From tbutler@birch.net Tue Oct 30 18:41:50 2001 Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 22:27:38 -0600 From: Travis Butler To: Philip J. Moyer , Chris Bremner Subject: [UnS] A Bar in Cairo... Beowulf says, "OOC Let's see, checked with the Amber library with no results, did as much analysis as I could on the Panopticon party attacks... anyplace else Bey would be familiar with that he could check for information? If not, prolly time to do the scouting in-person." John says, "OOC You really can't think of anyone who would probably have more information off the top of your head." John asks, "OOC Okay, I'm trying to remember...had you asked Shinobu Minor and Keitaro to help you yet? Or were you planning to ask them after you did your research?" Beowulf OOCly nods. "Haven't asked them yet; we weren't sure how the timesync would end up with Lian's mission." John says, "OOC They're back from her mission, so that's not a problem." Beowulf says, "OOC Right; probably trump them and ask them now, then." Shinobu Minor takes your call. "Hi, Uncle Beowulf. How are you?" She seems to be in a field somewhere. Beowulf waves. "Hi, Shinobu. How are things going with you?" She says, "Getting in a little fighting practice while Keitaro has a talk with his Aunt Haruka about something or another. How's things with you?" Beowulf says, "Not too bad; at least no immedate crises seem to be looming on the horizon. I've finally had time to do a bit of study on the black Pharoah, getting ready to take him down. I've got about as far as I can talking to folks..." He summarizes what he learned at Panopticon. Beowulf says, "It's time to go scouting the place in person; I was wondering if you and Keitaro would like to come along." Shinobu smiles. "Sure! We just finished helping Lian blow up some cyborgs, and I'm ready for more action." She says, "I'll have to make sure his family doesn't want him for something, but I think we should be able to come help." Beowulf raises his eyebrows, grinning a bit. "I see. You'll have to let me know how that went." He nods. "If you could let me or Lily know as soon as you find out, I'd be grateful." She nods. "I will. I should know in maybe an hour or so." Beowulf thanks Shinobu and closes the connection. John asks, "OOC Okay, you going to do anything while you wait or should we skim forward to her returning your call?" Beowulf asks, "OOC Probably stop back by Amber, pick up Lily, and let someone know what we're going to be up to. IIRC I let Tylor know I was starting to look into Mobius, right?" John says, "OOC Yes." Okay, you head back to Amber, get Lily, and let various folks know where you're going so they know where to find you. Beowulf OOCly nods. Then Shinobu calls you back. "Okay, we're ready." She holds out a hand towards you; you can see Keitaro has a hand on her shoulder. Beowulf pulls them through. "How've you been?" he asks Keitaro. Keitaro says, "Feeling better, thankfully." He continues, "I just hope we don't unleash any micro-black holes this time." Beowulf says, "...right." He winces slightly. "Running around with Lian is always... interesting." He says, "We set off the failsafes at BORG HQ, unfortunately." Tybalt wakes up. Beowulf says, "Oh, dear. Still, you're alive, and that counts for a lot." He gives them a surreptitous look-over, seeing if they're stressed or fairly relaxed. They both seem fairly relaxed. Shinobu asks, "So how are we getting where we're going?" Beowulf says, "Well, we could either trump to the closest place I can think of and shadowwalk from there, or I could Pattern-teleport to the closest safe shadow, pull you folks through, and shadowwalk from *there*." He looks slightly apologetic. "If we could take Lily and Keitaro through the latter way, I'd prefer it, but that's not possible unfortunately." Shinobu nods. "Well, I'd say Pattern Teleporting to the closest safe shadow, followed by trumping Lily and Keitaro seems pretty good to me, as the Pattern probably knows a better starting point than any of us do." Beowulf nods. "Good enough for me." He leads them to the Pattern chamber. You head down to the Pattern Chamber. You walk the Pattern. Nothing particularly interesting happens. You reach the center. So does Shinobu Minor. How do you phrase your request? Beowulf says, "OOC Probably 'a safe shadow that's the closest patternwalk to the home shadow of the Black Pharoah of the Black Heart prophecy,' unless Shinobu has a better idea." Beowulf OOCly ticks