Fennec let out a soft breath of exasperation as one of the Vulpez essentially removed the security they had at meeting here. She couldn't blame them though, and she knew if things started hurting here she would be answering to the Nomads too.

She eyed Priest as he approached and remained quiet as Badge took point. She was grateful for that, the situation was just a little too complicated and tense for her liking. She had to resist the urge to fiddle with her hair.

"Whatever we do, we need new meeting grounds. We've outstayed our welcome here." She informed those nearby. Fuck, honestly where had the Yakuza come from? They'd been pretty smart as far as she could recall. Musta missed something..

Priest stood there quietly for a moment and then shook his head. "Okay. Well. But. It's not so much a choice as if you have conditions. 'Cause if you try to leave without going with him or having a meeting he's invited to?" He glanced back at the Yakuza, "Daddy will for sure try to stop you from getting away from him and I can't imagine his boys won't use force to come get you."

He gave a shrug. "I don't like it and I really wanna...punch that guy for being such a loud and arrogant pendejo, but..." He gave another shrug. "Not really my call."

The young woman stayed close to Badge for another moment, it could almost be thought there may have been something deeper between the two...

[Private to Badge: "AGENT send message: 'I think he's gone past hit-man and may be a boss now but he's got five thugs with him. Not sure who called him about this but I'd really like to give them a not-so-friendly smack with my wrench to say thanks. But it Sounds like something in our favor could be that he may not fully know how you look now though...' AGENT send message: 'Acknowledged, I'll see what Badge and Fennec think. Wish us luck.' Well, sounds like it's our call but Ai doesn't think he'd be able to tell the difference between me and her... I guess if you and Fennec are good with it we'll try... we're already here with these gonks anyway."]

She pulled back from Badge and glared at Priest. "Yeah, finally get a chance to meet with the man I need to and your scumbag boss decides to sell me out to my jerk of a father for a few extra eddies. And people are actually wondering why I've been hiding this whole time..." She went quiet for a few seconds before rolling her eyes with a sigh. "Fine, go tell your boss to let my father know he can come to the table, none of his thugs. He can watch and think that his opinion matters all he wants but I am here to meet with Mr. Matsudaira, not him, and he is not in control of my life."

Still on the phone, Sou-rat glances in the direction of the hideous transport, trying to glean from body language how Priest's task is going.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Wed 09 Aug 2023.

The scowling man's face softened a fair bit when facing the Asian woman and with a casual nod leaned in, staying almost intimately close for as long as she needed him to. With an arm around her shoulders for reassurance and mainly obstructing the view of her lips from the outside, it wasn't hard to get certain ideas about the two of them.

But Badge didn't particularly care how the exchange might look to any onlookers, as he was himself busy calculating their odds in his head, should things go south in any possible way.
[Private to Evie Benoit: Agreed. Seems like rolling with the punches is our best shot for now. You've even got her perfume right, huh? Could almost fool me, so he stands no chance.]

As she pulled away, he tried to sound reassuring and convincing, but some of the man's genuine anger trickled into his voice, "Everything will be fine, Ai. I'm not letting the Yakuza touch you."

Getting out of the car, Badge glanced over to Priest and silently retorted,
"Oh he's getting that punch in the face sooner or later, amigo... Don't worry."

Priest held up one hand defensively. "Whoa! Hey! I don't know for sure who tipped off the Yakuza, but I don't think it was Matsudaira." Actually, he had a sneaking suspicion of who had tipped them off, whether intentional or not, but he wasn't about to air that out especially in case he was wrong.

"I'll let Sou-Rat know and we'll see if we can't things started soon so we can get it over and done with before...anyone gets too twitchy or something."

He sent a text message to Sou-Rat. [Private to Sou-rat: She said yes but only to him attending, no goons or others. Let's get this moving. The longer we're here, the more chance things will go very bad.]

Sou-rat ends his call and looks at this screen, then texts Priest back. [Private to Priest: + We have a plan in place. Two each in the room. Ms. Hikage gets a protector - I expect Badge. Matsudaira-san will have a second - probably a bodyguard. And Hasegawa will get a second, which I will insist be Tanaka. Going to try to get them to send the rest home. Please let her know; I get to convince Hasegawa. +]

He returns to the gate and nods to Tanaka. "Here is the proposal: Hasegawa-san and you will be allowed in the room. Ms. Hikage will be present with one person of her choosing, and Matsudaira-san will be present with one person of his choosing. The Vulpezes will continue to be our hosts -" I hope, he thinks - "and I and one associate will be present to help moderate as needed.

"As for the rest, please have your additional men return to base, and the corporate forces will do the same. As soon as that's done, we can bring everyone in to meet."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:08, Sat 12 Aug 2023.

