Play@YSDC

Day 1
11th March 2189
20:45 Earth Central European Time
Barnard's Rest Colony, Titan

The refectory dominates the centre of the street, it is the usual unadorned grey metal alloy. There are no windows on the outside.

Entering through the main doors reveals a large open space with several lines of grey tables and benches. Dozens of people are sitting there, eating from brown plastic trays. They sit in small groups or alone, most appear to be miners. At the far end of the hall is a canteen style counter where food is served and a few people are queued up.

The ceiling is high and there is silver ducting heading in all directions. These lead to several vents around the hall. The vents open at head height and what is presumably condensing water vapour can be seen diffusing out into the air.

There is an odd smell. Not the usual oil and alcohol scents found throughout the base, it is something more difficult to describe. Probably the aroma from the kitchen but it has a strange tang, almost like the sea

Anyone successfully rolling Spot Hidden,Sitting on his own at the side of the room is a large man with a bushy brown beard and bald head, he's dressed like a miner. While the other patrons of the refectory are showing no interest, he keeps looking up at the group and following their movements through the hall.

Spot hidden 37,[dice]0[/dice]

Kiara’s too hungry to notice anything untoward.

"There's a big guy, bald with a brown beard, watching us," says Sam quietly. "I think he's a miner."

OOC,Spot Hidden roll (55% skill) in the Refectory: [dice]0[/dice]

Spot hidden,[dice]0[/dice]

“Well you two don’t exactly look like miners; he’s naturally interested.” Says Virgil as he walks toward the serving area. “Anyone notice that odd smell? Like iodine perhaps.”

"It smells like sea salt coming from the kitchen," says Sam. "Maybe it's iodized."

Kiara cranes her neck to see the bearded guy Sam is talking about.

“Huh, well he better not try anything...”

She sniffs the air, wrinkling her nose.

“Maybe I could take an atmospheric sample. I could recalibrate the sensors on my datapad maybe.”

They queue up and receive sloppy looking fare from the refectory serving staff. Sitting down in a free space on one of the long tables they tuck in to their dinner. Isabella let's out a low groan as she stands her spoon up vertically in the stodge.

Unfortunately, all food in the outer colonies is either freeze dried and imported or synthesised locally from engineered algal species. The off, salty taste suggests this gloopy mess started off as the latter. 'I think I've lost my appetite' sighs Moses, 'Perhaps we should have gone to the bar after all.'

The man with the bushy brown beard and bald head keeps looking at the investigators. Li whispers, 'He's signalling to us, look at his hands.' Sure enough, the man seems to be gesturing to them to come over, but he's trying not to let anyone else see.

"Let's go over to him," Sam whispers back, in between bites of the glop. She's had worse, she just can't remember when. "He may have some information for us."

Kiara pokes the gloop around on her plate with a fork, wondering whether it’s worth taking a sample for testing, considering the strange events of recent days.

“I guess a couple of us should go over and see what he wants.”

“I’ll go, I can’t eat this crap.” Virgil throws his fork down and goes to sit within earshot of Beardy whilst not actually sitting with him.
He nods marginally to the man.

Psychology,65 [dice]0[/dice] Can Virgil get a sense of how the man is feeling or thinking?

Sam is not exactly a people person, so she hangs back.

Virgil goes and sits near the man while the others hang back eating. The man seems to acknowledge Virgil and while he then looks away it appears he says something.

Virgil,[b]Virgil[/b] looks over the bearded man, he looks like a miner in the standard grey overalls of the company. He's probably in his thirties or forties but it's difficult to tell as he has a creased and careworn face with a few nasty looking scars. He acknowledges [b]Virgil[/b] with a slight incline of his head but then looks away from him and seems to be studying the rest of the room. [color=#FF00FF]'You the investigators from Richter Dynamics? You wanna know what's really going on, off the record?'[/color] His voice is mellow with the hint of a Russian or Eastern European accent. As far as [b]Virgil[/b] can tell this guy is trying his hardest to make contact with them without making it too obvious. However he has been sitting here a bit too long as all his food is eaten. He seems to want to talk but looks pretty relaxed about it.

Everyone except Virgil,If you want to hear what the guy is saying roll a hard (half) Listen

Sam can't overhear them.

OOC,Listen roll (20% / 2 = 10% base skill) to overhear the miner: 0

Listen 20,0

Kiara can't make out what's being said over the general hubbub of the refectory.

