Odd Jobs or Die Quest
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life...
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life...
Odd Jobs or Die Quest
- Thread starter Kinni
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Prologue
Odd Jobs or Die Quest
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life sucks.
This is not a subjective. It's true that you grew up in a rather good state orphanage and was receiving adequate care and education, but that was the limit of your good luck, and the bad luck outweighted it by such a large margin that none of that ended up mattering.
And the bad luck you had could be summed up with the words on the laminated card you were holding:
Camila Varga, Sufferer of Amanaderis Syndrome
Yes, Amanaderis Syndrome, the disease that had been nicknamed "The Rich Person's Disease". It was incurable, but treatable, and as long as the treatment was kept up, the sufferer would not show any symptoms and was no different from an ordinary person.
The problem was, of course, the treatment. It was expensive. Extremely expensive. It took two million credits to pay for a single session, which would extend the life of the sufferer by a single year. To give a sense of scale, two million credits were enough to buy a lavish mansion.
Of course, there was no way the state would pay for that. You had been visited by several psychologists that tried to get you used to the idea of death, along with giving ideas about how to make the most out of the rest of your life.
But fuck that, you don't want to die.
So, your only option was to earn that much money every year. It would be impossible for any ordinary girl, but thankfully, you are not one.
Ever since you were small, you've always been:
[] A Natural Manipulator: You are a genius at acting, and have an easy time understanding people and their motivations, and even at your young age you already have several "contacts", people you can influence to a variety of degrees. Each one of them has different abilities and resources.
The Roleplayer path. This one won't use dice, and will have a more narrative style, focused on creating plans, executing them, and dealing with the consequences and unexpected events.
[] A Natural Mimic: You can look at a person doing something and imitate them perfectly. You've also always been curious and managed to learn a lot of useful skills. And now that you have more than adequate motivation, you're sure you can learn whatever you need.
The Skills path. It will focus on obtaining, training and using skills, each with their own applications. Also plenty of dice mechanics.
[] A Natural Builder: You understand technology. Using a few scraps you've been able to find at the orphanage, you've already built a few useful machines. With enough resources, it's hard to say what you would be unable to eventually create.
The Strategic path. It will focus on resource management, and every action the players can take will have transparent results. It will only have a few elements decided by dice.
Besides that, there is one more resource at your disposal: The card marking you as someone someone suffering from the disease.
Due to law, you could simply show that card at several places to avoid having to pay for services. Essentially, you didn't have to worry about having enough to eat or having a place to live on top of everything else.
Of course, with it in hand, you could also use the pity of other people to obtain small favors. It's annoying, but pride is a luxury you can't afford right now.
According to your prognostics, it will take one more year before your body begins to decay. Until the end of that year, you need to make enough money to pay for the first treatment session.
And even with your abilities, there is no way you could make enough while being limited to normal jobs. As such, your best option is:
[] The Mercenary Board: Internet to the rescue! The Mercenary Board is a place where people can put up requests which, if completed, they'll reward the person who did so. You can find pretty much any type of job here, but to get things that pay enough, you'll probably have to look for the shadiest jobs, that say things like "information about the job will be given only in person".
Positives: You can start immediately. You won't need to answer to anyone.
Negatives: You'll have no extra support and perhaps you'll need to 'convince' clients that actually paying you would be in their best interests.
[] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
[] The Criminal Element: In darkened streets, shady deals are made everyday. Desperate people work in extreme jobs because they have no other choice. You can offer your services for all kinds of illegal jobs until you can draw the attention of the crime bosses with their deep pockets.
Positives: Numerous ways to make money quickly. And it will be normal to conceal your identity
Negatives: You'll have to sacrifice your morals. It will be difficult to leave the criminal life.
And that's it. Now it was time to begin.
-0-
Setting Notes: Future world with low sci-fi and low supernatural elements. Space travel is common, and lifelike robots abound, but the world is still fundamentally the same place.
Author's Notes: And here I am with another Quest. I learned a bit from the previous ones and hope this will get people's attention. I just got my college diploma, so I have time and motivation to spare. Let's get cracking!
Your name is Camila, and you are a ten year old orphan girl. Your life sucks.
This is not a subjective. It's true that you grew up in a rather good state orphanage and was receiving adequate care and education, but that was the limit of your good luck, and the bad luck outweighted it by such a large margin that none of that ended up mattering.
And the bad luck you had could be summed up with the words on the laminated card you were holding:
Camila Varga, Sufferer of Amanaderis Syndrome
Yes, Amanaderis Syndrome, the disease that had been nicknamed "The Rich Person's Disease". It was incurable, but treatable, and as long as the treatment was kept up, the sufferer would not show any symptoms and was no different from an ordinary person.
The problem was, of course, the treatment. It was expensive. Extremely expensive. It took two million credits to pay for a single session, which would extend the life of the sufferer by a single year. To give a sense of scale, two million credits were enough to buy a lavish mansion.
Of course, there was no way the state would pay for that. You had been visited by several psychologists that tried to get you used to the idea of death, along with giving ideas about how to make the most out of the rest of your life.
But fuck that, you don't want to die.
So, your only option was to earn that much money every year. It would be impossible for any ordinary girl, but thankfully, you are not one.
Ever since you were small, you've always been:
[] A Natural Manipulator: You are a genius at acting, and have an easy time understanding people and their motivations, and even at your young age you already have several "contacts", people you can influence to a variety of degrees. Each one of them has different abilities and resources.
The Roleplayer path. This one won't use dice, and will have a more narrative style, focused on creating plans, executing them, and dealing with the consequences and unexpected events.
[] A Natural Mimic: You can look at a person doing something and imitate them perfectly. You've also always been curious and managed to learn a lot of useful skills. And now that you have more than adequate motivation, you're sure you can learn whatever you need.
The Skills path. It will focus on obtaining, training and using skills, each with their own applications. Also plenty of dice mechanics.
[] A Natural Builder: You understand technology. Using a few scraps you've been able to find at the orphanage, you've already built a few useful machines. With enough resources, it's hard to say what you would be unable to eventually create.
The Strategic path. It will focus on resource management, and every action the players can take will have transparent results. It will only have a few elements decided by dice.
Besides that, there is one more resource at your disposal: The card marking you as someone someone suffering from the disease.
Due to law, you could simply show that card at several places to avoid having to pay for services. Essentially, you didn't have to worry about having enough to eat or having a place to live on top of everything else.
Of course, with it in hand, you could also use the pity of other people to obtain small favors. It's annoying, but pride is a luxury you can't afford right now.
According to your prognostics, it will take one more year before your body begins to decay. Until the end of that year, you need to make enough money to pay for the first treatment session.
And even with your abilities, there is no way you could make enough while being limited to normal jobs. As such, your best option is:
[] The Mercenary Board: Internet to the rescue! The Mercenary Board is a place where people can put up requests which, if completed, they'll reward the person who did so. You can find pretty much any type of job here, but to get things that pay enough, you'll probably have to look for the shadiest jobs, that say things like "information about the job will be given only in person".
Positives: You can start immediately. You won't need to answer to anyone.
Negatives: You'll have no extra support and perhaps you'll need to 'convince' clients that actually paying you would be in their best interests.
[] Mr. Koros: One of the richest men in the country. He is well known for posting mercenary requests for all kinds of ridiculous missions. Not exactly illegal things, but stuff that very few mercenaries are willing to tackle despite the rewards being huge. He seems to be a very bored guy. You could perhaps convince him to hire you in a permanent manner.
Positives: A steady stream of high paying jobs. No need to compromise your morals too much.
Negatives: You'll need to catch his eye first, and every second counts. There is no way you're going to be able to avoid the spotlight.
[] The Criminal Element: In darkened streets, shady deals are made everyday. Desperate people work in extreme jobs because they have no other choice. You can offer your services for all kinds of illegal jobs until you can draw the attention of the crime bosses with their deep pockets.
Positives: Numerous ways to make money quickly. And it will be normal to conceal your identity
Negatives: You'll have to sacrifice your morals. It will be difficult to leave the criminal life.
And that's it. Now it was time to begin.
-0-
Setting Notes: Future world with low sci-fi and low supernatural elements. Space travel is common, and lifelike robots abound, but the world is still fundamentally the same place.
Author's Notes: And here I am with another Quest. I learned a bit from the previous ones and hope this will get people's attention. I just got my college diploma, so I have time and motivation to spare. Let's get cracking!
Character Sheet
Character Sheet:
Camila, 10 years old.
Current Money: 400 credits.
Contacts:
Roman Carlos: A woman who had an incurable illness and decided to use her time left to do all sorts of extreme sports and dangerous stunts. However, before she could die, a cure was found, and she lost direction in her life. She is modestly wealthy, and you're sure you could use your similarities in situation to get her to help you "live dangerously".