OOC: Not sure if people were waiting and expecting Priest to explain since I think the conversation at the gate isn't that far but just to keep things able to move.

"Ah. Well. Okay then."

Priest turned back to those near him and scratched his chin. "Sooooooo." He let out a small sigh. "Apparently each representative gets one person at the table with them. Including you, ma'am."

He gestured back towards Sou-rat, "And he's trying to get the rest of the Yakuza to leave but...we'll see how that goes." He gave a shrug.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:02, Sun 03 Sept 2023.

Tanaka looks around and then returns his attention to Sou-rat.  "Where will this meeting take place?  Are these nomads involved in any way?"  he asks before taking the deal to his boss.

For their part the Vulpez don't seem excited about the current situation and one of them is talking with Fennec in a hushed voice.

[Private to Sou-rat: The 20 total makes it, now it's just a matter of the details.]

Ibrahim's eyes shift around the compound, landing momentarily on the conversation between the driver and one of the Vulpezes before returning to Tanaka. "The nomads are our hosts, and, to my knowledge, are just a neutral party with a tertiary connection to one of the edgerunners.

"The meeting will be within the compound here, but we hadn't specifically established in which building before your arrival," he admits. "Let's tend to the deescalation first, if you please, and I will have my associate procure the meeting location; my intention is for it to be a private locale for our discussion."

Tanaka steps back to speak with Hasegawa and after a moment the boss nods.  Then Tanaka sub-vocalizes into his apparently internal agent and the yakuza thugs that were surrounding the Vulpez chop shop retreat out of sight.  The helicopter circling above makes one more pass then moves off until it can no longer be heard above the background noise of the city.  The limousine now comes to life as the doors open and Matsudaira steps out with his assistant.  They are conversing with the driver for the moment.

Matsudaira looks to be about 40 years old, a bit younger than Hasegawa and a lot smoother.  His suit is impeccable, his hair styled, and his confidence casual.  The assistant is a woman, also Japanese, wearing black, loose-fitting slacks, a white blouse and a back jacket.  She has an obvious sidearm in a shoulder rig and is also wearing dark glasses.  The driver is Asian, likely Japanese, and wears a uniform; it looks from the body language that Matsudaira is telling him to stay with the car.

Priest noticed several things going on. And apparently things were moving in the 'right' direction - right being the least amount of violence, hopefully. He turned to look at Fennec with a raised eyebrow, having seen the nomads talking to her and it didn't look like a happy conversation.

"Looks like things are moving to the meeting time." He nodded at both the nomads and the building. "We good to move forward, or are the nomads putting a kibosh on the whole thing here?"

Watching the simultaneous retreat, Sou-rat nods with satisfaction and turns to secure a space for the meeting. He approaches as Priest is talking to Fennec, content for the moment not to intervene. He has concerns with the way the nomads appeared to be talking with her earlier, and he hopes their tolerance for stress hadn't already been reached.

Badge noticed the seemingly favorable result of the negotiations, but didn't let his guard down. Being too trusting was a good way to get hurt or worse in his line of work. Before replying to Priest, he took a second to gauge the man leaving the limo.

"I don't think we need to worry about any trouble from our hosts. Or am I wrong, Fennec?"

As he finished the sentence, the slightly more relaxed gunman glanced towards their driver with one raised brow and moved closer, making it clear he will be taking part in the debrief once Sou-rat joins them.

CSpan watched from her vantage point and saw a little activity.  From where she sat, the platinum blonde thought that there was some more relaxed body language.  But she couldn't be certain.  Which meant she continued to watch Priest and Sou-rat's positions the most; they looked like intermediaries.

Of course, often people shot the messengers first and asked questions later.  You know, just to send a message.

CSpan pursed her lips, kept her eyes open, her trusty firearms near by, and Auwana idling.

Fennec, having finished her conversation with the leader of the Vulpez, though his expression seems to say they are not finished, turns to badge and nods.  "We can use the garage," and she points to one of the repair bays nearby.  Tanaka nods when he sees her point, unclear if he heard her; Matsudaira and his assistant start making their way across the street from the car.

---

Fennec is out of action right now with a family issue.  Will NPC her again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:19, Wed 13 Sept 2023.

Priest watched and listened. He took in what Badge said but waited still, focusing on Fennec. She and the nomads were the ones that would ultimately give permission or not. But then it looked like things were okay. At least for the moment.

He gave a half-smile and nod to Fennec. "Bueno."

