Inside the club

((sorry for the delay - I'm struggling a bit on how to resolve a realistic way to convince her to join me - I know the "optimal" thing would be to knock her out (and Sato can probably easily do that), but there may be an great opportunity for madcap hijinks if I bring her along))

Sato sits on the couch and faces the girl.  He takes her hand and looks deeply into her eyes.  

"Hey, do you want to try a new game?  They are still in the testing phase so it's not on the official menu...it's player versus player in teams...sneaky...with prizes...wouldn't that be fun?  You and me together versus someone else?  There are prizes!"

((No rush. She has basically become a player-made complication I just want to make sure everyone understands the situation as often I feel like I have explained it all in my mind but often make assumptions that I probably shouldn't make that lead to confusion))

The girl is obviously flustered as Sato seems to be jumping all around and the type of games she was ready to play didn't involve others. Still, she decides to give whatever the heck Sato has in mind a chance, but her patience is wearing thin. "Fine," she says, "is that your final answer, or are you going to change your mind again?"

((sorry it was my misunderstanding of the word "avatar" (Sato is mine, but he has one in the Matrix as well) that made me misunderstand what I needed to do - Sato wouldn't have waffled like that...but let's play through))

Sato raises an eyebrow at her outburst. "I'm looking forward to seeing that passion unleashed ... in the course of our mission...and maybe afterwards...."

He gives her his most charming  smile and holds up the datajack cabe - "Ladies first!"

She shrugs and plugs in her datajack, slumping into a nearby chair. Her avatar appears in matrix space: a blonde female with obnoxiously large breasts and a dress made of something like red gauze. As the room has not been set to any particular scene yet, the matrix space looks essentially identical to meat space, except Sato is not there yet.

"OK Sam, let's get this going.  Please get us both into the Public Train."

"If you can, get set up so you can dump her if she gets in too much trouble."

Sato leans back on the couch and plugs in his datajack.

Sato appears in the same room as the girl. She asks, "So where is this game?"

Sam does the thing. Whatever he needs to do to get this thing moving he does. A shimmering portal appears in front of Sato and Random Girl Sato Brought For No Apartment Reason. It shimmers, and it's gorgeous, and intoxicating. And they just want to get in it and get on with things.
And it emits a loud train whistle.
And Sam says "All aboard!" In his best train conductor imitation. ((If he can do that and also stay invisible/running silent. So Random Girl hears, but doesn't see him.))

Sato holds the crook of his arm out to his companion “shall we?”

He messages Sam “Don’t worry - she’s my alibi.”

Sato and the girl step thought the door into the lobby and then into the other room where it currently looks like a modern public train. There is a crowd of people, but most of them seem undetailed, background props as the train rocks back and forth along its path. At the center of the train are what looks to be a high school girl, or at least a woman wearing the uniform of one, who is being groped by three men in business suits, the sort typical of corporate salary men. They are so absorbed with what they are doing that they do not notice Sato or his companion.

The woman with Sato says, "So... what exactly is this game? Are we supposed to rescue her or what?"

The girl nudges Sato, who appears to be staring overly long at the scene in front of him. "You know it's bad manners to stare at other girls while you're with a date. Or is that it? You're one of those pervs into neotare?"

((Sorry on family vacation and mostly unplugged))

((Can Sato make an Etiquette check to know what the protocol would be to blend? Can we pretend to be drunk and attempt to join them or would that be a faux pax? ))

((ah okay. thanks for the heads up))

Sato is pretty sure the etiquette is not to go into a private, locked room that he hasn't been invited into. Having already done that, he is already well past faux pas, but at least those in the room haven't noticed, or at least are too busy to care. Sato's date at least does not seem to realize that you have barged into another room uninvited as he has told her it is some kind of game, but she still expects an answer to her questions.

Pretending to be drunk wouldn't explain the fact that he got through matrix security to those inside, and the girl with him has no reason to think that he is drunk. At this point the only thing to do is to somehow go along with the ruse he told the girl in such a way that it somehow explains why they are there and doesn't annoy the occupants for the sudden intrusion. Given the stern warning he was given at the door about hacking the system, Sato is fairly certain that whatever story he is about to come up with, it had best be a really good one or things could start going really bad, really quickly.

Sato messages Sam : “can you change our icons to be this sort of stock image?”  ((He attaches a snapshot of the ‘regular’ occupants of the train car))

Sato whispers to the girl : “we need to catch the other agent before she transfers any data - this might be a ruse to distract our attention. Let’s walk past like we’re regular passengers going to our seats and see if we can overheat anything.  If we’re lucky, the disguise will hold well enough.  If they notice us, we should give them a disapproving look to act like we are part of their public shaming fantasy.”

"I thought the plan was to look like a butler, like the theme of the club tonight, and pretend to be some sort of train employee? Now you want to look like a regular person? Just use your regular person icon that you always use, I guess."

((Changing your icon takes no particular skill. You just need the file to do so. Making the file is where time and skill is concerned.))

The girl glances at the foursome uncomfortably and whispers, "So how are we supposed to know who the agent is?"

Sato judges the intentions of the people there to be exactly what it looks like: some kind of deviant sexual fantasy being played out in a private digital room. Listening in on their conversation just provides what information you would expect out of the dialogue from a pornographic video.

As Sato and his date stand aside and discuss what they are going to do, they catch the eye of one of the three men. He stops what he is doing and grumbles, "We have hackers snooping where they weren't invited."

The woman gives a frustrated snarl and says, "Call security. They can take care of these losers."

A second man nods and begins to open up a comm line...

((Sam, I need you to roll initiative and tell me what you are doing. Sato, you don't really have the hardware or skills to do anything effective. Assuming you are going to try and communicate, we'll just say your speaking takes a full combat turn to do. Oakgu, if you are still watching, I am going to go ahead and throw you into another split since you are effectively split up from Sam and Sato. So check splits for a post titled "Oakgu, by the bar"))

Arrange deck: D8 F6 S5 A4

Init:3d6+13
Sam Dekker carried out 3 launched of one d6 :

, ,

Rearrange: S8 F6 D5 A4

I should have a bunch of marks on this room, so if there's any way I can intercept the call for security? Maybe a snoop roll. Let's try that.

ElecWar+Int-2[sleaze] vs log+firewall
Sam Dekker carried out 11 launched of one d6 :

, , , , , , , , , ,

Round 1, pass 1

Sam does his best to intercept the message, but just isn't fast enough and an alarm goes up. The scene dissolves to the bare starting room and two of the men disconnect, leaving the man who made the call and the woman still present.

Sato's date realizes what is going on and says, "You are freaking kidding me. You hacked us in here? Shit!" She also disconnects, her icon dissolving into matrix space.

Sam manages to get ahold of the message sent, but is too late to do anything about it. It reads, "We have some hackers in room 1100. Please send security."

((Sam has 1 pass this round before automated security begins to respond. Hopefully he rolls better for init next round))