My my, that police chick is just not giving up. The simple(and boring) way to do this is to simply keep everything sealed so she has no means to enter. However, she'll likely show up again and try something else.
The better solution in my opinion is to both troll her AND likely get her in trouble. She may be a cop, but she needs a warrant to search the place. No warrant, no reason. Which means with a bit of proof, we can put her in a bad position.
One way to do so? Make controlled spots she can enter. Not easy 'unguarded' paths, but ones where the locks are tough, but doable if you have the right skill and that they lead to places that are rather mundane. Anything incriminating, keep locked tight. If she takes the bait, she'll likely try and find clues. This is where we can have fun.

Simply grab a camera, use your goblin foot training and other skills to remain undetected. Quietly walk in with out her noticing, take a few pictures of her doing some incriminating stuff, then send the camera back some place safe via shadowbro and simply turn on the lights.

Make sure to look the part of a guy who's still up so bloody early. Perhaps have a bright orange bed robe with some fuzzy slippers just because. If she tries to ask how you managed to find her, simply tell her silent alarms(which would make sense.) and nonchalantly ask why she showed up so early in the morning without knocking. Maybe somehow find a way to video tape this to show the Russians later for the lols.

For actual future plans? I'll leave that to the pros.

>>389978
Take pictures and have Amen hide them somewhere she can find them. Should be suitable freaky to search a house at night and find pictures of yourself searching.

>>389978
Fuzzy Weasel Slippers.
Also, if we want her gone and dead, I am going to suggest also offering her breakfast - magical, but don't tell her that. Because we know that too much magical food will pop her like a grape, so we should get back in her good books and start feeding her.

"So, Ad-" Pause, 'remembering' name. "let? No, right Adelat. So, I know we had a rocky relationship, but did you really need to break into my house to see me again?
"Oh. Then Why are you here?"
"No, really, why are you here."
"Huh. Ok, but at least allow me to get you breakfast. I'm a pretty good cook, and you must have gotten up insanely early."
Cooking, and then gently having her exit.
"I am so sorry, I really have a lot of work do today. Maybe I can break into your house later and bring you breakfast?" Laugh.

>Andrei Orders
>Hate the world, or at least Boss's Evil Italian Bitch. Take comfort in caffeine to stay awake/alive.
>Woop in joy that the Laserdisc and the Floppy Disc reader have arrived! Get them set up on The Compter, and start reading the Floppy Disc and the Laserdisc. Check to make sure they're encrypted, and if they are start to decrypt them.
>Also woop in joy when computers arrive. Give them out! Feel like Santa! Feel like a bit of an ass when giving one to Lyubov. Also give her iPods filled with music and books.

>>389967
We should also figure out some passage to that MYSTERIOUS ISLAND the Owner told us about. I suggest a dynamic entry be arranged.

>>389981
I agree on the neon orange bathrobe, fuzzy green weasel slippers, and going out to chat with Adelat. However, I really don't feel like murdering any more law enforcement officers. She's not really worth it, hasn't done anything particularly annoying, killing her turns one woman's fanaticism into a crusade, and I just like the idea of having our own Inspector Javere.

Let's sneak up behind her and politely inquire as to her actions.

ARMAS ORDERS

Adelat! If she's here without a warrant, she's probably been suspended or outright fired for losing control of seized chemical weapons. Oops. She'll be on the edge. The best thing to do is push her over it, and catch her in our web of contracts and words.

THE MERRY MAZE OF MISHAPS - Have Amen allow her inside, into a room dark enough that she would not be able to see. Have her entry be right next to the pool, on a little island right against the wall where she will have no way of exploring the rest of the room without getting into the pool. Have the window just disappear when she isn’t looking, so that she has to press on, somehow. Let her sputter for a little. Keep her away from anything that's sensitive by having Amen dynamically shape the house to lead her on a merry series of misadventures
The only obvious exit to the pool room should lead to a little cubicle that has a set of buttons. There should be obvious places next to the buttons for labels, and all the labels should be on the floor so that it looks like they fell off on their own. The labels should say things like [Breakfast], [Swedish Massage], [Shave and a Haircut], [I <3 Me], [Weasel Rubdown], [Execute], [Abort]. The first few buttons she picks won’t do anything, and then she’ll get run through a process where robot-looking hands in white gloves run her through a “wake up, get ready for the day” routine like in a cartoon. They’ll feed her oatmeal, undress her, give her a haircut, bathe her, rub her down with a stuffed animal that looks a little like Sake, and dump her into a room full of mirrors (where she gets a generic sounding pep-talk about what a great man she is). At the end of whatever option she picked, she’ll be dressed in a pimping outfit that’s sized for Armas.

After that the door will open into a hallway that’s covered in “Rub Your Weasel” posters. She’ll have to walk down that to get anywhere else. As she starts to walk, have the floor start moving like a giant treadmill. Push her to her top speed, let her get close to the end of the hall where there is a Wall of Fame (but the words “Most Creative Kill” will be replaced with “Most Creative Invention”). Put a couple of doors at the end that say “EXIT” over them in bright green. Speed up the treadmill and don’t let her actually reach them, instead have her lose ground until she reaches the back wall of the hallway. At that point she gets dumped down a chute or a secret door or something into another little hallway where her options are to enter a door labeled “Moon Room” or a door labeled “Amen’s Gallery.”

The Moon Room is just a room with a bouncy floor and pictures of Armas and friends mooning the viewer. The Gallery is a room filled with mannequins all dressed up in various suits Amen has made. Whichever room she picks first, the only exit will lead to the other. Once she’s seen both rooms, the exit will lead to another cubicle with buttons, but this time they’ll be different costume options. This time only most of the labels are missing. All the labels for acceptable choices (like [Business Casual]) will be on the floor, mixed with labels for really unacceptable options like [Bodybuilder Speedo and Babyoil]. Slightly less horrible options will be presented on the console like [Aztec Jaguar Costume] and [Harvey Bunny]. If she doesn’t pick a labeled one, just put her into a tuxedo sized for Armas.

She’ll then be dumped into a Ballroom where she’ll have her feet guided in a waltz. She’ll be leading, and her dance partner will be a mannequin dressed in the outfit she entered the house wearing. Once she’s done dancing, the mannequin will be whisked away. The next room she enters will just have a single braided cord hanging from the ceiling. When she pulls the cord (and she will, because the door will have vanished again), the ceiling will dump plastic balls and plastic dummy hand grenades into the room.

When she pulls the cord again, the balls will be funneled out of the room, and she’ll be able to leave for another changing room. This one will have just options related to swimsuits like [Board Shorts], [Speedo], [Trunks], [Tanning Oil] and so on. After picking an option she’ll be released into the pool room again, dumped right into the pool in fact.

The exit from the pool will lead directly to the Weasel Hallway, where she’ll be made to run again. This time she’ll be allowed to reach to end of the hallway, where she’ll meet Armas (who will be wearing silk pajamas and weasel slippers).

At that point, open with, "I thought I heard the machine running. Are you injured? No? Good, come with me to my office. I’d normally be more upset about someone breaking into my home, but it’s you."

Lead her to Armas’ office (which will be located by the sewer entrance in the alley that we favor for getting to SM) and keep her standing while you take a seat.

She’s not going to quit. At this point, she’s broken in without a warrant and likely has already lost her job. But we can be polite anyway and pump her for information while we make a show of deciding to call the police or not.

“I saw you working the other day, you looked really busy. How’s work?”

”It is not a funhouse, it is a prototype. Now, let’s be civil. I’m really trying to be polite here. How’s work?”

“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Are they going to press charges or are they just going to cut you loose?”

“Well, it sounds like you’ve had a pretty bad week. Still, that doesn’t quite explain why you broke into my home, and looked at a bunch of industrial secrets. There’s a huge market for machines like what I’ve got here. Multi-billion dollar business, after all. I’d normally not even be debating about if I should call the police, but I don’t really want to get you in more trouble. So, can you explain why you thought you’d find information that would exonerate you in here?”

“Adelat that doesn’t make a lick of sense. I called in a favor because I heard the place got all shot up. Figured I could get it for some promises and handshakes. Figured right, too.”

“They’re just businessmen. Even if they’re into stuff I don’t know anything about, questionably legal or no, my dealings with them have nothing to do with their other funding sources.”

“I waved at you because I was trying to be friendly!”

“Of course I have guests staying with me. They’re helping me with other projects, most of which involve industrial secrets.”

“You’re not even here in your official capacity, so no, I’m not going to show you their paperwork.”

“Speaking of which, I really can’t let you blab to people about how far along I am with my designs. I don’t want to call the cops on you, but I also want some insurance that you’re not going to cost me a lot of money accidentally. How about if you sign a non-disclosure agreement? I could have my guys write up an ironclad one. I’d feel secure about letting you go on your way if we had one.”

Get her to agree to an NDA, and then let her go get dressed in the attached bathroom (it’s your office, of course it has a private bathroom). While she’s doing that, call up Sometimes Merchant. Speak Finnish (he knows it, Adelat almost certainly doesn’t).

“Good morning, I happen to need a contract written up in German that has a mortal agreeing to the contract holder that she will forfeit her body and soul to him if she says anything about what she saw in his home. It should include other penalties as well, multiple monetary awards in compensation for various clauses, all of which amount to the same violation of talking about what she shouldn’t, and an agreement that all mechanisms to execute the contract be automatically carried out in lieu of a court case. While it should sound a little deranged and eccentric, it needs to be able to actually hold up if the dragons or anyone else with enough authority questions it. Oh, and could there be a clause in it about needing blood for a DNA sample to positively identify the signer?”

“Great, can you just have that handed up to me through Amen? A pleasure.”

And then we let her read the contract, we convince her that if she doesn’t sign it we’re going to call the cops on her and get her into far more trouble than she wants. If she calls us on it being crazy sounding we say “Well if those clauses are as unenforceable as you say, then there’s no problem is there? Look, I’ll even make sure the diagnostic footage of you going through the machine is deleted, if you stop wasting my time and just sign the damn NDA.”

As soon as she has signed it and the magic takes effect, have Amen take the agreed-on blood sample from her, and then let her go. Have Amen monitor her through her blood until she slips up and tells someone anything that breaks the NDA.

At that point, have Amen force her to gracefully tell whoever she spoke to she’s got something else to take care of, send them home or away or whatever, and then have her come back to the mansion where we can deal with our new professional investigator.

Invite her in. Then trap her with polite conversation and don't let her leave. "Hi Adelat. How're things?" "You never call, you never write... Police work keeping you busy?" "Boris (or Amen, if Boris is busy training or you feel like freaking her out), make some scones or something, will you?" Then sit back and chatter, give her the runaround, never mention you suspect she's got it in for you - in fact, feel free to make it seem you think she's having trouble letting go. I mean, who wouldn't want... well, all of this? *points to self* "I'm sorry Adelat, things just didn't work out. These things happen. Life goes on. [size=1]-though apparently not for you-[/size=1]"

Once she's safely turned about and out of the house, do a little research on that sword job of Lo Fang's and the lockup where the Swede's guns are. In both cases, we'll need the inverted blood-illusion charm/realistic mask setup I suggested last-thread.

Also, we may want to try and work out how to get that 'notice me not' thing down. Have we tried making a soul guise that mimicks the world around it seamlessly? I think this chameleon-type trick is just what we need to get it working.

>>389999
Upvoting this, since I helped work it out.

THE CRANKY CAMELLA
Before we talk to Adelat, consider something. Camella hasn't really had a place, a setting, friends, hell, even a world she could call home. She's literally displaced, mentally and physically. I suspect that her recent distraction has to do with our calling her out, in this manner:
Fact 1- She's considered herself more serious than us, and she is, mostly
Fact 2- She's doesn't 'belong' here, for a given value of belonging
Not Fact, but Guess 3- It's likely that consciously and subconsciously, she's been resisting the idea of staying here, of settling down, of building connections...because to her, that would mean she's given up on going home.

Despite all this, I believe the point with the Russians was sufficient enough to drive home something important: that reticence? It's actually harming the Russians. It's likely that if she'd been training them on chakras already, they wouldn't have nearly as much issue with oversaturation. And while she doesn't want to give up on the idea of going home, she's also not willing to let her own confusion on the matter harm others.

Which brings me to my next point. While she started with no friends or connections, Armas is now her closest friend and ally. And when someone who's your closest friend and ally (AND generally a massive troll, completely unserious almost all the time) tells you you're not being serious enough...and he's right...that has to shake your worldview a lot. Enough, perhaps, to focus massively on what he asked you to do, and enough to distract you from other matters.

>>389999
THIS

Rostislav orders Realize the danger inherent in not training Chakra, focus on that intently. Maintain practice in other endeavors, but Chakra takes priority, even over (temporarily) the Best Beer Hunt.

>>389999
Upvoting, definitely. We don't get many chances to troll anyone this extensively.

>>389999
This is... completely fucking insane. What kind of warped mind came up with this?

I need to know so I can mass produce it and make a mint in the surrealist film industry.
Upvoting ALL THE WAY.

>>389999
upvoteing this plan. I know its not the most effective thing we could do, but we may never get a chance to do something this over the top again. we just need to be ready to improvise if she breaks the script and does something we are not ready for, such as forcing open a door(brick wall or room full of the kind of stuff that would be required to do what she had already seen) or refusing to continue(more or less the same as if she had gone though the course only we walk into her room from what seems to be a well hidden service door). also we should make sure it won't drain amens resources too much to do something like this.

To remove temptation from the Russians, we should make sure that we eat all the magical meat that our magical guests leave. Grin broadly at the Russians as you do so, telling them they should consider this extra incentive to do better.

With the company busy training, someone needs to be keeping Duke in beer money. Armas hasn't had a chance to truly exploit his abilities against some hapless mortals for quite a while now, so he should look into taking a couple of missions against non-supernatural opposition, given how lethal he can be against them.

Ogrimmir told us we need to get serious about improving our soul manipulation, and we should take his advice. There are a few routes we should try, we should start them all off.
First try, summon Abloec again. He has experience with a divine Winter bloodline that manipulates one's own soul, so we can ask him if he has any ideas.
The Japanese hag-kami may be interested in tasting a small piece of Doonegeas meat - she may have contacts she can introduce us to.
The Sami worshippers of Liab Olmai promised to teach us. We should talk to Einrik about how we can get in touch with them to call them on this.
Someone had a Lurk they were willing to sell in return for Mammon's device. Whilst we probably can't afford to buy it, renting its services as a teacher or example may be possible.
If not, the Lurk based bloodline may be able to teach us something. Ask Einrik if he knows how to get in touch with them, and if there is anything they may accept in payment.

We should also keep up with our flesh manipulation. Compare what we are being taught by the Mafiosi, the knowledge SB grafted to you and what the Redcaps taught. Whaitiri's method is the one most likely to be appropriate to a godling such as yourself. As SB also has the same summer bloodline as you, discuss it with him, and with Sake if he has anything to offer based on his healing.

We also need to finish our practice in basic Gyaketsuote so we're ready to try to adapt it to other purposes. Visit Ito's night class and try using it on the people there - also try using it when we have our spirit sensing chakra orientation active, and examine both our own and our target's soul when performing Gyaketsuote. We should also try manipulating our soul guise in combat so that it is consistent with the lie we project.

Finally, given all the cryptic hints that we've been receiving from the Triads, it makes sense not to disappoint Lo Fang. Ask both Einrik and Camella to examine you when performing bird assisted Dual orientation, and when failing to do so on your own. See what they think.

>>389999

LYUBOV ORDERS

[Monday]
*Boss says we’ll all die if we don’t learn charka. That’s some strong incentive. Focus on it, push to learn it hard. Don’t get distracted.
*Jog with Camella again. Out-do everyone but Camella again. Wonder why Camella’s acting strangely.
*Get Zhenya to help get everyone to fill out their paperwork and remind them they need to get their passport photos ready.
*Decide the safest thing to do for her mother will be to get her out of Russia entirely.
*After getting the iPod to Sake and showing him how it works, ask if Armas is as disorganized as he seems. Feel out if the boss needs a personal assistant of some sort.
*Go to daily vespers in the evening. Donate $400. Confess to Father Nikolai, talk almost exclusively being a crappy daughter, mention being on the run tangentially.
*Spend at least two hours taking a nap.
*Keep working on trying to keep a blank mind when sparring with that older vampire.

[Tuesday]
*Jog with Camella again. Put in good effort. If the paperwork and photos still aren’t all done, ask Camella to please remind everyone that they need to do it.
*Collect paperwork and photos. Collect Andrei and bribe money. With Andrei’s help, bribe the notaries, get them to sign off on identities (6 or 7 each) with the recorded dates of signing being spread out over the course of the week. Let Andrei handle most of the bribery, but if the notaries prove very reticent, point out “We made political enemies in our home country. You’ve heard of all the turmoil lately. We just want to make a life in a safe place.”
*After getting the paperwork done, do a list of all the government offices it can be filed at that are within an hour’s drive. Make a sign-up sheet with no more than two people per location, per day. Make everyone sign and agree to use that address and date to turn in their applications for replacement IDs and birth certificates. This way no one office sees more than one or two people a day. Make sure date of visit and dates on the notarized forms match. Make sure Hillevi goes with Lyubov to file their paperwork.
*After Night Lessons, grab guitar and play a little in the sound-proofed music room. No more than a half-hour of just solo fooling around.

>[Rostislav has been queued to do the following:]
>Feel like an epiphany was experienced, allowing him to realize the danger inherent in not training Chakra. Make grim, sober determination to focus on that intently. Decide to maintain practice in other endeavors, but Chakra takes priority, even over (temporarily) the Best Beer Hunt. Then wake up from that dream to the fact he and every other Russian arehave already abandoned all their personal pursuits that are noncritical just to keep up, all of them being forced to adhere to decidedly spartan training practices by Camella, sleeping midnight to four am every day and grabbing afternoon naps where possible because twelve hours a day are spent being trained and sometimes giving training. Wish dreams would catch up with reality-decide to rate dream a 2/10. Grumble and try to get back to nap-realize rhythm is broken, somehow be too tired to nap. Curse, seek out Vodka.
Lyubov has already done the following:
*Boss says we’ll all die if we don’t learn chakra. That’s some strong incentive. Focus on it, push to learn it hard. Don’t get distracted.
*Jog with Camella again. Out-do everyone but Camella again. Wonder why Camella’s acting strangely. Feel like there's not a chance in hell you could out and ask her about it.
*Get Zhenya to help get everyone to fill out their paperwork and remind them they need to get their passport photos ready. Realize this will probably take more than a couple days as everyone's schedules are adjusted.
*Decide the safest thing to do for her mother will be to get her out of Russia entirely.
*After getting the iPod to Sake and showing him how it works, ask if Armas is as disorganized as he seems. Feel out if the boss needs a personal assistant of some sort. Be unsure how to react to Sake's response of simply laughing.
*Go to daily vespers in the evening. Donate $400. Confess to Father Nikolai, talk almost exclusively being a crappy daughter, mention being on the run tangentially. Feel a little worried you might have made a mistake, but squash the worry.
*Spend at least two hours taking a nap. Still feel bone weary.
*Keep working on trying to keep a blank mind when sparring with that older vampire. Continue to get ass kicked.
Lyubov has been queued to do the following:
*Jog with Camella again. Put in good effort. If the paperwork and photos still aren’t all done, ask Camella to please remind everyone that they need to do it. Get all papers back within one hour of making this comment to Camella.
*Collect paperwork and photos. Collect Andrei and bribe money.
BUSINESS FUNDS: -$37,000 $152,347.00 *With Andrei’s help, bribe the notaries, get them to sign off on identities (6 or 7 each) with the recorded dates of signing being spread out over the course of the week. Let Andrei handle most of the bribery, but if the notaries prove very reticent, point out “We made political enemies in our home country. You’ve heard of all the turmoil lately. We just want to make a life in a safe place.” *After getting the paperwork done, do a list of all the government offices it can be filed at that are within an hour’s drive. Make a sign-up sheet with no more than two people per location, per day. Make everyone sign and agree to use that address and date to turn in their applications for replacement IDs and birth certificates. This way no one office sees more than one or two people a day. Make sure date of visit and dates on the notarized forms match. Make sure Hillevi goes with Lyubov to file their paperwork. *After Night Lessons, grab guitar and play a little in the sound-proofed music room. No more than a half-hour of just solo fooling around. Stop even earlier when she realizes her hands are shaking from exhaustion, and she's playing like crap. >>389978 >>389981 I swing my feet out of bed before grabbing a plush neon orange robe and a pair of lurid green weasel shaped slippers, not bothering to question Amen's ever eclectic taste in provided attire. I stretch as I put the question of what to do up for consideration. >"Following her around and taking incriminating pictures of her illegal trespassing could do wonders." >[Sake]"[code]I guess. Feels rather... flat to me, I have to say.
>>389999 Four of a kind bonus
>>390002
>>390011
>>390012
>>390015
>>390018
I... have an idea of my own. At the crystalization of it, I smile wide enough I feel a few muscles tear, and almost absentmindedly rub my cheeks against Sake, for once not out on the town at this twilight hour.
>[Sake]"I don't even know WHAT the plan is that made him smile like that-but I already like it more than yours, Kuvy."
Kuvy?
>"I suppose there's nothing for it then-no matter how extreme, there isn't much room for worst case scenarios to truly have import here-what is it?"

I explain over the course of five seconds of real time, all in accelerated thought, ignoring the throbbing headache. I win them over easily-even the recalcitrant SB is eagerly on board, as is the Hummingbird himself for a surprise. Trick has been uncharacteristically silent about the whole affair-but then, I doubt he'd have contributed anything meaningful. Smug, secretive prick.

What I tell Amen, I tell him in accelerated thought, simply because if I took the time to verbalize all the specific requests and permutations with the proper phrasing it'd likely be midday. Given my mental communication, furious enough that after both spats of it I can feel the simple brooch on my lurk skin eyepatch faintly heating from the heavy use, slightly strained in its passive efforts to shield my mind from harm wrought by my own efforts. What makes this a bit more impressive to me is the fact that while I'm accomplishing this-I'm placing a call with the Sometimes Merchant, and my request goes a little something like this:

“Good morning, I happen to need a contract written up in German that has a mortal agreeing to the contract holder that she will forfeit her body and soul to him if she says anything about what she saw in his home. It should include other penalties as well, multiple monetary awards in compensation for various clauses, all of which amount to the same violation of talking about what she shouldn’t, and an agreement that all mechanisms to execute the contract be automatically carried out in lieu of a court case. While it should sound a little deranged and eccentric, it needs to be able to actually hold up if the dragons or anyone else with enough authority questions it. Oh, and could there be a clause in it about needing blood for a DNA sample to positively identify the signer?”
>[SM]"Absolutely. Understand that this will finish clearing the remaining onus we have to you for the unforeseen delay in the Kameosa acquisition."
“Great, can you just have that handed up to me through Amen? A pleasure.”


So it is, ten seconds (maybe more, I stopped counting) after I got dressed, such as I am, and began to really ponder the situation, I've made my choice and traded Amen the rights to add two more square feet of coverage to the flowerbed he manages, sidestepping adding a new slew of bindings to get him to do what I want. While Amen sets up-largely verifying he's performed each step to my specifications, clearly eager to earn those two extra square feet, I get to waking Andrei, and briefly getting him to stumble to the computer and set the house security cams, such as they are, to record. He's almost back to bed when he finally starts to grasp what I intend-and I shortly have a buddy to watch the madness with, who happily pounds a bevy of energy drinks to properly enjoy the chaos.

I seat myself before a decidedly fleshy screen next to Andrei, and watch as discreetly placed eyes and appropriated kitchen surveillance cams let me watch Adelat as she finally finds the window submitting before her determined efforts, softly swinging it open and slipping inside the darkened mansion. SB snickers as she blindly gropes around the decidedly over-dark room, seeking some means of orientation. The moment she takes her first step, Sake bursts into a fit of sniggering as she steps off the tiny island and into the abruptly well illuminated pool-complete with what look very much like fish cheerfully swimming along. Andrei snorts as the window she came in through-and the island itself-vanishes before she can get her bearing-leaving her in the middle of an olympic sized pool after taking a single step from a window.

All six of us watching, Andrei, Sake, SB, the Hummingbird, Iron Trick and yours truly all thoroughly bust out in uproarious laughter as she splutters and twitches, clearly trying and only somewhat succeeding in controlling an immensely confused panic. Finally though, she begins to calm down when she sees no one, the cameras Amen placed too discreet for her to detect, and appears to assume the lights automatic. If I could soul sense her I could be sure, but I'd be she's trying to rationalize away that impossible entry. She finally spots the one and only door Amen was supposed to leave within the pool, and spends some time swimming over to the pool's edge, stepping out and briefly wringing her jacket and pants dry, or at least enough she won't leave a particularly massive drip trail. Good, she's trying to apply logic to this situation she's found herself in. I smirk at this notion as she softly opens the door.

Let's stretch that.

She hesitates on the room's entrance, clearly confused-after all, all she can see within is a simple room, an eight foot cube with completely bare, nearly sterile looking walls-the only things of note a handle-less sealed door, and a single row of seven circular buttons next to it, each next to a slot that's clearly meant to hold a label-complete with seven labels scattered on the ground.

She spends a long moment peering back into the pool, searching for some other path to take. Once she's accepted there really aren't any other paths, she tentatively steps into the room, clearly ready to dart out if the door attempts to shut. When nothing happens, she finally makes her way over to the wall, picking up the labels. She spends a solid minute staring at the seven little placards-and I have to wonder how she takes seeing that the options are [Breakfast], [Swedish Massage], [Shave and a Haircut], [I <3 Me], [Weasel Rubdown], [Execute] and [Abort]. In point of fact, she goes so far as to walk back into the pool room and look around one more time, desperately looking for another option. When yet again, nothing presents itself, she steels herself to the inevitability of the situation, and hesitantly presses the second button from the bottom, ready to bolt. She continues to stand there rigid with tension while... nothing happens. After half a minute, she presses the second button from the top. Again, nothing. This time only waiting ten seconds, she presses a third button, the third from the bottom-

To promptly have arms (I'd tried for robotic arms, but the best Amen could offer that I liked were prehensile, tentacle like furry monkey arms that have skin nearly identical to glove leather, visibly died and sporting translucent fiber-like fur. At least I got him to make sure they wear gloves). A hand wraps about each ankle and wrist as more arms bring a chair she's seated in and a small table, complete with a single bowl of oatmeal. At this point clearly somewhat insensate from the insanity of the situation she hardly thinks to resist as she's spoon fed the oatmeal in a hurry.

When the hands start stripping her she seems to snap back into it-but she can't resist a dozen arms squirming over her form, and in seconds the still sopping garments are removed, a pair of hands secure her head as a trio of arms assault her head of hair with scissors, clipping away madly under Amen's direction before she's dropped in a heated tub that simply comes into existence with bath salts, immediately picked back up, and rubbed down with a special combination loofah/towel that has Sake wiggling with mirth at my side.

At this moment, Adelat is being assaulted by a bevy of plushy Sake replicas as she's wiped down, then dressed in the very same suit she spotted me in outside Mr. Jung's old setup. Once more losing her groundedness as the situation continues full bore with the surrealism, she's unceremoniously shoved through the door-and, clad in oversized clothes half falling off her with a far more mannish haircut, she's subjected to a room walled with mirrors-as I speak into the microphone-like device Amen provided for me, eager to hear how my voice is modulated.

[In Turkish]"You... are important. You... are desirable. You are a successful man, and will continue being successful. You are irresistably attractive, and no one is above you. You.... are a man."

Andrei has to be muffled by Sake so his laughter doesn't give me away, as my voice pipes out in the room she finds herself in sounding like some prissy grandfather just flounced his way through the script. Still utterly lost as to what's going on, she walks forward almost on autopilot as the foremost mirrors withdraw, revealing a long hallway, the walls lined with posters-all of them featuring caricatures of Sake in dynamic poses, ranging from looking decidedly like homages to old '50's US recruiting posters as well as modern movie posters-all of them bearing the caption: 'Rub Your Weasel'. I'm almost disappointed when she hardly looks at the posters twice-I suppose they are a bit lackluster compared to torrents of unnaturally monkey butler arms running her through a morning process. Once she starts walking down the hall though, things get interesting. I have Amen slowly set the floor to moving, so subtly shifting in speed that she's nearly halfway across before she even realizes something's amiss-and the moment she pauses to look around she's pulled back several feet. By the time she's begun to try and outstrip the abruptly whirling floor and reach the hallway's end, she has to run just to break even, and is clearly putting her all into inching towards the end, clearly striving for the doors with the glowing 'EXIT' sign above them. Sadly-she can only run so fast, and the hallway soon enough is beyond her ability to beat. She's a third of the way back when she starts scrabbling for ways to grip the wall, slips and falls to the floor, promptly swept back to the start-and dropped down a conveniently present chute that slopes into a spiraling slide.

She's promptly deposited all a-jumble within yet another eight foot cube of a room-this time lacking buttons, and having not one, but two doors, each sporting a license plate sized label above them. To the left of the slipper slide's exit, there is a door labeled Moon Room, and to the slide's right is a door titled Amen's Gallery. She longingly looks back at the slide, but this time doesn't bother trying to back track. She looks back and forth between the doors, then proceeds with a modest determination towards the moon room. Upon opening the door and seeing it's a giant bouncy room, she slowly shuts the door and enters Amen's Gallery. Here she gawks and gapes, stares and gazes at the myriad of outfits, the hundreds of mannequins sporting all manner of garb, ranging from vintage to cutting edge. In her wandering she doesn't notice the door she entered through vanishing-but she most certainly does notice the next door being titled Moon Room, and spends two minutes meticulously going over the room, looking for an alternative exit that simply isn't there. With a now visible amount of trepidation and dread about her features, she opens the door, and does her best to simply walk across the bouncy room immediately gravitating to the only other door present, thankfully lacking a label. She opens the door-and the bouncy room behind her abruptly ruptures, a wall of wind throwing her through the door and slamming it shut behind her. She tumbles to the ground and comes up in a roll-but not before Amen conveniently erased the door.

Andrei's nearly asphyxiating himself, laughing so hard as he watches the insane obstacle course I'm subjecting the intruder to.

Adelat displays far less adaptability than Camella, and freezes up as she sees she's once more in an eight foot cube-this one nearly identical to the first, the only difference being that three of the seven labels are still properly beside buttons. The fact they read: [Aztec Jaguar Costume], [French Clown] and [Harvey Bunny] makes her pick up the four labels on the ground. I can see her outlook on what the future holds for her brighten as she reads one titled [Business Casual] then immediately plummet as she sees the last three are [Thongs and Thong], [Speedo + Coat of Oil] and [Birthday Suit]. Eventually, she presses all four of the empty buttons, pulling out her gun-and is rather startled when a single pair of arms drops down, holding a clothes hanger with a simple suit (still oversized) on it. In that moment where she relaxed just a hair, Amen blacks out the room, SB abuses the incumbent mass of shadow to shadowport off all the clothes she's wearing-and the lights come back on. I time her-eleven seconds to get dressed again. Fast, that.

She's practically stomping, having long since forgotten about stealth as she marches through the opening door-and skids to a halt as she comes into a ballroom. I'm a bit disappointed Amen couldn't quite provide a suitably generic faceless crowd of dancers, but decide the invisible force that compels Adelat to dance with a mannequin dressed in the very same clothes she first wore on entering this building, abruptly clean and dry, as she cuts a swaying waltz across the massive, pillar-strewn room. Without being given even time to adjust to this bizarre situation the waltz ends, the lights again go out-and this time Amen reshapes the entire room around her, keeping only the marble floor as the light returns-and she finds herself in an eight by eight cube, with nothing visible but a single braided rope of cloth-of-gold, it's tassel festooned with a gilded card reading 'Pull Me'. Clearly learning, she doesn't bother looking around for an alternative this time, and simply pulls the cord-to be showered with hand grenades. Or, if she'd looked a little longer before trying in desperation to duck and cover, she'd have noticed they were plastic replicas. A full minute passes before she takes the only real action she can in the room filled with cheap toy grenades-once more pulling on the rope.

I take that as my cue, and exit the room while SB continues to show me what the picture displays.

The floor falls away, dumping her and the balls down-into yet another eight by eight cube before promptly sealing shut. She hardly even notices the fact the toy grenades just phased right through the floor-or at least, she doesn't react to it. It's a good thing she's almost done-she nearly looks to be adapting. She exits the single door in the room-to the exact same hallway she ran down before, the same posters, the same well-lit exit. At this point she breaks immediately into a run, hoping to reach the end before its too late-and slams the door open, knocking it off it's hinges as the floor stays inert beneath her. She rolls to her feet-and finds herself face to crotch with me, still sporting my robe and weasel slippers, smiling (not Smiling) down at her. I immediately spring into my spiel, rather certain I don't want to let her get any momentum going.
>[M7 Trait has gained it's SEVENTH word, becoming: MASTERFUL MAESTRO the MEANDERING, MILITARISTIC MACHIAVELLIAN MANIPULATIVE METHUSELAH. This trait can now effect magical beings that are oriented around social manipulation-there is no guarantee of success, however.]
"I thought I heard the machine running. Are you injured? No? Good, come with me to my office. I’d normally be more upset about someone breaking into my home, but it’s you."
I promptly turn about and begin walking up the stairs, happy to note she's following me, warily or not. Once we've entered the room I arbitrarily am calling my office for the moment-I turn about and continue.
“I saw you working the other day, you looked really busy. How’s work?”
At this-she finally seems to fully exit autopilot, her face working through a melange of conflicting expressions before she indignantly replies.
>[Adelat]"What-what the hell IS this mad funhouse!?"
I effect the air of a man deeply offended by trying hard to be polite.
”It is not a funhouse, it is a prototype. Now, let’s be civil. I’m really trying to be polite here. How’s work?”
She narrows her eyes at me.
>[Adelat]"Indefinite suspension as they 'investigate' something."
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. Are they going to press charges or are they just going to cut you loose?”
>[Adelat]"I don't know-does it matter? You think any department worth it's name will want to risk taking me now?"
“Well, it sounds like you’ve had a pretty bad week. Still, that doesn’t quite explain why you broke into my home, and looked at a bunch of industrial secrets. There’s a huge market for machines like what I’ve got here. Multi-billion dollar business, after all. I’d normally not even be debating about if I should call the police, but I don’t really want to get you in more trouble. So, can you explain why you thought you’d find information that would exonerate you in here?”
Oh, I am so happy I had Amen relocate the cameras to this room to continue the show, and got Andrei to record this-I'm going to need a print of that look, that gaping, fish out of water mixed with a pissed off tiger look of hers. It's delicious.
>[Adelat]"...YOU!"
"Me?"
>[Adelat]"You did it, I KNOW it! I don't know how, but you stole from those vans, didn't you!"
I put on a vaguely disapproving look, as if I were her mildly disappointed parent.
“Vans? Oh, something about the job you were on when I spotted you? Adelat that doesn’t make a lick of sense. I called in a favor because I heard the place got all shot up. Figured I could get it for some promises and handshakes. Figured right, too.”
>[Adelat]"That's impossible-there's no way they could have cleared out the red tape fast enough to 'sell' the place after we shut it down!"
“Ad what about before, hm? They’re just businessmen. Even if they’re into stuff I don’t know anything about, questionably legal or no, my dealings with them have nothing to do with their other funding sources.”
Clearly starting to get her bearing, she tries her hand at lateral thinking-
>[Adelat]"Why'd you wave at me?"
I sigh exasperatedly as I respond without missing a beat.
“I waved at you because I was trying to be friendly! It's now sounding like that was a wasted effort.”
At this point, plans go slightly arwy-as several sets of feet can be heard walking down the hallway. Camella and the few brave souls willing to jog with her, I'm betting.
>[Adelat]"Who's that-'guests'?"
“Of course I have guests staying with me. They’re helping me with other projects, most of which involve industrial secrets.”
>[Adelat]"You're going to show me their identification, or-"
“You’re not even here in your official capacity, so no, I’m not going to show you their paperwork and I find it offensive you're demanding it after breaking in."
I briefly stroke my chin before continuing just as she's about to speak, relentlessly riding right over her.
"Speaking of which, I really can’t let you blab to people about how far along I am with my designs. I don’t want to call the cops on you, but I also want some insurance that you’re not going to cost me a lot of money accidentally. How about if you sign a non-disclosure agreement? I could have my guys write up an ironclad one. I’d feel secure about letting you go on your way if we had one.”
She's about to speak when I slide SM's contract, handily deposited in the desk's drawer, into her hands. She begins a decidedly manic bit of off-kilter giggling, as she reads the verbage.
>[Adelat]"Is this a joke?"
"I'll have you know I've had excellent relations with this company and put a great deal of trust in their contracts, eccentric wording or no. Now-if you'd just make a blood thumbprint over here and sign, you-"
>[Adelat]"What makes you think I'll sign this bit of nonsense?"
"I suppose I COULD call the police and wash my hands of this affair-tell me, do you think they'll like your explanation as to why you are here?"
>[Adelat]"..But this contract talks about pure fantasy-half of this could never be enforced!"
“Well if those clauses are as unenforceable as you say, then there’s no problem is there? Look, I’ll even make sure the diagnostic footage of you going through the machine is deleted, if you stop wasting my time and just sign the damn NDA.”

It's one of the hardest things I've ever done, not grinning when she finally hunkers down and signs the thing.


As soon as she has signed it and I watch the magic taking root with the aid of my Soul Brothers, I have Amen show her to the door. The moment it shuts behind her-
>[Amen]"Was this one's services satisfactory?"
Man, Amen's REALLY keen on that flower bed.
"As agreed, you may expand the flowerbed the agreed two square feet."

I swagger back to the viewing room, where Sake and SB are both chatting with the now too-jovial to care Andrei, clearly interested in what he thinks he can do with the footage, the man looking more than passing intrigued by both's ability to imitate voices, clearly pondering how to dub in the audio. I remind him he's got an hour before Camella gets back from her jog-maybe less-and he groans before shuffling off to do his thing.

.....Yeah, that felt reeeeeaaaaal good.

Amen, let me know the MOMENT you sense her violating a clause of the contract, okay?
>[Amen]"This one hears, and obeys."

A solid start to the day-and it's not even four twenty AM yet.










How can I possibly keep the rest of the day from being a let-down from this amazing start?

You have the recording - you should share it with other people. Abolec seems like the kind of guy who would enjoy it, as do Einrik and Duke.

Set up a joint viewing session for them, and ask the questions from >>390061 about learning soul manipulation.

minor nit pick, we told Adelat that we would delete the footage, so we should keep our word and do so. after making a copy of course, but the important thing is we keep our word.

>Andrei Orders
>Today - Wensday - (DAY OF LAUGHTER)
>Bro the fuck out with Shadow Boss and Weasel. Demonstrate microphone and get that file saved so we can start making edited copies with Shadow and Weasel voices. Laugh ass off.
>Continue to laugh ass off. Continue to do so. Be unable to do much for the whole day, laughing, falling onto ass, and suggesting we should make additions to the machine. 'Highlights of Your Life' or 'The Third Reich Attacking the Neo-Nazis' or 'The Smile Room' would be good additions.
>When asked why laughing ass off, be cagey or lie. When Camella asks...ask Shadow Boss and Weasel if we can run the Machine again.
>Cackle madly through the night, staying up late to get the best editing, including the best dubbing of Shadow Boss and Weasel's lines - also editing in Camella, if we get her to run The Machine. Also, make sure the 'Killing Doony' footage is good.

>Tomorrow - Thursday - (Day of Movies)
>Hate the garish sun. Indulge in Caffeine.
>Act as if everything is normal. Spend as much break time in computer room as possible, putting the finishing touches on both videos. Try so hard not to laugh. See if Armas, Shadowboss or Weasel has any ideas to make Kill Doony or THE MACHINE footage better. Idly comment during video editing about something watching us drink caffeine.
>When not in the break room, be convincing and bribing and lying smooth talking mouth off for Lyubov.
>Have Boss call a Companywide meeting to view the Kill Doony footage to revel in the killing of a foe and to notice anything that could be improved. Troll everyone with Boss by showing both Doony and THE MACHINE - Best Edit.
>Go to bed dead tied, early, and happier than ever.

>Day After Tomorrow - Friday - (Day of Pretending To Be Santa)
>Wake up. Giggle. Watch choice clips of The Machine Footage. Guffaw.
>Fuckhate the Camella Training and the running and the how the -fuck- does Satai and Lyubov do this?
>Remember stuff delivery! Distribute Laptops to every Russian not already having one or that will break it.
>Also, with new disc readers, check floppy disk, and laserdisc.
>See Hillevi on a crappy, crappy, crappy notebook. Fuck that shit! Spend one of the precious hours training her on computer games, computer usage, and convincing boss to get you a bitching computer. Realize she doesn't need to convince boss to do this. Go computer shopping with Hillevi and her money. $70 1TB Hard Drive, $50 4GB DDR Ram, a $75 case, Sea Sonic S12II 520 520w PSU for $60, a graphics card for $185, a Phenom II X4 956 BE CPU for 160 and a Gigabyte 890GPA-UD3H Motherboard for 135 dollars. Total of $679. Bring parts back home, and put computer for Hillevi. Tell her: "This is a good computer, but if you really want to know computers, you will craft it when you understand computers."

Armas, you should get some chakra practice in today,in fact you should get it in every day.

THE CRANKY CAMELLA- You need to ask Camella what's up, if Ito is worried there is good reason. Check out her soul, if the eyes look unfocused or anything, then this a pretty damn serious. Otherwise it might just be something on her mind.

THE GUILTY GO- When last we met, Ping left us with kind of an ominous message about wishing he could be our friend and not competitor. I almost got used to the guy being a pal, but the reality is he really has no reason to now that you all have taken revenge on Doony, plus, he works for Lo Fang, a man that most certainly gives no shits about taking you out. Him sounding so sorry might indicate that the triads are about to make a move on you.
Even so it would be strange that you were not attacked back during your last chakra session. Did you notice any strange behavior from the guards when you last went for chakra training? Anything strange with their souls? In any case, you should get the place set up in case the Triads decide to make a move.

THE COURTEOUS CORNELIUS - Cash that shit in.

Check on all the russians and the gear you all used in the doony fight. It was a short encounter, a slaughter really, but it would be worthwhile to see if any of them made soulgains or if any of the gear shows signs of developing magic, or in the case of the season guns, have their enchantments strengthen.

Have a talk with Silja, keep her company.

Look into what Whaitari is up to. For a divine benefactor, she sure hasn't been doing much giving, she really is milking you for all you are worth without giving much in return, you need to address that.

Lastly, check on Einrik, he has fulfilled his end of the deal with doony; He might be hanging around some more to deal with personal issues, but you should find out what he intends to do.

Zhenya orders.
-Help Lyubov and the others when they ask.
-Dedicate yourself fully to Cammela's training, dying won't do you any good here and you might as well get her teaching like you wanted out of it. Grab sleep and naps when they present themselves.
-Get into a rhythm. You are musically talented, getting a beat should be simple for you. Find a natural beat, something like your heartbeat, and form everything around it, weather on the main beat or off or staggered, make a song out of it; your steps, your breathing, your training in chakra, your playing everything. Songs have a tendency to focus actions and improve recall and indeed, initial performance in things you do, especially for those naturally gifted in music. Get to it, the song of your life.
-In your off time, when you have nothing else to do (including sleep as it is now a high priority action), grab a map and work on memorizing the roads and routes of Istanbul and work your way out, simulating escape and moving combat scenarios on foot and in various vehicles. It's something you seem good at and will no doubt be helpful in times to come. Ask Armas and Camella what their reach is and start memorizing routes from the docks and any triad or mafia controlled territories.
-Boss was talking about wood taking magic easier back before the Doonages fight, seems like a good idea to get yourself some and swap out synthetic grips on your guns for wood ones. Hey, might as well go all the way and get some instruments made out of some good old wood too. Some ancient Kauri should do the trick(http://www.ancientwood.com/), this beaut here should work wonders for anything you want(http://www.ancientwood.com/catalog/new-shipment/slab-1002). In fact this is something the entire company could benefit from. Talk to Satai about getting some of this for the company to switch grips and in general make useful items from.

Armas Orders
Try to catch some of the chakra training. See if anyone in particular is making progress, and try to see what's up with Camella.

Get in as much practice at multi-orientations as you can keep your mind on without the bird's help, then ask Einrik to observe you trying it both on your own and with hummingbro. Try out different combinations, you never know, it might be easier with ones that don't share an area of effect.

Head down to the bazaar and handle getting more booze. Buy from at least a few places, and set up at least one recurring purchase. Make sure everything gets delivered.

Have a look at Amen's flowers. Compliment them, even if they're horrifying. It's nice to have a hobby.

Check on Andrei's work with the film.



Feodor Orders
*Join Camella's Jog. Don't be stupid enough to try to win, since you've spent most of the last fortnight drinking and doing little else, but put in as much effort as you can handle. Order a 140lb(adjustable) weighted vest online, to make it even harder. Budget: $400
*At chakra training, be as focused as possible, as an example to the others - the health of their souls is worth even more than that of their bodies
*Demand that Armas use his spirit-sense to hold a stance so you can speak to all the men you lost to supernatural causes in Chugainov's army. If you see Einrik, badger him with questions about how you could have saved them.
*Ask Camella and Armas if they know any less-than-legal doctors you could ask to mentor you, to improve your skills. When told about Dr Finnigan, get his contact details and call him about working as a free assistant in exchange for mentoring. If he's still reticent, offer up to $5000.
*Ask Lev if he could spare an hour or so on the weekend to teach you some more advanced hand-to-hand fighting. Ask Zhenya the same about pistols.

>>390214
>stance
Should say seance, but my phone is stupid.

Grisha Orders:
-Chakra training is something that you will see gains out of, at least in the department of spiritual wholeness, so be paying attention.
-Note that Andrei has not stopped laughing since the this morning, ponder what horrible thing he has witnessed this time, going from the record of things Armas has done. Considering the firestorm at the Nazi warehouse and his reticence to say, probably something terrible.
-Fail to sleep after lunch, instead think while pretending to sleep, think of homeland, your father, deliberate over chakra training.
-Also, considering the likelyhood of encountering more... robust foes in this business, it may be worth getting something more powerful than modern assault weapons, inflicting shock may end up more important than wounding or killing efficiently... not that the AN is unsuited for simple human combat.

>SM introduction
SM owes us introduction to other goblins... we need to claim those already. That would allow us to "shop around" for things a bit and thus improve the prices we can get.

>Hummingbird Magic Poisoning:
We should buy (from SM for now, potentially from other contacts in future) disposable charms to filter the excess energy on our link with the hummingbird.
We should buy enough such charms to last a month. As armas gets more precise at manipulating his chakra he can reduce the amount of energy bleedout over that link which makes the charms last longer (reducing ongoing cost) until eventually we no longer need them at all.

>Russian Magic Food Poisoning
We could get in contact with the chakra master who taught einrik. If we could convince her to teach us, we could ask her if she could teach us a chakra config that lets us drain magic from a willing subject... the food magic food poisoning turns into an emergency magic battery for us.
Alternatively, such a configuration might be in the 7777 uses of chakra book we intend to buy.

>Godling
Isn't sake a Kami? We should ask sake to clarify the definitions of god, godling, kami, and name other in betweens he knows of. Oh, also if he knows what is the definition of a devil, what is it the makes a devil a devil?

>Prisoners
I think it is time we met/examined the various prisoners amen has. Also lets reexamine the mangled reaper soul (now that we have improved soul detection).

>Chakra Practice
Armas should focus practicing holding multiple simultaneous chakra alignments with hummingbirds assistance. Keep at it until he increases assisted duration by a second and then try by himself. Repeat it until he can do it by himself for a second.
Ideally we want to be able to have an array of multiple detection alignments running concurrently (although I guess we could also cycle between them)... speaking of, I want to learn all the different detection configurations lo fang could teach us for that purpose.

>Chugniov
Lets approach SM with the idea of ordering jidovka to steal and deliver to us a sample of chuginov's blood.
We offer SM to sell him non exclusive access to chuginov same as we did to jidovka.
SM will help us phrase the order for amen, to order jidovka to steal the blood.
In exchance SM gets a discount on his purchase of chuginov ordering rights.

>Boris
Decides to join the morning jogs in earnest to get good enough to make up for what happened last time.
Also, to combat his kelpie krisps cravings (aka, to completely eliminate them from diet) decides to go for cookie baking training with our dear cookie lady every day around 1pm (can shift it around if she wants to). As per >>/questdis/359707

Orders for Ivan
*Continue training hard in Chakra but, be sure to take a day off of other training to catch up on sleep.
*Join Satai's marksman training group on its regular meetings.
*Decide that Boss Weasel could use a bit of bling.
*Settle on idea of using gold leaf to let him decorate himself.
*Dub plan "Operation: Pimp Your Weasel"
*Seek Lyubov's assistance in the afformented plan.
*Purchase one 25 leaf book of gold leaf and one 25 leaf book of silver leaf Budget: $100
[ http://goldenleafproducts.com/order_GLP237.html ] [ http://goldenleafproducts.com/order_GLPSILVER.html ]
*Reluctantly realize that gold/silver-covered fur might interfere with weasel rubdowns.
*Settle on decorating Boss Weasel's claws instead along with a few small wind and musical note themed highlights on his fur.
*Create wax paper stencils of patterns with Lyubov's help
*Approach Boss Weasel alongside Lyubov to pitch the idea of GILDED CLAWS AND FUR to him.
*If he accepts, commence the the decoration with his choice of gold, silver, or combination. Jokingly ask him how it felt to have his nails done for the first time once finished.
*Feel moderately silly when you realize that what you have been referring to as an L129A1 Sharpshooter is actually an MSG90-A2

>>390190
Zhenya also gets her ass down to the Government office to turn in her forms.

How to top that morning? Well, how about cashing in on Doony parts? SM won't keep them for us forever, after all.

Offering Gianni the opportunity to study the organs of the beast would be an immense boon to the man, enough to get him to agree to... well, likely all sorts of conditions. For one, we'd like him to coordinate on a plan we're hashing together for the barely-alive Nazinaut ('studying our body back at my house' is also particularly valuable study material for GiaGia; between the two of them, we could probably get all sorts of mutually beneficial agreements vis a vis information sources and what the mafia is up to, or even poach him from the Mafia entirely). For another... well, I'm not sure I trust GiaGia enough to have him put things inside us, but wouldn't it be neat to have a system of organs giving us poison like the Doonongaes?

Mention it to Duke and Einrik, too, while we're on the subject of the Nazinaut. We have an engine of mindless destruction, complete with plate armor and gas jets. We have a sentient shadow that can control the body, or an einher that expressed an interest in taking it over. We have Doony poison. We have that crime against God Duke commits in the bathroom. I think between all of these things, we could come up with something truly horrifying to unleash on our enemies.

With a multiton beast, I'd put the usable meat cuts at no more than 2000 pounds, and that's before SM's 1/20th cut. Deliver, say, 200 pounds of the best cuts to the Owner with a request to meet to discuss various topics related to 'Corn' at his leisure. Hopefully he won't accomodate us immediately, since we haven't checked out the island yet, but if he does, I'd like to learn more about what I think was a job offer. Try and angle in the fact that his little present proves that we have the chops to acquire magical beasts for the discerning palate if anyone had such a desire, and that we'd actually like to learn more about the restaraunt business and Turkish cuisine in particular - we enjoy cooking (and eating) but we are, at best, a gifted amateur. We can either pay for lessons in more of our gift, or by the job.

The blood, I think Amen could safely handle and keep fresh and potent in the mansion stores? Ask. Then have him calculate how much blood is available. That's good for one free Dunter training voucher, or immensely valuable in its own right, or maybe even an interesting potential component of the proposed Blood Heart plan.

The 'materials' we can add to the Amazon cache for messing about with later.

Speaking of blood, we have Adelat's bloody thumbprint. If we needed a way in to the police station, that might do very well when put in a blood-illusion charm. Pair it with an immensely realistic mask of - oh, I don't know, Prime Minister Tayyip, for the cameras.

When the Smiling One gets back in touch with us, also gently broach the subject of the Japanese magical animal ban. Advantageous outsider trading in the witch's magical foxes (say, through Wyld Goblins and Smiling One) may convince her to re-open the issue, if indeed the issue is one of money.

Ask Amen if he can non-destructively reverse engineer any and all magic the Doonegeas used from his brain, corpse and residual magic, and truthfully explain any she can potentially make use of to Whaitiri via SB, in the same fashion he's answering her questions, to the degree that she's interested in learning. This will hopefully give us more cred for boons, and SB may be able to transfer pieces of it to us, or use it himself.

Allso discuss with him the price for a luck charm designed to maximise our chances of acquiring a trait that improves our Divine Summer bloodline by eating the Doonegeas' heart or other randomly selected organ.

>Satai orders for Tuesday-Wednesday+
-Be exhausted and overworked. Begin to raid Andrei's energy drinks. After a moment of consideration, abort that plan. Instead find Andrei and tell him that he needs to go buy enough energy drinks for all the Russians to be awake in spite of horrible sleep-deprivation all the time and it goes on the company dime. He can manage the selection and distribution personally, of course, as long as he makes sure that Satai gets as many as he needs.
-At sniping practice and in transit to/from, make an effort to talk with Hillevi. Start with sniping-related things, like different types of mundane long-range weapons (rifles, mortars, rockets, missiles, grenade launchers, artillery, etc.) and what she has in terms of magic to fulfill the same basic combat roles. Try to segue from there into a more general information exchange about magical and mundane methods of combat, and from there into all kinds of related topics- enchantments on weapons and items and how those work, chakra, general mundane technologies particularly those with military application, common magical whatevers, mundane force organizations, types of magical creatures, whatever. She's spending four hours a day in Satai's company, and that of the others in the marksmanship group; this is a golden opportunity to have a lot of useful information exchange- and as long as we keep to topics where Hillevi is knowledgeable hopefully she won't feel awkward and clam up.
-Upon seeing the video of Adelat and Armas, be highly amused but also somewhat disturbed, because one solid measure of someone's character is what they do when they have total power over someone- and apparently Armas chooses to toy with people for his amusement and then trick them into slavery. Adelat might not realize that any contract, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, can be enforced- but the Russians most certainly do.


>>390098
We have secure internet access, and have had it for a while- it would be a good time to log on to The Smiling One's website and see what she's got. She said she "has some following amongst gourmands of certain interests", which sounds rather promising. Silja needs to devour rather specific things to grow properly into a human form again, and thus could certainly be termed a gourmand- as can Armas, of course. It was also mentioned that she makes wonderful preserves and spirits, which would also be looking into on principle- Duke seems to be guzzling ours at a prodigious rate. Take a careful look at what the website's got, and leave Nikoyaka Youkai a message that we have an interest in acquiring certain foods more specialized than we have easy access to, and would be interested in discussing availability and cost with her if she has an opportunity.

This morning, go to the arena the goblins showed us and enter a match as a competitor. Make sure that we can being Shadowbro and the hummingbird, and that the arena understands that we are nowhere near Einrik/Duke's weight class even if we are associated with them and our opponents should be something we can more realistically handle. Bet heavily on ourselves if we can get anything remotely resembling decent odds, because we're awesome. Ask what the arena accepts in terms of non-cash bets, because we've got some fantastically valuable things to put up as collateral- magical weapons, nonmagical but impressive weapons, barrels of blood, expensive paintings, all kinds of fun stuff. Since we're strong enough that the odds on us will probably get really bad really quickly- hopefully the word hasn't spread about us being in the Doonongaes fight, since the goblins can't talk about us being the one who did it- don't make the mistake of betting small at first; seize fleeting the opportunity to really make bank. Nothing like a victory and a solid profit to keep a day moving right.


Call our parents and say hi before this next one. See how they're doing, chat for a while. It's a doozy and might warp that relationship a tad, so best to talk to them first (though not about this, just in general).