Yamata Daichiri: An ex-mercenary, now a family man who runs a candy store. You're friends with his youngest daughter, and his paternal instincts run strong. Since he knows what it is like to need to risk yourself for money, it's probable that you could convince him to set you up with sources for all kinds of items one wouldn't normally be able to buy, as well as contacts to perform certain services.
Excellen Yankovic: A former champion in sharpshooting, she has kept her skills sharp, even though it's been a while since she competed. You can tell that she is the kind who wants adventure and excitement and isn't getting that from her life. She could use her skills to aid your operations, and she'd probably accept unless it was something like killing people.
Loren Yarlan: One of your biggest inspirations. To pay off a huge debt that was tearing her family apart, she went into illegal fight clubs when she was only fourteen. Now she's eighteen, the debts are paid and she is very grateful to you for helping her parents deal with their personal issues. Now that you need help, she would be willing to even risk herself to do so. And a strong brawler would definitely be useful.
Arnaldo Gonzales: Taxist and part-time Escape Driver, Arnaldo is someone who only acts when there's something in it for him. However, his skills with all kinds of vehicles are almost miraculous, and you're sure you can think of ways you can make him benefit in your jobs, as well as convincing him of that.
Michelle Dipner: A hacker. She took the usual path of starting out as a criminal and ending up responsible for protecting systems against hackers. She has always remained on the frontline of hacking, and she explained several tricks (like just calling a phone and asking for passwords). Her through knowledge of systems and their weaknesses would be a great help as your tech support, but she can't get personally involved in anything illegal.
Victoria Unese: A medic. She is mostly a general practitioner but is also rather good at surgery. Her knowledge and skills about all kinds of medicines and mechanisms of the body could be useful, specially because she is rather loose-lipped when drunk and doesn't remember much of what she talked about.
Marcelo Ribeira: A merchant with ties to the underworld. He could provide you with a lot of things you wouldn't find easily, but most importantly, he was the guy in the known, and there weren't many things he couldn't figure out about. Getting him to help would involve convincing him that you would be able to repay him with information of your own later.
Theresa Anikka: A previously struggling actress, which you've managed to help by giving acting tips. She hasn't become amazingly famous, but she is still fairly well-known. Out of gratitude for your help, she should be willing to do a lot. She can disguise herself to not be recognized and act according to your instructions to deal with things it would be difficult to deal with as a child.
Shara Elera: She's... weird. You don't really know what exactly is the deal with her, but she seems to appear in all sorts of odd places and speak cryptically at you. You get the sense that she knows a lot of secrets, but wouldn't tell them to you outright, instead pointing you in some direction. It's unreliable, but it can't hurt to ask her sometimes.
Camila, 10 years old.
Current Money: 400 credits.
Contacts:
Roman Carlos: A woman who had an incurable illness and decided to use her time left to do all sorts of extreme sports and dangerous stunts. However, before she could die, a cure was found, and she lost direction in her life. She is modestly wealthy, and you're sure you could use your similarities in situation to get her to help you "live dangerously".
Yamata Daichiri: An ex-mercenary, now a family man who runs a candy store. You're friends with his youngest daughter, and his paternal instincts run strong. Since he knows what it is like to need to risk yourself for money, it's probable that you could convince him to set you up with sources for all kinds of items one wouldn't normally be able to buy, as well as contacts to perform certain services.
Excellen Yankovic: A former champion in sharpshooting, she has kept her skills sharp, even though it's been a while since she competed. You can tell that she is the kind who wants adventure and excitement and isn't getting that from her life. She could use her skills to aid your operations, and she'd probably accept unless it was something like killing people.
Loren Yarlan: One of your biggest inspirations. To pay off a huge debt that was tearing her family apart, she went into illegal fight clubs when she was only fourteen. Now she's eighteen, the debts are paid and she is very grateful to you for helping her parents deal with their personal issues. Now that you need help, she would be willing to even risk herself to do so. And a strong brawler would definitely be useful.
Arnaldo Gonzales: Taxist and part-time Escape Driver, Arnaldo is someone who only acts when there's something in it for him. However, his skills with all kinds of vehicles are almost miraculous, and you're sure you can think of ways you can make him benefit in your jobs, as well as convincing him of that.
Michelle Dipner: A hacker. She took the usual path of starting out as a criminal and ending up responsible for protecting systems against hackers. She has always remained on the frontline of hacking, and she explained several tricks (like just calling a phone and asking for passwords). Her through knowledge of systems and their weaknesses would be a great help as your tech support, but she can't get personally involved in anything illegal.
Victoria Unese: A medic. She is mostly a general practitioner but is also rather good at surgery. Her knowledge and skills about all kinds of medicines and mechanisms of the body could be useful, specially because she is rather loose-lipped when drunk and doesn't remember much of what she talked about.
Marcelo Ribeira: A merchant with ties to the underworld. He could provide you with a lot of things you wouldn't find easily, but most importantly, he was the guy in the known, and there weren't many things he couldn't figure out about. Getting him to help would involve convincing him that you would be able to repay him with information of your own later.
Theresa Anikka: A previously struggling actress, which you've managed to help by giving acting tips. She hasn't become amazingly famous, but she is still fairly well-known. Out of gratitude for your help, she should be willing to do a lot. She can disguise herself to not be recognized and act according to your instructions to deal with things it would be difficult to deal with as a child.
Shara Elera: She's... weird. You don't really know what exactly is the deal with her, but she seems to appear in all sorts of odd places and speak cryptically at you. You get the sense that she knows a lot of secrets, but wouldn't tell them to you outright, instead pointing you in some direction. It's unreliable, but it can't hurt to ask her sometimes.
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Chapter 1
[X] A Natural Manipulator
[X] The Mercenary Board
Yeah. You really valued your independence, and you could deal with not having an actual support network, you'd just have to work harder and use your resources in a smart manner.
Booting up the computer of the hotel you were staying in, you got onto the internet and checked the Mercenary Board, looking for missions that would be good for your purposes.
There are many requests, really many, but you have some ways of whittling some of them down.
First, you remove from the list any requests that would require you to go off-world. While you can use your card to go anywhere in the planet easily using the teleportation system, going to another planet would cost money and time, two things you really don't have enough at the moment.
Second, you remove from the list every single job that requires previous experience or vouching from previous clients. Of course, that means most of the reasonable jobs go away, but you really weren't going to do anything reasonable, anyway.
Third, and the longest part of the process was going through the remaining requests to remove those of known trolls, and determining which of the other requests were likewise fake by going through profiles, making searches and all sorts of "fun" stuff.
It takes literal hours for you to get through everything, but eventually, you end up with five likely candidates:
[] A request that requires "subterfuge abilities and discretion", as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement. There was very little information included, but apparently the mission would only last for seven days, and the pay was 200 thousand credits.
[] A request to solve the mystery of the murder of a girl called Ariana Cello. The police had been baffled by the crime, and so the family had put up a reward of 150 thousand credits for the resolution of the case.
[] A request for a "discreet animal exterminator", to deal with an animal who was apparently living in the sewers. There was no information about what exactly the animal was, and the fact that the requester didn't choose to ask the official animal handlers meant that there was something shady about the situation, but the reward of 300 thousand credits was tempting.
[] An open bounty for the capture of industrial thief Greg Wilkins. Apparently he had stolen some really sensitive information from Leran Industries and they wanted to interrogate him about it. You would need to actually find a way to track him down, but the 100 thousands credits reward was good.
[] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
(Extra) [] Write-in if you want to make some pre-preparations and research, and how you will do that (which contacts to use).
-0-
A.N : So, it turns out that I didn't lose my power today... It's nice, but kinda weird.
[X] The Mercenary Board
Yeah. You really valued your independence, and you could deal with not having an actual support network, you'd just have to work harder and use your resources in a smart manner.
Booting up the computer of the hotel you were staying in, you got onto the internet and checked the Mercenary Board, looking for missions that would be good for your purposes.
There are many requests, really many, but you have some ways of whittling some of them down.
First, you remove from the list any requests that would require you to go off-world. While you can use your card to go anywhere in the planet easily using the teleportation system, going to another planet would cost money and time, two things you really don't have enough at the moment.
Second, you remove from the list every single job that requires previous experience or vouching from previous clients. Of course, that means most of the reasonable jobs go away, but you really weren't going to do anything reasonable, anyway.
Third, and the longest part of the process was going through the remaining requests to remove those of known trolls, and determining which of the other requests were likewise fake by going through profiles, making searches and all sorts of "fun" stuff.
It takes literal hours for you to get through everything, but eventually, you end up with five likely candidates:
[] A request that requires "subterfuge abilities and discretion", as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement. There was very little information included, but apparently the mission would only last for seven days, and the pay was 200 thousand credits.
