Part 1: Happy Hour

Nov 12, 2019 11:57 am
New Angeles. It’s the biggest, dirtiest, richest, poorest, most advanced, and most dangerous city amongst the worlds of Earth, Mars, and Luna. Home to half a billion people and counting, it’s a landscape of gleaming starscrapers and arcologies hundreds of stories tall, and dank, moldering undercity slums that never see daylight. And in the center of it all rises the reason for all this fame and fortune: the Beanstalk. The New Angeles Space Elevator carries a steady stream of humanity to the stars, and brings back a constant flow of Helium3 to feed Earth’s hungry fusion reactors.
It’s a world of powerful interests, hungry megacorporations, and dangerous games of politics and betrayal. But it’s also a world of average people, struggling to get by and stay afloat. If you’re being honest, you and your friends count yourselves amongst the latter. Just a bunch of regular people, trying to keep it together in the shadow of the Beanstalk.

At the base of the huge mountain, the Volcan De Cayambe, that serves as the seat of the Beanstalk, sits the vast Base De Cayambe district. Base De Cayambe is comprised of kilometers of warehouses, flop-houses, brothels, and stim dens crowded around the condo-habs and bodegas that house and feed those too poor to live anywhere else. However, it may be squalid, smelly, and mostly lawless, but it’s still home.
Tonight, like most Fridays, you meet up at your favorite dive bar, La Raiz. Buried beneath Beanpod Transit Arterial 40, La Raiz sits right at plaza level. That means it’s wedged into the side of a starscraper with 100 progressively-higher-class levels above it, and another 100 progressively worse stories below it. Plaza level is the artificial "street-level" of New Angeles, a series of pedestrian squares, slidewalks, elevated streets, and storefronts suspended fifty to a hundred stories above true ground level. Everything below that is the undercity, where life goes from "mostly lawless" to "complete, gang-run anarchy."
La Raiz isn’t all that much better. As you step in off the trash-strewn street you find yourself in a dark hole of a bar, decorated with flickering holos of the Beanstalk as seen from space while it was under construction. It’s also crowded, smelly, and every few minutes another Beanpod thumps through the arterial overhead and causes the whole bar to shake.
But as you get near the bar you see the rest of your friends waiting for you. Jace is bartending tonight, and she sets a pint in front of you as you pull up a stool.
OOC:
And we're off! Introduce your characters as you arrive in the bar, consider yourselves to arrive in the order that you post (so first one to post will be the first one to arrive, second person will be second, etc).
Nov 12, 2019 12:41 pm
Aditi enters the bar dressed in plain and cheap street clothes of low quality. She spends most of her time wearing medical scrubs, even at home, but she doesn't want to stick out here.
She accepts the drink with a polite nod and smile - maybe too polite for this place - and sits down at the bar. None of her friends seem to have arrived yet so she silently waits for them while sipping her beer.
She doesn't like always being the first but she likes the feeling of making others wait for her even less. Old habits die hard and prioritizing others over herself is one of her oldest and hardest ones to break.
Nov 12, 2019 1:39 pm
Mila's large form fills the doorway of the bar, her sleeveless top showing off her arms, one flesh, one metal. After two weeks up-Stalk, she is looking to blow off some steam and spend the credits burning a hole in her pocket. Her eyes light up when she sees her best friend already settling in at the bar.

"Aditi!" she booms, "First as usual, eh? If I didn't know any better I'd think you liked it here." It was half joke, half hope that Aditi actually does find something enjoyable about these dive bars and isn't just humoring the rest of them.

Taking up as much space as she pleases, Mila grabs a stool next to Aditi. "Thanks for the piss, Jace," she says with a wink as the bartender passes her a pint. "Keep it coming, I'm gonna need a head start to catch up to these lightweights."
Nov 12, 2019 2:41 pm
Zoey Ortega blows out a final puff of tobacco mist and shuts off her vape. Looking up, up, and up at the giant Beanstalk, she shakes her head and enters the bar. It's been a while since she was "downsized" from the company that runs it, but her firing is still a sore spot months later.

Seeing her two friends already at the bar, she smiles and sidles in next to Mila. "Make room for the rest of us, Mila! We big girls gotta look out for each other!" She waves to Aditi further down the bar. "Hola, Aditi. It's been a minute. Pass me that pitcher, please. I could use a drink." She regards the holos of the Beanstalk that pass as décor in this hole. "Why we always gotta meet in Cayambe? Don't matter how much I drink—that Beanstalk's like a huge middle finger to me from the corps."
Nov 12, 2019 4:43 pm
Tam walks up to the bar and a quick grin breaks out on his face. As he walks up to the doorway, he thinks back to the last few days and how slows work has been.

