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Encounter Conditions
After successful funding of the Emerald Gift (October 16, 2011), during Halloween 2011
Only once per day (even if you walk away)
Initial Text
As you check over the dorms, you notice a well-dressed woman on her way out. She's certainly too well-dressed for a student, not that many would bother wearing suits if they had them.
She's moving at a brisk pace, with a clipboard in one hand while the other presses a comm to her ear.
Summary of Choices
- Talk to her
- Who are you?
- What do you want with her?
- You work for Midgard?
- You like Emerald Gift?
- How about those earthquakes? After October 18th
- Leave her be
- Listen in
- Leave her be - walk away
Choice Text and Results
Talk to her
You approach her. She tskes in annoyance and apologizes to whoever's on the other end of that comm, hanging up as she turns towards you.
"Yes?"
Who are you?
She looks you up and down appraisingly. "I don't see what concern it is of yours."
Knowing your time is limited, you ask again, a little more forcefully. She sighs. "My name is Janet Barsukov. I'm here as a personal friend to Miss Davers. If you please."
She gestures you to the side, but the movement lets you pick out the faint outline of a holster.
What do you want with her?
She looks you up and down. "Well, I suppose knights in shining armor come in all shapes and sizes nowadays."
"I'm here as a personal friend of Miss Davers. I met here during her hospitalization two years ago this month."
She returns to her work for a moment, then looks you in the eyes. You can't say for sure what she sees, but her eyes are bottomless wells confidence and uncompromising self control.
"If you are her heroic protector, it might interest you to know that one of the other patients from that incident went missing a few weeks ago. One," she glances back down at her clipboard, "Charles Freese the Third."
She returns to her work, apparently having decided she's done talking to you.
You work for Midgard?
"How could you tell?" she responds with a voice that could freeze Lake Metroplex in the height of summer.
"Someone in this city wearing a decent suit and you assume they work for Midgard? Congratulations, Watson."
She shakes her head dismissively. "I work for Midgard, but I'm here as a personal friend of Miss Davers. I'm helping with party planning."
She flashes you the clipboard to demonstrate her point. Although you can see some justification for "preliminary wiring" and even "secure site," it's harder to say what "tune instruments to residual markers" has to do with party planning.
On the other hand, she seems a little too self-aware to show you something by accident. Hmmm.
While you're trying to sort out what exactly you saw, she's slipped off around the dorm building.
You like Emerald Gift?
She sighs, a tiny bit of the tension going out of her body. "I'm not a fan of anything that increases the number of variables in the equation. The Emerald Gift might help making this a success, that's the thought at least, but every bit just makes things more complicated."
She heads off, apparently having decided the conversation's over.
How about those earthquakes?
She looks you over closely, as though she's appraising you for a particularly devestating putdown, but her answer is nothing of the sort.
"That area has been sinking for decades. It's just settling, nothing more."
She turns on her heel, closing off the topic as surely as a steel door, and leaves.
Listen in
With low stealth power:
You carefully follow behind her. She shoots you an icy glare and continues her conversation, having dropped to "yes, sir" and "no, sir" as her answers.
Before she leaves campus proper, you catch a "we should discuss that later," but that's the most she's said.
With high stealth power:
You carefully slip after her, doing your best to remember her side of the conversation.
"Yes, sir, she'll do fine at least until the party proper."
"No sign of him or his spawn, at least not at the primary site."
"I'll keep my eye out, sir, but he's not my main concern."
"Somebody scared up two and a half million on short notice and it wasn't Heimdall, I can guarantee that."
"It complicates things, mostly. We don't know if they blocked things last year."
"Yes, sir." She hangs up her comm and leaves the boundaries of campus.
Leave her be
You shrug and turn away, letting her leave campus.
See Walk Away