Found Arcana – Chapter 4 IC
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Found Arcana – Chapter 4 IC
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Mato nods.
“Alright. I’ll drive the Americar, if only because I don’t fully trust the autopilot, nor do I want to come back to Tacoma to get it. I’ll meet you at the gallery.
“Let’s think about how we talk him down. Jawsey, I presume you’ll want me on point, as I’m more bullet-proof that you are. Not bullet-proof. Bullet resistant, let’s say.
“If Liam got into the building then we should be able to. And if the building is going through renovations then that might give us some leeway if things get loud. Flash bangs and such. But hopefully it doesn’t come to that.
“This could be as easy as knocking on the door. But let’s keep an eye open for traps and improvised explosives. We know what he did in the gallery; something similar could be guarding his flank. Let’s also get astral eyes on that creepy statue and see if it’s still doing its thing and, if so, if it’s affecting Liam.”
Mato climbs out of the Hyundai and heads to the Ford. He then starts the drive back Downtown.
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AM follows
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Once close to the building “Jawsei, you want to talk to him? I can probably do it as well but he dislikes elves, and you can pass as human, I can keep watch over you perhaps invisible.”
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Before talking let me go scout astrally. See if I can make out any additional details of the room, and more importantly try to get a more refined read on his emotional state.. And first let me try for a new spirit.
It takes only a moment and goes smoothly, and one of the hunter brothers is ready in the astral to help him go look at the room. Jawsey tells it to examine the man and the room and pass on its observations to Jawsey, but not to go through the man. The Hunter Brother looks at Jawsey with that “are you really telling me how to stalk prey” look, so Jawsey just abandons his body and guides the spirit to the room.
Despite the attitude, the spirit does a good job pointing things out from its own point of view, plus casting the light of its own unique aura on the room to provide better astral illumination than would be present otherwise. It’s experienced eye helps Jawsey calm down and really observe things carefully to make as much sense as possible of the situation. The spirit’s admiration for the motionless sniper rapidly grow grating, however, so as soon as he is done his examination, Jawsey dismisses the spirit and returns to his body.
“OK, I took a look, this is what I saw.”
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The unfurnished room looked cluttered on the astral – grey shapes over grey shapes – with the only two things really shining being Liam and his rifle.
Liam was still and his emotional state looked to be pretty calm and centered. It was obviously something he had done before. There was no magic influence to be found about him. From the gallery there was no sign of anything having changed.By now the sky had gotten lighter again – the night was almost over and traffic was picking up.
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AM says “Mato, can I share a bit of magic with you?” She extends her hand to him, and says “Grab on, close your eyes and focus.” The casting itself is without a hitch “It grants you another sense, and you can move your awareness in any direction that you want and “Know” what is there. Use it to watch Liam before you enter the apartment. Make sure it is not a trap or anything.”
Spoiler: -
Mato’s instinctive reaction is to be apprehensive about being the target of spellcasting, but this Tatanka thing whispering advice in his ear for the last hour has been fragging great so he eagerly follows AM’s instructions and closes his eyes.
Is she going to make me smart?!? he wonders to himself.
No, she is not going to make him smart. Instead, she rips his eyeballs out and make them float around his head, metaphorically speaking.
“Ooo,” he says, disoriented by the sensation. He instinctively opens his eyes but that does precisely nothing, as his prior sense of sight has been overridden for the time being. He blinks a few times but the new sense of vision remains.
“It grants you another sense, and you can move your awareness in any direction that you want,” AM explains. Mato tries it, swooping his field of vision around his body like a paparazzi drone following around the latest young starlet.
“What’s this color?” he asks, bewildered.
“Ultraviolet,” AM answers, explaining that it’s tetrachromatic vision.
“I should’ve been a poet,” Mato whispers, mostly to himself, as he holds up a cybernetic hand and examines it like a stoner.
It takes him a minute, but soon he catches on to the possibilities. He sends his vision ‘up’ in the the air, then swooping ‘down’ like a roller coaster. He cackles to himself as he gets a handle on his new capabilities.
“Okay, here I go,” he announces before getting out of the car. He uses his radar sensors to make sure he doesn’t get smashed by a bus while crossing the street, distracted as he is by his new powers.
He sends his vision ahead to the front door of the apartment building. There he covertly spies someone pushing a button on the call box. The door buzzes open immediately with no intercom verification of who is at the front door.
Just try it, Tatanka suggests as Mato gets to the front door himself. Could be a party with lots of people coming and going. Won’t hurt to try.
Mato stabs the same button and is buzzed in just as quickly as the first person. He opens the door – missing the door handle with his hand the first time before successfully centering himself and grabbing it the second time – and enters the lobby. Ignoring the elevator, he finds the stairs and takes them up to the fourth floor.
Mato walks down the middle of the hallway, his balance still a little off-center due his vision following him like a third-person shooter video game. He does pause and take a minute to peek at the units he passes, trying to get a sense of who might be there and what sort of collateral damage there might be if a fight breaks out.
Finally he gets to Liam’s flat. He scopes out the room with his cryptesthesia, taking special care to examine the area around the hallway door. He also pauses to use his olfactory boosters, trying to smell if there are any explosives near the door, or if Liam might have brought some inside with him.
