Session Date: 01/17/2025
Tuesday, September 19th, 2045
Emerick
Emerick’s story breaks and does very well and hits a city level readership. Phoenix reaches out to congratulate him and hypes him up. They talk about it a little while and Emerick thanks her for her help, and admits she did help with it.
Phoenix is who found the possible new band manager, and he responded and is very interested. He’s seen all the great work that the band has been doing in the meantime. He confirmed to be there to see the first performance.
Most of Emerick’s morning is dealing with the fame of his new article and sorting through the notifications and various few people who knows his publishing name. He’s getting corpos and news groups wanting to help support him and publish him.
Emerick can hear Ogre’s footsteps and there’s some knocks, with Juice and Ogre at the door. The two enter the room. Juice comments on Emerick’s newfound fame, and admits he should be thankful for the connections he does has, then explains he expects Emerick to advertise the band tonight. The venue will open at 5pm, so Emerick should be there at 4pm. Emerick confirms.
Juice leaves and actually gets into his car and leaves the property.
Seo finally shows back up after being gone a few days. They hug tightly and then sit down to have coffee. Seo explains he had a conversation with Juice, and Seo knows things about him now and Juice is going to try to squeeze that out of him. Seo has unintentionally played his hand and showed his cards that he’s a corpo and has a lot of money, and didn’t know that Juice was able to witness all of it. Now Juice knows just how much money is in his house that he can control.
Seo was likely here because of Ri in the past - and that made sense - but now that Juice knows everything he has an individual stake in all of this. Seo reassures Emerick that he was okay, but he had to make some arrangements and make sure things are where they need to be.
Emerick picks up on the fact that Seo is moving and acting strangely - something about him is really off, but it doesn’t seem to be cyberware related.
Seo admits he’s feeling far better about things now and he’s excited for the concert and to play and he hopes it’ll be a good time. Alice comes in from outside and sees the two of us. She immediately runs up to Seo and gives him a big hug, asking where he was. Seo explains he had some errands to run, and Alice says that they need to pack up and head out soon. Seo nods and is agreeable to all of this.
Emerick goes to help the band pack things up for the show. Ri is very hyper during this process. Very. Hyper. He is all over the place and speeding through any conversation he has with anyone. Emerick isn’t sure what it is, but this is definitely the most intense high that Ri has ever been on. He’s a bit much at the moment. Charley is looking pretty confident at the moment. Alice is chill - happy, having a great time.
The practice area is one of the garages in the warehouse and it’s a very large area with a makeshift stage. There are rows of seats and a chill-out lounge area with a shitty table and some couches. There’s a mini fridge and stuff, speakers everywhere, the instruments on the stage, a sick sound system. It definitely has a garage band with a few shiny toys vibe.
Juice had been able to procure actual band transportation units to help transport all of the units and trucks. This is a pretty slick, professional setup - surprising that Juice spent some money on this, but it’s clear that Juice wants everything to go right with this.
Text from Juice to Everyone Else
Juice texts everyone to let them know that the venue opens at 5, the band sets up at 1, and he wants everyone to show up as early as they can. Do not be later than 5.
Ryne
Ryne has no specific orders from Juice today, and so Ryne helps Emerick and the band move their things to the venue.
Sulfur
Sulfur is at home in his apartment. He’s taking things easy to try to heal up while also lightly reviewing his case files.
Radio comms:
Sulfur did get one radio communication from Elsie. She hops on the comms and asks what’s going on. The two are surprised the other is alive, and Sulfur explains he left the agency for reasons. Sulfur asks who answered the dispatch 2 days ago; she explains that it’s Copper and Darby - the new enforcer and tactician respectively. Copper is still proving himself and Darby has been… He’s a wildcard, thinks everything’s an action movie. He comments that the two shouldn’t be answering random calls, but Elsie says that it’s what they’re here for. Sulfur explains that he really does owe her one, and to tell her lead that he’ll do a favor. Elsie says that Sulfur already knows who the lead is, and Sulfur is amazed that the same lead is still in place.
Sulfur reads the message from Juice about the times and responds with a thumbs up, and then collects his things so that he can head over later.
Saint
Chills until it’s time to head over.
