Greybox

[Kerr]

"Gone? Gone? I know they say they delete after they put us in bodies, but do you buy that, seriously?" Kuo added. Gryff and Grayden could hear the start of the argument coming from the hallway but couldn't make out any specifics. However Kuo now lowered their tone and the sound would have dropped off.

"We know about Lili. If we know, they knew, they could tell the Shinigami. If they probe, if they ask. Maybe they won't, maybe they'll delete them, or let us gather dust. But what if they do? I seriously doubt most of you were trained for VR torture, might be a whole other group of [&@%!] on the same trail now. Going after Lili and then, Earth. Christ, could you imagine if those ghouls got their hands on the creator of Seed AI?"

[BetaB17]

Cid took a few steps towards the door, as if already done in this exchange, but he stopped short of that. Bringing his hand in level with his chest, it looked as if he was punching in some buttons in thin air, as if by habit even with the Grid overlay "I only know, what I know..." he said with a rich melancholy under his breath.

Shortly a message was forwarded to Kuo, a text log of the transmition he recieved, though minus any mention between his relation with the sender, stricken from his record, as too any trace of the original message itself

Cid tilted his head down, avoiding eye contact with the agent as he neared closer to the door, resting a hand upon the frame before adding "Are we done here.. Kuo.."

[Baloth-Kul]

Gryff

Gryff's jumpsuit began molding itself into a short sleeved yellow jacket with a black hood, black pants, and some black synth-leather ankle boots.

"Dude either needs a couch moved, or is chewing Cid out. Either way, yeah, I'm with you."

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden gave a nod to Gryff and then began to look about for signs of somewhere that led to a bathroom, or a mirror, at least.

He checked his Jeeves AI to see if he had any advancements.
"Oh [&@%!], cool."
Suddenly he leaned his head forward and began staring at one spot in the room, to see if his eyes could zoom in.

[Kerr]

"Sure. Fine. Whatever." said Kuo dismissively, it seemed like Cid's general attitude was beginning to grate on them. He took a few steps before stopping. "Look, after we talk to Lili, we'll need to get her to go into hiding again. But if we can't, well, we still need to deal with her. I'm not sure if the others have the stomach for it, but know I can count on you. Shinigami finding Scylla, it's just too dangerous."

They continued on, presumably going to meet with the Cartel to discuss weapons. Kuo sent a message to Kidisti, Gryff, Grayden and Cid.

We're leaving in 5 minutes, so get yourselves ready.

There was a rather small bathroom attached to the bedroom the surrogates woke up in, it had a shower, sink, mirror and toilet. Checking out his augmentations, Grayden found he could 'zoom in' his vision to x16 magnification.

Hidden:

I'm ready to jump ahead to Lili's apartment when yous are, but feel free to chat for a while if ya want.

[BetaB17]

Cid scratched his head, hearing Kuo's request without contest "Sure.." he looked down at his other hand, at the bloody spot he left, flexing his hand open and closed as he thought "..I'll do.. what we must.." with no joy or pleasure to his voice, a stark contrast from his prior iteration.

"By the way Kuo.. Do me a favor.." he looked back at him, delaying his own exit just a while longer "Next time.. See if they got any synth's.. and no killswitch, kay?.." but he made no further bargain, no further attempt. He did his part, even if the others wont feel any different

As he walked out, and found himself secluded for a moment, he grabbed upon both his arms as they crossed his chest, a shaking rippled down through his body. Slumping back into a wall, he slowly let out a shiver of a breath. Before quickly regaining himself into his apathetic state, and the shivering just ceased. "Ya... delighted.. sure.." he couldnt get that message out of his head, as it kept replaying through memory

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden eyes lit up, figuratively speaking, when he discovered what his visual augmentation could do.

"Whoah hoho. Cooool. I'm gonna have some fun with this!"

He regained normal focus and began to stroll towards the bathroom.
"Here we go again! Let's look what I got this time."
He smiled at Gryff.
"Spoiler alert: you're still cute as [&@%!]."
Grayden gave them a wink and continued ahead.

