, requesting information on the location of the varieties of bars and nightclubs on board the Ecstatic Metamorphosis. It takes less than a minute for a list of a dozen possible places to come back from the Anarchist's social network. The names of the places come back with some descriptions about them. Of these, the majority seem to be no more than places to get a drink, and not necessarily the types of places where the affluent would show up.

He's got directions to the Wet Cup. It isn't too far away, but it does take some time to get to. Gavin makes his way through the somewhat-crowded marketplace to an establishment shoehorned into the corner of the central spinning segment of the ship. Gravity helps the drinks go down, afterall.

Looking around, he sees a few people in here. Not all of them are dressed in their absolute worst. It appears that the info query wasn't dead wrong at least.

The middle-aged guy behind the bar is dressed in a set of clothing that appears to have been clensed in the last week even. "Ni Hao" is offered up to Gavin as he enters. "What can I get for ya?"

Gavin has his muse set a timer to display in his vision field as a countdown to the meet: 1h 35m.

[TetNak]

Gavin gives the bartender his best smile. His best smile is usually enough. Woman are charmed by it, men are put to ease by it, whatever it takes, that's long been his motto.

"What's good?" Gavin asks, his smile still on display. Meanwhile, he's continually looking around, trying to catch sight of anyone that appears of more interest than the bartender.

[Brennor]

Gavin looks around the place. It isn't packed, yt, but there are several people strewn about in a variety of morphs. Many of them are definitely scum -- this barge is the best kind of place to find them, however, there are a couple of people that are definitely standouts: a ruster morph, the bright red skin of the Mars-dwellers is a standout, and an uplifted gorilla. The latter is speaking with two scummers in pretty standard morphs. This one happens to be mostly white, but with a black crown and black fingers.

The bartender replies while Gavin is taking in the sights. "Can't be goin' wrong with the local brew. Doesn't really have a name, but they make it all right here on this ship. I also make a mean Pink Sphincter."

Muse countdown: 1h 35m

[TetNak]

"Pink Schincter?" Gavin asks, "No thanks, I will take the other -- local brew." Once served, Gavin wastes no time in meandering over to the ruster morph. When close, he gives a slight nod, "Ni Hao," and looks around as if lost or looking for something.

[Brennor]

The bartender nods. "Coming right up." It only takes him a few seconds to draw the brew into a mug for Gavin and hand it over. It is a rich brown in color. The bartender then sends a transaction request to Gavin's muse, which handles it automatically, since it was monitoring Gavin's interactions. In the corner of his view, the Muse throws up a status message: Credits: -2.

He then approaches the ruster morph, drinking alone at a table, though there are a few others nearby at other tables. The ruster looks up from his drink, noting the lost appearance of Gavin. "Ni Hao." He takes a swig from his mug, apparently the same stuff Gavin is drinking. "You need help finding something?"

Muse Countdown: 1h 33m

[TetNak]

"Yes," Gavin says, "Actually I am." He leans against the wall nonchalantly, "I am looking for someone who sells something, but, something to, well, protect themselves. You know anyone like that?"

[Brennor]

The ruster morph glances around the bar as Gavin speaks up. "Perhaps..." He lets his voice trail off as he speaks. Noone is paying attention to the duo yet though. Perhaps this is an ok place to discuss items for personal protection anyways.

"What are you looking for? Something big? Small?"

Muse Countdown: 1h 32m

[TetNak]

Gavin smiles, "Big. Bigger the better, in fact." Gavin tries to act as nonchalant about it as possible.