[] A request to solve the mystery of the murder of a girl called Ariana Cello. The police had been baffled by the crime, and so the family had put up a reward of 150 thousand credits for the resolution of the case.
[] A request for a "discreet animal exterminator", to deal with an animal who was apparently living in the sewers. There was no information about what exactly the animal was, and the fact that the requester didn't choose to ask the official animal handlers meant that there was something shady about the situation, but the reward of 300 thousand credits was tempting.
[] An open bounty for the capture of industrial thief Greg Wilkins. Apparently he had stolen some really sensitive information from Leran Industries and they wanted to interrogate him about it. You would need to actually find a way to track him down, but the 100 thousands credits reward was good.
[] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
(Extra) [] Write-in if you want to make some pre-preparations and research, and how you will do that (which contacts to use).
-0-
A.N : So, it turns out that I didn't lose my power today... It's nice, but kinda weird.
Post 2
[X] A request for an "infiltrator", someone to enter a certain place and try to find out some of the secrets that were hidden there. Again, there was a lack of concrete information about the mission, but the 200 thousand credits reward was already deposited in the bank and could be checked, which really made it tempting.
Infiltrating really did seem right up your alley, and you could simply go for another one if the client didn't satisfy you about the details.
So, you answered the request, and set up a meeting with your client in a cafe in the city of Mirais.
It was a rich and technologically advanced city, one of the ones that had been completely reconstructed under the Greenleaf initiative, which had focused on creating areas of sustainable development. The entire city was a miracle of biotechnology, composed of innumerable colonies of genetically engineered creatures.
Every building, every vehicle... Nearly every part of the city was alive and was capable of performing multiple functions, of which the most common was energy generation via sun or wind. It truly was something different for you, who had grown up in the city of Rade, which had some biotechnology, but nothing as wide scale as what you were seeing.
Still, you weren't there to admire things. The meeting had been schedule for 4:00 PM. You arrived at the cafe at exactly 4:05 PM, just late enough to get your future client off-balance and make it easier to negotiate.
According to the information, he would be wearing a gray suit with a yellow tie, and in turn, you were wearing a red hat with a blue ribbon to be recognized. Or rather, you were holding it behind you, because you wanted to make an impression.
Finding your client at the cafe wasn't difficult. He was sitting in a table halfway through the cafe. He looked up when you arrived, but didn't see the red hat and dismissed you. You walked carefully through the cafe, not moving directly at his table, but in a way that you would pass right next to it.
It worked. The man was looking at his cellphone and didn't pay any attention to your approach, allowing you to slip into the seat beside him and put on your hat in a single fluid motion. Then, you waited until he realized your presence.
He looked up and noticed you, and it was then that you spoke, to gain the upper hand in the discussion.
"You are Mr. Gray, I presume?"
It took a moment for him to be able to respond.
"What the fuck! You're a kid?!"
You simply smiled at him.
"I do look like a kid, don't I?" You spoke casually "But I can assure you that I am a professional that will definitely be able to fulfill your request."
It was not confidence, not exactly. What you were doing was based upon preying on the weak points of a human's mind. Being a child was a disadvantage, but it could also be used in your favor. You had put your client off-balance by having an unexpected appearance and acting unexpectedly (not like a child at all), now you just needed to sell it, sell the image that you were trying to build, of a mysterious mercenary that looked like a child but most definitely wasn't.
"And what makes you think I would believe that, huh?" He asks, but not in an aggressive manner.
That was fine. He was pretty much saying that he wanted to be convinced, and it is pretty easy to convince people if they want that for themselves, even if subconsciously.
You put your hands together with interlocked finger in front of your face "So, you want me to demonstrate my abilities, do you? Perhaps I should explain why a rich and powerful man like you was reduced to making such a request." He twitched "Or perhaps I should get rid of that 'couple' that's using listening devices to spy on you..." He twitched harder "You really should make sure you're not followed to this kind of meeting place, and don't worry, I have a handy little device that is capable of obscuring what we're actually saying." He twitched again, he was buying it "Or perhaps I should 'predict the future', telling you exactly what that customer is going to eat." You pointed to a fat man who was walking into the cafe.
"Or perhaps..." You put your hands on the table, and smiled in a very particular way, while moving slightly closer to the client "You should simply avoid wasting precious time and give me the details, and I'll tell you how long it will take to complete the mission."
That was it, the moment of truth. You had used every scrap of your ability to convince the client of your legitimacy. The part about being rich and powerful was obvious, since it was either that or someone who had desperately scrambled in order to get that much money, and the client didn't seem tired and was using expensive clothes. Furthermore, his demeanor spoke of someone who was used to giving orders, instead of receiving them.
And obviously, you couldn't do what you said. Perhaps you could bullshit the first or second tests, but your chance on the third was small. So the point was convincing Mr. Gray that you didn't need to prove anything, that no one that couldn't do any of those things would take a risk like that. Every part of your acting was designed to take advantage of the weakness of the client.
Because of course he had a weakness, otherwise why would he make such a shady request, instead of using his power through the proper channels? And you could see in his eyes the very moment in which his doubts crumbled, and he became convinced of your skills.
"It's just... It's my daughter..." He spoke weakly.
You smiled at him "You can call me Camila. Tell me what is your wish, and I shall fulfill it."
He took a deep breath and then he started to talk. He talked about putting his daughter in a new preparatory school that had incredible credentials. He talked about becoming suspicious that something was wrong with his daughter after studying there for a month. He talked about trying to get information about what exactly was going on inside that school and being stonewalled at every turn, regardless of the methods he used. He talked about his growing paranoia, and how he thought he was being followed.
"You want me to discover the secret of the school and what is wrong with your daughter. I understand your request." You said, after he was done.
Now, you just needed to think about how to fulfill that request. Obviously, infiltrating the school would be the first part, but how to do that?
[] Convince Mr. Gray to enroll you in the school under the guise of being "a favor for a friend".
[] Write-In any extra preparations.
[] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
[] Write-In the method (Ask one of your contacts to vouch for you and pay, use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs, etc)
[] You have 500 credits of money, which should be enough to buy some supplies. A cellphone is a given, but perhaps there are other things you should get (Write-In up to two things to buy, and if it's something hard to find, Write-in which contacts you want to use to get it)
-0-
A. N: And here we have the first taste of Camila's methods. Also, I will try my best to update every two days.
Infiltrating really did seem right up your alley, and you could simply go for another one if the client didn't satisfy you about the details.
So, you answered the request, and set up a meeting with your client in a cafe in the city of Mirais.
It was a rich and technologically advanced city, one of the ones that had been completely reconstructed under the Greenleaf initiative, which had focused on creating areas of sustainable development. The entire city was a miracle of biotechnology, composed of innumerable colonies of genetically engineered creatures.
Every building, every vehicle... Nearly every part of the city was alive and was capable of performing multiple functions, of which the most common was energy generation via sun or wind. It truly was something different for you, who had grown up in the city of Rade, which had some biotechnology, but nothing as wide scale as what you were seeing.
Still, you weren't there to admire things. The meeting had been schedule for 4:00 PM. You arrived at the cafe at exactly 4:05 PM, just late enough to get your future client off-balance and make it easier to negotiate.
According to the information, he would be wearing a gray suit with a yellow tie, and in turn, you were wearing a red hat with a blue ribbon to be recognized. Or rather, you were holding it behind you, because you wanted to make an impression.
Finding your client at the cafe wasn't difficult. He was sitting in a table halfway through the cafe. He looked up when you arrived, but didn't see the red hat and dismissed you. You walked carefully through the cafe, not moving directly at his table, but in a way that you would pass right next to it.
It worked. The man was looking at his cellphone and didn't pay any attention to your approach, allowing you to slip into the seat beside him and put on your hat in a single fluid motion. Then, you waited until he realized your presence.
He looked up and noticed you, and it was then that you spoke, to gain the upper hand in the discussion.
"You are Mr. Gray, I presume?"
It took a moment for him to be able to respond.
"What the fuck! You're a kid?!"
You simply smiled at him.
"I do look like a kid, don't I?" You spoke casually "But I can assure you that I am a professional that will definitely be able to fulfill your request."
It was not confidence, not exactly. What you were doing was based upon preying on the weak points of a human's mind. Being a child was a disadvantage, but it could also be used in your favor. You had put your client off-balance by having an unexpected appearance and acting unexpectedly (not like a child at all), now you just needed to sell it, sell the image that you were trying to build, of a mysterious mercenary that looked like a child but most definitely wasn't.
"And what makes you think I would believe that, huh?" He asks, but not in an aggressive manner.
