Zephyr Investigation - Pt. 1 - RPLOG
From Flexible Survival
Participants
Date
26/2/2017
Log
A large meeting room has been set aside on the third floor of the Zephyr building for the express purpose of housing the meeting of volunteers that is taking place. A boardroom table dominates the center of the area, but those responsible for the arrangement of the room have fortunately had enough foresight to leave open space for those whose body structure might not be bipedal in nature. At the head of the table sits a feline woman, prim and proper in a business suit. She appears quite normal for her species - if impatient - but for the stark blue coloration of her fur. As participants begin to filter in, she utters a soft, nigh-inaudible sigh, waiting for people to get situated before continuing.
Zophah walks up to the meet point, checking her gear: lab coat filled with gagets? Check. bag filled with tools? check. Game face on? check. "Zophah of the promethians reporting for duty. Let's show those people who the real masterminds are!"
A hunt for the mental mice? That's an opportunity one couldn't pass up! Or at least that's what Angus thought as he leans back in one of the meeting chairs, propping his feet up on the table as he waits for others to filter in. He wanted a smoke, but since this was still in the building? He was pretty sure the guards would slap his wrists at the moment if he tried to do something like that, so instead he's chewing on a candybar while waiting for the meeting to start.
Firecracker flits into the room to land on the table with her tiny little weight. "Oh hey! I didn't know we got candy too!" she says, eyeing the treat in the coyote's hands. Looking around at the others already there or filtering in, the pint-sized pegasus introduces herself happily. "Oh yeah! I'm Firecracker! What're your names?"
Having recieved his briefing and given instruction on where to head, Otto had readiedmhimself for a bit of action on the side, sharpened his blades and cleaned out his guns, checked for damage and ultimately ensured that eeeeevery little detail was taken care of. Feeling ready as ever, the canine had made his way into the meeting room and sat himself down at the table. Leaning back in his chair, he kept one paw on the sheathed blade at his side, thumb idly flicking it partially in and out of its holster. He'd not expected to be working with so many people, and the more that came into view, the more nervous he felt. Once Firecracker arrives, a smile tugs at his lips. It was nice seeing a familiar face. "Hey there." he greets with a nod and a wave, then leans forward against the table, as if waiting for something to happen.
It was quite fortunate that there had been space left for her kind at the table as Astara padded in, the large half foxtaur walking over to the open area and settling herself down. Despite being in such a proper environment, she still didn't have anything in the way of clothing on, being nude even on her upper, mostly human half. "Astara, checking in." She lights up upon seeing Otto again, and gives the 'yote a big wave. "Good to see you again, Otto! How've you been faring?"
Ebreus walks into the boardroom and takes a seat in one of the spaces large enough for a 12'3 taur. He takes a look arounf the table at those he will be working with and the feline at the table head and says "I'm Ebreus, a Promethean negotiator and agent. I look forward to working with you all." he takes a breath and another look around then adds "Otto, Fire, Astara, glad to see you all again."
Arris follows in shortly after Zophah, giving the Zephyr Exec sitting at the head of the boardroom a polite nod as sie quietly takes hir seat next to Zophah. Sie runs a quick check on hir gear - Triage kit, bolt action rifle, heal pistol, all check. A quick glance around the room, and sie spots a few familliar faces, a good chunk of whom sie remembers from the previous Zephyr assault.
Fenris has no idea what is going on. He was just snooping where he had no right to be, wearing a uniform he had no right to wear, using a keycard that definitely was not his, when he had caught sight of the gathering at hand. It had been as good an excuse as any to ditch the uniform and keycard and join the group. Even better, there were some familiar faces! "Hullo, Angus," the tubby tanuki says happily, plopping down in a seat next to the coyote, "I am definitely supposed to be here."