off... "Three conditions, doesn't sound like too much." It sounds good to Shinobu. The Pattern Swooshes you across Shadow, and the two of you land in a pile of garbage in a back alley. The shadow you're in looks to be 1930s, somewhere in the middle east, as you hear people speaking Arabic Beowulf first looks around quickly to see if there are any witnesses, then looks for a place where he could safely pull Lily and Keitaro through. No one is watching, so you pull them through without any trouble Beowulf checks the watch to see what powers are active, then does a preliminary 'tug' to see what direction the home shadow lies in. You get a directional fix. All powers are functional here; time is one to one with Amber Shizumaru has disconnected. Kuonji Ukyou wakes up. Beowulf nods. "Let's see what's out there, then start hellriding." Shinobu looks down at herself. "I think we could all stand to have some clothing that doesn't stand out." As her warrior hussy outfit doesn't quite match local standards... Beowulf nods. "OOC Shouldn't be too hard to peek out of the ally without being spotted, and see what kind of clothing to start with?" Beowulf says, "OOC Though with a few priestess-ly additions, I'd suspect her warrior hussy outfit would probably fit in fairly well in the Nile Empire. ^_^" The locals wear a mix of either 1930s European clothing or sterotypical Arabic clothing John says, "OOC You conjure appropriate clothing or grab some froma clothing store in BagWorld pretty easily :)" Beowulf pulls some of the 1930's-style clothing out of the bag, and looks at Lily. "About time for a quick Savoir-faire?" Beowulf says, "OOC Figured; just trying to remember if Savoir-faire existed in UnS or not. ^_^" Lily nods. "Good idea." She whips up the spell, after whipping up a screen for her and Shinobu to change behind. Soon, all four of you get changed. Lily tells you all, "We're in Cairo in a shadow much like 1930s Shadow Earth. Everyone will probably assume we're Europeans. Most people speak English or Arabic, since the British control this Egypt." Beowulf nods. "There much resentment of the British presence, or are they pretty cool at this point?" Lily says, "They aren't very happy about it. But if we're going to be shadow walking towards Mobius, we'll pass right out of this shadow pretty soon." Red Right Hand has arrived. Motoko has left. Beowulf nods. "If it's close to Mobius, it's probably fairly close to the conditions we'll find there, but we'll have to live with it. Might keep an extra eye out to make sure we don't ruffle any feathers we can avoid." Shinobu Minor says, "Well, I'd guess that Mobius probably kicked out the British if he rules Egypt." Shinobu Minor says, "Well, are we going to walk or drive?" Keitaro says, "I could go for driving." Beowulf nods. "One humvee, coming up." He moves to a spot where he can pull it out unobserved, makes a few tweaks to the appearance to make it blend in to the local vehicles, and invites everyone to hop in. You all hop into the humvee. Lily turns some nice music on on the radio. The Andrews Sisters begin to sing, and she settles back into her seat. Beowulf says, "Lily, are you good at shapeshifting others? Might not be a bad idea to darken our skins to blend in a bit better." He looks at Shinobu's darker skin and grins.. "Though that may not be necessary with some folks." Lily says, "I'm afraid that I never learned to shapeshift other people, though I could magically disguise you and Keitaro." Beowulf nods. "As long as it's not too obvious to magical folk, should help." Lily thinks. "I'll see what I can do about that." Lily and Shinobu shift to take on darker complexions. Lily casts a spell on Keitaro and Beowulf to make them look more local as well. Beowulf sets off in the humvee, keeping to local traffic regulations with savoir-faire. You cruise along. Are you going to move at hellride speeds or at normal shadow travelling speeds? Beowulf sticks to normal shadow speeds while they're in traffic. About three hours of shadow shifting go by, through shadows that don't really vary all that much, so far as you can tell. And then you find yourself in the right shadow, which looks much like all the others, except that there's a big billboard nearby showing a man in blue hooded robes with his face hidden and an infinity symbol in gold on the hood. The sign says, "Pharoah Mobius wants YOU to join the Shocktroopers!" You sense you've arrived in the right shadow. Beowulf takes a look around