That was fine. He was pretty much saying that he wanted to be convinced, and it is pretty easy to convince people if they want that for themselves, even if subconsciously.
You put your hands together with interlocked finger in front of your face "So, you want me to demonstrate my abilities, do you? Perhaps I should explain why a rich and powerful man like you was reduced to making such a request." He twitched "Or perhaps I should get rid of that 'couple' that's using listening devices to spy on you..." He twitched harder "You really should make sure you're not followed to this kind of meeting place, and don't worry, I have a handy little device that is capable of obscuring what we're actually saying." He twitched again, he was buying it "Or perhaps I should 'predict the future', telling you exactly what that customer is going to eat." You pointed to a fat man who was walking into the cafe.
"Or perhaps..." You put your hands on the table, and smiled in a very particular way, while moving slightly closer to the client "You should simply avoid wasting precious time and give me the details, and I'll tell you how long it will take to complete the mission."
That was it, the moment of truth. You had used every scrap of your ability to convince the client of your legitimacy. The part about being rich and powerful was obvious, since it was either that or someone who had desperately scrambled in order to get that much money, and the client didn't seem tired and was using expensive clothes. Furthermore, his demeanor spoke of someone who was used to giving orders, instead of receiving them.
And obviously, you couldn't do what you said. Perhaps you could bullshit the first or second tests, but your chance on the third was small. So the point was convincing Mr. Gray that you didn't need to prove anything, that no one that couldn't do any of those things would take a risk like that. Every part of your acting was designed to take advantage of the weakness of the client.
Because of course he had a weakness, otherwise why would he make such a shady request, instead of using his power through the proper channels? And you could see in his eyes the very moment in which his doubts crumbled, and he became convinced of your skills.
"It's just... It's my daughter..." He spoke weakly.
You smiled at him "You can call me Camila. Tell me what is your wish, and I shall fulfill it."
He took a deep breath and then he started to talk. He talked about putting his daughter in a new preparatory school that had incredible credentials. He talked about becoming suspicious that something was wrong with his daughter after studying there for a month. He talked about trying to get information about what exactly was going on inside that school and being stonewalled at every turn, regardless of the methods he used. He talked about his growing paranoia, and how he thought he was being followed.
"You want me to discover the secret of the school and what is wrong with your daughter. I understand your request." You said, after he was done.
Now, you just needed to think about how to fulfill that request. Obviously, infiltrating the school would be the first part, but how to do that?
[] Convince Mr. Gray to enroll you in the school under the guise of being "a favor for a friend".
[] Write-In any extra preparations.
[] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
[] Write-In the method (Ask one of your contacts to vouch for you and pay, use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs, etc)
[] You have 500 credits of money, which should be enough to buy some supplies. A cellphone is a given, but perhaps there are other things you should get (Write-In up to two things to buy, and if it's something hard to find, Write-in which contacts you want to use to get it)
-0-
A. N: And here we have the first taste of Camila's methods. Also, I will try my best to update every two days.
Post 3
[X] First ask him exactly what this school is and its history.
-[X] Ask about the behaviors that he's been finding suspicious lately.
-[X] Look across the internet for any and all information of the school that Mr. Gray forgot or didn't know
-[X] Find out what school supplies are needed for this school
[X] Ask a few of your contacts for help
-[X] See if Marcelo has any info on the school, be prepared if he wants anything in return
-[X] Also maybe Shara. It'll probably be some weird cryptic shit though.
Now that Mr. Gray was completely convinced of your abilities, it was easy to get him to spill every single bit of information he had. To keep things simple, you organized the relevant info on a list:
- The name of the school was Great Light Preparatory School. It had opened on the previous year.
- The founder of the school was Rebecca Astolfo, a doctorate in child psychology and development, and she had hired many famous and skilled teachers and other staff.
- The teaching methods of the school had been created and revised by an entire board of educators, and the results the school would get would determine whether those methods would be adopted more widely.
- The methods pretty much consisted of classifying the kids according to their learning methods and optimizing the schedules according to them.
- An old shopping mall had been torn down to make way for the school, and all building processes ocurred with astounding speed, a clear sign of big money behind the scenes.
- The information about the contractors who had been hired to build the school was one of the things he had been stonewalled while trying to find out. No one seemed to have any information, and photos of the construction efforts conspicuously failed to show anything that could be used to identify them.
- The school supplies, on the other hand, were absolutely nothing suspicious, and exactly the same as what you would find on the lists of any other school. The school wasn't even a boarding one, and his daughter came back home everyday (though it did have a boarding section for those who lived far away).
- About the "suspicious behavior" of his daughter, it was nothing that would stand up in a court of law, or even be all that suspicious by itself, there were only a bunch of varied inconsistencies that became important only due to their number. Things like taking a lot less time to take a bath than she used to, reading on the couch in a different position than she used to, eating her food in a different order than she used to... All minor things that wouldn't mean much in their own.
- Also, his daughter was twelve years old, so they wouldn't be in the same year.
And that was all the useful information you could get out of him. After that, the only thing left to decide was how to infiltrate the school:
[] Convince Mr. Gray to enroll you in the school under the guise of being "a favor for a friend".
[] Write-In any extra preparations.
[] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
[] Write-In the method (Ask one of your contacts to vouch for you and pay, use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs, etc)
Also, you should decide if you want to become a boarding student.
[] Yes.
[] No.
However, it was saturday, and you would only be able to enter school on monday. So, you had enough time to check things with a few of your contacts.
First, you went after Marcelo, using your newly bought cellphone to call him and make arrangements for a meeting. You also told him what information you were looking for, so that he would have everything ready by the time of the meeting.
You met in the next day, in a family restaurant you both liked, where you could eat without paying by presenting your card. Recognizing him at his table was fairly easy, because Marcelo could be fairly well-described as remarkably unremarkable. He was a white man with black hair and brown eyes, wearing a casual shirt and pants combo. He was so average that it stood out even in the middle of the average people who frequented the restaurant.
You both unanimously decided to leave the conversation for after you ate a bit, because the food was very good, but finally Marcelo decided to get onto business.
"So... You really asked me to investigate something interesting."
"And I assume you found something interesting." You said.
"Perhaps... But what would you be able to offer in exchange? Information isn't free, you know?"
You already knew he was going to ask that, and you already had a plan prepared.
"Obviously. And that is exactly what I'm offering you." You said with a smirk "I've been hired to investigate that school, and I'm sure I can find out all sorts of interesting information you wouldn't be able to find on your own."
"Ha..." He smiled "Normally, I would be offended by what you just said. But I really haven't been able to find all that much about the secrets of that school. And indeed, getting an informant inside the school is what I would usually do to get more information, so your proposal is amenable to me. But how exactly do you want things to work?"
"It's very simple. I'll share all information I manage to get with you, and in return, you tell me what you manage to find out from that information, so I can get even more information." You sighed "You should start with what you've already figured out."
He sighed "I guess that's fair..." He took a few pieces of paper from his bag and put them on the table. They were images taken from forum posts "I got curious about the issue of 'changing habits', so I searched for similar things. There's not much, but there are a few parents who reported similar things, though none of them seems to have thought it was strange, chalking it up to 'growing up'."
You looked over them. Marcelo really did good work.
"But of course, that's not the juicy part." He took out a few more pictures, this time of trucks going into the school "I got my hands on some traffic images. And those trucks may seem like standard supply drops, but looking for their plates turned up nothing. There are a few other trucks I've found that actually do deliveries, and I have their cargo manifests and all that, but those ones have no identification at all, and any information about their plates in censored. It would take real reasons to get that kind of informational security."
"I understand. So I have some pieces of the puzzle already... This is will help, thank you."
"You're welcome." He smiled "Just try not to get into something you can't get out of. It would be a shame if someone interesting like you were to disappear."
"Trust me. I have no intention of disappearing."
-0-
Besides that, you also tried to find Shara, but going to her usual haunts turned up nothing, and speaking with the people who knew her also gave no results. You were already back home, at 10:00 PM on a sunday, one day before going to school, and resigned to having missed her, when you found something curious on top of your bed.
It was a card. A visitors card for something called "Oloria's Science Lab". You would have been confused about how that card ended up in your room, except that drawn on the card was a caricature of Shara's face, winking. Of course.
Looking on the backside of the card, you found the words "Maybe you won't have to go in." written on it with Shara's calligraphy.
Thus, there was a dilemma in your hands. You could wait until tomorrow to go to that place, when you would be able to spend a lot of time investigating and interrogating the nearby people... Or you could go now, and see what you could get when it was so late.
[] Wait.
[] Go now.
-[X] Ask about the behaviors that he's been finding suspicious lately.