One of the most important issues before us, although we haven't thought about it much, is establishing a good relationship with Whaitiri. Our soul is inextricably tied to her, so she will probably never stop being important to us; that makes it important to make sure that our dealings with her are properly arranged so that we have a positive relationship in the long term. What we have with her right now is total crap, to be blunt. Whaitiri is selfish, touchy, and incredibly prideful, looking down on us as a mortal and her lesser that she doesn't have to respect and will never owe anything to. We just want her to give us power, and don't feel that we have to respect her to get it- we're treating her as a mark to be manipulated, or if that fails, hopefully bribed into compliance with just enough subservience and offerings to make her do what we want. This state of affairs is neither desirable nor sustainable.

Fortunately, it doesn't have to be. We are no mortal, but a godling, blessed scion of the divine. Of Whaitiri in particular, even; in certain ways we have a closer tie to her than it's likely anyone else will ever have, which can serve as a very solid foundation for the formalization of a mutually beneficial relationship where both sides know what to expect from the other and can interact in structured ways to provide one another with useful assistance, with no jockeying for position or advantage required.

Of the available types of relationship that we could attempt to define, the most beneficial for us and easiest to work with in the long term is likely to convince Whaitiri that we are her son. Twin sons, in fact, with Shadowbro. This might initially sound ridiculous, but it's not- because Whaitiri is a god, a creature of Belief, and we are very, very good at believing things about ourselves and making them true- the Splintered Intent trick proves that. We believe ourselves to be sons of Whaitiri, that by exchanging part of our soul with hers we were adopted and spiritually reborn/reformed so that she is our respected soul-mother, and we are her beloved sons. This means that both of us naturally delight in helping one another and seeing one another grow strong and be happy, because we're family.

The fact that part of our soul is made of her should make this Belief begin to affect her, but it might not be enough. We can supplement it with the fact that every time we eat we're feeding her energy- and that energy is passing through us to get to her, giving us a chance to affect it. If we believe hard enough that the reason Whaitiri is able to gain strength from our eating is because we're her son, then every time she gains energy from our eating she should also be affected by that Belief as her being shifts just a little more so that it's true- and she is still relatively weak right now; the amount of magic that we're able to feed her might not be totally lost in a static mindset as it would be with a stronger god. To cement our decision, therefore, once we're sure we have the Belief that we want fixed in our mind and heart- Shadowbro's as well if possible, since he has part of Whaitiri's soul- we should spend some time gorging. Find the most powerful meats available that we can safely consume- all the hearts in our refrigerator, the Doonongaes' heart and some of its other organs, whatever else we've got on hand that's as magical as possible- and devour them while focusing on the appropriate belief. If done right, this should lay a very solid groundwork for making Whaitiri think of us as her son that we can shore up with future meals and interactions, as well as continuing to believe that regarding our own nature.

Talk about this plan with Sake and Iron Trick, as our resident Divine magic types, to confirm that it would function as expected before implementing it. Also confirm that Shadowbro is cool with it (it does affect him rather strongly, after all) and generally sanity check with headvoices. If they say it would work out then fire all cylinders and full steam ahead.


Since we'll be giving Sometimes Merchant a call to acquire the relevant Doonongaes parts anyway, we should also seek to get Silja appropriate meals from him unless the Smiling One's website was exceptionally useful. "I am interested in acquiring magically Winter-aligned, physically attractive humanoid female bodies; intact is preferred but parts are also acceptable as long as they came from an appropriate source. Yuki onna, valkyries, female einher or Contractors, frost giants, kumiho, winter elves or nymphs, bloodliners, vampires, or weres of the appropriate clans, that sort of thing. What do you have available?" Several bargaining points on this: the selection of possibilities is so broad that we can't be expected to pay the same price as for a request for a specific species, if he tries to sell us something still alive we're not going to pay much extra for it since we only need the body, if he needs time to acquire more of course there's a reduction in price due to the delay. Unless he has overwhelming quantities, this can be a standing order where he contacts us as more supplies become available. And one other thing to get: "There's one other thing I'm interested in. I would like to secure the use of a nevernever pocket sometime soon, designed to be ideal for training purposes and last for a subjective five years." This will likely be expensive- but we might as well ask. For payment, the information that the Triads are currently down their heavy hitter- they don't seem to even know where Labombard is- should be worth a bit. There's also this: "You are familiar with my current guests, of course. Duke's battle in the arena should have given you a good sense of what he can do- and I can offer you my services in directing him against specific targets. I'm sure you have a few matters where a man of his capabilities could solve problems or simplify matters to your advantage, preferably through fights that he would appreciate. As a further payment and to prove my abilities in this, I maneuvered him into killing Mammon's Knight some days ago, and he thanked me for it afterward." We can supplement that with money- hopefully we'll have quite a bit after managing a win or two in the arena this morning.

If we manage to acquire some of the desired food types for Silja, talk with her for a while and feed her whatever we get- although should have Amen keep small blood samples first, just in case we want one of those specific types of blood for something one day, and we should eat tiny bits of everything Silja gets ourselves because taking meals together is a bonding experience. If Sometimes Merchant sold us anything alive, don't feed it to Silja just yet, that demands special handling based upon what it is.

We need to get moving on the Swede's job- there's no telling how long everything will remain in police lockup. Gathering intelligence and figuring out where exactly it all is so that we can prepare for the theft is step one here; Shadowbro can get on that since he's mobile and stealthy- since they know that the warded van was the only one which didn't have the goods stolen from it, it's a fair bet that they'll be keeping the rest of the stuff in a warded building. Since Adelat was in charge of the operation, it's a good bet that her organization will be the ones storing the stuff. Armas should be able to find buildings they control easily enough- public organization, after all- and Shadowbro can go out and find out which ones are warded, do some more detailed scouting of the area. That should narrow down our search nicely and let us start planning for recovery operations.

Call Arkvad. "Arkvad! How's it going? I've got some great news- care to come by for dinner, talk about things?" When he comes over, personally grill up a few slabs of (middling-quality) Doonongaes meat cooked up, serve them to him. "So, heard anything about Flinder's Range? You said someone would be checking it out- anything promising?" "I also wanted to ask, did you do anything about Otso? Thought I should give him a call and dispense some advice, but you're closer to the family than I am and I wasn't sure how you'd be moving on the issue." Get Otso's phone number (not his families', but his personal cell phone) if Arkvad has it and will give it to us. Once the meal is well underway, use the line "So, that news I mentioned- guess what you're eating?" Smirk at his expected wariness. "Doonongaes. Claimed by me as spoils after we killed it on Sunday." "Ask anyone in the group, they'll all confirm. Better- its scales, bones, cartilage, scales, fangs- do you think your company would be interested in such things?" "Thought so. I'm not willing to sell it all, but if there are any particular projects- I've made arrangements so that it's all clean of poison and won't be going bad. And you can add this to our resume for working acquisitions." "I'd be interested in making some kind of support arrangement, if possible- have you got people who would be interested in working with a company like mine? We could pull in two or three on a subcontractor basis to do weapons work for us and offer useful advice, do some acquisitions or provide some components we've acquired on other jobs to Holland & Holland in return- everyone wins."

Once that conversation is done, give Otso a call. Bear what Arkvad told us in mind, of course, but here are some starting points. Try to strike a more helpful tone than last time- we shouldn't run into any problems with our Ogrimir contract as long as we only talk over the phone instead of actually encountering him, and he is kin- that demands that we assist him as best we can. "Evening, Otso. Thought I should ask how you're getting on. Starting out cold is never easy- I should know." "I'd rather not share too much over the phone- unless you happen to have a much more secure phone than I would expect- but I can answer a few questions if you have them. No overly personal details, of course." Try to be helpful, and don't deceive him- just shut him down with a polite 'I'd rather not get into that, sorry' if he asks about anything touching on the nature of our bloodline or Contract, then talk about other things. There must be tons of questions he's got and it's not often someone offers information freely. "I did manage to have another conversation with someone who would be rather well versed in your power's nature. More important than any single ability that it grants is the fact that it is a seed, meant to grow. Experiment with it, do what comes naturally, and you may end up with something unique to you." Make sure we get a cell phone number for him and he gets our phone number in case he wants to call us.

As a last item for the day, we should see what's bothering Camella. Go by Ito's a bit before we expect night training to start; maybe we'll be able to catch her waking up. "Hey, Camella. You want to talk?" (expected answer 'no') "Okay, saw that one coming. How about this: Word is you're acting troubled, and talking about it might make you feel better. I would be happy to take a stab at the good-friend thing and listen. I'll even avoid saying anything rude for the entire conversation." Say the last line in the tones of one offering an irresistible bribe. If she turns us down or says not right now, "Well, I won't press. Offer stands if you want it later."

Nikifor Orders
-Igor should have finished your arm-armor. Wear them allday erryday to get used to them. Test them out on today's sparring sessions. Block blows with them.
-So much training! Try to relax in-between the extreme spartan schedule by drinking.
-Everyone's so busy-increase the amount of bottles you add to the Booze Stash everyday.
-Weasel Boss is getting so many stuffs...wonder if she ordered the Russians to get them for her, or if they're gifts. Wonder if you should get her something too.
-Last time you tried to communicate with ShadowBoss, your own shadow ended up waving at you. Become curious-while drunk, talk to it. Tell him how awesome Big Boss Armas is, even with his...eccentric orders and love for self-amusement, compared to that shit-eating bastard Chugainov. Attempt to wrestle with your shadow (rolling on the ground), then stomp it to submission.
-See what the other Russians are doing in their free time, checking on them, hanging out general.

ORDERS FOR IOSEF:

>Be a bit nervous about this whole you-are-going-to-explode thing but at the same time relieved that Boss really means to hold his promises and take care of their well-being. Certainly nothing like when working under previous boss, even the normal Russian military wouldn't give rat's ass about regular soldiers.
>Besides that, Armas went really out of his way to make new workplace comfortable. Luxurious Mansion, top of the line food with no restrictions on rations, a lot of free time to devote as you want. Well, sure, the last 2 points don't apply as much at this moment, but you cannot blame Armas about it. Also, throws bitching parties.
>And the equipment is great too. Armas certainly doesn't spare any expenses to make sure everyone is outfitted as best as possible. Doesn't put lock on high-quality, expensive armament and is even willing to issue his personal arms. Hell, the disposable charms are worth more than all of the gear that Russian black ops issued. Even went out of his way to acquire expensive antidote that wasn't even necessary.
>So, no matter the weird eccentricities that he has (which are hilarious btws), Armas is pretty much the best boss one could hope for.
>Raise a quiet toast for The Boss.
>Think about all the comrades from black ops still held captive under Chuganov back home. Feel sorry for them.
>Drink for their well-being too

>If Iosef ever cathces Boris sneakily eating more Kelpie Crisps. Smack him around and tell him to have more discipline. He wouldn't want his favorite chef (seriously, he makes the BEST borsch, even without magical ingredients) to go boom just because he didn't have enough willpower to stop eating literally poison for couple of weeks.

>Armas seemed serious about this training and Camella even more so.
>Decide to stop all other projects and pursuits on hold and focus only on training [just in case if Iosef was still spending time on other stuff]
>His schedule should be like this: wake up at 3:30, go through morning routine and have a breakfast. 4:00-10:00, Camella Jog and Chakra training. 11:00-11:30, Lunch (losing half and hour of working as instructor in favor of being well-fed). 12:00, Instructor at Ito's. 13:00 Chakra training with Ito. 14:00-19:00, Sleep. 19:05-20:00, dinner and relaxing/socializing. 21:00, Chakra at Ito's. 22:00-24:00, Night lessons at Ito's. 00:00-3:30, Sleep

>This way Iosef sleeps 9:30 hours every day and is well-fed entire day (seriously, the schedule on disc-thread had only 2 meals per day)

>Seek out Sake and ask him use his healing magic on Iosef right before sleeping at mifnight. This way, Iosef only needs to sleep to relieve mental fatigue and training will be much easier. Do this every day. Analyze the effects it has on the body: does it hamper the training progress or improve it? Will find out in few days.

>If Ivan >>390267 agrees, make that a joint project. Drop another 1,200$ for equal amount of Gold and Silver leafs. Use them to construct a cozy nest for Sake. Present it together with Ivan to Sake

>>390357
>>Aware that he is not the best socially, he tries to get Isoef's help into talking with people and appearing not too annoying, continuing his goal of trying to make contacts.
>Sure, Iosef doesn't mind talking to people. While he is not known to be a good talker, he is not bad at it either. Iosef is a good listener, appears interested when others talk to him, can patiently wait before interjecting (although he wont stand and listed for hours either), appears friendly, doesn't break eye-contact and even if others break his personal space, he doesn't appear bothered by it.
>Ask Igor what metals other than lead and copper we should inquire about.
>Ask whoever will be answering our questions about whole-sale purchases. Ask what the minimum purchase is, ask if there are discounts for big purchases, for repeat purchases and/or partners. Ask how long does the delivery take. Get their contact numbers for ordering metals and a price-list we can refer to.

>>390386
>Drop another 1,200$ for equal amount of Gold and Silver leafs.

Fuck me and not sleeping properly. Do not spend 1,200$. Just add equal amount as Ivan is doing (that being 100$), so that Iosef doesn't take more of the claim or doesn't look like he is putting much heart into it.

LYUBOV ORDERS
[Wednesday]
*Wake up. Go on jog (in the cold and the snow and the dark) with Camella and others. Push hard. Slip and land hard on butt literally at the very end. Get up with bruised butt and injured pride.
*Go inside, shower, dress. Go to Sake’s room to check on the phone minutes and help him into his backpack for the day. Find him in a good mood. No straight answers on why. Request a rubdown, resolve to make more time to play with Sake later.
*During break ask Ito about Camella’s favorite ice cream flavors.
*After classes look up directions for a good gelato shop and buy a half pint of rum raisin and a half pint of pistachio. Store them in a six-pack cooler with ice. On same shopping trip, buy hair spiking glue and styling combs and brushes. ($80 estimated bill)
*Come home, check Camella’s room. If she’s there and not asleep, give her the gelato in person, say, “This is for you. Thank you so much for what you’ve been doing for us. I appreciate it. If you want my help or anything at all just let me know. I’ll make time.” If she’s not in her room, leave the cooler there with a note saying, “For Camella: Thank you for the advice and help. One hand washes the other. Just ask. -Lyubov.”
*If she’s asleep, sneak it into her room, just inside the door. Make sure the lid is secure so that if tipped over accidentally, it doesn’t spill all over.
*If Camella wants time, give it to her. Listen and be helpful. If she doesn’t, then go do other things.
*Like cutting out wax-paper templates to go with the gold leaf Ivan got. Pick designs Sake would like.
*Collect Ivan, Sake, and tools. Spend an hour doing little gold and silver highlights on Sake. Don’t completely cover him, the goal is glam, not garish. Promise to help Sake wash it all off when he gets bored with it or when it starts to flake off in a couple of days.
*Once Sake’s all set up, go visit Andrei. Spoke to Troy about this already: Explain problem, accept his offer of help with getting mom out of Russia. Offer to help him with his family. Watch rough draft of the Adelat film. Laugh, be troubled about what could possibly be in that contract that he had her sign. Decide to not worry about it too much, as Adelat could have gotten everyone in the house deported if Armas hadn’t dealt with her. Still kinda curious though. Remind Andrei he should be carrying a concealed weapon, get belt size to make holster for him.
*If Camella didn’t want to talk, use extra hour to ask Hillevi how her brother liked the audio books. If Einrik is present, ask him if the selections were ok. If they weren’t, ask what genres he prefers. Talk and socialize about books and whatever else seems interesting. Ask what she can do to help her charka along besides what Camella and Ito are teaching.
*Eat dinner. Night lessons. Try brief moments of thoughtlessness against the older vampire.
*Come home, play guitar solo in sound-proofed music room if Sake isn't around. Play with him if it is.
*If the Boss is up and around ask him about that training he promised.

>>390354
Upvote
>Arena:
Grab a few sword charms, this will help if a melee focused monster manages to get close. Prioritize easy fights over large earnings. We do not want to have to use Romanov resurrection. If the fight is easy, do not reveal more of your abilities then necessary.
>Whaitiri:
Armas might be a descendant of Whaitiri since in maori mythology Whaitiri had children with a human. This might help by making it ”more true” that Armas is Whaitirs son.
>SM:
Sell the rituals learned from Amen. Amen might have lied when he told us about them, so make sure to verify them by ordering Amen to tell the truth about them.

>>390477
>sell Amen rituals to SM
SUST. No one gets to know we have blood rituals for destroying souls/killing all of some one's descendants.

>Whaitiri
I agree with shifting focus from "Whaitiri's son" to "descendant of Whaitiri" though. Maybe we could shoot for grandchild? I dunno.
>Arena
While we're betting stuff, see if we can bet the title to our house too. Old Man Rabbit might enjoy us betting IT as well.

ARMAS ORDERS
Today is a good day and it will only get better. But you need to share the joy with the people in your life! Go get Silja and tickle her. She can feel things now, and you know she's ticklish, so give her something to laugh about. See if Iron Trick is tickling too.

Arrange a nice lunch for the Russians and Camella, even if you don't have time to make the food yourself you can get catered food.

The Russians are training hard, so you should too. Practice your chakra today, so that you don't have to lean on Hummingbird so much.

If Adelat is going to have all the value she can for you, you'll need to save her job. There's no reason you can't plant evidence incriminating some OTHER officer while you perform the Old Ironhead's job. That should be enough to get her her job back. Ask Amen to let you know when she learns that she has been cleared of suspicion, and then call her RIGHT after. It will be hilarious.

Make sure when you negotiate with people today that you [Won't Take No]. You could learn something. If you get into a fight, put everything you've learned to good use. And if you're in good shape at the end of the day, it would not be a bad idea to conduct more pain training. You want your [Gamber's Grim Guts] to llet you take any sort of abuse and keep on trucking.

>>390498

>"You... are important. You... are desirable. You are a successful man, and will continue being successful. You are irresistably attractive, and no one is above you. You.... are a man."
I agree with this being our Motto 150%

On the constructive side, as we've made such a great start to the day, and Einrik is presumably heading on his way, surely now is the time to give Ghannem a ring and have us introduced to his contacts. Our notoriety amongst Istanbul's supernatural underground will be at a peak in the wake of the Doonegeas' death, and so he will be at his most cautious, so we can exploit that to extract the most out of his introductions that we possibly can.

Now, as Armas isn't competent to do anything without cheating, to help learning the dual chakra orientation, and learning in general, including us for shooting and the Russians, he should investigate this:

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2012/02/09/better-living-through-electrochemistry/

The US military seem to have been using it without side effects for a while, essentially it seems to be a technical way of replicating the hummingbird's focus technique, that lasts for about three days per application. Even better, we have supernatural healing to watch for any long term side effects, and people who can check our thought processes. We can even try to use flesh crafting to replicate the effects. The removal of all internal distractions seems exactly what Armas needs, and even for normal people who aren't afflicted by this to the degree they seem mentally retarded, it doubles learning speed for many tasks. Imagine what it could do for him! He should probably try riatalin and adderall as well.

>>390254
We shouldn't buy charms until we know we really need to. Do talk to HummingBro and ask him how his project to pirate chakra manipulation by observing people using it is going, is he getting enough exposure to it to keep him satisfied? GO on to ask if he can replicate/adapt the energy flushing technique we use before we practice flesh manipulation?

>>390300
SUST attempting to poach him. Magical bindings of loyalty/oaths are quite possible, and with Savoy's betrayal, on top of the apparent treachery of their previous representative in Istanbul, the Mafia hierarchy would be crazy not to have taken countermeasures. Even attempting to steal his services could be enough to trigger a war. Triad soldiers are already feeling forced to take pity on us and drop multiple hints that we're only hired hands, not friends, as we clearly don't get quite how disposable mercenaries are to criminal gangs. We should watch Leon, or Hitman, or any one of the classic films on the subject one day, to remind ourselves of the place we occupy in their affections. For the same reason, we shouldn't give him access to the Doonegeas' corpse, as it might strengthen the Mafia to the degree they don't need us. It also runs the risk of offending the Triads, as they are not friends with the Mafia, and using the fruits of their labour to help their enemies may kick off hostilities with them even earlier.

On grafts from the Doonegeas, the speak all languages brain graft sounds the most unique, as the poison doesn't need to be inside us. More useful to hook the glands up to a cow and have Amen milk it, that way we can produce it more easily, and we don't run the risk of killing people around us when we're injured.

On disposing of the Corpse, we should keep the heart for ourselves, as that may have some great synergies with our own abilities. We should ask SB if there are any parts he thinks Whaitiri would appreciate, like perhaps the liver, based on what he's translated between her and Amen. Remember, we still need to give her adequate sacrifices to fix/upgrade the mere.

Don't approach the Owner, until we've followed up on the business card he gave us, anything else is presumptuous. Certainly don't bother him for mundane business advice.

>>390354
SUST the Whaitiri plan. It's a disaster waiting to happen in all sorts of ways. To start with, you don't get to choose your parents, and getting new ones requires that you don't have any to start off with. Do you plan to have our parents killed, or have them renounce us? Neither precedent is exactly one that would endear us to Whaitiri in her suggested role as replacement parent. Secondly, there are plenty of relationships that would not permanently put us under her absolute authority, which seems to be the general level of control that the supernatural community grants its members over their children. Thirdly, SB does not want to become a godling, and, in any case, we should never do anything to reinforce that he is in any way a separate person to us, rather than just another aspect of our greater self, another facet of our one soul.

IGOR
>[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
>Get off ass and respond to Iosef about going to Kardemir. Plan to go tomorrow while others attend to the Jung jobs.
>At Kardemir, be turned away without an appointment-make an appointment for one week for JANUARY 24th
Igor make sure to go to Kardemir meeting on MONDAY, JANUARY 24TH, 2011. Aware that he is not the best socially, he tries to get Isoef's help into talking with people and appearing not too annoying, continuing his goal of trying to make contacts.
For the other days, Igor soon realizes that the current routine is really exhausting, and he may need something to throw his mind of Chakra training. Patient he may be, but doing the same thing every day isn't so great, so he decides to spice up his routine by using what free time he has left sharing other Russian's antics- he has noticed that there has been an effort from his fellow countrymen to get into the good grace of his boss' guests. He will diminish hours spent smithing if needed to keep his mental fortitude going.
Igor Should nag satai about Ironhead, and his possible contacts to blacksmith.


>>390354
>Smiling One message
Upvote.
>Arena
Upvote, different things we have to do:
+SB and HB with us. It would be great if Sake was with us, too.
+We NEED good weaponry to fight though. Don't hesitate to take Silja with us, as well as Buntline.
+Remember how HB helped show how to use his momentum better. It's been a while since you tried to improve your gyaketsuote, too, and you know you need diverse opponents to improve on it, so this could be really useful. You managed it with Sake, which means it's possible with magical being- just harder. Having the soul sensing orientation might help with that.
+Speaking of orientations, it's highly likely many Arena fighters use chakra, and this could be a great time to see how they are using it, and maybe learn one thing or two. Hell, with a bit of luck we could not only get hints as to how to make that damn multi-orientation working, but also learn a few new ones, or beginning too.
+We might also find many people, from now on, who have their own system of stealths. Armas should try to observe souls of people who try to stealth as much as possible, in order to create a very complex “no one is here” soul-guise as a project. Armas should also think about having a Soul-guise where he looks to have a damaged bloodline when he first enters (basically the usually default form but where the bloodline looks even weaker and damaged. Hell, if it is possible to flat out “include” SB in our Soul-guise or make it seem Armas only has a single damaged bloodline so that Armas “threat Rating” is as low as possible, it would be even better. Make sure that SB and Sake can come with you in the Arena, though. ) in order to maybe begin with even weaker opponents.
+Using charms might help, but this means we can't wear them from the beginning of the fight, as an enemy who uses very fast attacks would cost many, many charms if it just cancel one. This mean we would have to put them on mid-fight.
+Armas should aim to win with showing only as much of his ability as necessary, both for practice and getting good odds on people we can reliably beat. This mean manipulating people into looking weaker then we are. Soulg-guise to show us 'struggling' as well as body language and improving our game slowly is needed. Hummingbro might even be considered a panic button. Considering our excellent in with the arena, we should be able to talk our way into a very beneficial match with decent enough odds on us. Those points are where our M trait should shine.
+Even beyond that, Armas should aim to NOT show his hummingbird is Assault, and WE SHOULD NOT DIE, WHATEVER HAPPENS.
+For the bets, Writing down large but finite bets using the assets we've listed so far- nothing we can't afford to lose, of course- is desirable. Example: "$300,000, a hundred barrels of mundane blood, the three most valuable mundane paintings I own, four javelin launchers with two missiles each" might work. I'm not sure if the arena accepts non-cash bets, unfortunately, but if they don't we could try to liquidate something before fighting so that we have more available cash to turn a profit with. We should definitely aim to end the day several million dollars richers.
DISCUSS ALL OF THIS WITH YOUR SOULBROTHERS, HB, AND TRICK FIRST. FOR EXAMPLE, IT IS POSSIBLE THE DIFFICULTY OF FIRST CHALLENGER INCREASES THE MORE WE BET, AND IF IT DOES ARMAS MAY NOT WISH TO BET, SAY, HUNDREDS OF BLOOD BARRELS.
>Becoming Whaitiri's son
Upvote. Try to discuss with SB whether she could create NN bubbles for training purposes. Maybe if we get some soul-sculpting training, we could heal her eyes?
>SM trade.
Upvote. Another argument we could make to SM is if we won some money in the Arena before: “Well, this type of NN bubble will really help me to have a weird curve of new abilities. Just think of the money you could make if each time I reappear in the Arenas I have changed my fighting style- and that in 'days'.” Also, Armas may want to precise he needs that Bubble to prevent Aging- it would be good if Hummingbird doesn't die.
>>390254
>Getting Battery charms that flush the overbleed and store it.
This isn't a bad idea if Armas doesn't decide to learn those battery charms. Even if he does, Hummingbird may need the help urgently. Talk about the feasability of the idea with Einrik, Duke, and our mental council first.
>Calling our cousin
Upvote.

>"You... are important. You... are desirable. You are a successful man, and will continue being successful. You are irresistably attractive, and no one is above you. You.... are a man."
Armas should prep himself up using those lines from time to time from now on. Might also think of making it the motto of Laine.

>Taking Gianni in the company.
This should be possible soon, but we first should stabilise our power base a bit more before that. Still, this should be done by the time Davgon is here.

>>390490
>And if you're in good shape at the end of the day, it would not be a bad idea to conduct more pain training. You want your [Gamber's Grim Guts] to llet you take any sort of abuse and keep on trucking.

Second.
We can use Sake instead of hybrid healing so that we don't waste too much energy.

>Today is a good day and it will only get better. But you need to share the joy with the people in your life! Go get Silja and tickle her. She can feel things now, and you know she's ticklish, so give her something to laugh about.
Second. We don't spend much time with Silja lately.

>>390254
>Getting Battery charms that flush the overbleed and store it.
Seconding.
I think we should also ask Eintik for suggestion. He will give us more specific advice on what type charms to buy.
We really do want to keep HummingBird's body alive.

>Buy charm for Hummingbro
Since I want Armas to learn a wide range of battery charms (by which I define as 'charms which block, absorb, redirect or otherwise shift energy'), I'd rather that just be our first stop. Sink a small handful of hours each night (when normal people are asleep) into goblin charms. Buying an NN bubble for what amounts to 500 hours of training is unnecessary.

>>390490
I'm gonna downvote the pain training thing. We got plenty of stuff to do today.

>>390477
We won't be making much money if we're burning through 30-40k-apiece charms.

>>390254
>Getting Battery charms that flush the overbleed and store it.

I think we should make sure this will work first. Talk to Einrik before speaking to SM.

>>390527

I think we should talk to Einrik about the charm training, sure. Get a better feel for our options.

On the plan to establish a new, more beneficial and solid basis for our relationship with Whaitiri I would like cite a relevant bit of mythology that Armas likely knows and should take into account and perhaps clear up some misconceptions. In her most widely know myth Whaitiri did marry Kai-tangata and ultimately did take foolish actions, but more important than this myth is that which comes after. The child Whaitiri had with Kaitangata was named Hemā and while she wasn't the greatest mother while he was growing up she guided him through life so that eventually he could marry a woman of higher status and make his lineage stronger and more respectable. That was just the first step in her plan, because out of Hemā's union there she saw two grandchildren. One of these children was named Tawhaki and Whaitiri marked him to be a great leader and made sure he achieved the design she set out for him. Once he did she arranged significant events in his to test him, make him grow stronger, and ultimately decide to reunite with his grandmother and restore her sight. He was of course rewarded with fantastic powers and taught that with appreciation for one's skills they can do great things. This I believe would be a strong point in favor of shooting for grandchild, as it forms a basis for which to attempt a recreation of the act and potentially repeating the same rewards or something similar. We are treading some ancient and slippery ground here so be careful.

On the actual consumption of the food I would try to view it as the traditional act of feeding those of high tapu, those so holy they may not feed themselves. That is what we're essentially doing in our relationship now, extending to a familial relationship makes it that much easier.

When we start dealing with Sometimes Merchant again we need to clear up a longstanding issue. The way our current teaching deal is worked out means that the Wyld goblins aren't obligated to compensate us for other instructors we bring in or the hours they spend. With things the way they are neither of us profit from this, they're not going to scrap free training out of us from it, we're aware of the hole and we won't provide any other instructors until it's rectified.

Matvey

Saturday
Call ahead to the ranch and get a lesson for a couple hours. Take out the van with the peeling paint rather than the one with the suspicious bullet holes.

Go out hiking again, but this time a new location, Belgrade forest. It's a nice little forest, named after a historical battle and more importantly it's probably inhabited by some lower level magical critters which would make it an excellent place to scout for a proper brownie stane. Look around for Gloom to invite him along, because he is a fellow hiker and frankly you're worried about him. Try not to spend hours looking for him in the labyrinthine maze that is your new home. Realize you have no earthly idea how to identify anything of a magic nature, let alone rocks, decide to ask Hillevi if she can help by explaining some indicators and start jotting down notes. A dozen pages start to think that this is not exactly effective, ask her if she'll come along. Pack for a couple hour hike, but bring smore ingredients, because you know Hillevi hasn't even had any of them individually and you'll be damned if Gloom can be ... well gloomy eating a smore.

Try to find out what you did wrong with the tea. Approach Camella and see if she knows why or tell you what type of tea Ito finds acceptable enough to drink. He didn't seem to have issue with the other tea and you thought matcha was the most common and widely drank, hopefully it's just a personal preference thing. Thank her for any help she can offer.

Stick around after the night lessons again. Get to talking with the others and generally trying to be good company.

Sunday
Grow grave at the revelation you are slowly dying from magical saturation. Resolve to work through the issue just as you have with dozens of other near death encounters. Be confident this isn't a charging, snarling, beast that's the source, this is lunch and you'll be damned if you let your lunch kill you where three horrible years under General Chugainov didn't. Cut out any horseback riding lessons, hour long drives and training sessions are no longer justifiable.

Be ecstatic you got to use a magic gun and how effective it was. Find the desire to own such a gun one day still going strong.

Find yourself pleased you are not being regularly subjected to Camella's 'jogging' sessions, but begrudgingly admit that by not attending them every morning you're falling behind and decide to amp up the hiking sessions to compensate, just not today, fuck you're beat.

Feel sorry for Boris after he is mocked by the boss man. Take Boris aside and show him the new Brownie stane, tell him to just refill it once a week since the tasty treats only get delivered once a week anyway. Then just leave immediately and never once think of what you're doing as a payment or worse refer to it as such. If he really wants to try making up for trying to see them then leave some cream out.


Monday
Go hiking again and see if additional weight added to the packs provides the same workout. Incrementally add weight over the next few days if not successful on the first go. Contemplate that such hikes could be valuable and opportune time for further teamwork exercises, but put the idea on the back burner due to the already spartan training regimes the men are being subjected to.

>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Bro the fuck out with Shadow Boss and Weasel while Bossman does his personal bit in 'THE MACHINE' video. Demonstrate microphone and get that file saved so we can start making edited copies with Shadow and Weasel voices as dubbing. Never stop laughing ass off-to the point ribs become bruised. Give zero shits.
>Continue to laugh ass off. Continue and continue ever more to do so. Be unable to do much for the whole day, laughing, falling onto ass, and suggesting we should make additions to the machine. 'Highlights of Your Life' or 'The Third Reich Attacking the Neo-Nazis' or 'The Smile Room' would be good additions. Be disappointed when SB is continually rejecting, citing unnecessary resource expenditure. Due to level of personal joviality, be unable to properly argue point, give it up.
>When asked why laughing ass off, be cagey or lie. When Camella asks...ask Shadow Boss and Weasel if we can run the Machine again. Be told no by both-but distinctly notice Sake looks hesitant as opposed to SB's adamant stance.
>Cackle madly through the night, staying up late to get the best editing, including the best dubbing of Shadow Boss and Weasel's lines - also editing in Camella, if we get her to run The Machine. Also, make sure the 'Killing Doony' footage is good. Hardly notice exhaustion from continued chakra trainings with the excitement of this new project.
>Hate the garish sun with that dull, bitter disgust that comes from forgetting that the new wakeup call goes out at four-and effectively getting zero sleep. Indulge in Caffeine to dangerous levels to finally kick self into something resembling a functioning state.
>Act as if everything is normal. Spend as much break time in computer room as possible, putting the finishing touches on both videos. Try so hard not to laugh. See if Armas, Shadowboss or Weasel has any ideas to make Kill Doony or THE MACHINE footage better. Be given several conflicting demands that all boil down to wanting it to look as funny as possible. Idly comment during video editing about something watching us drink caffeine. Sake and SB offer no thoughts on this.
>When not in the break room, be convincing and bribing and lying smooth talking mouth off for Lyubov. Or at least think you are: be too caffeinated and sleep deprived to really notice that you're acting a bit off.
>Ask Boss to call a Companywide meeting to view the Kill Doony footage to revel in the killing of a foe and to notice anything that could be improved. Be shot down until initial dubbing can be provided.
>Go to bed dead tied, early, and happier than ever, stymied or no.
>Next day wake up. Giggle. Watch choice clips of The Machine Footage. Guffaw.
>Remember stuff delivery! Distribute Laptops to every Russian not already having one or that will break it. Be given a decidedly ambivalent response by most. Grumble about no respect.
>With new disc readers, check floppy disk, and laserdisc. Find Laserdisc has nothing but boring security footage the whole way, and only get a total of six faces you earmark to try and get high res images of, out of the whole thing. Initial check of the floppy disk fails-the data is not reading, but is also not registering as corrupted, encrypted or missing. Be unsure what's up with that.
>See Hillevi on a rather nice laptop, and assume she either got it herself or was helped by her brother. Move on.
[Zhenya has been queued to do the following:
-Help Lyubov and the others when they ask.
-Grab sleep and naps when they present themselves while staying focused on new schedule, same as everyone else.
-Attempt to get into a pervasive rhythm. Due to limited musical talent, assume getting a beat should be simple for you. Try to find a natural beat, something like a heartbeat, and form everything around it, whether on the main beat or off or staggered, make a song out of it; your steps, your breathing, your training in chakra, your playing everything. Songs have a tendency to focus actions and improve recall and indeed, initial performance in things you do, especially for those naturally gifted in music. Get to it, the song of your life. Then wake up from nap and realize you aren't a fairy princess that discovers self-enlightening ways to radically improve what you do-if you were, you wouldn't be here to begin with. Be sad about perpetually unrealistic dreams constantly plaguing self.
-In off time, intend to study city maps for more back roads and such. Fail due to not having free time, as sleep is too delicious to give up in the scant break time.
-Recall Boss talking about wood taking magic easier back before the Doonages fight, seems like a good idea to get some and swap out synthetic grips on guns for wood ones. Decide that one might as well go all the way and get some instruments made out of some good old wood too. After some cursory internet searching, decide some ancient Kauri should do the trick. Attempt to get Satai to fund some company purchases of the material, despite lacking any personal carving skills of note, or any solid plan on how this might be done, beyond 'get Kauri wood, it's probably a good idea'.
>[Feodor has been queued to do the following:]
>*Join Camella's jog. Don't be stupid enough to try to win, since you've spent most of the last fortnight drinking and doing little else, but put in as much effort as you can handle. Order a 140lb(adjustable) weighted vest online, to make it even harder. Spend $385. After run, in which you finished third to last and had to vomit twice, decide you probably won't need the vest for a while.
>*At chakra training, be as focused as possible, as an example to the others - the health of their souls is worth even more than that of their bodies. MOTIVATION SUCCESS +1 hour of Ito Chakra training.
>*Demand that Armas use his spirit-sense to hold a séance so you can speak to all the men you lost to supernatural causes in Chugainov's army. Be smirked at, and told souls don't sit around forever, waiting to be called. On spotting Einrik, badger him with questions about how you could have saved those you feel you failed-get contextually specific responses based on the assumption you are a chakra Expert with access to a wide supply of magical items and consumables-nevertheless try to write down as much as possible. Afterwords have trouble deciphering chickenscratch notes.
>*Ask Camella and Armas if they know any less-than-legal doctors you could ask to mentor you, to improve your skills. When told about Dr Finnigan, get his contact details and call him about working as a free assistant in exchange for mentoring. When he's still reticent even at the offer of free work, offer to commission the 'apprenticeship'. Be grumpy when Irishman pushes you past budget of $5k to $6,000, but decide a back alley surgeon can hopefully teach a great deal.
>*Ask Lev if he could spare an hour or so on the weekend to teach you some more advanced hand-to-hand fighting. Ask Zhenya the same about pistols. Awaiting response from either.
[Grisha has been queued to do the following:]
-Decide that Chakra training is something that you will see gains out of, at least in the department of spiritual wholeness, so be paying attention. Fail to notice anything through haze of initial period of lessons.
-Note that Andrei has not stopped laughing since the this morning, ponder what horrible thing he has witnessed this time, going from the record of things Armas has done. Considering the firestorm at the Nazi warehouse and his reticence to say, decide it's probably something terrible.
-Fail to sleep after lunch, instead think while pretending to sleep, think of homeland, your father, deliberate over chakra training. Worry over a particular bit of phrasing Ito used, and how it sounded a bit different from something similar Camella said. Keep worrying over it until you think you've straightened it out.
-When considering the likelyhood of encountering more... robust foes in this business, decide it may be worth getting something more powerful than modern assault weapons, inflicting shock may end up more important than wounding or killing efficiently... not that the AN is unsuited for simple human combat. Recall that Titus was working on some sort of shock gauntlet thing. When asking him about it over a group meal, be told he's still looking to get field test data with it-but thus far hasn't had much luck getting it, even though he's gone through several bug checks and is ready to go. Wonder if maybe you could help him simulate field tests-or find chances to create field tests.
>[Boris has been queued to do the following:]
>Decides to join the morning jogs in earnest to get good enough to make up for what happened last time. Puke even more than the first time, come in dead last. Fucking Kelpie Krisps.
>To combat his kelpie krisps cravings (aka, to completely eliminate them from diet) decide to go for cookie baking training with Boss-introduced cookie lady every day around 1pm (can shift it around if she wants to).
[Ivan has been queued to do the following:]
*Continue training hard in Chakra but, be sure to take a day off of other training to catch up on sleep. Then remember you already are taking time off all your other training-since there's not enough hours to do all of it and the current chakra training. Be happy you caught this personally, rather than vocalizing it and sounding dimwitted. Once more chalk up a point in favor of your stoicism.
*Join Satai's marksman training group on its regular meetings, such as they currently are. Immediately dominate group in terms of shot accuracy, fall behind on rate of fire. Be unsurprised by this.
*Decide that Boss Weasel could use a bit of bling.
*Settle on idea of using gold leaf to let him decorate himself.
*Dub plan "Operation: Pimp Your Weasel"
*Seek Lyubov's assistance in the afformented plan. Be unsurprised she is immediately on board.
*Purchase one 25 leaf book of gold leaf and one 25 leaf book of silver leaf Spend: $104
*Reluctantly realize that gold/silver-covered fur might interfere with weasel rubdowns.
*Settle on decorating Boss Weasel's claws instead along with a few small wind and musical note themed highlights on his fur. Chuckle at thought of 'weasel getting it's nails done'. Make mention of inane joke to no one.
*Create wax paper stencils of patterns with Lyubov's help
*Approach Boss Weasel alongside Lyubov to pitch the idea of GILDED CLAWS AND FUR to him. Recieve weasel to the face, and afterwards wonder why you feel more rested.
*When he accepts, commence the decoration with his choice of combination gold and silver. Almost jokingly ask him how it felt to have his nails done for the first time once finished, but get beat to it by Lyubov. Mentally sigh, resolve to make joke next time.
*Feel moderately silly when you realize that what you have been referring to as an L129A1 Sharpshooter is actually an MSG90-A2. Again, chalk up a point in favor of stoicism, as no one else knew of your mistake.
[$atai have been queued to do the following:
$-Be exhausted and overworked. Begin to raid Andrei's energy drinks. After a moment of consideration-post much-needed caffeination, abort that potentially ongoing plan. Instead find Andrei and tell him that he needs to go buy enough energy drinks for all the Russians to be awake in spite of horrible sleep-deprivation all the time and it goes on the company dime. He can manage the selection and distribution personally, of course, as long as he makes sure that Satai gets as many as he needs.
$-At sniping practice and in transit to/from, make an effort to talk with Hillevi. Start with sniping-related things, like different types of mundane long-range weapons (rifles, mortars, rockets, missiles, grenade launchers, artillery, etc.) and what she has in terms of magic to fulfill the same basic combat roles. Be a bit unnerved when you find she can replicate just about anything but an outright machine gun-bursts of scattering ice shards, high precision ice spikes, wall-demolishing heavy spears, ready-to-violently-shatter hyperdense ice balls to lob all within her capacity. Again feel that Lev and Nikifor are foolish for entertaining thoughts of fighting face to face against magic users that include individuals such as Hillevi. Wonder how you would weaponize some RC cars.
$-Try to segue from there in discussion with Hillevi into a more general information exchange about magical and mundane methods of combat, and from there into all kinds of related topics- enchantments on weapons and items and how those work, chakra, general mundane technologies particularly those with military application, common magical whatevers, mundane force organizations, types of magical creatures, whatever. She's spending four hours a day in Satai's company, and that of the others in the marksmanship group; this is a golden opportunity to have a lot of useful information exchange- and as long as we keep to topics where Hillevi is knowledgeable hopefully she won't feel awkward and clam up. Stay in high spirits about plan even as first session yields little results-but feel far more confident about how to phrase questions to her, and what topics to address-namely, elemental magic and its derivatives along with crystal/ice enchanting. Also learn she knows at least some about Chakra-but have a considerable disconnect with her terminology. Wonder how to circumvent this, and be certain the answer would be obvious if less tired.
>[b][Igor has already done the following:]
>Gone to Kardemmir with Iosef.
>Attempt to circumvent personal lack of professional demeanor and social skills beyond the most bare and blunt by having Iosef lead. Watch this plan spectacularly backfire. Be happy you did not lose the meeting.
>Get quoted prices roughly %20 cheaper than the markets-but only for purchases by the ton for steal and iron derivatives, and by the half-ton for other metals.
>Swear you hear some really strange machinery in the building, or at least something working with some very exotic material, be assured by Iosef you're just hearing things-even lacking high perceptive skills, notice the exaggerated reaction of employee hosting meeting. Wonder what's up with that.
>Belatedly realize smithing's come to all but a standstill as there's only five hours a day available for it, catching up on sleep and whatever else he wants to squeeze in. Wonder why he thought he was still doing that full tilt. Decide it was due to lack of sleep-resolve to get an extra hour of napping this afternoon.
[Nikifor has been queued to do the following:]
-Igor's finished your arm-armor. Wear them allday erryday to get used to them. Test them out on today's sparring sessions. Attempt to block blows with them-do amazingly poorly as you continue to get used to the weight, and do so while extensively exhausted from sustained chakra training and limited sleep-coupled with an unrelenting set of sparring partners.
-So much training! Try to relax in-between the extreme spartan trials by drinking.
-Everyone's so busy-increase the amount of bottles you add to the Booze Stash everyday. Begin to host a fear someone will audit the house booze and hold you accountable for something-wake up from nonsensical nightmare mid-nap, forget it happened.
-Weasel Boss is getting so many stuffs...wonder if she ordered the Russians to get them for her, or if they're gifts. Wonder if you should get her something too. Wonder why so many people are treating the OBVIOUSLY female weasel like a male.
-Last time you tried to communicate with ShadowBoss, your own shadow ended up waving at you. Become curious-while drunk, talk to it. Tell him how awesome Big Boss Armas is, even with his...eccentric orders and love for self-amusement, compared to that shit-eating bastard Chugainov. Attempt to wrestle with your shadow (rolling on the ground), then stomp it to submission. Have shadow continue to be completely normal and unresponsive-begin to question if previous event even took place.
[Iosef has been queued to do the following]
?~Be a bit nervous about this whole you-are-going-to-explode thing but at the same time relieved that Boss really means to hold his promises and take care of everyone's well-being. Certainly nothing like when working under previous boss, even the normal Russian military wouldn't give rat's ass about regular soldiers. Tentatively place further trust in clearly insane new boss.
?~Mentally review other reasons this is an amazingly desirable job, given your skillset and what's available, and factoring in all the impressive amenities.
?~Decide that, no matter the weird eccentricities that he has, Boss is pretty much the best boss one could hope for.
?~Raise a quiet toast for The Boss.
?~Think about all the comrades from black ops still held captive under Chuganov back home. Feel sorry for them.
?~Drink for their well-being too
?~If Catch Boris sneakily eating Kelpie Crisps. Smack him around and tell him to have more discipline. He wouldn't want his favorite chef (seriously, he makes the BEST borsch, even without magical ingredients) to go boom just because he didn't have enough willpower to stop eating literally poison for couple of weeks.
?~Decide to stop all other projects and pursuits on hold and focus only on training-not that you had a choice.
?~His schedule should be like this: wake up at 3:30, go through morning routine and have a breakfast. 4:00-11:00, Camella Jog and Chakra training. 11:00-12:00, Instructor at Ito's, grab food when possible since there is no chance of a legitimate lunch break. 13:00 Chakra training with Ito. 14:00-19:00, Sleep. 19:05-20:00, dinner and relaxing/socializing. 21:00, Chakra at Ito's. 22:00-24:00, Night lessons at Ito's. 00:00-3:30, Sleep
?~Seek out Sake and ask him use his healing magic on Iosef right before sleeping at midnight. Be told to fuck off since you're getting enough sleep. Be unsure how to proceed from here.
[Lyubov has been queued to do the following:]
*Wake up. Go on jog (in the cold and the snow and the dark) with Camella and others. Push hard. Slip and land hard on butt literally at the very end. Get up with bruised butt and injured pride-having rolled, quite literally, into a third place finish amongst the Russians. Become notably envious on seeing Gloom rather nonchalantly taking first when he doesn't even look all that tired.
*Go inside, shower, dress. Go to Sake’s room to check on the phone minutes and help him into his backpack for the day. Find him in a good mood, and the phone drained of minutes. No straight answers on why weasel's so happy. Accept lack of explanation on condition of receiving a rubdown, resolve to make more time to play with Sake later. Acquire weasel rubbings, lose all soreness and fatigue.
*During break ask Ito about Camella’s favorite ice cream flavors. Be handed a list in short, blocky writing that reads, in order: 'Rum Raisin, Pistachio, Butterscotch' without any explanation. Be pretty sure you know what this is.
*After classes look up directions for a good gelato shop and buy a half pint of each of the three named flavors. Store them in a six-pack cooler with ice. On same shopping trip, buy hair spiking glue and styling combs and brushes. Spend $85.
*Come home, check Camella’s room, find her doing some sort of meditation thing or whatever. Give her the gelato in person, say, “This is for you. Thank you so much for what you’ve been doing for us. I appreciate it. If you want my help or anything at all just let me know. I’ll make time.” Receive a look almost like the one she's been throwing around whenever Armas is in the room-on that note, wonder why Camella's not getting that the reason she's getting hung up is not because Bossman chewed her out in front of everyone-or because said Bossman, known dick, was right-but because a guy she cares about did it. Wonder how big sis Camella is missing this. Be wise enough to NOT immediately just up and ask her. Decide amusement can be had with this. Leave room with Camella looking very pointedly at you.
*Collect Ivan, Sake, and tools. Spend an hour doing little gold and silver highlights on Sake. Don’t completely cover him, the goal is glam, not garish. Promise to help Sake wash it all off when he gets bored with it or when it starts to flake off in a couple of days. End up stenciling on passable silver clouds on Sake's torso and lacquering nails gold. Decide you could use some work on stenciling-Sake assures you you'll get it.
*Once Sake’s all set up, go visit Andrei. Explain problem, accept his offer of help with getting mom out of Russia. Offer to help him with his family.
*Ask Hillevi how her brother liked the audio books. Hear that he liked them-and that he left. Welp. Ask what she can do to help her chaka along besides what Camella and Ito are teaching. Be told nearly dying usually helps. Politely decline her assistance in this.
*Eat dinner. Night lessons. Try brief moments of thoughtlessness against the older vampire. Fail-but, due to being unusually peppy today, don't do as bad as you expected. Cool stuff.
*Come home, play guitar solo in sound-proofed music room if Sake isn't around. Play with him if it is.
*If the Boss is up and around ask him about that training he promised. Be directed to choose WHO to learn from-and be presented with options of Bossman, Sake, Shadow Boss and that little bird. Be told whoever you pick will be the primary teacher this week. Wonder what's going on, glassily smile and make a choice [INPUT PLAYER CHOICE]
[color=#3399FF][Matvey has already done the following:]
M- Call ahead to the ranch and get a lesson for a couple hours. Take out the van with the peeling paint rather than the one with the suspicious bullet holes.
M- Go out hiking again, but this time a new location, Belgrade forest. It's a nice little forest, named after a historical battle and more importantly it's probably inhabited by some lower level magical critters which would make it an excellent place to scout for a proper brownie stane.
M-Briefly become Bob and cry about all the massive posts at the same time, then become Matvey again and forget it ever happened. Amen didn't notice it. Probably. Wait, notice what? Nevermind.
M-Look around for Gloom to invite him along, because he is a fellow hiker and frankly you're worried about him. Try not to spend hours looking for him in the labyrinthine maze that is your new home.
M-Realize you have no earthly idea how to identify anything of a magic nature, let alone rocks, decide to ask Hillevi if she can help by explaining some indicators and start jotting down notes. After two dozen pages start to think that this is not exactly effective, ask her if she'll come along. Pack for a two hour hike, but bring s'more ingredients, because you know Hillevi hasn't even had any of them individually and you'll be damned if Gloom can be ... well gloomy eating a s'more.
M-be proven wrong about Gloom.
M-Try to find out what you did wrong with the tea. Approach Camella and see if she knows why Ito did not find your tea acceptable enough to drink. He didn't seem to have issue with the other tea and you thought matcha was the most common and widely drank, hopefully it's just a personal preference thing. Thank her for her help when she notes he likes his tea to be highly compatible with alcohol.
M-Stick around after the night lessons again. Get to talking with the others and generally trying to be good company. Continue to not really get much of a read on the old granny vamp, even as the other orphan vamps start to really open up.
M-Next day, Grow grave at the revelation you are slowly dying from magical saturation. Resolve to work through the issue just as you have with dozens of other near death encounters. Be confident this isn't a charging, snarling, beast that's the source, this is lunch and you'll be damned if you let your lunch kill you where three horrible years under General Chugainov didn't. Cut out any horseback riding lessons, hour long drives and training sessions are no longer justifiable.
M- Be ecstatic you got to use a magic gun and how effective it was. Find the desire to own such a gun one day still going strong. Be alret when baseless rumors about a prize for being the best learner of chakra start floating about.
M- Find yourself pleased you are not being regularly subjected to Camella's 'jogging' sessions, but begrudgingly admit that by not attending them every morning you're falling behind and decide to amp up the hiking sessions to compensate, just not today, fuck you're beat.
M- Feel sorry for Boris after he is mocked by the boss man. Take Boris aside and show him the new Brownie stane, tell him to just refill it once a week since the tasty treats only get delivered once a week anyway. Then just leave immediately and never once think of what you're doing as a payment or worse refer to it as such. If he really wants to try making up for trying to see them then leave some cream out.
M- Go hiking again and see if additional weight added to the packs provides the same workout. Incrementally add weight over the next few days if not successful on the first go... is the intent. Stop at just ten extra pounds because FUCK chakra training is harsh shit under Camella's watch. Contemplate that such hikes could be valuable and opportune time for further teamwork exercises, but put the idea on the back burner due to the already spartan training regimes the men are being subjected to.

Armas Bob!t/UKid4z5s 2012/03/05(Mon)21:53 No. 390602 ID: d97a61
File 133101319878.jpg - (96.72KB , 1000x793 , Arena Slirk.jpg )

>>390190
I reflect, briefly, on Camella's situation: I'm confident it's not something life threatening-no disruption of her soul save some emotional, and no signs of being tampered with. She's... in a funk I guess. What's more interesting, though, is Go. His words were a gentle rebuke to remind me that while we may be able to get along just fine-we aren't really friends, and we don't work together. Some day, that's probably going to be an issue only one of us walks away from. While I'm confident I have what it takes to make sure I'm the one doing the walking-and the victory dancing-it's still a bit disheartening to be reminded that's somewhere in the nebulous future. It brings a sense of transience to my acquiantance with all the Triads I know that I don't care for the taste of-and there's nothing I can do about it. Sake, of all people, is decidedly sympathetic to my concern-and his pep talking gets me out of my own little funk.
>>390490
I finish getting out of my funk by playing on an idea I've got-a rather simple one at that.

I tickle my rifle.

Silja's giggling as the gun quivers and jumps in my hand makes me smile wider than most non-Smiles, and I get the distinct sensation that she's a fan of being tickled-even as I hear her attempting to disjointedly claim she doesn't care for it-without bothering to tell me to stop.

After a few minutes of ticklin' my gun-and knowing I'm making a certain Buntline envious-
>>390354
>>390477
>>390525
I decide to get some slightly more productive, if less personally entertaining, things done. To wit: I hunker down in front of the big old monster Andrei put together, pull out the checklist he gave me, and set to work connecting with the Smiling One's website. It takes me ten minutes, but eventually I'm there, though I'm not quite sure I could say WHY the way I got there means I'm secure. Seems... you need a passcode to even get in? Hm-let's take a look at that card she gave me.... nothing written, but... feels a bit... yeah, something's embossed here. Let's see... four..... 'E'..... 9 .... 9.... 'A'.......7...... eventually I get the whole fifty character hexadecimal code plugged in, hit enter-

And enter a two way IM session. A message pops on the screen within one second from someone called 'P1X13'.
>[P1X13]Where'd you run into her?
[Armas]Who, Smiling One?

>[P1X13]Who else?
[Armas]Is this relevant to my ability to use this site?
>[P1X13]Bingo! Site moderator here!
[Armas]An Auction.
>[P1X13]Moooore details, come on I'm not the tooth fairy, don't make this so hard!
[Armas]Turkish Wyld Goblin Auction of a Demon Prince's Artifact. Specific enough?
>[P1X13]Yuppers! Got one more question, from the Admin herself-so here goes: What'd you buy?
[Armas]I really hope she doesn't need something more complicated than 'An exceptional hummingbird'
>[P1X13]Nope-nope, that'll do dandeli-dandy! So, what's up? Not just here to set up your account, right?
[Armas]Looking for gourmet consumable options.
>[P1X13]Well we've got that, that's for sure!

I spend the next hour hunkering down through the details of what the Smiling Merchant can offer, and get my account set up for future site perusal. I'm told in successive visits I'll get to meet the other users-and learn the Smiling One's actually a pretty well known name amongst the makers of not just magical sake-but mead and peach cider as well. I've got a log attached to my login so the Smiling One and the other members of her site-users included-know I'm interested in magical beverages and have some very particular-and unstated-needs for more hearty consumables.

Heh.

