Noir leaned forward, studying the information. Constant would be a decent place to start-- the client was right about that. But casinos are known for security, known specifically for being places where even the shadows are watched. If Noir wanted to pin her down, he'd have to shadow her somewhere else.
Stargazer seemed like the easy prey; "Stormchaser" there hadn't given him any warnings about her whatsoever, but looks could easily be deceiving. And that in itself was a problem; if she seems innocent and nice, it could be that much harder to pin her to anything, much less to make it stick.
Then there was "Oblivion". Noir stopped himself from making a crack about the name the moment he realized that the hypocrisy ran thicker than the navi in question's torso, and thought about it. From the look of the navi, you didn't even have to try to pin him to something illegal; he exuded it like an aura. The problem was proving it. Not to mention if he was caught there, he was dead. Client would probably bail, too.
"Do I have to find a reliable connection for all three of them? Or is that payment for each individual target?" Noir asked, the shadows on his face stopping any hint of an expression from leaking out. "Say for instance I'm able to link O to one organization, and C to another-- but am unable to link S to anything. Would I then be paid 2000z? 4000 if I got you the names of both organizations? Noir continued, hand splaying outward. "Or would I get nothing for failing to find any evidence of S' wrongdoings?"
Mission: Illuminating Investigations
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"The payment is for all three," Stormchaser answered, eyeing Noir suspiciously for a moment. "Although I would be willing to pay a portion of that if you only obtained reliable information on one or two of them. If I went all or nothing, I'd never be able to get any business."
A bolt of lightning flashed through the clouds on his bodysuit as he lowered his voice and added "That said, if you do anything to expose me, the deal is off. I can't exactly do anything with any information you find if I end up deleted for it."
A bolt of lightning flashed through the clouds on his bodysuit as he lowered his voice and added "That said, if you do anything to expose me, the deal is off. I can't exactly do anything with any information you find if I end up deleted for it."
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"Obviously." Noir rumbled, waving a hand dismissively. "I rather like being paid for my work, so there'd be no point to revealing you in the first place."
Noir paused as he considered something for a moment. "You said you've been investigating them on your own for a while. Anything useful come out of that?" He said, putting his feet down and coming to a proper sit. "Don't get me wrong-- what you've given me is more than enough to start an investigation. ...But all you've given me is enough to start an investigation. If you've been investigating them for a while, I'm sure you've probably got a few leads you weren't able to check out before things got too hot. Mind sharing?"
Noir paused as he considered something for a moment. "You said you've been investigating them on your own for a while. Anything useful come out of that?" He said, putting his feet down and coming to a proper sit. "Don't get me wrong-- what you've given me is more than enough to start an investigation. ...But all you've given me is enough to start an investigation. If you've been investigating them for a while, I'm sure you've probably got a few leads you weren't able to check out before things got too hot. Mind sharing?"
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Stormchaser nodded. "I have. I'd rather not share everything I've learned, as much of it amounts to speculation based on weak evidence that I have already acquired, but I do have a few recent leads. Or rather, they're all recent, as until recently they haven't shown any activity at all.
"S, as you've called this one," The projection from Stormchaser's hand focused on Stargazer, "spends most of the time I've seen her in remote net areas observing." The projection shifted, to show many of the white dots surrounding the navi replaced by projected windows, showing what could be interpreted even at its small size as either videos or camera feeds. "Standard fare, most of the time, but every now and then I come across something rather interesting." He raised his hand. "Enlarge." The projection grew to twice its original size, allowing more detail of what was on the video screens to be seen. One shifted through a montage of a pair of dark-clad navis attacking several targets, including two normalnavis, an official-looking navi that could easily have been a NetPolice enforcer, and a navi in the image of an old man, holding his own despite an aged body. Another feed showed a navi with icicle blades sneaking through a SciLab facility. "I have yet to figure out whether she is keeping tabs on accomplices or simply observing them, for rather obvious reasons." A third screen, visible for only a second before the image returned to its original size and was pushed into the background, showed the likeness of Stormchaser himself.
"O has proven rather difficult to pin anything on, because I can't get a good track on anything he's up to with his 'partner', and anything he does on his own looks like random attacks. I've been attempting to track Blackbird down, but he has proven quite elusive. On the other hand..." Stormchaser's projector appeared to go into rewind briefly, re-enlarging Stargazer's image and backtracking through the projections surrounding her until they reached a point where the image of the two navis attacking the old man were the most defined. "This is purely speculation, but it would not surprise me if those two were the navis displayed here."
The image was pushed away again, and the cybernetic navi Constant was enlarged. "This one though...I haven't gotten anything on her yet, other than that some rumor spreaders who shouldn't be allowed to name anything call her the Immovable Object. She's easy enough to find, but by all appearances so far looks like an ordinary navi that spends a little too much time in casino networks."
"S, as you've called this one," The projection from Stormchaser's hand focused on Stargazer, "spends most of the time I've seen her in remote net areas observing." The projection shifted, to show many of the white dots surrounding the navi replaced by projected windows, showing what could be interpreted even at its small size as either videos or camera feeds. "Standard fare, most of the time, but every now and then I come across something rather interesting." He raised his hand. "Enlarge." The projection grew to twice its original size, allowing more detail of what was on the video screens to be seen. One shifted through a montage of a pair of dark-clad navis attacking several targets, including two normalnavis, an official-looking navi that could easily have been a NetPolice enforcer, and a navi in the image of an old man, holding his own despite an aged body. Another feed showed a navi with icicle blades sneaking through a SciLab facility. "I have yet to figure out whether she is keeping tabs on accomplices or simply observing them, for rather obvious reasons." A third screen, visible for only a second before the image returned to its original size and was pushed into the background, showed the likeness of Stormchaser himself.