Net
Net receives the text and looks over his busted van and the parts Charley bought to help fix it and he realizes he won’t be able to do anything meaningful to the car before it’s time to head to the venue. He goes out and gets some food and arrives at the venue around 1-2.
Emerick & Ryne
While they’re helping out with the band, around noon they finish packing up. In the few hours of packing up, everyone is genuinely having a good time. Juice is gone, everyone’s shooting the shit, and - strangely enough, weirdly enough, almost concerningly enough - Ri is trying a lot to have a good time with Ryne. It’s almost as if Ri has completely forgotten what had happened two days prior.
Ryne, for his part, is very chill - he doesn’t mind what happened. He’s having a good time despite it all.
Charley is being the old leader, reminiscing over the small shows they have done, their early garage band days. Alice is sharing all of the embarrassing stories that the band has had over the years. One of the funny moments was actually Seo’s initiation: when Alice hypes it up, Seo immediately begs her not to (playfully).
Alice had compiled a memeified montage of all of Seo’s initiation - him trying out, interviewing him as if it performer’s commentary of themselves in a show. He showed up in a button up t-shirt and a tie - nice clothing. He showed up with his bass and Ri showed up with his sticks. They were trying to interview and the embarrassing thing came after they’d joined. Alice had pranked Seo by jokingly taking sharpie to his face and drawing on it.
We do finish packing everything up. Powder runs out and gives us all hugs and wishes us all good luck. She says that she and Crack Pipe will be there soon to cheer them all on. Powder is a little emotional about it, genuinely happy to see her friends and family achieve their dreams. Crack Pipe does come out as well and he goes to Charley and hands Charley a phone - not an Agent, but a disposable phone with tech so old that they’re unsure it can even handle phone calls.
After that, Crack Pipe and Powder approach Emerick and shower him with praise - well, everyone showers him in praise - over his story. Embarrassed, he thanks them and tries to wave them all off and play down his story.
The Venue
They make it to the venue and they meet the bartender. She’s very interesting: she has mantis legs and is around 8’ tall, with cyberarms that are elongated to match her height. She goes into one of her offices and replaces her limbs to speak with us on a more even level and so she’s not so intimidating. Her “regular” cyberlimbs are a very sleek bronze color, and also very slender framed, like the rest of her. They are very elegant.
Her name is Alva.
She welcomes us and tells us where to set up. If we need anything, she does have things being stocked up in the backstage rooms. If there’s anything we need that’s unavailable, she will help us out the best she can. Charley talks to her most of the time since Juice is not yet present.
The rest of the group trickles in. Around 2, Net shows up and sees the band setting things up. By the time he arrives, the bar manager has her mantis legs and long arms back on. He explains that he’s with the band and sees everyone working, then goes to help set up the lighting and sound. Everyone says hi to Net when they see him. Net approaches Emerick and gives him a tap on the shoulder and tells him nice work, then goes back to his techie work.
Saint arrives next, a couple hours later, and compliments the bar manager’s cyberlimbs. She has the contact info for the guy who does it and gives it to Saint. The contact makes custom cyberlimbs and prices start at 5,000 eds, with the price escalating pending on complexity. He is awed by this, but eventually makes his way back to help where he can.
Around 4pm or so, the staff trickle in for their shifts. All of the staff have bronze cyberlimbs and we all collectively realize that the theme of this bar is a really nice, shiny bronze. All of the staff have these limbs as a sort of uniform. They all have the machined plating, and pending the position the machining changes - front of house has design package A, back of house has design package B, management has design package C, etc.
Sulfur arrives next, seeing all of the people that are here. Sulfur doesn’t even register how tall the bar manager is, forgoing it to scan around everything to see where everything is at. He does a security scan and locates some potential exits should shit go south, and he points it all out to Charley to let him know.
At some point, Charley looks at Emerick and approaches. Charley says that Seo has told him what’s found out - it complicates things, but he can figure out how to work with it. He does acknowledge that what’s going on absolutely sucks, but it is what it is.
The bar takes up about a quarter of the bar itself, and there’s a section for old tech to be shown off - scraps of the original Arasaka tower, a piece of a bomb shell that had gone off, etc. From the entrance there are two rows of tables going down the way. The overall bar is a cool place to go to with a neat vibe of standing alone, and celebrates the history of tech and the like.