Beardy,“We are, and yes we do.” Virgil says casually, not looking at the man. “Always off the record.”

Virgil seems intent on examining the ceiling ducts.

Virgil and Beardy continue to talk under their breath while studiously avoiding looking at each other.

Virgil,[b]Beardy[/b] whispers, [color=#FF00FF]"Meet me in the booths at [i]'Jack's Play'[/i] in forty five minutes. Ask for [b]Sergei[/b]."[/color] That'd be around 10pm.

Beardy abruptly gets up and leaves.

"What was all that about?" Sam asks Virgil.

“I’ve no idea.” Says Virgil. “He might have some information for us though. We’re to ask for Sergei in the Booths in 45 minutes. We need to look for Jacks Play. It sounds like your kind of place.” He adds dryly.

"Let's get there early and scope it out," says Sam. "Maybe they'll have something that tastes better than this glop."

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Kiara agrees, letting her spoon drop into her gloop.

Virgil nods and leads the way out. “Keep your eyes and ears open, it seems we might have a big label on us declaring what we’re about and it might garner some trouble in this lousy pit.”

Virgil, Kiara, Sam, Moses, Li, and Isabella head out of the refectory and walk further down the broad corridor towards 'Jack's Play'. Many of the shops lining the street have shut up for the night but a few remain open, including a liquor store and what looks like some kind of convenience store selling soft drinks, snacks, and other refreshments.

Jack's Play seems to be made of the same bulkhead metal as the rest of the colony but someone has decided it would be a good idea to paint it a mixture of pink and white. The paint is still mostly adhering to the metal and the effect is striking to say the least. Like a giant lump of candy. The tasteless neon sign of two people half dressed is strangely appropriate. There are only a few small windows which are blacked out on the inside.

At the entrance stands a tall man in a black suit. Beside the door is a little patch of threadbare crimson carpet and a couple of gold coloured stanchions supporting a thick red rope, presumably for queuing if it becomes busy later.

The doorman is young, maybe early twenties, boyish but attractive, he smiles widely as they approach, 'Welcome to 'Jack's Play'. He takes out a handheld scanner and gestures to them, 'I just need to scan your ID, you know, regulations, then a quick pat down and you're good to go in.'

“I’ll catch up with you inside.” Virgil says to the others. “I’m going to get something sterilised to eat first at that store.”

Sizing up the joint, Kiara isn't very impressed, or indeed keen to go in. However her still rumbling stomach convinces her to give the place a try.

She smiles at the doorman.

"Sure, scan away."

Sam nods and holds out her ID. Having returned the pistol to Nicole, she is no longer armed anyway.

Virgil turns and walks over to the convenience store to buy something edible in a packet and a canned drink.

The doorman scans Sam and Kiara's IDs and gives them a cursory once over with his scanner before waving them in. Isabella starts to follow them when Moses takes one more look at the gyrating neon figures and says 'I don't really think I'm up for this, I'll see you back at the accommodation.' Li watches him walking away and quickly follows. Isabella shrugs, 'And then there were three.'

OOC,I'll try and get a new scene up in the next day or so

Virgil,[b]Virgil[/b] strolls into the convenience store. He picks up a can of drink and some freeze dried food. The woman behind the counter sticks it into the rehydrator and heats it up for him, [color=#FF8000]'Only good thing on this colony's the coffee I'm afraid'[/color] she says with a weak smile.

“At least your food is edible. You don’t mind if I eat it here?” Virgil swipes his payment and waits for the food. “Do you have many problems with power shortages?” He asks the woman casually.

'Sure, go ahead' she says. 'As for power shortages, this is the first complete power cut I've seen but in the last year I've been on Titan there have been outages and tremors the whole time. They were really bad a few months ago but they had got better recently, until today anyway. It's all something to do with the ice volcanoes causing quakes they say. Usually the emergency generator kicks in pretty quickly, I don't know what happened today but I don't like it.'

“Yes, could be the ice volcanoes.” Virgil says blandly as he finishes his last mouthful. “Thank you for the food, Madam.” He turns to leave and go into Jack’s Play. He’s rather thoughtful.

As with the others the doorman scans Virgil's ID badge and gives him a cursory pat down and surface scan. He waves Virgil through with a big smile, 'Enjoy!'

OOC,Moving here: [url]https://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/pbp/viewtopic.php?f=472&t=7309&p=245206#p245206[/url]