-[X] Look across the internet for any and all information of the school that Mr. Gray forgot or didn't know
-[X] Find out what school supplies are needed for this school
[X] Ask a few of your contacts for help
-[X] See if Marcelo has any info on the school, be prepared if he wants anything in return
-[X] Also maybe Shara. It'll probably be some weird cryptic shit though.
Now that Mr. Gray was completely convinced of your abilities, it was easy to get him to spill every single bit of information he had. To keep things simple, you organized the relevant info on a list:
- The name of the school was Great Light Preparatory School. It had opened on the previous year.
- The founder of the school was Rebecca Astolfo, a doctorate in child psychology and development, and she had hired many famous and skilled teachers and other staff.
- The teaching methods of the school had been created and revised by an entire board of educators, and the results the school would get would determine whether those methods would be adopted more widely.
- The methods pretty much consisted of classifying the kids according to their learning methods and optimizing the schedules according to them.
- An old shopping mall had been torn down to make way for the school, and all building processes ocurred with astounding speed, a clear sign of big money behind the scenes.
- The information about the contractors who had been hired to build the school was one of the things he had been stonewalled while trying to find out. No one seemed to have any information, and photos of the construction efforts conspicuously failed to show anything that could be used to identify them.
- The school supplies, on the other hand, were absolutely nothing suspicious, and exactly the same as what you would find on the lists of any other school. The school wasn't even a boarding one, and his daughter came back home everyday (though it did have a boarding section for those who lived far away).
- About the "suspicious behavior" of his daughter, it was nothing that would stand up in a court of law, or even be all that suspicious by itself, there were only a bunch of varied inconsistencies that became important only due to their number. Things like taking a lot less time to take a bath than she used to, reading on the couch in a different position than she used to, eating her food in a different order than she used to... All minor things that wouldn't mean much in their own.
- Also, his daughter was twelve years old, so they wouldn't be in the same year.
And that was all the useful information you could get out of him. After that, the only thing left to decide was how to infiltrate the school:
[] Convince Mr. Gray to enroll you in the school under the guise of being "a favor for a friend".
[] Write-In any extra preparations.
[] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
[] Write-In the method (Ask one of your contacts to vouch for you and pay, use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs, etc)
Also, you should decide if you want to become a boarding student.
[] Yes.
[] No.
However, it was saturday, and you would only be able to enter school on monday. So, you had enough time to check things with a few of your contacts.
First, you went after Marcelo, using your newly bought cellphone to call him and make arrangements for a meeting. You also told him what information you were looking for, so that he would have everything ready by the time of the meeting.
You met in the next day, in a family restaurant you both liked, where you could eat without paying by presenting your card. Recognizing him at his table was fairly easy, because Marcelo could be fairly well-described as remarkably unremarkable. He was a white man with black hair and brown eyes, wearing a casual shirt and pants combo. He was so average that it stood out even in the middle of the average people who frequented the restaurant.
You both unanimously decided to leave the conversation for after you ate a bit, because the food was very good, but finally Marcelo decided to get onto business.
"So... You really asked me to investigate something interesting."
"And I assume you found something interesting." You said.
"Perhaps... But what would you be able to offer in exchange? Information isn't free, you know?"
You already knew he was going to ask that, and you already had a plan prepared.
"Obviously. And that is exactly what I'm offering you." You said with a smirk "I've been hired to investigate that school, and I'm sure I can find out all sorts of interesting information you wouldn't be able to find on your own."
"Ha..." He smiled "Normally, I would be offended by what you just said. But I really haven't been able to find all that much about the secrets of that school. And indeed, getting an informant inside the school is what I would usually do to get more information, so your proposal is amenable to me. But how exactly do you want things to work?"
"It's very simple. I'll share all information I manage to get with you, and in return, you tell me what you manage to find out from that information, so I can get even more information." You sighed "You should start with what you've already figured out."
He sighed "I guess that's fair..." He took a few pieces of paper from his bag and put them on the table. They were images taken from forum posts "I got curious about the issue of 'changing habits', so I searched for similar things. There's not much, but there are a few parents who reported similar things, though none of them seems to have thought it was strange, chalking it up to 'growing up'."
You looked over them. Marcelo really did good work.
"But of course, that's not the juicy part." He took out a few more pictures, this time of trucks going into the school "I got my hands on some traffic images. And those trucks may seem like standard supply drops, but looking for their plates turned up nothing. There are a few other trucks I've found that actually do deliveries, and I have their cargo manifests and all that, but those ones have no identification at all, and any information about their plates in censored. It would take real reasons to get that kind of informational security."
"I understand. So I have some pieces of the puzzle already... This is will help, thank you."
"You're welcome." He smiled "Just try not to get into something you can't get out of. It would be a shame if someone interesting like you were to disappear."
"Trust me. I have no intention of disappearing."
-0-
Besides that, you also tried to find Shara, but going to her usual haunts turned up nothing, and speaking with the people who knew her also gave no results. You were already back home, at 10:00 PM on a sunday, one day before going to school, and resigned to having missed her, when you found something curious on top of your bed.
It was a card. A visitors card for something called "Oloria's Science Lab". You would have been confused about how that card ended up in your room, except that drawn on the card was a caricature of Shara's face, winking. Of course.
Looking on the backside of the card, you found the words "Maybe you won't have to go in." written on it with Shara's calligraphy.
Thus, there was a dilemma in your hands. You could wait until tomorrow to go to that place, when you would be able to spend a lot of time investigating and interrogating the nearby people... Or you could go now, and see what you could get when it was so late.
[] Wait.
[] Go now.
Post 4
A.N: Again I needed to flip a coin to decide something. And the result is [x]Wait.
[X] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
-[X] Use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs
-[X] See if they hold any interest in you having Amanaderis Syndrome
[X] Yes
[x] Wait
You decided to wait. It wasn't likely that you would be able to obtain a clue so easily even going there immediately, and even though you would have limited time to explore on your own due to the curfew once you were at the school, it should still be enough to investigate.
As you went to bed, you thought back to the previous day, where you had met with the principal of the school to discuss your enrollment.
-0-
Cellphones really were a powerful weapon for someone like you who specialized in convincing people. Calling the offices led you to speak to a secretary, and you pulled her into a long conversation about the requirements to attend the school, slowly getting her to sympathize with you before telling the story about being an orphan with limited time to live.
She almost fell over herself to help, connecting you with the office of the principal and speaking with her on your behalf. But still, the current principal, Luna Callos, was not someone so easy to meet with. Eventually, you managed to convince her to agree to a meeting by a careful balance of allusions to possibilities your presence could bring to the school and assurances that, since you didn't have all that much time to live, you only wanted to experience the school, instead of actually planning on staying there long term.
The meeting was set for 9:00 PM, at her office on the school, on saturday. Just getting the meeting was already a big victory, because it meant you could talk to her in person, and thus you would understand a lot more due to being able to see her reactions, consequently being able to do more in your manipulations of her.
When the time of the meeting came, you took the chance to get an idea of the layout of the school while you were going to the office. It was divided into five main areas, of which two were classroom areas and one was the office area, but you didn't understand about the other areas with only a cursory look.
Still, there would be time for that later, so you hurried for the meeting.
Luna Callos was a redheaded woman in her early forties and slightly chubby. Her sharp gaze revealed a high level of focus, and her manner of dress together with the organization of her office spoke of a methodical approach in life. This was a woman who had a clear grasp on the concept of positives and negatives, and wouldn't be moved by emotion easily.
You adjusted your approach accordingly, abandoning any ideas of presenting yourself as an innocent girl in need. Instead, you straightened your spine and walked with poise, looking around in a deliberate and polite manner. You were completely projecting the atmosphere of a high-level negotiator.
Luna looked at you, her trained eyes being capable of perceiving any flaws in such a facade, but you did not have something like that (but you could fake them if necessary) and she simply got the impression that the little girl she was talking to must have led a very interesting life.
"Good day to you." You said politely, after having reached close enough to her desk "My name is Camila Varga, and I am here for the scheduled meeting."
She took a moment too long to respond, probably still trying to understand what your deal was, but it was barely noticeable.
"Right. Have a seat." She indicated the chair in front of her desk.
You did as told, and even your action of sitting down was done with the same poise and manners, since it was that kind of attention to detail that made you such a good actress.
You gave Luna the initiative to begin the actual discussion, knowing that she wouldn't react well to being pressured.
"I understand you're here to talk about the possibility of enrolling into our school for free." Were her words.
Thus began the challenge. Whatever sketchy things were going on at this school, there was no way the principal wasn't involved. As such, she would be very cautious of any unexpected situations, and would not let down her guard easily. In this case, letting her think she had already figured out the answer would work, as long as the 'answer' was something relatively inoffensive. And of course, you would use the opportunity to obtain every single scrap of information possible.
