Freezing Shadows, Book 3 Prologue

Prologue: Trade Chat

(Shadowmen In-Game OOC Forum, Seattle Section)

Reminder: This forum is for Out of Character (OOC) discussion only. Please direct in-character discussions (including business dealings and the like) to the appropriate in-world forums.

GreenGirl, Yolo, Scholar, RedFox, Rerun, ThirsT, SliceNDice, GrimDarkKawaii, NoNoNo, YesYesYes, FoldingChair, Squeaker, Anonymous2, Anonymous5, Anonymous8, KittyKat, HurtMeMommy, DaddyIssues, Inquisitor, BattleSister, Wolfgirl, Spirit, Chill, and HoldMyBeer are in the chat.

Wolfgirl: So, like I said, if you’re regretting grabbing that Addiction quality in character creation, there’s a group out in the Barrens running a detox center on the cheap. Call themselves the Brotherhood of Unity. Some kind of ‘we are the world’ drek, but could be worse.

Yolo: Careful of free or cheap services. There’s always a hidden sting.

Squeaker: Oh, yeah, I heard of them. One of the guys in a crew I joined just came back from a stay there. Only thing is, the others are saying he isn’t the same as he used to be.

Rerun: Well, detoxing will fuck with you as much as the drugs can. And a sober person is probably going to act differently than they would when they’re high. Or, they might have done some religious brainwashing on him.

GreenGirl: OK, this is getting out of hand. What the hell is up with people turning the damn sprawl into a warzone?

NoNoNo: Idiots haven’t learned that you can’t play this game like other MMOs.

KittyKat: Them dying is fine. The problem is that they keep dying so spectacularly that it is scaring a lot of the movers and shakers. If you don’t already have a job or two under your belt, or otherwise have someone to vouch for you, getting work is tough, and the rent is still due.

Spirit: Once you get your foot in the door, though, you just have to do the job and don’t be an idiot while doing it.

DaddyIssues: Yeah, but doing scut work really doesn’t pay the bills.

Chill: If you got off to a bad start, scut work is the only way to recover your rep. People won’t trust you with a sports car until you’ve proven you can handle a normal car.

HoldMyBeer: And until then, gotta manage your expenses, or find a side hustle.

Spirit: True. Day Job quality may suck up your time, but it can really help cover the day-to-day expenses.

Scholar: Also, if you have the Fame quality, you get a multiplier on your Day Job income.

YesYesYes: Seriously? Damn, why wasn’t any of this in the notes?

Scholar: It was, you just had to read the text of the Fame quality.

Spirit: Outed yourself there, Y3.

KittyKat: Y3 is probably one of the ones that keeps causing all the trouble because they don’t read.

YesYesYes: HEY! I’ve only died a couple times.

HoldMyBeer: It has been barely two months, in game, and one month, out of it. You have to be actively working at it to die more than once in that time, or you have terminal stupidity.

ThirsT: Speaking of working, did you check that base walkthrough BabyGirl put up on the media site? Apparently, her team all went in on it together, so they have a whole warehouse, and a whole group of tricked out vehicles, just for work. Of course, I also noted that the video went blurry in a few places, probably hiding the security.

HurtMeMommy: Damn, I know if you split things four ways, a warehouse isn’t THAT expensive to rent out, month on month, but all those vehicles? Unless they stole them, that means they put some serious money down, and there’s no pay-to-win mechanics or Real Money Transfer in this game!

KittyKat: So, without P2W and RMT, they needed to find some way to score all that money in game? How did they do it?

Anonymous8: I don’t know if this is connected, but a hacker gang went and wrecked a movie studio’s offices down by Silver Lake. Same time, a van broke through the gate, and people went in, guns blazing. Only thing is, no one died.

YesYesYes: Come on, pull the other one. You go in guns blazing, and you’re not getting away without scoring a body or two. If you miss that much, you’re the one getting put in a bag.

KittyKat: Unless they took the time to stabilize people as they went?

Yolo: You do know that there is nonlethal (or less-lethal) ammo in the game, right?

KittyKat: But is it any good? I mean, I’ve shot a couple guns IRL, and ‘less-lethal’ ammo is either still very lethal, or it is stuff like beanbag rounds, or paintballs. Not something that’ll actually take someone out of a fight, and keep them there, especially if they have armor.

Chill: Stick-n-Shock ammo is quite effective, I assure you. Basically, think taser bullets. Better yet, depending on your build, they do the same damage coming out of a little holdout pistol as they do a shotgun or an LMG. Of course, you can boost the damage with burst fire or full auto, but the point stands.

