Shadowrun: Knight's Strike

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He snorted loudly when she explained things, nodding to her "Yeah, just not used to it. I don't get a lot of slot, well not without paying for it." he smirked slightly, before waving her off "I can think that probing a fragger's a very fragged up experience. I promise you, I'll try to avoid letting you do that... It's... not pleasant for either of them."

A small shudder came across him as he thought about a past event, though nodded at the request for drinks "You like action, right? I know a bar that's always got something going on."
 
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"Sure thing, boss. I go where you take me. Come ti think of it, maybe I use the job payment and blow it all on a fancy car. Hmm but I'm running low on quality reagents..." She seemed terribly torn over the matter, like she was choosing between orichalcum and a drek hot sports car. Which may very well have been the case. Funny how a gram of something could be worth as much as an entire vehicle, both monetarily and practically. "Come on, let's go see that bar. It's getting kinda boring. Although I'd rather avoid wasting energy on dumb bar brawls, like I said I prefer a different kind of action." Despite saying she wouldn't tease Gizmo any more it was almost impossible not to make that sentence sound sexually charged. She didn't even realise she was doing it which made it even worse in some way.
 
He gave her the "Are you fragging kidding me?" look when she told him she'd buy a very expensive car, but looked like he considered what she said and decided that she did have a valid point. Fast cars were always fun, and the cheap ones were great getaway vehicles you can just dump somewhere.

He coughed loudly at her little statement, raising an eyebrow but saying nothing as he jacked himself in to his car, his speakers stating out "As long as you keep to yourself and don't jump when there's a barfight, people let you watch and drink in peace"
 
"Why would I be kidding you? Have you seen the price of Orichalcum recently? That thing fluctuates more than stocks. And besides I think I'm out of Spirit Tree Branches and Egyptian Scarab Husks. Import taxes are the worst." She groaned like a bratty teen would in an old drama. Gizmo said something about it being fine not to take part in fights. This seemed to perk her up a bit as she plastered a big toothy smile across her face. "Yea, I prefer to watch anyway." Of course as she did that she looked at Gizmo astrally noting the blackness caused by cybernetics. It was strange how most people will go their whole life never seeing their soul or their ideal astral form while others will do nothing but look at others for that exact reason. She returned to blowing bubbles with her gum and seeming bored. Even in these moment she didn't even realise that some of her statements could be misinterpreted as yet more teasing towards Gizmo.
 
"No? Unless you didn't notice, Chica. I ain't a Juju. Hell, sometimes I feel like spirits hate me for no real reason! Had a run with an honest to goodness black ops team, and the earth spirit made a beeline for me! I was a block away jacked into a fragging car, but next thing I knew this giant fragging hunk of rock came charging right at me."

His astral form was dead on his head, but the rest of his body still very much alive. It didn't take long to show his irritation at the story he was telling, nor the underlying sexual lust he's trying to keep under check from her comments he reasoned was completely unintentional. Her comment about liking to watch only brought that up once more.

"Sometimes it's fun, yeah. Got a guy there that bets on who wins sometimes. FUn times if you got a bit of nuyen to lose
 
"It's just good Biz, Giz. You know what to steal and when to sell it? Then it's just wiz. But, hey they ain't Black Ops of no reason, bet the Shaman was smart enough to scope out the scene Astrally, saw you glowing like a red rock then sent his rocky hound after you. Granted one doesn't need astral sight to see your emotions, you pretty much wear them on your sleeve." Oftentimes cybered up people hated magic-users, for a good reason too. Having one's natural defense against magic traded in for physical prowess only ever works until a manabolt hits you like a truck. Even the weaker force ones can be cause for concern for a heavily cybered individual. Distrust between the two group only grew when Shamans got into the whole spiel about Mother Gaia and how digging into it hurts the planet's own essence. For Ariadne neither side was right or wrong, she saw both extremes as pretentious and ignorant. Toxic Shamans, Cyber Zombies, Bug Spirits, BTLs etc, etc. In the end all that mattered was to keep one's own essence clean and make some nuyen doing oddjobs here and there.

"You know I can't just read your mind whenever I want to, you'll know it if it happens. It's about as subtle as a magickal lobotomy." She said will all possible seriousness her current act could muster. "Just sayin'. In case you were afraid I would do it for fun." In all honesty she kinda liked Gizmo, more so than few last partners. Most of them were either too paranoid to work with a Mage proper or too self centred to appreciate her contributions. There was one Decker that seemed to share her ideology but she went off the grid somewhere in Japan about a month ago. She was a temporary hire, not at all affiliated with KE like Ariadne and Gizmo.
 
"yeah yeah yeah. It explains that one time, but i've had spirits from my teammates go at me! I don't like Astral, and Astral don't like me."

He shook his head as she explained probing to him "I've seen it happen. It's.... spooky. It's fragging spooky." a shudder proved his point as it was clear he had a healthy phobia for probing. His astral state showed his fear clear as day, and when it was actually looked at, she could see something strange about his signature. something that looked like a type of astral bait for spirits.