He quickly sent a message to CSpan, ++Alright, looks like things are moving along. We're heading to the garage for the meeting. You good? You staying with the car or coming in?++

"++I am good.++" CSpan agreed with Priest, "++But you guys need help.++"  Her tone was only half-playful as she figured that the three of them needed a quicker getaway option.  So, CSpan started to pull the van back into the compound.  The blonde nomad was adept at the wheel and knew just how much clearance she needed and just how tight a space Auwana could squeeze into; parking her vehicle near but not too close to the long black limousine and not too close to any of the Vulpez vehicles to give them plenty of respect.

She slid out of the driver's seat and proceeded to lock the car.  While she had her pistol in her shoulder holster, CSpan left any larger firearms in vehicle.

Her pigtails bobbing as she sidled up next to Priest (on the side that wasn't occupied by Fennec), she noted casually and quietly, "This all seems quite... complicated."  surveying the three-way, quasi-Mexican stand-off, "What's the play?"   With the obvious subtext from her raised eyebrow:  just what had the trio gotten themselves into?

The young woman nodded at Fennec as everything seem squared away and took a breath. "Please keep the car ready in case things go sideways... well, more sideways." She said to the Nomad before looking to Badge. "Alright, let's get this done. The sooner I'm away from my father and we've got this constant assassin situation dealt with the better." She added before making her way towards Matsudaira and his assistant, pointedly ignoring her father and his guard.

OOC: Apologies on the delay, I missed the post where Ref said Fennec had some family things to take care of so I've been waiting for her. My bad completely -_-

Priest snorted in amusement and sent a reply to CSpan, ++No argument from me, chica.++

When she physically showed up, he glanced at her and shook his head. He leaned his head towards her ear a little and kept his voice quiet. "i mean, it IS complicated. the yakuza boss is apparently her father and is...well, a chauvinist gilipollas who thinks he like owns her, gets to control her and direct her future. it's...really messed up."

He shrugged. "but sou-rat got 'em to back off and agree to only bring in himself and one other."

He glanced at "Evie" and said, "Keep the car ready, the guns ready, the feet to run ready. Here's hoping none of that will be needed."

Sou-rat stops next to Priest as the latter counsels Ms. Hikage. "I apologize that a peaceful settlement means you have to meet your father face-to-face," he says to her. "If you please, you and your guardian will lead the way to the garage and position yourself where you feel safest; I would suggest near a good escape route. Priest and I will follow and invite Messers Matsudaira and Hasegawa inside.

"Fennec and CSpan, could you please ensure they are the only four who enter? And please be ready to help Ms. Hikage escape if this all goes wrong."

When Priest ticked off his three items, CSpan's eyes darted in the direction of Auwana, "Check.", then down to her shoulder holster, "Check.", and to her boots and back to the Medtechie, "Check.".  She also hoped that it wouldn't come to either a shootout and using beat feet (or both).  But CSpan didn't always get everything she wanted.

She nodded to Sou-rat's instructions and moved closer to Fennec and glanced at the entrance.  "And check." the platinum-blonde nomad acknowledged the exec's deployment plan.

"Time to play bouncer?" she prompted her Vulpez counterpart, well aware that this was their house and allowing Fennec to take the lead.

Note:  the Vulpez do not open the fence for CSpan to bring her vehicle inside the perimeter.  She can park it just outside, but not inside.  The limousine is not inside either, it is across the street parked on a perpendicular road facing the front gate.

Matsudaira and the assistant are let into the compound, quickly followed by Hasegawa and Tanaka.  The two pairs nods briefly at each other, the bare minimum acknowledgment their shared culture demands.  Fennec, taking the role of Vulpez representative leads the way to the repair bay, opening the garage door to reveal a hydraulic lifter (down) and an assortment of tools.  The place is dirty and somewhat cluttered, but there is plenty of room for the meeting of eight.

---

As I understand the meeting is Ai and Badge, Matsudaira and assistant, Hasegawa and Tananka, with Sou-Rat as arbiter and Fennec as Vulpez rep.  No one else is a party to the meeting itself.  CSpan and Priest would have to wait with the vehicles outside.

She stood quietly in the repair bay alongside Badge as Fennec let the others in. She had cleaned up in preparation and was by no means dirty, but it wasn't difficult to see she'd been living rough in recent days, especially when compared to the crisp, clean suits of Matsudaira and her father. She offered a bow to Matsudaira as he came in, though pointedly ignored her father when he entered. She then watched for Sou-Rat to see about getting the meeting underway.

Things were finally moving ahead and for now it seemed that even in somewhat favorable direction. Badge followed Ai into the meeting, simply glancing over each of the participants entering the designated space. When she bowed to Matsudaira, her grim guardian didn't follow suit. Instead, he protectively positioned himself directly between Ai and her father and waited to see how the situation would unfold.