Stepping into the bar, Tam steps off and move to the side. As he scans the room with a practised ease, Tam's eyes settles on the others. Walking up and accepting the drink, Tam takes a long drink before setting the mug down. I see you guys started without me. Taking another drink from his mug, Tam looks over at the others how's life going? Anyone found out if anyone is hiring?
Nov 12, 2019 4:51 pm
"I do like it here", Aditi replies to Mila. "I enjoy being able to relax with all of you" Although she is being genuine, her words sound just a little bit automatic, as if she is following a script in her head. Mila and the others would not regard that as anything unusual unusual however, just a personality quirk that they are used to by now.
When Zoey asks her to pass her the drink, her head immediately snaps towards Zoey and she hands it to her without a second's hesitation.
When Tam enters, she greets him with a nod. "You can always help out at the clinic. But I don't think we could pay you."
Nov 12, 2019 5:20 pm
Zoey downs about half a mug of the tasteless lager in a single gulp. "Thanks, 'Diti," she says, giving a faux salute. "This stuff don't taste too good, but at least it can get you drunk." She turns to Tam with a playful grin. "And look at you, Mr. Mixing-Business-with-Pleasure! Yeah, times are tough, man. If anyone's hiring it sure isn't the Space Elevetor Authority." The words sound like a curse. "Maybe one of you got a lead on something."
Last edited November 12, 2019 5:21 pm
Nov 12, 2019 5:32 pm
Mila claps Zoey on the back as she grabs a barstool. "Zoey, if you can find a place in New Angeles where the corps aren't giving you the finger, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, there's only so far I can walk after getting back before I need a drink."

She waves at Tam as he sits down and takes a drink. "Hope you haven't been slacking off on your workout while I've been up-Stalk. I need someone in that gym who can keep up with me."
Nov 12, 2019 5:45 pm
Tam finishes his drink and motions for a second one. Looking over at Mila, he laughs as he listens to her. Have no fear, I'll still be able to run circles around you.

Glancing around at the others, Tam takes a drink from his mug. [b]Has anyone heard anything worth knowing?
Nov 12, 2019 10:23 pm
Mila glances over at Tam. He has to be pretty hard up for work for him to be fishing so hard for a lead. "I've got nothing. Or at least nothing job-shaped. There's always yammering about the next model of bioroid or clone and how it's going to put us all out of work. Apparently Jinteki's got something that can live in vacuum without a suit now." She grimaces and takes a long pull of her drink. Not what she wants to be thinking about tonight.

Mila shrugs. "Maybe Vince'll have something for you if he turns up tonight."
Nov 13, 2019 2:41 pm
As you are all talking and waiting to see if Vince show's his face Tam feels a tap on his shoulder. You spin round and see a thin, unassuming man in a discount suit squinting at you. He seems a bit nervous but smiles and thrusts his hand at yours. "Hey there! You remember me right? Simon, Simon Leander! Fancy seeing you here." as he speaks he looks up over at Aditi and gives her a friendly nod as well.

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Nov 13, 2019 2:47 pm
Zoey thrusts out a hand, rough-palmed and oil-stained around the nail beds. "Zoey Ortega. Don't believe we've had the pleasure."
Nov 13, 2019 2:50 pm
It takes Tam a couple seconds to remember Simon. Yeah, Simon..sorry about that. We met, about a year ago..you had a small bounty on you for a simple parole violation. It's good to see you out and about. What brings you out here? It can't be to go slummin with the rest of us dregs.
Nov 13, 2019 3:00 pm
"Mr. Leander, it is a pleasure to see you again", Aditi says. She stands up to greet him but doesn't shake his hand unless he offers his hand to her first. "I'm glad to see that you are alright. You look better than last time we met."
Nov 13, 2019 3:10 pm
Mila waves at the newcomer and introduces herself as "Mila" before going back to her drink, uninterested in the newcomer and his cheap suit.
Nov 14, 2019 3:30 pm
Simon smiles and nods at Tam "Ehhhh, water under the bridge. I knows you were just doing your job. Everyone's gotta eat yeah?" as he speaks he maintains his nervous smile and shakes Zoeys hand and nods at Mila before turning to Aditi "Doc! Good to see ya. Yeah I'm all good now, you patched me up good and proper" he says patting at his side.

He chats amiably for a few more minutes, just making general small talk more than anything, before he get's ready to leave "Look, I gotta get moving but it was good seeing the two of you...and the other two of you" he chuckles at the last finding something funny before he waves and heads out of the front door.
OOC:
Right, fist check of the game needed - can you all make me an Average Vigilance check.

For those not familiar you need to select the Star Wars FFG option from the dice roller drop down (accessed via the Advanced button at the bottom of the page). An Average Difficulty check is made against 2 x Difficulty dice, those are the Purple ones on the menu. For the positive dice for the check you will need to note your characters Willpower number and your Vigilance number, the highest of the two values is the number of positive dice you will roll on the check, the lower number is how many of those you will 'upgrade' to Yellow/Proficiency dice (the rest will be Green/Ability Dice) - for example if you have a Willpower of 3 and a Vigilance of 1 you would roll 1 x Yellow and 2 x Green dice for the positive side of the dice pool and also 2 x Purple/Difficulty dice.

If you're struggling with that (it is a bit to get your head round) just shout out.

Rolls

Secret Roll

Nov 14, 2019 3:38 pm
Zoey gives Aditi the side eye, then looks back at Leander. "Let me guess. Snowboarding accident."
Nov 14, 2019 3:39 pm
Aditi begins responding almost automatically. "Happy to..."
...Serve.
She just barely manages to stop herself before finishing the sentence and quickly corrects herself: "Happy to see my work be appreciated. Do you want to join us for a drink?"
Nov 14, 2019 3:43 pm
Tam pauses as he watches to see how Simon responds.
Nov 14, 2019 7:05 pm
Mila chuckles, "I've never known Aditi to put someone back together the wrong way."

Rolls

Vigilance check

3 Success, 2 Threat

Total: 3 Success, 2 Threat

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