WELCOME TO THE AUCTION [ OPEN LOG FOR ALL ]

[zauneyete]

WELCOME TO THE REDD ROOM

Neo Tokyo is a glittering and shining city that still prospers despite continuous kaiju attacks and natural disasters that plague it. However, there's more to Neo Tokyo than what meets the eye. Below its sparkling surface, there is another world that also flourishes out of sight for most. The people who live in this version of the city meet in the shadows and deal under the table, using cunning and power to secure their means. Instead of papers and feeds, this world receives news in the form of whispers and connections.

Rumors have been flying for months. They talk about long lost masterpieces, valuable information, and a certain recently discovered sword. The shadows whisper and share their opinions, making it known if they believe there's any credibility to the stories and if there's really anything to gain. While plenty is still unknown, what is known is that these rumors are beginning to converge and soon a name, a place, and a date will be chosen.

Those with enough money to live well in Neo-Tokyo rarely earn it honestly, and those with strong personalities all know who is the best broker of deals: Madame Redd. A divorcee who’s always found wearing a red-fox stole, she’s a wealthy arts dealer known for her keen eye, and propensity to occasionally sell fraudulent paintings to the unobservant client. She’s a sharp, witty woman who always seems to have a scheme up her sleeve, and hosting an event like this truly is where she’s at her most comfortable.

In a world where everything is done with technology, Redd opts for something more traditional. Securing an invitation means obtaining a simple, nondescript red card. With no name, address, or information on it, it's clear that having an invitation doesn't mean you'll be able to find the venue. However, by scanning the card with the right settings, a microchip embedded in the card will provide them with the information they need before wiping itself clean. Arrive to the venue, show your card, and pay your entrance fee.

To enter the gala, you need to pay a fee that proves you're serious. After all, this isn't a child's game. This is where the adults come to have fun and spend their hard won earnings. You will be prompted to scan your eye so they can read your implant and extract precious personal information. After uploading and submitting your identity as collateral, you'll finally be let in.

You are formally invited to the auction.

The gala

The Entertainment
Upon entering the venue, the invited will find themselves in a large, dimly lit room. The lights are low, obscuring corners and leaving plenty of areas out of sight. There's a veil of smoke in the air that occasionally flickers as lines of holographic light activate, displaying hologram menus and programs for the guests to peruse. There's plenty of plush and comfortable seating, chairs, and even private alcoves and rooms for any attendee to make their way into. Madame Redd runs a high-class establishment, that's catered toward any taste one can imagine.

At the front and center is a stage where a virtual singer with teal hair sings original songs and takes requests, providing vintage and modern tunes. As she sings, she dedicates her music to her fans and it's almost like her likeness shifts. She's the perfect idol, able to become the exact person you admire and love down to their appearance and voice. Even their mannerisms are the same and their songs draw you in, like a siren, making you want to devote yourself to your idol.

The Libations
The Bar is one of the few places that is brightly lit. Spotlights shine on the liquor shelves, showing off a wide array of spirits ranging from common and popular favorites to rare bottles that probably cost more than what the average salary is in the city. Be careful, but feel free to peruse the menu.

— Menu —

SONIC BOOM. Makes your hearing better, like you could hear secrets shared across the room. A fat-washed bourbon old-fashioned

THIRD RAIL. An electric lemonade that fills the drinker with the feeling that they need to yammer on incessantly. Like lightning on the tongue

LET'S DO THE MIND WARP AGAIN. A spicy tequila drink, it makes you more perceptive of the emotions of others to the point that you can get a sense of them empathically.

FATHER WINTER. Makes the area around you drop several degrees, to the point that glasses are frosted. A boozy mint hot chocolate.

VAMPIRE'S KISS. Makes consumers want to drink blood, and tastes of red fruit juices (and alcohol) (real fangs not included, but the drink comes with a pair of plastic fangs)

MOTHER EARTH. A red sangria that makes you feel like you're basking in a too-warm summer's sun.. It also makes you feel more impulsive and violent. Oops!

BURN DOWN FOR WHAT. Like having a redbull and a Celsius at once. Hyper enough that you might feel like you're moving faster than everyone else — and you might be! Several liquors topped off with LILITH-brand energy drink, served on fire with a high-proof float.

RIFT CORRUPTION. they SAY drinking could affect you in any number of random ways – truly dangerous! Really, it’s a virgin mocktail.

BEE POSITIVE. Will be able to communicate telepathically with other people who'd drank the same drink, a honey and gin concoction.

