LogEclipse Phase: Profits of Doom-Joe-1

Game log for the 2016/10/09 session of Eclipse Phase: Profits of Doom, as taken by Joe

We’re kicking it at the Peacock Tower while we scour the mesh for clues on who we might be up against. Lady Selina is sucking down Comfurt to reduce her stress. She’s slowly sinking back into a small pile of the empty yoghurt tubes as the morning shift starts their gig.

Daryl checks the police band but nothing’s been posted on Selina. He interrupts a young lady who is giving me a class-A lap dance to tell me that the cops’ social media scene is quiet. A give the girl a tip and move to get my clothes back on. Callisto is slogging through the surveillance feeds, so it looks like we might be going out blind.

It’s troubling that there isn’t any noise on the scream sheets. The cops’ SOP is to carve out the victim’s cortical stack, pop it into a servitor, and ask it what happened. Assuming they followed the plan, things look like Selina isn’t a suspect. I hate assuming…

I’m hesitant to touch Lady H for a place to stay, she’s the type that hates it when trouble comes to her door step. I sweet talk Shujuan into getting a hotel room in her name. She gives me the access codes and we sneak in through the service entrance. She makes a crack about skipping on room service and I remind her that I’m good for it.

About an hour later, Police blogs report that two bodies were found in Selina’s apartment building and video shows two sheet covered gurneys getting loaded into ambulances. Edward is still working his brisket, so we get Selina set up. Darryl and I head out to O’Connor’s, a cop bar, leaving Selina sucking down strawberry-flavored Comfurt. What is a strawberry anyway?

We work our way over to O’Connor’s and settle back to watch some skeeball over the rims of our beer mugs. I spot Francis sitting with a couple of plain clothes guys. One of them, Lois, was at Selina’s apartment. They figure that the guy was stabbed and bled out, but can’t figure out how the girl got choked to death.

I offer my services and Lois tells me to talk with Shau Ming, the detective in charge. I buy them a beer and send Daryl to the crime scene to check out the situation. He hasn’t been in the room, so there’s less chance that he could trip over some sensor.

Daryl strikes out with the cop in the lobby, but tries to schmooze some details out of him. Daryl heads up to the apartment to watch the gossip scribblers at work. All of the journalists are crowding around the door across from Selina’s apartment. Daryl tries to work the crowd with little success when Edward comes back online.

Edward has the run down on Ming Hiowei and the debt that led her to dance in Erato. I decide to set this job rolling. Returning to the hotel, I get Selina’s access code and ask Daryl to pick her up. He’s going to take her to Edward’s “cousin’s” house while I see what the cops are up to.

I get to the apartment complex and breeze past the cop in the lobby. I go into the apartment, turn off the coffee machine, count to ten, and rush out of the apartment to grab the cop in the hallway. I pull him into 801 (Selina’s apartment) and show him the dead pleasure pod. Shau Ming comes out of 802, and investigates. He talks to me and I’m able to get him to sit me down in 802.

Apartment 802 is a bachelor’s pad. More money than taste, but other than the blood stain across wall, there’s nothing out of the ordinary here. After a couple of minutes, I get a call from Selina. I tell Shau, “It’s your lucky day.” “Why don’t I believe that when it’s coming from you?” “The lady just called. She’s on her way back. Stand there and watch me make this sandwich, she’ll be here before I’m done eating.”

Edward figures out that the Pleasure Pod came into 802 four hours before the murder. Before that, the guy from 801 comes and goes but we never see the female from 801. The vid feed shows that Yi Hua came out of 802 with a knife in her back and entered 801 without needing to enter an access code.

Shau tries to shed me while he interrogates Selina, but I’m not having it. “I’ve got a stake in this too, Shuan,” I tell him. I give the lady a sandwich and something cold to drink before I settle in to watch the show. Shau is a little pissed that Selina talks him into letting me stay, but I need to stay close to the little fucker to see where he’s taking this investigation.

I’m impressed watching Selina play Shau like a cheap ukulele. She told him a story about being at the Forbidden City and then went out on the town. Edward scrambled to make the logs match her alibi. Shau wasn’t ready to sing “Tip Toe through the Tulips” but he has nothing to poke holes in what she tells him. I take her to my place while we figure out our next move.

Selina and I catch a cab, but I notice that we picked up a tail. I let Edward and Daryl know so that I can lose them in a place that Daryl can ambush the tail. I try to take control of the cab, but I flub it in my haste. The cab pulls over and we try to leg it. We shake the tail and I call Shau. Like the dick that he is, he sends the heat with sirens blaring. I manage to tag the tail, but Shau isn’t a whole lot of help.

He wants me to stay still, but I’m not stupid enough to be a standing target. I tell Shau where I’m headed and ask him to be subtle, but the man-child doesn’t seem to grasp the concept. Police bots try to shadow me and there are uniforms at the door of my office building.

Lt. Linda Chou is there to meet me. I bully her into letting Selina go to my apartment, guarded by two uniforms. I take Chou to my office, but I’ve got to be careful about what I say since she’s looking for any excuse to take me downtown. “Why should I go to the precinct?” I ask. She smirks and says, “Because it’s full of cops.” “So’s my apartment.” Convinced (for the moment), Chou lets me stay in my building.

While I’m doing my best to evade Chou, the social media verse explodes with “exclusive” video of the triple homicide at Selina’s apartment building. Selina lets all of her fans know that she’s cooperating with the police but refuses to comment. With the new evidence, Chou takes Selina and I to the precinct for questioning. Hard boiled PI Fail...

Edward gets to work on the tail car, weaving his way through the fake IDs to determine that the Triads put it into the system. He sleeves into a Basic Pod but the transfer is glitchy and he’s the Tin Woodsman when he comes out of the tank. Edward immediately blocks any tracking agents and then heads off to track the silver car that was tailing me. He looks like a drunken sailor on shore leave, drawing the ire of everyone he passes, but he eventually gets to the parking garage.

He finds the car, but struggles with his new body. As hard as he tries to get the fingerprints, he discovers a cleaner nano-swarm wiping the car clean. Desperate, he breaks the car’s windows, snatches the film canister that delivered the swarm, and ran (as best he could.) He gets some take away (brisket) and returns the Pod.