I log out after realizing I won't be getting a response now, chuckling from the manic moderator's childish banter and silliness. After a few hearty meals-one of which makes my stomach a bit upset, the second time it's happened with Boris' stuff, and I start to wonder if he's slipping-before I head out. Well, not out, not really-but down. I enter the sewers on my lonesome, having noted Hillevi now working with Camella in the current bit of Chakra tutelage for the Russians, and trek down the semi-remembered path to the arena I got introduced to. When I get there, I actually have to drop my soul guise for the gate guards, which look decidedly like fleshcrafted golems now that I really take some time to look at them, recognize me and allow me entry. Soul Identification of visitors? Something to remember, that's for sure. I'll ruminate on it later-as for now, one of the strange, overly hairy creatures that runs this place has rushed over, drywashing it's paws while inquiring as to what drew me here today. When I inform them I want to fight, rather than sponser a warrior, at first the creature seems alarmed-but when I assure them I'm not nearly the caliber of the two I brought before, it settles down. Sadly, I'm still not certain it doesn't have an inflated view of my ability, no matter how much I try to correct the thing-and ultimately, I bet all my money on-well-me.

The beasty tells me I'll get to fight a Slirk. I have no idea what that is-but Sake tells me he's got it covered. After I make sure SB's cleared to bet on me with my money, I'm told that I won't be able to use any Artifacts-and I left Silja behind.
>[Reflexive Retention Trait used]
>[Greedy GrabberTrait used]
Oh well-I've got both Matebas, Old Lonesome and all four courtly pistols hidden all about my deliciously bulky figure swaddled in a heavy fur coat.

Then I'm told I can only bring one weapon, unless I want the odds so in my favor I can't really make anything even if I win. ...MAN, I can't do that.
Instead, I ask Sake to go grab the WASP headed spear (and mentally communicate he should soak it's end in Doony poison then flash freeze the poison so it won't drip with Hillevi's help) and wait for a moment. When they see all I have is a magical hafted spear with a frozen tip, they thank me for getting into the sport of things, and note they will do their best to give me odds I can live with. I notice the creature doesn't really notice the joke it made.

Ten minutes later, with Sake and SB looking on, and the Hummingbird allowed by dint of being the competitor's spirit animal and thus immune to exclusion, my foe marches forth to meet me as our respective introductions are made.

So, Brandt, I called big I could still see him as a person, if one nearly cartoonishly huge-but still something I could look at and go-hey, that's believable. Hillevi's a bit beyond that, sure-her proportions are just... OFF for someone that large-while Einrik, Markku, Karma, Lammy's Were form and the Nazinauts-all of those were just plain TOO big, masses of muscle that you just can't believe could really exist.

The reptilian thing before me's on the scale of Tartalo, a twelve foot tall, nine foot wide MOUNTAIN of stocky muscle and thick hide, beneath armor that looks every bit as tank-like as that the Nazinauts sport. ...Gooood thing it's upper legs, upper arms, mouth and eyes are uncovered. I watch as it picks up a rock the size of a buick like it's a basketball, and lobs it over at me the moment the fight starts, my soul sense showing me it's charging in the wake of it's easy toss. Taking to heart the image of its soul as a knockoff of a dragon grown within a kong-sized monkey (at this point I no longer question the strange ways souls can look), I give it plenty of room as it carves out a scoop of stone where I once stood a foot deep with it's raking fingertips, shattering through the stone it threw.

Yup. Real glad I dodged that.

The beast is powerful, and unrelenting. It does not truly lack speed, or even mobility. Were it more precise or agile, perhaps I'd have an issue. As it is, between my shoddy dunter footwork, Hummer's Momentum and goblinic stealth techniques, the creature doesn't even manage to snag-

Okay so it DID snag my coat. Maybe I was getting too fancy. Fine. Things get more interesting when the Hummingbird notes that every time it sets it's mind to making one of it's signature dives and coring out a hole-the creature's soul condenses around the spot. I pay closer attention as I dodge-and see it, the rapidfire shifts in soul concentration leaving seemingly random points of overly dense soul. It's... preemptively blocking the bird? That's got to be passive.

That's about when I notice the fucking thing's emulating Camella-and slowly speeding up.

Right.

>[SOTG Trait used]
Spear, meet eye. Eye, meet spear. I fake trying to block rather than evade a blow with high stance, step in closer while minimizing my profile with mid stance, and put the spear's head through the Slirk's inner thigh with low stance. The flesh pulps and bruises on impace, the WASP head triggering-and the poison gets introduced to a femoral artery.

That should do it.

Sure enough-I keep dancing, and five minutes later the beasty drops. Good thing-I didn't really have any sure fire ways to hurt it other than that. But hey-doony poison applied via exploding ice shards atop a gas injecting knife-good times!
PERSONAL FUNDS: +45% $465,474.33
Making nearly 150k for a few minutes of playing around doesn't sit too badly with me either. I'm still bummed they won't let people gamble with collateral, or wager goods-but then, it's not really a big arena, so I guess I'm not that surprised. Still: MONEY.

After bowing out of the arena after some hemming and hawing by the beasties that run the place-those platitudes they give to say 'hey we hosted this fight, so keep betting chucklefucks', that load of tripe-I decide to call my parents-because thinking of money made me wonder why I never heard from them after the wire-I was totally expecting them to try and return it. When I get through to them though, I feel kind of stupid: I'd switched to calling them from a satellite phone with a blocked number-and never gave them the number. They'd been calling my apartment for a month before they thought to talk to Arkvad. After some rather obligatory chewing out they seem to finish venting, and I get to ask them how things are. Seems they've put the money to use-Got the truck fixed back up to perfect working order, finished off the last few years of the mortgage in one go, got a new home heating system and got the yard cleaned up. They're really happy the house not only doesn't look as shitty-but is also a hell of a lot more livable now. It's good to hear, and I make no secret of the fact I'm happy for them. When they ask me how I'm doing, I sheepishly admit that the company I started has been doing damn fine business in Istanbul-and my feigned reticence to bask in my accomplishments distracts them enough I get the questions back on them. Seems that house three doors down that's been vacant since forever's finally got a resident-some guy called Grime-more or something, a french guy they think. I ask a few more questions, drawing out the phone call, and finally say my goodbyes once we get near the hour mark. My father says I'm forgiven for forgetting to give them the new number just as I hang up. I have to double-check myself to be sure I actually DID give them the number now.

>"You have a minute?"
I'm between stuff yeah. What's up?
>"To save time I'll be blunt: you should try to become Whaitiri's son."
Yeah, I'm going to need some context for that.
>"Whaitiri is, like all gods, a being of Belief-and our soul is rather well suited to... altering belief. Add to this the fact that we have some of her soul in us-and she some of ours in hers."
Hm... Not to mention the fact she eats the food I eat-which I guess makes me a filter for what she consumes?
>[Sake]"I would like to go on the record as rejecting this-she IS a known cannibal and going down this route will make Soul Guises irrelevant in regard to your cannibalistic taint as it will be a known feature of you-there is no way she could or even would want to keep this secret, assuming you succeeded in getting her to accept."
That's pretty sober of you.
>[Sake]"Most divine beings hate being made the pets of gods-this would count, given I'm tethered to you both.
>"This is why I don't demand you do this-Sake has a valid point, but I am still reticent to let go of what we could gain. All things said, Whaitiri's been far less malicious-and frankly, less dangerous-than most of her godly peers-and that's something to be treasured."
>[Iron Trick]"What is not to be treasured is the lack of power she has-and the lack of followers. I don't have you pegged as one to join the little guy when you can join the big guy instead."
I... kind of like the idea though-and that's two for, two against. Hummingbird, you mind being tiebreaker?
>[Hummingbird]"I think that serving another can be noble, as can symbolic familial ties-but I doubt you would live up to either possibility. In light of that, I'd recommend forgoing this, unless events change, and instead looking for a way to impress her even while remaining a seperate party. Surely she cannot ignore earned respect."
Well, there it is-three to two, with all three ideas having something I can like about them. Even if I'm not part of the majority, I can feel content bowing to the general consensus here, contested or no. I didn't miss that only Armas soul bits voted yes on it. Though while we're on the subject of Whaitiri-
>"Yes, she should be done asking Amen questions within the next twenty hours, I should say. I do not currently believe she feels any onus to subsequently initiate a conversation with us, or freely offer up a reward for what we gave her, but I do think pursuing such has an excellent chance of success if timed properly. Personally, it seems most logical to leave the situation be for at least two days post her completion of her Amen studies to her satisfaction, before approaching her."
Pretty much three days then. Okay, I'll keep it in mind.

My internal council meeting concluded-I call the master of ventriloquism himself.
>[SM]"Yes, Mr. Laine? And may I congratulate you on your first personal showing at the arena?"
"You can. I'm calling about the Doony corpse-but I also have some other things."
>[SM]"Oh do you?"
"Yeah. I'd like to find out what kind of winter related female humanoid bodies or bodyparts you might be able to offer. I won't pay a premium for living specimens, or for ones that still have a soul still in them."
>[SM]"In the interest of clarifying the potential Bargain we discuss, would it be correct to say your perogative is nutritional value from these 'bodies' rather than experimentation?"
"That would be more correct than the alternative, yes."
>[SM]"I see. What limits do you wish posed on the potential offerings?"
"Limits? Pssh. Yuki onna, valkyries, female einher or Úlfhéðnar, frost giants, kumiho, winter elves or nymphs, bloodliners, vampires, or weres of the appropriate clans-if it's winter, female and humanoid, it qualifies."
>[SM]"....I see. We could offer quite a bit in that category, then-but I wonder if you would find it cost effective, given your phrasing."
"What, only premium stuff on hand? No bulk?"
>[SM]"Accurate enough for our purposes. You seem to desire a format of goods that we simply put do not generally carry or focus on. I am obligated to inform you of this before attempting to pursue a deal."
I still have the Smiling One's website, along with all it's users.
"Tell you what. If you can provide me with some sort of rough estimates on pricing for this, I can look at it, see if I'll follow up on it."
>[SM]"That can and will be arranged. Shall we move on to the stored goods you have?"
"Yup. I want it."
>[SM]"At the mansion, I assume?"
"Right in one.
>[SM]"Done. It's in your butler's care."
I finish climbing out of the sewer with one hand, walk to the door-and get confirmation from Amen.
"Great. There's one other thing I'm interested in. I would like to secure the use of a nevernever pocket sometime soon, designed to be ideal for training purposes and last for a subjective five years."
>[SM]"And what do you offer for this?"
"I'll start with the info the Triads are currently down their heavy hitter Labombard right now."
>[SM]"This was known."
"Did you know they don't even know where Labombard IS?"
>[SM]"...No, I did not. You have acquired six months."
>[WETN Trait activated]
"Bu-"
>[SM]"If you have more information, present it-don't try to haggle what each piece of data is worth."
" You are familiar with my current guests, of course."
>[SM]"You reference Li Kui?"
"Yes. Duke's battle in the arena should have given you a good sense of what he can do- and I can offer you my services in directing him against specific targets. I'm sure you have a few matters where a man of his capabilities could solve problems or simplify matters to your advantage, preferably through fights that he would appreciate. As a further payment and to prove my abilities in this, I maneuvered him into killing Mammon's Knight some days ago, and he thanked me for it afterward."
>[SM]"Were you to get him to kill any of the following invididuals, I would happily provide you with the full five years you desire: Rocco Armani, Baki Endman, Jet Fang."
"...Just those three?"
>[SM]"Just them, as it were."
"I'll... have to get back to you on that, then."
>[SM]"Do so."
"Final thing: what kind of price range would a charm to protect a spirit animal still in it's body from overbleed from it's owner run?"
>[SM]"To protect that which you possess? While the specifics are negotiable, something along the lines of 'favors, all your charms and more'. You have an exceedingly high quality spirit animal that is causing auto-overbleed in it's own right, within one of the smallest, frailest forms of spirit animal corporeal forms-and the primary source of overbleed is... you. It is a tall order you ask, hence why it'd be exceptionally costly. If and when you wished to sell it, we would be willing to trade back a sizable portion of what you bartered away for such a charm."
"I...see."
*CLICK*

After I have a chat with Lyubov that involves a bit of trollishness on my part and defering my end of a deal we made, a sturdy bout of pain training involving arsenic cocktails and fire, not to mention a bout of trying (and again failing) to get a non bird-assisted Dual Orientation going, I get to thinking about work. That Swede's job.... SB, you mind doing more scouting?
>"I'll do it, but if they beefed up their wards like I'm betting they did I can't promise anything."
Whatever you can get.
>"Ahuh. Back soon, hopefully."
While SB learns which buildings with which kinds of wards hold the goods Ironhead wants us to steal, I make yet another call.

"Arkvad! Hey, how's it going? I've got some great news- care to come by for dinner, talk about things?"
He acquieses, of course-and by the time he's arrived I've finished my meal-four slabs of Doonongaes filet, grilled to perfection. I modified a hydra steak recipe for it from the cookbook-and the sauce it's topped with is sinfully decadent. He smilesa s I greet him with steaming plates of food before following me over to the table and gushing over the steaks from the first bite. Myself, I just barely refrain from ejaculating, my body too unaccustomed to this much culinary delight, even with the constant magic meals. I barely keep my calm as I get to my questions.
"So, heard anything about Flinder's Range? You said someone would be checking it out- anything promising?"
>[AS]"God this is good-yes, the Range. We've managed to gain access-actually, we've got every bit of supplies you listed off for the Mere together now, as it happens. We're ready to do the reforging whenever you want-but I don't know that I can get them to fully comp it without some more research on the Titancorp tech to placate them. How're things on that?"
"Got an expert doing some further testing, actually. I also wanted to ask, did you do anything about Otso? Thought I should give him a call and dispense some advice, but you're closer to the family than I am and I wasn't sure how you'd be moving on the issue."
Arkvad tries to soberly grimace about a serious topic, but his face is still admantly stuck in a gleeful smirk of enjoyment as he keeps feasting.
"Your cousin. Well, I've not done much. I got him put on a list of divine representatives known to be more trouble than they're worth-at the least, if he gets in any mundane trouble he's got something of a protective blanket on him... for one mess-up, at least. Can't really speak past there. About Otso himself though... I don't really know what to do. Seems he's been playing the vigilante, getting rid of some odd criminals and such-the problem is he's actually catching rapists, arsonist and such. I'll be honest, I don't mind the fact he's killing them, even if it bothers his parents something fierce. As is... I'm going hands off, because I don't know that I can trust myself to not encourage him. Chalk it up to me being a crusty, stubborn old man and not as touchy-feely as you more modern types."
"Oh thanks for lumping me in like that. Mind giving me the kid's cell phone?"
>[AS]"Sure."
"Thanks. So, that news I mentioned- guess what you're eating?"
Arkvad clearly tries to stop eating, at least for a moment out of concern-but he just can't stop that fork from reaching his mouth. I can't blame him-that first three pound steak of mine is GONE, and MMMMM-MMMMM, my gut's throwing a party and wants to invite everyone.
" Doonongaes. Claimed by me as spoils after we killed it on Sunday."
>[AS]"Bullshit."
"Ask anyone in the group, they'll all confirm. Better- its scales, bones, cartilage, scales, fangs- do you think your company would be interested in such things?"
>[AS]"You... you.... You know what, fine. You're damn right we'd be interesting in a Doonongaes corpse."
"Thought so. I'm not willing to sell it all-"
>[AS]"I'd stop you if your were-you have to at LEAST keep a trophy, come on!"
"-but if there are any particular projects- I've made arrangements so that it's all clean of poison and won't be going bad. And you can add this to our resume for working acquisitions."
>[AS]"...Heh. Well, I think I've got what I need to make sure even the last hardasses okay the completementary Mere reforging if you can offer us something like this."
"I'd be interested in making some kind of support arrangement, if possible- have you got people who would be interested in working with a company like mine?"
>[AS]"No offense, but we hire people that like stability and safety-and pay top dollar for their skill. I... don't know that they'd want to work for you. Different mindsets."
"You sure? We could pull in two or three on a subcontractor basis to do weapons work for us and offer useful advice, do some acquisitions or provide some components we've acquired on other jobs to Holland & Holland in return- everyone wins."
>[AS]"I'll tell you what I'll do-I'll write up a proposal about this, and I'll back it as much as I can-I've got some decent clout to throw around in your name, and while I can't promise anything, I'll definitely do what I can."
"It's all I can ask."
Arkvad looks down with a start to see he finished his entire steak-then groans as if only now realizing just how much he ate.
>[AS]"...Oh, you bastard I'm going to hate you tomorrow morning."
"You did it to yourself."
>[AS]"Magic food doesn't count! Fuck, now I need to get one of Endman's massages to get rid of energy, don't I."
"You know Endman?"
>[AS]"I was on his customer list the day he opened up shop in the city-he's got fair prices and he can help normal folk get away with more hedonism than they really should. He's an okay guy in my book-and I know he's got criminal associations, and... look, I won't ask you to promise but could you at least TRY not to kill him? I know you've got some things going on with the Yakuza, but please, leave the massseuse out of it-and me out of it, for that matter."
"So I SHOULDN'T tell you everything, then."
>[AS]"What? Of course not! That'd be stupid for both of us! You have the shit you deal with, I've got the shit I deal with-we keep it separate, keep it to ourselves, and never have to fuss about the other somehow fucking us over. Definitely don't tell me."
This is why Arkvad's always been my favorite not-really-an-uncle-but-still-is.

We chat and throw convivial backhanded insults at one another for a bit longer, and Arkvad bows out for the night, thanking me for the visit, and asking if he has an invitation to come back and inspect the Doonongaes corpse, to which I reply of course (and make damn sure Amen knows it). Once Arkvad's left-and with the Russian's out, Hillevi coming up to me and mentioning that while I was training Einrik left, handing me a note adressed to me:

Obviously, I've left. Before I get into what I truly think the more important part of this message, let me briefly lead with this: Were you to purposefully drain yourself to the very end of your energy in both fields, I think you'd find a realm in which you could learn several rather crucial lessons that you'd normally not learn for decades-if at all. In particular-but not primarily-I know you could learn several tenants of energy efficiency that are rather crucial. Now, to the 'main event': I thought about it, and decided that if I really want to be your friend, I have to act like it-which includes, according to my observation, being 'trollish dicks' to one another. As you have failed to initiate in our relationship thus far, either out of respect, fear, indifference, inattention or otherwise, I decided to pre-empt you. Forgive the amateur quality of the attempt-but as I left, I took the last six bottles of Artemis' Brew you had in your larder-which were, incidentally, the last bits of magical beverage within your house' stock. Don't feel too bad-Duke had, by that point, drank the entirety of the rest of your stock and/or grabbed it for his refill. On this note, please do not be overly angry at Duke, as is, understandably, your right. Incidentally, I informed him of what he has done-it seems he had not even noticed that in taking advantage of your open invitation to the house stock that he had actually fully depleted an entire category of resource. You may have noticed he is not the most perceptive or aware individual. I don't know that I'd call it shame, guilt or anything of the sort-but he is, at the very least, less assertive and at ease than is his normal wont to be, and it's the direct result of learning what he did. I could stop there-and that, I think, would have been a passable enough attempt at trolling, but as you may or may not have noticed, I do not like leaving things well enough alone, so I took things a step further. Your guest the Duke Iron Ox currently thinks it the funniest game he's ever heard of to refuse to listen to anyone unless they first speak to him in iambic pentameter-in rhyme. Don't fear-his grasp of this 'game' dictates that once the condition's been met an individual can be considered to have stopped playing-but he does need to feel you really spoke with him, rather than simply said something to complete the game. Enjoy, friend.

....A tear comes to my eye. This... this is beautiful. He really, really cares!

Thankfully, the tear comes to my ever-watering, nonfunctional and eyepatched eye, so no one notices-
>[Sake]"Except me."
>[Iron Trick]"And me."
>[Hummingbird]"I can perceive your thoughts rather ably enough, sir giant: pray do not think me unobservant."
>"And me. And back, by the way, the goods are in FOUR separate buildings, each with sufficient wards I can't see the innermost layers of defenses-and what I can see looks like it'd react to direct use of shadowmagic. Not saying it'd stop me, but it might-and at the least, it'd react in some way or other."
...Okay. Right.

I need time to think about that, so after I thank Hillevi, I decide-to call my cousin.
>[Otso]"...Hello? Who is this?"
"Evening, Otso."
The sharp intake of breath says my voice is recognized. Good.
"Thought I should ask how you're getting on. Starting out cold is never easy- I should know."
There's a pause, and I can hear him mumbling to himself oh so softly, clearly struggling to decide what to say-and help him out.
"Now-I'd rather not share too much over the phone- unless you happen to have a much more secure phone than I would expect- but I can answer a few questions if you have them. No overly personal details, of course."
>[Otso]"How... how'd you know? I mean, the advice?"
"The long and short of it is friends. Knowing people will always help-this is just one example of that."
>[Otso]"What... what are you?"
"Now, I'm afraid that one's a bit tricky-or could be, except the answer's pretty simple. I'm your cousin, Armas Laine. That's the truth, and it's what counts here."
Again, the line goes quiet. Then-
>[Otso]"You... you aren't going to talk to, uh, to-"
"To what-your parents? your friends? My only interest here is helping out a cousin in need. I do hope those aren't the only questions I can assist you with, Otso."
>[Otso]"Okay... uh... so, how do I.... ah...."
I give him time to work it out-this one's the key, I can tell. If I can help him with this, I've got his trust locked down tight.
>[Otso]"How do you deal with the... urges?"
I'm no goblin. I can't throw voice or perception through a phone, simply because a conversation's taking place. I'm no shadow, to listen in without regard for physical presence. I've no way to see it or confirm it-yet all the same I know what he means.
>[RRRRRR Trait used.]
"That one-that's a hard question, no matter who's asking and who's answering-and I don't have an easy answer for you. Still want to listen?"
I can hear the eager desperation as his head rubs against the reciever, nodding even though I have no way to see it.
"Well... the thing is that you're something more now-and that's not going to go away. And if you keep thinking of yourself as what you were, not what you ARE... it's just going to get harder. You have to accept what you are-not to submit to urges-mark-me there-but acknoweledge you have them and work around them as necessary. Think you could give that a try?"
Again, that frantic silence as he struggles with what to say. I'll say this for my cousin-however potentially lacking in the quick wits department he may be, he doesn't babble or blurt things out.
>[Otso]"...I think I can. Um.... can I ask some more questions?"
"Of course."
>[Otso]"Say... say I'm going to... uh... lose on purpose."
"Now Otso, I think you might be missing the lesson. Just because you know you'll win too well if you fight doesn't mean you have to lose."
>[Otso]"I don't understand."
"And this, sadly, is something that can't really, truly be explained, but I'll do what I can. Understand that life is nothing but a string of scenes-and just because these scenes are presented to you in a certain light, the setting a certain way-does not mean you must take them as is. If you cannot win a fight, that does not mean your ONLY other option is to lose."
>[Otso]"I... I think I get what you mean, but I still... uh..."
"Mayhap an example will help."
>[Otso]"YES! Uh, I mean, sure."
"In the example of not being able to win a fight for fear of winning too much-one could, if silver tongued or well informed on the secrets of his aggressors, talk them out of a fight, combining one's past wins with implied threats. You do not lose-but all the same, the fight you must not win never takes place. One could, if swift of foot or well versed in the schedules of his foes and the area's layout, purposefully avoid ever meeting them without resorting to sneaking-and comment about how odd it is one hasn't seen them. One's reputation is untarnished, and the aggressors take a hit without ever meeting their quarry. If one were well suited to dealing with authority figures or had at least one they'd already established a rapport with, one could get a discreet teacher intervention and orchestrate a scheme that doesn't leave one branded a snitch, but leaves the aggressors shamed. If one were loose with the law or desperate and skilled with locks, one could simply plant contraband in the aggressor's bags and indirectly draw attention to it. And this is only scratching the surface-the point, though, is to never be restricted in how you approach a scene you know to be in your future."
>[Otso]"...I know I'm not... uh... good, I guess, with words. Or a bunch of the other things you said. But... but I did hear what you said besides that-and I think I can put in time to prepare, and not just react. That's.. that's the lesson, right?"
The lesson was to cheat, but I can work with this.
"It's part of what you could learn. Do try to think on it."
>[Otso]"....Thanks. I... uh, man, I'm bad at-heh, I mean, REALLY, thank you."
"Think nothing of it. How could I not help family?"
>[Otso]"Still... thanks for, um, not treating me like a kid."
"You will make the choices you choose to make. All I can do is offer my thoughts and advice when possible."
>[Otso]"...Hey, why did...... no, sorry. Um, forget about it. Thank you, really."

With that the call is concluded-and I realize just how late it is. I grab a meal and hit the sack.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $465,474.33
BUSINESS FUNDS: $189,347.00
CASH: $9,170.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 16%
WINTER ENERGY: 108/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 43/50


I wake up at six am, dose on Brain coffee and briefly throttle up my kidneys, liver and parathyroid while spicing my awakening with a jolt of adrenaline. Completely and utterly awake and alert before I finish opening my eyes, I wonder:
















What should I do today?

Skill you could only get after decades of work available through a shortcut? He knows you well, best get on that today as this could be just the solution needed for Hummingbro. You can drain your winter line trying to finally get some semblance of skill with dual orientation, and the Summer by working on Gianni's homework on adrenals, perhaps with a larger infusion of adrenaline the differences will make themselves more readily apparent. While doing both of these things try to craft your own version of Hummingbro's focus enhancement technique, now that you can see your own soul and can see how it works hopefully some headway can be made on that. Leave the rest of the day open for this.

Armas;
Some thoughts to chew on, you won't need to kill Baki if you can get him on your side, the problem is, how do you go about tearing the Yaks apart yet absorbing their best people?

Hafaz and company may be the solution here, so this plan can go on the backburner, though any chances to [DESTABLIZE] the leadership of the Yaks is to be taken, if Baki no longer wants to be part of the Yaks due to the Yaks becoming pathetic/dishonourable it is our win.

On Lammy. Lammy was and is a bro, see if you can meet with Go ping, apart from that an [INVESTIGATOR] would be very useful... Adelat is bound to come under your dominion sooner or later.

For today, it might be an idea to find a way to meet with the werewolf Matriarch, give our apologies for not taking her offer, but make clear we'd be happy to do work in exchange for favours...

We also have a small problem of that demon meeting to deal with... I would be tempted to find a way to just throw Duke at that problem, but for now arrange to meet with Johan.

Finally SM owes us a meeting with other Goblins of Istanbul, might be an idea to redeem that today.
[How do i make plans!? >.<]




Orders for LEV
>*Ask Lev if he could spare an hour or so on the weekend to teach you some more advanced hand-to-hand fighting. Ask Zhenya the same about pistols. Awaiting response from either.
Lev would be happy to help in keeping a medic alive, He loves medics, also take far too much joy in somebody wanting to learn melee from you.

You've heard it, you need to learn chakra or you will die, or more particularly you won't be able to eat the lovely lovely food. Cut down on all other training, make sure to get a good amount of sleep. Attend all chakra training, but always try to do the stuff while in the shadows, you don't trust messing with your soul in the sunlight...

On the note of sunlight being a vile soul destroying deciever, start wearing a hat gloves and sunglasses.

Spend some time practising what you learn in the dark, Try to focus on your shadow, realise you have not a clue what you are doing. Seek out Shadow Boss, ask him if the black lights helped with his research and if there is any thing else you can do for him, anything. Then break down due your fear of dying and beg him to teach you how to put energy into your shadow or some chakra training or something.

Come to the conclusion that in spite of soul popping danger, Your new bosses are pretty boss, you don't really know how to deal with superiors actually seeming to care about you.

Be sad that you don't really have the time to go to circuses any more.

Let’s think this through. Jet Fang’s death is the most valuable to us – weakening Lo Fang – but with the most dangerous potential consequences (if Lo Fang learns of our hand in it). Rocco’s death is the most immediately dangerous since we don’t understand his stealth bloodline, and we’d also lose one of our two biggest employers. Endman would be a loss personally, what with potentially damaging Hafaz’s plans (that group may even end up involved in any hit we attempt, since baki’s been hanging with them) and Arkvad would be bummed. So, I say we keep our eyes open for an opportunity to come along but don’t go out of our way to engineer one – and we can tell SM that.

Today, take Jet up on his offered training. For content… I don’t remember, can we shunt power full power to SB, Sake or HB yet? If not, we could have him improve the flexibility of our stealth suite – to fool more types of creatures. Failing those, there’s always the chakra overlay.

What is our problem with that, anyway? Seems to be an issue with focus as much as precision, since HB’s trick gets it working. This says to me that SB and us working together could also accomplish it, or SB and Sake teaming up with us providing the power. Still just another way to cheat the problem, not satisfying Lo Fang, but it could be useful.

>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Agree with Boss. Ask him instead that, when the dubbing is finished, the company will watch the Kill Doony Video and be trolled with THE MACHINE video.
>Come to realization that Boss is dick troll, Shadow Boss is Serious Troll, and Sake is fun troll. Ask Boss and Sake, personally and with Shadow Boss doesn’t seem to be nearby, about running Camella through THE MACHINE. Also maybe some other Russians. Gloom comes to mind.
>Get dubbing finished, and try to get Shadow Boss and Sake to record their lines. Before and after dubbing, just chat with them. Comment on Sake looking awesome and Shadow Boss on convincing Nikifor to ‘wrestle’ his shadow.

>What is our problem with that, anyway? Seems to be an issue with focus as much as precision, since HB’s trick gets it working. This says to me that SB and us working together could also accomplish it, or SB and Sake teaming up with us providing the power. Still just another way to cheat the problem, not satisfying Lo Fang, but it could be useful.

It may not be the amount of focus Armas can devote, but the ability to stop short of putting all of himself into one orientation. Like with Hummingbird's help Armas has enough control to sink only a certain amount of his attention into each orientation. Without Hummingbird Armas submerges all of himself into one orientation.
More figurative, running two orientations is like treading water just strong enough to be submerged from the hip down, no more no less. What Armas manages on his own is either keeping at most his feet wet or at most his scalp dry.

Some training by running a chakra orientation and then trying to starve it, to drive it as low as possible without shutting it off might help.

Titus Orders
Barring a mission or hunting trip (or finding some Blades to beat up), the best way to live-fire test something like this is probably sparring. And the vampires at Ito’s are strong enough to take a little electrical charge without much harm.

However, doubt you are rested enough to prove a challenge to them as is – if you can at all, of course, but at least you’d have the edge on one of the ganger vamps in skill.

Have Titus approach Hillevi, ask if it is possible for her to remove fatigue buildup or allow someone to fight through exhaustion. Ask humbly, as one might ask an honored elder sibling, despite Titus being 29 and Hillevi 17. This is due to Hillevi reminding Titus of his elder (now married) sister, despite the two having little in common (this is due to Elder Sister seeming very big in young Titus’s memory).

If Hillevi is able to do something like that, attend Ito’s (with Grisha, if amenable) and talk their way into fighting the gang vampire pair one-on-one. Have Titus and Grisha both try the gloves in their bout, then compare notes later. Then… probably suffer greatly the next morning at 4am.

Failing Hillevi’s ability or inclination to do this, maybe Hillevi herself would allow us to test it, two-on-one? If so, regret even more the next morning.

Formerly >>390707

Baki has a massage technique where he removes magic from mundane humans who over indulged in magic foods.
Maybe he could help with hummingbird's magic situation.

Lo Fang or his disciples could potentially teach us how to draw that saturating energy from the hummingbird too. Regularly drawing that energy combined with weasel rubdown healing should do the trick.

We should suggest that the russians get regular weasel rubs during their current push to learning chakra.

>SM introduction
SM owes us introduction to other goblins... we need to claim those already. That would allow us to "shop around" for things a bit and thus improve the prices we can get.

>Amens Prisoners - Time to meet them
I think it is time we met/examined the various prisoners amen has. Also lets reexamine the mangled reaper soul (now that we have improved soul detection).

>Godling
Ask sake to clarify the definitions of god, godling, kami, and name other in betweens he knows of. Also, what is the difference between divine and devil.

>Chakra Practice
Armas should focus practicing holding multiple simultaneous chakra alignments with hummingbirds assistance. Keep at it until he increases assisted duration by a second and then try by himself. Repeat it until he can do it by himself for a second.
Ideally we want to be able to have an array of multiple detection alignments running concurrently (although I guess we could also cycle between them)... speaking of, I want to learn all the different detection configurations lo fang could teach us for that purpose.

>Chugniov
Lets approach SM with the idea of ordering jidovka to steal and deliver to us a sample of chuginov's blood.
We offer SM to sell him non exclusive access to chuginov same as we did to jidovka.
SM will help us phrase the order for amen, to order jidovka to steal the blood.
In exchance SM gets a discount on his purchase of chuginov ordering rights.

>Boris
Will leave brownies beer wort and cream. Then just leave immediately and never once think of what you're doing as a payment or worse refer to it as such.
Stop spiking food with ipecac and ghost pepper sauce. its obviously not working.

>>390786
Upvote except for meeting the prisoners. Since we allowed Amen to do anything he wanted with them, meeting prisoners might be dangerous.

Ask Sake if he can heal missing limbs. If he can then talk to hummingbird and your brothers about the following plan. Sake could cut away parts of hummingbird thereby removing some of the magic in his body and immediately heal him afterward.

ORDERS FOR IOSEF:

>>>Remember stuff delivery! Distribute Laptops to every Russian not already having one or that will break it. Be given a decidedly ambivalent response by most. Grumble about no respect.
-Hey, Iosef appreciates the gesture. He will thank Andrei for his thougful gift and tell him that if he ever needs help with anything that Iosef will help him.

>?~Seek out Sake and ask him use his healing magic on Iosef right before sleeping at midnight. Be told to fuck off since you're getting enough sleep. -Be unsure how to proceed from here.
Well, that's just rude. Besides, the plan was to do this after Ivan and Iosef present him the golden nest.
Also, having that amount of recuperation and rest would allow Iosef to push himself much harder during his training. Anyway,

>Approach Lyubov and ask her about gold-cloth or something similar he could use to make something comfortable for Sake to sleep on
>be ready to spend 400$+ on the cloth, 25$+ on the down for the bed
>Thank Lyubov for her help and tell her that Iosef will do favour for her if she needs one.

>Since Iosef is pretty much getting the best recovery, try to push himself much harder during trainings. Although not during the Camella jog, he doesn't want to embarrass himself by vomiting on the side-walk, that part of the training he'll take more gradually.

Orders for Armas:
-Chakra training. Try to get the double chakra flowing in your own for at least a half of a second. 6 hours
-Finally go meet those goblins you have bought introduction for.

>[Andrei has been queued to do the following on:]
>Agree with Boss. Ask him instead that, when the dubbing is finished, the company will watch the Kill Doony Video and be trolled with THE MACHINE video.
>Come to realization that Boss is dick troll, Shadow Boss is Serious Troll, and Sake is fun troll. Ask Boss and Sake, personally and with Shadow Boss doesn’t seem to be nearby, about running Camella through THE MACHINE. Also maybe some other Russians. Gloom comes to mind, after hearing that he made S'mores gloomy.
>Get dubbing finished. Laugh while editing, trying to keep it silent. Make sure Sake and Shadow Boss have the lines recorded and sounding the best. If they're not well recorded, get Sake and Shadow Boss to get their lines recorded properly. Chat with Sake and Shadow Boss (between recordings). Comment on Sake looking awesome and Shadow Boss on convincing Nikifor to ‘wrestle’ his shadow.
>Between editing, Remember that Satai wanted caffeine. Get 5 more gallons of 5150 Juice for $174.75 dollars, 200 Energy Catalysts for $192, 8 Blast Caffeine shakers for $100, and $303.2 for sixteen of each of the three types of Dynapep micro energy shots there. Hands shaking too much for anything else.
>Finish up editing on both films. Be stoked that trolling can happen.
>Get excited; call Boss and Shadow Boss and Sake to see!
>Laugh and Laugh again; stop, choking and feeling light headed.
>Fuckit, let's show this movie off. Get the big ass TV set up, while snickering to self.
>Watch the beginning of Kill Doony. Can not contain self. Laugh, and laugh, and laugh, falling off chair. Keep laughing, feeling the world going distant. Have heart attack.
>With last breath: "Got. Yeah."
>Hopefully revived by Weasel! Hurrah! If not, fuck!

>If not dead, start using free time for sleep. Cut down on too much caffeine.

Rostislav orders: >Wake up one morning thinking back on all that weird shit he's seen so far. >Except that one thing. >Recall how Camella broke Boss's arm. >Think for a moment how much thrusting power that takes. >Decide to approach Camella later about Reinforcement and how to achieve that use of Chakra. >Should Camella prove difficult to talk to, ask Ito >Should both of those fall through, simply pay more attention to the chakra lessons, focusing as much as he can. >During incredibly limited spare time, drop Best Beer Hunt (But keep it in mind) and instead start looking for fight clubs >Especially ones that are barely legal and allow weapons >Don't actually enter yet, scope out for one as mundane as possible and one around his level

Grisha has been queued to do the following:
-Wake up at four AM, somewhat cranky and tired.
-Agree to go along with Titus' taser testing at Ito's when he asks, it should be interesting to see what those vamps can take in terms of damage, if you can hit them with it at least.
-At Camella's group training, do what is required, wonder what the deal is with the start, there is something about it that is odd and it is pissing you off - be too tired to think about it much.
-Continue to be a bit grumpy at Ito's, try to hide it so as not to throw off students.
-Sleep the sleep of the dead. Don't even bother undressing.
-Get woken up to see the movie, who gives a fuck, it'll be uplifting to watch something die in seconds that would take out an entire troop or two under Chugainov's command.
[Andrei has a heart attack: SS Trait activates]
-Be shocked, upset, saddened, and pissed off by Andrei having a heart attack.
-Do whatever can be done to help him, defer to to the Bosses and Feodor, it's what any good person would do, right?
[Andrei survives]
-Be worried, attempt to get him to chart his caffiene intake, with a notepad.
-Be paranoid and make sure to check that pad a couple of times a day for a few weeks.
-Tell him not to do that to himself again, too many promising soldiers have commited suicide in the Forces!
-Ask Ito along with the vampires if you can help Titus test some less-lethal equipment related to close combat.
-Concentrate on getting the taser into contact, realise you'll take more hits doing so, stop to make sure the vampire you are sparring is okay whenever you connect.
-Sleep because you will be exhausted regarless. What a horrible day...
[Andrei dies [unless Bob has other ideas on what the Russians will do]]
-Be even more pissed off and sad, mainly because it was self-inflicted.
-Decline using shock gauntlet, take some of your anger out during a spar, hopefully getting the desired result.
-If Ito says no, or stop then do so.

I'm not sure about orders most of the time, but it seems like a major enough of an event to produce such a split.

ARMAS ORDERS

Today, though you do not know it, you will face horrors beyond human ken. Duke will not be in his normal bathroom, and you will walk into a horrible scene. But like so many things in your life, from trauma springs greatness.

In this case you'll have an epiphany. The horrible, caustic, hazardous deuces that Duke drops are literal poison. And you could, if you copied his incredible intestines, build a flesh golem based on spewing the same crap everywhere.

The nazinaut would make a good base. It was built from a human turned vampire turned elder-acid-plant, designed to be a one-use panic button weapon. Nice, but not sustainable. But you've got just about all the parts you'd need to make it sustainable. Think about it. You've got the dooney's heart, you've got those phoenix hearts (save up one more and you'd have a rule of three ready complex).

You know a little flesh craft, but you don't know enough to do this on your own. You do know a fleshcrafter that could probably do it, and you already agreed to let him look at the nazinaut: Gianni. Couldn't you just... steal him from Rocco? He seems to like you a lot more than he likes Rocco. And he seems to want another fleshcrafter in his life. He made excuses to bring you to dinner. And you got the Owner's personal attention, Gianni would appreciate that your star is rising (once he was sober, ha ha).

The first part of this hinges on being able to get Gianni on board though. Call him up, tell him about the Dooney kill.

"Hi Gianni, did I tell you I killed that Doononegas asshole over the weekend? I didn't? I guess I wanted to keep it a surprise until the detox work on the bodyparts was done. Well, surprise!"

"Yes, I've got most of it, including all those poison glands it uses. Now, as it happens, I've got this great idea. I was thinking, "why not put the glands in me? I'd need some help to do it, but I just so happen to have a spare set of the glands anyway..." Yeah you see where I'm going with this right?"

"Right, a set for you, for helping me get mine installed. But it occurred to me that with all the flesh I've got laying around here, I could do something really interesting. See, I think that with the right combination of hearts, guts, and raw strength, we could make a really nasty fleshgolem. Something that could spew divine, mortal, and elder poison, and maybe a bunch of diseases or something too. And be a terror, a complete bruiser in battle. And be built to go really fucking fast."

"Oh don't worry about that, I've got some contacts who sort of specialize in fleshcraft-based footwork. Getting them on board with this won't be a problem."

"Aaaanyway, I was thinking, if I had a solid fleshcrafter mentor, one who was on-board with me and mine, and who didn't mind teaching in a more intimate setting, and guiding me along. Well, that mentor would be the perfect guy to be the lead on designing this Beast of a golem."

"You know how I am, I've got a tendency to, ah, split my attentions. I've got a mentor lined up for my other skillset, and as it so happens, I think he could help us with just those issues you're bringing up. If you're on board with this, I'd want you to be completely on board."

"Well when I told Rocco I wanted you, I meant it. The taste I've had of your attentions has left me hungry for more. I really do want you behind me. Backing me up. Mentoring me in the myriad methods of the flesh."

"I'm going to be serious here. I think you'd be a great fit. I'm trying to build something more than just a company. I mean, I want the company to be great. But I want to start building a clan. The truth is that being clanless sucks, but I just can't see myself anywhere in any clan I join besides ultimately receiving the Head... position. And since that'd be just as hard as building my own clan, I decided that I'd be better off just going the Full Monty and building things from the ground up."

"Well I already know I'm about as crappy a teacher as a guy can be and still be breathing. I'm going to need a solid mentor for my kids. Money, influence, interesting projects, and a place to call your own with us. Plus you'll get instant authority over that group of soldiers I've got with me. What do you say?"

"Right, I don't want to leave Rocco feeling put out either. How about we arrange a parting agreement with him. We'll lend him what he needs while he lines up alternates. The whole company at his disposal, at discount rates, for a month or so. Maybe less, what do you think would be a reasonable amount of time for him to get another man lined up and slotted into his organization?"

"Gianni, I think this is the beginning of something beautiful. I, excuse me, I got something in my eye."

With Gianni, the first part of the plan becomes possible. You'll need to talk to Rocco and help Gianni wrap up whatever he's involved in, but it might be possible to get the glands installed as soon as today.

With luck, Davgon will just show up on your doorstep to talk about the mentorship and mercenary work. He's had almost a week to get his affairs in order and get into the country. Einrik will have given him your address and phone number, hopefully.

Plus, you've got Duke here. At least part of this golem will be based on Duke's physiology. Who better to have on hand as an expert in how the grafted parts work than the man that donated the template?

In fact... there's a lot of improvements you could make... involve the dunters... let SB pilot it... and maybe ask Whaitiri for her suggestions once we've got something solid to show off. And don't forget to armor it.

[A List to Build a Beast On]
-Hire Gianni away from the Mafia. He is fun, and he knows his craft, and he seems to like you much more than he likes Rocco.
-Offer up a set of doononegas poison glands for him, a chance to mentor you in a more intimate setting (and be compensated for such), mission pay, a chance to be in on the ground floor of a clan that’s going to be building some awesome things
-Things like The Beast. Start with the living nazinaut flesh, implant a set of Doonegaes poison glands and a Doonegaes heart to stabilize it. And maybe some phoenix auxiliary hearts, since they’re from the same court.
-Which will then be set up to spew that horrible caustic crap that Duke leaves in the bathroom after his morning constitutionals. We’d need to copy his intestines for that.
-And maybe make the Elder-derived acid that it was originally designed for, too
-In fact why not give it the ability to spray fire, too?
-And add magic and divine diseases to its payload? Just to fuck with anything that’s immune to three different types of poison and fire.
-And it needs lots of limbs so that it’s hard to mobility-kill it.
-Maybe we could make it really fast. You’ve got a couple of Dunter who would probably like to help you with building the beast to use their footwork techniques.
-And considering how good they are at bloodwork, we could probably learn how to integrate their blood-sponge, thick blood, toughened veins, and set up a system that allows nutrition to be mainlined into the golem’s muscle tissues from his circulatory system.
-Maybe we could talk Duke into letting us borrow parts of him to improve the base. It was a human once, and Duke is a transcendental human with regeneration. We could put his high-quality human parts in there and make the golem even more awesome.
-If Davgon signs on, we’d have the help of a Sami soul shaman to craft the soul control side of things
-And maybe copy some of the soul tricks we’ve learned.
-Maybe we could design the Beast to be piloted by ShadowBro. He might need a decent way to interface with it. But isn’t he already controlling that other nazinaut shadow? Maybe we could stitch that to the soul-control-center for the beast.
-And Restrict it to just accepting control from Laine-relatives, so that we don’t have to worry about some other shadowuser running off with our awesome golem.
-If we can get Whaitiri to help, we’d have a divine goddess providing support in the form of mere-claws for it that can cut anything (and maybe other things too, like a gate to her realm that we could use to move spare parts through during a fight).
-She could help with some of the integration issues too, maybe.
-Since it doesn’t have eyes, or need most of its brain, we could put lasers in its head.
-And more heads! And maybe a charm to shift the heat away from the delicate parts of the lasers. Hamlet could help with this laser stuff, he would know this shit. He could pick out a nitrogen gas laser of some sort, so that the golem would shoot ultraviolet wavelength lasers.
-We could put armor on it. The best runed armor we can find, or have made. And we could make it easy for ShadowBro to swap parts mid-fight, so that he can replace damaged parts.
-We could even get some automated repair charms for it. Or learn how to make them, and do it ourselves. Take some of the load off of SB and cut down on replacement costs for the armor panels.

>>390959
>"Well when I told Rocco I wanted you, I meant it. The taste I've had of your attentions has left me hungry for more. I really do want you behind me. Backing me up. Mentoring me in the myriad methods of the flesh."
Make sure to mention we really need hands-on training.

>In this case you'll have an epiphany. The horrible, caustic, hazardous deuces that Duke drops are literal poison. And you could, if you copied his incredible intestines, build a flesh golem based on spewing the same crap everywhere.
Remember, whenever talking to Duke, we need to use iambic pentameter?
"Duke, the stench of your excretions/could choke a charnel house./Perhaps it is only the murderous fumes/But I have a thought that eclipses Faust's.

We're going to make a golem/An abomination against god/And man, and the Geneva convention/... something something, gonna need your shit, allright?/What do you want from me, I'm not a poet."

Very, very rough iambic pentameter, not really up to what I normally consider Armas's standards, but trying to hit 10 syllables AND rhyme is hard.

Go on the Internet and look up nootropics and other forms of mental enhancement like the neural feedback electotheraphy mentioned before. Basically, anything with well documented positive effects on focus would be helpful for learning.

>>390959
SUST. All of it, as it's far too long to criticise only in part, and far too much stuff like the Gianni stuff that's been voted against before for good reasons.

>>390602
The shouter Ironhead wants the police theft task to be completed. We are to be doing it, tomorrow. Have the Shadow learn who of the police has the keys, and the codes, and the other information that is vital to the police theft task. We will change the face, and open the doors tomorrow with the stolen keys and codes. Then we will break the wards, and the Shadow will take the things. Then we will leave. Tomorrow! But Shadow does preparation today!

>>390655
Just because you learn something one day you do not have to it the same day! We may have to wait to drain until after the police theft task. I am SUST. But we do the draining later, after police theft.

>>390664
If what we want to do in this post does not take up too much time, then fine. But if you add a lot of time, you can not reason. I want to hire the instructor Gianni.

>>390959
Yes, we will offer pay to the instructor Gianni, to be our instructor, and to help build Golem, and to put the poison glands inside the Armas soft flesh. I want to make Golem.

>>390714
Baki and Endman are two men. Baki is the hard man of rubs, Endman is the mundane who gambles. The Sometimes Merchant would expect we to have Duke end Endman, but Duke would be most bored.

Killing Jet Fang of Lo Fang is the most dangerous, but it is not what the Sometimes Merchant would expect, and is not what Lo Fang would expect if we get the lessons from Jet Fang. We are to get the lessons, and set Duke on Jet Fang.

First thing, track down Camella before she leaves for Ito's and ask her if she's figured out that trick for getting around charm arrays yet. Get definitive confirmation one way or another, she's got to describe the trick to you.
If not, "Hey Iron Trick, I bet that a month from now Camella STILL wont have figured Splintered Intent out for herself."
We're betting a soul sliver a day for a month against knowledge in the Darkening portion of our Winter bloodline as though we were trained by an expert of the Darkening bloodline for 6 hours a day for a month. I guess we can increase that to two slivers a day if he's being a dick about it.
I'm attempting a Rule of Three gamble with the month/month/month. Unsure if it'll do anything.

>>391013
SUST getting Duke to kill Jet Fang.
>>390959
Love the list. Hate the bluntness with which you pursue Gianni and am therefore SUSTing it.

IGOR
>[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
Make sure to sleep 8hr a day by taking a mid-day nap.

>What should I do today?
Well, first, we should think about yesterday:
>[SM]"...No, I did not. You have acquired six months."
>[WETN Trait activated]
>"Bu-"
>[SM]"If you have more information, present it-don't try to haggle what each piece of data is worth."
After beginning to try to barter, you were redirected to bartering at the end of the conversation- and you didn't. “Won't Ever say no” doesn't mean “won't maybe say no”, and we should be careful to remember to try to get as much as possible before leaving our barter opponent. Likewise, “I would like to secure the use of a nevernever pocket sometime soon, designed to be ideal for training purposes and last for a subjective five years.” Is really not precise enough. You should know better than that by now, with how SM needs to squeeze us given him being a goblin. Now, it's pretty obvious that if our teacher age in such a bubble, or the hummingbird does, or Hillevi can't come with us as well as the trainer and ourself it's NOT ideal at all. However, we should NOT let things in any way vague- we know better than most how to manipulate truth. We really should take care of that blindness we have when it comes to other people doing what we ourself do all the time. Just for that, Armas should call SM and make sure of a few things: if he has duke killing more than one of them, does it mean we get two 5 years bubble? Are those bubble actually “ideal” for training, and not just “ideal” in a crooked sense of the word? Would we still get them if they die because of us, but not from Duke's hand? Those are all things we must make sure to get.

>Einrik
That means he will feel sad ifthere is no prank waiting for him when he comes back. Mental note: prepare one.

>Otso
Hey, you forgot the whole reason we called him- for Abloex advice. What's up with that?

>[Sake]"I would like to go on the record as rejecting this-she IS a known cannibal and going down this route will make Soul Guises irrelevant in regard to your cannibalistic taint as it will be a known feature of you-there is no way she could or even would want to keep this secret, assuming you succeeded in getting her to accept."
>That's pretty sober of you.
>[Sake]"Most divine beings hate being made the pets of gods-this would count, given I'm tethered to you both.
While I would tend to dismiss IT and Hummingbird's opinions here- IT because he STILL is Rabbit's (and he should know we don't mind shooting for the underdog), whatever else he might be, and Hummingbird because he is clearly still quite ignorant of non-bird interactions, Sake makes two impressively valid points: First, that Cannibal thing, second, that he would feel like being a pet of god. We need to talk to him more about that- does that mean he would be opposed to nay kind of relationship with Whaitiri? Would it be more acceptable for him if we just tried to give whaitiri “trust” when it comes to Armas, or even try to be some kind of “mercenary hunter” loosely associated with her?

>>390959
That's... Really aggressive there. SUST to aggressiveness. I want to get Gianni to come here, to implant the glands in us and give us a epi lesson, and to begin working on the nazinaute golem today. Maybe implant the Doony heart in it or something. However, we should be REALLY carreful on how to poach Gianni. I would suggest trying to get Gianni sold on the idea first (as in, make sure he agrees he wants to be poached), and then help Rocco eliminate the nazi with the help of Duke (Bye bye endman), and get Gianni as part of our payment from Rocco (so that we don't get bad relationships with Rocco).

If Gianni comes here today, we could try to tempt him on working on the Nazinaute golem as “more interesting” than that fleshcrafter meet. SUST to going there, btw. We don't need more sidequest. If Gianni leaves us tonight early in the evening to go there, Armas should drain both of his bloodline and try to get that efficiency boost. He might well sleep a LOT, but as long as he makes sure to have sake wake him up for anything truly important, that should be ok. Armas REALLY need efficiency as the hummingbird might die any day now.

>We are to get the lessons, and set Duke on Jet Fang.
SUST on killing Jet Fang currently

Speaking of Jet Fang, we should call and schedule a chakra lesson with him tomorrow afternoon. If there is any free time today, we should also spend as much time as possible working on dual-layered orientation. Possible begin with soul-sensing → reinfrorcement with the help of the hummingbird once so that SB can shove into use what our soul looks like when we do it, and then try to be guided by that when we do it without Hummingbird.

>Satai Orders
>Wonder how Lyubov and Ivan look so goddamn peppy. Grumble about it in proximity to others, realize that Sake is responsible. Hunt down Sake. Inquire about receiving precious wakefulness in spite of horrible sleep deprivation, if there are any side effects.
>If Sake is reluctant, conclude that obviously he's fishing for bribes. Doubtless this is why everyone else keeps giving him things, he charges for favors. Mention that there's probably room for a very flexible medical supplies budget somewhere in the quartermaster accounts that Sake could probably get access to as our most competent healer, if he would care to discuss it some time when Satai is actually awake.
>If he bites, attempt to make arrangements for Sake to get whatever the hell he wants (as long as it's not totally breaking the budget, obviously) and Satai's assistance in purchasing things in exchange for helping out Satai upon request. No point stinting on the budget, it's not like we're short on cash and we get more all the time.

>>390602
Give Go Ping a call and ask if he can schedule the training that Jet Fang offered scheduled.

Spend the bulk of the morning on chakra training if possible, either with the Triads or with Hillevi's assistance if we can get it- fighting Hillevi is always good for burning up a bunch of power.

We should talk to Sake about what he said when relations with Whaitiri came up.

"Sake, you have a bit? You said that divine beings hate being the pets of gods- might not have noticed this, but I don't really know anything about what's involved there. Mind filling me in?"

"What exactly qualifies as being a god's pet, then? Are you against any kind of permanent relationship with a god, or do you just need it firmly established that you're independent and not taking orders even if you're doing favors? I don't want to take any steps that would leave one of my brothers miserable, but I'd really like to chase power here- lay it out for me, would you?"


If we can get the chance, we should see what's bothering Camella. Go by Ito's a bit before we expect night training to start; maybe we'll be able to catch her before she's busy. "Hey, Camella. You want to talk?" (expected answer 'no') "Okay, saw that one coming. How about this: Word is you're acting troubled, and talking about it might make you feel better. I would be happy to take a stab at the good-friend thing and listen. I'll even avoid saying anything rude for the entire conversation." Say the last line in the tones of one offering an irresistible bribe. If she turns us down or says not right now, "Well, I won't press. Offer stands if you want it later."

>>390959
>conversation with Gianni
I'd open with "Gianni, I know you mentioned that there's an opportunity for a fascinatingly fleshy evening at a certain restaurant tonight, but I wonder if you might come by my place beforehand. I have a delectable piece of meat that's not to be missed- you won't regret it."

Aside from that, STOP after "Mentoring me in the myriad methods of the flesh." SUST to bringing clan concepts into it or offering Rocco massive discounts. There is another, hopefully more profitable way.

"Now, I know that's moving kind of fast and you're already deeply involved with some very possessive people. But if you're on board and inclined to change partners, I think we can handle this so Rocco leaves the room feeling satisfied.

"Now, I know there's been some trouble for your organization recently- I haven't been following in too much detail, but there's rough times in the works. The sort of times when a city where the mafia is making significant gains might be noticed very positively, right? Everyone else must be eyeing you in rather nasty ways.

