Gaming w/Jemal: Mutant Apocalypse Issue 2: Vegas!

[Jemal]

<Frost & Laura>
Frost and Laura make it back to the hotel without incident, and after setting the groceries down, Laura takes off to the casino.

Frost's cheerful call seems to fall on deaf ears as Felix and Terry are deep in their projects. He finishes unpacking, thankful that he'd been the one holding the ice cream - even after being pressed against his frozen flesh, it was near to melting from the hot desert sun as he puts it in the freezer.

<Laura>
Back downstairs, Laura easily finds herself directions to casinos, as well as a few offers for company. One man in particular seems particularly persuasive, engaging her in conversation for several minutes as they discuss the area, nearby places to eat and gamble, and whether she'd like to accompany him to a poker game. She's not sure why, but she's very drawn to this man, and trusts him.

OOC: BBs, Laura has failed a Will save (By 2 degrees) against an Affliction. The power is subtle and insidious, so Laura has no idea that anythings been done to her. This is a 'unique' condition, You're still in control of her, but are essentially 'charmed' (To use the D&D term). Also I've added a custom modifier that increases the time between saves by 3 ranks. (1/minute for current condition) Until further notice, please just go along with it but be 'yourself'.

 

[Jemal]

<Grid>
[sblock=computer]
Genie pauses for a while at Grid's request "I.. I can't let you meet them, not yet. They're too convinced that you guys are bad, they don't even know I'm talking to you. They'd be mad at me, they'd say I'm jeopardizing us all." She looked down, pouting a bit. "But maybe I can help you. Maybe we can work together and show them that we can be trusted?"
[/sblock]

Grid's work at the computer absorbs him completely, back to his hacker days, back to when he could be one with the computer WITHOUT transforming into lightning. It's rather elating, to be able to get back in that grove, so much so that he barely registers Frost's return with the groceries.

After a few hours of work, Grid has been able to thoroughly scout out the lab's computer defenses. There are a few cracks that he may be able to exploit, and he's gotten access to all of their less-secured files, as well as discovering that the internal network used for the more clandestine research projects is a closed server with no exterior or wireless access. If he could get inside, he would be able to find his way in.

OOC: OK, Grid's got access to all the security and information from the ground floor up. Everything below that is closed and unhackable - at least remotely. Between what he gets and what Felix sees on the surveillance, they are able to comprise the schedule of those working in the upper floors, and deduce an idea of personnel and security below that, based off those Felix saw that aren't present up stairs.

 

[Jemal]

*Reposted in case you missed it*
<Cass/Uomo>
The Intrepid Investigators head out to find the target that Grid had acquired for them, and soon find themselves at a Vegas Burlesque show/private club to speak with the one who seemed most likely to talk. The duo manages to talk their way into the back to speak to 'Sapphire', one of the evening desk clerks, as she is about to start her night job.
She is initially wary of their presence, but after some sweet talking and promises to keep her an 'anonymous source', she agrees to answer their questions.. so long as they're willing to pay for the time. (Lap dances optional)

[sblock=ooc]
Apologies to VV/Shayuri, I'd meant Persuasion, not Insight. I'll just use your rolls for Insight and substituted your Persuasion modifiers. That gives Cass a 15 (Two degrees success) and Uomo a 23 (With the Team Bonus). DC was 25, but I'm giving a +2 circumstance bonus for the pair's access to 'contacts, well informed, etc' and let them drop a few names to convince their way in.
Sorry for the confusion.
Also with the 4(!) degrees of success from Cass, your Investigation total is 33. Question away!
[/sblock]

 

[BBs]

Laura agrees to playing with the man at poker, and lets the man lead on to their destination by his side.

OOC: Assuming we go play poker, my question still stands on using that luck advantage for hitting the jackpot, though that's if we do have a good game of poker.

 

[Zerith]

[sblock=OoC] R.L.M. For the fail ^_^;
Don’t have internet at my new place yet.. so yeah, it will be a while longer before I’m back up to speed on my posts ^_^; [/sblock]

Frost’s comment finally registered, and it annoyed Felix, but not for the obvious reason.
At the time Felix was perched in front of the TV with a distinct amount of ‘feline grace’ before he turned his head towards Frost and cocked it the side, his cloths were basically little more than draped over his animal form; then he shifted into his neutral form, filled out his cloths enough that they were in no danger of falling off and paused the TV before standing up and approaching the kitchen and Frost.

“Back home?” Felix spoke, as if it made no sense and he was trying to figure it out, yet his tone and expression betrayed that he was simply annoyed by it, and he was about to explain why “just say one or the other. I mean, that would be like me saying ‘I’m Hast Quick!’ or Terry saying ‘I’m a hacker And I’m good with compu-“ Felix started to rant before he remembered that frost left for groceries.
[FONT=&quot]A district glimmer of glee shined in his eyes as a reflective green light was briefly caught in his pupils; he was restrained only so much that he did not make an “Eiiieeeee!” of a delighted squeal as he held his hand together beneath his face briefly, before dashing into the kitchen and then whizzing around as he started his preparations, then, however, it became apparent that he was looking for something that he simply could not find; while before he would open a cabinet or the fringe he would always either close it immediately, or yank something out as he almost skipped about, he was instead taking a few seconds to look through each and every nook and cranny in the kitchen in a slightly more frantic manner.

