Yva Lundvik, shares an office just off a main corridor on the twenty seventh floor of M, A & F skyscraper in The Glen. Her two co-workers are Phill Erickson, a large Scandinavian man with blond hair and a neat beard and Jenny Blake, a small, mousy woman. There is a fourth desk in the room, currently without an owner and it would be unusual if the other three desks were all occupied at once.

The wall out to the corridor is frosted glass above dado level, as is the door in the centre of it while the back wall of the office has two doors. One door leads to a small room with a couple of comfortable chairs, a low table and coffee facilities, there is a privacy generator here and it is used for private meetings. The other door leads to a similar sized room, also with a couple of comfy chairs but also a desk where Gavin Blackwell, the Department head’s PA sits. Another door from this office leads the large office occupied by Mrs. Anjali with its full length floor to ceiling window, overlooking Night City.



Yva is alone in the office when Mrs. Anjali passes through on her way out early one afternoon, (Thursday 13th July 2045), as she leaves she drops a slip of paper on Yva’s desk, saying ”be a sweetie and pick up my dry cleaning on the way in tomorrow, thanks,” and leaves without waiting for an answer.

The paper is pink, torn of along a perforation on the left hand side and has ‘CALL SLIP’ printed in the top left and a number, ‘1802’. In the top right hand corner, below this are a couple of lines for hand writing what the items are, but this just has a meaningless loop made with blue ballpoint pen, there is a line of six boxes under that, one for each for a day of the week, except Sunday, ‘THUR’ is ticked with the same pen, and below that two lines of print, ‘Thank you for your order.’ and, ‘Please bring this ticket when collecting articles.’ The back is blank and there is no address anywhere.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 20:13, Sun 19 Nov 2023.

Yva looks up from her screens just in time to see the piece of paper land on her desk. Having the southeastern corner of the office has many tactical advantages, like having your back to a wall, like not having nosy coworkers peek on your screen. In exchange, it has the one major strategic disadvantage: it's right on Anjali's way to and from her lair.

"Of course, Mrs. Anjali, no problem," she says in her trademark (fake) Norwegian accent, with a sparkling smile to match her tone. The smile vanishes as soon as her boss is out of the door.

Now, Yva. Where could we get some biotoxin, mmm? Spray it on the puta's clothes, sit back and enjoy the show.

The idea makes her smirk again, a darker, but more sincere, smile. Her blue eyes return to the dual screens: graphs and reports on both sides for better comparison, Net 54 on the left, Ziggurat on the right. 'Mean and Peak Audience' figures for the TV channel, versus 'User Growth and Engagement' for The Garden™. She shakes her neon pink head, biting her lip. TV figures are stagnating, while the app is really taking off.

Yeah, Net 54 is right to be worried about Ziggurat. Give them five years and they'll be the prime comm-corpo. Frak, I should have gone over to them instead of Fabian, these frakers are the future. And that Ziggurat Terrace, I'd kill to live there, ese... Whatever, Yva. Focus. Right now, our job is to sell Net 54 a solution, or at least a way to prolong their agony...

"Thrall," she says to her Agent. The phone doesn't show any signs of hearing her, but the linked Chyron projects a little AI avatar in her eyesight: a ludicrously muscled barbarian, naked but for chains and a fur loincloth, standing at attention for his Viking queen.

"Mistress Yva, what is you commmand, that I may..."
"Silence, thrall. Run a search for, quote, Macgregor comma Jillian, unquote, additional information, quote, SovOil employee semicolon Sancriff comma Ranjan, unquote. Contact details, Garden Patch™ posts, financial records, purchases, healthcare files, anything you can find on her. Results in Chyron - go."

Yva checks the time and while the AI investigated miss Macgregor, she focuses on the Agenda 2050 data. There has to be some nugget of actionable information buried inside that mountain of data: something that doesn't add up, a weakness. Perhaps it's in the demographics: is Ziggurat only appealing to the younger segments? Or in the monetization side of it: is Net 54 doing a better job of selling expensive ad airtime? Something, anything, to get her started on a possible strategy...