"As it happens, I have at my disposal a large number of aggressive people with access to guns, magic, and magic guns- which I would describe as an excellent means of making very sure that the mafias no longer look like the most troubled group in the city. In fact, we're feeling twitchy and have never had any kind of positive relations with the Germans, so if the mafia is willing to provide useful intelligence we'd be more than happy to hit them hard- and repeatedly. Often enough and hard enough that they decide to pull out of Istanbul as more trouble than it's worth, and Rocco will be one who was best positioned to pick up their pieces bit by bit.

"We can't work without a certain amount of pay, of course- but if you were planning to grace our company with your delightful membership, with Rocco's blessing thanks to our ongoing and quite profitable business relations, I'm sure that arrangements could be made- not all wealth is money, after all, and there's nothing wrong with a favor being held for a while. And the Nazis are sure to have a fair amount of loot to go around to make up the immediate costs, if our last encounter with them is anything to go by.

"What do you say, Gianni? Willing to risk a little mess for some fun with me, and take the lead in convincing Rocco to join in?"

LYUBOV ORDERS

*”I want to learn from you, Boss. Whatever you think is important. I like Sake, but he doesn’t have a human body. I need to know what I’m doing with mine.”
*Accept whatever (without a doubt weird) conditions Armas will set. Offer only token arguments, remember the point is really to keep him busier than he normally would be. Make him commit to a time that doesn’t conflict with the other training.
*After the midnight practice with Sake, go catch a nap. Wake up in a couple of hours.
*Work on the first concealed carry holster. Become dissatisfied with the basic design (cribbed from a commercial design), decide that nylon stiffener is required. Make a note to pick some up later.
*Go on jog with Camella. Push hard. Beat Gloom! He’s a tall lanky motherfucker, but he’s not you!
*Shower, remember the two 20 hour phone cards you bought last week but did not put on the phones, get dressed. Go visit Sake, put time on phones, request rubdown politely. Admire his bling. Go get breakfast.
*Instead of eating with everyone, eat in the kitchen. Encourage Boris to stick with the runs, learn of disappearing food issue. Keep an eye on the plates of food by being thoughtless about checking on it. You’re not turning around to look at the food. You’re not even turning around for a reason. You’re just, turning around. From time to time.
*Chakra practice. Put your heart into this, like you told Armas, you need to know what you’re doing. It’s non-optional for a reason.
*Agree to help with the Bed for Sake project. Wonder if you should set up a queue or something for this, given how everyone seems to want to out-do each other. Plan a trip to the market tomorrow.
*After lunch find Hillevi. Ask her, as much out of morbid curiosity as anything, how she would accomplish her proposed method of helping nearly kill you. Defer making a decision for now, politely.
*Watch the video. Be incredibly disturbed and alarmed by Andrei’s accident, but keep your cool. If Sake’s not around (why?!) assist Feodor and Hillevi.
*During training with Armas, broach Hillevi’s idea. Ask if he could tell when you had made the majority of the gains you could make from such a dangerous thing. Ponder it.
*At dinner try to distract yourself from how fucked up that was. Sit near Camella and Hillevi, ask Camella how long she’s known Armas anyway. Ask if he got her anything from his trip. If she admits to him bringing her a fext heart, or Hillevi volunteers it, ask, “Did he make the obvious, ‘My heart is now yours’ jokes?”
*Be surprised if she says no. Say something like, “Oh. Well, uh. I’m glad he let us all live. Here in his house. Because he hired us.”
*Awkwardly go to class. Train with Ito, night lessons. Spar with Granny, use your chakra techniques and try to keep your intentions… fluttery. After inevitable ass kicking, ask Granny Vampire how she does the thing where she reads you so well.
*Go home, find Sake prank calling people. Get rubdown, join in.

>He speaks of folding energy flows, of inverting chakra gates. He speaks of splitting something that feels unsplittable
Consider that SB is a split off part of your soul and has a chakra system that mirrors your own to a degree.
Is it possible for you both to adopt orientations and then mold them into one?
Even if it isn't fully sustainable for combat, if it can be done it will no doubt give you both more insight on what is required here on a deeper level, and in his case the memories can be packaged and sent to you to allow you to do it on your own when it is fully understood.
Run it by him.

Feodor Orders

*During chakra training, consider what Einrik said about how those men could have been saved. His advice relied, at least partially, on being a chakra Expert. Push towards this goal.
*Thank Andrei for the laptop.
*Apologise to Sake for trying to fight him. Be confused by his talk of posters, since you very clearly hit him in the face. After he accepts the apology, ask him if his healing can allow a person to survive without any sleep. Thank him for his answer, then as you turn to go, stop and say, “You have, however inadvertently, made me completely useless to these men and women. I hope that you will consider helping me rectify that dishonour.”
*When Andrei collapses, immediately check his pulse. Start CPR, and send people or Amen to get Titus' shock gauntlet and a flat piece of metal, preferably copper. Continue with the CPR. When they metal and gauntlet arrive, place the metal under Andrei's back, on his left side. Apply the shock gauntlet to his chest on the his left side again, and defibrillate him.
*Get in contact with Finnigan and organise to start working for him from Friday night. Ask about scheduling – make sure it's compatible with the training, even if you have to move things around – and exactly what you'll be doing. Arrange to give him the money after your first fortnight. If he doesn't like it, tell him that it's up to a month. Tell him “If you want the money at all, and I know you do, you'll wait.” Don't take any shit from him – he's a money whore, he'll want it.

[Lev has been queued to do the following:]
{}Find himself happy to help keep that medic alive. As a man fond of actions that frequently get him injured, Lev loves medics. Take far too much joy in somebody wanting to learn melee from him.
{}Partake of the same silly dream/reality confusion as so many others, and somehow forget that the conversion to the chakra learning schedule cancelled all prior static plans. Be kinda sad bouts with Nikifor stalled out due to this.
{}Be suspicious and reticent of any soul-related things while in direct sunlight, owing to personal take on Boss' comments about sunlight's effects on souls. Observe Iosef taking note of his behavior behavior, and not looking particularly pleased.
{}Start wearing hat, gloves and sunglasses any time it's sunny out. Start getting 'Looks'.
{}Use precious period of free time to rehash day's lessons in a dark room. Tries to focus on his shadow, realizes he has not a clue what he is doing.
{}Seek out Shadow Boss, ask him if the black lights helped with his research and if there is any thing else you can do for him, anything. Be immediately asked what you are trying to get from him. Make mental note Shadow Boss is sharp.
{}Break down due your fear of dying and beg him to teach you how to put energy into your shadow or some chakra training or something. Be near to being ignored, until Shadow Boss seems to consider something. Be told that he'll need to show his worth by standing out from the crowd in some way during the Chakra training everyone's now doing-be left to figure out how on own. Be told this is more to show you would have the mental fortitude to endure the assistance SB could offer him, rather than to prove himself.
{}Come to the conclusion that in spite of soul popping danger, Your new bosses are pretty boss, you don't really know how to deal with superiors actually seeming to care about you.
{}Be sad that you don't really have the time to go to circuses any more.
[Titus has been queued to do the following:]
T-Decide that realistic best way to live-fire test something like taze-glove is probably sparring. And the vampires at Ito’s are strong enough to take a little electrical charge without much harm. Probably.
T- However, doubt you are rested enough to prove a challenge to them as is. Recruit unusually energetic Andrei (who Feodor's acting all careful around) to help when he won't shut up about feeling good. Get back preliminary tests from a techie-decide at least eight hours will be needed to begin addressing the issues he raised (heating complications, glove slippage and desynchronized taser activation).
T- Approach Hillevi, ask if it is possible for her to remove fatigue buildup or allow someone to fight through exhaustion. Ask humbly, as one might ask an honored elder sibling, despite Titus being 29 and Hillevi 17. This is due to Hillevi reminding Titus of his elder (now married) sister, despite the two having little in common (this is due to Elder Sister seeming very big in young Titus’s memory). Due to politely deferential request, be moderately surprised at her acceptance. Feel like testicles were dipped in liquid nitrogen, briefly, as she 'freshens you up'. Be too starkly awake and peppy to ponder just what she did, beyond that it was cold as hell.
T-Have trouble falling asleep because he 'freshened up' after returning from Ito's. Go to sleep late. Regret it in morning until Hillevi is found-beg for second dose, recieve it, and face the day alertly and with recessed balls, ready for anything.
>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Agree with Boss. Ask Boss instead that, when the dubbing is finished, the company will watch the Kill Doony Video and be trolled with THE MACHINE video. Receive far more favorable response.
>Come to realization that Boss is dick troll, Shadow Boss is serious troll, and Sake is fun troll. Ask Boss and Sake, personally and when Shadow Boss doesn’t seem to be nearby, about running Camella through THE MACHINE. Again be rejected, as it seems Shadow Boss informed both of certain costs involved that eclipse the humor.
>Get dubbing finished. Laugh while editing, trying to keep it silent. Make sure Sake and Shadow Boss have the lines recorded and sounding acceptable enough for broadcast. Be uncertain they meet this standard, but decide this is as close as they'll get right now. Chat with Sake and Shadow Boss (between recordings). Comment on Sake looking awesome and Shadow Boss on convincing Nikifor to ‘wrestle’ his shadow. Continue trying to preserve informal sense of camaraderie that existed as they all first watched THE MACHINE. Be unsure how well he is doing.
>Between editing, Remember that Satai wanted caffeine. Get 5 more gallons of 5150 Juice for $174.75 dollars, 200 Energy Catalysts for $192, 8 Blast Caffeine shakers for $100, and $303.2 for sixteen of each of the three types of Dynapep micro energy shots there. Hands shaking too much for anything else.
>Finish up editing on both films. Be super stoked that trolling can happen. Get excited; call Boss and Shadow Boss and Sake to see! Laugh and Laugh again; stop, choking and feeling light headed.
>Fuckit, let's show this movie off. Get the big ass TV set up, while snickering to self. Watch the beginning of Kill Doony. Can not contain self. Laugh, and laugh, and laugh, falling off chair. Keep laughing, feeling the world going distant. Have heart attack.
>Go into cardiac arrest.
>Be rubbed back to awareness and health by a green sock-no, wait, that's weasel boss.
>Get up to notice only Feodor there with Sake, looking stressed. Despite feeling pretty great now, decide to take it a bit easy.
>Wonder why Ito lessons that day seem really easy.
[Boris has been queued to do the following:]
-Leave brownies beer wort and cream. Then just leave immediately and try not to think of what you're doing as a payment. Have trouble with this, but at least keep it all in head.
-Stop spiking food with ipecac and ghost pepper sauce. It's obviously not working. Be severely creeped out when next batch of footage shows Boss spending hours in the kitchen that you could have sworn you were alone for. Become more inclined to paranoid back-checking while in the kitchen.
[Iosef has been queued to do the following:]
I-Appreciate Andrei's gesture with the computer. Thank Andrei for his thoughtful gift and tell him that if Andrei ever needs help with anything that he will help him.
I-Decide that Sake's rub rejection was rube, on the basis of a unimplemented plan that would have seen Weasel Boss get some swanky nest.
I- Approach Lyubov and ask her about gold-cloth or something similar he could use to make something comfortable for Sake to sleep on. Only approach her room while she's not in it. No meeting. Hm.
I-Note that Sake seems to really dig the stencils and backpack he's got, and has not recently shown any interest in a nest. Wonder if plan is still viable.
[Rostislav has been queued to do the following:]
>Wake up one morning thinking back on all that weird shit he's seen so far.
>Don't recall how Camella broke Boss's arm since you weren't there for it and nobody told you about it and abruptly brain fart right on out of meta territoy
>Don't decide to approach Camella later about Reinforcement and how to achieve that use of Chakra, not only because of meta but also because you can barely even recognize own use of Reinforcement and this is patently far beyond his current skill.
>Since meta fell through, simply pay more attention to the chakra lessons, focusing as much as he can.
>During incredibly limited spare time, drop Best Beer Hunt (But keep it in mind) and instead start looking for fight clubs, using limited personal experience with such back in Russia.
>Specifically ones that are barely legal and allow weapons, since anything else would probably just be a gym, he figures.
>Don't actually enter yet, scope out for one as mundane as possible and one around his level. Find nothing but wannabes first night out looking.
[Grisha has been queued to do the following:]
-Wake up at four AM, somewhat cranky and tired. Keep it to herself.
-At Camella's group training, do what is required, wonder what the deal is with the start, there is something about it that is odd and it is pissing you off - be too tired to think about it much.
-Continue to be a bit grumpy at Ito's, try to hide it so as not to throw off students.
-Get woken up as Feodor runs by door, hear something about Andrei screening a movie for the bosses and his heart. Wait, his heart?
-Be shocked, upset, saddened, and pissed off by Andrei having a heart attack.
-Do whatever can be done to help him, defer to the Bosses and Feodor, it's what any good person would do, right? Be more than a little perplexed at how... totally, completely okay he is by the time you see him.
-Be worried, attempt to get him to chart his caffiene intake, with a notepad.
-Be paranoid and make plans to check that pad a couple of times a day for a few weeks.
-Tell him not to do that to himself again, too many promising soldiers have committed suicide in the Forces!
-Feel concern only slightly abate at sight of exceptionally energetic Andrei at evening Ito lessons.
-Sleep because she is exhausted. What a horrible day...
>[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
>Enjoy sleep. Use all but one hour of free time a day for napping to get full eight. Wonder what you can get done with one hour a day.
[$atai has been queued to do the following:]
$atai will-Wonder how Lyubov and Ivan look so goddamn peppy. Grumble about it in proximity to others, realize that Sake is responsible thanks to Russians being terrible at keeping secrets from one another. Hunt down Sake. Inquire about receiving precious wakefulness in spite of horrible sleep deprivation, if there are any side effects. Given lack of camaraderie with weasel boss, be turned down-gently.
$atai will-Conclude that obviously he's fishing for bribes. Doubtless this is why everyone else keeps giving him things, he charges for favors. Mention that there's probably room for a very flexible medical supplies budget somewhere in the quartermaster accounts that Sake could probably get access to as our most competent healer, if he would care to discuss it some time when Satai is actually awake. Se a much more interested weasel.
$atati will-Attempt to make arrangements for Sake to get whatever the hell he wants (as long as it's not totally breaking the budget, obviously) and Satai's assistance in purchasing things in exchange for helping out Satai upon request. No point stinting on the budget, it's not like we're short on cash and we get more all the time.
$atai will-Get an initial rubbing, struggle to not goggle at how amazingly refreshed he now feels, and be asked to acquire Sake a solid silver bed. When Sake is sure no one is listening be confided in that Sake doesn't care for gold as much as silver. Be sworn to secrecy on this. Owing to need for this agreement to work and evidenced fickle behavior of weasel, agree.
$atai now-wonders what'll be the most cost effective way to get a silver bed sized to Sake.
[Lyubov has been queued to do the following:]
* Respond to Bossman's prompt with: ”I want to learn from you, Boss. Whatever you think is important. I like Sake, but he doesn’t have a human body. I need to know what I’m doing with mine.” Be given a smile so lecherous you aren't sure if it's parody or not before Armas agrees.
*Accept wierd conditions Armas sets of stripping to skivvies and oiling up with an unnamed substance Armas provides. Offer only token arguments, remember the point is really to keep him busier than he normally would be. Feel oddly tired and anxious to act once fully oiled. Receive terrible tutoring from Bossman-despite this, afterwards feel more aware of what Reinforcement feels like in her body. Ask Bossman what the hell that oil was. Be told it was Strawberry flavored KY, and be unsure if he's merely pretending to be surprised when you ask how come you still learned from that. Be very, very confused about this-especially the fact that she did end up benefitting. Fail to notice Sake snickering in a corner the whole time.
*After the midnight practice with Sake, go catch a nap. Wake up in a couple of hours.
*Work on the first concealed carry holster. Become dissatisfied with the basic design (cribbed from a commercial design), decide that nylon stiffener is required. Make a note to pick some up later. Have to write note twice as she keeps getting distracted over how Armas had pre-packaged in new containers more than a liter of Strawberry KY.
*Go on jog with Camella. Push hard. Beat Gloom! He’s a tall lanky motherfucker, but he’s not you! Win by maybe sort of hipchecking him so he steps in a gutter and turns his ankle. Still be unsure if that was on purpose, owing to the fact someone bumped her before she could independently commit to trivial sabotage. Wonder who did that.
*Shower, remember the two 20 hour phone cards you bought last week but did not put on the phones, get dressed. Go visit Sake, put time on phones, request rubdown politely. Receive it with gusto on delivery of forty more hours of prank call time. Admire his bling, smile at his wiggly preening. Go get breakfast.
*Instead of eating with everyone, eat in the kitchen. Encourage Boris to stick with the runs, learn of disappearing food issue. Keep an eye on the plates of food by being thoughtless about checking on it. You’re not turning around to look at the food. You’re not even turning around for a reason. You’re just, turning around. From time to time. Exactly once, spot a hand that vanishes the moment she starts paying attention to it. What the hell?
*Chakra practice. Put your heart into this, like you told Armas, you need to know what you’re doing. It’s non-optional for a reason. Be very surprised that today you are the first one to get a stabilized Reinforcement Orientation going.
*Ponder Andrei's performance post-heart attack.
*After lunch find Hillevi. Ask her, as much out of morbid curiosity as anything, how she would accomplish her proposed method of helping nearly kill you. Be told she'd induce hypothermia by converting some of her spirit into winter energy she can't metabolize, then restoring her when she can't take any more. Defer making a decision for now, politely.
*During followup training with Armas (this time practicing in a room that's, coincidentally, twenty below freezing), broach Hillevi’s idea with a teeth chattering stutter. Ask if he could tell when you had made the majority of the gains you could make from such a dangerous thing. Be told he probably could-receive one of Bossman's Smiles. Ponder it.
*At dinner try to distract yourself from how fucked up that was. Sit near Camella and Hillevi, ask Camella how long she’s known Armas anyway. Ask if he got her anything from his trip. When she admits to him bringing her a fext heart, ask, “Did he make the obvious, ‘My heart is now yours’ jokes?”
*Be surprised when she says no. Say “Oh. Well, uh. I’m glad he let us all live. Here in his house. Because he hired us. As the Boss. Man. Yeah. Hey Hillevi can you pass the bread thanks.”
*Awkwardly go to class. Train with Ito, night lessons. Spar with Granny, use your chakra techniques and try to keep your intentions… fluttery. Early on get in lucky punch and actually knock Granny on her ass. After inevitable ass kicking, ask Granny Vampire how she does the thing where she reads you so well. Be told that she thinks your master (Granny's words) could tell her about that, and mentions asking about eyes being gates.
*Go home, find Sake prank calling people. Get rubdown, join in. Swear you hear someone periodically interjecting into calls telling you to knock it off. Wonder why Sake says he can't hear it.
[Feodor has been queued to do the following:]
*During chakra training, consider what Einrik said about how those men could have been saved. His advice relied, at least partially, on being a chakra Expert. Push towards this goal. Build on that bump he had recently, try to get into a rhythm. Fail to immediately fail.
*Thank Andrei for the laptop. Well, mumble a thank you mid spar. He probably heard. Probably.
*Apologize to Sake for trying to fight him. Be confused by his talk of posters, since you very clearly hit him in the face. After he accepts the apology, ask him if his healing can allow a person to survive without any sleep. Be told, quote 'Duh'. Thank him for his answer, then as you turn to go, stop and say, “You have, however inadvertently, made me completely useless to these men and women. I hope that you will consider helping me rectify that dishonour.” See Sake actually look a bit unsure how to respond to deadpan comment.
*When Andrei collapses, immediately check his pulse. Start CPR, and send people or Amen to get Titus' shock gauntlet and a flat piece of metal, preferably copper. Continue with the CPR. Before the metal and gauntlet arrive, see Sake wiggle-tackle Andrei's face-and Andrei abruptly get back up. Again, feel.... impotent.
*Get in contact with Finnigan and organize to start working for him on Friday night. Ask about scheduling – make sure it's compatible with the training, even if you have to move things around – and exactly what you'll be doing. Arrange to give him the money after your first fortnight. Be told Friday's good-he has damn near guaranteed clients on Friday nights. It's his busiest evening, on average. Be pleased with this.


>>390959
>>390975
>>391013
>>391031
Before I do anything, I slap myself and properly remember what SM said-that he'd like Duke to kill EITHER Baki OR Endman, who are clearly separate people. Right, okay, brain fart dealt with. Now, to just place an early morning call to Go Ping.... all right, looks like I CAN do some late-night Chakra training with Jet Fang. Nice.

In time to catch a text-from an unknown number.
>[?]Sami from up north here. This a certain friend of the Valkonens?
Davgon?
>[D]I would appreciate it if you spelled it properly, but yes. I heard there are employment opportunities over your way.
Not to mention the chance to clear up a favor.
>[D]What's the address?
I give it-and am told he'll be arriving within the next four days. Nice.

So now.... I think I'm going to try and do something... particular with my day. Something a bit less along the lines of maintaining every little thing-and more along the lines of getting something big going.
>"...The Nazinaut?"
Yeah, the Nazinaut.
>[Sake]"Not that I don't think we could ultimately do some interesting things with that body-isn't it poised to rot and rip itself apart the moment it comes out of stasis?"
I start walking, for some reason curious to test if I even CAN crap anymore-it's been months since I last did.
>[Hummingbird]"I admit to not fully grasping why you would wish to restore such a cumbersome creature."
Oh, I have some ways to use it.
>"Which, I assume, rely on it being functional. How will you achieve that?"
Gianni and Dávgon and a whole mess of supplies.
>"What makes you think Gianni will help?"
This.

I flip my phone open and dial a certain flamboyant Italian.
>[GiaGia]"My my-just which luscious little thing is dialing me now?"
"Hi Gianni, did I tell you I killed that Doononegas asshole over the weekend?"
>[GiaGia]"You did not, but since that scandalous grapevine told me I'll forgive you."
"I didn't? I guess I wanted to keep it a surprise until the detox work on the bodyparts was done. Well, surprise!"
>[GiaGia]"I do hope you actually mean you have some meat on hand, and aren't just teasing poor old me."
"Yes, I've got most of it, including all those poison glands it uses. Now, as it happens, I've got this great idea. I was thinking, "why not put the glands in me? I'd need some help to do it, but I just so happen to have a spare set of the glands anyway..." Yeah you see where I'm going with this right?"
>[GiaGia]"I believe the turn of phrase in english, one of them, is 'scratch my back, I scratch yours?"
"Right, a set for you, for helping me get mine installed."
>[GiaGia]"A functioning set of Doonongaes poison glands? You do have me aquiver, dear lad."
"But it occurred to me that with all the flesh I've got laying around here, I could do something really interesting."
>[GiaGia]"Hah, becoming a poisonman isn't fancy enough for you?"
"Frankly-no. See, I think that with the right combination of hearts, guts, and raw strength, we could make a really nasty fleshgolem. Something that could spew divine, mortal, and elder poison, and maybe a bunch of diseases or something too. And be a terror, a complete bruiser in battle. And be built to go really fucking fast."
>[GiaGia]"Sounds like every child's fantasy of a perfect warrior. How do you intend to mobilize the mass it will no doubt need to have?"
"Oh don't worry about that, I've got some contacts who sort of specialize in fleshcraft-based footwork. Getting them on board with this won't be a problem."
>[GiaGia]"Let me see... can't be Goblins, their footwork isn't based in fleshcraft. Can't be vampires, it's blood based excepting specialized clans, and unless you've been a very naughty boy I'd have heard of you meeting with them. Could be a were tribe, but I doubt it. Can't be a human-since no one in Istanbul's that great of an external fleshcrafter. ...Mmm, it's Red Caps you speak of, isn't it sweetums?"
"Aaaanyway, I was thinking, if I had a solid fleshcrafter mentor, one who was on-board with me and mine, and who didn't mind teaching in a more intimate setting, and guiding me along. Well, that mentor would be the perfect guy to be the lead on designing this Beast of a golem."
>[GiaGia]"Oh my~, are you implying something that will putty dear Rocco in a huffy mood?"
"You know how I am, I've got a tendency to, ah, split my attentions. If you're on board with this, I'd want you to be completely on board: SOMEONE needs to make sure this doesn't flounder once started, and-"
>[GiaGia]"It probably would flounder if solely under your care. You are rather... prone to attempting a certain brand of multitasking, yes. But... you want me, do you?"
Oh, he wants innuendo does he? Well I'll give it to him.
"Well when I told Rocco I wanted you, I meant it. The taste I've had of your attentions has left me hungry for more. I really do want you behind me. Backing me up. Mentoring me in the myriad methods of the flesh."
>[GiaGia]"Oh me oh my, it's getting rather warm over here-perhaps I should cool off..."
"I'm going to be serious here: I'm actually set to start on this project.... right now."
>[GiaGia]"Right now?"
"Right now."
>[GiaGia]"...Were I to agree, would you be able to agree to keeping that... servant of yours from butting in?"
"I could indeed."
>[GiaGia]"Well... then I'll see you in half an hour."
And just like that-I've got the Mafia elite on board to see this project made. Sure, I'm not doing the recruitment pitch which I really wanted to do-but there's time for that later.
"Gianni, I think this is the beginning of something beautiful. I, excuse me, I got something in my eye."
>[GiaGia]"Just wait till I get there, I'll fill your eyes with something special."
"I can't wait for you to come."
>[GiaGia]"I bet you can't."
"Now, I know this is moving kind of fast and you're already deeply involved with some very possessive people."
>[GiaGia]"Rocco, dear as he is, does have his faults."
"But if you're on board and inclined to change partners, I think we can handle this so Rocco leaves the room feeling satisfied."
>[GiaGia]"A singularly bold statement-how enticing."
"Now, I know there's been some trouble for your organization recently- I haven't been following in too much detail, but there's rough times in the works. The sort of times when a city where the mafia is making significant gains might be noticed very positively, right? Everyone else must be eyeing you in rather nasty ways.
>[GiaGia]"No comment, I'm afraid-you'll have to live with it love."
"As it happens, I have at my disposal a large number of aggressive people with access to guns, magic, and magic guns- which I would describe as an excellent means of making very sure that the mafias no longer look like the most troubled group in the city. In fact, we're feeling twitchy and have never had any kind of positive relations with the Germans, so if the mafia is willing to provide useful intelligence we'd be more than happy to hit them hard- and repeatedly. Often enough and hard enough that they just couldn't take it, and decide to pull out of Istanbul as more trouble than it's worth."
>[GiaGia]"...And that strong armed adonis Rocco will be one who's best positioned to pick up their pieces-such a tidy one, cleaning up when others leave a mess."
"We can't work without a certain amount of pay, of course- but if you were planning to grace our company with your delightful membership, with Rocco's blessing thanks to our ongoing and quite profitable business relations, I'm sure that arrangements could be made- not all wealth is money, after all, and there's nothing wrong with a favor being held for a while. And the Nazis are sure to have a fair amount of loot to go around to make up the immediate costs, if our last encounter with them is anything to go by."
>[GiaGia]"Well... that's a sexy plan you've shoved in me-and I can't just stay flaccidly inert to it, now can I? No, I must tighten my callipygian and make some decisions-but not just yet. For now... expect me, about our more pressing arrangement."
*CLICK*

It's a good thing he hung up.

Because I just walked into a room Duke is occupying.

He forgot to lock the bathroom door.

...Oh god, what-

[DISCONTINUITY]

SB's shouts in my head finally catch my attention, and I realize I passed out standing up. And am now wearing new clothes-what? Well, according to my soul brothers my heart stopped too, but eh.

What matters though-is Duke's shit. Because SB, Sake-even the bird and gun alike, no matter WHO I put the question to, they could sense that pervasive wrongness, that corrosive taint about the stuff.

Not to mention the fact that what Duke shits, by all appearances, is tar and jade. No shit. That.... I think, I will have to make note of. I almost died just from getting in close proximity to the stuff-what'd happen if someone got hit in the face with that load, I wonder?

I Smile.

I have Amen move the Doony spoils, seperated by category, to the Red Cap meeting room as I give them a ring. I have him move the still in stasis Nazinaut to the room, and have him provide me with a fleshy sphere that's a pressure based toggle switch to move the body in and out of stasis. Amen estimates that eleven seconds outside of stasis will lead to irrecoverable cellular decay in the Nazinaut, given it's current state.

Gianni arrives while the house is mostly empty-and without any further ado I lead him to our work area. He quirks an eyebrow at the medieval styling of the room, but eschews comment as he sizes up the Doony meats, the Nazinaut, and the 'spare parts' from the Nazinaut corpse I had Amen bring. I don't even get to finish telling him how much time out of stasis the body can take before he speaks with a decidedly critical, analytical and rhetorical tone.

>[GiaGia]"Hm. Hm. Yes, like I thought-power over everything, especially longevity. Ten... no, eleven seconds if we're lucky before that pops. Can't do full body fusing that fast-but I don't need to."
So it is he explains what he thinks is our best bet for a first step:
-He merges the bits of the Nazinaut corpse with the Doonongaes heart, the heart of a Summer Court Divine Regenerator, over the course of a half hour. Then he takes another quarter hour to meticulously go over this macguyver'd construct, smoothing out the parts that set him to muttering. I continue to raptly watch his work, trying to learn from his example. It's too high-order for me to decipher, but the concepts behind what he's doing might just unravel themselves to me, or so goes my hope.
-Using that as a base, he rebuilds the dead Nazinaut body (in semblance, at least) wholly out of Doonongaes material-flesh, meat, bones, all of it. After an hour, he's got a rough double for the still in-stasis living Nazinaut body. Which he promptly gives a once over that takes a quarter hour, again buffing out the details that set him to disapproving clucking.
-He has me flick the Nazinaut out of stasis for a bare instant to measure how it decays, and spends another twenty minutes tweaking the pseudobody. While he does this, I get a text from Ricky, saying they're currently out of the country, but should be back in a day or so.
-After finally becoming satisfied, Gianni spends an hour deconstructing the pseudobody, and spends another quarter hour wrapping it about the still in-stasis Nazinaut, like a loose glove about a lax fist. He asks that I drop the stasis.
-In a manner I find rivetingly sickening, Gianni attaches the pseudobodies circulatory system to the living Nazinaut, slowing the decay and buying himself enough time to start merging the two forms from the heart outwards. Some bits of flesh fall off, crumbling to moldy dust as he works-he doesn't seem bothered by it. Finally, he steps back-and just stares at the visibly nonreactive body for half a minute in it's freshly fused state, before asking that I put it back in stasis. He paces about the body for a time, saying nothing, occasionally reaching out a hand to idly stroke it's flesh, eyes distant.
-He tells me that he's still looking at a net loss in regeneration, to the point that outside of stasis the thing will still have magical rot-and that we've only greatly slowed it's decay, not stopped it. He also tells me to perk up, as he thinks he has an idea. Twenty minutes later Amen asks me if I'll let a flesh golem in the house-and seeing Gianni's look, I allow it. Gianni marches one of his muscle goons down to the room we labor in-and begins merging the Doonongaes corpse pile of nerves and a third of the poison glands to the goon, opening it up like he did the pseudobody before. Once more, he asks me to drop the stasis. Before I do, I hesitate-and he assures me his flesh golem's not potent enough to compromise my beastly project even if he wanted to. Iron Trick and SB believe him-and funny thing, so do I.
-I drop the stasis, and this time watch him connect the two bodies by nerves, not blood vessells, while yet again fusing from the heart outwards. This time he's notably slower, despite having already learned some lessons from having to work around the somewhat mangled, irremovable armor on the giant's body. He works for nearly forty minutes on this second layer of merging. This time, as he finishes he asks me to leave it be-and proceeds to molest the one-time Nazinaut for five minutes, running his hands over every nook and cranny, before declaring it self-sufficient, and no longer in danger of just falling apart. When I ask about it's regeneration, he faintly leers, saying the very fact it's not going to explode, turn to dust or melt is in and of itself an amazing accomplishment and that strictly speaking he thinks he should get a congratulatory reach around at the very least. He also notes that the poison glands are having some triggering issues-and observes he's quite glad he didn't volunteer to try them on himself first. When I ask what he thinks could be the issue, he shrugs and says he'll have to check some things.
-He spends an hour working on the body, giving it yet another of his tweaking sessions, systematically ironing out kinks, glitches and perceived problem patches as he sees fit, before finally declaring that physiologically, there's nothing stopping the body from producing the Doonongaes' poison-and assume that, as magical organs, they require some spiritual signature to activate. For now, he says he'll call it a day. I, for one, consider the massive amount of ground zero, first hand exposure to genuinely competent External Flesh Manipulation-and wonder if, now that the body is stabilizes, I can take a more active role and double these building sessions into real training experiences. Gianni doesn't see the Smile that spreads across my face as he sashays around the clunky body.
-Before parting ways, he casually raps his knuckles against the misshapen breastplate of the monster, and comments that I should really look into armor exoskeletal suits that AREN'T just slabs of steel and nothing else. Not to mention actually getting it's armor made better-he shows me how the shoulders and hips alike aren't sophisticated enough joints to allow full ROM. He also comments that the armor for the extremities is bulky and poorly fitted, and suggests scrapping them completely to build wholly new, higher articulation hand and foot armor. I thank him for the advice as he flounces away.

After Gianni's gone, taking his set of Doony glands with him with the promise he'll 'do me' last to minimize the chances of making an error, I put the beast back in stasis just to be safe-and have Amen move it back into house storage.

That is, after I spend an hour or two with my hands around the one-time Nazinaut's neck, tactilely trying to pick up on it's flesh sculpted form as SB is for once quite giving, transmitting all the magical data he perceives about the monster. Frankly, there's so much there that even with a dedicated study session and being present to see the alterations being made, I still don't think I've mapped more than half of the monster's interior-there's huge swathes of flesh that just defy comprehension, to both halves of my soul. It's vexing-but I can live with it, for now at least.

Noting that the Russians are re-entering the house, I snag Igor, and ask him about that visit to Kardemir-blatantly fishing for ways to make the armor upgrade for my project easier. I fixate on his mention of hearing machinery no one else heard and everyone that worked there adamantly denied. It piques my interest, and I get the feeling SOMETHING kooky that way wanders, if I ever find time to track it down. A visit to Kardemir, hm? Something to think about. I then ask the Watch fanatic if he's got the time and inclination to show me what he's got-that is, build me the best damn battle glove he can manage, as a sample of his current skill. I tell him I get it if he doesn't think he's that good now-but time is a factor here, and I have no problem with swapping out for better versions-and more importantly, offering him something in turn. I ask him what he thinks about getting an official Company Wide 'Dibs' on the first piece of magical armor that is wearable by him. Sleep deprived as he is, he tells me he'll have to get back to me on that-but I see the spark of interest in his eyes. Knew he was an armor nut.

>>391029
With my project stalled out for the moment, even if greatly advanced from where I started, I find myself frowning as I recall the Sometimes Merchant's working-and then frown further as I realize that what I briefly thought was him tricking me, wasn't-we never finished hammering out the NN bubble bargain, so the final bartering is still pending. I make a mental note to abuse the fact that this time around I'll know what's being offered for what well in advance of the actual meeting, and will have a chance to really nitpick over what wording I'll use. Could be quite profitable, methinks.

I surprise Silja with a bit of tickling, and 'accidentally' cut myself on the dagger, smearing it with blood. I surprise her with my best attempt at a pleasant smile, and ask her how she feels. When she goes a bit quiet at actually being able to see, I tickle her some more to break the ice-and get her laughing in earnest when I poke fun at the clearly pouting Iron Trick, still tickle-less. The half hour of inanity and frivolity I spend with Silja further cements her bond to me-and gives me hope I'll be able to fully bring the rifle back into combat use all the sooner because of it. Despite the practical gain, I hang onto that simple sense of joy in lighting up her lonely world. People are supposed to like being nice to those in need right?
>"Of course they do."
>[Iron Trick]"Except when they don't"

Having spent nearly the whole day in the mansion, I'm damn happy it's time to head out-and prowl on over to the docks, meeting with a Triad I instinctually label... as douchey. He's got a pop-collared silk shirt, a leather vest and snakeskin shoes. How DARE he wear snake when I'm wearing Alligator!

I push past it and focus on the lesson-starting with Reinforcement, though not by choice. What follows... is enlightening. Jet Fang teaches me how Reinforcement can be modulated by area-how to move Over and Undercharge levels around, how to create them, how to collapse them. He teaches me a trick that feels the same as that I saw the Slirk use-as that Camella used to produce such valorous force when she broke my arm. I devour the lesson with gusto, ever greedy for more control over the abruptly remade Reinforcement Orientation-and I find myself more than passing sad when the lesson ends up being over. On the way back to the mansion, SB fills me in on a highly poignant conversation he had with Sake-regarding the nature of Divine Beings. Seems that while Godlings are just proto-gods of variable status with no guarantee of fully transitioning into godhood, and most Gods are just masses of belief made sentient, Divine Beings are, ultimately, the descendents of Godly minions. By that he didn't mean angels or anything like that-he means simple tools of war or service, mindless constructs fashioned to labor for gods-that through trial and tribulation, through luck and circumstance-gained self-awareness. Which.... explains why he doesn't want to serve a God, yeah. I can get that now.

I get back home juuust shy of midnight, grab some decidedly unspicy plates of food, and hit the sack.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 28th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $465,474.34
BUSINESS FUNDS: $189,347.00
CASH: $9,170.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 9%
WINTER ENERGY: 122/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 50/50

I wake up at six am, dose on Brain coffee and briefly throttle up my kidneys, liver and parathyroid while spicing my awakening with a jolt of adrenaline just like yesterday. Well, not JUST like it-I tweak it a bit, because hey, maybe I can make it better. Completely and utterly awake and alert before I finish opening my eyes, I wonder:
















What should I do today?

IGOR
>Enjoy sleep. Use all but one hour of free time a day for napping to get full eight. Wonder what you can get done with one hour a day.
>I then ask the Watch fanatic if he's got the time and inclination to show me what he's got-that is, build me the best damn battle glove he can manage, as a sample of his current skill. I tell him I get it if he doesn't think he's that good now-but time is a factor here, and I have no problem with swapping out for better versions-and more importantly, offering him something in turn.
Igor should go see Boss Sake, and tell him what Boss Armas asked him to do. However, the current time table is exhausting, so Igor should ask Boss Sake if he could please give him a rub-down every day for so long as the schedule is like this. Of course, this means Igor would be ready to build something fun for Sake maybe in Gold or in other precious material? (Igor learned that Ramidreju are known for liking those, and saw sake's reaction to everything shiny). If it works, Igor now use three of the five 'free' hours every day for working on Armas' project, one for going on jogging with camella (if it takes one), and the last for sleeping. Upon waking from the nap, he will then take rub-down. If Sake doesn't agree, Igor will still need to sleep at least 6hrs a day
+Igor notices that a couple of people did better in chakra training yesterday than others, and will ask them why.

>What should I do today?
Well, there are two big emergencies: Hummingbro could die any moments now, and we need to steal stuff from Cops. I would say use the morning for beginnign stealing stuff plan, and then use the afternoon and eveningfor moderating the damages on hummingbro. So:
+Morning:
-Call Rocco, ask him if there is a cop he suspects of giving information to triad/yak/nazis that he would want to be compromised. We'd want to pick a guy without much in the way of family, just to keep things from getting complicated.
-Arrange for SB to plant evidence that this cop is trying to frame Adelat so that he can do his jobs for nazi/yaks/triads. It'd be even better if we could like have Andrei invent an internet girlfriend or something in a country with crappy extradition treaties. Build fake logs, put those in the dude's home computer.
-Arrange to make him seem to be fleeing the country after having conducted a deal to sell out his boss (SB should be able to kidnap him, or maybe Armas could do that. Make sure to do so away from any cameras or other people). This guy should seem to have been the one that stole the content of the vans as well as what we are going to steal.
-Get Gianni to fleshcraft us into that crooked cop after kidnapping him but before cops see evidences, and then steal the stuff under that fleshcrafting. With soul-guise like him, obviously.

+Hummingbird. First, Call Davgon; and ask him advice on the following (do it if you got his okay, and change stuff as needed upon his advice.:
-Get Sake to Rub-Down Hummingbird.
-Get Baki Massage/Flush of magical saturation on Hummingbird. After all, We know Baki is probably a master in chakra (and possibly other stuff) AND that he is known for his massages to take care of extra magic. Make sure to convince Hillevi to come with us there to see how he does it and also possibly help with overbleed.
-Use the whole afternoon in chakra practice and then sparring with Hillevi. The goal here is to not only get practice for dual-orientation (you might want to do it JUST ONCE with hummingbird's help and then get SB to freshen our memory of what our soul looked like when we did it as a guideline) and flexibility and flushing in combat (C.O.F?) but also to utterly drain both of our bloodline. So don't skimp on the hybrid regen (which is why using Hillevi is good). As long as Hillevi doesn't destroy our head it's all good, really.
-Get utterly drained and exhausted, and groan in pain because while we may get a much needed (for both hummingbird and armas) understanding of efficiency, being that drained will probably be really weird/painful.

Apart from that, Armas should check his minions' souls every morning so that he knows if they are still near bursting. Upon hearing about Andrei's heart attack, pay close attention to him.

Al: I think you might have hit on something very clever here, with Silja as a Valkonen by marriage. Since what we are literally attempting to do is to raise a (regrettably magicless) Valkonen from the dead, we just might get a great deal of support from Markku. That said… it depends on how Markku was raised, I think. A lot of old clan families historically see the affiliated houses as tools. Markku, as head, may be within his rights to demand Silja from us on completion, if not before. How does the saying go, ‘That which is of the family belongs to the family, and therefore the Head as its keeper?’
Ark: I agree we need to get moving on the theft plan, but I still feel somewhat doubtful Baki will know hummingbird chakra well enough to flush him. And he is – after all – a yakuza, which we may not want to give free access to our spirit animal (even if the yakuza are not directly against us yet per se).
If Armas doesn’t feel like he needs a full 8 hours, no need for him to get (more) hedonistic on us. He could swing by the goblins and get 1 hour of charm/trap training a day, just as a random example.
I think we should by all means pursue ways for the hummingbird to survive, but we should put the question to him. Offer to put him on ice for a time, like the giant-mouthed creature did (we think we can do that) while we seek out a better solution, or he can live freely and well as long as he thinks he’ll last (which we worry will not be so very long).
While we will want to do the magic drain/thing Einrik said eventually, I feel we have more important things to do right now. Corn and Owner, basically. How far can Sake get from us, have we ever checked? Maybe it’s time for him to take a jaunt down the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean with his phone set to GPS?
On Lammy: Has SB happened to spot any likely places he’d hole up in during his nighttime jaunts? Just cuz he’s probably doing fine, if we happen to spot him…
On Corn: Have Amen attire us in a black suit, black-on-black vest with a bright orange tie/buttons/cufflinks, black and orange two-tone shoes (wingtips, maybe?), and a matching bowler hat. This is no doubt a formal affair, and I want to look both sharp and modern. Also, have our boxer briefs (boxers show sometimes in fitted suits) have a big smiley face with vampire fangs on. Find a way to bring Silja, and maybe Trick?
Once there, exchange the usual politenesses. “Such a pleasure to be (conscripted into being) of use to the Zosimus Dynasty in ridding it of a prehistoric pest.” “Since the bet ended with the Doonongaes as a pile of mystical reagents rather than myself as a bloody smear, it seemed appropriate to meet in a timely manner so that you could discharge your portion of the wager. In any case, it seemed only polite we become acquainted, given I found myself in possession of -” How to describe Amen… “- A potentially valuable yet persistently dangerous resource.” “Even the Owner seemed interested in our little stake! I’ve been meaning to send him a care package of Doonongaes as a little thank-you for all this happening in his demesne.”
Does that all sound appropriately snooty? Make sure to make a note of any clan Sires which have a blood specialty, given the Heart and all. See about purchasing their services (except maybe it should be appropriately flowery, like “I would appreciate the opportunity to consult on a master of your standing in regards to a trifling matter of my own“) after the meeting (specified ideally to remove the memory of what we’re using him for entirely – given SB and Sake can implant memories, it seems only natural they can remove them too – or at least a binding oath of silence in all its forms on the subject), purchased through either barrels of normal-ish blood, or maybe a fair bit of Doony blood. How much blood did we wring from the fellow, anyway?

>>391210
I think there's a difference between framing Adelat and letting her take the fall for something. And I don't think we need to go to a lot of trouble. At most, we should fleshcraft/illusion/mask ourselves to look like that guy when we break in.

>>391193
Up-voted. Also, let's see if we can find a way to frame this guy as the one who framed Adelat and as the guy who's stealing the stuff. See if we can't pin a few more things on him, too.

>[ Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Be alive. Be amazed at being alive, and just how easy chakra lesions were. Start whistling.
>Promise self to cut back from too much caffeine intake. Also, talk to thin air while getting breakfast tea. "Look, I'm still curious who you are and why you are want my caffeine - and if you the jackass who put curse on the Red Bull, that was a dick move dude. But I'm not gonna be hitting it that strong anymore, so you can have some. If, you know, you actual come out and talk to me." If unknown stalker appears, talk to him, and drink with him. Give him the stronger stuff, we'll just have a Bawls, or a tea.
>Be distracted by Lyubov when she asks about dying, and audio recording problems.
>Check with Sake and Boss. Make sure the film was cut well because someone did die over it.
>Chakra Murder Time Fun Time. Push self harder - whatever happened, it feels easier. And the faster this gets over and done with, the faster hacking can resume.
>Struggle to be a proper teacher. Yes, prior teaching has sucked; maybe death will have been enlightening on that front too.
>Nope.
>Get back to the mansion. Do not let the Charka Death march get you down. Remember that Turkey has some of the best tea and coffee houses around. For lunch, invite some Russians out for lunch. Use this time to practice socializing in front of others, and if any 'friends' show up, introduce them to the Russians, via lying.
>Get back to the mansion. Find Boss, maybe Shadowboss. Mention that at least one of the Nazi credit cards was used through Oyak Securities. This might be worth following up with.
>Nazi TIME!
>Get high resolution images of all six faces from Laserdisc.
> Remember that Boring as Fuck surveillance video includes Nazi attack. Attempt to find Nazi Attack footage, for another home movie.
> Peruse the Nazi workstations. Check to see what files can be worked on.
>Take a break. Relax, do some meditation. Find that too boring. Get camera, find Sake and ask him if it's ok to film him. "Don't worry; I will upload twenty percent more awesome videos of Sake to Youtube. You will become overnight megastar. Millions of hits."
>Back to work. Working on the floppy. Heh. Check to make sure the disc can be made into a disc image. If so, start by dumping a disc image of the floppy so work will be done on the disc image rather than the disc itself. Once the image is finished look through raw data looking for patterns. Realize this is what happened on the last disc when looking through surveillance footage, and be bored with this. Wonder where Sake is.
> Continue anyway, because it's a job, and it's curious. Be tempted by caffeine. Oh, your siren song, you black devil. How I miss thee! Groan, and look for possible file headers, the File Allocation Table, the file indexes, and anything that would indicate what OS this thing is supposed to run on. If that yields nothing, perform an analysis of the disc for stenographic techniques used to hide information it could be that the data is readable only from a disc image that is re-assembled in a different order or something like that.
>Dinner. Compliment the chef.
>Time for the beatings to continue. Use this painful time to get the other Russians who aren't running keen to the idea of joining Camella on her run. Suggest to the students to ask their teachers about it, and what not.

You have to see about hummingbird's health. It has been put off for too long now.

>heart of a summer court divine regenerator
Right now the current setup is only good enough to stop it from degrading, if you add phoenix hearts it will no doubt be good for it. You just so happen to have one, and if you can get two more from sometimes merchant you can hook them up for a sweet RULE OF 3 bonus using the Donny heart as a core for them to be built around. Call up SM and ask him about prices for two Phoenix hearts.
Even if you don't do this, you have to get better armour for the megabeast, especially for the heart area as it is even more so a vital organ for it now. I don't doubt that it would be instantly reduced to dust if that gets taken out. A good option right now would be layering of steel plates with the first one hardened to resist impact and the ones behind softer to hold the bullet if it gets through the first one.
Another good option is to get the muscles around the chest area fleshcrafted to be rubbery and dense to absorb impact better and spread it out.

Zhenya orders
-Have silent contest with Lyubov during training time without telling anybody. Be beaten in everything, feel slightly bummed out and wonder why she is doing so well.
-Be glad about your ID stuff being sorted out and resolve to get into the stunt driving school as soon as possible.
-Talk to Fedor about teaching you some driving tricks after all this is over.
-Attempt to clean all your guns, fail and fall asleep on the cleaning table. -Dream about guns eating you, be slightly weirded out. Resolve to do one gun a day until they are all clean.
-Hang out with Lyubov and sake if the opportunity presents itself.
-Notice that weird mafia guy leaving the house, wonder why he was here. Be struck with memory of horrible fire from that night. Get to room and silently freak out.
-Hope the future gets better.

Armas:
Ask SB if he can possess the modified Nazinaut. He doesn't own its shadow, but he does have the shadow of a very similar creature, and if he can possess it, he may be able to use his half of our Summer Bloodline to inspect it from the inside. SB has had the benefit of all of Amen's flesh crafting instructions to Whaitiri, so as the Nazinaut's is partially based on a Divine Summer Fleshcrafting monster, may have some special insight.

We should think of the pleasure we took helping Silja, and decide we like that feeling, and think of other ways to do so. With SM's route looking temporarily closed, we should look around us for other options:
- Camella is a trained, elite soldier. She would have had no problem donating blood for a comrade in arms who needed a transfusion. We should explain Silja's predicament to her, and point out that with the charm we gave her, there is very little downside to her regularly donating blood. We promise that we will in no way use this against her. Once Camella gets comfortable with that, we can raise the possibility of organ donation. After all, they grow back...
- Silja is a Valkonen by marriage. It's possible Markku's prohibition on giving the blood of clan members doesn't apply to her. This is one to approach very carefully, running it past first SB and Sake then, if he agrees, very carefully approaching Einrik. To make this work, we need to present Silja as long lost family in great need, and hopefully Markku's protectiveness of family will do the rest.

We should also very carefully inspect the Nazinaut with our soul sensing orientation active. What state is it in? From the descriptions of some of the bids when we auctioned Mammon's Device it seems Emotion Fragments start off as souls. The Nazinaut's soul has taken a beating, and from what we've already seen of it, is entirely obsessed with Rage. We've seen Lammy's soul as it embraced the power of his Rage fragment - does that give us any insight here?

>heart of a Summer Court Divine Regenerator
Before using other valuable components like this can we investigate what our other options are so we could weigh up not thought through our other options.

>accidentally' cut myself on the dagger
Cutting ourself on the vorpal three foot plus sword on the end of the rifle was perhaps a little risky, as she might have eaten us.

HB needs to be helped
[primary]
Ask SB if he can pull the bulk of HB's soul into our Eyespace outside his body, at least whilst he's asleep. As the problem is energy overflowing from his soul into his body, having the bulk of his soul elsewhere should mitigate this. The intention is to delay until we have the combination of factors to keep him alive.
[trickster]
The problem is that you output energy too fast, and HB's safe absorbtion rate is too slow. Time has to be tricked here, so we need activatable charm(s) that steals time from Armas and gives it to HB, so that Armas' output rate is slowed down, and HB has more time to absorb it. Armas spends huge amounts of time just chatting, so he can spend periods in physical/spiritual time dilation, whilst mentally accelerated, whilst SB relays his words through the shadows in his mouth.
[direct/hard]
Silja has eaten a vampire, and made it part of her. If there's nothing else left to try, we should try to feed him some of her blood, and trigger him to transform into a vampire, after asking Gianni to upgrade his body whilst Sake and Hillevi heal him. If HB dies, he's going to exit the flesh as the hardest hummingbird that has ever lived.
[escape]
You will have to humble yourself and ask Hillevi to help look after HB by buffering him until you can find another solution. You may have to get a thin partition made between two rooms, so you can sleep a couple of feet apart, and then stick together full time.

>>391193
SUSt messing with cops. We have higher priorities.

Gloom:
-Give up drinking, and make sure to sleep a couple of hours every afternoon, as well as not going on the run. Not dying is important.
-Approach the company commander's Shadow, and try to have a conversation about how the commander manages to be quite so stealthy. Is it something that can be learned, as, if so, and it could be done without him knowing, a couple of truly great pranks could be played on him if he thinks he still has a monopoly on the technique.

Titus Orders
>heating complications, glove slippage and desynchronized taser activation
So at a guess, he'll need thicker insulation, some kind of buckles at the upper arm/elbow, and maybe the wiring is coming loose? Titus will look into that stuff in his copious free time, maybe bring in Satai again if fiddling around himself ain't doing it.

>>391251
Your FAP (Four Action Plan) is interesting, but there are multiple elements I'm not comfortable with and in fact think won't work right. I'm SUSTing it. Sorry. We talked a little about it in IRC though.

>>391193
I am on board with both the Hummingbird plan outlined here, and the plan for raiding the police.

I think we could refine the police plan a bit. Andrei is going to be key for some of this, so he'll be given weaselrubs for the next couple of days to give him time to keep moving false evidence into computers. We'll want faked telephone call logs, we'll want to break into the cop's cash account and buy a plane ticket out of here, we'll want to move the remaining money from the account to something like Bitcoins (Andrei will know about that, even if Armas doesn't really). We'll want to create a set of notes that have a simple cipher. The notes will paint a picture of the cop having orders to steal the weapons, to frame Adelat specifically in retaliation for the German bust she made, and to then lay low. There will be a second set of notes that has the mysterious note writer getting more irate with the crooked cop until he threatens death.

With the fake girlfriend in Bolivia and the notes, it should look fairly convincing.

>Orders for Rostislav >Seek out further Chakra training with Camella or Ito around Chakra. He doesn't really know what in specific yet but is eager to learn. Realize free time is so precious as to make this impractical - instead simply continue making his greatest effort at the normal provided training. >Speaking of free time, devote a little (one hour atop the provided four) to sleep and the rest to Fight Clubbin'. >Speaking of that, continue scoping out fighting clubs, consider beating the shit out of those wannabes earlier for some easy money/gratification, turn an eye to who looks strong but is actually fronting. >Offer a round at his favorite bar to anyone who can explain what the fuck happened with Armas's broken arm that he mentioned in that meeting earlier.

Matvey
Have odd dreams in which you are not Matvey, but someone else, someone who is not as impeccably clean shaven as your self. Watch as the person's beard grows larger and larger until it consumes the dream scape. Wake up in a cold sweat, feeling at your chin.

Ask Boris to make something with potatoes, garlic, and mushrooms in it for breakfast.

See Rostislav approach you while drinking asking to be informed about what happened with Armas' arm in exchange for a free drink. Relay to him as much as you know on the subject.

While at the range with the sniping group go into daze during a firing lull and continue to think about acquiring a magic gun of some variety, allowing self to be taken in by the rumors of a magic gun as a prize. Then be abruptly startled out of your thoughts by the sounds of sniper rifle fire.

When Lyubov approaches to arrange a meeting with the boss and the officers write it down. Tell her you'll see to it as soon as possible. Ask if she would be amenable to helping you convince the Boss Weasel to help by giving someone a rub down, no not yourself, Ito. The first time you got a rub you were not only restored, but all your old aches and pains went away, Ito seems like the kind of man who would appreciate that. As she walks off thank her for her hard work putting the identification together. Approach the boss and Camella with the proposal when you see them next, omit hiking from your schedule that day and set it in that time slot.

Slowly begin to realize you are now near or at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to Chakra lessons after Camella's latest marathon training session, having fallen behind due to not making nice with the weasel or trying to overdose on caffeine. That's fine, you can do without them. You will WORK to get better.

With Feodor's encouragement and thoughts of a magical prize try to push harder and take in as much as you can.

Approach Ito during the after night lessons shoot shitting session, ask him if it would be possible to put your instruction duties on hold in order to pursue additional Chakra lessons.