Inside the bathroom, he tentatively looked at his reflection.
"Ooo, okay. Bit different to what I'm used to." He moved his head around to get a view of his face from all angles.
"My pretty boy shell was better. This one's kinda...older lookin'. Still, I've got that rugged lookin' charm; I think the ladies'll still like that."

"What do you think, Gryff?"

[Kerr]

15:24. Thursday, 27th March, 2127.

Chomsky Street, Horza, Titan.

The Lifeboat crew made their way to Chomsky Street, Horza felt densely urban but also a lot cleaner and brighter than the streets of Mars. It was a mostly pedestrian city, there were virtually no private vehicles driving or flying about, it was all walking and trains. Streets had large murals of public art, trees and plant life blended into the artificial structures, friends sat outside drinking and chatting, it had an altogether different atmosphere than Mars's Elysium, but the surrogates were smart enough to know things could be just as dangerous. Special Circumstances (SC) was widely considered the best military intelligence agency in the solar system and the Titanian Federation was locked in a Cold War with the Commonwealth of Galilei (COG.) There was no way of knowing if they had Lili under surveillance, but it was a distinct possibility, one that kept the Lifeboat members on their toes.

The gang turned a corner, Apricot Apartments was up just ahead, Lili Larsson was living in number 2. The Lifeboat surrogates had all been outfitted with lethal Heavy Pistols and retractable knives. "Here we are." said Kuo. "Maybe we should talk through how we want to handle this before going inside. She met yous before, or, a version of yous before. So I'll let you take the lead."

[Aarah]

Grayden

"How about you lot stay back a bit and I'll buzz her apartment. Look like I'm on my own; see what kind of reception she gives me. No offence to you guys..." he nodded towards the others, "...but if she's met us all before, yuh know it will be me that made the best impression."

[Kerr]

Kuo chuckled lightly. "If you mean the one she might have a restraining order then sure." said Kuo.

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden raised an eyebrow in mock offence, but produced a smirk to go with it.
"Hey, if anyone needs to take out restraining orders, it's me. The ladies just can't stay away from this."
He wiggled his finger up and down as he pointed at himself.

[Baloth-Kul]

Gryff

"We're not going to wait too long. In fact, I'll follow behind to 'visit' someone in a different unit, and I'll keep my eyes out." Gryff interjected. "Might be handy if the rest of us can get into one of the neighbour's places. Unless Special Circumstances is set up there, in which case, ah...[&@%!]'s going to get messy."

"I'll see if I can prop the door open for the others, but if the door has security, that might not be a good idea."

[BetaB17]

Cid rubbed the back of his neck, far from gleeful over the prospect or exchange. "Last time.. we treaded our steps, we got locked into a room with a gun pointing at us" he stepped forward, and looked directly at Grayden "I don't think you're as good with your words as you protest"

[Kerr]

Apricot Apartments
The group entered the apartment building and the hallway of the ground floor. There were stairs and an elevator on the left as well as postal boxes for the building's residents. Further ahead on the left was the door to Apartment #2 and at the end of the corridor another pair of double doors that lead out to the back of the building. On the right hand side of the corridor by the entrance was the door to a maintenance closet and further ahead the door to Apartment #1.

Kuo looked at the names on the postal box.

"Right, got a Lili Larsson in 2 and Aramis Berger in 1. If Lili has a partner or guards they're not listed as living with her. Looking Aramis up on the mesh, looks like a research assistant in a biology department but... could be a cover identity. Hell, could be half a dozen armed guards in that room for all we know."

[BetaB17]

Cid half approached the way to #2, before stopping to look "Gray.. you ready?" He certainly didnt sound well for their chances, but its not at all like they've had a great track record either

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden replied to Cid with actions rather than words. He strode up to apartment two and knocked firmly five times.
An usher of his hand gestured for the others to stay back, preferably out of sight, before his attention turned back to Lili's door.

[Kerr]

Apricot Apartments

It took longer than Grayden felt it should, but eventually the door to Lili Larsson's apartment opened, the rest of the Lifeboat crew currently around the corner on the ground floor just out of sight.

