Personal Effects

[Nixon]

Hartighan arrives through the back door and sees Victor 'perched' on top of Pandora's gear.

First, he heads over to the booth where he and Nile "stay", packs her bags, and sits them on the table. He heads over to the shrine, briefly over to Gabriel and Alice, briefly over to Mason Fell... then back to the shrine.
(See other thread)

When he is done, he comes over to Victor's table and sits next to her.
He nods to Madrigus.
"Hey Victor. How are you? Nile is ready to go... I just wanted to check on you.
Are you gonna be ok? What have you got there?"

(This is Hartighan's last interactions for the year. Speak now, etc etc)

[HummingbirdKate]

Monty shambles in from the porch, dark eyes scanning the tavern. Seeing that many folks have gone home by now, he walks over to Viktor and JD, dropping himself down in a chair at their table. His eyes pass over Pandora's things and he recognizes the blue paracord she was so fond of. His expression darkens from blank to livid and a look of determination passes over him.

"So," he drones in his affectless tone. "Did we get the name of their organization off of that dead guy?"

[Nick Sleet]

Nick looks up from his journal.

"They were calling themselves Talon, I believe. A bunch of us are looking into the name and the various forms of identification we got off of them"

[Carlos]

Roberto sat quietly with his back against the jukebox. The blue light from his VR goggles illuminated his face softly as lines of text streamed by indicating a running diagnostics program. The events of the past few days had put a great deal of strain on both his mind and equipment. Across the dinner, he could see the small gathering that had formed around the corner he'd formally claimed as his own. He watched as they spoke and consoled each other, as they assured themselves that Pandora would be back before they knew it. Eventually the name "Talon" was mentioned. Red lights flashed across Roberto's face as the diagnostic threw an error "Unable to complete authentication. Kerberos server not found"

Roberto walked up to the table where Monty and Nick where talking.

"Talon... so those are the noobs that ganked us? I'll make sure that clan gets doxxed back to the stone age." He said, his voice low and shaky as he tried to contain his anger.

[HummingbirdKate]

"Hmm, Talon," Monty muses. "I think I'm gonna take a walk to the next town over and look for a payphone. I've never heard the name but I may know someone who has." He gets up and adjusts his coat, checks that all his tools are still in place, then tromps out the door. "I'll probably be back in a day or two, don't wait around for me." With that he makes to leave the diner.

[Nick Sleet]

Nick smiles cooly.

"Sounds good, but make sure to let the rest of us in so we can coordinate our efforts. If you get eaten by their security before we can ramp up our rescue efforts, then we only lose another person. I'd rather not go through that again."

He glances briefly down at the journal and papers before him.

"And whoever they are, Talon clearly has considerable resources; anyone able to call down drone strikes clearly has built up a considerable infrastructure. To me that suggests a covert approach, raiding, and of course destroying their online infrastructure."

He looks up again at Roberto, and the grin is now devilish.

"So I'll be sure to let you know if I find any vulnerable servers. These people are too dangerous to allow to operate unscathed; we need to cut them down to size."

[Madrigus]

Madrigus fidgets. "I'm not entirely sure I fully understand what you're talking about, Nick, but I do know that magic and technology don't mesh very well. If you need something broken, what better way than to warp the fabric of reality?"

He glances at Victor, still silent. "A war on two fronts would be a good way to pincer them. If you guys can coordinate a crackdown on their assets, when we locate a facility or something, well," he wiggles his fingers and matches Nick's smile, "kaboom. They wouldn't be able to deal with it effectively while their 'neatwerks' are in disarray. What do you think?"

[Sheriff Winters]

Mindful of his current position in town, Brandon cautiously enters the Diner. He pauses briefly at the small shrine and looks at it long and hard before nodding grimly in approval. He slowly makes his way through the Diner, trying not to make this whole affair any more awkward than it already is. He moves up to the group with his hands in his pockets. He looks at the box of items and then to the group around him.

“… I… got the call while taking the Deputy Director to his car… Pandora, she’s the girl like the others from Amertume right? Not an escaped prisoner like them… but with the same skin condition?”

The Sheriff looks around, he’s obviously exhausted both physically and mentally from the past couple of days. He closes his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose, and mutters something under his breath. He then gently reaches his hand out to the materials in front of the group. Sensing no resistance, he briefly looks through the pages of the journal before sliding back in front of the group.

“… So… I spoke with Gus last night, before… everything that happened. He asked that I help you guys, and despite everything… we’re now all tied together. This means we work together, as much as possible… This girl, she’s got problems, which honestly is probably a drop in the bucket compared to what everyone else is dealing with… but she’s a sweet kid, and she needs help.”

Winters finally looks up and finally meets everyone’s gaze. He rests his hand on the table, as much for stability as emphasis.

“You folks have very little reason to trust me right now, and that’s fair. After everything that’s happened I wouldn’t be surprised if you hated me… That being said, these folks are in a different class than we’ve dealt with before, and I have one of their guys lying on a slab in Ellie’s office… I’d like to offer you folks my assistance, it would be grunt police work for what it’s worth… but like it or not, we’re in this together."

[Madrigus]

(edited because I was finally caught up properly on what happened.)

"Don't worry, Sheriff," says Madrigus, beaming up at the gigantic man. "You had your reasons, and I don't blame you for keeping your business your business."

[Micheal Strife]

Mike stands up from working on the shrine to give his hands a rest and walks over to the counter to get himself some water. After finally coming to rest with his drink in hand somewhere in front of the Sheriff he seems somewhat out of sorts, his off hand still shaking a little.

"You had a right to keep your secrets as we did to you. But that time has past and I think that is plain as day to anyone who is here right now. Pandora is a good friend of ours, and she is going to make it out one way or another. I have no doubt of that."

Mike takes a long sip from the glass of water and smacks his lips over its taste. He looks around rolling the next few words over and over in his head

"If Gus could speak now I think he would forgive you. That was always his gift; he could forgive anyone and mean it too. I for one am willing to let the past be where it is and see where the future takes us. I'm sure we will need a lot more forgiveness and understanding from here on out. And that is how we can turn this whole thing around."