Feodor Orders
*Go on the jog, try not to die too much. Tease the few who fall behind you when you can, try to enrage them into beating you.
*During chakra training, realise that it was much easier to work harder when it was for the others' benefit. Focus again on trying to be an example for them to strive for. Try to show off your improvements to the jealous ones, like Zhenya, and remind Matvey to put in the effort he needs to be a leader to these people. It's his responsibility to keep them alive, too. Remember feeling impotent at how easily Sake saved Andrei, and get angry at him again, but try to use that anger to fuel your efforts rather than having to release it with violence
*Give Rostislav an in-depth description of the processes of compound fractures in bones, including soft-tissue damage. Pretend not to notice the bored expression he gives.
*Tell Zhenya you'll try to teach her what you know, but not until your schedules are more free.
*Sleep at least a couple of hours during the afternoon, to prepare for work at Finnigan's. After night classes, have a shower and head over there.

LYUBOV ORDERS
*During a lull in the prank calls, ask Sake about dying in a controlled way like Hillevi proposed. Get a run down on the possible long-term complication. Thank him, Ponder it.
*While prank calling, get yelled at on the phone by a cranky accountant who believes he’s being targeted because it’s close to tax day. Realize Ito probably doesn’t have valid tax numbers for any of his employees.
*Notice Zhenya's light is on. Check in on her, notice she's asleep sitting at her table. Put a blanket over her, close door.
*Put together a printout with the new fake identities and the tax information Ito will need, for everyone.
*Write a letter to mom, including information only you and she would know to prove it’s you. Include apologies, tell her you love her. Include invitation to come to you, explain that you’ll arrange it if she wants to leave Russia. Cry again, but feel more hopeful. Put letter in envelope, put it away for now. Plan to send it to mom through the church.
*Go on run, note that Gloom is absent. Hope you didn’t hurt him yesterday. Push hard anyway, you’ve got to keep improving.
*At breakfast ask Andrei about his near-death experience. Ask about what it was like, how long he was out, and if he's noticed anything different since. Ponder his observations. Also mention your problem with recording Sake’s phone calls, and arrange to have him just look at the whole computer, recording rig and all.
*During chakra training put your heart into it. You’re going to learn this, and learn it right.
*If you see Gianni during the course of the day, due to him being around for whatever reason, say hello. Ask how he is. You’ve worked with him a couple of times now, he seems like an alright guy.
*When asked by Igor about your recent improvement, remember the Boss’s training session. That mortifying session. Politely say, “I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s… I just don’t want to talk about it.”
*Present the list of tax numbers and identities to Ito, explain, "I don't want you to get in legal trouble on our behalf. These are good, they’re what we use now."
*Request meeting with Matvey. Explain issue with families in Russia, and your plan to get messages and other help to them through either the Orthodox Church or other discrete methods. Mention that Camella and Andrei are aware, and Andrei is willing to do whatever hacking is required. Ask that he arrange a meeting with Armas, himself, Camella, Andrei, and you to talk about possible ways to either evacuate the families or get Chugainov to back off of them.
*In response to snugglerubs for Ito: Suggest that we arrange that Ito meet Sake at another one of Matvey’s tea parties as first step to getting Ito that favor. Suggest that Matvey ask Ito for permission to bring a notably non-human guest into his Dojo. So far we’ve only seen humanoids there. Suggest a goodly amount of booze be brought.
*If Armas is available, arrange for another training session tonight. Pre-empt some of his ability to humiliate you by planning on wearing the one-piece swimsuit under your normal clothes.
*After session, explain that you want to have your mother come live here. Don’t cry during this. Even though you're afraid terrified he will say no, don't cry. “She is a good secretary; she has worked twenty years as a personal assistant. She’s supremely qualified. And you will need office staff. And she could help you with your office side of things. At the very least, all the paperwork the taxes will generate, besides all the other things like phones and personnel and I don’t even know, I just know that she’s so good that even though she doesn’t let them sexually harass her they kept her anyway and I don’t think it’s safe now in Russia for any of our families and we need to talk about that too with Matvey and Camella, but can you hire my mom if she agrees to flee Russia to here? She’s the only family I have left and I’ve been a really crappy daughter and she thinks I’m dead and…”
*Go to night lessons, performance depending largely on Armas’ answer.
*Go home, shower, sleep.

>>391251
Also going to have to SUST the four-action plan, we just don't know enough about the sorts of thing you propose to be randomly experimenting like that; we don't want to accidentally kill Hummingbro after all, or blow things up, or whatever.

>>391193
Upvoting the Hummingbird Health Plan here.
Speak to the Hummingbird before you leave, make sure he knows that we'll be prioritizing it more than we have been so far.

Armas:
Talk to Igor about finding an armorer, both for training Igor and building the armor for the Nazinaut. After all, hiring someone to train Igor (once there's no chance of Igor dying from soul-explodey) will mean having someone who actually knows the craft around while Igor's learning.

Wonder why the food seems to have suddenly become so bland. Make up for the strange loss of spiciness by adding hot sauce to your own food....and other people's. Sharing is caring!

>>391251
Random experimentation can be fun, it can also be bad, so SUST

>>391193
I like anything which is good for Hummingbro. Upvote.

Armas orders;
Spend some quality time with Silja, consider that you really need to get a glamour so you can take her places, ask if she'd like that.

Tell her about the sulking Camella, perhaps a woman's insight will be of some help.

Hello, Armas, look at your Golem, now back to Mine, now back at your Golem, now back to Mine. Sadly, yours isn’t mine, but if You stopped using inferior body parts and switched to a three Phoenix hearts, it could regenerate like it’s mine. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a battlefield with the Golem your Golem could work like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s body with two bloodlines to that power you love. Look again, the bloodlines are now Savoy's. Anything is possible when your Golem works like a Phoenix and not a zombie. I’m on a Flesh Golem.

LEV'S ORDERS
Realize that you haven't really been much of a bro to the bosses, briefly wonder why Shadow Boss was kind enough to make his offer, decide you will not fail him!
Pay seven kinds of attention to Camella's classes, make sure to get it right, talk with the others who are doing well and see what they've been doing right.
Try to do chakra training while doing ordinary tasks and while sparring with feodor, you won't waste the chance you've been given!
Look up chakra on wikipedia, fully aware a large amount isn't the case, badger Ito about the locations of the chakra points, be a man driven, be particularly fascinated by the idea of the lower chakras, the Mahatala and Patala are relevant to your interests.
Again shy away from messing about while in sunlight.
Consider how Sake is a awesome boss and an awesome medic, wonder how you can please Sake, see Sake likes shiney valuables. Consider making some wooden figurines of the company and gilding them with silver or gold, which ever you can afford more of, begin, try to keep the project a secret, look at Sake a lot in order to get his form in the wood.
…
Almost accidentally your soul out due to reckless enthusiasm.

Sorry about the old spice, my adaptation is poor but I couldn't resist

>>391193
>+Hummingbird. First, Call Davgon; and ask him advice on the following (do it if you got his okay, and change stuff as needed upon his advice.:
>-Get Sake to Rub-Down Hummingbird.
>-Get Baki Massage/Flush of magical saturation on Hummingbird. After all, We know Baki is probably a master in chakra (and possibly other stuff) AND that he is known for his massages to take care of extra magic. Make sure to convince Hillevi to come with us there to see how he does it and also possibly help with overbleed.
>-Use the whole afternoon in chakra practice and then sparring with Hillevi. The goal here is to not only get practice for dual-orientation (you might want to do it JUST ONCE with hummingbird's help and then get SB to freshen our memory of what our soul looked like when we did it as a guideline) and flexibility and flushing in combat (C.O.F?) but also to utterly drain both of our bloodline. So don't skimp on the hybrid regen (which is why using Hillevi is good). As long as Hillevi doesn't destroy our head it's all good, really.
>-Get utterly drained and exhausted, and groan in pain because while we may get a much needed (for both hummingbird and armas) understanding of efficiency, being that drained will probably be really weird/painful.

Upvoting. Wanted to suggest chakra training myself.

>Satai orders
-Speak with Sake again after ensuring that no one else is listening (the weasel bed order is to be kept secret), explain that something like this will need custom crafting and might as well be done right- get his measurements, preferred dimensions and style for his comfort. Ask if he's identified any particular places in the city where they work in large silver items, to save some time- Satai can find it if he has to but Sake probably knows exactly where they work in silver. Also acquire more wakefulness.
-Following this go to the city's silversmiths, ask around and locate someone who could make a custom decorative item. Expecting it to basically be a large, shallow bowl of solid silver that Sake can curl up in, modified to his tastes. Place order; anticipate $30,000-$40,000 for it. Mention that employer is highly eccentric if questioned as to why the hell this is needed.
-Talk to Hillevi more now that wakefulness is acquired; try to keep conversation running easily. Discuss Satai's particular passion of mines and traps, perhaps the topic of crystal enchanting that sounded interesting, then move back to chakra. Feel her out for how much she knows about this and how willing she is to share it.
-If by the end of practice she seems like she'd be able and willing, ask if she'd be willing to provide actual chakra tutoring. If yes, withdraw from the dojo entirely (with polite regrets to Ito and hidden internal glee) and replace that block of time with chakra studies with Hillevi.

>>391094
Items regarding socialization.

Talk more with Silja in the morning. Make sure she can see and try to get her in a good mood, then show her around the mansion. "Fun place, right? This vampire guy had it all- did I tell you about this? He was supposed to be helping me out, but cheated me out of a gun I was trying to buy from him and then tried to have me killed. Didn't count on me being able to outfight him, heh. And now it's all mine. What do you want to see?"

Show her around. When she sees television, explain what it is. "I told you there's all kinds of new technology these days. Those are basically boxes that can display images from anywhere in the world as long as someone else over there is transmitting it, and recorded things and fiction as well. Man, I need to get you up to date on all this!" Subsequently run around the house explaining refrigerators, computers, internal heating, phones, toilets, showers, dishwashers, and whatever else we run into. Seeing is believing, after all. Have fun; try to make Silja be excited about all the things that this time period has to offer instead of depressed about how strange it all is.

If she's in a sufficiently good mood, consider showing her what she herself looks like at the moment, in a mirror. "Ah. I was thinking... are you willing to see what you look like, Silja?" That will be very disconcerting and even perhaps slightly horrifying to her, but she'll find out eventually and we want it to be when she's primed to be happy and we can spin in the proper way. "Hey, no sadness allowed. I warned you that you were trapped in a gun- you think I spend my time talking to you because I don't believe in you? You've come so far already." "You're like a seed, all right? Sure, it doesn't look much like the flower it's going to be eventually right now- but it splits open, sends out little shoots, and grows into something beautiful. You're the same way. Only a blind person couldn't see that you're coming back- look, you've got ribs, spine, hips are coming in- it's just a matter of time. It's more noticeable every time you eat something, you know- and I'm making arrangements to try and move that faster. Give it a month or two and you'll bloom too, I promise." She seems to like being touched, so try for comforting stroking as we talk.

Might have to play the rest of that by ear to make her okay with it, but we'll be able to manage it, I'm sure. Leave some of our blood on her so that she can see, and from now on whenever we're in the mansion carry her around and chat idly- even if we're just leaving her leaning against walls so that she can watch what we're up to. If we have to leave the mansion leave her in an area that people will probably be passing through, so that she can watch them. Try very hard to never leave her alone in an empty room.


We still haven't looked into Camella and it's been days- we can't afford to keep leaving that. Go by Ito's a bit before we expect night training to start; maybe we'll be able to catch her before she's busy. "Hey, Camella. You want to talk?" (expected answer 'no') "Okay, saw that one coming. How about this: Word is you're acting troubled, and talking about it might make you feel better. I would be happy to take a stab at the good-friend thing and listen. I'll even avoid saying anything rude for the entire conversation." Say the last line in the tones of one offering an irresistible bribe. If she turns us down or says not right now, "Well, I won't press. Offer stands if you want it later."

If she is willing to talk, treat our offer to act as a good friend for the conversation as a serious promise. Remember how we spent a month at the Valkonens' pretending to be genuinely honest and trustworthy? Do that again, only this time pretend to be a responsible and thoughtful leader. We can hold that mask in place for an hour or two.

It's not certain what she's going to say, but remember our objectives here. Ultimately, we want Camella to treat us with respect instead of constantly discounting us and being a bitch. We want her to consider the company something worth putting time and effort, heart and soul into (maybe literally, later). We want her to have our back and act of her own initiative to shore up our weaknesses. We also want her to trust us enough to tell us her thoughts and share confidences, because we trusted her with quite a few of ours and when she didn't give us shit in return, that hurt no matter how much we blew it off. We need trust and respect from her, or we're just not going to get enough out of this relationship to stop us from eating her to become a crazy martial arts genius one day.

If working towards that means that we need to act like we have depth and some scrap of responsibility, even if that's just in the form of taking our hobbies (like running a mercenary company) very seriously, or if it means that we need to act the sensitive friend or amateur psychologist or lover or whatever the hell she wants from us, then we can damn well do it. Acting like we have new personality traits is easy; making people into actual friends is hard.

>>391471
The Grand Bazaar silversmiths are located in the Gümüsçüler Hani, or easier to pronounce, Kalcilar. Look up Master Kapik at #10, he does silver molds like bowls and things, he should be good for a bed. If you want designs, his Armenian business partner Master Arus's son Dikran is a kakmaci who specializes in designs.

>Camella
I think the problem here is that we've never really defined our relationship. Which is understandable, cuz feelings are hard. We like her (as much as we like anyone); I personally like the cut of her jib. She likes us (well, she has complicated feelings for us)... but then we're also her boss.

So we need to talk out what we expect from this relationship. We want to make money together, obviously, and grow in power magically and economically. She has her own stuff going on (getting back home, her own interactions with our various friends - speaking of, maybe we should mention that thing Go Ping said?), and so do we, and that's fine. But we're together here, and we're up against some very nasty people. The Triad, Cosa Nostra, the Paladin Group, Titancorp and the Yakuza would stomp us out if they notice us. The 'little' guys like the Corsican Mafia, the Tongs, or Turkish organized crime would tear us down if they can.

God and Camella knows we're not perfect; hell, she's seen us. We're trying to keep dozens of balls in the air at the same time, and sometimes they slip through our fingers and fall. We forget things. And we're trying to be responsible for 20 people here, when we've barely been responsible enough for one until now. So all we can ask her is to do her best to help, and we do likewise - and we meet somewhere in the middle, and hope that's enough.

Also, please call Riker, just to see how he's taking what his spook told him. It's been like a week.

>>391471
Upvoting this.

After everything is done, it's time for some practice, cycle through all known fleshcrafting techniques trying for speed, this should hopefully help get your body used to the magic for more extreme changes later. If Hillevi is agreeable ask her if she wants to try something out, Have her set up the link to HB and try to make use of the power against us in a spar. During this slip into ego-less mode to get more experience using it, try to incorporate chakra-orientation usage at the same time, if it goes well go all out and try to get Dual-orientation running as well. Run through both of your reserves doing this so as to reach ENLIGHTENMENT

>>391471
SUST talking to Camella like this. What's the point? She clearly doesn't really respect us as a leader, and taking this attitude with her won't help. The only way to sort this out is to demonstrate we're worthy of respect - by raising our game and investing more of our time in being a responsible commander. For example, playing tricks on our own men unfortunately isn't in that category. They should be seen as allies, not convenient victims. Don't shit where you eat, etc.

>>391485
I think what I've written is along these lines.

>>391471
>"Hey, Camella. You want to talk?"…

I like the gist, but the phraseology needs work.

“Hey Camella, you got a couple of minutes? I wanted to apologize, and have a talk. In private.”

“Ok. I’m sorry I dressed you down in front of everyone Sunday. I should have waited until we were in private. It was totally inappropriate of me to do it like that; what I said would have had just as much impact behind closed doors. All I can say is I got a little pissed off, and I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?”

If she’s got no demand, or reasonable demands (sub $100,000 range in value, basically): “Alright. Consider it done.”
Otherwise: “I’ll see what I can do.”

“But that’s not everything I wanted to say. I also wanted to congratulate you. You’re doing a great job with them so far. I’m going to do a check up on them Sunday, and I’ll let you know what I think of their gains. I’d like you and Ito to do the same, so that we have three different datasets to compare for each come Monday. I’m just going to use a ratio, compare their baseline when they entered your training program to their new normal. I’ve got their growth since I first met them too, but only Gloom and Lyubov had changed much. The others weren’t really pushing themselves.”

“Do you think it’d be too disruptive for me to sit in on one of their sessions and observe?”

“Alright, you’ve got a point there. But I think I could learn something from how you handle them. Not so much practicum or theory, but how to be a decent leader.”

“I got a confession to make to you. I spent 8 years in two branches of the service, as a Ranger besides, and I never made it past Private. I was not leadership material. I’m trying to grow, trying to become that guy, but right now I’m just throwing everything I can think of at keeping the people I’m responsible for effective, happy, and healthy.”

“Heh. Thanks. It goes both ways though; I mean, do you remember a couple of months ago? The day of the Smets mission? I told you it was my friends and family that were going to help anchor me, and keep me sane. Keep me from going too far. They’re another set of anchors. It’s fair to say you’re the lead though, so if you ever need to tell me something, please do.”

Now this is where the following becomes relevant:
>If working towards that means that we need to act like we have depth and some scrap of responsibility… or…act the sensitive friend or amateur psychologist or lover or whatever the hell she wants from us, then we can damn well do it. Acting like we have new personality traits is easy; making people into actual friends is hard.

With that in mind, say, “I really mean it, Camella. You’re, bar none, the second most important person in the company. And you’re one of the most important people in my life. I don’t make friends easily. I just don’t get close to people easily. So, if something’s bothering you, let me know. If there’s an issue we need to deal with, let me know. I’m a dick, but if you need a conversation where I keep it in check, let me know. I can put on a serious face when I need to. That’s part of this whole “leadership” thing I’m trying to learn. You just let me know.”

Then just wait expectantly for a moment. Give her a chance to see you’re being what she wants: A responsible leader who is trying. She’ll either take the prompt or let the moment go. Listen hard, and watch her soul hard, during this moment.

Based on what I know of her though, she’s going to be a little snarky and then start being honest. Don’t rise to the bait, do respond in a heartfelt manner.

“The Hummingbird told me something the other day: he said that ‘I don’t distinguish between business and recreation.’ And that was a brilliant moment for me, he put into words exactly how I am. I let every aspect of my life blend together.”

“Well you could have mentioned it before Hummingbird did, saved him the trouble. Anyway, can I ask for something from you? Just, I think we should make a point of meeting up every day. We compare notes, we talk about how things are going, we let each other know about issues. We bounce ideas off each other. We even make time to go have fun together. Because, if we’re going to make “this” work, we’ve got to communicate meaningfully, regularly.”

“Well, since I’m so bad at compartmentalizing my life, “this” means our entire relationship: as friends, as anchor and magic man, as commander and executive officer, as rivals, as…as everything that encompasses “us.” It’s all going to have to be done as a package deal. I’m not capable of compartmentalizing enough for it to be otherwise.”

She’ll probably take that. It’s honest, it seems sincere, it’s sensible, and it’s dangerous. But the way you put it means it’s the only way. After she agrees, it may be appropriate to give her a hug, to reaffirm that you’re friends.

SCENE I. The mansion of Armas
Enter ARMAS, and DUKE


ARMAS
A question sir and friend. Your forum is one
Built for the joys of flesh made flesh? That is
To say that thine form is base and lay low.

DUKE


ARMAS[b]
Nay, hold thine fist and fury, for I mean not
A curse, but a boon. Thine flesh, tis penal?

[b]DUKE


ARMAS
Hold once more, mine Duke. My words not call thine
History to insult, but thine body to single
Question. Let me be plain and dispel with
Needless complexity. My Duke's form was
One base draconic. That is the basest
Of the dragon's parts.

DUKE


ARMAS
And once more and the last, I say nay. Not
True draconic heritage, but born of
That which passes the heritage across
The arch of time. Simply, the Loins! Are thy,
My Duke, the loins of a dragon given mind?

Grail 2012/03/09(Fri)18:40 No. 391527 ID: c6ce12
File 133134725136.png - (46.75KB , 800x820 , HB.png )

Hummingbird fan art, because he deserves it.

For reference I am also up-voting these.
>>391471
>>391485

And this.
>>391193

>>391432
Give Hamlet a call, ask if he can pressure-test a vessel for you. You need to make sure that tank on the back of the Nazinaut will hold. Get Igor and a couple of the big, strong, dudes to help him and assign them to: pull the armor from the nazinaut (as much of it as will come off anyway). Work out what they'll need to replace all the emitters and pipes, and to present you with ideas on putting it UNDER the armor this time. Have Sake give the boys a rubdown so that they can do that work and keep up with their studies.

>>391508

"Duke, I'm building a golem. A golem based on the doononegas heart, the body of a formerly female vampire turned nazinaut, a set of those nasty poison glands from the dooney, the best armor I can get, some decidedly specialized bloodwork, and the guts of, well, you. If you'll help me, I mean. See, when I walked in on you in the bathroom, I had an epiphany. Your shit stinks. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's downright deadly. I want to set up a golem that can do the same, and spray that shit everywhere."

"So, I was wondering, could I get a sample the next time Gianni is here? I could ask Sake to help you heal up, too. I know it's no simple thing to give so freely of yourself, but you'd be lending me a, well not a hand. More like a bowel, and a gallbladder, and a spleen. Some stomach, and a chunk of liver to let this thing cope with the massive load that it's going to have on its circulatory system."

"A reasonable request. I can personally guarantee that I won't use your parts for any purpose against you, no spells, no rituals; in fact I'd treat them the way I'd want my parts to be treated. I'll talk to Gianni about ways to make sure nothing escapes our control too. There might be ways to make it rot to dust if it's not attached to the golem."

[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
X-Go see Weasel Boss, and tell Sake what Asshole Boss asked him to do. Bitch about current schedule making request impossible, ask Boss Sake if he could please give him a rub-down every day for so long as the schedule is like this
X-After Weasel Boss briefly confers with a shadow, receive surprise wiggle to the face. Feel fucking fantastic.
X-Now use four of the five 'free' hours every day for working on Armas' project, and the last for sleeping.
X-Igor notices that a couple of people did better in chakra training yesterday than others, and will ask them why. Hear responses such as: weasel rubs, nearly dying, weasel rubs, boss trolling, weasel rubs, being frozen and weasel rubs. Draw a conclusion from this.
>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Be alive. Be amazed at being alive, and just how easy chakra lessons were. Start whistling-until he finds a lesion in his mouth. What?
>Promise self to cut back from too much caffeine intake. Also, talk to thin air while getting breakfast tea. "Look, I'm still curious who you are and why you want my caffeine - and if you're the jackass who put a curse on the Red Bull, that was a dick move dude. But I'm not gonna be hitting it that strong anymore, so you can have some. If, you know, you actual come out and talk to me." Abruptly acquire a headache after stumbling forward. Be pissed.
>Be distracted by Lyubov when she asks about dying, and audio recording problems. Have no idea how to even look into this when an initial investigation shows no audio signals to match what she described.
>Check with Sake and Boss. Make sure the film was cut well because someone did die over it. Be told the footage is hilarious.
>Chakra Murder Fun Time. Push self harder - whatever happened, it feels easier. And the faster this gets over and done with, the faster hacking can resume. Abruptly feel like he hits a wall the moment he pushes harder. What the hell?
>Struggle to be a proper teacher. Yes, prior teaching has sucked; maybe death will have been enlightening on that front too.
>Nope. Nopely-nope.
>Get back to the mansion. Do not let the Chakra Death march get you down. Remember that Turkey has some of the best tea and coffee houses around. For lunch, invite Gloom and Ivan and Grisha out for lunch. Use this time to practice socializing in front of others.
>Get back to the mansion. Find Boss, maybe Shadowboss. Mention that at least one of the Nazi credit cards was used through Oyak Securities. This might be worth following up with. Be told by Boss to not use that card any more, and otherwise be ignored.
>Get high resolution images of all six faces from Laserdisc. Make printouts.
> Remember that Boring as Fuck surveillance video includes Nazi attack. Attempt to find Nazi Attack footage, for another home movie. Be THOROUGHLY disappointed when video quality starts noticeably degrading from the moment the crate of Nazinauts arrived. Try to clean it up, have little to work with.
> Peruse the Nazi workstations. Check to see what files can be worked on. Find no handy sets of bank numbers-wonder how the hell to crack this shorthand code spread through CSV files.
>Take a break. Relax, do some meditation. Find that too boring. Get camera, find Sake and ask him if it's ok to film him. Receive dismissive slap of weasel ass to the face. Take that as a no.
>Back to work. Working on the floppy. Heh. Check to make sure the disc can be made into a disc image. Start by dumping a disc image of the floppy so work will be done on the disc image rather than the disc itself. Once the image is finished look through raw data looking for patterns. Realize this is what happened on the last disc when looking through surveillance footage, and be bored with this when results are not immediate. Wonder where Sake is.
>Groan, and look for possible file headers, the File Allocation Table, the file indexes, and anything that would indicate what OS this thing is supposed to run on. When that yields nothing, perform an analysis of the disc for stenographic techniques used to hide information it could be that the data is readable only from a disc image that is re-assembled in a different order or something like that. Get... very strange readings-after a second analysis, find data... has changed. Double check disc image-find the file is... mutating, even as you watch it, without any input.
>Unplug HDD, set fire to HDD, unplug floppy reader, place in isolated room. Consider burning it too. Be fearful of the rise of the machines. Check computer-only feel partly safe at lack of mutating disc image on main hard drive.
>Time for the beatings to continue. Use this painful time to get the other Russians who aren't running keen to the idea of joining Camella on her run. Suggest to the students to ask their teachers about it, and what not. Be saddened at the lack of takers.
[Zhenya has been queued to do the following:]
-Have silent contest with Lyubov during training time without telling anybody. Be beaten in everything by smaller woman, feel slightly bummed out and wonder why she is doing so well.
-Be glad about your ID stuff being sorted out and resolve to get into the stunt driving school as soon as possible.
-Talk to Feodor about teaching you some driving tricks after all this is over. Note Feodor to still be in a funk.
-Attempt to clean all your guns, fail and fall asleep on the cleaning table.
-Dream about guns eating you, be slightly weirded out. Resolve to do one gun a day until they are all clean.
-Hang out with Lyubov and Sake because who else is she friends with?
-Notice that weird mafia guy leaving the house, wonder why he was here. Be struck with memory of horrible fire from that night. Get to room and silently freak out.
-Hope the future gets better.
[Gloom has been queued to do the following:]
-Give up drinking, and make sure to sleep a couple of hours every afternoon, as well as not going on the run. Not dying is important.
-Feel dissatisfied at giving up commanding frontrunner position in runs.
-Approach the company commander's Shadow, and try to have a conversation about how the commander manages to be quite so stealthy. Fail to have proper conversation about this, as it seems Shadow Boss does not like him.
-Be irritated at lack of respect-but be hard pressed to put fire in it, as he's been met with far worse reactions.
-Wonder if it is something that can be learned, as, if so, and it could be done without him knowing, a couple of truly great pranks could be played on him if he thinks he still has a monopoly on the technique.
-Wonder if 'free time' could be fully devoted to this project.
[Titus has been queued to do the following:]
=-Draw conclusions from Andrei's test data.
=-Decide to work on thicker insulation, a buckle system at the gauntlet's edge, and more solidly mounting the wiring.
=-Begin, but do not complete, redesign to Taser Glove Ver 1.1
>[Rostislav has been queued to do the following:]
> Seek out further Chakra training with Camella or Ito around Chakra. Don't really know what in specific yet is the plan but be eager to learn. Realize free time is so precious as to make this impractical - instead simply continue making his greatest effort at the normal provided training. Be told by Camella that more enthusiasm won't help-but do learn that he could give up Ito pay ($150/week) to convert more time at Ito's into chakra training without spending more time. Ponder this.
> Speaking of free time, devote a little (one hour atop the provided four) to sleep and the rest to Fight Clubbin'.
>Speaking of that, continue scoping out fighting clubs, consider beating the shit out of those wannabes earlier for some easy money/gratification, turn an eye to who looks strong but is actually fronting. Realize he is doing a terrible job eyeing people since he's never been good at at-a-glance assessment of others. Remain confident he can wreck their shit.
> Offer a round at his favorite bar to anyone who can explain what the fuck happened with Armas's broken arm that he mentioned in that meeting earlier. Learn much from Matvey (cost: $11)
[Lyubov has been queued to do the following:]
*During a lull in the prank calls, ask Sake about dying in a controlled way like Hillevi proposed. Be informed that being beaten to nearly death is a staple. Get a run down on the possible long-term complications involved, most of them self-evident. Thank him, Ponder that magic lets horrible events that would normally permanently impair into net gain situations.
*While prank calling, get yelled at on the phone by a cranky accountant who believes he’s being targeted because it’s close to tax day. Realize Ito probably doesn’t have valid tax numbers for any of his employees. Feel sphincter tighten at thought of surprise inspection causing a BAD DAY.
*Put together a printout with the new fake identities and the tax information Ito will need, for everyone.
*Write a letter to mom, including information only you and she would know to prove it’s you. Include apologies, tell her you love her. Include invitation to come to you, explain that you’ll arrange it if she wants to leave Russia. Cry again, but feel more hopeful. Put letter in envelope, put it away for now. Plan to send it to mom through the church.
*Go on run, note that Gloom is absent. Hope you didn’t hurt him yesterday. Push hard anyway, She's got to keep improving. Take first place without hip checking anyone. Still be disgruntled at Camella no longer even sweating over the course of the run.
*At breakfast ask Andrei about his near-death experience. Ask about what it was like, how long he was out, and if he's noticed anything different since. Ponder his cavalier and sadly brief observations. Also mention your problem with recording Sake’s phone calls, and arrange to have him just look at the whole computer, recording rig and all.
*During chakra training put your heart into it. Decide to learn this, and learn it right... or righter than she was.
*When asked by Igor about your recent improvement, remember the Boss’s training session. That mortifying session. Politely say, “I really don’t want to talk about it. It’s… I just don’t want to talk about it.” Wonder how he made that event so... personally productive. Wonder if he only did it so it'd be hard to be mad at him. Furiously think this over.
*Present the list of tax numbers and identities to Ito, explain, "I don't want you to get in legal trouble on our behalf. These are good, they’re what we use now." Be a bit surprised when he says he'd already given bogus tax information through a tax auditor that's a student in exchange for free lessons-laugh while watching him use them to restock cat's litterbox. Notice cat seems very nice to Ito, even though it farts on any Russian it gets a chance to fart on. Mentally dub cat 'Sir Flatulence'.
*Request meeting with Matvey. Explain issue with families in Russia, and your plan to get messages and other help to them through either the Orthodox Church or other discrete methods. Mention that Camella and Andrei are aware, and Andrei is willing to do whatever hacking is required. Ask that he arrange a meeting with Armas, himself, Camella, Andrei, and you to talk about possible ways to either evacuate the families or get Chugainov to back off of them.
*In response to snugglerubs for Ito: Suggest that we arrange that Ito meet Sake at another one of Matvey’s tea parties as first step to getting Ito that favor. Suggest that Matvey ask Ito for permission to bring a notably non-human guest into his Dojo. So far we’ve only seen humanoids there. Suggest a goodly amount of booze be brought.
*If Armas is available, arrange for another training session tonight. Pre-empt some of his ability to humiliate you by planning on wearing the one-piece swimsuit under your normal clothes. Be told to swim in the pool! ...Which is currently filled with jello. Spend a good ten seconds giving Armas a 'bitch you serious?' look. When he fails to crack, begin laps. Yet again, somehow, inexplicably, come out of lesson with a greater sense of how to stably maintain Reinforcement. With one final lesson segment with the boss left this week, demand to know why this is working: be given the hint 'The distraction works just as well even when you know that's what it is-so what's that tell you?'.
*After session, explain that you want to have your mother come live here. Don’t cry during this. “She is a good secretary; she has worked twenty years as a personal assistant. She’s supremely qualified. And you will need office staff. And she could help you with your office side of things. At the very least, all the paperwork the taxes will generate, besides all the other things like phones and personnel and I don’t even know, I just know that she’s so good that even though she doesn’t let them sexually harass her they kept her anyway and I don’t think it’s safe now in Russia for any of our families and we need to talk about that too with Matvey and Camella, but can you hire my mom if she agrees to flee Russia to here? She’s the only family I have left and I’ve been a really crappy daughter and she thinks I’m dead and…” End up crying when boss, at sight of someone legitimately begging him, says he'll do what he can.
*Go to night lessons, perform excellently due to both raised spirits and another Armas lesson. Wonder how in the HELL Gloom is now in the class top four. Also note Matvey humming eye of the tiger as he sets his nose to the grindstone.
*Go home, go to sleep. Dream.
[Matvey has been queued to do the following:]
<>Have odd dreams in which he is not Matvey, but someone else, someone who is not as impeccably clean shaven as him self. Watch as the person's beard grows larger and larger until it consumes the dreamscape. Wake up in a cold sweat, feeling at your chin. Find... a soul patch? No wait, he was still asleep. When really waking up, be less relieved than ideal at still clean jaw.
<>Ask Boris to make something with potatoes, garlic, and mushrooms in it for breakfast. Be given a bowl of stew. Be ready to spend day farting. Get what was expected.
<>See Rostislav approach you while drinking asking to be informed about what happened with Armas' arm in exchange for a free drink. Relay to him as much as is known on the subject, which admittedly isn't much-but be pretty sure she didn't really hit hard, so much as make her fist harder in a way that made what she hit comparatively weaker and thus more prone to breakage.... or something.
<>While at the range with the sniping group go into daze during a firing lull and continue to think about acquiring a magic gun of some variety, allowing self to be taken in by the rumors of a magic gun as a prize. Then be abruptly startled out of your thoughts by the sounds of sniper rifle fire.
<>When Lyubov approaches to arrange a meeting with the boss and the officers write it down. Tell her he'll see to it as soon as possible. Ask if she would be amenable to helping him convince the Boss Weasel to help by giving someone a rub down, no not himself, Ito. Explain that the first time he got a rub he was not only restored, but all his old aches and pains went away, Ito seems like the kind of man who would appreciate that. As she walks off thank her for her hard work putting the identification together. Approach the boss and Camella with the proposal when you see them next, omit hiking from your schedule that day and set it in that time slot. Then double check self, and wonder how hiking fit in with four hours of shooting practice a day in five hour slots.
<>Slowly begin to realize he is now near or at the bottom of the ladder when it comes to Chakra lessons after Camella's latest marathon training session, having fallen behind due to not making nice with the weasel or trying to overdose on caffeine. That's fine, he can do without them. He will WORK to get better.
<>With Feodor's encouragement and thoughts of a magical prize try to push harder and take in as much as you can. Note this actually changes nothing he can percieve-give zero shits and try harder, for some reason trying to emulate the unflappable trope of a british officer.
<>Approach Ito during the after night lessons shit-shooting session, ask him if it would be possible to put your instruction duties on hold in order to pursue additional Chakra lessons. Be told sure, if he's okay with not being paid for teaching, since he'd stop teaching. Ponder this.
[Feodor has been queued to do the following:]
*Go on the jog, try not to die too much. Tease the few who fall behind you when you can, try to enrage them into beating you. End up taking seventh place out of twelve.
*During chakra training, realize that it was much easier to work harder when it was for the others' benefit. Focus again on trying to be an example for them to strive for. Try to show off your improvements to the jealous ones, like Zhenya, and remind Matvey to put in the effort he needs to be a leader to these people. It's his responsibility to keep them alive, too. Remember feeling impotent at how easily Sake saved Andrei, and get angry at him again, but try to use that anger to fuel your efforts rather than having to release it with violence. Due to naturally bitter and rage-fueled nature-find this plan works rather well. Nearly outperform Gloom when Ito's assessing everyone.
*Give Rostislav an in-depth description of the processes of compound fractures in bones, including soft-tissue damage. Pretend not to notice the bored expression he gives. Try a second time to explain-then give up for now.
*Tell Zhenya he'll try to teach her what he knows, but not until his schedules is more free.
*Sleep at least a couple of hours during the afternoon, to prepare for work at Finnigan's. After night classes, have a shower and head over there. Be berated for being late, handed a macguyvered bit of tubing, and told to provide suction as he works on a ganger with a few extra holes in him. Feel... grounded during lesson.
[Lev has been queued to do the following:]
(-)Realize he hasn't really been much of a bro to the bosses, briefly wonder why Shadow Boss was kind enough to make that offer; decide he will not fail him!
(-)Pay seven kinds of attention to Camella's classes, make sure to get it right, talk with the others who are doing well and see what they've been doing right. End up doing worse because he spends so much time talking with others to get their take rather than, you know, actually training.
(-)Try to do chakra training while doing ordinary tasks and while sparring with Feodor, you won't waste the chance you've been given! Fail because chakra lessons are designed to nigh-completely drain the Russians, and he has nothing left.
(-)Look up chakra on wikipedia, possibly aware that wikipedia is useless in this instance, badger Ito about the locations of the chakra points. Think of self as a man driven, be particularly fascinated by the idea of the lower chakras, the Mahatala and Patala.
(-)Again shy away from messing about while in sunlight.-which means being more persnickety about where training happens, and further slow down training.
(-)Consider how Sake is a awesome boss and an awesome medic, wonder how you can please Sake, see Sake likes shiney valuables. Consider making some wooden figurines of the company and gilding them with silver or gold, which ever you can afford more of, begin, try to keep the project a secret, look at Sake a lot in order to get his form in the wood.
(-)Drop to dead last in chakra performance due to hardly spending any time, comparatively, on actual training rather than wikisearching, chatting and carving. Somehow be confused at poor performance, and fail to grasp the reason is due to mismanagement of time.
[$atai has been queued to do the following:]
-Speak with Sake again after ensuring that no one else is listening (the weasel bed order is to be kept secret), explain that something like this will need custom crafting and might as well be done right- get his measurements, preferred dimensions and style for his comfort. Ask if he's identified any particular places in the city where they work in large silver items, to save some time- Satai can find it if he has to but Sake probably knows exactly where they work in silver. Learn of a specific crafter of precious metal jewelry boxes and silverware that would probably be great for this-and also acquire more wakefulness. via facerub. Idly wonder how much fur sake has per square inch-that feels... too soft.
-Following this go to the city's silversmiths, head to named store and ask about a custom piece. Expecting it to basically be a large, shallow bowl of solid silver that Sake can curl up in, modified to his tastes. Place order; anticipate $30,000-$40,000 for it. Mention that employer is highly eccentric if questioned as to why the hell this is needed. End up paying $42,500. Be a bit miffed that he couldn't haggle it lower. Shrug, and deal with it.
[BUSINESS FUNDS:[ -$42,500 $146,847.00
-Talk to Hillevi more now that wakefulness is acquired; try to keep conversation running easily. Discuss Satai's particular passion of mines and traps, perhaps the topic of crystal enchanting that sounded interesting, then move back to chakra. First learn that Hillevi is rather proud she can make a MEAN crystal shard mine. Feel her out for how much she knows about this and how willing she is to share it. Get a sense she's almost unbelievably willing to share, but has no concept of how to shift verbage when a conversation partner doesn't have the same background as her. Wonder how to get around this.
-If by the end of practice she seems like she'd be able and willing, ask if she'd be willing to provide actual chakra tutoring. Be told she'll have to check with Armas-in a fit of inspiration, assure her he'd be okay with it. Avoid looking surprised when this works. Withdraw from the dojo entirely (with polite regrets to Ito and hidden internal glee) and replace that block of time with chakra studies with Hillevi. LOSE GYM INCOME

>>391193 Palendromic arbitrary bonus that doesn't really mean anything but seems to entertain some people
>>391227
>>391282
I try calling Rocco-and get his voicemail. Lame shit, that. I try calling Gianni-who I get in contact with easy enough, but he's no help either-seems no one I know at the mafia can direct me to a specific cop fucking them over. Lame-but there it is. With that a complete bust-I decide fuck it, and call a different contact in the early morning: A certain Sami Shaman. ...Well, I don't call him, so much as start a texting session.
[Armas]Hey.
[Dávgon]You again. What?
[Armas]Spirit Animal questions.
[Dávgon]What species, what class, what's it bound to and what's the question?
[Armas]Hummingbird, Assault, soul and how do I keep its body healthy?
[Dávgon]Did you just say you have an Assault Class Hummingbird?
[Armas]The bird is in fact awesome, yes.
[Dávgon]And it's still in the flesh?
[Armas]Alive and kicking-for now. Kind of want to keep it that way. Having some issues.
[Dávgon]Well yeah, there's only a couple ounces of flesh to diffuse energy in.
[Armas]So-solutions?
[Dávgon]I'd need more context.
[Armas]How about I throw out ideas, you approve or shoot down.
[Dávgon]Fine. Go.
[Armas]Ramidreju healing rubs?
[Dávgon]Only would buy time, not really a solution.
[Armas]Chakra-capable masseuse with a history of being able to flush energy from customers?
[Dávgon]Too much force requirement-would shatter bird's body.
[Armas]Drain myself of magic?
[Dávgon]Sure while drained you wouldn't contribute to filter issues-but that's not really a solution either.
>>391251
[Armas]Killjoy. Say I had a Soul Shadow, and a Demiplane: could pulling the bird's spirit into the plane while it sleeps help?
[Dávgon]On paper maybe. Problem is that it'd get a big old lump of overbleed the moment it's soul goes back to it's normal place-that's no good.
[Armas]How about mucking with time? Say, give the bird more time to filter, myself less time to oversaturate it?
[Dávgon]You do know how prohibitively expensive time-based charms are, right?
[Armas]Not specifically, actually. Ballpark?
[Dávgon]What?
[Armas]Rough estimate.
[Dávgon]Enough to buy a castle.
[Armas]Right. Outside the box time here-what about vampirizing the bird?
[Dávgon]How is that an idea you think of? Do you have a vampire on hand in your service so this isn't a horrible idea?
[Armas]Technically-sort of.
[Dávgon]Okay. So. Then I guess that could work, BUT the bird would have to drink your blood-like all the time. Would have to use blood as filter substitute.
[Armas]How much blood are we talking?
[Dávgon]A liter or more a day.
[Armas]Huh. Say I had a skilled Fleshcrafter on hand for the vampirization and check ups-that help?
[Dávgon]Sort of. It'd let you make sure the bird could stand sun-which would otherwise be a problem. It'd also let it become a more mature vampire-derivative right from the start.
[Armas]Okay-and say I had someone skilled and potent enough in magic to be a third party filter-could that work in the long term?
[Dávgon]If they just stick around forever, yes. Though, probably not as good a solution as personal energy drain.
[Armas]Why's that?
[Dávgon]More likely for you to find a way to solve saturation issue from your end than if someone else is doing things.
[Armas]I'd also be magicless.
[Dávgon]Last I heard you have a company and plenty of heavy hitters around.
[Armas]That your professional opinion?
[Dávgon]Given Einrik's comment about what to expect of you as a student? Absolutely?
[Armas]What'd he say?
[Dávgon]Afraid I can't do that-no really, I can't actually state it.
[Armas]So. Drained state?"
[Dávgon]You presented no better alternative save heavy investment, like a time or buffer charm-so yes."
[Armas]Alright. See you when you get here. Thank's for the talk.
[Dávgon]Sure. Good to get a better sense of where you're at, even if vicarious.

Hm....

>>391282
Oh, hey-SB.
>"Yes?"
You see any dick cops when scoping the buildings out?
>"Define assh... ah, an appropriate scapegoat. Yes, I saw one-and I did see the license plate of the car he drove since it got smeared in sahagin blood at some point-and I heard the number he dialed when calling home."
You know where he lives? His name?
>"No, and Achmed Yilmaz. And yes, I got the spelling too."
That should be enough-let's see, Andrei could do faked telephone logs, unusual deposits in his accounts once we know what they are, subsequently close the account, buy a plane ticket and convert the funds to something more easily trafficked.... Andrei will know something, anyway we can also make some notes on the computer-simple encrypted shit, or maybe in code, point being easily broken-and paint a picture of the cop being on the payroll of someone nefarious that wanted the weapons stolen from police custody-and wanted a certain Agent off the field. Oh-the ticket, whereever he's going, we can fake an internet girlfriend he's moving to meet with-more motivators never hurt.
>"That... could work. I'd think we want some actually corporeal evidence at his home-which I assume would be my area."
Yup. You got it, or want any thoughts?
>"No, I've got it. I'll... compromise him, even if most of the electronic evidence doesn't pan out."
Awesome.
>>391432
I get up, grab a plate of bland eggs after putting on a purple leisure suit with my signature tie, make a face and splash hot sauce on the plate. ...On every plate, even as Boris makes more. Come on man-where's the flavor? ...I think he'll get the hint.
>>391471
>>391485
>>391488
>>391507
>>391527 HUMMINGBIRD APPROVED FANART
After having some food, I start multitasking a bit-working on the still utterly unsuccessful and still completely draining practice at running dual Orientations-and while doing so, spend some more time with Silja, because dammit tickling her as a rifle was funny shit. Seems my plan to distract her from the wierdness of seeing through a blood covered blade via ticklage worked just fine-she doesn't even fuss when I wipe a bit more on her (happy for the excuse to do a mite of Hybrid healing and keep the drain going). Eventually I get around to asking her what she thinks of the place, having walked the mansion's halls with her in my arms, and have an interesting exchange.
>[Silja]"It's so.... vast. I feel like we shouldn't be here-this has to be a place for nobles!"
"You know, funny you say that. This vampire guy had it all- did I tell you about this? He was supposed to be helping me out, but cheated me out of a gun I was trying to buy from him and then tried to have me killed. Didn't count on me being able to outfight him, heh. And now it's all mine. Any particukar place you want to see again?"
>[Silja]"Let em look out of the windows, I want to see.... want to see."
"A glance at the world as it is now from the heart of a modern city? As you will."

Silja's more than happy to look-and give me a solid, uninterrupted three hours to just dump every bit of energy I have in working (to know perceivable avail) on my Dual Orientation attempts. By the end, all I really think I've learned is to be a bit more comfortable trying to start two at once-completely separate from, you know, actually SUCCEEDING. My energy levels plummeting, and Silja starting to look a bit restful-hey, I get back to that gunshow.
-I show her the television, and do my best to explain what it is. Then the refridgerator-and computers, and the internet, and.... well, I won't really say she understood most of it-really ANY of it, but I AM sure she's excited about it. Kind of odd that Note Dude doesn't seem to have mentioned a single piece of technology to her-but she seems to know a bit about international events? Odd.
-I decide not to show her what she looks like, and instead liberally recoat her blade with blood, and prop her up by a window on the third floor to people watch, per her request. Seems she's kind of aware she won't like what she sees, if she sees-well, herself. For right now-I can live with that.

Or I COULD HAVE, had she not seen her reflection in the glass a few minutes in. So-I improvise.
"Hey, no sadness allowed. I warned you that you were trapped in a gun- you think I spend my time talking to you because I don't believe in you? You've come so far already."
>[Silja]"Am I a gun? No... what AM I?"
"You're like a seed, all right? Sure, it doesn't look much like the flower it's going to be eventually right now- but it splits open, sends out little shoots, and grows into something beautiful. You're the same way. Only a blind person couldn't see that you're coming back- look, you've got ribs, spine, hips are coming in- it's just a matter of time. It's more noticeable every time you eat something, you know- and I'm making arrangements to try and move that faster. Give it a month or two and you'll bloom too, I promise."
She doesn't respond-but, she also doesn't react aversely to my attempts to reassuringly stroke her.

Which is when I feel Lyubov on the prowl, looking for me. Damn, is morning training over already?

Unwilling to let her see me like this with Silja, I reassure my Rifle that I'll make it right and soon enough it'll all be okay, set her down by a less reflective window-and march out of the room. I catch Lyubov in her hunt, and find out she's.... got some stuff going on. She may have... begged.... me for something. I'm a bit hazy on it now-not too sure what to do when people just... up and make themselves vulnerable at me. Feels like cheating to be a dick to them then. Anyway, I think I said yes-so I'll have to live with that.

That done-I catch Camella before she heads out for Ito's, spotting Satai leading Hillevi aside in my peripheral as I finally ask a question that's been bugging me.
"Hey, Camella. You want to talk?"
She frowns, purses her lips while nearly averting her gaze, and adopts a more reclined posture, as if unwilling to be willingly close to me.
>[Camella]"I don't know, I've got these guys I've got to train and-"
>[RRRRRR Trait activated.]
I'm not buying that.
>[MMM,MMM M Trait auto-activated. ]
"Camella-no, you know what... How about this: Word is you're acting troubled, and talking about it might make you feel better. I would be happy to take a stab at the good-friend thing and listen. I'll even avoid saying anything rude for the entire conversation."
She responds to my tone, like that of a man offering his pregnant wife the world's only quintuple chocolate caramel mousse fudge pie cake.

She.... she smiles, a flickering shadow that traverses her face nearly too swiftly to be caught, before looking away.
>[Camella]"....Thanks, really, but.... maybe later?"
"Well, I won't press. Offer stands if you want it later."
Once again, her face makes ware with itself as a few dozen possible reactions to that vie for dominance-and she settles on a decidedly.... Lyubovian glassy smile, nods and heads out the door to catch up with the Russians-despite the fact most haven't left yet.
>[Hummingbird]"And you said she is not your mate?"
>[Sake]"Yeah, she totally wants it.
>"Listen to your sister Armas."
>[Sake]"...Oh, OH, YOU ASSHOLE. Did you just-
>"I went there, yes."
>[Sake]"You dickless killjoy.
>"Yorkshire-based Shadow-Silence]"
>[Sake]"[The sound of a weasel not squeking, snuffling or chittering]"
>"You know this is war, bitch."
>[Sake]"I didn't know we were at peace, eunich.
>[Iron Trick]"Aaaaand I now have a new favorite thing to be audience to."

>>391508
Since Camella finished scarpering while I was... distracted, I continue draining out my magic-I think I'm about halfway there, maybe-and hunt down Duke. Not hard really-he's watching.... Jersey Shore... in the living room. Remembering Einrik's words, I take a bit (half an hour) to come up with some Iambic Pentameter compliant rhymes.... and bust them out.

Duke turns to look at me wordlessly as if a retarded child just tried to shit out its own heart.

....That... wasn't the reaction I expected.
>[Duke]"What crawled up your ass? Someone plant some shit in you to give you that flowery speech?"
.....That beautiful bastard: He faked me out-he never talked to Duke about ANYTHING-that was all just... bullshit.

Yeah, I need to shake his hand next time I see him. That was well fucking played.
>>391535
Right. On to business.
"Duke, I'm building a golem."
He looks at me like a child proud of it's first ejaculate and naively showing off.
"Specifically, a golem based on the doononegas heart, the body of a vampire turned nazinaut, a set of those nasty poison glands from the dooney, the best armor I can get, some decidedly specialized bloodwork, and the guts of, well, you. If you'll help me, I mean."
Now he's looking at me with some actual interest-but still clearly waiting for my point.
"See, when I walked in on you in the bathroom, I had an epiphany. Your shit stinks. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's downright deadly. I want to set up a golem that can do the same, and spray that shit everywhere."
He preens over the complement, and I already know I've got him.
"So, I was wondering, could I get a sample the next time Gianni is here? I could ask Sake to help you heal up, too. I know it's no simple thing to give so freely of yourself, but you'd be lending me a, well not a hand. More like a bit of a bowel, and a gallbladder, and a spleen.... Some stomach, and a chunk of liver to let this thing cope with the massive load that it's going to have on its circulatory system."
>[Duke]"So pretty much my whole digestive system gets sampled, huh? It's funny-and wild enough I could get behind it-but I'd need an oath for it-can't have my flesh going anywhere but where I want it, you know?"
"A reasonable request. I can personally guarantee that I won't use your parts for any purpose against you, no spells, no rituals; in fact I'd treat them the way I'd want my parts to be treated. I'll talk to Gianni about ways to make sure nothing escapes our control too. There might be ways to make it rot to dust if it's not attached to the golem."
>[Duke]"If you can make MY flesh rot just from touching your golem-hell, I'd PAY to see that. ..Sure, let me know when you're doing some work, I can shit out some stuff for you to work with whenever you want, heh."

And there it is-Duke's shit, the most caustic, vile thing I've yet learned exists, is now available for use with my beast. Sweet. Now... it's mid-afternoon, and I wonder:



What the hell else should I do?
[SAME DAY: NO NEW MINION ORDERS CAN BE INPUTTED]
No really I'll flat out ignore them. Want to get the rest of the day up within the next 24 hours-so just focus on Armas.

>>391607
Another option is to go see Cornelius (>>391224) and get the Heart plan done, and include the Hummingbird. We may want to touch base with Davgon first (or not, it's supposed to be a company secret), but the Heart should ensure the bird gains our agelessness, and we can move energy around better between Heart members.

Also, might as well check on the Grand Bazaar armorsmiths. We're going to need some quality engineering on the golem tubing since we'll want to integrate it underneath/inside the armor: it's an obvious weakpoint, even if the tubing is armored. And the shunt going from Duke's flesh to the tank needs to be ABSURDLY strong and resistant to heat. So we can either build it large and shrink it down (least attractive option, adds a lot of weight), find some magical metal capable of handling the shit, or maybe a fire mage to vent the heat into the phoenix hearts (the psi and chemical resistance is possible with modern alloys, the heat requirements, not so much).

Best take it easy for the rest of the day Call up Hamlet, see if he wants to meet up to discuss his work make sure to have to bullets on hand for that. Depending on his schedule either before or after that head over to that place Igor spoke of, using the twin techniques of talking your way up and soul-evaluation you should be able to find someone that knows whats up, hopefully this will be the start to a remedy for the flaw in the golem Gianni pointed out

Continue Draining the bloodlines, but ration it to coincide with when you want to head to sleep. On the subject of Dual orientation try out all of them to see which have the least overlap, two likely options are open and stealth, and soulsense and reinforcement. Ask HB to give you a quick burst of it to try and get into the rhythm, pay close attention to your soul when that happens

>Asking Duke in awesome rhymes if his true Nature is a Dragon Dick. Be bummed when realizing Einrik troll, and forgetting what you were talking about.
Einrik troll was awesome, but there was no reason to not continue asking his true nature. By now, Duke probably like you enough to answer now, and we want to win that bet with IT, if only to feel good about our awesomeness. Do that.

>give me a solid, uninterrupted three hours to just dump every bit of energy I have in working (to know perceivable avail) on my Dual Orientation attempts. By the end, all I really think I've learned is to be a bit more comfortable trying to start two at once-completely separate from, you know, actually SUCCEEDING.
Armas Armas Armas- it seems you are thinking of chakra training as too much of a 'chore' lately. You really shouldn't do that. Not only does it give you nice power, but it also has some 'fringe' benefits. You know, the kinds you love. Remember how each time you sparred with Camella she ended up training that much harder later on, and came back with nifty new tricks? That soul quirk and her sudden renewed focus on chakra (that punch HURT)? Remember how, each time, you could be argued to have 'won'- first by more or less winning but knowing you couldn't 'win', and the second time by having the result of Camella hitting you be Camella unable to go on fighting. Not only are those spars with all the new tricks you show up good for yourself, but they are a magnificent troll for Camella- and a troll that HELPS her. What's not to love?
As such, Armas should make sure he is convinced that having the dual-orientation pat down would be a nice beginning for the next session of “troll-help Camella”. Likewise, given how recurrent the 'troll-help' is, it should now be considered a hobby. Armas should maybe ask for SB to “refresh” his memories of what it felt like to manage to enter that orientation when he was using HB's help, as well as 'refresh' his memory of what his soul looked like. If you need to bribe SB, tell him that you would try to get to a constant Stealth/soul-sensing dual orientation as a goal.

>Seeing Ghanem, seeing Cornelius or other dangerous people today.
SUST, we are trying to drain energy and maybe get that boost in efficiency Einrik told us about. Probably one of the things we wouldn't have learned for decade is 'caution believing Einrik', but even then I doubt that it will actually work on our awesome risk-taking!