The feline woman clears her throat rather loudly. "AHEM." she proclaims, looking around at the gathering and addressing you as a group. "Thank you for showing up on such short notice." she states, in a subtly snide tone that suggests that the opposite is true. "Ahem. As you almost certainly know, almost exactly two months ago, Zephyr was assaulted by a coordinated effort between some local mental mice and a horde of ferals. With the help of our agents - some of you here, even - we were able to repel the horde, but it's clear that they weren't acting alone. The two months since have been spent on two tasks. One, hunt down the local mental mice and ensure that they can't do something like this again. Two, figure out who coordinated this whole mess." Rising from her chair, the woman begins to pace, tail lashing in agitation. "...we had no way to know that these goals were in opposition to one another. Long story short, we're going to need information that the mice have in order to catch our real perps, but we've managed to chase them into hiding. That's where you come in." Looking out at the gathering to address you once more, she pauses to catch a breath.
Zophah quietly yips, "Hi Firecracker. And you should remember me by now." She points to her name on the front of her lab coat. She then turns to give Arris a kiss on the cheek. "And hi honey. Sorry I couldn't come in with you, I've been waiting for this." She then finally sits down, squirming a bit at the tightness within her reacting to the Testosterone in the room."
Angus crunches some more of the candybar in his hand as he sits there, his chair lowering a few seconds later as he crumples up the wrapper. "Oh, hey Fenris." He greets the Tanuki, giving him an odd look about his assurance he's supposed to be here before the briefing starts. "Pfft, are you sending us in with a platter of cheese here, or do we have to go cold turkey talking to them?" He asks, folding his arms over the table as he leans forward a bit.
"Zophy, Starry, Ebby, Gussy, Otto, Fenny, Honey, Firecracker!" Firecracker says, pointing at each of the members around the table as she names them. "Perfect! and good job to the people that did the stuff last time! So this time we gotta play 'Hide and Seek' and come in somewhere with cheese and turkey! Got it!"
As more familiar faces pooled into the room, so did Otto feel just a little more comfortable being there. His employment with Zephyr had been a recent development in his life, after all. Getting used to working with the people he'd once held in such low regard was challenging. His smile widens as he hears Astara's voice. He nods in greeting, "Astara? Hah, fancy seeing you here!" the coyote yips, then looks away and rubs the nape of his neck "Errr, sorry I didn't keep in touch as well as I should have. Things have been beyond crazy since I left the Eye, and that's saying something." His attention was drawn towards the other coyote in the room. As whimsical as his remark was, he had a point. Giggling lightly at Firecracker, he also gives Ebreus a light wave in greeting, then turns towards the fdline giving them their briefing. "Alright, find the rodents, squeeze them for info, apprehend or squash whoever's responsible for the attack, gotcha. Any idea where the mice are hiding?"
Astara's mood takes a downward turn as she's reminded of the bitter events of two months ago, her hands clenching into fists, and her whole body tensing up. At least Angus' humor helped, making her crack a smile and exclaim "Hah!" quickly, turning to the other 'yote afterwards to catch up with her old comrade. "Shit's been crazy on my end, too, Otto, it's no problem... and there's no way in hell I'd miss up on an opportunity like this! I was out of commission for days after the last mission while my bullet injuries healed." She's still simmering with righteous anger, but she catches herself to take a deep breath, and try and control it. In a much more level tone, she addresses the Zephyr bigwig briefing them. "So, what are we to expect, Miss? Are we looking at a smash-and-grab situation? Or one where it's a more stealth-and-subterfuge-y kind of Op where damages are to be minimized?"
Ebreus slowly nods as the feline woman speaks he then says "I'm certan if anyone has seen them, even if they sympathize with them, they will tell me." He grins a bit as Fenris enters the room seeing that he'll be working with a group at least half consistant of his friends. He has to stifle his laughter as Firecracker speeks. Though he would just luagh if the situation were less serious. Then in preperation for needing to put his persuasive skills to action he takes a mint from one of his pockets and slips it into his mouth as he quickly nods in recognition to Ottos wave. As the question of leads on the location of the mice is raised he turns his attention the the executive awaiting a reply.