Stiletto rolled 1 using 1d10 with rolls of 1.  Library Search 7 (+2 for using the Agent AI).

LOL, here we go, first roll, first epic fail xD

Stiletto rolled 9 using 1d10 with rolls of 9.  Library Search, exploding downwards.

That's a total of... -1? I should uninstall Thrall xD

Now for the business analysis:

Stiletto rolled 16 using 1d10+13 with rolls of 3.  Business 13.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:18, Mon 20 Nov 2023.

Yve already has basic information on ‘Macgregor comma Jillian’ including address, contact details, employment history, education and qualifications, (which are quite impressive), and vehicle details, she learns nothing more from her library search.

Thrall informs Yva that Karlis Petrova from AkzoNobel is on the line.

Rough luck on your library search roll, though some consider that a good omen. Point to note, in future Yva needs to put in the time to do the searching, just asking your agent and making the roll, might produce basic results but even that is not a forgone conclusion.

What did you hope to achieve with your business analysis roll please? I’m treating Net 54 2050 Agenda Project as narrative flavour, you invented it and can take it where you will, with or without dice rolls, I’ll only intervene if it begins to affect the rest of the game.
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Yva tut-tuts, glaring at the virtual barbarian.

"Disappoint me one more time and it will be the last," she hisses at the Agent avatar. "Voice message for Macgregor, message begins: Hello, miss Macgregor. This is Yva Lundvik, from Merrill, Asukaga and Finch Corporate Services. Please call me back at your earliest convenience. Thank you very much. End message. Send. Now get me..."

Thrall interrupts her, handing her an ornate scroll and unrolling it for her to see the incoming call from Karlis Petrova. Yva sighs and her Techhair arranges itself into a crisp hairdo. She brushes her eyebrows and lips with a fingertip and smiles at the camera.

"Thrall, patch her through. Miss Petrova! How serendipitous. I was about to call miss Berg  about our current project. A pleasure to speak to you, how may I help?"
This message was last edited by the player at 18:52, Tue 21 Nov 2023.

Oh, I didn't know I could just handwave the Agenda 2050 thing, my bad. So basically I was trying to analyze the data to determine an angle of attack, so to speak, a first thing to do. If I'm allowed to just make it up, I'll come up with something and present it to Anjali tomorrow, if that's OK?

On her screen Yva seem a middle aged woman with snow white skin and brilliant ice blue eyes, her hair, by contrast, is a commonplace mousy brown worn in a lose perm.

The woman glances up and left, makes an almost imperceptible nod and returns her attention to the screen/camera.

”Yva Lundvik I presume, what title is appropriate please?”

Once that is established the woman continues, ”Miss Lundvik, Mz Berg and I will be arriving in Night City over the weekend, we hope to look at properties early next week, preferably Monday, will this be convenient?”

I’m assuming that Yva uses the title Miss, apologies if that is not the case, I will edit.
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Yva's smile intensifies like a stage light trying to dazzle an audience.

"Miss is correct, but please, just call me Yva," she gushes. "Monday should be fine for a first contact... may I ask, miss Petrova, is it your first time in Night City? I would be delighted to show you the sights, it is quite a remarkable city... and perhaps that would also help you get a better idea of what zone you would prefer for your headquarters?"

Meanwhile, she's typing in her Agent:

"THRALL. ALL YOU CAN FIND ON: TASTES AND HOBBIES OF: PETROVA. KARLIS AND BERG,RONJA. SHOW IM CHYRON GO GO GO!!!!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:39, Tue 21 Nov 2023.

”We have busy schedule Miss Lundvik, which does not allow time for sightseeing, thank you,” the woman responds, her tone is not frosty but studiedly neutral. ”As to the ‘zone’, we have engaged the services of Merrill, Asukaga & Finch to find us an appropriate location, perhaps I’m speaking to the wrong person?”

As she is speaking, the outer office door opens and the unmistakable figure of Mr Merrill enters the room, he makes a gesture for Yva to carry on with what she is doing and heads on towards Mrs. Anjali’s office.

Meanwhile Thrall informs her that there are seventy two Petrovas listed in the Night City area, none of whom are called Karlis, there are zero Bergs listed in the Night City area.
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Yva's smile doesn't shift a millimetre.