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AM follows Mato, keeping safe distance behind them. She suppresses a chuckle when Mato fails to grab the door handle “What is the matter with you” she thinks, but the Trickster has a sense of humor- and he wants her to laugh with him. Still, AM knows better than to give-in to totem – there are two people in a relationship. As respectful as she is, so should Iktomi be to her needs. “Mato was kind taking the spellwork on himself, I might have been distracted by the technical stuff.”
AM is sustaining both spells is difficult for her, and she feels a bit distracted – as if trying to do breaking and entering while replying to posts on social media. She does want be close if it turns to be a violent encounter, but would prefer to remain out of sight, otherwise.
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Mato holds up a hand to AM, trying to keep her out of the line-of-fire in case Liam loses his drek and starts shooting through walls.
While Mato uses his new sense to examine the other side of the door, his mind keeps going back to his copy of of Sun Tzu for Gonks:
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Know thyself, know thy enemy.
The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy.
<<You said there’s a camera, right? Can we hack it and have it show a picture of Kate instead of a live stream? So that if we knock and he checks the camera, he sees Kate? Or do we think that would incite him rather than disarm him? Maybe a picture of his sister instead, someone he has to live for.>>
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Mato’s search revealed a suspicious packet placed next to the door and indeed, if the door would be opened, the packet was likely moved.
Hacking the doorbell would be easy enough though.
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Mato sighs.
<<Package near the front door. I’ll try the knock-and-talk approach first. If that doesn’t work then… I guess I could go through the wall.>>
He uses his radar sensors to try to get a sense of how thick the walls are and where the easiest place to breach might be.
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<<Is he planning on shooting through the window, or does he have it cracked open? If the latter, I would let a spirit see inside and use its powers. Alternatively hold something up to block his shot. I can summon up a spirit with psychokinesis, to try and move that parcel — although that might be enough to set it off? Which I guess would probably keep him from shooting anyone, although it would not be as quiet as I’d like. >>
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<<There’s nothing to shoot right now until he’s going to start plinking early-morning commuters.>> Mato comms. <<But good thinking about having a spirit move the package. That’s a good option if we need to breach.>>
<<Alright, how about this:
Plan A is to knock and talk.
If that doesn’t work, Plan B is to use a spirit to muddle his thinking, or get him to see things our way.
Plan C is chuck and charge with a flash-bang.
Plan D is just overwhelming violence.>>
<<AM, I know your attention is divided right now. What’s the feasibility of getting a photo of his sister up on the camera feed?>>
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<font color=”#000010″>>> I can hack the doorbell – and present a camera feed if he has a camera. </font>
<font color=”#000010″>
Spoiler:<font color=”#000010″>Jack should I roll to hack the doorbell? Does it have a camera/screen?</font>
<font color=”#000010″></font>
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[Spoiler]
You can buy the necessary hits (2), no need to roll
[/Spoiler]
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AM texts “on it” abd then she hacks the doirbell. Making the small led monitor display one of the pictures of Liam’s sister as the caller.
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Mato could see how the door monitor changed and displayed the still photo. Liam didn’t notice and kept his focus outwards through the closed window and nearly drawn curtains.
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AM rings the doorbell in a rhythm that mimics one of her favorite pop songs.
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<<Here we go. Stay on this channel. If any of you silver-tongue types have advice on what to say, I’m all ears. Jawsey, be ready with that spirit if things go sour. AM, be ready to drop this ultraviolet vision in case I need to see with my own eyes.>>
Mato gets ready to knock. Standing a meter right of the door – reasoning that the wall might intercept bullets slightly better than the door will – he reaches out and is about to rap his cyberhand on the door when AM rings the doorbell instead. Mato shrugs and knocks anyway. He keeps his back to the wall so that his armored jacket can take any incoming fire.
“Liam! We need to talk!” he calls toward the door.
“We know who you are; we know why you’re here,” he continues, reasoning that it will take a minute to shake Liam out of his trance. “We want to talk and figure out a better way.”
He takes a breath; Tatanka suggests giving it a moment to sink in.
“I know you’re hurt, man. If what happened to you happened to me, I’d want to be right up there on that table with you.” Good, let him know that you know where he is, that you’re good at what you do. Make him doubt his position, to question his advantages. “But what you’re planning now is a waste; it won’t work.”
Mato takes another breath.
“We’re here to help. Not with your current plan, because that’s just a selfish suicide. We’re here to get you home to Ira. You can’t make anything up to her if you’re dead.
“There are better ways to do this. Patience and time are the best warriors. You’ll have another chance when the Shrike comes in. None of this one-and-done business. It’ll be just like Desert Wars; you can either get them all at once, or you can tag and track them down one by one.”
If Mato were a normal person, he might be horrified by what he’s suggesting. Instead he’s an impassive, amoral operative missing most of his soul, so it all sounds quite convincing to his ears.
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Mato was able to observe Liam’s reaction as it unfolded: Quicker than a rattlesnake, Liam had turned on the spot, leaving his rifle where it was, and had drawn a heavy pistol, aiming at the door.
When he saw his sister’s face on the display, he hesitated and doubt crept into his otherwise stony face.
As Mato continued with his speech, despair crept into it as well.
A full second went by after Mato had ended, before Liam answered:
“I swear to god, if you have done anything to Ira…He stopped and took another deep breath. “Ok, I get it. You could have killed me already, didn’t you? You knew my position, what I carry and what my targets are.
That means you want to take me alive, don’t you? And you know about the Shrike…
Who sent you, what do you want?”
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