He sighed through the microphones as he stopped in a broken down building without even any neon lighting. The Astral perception was a toxic pool of addiction, hedonism and repressed rage, with a thick taste of gladiatorial glee

"Well, here we are.'
 
"HOLLY DREK GIZMO! You ARE cursed!" With that bombshell Ariadne burst into tears laughing. She grabbed her stomach and bent her knees lifting her legs mimicking a fetal positon. "I was just fragging around, but there it is. You got fragging bait on you son!" She couldn't believe what she was seeing, especially not after how offhanded her remark about it was. It took her a bit to recover as she kept bursting into tears whenever she looked at Gizmo. "Hang on, hang on. I-I'll fix it right u-up. Pfft." She just couldn't believe the chances of something like this happening.

Slightly recovered she aimed her open palm at the place where she saw the smudge within Gizmo's essence. Her eyes starting to glow ever so slightly being the only indication something was happening. While within the astral plane tentacles of prismatic colours flew out from her palm and wrapped themselves around the little ugly speck digging into it and unraveling it like a Gordian knot. Which is to say cutting it up into little chunks. Few beads of sweat formed on the Ariadne's temple as her eyes stopped glowing and she stopped looking at Gizmo Astrally. "All good, chief. Wiz as it can be, given the cyberware." She still had to contain a bit of laughter. "Shall we go in then?"
 
"What? You fragging serious?" He didn't look all that surprised or taken off guard with what she said. He just seemed.... like he already thought it from the start. But as she started to unravel the blight on his essence, the spot gradually reformed, until it was fully remade after a small while. She wasn't aware of it as she stopped watching him astrally

He opened the door with a grunt, shimmying his way towards Ariadne's side as he opened up "Dunno about you, don't feel that different"
 
"Well it's not like you felt anything before was it? You went around with a curse thinking all you had was bad luck. Who did you even piss off to get that black mark?" Of course she wasn't too involved with spiritual matters, her focus was more on the mental aspects of Hermeticism and a select few spells from other schools. Counter spelling and disenchanting being just basic concepts in her mind had no idea that something as simple would ever be able to recover itself like it did. Luckily, or perhaps not, for her she was ignorant of the matter and remained positive as she could be regarding the matter. She stuck close to Gizmo not wanting for a moment to appear like an unattended girl in a place like this, that often resulted in unwanted attention or trouble. Perhaps unwittingly by trying to appear as his girlfriend she yet again sent him some mixed signals.
 
"Uhhh..." He thought for a moment "Well, you're gonna have to specify." He stated, rubbing his scarred side in thought "I mean. I've had a few partners. They like to switch me around, or maybe it's them requesting a new partner" He stated with a shrug "You can do that, ya know."

He sighed lazily as they walked through the bar, responding on instinct at her small shift to his side by putting his arms around her and giving everyone looking at her the "Look and you die" expression as he waled in. The barman, a heavily slightly twitchy black man with a scrap cyberarm. The joint where he it connected to his flesh was red and incredibly inflamed, but he seemed to be dealing with it by giving scratches
 
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"You think a partner decided to curse you? Well drek, you better not get on my bad side then, I will do something much worse." It wasn't a threat per se, at least not the way she said it. Sure, out of context it might sound like it perhaps but her tone seemed to imply she didn't plan on doing anything, yet... It was likely that she would follow up on what she said given the sufficient reason for it, however, that didn't seem to be the case right now. More to the point she seemed to totally dismiss the notion of asking for a new partner.

The dirty ass looks and toxic atmosphere hit her like a ton of bricks. It was something else and while she was no stranger it was a long time since she visited a place like this. At Gizmo's side, she threw some winks at the weaker looking individuals, male or female. The ones that she knew were too meek to go up against someone like Giz. She followed his lead and remained close to him looking like a real gutter scum that would frequent this sort of place. People here were always fascinating to observe and sometimes even interact with in great detail.
 
He laughed "I don't know.... like... what do you. need to curse a fragger?" He shrugged it off as he gave everyone his trademark glare. One of the weaker men she winked at, actually gathered the nerve to stand up and tried to walk towards them. The gesture made Gizmo stop dead in his tracks and non too subtly flipping his overcoat open and revealing the heavy duty revolver underneath. That made the man back down as he sat Ariadne down at the back, sitting next to her and putting a possessive arm over her as the seedy bar started to normalize.

Five minutes in, and the first fight broke out. A man and a woman, looking equally hardened, fought over one of the more attractive prostitutes
 
"No, if I want to fuck with someone I do it to their face up close and personal. Not from miles away chanting around a circle of power holding a flock of hair or a vial of blood. No, if someone pisses me off I let them know very painfully that they've made a huge mistake." She watched onwards as the first fight broke out, as the astral 'colours' of emotions splattered all over the place with the first drops of blood. The mixture of swirling emotions and instinct clashing against one another all in the name of short-term lust. There was almost a cruel smile on her lips as she leaned to Gizmo whispered. "The whore enjoys this display, it's probably why she works from here. The woman has something to prove while the guy is just plain horny. He's going down."