Arris smiles, reciprocating Zophah's kiss. "You don't have to apologize. I'm just happy we can do this together." Sie rolls hir chair closer, before leaning up against Zophah affectionately. Sie then sits up straight, remembering sie had a question for the exec. "Do we know how much opposition we'll have to face there?"
"A cheese platter sounds like a great plan," Fenris says, his little smile and chubby cheeks giving him a pleasant squint, "Nothing like a little gift to streamline negotiations!" The tubby tanuki adjusts his ceremonial robes and produces a length of red string, which he uses to carefully tie a peace knot on his ornate sword. "Diplomacy mode!" he says happily, completely ignoting the spear on his back.
The woman pinches the bridge of her muzzle between two fingers as if nursing a headache. "If we knew where you could go to simply get the mice, we would have done it months ago." she explains in a slow singsong tone usually reserved for explaining simple concepts to slow children. Regaining her composure after a moment, she continues, "No, we don't know where the mice are hiding. What we DO have is a contact we think can be of use to us." Palms lay flat upon the boardroom table, and the woman looks to each of you and ruefully states, "There's no way I'd be lucky enough that some of you already have ties to our local friendly Mall Rats. ... ... ...go ahead, prove me wrong. Please." If anything, the jovial behavior in the room seems to be making her even -more- agitated.
Zophah thinks for a second before replying: "I have some familiarity with them but no actual connections, sorry." The cat lady's tone is making Zophah a bit uneasy... "Does anyone have access to their crafting alliance?"
Angus slowly raises his hand, giving it a wave. "Hi, ya. Not to piss in your cream my feline friend. Buttttttttttt, I've got ties with the Mall rats." He answers her, sitting up straight. "Remember the Feral riots a few years ago when they tried to break into the mall? Ya. I was part of the group that helped the mall rats keep them out, on top of that I know a lot of rats personally." He turns to stare at Fenris for a few moments after he turned his sword to 'diplomacy' mode, just shaking his head a bit as he smiles. "Wrong color Fenris, peace is usually blue. Not pink."
"Oh me! Me!" Firecracker says as she plops down on her rump on the table, waving a foreleg up in the air above her. "I went to that mall place today and had a strawberry Italian soda!" She licks her lips as her mouth starts to water at the memory. "Oh! Are we gunna go eat there again?!" she asks, hopeful at the prospect.
Otto's brow furrows a little as the information reaches his ears. He might have switched allegiance twice by now, but he was still RSX at heart. Rush in, get the job done, get the hell out, that's what he was trained to do. Snooping and investigating were definitely not the coyote's strong suits. Alas, he knew who the rats WERE, but he'd not done much for them besides fix an old truck that he himself needed to get to the farm... "No ties with em, no." he shrugs and leans back in his seat, letting the others do the talking instead.
Astara just nods along with what's being said. "Not too familiar with the Mall Rats, to be fair, at least at a personal level."
Ebreus thinks for a moment about wether or not the things he's done involving the Mall Rats would be significant enough that he could truthfully claim to have any ties to them. After Angus mentions how great and aid to them he has been he says "Ah, good. With that connection we should be able to get what we need." He then, yet again, must stifle laughter as Firecracker speaks. He enjoys the company of Firecracker for presicely this reason, she's always a ball of happines and fun.
Arris shakes hir head, shifting a little on hir seat. "Can't say I have ties, to the mall rats, but looking around, seems like we already have people who do." Sie starts fishing around in hir pockets before obtaining a caramel bar and breaking a piece from it, popping it into hir mouth.
"The Mall rats?" Fenris asks, "Sure! Me and Rod are tight!" The tanuki reaches within his robes and produces a pair of sunglasses. Then he does something complicated and eye-watering with his robe and it becomes a leather jacket. He turns a concerned gaze at his string bound sword. "Oh, but I don't have any blue thread!"
