[Ghost in the machine] Rory has been making her rounds as usual in the past few days. And lately job wasn’t lacking, especially in Chinatown. All her regulars have needed her in the last week, some twice and she had about seven new clients. Business was blooming for the metis at the moment. Of course this cut some in her time with a certain Black Fury, that is, if she had wanted to help everyone.
Tonight around dinner time since she felt like for Asian cuisine for free, she made her way under an overcast sky toward Chinatown. There was a chance of rain…something that might make the night interesting if she felt like contacting her lover. She arrived to the restaurant she took Adara to earlier this week and as soon as she knocked the regular way, the door is flung open and one of the cook looks at her, uncomfortable. Most were around her after all. He seemed to look for something? Someone? before saying
“Missus want to see you now”
She was lead to deeper inside. The man was silent until he couldn’t help himself and ask “No lady friend tonight?” If she tries to, she might remember him as one of the guys who quite enjoyed the closeness she had with a certain Cliath.
The missus was in the kitchen, in a foul mood, yelling at her staff, almost looking like a pissed dragon. Her eyes finds Rory even before the cook could tell her that the redhead was there.
“Ah there you are!” She says still looking angry “What you done to my freezer? It broke again! You no like my food any more? You want me out of business? And did you touch the oven last time? Always giving trouble for the last days”
This might be surprising since the mechanical genius had repaired the freezer about three days ago and if she is confident in herself, she would know that it wasn’t supposed to break for at least a few months to maybe a year. The oven..well she never been closed to it after all.
[Rory] She’s been busy – busier than ever. She’s surprised, really, but it keeps her fed, and allows her to get little things here and there for those she cares about – especially, lately, a certain Lady Fury. She’s startled though, when the Missus want’s to see her right away. Now even, and she just nods slightly and follows him…
…and blushes BRIGHT when he asks if there was no lady friend tonight. She just shakes her head, hiding her blush behind those curls of hers and follows quickly. And finds the Missus in a MOOD.
She blinks, and takes a step back, shocked at the sudden mood swing, and shakes her head, slightly.. gaping open mouthed as she’s berated… “I…I…. no!” She shakes her head again, curls bouncing violently, even as she slips off her pack and digs for her tools…
“Tever nouched the stove… Fill wix them…” She doesn’t like it when things break – there’s no reason at all that it should have, so soon. “What is it doing?”
[Rory] [Dex + Crafts + mech aptitude..]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 4, 9, 10, 10 (Failure at target 5) Re-rolls: 2
[Rory] [Kahseeno YOU WHORE]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
[Ghost in the machine] The missus tilts her head when Rory tells her she never touched the stove. She knew the strange young woman to be honest so she didn’t press the subject but it didn’t make her happier. Her restaurant was not functioning at 100% and it made her cranky. Summertime was the busiest time and it wasn’t good that stuff kept breaking. Of course she knew that it was happening to her competitors but it wasn’t much comfort.
“Oven keeps heating then not. Sometimes for minute, sometime for hour. Freezer no freeze” She says grumbling. “Fix it….please” She almost reluctantly add. It was very strange for the small woman to say please…maybe she knew something that Rory didn’t that made her desperate for her equipment to work.
When Rory inspects the freezer and the oven, she doesn’t see why they aren’t functioning properly. To her knowledge, both should be working fine. The missus stays there, with a worried expression on her face.
[Rory] She furrows her brow as she pulls apart the panel on the freezer first, and realized that everything is as she left it, all the connections are clean, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it… she chews on her lower lip, climbs over her pack, and checks out the stove, unable to see why it’s giving out again and agian, randomly.
It doesn’t make sense. She furrows her brow, and rubs at the side of her nose, before she tips her head, and goes about carefully taking apart the wires and such on the freezer, and carefully putting it all back together. She’ll be here until it’s fixed, one way or another – that’s what the determined jut of her jaw says, anyway…
[Ghost in the machine] Eventually the missus had to go up front while Rory worked on the freezer. The Fianna could hear cooks swear when the oven started to give them trouble again. Once or twice, lights flickered. She might even heard one of the guys saying to another that he was disappointed that there wouldn’t be a girl on girl show tonight.