>Golem
-Got to Kardemir steel plant with Igor (sorry guy, need you) and Sataias bodyguard, as well as Hillevi (if she could fileter hummingbird, it would be great. Also, ask her how hard it is, and how long of a NN bubble overload does she think she could deal with it. Try to follow up that weird noise stuff, as well visit more normally. While with Satai and Hillevi, ask them what they were doing together earlier. Upon learning Hillevi is mentoring Satai on Chakra, be impressed at Satai's opportunity grabbing and fast talking, but that won't stop you from trolling him. Give Hillevi express permission to train him as hard s she likes as long as he doesn't die permanently . He has to do what she says, yadda yadda, if he complains blah blah. This should also remind Armas to continue trolling lyubov during her own 'lessons'. Should step up the difficulty a notch- can't get Hillevi be 'better' than us, can we?
>-He has me flick the Nazinaut out of stasis for a bare instant to measure how it decays, and spends another twenty minutes tweaking the pseudobody. While he does this, I get a text from Ricky, saying they're currently out of the country, but should be back in a day or so.
-If Ricky and Lucy are back (text him), they should be willing to help for the whole project (at least) in exchange for some Doony blood. Try to text them, as they could begin the next step into making the golem. Try to get in Gianni on that too- he might like a opportunity to show their craft, if they'd allow it.

If Gianni came and saw Dunter work, get him to give you a lesson on epi (summer drainage!). Continue to get drained.

>Yeah, I need to shake his hand next time I see him. That was well fucking played.
We REALLY need to have a very solid troll for when he gets back. The most delicious I could see is 'make Hillevi do that troll'. If we were able to teach Hillevi how to be manipulative, as well as greatly improve her skills, I am sure we could find a way for Hillevi to utterly confuse Einrik. And, if there is one person Einrik WON'T expect to be outdone by when it comes to 'skill' or 'mental/social traits', it's Hillevi. Having Hillevi mentor Satai is a good beginning. Armas should watch closely how she does it, and give “advices” from time to time. How to convince him to do stuff he doesn't like, how to 'read' how he works, etc. After all, Mentoring is a part of clan relations that Hillevi knows is important. Likewise, having Hillevi come when we teach Lyubov could help- give her pointers, and so on.

>[Armas]Killjoy. Say I had a Soul Shadow, and a Demiplane: could pulling the bird's spirit into the plane while it sleeps help?
>[Dávgon]On paper maybe. Problem is that it'd get a big old lump of overbleed the moment it's soul goes back to it's normal place-that's no good.
>[Armas]Okay-and say I had someone skilled and potent enough in magic to be a third party filter-could that work in the long term?
>[Dávgon]If they just stick around forever, yes. Though, probably not as good a solution as personal energy drain.

We can combine these two plans. SB can keep HB's soul in the demiplane. One a day (or twice) hilevi tethers to act as a filter... she then gets hit with lump of energy which she can handle...

Of course, for safety reasons we should start off slow. First attempt to have her tether and intercept the lump after a mere minute to make sure she can even do it. Then try with increasing amounts of time to ensure that the fact it comes up as an instantaneous lump does not overwhelm her. But overall I think we got a short term solution. It only requires her to spend a few minutes a day on it, she can do it for the year she is here, we could probably compensate her somehow... and in that year we could focus our chakra training towards becoming good enough to filter ourselves (especially with aid from SB who will also get better in that year).

Armas made a Deal. Armas takes his Deals very serious. We have a job to do for Ironhead, we promised we would do it, it wasn't an open job open like with Lo Fang and his sword mission. We actually told him we will complete it in a week. We made the deal on 22th, Saturday. We have till 29th, Saturday. Today is 28th Friday.
We have made almost zero progress on this job. What the hell?!
We have exactly one day to complete it. And it is not the matter of reward: a tank is cool and all but I can live without it. It's the matter of principle, we made a deal and we are on a fast-lane to break it. Hell, we might lose our Word Like Gold trait if we do not keep our promise.

Forget about everything else! Focus on this job.
First of all, we need to inform our employees. Call Matvey and Camella (maybe Hillevi too). Tell them about the mission, everything we know. Maybe they will come up with a plan, maybe not, but we need to tell them. Hell, we should have told them immediately instead of dicking around.
We could send SB to investigate, but I think he has already (the goods are in 3 different storages and all of them are warded, right?). Although he could search other information, like the security details, the people who guard the place, etc..
If we are particularly desperate, we could force Adelat to break her NDA and use her knowledge and position to complete the job.

If we REALLY want to train chakra or something today, finalize the deal with SM to get that NN bubble (make sure that we can bring other people in it who can train us), set up the Hillevi-filter like we did with Redcaps and train for a 10 days or so (also, make sure that we don't have to use all of NN-time in one go).

>>391692
Given there ARE magical wards, we probably don't want to actually break in today when we're leaking chakra like a sieve and not at our best.

Either way, we should NOT tell them about planning to rob the police. Putting aside Camella's possible reaction, none of them are as sneaky as we are. We do this, at most, with one russian as a van-driver to store the goods. And really, I'd rather Sake was our getaway driver, for the lulz.

>>391720

I reject your plan and substitute my own.


If we're going after the weapons from the police:

[primary]
0) Change your face and steal a clean disposable mobile phone.
1) Sneak inside an appropriate senior officer's office, using goblin stealth. Have SB monitor the chosen officer and learn his password (possibly by resetting the computer or something when he's not looking). Send an order to each evidence store that they should collect the appropriate high security vans and prepare for transport to the Samandıra Army Air Base for transport to Ankara for forensic examination at the Türkish Criminal Police Laboratories. Send e-mails about a transfer of evidence from high security facility to security services. Send an order to release police vans from transport pools to officers with {insert eight fake names}. Forward senior officer's phone to disposable mobile.
2) Print out inventory if we can find it, as well as evidence handling procedures.
3) Print out orders in office to collect evidence and vans
4) Have Amen create cop uniforms, fake badges (with fake names from above), face-altering charms (with long-dead Turkish faces), and masks designed to look like the charmed faces.
5) Brief 8 Russians on procedures (if available) and give them print outs of orders. Pick the Russians who are the least tired, most able to bullshit and drive.
5) Have the Russians collect the police vans from the transport pool.
6) Russians drive to the evidence warehouses.
7) Get the guards to ring senior office to confirm. Sake will answer the phone, in Turkish, and say "Yes, of course it's all approved," in the voice of the chosen officer. Have him mimic a Turksih prostitute talking in the background.
8) Russians load vans, and escape, no one the wiser.
9) Transfer stolen goods to your vanduras fleet in privacy, at the German building the Mafia busted up awhile ago. Leave the police vans there, bring vanduras fleet home. Repaint all of them.

[trickster]
1) Same as [Primary] with the exception that we have the police do the moving instead of our Russians.
2) Amen should create a passable heavy goods vehicle license for Armas
2) Wearing a false skin and hair color, Armas should "borrow" a big rig. If any Russian can drive one (Feodor), they should come with us.
3) We should park up by the side of the road to the airbase, lying in wait.
4) We should redirect as much of our chakra power to SB as we can.
5) SB tells Whaitiri he's planning to feed her some magic from wards, os would be very grateful if the shadowmere is capable of cutting and eating them.
6) When the vans arrive we drive alongside them on the motorway and SB attacks the wards with the shadowmere, and when they're down teleports the contents to the big rig.
7) We go to the German building to do the transfer.

[Heavy]
0) "Borrow" a big rig. Bring Feodor to drive it, put him in disguise.
1) We have Shadowbro seal off the sewer vents on the police lockup buildings. We then have him establish a back-flow, making the toilets spew literal geysers of shit.
2) With no good way to stop the high pressure leaks, the police will be forced to take action to ensure that the storage rooms aren't damaged. Even if they don't move anything out, they'll be distracted.
3) With them distracted, you'll be able to move around (in disguise of course) and non-lethally disable the guards on site, one by one.
4) Break into the rooms with either stolen keys or Sake's help. Break the wards with the shadowmere, and have SB move everything to the waiting big rig truck.
6) We go to the German building to do the transfer.

[Escape]
1) Admit you're not going to get this fully done today.
2) Pack up everything you have and get it to Ironhead.
3) Turn it in, point out this is the primo stuff, ask more time to get the rest.

>>391727 BUTTZ
Upvoting. Hillevi, Sake or SB might als be able to help open doors if heavy handed is needed.

>>391692
Oh shit. We REALLY need to get this done. Even if we just go in guns blazing, we NEED to find a way to work this.

I recommend an Italian Job. Go in via some kind of sewer or sub basement, then blow the damn floor out from under the goods and run off. Helicopter Chase optional.

>>391728
Upvote with comments and adjustments:

-Make sure that if we're blowing up random buildings, there aren't bystanders inside- scan the buildings, incapacitate anyone inside, remove them to elsewhere. Also consider stealing random potential valuables inside as loot, since it would just be destroyed anyway.
-The Russians don't look Turkish. This is suspicious even if they speak it and have the right papers- they need illusion charms or possibly fleshcrafting to look Turkish if we're sending them in and expecting them to bluff successfully.
-Get Sake or Hillevi to energize any Russians that we're sending on this job so that we know they're fully alert.
-Make sure that trace evidence of the Russians is eliminated if at all possible- that means that when we're done with the police vans, they get burned or otherwise purged of potentially recoverable/trackable data.
-If the Russians draw suspicion while inside the facilities (for primary) we cannot let them be arrested and seriously detained- these are our people and they both know too much and are ours to guard. Have ourselves and a second team on standby for a rapid assault/rescue if everything goes wrong; disguises are important for this because anyone caught on camera/identified will be tracked down by so much police hate forever that it's not even funny. Do not kill any cops, just disable, grab goods as quickly as possible and get the hell out- then teleport the goods into Sometimes Merchant's hands and vanish into the city; hopefully he'll be willing to take them once they're out of actual police territory.
-Do not let Hillevi anywhere near this job. If she is identified assaulting a mortal government Marrku will probably kill us.

>>391636
First things first-Igor's busy, I get that. But.... there's armorsmiths in this city. And Satai's the quartermaster. So.... I leave both of them a note in their room, asking (not telling) them to look into Grand Bazaar armorsmiths-I'll check on Kardemir myself soon enough, but it can't hurt to check on more. I wonder when they'll get to it.
>>391642
That done I call Hamlet to check in with him, and see about getting him some new bullets. Funny thing, seems I caught him while he was shopping in the neighborhood-so I grab twenty reaper rounds (leaving me 38) and have a quick jaunt out to hand them off to him in passing-all said and done, the phone call, the handoff and the return home take ten minutes.

>>391692
Now, I WANT to go to Kardemir-buuuut I kind of have a job that's gotta be done by the end of tomorrow that's still pending.
>"I've planted some rather compromising evidence at the individual's domocile. If you can get people to investigate, irrelevant of whatever other proof will exist they will be certain he is a criminal and not one of their own."
I'd ask for details but I've still got the physical end of things to resolve. Hm.

Thinking ahead, I make a quick call.

With that done, I round up Matvey and Camella by meeting them at Ito's, and give them the skinny. Camella rather immediately questions if the gear we already appropriated is included in Ironhead's deal-
>[RR Trait activated]
>[GG Trait activated]
I Smile at her and say that the 'deal will be altered as necessary to insure that's not the case'. I have little doubt I can convey to Ironhead that since I took it before he even made the job offer, it OBVIOUSLY is mine, and not part of the police collection of loot-and as such is exempt. I'll make him see the light.

>>391727
>>391736
When they ask my for my plan, I lay it out for them-just as the person I called pops in at Ito's-Flouncing through the door like a one-woman stripshow, he doesn't even say anything-and with a delightful smile, play-slaps me. I fake a heavy stagger from the blow, obscuring my face as I feel bones shift and my throat tingle-before turning back to Camella and Matvey sporting a decidedly generic Turkish face. I catch the phone Gianni tosses me, and wave him off, taking note of his lecherous comment he wants to handle my 'special meat' some more soon. Acting completely oblivious to the incredulous looks I'm getting, I clear my throat, and in a new voice explain that I'll be doing a bit of reconnaissance and prep, but that ultimately, what I need everyone else to do is figure out who among them is best suited to bullshit and drive-I need some fake cops to drive around. Camella says nothing at this, clearly setting her mind to discerning what details I've worked out and what I've yet to set in stone about the plan-but not commenting beyond getting confirmation I'll call and inform everyone when we're actually rolling-so they have time. Matvey verifies that this is not meant to be a conspicuous job, and that only small arms are advisable, and yes, there will be uniforms, and names that should work out. On his request, I call ahead and tell Amen to work with the Russians once they figure out which eight will be drivers-and craft disguise charms for them following the recipe we'd previously discussed and house blood stock. While Camella finished explaining to Ito how all his military teachers need to stop early today, I see the old man grimace but acquiesce without objection.

Okay, they'll be ready-now, on to my shit.

I've got my face changed and I have a disposable mobile phone that once belonged to a recently discovered and recently removed snitch. SB-you spot any officers living near the buildings?
>"People with the ability to grant access and such? I saw one older individual that wore a spotless, medal-decorated dress uniform the whole day. I would assume he would suffice."
Mind leading the way?
>"Follow me."
It's not even thirty minutes later that, uncharacteristically clad in unflashy clothes, dressed as a simple police officer, I arrive at Officer Fancypants' place, and with SB's aid let myself inside without the need for doors. I'm not there long-just long enough to confirm that yes, indeed he really WOULD keep his password written on a sticky note on his home pc, with two sets of login credentials. That'll do. Still alert for any untoward attention settling on me, I make my way to the nearby precinct building, verifying with SB it's one of the four locations housing the targeted goods, and make my way, vis-a-vis some Goblinic stealth, to Fancypants' office. He's still occupying it-for another ten minutes that is, before he glances at the clock and heads on out. With him never noticing me, I seat myself at his computer, and successfully login on the second attempt-okay, let's see what I can do here.

....Ok, I think I just sent an order to each evidence store that they should collect the appropriate high security vans and prepare for transport to the Samandıra Army Air Base for transport to Ankara for forensic examination at the Türkish Criminal Police Laboratories. ...That, or I did it in a test environment for group notification. ...I do it in the second application to, just to be safe.
-I send e-mails about a transfer of evidence from high security facility to security services.
-I send an order to release police vans from transport pools to officers with eight names I scribble down as I make them up.
-I forward senior officer's phone to the disposable mobile.
-I don't find an inventory list, but I do manage to find-and print- an evidence handling procedure document twenty times. That should work for handouts, I hope.
-After finally seeing the orders are actually posted in-system now, and not just on the officer's computer, I print out orders in office to collect evidence and vans, respectively. ...Damn, that's a slow system, took like five minutes to actually get inter-department orders posted.

Well, that should do it for that. I head out the door, stay nonchalant and don't shy away from cameras. No one pays any attention to the completely generic cop moving about in the background-the impressively uninteresting Soul Guise I threw up isn't hurting either. The moment I'm out the door, I'm calling Amen and Matvey alike (I love the high-end model's ability to internally host a conference call) and give out the names I made, explain the gist of the plan now that it's in motion-and make sure Amen and Matvey both know I expect them to successfully garb and prepare the chosen-doing so without giving Amen a new order and with it a new binding. I take my time walking back, admiring the clouds and their pastel coloring as the sun starts to set.

I get back, hand out the procedure documents and orders to the eight that step forward-noting Zhenya, Matvey, Satai, Andrei, Feodor, Dmitrii, Titus and Boris as the chosen. It's a bit strange seeing them-all LOOK nothing like normal, the charms already made and active, but their souls are still the same-and, cool thing, looking a LITTLE less likely to pop. I also take some time to explain to Camella we'll need the Vanduras to meet us at the German warehouse we hit a while back for hand-off, even noting it'll probably be more than one load per van. Once everyone's read the document and the orders over once, I pile them all up in one of the vans, and have a bit of nostalgia as I drive a Vanduras through the city, dropping them off nearby before letting Sake, who whined the entire time, try his hand at driving the van back to the mansion. It's not connected to me by a paper trail, and the fuck do I care if he wrecks a Vandura?

So, I wait, leaned up against the wall of a nondescript alleyway, my bird and my shadow for company, looking at the disposable phone in my hands. Sure enough-it rings. Yeah-call forwarding. Shit's awesome-especially when you slap that on someone's desk phone then silence it.
>[Turkish Officer][In Turkish]"Captain Demir? Can you confirm a set of after-hours orders?"
I look at SB-who rises to the challenge with a gruff, weathered voice he throws out of the shadow in my mouth.
>[In Turkish]"The vans?"
>[Turkish Officer]"Yessir, to be distributed to-"
>"I just verified I knew what orders you're talking about. Give those eight their vehicles unless you want to explain why transport was delayed through the weekend."
We are rewarded with the sound of frantic hustle and bustle, of people desperately trying to NOT be the ones left explaining a fuckup to the higher ups. I watch the eight vans head out, splitting off in pairs en route to the respective warehouses. I wait to see if anyone challenges their orders to pick up the weapons-and am not disappointed.

>[Turkish Officer][In Turkish]"Captain Demir? Can you-"
>[In Turkish]"Read the orders-yes, I approved the transfer to Samandıra Army Air Base and beyond. Any more questions?"
>[Turkish Officer]"No Sir."

A few minutes later-another call. Then another. I never get called on the fourth set of orders-and after I get a brief call from Matvey confirming all pickups were made, I get them headed to a new location, where the rest of the Russians are in waiting along with Camella-and Hillevi and Duke as backup. Just in case anyone gets 'lucky'. I almost wish someone will.

First, I get a call from Camella, confirming the vans arrived. I confirm she's on track for using the Vanduras to get things home-and even find out that Sake made his merry way out to meet up with Lyubov-so we've got the full five at out disposal.

About ten minutes later, I start getting calls from decidedly more 'official' individuals checking on the orders. Yeah, seems they noticed-but what good will it do? In fifty minutes the last of the loot'll have been moved to the mansion, and the police vans will be... deconstructed.

So really, all I have to insure is that no one finds the police vans within 50 minutes-and make sure I'm not caught with this phone. So....

Long Story short, I invent a bit of a sex scandal I, officer fancypants, got caught in while being called, and keep that story going for twenty minutes, eating up time. Eventually though, all things come to an end-as I see police spreading from the nearby building looking for someone.

So I give my Goblinic stealth and Soul Guise techniques a workout-and spend a half hour just... wandering out of the grasp of an ever-closing police cordon. Eventually the voice on the phone drops all pretenses of believing I'm the officer, and is getting rather irate as SB continues to boldfacedly lie-and I keep dancing out of sight. After a final glance at my watch, I switch to Reinforcement, briefly stopping my dual orientation attempts, and shatter the phone in my hand-and drop the pieces.

SB promptly shadowports them randomly into the sewer below to be washed away. Let's see them find that.

I continue to enjoy the surreal sense of being alone in a crowd as I just keep stepping where no one's looking and march my ass back home. On my return, I find a massive pile of weapons in the foyer-thankfully invisible from the outside-confirm the Police Vans were set on fire and then chucked in the sea, and that all the Vanduras have now been repainted by Amen a certain, discerning shade of Orange.

While everyone's looking pretty smug about a job easily done, I abruptly remember something while looking at Lyubov-and decide now's a great time to say it.

"SO-Quick announcement everybody, but it recently came to my attention there's some new news about Chugainov you all need to hear."
Well, THAT got their attention.
"As it happens, seems that, besides having you all listed as dead-he has had you all branded as traitors, and is now trying to make life miserable for your families back home. I KNOW-"
I have to raise my voice a bit at this point as bedlam breaks out-
"That there are questions you want to ask-but thus far I've only got some incomplete reports, and I can't really explain shit I don't know the details about, not unless you want a load of bullshit. You want to know more? Talk about it amongst yourselves, that's where I got the info from. And after you have your chat, if there's something that, as a group, you think I can do to help, let me know."

And with that, I skedaddle, leaving the resultant mess behind. ....Eh, it'll be good for them. Probably.

So I spend the rest of the night, ALL of it after Hillevi spends half an hour talking about how she's now teaching Satai-good for him I guess-getting back to work on Dual Orientations. I run out of juice just shy of midnight feeling so terrible I barely make it to my bed-with my last thought being that of wonder: Did I get the two orientations fully up that last time?


SATURDAY, JANUARY 29th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $465,475.04
BUSINESS FUNDS: $146,847.00
CASH: $9,170.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 2%
WINTER ENERGY: 13/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 8/50

I wake up at seven feeling horrible, use what little energy I have to get some brain coffee going-then abort my wakeup routine as I find my face is still different.

I spend the next hour trying to get my stubborn face to revert to normal before I finally succeed, and seriously wonder if Gianni made it harder to undo than necessary. ...Either way, not REALLY important, not really.

Not compared to the missed call and resultant voicemail from the Red Caps saying they're back-or the knowledge I've completed Old Ironhead's job.

...And I JUST NOW ran out of energy. Awesome. This.... feels weird as fuck.
















What should I do today?

First of all, of course you got the dual orientation running, and let no one tell you otherwise! So we’re out of energy now eh, well take it easy for a couple of minutes to make sure you’re not about to collapse. To bad we can’t run soul-sensing to see what’s changed, although now that you’ve already seen your soul perhaps you can manage it without additional aid? Worth a try. After that take a look at the connection you have to the Bros, HB in specific as now that the link isn’t getting flooded with energy you can see a picture of it in resting state and have an idea of what to shoot for later when you attempt to control the flow. If no revelations have descended from the high yet feel a bit ripped of and see if you have any specks of power left to manipulate, perhaps the lesson is when you only have a drop to work with you do so more carefully. If none of that works then forget about it for now and move on.

It’s time to call Ironhead and finish this deal, tell him it’s at your place and he should bring transport, but before he gets here we should be ready to squeeze a bit more from this guy. First have a the loot you originally got on the first run nearby the other loot in a pile that displays its value. Then cherry-pick through the new stuff for the choicest items (magic, high-value, rare, etc) and scatter those nearby the pile of the old stuff. When Ironhead gets here let him come in a salavitate over the goods for a bit, then tell him

“Unfortunately there’s a bit of a problem for you. You see that pile of goods I had already acquired before we ever made this agreement and so sadly are not available for purchase under it.”

Here you point to the pile of goods you originally acquired which just so happens to be very nearby all the best goods of the latest job as well.

“I realize you may have had your heart set on some of this stuff so I’m willing to amend the agreement to include it for a reasonable amendment of three-quarters market-value for everything.”

Be willing to go down to two-thirds or at most one-half for this bargain. Hopefully SB actually knows all of what's there so you don't get screwed here. Have the money sent to your personal account where it'll actually do some good due to arena gambling. Pay those involved a grand or two for the bit of help they provided

Apologize to duke about the lack of action and tell him your planning to start wiping out one of the organizations in istanbul in a couple of days, if he's interested there should be some entertainment there for him

After all that’s dealt with call up the red caps and tell them your building a beast of devastation, on the base of a beast already created for pure destruction, would they be interested in helping. Offer some doony blood for their assistance.

>I run out of juice just shy of midnight feeling so terrible I barely make it to my bed-with my last thought being that of wonder: Did I get the two orientations fully up that last time?

So, starving orientations might be a workable way to train dual orientation.

<Experimentation for Armas>
Start one chakra orientation. Then lower the charge it until it is just shy of collapse. Armas learned overcharging, undercharging shouldn't be that different, but easier. Hold that orientation there and slowly raise another undercharged orientation.
</experimentation>

I think the first step is to talk to Hummingbro and the rest of the Armasmind. Is HB not getting any of our chakra now? How does that feel? Does SB still have his own store of power separate from us? Are we getting any power bleed from them, or are we the only one with that problem?

>>391854
>First have a the loot you originally got on the first run nearby the other loot in a pile that displays its value. Then cherry-pick through the new stuff for the choicest items (magic, high-value, rare, etc) and scatter those nearby the pile of the old stuff. When Ironhead gets here let him come in a salavitate over the goods for a bit, then tell him

That goes against the Deal we made. We agreed to get him all the loot we steal from the police storage, picking up the good stuff and the pretending we had it before is deal-breaking.

I do agree to magically go over them to see if there are any magic weapons/items among them. If there are, we pick them and then later, when Ironhead comes we make separate deals with him to buy them. Of course, we are not obliged to tell him if they are magical. It is possible he will bring his own method of identifying magic items but he will be doing that in the Mansion, meaning that we can tell Amen to block and prevent him from identifying magical guns.
This and calling Ironhead should be the first things we do today. Tell IH that he is responsible for weapon delivery, give him a free tip that the police are on high alert too.

>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Wake up. First things first, didn't get a chance to check out that lesion yesterday. Look at it now. Be confused that it looks like he bit his cheek. Talk to Feodor about it, and also ask Boss if this is a sign of the whole 'exploding' thing and why weasel healing didn't heal that.
>Give laserdisc printouts to boss.
>Breakfast. Find it hot. Miss Dave's Insanity Sauce. Look into getting that, when free-time is had.
>Look into yesterday's headache with kitchen cameras because somefucker is going to regret that.
>Six hours of Chakra Murder Fun Time. Bring up the Wall with Camella between dyings. Find out why pushing harder doesn't work.
>Dojo Days. Ow.
> Pick up new 1TB External Hard Drive in stagger back from Dojo. Price should be about $80. If it isn't $80, it's time to practice haggling practice.
>Home again home again, jiggety jig. Also, lunch. See if Boris can do Chicken Vindaloo.
>Debate what is the most important thing to do - with all this weirdness, decide on finding out about that. Apologize to Lyubov and say that her computer will be checked later.
>After lunch, find Boss. Threaten him with floppy disc while asking his opinion on it. Broach the subject of finding out what is actually wrong with the disc and, if magical, bring up how to combat hacking that uses magic when our current computer is mundane and most of Andrei's skills are related to mundane hacking. Use 'fuck' a minimum of 25 times.
>Just to make sure, repeat this process with Shadow Boss. Use 'fuck' a maximum of 10 times. Breath more.
>If both Boss and Shadow Boss are not helpful in this, spend the rest of the six hours trying to find information personally.
>Almost forget dinner. Snag something cold and/or energy-bar-ish on the way out.
>Like Dojo nights they're harder then hard in a lot of strange ways.


>>391896
Have the Russians do that, then. Or, if we want to be honest, just go through the stuff and argue that the cut of what we want we have taken.

ROSTISLAV ORDERS
>Hear news about family
>Recall that Father only wants to see you dead or worse, and mother is already dead, be one of the few who don't give a shit about new info, until you realize that Pops might be looking for you
>Briefly regret being a scrappy bastard, father disowning you for not being able to control yourself, etc, regret fades as he realizes the awesomeness of current employ as well as safety of it
> Dropping teaching and paycheck - it's not very fulfilling, and approach Ito about that Chakra thing
>Decide against beating the shit out of rookie fighter clubs, continue to seek out stronger fight clubs for self-improvement

Ok, another day, another beast addition.
Call up the redcaps and invite them over to take a look and make deals to do some work on it now and in the future when we get the arms. Getting some fleshcraft training of your own while they do that would be incing on the cake. I think some of the purified doony blood would be a good place to start the bargaining. Put the blood on the metaphorical table and then make em an offer(1/3 or 1/2 I think would be good starts).
Ok, waiting for one more Phenoix heart. On that note, you really shouldn't be keeping the flesh of a SUMMER REGENRATOR in the fridge, no matter how much you like it. Instead put it over a fire and when it gets back to a nice fresh state, just leaving it on some hot coals would be good I think or something equally hot. If you can redirect sunlight to hit it directly it would do wonders.

Finally out of energy eh? good. When you don't have shit, you learn how to use it better, be more efficient, precise in your workings, unwavering in control. Of course, you are non of these things, so get cracking on the dual orientation training again. Start first with getting into the orientations separately with this little energy you have left. If you can manage those then you can get to the next step of switching them over rapidly and then focusing on your dual orientation, the final step.

Get Ironhead over to get all this loot out of your place, make sure nobody sees him enter.

Since you hardly wear it anymore your should give out your old 'dragonskin' armour to one of the russians, or get it Amencrafted(tm) to something classier with the same defensive capabilities.

[Zhenya orders]
-Hear about Chuganov, initially give no fucks. Think for a moment and realize that your family, minus mum maybe, wouldn't even care about what happened to you and just think of it as you dragging the family down more. Be pissed. Be pissed more when you realize you don't even know where your mum is, she could be suffering or still buggered off around the world somewhere. Remember dad's horrible death and the damn stupid fire that started everything in the first place get angrier.
-When you get home from training at Ito's be too pissed to grab your nap even though kind of tired, elect to do some shooting instead.
-Retain enough presence of mind not to grab the company bullets, instead grab your own bullets and your 2 EMF Hartfords and the season guns you have been training with.
-Get steadily more pissed as you keep shooting as you cannot get the bullets out fast enough to satisfy your rage even if you have enough guns. Briefly wish you had enough hands to shoot them all or at least faster fingers.
-Imbibe heavily at Lunch in attemps to drown anger, fail.
-Get to Ito's night sessions and attempt to take out rage on opponents. Be pissed off when you are even easier to read like this and can't hit them even with your 6 arms.
-Realize you are drunk and seeing multiples, apologize to Ito and excuse yourself. Be more pissed that you let yourself get pissed over this foolishness.
-Get home along mapped saferoutes and pass out.

Matvey

Accept Ito's terms. The loss of pay isn't a big problem, but you will miss teaching and hope to return to it once you're not in danger of dying. Ask him if he would be ammenable to allowing a non-human guest in the next time everyone gets together for drinks. If he has any questions try to describe the Boss Weasel to him and assure him it's a nice enough fellow, great drinker, does impressions.

Stand in shock for a couple seconds at the bomb Armas dropped on you. Hastily attempt to organize a meeting so this issue can be dealt with appropriately. Be diplomatic and diffuse problems that arise as needed. Look to organize and develop proposed solutions into a report for the Boss as soon as possible.

Hope the Boss takes into account this particular dick move when he's dolling out bonuses.

Be entirely drained of energy due to the demands made of you from both the earlier mission you helped coordinate and handling your rightfully concerned comrades queries.

Feel terrible about your own situation with your parents, being a selfish idiot and out of contact when they needed you. About the trouble you've caused them and about not trying to find a solution until just now.

Wake up, wander the halls to try and find the Boss and give him the report of what group came up with last night, tell him you'll keep him informed.

At breakfast continue to puzzle over what teas and alcohol go together. Defer to Boris' judgement on the matter and if he has none forgo the tea entirely.

Locate Boss Weasel, ask if he would like to go out and meet some new drinking partners. Casually use magic words or 'free booze'

Go out during your lunch hour and purchase more ingredients for the next drinking session, prepare to pay several hundred dollars with the booze funnel weasel's pressence in mind.

Jump right into your new Chakra training schedule, attempt to get a good start and hit the ground running. When you fail at something continue being unflappable, getting back up and trying again until you get it right.

Work through the weariness that night as you hang out during the drinking session. See how things go. Talk with Lyubov about it when you get home.

Grisha Orders
-Be restive about her father's state, after all the bastard Monster General is sending hooks out for us, any way it is looked at this won't be good at all for his job as a mechanic.
-Curse Chugainov and his bloody shadow army a second time.
-Eat breakfast and what is this
-Get something to cut the heat of the meal. Decide to buy yoghurt to add to meals in future if smell is off.
-Try not to think of family issues at chakra training, not dying is immediately more important than that.
-Ask Andrei about his caffiene intake next time you see him.
-Pick up yoghurt after
-Instead of sleeping, search for news regarding your father. Curse Chugainov again, slimy bastard, sullying the memory of comrades fallen in that event.
-When that dries up, try to make sense of the mansion layout.

>>392243

Most all of this seems fine to me. We could expand the "teaching contest" to include an actual reward for Hillevi if Satai grows more than Lyubov does in the next couple of weeks. Something she'd appreciate, like goblin stealth training, or maybe just a request she can make that she feels is of commensurate value against the difference in growth and training between Satai, Lyubov, and the general population of Russians. The goal here is to make Armas not want to lose, and thus work to improve his own teaching abilities, as well as encourage Hillevi to make gains in her teaching technique.

ARMAS ORDERS

That was pretty good, dropping that emotional bomb on Matvey and Camella. You had to hear about it from Lyubov, of all people. Both of the officers should have let you know when they did. This is why we have telephones! Give your officers a conference call and say as much.

"Hey, I dropped that on your laps last night because I was pissed that I had to hear about it from Lyubov instead of you two. And I know she told you both already, I could see it in your faces. If that's what that meeting you wanted was about Matvey, then you need to make a point of saying stuff like 'urgent' and 'important to company morale.' I want a written report on what the plan is in my room, waiting for me to read before I go to sleep tonight. If you need my help with any aspect, let me know. Either way I want to review it before you enact it. We copacetic?"

"As long as I got both of you on the phone, anything else I need to hear?"

"Fine. I'll talk to you both later."

Give Ironhead a call, find out how he wants to perform the goods transfer. Tell him you could probably arrange a very discrete 3rd party to do the running if he doesn't mind paying the courier fee (talking about the wyld goblins here, but we don't want to give that away yet).

Give Adelat a call. We're just going to troll her a little. "Hey, I just wanted to call and make sure it's clear between us that your, eh, visit was not so annoying that it made me hate you or anything. Not that I ever did hate you, it was just a relationship that didn't really work out. Those happen."

"Uh. Wow, that's pretty mean, Adelat."

"Now hang on, I didn't-"

"But that's-"

"You done? Let me talk. Like I said, I am not the guy who put you on probation, and I sure don't deserve that kind of abuse. As far as I'm concerned, that warehouse is was an opportunity for me. If you want to whine about that because you think I'm a criminal, fine, but don't metaphorically spit on me while you're doing it. Even if you're too angry and irrational to be friends, we can be polite to each other."

"I went to the effort of calling you to, again, try being friendly. I don't like it when things end on a sour note, and honestly that was a pretty bitter parting. Can we agree to try to be polite at least?

"Thank you. Now, that whole incident made me start paying more attention to my news sources. Reporters, their informers, and the like, really. So I heard about that mess at the station last evening. It sounded like someone went and tried to frame old Captain Demir there, ruin his home life and his career. Is he in a similar boat as you, or what?"

"Huh. Well you think this mess will make them re-examine things? Maybe find that you're neither incompetent nor a criminal?"

"Well I wish you luck; hopefully they'll realize you're a keeper. I've got another question though. What the hell happened to all that evidence? No one's talking and if someone can just break into the police like that how the hell can I hope to keep my secrets secure?"

At this point she'll either say she doesn't know, since the department is in an uproar over it, or she'll do the obvious and snark about how Armas' secrets are all stupid anyway, perhaps with commentary on them, perhaps not. If that breaks the contract, say, "Holy shit, Adelat you agreed not to talk about that. You fucking idiot." Then try exercising whatever magic the goblins put in that contract to ensure that you can control the forfeited property. If there is no magic like that (seems unlikely) leave it alone for now. You'll want to pay her visit in person.

If she doesn't trip the contract, try to get legitimate advice out of her, and then end the call on a polite note.

Later, when you see Hillevi, propose the "teaching contest" as outlined in response to Arkeus' post. And you know what? You're going to make a point of doing really awesomely, because if you don't, you're going to owe Hillevi a pretty big favor. If you and Hillevi keep your teaching rates neck and neck, and both Lyubov and Satai make good progress ahead of the rest of the Russians, you'll have an excuse to provide Hillevi with a nice reward anyway (but not something outrageous).

Have Amen make clothes for Silja. "Make a garment for Silja based on the design of a nice pencil-skirt and office-appropriate top, with appropriate undergarments and a hat with a hole for the bayonet."

LYUBOV ORDERS

*Oh Boss, you so crazy. At least you’re making sure things happen.
*Look to Matvey and Camella for how to deal with this mess. Let them field most of the questions, they both know as much as you do.
*Notice how tight lipped Camella is being.
*Bring up the idea of sending messages through “this priest I know, he’s a good man, he is concerned always about rightness instead of piousness.”
*Volunteer to arrange more fake identities, if we need them.
*Be generally in favor of plans that involve evacuating the families.
*Afterward meeting and duties, swing by liquor store and buy a bottle of good wine ($45). Go home, visit Camella’s room. Drink with her if she agrees, and let her know you’re not angry or anything, that you understand she’s really busy and preoccupied, and that you’re glad Matvey and Armas were able to get things rolling. Make a point of deflecting any apology she offers. Putting things off was not a good thing, but it is what happened.
*Talk about your mom a little, mention you got Armas to agree to hire her if she wants a job as his secretary. Chat about whatever Camella wants to talk about. If she asks about the Communication for Couples books, admit it was you and apologize for overstepping bounds and misunderstanding.
*When things wind down, go to bed.
*Wake, seek out Sake weasel rub, examine his bling to see how well it’s holding up.
*Go on a jog, keep up with Camella. Today will be better than yesterday!
*Shower, breakfast, realize the breakfast is tainted with too much hot sauce. Eat cereal.
*Keep thinking about your mom, happy thoughts, while you do your chakra training.
*During training with Armas, answer his question, “I’m not really sure what it is, I mean you keep trying to embarrass me so maybe I’m sort of like that but I never though so and I’ve never had any boyfriends who were into weird things like, uh, that, and after all that excitement about the families last night I’ve been kind of distracted all day and…wait. Are you saying it’s just being distracted? Doesn’t matter what?”
*”Then why did you pick those distractions? Was that leer serious!?” Be mortified. Mortified, mortified, mortified.
*Go through with the training anyway, as long as it’s not outrageously horrible.
*Go finish writing your letter to mom, include Armas’ job offer and how he lets employees stay in his mansion.
*Research everyone’s family, as mentioned in the new articles.
*Eat dinner, ask Gloom if he wants to go to church with you on Sunday.
*Go to Night Lessons.
*On the way, notice Zhenya is wasted. Try to talk sense into her. Fail because Zhenya is a stubborn drunk.
*When Zhenya starts to see sense at the dojo, walk her home. Make sure she is safe. Help her, tuck her in, go back to the dojo.
*Keep looking for methods to keep yourself distracted while you train.
*Go home, talk to Sake about distraction techniques applicable.
*Go to sleep.

Gloom
* In meeting about family, urge caution, as the harassment they are getting now is nothing compared to what will happen if Chuginov gets proof we've defected. Doing nothing may be the least bad option until the attention dies down, and we can arrange an extraction.
* Ask Armas if he can find out if it's possible for a blood mage to use our parents' blood to track or effect us.
* Begin trying to practice the commander's way of moving, as you've seen it when performing live fire exercises as the first step of replicating his stealth. It's bound not to be all there is to it, but it might give a clue to what's missing. Politely ask Camella if she has any tips, as she's the only one who seems to be able to pin him down in a fight. If she can counter what he does, perhaps she can explain it. Make sure to mention to her that it would really give him a surprise when sparring if someone can pull his trick right back at him.

Armas
* Meditate on what the precise sensations of being out of energy are. Try repeatedly eating a small piece of magical meat to gain some summer energy whilst focusing on the process of consumption and assimilation, then spend it on flesh-crafting so you have none left again.
* It's also been a while since we left BC behind at the Valkonens. We should talk to the children again, and after finishing with them ask if they can get him on the line.
* You should spend a few hours today on the shooting range. You finally got back into the groove, and wouldn't it surprise Arkvad when he's in town for the mere repair to find you're actually competent, or even skilled. It should be very possible to scam a few beers out of him with some carefully chosen bets on the subject as well...

>>391854
SUST trying to cheat Ironhead - he may have access to police sources to get an inventory, and we'll have no way of telling.

>>392243
SUST going outside today, we're flat out of energy and we have no idea what the side effects will be after we stay in that state for a while. Einrik could well be trying to troll us.
SUST buying alcohol, the Russians can earn back drinking privileges when their souls aren't about to explode.
>Check every differences. Can we use Chakra? Can we see souls? Can we sense items? Can we attention-sense? How is our body feeling? Armas should ...
Upvote

>>392276
The competition sounds good, but we should set it up so that each week we both randomly select a student, and the one who's student has improved the most, as judged by HB, Sake, and Camella, wins.

>>391748
I'm just going to suggest two things you should do today, neither should even take that long. Pick up Silja and just talk to her. She's just been reintroduced to the world, we should see how she feels about getting more involved with it and interacting again. It's a delicate subject but this is important for her. How would she feel about getting the foot in the door for interaction with people again?

Then grab your phone and give Einrik a buzz. There was interest expressed earlier at the idea of having the skeleton of a Doonongaes grace their bone yard, but due to unfortunate circumstances they haven't been able to lay their hands on any intact bones. We are in the opportunity to remedy this. In trade for a significant portion of the skeleton we would ask for several things from his personal contributions to the yard. I'm thinking a good portion of spine and some ribs as the basis? See how much he'll offer for that and tweak the deal as required. In exchange for that we would like small portions from angelic class beings and those of a royal female with a bloodline who was or died a queen (This is to satisfy Meat of the Champions which does work with bones.). We want the highest quality he can offer, we don't need a whole skeleton a singular bone should do. We would also be interested in bones of female winter entities with human appearances, but unlike the first request we're prioritizing quantity over quality.

>>391854
SUST on cherry picking anything from his pile. We just went through a hell of a lot of effort to rush through a plot just to avoid breaking our word due to time frame. Don't try and lose us our Word Like Gold trait like this. Let's just check the inventory and do our own appraisal so we can get a rough idea of what everything is worth and what our cut should look like. If we want the good stuff we can make a list and point out to him what we'd like to buy later, he may oblige and let us get the first shot.

>>392276
This is going to look biased no matter what, but you're going to want to change the initial dialogue if you want to be at all consistent. Saying someone should tell you when they learned of something and then chastising them for your refusal to listen is kind of sending mixed messages.

And a genuine SUST to having Amen create Silja clothes right now, that just seems like it'll do more harm than good at this stage in her development.

IGOR
+Igor doesn't have family back in Russian, so is at first mostly feeling restless because of the sudden pain and anger he can feels around him.
+His second though is “why the fuck didn't we anticipate this? This is chugainov, after all. He then realize that getting drunk on freedom and 'power' helped him ignore the obvious.
+As he has a current request from Dick Boss, he is not going to have time to do much about it, and knows that as a somewhat-observer, butting in wouldn't be appreciated, so he resolves to see Dick Boss today and ask him if dick boss could order significant amount of alcohol.

>Asking Duke in awesome rhymes if his true Nature is a Dragon Dick. Be bummed when realizing Einrik troll, and forgetting what you were talking about.
Einrik troll was awesome, but there was no reason to not continue asking his true nature. By now, Duke probably like you enough to answer now, and we want to win that bet with IT, if only to feel good about our awesomeness. Do that.

>Golem
-Got to Kardemir steel plant with Igor (sorry guy, need you) and Sataias bodyguard, as well as Hillevi (We need to see her more, she is our ward. Ask her how hard it is, and how long of a NN bubble overload does she think she could deal with it. Try to follow up that weird noise stuff, as well visit more normally. While with Satai and Hillevi, ask them what they were doing together earlier. Upon remembering Hillevi is mentoring Satai on Chakra, be impressed at Satai's opportunity grabbing and fast talking, but that won't stop you from trolling him. Give Hillevi express permission to train him as hard s she likes as long as he doesn't die permanently . He has to do what she says, yadda yadda, if he complains blah blah. This should also remind Armas to continue trolling lyubov during her own 'lessons'. Should step up the difficulty a notch- can't get Hillevi be 'better' than us, can we?

>Yeah, I need to shake his hand next time I see him. That was well fucking played.
We REALLY need to have a very solid troll for when he gets back. The most delicious I could see is 'make Hillevi do that troll'. If we were able to teach Hillevi how to be manipulative, as well as greatly improve her skills, I am sure we could find a way for Hillevi to utterly confuse Einrik. And, if there is one person Einrik WON'T expect to be outdone by when it comes to 'skill' or 'mental/social traits', it's Hillevi.

>Armas manipulating Hillevi into using manipulation for teaching, and make a game of being a 'rival/mentor' to her when it comes to it.
Having Hillevi mentor Satai is a good beginning. Armas should watch closely how she does it, and give “advices” from time to time. Those advices should be centered on analyzing how Satai ticks, which should come from a combination of body language, actions and soul sensing. As Armas understood how to manipulate Lyubov into giving her all into learning, he knows it's possible, and Armas know he is godly at analyzing and manipulating people. It's simply logical he could also do that to make sure they give much more of themselves into training than they otherwise would be able to. For example, Satai has established patterns when it comes to learning (gain information, take action, repeat), but I am sure we could find how to make him tick into going a bit farther.

>Ironhead
Don't even talk about the thing you got before unless he asks about it- it's ours. Get money, but put a goodly bit into our own account, as it can easily serve as a multiplier at the Arena.

>Arena
Make sure Camella gets a weasel rub, and get her to the Arena with Hillevi. If she needs convincing, a simple “Well, I did it fairly easily” would push her into going.

>Being out of energy.
Check every differences. Can we use Chakra? Can we see souls? Can we sense items? Can we attention-sense? How is our body feeling? Armas should try to spar against someone strong but 'safe' today- let's say Igor or Lyubov- to see if his performance drops in ways he doesn't expect.

>Igor talking about buying alcohol.
Sure, do that while we are outside today. Can't hurt to barter a bit and get some sweet, sweet oblivion for our shocked troops.

>>392292
Upvoting all of this, as it shouldn't take too long and well worth the effort.

>Satai orders
>Friday post-newsbomb
-In response to Armas' announcement, try to track down sources. Find out who let Armas know about this, how they found out, look at whatever source they used originally and seek other sources for further information. Get details on exactly what is happening before freaking out.
-Find out if those who died trying to kill Armas are on the list, and then if their families are being menaced as well. If they are, then we need to help them too... however we do it.
-Decide time and distraction is needed to think about this. The job for Ironhead provides an excellent excuse; go away from other people, then give him a call and inquire on behalf of the company where the $50k that should have come our way for a certain meeting is. His second job is almost complete, and we still haven't been paid for the first one- that just can't fly. Try to make agitation over family's situation come off as a professionally displeased attitude. If he doesn't get us the cash promptly, hunt down Armas in the early morning before he makes any sales and point out that we probably shouldn't be selling these goods to someone who has cheated us once.
-Drink vodka. Consider calling family in spite of the dangers. Drink more vodka. Strongly consider emailing sister in university in spite of the fact that her email is probably monitored. Drink more vodka. Be sure that the company assets currently in hand would be more than enough to extract all family from Russia, and almost willing to do it but unsure how bad the situation really is or if they'd even be glad of it. Finish bottle. Go to sleep before doing something colossally stupid.
>Saturday
-Barely drag self out of bed and into proximity of Sake, attempt to gain relief from hangover and misery with the news of when his commission will be complete.
-When time is free, call up Arkvad, who Satai met on a certain night out, and ask if he can recommend a good clipping service, someone to keep track of specified bits of news for our company. Someone with supernatural news sources would be nice, but even a reliable, discreet mundane group could be invaluable.
-Ask Feodor to find out the suppliers of that black market doctor he's hanging out with and see if he can get his hands on some drug supplies relatively cheaply. Look into it, at least. Some study drugs might help out the whole company given what we're doing now, if nothing else, and we can probably rely on Sake to eliminate most side effects.
-Push for any method we can manage of establishing secure communication with our relatives, or better still, somehow teleporting around to go and talk to them in person if we can get in and out of the country safely. There must be ways of doing this, and we can throw money and services at the problem. Turn to Armas, Duke, and Hillevi for suggestions as to exactly what might be able to accomplish this because they actually know things about magic.
-In chakra training with Hillevi, work on trying to understand how to talk to her better, with the hope of soon being able to gently nudge her talking in the directions needed to provide more understanding, since it's clear that she's not really a talented instructor. If this doesn't work out well Satai will be stuck going back to even more melee practice in shame, and that must be avoided at all costs- make it happen.

>>391748
Spend at least another hour or so talking with Silja. We need to make this a habit- by talking with her and gradually introducing her to the way that things really are with our careful spin on it she grows more accepting of them, and hopefully soon able to re-enter the real world while acting under our direction. This will require careful emotional manipulation.

While Camella and the Russians are training, bring Silja to a place where you can watch them, and communicate with her (silently, so the company can't hear). Note, do not mention that the Russians are Russian yet. "My company- and friends too, at least some of them. Working for me, though. They're in a bad state at the moment for more than one reason... stuck working really hard like this every morning because they got too much magic in them thanks to one of my bad judgment calls. I was careless, and barely noticed the problem in time. If they can't learn a little bit of magic, their bodies will sicken or their souls will pop or something. There are so many ways to get hurt in this world... even hiding in the nice things. It's hard to look after each other."

"Anyway, that's just the beginning of their problems. Camella there is from another world and can't get home; we're all she's got, because no one else that she remembers can remember she even exists. And the rest of them... they were in an army under a very bad man, the pedophile I told you about way back. He ordered them all to try and kill me, expecting them to die trying. I fought them off and offered them a new job working for me. It's gone pretty well so far, but... that general is threatening their families, now. I don't even begin to know how to handle that. We can't tear everyone they're related to away from all their lives and friends to bring them here- the Turks would probably try to deport them, and even if we got them all fake identification there's no guarantee they'd be happy. I want to make them have good lives, make us all get strong together and have great adventures and all that sort of thing, you know? But that's a tough dream to keep to, sometimes."

Go elsewhere, introduce her to Sake. "Silja, meet Sake. My weasel-brother. Cute, isn't he? We met in Finland shortly before I met you, actually- he's a kamaitachi, a Japanese trickster wind spirit, but both of his brothers were killed and then he was. His killer brought his corpse back and threw it in a graveyard full of trophies, but Sake hung on for years and years, too stubborn and desperate to die even as nothing more than a skeleton. When I met him he possessed another weasel and almost killed me, but eventually I realized that I would rather have him as a friend than take vengeance- and what he really needed was new brothers. Got him a new body, too; that's actually a ramidreju, a kind of Spanish magic weasel. We can't really replace what he lost, but maybe we can bring him a new sort of existence and happiness."

Then go sit somewhere alone with her, looking out into the city. Make sure there's a possibility of her seeing her reflection if she chooses to look at it, but she doesn't have to. Stroke her softly and talk. "We make quite a crew here, don't we? A whole mansion full of people with our problems. But at least we're facing them together. They'll understand what's happened to you and won't hesitate before accepting you as who and what you really are. You'll fit right in, I promise."

Spend some time after this sitting with her and talking gently. Keep trying to bolster her emotionally, and make her feel like no matter how strange her situation you'll be there for her and she's got a future ahead of her, with people who will be friends and companions and not blink before accepting her past because they've had issues of their own and know what it's like, at least to some extent. If she seems particularly depressed, bringing the hummingbird into the conversation is probably a good failsafe for bringing things back into a positive mood. She does think he's ridiculously adorable, after all.


Call Ironhead and negotiate our way into making tons of money plus a tank on this sale.

Go to Kardemir in the afternoon. Wear a suit, bring Igor and Satai, and chase down anything magical that we can get our eyes on. Use our soul senses to identify those who are important and try to persuade them into spilling their secrets- this is a manufacturing company, so it's a good bet that any unusual bits will be some form of specialized manufacture- try to push the angle that we're a potential buyer with resources. Once we've determined what resources are available here, try to come to some kind of beneficial arrangement where we gain access to as many of them as possible. It's difficult to plan without more information, but unless there's something truly mindblowing and dangerous there we should be able to talk our way right through any and all encounters, because we are a skillful and manipulative bastard.

Before bed, talk to Silja some more. Try to get her to talk about what she's thinking and feeling- we need her to feel like she can share her thoughts and emotions with us safely, both as part of establishing a firm bond and so that we can manipulate her more effectively.

>>392276
>Have Amen make clothes for Silja.
SUST. That's a sick joke that makes mockery of her situation more than it does anything useful. She is not in an emotional state where she could take it at all well- she'd take it as basically making fun of her, or if we do convince her that it's a genuine gesture she'd see us as even more half-crazy.

We need to help her accept herself as she is, not taunt her with what she is not.

>>392276

Oh, and check the Smiling One's website. It's been three weekdays since you last visited.

Armas Orders
>>391854
Upvoting with regards to chakra, downvoting trying to cheat Ironhead.

>>391944
Upvoting going to Kardemir, especially investigating the sounds. Downvoting trying to convince Hillevi to kill Satai as a joke, because that's retarded.

>>392276
>>392297
>>392298
Upvoting all of these.

Text Davgon about whether he's heard of anyone "farming" spirit animals - deliberately putting mundane animals into dangerous situations in order to cause soul formation.

After going to Kardemir, take Satai into Silah Dunyasi and have them set him up as a proxy for our purchases, so he can buy stuff via our account.



Feodor Orders
*Return from Finnigan's. Drink. Get some sleep, if there's time.
*Jog again. Use the same techniques as last time to improve the laggers, but if there's no improvement, deliberately fall behind, and then try to pass them again.
*During chakra training with Camella, remember the others talking about Chugainov. Seethe with anger at the mere memory of that psychotic bastard, vow inwardly to get revenge on him for how he treated your men.
*Worry for your mother, with Chugainov harassing her. She's lost both of her sons and her husband, she doesn't need the trouble from him too. Realise, with horror, that you never saw your brother's body after his death. He may have been taken by the Black Ops army, just like you, and your family was just told he had died.
*In the afternoon, find Sake and ask him if he's thought about what you said. If he agrees to help, tell him you've thought of two possibilities: he can help you find some magical way to improve your medical abilities - whether that is an item, training, or something else he can think of - or he can use his abilities to remove your need for sleep while you're working with Finnigan. If he doesn't agree, tell him you're disappointed, and leave.
*Get to Ito's early, before the chakra training begins for the evening, and ask him if you can switch to being an instructor during the day instead of at the night classes, for a week or two, and if you can get your training with him earlier as well.
*After night classes, head straight to Finnigan's. Begin a journal, and whenever the work dies down, take note of all the procedures you perform, injuries treated, etc. At the end of the night, ask him where he gets the drugs he uses. Don't tell Satai, yet.