with Spidey-sense (or his nearest 'real' equivalent ^_^), and tries to get a feel for the population and the surroundings. Beowulf says, "OOC Unobtrusively. ^_^" Still, for the most part, this continues to look rather 1930s Cairo-like. Beowulf says, "OOC I'd guess it reminds him some of growing up in Lucas. ^_^" The population is mostly Arab with a handful of Europeans. Buildings are early 20th century in style with some buildings in older arabic styles. One thing does catch your eye--there's no minarets rising over the skyline, which likely means there's either no mosques or they come in a different style here. Beowulf OOCly nods. How about the people? Acting normally, or acting repressed and/or under observation by secret police equivalent, or what? The people seem to be milling about in the way you'd expect in a crowded city. No particular signs of secret police around here. Kuonji Ukyou falls asleep. Beowulf talks quietly to the others. "I suspect we'll have the best chance of finding information at a local bar; we should be all right as long as we keep unobtrusive." Shizumaru has connected. Beowulf briefs them on what to expect, as best he can, then looks for a likely bar. You soon find yourself at a bar named 'Kansas Jim's Radio Telescope'. You can hear the sound of big band music coming out the door, and it looks like the second story of the place doubles as an observatory. Beowulf raises his eyebrows, then grins and goes in with the others, tapping a finger slightly to the music. Inside, you see a mixture of Europeans and Arabs, most of them looking a little down on their luck, busy drinking and talking and listening to the music and playing pool over in one corner. A very large radio sits behind the bar, providing the music. The bartender is in his thirties, a brown-haired man in a suit and fedora. He says, "So, what'll it be?" Beowulf orders something appropriate for the setting, and picks out something appropriate for the others. Lily gets herself a Long Island Iced Tea. Keitaro just gets water. Shinobu gets some brandy. Rod has connected. Beowulf makes a few casual comments about the weather and how things have been going lately, drawing him into talking about local conditions. As you sit down at the bar and get your drinks, you can notice a lot of the people in the room sizing you all up. Or perhaps they're just staring at Lily and Shinobu, who are almost the only two women in the place (except for a few waitresses). The bartender says, "Well, we've been having a hot spell. Not aht you can tell most of the time here in Cairo. And I hear Fatima Rose will be singing tonight. The streets are probably going to be clogged with traffic." He then rambles on about various crime problems they've had, the big Isis festival coming up in a few days, the Bread Riot down in Memphis, and many other things. Lily starts looking around the room rather assessingly herself, while Shinobu just sits and sips her brandy and looks around the room. Keitaro begins drawing on a sketchpad as he drinks his water. As the man rambles on, you get the impression that Cairo seems to function as a pretty normal city, but witha lot of crime problems. Motoko has arrived. Red Right Hand goes home. Red Right Hand has left. Beowulf says, "Much of anything to worry about in town? We've been out in the desert for a while." He says, "Not much, as long as you stay away from Army recruiting posts. They've been making a big recruiting push for the army, lately. And I've heard another gang war's broken out on the South Side." Lily now gets up and heads over to one of the tables and begins talking to the people at it. Beowulf nods. "Saw the posters, coming in to town. What's up with that?" He says, "Oh, the Pharoah's probably getting ready to make a big push and set up the 11th Empire, I'd guess." He continues, "As this one's pretty much settled down. Should give the economy a nice boost and give people more money to spend at my bar, so I'm pretty happy with it." He asks, "So what were you looking for out in the desert?" Beowulf nods. "Seems like it wasn't that long since he came here." He looks around. "Looks like you've done a good job setting up this home-from-home," he says with a smile. "How'd you get started?" He goes on to tell you a long story about how he came to Egypt to set up an observatory in the desert, but then it got burnt down by bandits, so he had to become a cabana boy and saved up his money to build a bar, and once he got