PLANTS DOWN. The aphro one, made with smuggled pollen. It’s a sweet and fruity drink that makes you think about lying down and having fun on the beach.

GILTTER. A drink with iridescent shades of purple, blue, and green. The bartender may challenge you to a round of dice to pay for drinks for everyone at the bar before serving.

coding

The menu contains some surprises

High Stakes Games
At some of the tables, you can put down your bets and play a round of cards or throw some dice. The stakes vary at each table, with some betting cash fortunes and others are more creative. At certain tables, people play for the thrill. They make dares that losers have to carry out and invite everyone to take a bit of risk. Some of these tables have clear shots lined up in simple glasses. After each loss, losers have to take shots, and while this might seem like a mere drinking game, it's more complicated. The shots have a sharp, tingly taste and a strong burn when it goes down. Not long after consumption, the loser will temporarily lose a sense.

However, it is not limited to the traditional five senses. You might also lose more metaphorical senses. You're playing a drink roulette and there's no telling what you might lose.

• Traditional senses: Touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell
• Perceptual senses: Balance, pain, space (spatial awareness), time
• Abstract senses: Humor, justice, duty, honor, belonging, purpose, urgency, direction, judgment (common sense)

Effects can stack, so playing too long could be disastrous. Fortunately, the effects are also temporary and will usually wear off after a short amount of time. Every person is different so it depends on each person. Still, a lot can happen in a short period of time, and this is a dangerous environment to be vulnerable in, so it's best to drink responsibly.

The Back of the House
In contrast to the shiny, chromed-out and minimalist curves and neon lights up in the club and VIP section, the back of house or the alleyway and loading docks behind Madame Red’s club is darker, betraying the seedier underbelly of her establishment. Outsiders who feel uncomfortable in their skin on the best of days, and even worse when asked to polish up for an event can still make it in.

However, if Outsiders go that route, they will be informed that they’ll also need to keep their eyes and ears peeled in case of danger. Madame Redd has been helping with the rumors of this legendary missing Muramasa for months, and people are very interested in it. She’s not certain that there might be an attempt to steal it, but she is concerned, so Outsiders will need to listen in on conversations as they serve or act as security. However, if you’re acting as security, you’ll be required to wear a fox mask, to remain anonymous to everyone.

And in fact, while some members of the party are busy playing the game on the floor, the Outsiders helping out with the back of house will start to hear rumors from some of the rougher-looking staff members. From the rumors, they’ll discover that some of the staff corridors are being used by certain entities to get closer to the treasure being auctioned off tonight. After all, some elements want to keep the mystique, and what’s more exciting than a recently recovered ancient sword, than if it goes disappearing. So several of Neo-Tokyo’s crime syndicates are vying to steal it. Outsiders can choose to pit them against one another, redirect them using their positions as staff, coordinate with their fellow outsiders in the party proper, or even just straight up fight them! Anything goes, but Madame Redd’s directive was clear: This should not impact the Auction itself. No bringing the fight to the main floor!

THE AUCTION

The Auction
And what a main floor! The organizers clearly have gone all out for this special art auction – there’s holographic displays of everything from paintings to jewelry to the swords themselves, each identifiable with an ocular implant stating the object name, providence, and current bid. Much of the bidding is happening anonymously, but there are signs amongst the crowds on the floor of who might be attempting to outbid who. Outsiders are, of course, welcome to bet their Kryptos on just about anything under the sun, though the rarer and finer the object the more likely they are to be outbid. But there are some small art pieces that are feasible for Outsiders to win, should they choose to try.

• Finely crafted silver bracelet with a heart charm from maker “Theophania”
• A corner of Van Gogh’s “Scream” - something’s off about that
• A certificate of ownership for a digital png of… you’re not sure, a monkey? Or is it a grape with a bored expression? Someone tells you that you can use it as an ‘icon’. (People have not used digital icons in at least 100 years)
• “Girl with A Pearl Earring” – closer inspection reveals that the pearl is a red and white orb from a popular children’s cartoon from the beginning of the millennium, but did you look that closely at it before you won?
• Colorful folder with a wild cat design, comes with a set of matching stickers
• A hand crafted statue of a woman in a compromising pose and very little clothing. She looks heavily stylized and more like an animated piece
• A glass rose
• A nice lacquered box with a real pearl inlay of a nice ocean-related design
• A pair of thick plastic shoes in something called ‘sport mode’
• A painting with rectangles of color
• Three smaller tantos (one listing for each)

Time for a Bidding War!