"Indeed, but I can assure you that accepting me on this school will not be without advantages for you."
She moved slightly forward "Is that so? Could you go into some more detail about it?"
"Just to start, having students with 'special needs' is something that attracts the donations of philanthropists, and I could even help in some of those negotiations." You said somewhat vaguely, letting Luna believe she has the advantage before making your real strike "But in terms of immediate benefits, there is my relationship with Roman Carlos."
You stopped to let her process the name.
"You know how it is. She felt some kinship to me because of my own disease and we became friends." Slowly letting the scenario build itself up in her mind "She may not be that wealthy, but she has contacts." Putting in the obvious bait, to disguise the true strike.
"Actually, the main reason why I'm coming here is because she wanted me to." Roman would back you up in this little lie "She felt that it would be a good thing for me." The scenario gets more and more detailed, but the masterblow is yet to come.
"I'm sure she would pay for my enrollment if needed." That one is actually true "But I'm trying to not rely on that, so she'll be proud of me." The most delicate part "If I can do it, I'm sure she'll help me with some stuff." You fake letting a note of greed escape in your voice, so small that most people wouldn't notice, but Luna does, based on her subtle reaction.
Yes. Let the principal think you're trying to run a scam on Roman. Later you could tell her to call the school and reinforce the idea, but for now, this would be enough to reduce Luna's caution. You were almost certain that entering the school was already set in stone, but doing things this way would give you more leeway to move. So you waited for her to 'figure it out' and say:
"I see." There was so much meaning contained on those two short words.
It seemed like the idea was taking root, so you kept going:
"Besides, I'm not really planning on attending for long, like I said on the phone." You put your 'disease card' on the table, and carefully watched her reaction for any traces of special interest.
And the result was... nothing. It seemed like having Amanaderis didn't mean anything special to the principal.
"My days are counted, so I want to do a lot of things before I die." You smiled slightly "I think I'm just going to attend for one of two weeks."
Which gave the impression you would be running away after your scam, building up the scenario even further.
"Hmm... Two weeks, huh?" Luna muttered, and you knew the battle was already won.
The rest of the conversation was mostly routine. You didn't want to garner suspicion by acting interested in the school after what you had said, so further information gathering was difficult. Still, you managed to get at least one interesting piece of intel: When you asked about the sorts of students they had, the principal reacted oddly to the mention of rich and powerful families. This was interesting.
But otherwise, there was nothing to report, you got to enroll in the academy very quickly, and even managed to get your own room to become a boarding student in the school. It would be a shared room, but even that could be an asset.
-0-
After everything was said and done, you were about to sleep before your first day in a new school when you thought of the way the classes were structured.
Essentially, there was a lot of freedom to go from place to place, with all sorts of practical tests, special lectures and personal tutors to choose. But you weren't really there to get an education, so it would be better to think about what you should focus on investigating during the morning (in the afternoon you had a place to go):
[] Focus on the students.
[] Focus on the staff.
[] Focus on exploring the grounds.
[X] Find a way inside the school on your own, to keep any involvement with Mr. Gray secret.
-[X] Use your disease identity to convince the faculty to waive the costs
-[X] See if they hold any interest in you having Amanaderis Syndrome
[X] Yes
[x] Wait
You decided to wait. It wasn't likely that you would be able to obtain a clue so easily even going there immediately, and even though you would have limited time to explore on your own due to the curfew once you were at the school, it should still be enough to investigate.
As you went to bed, you thought back to the previous day, where you had met with the principal of the school to discuss your enrollment.
-0-
Cellphones really were a powerful weapon for someone like you who specialized in convincing people. Calling the offices led you to speak to a secretary, and you pulled her into a long conversation about the requirements to attend the school, slowly getting her to sympathize with you before telling the story about being an orphan with limited time to live.
She almost fell over herself to help, connecting you with the office of the principal and speaking with her on your behalf. But still, the current principal, Luna Callos, was not someone so easy to meet with. Eventually, you managed to convince her to agree to a meeting by a careful balance of allusions to possibilities your presence could bring to the school and assurances that, since you didn't have all that much time to live, you only wanted to experience the school, instead of actually planning on staying there long term.
The meeting was set for 9:00 PM, at her office on the school, on saturday. Just getting the meeting was already a big victory, because it meant you could talk to her in person, and thus you would understand a lot more due to being able to see her reactions, consequently being able to do more in your manipulations of her.
When the time of the meeting came, you took the chance to get an idea of the layout of the school while you were going to the office. It was divided into five main areas, of which two were classroom areas and one was the office area, but you didn't understand about the other areas with only a cursory look.
Still, there would be time for that later, so you hurried for the meeting.
Luna Callos was a redheaded woman in her early forties and slightly chubby. Her sharp gaze revealed a high level of focus, and her manner of dress together with the organization of her office spoke of a methodical approach in life. This was a woman who had a clear grasp on the concept of positives and negatives, and wouldn't be moved by emotion easily.
You adjusted your approach accordingly, abandoning any ideas of presenting yourself as an innocent girl in need. Instead, you straightened your spine and walked with poise, looking around in a deliberate and polite manner. You were completely projecting the atmosphere of a high-level negotiator.
Luna looked at you, her trained eyes being capable of perceiving any flaws in such a facade, but you did not have something like that (but you could fake them if necessary) and she simply got the impression that the little girl she was talking to must have led a very interesting life.
"Good day to you." You said politely, after having reached close enough to her desk "My name is Camila Varga, and I am here for the scheduled meeting."
She took a moment too long to respond, probably still trying to understand what your deal was, but it was barely noticeable.
"Right. Have a seat." She indicated the chair in front of her desk.
You did as told, and even your action of sitting down was done with the same poise and manners, since it was that kind of attention to detail that made you such a good actress.
You gave Luna the initiative to begin the actual discussion, knowing that she wouldn't react well to being pressured.
"I understand you're here to talk about the possibility of enrolling into our school for free." Were her words.
Thus began the challenge. Whatever sketchy things were going on at this school, there was no way the principal wasn't involved. As such, she would be very cautious of any unexpected situations, and would not let down her guard easily. In this case, letting her think she had already figured out the answer would work, as long as the 'answer' was something relatively inoffensive. And of course, you would use the opportunity to obtain every single scrap of information possible.
"Indeed, but I can assure you that accepting me on this school will not be without advantages for you."
She moved slightly forward "Is that so? Could you go into some more detail about it?"
"Just to start, having students with 'special needs' is something that attracts the donations of philanthropists, and I could even help in some of those negotiations." You said somewhat vaguely, letting Luna believe she has the advantage before making your real strike "But in terms of immediate benefits, there is my relationship with Roman Carlos."
You stopped to let her process the name.
"You know how it is. She felt some kinship to me because of my own disease and we became friends." Slowly letting the scenario build itself up in her mind "She may not be that wealthy, but she has contacts." Putting in the obvious bait, to disguise the true strike.
"Actually, the main reason why I'm coming here is because she wanted me to." Roman would back you up in this little lie "She felt that it would be a good thing for me." The scenario gets more and more detailed, but the masterblow is yet to come.
"I'm sure she would pay for my enrollment if needed." That one is actually true "But I'm trying to not rely on that, so she'll be proud of me." The most delicate part "If I can do it, I'm sure she'll help me with some stuff." You fake letting a note of greed escape in your voice, so small that most people wouldn't notice, but Luna does, based on her subtle reaction.
Yes. Let the principal think you're trying to run a scam on Roman. Later you could tell her to call the school and reinforce the idea, but for now, this would be enough to reduce Luna's caution. You were almost certain that entering the school was already set in stone, but doing things this way would give you more leeway to move. So you waited for her to 'figure it out' and say:
"I see." There was so much meaning contained on those two short words.
It seemed like the idea was taking root, so you kept going:
"Besides, I'm not really planning on attending for long, like I said on the phone." You put your 'disease card' on the table, and carefully watched her reaction for any traces of special interest.
And the result was... nothing. It seemed like having Amanaderis didn't mean anything special to the principal.
"My days are counted, so I want to do a lot of things before I die." You smiled slightly "I think I'm just going to attend for one of two weeks."
Which gave the impression you would be running away after your scam, building up the scenario even further.
"Hmm... Two weeks, huh?" Luna muttered, and you knew the battle was already won.
The rest of the conversation was mostly routine. You didn't want to garner suspicion by acting interested in the school after what you had said, so further information gathering was difficult. Still, you managed to get at least one interesting piece of intel: When you asked about the sorts of students they had, the principal reacted oddly to the mention of rich and powerful families. This was interesting.
But otherwise, there was nothing to report, you got to enroll in the academy very quickly, and even managed to get your own room to become a boarding student in the school. It would be a shared room, but even that could be an asset.