The all-business type, then. No first names, no fun, no foreplay. Very well.

"Of course, miss Petrova, I understand your time is gold. Rest assured, you are in good hands. Here at Merrill, Asukaga and Finch Corporate Services we value..."

Her heart skips a bit as The Man himself steps into the office, but she stops herself just as she was about to get up and stand to attention. It takes an effort of will to keep her eyes glued to the screen.

"...your business above everything else. Your new offices in Night City will be the envy of competitors all over both Californias. I look forward to your visit, and to exceed your every expectation," she says in her usual corpo-tone.

"OH FRAK OFF" she types, but deep inside she realizes:

Well, what did you expect, Yva? How did you expect to find the Swedes on the Night City DataPool? Breaking news, the old global NET is gone. Get a grip, bitch.

"Anything else I can help you with, miss Petrova?"

”I just wanted to inform you of our impending arrival,” a little note in the corner of the agent is informing Yva that this call is originating in Helsinki, (Finlamd), where it is 02.00 local time.

”I’ll send you revised contact details one we are established and look forward to meeting you in person on Monday.”
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Yva nods primly, smile still on.

"Thank you very much, miss Petrova. I too look forward to meeting you in person. Have a pleasant night, and see you soon."

Once the call is over, she frowns to herself. Working at 2 am. Not the fun sort of people.

But she has other things in mind. Why the hell is Merrill himself here? Anjali must have fraked up big time, or perhaps she's on the rise. Yva hopes it's the former rather than the latter. The day Anjali goes down, she'll celebrate with champagne.

She gets up and heads to the coffee room, silently closing the door. Then she does the old trick: switch off the privacy generator, hold an empty glass agains the wall and try to listen to whatever is going on inside Anjali's office.

Stiletto rolled 15 using 1d10+9 with rolls of 6.  Perception 9.

Yva hears nothing through the wall, it’s not the first time she’s done this so she knows it should work but she also knows that Mrs. Anjali is out of the office so, perhaps Mr Merrill has no one to talk to in there, of perhaps he’s not gone in but is talking to Gavin in the outer office.
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Undaunted, Yva applies her eavesdropping efforts to the south wall instead, to listen to whatever is going on at the office of Anjali's PA... ready to pretend she's just scrolling on her Agent and making coffee if she hears footsteps approaching...

Mr Merrill’s deep, resinous tones do not carry well through the wall, Yva hears only a muffled sound that she can’t make out, Blackwell’s reply though is quite audible, ”it’s in for the .....th, you can rely on me Sir.” which is followed by another comment by Mr Merrill and the sound of the office door open and close as he leaves the room and then the outer office door bang quite loudly as that closes.

There was a word there that Yva missed, a number that might have been the ‘seventh’, or the ‘eleventh’.

alphapred, on behalf of Stiletto, rolled 19 using 1d10+9 with rolls of 10, explodes +1, Perception.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 09:17, Thu 23 Nov 2023.

Seventh or eleventh... day? That would be next month, or a few days ago. Floor? That would be way below, probably in the public-access part of the MA&F building. Something else entirely? Who knows. In any case, Merrill himself has entrusted Blackwell with some sort of mission or errand. And the way The Man slams the door on his way out doesn't sound like he's particularly happy about... Anjali not being in? Or did he came all the way just to see... Blackwell?

Yva switches on the privacy generator on her way out, and from her desk she snatches the slip of paper with one hand and her handbag with the other, without missing a step. By her own calculation, Merrill is ten or fifteen paces ahead of her when she steps out of the office, her trademark high heels click-clocking on the harder floor of the corridor. She follows Merrill discreetly, Agent in hand, pretending to have a conversation:

"Yes, Raj, you will pick them at the airport... No, I have to check the times, but I will confirm over the weekend... oh, and wash the car first, will you. We don't want to give a bad first impression, understood? No, you will have to find that out... no, you will... yes, before end of play today, indeed..."