>>391905
>[Andrei has been queued to do the following:]
>Wake up. First things first, didn't get a chance to check out that lesion yesterday. Look at it now. Be confused that it looks like he bit his cheek. Talk to Feodor about it, and also ask Boss if this is a sign of the whole 'exploding' thing and why weasel healing didn't heal that. Be given an odd look by boss initially. Get Feodor being frustrated as his lack of personal understanding of what the lesion is. Hear back from boss when he casually tells you to let him cut off your cheek, and just get you healed back up-why bother dealing with a persistent injury if he can stomach a little pain for a bit and just reset? Awaiting player input.
>Give laserdisc printouts to boss. See Bossman Smile. Wonder if there is such a thing as getting used to that.
>Breakfast. Find it hot-not in the good way. Miss Dave's Insanity Sauce. Look into getting that, when free-time is had. Laugh morbidly at the thought of 'free time'.
>Look into yesterday's headache with kitchen cameras because somefucker is going to regret that. Once more, find... not much. A single, blurred frame's flick, nothing more. ...Decide that if he really wants an answer, he'd need to get heavy duty hi-speed cameras-and that there would be no notion of subtlety about their presence.
>Six hours of Chakra Murder Fun Time. Bring up the Wall with Camella during the morning routine. Find out why pushing harder doesn't work: Find out about what she calls soul capacitance and soul coherence. Find out how capacitance is a soul's energy, and that any given capacity has a minimum required coherence to keep the soul stable. Find out she's pretty sure this principle is why pushing harder doesn't work, as the gains he made were from a coherence gain from the near-death experience, but still have the same base capacitance. Ponder this.
>Dojo Days. Ow. Take a baby aspirin on the way home. For health.
> Pick up new 1TB External Hard Drive in stagger back from Dojo. Price should be about $80. Look at that, it's $79.99.
>Home again home again, jiggety jig. Also, lunch. See if Boris can do Chicken Vindaloo. Get... a passable attempt. Not bad, at least. Try and explain what was off so he can do it better next time. Make mental note to ask for dish again some time.
>Debate what is the most important thing to do - with all this weirdness, decide on finding out about that. Apologize to Lyubov and say that her computer will be checked later.
>After lunch, find Boss. Threaten him with floppy disc while asking his opinion on it. Broach the subject of finding out what is actually wrong with the disc and, if magical, bring up how to combat hacking that uses magic when our current computer is mundane and most of Andrei's skills are related to mundane hacking. Use 'fuck' a minimum of 25 times. Be told that Andrei and/or Satai will have Bossman's endorsement to buy any materials needed to upgrade the house electronic resource as they see fit, but until such upgrades can be implemented-or researched-to make a habit of using external hard-drives when testing anything, and be ready to perform the oldest of safety measures-burn it.
>Just to make sure, repeat this process with Shadow Boss. Use 'fuck' a maximum of 10 times. Breath more. Be told that magical code is a rare topic, and that frankly he's not convinced this one example is proof positive the house needs more defenses-but will defer to Armas.
>Spend the rest of the five hours trying to find information personally. Make very little real progress-but get a clue: probably something that Lightning and/or Mind Manipulators could do, if what the forums he's yet found are anything to go by-and they do sort of match up with what the Boss has said so far.
>Almost forget dinner. Snag something cold and/or energy-bar-ish on the way out.
>Like Dojo nights For presenting the same and sole difficulty they've ever presented: superior foes that are a struggle to not be overwhelmed by, an issue that's grown more problematic as their sparring partners have gotten more adept. Enjoy relief from the Wall encountered with general chakra training even as learning continues.
[Rostislav has been queued to do the following:]
-Hear news about family.
-Recall that Father only wants to see him dead or worse and mother is already dead. Consider lack of any real family ties to be troubled by the announcement; be one of the few who don't give a shit about new info, until he realizes that Pops might be looking for him.
-Briefly regret being a scrappy bastard, father disowning you for not being able to control yourself and hospitalizing the wrong man's son, regret fades as he realizes the awesomeness of current employ as well as safety of it relative to the job he'd previously thought he'd have for life.
- Drop teaching at Ito's and paycheck - it's not very fulfilling right now. Approach Ito about just getting Chakra training. Since he's aware of the situation the Russians find themselves in, he agrees-and notes he could probably only handle six such full time students at once, old man that he is.
-Decide against beating the shit out of rookie fighter clubs even when he runs into one that calls himself 'Titanium Bull'. Continue to seek out stronger fight clubs for self-improvement. Finally get a point in a promising direction and find a place in an abandoned bomb shelter beneath an aged hookah lounge. Note that some of the dudes fighting seem to have sort of magic-like tricks-be unsure, as it doesn't really seem on the scale he's seen with the Boss or back under Chugainov. Wonder if maybe that's Chakra use? Awaiting player input on how to handle any attempt to fight at this new location.
[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
I-Ruminate over the fact he doesn't have family back in Russian, but still feel restless and the need to do SOMETHING about what's going on there.
I-Remember that he has a request from dick boss. This means he will mostly go to Matvey and make sure he is aware that if he needs anything, he will (suicidally) drop everything else. Be told by Matvey that it's stupid to tell a lower ranking officer he'll be prioritized over the orders of the very boss that has thus far rather amazingly improved the quality of their lives-and ignores question about the subsequently increased surrealism of their lives.
Fail to do anything else because SERIOUSLY TWO FUCKING DAYS TO PUT UP MINION ORDERS. I'm not rewriting them again motherfucker. If you aren't sure about your orders, don't post them until you're sure.
[Gloom has been queued to do the following:]
* In meeting about family, urge caution, as the harassment they are getting now is nothing compared to what will happen if Chuginov gets proof we've defected.
*Then recall that he must have assumed such if Jidkova confirmed their survival after encountering Armas-and finding their fake graves.
* Ask Armas if he can find out if it's possible for a blood mage to use our parents' blood to track or effect us. Be told it's rather probable.
*Say nothing about the fact he is internally torn on whether making sure his family dies has really become the more appealing option to him over attempting their rescue. Feel morbidly entertained by the lack of emotion on his part.
* Suggest that one option is for the Valkonens to make some gesture that implies they feel a responsibility for mortals that they kill, given the power disparity. If they start with the soldiers who were blown up by the back-blast from trying to break the walls of the igloo, it might deter further harassment. Be shot down by Hillevi, who says there's no way her dad would do that.
*Again, hear nothing you like about the leader of this clan the boss is so heavily intertwined with-even while begrudgingly admitting the two you've met haven't been so bad.
* Begin trying to practice the commander's way of moving, as he's seen it when performing live fire exercises several times now. Personally consider this as the first step of replicating boss's stealth.
*Be completely unsurprised by initial lack of progress, and pessimistically soldier on in pursuit of whatever small accomplishments can be made. Be willing to sink serious time into this and continue it past the resolution of their Chakra situation.
*After initial lack of measurable progress, decide it's bound to not be all in the movements, and be unsurprised by this.
*Decide that he feels pretty confident that practicing the footwork he's seen so far, if nothing else will make his footfalls softer.
*Politely ask Camella if she has any tips, as she's the only one who seems to be able to pin him down in a fight. If she can counter what he does, perhaps she can explain it. Be given a relatively insightful explanation, and decide she's clearly thought about her battles with Armas extensively to be so ready to thoroughly analyze them.
*Learn that the boss' ability is built upon reading the sensation of being watched-and without the ability to sense it far more finely than is natural, the footwork he's trying to pick up won't achieve much. Ponder her words, and wonder how he could acquire a finer sense of... Attention. Be averse to the idea of going directly to the boss for the same reason he's been innately distrustful of the boss from the get-go: feel that the boss simply rubs him the wrong way. Decide the job and opportunities are good enough he doesn't care right now.
*Recieve order to meet with Camella for an undisclosed reason. Wonder what's up with that.
*Awaiting player explanation of why Gloom's been continually standoffish to his fellow employees-something beyond 'that's just how I am'.
[Zhenya has been queued to do the following:]
-Hear about Chuganov, initially give no fucks. Think for a moment and realize that her family, minus her mum maybe, wouldn't even care about what happened to her and just think of it as her dragging the family down more. Realize this probably means they'll be safer. Be pissed.
-Be pissed more when she realizes she doesn't even know where your mum is, she could be suffering or still buggered off around the world somewhere. Remember dad's horrible death and the damn stupid fire that started everything in the first place get angrier.
-When she gets home from training at Ito's be too pissed to grab her nap even though kind of tired, elect to do some shooting instead.
-Retain enough presence of mind not to grab the company bullets, instead grab her own bullets and her 2 EMF Hartfords and the season guns she had been training with
-Get steadily more pissed as she keeps shooting as she cannot get the bullets out fast enough to satisfy her rage even if she has enough guns. Briefly wish she had enough hands to shoot them all or at least faster fingers. Completely miss her atrocious shot placement while she favors rate of fire over precision.
-Imbibe heavily at Lunch in attempt to drown anger, fail.
-Get to Ito's night sessions and attempt to take out rage on opponents. Be pissed off when you are even easier to read like this and can't hit them even with your 6 arms.
-Realize you are drunk and seeing multiples, apologize to Ito and excuse yourself. Be more pissed that you let yourself get pissed over this foolishness.
-Get home along mapped safe routes and pass out.
[Matvey has been queued to do the following:]
M-Accept Ito's terms. Be the second of six total students able to take Ito's offer to do only chakra training.
M-Decide the loss of pay isn't a big problem, but he will miss teaching and hopes to return to it once he's not in danger of dying.
M-Ask Ito if he would be amenable to allowing a non-human guest in the next time everyone gets together for drinks. In response to his questions, try to describe the Boss Weasel to him and assure him it's a nice enough fellow, great drinker, does impressions. After a considerable amount of wheedling, succeed.
M-Stand in shock for a couple seconds at the bomb Armas dropped on you. Hastily attempt to organize a meeting so this issue can be dealt with appropriately. Be diplomatic and diffuse problems that arise as needed. Look to organize and develop proposed solutions into a report for the Boss as soon as possible. Be completely receptive to everyone's questions and proposals.
M-Hope the Boss takes into account this particular dick move when he's dolling out bonuses.
M-Be entirely drained of energy due to the demands made of him from both the earlier mission he helped coordinate and handling his rightfully concerned comrades queries.
M-Feel terrible about his own situation with his parents, being a selfish idiot and out of contact when they needed him.
M-Think about the trouble he's caused them and about not trying to find a solution until just now.
M-Attempt to use recently forged dedication and resolve to shrug off potential distraction. (ROLL A D100 IN DISCUSSION. BEAT 45 TO SUCCEED)
M-Wake up, wander the halls to try and find the Boss and give him the report of what group came up with last night, tell him you'll keep him informed. Fail to realize this meeting was a hallucination.
M-At breakfast continue to puzzle over what teas and alcohol go together. Defer to Boris' judgement on the matter and if he has none forgo the tea entirely. Decide instead that a manly brunch of whiskey, whiskey and more whiskey should suffice.
M-Locate Boss Weasel, ask if he would like to go out and meet some new drinking partners. Casually use magic words of 'free booze'. Acquire Weasel Drinking partner.
M-Go out during your lunch hour and purchase more ingredients for the next drinking session, prepare to pay several hundred dollars with the booze funnel weasel's presence in mind. (Spend $375)
M-Attempt to jump right into his new Chakra training schedule, attempt to get a good start and hit the ground running. Be willing to tolerate failures. (dependent on roll requested above).
M-Work through the weariness that night as he hangs out during the drinking session. See how things go. Talk with Lyubov about it when you get home. Once more be riminded Lyubov does not 'do' sustained, coherent conversation so much as flighty topic changes on the fly.
>[Feodor has been queued to do the following:]
>Return from Finnigan's. Drink. Get some sleep with that remaining half hour. Hooooo boy, lot of sleep, right there.
>Jog again. Use the same techniques as last time to improve the laggers, but if there's no improvement, deliberately fall behind, and then try to pass them again. Fail to catch up again due to increased difficulty of variable pace jogging on a Camella jog.
>During chakra training with Camella, remember the others talking about Chugainov. Seethe with anger at the mere memory of that psychotic bastard, vow inwardly to get revenge on him for how he treated your men. Observe Camella noting he had more raw energy-but took a sizable precision hit while so aggravated.
>Worry for your mother, with Chugainov harassing her. She's lost both of her sons and her husband, she doesn't need the trouble from him too. Realise, with horror, that you never saw your brother's body after his death. He may have been taken by the Black Ops army, just like you, and your family was just told he had died. Wonder how he could possibly be certain what's the truth regarding the brother.
>In the afternoon, find Sake and ask Weasel Boss if he's thought about what was said. If Sake agrees to help, tell Weasel Boss he's thought of two possibilities: Sake can help him find some magical way to improve his medical abilities - whether that is an item, training, or something else Weasel Boss can think of - or Sake can use Weasel-rific abilities to remove his need for sleep while he's working with Finnigan. Receive weasel rubbings-admit to self (and no one else) that was pretty cuddly.
>Get to Ito's early, before the chakra training begins for the evening, and ask Ito if he can switch to being an instructor during the day instead of at the night classes, for a week or two, and if he can get his training with Ito earlier as well. Be told that's workable, but that it would mean a time reorganization, as more time at Ito's is spent training than being trained. Realize this means Feodor gets out of Ito's during the day two hours earlier-but has to show up two hours earlier for night classes. Live with it.
>After night classes, head straight to Finnigan's. Begin a journal, and whenever the work dies down, take note of all the procedures he performs, injuries treated, etc. Note that thus far, the only injuries treated have been knife and gun wounds.
>Speak with Satai-find out he's very interested in getting medical drugs from Doctor Finnigan.
[Grisha has been queued to do the following:]
-Be restive about her father's state, after all the Monster General is sending hooks out for her and fellow Russians, any way it is looked at this won't be good at all for father's job as a mechanic.
-Curse Chugainov and his bloody shadow army a second time.
-Eat breakfast and what is this crap that doesn't taste awesome.
-Get something to cut the heat of the meal. Decide to buy yoghurt to add to meals in future if smell is off. As a non-fan of spicy food, be aware that trouble could loom on the horizon.
-Try not to think of family issues at chakra training, not dying is immediately more important than that.
-Ask Andrei about his caffeine intake next time she see him. Be given a noncommittal response comprised primarily of grunts.
-Instead of sleeping, search for news regarding your father. Curse Chugainov again, slimy bastard, sullying the memory of comrades fallen in that event. Find no news, because pops was not exactly an internet friendly mechanic.
-When that dries up, try to make sense of the mansion layout. Continue to fail, and wonder if the mansion just... changes because it feels like it.
[Lyubov has been queued to do the following:]
*Oh Boss, he so crazy. At least he's making sure things happen.
*Look to Matvey and Camella for how to deal with this mess. Let them field most of the questions, they both know as much as you do. Be exceedingly happy Camella does NOT divulge the fact you've known for so long.
*Notice how tight lipped Camella is being. Be appreciative.
*Bring up the idea of sending messages through “this priest I know, he’s a good man, he is concerned always about rightness instead of piousness.” Initially be rejected, as she has no proof at all that the priest is trustable... yet.
*Volunteer to arrange more fake identities, if we need them. Find that no one's even thinking that far ahead. Wonder what's up with the shitty attitude towards family from most fellow minions. Inwardly laugh at self-typifying as a minion.
*Be generally in favor of plans that involve evacuating the families.
*Afterward meeting and duties, swing by liquor store and buy a bottle of good wine ($45). Go home, visit Camella’s room. Drink with her and let her know you’re not angry or anything, that you understand she’s really busy and preoccupied, and that you’re glad Matvey and Armas were able to get things rolling. Do not bat an eyelid at lack of apology from her. Putting things off was not a good thing, but it is what happened.
*Talk about her mom a little, mention she got Armas to agree to hire said mom if mom wants a job as Boss' secretary. Chat about whatever Camella wants to talk about. When she asks about the Communication for Couples books, admit it was you and apologize for overstepping bounds and misunderstanding. Be... decidedly surprised when she does not demand any apology. Contain speculative smirk at thought she is finally realizing she likes Bossman. Inwardly chortle at matchmaking going on.
*When things wind down, go to bed.
*Wake, seek out Sake weasel rub, examine his bling to see how well it’s holding up. Reapply his fur bling because that shit rubs off fast.
*Go on a jog, keep up with Camella. Today will be better than yesterday... is the thought she had. Fail to meet expectations when a stray dog shows up and chases her specifically.
*Shower, breakfast, realize the breakfast is tainted with too much hot sauce. Eat cereal. Briefly wonder if it's tainted too.
*Keep thinking about her mom, happy thoughts, while she does her chakra training.
*During training with Armas, answer his question, “I’m not really sure what it is, I mean you keep trying to embarrass me so maybe I’m sort of like that but I never thought so and I’ve never had any boyfriends who were into weird things like, uh, that, and after all that excitement about the families last night I’ve been kind of distracted all day and…wait. Are you saying it’s just being distracted? Doesn’t matter what?” On completion of fourth and final training session of the week, wonder if that's important, that Bossman got you to learn shearly by dint of distracting you.
*Ask Bossman ”Then why did you pick those distractions? Was that leer serious!?” Recieve further leers. Be mortified. Mortified, mortified, mortified-oh, and mortified, in case she forgot that.
*Go through with the training anyway, as long as it’s not outrageously horrible. ...Decide that this 'haigure' thing he's having you do is really strange, but not... THAT.... horrible. Be incredibly conflicted about the fact it still worked.
*Go finish writing her letter to mom, include Armas’ job offer and how Bossman lets employees stay in the mansion.
*Research everyone’s family, as mentioned in the new articles.
*Eat dinner, ask Gloom if he wants to go to church with her on Sunday. Awaiting input from Gloom's player.
*Go to Night Lessons.
*On the way, notice Zhenya is wasted. Try to talk sense into her. Fail because Zhenya is a stubborn drunk. Shrug-and decide to watch the street theater.
*When Zhenya starts to see sense at the dojo, walk her home. Make sure she is safe. Help her, tuck her in, go back to the dojo. Take note of fact Zhenya was probably too drunk to even notice her help.
*Keep looking for methods to keep yourself distracted while you train.
*Go home, talk to Sake about distraction techniques applicable. Be told that she'd have to discover it herself for it to have any meaning.
*Go to sleep.
$atai has already done the following:]
-In response to Armas' announcement, try to track down sources. Try to find out who let Armas know about this, how they found out, look at whatever source they used originally and seek other sources for further information. Get details on exactly what is happening before freaking out. Be exceptionally irritated that that everyone seems to be saying the info's brand new, despite this feeling... off.
-Find out that those who died trying to kill Armas aren't on the list. Decide the poor bastards at least got one stroke of luck.
-Decide time and distraction is needed to think about this. The job for Ironhead provides an excellent excuse; go away from other people, then give him a call and inquire on behalf of the company where the $50k that should have come our way for a certain meeting is. His second job is almost complete, and we still haven't been paid for the first one- that just can't fly. Try to make agitation over family's situation come off as a professionally displeased attitude. Be temporarily distracted from bad mood by sounds of enraged Ironhead demanding to know why pay was not given out from one of his flunkies-darkly chuckle when he hears gunshots and a pleading voice cut off.
BUSINESS FUNDS: +$50,000 $196,847.00
-Drink vodka. Consider calling family in spite of the dangers. Drink more vodka. Strongly consider emailing sister in university in spite of the fact that her email is probably monitored. Drink more vodka. Be sure that the company assets currently in hand would be more than enough to extract all family from Russia, and almost willing to do it but unsure how bad the situation really is or if they'd even be glad of it. Finish bottle. Go to sleep before doing something colossally stupid. Fail to notice a certain shadow watching him closely.
$atai has been queued to do the following:]
-Barely drag self out of bed and into proximity of Sake, attempt to gain relief from hangover and misery with the news of when his commission will be complete. Receive rubbings, perk up.
-When time is free, call up Arkvad, who Satai met on a certain night out, and ask if he can recommend a good clipping service, someone to keep track of specified bits of news for our company. Someone with supernatural news sources would be nice, but even a reliable, discreet mundane group could be invaluable. Be told about 'The Last Spelling', a group that will collect news both printed and oral and verify its authenticity for the subscriber-be forewarned that a 'subscription' is fairly costly, even for straightforward things. Be advised that it's not very cost-effective for personal curiousity.
-Ask Feodor to find out the suppliers of that black market doctor he's hanging out with and see if he can get his hands on some drug supplies relatively cheaply. Look into it, at least. Some study drugs might help out the whole company given what we're doing now, if nothing else, and we can probably rely on Sake to eliminate most side effects. Awaiting Feodor's response.
-Push for any method that can be managed that will establish secure communication with our relatives, or better still, somehow teleporting around to go and talk to them in person if we can get in and out of the country safely. There must be ways of doing this, and we can throw money and services at the problem. Turn to Armas, Duke, and Hillevi for suggestions as to exactly what might be able to accomplish this because they actually know things about magic. Be told by Boss that he's still trying to catch the only teleporter he's yet encountered-and that that should be a reasonable assessment of how hard it is to acquire such magic. Be told by Weasel Boss that short of the family being magically active, any magically-derived communication could put them at risk of the same oversaturation problems the Russians are currently dealing with. Be told by Hillevi that she's willing to talk to her dad and/or brother about it, but doesn't know what they could do. Be frustrated magic people are not knowledgeable about all fields of magic.
-In chakra training with Hillevi, work on trying to understand how to talk to her better, with the hope of soon being able to gently nudge her talking in the directions needed to provide more understanding, since it's clear that she's not really a talented instructor. Make progress on.... getting her to stop using descriptive hand motions in lieu of words. Surprisingly, this vastly improves how understandable her instruction is.

>>391854
...Ayup. I'll go ahead and say I DEFINITELY got that Dual Orientation to work last night right before I fell asleep.
>"You sure about that?"
Totally.
>"So do it now."
I WOULD-but I'm out of energy, so sad.

Instead, I call that loudmouth Ironhead and let him know I've got the goods, and we're ready for him to pickup. Underwhelmingly, he doesn't pick up-but I'm sure he'll get the message.
>>391868
After a few minutes have passed and I've got the barest semblance of power in my body-I try to run a Chakra Orientation at undercharge by starting it up normally, then lowering input energy. ...Problem is I don't have enough juice to start it normally-and have no idea how to 'start' a low-energy orientation-and it's not as simply as just 'hey let's just do it smaller scale'. For now, that's one experiment I can't do. Sad.
>>391871
On the plus side, there's good parts to being chakra-less. Like, for example-
Hey Hummingbird-how' it goin'? You still getting too much energy?
The bird in question restlessly ruffles it's feathers and flaps it's wings a single time, looking like someone working the kinks out of their body before speaking.
>[Hummingbird]"I note no energy flowing from you-and the relief from that deluge is palpable."
Good to know.
>>391896
Just to be thorough, I go over the haul with my horrendously limited magic item sense-and come up with a whole lot of nothing. ...Seems Jung wasn't carrying any magic gear-or if he was, the police already moved it. Well, that clears that up.
>>391954
I decide to... press on with the dual orientation training each time I've regenerated just enough energy to try one more time-and do my best to ignore that ravenous, painful hunger.
>[GGG Trait activated]
...It's not that bad, all things being said. It sucks, sure-but it's... tolerable, I suppose. My first attempt at a dual orientation shorts out too early to even know if it worked-so I decide to wait a bit longer before trying again.
>>392068
While I'm waiting for the next recharge-I call Riker. Sure, it's morning-and sure, that means it's the middle of the night for him. But... I've been a dick to that guy, politely of COURSE, enough that it'd be out of character for me to patiently wait for a proper time to call. Unsurprisingly-he picks up.
>[Riker]"Why are you interrupting my peaceful spooning? You have one chance to convince me this isn't grounds for me to go on a hunting trip to carve out your testicals. You know how I like my sleep."
"Yeah yeah sarge-actually, I was calling about the agent. How'd that shit go?"
>[Riker]"Can't you ask that Il Nona chick you had fill in for you?"
"...Okay, seriously?"
>[Riker]"She's not the first slider I've indirectly worked with."
"No shit."
>[Riker]"Yeah. So, seems she impressed-but here's the thing-you and yours have been labeled as a liability, potential profitability or no. This may or may not have something to do with them having learned a bit more about you, the guy running that outfit."
"Must they really judge me by my past?"
>[Riker]"Yeah, they really must. Plus side, they didn't reject or blacklist you-they're just sitting on their asses. Most likely outcome is that they find a situation where your... eccentricity isn't an issue, and have you handle that as a field test. Until then though? Sit on your ass and wait or do your own thing, they won't really care. Now'd that answer your middle-of-the-night questions, or are you going to keep me up longer?"
"No I think that did it."
>[Riker]"Stay safe you fucker."
*click*

..Ah Riker. Love that shithead. ANYWAY-
I call up Gun World and get them to add Satai to my account as a verified buyer-I have to pointedly ignore a few questions about the nature of our relationship, but by the end of the call Satai's cleared to make purchases in my name at the chain. Having blown enough time to build something up, I again try a dual orientation-and while I once more fail to really get it going, I almost could say the process felt... more streamlined, I suppose.
>>392276
While waiting for the next round of trial and error to be possible-I call up Matvey and Camella in a conference call-fucking love my phone's got a built-in app to host that. Once both are on the line, I POLITELY inform them of my views.
"Hey, I dropped that on your laps last night because I was pissed that I had to hear about it from Lyubov instead of you two. And I know she told you both already, I could see it in your faces. If that's what that meeting you wanted was about Matvey, then you need to make a point of saying stuff like 'urgent' and 'important to company morale' or even 'hey boss you should really make this a priority' or SOMETHING. I want a written report on what the plan is in my room, waiting for me to read before I go to sleep tonight. If you need my help with any aspect, let me know. Either way I want to review it before you enact it. We copacetic?"
While Matvey offers no retorts to this, and I could swear I already hear him writing, Camella speaks up.
>[Camella]"Putting aside the moral questions involved since they really don't have the relevance to you they could-practically speaking, was there anything we could accomplish then that we can't now?"
"Realistically? Probably nothing but that's not the point and you know it."
>[Camella]"Matvey, leave Ito's an hour early. I'll work with you on the report."
>[Matvey]"Okay.jpg"
"As long as I got both of you on the phone, anything else I need to hear?"
>[Matvey]"I'm concerned about Gloom, but not enough I think an intervention of any sort is necessary."
>[Camella]"I'll talk to him."
"Great. I'll talk to you both later."
*CLICK*

Ah... being a boss dick. Always fun. Speaking of being a dick....

...DAMMIT, Adelat's either blocking my calls, not picking up or flat unavailable. Shit sucks.
>>392284
In the future SPECIFY the gun(s) Armas practices with-there's too many of too many different designs to just say 'go practice shooting'. If it's left completely open ended next time, he'll just flounder and accomplish nothing.
For the next few hours as morning becomes day, I continue to focus on my depleted state. First I have the bright idea of eating small bits of magical meat to feel the energy difference-but that doesn't pan out largely due to the fact I can hold so much energy a little bit of meat doesn't do squat. I keep trying for Dual Orientation anyway-and have to say the 'feels more efficient' thing is staying relevant. Still feels... odd, not quite off, but definitely different to try this way.

After that-I give the Riihivuori kids a call while I'm at the shooting range in the mansion. I check in with them-seems they've 'adopted' a Domovoi with Markku's aid and are rather excited about that-as well as being surprisingly okay with talking with a dude shooting while he's chatting-to the point I can hardly get them to talk about anything else, in fact. I give in and just ask about their new 'pet' for a while, and once they seem content with the amount they've told me-I ask how Big Crazy's doing. They look at one another, then Eirikki dashes off to return shortly with the man in question. He looks good-maybe a bit thinner than before, but not in a bad way-and is frustratingly ambiguous and vague about what all he's been up to. When it's clear he's not going to stop holding back on me I make my farewells, and spend the rest of the hour shooting-idly wondering if I'm ever going to get better at target practice. I could swear my shot placement hasn't improved at all-but I seem to recall doing notably better in live fire situations. Hm.

After another go at a Dual Orientation-this time possibly succeeding for all of a third of a second-I do a few more checks. Seems I can't use chakra at all when drained-unfuckingsurprising, that, given that which feeds my chakras, my soul-based winter bloodline, is out of juice. Wow, who'd have thought. Seems I can still see souls-but... shittily. Maybe part of that's tied up in my bloodlines, but not all? I DEFINITELY can't do item sensing without magical mojo-and I spend a minute trying to recall if I had energy when I appraised the pile of guns or not before I put those concerns to rest. I could test more things-but fuck that. I've gotten burned with experimenting without any direction enough times I'm not as gung-ho about it as I could be-so I get on with my day.

>>392292
I try calling Einrik-and find that his phone's been disconnected. That's no bueno. ...Well, not much I can do about that.
>>392296
>>392297
I distract myself with some more dual orientation attempts-and a bit of Silja talking. Seems she's... doing better with the whole 'Saw she is a gun' thing. I of course don't comment on how she intellectually already knew that, because what's the point? After she confirms she's doing fine talking with the Note Writer right now-I leave her be. No need to force her to do things, not when I've made all this progress with her. I'd planned to do a round of introductions... but she's clearly still trying to become 'okay' with her situation, and doesn't really want to be distracted. She's hit on the Note Writer as being the one she talks about this with. ...Short of having a great way to interject, I can't think of a way to interrupt that which won't bite me in the ass.

Well, if she's busy, all those other people are either unavailable or have already been called.....

Then I'd say it's time to go to Kardemir. That whole 'sound one person heard and all the workers vehemently denied is just too deliciously intriguing to me. Hillevi actually rejects my invitation, saying she'll be busy teaching Satai-that is, until I tell her Satai's coming too. So, after I dress myself in a burgundy suit with a gold shirt, I head out with Andrei, Satai and Hillevi as escort, for all intents and purposes effectively a magic-less man as I continue to drain away any energy that builds back up-and slowly start to have almost-stable Dual Orientations more often.

After Igor leads us all to the primary facility where he had his meeting-I take charge. Not so much because I have a complex plan, or know what I'm doing-but because I sent out SB as a scout the moment we passed through the doors. And lo and behold-he found something. A removed section of Kardemir where there's wards, magic-everything an inquisitive fellow could hope for.

I ignore the protesting receptionist that tries and fails to stop me from walking by. I let Satai and Andrei distract the incumbent workers who try to stop us-then I let Hillevi intimidate those that try to bar us more forcefully. With a smile on my face, I barge through a warded door-

Into a small room filled with a bevy of alien machines-all operating remotely. Within the room a lone individual lingers, the thin-stemmed cigar in his mouth dipping as he scowls over the new arrivals to his demesne. The man in question, in his mid thirties with a swept back, oiled head of pitch black hair and a sharp jaw with a hooked scar on it. Beneath his heavy work overalls, I see a silk shirt's sleeves rolled back over tautly muscled forearms. Without getting up from his seat before the largest machine in the room, the man casts a single, bloodshot eye at me.
>[Worker][In Turkish]"I hope you have a phenomenal reason to be back here."
A reason? Let's see: I haven't dumped that pittance of magic I've built up in the last while-so I can sense magic-and I can sense SCORES of magic items in the room-all stored in the two racks near the back of the room. I can't see WHAT the magic items are-but I'm pretty damn sure they were made right here, in this room.

At my failure to promptly respond, the man takes his hands away from the controls before him, and methodically wipes them clean of grime and grit while continuing to stare at us.
>[Worker]"If you're not even going to try and be courteous, I suppose I can show you the door..."

I should probably say something.







What should I say?
What exactly am I trying to accomplish here?
SAME DAY: NO NEW MINION ORDERS CAN BE INPUTTED/

>>392320
>What exactly am I trying to accomplish here?
This man has a forge full of equipment that he is clearly using to churn out magical weapons/armor/gizmos/whatever. We must have either the forge itself or his service in providing us with gear. There is no other outcome here.

While we're talking, Shadowbro should analyze the magic items over there and see if he can tell us exactly what kind of magic we're looking at.

>What should I say?
Our objective here is going to be to simply blast through him socially, and keep talking until he cracks and gives in to whatever we want. Do not ever pause for long. Continue talking full steam ahead even when he starts trying to reply. Pause only long enough to let him half-assemble his thoughts and barely start trying to say something before continuing to bull right through. Speak quickly, and speak even more quickly as we keep speaking. It is particularly important to keep our emotions positive and momentum running if he shows signs of getting angry instead of confused and then compliant- we cannot afford for him to see this as a confrontation since that would ruin the effect. Be aggressively friendly and all smiles (the normal kind).

"That's very kind, but the door is right there- and you, you are right here! This is wonderful. I've been wondering for days how I could possibly come up with materials so suited to his particular needs, and it seemed all but impossible- but you might just be able to manage it! This setup is remarkable, my compliments, and your own talents must be not inconsiderable as well. In fact, you might just be the perfect man for this job- which will require the most superb of knowledge, craftsmanship, and experience! I promise you, it will press you to your limits and quite possibly be amongst your greatest works, renowned by all were it ever to become known for its true quality.

"Of course, you care about the project's nature! A funny story behind that, there is a man of my acquaintance with a truly exceptional talent for causing damage to certain hmm rooms of a personal nature if you take my meaning, when he makes use of them, due to the impressively toxic nature of certain aspects of certain emissions, yes. With your craftmanship applied to the problem, of course, even the most corrosive and fume-ridden of such things would surely fail to even scratch the john. And the piping, the piping is perhaps even more important because of the pressure, you see, it must accommodate extremely high pressures, far higher than you would normally expect- and both hot AND cold, normal metals will just not do too much stress on them- but I am certain that your skills and equipment are up to the task!

"Of course there will be a certain amount of compensation, although I'm sure that your pride as a craftsman demand that you rise to such an enviable challenge- a challenge which does not come along every day, no no- and of course it might take you a certain amount of time to- no? No time? You can start right away? How fantastic!"

"What, that project doesn't appeal? I am shocked and appalled, but I suppose I can spare a little bit of time for you to reconsider and in the meantime, let's talk about your accomplishments so far here. These are some very nice weapons and armor, I'm quite enthused, would be interesting to see what else you can come up with if given the proper incentive and construction opportunities how about making some armor for all of my personnel? That would be a delightful project I'm sure, and you might even be able to make some friends as I'm certain that several of them even those here- wave at the man, Igor and Satai, yes that's you, wave now, thank you- would be more than happy to work with you extensively in the future if our business should call for it. Or even if our business doesn't call for it, my people get up to all kinds of interesting things when they think I'm not looking I'm sure you know how that goes, eh? So will you need to measure out my men for armor individually or can I just send you their sizes, and will you be able to customize their suits' enchantments because there's nothing that defines a soldier quite like the weapons and armor he chooses, you know, and to a certain extent the enchantments make the man; I'm sure that I would be giving a very much different impression when fighting people if I wasn't using my trademark guns though I'll admit that I've been consider moving to some kind of finger-gun tied to a magical effect just for the style points. I know it's cliche but I can't really resist.

"Have you introduced yourself yet? No, how rude of you, that's all right I'll introduce myself anyway I'm Armas Laine what is your name?"

"I said, what is your name, if you please?"

"That's great, it's wonderful to meet you and we're getting off to such a great start here, you know those weapons you have over there look pretty good too, and I've been considering issuing some kind of enchanted melee sidearms but normally enchanting is just so expensive and it's not like I really want my guys to be up in the face of every vampire or werecritter or what have you because normally guns and such are just that much more effective, keep you at a safe distance from things that are stronger than you and carrying around a giant spear or sword or something large enough to make a difference without a truly absurd amount of training is just so difficult. But it looks like you have a really excellent mass production process or at least rapid individual production process going here, and maybe you could provide me with some kind of low cost weapons like longish combat knives or something, just some basic enchantments at least, you can get me a catalog or what have you later. Hah, catalog! You should be laughing, that was a great joke, come on. We can also take those things that you've got here now to cover the time on your end until you can get everything built, I know that you want to fill your orders as quickly as possible and this is kind of a large one and it's unprofessional to give us such a delay, but that's all right, we won't hold it against you. These are fine for now, and you can take a few days to get through the rest of our order and get us actual custom things, but we appreciate these really, be sure to bring a list of capabilities with you when you drop by tomorrow because that just wouldn't be appropriate otherwise.

"Anyway so I'm thinking that this is a great partnership and it was wonderful to meet you, so you'll set us up with the armor, and the knives, and drop by my house to take a look for the piping project because this is really not something that you want to try and approach cold I wasn't kidding about the nastiness involved here."

At this point, hopefully he will be so beaten down that he'll just dumbly agree with whatever we say, and we'll be able to quickly shove him through some extremely advantageous pricing arrangements- or, better, convince him that all the pricing will be worked out when he drops by tomorrow!- and then we leave with a couple armloads of magical gear. If not, launch back into endless blathering and keep overrunning him until he totally loses it and breaks down.

"Great I'm glad all this is in order, actually speaking of orders I should make sure to get a receipt, wouldn't want you to be accused of any untoward doings or trying to cheat us, not when you've been such a gentleman as a host here, take this-"

Hand him a slip with our name, reading
"For delivery to Armas Laine and company at (address):
-Approx. 25 custom-fitted sets of enchanted armor
-Approx. 25 enchanted combat knives
-One exceptionally nice set of runed pipes
Supplies delivered as initial deposit on projects. Payment details pending negotiation tomorrow over lunch, 12:00 sharp. Contact Armas Laine at (phone number) for pleasant conversation and any necessary appointment modification."

"-great, now just sign that so you don't forget and I'll keep my copy, of course, excellent, then I look forward to doing some extensive business with you in the future. It's great to meet such an excellent supplier, it really is, you're so accommodating and I can almost taste the quality of your products. I'll see you tomorrow for lunch then, ta-ta!"

Leave this place with as many of his finished magical goods as we can carry. If he starts recovering, chatter at him more with aggressively friendly cheer to cover our escape.


After we're gone, talk to Hillevi. If that worked, it should have been impressive enough in its effects to lay the groundwork for our attempting to give her some real instruction in social interaction and being a sneaky manipulative git. And that, of course, is the best thing that we could possibly teach her to be- a perfect way to fulfill our duties as her guardian and troll Markku. "So, Hillevi, what did you learn from that? I hope you were paying attention."

"The lesson I would recommend learning is that just because someone is talking to you doesn't mean that they're trying to communicate with you. I was saying things there, sure, but the point was to totally confuse him, put him off his guard, and ultimately get him to agree to whatever I wanted while he was mentally reeling."

"We need to start training you to deal with that kind of thing, and also more generally in how to conduct social interaction with intent. Blather and overrun like that is a ridiculously unsubtle social attack, but I suspect you'd still have trouble with it. When are you free tomorrow? I know you've agreed to teach Satai here and might have some other obligations- which I'd like to hear about if you care to share- but we really need to get going on this. Almost a month of your year with me is gone already and we've hardly started." Let her set a time, of course.

"Excellent. Attempt to arrive with a flexible mind."


When we get home, go on Nikoyaka Youkai's website and see if anyone's attempted to follow up on contacting us regarding our stated desire to acquire particular items of interest. Even if Note Writer appears to be disrupting our hopes for Silja's emotional development- being the one who is there to hear her thoughts and feelings instead of us really hurts our ability to establish a strong bond with her, and the fact that we've been blocked out of helping her cope by quietly establishing similarity to the situations of several other company members is serious sabotage of our ability to get her to embrace the company as a whole as people that she can consider friends and companions and expect to bond with- we still want to see if we can get any humanoid Winter female bodies for her to eat so that we can advance her development. We're still in this game even if Note Writer is busily fucking with our playbook.

>>392386
I din't honestly think we've got much use for combat knives. All the Russians have, however, been learning jukenjitsu, so sword bayonets would be much handier. For armour, the modular monolithic plates use in modern body armour would seem best. Of course, simple bullets would also help us. What ever we do, we need to offer him something. The magic for the enchantment must come from somewhere, and we can access to various magical body parts thanks to SM and the Smiling One.

>>382386
...Well, my ability to see souls is still working fine: and everything I see about this guy's soul seems... decidedly ordered. I see a man that likes control-that likes comprehension. I see a man of straight lines and rigidly defined corners-I see a soul not artistically but purposefully shaped. I see focus, I see iron-and above all I see a man ruled by reason and logic-and can see precious little trace of emotion having any real say in what he does. I see a man that prefers older, less rapid musical pieces purely because it's easier to appreciate each and every nuance for him. I see a soul that reminds me of a naked blade, simply and starkly built for it's purpose-and content to be just so.


>[MMM,MMMM Trait auto-activated]
So I run with it, responding to him-with a Smile. In that moment of hesitation at the unnatural look of supreme geniality merged with impish capriciousness, I strike.
[Turkish]"That's very kind, but the door is right there- and you, you are right here!"
I note hit look of determination undiminished-but his hands stall in their fastidious wiping-he's hesitating.
"You know this really is wonderful. I've been wondering for days how I could possibly come up with materials so suited to his particular needs, and it seemed all but impossible- but you might just be able to manage it!"
I can feel the confusion from Andrei, Satai and most of all Hillevi behind me-but I have to press on. A moment of hesitation on my part would end what I'm trying to accomplish well before it can truly begin.
"This setup is remarkable, my compliments-oho, and your own talents must be not inconsiderable as well."
I rub my chin speculatively as I take a breath, refusing to let any real pause break my rhythm.
"In fact, you might just be the perfect man for this job- which will require the most superb of knowledge, craftsmanship, and experience! I promise you, it will press you to your limits and quite possibly be amongst your greatest works, renowned by all were it ever to become known for its true quality. Tell me, would you like your name to live in legend?""
Finally given a chance to speak, the man takes it-playing into my hands.
>[Worker][In Turkish]"And exactly what makes you think your job is so-"
Fool that he is, he thought I was genuinely inviting him to speak. The rube.
"Of course, you care about the project's nature! A funny story to tell-there is a man of my acquaintance with a truly exceptional talent for causing damage to certain hmm rooms of a personal nature if you take my meaning, when he makes use of them, due to the impressively toxic nature of certain aspects of certain emissions, yes. I know, I know-why would this be in your field? Well, with your craftsmanship applied to the problem, of course, even the most corrosive and fume-ridden of such things would surely fail to even scratch the john. And the piping, the piping is perhaps even more important because of the pressure, you see, it must accommodate extremely high pressures, far higher than you would normally expect- and both hot AND cold, normal metals will just not do too much stress on them- but I am certain that your skills and equipment are up to the task!"
His grim demeanor is beginning to crack, the handtowel idly falling from uncaring fingers as he tries to voice something. Whether it was objection, clarification or other-I suppose I'll never know. What I DO know is I will not let the abruptly tenuous nature of his previously ordered soul go to waste.
"Of course there will be a certain amount of compensation, although I'm sure that your pride as a craftsman demand that you rise to such an enviable challenge- a challenge which does not come along every day, no no- and of course it might take you a certain amount of time to- no? No time? You can start right away? How fantastic!"
At this he starts to recollect himself, immediately bristling as he sweeps a hand to point at one of the racks I can feel the sense of magical items emanation from-and simply keep trucking.
"What, that project doesn't appeal? I am shocked and appalled, but I suppose I can spare a little bit of time for you to reconsider and in the meantime, let's talk about your accomplishments so far here."
Dimly noting the confusion from Satai and Andrei to be abating, I march over to the rack he'd begun to motion at-and pull free....

A rune-stamped sword blade, double edged. I say stamped for a reason-I can... feel the same sensation from the runes as I do from the machine the hook-scarred man once sat at-and make a simple intuitive leap. I start speaking before he can really process a stranger idly picking up his work as I have.
"Nice, nice-these are some very nice weapons and armor, I'm quite enthused by your workmanship. 'Twould be interesting to see what else you can come up with if given the proper incentive and construction opportunities-so how about making some armor for all of my personnel?"
Still trying to get around my babbling to properly focus on what could be construed as theft by some, I keep speaking before I even see him register what I just requested.
"That would be a delightful project I'm sure, and you might even be able to make some friends as I'm certain that several of them even those here- wave at the man, Igor and Satai,-"
Satai's hesitantly complying but I can still feel a hiccup in Andrei-fine, blunt time it is.
"Yes that's you, wave now, thank you-"
I really should expose the Russians to my modus operandi more often-
"-would be more than happy to work with you extensively in the future if our business should call for it. Or even if our business doesn't call for it, my people get up to all kinds of interesting things when they think I'm not looking I'm sure you know how that goes, eh?"
I actually get away with lightly elbowing him in the side conspiratorially, having sidled up beside him as I turned to instruct my compatriots. Again, the wholly new stimulation and new potential train of thought I inspire merely serves to tangle ever further the growing knot of overwhelmed confusion in the man's mind.
"So will you need to measure out my men for armor individually or can I just send you their sizes, and will you be able to customize their suits' enchantments because there's nothing that defines a soldier quite like the weapons and armor he chooses as you no doubt know very well, and to a certain extent the enchantments make the man; I'm sure that I would be giving a very much different impression when fighting people if I wasn't using my trademark guns though I'll admit that I've been consider moving to some kind of finger-gun tied to a magical effect just for the style points-or perhaps an eye beam, clichéd I know but there's a certain style to it- I can't really resist."
I begin walking back over to the racks from which I drew the unhilted blade, still unsure just what the rune might do (odd, given that Einher-derived Item Sensing I've got) and once more apply a surreal touch to my wording.
"Have you introduced yourself yet? No? Well how rude of you, though I suppose that's all right I'll introduce myself anyway I'm Armas Laine what is your name?"
He gives me the most profoundly confused Turkish Silence I've yet recieved.
"I said, what is your name, if you please?"
I let the pause draw out just long enough he begins to speak-hesitant and bewildered where before he was obstinately driven.
>[Worker]"Yavuz Celikaya, no-"
Woa-woah-ho-ho there, can't be letting him control the flow of this conversation, now can I? I start pulling forth a few more unhilted blades from the one rack as I move on to the second, now noting it to hold a series of bucklers stored not unlike dishes in a washer, neatly stacking in a row and devoid of any handles.
"That's great, it's wonderful to meet you and we're getting off to such a great start here, you know those weapons you have over there look pretty good too, and I've been considering issuing some kind of enchanted melee sidearms but normally enchanting is just so expensive and it's not like I really want my guys to be up in the face of every vampire or werecritter or what have you because normally guns and such are just that much more effective, keep you at a safe distance from things that are stronger than you and carrying around a giant spear or sword or something large enough to make a difference without a truly absurd amount of training is just so difficult."
Again, I am forced to pause by simple dint of needing to breath-but I keep rolling as I gesture with arms now filled with bucklers and blades alike towards the machine Yavuz stands before.
"But it looks like you have a really excellent mass production process or at least rapid individual production process going here, and maybe you could provide me with some kind of low cost weapons like longish combat knives or something, just some basic enchantments at least, you can get me a catalog or what have you later. Hah, catalog!"
I briefly sputter directly into the middle of some uproarious laughter, a bit disappointed only Andrei seems to get into the spirit of things and echo me before I continue. I swiftly cease my laughter and speak to the still stunned Yavuz.
" You should be laughing, that was a great joke, come on. We can also take those things that you've got here now to cover the time on your end until you can get everything built, I know that you want to fill your orders as quickly as possible and this is kind of a large one and it's unprofessional to give us such a delay, but that's all right, we won't hold it against you. These are fine for now, and you can take a few days to get through the rest of our order and get us actual custom things, but we appreciate these really, be sure to bring a list of capabilities with you when you drop by tomorrow because that just wouldn't be appropriate otherwise. You are available tomorrow right of course you are glad to know SO-"
SB, I'm going to need an order form from you-can you manage that or-
>"I know where they logically should be, I'll just grab samples and see which one Satai okays-keep going, I'll have your form."
The sooner the better.
>"On it."
"Anyway so I'm thinking that this is a great partnership and it was wonderful to meet you, so you'll set us up with the armor, and the knives, and drop by my house to take a look for the piping project because this is really not something that you want to try and approach cold I wasn't kidding about the nastiness involved here."
At this point, I'd hoped he'd be so beaten down that he'd just dumbly agree with whatever I say, and I'd be able to quickly shove him through some extremely advantageous pricing arrangements- or, better, convince him that all the pricing will be worked out when he drops by tomorrow! Unfortunately he seems to be getting his bearings despite my best efforts, so I'll need to cut this short-and when we leave we'll do so with a couple armloads of magical gear.
>[Yavuz]"Jus-"
>"Got one."
Good-put it in my left pocket.
>"Done."
"Great I'm glad all this is in order, actually speaking of orders I should make sure to get a receipt, wouldn't want you to be accused of any untoward doings or trying to cheat us, not when you've been such a gentleman as a host here, take this-"
I pull the order form from my pocket-

Hummingbird, please tell me you can write.
>[Hummingbird]"I do not know the meaning of you giants' glyphs, but should you imagine their shaping I can replicate them well enough."
Perfect-then I implore you to impress me with your speed at transcribing this-

There is a blur that hovers over the piece of parchment as I pass it over-and Yavuz finds himself staring at an order form reading:

For delivery to Armas Laine and company at (There is no way I'm putting a real life address to the mansion):
-Approx. 25 custom-fitted sets of enchanted armor
-Approx. 25 enchanted combat knives
-One exceptionally nice set of runed pipes
Supplies delivered as initial deposit on projects. Payment details pending negotiation tomorrow over lunch, 12:00 sharp. Contact Armas Laine at (phone number) for pleasant conversation and any necessary appointment modification.

"-great, now just sign that so you don't forget and I'll keep my copy, of course-the signature should be right here, oh you already have a pen, excellent-"
I practically guide his hand in signing-
"Well then I look forward to doing some extensive business with you in the future. It's great to meet such an excellent supplier, it really is, you're so accommodating and I can almost taste the quality of your products. I'll see you tomorrow for lunch then, ta-ta!"

At which point, having handed the bucklers to Satai and the blades to Andrei I turn on my heel and head out the door with my order receipt in hand-and stop for NOTHING. Not when I hear Yavuz finally starting to react. Not when the workers that had been attempting to stop us before attempt to form a living barricade-I simply have Hillevi, the unbeatable Red Rover champion, up to the front to break through their feeble blockade. I don't even stop when I hear the receptionist threatening to call the police-I simply flash her a smile and head out the door.

At which point, once no one within is looking at us anymore-I abruptly accelerate from my sedated pace to a rather impressive powerwalk. Certainly, there are appearances to uphold-but what kind of image does it evoke if we're forced to return our samples the moment we get outside? It just would not do.

Thankfully, the head start we had coupled with my studious attention to, well, Attention means they never actually find us even as we are still working our way through the parkinglot. Hillevi eventually takes hold of our spoils, the goods simply vanishing from view beneath her glamour and we make our way back to the mansion. Even with our visit itself being rather... expeditious, the transit time still means it's late evening when we return home.

After I blow through the dregs of power I'd yet regenerated with a few back to back Dual Orientation attempts, I finally have a single, brilliant moment, a full half-second of complete and functioning Reinforcement and Soul Sense-before I run out of juice and the system collapses. ...Eh, I'll take it.

After grabbing a few plates of food, I settle down in front of Andrei's computer after telling Satai to store the eight blades and six bucklers we appropriated until they can be examined-and log onto a certain Japanese Creature's website.
...Seems that P1X13 moderator was right-I can now see other users-and while there has not yet been any response to my request for certain kinds of food beyond the occasional 'How much are you looking to spend?', there IS something that attracts my attention-the /news/ channel. Seems it's a place for website users to gossip about current events-and that just now, it's completely flooded with variations of the same story:

Seems Blackbeard is having a running, heavily destructive tussle with none other than Armin the Crafter out in Azerbaijan-and they've been at it for the last two days. So far, site users estimate they've caused thirty seven million in property damage-and they aren't even fighting in the middle of a city.

I spend the rest of the night checking around, trying to get a better feel for the site as a whole, how to navigate it, and what mannerisms are most popular and likely to get response-all while, as always, burning through tiny bits of energy when possible to try Dual Orientations. I... think I'm hitting the 'lasts a third of a second and almost kinda sorta actually gets up and running before falling apart' to happen more often than one in four times. Progress-a beautiful thing.

But I can't deny just how DRAINING it all is-and before I really know it, I'm off for bed and have turned in.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 30th, 2011
PERSONAL FUNDS: $465,475.04
BUSINESS FUNDS: $196,847.00
CASH: $9,170.00
SHADOW PATIENCE: 0%
WINTER ENERGY: 11/160
SUMMER ENERGY: 13/50

[DISCONTINUITY]

Instead of waking-I am drawn into a familiar landscape-but unlike the last few times, it's once more populated by, well-myself.

My shadow, seated in a chair hewn from black bone and covered in orange leather, smiles his smokey smile as he gestures for me to sit.
>"While I am quite sure there is much for us to discuss, there are two topics, I think, that need must be addressed: The matter of what to do with THAT-"
At which point SB gestures at the still restrained composite spiritual beast-come engine that's been inhabiting my eye since the start-
>"And what to do, not about Silja, for I think, now at least, you have a plan of sorts-but about the Note Writer. I, for one, distrust this entity immensely-but I would hear your own thoughts on him, should you offer them."

Seems SB's got some stuff to talk with me about-and is also very much so open to me bringing up topics for our little Armas-sesh.













So what do I say about SB's topics?
What topics of my own do I have to bring up?
Once I'm awake-what's my plan for the coming day?

Armas:
"So far the only danger the note writer presents is in gaining a deeper relationship with Silja than me, he has no ill-designs on her it seems, but I feel he'd have little patience for me if not for her.

As to what to do, I just have to gain more affection than him, it's a contest"

"Though... if we could troll this note-writer..."
Trusting the note writer doesn't mean giving him Silja's affections. We were not in a position to reject his offer, Silja's mind was on a knife-edge.

And that's all I've got, my brain is fried

LEV ORDERS
Considering the recent failure, and the bad news of the families be in a slightly less than good mood. Accidentally take anger out on woodcarving, be mortified at lapse.
Decide not to mess about, just do Camella's lessons properly, gotta make ShadowBoss proud.., try to table emotions until later.

Later be surprised by this strange feeling of wishing for someone's approval. Hear about Ito's training on the grapevine, or vodkabottle, whatever, jump at the chance presented.

Round about evening time, wonder if Babushka is ok... surely if anything was happening one of the 12 from the orphanage would take her away... then again, Chugainov is kinda powerful... and you don't have a clue where others are or what they are doing. You lost contact with everyone when you ended up in the special forces. You miss Babushka, your pent up emotions from earlier explode out, try to get drunk, then try to follow Rostislav for fight clubbing, get lost in mansion, wail about not knowing what Anna, Oleg, Nestor , Mariya, Veronika, Karp and... and... you can't remember the names of the others BAWWWWW!!!!

Search for a green fuzzy thing to wrap yourself around, fail/succeed.

In the Dark Curl up in foetal position with the sword of the father you never knew, mourn your blade-filled stolen childhood, there is some people a little boy shouldn't play with...

For a long time, the only monsters you knew of, were the human ones.

Rostislav orders >Consider a single bout at the new fight club you found. Earning experience against foes that have decidedly newfound ways of working and special tricks? Hell yes. In fact, structure the whole damn day around this event to make certain you are as awesome as possible - Sleep pattern, alarms, food consumption. You're back in the old business, let's be sure business is good! >Briefly notice someone following you, fail to care when you notice it's Lev. >As you did before you got in jail, before a good fight, prepare first-aid supplies and keep them on person. It's manly to take a punch, but stupid not to take care of it after. >For the rest of the day, keep up, but don't put in the same amount of focus.

ARMAS

Before we can deal with Note Writer, you need to find oput WHO he is, WHERE he is, HOW he's doing this, WHY he's doing it, and WHEN to best get at him. Then you can close the trap on him. We can assume, since he can bypass Amen, that this is the safest place to discuss it - nowhere else. We can also make one of two assumptions (for HOW):

1) The Note Writer isn't being noticed because he's been here the entire time. Check for when the notes started, and who you brought in, as well as who was present when you found the notes.

2) He has magic that can bypass Amen. Elder magic was mentioned. This is, intellectually, a dead end for now, due to our lack of knowledge on the subject. But if it falls to this, we can then start gathering info on Elder casters in the area. Also note to SB that Elder is continually proving to be a really WEIRD sort of magic, home to all sorts of exceptions and rule-breaking, and investigating it might prove handy anyway, if only to prepare.

You should keep an ear open to SB, he might have insight on either point that you don't.

ORDERS FOR IOSEF:
-Drop instruction job in favor of more Chakra Training (lose 150$/w income)
-Having trainined for several days, realize that getting optimal amount of sleep doesn't improve Chakra training in the least.
-Ask others if they know of any other ways to improve Chakra gains. Do this during breaks, free-time or when having meals.
-Will cut down sleeptime (15:00-17:00 nap, meaning 3,5h at night + 2 hours during the day)
-Reflect on what you did wrong when visiting Kardemir Steel. Decide to work a little bit on social skills, so that they are at least 'passable'. Ask Andrei, Matvey, Lyubov and The Boss for tips and how to start improving. Use the nifty notebook that Andrei gifted you to browse different chat-rooms and forum (anonymous or otherwise) to work on communication skills. Don't ever use real names, locations or events. In fact, ask Andrei if he made sure that the notebooks he gave out have been tweaked by him for maximum protection against hackers and viruses (Iosef is not that good at computers, you see?)
-If Iosef knows that Andrei has been doing the same thing for a while, ask for beginners help. Maybe later they can do something together (like trolling forums or similar)
-Spend about 2 hours doing this (17:00-19:00)
-(19:00-21:00), just spend time socializing with other Russians and denizens of the mansion. Ask Duke how come he is so awesome.
-Due to new schedule drink big cup of black, bitter coffee in the morning and after afternoon nap. Also, make use of the energy drinks that were provided by Andrei and Satai.
-Drop the idea to get Sake a gift. It seems that you've been beaten to it and it looks too much like ass-kissing now.
-Nonetheless, give the idea to Lyubov. Perhaps she will make use of it.
-If Iosef knows that Lyubov was the one who found the info about Chiganov first, tell her that he understands why she didn't want to make everyone upset with the info we cannot act upon, he appreciates the gesture even if it was misplaced and backfired.
-Be depressed about the news but since he personally can't do much about it, don't let it hamper you too much.