-0-
After everything was said and done, you were about to sleep before your first day in a new school when you thought of the way the classes were structured.
Essentially, there was a lot of freedom to go from place to place, with all sorts of practical tests, special lectures and personal tutors to choose. But you weren't really there to get an education, so it would be better to think about what you should focus on investigating during the morning (in the afternoon you had a place to go):
[] Focus on the students.
[] Focus on the staff.
[] Focus on exploring the grounds.
Post 4
[x] Focus on the students.
There was nothing strange about interacting with your fellow students, so you decided to make friends with your fellow students and see what kind of information you could get from them.
For most people, trying to make friends in a new environment would be a terrifying prospect, but your particular skills made fitting in "with the crowd" almost insultingly easy. You first approached a circle of girls who didn't seem to be interested in doing any of the educational activities at the time. And one of the advantages of such a weird scholarly arrangement was that groups of students had a bigger age range than in schools that grouped together students of the same age. This particular group had a "leader" who appeared to be 13, while the others were younger, with two being only 10 years old, the same as you.
"Hello!" You greeted cheerily, but in a slightly restrained way.
"Ah, hi." A girl with red hair responded "Who are you?"
You did a slight bow, your movements exuding class "My name is Camila Varga, and this is my first day here, so I thought it would be nice to get to known some of my classmates." You smiled mysteriously.
As you said, it was very easy to be included in the group. The other reason why you had approached those girls was the fact that they were all rich, from what you could tell. You adjusted your approach accordingly, giving off a "cool and mysterious" vibe to attract their curiosity. That, combined with being very good at listening quickly made the girls accept your presence, and soon you could steer the conversation whatever way you wanted.
You got them to talk about their families and how things were going with them, about the classes and which of the students seemed to be going to classes more, about any interesting things or gossip that was making the rounds around the school, about the teachers and staff...
You got a lot of information, though not all of it was relevant, and she didn't know for sure which parts were relevant and which weren't. One thing that was definitely relevant was that none of those girls knew anything about the incidents. You made oblique references to strange deliveries and science labs, and none of them reacted in any particular way.
Besides that, there were a few points you felt were worthy of further investigation:
- One of the small buildings you didn't know the purpose of was actually a place for medical examination. Sometimes people spent a short time there, while sometimes it was much longer, and apparently in those situations, the students had decided to do a more through check up.
- One of the teachers seemed "off", varying between an electric mood and a morose mood, without any explanation.
- A few men who seemed to have bodyguard training were assigned all over the school, in plain clothes, but they seemed to be paying more attention to the buildings than the students.
And there was also something else noteworthy that happened. You realized that one of those "security guys" seemed to be focused on you, and when you left the group, he started to follow you at a distance. You deliberately didn't let on that you had seen him, since you still had to think about how to react.
It seemed that the principal was the type that would do things "just to make sure". Still, this was something you could use, you just needed to decide your approach:
[] Pretend you don't see him, observe his reactions as you move around.
[] Go right up to him and try to make him slip by pretending to believe he is a pedophile.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
Of course, you were going to wait at least until the next day to try something, since you would be under less scrutiny. With that in mind, you finished your first day at school.
-0-
During your afternoon free, you went to the Oloria's Science Lab, by using the visitor's card Shara had given you.
According to what you learned there, that place was focused on providing supplies for all sorts of scientific research. They had started as a normal lab, and even still had some of their own researchers, but eventually they did more and more supplying, to the point where it became their main thing.
Nothing seemed out of place, and you didn't see anyone acting suspicious. You were about to consider it a wasted trip, when you saw one of the trucks leaving the lab, and recognized the plate. It was definitely one of the supply trucks that had been sighted going into the school.
Now, why would a school need supplies for scientific experiments?
You surreptitiously took a few pictures and sent them to Marcelo, together with the information you had just put together.
There was clearly something strange going on, but you would have to plan things out properly if you wanted to make any headway. And also think about what Shara's message could mean... To start, you would (you can choose more than one):
[] Ask Michelle for her support in trying to obtain information from the lab.
[] Ask Theresa to act as a client who wanted to get some supplies, to get information about things.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
And besides that, there was also your own infiltration work on the school. It would be best not to try to sneak around during the first night, so the next period of activity would be the morning of the next day. What would you focus on:
[] Focus on the staff.
[] Focus on exploring the grounds.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
There was nothing strange about interacting with your fellow students, so you decided to make friends with your fellow students and see what kind of information you could get from them.
For most people, trying to make friends in a new environment would be a terrifying prospect, but your particular skills made fitting in "with the crowd" almost insultingly easy. You first approached a circle of girls who didn't seem to be interested in doing any of the educational activities at the time. And one of the advantages of such a weird scholarly arrangement was that groups of students had a bigger age range than in schools that grouped together students of the same age. This particular group had a "leader" who appeared to be 13, while the others were younger, with two being only 10 years old, the same as you.
"Hello!" You greeted cheerily, but in a slightly restrained way.
"Ah, hi." A girl with red hair responded "Who are you?"
You did a slight bow, your movements exuding class "My name is Camila Varga, and this is my first day here, so I thought it would be nice to get to known some of my classmates." You smiled mysteriously.
As you said, it was very easy to be included in the group. The other reason why you had approached those girls was the fact that they were all rich, from what you could tell. You adjusted your approach accordingly, giving off a "cool and mysterious" vibe to attract their curiosity. That, combined with being very good at listening quickly made the girls accept your presence, and soon you could steer the conversation whatever way you wanted.
You got them to talk about their families and how things were going with them, about the classes and which of the students seemed to be going to classes more, about any interesting things or gossip that was making the rounds around the school, about the teachers and staff...
You got a lot of information, though not all of it was relevant, and she didn't know for sure which parts were relevant and which weren't. One thing that was definitely relevant was that none of those girls knew anything about the incidents. You made oblique references to strange deliveries and science labs, and none of them reacted in any particular way.
Besides that, there were a few points you felt were worthy of further investigation:
- One of the small buildings you didn't know the purpose of was actually a place for medical examination. Sometimes people spent a short time there, while sometimes it was much longer, and apparently in those situations, the students had decided to do a more through check up.
- One of the teachers seemed "off", varying between an electric mood and a morose mood, without any explanation.
- A few men who seemed to have bodyguard training were assigned all over the school, in plain clothes, but they seemed to be paying more attention to the buildings than the students.
And there was also something else noteworthy that happened. You realized that one of those "security guys" seemed to be focused on you, and when you left the group, he started to follow you at a distance. You deliberately didn't let on that you had seen him, since you still had to think about how to react.
It seemed that the principal was the type that would do things "just to make sure". Still, this was something you could use, you just needed to decide your approach:
[] Pretend you don't see him, observe his reactions as you move around.
[] Go right up to him and try to make him slip by pretending to believe he is a pedophile.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
Of course, you were going to wait at least until the next day to try something, since you would be under less scrutiny. With that in mind, you finished your first day at school.
-0-
During your afternoon free, you went to the Oloria's Science Lab, by using the visitor's card Shara had given you.
According to what you learned there, that place was focused on providing supplies for all sorts of scientific research. They had started as a normal lab, and even still had some of their own researchers, but eventually they did more and more supplying, to the point where it became their main thing.
Nothing seemed out of place, and you didn't see anyone acting suspicious. You were about to consider it a wasted trip, when you saw one of the trucks leaving the lab, and recognized the plate. It was definitely one of the supply trucks that had been sighted going into the school.
Now, why would a school need supplies for scientific experiments?
You surreptitiously took a few pictures and sent them to Marcelo, together with the information you had just put together.
There was clearly something strange going on, but you would have to plan things out properly if you wanted to make any headway. And also think about what Shara's message could mean... To start, you would (you can choose more than one):
[] Ask Michelle for her support in trying to obtain information from the lab.
[] Ask Theresa to act as a client who wanted to get some supplies, to get information about things.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
And besides that, there was also your own infiltration work on the school. It would be best not to try to sneak around during the first night, so the next period of activity would be the morning of the next day. What would you focus on:
[] Focus on the staff.
[] Focus on exploring the grounds.
[] Something else? (Write-in)
Post 5
[X] Pretend you don't see him, observe his reactions as you move around.
[X] Ask Michelle for her support in trying to obtain information from the lab.
[X] Focus on the staff.
The next day, you went to school again, and this time you actually acted like you were trying to learn things, as in, you went from lecture to lecture and from room to room, getting to know every single one of the teachers.
As already mentioned, the way the school worked left the students with a lot of freedom, so you were able to go from teacher to teacher easily without arousing suspicion. You also kept an eye on the man who had been following you, keeping watch to see if he reacted to any particular part of what you were doing.
And the result was... nothing. It didn't seem like he had any particular feelings about the possibility of you talking to any of the teachers.