Yva steps out of the coffee room to find Mr Merrill standing by the outer office door, he must have opened and closed it without going out, and made sure it was loud enough for here to hear. He looks at her with raised eyebrows and a little smile, then leaves without saying anything, Yva has the impression that he’s more amused than cross, and he has been playing this game for a lot longer than she has.

After adding your +1, I edited my last post so that Yva actually heard the number, which was ‘seventh’, I must have proof read it then not actually posted it, so sorry, I won’t edit again but Yva knows it is the seventh.
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Yva returns the smile, with a cute little shrug.

Perhaps he noticed the privacy generator going offline, or perhaps he thought she getting up from her desk right after he came in was too much of a coincidence. Perhaps he has some fantasy-grave cyberware that lets him read people like a book.

Either way, the game is up. Time to try a different angle.

"...thought so. Very well, Raj. Yes, do that. I'll see you later."

She makes her way back to the office, with unhurried, catwalk-like steps. In case Merrill is looking, or anyone else. Or perhaps just for herself.

Once back inside, she takes a second to clear her throat and practice her smile. Then she undoes one of the buttons on her silk blouse before she saunters into Blackwell's office.

"Oh, hiiii," she says in a tone a little warmer and girlier than usual, with a winning smile at the PA. "Gavin, you're looking sharp today. Love that suit. That's a new tie, isn't it?"

She leans forward to (purportedly) take a better look at the man's tie. It doesn't hurt that it allows him a better look at her, too, in today's outfit of fitted pencil skirt, silk blouse and pumps, colors set to pearl grey and white with pink higlights. Along those luminiscent bands, stock exchange rates silently scroll past in small but clear print. A little financial touch.

"Since Anjali's not in, I was wondering... why don't we catch," wink.

"...A coffee. Mmm?"

Stiletto rolled 20 using 1d10+16 with rolls of 4.  Personal Grooming 14 (+2 for Techhair + Chemskin).
This message was last edited by the player at 17:22, Thu 23 Nov 2023.

”Yva, hi,” the man looks up from his screen and smiles, ”bit busy right now,” the analogy skin watch on the back of his left hand glows a little brighter as he glances at it, ”give me an hour and I’ll meet you in the Coffee House downstairs.”

Blackwell is referring to the one of the better places in the building's own mall, coffee there runs at 12 to 20 ed a time but it is real, and good.

Stiletto:

Along those luminiscent bands, stock exchange rates silently scroll past in small but clear print.

Sorry what luminiscent bands, is this in her tech hair?
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This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 08:58, Fri 24 Nov 2023.

Yeah, on a reread that was pretty vague, sorry. I mean "highlights" as in those pink highlights in her blouse (see the profile picture), I should have said "seams" or something like that, "highlights" sounds like hair. Since they're smartclothes, I was thinking about text scrolling along the seams, with stock exchange values constantly updated from her Agent, if that is feasible. A very financial corpo touch, I hope.

Yva keeps her smile on and nods. Not the immediate effect she was looking for, but good enough. Whatever Merrill had tasked him with, he was doing it first. She took a quick look at his desk while she pretended to check her schedule on her Agent, then nodded again.

"Sure, that works for me. See you later," she says in a cheerful tone, and returns to her desk.

Well, an hour should be enough to get a head start on the AkzoNobel thing...

"Thrall, start a search. We're looking for office space in Night City, parameters as follows: corporate comma office space comma central if possible comma first preference The Glen second preference Little Europe and Watson comma third priority Upper Marina and University semicolon avoid combat and hot zones. Run search, then re-run with lowered parameters. Tabulate all results by: square meters, zone rating, price per meter, crime density, highlight all outstanding values. Go."

She spends the next hour going over the results and refining the parameters.


First rolling perception to see if there's anything that catches my eye on his desk...

Stiletto rolled 10 using 1d10+9 with rolls of 1.  Perception 9.
Stiletto rolled 18 using 1d10+9 with rolls of 9.  Perception critical failure.

...I think it's safe to assume I don't notice anything? Oh dear, my luck my dice...

And now to spend that hour researching possible office places for AkzoNobel:

Stiletto rolled 14 using 1d10+9 with rolls of 5.  Library Search 7 (+2 for using the Agent AI).