She might also have heard another telling his co-worker that he was sure Chinatown was hunted lately. With machinery going haywire in other businesses. Nothing major but his sister said the computer cash register at the shop she was working kept giving them hell and he went to Wong’s to eat and they had similar problems to here.
Finally Rory put the freezer back together, and it was working..despite the fact everything was put back the same way it was before she took it apart.
The missus came back “Oh you got it working? Oven now?”
And as she works on the oven, about ten minutes after she put back the freezer together, she will hear it stop. The freezer was now silent.
[Rory] She listens to the chatter as she works – hearing the cooks referring to her and Adara, and blushes brightly… but she keeps working. She turns her head as she hears about the other businesses, and what is going on there, as well as the suggestion that Chinatown is haunted. She chews on her lower lip, thinking, and moves to the stove.
Which is when the freezer stops.
“Damn!”
Single words are easier… as she moves back to it, she points to the one who said there were hauntines and craziness everywhere. “Haunted?” A request for more information that’s not anything less than a demand – polite as it is.
and she slaps the freezer, as if that will make it work, before pulling off the panel agian.
[Ghost in the machine] A few employees looked at her when she swore. They aren’t used to hear her like that. The missus yes, but not the strange quiet beauty.
The cook she approaches almost leap out of his skin and unto one of the frying pans. He was paler as her rage hit him badly. “I-I-I….”
The missus comes closer and says “What is it?” She stares at her cook who paled a little more “Nothing..I was jsut saying Chinatown might be haunted because of the stuff breaking all over and hmmm your friend came to me with a question”
She snorts and motion Rory away from the freezer while shooting a look at the scared cook “Back to work!” She look up at Rory, standing at a distance. She was kinda used to the woman’s rage but she still preferred to keep some distance. “Superstitions” She says, related to the haunting rumours “Machines keep breaking…no ghosts…bad parts. Happening a lot more than usual”
[Rory] He pales, and she instantly feels bad, and offers him a shy little smile, much more like herself, her self that they’re used too… its apologetic, and sweet, and the Missus pulls her back, and she shifts from foot to foot, clearly worried.
Superstitions, she says. Bad parts, maybe. Happening more often. Rory shakes her head. “Garts pood. I checked. Not sure what’s wrong. Will leep kooking…”
She drags her fingers throuh her hair, and shakes head. “Sorry. I bake metter.” A promise, that.
[Ghost in the machine] The Missus nods “I know you’ll try” She says, turning to leave Rory to work on the freezer and oven once more. She had a very sceptic look on her face and rubbed the side of her head in frustration. It was so bad for business. She might have to close until the problems are fixed. She knew that one of her competitor has done so after he called professional repairmen a few times and they said everything was fine but it wasn’t, taking his money.
At least Rory didn’t cost her a lot and usually made things better quickly. Right now, the Missus didn’t know if the shy prodigy will be up to the task.
Rory is left to herself to work some more or leave.
[Rory] She chews on her lower lip. And watches the poor frustrated Missus go away. She almost wants to stomp her feet in frustration. It should work. There’s nothing that suggests it shouldn’t. She goes back to it once more, studyin it so carefully, so itnently, running her fingers over and over and over the connections, the parts, everything…
It should be working. There’s nothing to suggest WHY…
So. Haunting. Maybe that’s it… “Seed nomething.” She explains, as she steps just outside the door, and finds a puddle, a hidden spot, a reflection, and a shift to the otherside..
[Rory] {Kahseeno – if you get me stuck, so help me Gaia we are DONE professionally! DONE I SAY! Do. Not. Be. A. WHORE, you fucking hobag!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 1 at target 7)
[Ghost in the machine] Rory sees her reflection in the puddle, focus and suddenly as she feels herself pulled through the gauntlet, the landscape changes. She can see Chinatown’s Umbral side and as usual, it’s a very strange sight
Chinatown’s Penumbra is a foreign and alien realm, having more to do with age-old Western stereotypes of the East than reality. Mists drift underfoot along patterned streets. Strange spirits slither and dart from alleys and overhangs, weaver spiders vying with unfamiliar ancestral spirits for dominance over the market and residential areas. Dragon and serpent spirits dotting rooftops, chained and ever watchful.