YesYesYes: So, it is worth taking?

Chill: If you’re needing to keep from stacking bodies? Absolutely. Deals 6S(e) base damage. Or 6 Stun damage, and it is the Electricity type.

Chill: The bonus is that, because it is elemental damage, you’re usually working against half their Impact armor, the same stuff they use against melee attacks, though they can pay to put nonconductivity on the armor, which gives them a bonus to resist it, applied after you cut the number in half.

YesYesYes: All right, I’ll admit that is pretty damn good. What does it cost, though? And how hard is it to get?

Chill: 80 nucred for 10 shots, so 4x the cost of regular ammo. However, at a 5R availability, so long as you have a decent fake SIN and a fake weapons permit, you can generally buy it from actual dealers, unless you’re ordering in bulk.

ThirsT: So, someone went on a run with taser bullets, to ensure there was as little killing as possible. Why would they do that?

Scholar: Apparently, some runs offer extra money if there are no deaths tied to it.

DaddyIssues: Why though? Just because it ups the difficulty?

Chill: Because no bodies means the corp isn’t paying out death benefits to families, meaning it is easier to sweep things under the rug. But you stack bodies, and they gotta look like they’re going after whoever did it, or else morale takes a big hit, and people may start taking things personally. That means they are more likely to go looking for the team that did it, and also whoever hired them.

ThirsT: So, be careful with the kind of mess you leave behind, or it’ll come and bite you in the clam.

Chill: Not quite how I’d have put it, but good enough.

Squeaker: So, BabyGirl’s team is getting a good rep, and making things happen. Wonder how I can get into that guild.

Chill: Stop thinking like an MMO player. No big, hundred plus player guilds here. Biggest you’ll see is a team, unless they devolve into a gang, and try to take on some turf. Might even be able to work your way up to a syndicate, if you play your cards right, and focus on areas where no one else is willing to put in the time.

Squeaker: Ah. Point remains, though. Wonder if there’s space on that team.

DaddyIssues: Better yet, what about you, Chill? You probably have a team, right? Got any room on it?

Chill: Look, to even get consideration, you’d have to fill a role we don’t already got covered. And we have a mage, a pair of thief types, a rigger, a hacker, and a heavy. What would you be bringing to the party?

DaddyIssues: Ah. Well, I’m pretty good at disguises? And I give good head?

Chill: Maybe we’ll call if we need someone to go in disguise somewhere.

Squeaker: Oof, just shutting her down right away on the head, though, huh?

Chill: Find some of the girls from the Beta, and ask how much trouble I had getting some if I wanted it. All you girls are thirsty as fuck, and don’t even try to deny it.

ThirsT: Yeah, I’m too self-aware to even try that.

Anonymous5: Hey, is it true that you can get pregnant in game?

Chill: Me? No. Any of you girls? Yes. So, beyond the whole risk of nasty infections, make sure to use some birth control if you don’t want any unfortunate accidents.

Scholar: Good news, bad news time. According to MetaTech’s information, any female characters can expect regular periods. So, what it is like in game will be what it is like every time, with the same ‘schedule’ each month. Unfortunately, that schedule is randomized, starting when you first log in.

ThirsT: I didn’t even think about that. I just made sure to note it when picking my lifestyle. Basic birth control is available (at least the pill is) if you get at least Middle on your Necessities for lifestyle.

DaddyIssues: Oh. I thought I just had a couple drinks too many last night. I think I’m gonna go to the clinic now.

Squeaker: I’m gonna go call a few people, make sure they get checked out.

Chill: For what it’s worth, same thing happened in the Beta, too. People got a rude awakening.

Squeaker: And you didn’t warn us?

Anonymous2: A poll in the Beta went around, and people voted to let new players learn the hard way, if they didn’t read the statement MetaTech put out. Not just Chill, and not just the Seattle testers. That was an almost unanimous decision, throughout the Beta playerbase.

DaddyIssues: Why, though?

Anonymous2: Because if you don’t learn the lesson by reading the information provided to you, then you probably won’t learn until the learning hurts.

Chill: And more than a few women wanted others to experience their misfortune.

Anonymous2: That, too.

DaddyIssues: Assholes.

Chill: Just think about it this way, you can have DaddyIssuesJr to use as a lesson for the other people on your team.

Anonymous2: Said the person who left more than a few ‘ChillJr’s around in the Beta.

Chill: I will point out that I abstained on that vote, so I’m just going along with the majority, here.