When someone wins an object (ten minutes go by without any bids), the staff will bring the individual into the back room where the real items are – proudly displayed and very securely guarded. No one is taking any chances. Well, there is one object that seems to be gaining a lot of attention, including significant press in the lead-up to the auction itself.

The one item not tucked away is the one that several Outsiders have been checking in on: Muramasa, Aventurine, and Silco, namely. It’s in the center of the main auction area, with appropriate mood lighting giving the blade a dangerous glow. A pressure-sensitive railing surrounds it, and if any Outsider so much as touches it, they and anyone around them will be ushered into a small room to be grilled by security. Yes, even if you accidentally did it. Getting out of questioning proves to be a time-intensive process, especially if you’ve indulged in any of the unsavory options of the evening.

Good luck!

The Heist Begins! (And where did Asaboo go??)
The highlight of the night is the betting war over the star of the show – the genuine “reclaimed” Muramasa sword, perfect and pristine. Madame Redd stands next to it as she tells the story of how it was found and brought to her by a secret faction within LILITH, as evidenced by Asaboo guarding it as well. She adjusts her fox-fur stole and expresses that it’s a great honor for her to present it tonight to auction to the highest bidder, someone who truly appreciates art, and history. The bidding commences, with several clearly Yakuza types offering increasingly large sums for the item.

That is, until a woman stands and offers an exorbitant amount, with a striped stole around her neck, her tone is laid back and belligerent. Madame Redd hisses out a soft oath to any outsiders who are nearby, but the woman laughs when one of the bidders folds, and she offers him a loan to keep going, if he’d like. A few escalations later, however, and the sword is indeed taken by the notoriously wealthy loan shark and arts dealer (and Madame Redd’s ex) Tammy Nook.

As the auction concludes, it’s time to indulge in the rest of the night's festivities – except the power flickers – and as the lights lift again, the sword is missing – along with Asaboo, who wouldn’t let go of it. Everyone will have to track down the thieves, since they can’t have gotten far, right? As Outsiders start spreading out to find the thieves, they’ll encounter new security that hadn’t been there before: humanoid machines that shift and jerk...until they project holograms of other Outsiders over their bodies. They’ll have to determine friend from foe, as those uploaded identities are now a danger, and they’ll have to fight their way through these false outsiders to try and keep chasing after the thieves! Someone had better save the sword (and Asaboo!) so it's time to fight your way through!

CODING BY

Comments

oh no you don't!!!!! kinda

[zauneyete]

[ Now see, half the fun of the auction, is watching who can and can't afford things — and more importantly: what people are bidding on. Silco has no interest in bidding on too many of them, because he'd helped select them, and he'd selected things he wouldn't want, thank you very much.

As it is, he watches Muramasa whisper something at another Outsider, and he slides near him, somewhat like a short shadow, though it's hard to miss him when he approaches, given that he so often smells of cheap cigars, and the eye is a dead giveaway. ]

Trying to intimidate people so you can win a few items?

[ He asks, his tone low, a twist of amusement in it. He noticed that it's mostly the Tantos he's going after, and he wonders, for just a second, why he'd want to part with them, if he just wants to pay for them again.

No, something is amiss there.,/small> ]

>:U

[misclassed]

[ Tanto notwithstanding the list of items Muramasa is actually interested in acquiring consists of... only one item, the lacquered box, and even the it's something he is perfectly capable of recreating or making on his own (the seigaiha wave pattern is strikingly traditional, compared to everything else, and he thinks its charming).

But he'd dived right into bidding on the tanto, knowing full well that they can't not sell, and determined to take them back home with him. He's a blacksmith, not a merchant... so that hasty, temperamental choice had not been the best one, and it's starting to sink in. ]

Silco. You the one who picked whats up for bid here?

[zauneyete]

Oh, now I can't take all of the credit. I don't really have the eye for art myself.

[ Well, okay, he has a little bit of one. But his taste was definitely things like the rothko, or the laquered box. And a few others that seemed...interesting enough to put in a bid for. The "icon" had been an inspired one, truly. He wondered if it would sell for much of anything, but he'd heard it was quite the scam back in the day. Maybe a few outsiders would be foolish enough to bid on it. ]

But some of them, yes.

For a swordsmith, I'm surprised you're showing such interest in someone else's work up there.

[ That one? That was all Aventurine. ]

[misclassed]

Spare me the bullshit. I doubt Aventurine didn't tell you where he got them.

