The people in this building seem mostly pretty mundane to AM’s asensing. Oh, the chubby elf had a datajack and the security guy had some muscle and bone-ware, and some of the others in the room had cyber eyes or datajacks, but except for the woman talking to Mato nothing extensive or a major combat issue. There were two other awakened in the room, the orc addressing AM currently and boyish looking human man who had just a flicker of a gift, and a depressed aura.

There was not so much a bar as a table just outside the door into the large kitchen, with a couple of people selling drinks from it– one of them the sad seeming awakened. The orc procures a couple of beer, hands one to AM, and then replies “Money’s a lousy way to prioritize rare gifts. Ends up with the richest hogging all the best minds and spirits, but not really using them. If we had a central authority who could really martial the awakened to work together, we could make the Ghost Dance look like a kids’ dance recital. And the advances we could have in science with some mandated cooperation. Wouldn’t you rather be part of something with a real purpose, instead of whatever it is you do to ‘get by’ now?”

Meanwhile, Mato’s conversation partner had introduced herself as Greta, and was stroking a fingernail along Mato’s exposed leg in an almost intimate way “They are so sleek, so perfect. How could anyone prefer flesh over something so artistic and so powerful?” Mato was a bit distracted by the realization that fingernail was far to sharp to be strictly biological. Even for him walking around with exposed blades on one or more fingers seemed perhaps a bit out there. “We need to stand up for the right to seek out personal improvement, whatever its form, else only a few lackeys of those in charge would get beautiful work like those.”

Upstairs, Bobby was in the realm of guesswork. The magic didn’t taste like any that he’d been in close contact with before. It certainly wasn’t Sioux or more general shamanism, but lacked the dryness of hermetic magic. This magic tasted of lusts and emotions and fear. Probably closer to shamanism, but yet not the same. Possibly one of the traditions from further south?