And speaking of that... After meeting with all of them, you found four that seemed to be interesting for your current plans.
- The teacher who seemed "off" was called Andrea Barros. You took a look at her and you figured out the reason for that: She's a drug addict. There is some potential for using this information in your favor.
- Colette Souza was another teacher, and you became interested in her after noticing a bruise in her face that had been covered with makeup. That had been done pretty well, but you could notice it. Perhaps it could be nothing, but perhaps there was something about her you could use.
- On the other hand, Ariane Grande was most definitely involved in whatever this was. She kept paying special attention to certain girls in ways that were subtle but you could notice. And upon checking who those girls are, you realized that all of them were from rich families. You could definitely get clues from her.
- Lastly, there was Koren Amarantu. She was the teacher who seemed most out of place, being a "lecturer" that only appeared to give lectures once a week (thankfully, it was the day you were there) and had been seen entering into one of the school buildings and not leaving for a long time.
Apart from that, you also took the time to get acquainted with Roberta Lores, the daughter of your client. She was definitely one of the... "victims"? It was difficult to find a good term given that you still had no idea what was really going on. Still, she was involved. You only met her briefly, but you managed to befriend her easily, and it would be possible to use that to your advantage in some manner.
All in all, your morning had been fruitful, and now it was time to see what you could do in the afternoon.
You called Michelle and set up a meeting with her. You thought your best bet for obtaining any secret information about that lab was getting the help of someone who was an expert in information, and a hacker was definitely a good choice, but you actually had to convince her to help you.
You met in a small cafe, and you got there early. When Michelle saw you, she sat down in the same table and crossed her arms.
"Okay, Camila. I'm here. What did you want my help with?" She spoke in an impatient voice.
Michelle was probably the hardest of your contacts to handle. She was very paranoid and wasn't very cooperative with anything. However, you knew exactly where her limits lay, and how to convince her to give even a tiny bit of help, you just needed to approach the subject in the right way.
"Ah, nothing too unusual." You said casually "I just need to get a bit of the records of a science lab."
"And you say that isn't unusual?" She asked.
"Indeed it is not." You said confidently "There's just a few things that don't match. Like why would a school need high-level science research supplies? What are they doing with it?"
"Research supplies... in a school?" She could not hide her surprise.
"Indeed." You nodded "It's all very secretive, and there are some suspicious things about the school, but there are definitely trucks carrying science supplies secretly entering the school."
Michelle seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, before asking casually "And what exactly is the lab you were talking about?"
You smiled and handed a card of the lab to Michelle. That was her weakness, she was incredibly curious about secret stuff like this.
She handed the card back to you and said "Okay. I'll take a look and see what their security protocols are like, and then I'll send you a message telling you some possible strategies.
You thanked her and the two of you went your separate ways.
You would get results for that the next day, but meanwhile, you had an important decision to make.
There were possibilities in exploring the school during the night, but if you were not careful you could end up arising a lot of suspicion.
With that in mind, would you try to sneak out at night?
[] Yes.
[] No.
Regardless of that, you had to decide what would be your morning plans. And you also needed to take into consideration that you were still being watched, though you could possibly turn that to your advantage. With that in mind, you decided to:
[] Explore the school grounds.
[] Get into a conversation with one of the school guards, trying to pump him for information.
[] Get into a conversation with Roberta, also trying to get information without being suspicious.
-[] Or maybe you want to be a little more daring and directly reference the secrets of the school, then acting based on how she responds?
[] Ask about the medical exam thing. Convince someone to allow you to get an exam, so you can see the place from the inside.
[] Go after one of the teachers (Write-in which one)
-[] Their numbers are easy to find, call them and work your magic through the phone.
--[] Write-in the approach (threatening, mysterious, fearful, etc)
-[] Meet them in person in between classes, try to get information without being suspicious.
--[] Write-in what you want to focus on (medical checkups, rich students, science resources)
-[] Meet them in person and try a more aggressive approach.
--[] Write-in the approach (threatening, mysterious, fearful, etc)
Note: In case you manage to do a good justification of whatever approach you choose, this will garner you better results.
[X] Ask Michelle for her support in trying to obtain information from the lab.
[X] Focus on the staff.
The next day, you went to school again, and this time you actually acted like you were trying to learn things, as in, you went from lecture to lecture and from room to room, getting to know every single one of the teachers.
As already mentioned, the way the school worked left the students with a lot of freedom, so you were able to go from teacher to teacher easily without arousing suspicion. You also kept an eye on the man who had been following you, keeping watch to see if he reacted to any particular part of what you were doing.
And the result was... nothing. It didn't seem like he had any particular feelings about the possibility of you talking to any of the teachers.
And speaking of that... After meeting with all of them, you found four that seemed to be interesting for your current plans.
- The teacher who seemed "off" was called Andrea Barros. You took a look at her and you figured out the reason for that: She's a drug addict. There is some potential for using this information in your favor.
- Colette Souza was another teacher, and you became interested in her after noticing a bruise in her face that had been covered with makeup. That had been done pretty well, but you could notice it. Perhaps it could be nothing, but perhaps there was something about her you could use.
- On the other hand, Ariane Grande was most definitely involved in whatever this was. She kept paying special attention to certain girls in ways that were subtle but you could notice. And upon checking who those girls are, you realized that all of them were from rich families. You could definitely get clues from her.
- Lastly, there was Koren Amarantu. She was the teacher who seemed most out of place, being a "lecturer" that only appeared to give lectures once a week (thankfully, it was the day you were there) and had been seen entering into one of the school buildings and not leaving for a long time.
Apart from that, you also took the time to get acquainted with Roberta Lores, the daughter of your client. She was definitely one of the... "victims"? It was difficult to find a good term given that you still had no idea what was really going on. Still, she was involved. You only met her briefly, but you managed to befriend her easily, and it would be possible to use that to your advantage in some manner.
All in all, your morning had been fruitful, and now it was time to see what you could do in the afternoon.
You called Michelle and set up a meeting with her. You thought your best bet for obtaining any secret information about that lab was getting the help of someone who was an expert in information, and a hacker was definitely a good choice, but you actually had to convince her to help you.
You met in a small cafe, and you got there early. When Michelle saw you, she sat down in the same table and crossed her arms.
"Okay, Camila. I'm here. What did you want my help with?" She spoke in an impatient voice.
Michelle was probably the hardest of your contacts to handle. She was very paranoid and wasn't very cooperative with anything. However, you knew exactly where her limits lay, and how to convince her to give even a tiny bit of help, you just needed to approach the subject in the right way.
"Ah, nothing too unusual." You said casually "I just need to get a bit of the records of a science lab."
"And you say that isn't unusual?" She asked.
"Indeed it is not." You said confidently "There's just a few things that don't match. Like why would a school need high-level science research supplies? What are they doing with it?"
"Research supplies... in a school?" She could not hide her surprise.
"Indeed." You nodded "It's all very secretive, and there are some suspicious things about the school, but there are definitely trucks carrying science supplies secretly entering the school."
Michelle seemed to struggle with herself for a moment, before asking casually "And what exactly is the lab you were talking about?"
You smiled and handed a card of the lab to Michelle. That was her weakness, she was incredibly curious about secret stuff like this.
She handed the card back to you and said "Okay. I'll take a look and see what their security protocols are like, and then I'll send you a message telling you some possible strategies.
You thanked her and the two of you went your separate ways.
You would get results for that the next day, but meanwhile, you had an important decision to make.
There were possibilities in exploring the school during the night, but if you were not careful you could end up arising a lot of suspicion.
With that in mind, would you try to sneak out at night?
[] Yes.
[] No.
Regardless of that, you had to decide what would be your morning plans. And you also needed to take into consideration that you were still being watched, though you could possibly turn that to your advantage. With that in mind, you decided to:
[] Explore the school grounds.
[] Get into a conversation with one of the school guards, trying to pump him for information.
[] Get into a conversation with Roberta, also trying to get information without being suspicious.
-[] Or maybe you want to be a little more daring and directly reference the secrets of the school, then acting based on how she responds?
[] Ask about the medical exam thing. Convince someone to allow you to get an exam, so you can see the place from the inside.
[] Go after one of the teachers (Write-in which one)
-[] Their numbers are easy to find, call them and work your magic through the phone.
--[] Write-in the approach (threatening, mysterious, fearful, etc)
-[] Meet them in person in between classes, try to get information without being suspicious.
--[] Write-in what you want to focus on (medical checkups, rich students, science resources)
-[] Meet them in person and try a more aggressive approach.
--[] Write-in the approach (threatening, mysterious, fearful, etc)
Note: In case you manage to do a good justification of whatever approach you choose, this will garner you better results.