Yva returns to her desk and sets to work trying to locate a suitable premises, she knows the volume requirements and is looking for a substantial part of a building or perhaps even a smaller building in its entirety, it needs to be north side of the Glen if she wants to impress, and include ware house space, and a show room as well as facilities for a large number of staff. Yva very quickly realises that someone is buying up everything that becomes available in that area, as soon as it hits the market.

No problem with the ‘ticker tape’ piping, pretty neat in fact, I just couldn’t picture where they were placed.

Yva doesn’t see anything useful on Blackwell’s desk, his screen, like yours, has a narrow view angle and there is no paperwork lying around, however, she didn’t need a roll to see the objects there, the screen is built in, his agent is in the top right corner where, like her own desk, there is a built in cordless charging pad and standing in the top left corner is a holographic image of Blackwell, a woman holding a baby and a toddler at their feet.

Yva’s use of her agent doesn’t sit comfortably with how I envision it should be used, it will take instructions literally and, in this case, as Yva failed to mention that she was looking for ‘vacant’ properties, it will attempt to list ever property that fits into the perimeter, then try to sort them into the preferences required, even though they are mostly occupied, it’s going to take days and the end result will be useless. As I see it, it should be Yva do the research, the agent assists as you go along. How you go about the research is your business but there are cooperate estate agents out there whose specialise in this, keep up to date on trends, and already know what properties are available, the price, facilities and all the rest of it, personally I’d go to them to see what’s available rather than duplicating their work while starting from ground level in experience. None of this really matters, I’m just pointing it out.

You have rolled the dice on your library search and that is what counts, all the above is just narrative decoration, a 14 gets her started.
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Yva taps her fingers on the desk reflexively.

Normal market speculation? The Glen is hot shit. Not unusual for big investors to snatch prime real estate as soon as it hits the market. Every square inch of The Glen is gonna be worth zillions when reconstruction is complete, everyone knows that... But is it the same people, every time? Now that would be big news...

She closes her eyes for a second.

OK, focus, mija. I know The Glen, this is my corpo-turf we're talking here. What's a place that could be adequate for these Swedes, and whose tenants could be... invited to leave? In other words, something that's not in the market yet, something I can snatch before whoever is moving all that capital does?

Stiletto rolled 5 using 1d10 with rolls of 5.  Local Expert (The Glen) 9.

Total 14, sorry, forgot to add the bonus.

Too outside her usual field. Time to call an expert.

She opened her eyes and started typing on her terminal. She hadn't deal that much with the real estate side of business, but she knew MA&F would have more than a few well-paid friends in the Night City Council that could provide information and advice. No need to make it a personal favor, the corporation had its own resources to relie on. Stiletto gave herself a scornful smile.

You're not just some lone rogue any more, Yva. You're not fraking Flatire anymore, bitch. You're part of a coporation, remember. No need to go it alone. Start thinking like an Exec already, chica.

She paged whoever it was dealt with those things, and sat back to think of another possible angle...

Stiletto rolled 18 using 1d10+13 with rolls of 5.  Bureaucracy 13.

Blackwell exits his office, pulling the door shut behind him, ”ready for that coffee now?” ha asks with a disarming smile, ” it’s about time we had a little chat, how are you settling in?”

Conversation is polite and non-comital as the two descend the elevator to the third floor which is part of the company Mall, Yva notices that, without being rude, he pointedly ignores anything flirtatious and never once looks at the open button on her blowse.

There are lots of hi end stores here, some in house but most third party.

‘Coffee House’ is a small, but exclusive local chain, the interior has a few tables and chairs but most of the seating is low, brown leather armchairs, sofas and real wood coffee tables, the walls are a creamy colour and decorated with animated pictures of Latin American landscapes, the floor is covered in a fine, soft white sand and up beat salsa music plays quietly in the background.

On each table is a menu pad, listing the beverages and snacks on offer as well a s a few other options like ‘privacy’ or ‘localised channel’, Blackwell finds two armchairs by a low table neer one edge, flops into one of them and takes up the pad, ”I’ll get these,” he says, slotting a cred chip into the top, ”what will you have?”
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