Juice finally shows his face around 4:30pm and greets everyone. He goes into the back and sees everyone setting things up, and is pleased. He says that he will go set up the market in the back room, and warns he will call on some of us to help.
Alva makes her way back out from her office and has put on her outfit for the concert. She’s wearing very elegant attire that fits within the bronze and rust vibe. It has a flowy piece of a dress that attaches to her wrists and extends out like wings. The dress itself has the tech to change the color and appearance to what she needs, so the dress shifts appearance all night.
The news is on at one point while Emerick walks out to take a break, and there’s a lawyer on the news discussing the article from the blogger Ghost Light. The lawyer doesn’t mince words: this is an incredibly damning article, and if things went to the courts then it would be very one-sided. The bar manager is watching this story with him, and she comments that it’s nice that there’s some good person out there that publishes things like this. The two comment on how it’s nice to have hope that people like that can live in this city, and hopefully more stories like this can come out.
It comes out that Audun has stepped down from his position, and Mr. Steele hasn’t been found since the story released. Audun, of course, is denying his connections to everything involved despite everyone knowing it’s him. The police chief clearly has a lawyer present for all of this.
Emerick can feel Mr. Steele’s gaze as if he were standing in the crowd watching, and it occurs to him that Mr. Steele is pissed and this check will eventually cash itself.
Emerick finishes his drink and heads back to the back to help. Juice gathers us all up at 5 when the venue opens and says that it’s time, and he doesn’t want us to make a fool of ourselves. He wants this to go smooth. It’s short and to the point.
The Night Market is open and ready for us to buy whatever we want from it.
Ri, Seo, Emerick (& Ryne, later)
Ri and Seo are together for most of the night, and Ri is clearly coming down and is getting twitchy. Seo is there to babysit while Ri’s energy dissipates and his personality grows a little more subdued. Seo looks worried but it’s not an emergency situation.
Emerick goes and talks with them and offers to get them something if they want anything. Ri starts to perk up and Seo speaks over him to say that Ri needs something to pick him up, but there isn’t any good options here. As Emerick talks and tries to go around this, Ryne comes up with two baggies of Synthcoke. Seo steps between Ri and Ryne, saying this isn’t what’s needed right now. Seo seems pretty adamant while Ri looks like a helpless puppy at the moment, not speaking up for himself.
Ryne tries to hand it off to Seo and he refuses. Ryne tries to hand it off to Emerick, and Seo steps between the two yet again, clearly getting agitated. Emerick asks if Ri can get through the show without it, and if now is the time to stand firm on this. Seo stands very firm and is starting to get rather agitated, so Emerick backs down. Ryne says that Ri definitely knows Ri better than us, and basically says that Ri has already taken a bump, and he needs more to keep stable. Seo says that he understands, but he doesn’t think he should enable the behavior.
Ryne shrugs and says aight, then walks off and passes the extra baggie of synthcoke off to Saint to hold.
Phoenix is here and eventually makes her way to Emerick and introduces Kade Sredex. He extends a hand is happy to meet Emerick, and Emerick shakes his hand and introduces himself.
Kade is well-dressed. Perhaps top five well-dressed in the entire venue. There’s a little smalltalk and then Seo and Ri borrow Kade to introduce him to the entire band.
Phoenix, a bar, Emerick, Net, and Sulfur
Phoenix invites Emerick to a drink before the show starts.
Phoenix hands Emerick a book that is from a private journalist that is pretty well-known, but not particularly mainstream. There are occasional stories that make it big. This is his most recent release: another book in the media world, this talks about new things going on in the media industry. Things he’s struggled with, things that’ve worked, things that were left out of articles, etc - sort of an autobiography of sorts since his last one.
She says it’s something that she thinks Emerick will really like. She opens it up to the author credit and it’s signed. Emerick hugs her and gives her a thousand thanks, and the two admit they consider each other friends and are very warm with each other. She invites him to a drink and he takes it.