Luckily she wasn’t in the vice district for anyone for pain and pleasure were there to sap one’s Gnosis and willpower. Yet right now, there was something quite different about it. She could see the Weaver’s spiders trying to take over everything but she could see little creatures, a strange mix between Wall-E and the evil Gremlins. They were mostly mechanical, with caterpillar tracks, small arms and impish features and a sickly greenish colour. They keep rolling around picking at every bits of machinery they can find, using their little arms, shifted like blowtorches to affect them.
It’s a very strange sight to say the least.
[Rory] She furrows her brow, slightly, as she sees the little sickly green grimlins, picking at machinery, and she inches closer, looking to see if they were picking at HER machines… the ones of the Missus, the ones she’s trying to fix.
She inches up, closer and closer, sneaky and sneaky…. checking to see if they are what’s going on with the Missus’ machines…
[Ghost in the machine] The Gremlins were definitely picking at the machines she was trying to fix while she could see elsewhere that they were picking on other machines. After picking something out of of each machine, they left, the only noises they made was this annoying giggling like sound.
While Rory was observing the Gremlins, the Spiders came closer to her trying to incorporate her into the Unbral landscape. They wanted order after all. The Ahroun could hear, feel, see angry dragon spirits growling and snapping their massive jaws on top of buildings, eating and burning the spiders that came too close. The spiritual fight for Chinatown was far from over.
For now, some Gremlins were rolling away while others were were moving to pick on machines elsewhere.
[Rory] She shifts. It’s instant, it’s quicker than the eye can see, quicker than thought…. Then lifts her muzzle to the sky, and…
ROARS…
It’s a clear command – get the giggling little shits AWAY from her machines….
She steps closer and closer still, while reaching out a massive paw – without claws – to swipe at the nearest and send it rolling faster… The message clear. THIS building. THIS one is HERS… and PROTECTED… and she’ll fight for it if she has too…
[Ghost in the machine] The little machines started screaming in fear and roll away. The one she hit stumbled a little but managed to stay upright and rolled faster. Those around the building cleared it quickly while those nearby stopped, watched her and if left alone, returned to their task.
For now, she was left alone. By the Gremlins and Spider..but she knew the spiders will come again. They always do. The gremlins..who knows.
[Rory] They scream in fear and run away. She looks at the little one, and then the others… the building clears. HER building clears.
The spiders will come, thye always do. But for now, the grimlins are gone… and she can only hope that they stay for a while… and she howls again – just in case they might think to circle round, and she makes her way back to the allley way, where she looks one more time in the direction that the grimlins ran off in, marking it in her mind, before she shifts back to her monkey skin, and crosses over again….
time to ‘fix’ the machine for real. Hopefully.
[Rory] [SHE IS BETTER THAN THIS. SHE CAN FIX ANYTHING. DO NOT PISS ME OFF KAHSEENO. I MEAN IT.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 7 at target 5) [WP] Re-rolls: 2
[Ghost in the machine] She doesn’t seem them coming closer, they keep their distance.
Rory shift back and return to the human world. She works on the freezer and oven, things going incredibly smoothly managing in fact to make them slightly more efficient, less energy eating. Once she’s done with the oven, with the freezer actually still working, she realizes that there is food ready for her, a small amount of money and a very happy Missus..well very happy for her
“You did good, you best than repairmen. Come back again, as always” She heads back to the main room, letting Rory enjoy the reward for her hard work.
Meanwhile the cooks are working like crazy to catch up with the time they lost.
[Rory] That’s better. MUCH better. She nods and wipes her hands on her jeans and makes a satisfied sound when she checks over her work – and then finds her payment.
She offers the Missus a little shy grin, as she nods. “Chill weck back often. Make sure.”
She needs to make sure the grimlins dont return – and do the same for her other clients too…