Orders for Armas:
Armas should let Matvey and Camella know that he has almost total control over Jidkova. Maybe they can think of something to do with that option (since we sure as hell aren't doing anything with such a great ability)

LYUBOV ORDERS


*Have difficulty sleeping. Get up, research ways to keep yourself distracted throughout the day. End up placing several orders you’re probably going to regret, pay for expedited shipping ($800).
*Read about that ‘haigure’ thing. Most of the information about it is in Japanese, be a little weirded out by the stuff that is in English.
*Change into swimming suit again, pose in front of a mirror in that ‘haigure’ position. Briefly wonder how you rationalized this as being acceptable before you almost start to wonder how much shit you and Armas would be in if Camella learned. Stop thinking about that, decide “it’s just training, she’ll understand.” Yep. Totally understand.
*Get dressed in pajamas, go find Sake. More prank calls, recorder on. Again with the complaining guy only she can hear. Take a break, start to genuinely worry about mental health. Ask for weasel rub-down to see if it helps. Nope, still hearing that dude.
*Wander downstairs, find Duke watching TV. Watch with him, mention hearing a voice on the phone that Sake can’t hear. Ask how Duke is so awesome, share your personal background, tell the story about the arms smuggling. It’s really funny, now that you’re not sentenced to death. Well, technically you are, but things are better now!
*Four a.m. already? Excuse yourself, go get dressed for jog. Breakfast seems normal today, guess Boris was just experimenting.
*Go to your room, dress very nicely for Church. Collect Gloom, head out, leave letter to mom at home. Donate $1000. Introduce Gloom to Cookie Lady.
*Talk to Nikolai, confess more sins, uncharitable thoughts about co-workers, your moment of longing for Hillevi’s money last week. Ask about the 1955 Pogrom, ask why things went so badly here. Ask if we could meet in the afternoon sometime during the week to talk more about how things in Istanbul having to do with God and religion are very different compared to other places.
*Missed a couple of hours of chakra training because of church. Go grease up with that bottle Armas gave you again, make sure it’s all covered by your workout outfit. You smell like strawberries, and the wicking layer of your outfit is sticking to you. Feels gross. Focus on getting into orientation.
*Shower and change before going to Ito’s.
*At lunch recognize Zhenya is hitting the bottle really hard again. Pester her and jokingly threaten, “I’ll take blackmail pictures if I have to bring you home again.” Explain she made a fool of herself last night. Get her to tell you a very sad story about her family’s cursed violin. I talked to Falcon about this.
*Comfort your friend. Show her funny videos, play back the recorded prank calls, apologize for the messed up audio. Contain your dread when Zhenya claims the calls sound fine to her. Focus on cheering her up.
*With remaining time in the afternoon block, be approached by Iosef. Ask him to come along as you go shopping, go buy 20 hours more phone airtime ($60), nylon stiffener ($40), nitrile gloves and safety goggles ($20). Drop stuff off at home. Give Iosef advice: “If you don’t want to seem like you’re just kissing up, try actually getting to know him. Sake’s a very friendly guy. Bring some good alcohol, and spend an evening talking to him, that’s how we became friends.”
*Dinner. Ask Andrei how he’s doing, ask Hillevi and Satai how their training is going. Tease Hillevi, “I didn’t realize you liked the intellectual types. He wouldn’t even spar with me the other week.” (in reference to you jokingly challenging Satai to wrestle you for the guns you’d had in your room, if Hillevi wants you to elaborate). Keep an eye on Zhenya. Try an energy drink, decide it’s no wonder this horrible tasting stuff killed Andrei.
*Night lessons. Keep your intentions fluttery against Granny. Keep your thoughts fluttery too. Wonder what happened to Lev.
*Come home, look for Sake, find Lev drunk and crying. Welp. Drag him to his room, ask SB to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.
*Find Matvey, alert him about Lev and Zhenya. Mention Zhenya seemed better after talking it out with you this afternoon. Answer questions (but don’t tell about Zhenya’s phobia, just that the family issues reminded her she practically has no family).
*Finally get some sleep. It’s been a long day.

>>392320
Gloom
>[spolier]*Say nothing about the fact he is internally torn on whether making sure his family dies has really become the more appealing option to him over attempting their rescue. Feel morbidly entertained by the lack of emotion on his part. [/quote]
Ruminate on whether that's helpful. Decide it's not. Wonder why that was a relevant consideration. Your family has proved themselves to be your very best allies in the world, and you wouldn't want to loose them. Spend a while a day with the others brainstorming what is best to do next.

Armas:
>So what do I say about SB's topics?
1) The blood-fiend-thing. It's under control for now - but check if it's getting more restive. Given what we've been told about the possibilities of converting in into an engine, that should be our main focus. As engines need fuel, and can traditionally burn alcohol for energy, we should focus on securing the kamatachi for Sake to bind as a spirit animal. We can then store energy for when we need it, and gave the engine turn it into useful power.
>What topics of my own do I have to bring up?
We've been trying to curry favour with Whaitiri for several reasons - the mere repair, other boons, and a pile of otherstuff on top.
Why not just ask what she prefers to eat as the victory prise.
>Once I'm awake-what's my plan for the coming day?
Discuss with SB, Sake, and IT whether it would be possible to use the offcuts from the mere re-creation project to make magic items.

The_Falcon!Z/kS4uKGRU 2012/03/14(Wed)17:12 No. 392830 ID: 602cbb
File 133177035946.jpg - (41.83KB , 500x334 , holdem.jpg )

>Soul engine
something about turning it into the base for a demiplane simulation/ observation deck of the world to use at our leisure. We can use the Sami favour combined with our own power to start it up or we can ask some god class being...or Ogrimir. Man undoubtedly has the power, just depends on what we need to pay.

>note writer
I don't trust him much either, but he's good for Silja. The problem now is that even if he does turn out bad, it would be hard to break their relationship without some negative effect on Silja, so that's one problem. If we can wean her off of him by spending more time with her ourselves(like we have been but moreso) it would be good. Otherwise, if we can talk to the guy...or write him I guess we should use that to find out more about his intentions. Ask Silja to tell him we need to talk.

>What to do with your day?
I'll tell you what to do you blighter.
How long have you had the Valkonen girl here as your ward and how does the amount of teaching you have given relate to her time here? That's right, you are being a shitty guardian.
Last time you really spoke with her in that teachers role you promised to speak more about manipulation, how about you get on that.
An excellent way to do so that both puts her in situations where deception is necessary and gives her more opportunity to act socially is via poker.
Poker acts as a good starting point for getting her to 1)control her emotions and reactions 2)Quickly read people's intentions and truth behind actions 3) Make people act the way she wants.
These are the 3 topics that make the base of any manipulation situation so it will be good practice and starting point to get even better as a manipulator. The fact that she loses games (if losing money isn't enough) is a good motivator for her to get better quickly, she strikes me as a 'don't want to lose' type.
This also strikes me as very Armas.
So get it set up all snazzy, get Amen to prepare a little casino style room and get Sake a tiny dealer's outfit and the green casino dealer hats. It's on.
Make significant use of soul guises to assist in bluffing.

Keep working on the chakra thing.

[Zhenya]
-Wake up with hangover, remember jack shit.
-Approach Sake for weasel rubbings to get rid of hangover, thank him whatever the outcome.
-Consider getting him a gift, he and Lyubov have been very friendly. Decide to get him 1000 ping pong balls.($12for a pack of 144, buying 7 packs for a total of $84-discounts)
-When you get back to room notice a large empty space where you ammunition was. Count up and see 2000rounds gone. Trace back to inner shooting range and get your targets from yesterday, notice horrible shot placement, wonder what the hell you were doing wasting 2000 rounds like this.
-Imbibe heavily at lunch and talk to Lyubov.
-Be slightly depressed by all this, decide to go cheer self up.
-Grab 5k and head out the the black market dealer to ask for rare or special pistols. Specifically ask for the Volquartsen MKIII(http://www.varmintextreme.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=99258) and the LeMat Revolver. (http://www.cabelas.com/pistols-lemat-revolver.shtml). Attempt to do some minor haggling. You are a repeat customer and a potential future client, if he can sweeten the deal you are more likely to return to him for future business.
-If you got anything then head back to base with em before going out to get the ping pong balls for sake. If not, then just go hit up a sports store and get em.
-Present Sake with ping pong balls, inwardly hope he doesn't use them for /too/ much mischief. Ask him if he knows any methods she can use to get ahead in this chakra thing, maybe a mindset?
-Skip night sessions, stay home and clean guns and pack (possible)new ones.
-Try the chakra thing one more time before going to bed, be slightly frustrated at lack of progress.
-pass out.

ARMAS ORDERS

>>392574
>So what do I say about SB's topics?

Take a seat, look at the spirit engine seriously. Evaluate its power and talk to SB about it.

“I had a vague idea of using it to power the kameosa to make spirit wine, and then storing that to be used as needed. Obviously we’ll need to put that on hold until the situation in Japan is resolved, one way or another. I’d planned on eventually ending up with more weasel wine than we needed, and at that point then diverting the power to other uses. We’ll just do that now, and divert to the kameosa when we have one.”

“I haven’t forgotten about that list we made when we talked a couple of weeks ago, ARMAS' MASSIVE PILE OF SHIT TO DO. We’ve completed most of it, but the world eye was on the list and I’ve given it some thought. It was one of the candidates for what to do with that engine. And I’ve got two ideas about it.”

“The first isn’t that well developed, but basically, if we could make the eye a conceptual mirror for the entire world, we’d be able to look at it whenever we liked. Considering that the eye is based on ice magic, and ice can be made into a mirror of sorts if you have the right material backing it, I think we’ve got a solid base to work with. But that would only give us real-time information, if the concept is solid.”

“I’d like to be able to make projections. So what we need is something like in that cartoon where they bought the meatball a snake: we need a virtual reality simulator, with a physics model and a magic model, built as complete as possible. I have no idea what kind of computing capacity we would need to simulate the world, but I do know we don’t need to simulate everything.”

“If we focus on just the important areas, like what’s going on in people’s minds and souls, the flow of magic in the world, large scale events, we could cut out a lot of unnecessary computation. We could limit it to just simulating small regions while we’re developing it. Initially we could just build it based on what’s going on here in the house. Amen knows about almost everything that happens in him, we could get regular updates about the state of things here and compare our model’s results to that, and modify the model in response until they match up. Then we expand the region, and sample data, and modify the engine. Each iteration takes us closer to a more complete and accurate model.”

“I think we’ll need help eventually, especially with making my eye’s interior a proper mirror, but having a prototype will give us something to entice potential helpers with. I think it could be worth asking Og a question about; he’d at least like that we were proactive about getting the groundwork laid. This won’t be a simple project, but I think it could be a very worthwhile one.”

“As to the Note Writer, I don’t trust him either. I hardly can, given the information disparity between us. He knows practically everything about Silja and what goes on around her, and we know nearly nothing about him. And it hasn’t escaped my notice that he came for a visit right after I’d given Silja a chance to see.”

“His powers are likely based in Elder principles, given how Amen claimed he couldn’t detect Elder powers, and how so far Amen hasn’t detected anything about Note Writer. You noticed how he didn’t want us to tell Einrik about him, and how he’s always operated while Einrik was not around? And Einrik has that Elder-proto-god-thing in his forehead.”

“We’re going to need to learn some Elder detection techniques of our own anyway, if we go with building the World Eye as a simulation. Octopus spirit animal, perhaps?”

“Anyway, if we got some sort of Elder sensor either on me, or on a person we do trust, it would probably go a long way toward keeping him from being able to undermine us. And putting it on someone else has some advantages, like giving him an opportunity to talk to us when we’re not near our Elder sensor, and not tying us to something that’s got a reputation for being very weird.”

“So, while I can’t trust him yet, I can keep an eye on Silja and keep interacting with her. He’s subtle, but he’s not all-powerful. And he’s got some unknown agenda in mind here. I’m afraid he might be Armas Valkonen, which would be both a blessing and a lot of trouble. I say a blessing because that Armas loved Silja, and wouldn’t want to see her anything but happy and healthy and of sound mind. So in that, our goals would coincide. A lot of trouble because, well, everything I’ve heard about him reminds me of me.”

>What topics of my own do I have to bring up?

“I want to talk about Hummingbird. I was thinking, maybe we could get him fleshcrafting powers somehow. Maybe a boon from Whaitiri, maybe some other way. Anyway, we get him fleshcrafting powers and we perform a flesh bind. That way he’s double-bound to me, and he can use the energy to keep his body in good shape.”

“I think it’d make him as immortal as I am too. Not sure.”

“We’re going to need to figure out what we are to Whaitiri, too. I don’t want to end up in a situation Sake won’t be happy in. He’s important, his happiness is important; but equally important is not ending up in a situation where Whaitiri’s not in our corner. Besides the relationship of “son” there’re other potential ones. “Business Partner” would be good, but I just know she’d reject it. She’s a goddess, she doesn’t do business, you know the spiel. So that leaves stuff like “Husband” or “Consort” for near-parity in the relationship. Neither seem exactly ideal either.”

“Yeah. Do you think she knows the modern concept of “Sugardaddy?””

“Now hang on, we shouldn’t discount it out of hand. I feed her, keep her in energy, and she provides… favors. The relationship is mutalistic, anyway.”

“It’s just what comes to mind. We can table it for now, give us both a chance to reflect on it.”

“Next topic: Our minions. Your thoughts on them? Give me a run-down about how you feel how they’re developing, how we can use each of them best, and who we need to pay more attention to.”

“I’m not sure I agree on every specific, but it all seems to match closely to my views. No big surprise, the little differences in what you and I have noticed are what are most interesting.”

“Probably because I’ve got a body. Changing the topic slightly here, but I was thinking of setting up a proper chakra tournament for like the 26th or 27th, putting up either a specific prize or a boon with the stipulation that it be within reason. They should have enacted their family solution by then, so we’ll have time to guide the winner to picking something like a spirit animal or a magic weapon instead of a really expensive prize. It would give them sufficient motivation to really learn their chakra.”

“I also wanted to ask what you think we should do with Hillevi. Satai talking her into giving him extra training is going to be good for them both, I think, and she’s been doing some teaching down at Ito’s anyway, but I know that more than that she needs a comprehensive course on dealing with the mundane world.”

“Right. I was thinking of sitting down with her today and going over her computer, teaching her it like I promised. Maybe play some computer games with her, browse the internet, show her how to connect up to the Rhivuldori kids’ Skype. Use e-mail. All that.”

“Ah, and speaking of tournaments and minions and Hillevi, I was also thinking that, well, I’m a crappy teacher. I found an approach that works with Lyubov, but not everyone’s like her.”

“I’ll just ignore that rude remark. Anyway, I know that learning how to be a teacher is fucking hard work, of the worst sort, and so I personally need a motivator to get better at it. And so I was thinking I could combine it all into one project, and offer Hillevi a boon based on how well Satai does in comparison to both the Russians in general, and Lyubov specifically. If Hillevi’s pupil is better than the Russians in general, she gets some small prize. If her pupil is better than my pupil, she gets a big prize. That way I’m motivated to improve my teaching technique too.”

“New topic: what happened to that Ramidreju’s soul? Sake’s still got it, right?”

“Well, couldn’t we make a spirit animal of her? Or, say, bud off another body for her from Sake’s, move her soul into it, then bind her as an ensouled spirit animal in her own body? It’d be easier on her than anything else I can think of, given that it would be her body anyway.”

“One last thing: I’m still thinking of that missing month, and what Einrik told us about the NeverNever strikes. And here’s what I got so far: First off, for our entire childhood we were accountable to mom. She would not have let us disappear for a month without raising hell. Not long after we graduated high school we were in boot camp. Again, no good opportunity to disappear for two weeks to a month during boot. I’d need to pull up our leave records to find out if we took enough leave at any given time to account for that period. Obviously my memories are suspect on this matter, but the records should stand.”

“That might give us a good idea of possible windows it could have happened in. I doubt there will be many. If we didn’t take enough leave during the suspect period, then the only other option is that we disappeared right before boot camp. That would narrow things down considerably. I’d need to talk to Mom and Dad, and see what the story was. Beyond that, we’re going to be playing detective.”

“I don’t want to involve Riker if we can help it. He’s way too fucking sharp, and he’s too well connected. If he figured it out before we did, we’d be fucked. Same thing for dealing with Sometimes Merchant, or talking about this with Amen. I mean, fuck, Amen either missed or withheld that the long period of amnesia happened when he did an audit of us, right after we met Grigori.”

List to Lick Lacunar Amnesia:
1) Check your military leave records
2) Talk to Mom and Dad about the period right before enlisting, and any leave periods which were long enough to also qualify.
3) Check your credit purchases and bank withdrawals for the suspect period(s).
4) Check your cell phone records for the suspect period(s), both call history and location data.
5) Be prepared to add more to this list as you discover new clues.

>Once I'm awake-what's my plan for the coming day?
~Read that report that Matvey and Camella came up with. You need to be able to reference it if they ask you, or if there’s something important in there.
~Show Hillevi how to use her computer. Teach her how to use e-mail, messaging services, Skype with the Rhivuldori kids, use the internet, and play some of her new video games. If she says she needs to train Satai, tell him to help with this computer shit. If she already knows all this because someone decided to move quicker than you, play a computer game with her (and Satai if he’s here). You want to play with your ward and the computers right now, and you will not be denied!
~Pull up your leave records on your own computer. Check your e-mail too.
~Call Lo Fang and let him know you’ll be a few days before you see him for a lesson.
~Go find one of the Russians you trust and ask for a spar. Promise no magic, just a straight spar. Make sure Sake’s on hand in case you or your partner gets too enthusiastic.
~Announce the tournament on the 26th, with a “reasonable boon” as the prize.
~Check in with Camella about how her talk with Gloom went, either in a conference call with Matvey or in-person meeting. Make sure Sake is taking part in the conversation too, he interacts a great deal with everyone independently of you. Ask if anyone noticed any other issues.
~Watch some of the training sessions, both Camella doing group training, and Hillevi teaching Satai one on one. Don’t interrupt, just observe. Later, make constructive suggestions to Hillevi, and (if Shadowbro didn’t shut you down on the idea) the idea of a friendly competition between you and her.
~Go visit cookie lady! Give her your new address, and make sure Amen recognizes her as a guest.
~Go to your old apartment and empty it out. Hire movers or something, doesn’t matter really. Cancel the lease. That’s money you can put to other things.
~Like paying for regular alcohol deliveries to the house. You don’t want the house to be dry, and Duke DID clean you out. Haggle for a good deal.
~Meet with the guy from the steel works. You know he’s going to want to talk to you.
~Try calling Adelat again, later in the day (in the evening, after the meeting with that guy from the steel works). Maybe she was just having a bad day yesterday. If you still can’t get in contact with her, ask Amen what she is doing.
~Call Gianni, just to shoot the shit with him. Ask him when he thinks a good time to talk to Rocco about your proposal for hiring him away would be. Tell him you got a lead on armor for the golem.
~More low-energy chakra practice.

Added a couple of lines to the world-eye idea, changed it up a bit to include the mirror idea. Added the List to Lick Lacunar Amnesia and dialog about it.

>>392830
Do this in the evening.

To get her into it:
(shamelessly stolen in almost its entirety from >>392386)
"Well, Hillevi, you've had some time to think about it now, so what did you learn from my monologue at the foundry yesterday? I hope you were paying attention."

"The lesson I would recommend learning is that just because someone is talking to you doesn't mean that they're trying to communicate with you. I was saying things there, sure, but the point was to totally confuse him, put him off his guard, and ultimately get him to agree to whatever I wanted while he was mentally reeling."

"We need to start training you to deal with that kind of thing, and also more generally in how to conduct social interaction with intent. Blather and overrun like that is a ridiculously unsubtle social attack, but I suspect you'd still have trouble with it. Which is why we're going to start off with something a little different. Poker."

Try to make her ignore any spiritual data she's getting by changing soul guises as rapidly as you can sustain. Exaggerate your tells at first, but dial them back as play continues to provide increasing challenge.

>>392931
>Show Hillevi how to use her computer. Teach her how to use e-mail, messaging services, Skype with the Riihuvuori kids, use the internet, and play some of her new video games.
Skip nearly all of this. Teach her how to find that information instead, so we're not wasting time.
>Announce the tournament on the 26th
Don't announce it yet, just tell them to be ready for something like it near the end of the month. Can't really have an announcement when even you don't know anything about it.
>Watch some of the training sessions, both Camella doing group training, and Hillevi teaching Satai one on one.
Make sure to take note of anyone who stands out (whether they're better or worse than average) during the group training, and talk to Camella about them afterwards.
>Go to your old apartment and empty it out.
Just have SB shadowport it all into our vans.
>regular alcohol deliveries to the house.
Get multiple good deals from multiple vendors, if possible. Can't have too much booze, and it pays to have redundancy in case something goes wrong with one of them.


Feodor
*Get back from Finnigan's. Drink. Go over notes. Shower.
*Find Sake, receive weasel-rub.
*Notice that even though it's Sunday, Lyubov's still going jogging with Camella. Crazy girl. Realise that training is still on. Rush to join them, try to catch up.
*Shower again quickly. Eat breakfast even quicker.
*Go to Camella's Chakra Killzone. Get angry at yourself for having to rely on Sake. Remember what Camella noticed yesterday and simmer down on the anger. Precision is key here.
*Shower again
*Ask Armas about how he heals so easily and quickly, and whether whatever it is is a viable option for the Russians. Ask about other methods. Ask who to talk to find out more about charms and where to get them.
*Go to Ito's for day-instructing and chakra training.
*Head back to the mansion. Shower again. Wonder why you keep showering.
*Have a short nap.
*Tell Satai he'll owe you for the information.
*Head to Finnigan's early. Ask him where he gets his supplies – drugs, instruments, even bandages. Talk about where he's from and how he got started in Istanbul. Continue taking notes throughout the night again.

>>392732

LYUBOV ADDENDUM

*When you see the Boss, ask him if he's going to get any jobs out in Egypt or the other countries experiencing turmoil at the moment. Express surprise when he doesn't know what you're talking about, explain the Arab Spring to him as, "Well it started because this guy set himself on fire and now everyone's upset and it looks like Egypt is going through a revolution and some other places too and it's all in the news."

>Note Writer
“Of course I don’t trust him. A being we don’t know, can’t track and have no understanding of is messing around with our 2nd most powerful gun for his own reasons. And he predicts doom if we ever tell anyone about him.”
He seems to have some understanding of future events, and then Silja suddenly has the ability to do things before they happen? Or something. Gotta be Simo’s or this guy’s doing. So basically we can’t get a read on him, couldn’t strike back at him, and he’s at least pretending to help Silja, so what can we do? Nothing, that's what.

>Amenmonster
“The thing is, I haven’t the faintest idea how to safely use this thing even now that we’ve bound it. Beside the thought that it’d probably be safer to use it to power the World Eye rather than plug into it.

“Ah, but I had a thought, hoping you’ll tell me I’m being paranoid again…

“Amen has been bound to the house, so much so that he actually IS the house. That couldn’t have taken a small amount of energy, so why would someone do it? And then we’ve been walking around outside house boundaries carrying little bit of Amen with us. Suddenly, that strikes me as a tremendously unsafe thing to do. Tell me I’m wrong, please.”

>Other stuff
Note to self: whenever Camella mentions moral considerations, look at her blankly, like she’s speaking another language. Eventually she’ll give up even mentioning it.

I think maybe we should start putting more effort into Hillevi here. Some different ideas we should do regularly: there’s the Arena of course, to keep her in fighting trim with all sorts of weird enemies, which helps fulfill Markku’s requirement. There’s playing hide and seek with us, she must be a great hunter after growing up on the Valk grounds, we’re a slippery motherfucker and she’s a great huntress. I think we both stand something to gain.

Have her interact more with the Russians. Specifically, work up large-scale training exercises where Hillevi is either a platoon leader or a second-in-command under someone with more knowledge of small team tactics like Camella or Matvey. Use, I dunno, soap bullets or blanks or paintballs or something. Vary the goals from hunting down monsters, battling other platoons, protecting a VIP, assassination, all kinds of stuff. Switch up the teams occasionally to keep things fair. Make it a game, give out prizes to be determined later. We once had an idea to do a martial arts tournament, this is more fair to the Russians who aren’t melee combatants. Choose different landscapes; the woods, inside the mansion, by the river where we killed Doony, etc. Hell, swing by one of those paintball ranges with the variable terrain and dominate everything at least once.

Also get her in on the webcam calls or whatever we’re doing with the kids, in case she’s missing the family. 17 year old, first time away from home, remember. Just because she wanted to go doesn’t mean she might not be homesick.

>>393039
>Note Writer
>Amenmonster

Guile, no offense to you, but these both seem like Paranoia-fodder, and thus SUST fodder.

>Note to self: whenever Camella mentions moral considerations, look at her blankly, like she’s speaking another language. Eventually she’ll give up even mentioning it.

How about instead of being a dense motherfucker Armas tries trolling her by asking her to explain her position?

Something like, "No, really, tell me about what the moral questions are here. Assume I don't know anything about this, and start from basic principles. Take as long as you want, I've always got time for you."

>Once I'm awake-what's my plan for the coming day?
Order Amen to: “Honestly tell me how much flesh and blood from from beings belonging to the following categories there is available in the mansion and that you can tell me about without violating any of your bindings. Queen, angel, dragon, elder being and Savoy.”

IGOR
+Igor notices he hasn't been seeing a lot of people lately, and decides to go on jogs with others from now on.
+Igor wonders “why the fuck didn't we anticipate this? This is chugainov, after all about the 'chugainov problem'. He then realize that getting drunk on freedom and 'power' helped him ignore the obvious.
+As he has a current request from Dick Boss, he is not going to have time to do much about it, and knows that as a somewhat-observer, butting in wouldn't be appreciated, so he resolves to see Dick Boss today and ask him if dick boss could order significant amount of alcohol. Be prepared to be sent on the errand himself, as it seems this is how Boss works.
+Igor notices that a few of his colleagues have been focused on chakra instead of teaching at ito's, and resolve to talk about it to the “dead lasts” of the chakra russians, so they can grab the opportunity before Ito can't afford to miss teachers. Proposal: institute a rotation that can be changed so that as people catch up, they can put more time into teaching again while others get the extra attention

>Asking Duke in awesome rhymes if his true Nature is a Dragon Dick. Be bummed when realizing Einrik troll, and forgetting what you were talking about.
Einrik troll was awesome, but there was no reason to not continue asking his true nature. By now, Duke probably like you enough to answer now, and we want to win that bet with IT, if only to feel good about our awesomeness. Do that.

>Seeing Hillevi more, and try to organize a contest between the two of us for 'best teacher' as a way to motivate ourself. See it as an opportunity to teach her how to manipulate too, so that we focus on “manipulating people into giving more than their 100%”.
Upvote

>Read report, be a boss
Upvote

>Note to self: whenever Camella mentions moral considerations, look at her blankly, like she’s speaking another language. Eventually she’ll give up even mentioning it.
SUST. Instead, keep up your dcision to use her as a way to have a different 'human benchmark', even if it's obvious by now that Camella's morality is askew. If she talks about morality, ask her to explain herself, in details.

Make sure to put soul-sensing on the moment you have enough juice, and then try to “undercharge” it as a self-efficiency lesson. CALL LO FANG, tell him you won't be able to meet him for the next few days.

>Satai orders
-Call up The Last Spelling and inquire as to prices for daily updates on news relevant to the Turkish magical community (if Arkvad indicated that they were supernaturally savvy) and to activity amongst criminal groups in Turkey.
-If possible, do chakra training with Hillevi around the mansion so that Satai and Hillevi are present when Yavuz Celikaya maybe shows up at noon. The crap Armas pulled on him yesterday was disconcerting, hilarious, and extremely impressive- if there's more, Satai wants to see it.
-Keep trying to understand Hillevi better and gently push her into talking in ways that make more sense to a beginner during chakra training. Try to start building a coherent picture of chakra theory- what the hell it is and why it works, since no one seems to talk about that much but Hillevi probably knows.
-Satai is willing to owe Feodor about as much for the information as it cost to get: about thirty seconds and no expenditure of resources whatsoever. It's not like the mafia don't sell drugs.
-To Lyubov, "Training's going fine. And of course I wouldn't spar; too much mixing work and play. How's learning in the Boss' tender care?" Be glad when she leaves, the flighty bint.
-By the end of the day, if no one has communicated a plan for dealing with our relatives, hunt down Matvey and ask what the hell is going on and why nothing has been done about this yet. They're just sitting on it- and how long were they sitting on it already? Satai has only one vodka of patience left. If Matvey mentions a plan given to Armas, get a copy of it and read.

>>392574
>So what do I say about SB's topics?
>What topics of my own do I have to bring up?

>Once I'm awake-what's my plan for the coming day?

1. Find that plan that Matvey and Camella made for us, read through it quickly so that we can talk about it and not look like a total idiot if they ask.

2. Talk to Hillevi in the morning, when all the Russians are at chakra training. It's the biggest block of time when almost everyone else will be busy. Use >>392939 and >>392830- we need to at least take a stab at trying to get her to learn social lessons from things, and poker's a decent way to start. Invite Duke to poker, and arrange for enough booze to be present that he'll show. Be willing to crush Hillevi in poker, but every hand that we do so stop and explain exactly what we did and why we thought it would work. Also, get Duke randomly talking about stuff, see if we can learn a bit about what makes him so strong and what his soul quirks are. Also, have Hillevi and Duke take a glance at those magic weapons we picked up yesterday, see if they can figure out what they do.

3. Call up the Redcaps. "I hear you're back in town; I've got a bit of a project that I'd like you to take a look at- would you care to drop by this evening? I guarantee it will be worth your while, and I think you'll even enjoy helping out." "Great. See you then."

4. Be around at noon in case Yavuz Celikaya shows up. Have a fantastically cooked magical meal ready. If he shows, tell Hillevi to watch you work and have some fun with him. He'll probably be angry and determined to take control of the conversation- be carefree and cheerful, deflect any anger with enthusiastic positiveness. "Yavuz, my friend! So good of you to come, please, have a seat, try the kraken, it's excellent today." "Not now, Yavuz, Business is for after pleasure. Let us begin with idle chat- perhaps work related but we are both diligent men who live our lives as a proper paean to our tasks, are we not? Tell me, how long have you been working on your products? I inspected them in detail this morning, very fine, but I would have expected a different variety of base components. Do you have any supply difficulties?" "Interesting. I myself rarely have problems, we do a bit of business in acquisitions and transfer of various variousnesses, there are limitations of course but anything can be overcome with the proper application of time and effort."

Fill other conversation with a lot of cheerful helpfulness that doesn't tell him a lot about what we do here beyond implied utter disregard for anything that gets in our way, but paints a picture of ourselves as being highly eccentric, of great resources, of significant magical power, extremely enthused about what he can do for us- and willing to do a bit for him as an unimportant side effect of that. Don't be shy about showing off a bit of magic- little things, but take the casually enough that it's clear we consider them trivial and commonplace. (Shadowbro should be handy here.) Keep pushing the friendliness until it gets under his skin, until he accepts the premise that we really are his friend and want to work with him extensively. As things wind down...

"Ah, then, business. For the most important part, the pipes... I think you need to see exactly what you'll be working with."

Dramatically reveal the horror that is Duke's feces, from a relatively safe distance. "You see, having come into some quantity of this, I can't help but think how potent it would be if pressurized, mixed with the strongest toxins I have on hand- also corrosive, as it happens, exceedingly deadly, delightful stuff- and then projected at high velocity towards whatever happens to be getting in the way of my latest venture." "I know it's not what you're used to, but you show all the signs of a master craftsman! Push your limits! I could simply have dredged up a svartelf or dwarf something, there are plenty of crafty critters out there, but I need someone with heart! Soul! And not the literal kind, almost everyone has those." "We can table this matter for now; it's not incredibly urgent and doubtless will require much in the way of thought on your part. On to armor, then. I'm interested in what rune schematics you have available- if the personnel armor project goes well, I might come up with a few larger items in need of your expertise. Vans. Tanks. Golems. Drones, perhaps, depending upon how certain projects currently not in production pan out."

Go through what he's got available, make arrangements to actually get everything that the receipt asked for. To avoid paying now, promise pricing upon delivery of product and imply a few past bad experiences. Keep upbeat and positive, let him talk but only if he's not taking the conversation in an undesirable direction (like "give me my stuff back") and try to usher him out with the solid idea that he needs to make you things and, however bizarre you might be, he definitely won't regret working with you.

5. Actually meet with the redcaps. Show them the golem, talk about how awesome it is, and ask their help in making it more awesome.

>>393119

LYUBOV ADDENDUM

*Respond to Satai, "His latest lesson is that chakra progression is about understanding yourself. All his lessons have been helping me with that. It isn't normal training, but it works. And are you saying you will spar me now?"

Matvey

color=#3399FF

-(rolled 49 = 49)
-Have Lyubov come to you with news on Lev and Zhenya. Ask questions until you have as complete an understanding of the situation as you can. Find the two breakdowns very shocking, make a mental note to talk with those two later.
-Answer a conference call from the boss about Camella's progress with Gloom. Continue to be concerned for his mental well being. Take notes.
-Tell Iosef what you can about social interaction in general terms. Recommend he spend some more face to face time interacting with people or meeting new people.
-Be approached by an angry Satai demanding to be informed of the familial situation. Tell him the situation is being handled as best you can with the resources and knowledge available, him getting angry at you will not make this go any faster. There's a report already written and awaiting the boss' review, if he wants a copy he can have one. What we have right now is pretty sparse, it essentially being what was proposed in the meeting that he and the others were all a part of. If Satai really wants to help he can come by sometime discuss whatever ideas he has with an officer. As far as you know this hasn't been sat on, at least on your end, you learned of the situation a couple hours prior to everyone else from Lyubov and attempted to act on that as soon as you heard. As far as you knew the only other people who knew before you were Camella and Andrei, who will assist with any hacking required. If he's concerned with not being informed as soon as possible he can bring it up with them.

So since minion orders are proving quite popular and regular-a bit of a formatting request: Please phrase orders in second person-ie, Gloom's orders to think about something would go: -Consider picking up Krav Maga. Decide against it owing to his preference for Systema.
[Lev has been queued to do the following:]
L-Consider his recent failure, and the bad news of the family situation. Be in a slightly less than good mood. Accidentally take anger out on woodcarving, be mortified when he realizes he not only
butchered the carving-it looks more like an angry penis than anything else. Feel uncomfortable with the thought of burning or keeping it-wonder what to do with it.
L-Decide not to mess about, just do Camella's lessons properly, rationalize that he's gotta make ShadowBoss proud. Try to table emotions until later.
L-Later be surprised by this strange feeling of wishing for someone's approval. Hear about Ito's training on the grapevine, or vodka bottle, whatever, jump at the chance presented. LOSE $150 a week in Ito
training pay. Acquire one of Ito's six slots for dedicated chakra training: four left.
L-Round about evening time, wonder if Babushka is ok... surely if anything was happening one of the 12 from the orphanage would take her away... then again, Chugainov is kinda powerful... and he doesn't have
a clue where the others are or what they are doing.
L-Lament that he lost contact with everyone when he ended up in the special forces anti-magic Russian army division (silly Lev thinking he's special forces). Miss Babushka, and mid-mope pent up emotions from earlier explode out. Try to get drunk, then try to follow Rostislav for fight clubbing, on return from fight-clubbing, wail about not knowing what Anna, Oleg, Nestor , Mariya, Veronika,
Karp and... and... he can't remember the names of the others BAWWWWW!!!!
L-Search for a green fuzzy thing to wrap yourself around, succeed with the power of booze.
L-In the dark curl up in fetal position with the sword of the father he never knew, mourn blade-filled stolen childhood, there are some people a little boy shouldn't play with... Suppress, yet again,
childhood rape event from active thought.
L-Fall asleep to the quasi-philosophical drunk-thought: For a long time, the only monsters he knew of were the human ones.
[Rostislav has been queued to do the following:]
R-Consider a single bout at the new fight club he found. Earning experience against foes that have decidedly newfound ways of working and special tricks? Hell yes. In fact, structure the whole damn day around this event to make certain he is as awesome as possible - Sleep pattern, alarms, food consumption. Decide he's back in the old business, decide to be sure business is good!
R-Fail to pay heed to memories of not being anything resembling a 'talented' fighter in the old fight-related clubs he participated in. After all, new job, new Rosti.
R-Briefly notice someone following him, fail to care when he notices it's Lev
R-As he did previously before a good fight, prepare first-aid supplies and keep them in his coat. It's manly to take a punch, but stupid not to take care of it after.
R-Perform: (PLAYER MUST ROLL IN DISCUSSION THREAD. 1d100, DC 52)
[Iosef has been queued to do the following:]
I-Drop instruction job in favor of more Chakra Training (lose 150$/w income) THREE SLOTS LEFT.
I-Having trained for several days, realize that getting optimal amount of sleep doesn't improve Chakra training in the least. Wish he was intellectual/philosophical enough he could figure something out from
this data blurb. Decide being heavy weapons guy's pretty okay even if he isn't the sharpest baller in the melon.
I-Ask others if they know of any other ways to improve Chakra gains. Do this during breaks, free-time or when having meals. Given sparse time questions are asked during and busy nature of cohorts, get highly
limited response. Only get meaningful reports from three individuals: Lyubov, noting that she's pretty sure matching the training structure to one's personality type is a good idea, Matvey noting that emotional
disturbance does not at all help one's precision even if it can help raw output, and Satai noting that 'cheating is always best' and making mention of rubs and other training multipliers.
I-Cut down sleeptime (15:00-17:00 nap, meaning 3,5h at night + 2 hours during the day). Be aware that short of a magical solution this will notably increase the rate of sleep deprivation.
I-Reflect on what he did wrong when visiting Kardemir Steel. Decide to work a little bit on social skills, so that they are at least 'passable'. Ask Andrei, Matvey and Lyubov, for tips and how to start improving. Be given a few strange looks and some comments that are highly general-be unsure how useful they are.
I-Use the nifty notebook that Andrei gifted him to browse different chat-rooms and forum (anonymous or otherwise) to work on communication skills. Don't ever use real names, locations or events. In fact, ask
Andrei if he made sure that the notebooks he gave out have been tweaked by him for maximum protection against hackers and viruses (Iosef is not that good at computers, you see?). Make no initial gains due to internet-norm abrasive verbal hazing and apathy of posters for newcomers, particularly inarticulate ones.
I-Learn that Andrei has been doing the same thing for a while, ask for beginners help. Be given a social engineering how-to printout, and be told to read it.
I-Spend about 2 hours doing this (17:00-19:00). Continue pressing on even as it doesn't make sense-read it through twice, and decide to read it more later, and next time possibly take notes.
I-(19:00-21:00), just spend time socializing with other Russians and denizens of the mansion. Ask Duke how come he is so awesome. Be told it's because he can literally fart thunder-well, thunderous pressure waves. Decide that no matter what anyone says, this is impressive as hell.
I-Due to new schedule drink big cup of black, bitter coffee in the morning and after afternoon nap. Also, make use of the energy drinks that were provided by Andrei and Satai. Abruptly feel stinging sensation on hand, be distracted by a brief blur seen for an instant. Rub hand in consternation, wonder what just made that welt.
I-Drop the idea to get Sake a gift. It seems that you've been beaten to it and it looks too much like ass-kissing now. Grump about how some people get magical rubbings and he doesn't.
I-Nonetheless, give the idea to Lyubov. Perhaps she will make use of it. Be told by Lyubov that 'If it's not Etse compliant, I probably won't do it.' Wonder what the hell Etse is.
I-Be depressed about the news but since he personally can't do much about it, attempts to not let it hamper him too much.
[Lyubov has been queued to do the following:]
*L~Have difficulty sleeping. Get up, research ways to keep herself distracted throughout the day. End up placing several orders she'll probably regret, among them a left handed ferret brush (why
would she even need a left handed one?), pay for expedited shipping ($800).
*L~Read about that ‘haigure’ thing. Most of the information about it is in Japanese, be a little weirded out by the stuff that is in English.
*L~Change into swimming suit again, pose in front of a mirror in that ‘haigure’ position. Upon brain catching up to body, briefly wonder how she rationalized this as being acceptable before she almost starts to wonder how much shit she and Armas would be in if Camella learned. Stop thinking about that, decide “it’s just training, she’ll understand.” Yep. Totally understand-and that's why she'll never ever find out. Yes.
*L~Get dressed in pajamas, go find Sake. More prank calls, recorder on. Again with the complaining guy only she can hear. Seems this time he's actually speaking TO her-and keeps saying 'this is not how you
should use phones'. Take a break, start to genuinely worry about mental health. Ask for weasel rub-down to see if it helps. ...Nope, still hearing that dude.
*L~Wander downstairs, find Duke watching TV. Watch with him, mention hearing a voice on the phone that Sake can’t hear. Be told it's probably 'That Phone Guy' as if that explains everything. Ask how
Duke is so awesome, be told it's because he can drink a lake (literally, he's verified this) of hard liquor in one sitting, volume discrepancies be damned. Share personal background, tell the story about the arms smuggling. It’s really funny, now that you’re not sentenced to death. Well, technically you are, but things are better now! Note that Duke seemed quite enthused with cheerfully delivered self-depreciating tales.
*L~Four a.m. already? Excuse herself, go get dressed for jog. Breakfast seems normal today, guess Boris was just experimenting. Feel a bit queasy about the belly during the run-not a huge amount, but enough she notices. Otherwise notice nothing out of whack.
*L~Go to your room, dress very nicely for Church. Collect Gloom, head out, leave letter to mom at home. Donate $1000. Introduce Gloom to Cookie Lady. Observe cookie lady promising Gloom next week she'll have handpies made 'just for him to put a smile on his face'. Wonder if her cooking can overcome comrade's dourness.
*L~Talk to Nikolai, confess more sins, uncharitable thoughts about co-workers, your moment of longing for Hillevi’s money last week. Ask about the 1955 Pogrom, ask why things went so badly here. Be told that respectfully, the whole story is rather complex and he does not want to explain things by half-measures. Ask if we could meet in the afternoon sometime during the week to talk more about how things in Istanbul having to do with God and religion are very different compared to other places. Be told he'd be delighted to do so-make plans to meet WEDNESDAY at the church. Hope she remembers to go.
*L~Miss a couple of hours of chakra training because of church. Grease up with that bottle Armas gave her again, make sure it’s all covered by her workout outfit. Note she smells like strawberries, and the
wicking layer of her outfit is sticking to you. Feels super gross. Focus on getting into orientation. Note that, even knowing the principle guiding it, the distracting tactile sensations still make Orientation setup easier.
*L~Shower and change before going to Ito’s. Be excessively happy she thought ahead and acquired multiple workout outfits.
*L~At lunch recognize Zhenya is hitting the bottle really hard again. Pester comrade and jokingly threaten, “I’ll take blackmail pictures if I have to bring you home again.” Explain Zhenya made a fool of herself last night. Get Zhenya to tell her a very sad story about her family’s cursed violin. Keep thoughts that 'This is probably not an actual cursed violin and just some coincidences' to self.
*L~Comfort her friend. Show Zhenya funny videos, play back the recorded prank calls, apologize for the messed up audio. Be ready to contain dread if Zhenya claims the calls sound fine to her-be surprised when she ALSO complains about the soft voice in the background. Focus on cheering her up, make mental note someone else heard that voice.
*L~With remaining time in the afternoon block, be approached by Iosef. Ask Iosef to come along as she goes shopping and be turned down as he's got some printouts to read, go buy 20 hours more phone airtime
($60), nylon stiffener ($40), nitrile gloves and safety goggles ($20). Drop stuff off at home.
*L~Give Iosef advice: “If you don’t want to seem like you’re just kissing up, try actually getting to know him. Sake’s a very friendly guy. Bring some good alcohol, and spend an evening talking to him,
that’s how we became friends.”
*L~Dinner. Ask Andrei how he’s doing, ask Hillevi and Satai how their training is going. Find out Andrei's still his kooky self, just... perkier since his heart attack. Odd, given the lowered caffeine
intake. Tease Hillevi, “I didn’t realize you liked the intellectual types. He wouldn’t even spar with me the other week.” Feel like she 'gets' Boss at delicious social schadenfreude over Hillevi's fiercely delivered protestations and comical blue-blushing.
*L~Keep an eye on Zhenya. Try an energy drink, decide it’s no wonder this horrible tasting stuff killed Andrei. Feel like something is watching her when she grabbed said energy drink-be kinda sure it wasn't Sake being a dick or Shadow Boss being a creeper. Go with gut feeling it wasn't Boss. Know it wasn't Camella or Gloom. Wonder who the hell that leaves?
*L~Night lessons. Keep intentions fluttery against Granny. Keep thoughts fluttery too. Wonder what happened to Lev. Fail to replicate that lucky punch from the other day-wonder what's missing.
*L~Come home, look for Sake, find Lev drunk and crying. Welp. Drag him to his room, ask SB to keep an eye on him, make sure he doesn’t hurt himself. Go 'Ooooooh that makes sense' when hearing Lev lamenting he doesn't even remember the names of all his bastards.
*L~Find Matvey, alert him about Lev and Zhenya. Mention Zhenya seemed better after talking it out with you this afternoon. Answer questions (but don’t tell about Zhenya’s phobia, just that the family issues
reminded her she practically has no family).
*L~Finally get some sleep. It’s been a long day.
*L~When she sees the Boss, ask him if he's going to get any jobs out in Egypt or the other countries experiencing turmoil at the moment. Express surprise when he doesn't know what she's talking about, explain the Arab Spring to him as, "Well it started because this guy set himself on fire and now everyone's upset and it looks like Egypt is going through a revolution and some other places too and it's all in the news." Recieve oddly blank look from boss, and hear him mutter about 'Vacations'.
*L~*Respond to Satai, "His latest lesson is that chakra progression is about understanding yourself. All his lessons have been helping me with that. It isn't normal training, but it works. And are you saying you will spar me now?" Try to evoke a 'shit's on if you want it' aura.
[Gloom has been queued to do the following:]
Ruminate on whether his irregular personal views on family issues are relevant to how the group as a whole approach the Chugainov/Family issue.
*Decide it's not. Wonder why that was a relevant consideration.
*Note his family has proved themselves to be his very best allies in the world, and he wouldn't want to lose them. Spend a while with the others brainstorming what is best to do next.
*Decide this is probably a 'healthier' way to deal with personal eccentricities than staring at the shower's wall.
*Be told by cliched Old Granny figure that she will bake some desserts specifically for him.
*1d100 roll to beat DC45 to avoid having heart warmed by this to stay coldly rational. Roll in discussion.
[Zhenya has been queued to do the following:]
-Wake up with hangover, remember jack shit. Given the company she keeps-be concerned over what could have happened.
-Approach Sake for weasel rubbings to get rid of hangover, be laughed at and mocked for a good couple minutes before rubbings are administered. Thank him even if he was a bit of a dick about it-sweet
sweet release is worth it.
-Consider getting him a gift, he and Lyubov have been very friendly. Decide to get him 1000 ping pong balls.($12for a pack of 144, buying 7 packs for a total of $84-discounts). Store them to 'spring' upon
Weasel Boss at an opportune moment.
-When she gets back to her room she notices a large empty space where
her ammunition was. Count up and see ~2000rounds gone. Trace back to indoor shooting range and get her targets from yesterday, notice horrible shot placement, wonder what the hell she was doing wasting
2000 rounds like that.
-Imbibe heavily at lunch and talk to Lyubov.
-Be slightly depressed by all this, decide to go cheer self up.
-Grab 5k and head out the the black market dealer to ask for rare or special pistols. Specifically ask for the Volquartsen MKIII and the LeMat Revolver. Be laughed at for asking for something as old as a
Lematt-fail to get a word in edgewise to explain even functional replicas are fine. Find out that while the merchant does not currently have a MKIII, he could acquire one within a week. Decide to come back
later and check in after he refuses the notion of being placed on a 'call list'.
-Present Sake with ping pong balls, inwardly hope he doesn't use them for too much mischief. Ask him if he knows any methods she can use to get ahead in this chakra thing, maybe a
mindset? Be told by an abruptly far more magnanimous than usual Weasel Boss, wallowing in a pile of balls and wiggling contentedly, that to really get results, she has to figure out what kind of person she
is-be given example of how Lyubov's learned she's big on distraction, causing it or receiving it, and playing to this improves her learning rate. Sake goes on to say 'know yourself to best learn'.
-Attempt to skip night sessions, stay home and clean guns. Attempt to stay home interrupted by a Wild Camella enforcing class attendence.
-Try the chakra thing one more time before going to bed, be slightly frustrated at lack of progress.
-pass out.
[Feodor has been queued to do the following:]
*Get back from Finnigan's. Drink. Go over notes. Shower.
*Find Sake, receive weasel-rubbings in exchange... for a roll of gauze. Do not question the weasel rolling itself in the gauze until it looks like a bandaged green sock.
*Notice that even though it's Sunday, Lyubov's still going jogging with Camella. Crazy girl. Realise that training is still on. Rush to join them, try to catch up. Be thankful for past attempts to encourage others with modular speed-don't fail miserably at playing catch up on run.
*Shower again quickly. Eat breakfast even quicker.
*Go to Camella's Chakra Killzone. Get angry at self for having to rely on Sake. Remember what Camella noticed yesterday and simmer down on the anger. Precision is key here.
*Shower again. Try to 'wash off' that emotional energy. Think that... maybe worked?
*Ask Armas about how he heals so easily and quickly, and whether whatever it is a viable option for the Russians. Decide that the Smile given in answer is reason enough to not investigate-sober. Ask about other methods. Be told pretty much all of them take stupid amounts of magic-quoted directly from the boss. Ask who to talk to find out more about charms and where to get them. Be told to take a trip down into the Sewers, and ask to speak to 'Sometimes Merchant'-be warned his services do not come cheaply. Ponder this.
*Go to Ito's for day-instructing and chakra training.
*Head back to the mansion. Shower again. Wonder why he keeps showering. Shower yet again. Why is he doing this?
*Have a short nap. Wake up in the shower. What? Wake up in bed-decide maybe to take a break from showers.... tomorrow, after a whif of his own B.O. Reluctantly shower again.
*Tell Satai he'll owe you for the information.
*Head to Finnigan's early. Ask him where he gets his supplies – drugs, instruments, even bandages. Be told it's all through EMT's that 'lose' their stock in exchange for favors from him-and that they would understandably NOT be okay with supplying other people. Talk about where he's from and how he got started in Istanbul. Be told he's actually Scottish, not Irish, and everyone gets it wrong. Continue
taking notes throughout the night again.
[Igor has been queued to do the following:]
+Notice he hasn't been seeing a lot of people lately, and decides to go on jogs with others from now on.
+Wonders “why the fuck didn't we anticipate this? This is Chugainov, after all" about the 'Chugainov problem'. He then realize that getting drunk on freedom and 'power' helped him ignore the obvious.
+As he has a current request from Dick Boss, he is not going to have time to do much about it, and knows that as a somewhat-observer, butting in wouldn't be appreciated, so he resolves to see Dick Boss today and ask him if dick boss could order significant amount of alcohol. Be prepared to be sent on the errand himself, as it seems this is how Boss works. Wow look at that-Boss told him to buy.... ten thousand dollars of booze, okay wow that was more than he expected. AWAITING PLAYER INPUT ON WHAT 10K IS SPENT ON.
+Notice that a few of his colleagues have been focused on chakra instead of teaching at Ito's, and resolve to talk about it to the “dead lasts” of the chakra Russians, so they can grab the opportunity before Ito can't afford to miss teachers. Despite their only being three remaining openings, be non-dickish about this. Morosely wonder if anyone will notice.
[$atai has been queued to do the following:]
$-Call up The Last Spelling and inquire as to prices for daily updates on news relevant to the Turkish magical community and to activity amongst criminal groups in Turkey. Be told in a manner that makes the price feel preset that the price is $5,000 a week, but if one doesn't care if they are in the news they read, then the pay's $50 a week.
$-Do chakra training with Hillevi around the mansion so that Satai and Hillevi are present when Yavuz Celikaya maybe shows up at noon. The crap Armas pulled on him yesterday was disconcerting, hilarious, and extremely impressive- if there's more, Satai wants to see it.
$-Keep trying to understand Hillevi better and gently push her into talking in ways that make more sense to a beginner during chakra training. Personal bias towards meticulously specific phrasing that is as hard to misinterpret as possible may be bleeding through to her-and in his mind is entirely beneficial. Try to start building a coherent picture of chakra theory- what the hell it is and why it works, since no one seems to talk about that much but Hillevi probably knows. Start with the concept that Chakra manipulation is technically innate to every single thing with a soul, but it's not easily accessed, effectively 'born atrophied', and has nowhere near the magical efficiency of Bloodline magics. Beyond this, be unwilling to concretely stand behind more facts until he's had more time to pester Hillevi.
$-Willing to owe Feodor about as much for the information as it cost to get: about thirty seconds and no expenditure of resources whatsoever. It's not like the mafia don't sell drugs. Notes that Feodor maaay have smiled at this.
$-To Lyubov, "Training's going fine. And of course I wouldn't spar; too much mixing work and play. How's learning in the Boss' tender care?" Be glad when she leaves, the flighty bint. Be reasonably sure Hillevi has not at all picked up on personal dislike for Lyubov-but be personally unable to shake the feeling the details she and Matvey seem to be hiding feel like they'd make him dislike her.
$-By the end of the day, if no one has communicated a plan for dealing with relatives, hunt down Matvey and ask what the hell is going on and why nothing has been done about this yet. They're just sitting on it- and how long were they sitting on it already? Satai has only one vodka of patience left. When Matvey mentions a plan given to Armas, get a copy of it and read.
$-Find that it notes the impracticalities and unreliability of nearly every collectively known method due to all of them being actively used by Chugainov. Paying for someone to smuggle them through mundane channels, staging a kidnapping, staging a death that wouldn't leave an identifiable body, bribing their way through locals in each individual's hometown, using intimidation to simply pick them up-all have been clearly-and, he must admit, fairly-shot down as not being workable enough to consider.
$-Find that after all the failing methods, there is a short blurb that effectively equates to 'we need to find a magical solution to this-and Camella said something about Armas' space-manipulating trick not being normal teleportation-in a bad way. Reread blurb-be unable to glean WHAT exactly Camella said, or what, barring teleportation, the trick the Boss has been seen to use is-and why it's bad.
$-Decide that he may have to directly confront the boss or get a group meeting organized to force the boss to prioritize-work perks the boss may have covered, but employee relations-particularly empathy-not so much.
[Matvey has been queued to do the following:]
-(rolled 49 = 49) Actually avoid being distracted, start to really solidify 'hard-work' rhythm. Be glad he didn't flop out early. Hope he'll truck through subsequent hurdles as well.
-Have Lyubov come to him with news on Lev and Zhenya. Ask questions until he has as complete an understanding of the situation as he can. Given Lyubov's eclectic storytelling style, this is not as much as he'd hoped. Find the two breakdowns very shocking, make a mental note to talk with those two later.
-Answer a conference call from the boss about Camella's progress with Gloom. Continue to be concerned for his mental well being. Take notes. Seems she's identified Gloom as the type to legitimately pull out more power AND control with increased emotional investment with Chakra-and she and Ito both are trying to guide him towards less antisocial possible uses of that.
-Tell Iosef what he can about social interaction in general terms. Recommend he spend some more face to face time interacting with people or meeting new people.
-Be approached by an angry Satai demanding to be informed of the familial situation. Tell him the situation is being handled as best you can with the resources and knowledge available, him getting angry at you will not make this go any faster. There's a report already written and awaiting the boss' review, if he wants a copy he can have one. What they have right now is pretty sparse, it essentially being what was proposed in the meeting that he and the others were all a part of. If Satai really wants to help he can come by sometime discuss whatever ideas he has with an officer. As far as you know this hasn't been sat on, at least on your end, you learned of the situation a couple hours prior to everyone else from Lyubov and attempted to act on that as soon as you heard. As far as you knew the only other people who knew before you were Camella and Andrei, who will assist with any hacking required. If he's concerned with not being informed as soon as possible he can bring it up with them.