[ He and that guy are going to have words, after he's done bidding for and winning the knives (or maybe if he's feeling cheap, making copies and doing some old fashioned ghost bullshit breaking and entering to swap them out). Maybe talk him into considering the effect of his actions on others, or just pull his ear a little bit and remind him what an ungrateful brat he can be, after Muramasa even lent his haori to make Aventurine, as the seller, look more like a man who ought to be putting a genuine Muramasa up for bid.

Something moves behind Silco, catching his eye in its unnaturalness, a distraction from the irritating auction items... Nobody can say that Muramasa's ever shirked on a job once he was given it. Security included. But this is only a hunch, and he's got a point to make on the knives, so. ]

... Anyone with eyes can tell the steel's too bright to be an older piece, and we all know how many swordsmiths are left these days.

[ No. Something with that other security member definitely isn't right. He's seen people with cybernetic enhancements before, and they were still human, all the way down to the suffering in their hearts and the karma in their souls, plus... ]

I thought the onna-oyabun didn't want robots working.

[zauneyete]

Oh? [ A laugh. ] Whether he did or not doesn't change the fact that it's not quite my concern where he got them. That's between you and him, after all, isn't it?

[ Sure, he could have asked, but was he going to? Absoutely not, that's not how smuggling works, and if even Benzo could figure that out in his old age, it should be a basic courtesy. At least, in Silco's very humble and reasonable opinion, of course.

He doesn't bother with refuting his knowledge on swords, though. That's his area of expertise, but...

His eyes slide to the side. ]

Hm? She didn't.

[ Something about being a "job creator", though Silco suspected it had to do with how easily they could be hacked. ]

Unless she lied.

[ Which, she could have. Really, he didn't trust her any more than he could throw her. ]

[misclassed]

[ Who (or what) ever Muramasa is following through the crowd, his eyes don't leave them/it for a second, gaze focused and sharp. But if Silco glances over his shoulder, it's impossible to tell who he's looking at among the crowd of glittering and shadowy figures, or the fox-masked guards posted throughout the room. The matter of the knives is forgotten for a moment as the work takes precedence over his pride. ]

Huh. [ He just has a feeling about this. Like the wind clan fairies in Edinburgh. ] Suppose that'd explain why it's so well hidden.

[zauneyete]

[ He does look over his shoulder.

One eyebrow dips, curious. Thoughtful. Concerned. ]

What are you talking about?

[ Nothing looks out of place to him, at least? ]

[misclassed]

One of her guards — the one by the wall near that stupid cat painting — it's not a person.

[ the guard in question seems professional, scanning the room with careful, human-like deliberation. a tattoo of two serpents twined together snakes up from under the collar of their shirt, one head biting the other right under their ear. ]

[zauneyete]

What?

[ His good eye narrows, and he followed his gaze, before he tipped his head yet again. ]

Looks human to me.

[misclassed]

[ a shake of the head ]

All sentient beings know the touch of suffering.

[ and he can tell it's there. don't ask him to explain, okay? ]

And that has neither suffering nor karma. Unless you think the Buddha's working this joint, the only explanation is machine or magecraft, and I can tell you it ain't magecraft either.

That means a robot, right?

[zauneyete]

Who's the — Never mind.

[ Like Silco has spent much time learning about these things. The man's attitude towards religion was irreverent on a good day, let alone anything else. ]

Do you think that the machine is here for a purpose?

Madame Redd's, for example?

[misclassed]

Ain't that sorta thing your business? How should I know...

[ bro he is just here to make sure some of the security is sourced from someone OTHER than redd... but he's doing his diligence and turning to cast that sharp gaze across the rest of the auction, hand resting lightly on his sword's hilt. so far, he's only spotted the one ]

If its good enough to fool a person, why wouldn't she use machines for more than just one lone guard? S' cheaper than paying wages.

[zauneyete]

Hm.

[ Why would she, indeed? ]

Perhaps she's testing a model out?

[ That's what he would do. Allow one, and see how it does. ]

[misclassed]

Hm. Hell of a time to be doing tests, if you ask me.

[ not that anyone is going to be asking either one of aventurine's sword wielding teenage bodguards anything, really.

he just doesn't like it—the trepidation hangs off his expression with a scowl, as he gives the snake tattoo'ed robot another stare. ]

The hell does a robot need tattoos for anyway?

[zauneyete]

Hm. To blend in?

[ Silco will be kicking himself later, once he realizes that this wasn't just a little trick. Once he realizes that there was something to his hunch.

As it is right now... ]

If I had muscle that didn't blend in, I would be questioning the validity of their place among my crew.