The woman who opened the door was short and plump, her bioshell had white skin and a blond undercut. She was wearing a blue and white utility jumpsuit, the sort Grayden had seen a few people doing maintenance around the city wearing. It was possible she had only recently gotten back from work. "Can I help you?" the woman asked in a groggy tone with a strong Scandinavian accent.

[BetaB17]

Cid sat around the corner, inspecting his fingers and the gap there of. The black and white stripes of his sleeves ruffled back as he preoccupied himself

"Yeah know.. now would be an advantageous.. moment.. to do something other than.. huddle by some corner"

[Aarah]

“Oh, hey there.” Grayden smiled at Lili.
“Sorry tuh disturb yuh. You won’t recognise me lookin’ like this, but I’m Grayden. Name ring a bell? Grayden Connerty?”
He raised both his eyebrows and grinned expectantly.

[Kerr]

"Grayden? The sleazy pirate. Hell are you doing here? I thought you'd gone to Ceres." said Lili. Ceres was a dwarf planet in the Martian-Jovian Belt. Lacking even nominal government, it's generally considered a wretched hive where corporations and criminal syndicates have free reign. Needless to say, it's usually the place one would go to for a very specific reason.

"DuClair with you?" She asked looking out the door, up and down the hallway. The rest of the crew were still out of sight, so she didn't notice them yet.

[Aarah]

"Ex-pirate." Grayden corrected.
"But, yeah, hey, long story. We probably did go tuh Ceres. Something must've [&@%!] up though. Kinda got resleeved from the beginnin', you know?
DuClair's not with us, no. She's M.I.A. too."
He sighed.
"Yeah, lot of info."

Grayden ran his hand through his new hair. His voice, uncharacteristically, was kept at a lower volume so that the neighbours, or anyone inside the apartment, couldn't hear.

[Kerr]

"[&@%!]." Lili exclaimed. Her eyes began to dart back and forth, the worry on her face was as obvious as the colour of her jumpsuit. "Look, my wife's out of town, so you can come in. But if you try hitting on me this time you'll be in for another resleeving."

[Aarah]

Grayden liked Lili's feisty resleeving comment. He laughed.

"But your wife is out of town..." the Vietnamese splicer grinned, then chuckled playfully.

"Nah." He held up his hands to show his submission.
"I'll be a good boy. I promise."

Grayden took a glance down the corridor to where the others were skulking. If anyone was visible, he'd give them an affirmative wink, before making a step into Lili's apartment.

[Kerr]

Outside Apartment
Kuo looked kind of baffled when Grayden winked at them. "The [&@%!] does that mean?" they exclaimed. The Lifeboat agent shot their surrogate a message

Want help or talking to her alone?

Kuo patted their jacket in the location where their gun was. "I'll stay out here anyway, keep an eye out for company."
---
Inside Apartment
"Get the door, will ya?" Lili asked heading for a couch in the middle of the room, the center of the room actually had three black couches circling a white coffee table in a triangular pattern. The room itself was rather cozy, walls painted white, it was a combo of living room and kitchen you saw in a lot of apartments. The kitchen had black countertops, cooker, sink, knives. Notably there was only a large red toolkit sitting on the white table, some grease from it staining the surface underneath. There were two black doors on the far side of the room, one wide open leading to a bedroom with double bed who's sheets lay unmade, the other presumably leading to a bathroom.

A screen on the ceiling of the sitting room was working as a pseudo window, portraying a ocean environment with various fish and other strange small creatures moving about. Lili sat down on the sofa and looked up at it. "So when you say the beginning... have you met me at all or do I need to over the Scylla stuff too?"

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden sent Kuo a message back.

Nah, I got this.

As requested, he closed the apartment door behind himself.
He took a look around Lili's apartment; it was a bit too monochrome for his taste, but it was a decent size.

After gazing at the fake ocean scene for a minute, he sat down near, but not next to, Lili.

"Yep, right at the beginnin', I'm afraid. Haven't met yuh before now. This me, I mean. Scylla stuff is gonna be all new. Always weird when the other person's met you but you don't know them."

He smiled. "But...sounds like we got on alright last time."