Sure enough, the woman grabbed an empty bottle from the bartop and slammed it into the man's head dropping him down on the floor. The bottle didn't break and the man was not unconscious, rather he whimpered and held his head writhing in agony. Not a full minute passed before someone got bored of his sounds and threw him out. "Heads up." She said spotting a rather sizable fellow coming their way, an orc with a bit too shiny a piece of chrome for this shithole. Specifically, his right arm seemed like a combat model rather than a prosthetic.
 
"Well, I promise I won't fuck with you without making sure I can take it." He stated dejectedly, looking rather intimidated by her statement as he looked at the fight with mild interest. He gave a small nod as Ariadne explained the logic behind the fight. Lacking Astral perception himself, he simply chugged his drink without much hassle, though noticed the too chromed up orc bbefore she even pointed it out.

"I see him." Gizmo stated with weariness, making the tried and true statement of putting his gun on the table, barrel pointed to the guy as a non too subtle "Fuck with me and I'm going to shoot."
 
"That how you greet new acquaintances, chummer? You won't last long in this line of business with that attitude." The Ork's voice was stereotypically grovelly and it seemed his tusks got in the way of proper pronunciation. Without a question, he pulled up a chair and took a seat at the opposite end of the table. "Now what would a pair of runners be doing in a shithole like this... Is what I would normally ask but I make a habit of remembering all sellouts I can. What was it then... Ariadne, right? Lot of gall showing yourself here." He drawled on seemingly ignoring Gizmo though lacking subtlety made sure the fella was well aware the Ork too was packing some heavy heat.

"Which one were you again? I can't seem to remember every piece of shit I step on." Though it may have seemed like nothing the Ork smirked for but a second then raised his hand almost apologetically. "I did not come to fight, it's just my abrasive personality. What I mean is why are two corp-runners down in this cesspool? I know for a fact you are paid in coffers of nuyen. The only thing I can think of is that you want to start trouble, which wouldn't really work for me. However... If you're here to find some muscle, that's another matter entirely." Just underneath the surface tone and words it was obvious that he was hoping they were hiring. Either he was dreadfully bored or in desperate need of nuyen. "Ahh, you're the Clipper. I remember you, the chrome is new though. Giz, he's a weapons specialist, I suggest getting his contact information if we ever need backup." Almost disappointed the 'Clipper' added. "What? No work?" To which Ariadne responded simply. "Nothing's solid yet, speak with the boss if you feel like it." After she motioned to Gizmo the ork simply looked at him expectantly.
 
"I last plenty long here, you overgrown piglet." Gizmo hissed back, narrowing his eyes at the orc. He didn't like this drekface. NOt a single fragging bit. The moment the fragger started to yap about them being sellouts, Gizmo quite literally growled in anger.

His eyes stabbed daggers into the Runner as he and Ariadne talked to each other. He didn't like the fragger, and now he expected him to hire him?

"Sorry, piggy, but this sellout here's got all his ducks in a row."
 
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"Tch." Was about as much as Ariadne could get out before the Ork so predictably flipped the table after being called out. It was enough to get the gun out of the direct line of fire and wind up for what would probably be a hell of a heavy punch with his chromed out arm. The weak plastic table was all but bent and broken from the force and in the instant that the Ork tossed it out of the way the mood in the place seemed a bit more focused. Unlike the clash before this one was between serious players. Or so it would've been if Ariadne didn't bother to flick her wrist and summon up a barrier in front of Gizmo with which the metallic fist connected. The Ork was just about ready to growl when Ariadne shot him a glance and caused him to reel back in pain as if slapped in the face with about as much force as he just exerted on the barrier. All of which took mere seconds and were followed up by her exhaling slowly as she watched and waited to see what Gizmo would do.
 
Gizmo was ready for him when he flipped the shitty table over. He leaped forward, pulling his head down and making a move to grab the ugly fragger's arm. Instead, he hit his knees when there was a sudden shield stopping them from trying to kill each other. Gizmo scowled as she chased the piggy off, giving her a look of hurt pride.

"I could've taken him, ya know. Hydraulic press and everything
 
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"By all means, I didn't mean to get between you two." With a nod, she dispelled the barrier with a visible shimmer. Of course, the big fella was just done reeling back from the 'slap' she gave him and had all the intention of going toe to toe with Gizmo. Ariadne, on the other hand, had no intention of getting involved further and simply left her side of the barrier up and watch calmly at the oncoming storm of fists and curses. The dinky old bar had that nasty aroma of chems and synthohol that seemed to almost indirectly, or oftentimes directly, poison the mind into irrational decisions. In the end, she did make that party foul and got between two men just about ready to throw down, all she could do now was stand back and watch. A shame really, the muscle could always be useful even if only for meatshield purposes. Hopefully, Gizmo can tenderize the chummer without turning him to a pulp.
 
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