Vampire? Meet Grace.

Kalen Holliday
[Nightmares]

Dice: 7 d10 TN7 (2, 5, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )

Grace
It's been a few days since a vampire attacked her, and Grace has been a busy person during that time. She's kept an eye on the tracking signal beeping away from the Black Orchid. She's gotten her data together. And she's made a plan.

There's one vampire so far who seemed to have some answers, and seemed to be somewhat free about giving them, for all they were pressed for time. And she knows that one's habits. She knows where he sleeps, where he likes to eat, a friend of his. She also knows he tried to mentally control a friend of hers and drag her out into the alleyway. So, precautions, yes?

On her laptop in her office, she's bending the Code of reality, warping it, the shifting functions flitting on her screen faster than can be easily processed.

Her resonance spikes, filling the already very Grace-like space with sharp wingbeats.

[Mind1: Mental Shielding -1 diff = taking time]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 5, 5) ( success x 2 )

Grace
That done, she goes to double down on the thing, shifting to a new program -- something she writes on the fly but with review and care. She looks almost as though she's angry at the computer as she works, so deep in focus is she.

[Corr2, Forces1 = Locate all the devices in a vampire's house, yaya! Diff -1 = taking time.]

Dice: 4 d10 TN3 (1, 3, 6, 7) ( success x 3 )

Grace
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (3, 5, 6) ( success x 2 )

Grace
[Extending...]

Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (6, 8, 8) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Grace
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (3, 6, 8) ( success x 3 ) [WP]

Derrick Lin
Grace works through the program, focused and determined. Coaxing it into finding her target. Until finally... yes. She's in.

This is what her scan tells her:

For a vampire, Derrick is not averse to modern conveniences. He has a computer. More than one, actually. There's a desktop in his office and a tablet somewhere else in the house. He also owns a smartphone. Both it and the tablet are currently connected to the local wireless network. The computer has a cable modem, but it's presently shut off.

Grace
[Corr2, Entropy2, Forces2 = Remotely hack a phone to pieces, sending encrypted messages to a vampire, yay! -1 diff = taking time, -1 diff = Keen Resonance]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 2, 2) ( botch x 1 )

Grace
[Paradox!]

Dice: 2 d10 TN6 (2, 7) ( success x 1 )

Grace
[Soak!]

Dice: 3 d10 TN6 (5, 5, 6) ( success x 1 )

Grace
Yeah, no. Not like that. Grace folds the laptop down for a few seconds as the universe reels, and it seems for a few seconds like she's going to rip a hole through herself instead of spacetime. Why, oh why? That was a fucking huge mistake. A minus sign in the wrong spot does all that, does it? Let's not do that again.

She rubs her eyes, and opens the laptop again. Crisis averted, reality calming down (but not quite calm yet) she starts again. Fixes her error. Let's recompile and cross our fingers?

[Corr2, Entropy2, Forces2 = Remotely hack a phone to pieces, sending encrypted messages to a vampire, yay! -1 diff = taking time, -1 diff = Keen Resonance]

Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (6, 7, 8) ( success x 4 ) [WP]

Derrick Lin
The first time she tries to hack into the phone, Grace very nearly brings the laws of reality crashing down on her own shoulders. She can feel it in the air. The way everything just warps for a second.

But the universe rights itself. And after a brief rest, she gets her focus back and tries again.

This time? Everything flows the way it's supposed to. The strands of entropy and forces and correspondence bend and rearrange at her will. And then she has a direct line to the cell phone of a certain Derrick Lin. (Who, at present, probably has no idea what's about to happen to him.)

Grace
First things first, now that we've got the party started, it's time to invite more guests, right? She goes for her phone and rattles off a quick text to someone else.

Kalen, I got him. Want to talk to our 'friend' from the Black Orchid alleyway? In my office. Going to try to get some info out of him.

Kalen Holliday
From so far away as the couch downstairs she gets a return text.  "So many vampire friends these days.  Be right there."

Grace
Oh, poor Derrick. If he only knew how much Grace knows about him. If he only knew how vulnerable all of the tech in his house was to spouting endless emergency broadcast system alerts. She could take his phone and make sure it will never play anything but "The Final Countdown" as a ringtone for the rest of its days, and fill his background images with Lisa Frank unicorns and rainbows.

Right now, though, she waits. We've got a good connection.

On her laptop screen, there's an interface through which she can do what she likes. And she starts typing out (but not sending yet):

Hi, sorry for hacking your phone, but I didn't know how else to contact you.

It pays to be polite, right?

I also hacked something else. The Black Orchid's email. That got your attention? Want to read it?

Kalen Holliday
Kalen drifts in, pausing behind and a bit off to the side to look at Grace's screen.

"Well...we may figure out what side of the war he's on.  You can monitor him for contact with the Orchid and that Orchid vampire?"

Grace
"While I was tracking him, he didn't go back to the Black Orchid. He stayed at his house, went to work, visited a lady friend, and I can't find any links between Lilean Holdings and William Morris Endeavor, his little enterprise. I'm going to try to find out what 'side' if sides there are, yes."

She flips the screen around so he can see.

"I figure we need a hook, something that will keep him from just turning his phone off and making me having to get super creative."

Kalen Holliday
"Can you watch for any connections between him and Ivy and Gold?  Just...in case?  That may also tell us something.

"But go ahead.  Send that."