enough money, he built an observatory on top of it. Beowulf asks, "OOC He say anything about dealing with the Pharoah coming in, or does it sound like he was here when the Pharoah came?" He doesn't mention anything about the Pharoah. Beowulf asks, "I saw the observatory as we came up. Haven't seen many of those around." He smiles. "How's the stargazing from here?" He says, "Not too great at night, but better than nothing." He sighs. "Too many lights at night." He says, "Cairo's a big city and been getting bigger." He says, "Which is good for business and lousy for stargazing." Beowulf sighs. "Yah. Some wonderful sites out in the desert, of course, but then it's a pain coming in to work." He rubs his chin for a moment. "Still it's nice to see the place growing. The Pharoah seem to like this place?" Beowulf OOCly tries to figure out how to ask questions about the Pharoah's deployment and headquarters without sounding like he's never been here before. :p He says, "Oh, we don't see him much around Cairo, as he usually stays down river in Thebes, and leaves it to old Wu Han to govern everything here. We had Wu Han in here once...I made a huge amount of money." He smiles. "He's an evil old bastard, but he certainly tips well." Beowulf grins. "That's always nice. Wu Han doing a pretty good job of things?" He says, "Wu Han is corrupt and probably not a very good governor. But he hasn't caused ME any trouble, thankfully." Beowulf smiles crookedly. "Well, you take what you can get." He hmms. "The Pharoah's recruiting grunts... are they looking for upper-level folks? Think it'd be worth a trip down to Thebes to see?" He says, "Well, if you don't mind wearing a skirt, they're always looking for officers." He continues, "And I hear officers get first pick of loot and get paid well." Beowulf rolls his eyes. "Not looking forward to a skirt... but again, ya takes what ya can get. You hear much about what things are like down in Thebes?" "Well, from what I understand, there's always religious festivals going on, and shocktroopers on every corner to keep order. Temples _Everywhere_. So if you're not very pious, you'd better fake it well." He continues, "I hear they built Mobius a fifty story tall pyramid to use as his HQ." "And they've got a really good football team, but they can't play soccer worth a damn." Beowulf nods seriously. "Right. Still, gotta go where the hierarchy is to get the *good* stuff." He whistles. "Wow. You must be able to see *that* thing for a long ways." "I hear they use an artificial sun so it's day all the time instead of streetlights, too." Beowulf just shakes his head. "Man. You know anyone who worked on the place? I'd *love* to hear some stories about how they put that thing up." He says, "Well, I hear Mobius keeps all his pet mad scientists down in Thebes, so you'd probably need to head down to Thebes to find someone who knows how they put it up. Something to do with magnets, I think. It was in the papers months ago, but I can't remember it any more." Beowulf shakes his head. "The things you miss when you stay out too long... you know anyplace that might have some back copies of the paper?" He says, "Public library, maybe? Or you could run by the Herald or the Enquirer and beg them to let you look in their archives, but probably they'd laugh at you. Or maybe not. I've never tried that." Beowulf nods. "I'll have to take a look." He glances around the room to see how the rest of the group is doing. Shinobu is just watching people. Keitaro is continuing to draw. Lily is deep in conversation with several men who were playing cards; she seems to have their complete attention. Beowulf grins to himself, as somehow Lily always manages to keep folks' complete attention. Beowulf asks, "Think we'll have to keep an eye out heading down the river, or should things be pretty quiet?" He says, "Well, if you take a train or stick to the highway, you'll be fine. The shocktroopers keep the desert bandits off them. Or a boat. I've taken a few boat rides on the Nile and it's quite nice." Beowulf nods thoughtfully. Aerianne has arrived. Lian has arrived. John asks, "OOC You wanna stop here since you mentioned you were tired, Prof?" Beowulf chats about inconsequentialities with the bartender while waiting for Lily to finish, working to keep their profile low. Beowulf OOCLy nods. John says, "OOC We cut here, then." Beowulf OOCly nods. Travis Butler tbutler@birch.net ...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.