Felix soon stood right in front of Frost, and did his best to feign a happy smile, a brief glance over his head and to his splayed tail however, or to thelow-fat cake mix in his hands, that he was nearly kneading with his clawed hands and spreading to ribbons, betrayed that he was very much not pleased, his smile was also cracked and failing miserably to display honest contentment with the situation. “I can understand if something just have to be subbed out...” he started, he was being painfully polite, Frost did him a large favor and he knew it, but at the same time.. he was very, very annoyed at the results. “But…” he continued on as a not too tiny amount of venom came through his tone “It seems like a health food nut, with very picky taste buds, did the shopping ann~” Felix went on before it dawned on him who Frost was with… then instead of simply having his tail puffed out in aggravation, he recalled some of the foods Laura had bought in the past… and Frost seemed the passive type… so Laura would have gotten her way on just about everything… and it was Felix’s fought that she was allowed to interpret the list as she pleased because Felix never told frost that the list was explicit…

For a rage filled moment Felix stood still and did not make a sound, as he clamped down onto this lower lip between his teeth, inadvertently showing off his canines, and throated the helpless box of cake mix.
He then breathed deeply in and out, before counting to ten, in German, as he got back to work in the kitchen. And murmuring to himself in yet more German.
He blitzed around, going from the top of a stool to a chair as he minced chopped and filled a pot with water.
Felix then looked back to Frost with cheeks puffed “it will take about a half hour for everything to cook.” He said in a near pouting voice.

No mushrooms? He could live with that… but why the whole gran noodles? Low fat, soy, milk!?! Splenda?!?!? ‘Why!!!’
[/FONT]

 

[Shayuri]

*Reposted in case you missed it*
<Cass/Uomo>
The Intrepid Investigators head out to find the target that Grid had acquired for them, and soon find themselves at a Vegas Burlesque show/private club to speak with the one who seemed most likely to talk. The duo manages to talk their way into the back to speak to 'Sapphire', one of the evening desk clerks, as she is about to start her night job.
She is initially wary of their presence, but after some sweet talking and promises to keep her an 'anonymous source', she agrees to answer their questions.. so long as they're willing to pay for the time. (Lap dances optional)

[sblock=ooc]
Apologies to VV/Shayuri, I'd meant Persuasion, not Insight. I'll just use your rolls for Insight and substituted your Persuasion modifiers. That gives Cass a 15 (Two degrees success) and Uomo a 23 (With the Team Bonus). DC was 25, but I'm giving a +2 circumstance bonus for the pair's access to 'contacts, well informed, etc' and let them drop a few names to convince their way in.
Sorry for the confusion.
Also with the 4(!) degrees of success from Cass, your Investigation total is 33. Question away!
[/sblock]

Cassandra let Uomo have the camera for this, since she was taking the lead for a little bit. She fell easily into an 'interview' persona. It had never been her specialty, but it didn't take many to fall into a particular rhythm of speech and posture.

Making sure Uomo didn't look like the camera was on, she spoke to Sapphire.

"Thanks very much for agreeing to see us. I know your time is valuable so I'll get to the point. I'm investigating allegations of environmental and health code violations at the laboratories you work at. I'd like you to be a source for that investigation. I can offer complete anonymity; your name will not be cited or even recorded, and your face and voice will be digitally altered to conceal your identity on the base footage so no unaltered copy will exist. And of course, the financial incentive we discussed earlier."

"During the course of your employment, have you seen or heard anything that's led you to believe the lab is performing dangerous, possibly illegal experimentation?"

As an interview question, it was terrible. Vague, and infused with inflamatory and leading language. She knew that...but since she was fishing for information, she needed to cut some corners. The question was meant to get Sapphire excited...get her gossiping. Get her free-associating and speculating. Bad for journalism, but good for people who just wanted something, anything, to go on.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Uomo maintained a solemnity expression in his face, uncommon for the jovial old man. He left the camera on his lap, pointing at another direction. He used the time to appreciate the girl, she was nice to the eyes, to say the least.

 

[jkason]

[sblock=computer]"Well, you're not the only one with cautious friends," he responds. "But let's see what we can work out, and maybe we'll make ourselves some inroads," he says, trying to be supportive of Genie while remaining noncommital.[/sblock]

Terry's attention returned to the world slowly. It had always taken him awhile to reassimilate with the outside when he'd been in the zone so long; being able to connect so much more intimately with his abilities made the transition all the more difficult. It took him a moment to register that Frost was back; another to realize Felix was in some kind of tizzy. The cat-man had retreated to the kitchen by the time Terry finally had himself together.

"I ... missed something, didn't I?" he says blearily. "Sorry about that. I can get a bit tunnel-visioned, but it payed off, after a fashion. I'm in as far as I can get from here," he says. "What we're after is offline, standalone stuff. Which makes it all the more suspicious."

 

[Zerith]

Felix eyed Terry, checks still puffed, Terry had unwittingly made himself an out lite, Felix then depuffed his checks and grew an overly serous tone as he said “What you missed is serous. We’re dealing wii –th! Lowfatingredients-and Splenda!!!” he spoke very quickly towards the end before saying Splenda as if it was some kind of evil entity that must be destroyed at all costs.
Felix then turned back to tending the white sauce and grumbling to himself “Why you would replace real sugar with something that uses chlorine in its creation process… bah, why can’t people just watch the raw number of calories they eat and how many they burn off…”

 

[Jemal]

<Burlesque (Uomo & Cass)>
Sapphire's eyes widened a bit "Illegal experimentation? Oh my, I've heard rumours of some strange things going on in the lower levels, but not exactly that! Well I tell you it wouldn't surprise me, the security they have there, and how wound up those scientists are! Did you know I've had to change clubs TWICE in the last year because they found out where I worked and kept harassing me for 'co-worker discounts'? Some of'em are nice enough, but most of those higher-security types act like they're so damned important."
She looks over at Uomo, noticing his gaze. "Not much for a cameraman to do in this interview is there? How bout I keep you entertained while I answer your questions? Tell you what, first one's free since You guys're paying for the time anyways." She winks at the old man, smiling warmly.

OOC: Actually the camera would have been left at the door, places like this wouldn't want any photographs taken.