Grace
Hello, Derrick. Welcome to the fun that is running across a Virtual Adept.

Grace sends it. And he'll get a text. Hopefully, it's not too long before he responds, or else.

Derrick Lin
Most vampires weren't exactly well suited to going up against a Virtual Adept. And Derrick Lin, for all his seeming acceptance of the modern world, was no different. Oh, he had his tricks, sure. But he wasn't Awake. Not the way that Grace and Kalen were.

So one could only imagine his reaction when he looked at his phone and saw a text from an anonymous source claiming to have hacked his signal. Luckily, Grace and Kalen weren't actually there to see it.

It took about five minutes for Derrick to respond.

Who are you? How did you get my number?

Grace
We met, briefly, in the alley behind the Black Orchid, remember?

I didn't get your number so much as I forced your number's door down with an ax. But that's not important right now. Your phone is fine, I'll leave no trace behind, no back doors for other people to follow.

Be happy. Not just any hacker knows how to do this. I'm one of the best you're likely to ever run across. 

Okay, so yeah. She's going to gloat a bit over that one. And then, wait for anything Kalen might want to add.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen looks over that and laughs softly.

"And you should be proud.  But perhaps not at him.  We are not going to bully one of these creatures into cooperation.  As things stand, we may well have more to lose than he does if this goes badly."

TXT: You told me you tried, very hard, not to kill.  I believe you.  I'm not interested in hunting you.  I do not believe you have any love for human suffering.  Whatever threat you pose to the innocent is minimal, so far as I have cause to intervene.  I am concerned with Denver.  And a human trafficking ring.  So far as I can tell, you most likely have no love for such a thing either.  Am I wrong?     

Derrick Lin
Derrick's reaction this time was slow. Enough so that perhaps Grace would begin to contemplate more extreme measures of gaining his attention. But a response did, finally, come.

How do I know that I can trust you? You've given me no reason to.



Grace
Like I said, I hacked their email. And I'm willing to share. That's how I know they're running a human trafficking ring to perform blood sacrifices. You might get a little more out of those emails than I, however. They speak in codes I don't know.

Granted, I could have made that up? But maybe once you read them, you'll realize how hard it is to fake something like that.

Kalen Holliday
Kalen sighs.  The truth is, we can't really give you one.  Trust is much more complex than that.  You don't earn it by offering justifications for it.  If anything, you spared us that night.  We do not really have a context for something like you.  Or didn't.

We are going after someone, or a group of someones, we feel may also be your enemy.  You can decide you want none of this.  You can walk away.  You are not our quarry, whether you come to help us or not.  It is your choice.  

Derrick Lin
I'm more concerned about whether you are who you say you are, and if I can trust your motivations. You clearly have no concept of the kind of world I operate in.

A moment later...

I'm a negotiator. I don't have enemies. Or maybe you know something I don't. Either way, we aren't having this conversation unless I can meet you in person. But you're welcome to send those e-mails, either way.

Grace
"Uuugh, what a jerk," Grace says, rolls her eyes at Kalen. "Yeah, like that's going to happen. Over my dead body, right? Literally?"

"I don't see why being in person is such a big fucking deal. Aside from, you know, the fact that it's much easier for him to kill us that way. Is a conversation face to face going to be sooooo different from what we're doing now?"

She glowers at Derrick's words.

"I should make his phone moo."

Kalen Holliday
"Kit.  It is fortunate your House is Griffindor.  You would not survive any of the Hermetic Houses and their grudges."  But his voice holds more amusement than disapproval.

We are willing to meet with you.  What arrangements do you suggest?  He does not press send though.  He waits for Grace.  "I can go.  You can monitor.  With your laser drones."

Grace
Grace looks up to Kalen with tired eyes. "I won't be able to teleport you out, you know. At best I might be able to scare him off. Sera did give me a good idea how to do that."

She sighs, hits send.

Derrick Lin
Saigon Bowl, off of Federal. It's public, so we'll both be safer. I'm free next Thursday. 10:00pm work?

Grace
"I will be ready with the laser drones," Grace says, gives Kalen this half-smile. "At the very least."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen smiles, just a little.  10:00pm is fine.

"As I would expect.  Like a virtual tiger."  He makes little claw hands in the air.  "I doubt he's going to make a fuss in a public place.  We can set up a temporary base in a place nearby to wait out anyone who follows us.  Everything will be fine.  I'll bring you back udon."

Derrick Lin
I'll see you then. Can I have my phone back now?

Grace
Grace laughs maniacally, fake-evil-villaian-style. "Can he have his phone back now? Maaaaybe."

She sighs. "I'm giving it back. But let me go on the record as saying he's been such a jerk, I shouldn't."

It's a good thing he can't hear this side of the conversation, as Grace has let off steam in the background. Maybe this is why she doesn't do the meat-meets quite as easily, eh?

As promised, your phone is going to be just fine. And I am out of here.

With that, she cuts the connection... to his phone. The house's many devices, however, still stand out to her like beacons.

"Should we send him email? He still sounds like we can't trust him."

Kalen Holliday
Kalen takes a breath.  His reading on him seemed solid, but the negotiator comment leaves him a bit wary.  Still.  "If he wanted us dead, he could have killed us in that alley.  If anything, he's already played a card for our trust.  We basically responded by stalking him.  Send them.  If we're wrong about him, it won't matter.  He already knows the e-mail was compromised.  Let him see what we want to stop."