They talk back and forth for a while, and Net eventually joins. Emerick shifts the discussion to the car he inherited from Omen and how he is going to learn to drive from Powder and Crack Pipe, but surely Net could help him add some upgrades. Net is excited about this, and Phoenix offers up a car heist job that could net them some money. The two agree excitedly, and Net says Emerick can drive to the place, and Net can drive away from the place.
Sulfur then joins in and Emerick warmly introduces Phoenix to Sulfur. Sulfur actually knows Phoenix - he’s been reading her articles for a while - and the two talk back and forth a little. Phoenix admits she’s working on a story re: a gang with tax evasion, and Net (through some questioning) realizes that it’s not his Santo Domingo Duendecitos. Phoenix notices Net’s sweating, but doesn’t pursue it.
We all talk for a while and eventually Alva makes it up on stage and she preps us for the actual show, announcing Curb Stomping Word Vomit. The band comes out and Charley takes the mic and introduces the band, and tells everyone to have fun.
Ryne
Ryne is standing near the entrance of the bar with a drink. He’s keeping an eye open for Mr. Steele and doesn’t see anyone that matches the description of him.
Emerick
Emerick’s doing his media thing and is recording the show as a media. He does a passable job - enough that Juice will be fine with it.
Phoenix is having fun, not acting as a media tonight. She’s there as a friend and not as competition or an associate.
Sulfur
Sulfur stays near the front and keeps an eye on the crowd. He’s smoking a cigar and making sure things are more or less okay.
Net
Net’s in the pit moshing, leaving his jacket in the back. While he’s in the pit, he’s keeping an eye open for anyone that might want to cause problems, and he’ll drag anyone that is a problem out of the pit.
He opens up the pit and the next thing he knows he accidentally takes someone out.
Saint
Saint is vibing and then sees that a pit’s opened up. He grumbles about the fact that he’s going to have to take care of people, but he positions himself close enough to do some first aid should it be needed.
As the concert continues…
As things continue, everyone begins to get more rowdy.
Saint does his line of synthcoke and WOW his mind is EXPANDED. He joins the mosh pit and does just as much as Net in the PIT.
Emerick continues working and is getting good footage of the band. Some 45 mins in the concert people get rowdy.
After Net does some crowdsurfing (that Emerick recorded, of course), he gets his coat from the back and starts to warm the bar with a drink.
Intermission
Emerick goes with the group and shares what he’s found and they sort through what footage they like and don’t like.
Saint is jittery and paranoid, noticing everyone’s worried. Saint goes to buy more synthcoke and Juice stops him and says that if he’s looking for a good time, there’s something he can try. Juice pulls out some of the city center synthcoke - the red stuff. Saint isn’t so sure, and Juice offers him a line of it. Saint takes it and after taking the bump, his world seems quiet: he hits this almost tranquility where everything seems to slow down just a little bit, and he feels calm - he’s moving so fast, everything feels slow.
Net sits down at the bar and Phoenix has had quite a few drinks - she’s annoyingly hype by the time the band comes back out. She is definitely drunk, and her chaotic side has come out. Her energy is at a 20 while the band’s is at a 10.
Back to the Band Performing & Concert Ending
Charley comes out and says it’s time to light this place up. In one motion, he pours alcohol over his head and - none of us noticed this before due to the realskinn - but his jaw unhinges and he has a fire breather! Charley breathes fire up and goes into the next song with a heavy-ass start.
Mr. Steele doesn’t show up during the concert at all. Juice approaches us and asks us to help clean up.
Emerick shows what footage he has to the band like he did in intermission, and the band gives his input. Emerick also is gay with Seo and offers some comfort and kindness to Ri, who definitely hears what he’s saying and while it makes no difference now, may make a difference later.
We’re the last ones left along with a few employees that are left over after things are cleaned up. Ryne feels some motion, and then he feels an awful lot of motion. Emerick is walking toward the front to head out and he hears footsteps and is confused that it’s not Ogre’s footsteps. He opens the door and see Mr. Steele outside the door, mechanical gaze staring down at him. He’s wearing a trench coat as he opens his arms and says, to Emerick, “there’s the blueberry shitstain on my career”. He grabs Emerick and throws him at the bar. Emerick is clearly shook and winded, but he gets up without a scratch on him.