"O has proven rather difficult to pin anything on, because I can't get a good track on anything he's up to with his 'partner', and anything he does on his own looks like random attacks. I've been attempting to track Blackbird down, but he has proven quite elusive. On the other hand..." Stormchaser's projector appeared to go into rewind briefly, re-enlarging Stargazer's image and backtracking through the projections surrounding her until they reached a point where the image of the two navis attacking the old man were the most defined. "This is purely speculation, but it would not surprise me if those two were the navis displayed here."
The image was pushed away again, and the cybernetic navi Constant was enlarged. "This one though...I haven't gotten anything on her yet, other than that some rumor spreaders who shouldn't be allowed to name anything call her the Immovable Object. She's easy enough to find, but by all appearances so far looks like an ordinary navi that spends a little too much time in casino networks."
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"I'll be honest--" Noir paused, looking down. "Aside from O, neither of these seem very suspicious at all."
He pointed at the projection of Stargazer. "skip to 12:53:42. Stop." He watched the recording wind the few minutes and seconds back to the point he wanted, and then glanced at it. "Enlarge." As the projection increased in size, he pointed to one of the many screens surrounding Stargazer-- the one showing Stormchaser himself. "She did not know she was being watched, correct? Going off of that assumption, her ability seems to be observation of random points, like stars in the sky-- if you want to use her name as justification. Any defense would be able to pick apart a case against her based on her observations with ease, just through little snippets like this one."
"As for O..." Noir thought a moment. "You say O is fairly easy to track, but his partner, Blackbird, is impossible to keep tabs on? What if Blackbird doesn't exist?" He questioned, raising a hand to signal for Stormchaser's silence. "He could simply be an SP with an EXE extension. Blackbird and Oblivion-- they could just as easily be the same target in two parts as they are two targets working together."
"I realize it's the last thing you want to do in jobs like these, so I won't ask, but you should honestly be asking yourself who sent you after these people, and with what justification? You can't pin anything solid down on them, yet you're determined to prove their guilt, presumably for your employer. But if there's nothing provable... why is he so convinced they're all in on something?" Noir stopped, at that, and then dissolved a little into his shadows, his silhouette taking on that of a sword.
"The 'Immovable Object' and the 'Unstoppable Force'. It's always a question that seems to come up. Which wins? Does the force stop, or does the object move?" The rambling was accompanied by the sword swinging into a rock, bouncing off, and then swinging again. "The suspicious thing that immediately comes to mind-- if she spends most of her time in that casino, who is her operator? Is she a rogue navi? I'm allowed to roam freely mainly because my Operator has little constant need of me, but that is usually not the case."
He pointed at the projection of Stargazer. "skip to 12:53:42. Stop." He watched the recording wind the few minutes and seconds back to the point he wanted, and then glanced at it. "Enlarge." As the projection increased in size, he pointed to one of the many screens surrounding Stargazer-- the one showing Stormchaser himself. "She did not know she was being watched, correct? Going off of that assumption, her ability seems to be observation of random points, like stars in the sky-- if you want to use her name as justification. Any defense would be able to pick apart a case against her based on her observations with ease, just through little snippets like this one."
"As for O..." Noir thought a moment. "You say O is fairly easy to track, but his partner, Blackbird, is impossible to keep tabs on? What if Blackbird doesn't exist?" He questioned, raising a hand to signal for Stormchaser's silence. "He could simply be an SP with an EXE extension. Blackbird and Oblivion-- they could just as easily be the same target in two parts as they are two targets working together."
"I realize it's the last thing you want to do in jobs like these, so I won't ask, but you should honestly be asking yourself who sent you after these people, and with what justification? You can't pin anything solid down on them, yet you're determined to prove their guilt, presumably for your employer. But if there's nothing provable... why is he so convinced they're all in on something?" Noir stopped, at that, and then dissolved a little into his shadows, his silhouette taking on that of a sword.
"The 'Immovable Object' and the 'Unstoppable Force'. It's always a question that seems to come up. Which wins? Does the force stop, or does the object move?" The rambling was accompanied by the sword swinging into a rock, bouncing off, and then swinging again. "The suspicious thing that immediately comes to mind-- if she spends most of her time in that casino, who is her operator? Is she a rogue navi? I'm allowed to roam freely mainly because my Operator has little constant need of me, but that is usually not the case."
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"You say that, and you're absolutely right. Nobody would believe these navis suspicious based on what I have gathered so far," Stormchaser conceded, letting out a sigh. "Which is exactly why I cannot simply go on what I have gathered so far and needed to call in someone who has as yet had no contact with them. Although you do bring up a good point. S and C may be entirely innocent, and O may be acting entirely on their own. Given the amount of time I have seen them on the net up until this point it would not surprise me if they were all operator-less navis, but that in and of itself is not punishable despite the actions of certain rogue navis in the past. Nor does it mean they're a part of a similar organization.
"However, if they really aren't connected to anything, I would need to convince the ones who hired me in the first place of that as well. So I'd like to amend my earlier proposal. Either get me information reliably linking them to shady dealings, or sufficient evidence to prove that there is no link. Is that acceptable?"
"However, if they really aren't connected to anything, I would need to convince the ones who hired me in the first place of that as well. So I'd like to amend my earlier proposal. Either get me information reliably linking them to shady dealings, or sufficient evidence to prove that there is no link. Is that acceptable?"
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"Certainly." Noir said, reforming. The smile on his face was hidden well by the shadows. "I'll be headed out then, unless you've got something else I need to know first?"