Honor Amongst

[The_Codfish]

She might as well come and get a nice, hot cup of coffee with you. It looks like you both will need it.

[siguard]

Both of this. They may irritate the spit out of you, but family is family.

(Out of curiosity, why haven't we seen or heard of Johnny's dad? The mother was mentioned, though not extensively, but unless I'm forgetting things the father hasn't been.)

also agreeing with this.

and I'm guessing that their father is some James Bond epxy. DeRouge and him had a falling out after the kids were born.

[ParadoxTurtle]

also agreeing with this.

and I'm guessing that their father is some James Bond epxy. DeRouge and him had a falling out after the kids were born.

Nope It's Waldo. That's how everyone in the family knows how to blend in

[kd7sov]

Well, if he's Waldo, then... Madame DeRouge?

(You may be interested in the follow-ups, as well.)

[ParadoxTurtle]

Well, if he's Waldo, then... Madame DeRouge?

(You may be interested in the follow-ups, as well.)

and that is why you don't see the their oldest sister, Aurora, in the family pic

[Bloddyredcommie]

DeRouge Backstory Time!

show spoiler

hide spoiler

Madame DeRouge is an infamous thief who prefers to steal high-profile items like jewels and priceless works of art. Her daring heists alone would make her a household name (in the right households), but this is compounded by her second career: Writing semi-fictional novels/memoirs based on her exploits. She worked as a Spy-for-hire during the Cold War, but has made most of her living as a master thief and author. Her most famous heist was the theft of a painting called The Lady in Red (The subject of the portrait is unrelated to the DeRouges), in place of the painting she left a manuscript for a novel in which she described, with dramatic embellishment, how she came to steal the painting, right up to the moment she swiped the painting and left the manuscript on the floor.
The DeRouge children don’t know who their father is. Henri and Johnny are twins, so it’s generally assumed that they have the same father, but for all they know Claudia is their half-sister. For the most part they were raised by their grandfather, a retired mercenary named Pierre who got his start in the French Resistance. When they grew up, Johnny’s skill as an actor prompted Madame DeRouge to begin training him personally. Henri and Claudia were left on the farm, where Pierre taught them the tools of the guerilla’s trade.
During this time, Henri and Claudia developed a form of hero-worship for their absentee mother, collecting newspaper clippings from around the world reporting on her Exploits (With Johnny as an unknown accomplice/apprentice), meanwhile Johnny grew tired of his mother’s overly theatrical methods , unshakeable confidence, and aggressive personality. When he finally left out from under her wing, he intentionally tried to distance himself from her, changing his name, dropping his native accent (Johhny is a skilled vocal mimic, accents are no problem for him), attempting to deny her influence. Of course, anybody familiar with the family knows that despite this, Johnny is the true successor to the DeRouge Legacy.
Fun Facts:
Jess is a huge fan of Madame DeRouge novels (The Orange Lotus had her flying around the world all the time, she would take the books on airplanes to read). She has assumed it’s a pen name (which it kind of is, just one she liked enough to pass on to her children), and so hasn’t figured out the connection.
Madame DeRouge took the moniker from her father, who the French resistance called Pierre le Rouge, because his red army issue sniper rifle (acquired from an arms dealer) caused the Germans to mistakenly believe he was a Russian infiltrator.

[The_Codfish]

The French Resistance? Which one?

[aattss]

The French Resistance? Which one?

All of them.

[Bloddyredcommie]

> Coffee, you need coffee to deal with this.

> Hear her story, of course you'll help family.

Claudia : Where are you going?
Johnny: To get my goddamn coffee.
Claudia : pourquoi
Johnny: Because I stayed up late drinking and playing cards, then I spent the night passed out on a poker table, so I have a slight hangover, and you don’t look like you slept last night. Also, the last time you came to me for help I ended up fleeing Istambul in the back of a garbage truck with a bounty on my head.
Claudia : Oh yeah, sorry about getting you involved with that...
Johnny: As am I, let me get some goddamn coffee in my system before I hear what you have to say.

Johnny: Look, what the hell are you doing here. I thought you were in Europe working with that British chick, Kaitlyn or something.
Claudia : Catherine, her name was Catherine.
Johnny: Wait, was?
Yes.
Johnny: Alright, start over at the beginning.
Claudia : We were in Germany when we were contacted by somebody calling themselves The Jannisary, they had a good reputation, and a job offer.
Johnny: What sort of offer?
Claudia : An engineering firm here in Caper City, we would be working for the Orange Lotus to steal a pair of encrypted hard drives.
Johnny: Alright, hand the drives over to the Lotus, you do not want to make an enemy out of those guys.
Claudia : It’s not that simple
Johnny: It never is , keep going.
Claudia : Well, the job went off without a hitch, Janissary provided everything, blueprints, cover ID’s, even schematics for the vault. We headed to the house we’d rented. We had a few hours before the meeting, so I decided to go out and get some wine to celebrate. I eventually found someplace that was still open and had some proper wine, not this American swill, when I realized I still had one of the drives in the car with me. When I got back to the house…
Johnny: What happened?
Claudia : Cathy was dead, she had been tied to a chair and had been sliced up with a knife. She was covered in blood….and her face…

Johnny: What happened?
Claudia : She had been tortured. Somebody had tortured and killed her, and taken the second drive.
Johnny: What did you do?
Claudia : Um…I panicked.
Johnny: You panicked like you did in Lisbon or like you did in Oslow?
Claudia : …Oslow…
Johnny: So you burned the place to the ground.
Basically… I called Henri and got your address, but you weren’t home.
Johnny: Yeah, I was playing cards last night, listen, Claudia, if I’m going to help you I will need complete honesty from you.
Claudia : Of course, ask me anything.

[LightMage]

>Name of the Firm, thoughts on who did it, how she broke in and did the hiest.


Wow tripple mission linked up. Im suggesting we side with Lotus/Family, but "accidently" destroy the drives when we get them but keep them hidden to get the info. That way we get rewards from Hive for securing them so no one else can steal at least, Family is saved and Lotus won't be too mad if we do it right. Seems to be the best idea.

[The_Codfish]

Fuuuuuuu- This is so dark now.

>Clues. Take a moment to think about it clearly; was there anything else you saw when you got back home?
>Where is the first hard drive?
>How did the Jannisary contact you? In person or through letters?
>Enemies you can think up of who may want to kill you?
>Any idea what may be in the hard drives?

As for what we may do: Find a way to protect Claudia, first and foremost. Deciding on what to do with the hard drives may be trickier. We have to remember that there are some 'bad elements' in Orange Lotus (the ones who've been killing their own agents). Just saying. I'm not all that opposed on helping Orange Lotus, but finding out what's on the hard drives might seriously make us want to reconsider who to give it to.

[Asmodemus]

> Did she do X thing back when you were younger?

> Learn more about this Jannisary, they could have been setting her up to take the fall.

> Get to the safehouse with her.

I recommend just leaving the Orange Lotus out of it and acting like we couldn't find the drives or thieves, make sure that Hivemind keeps it secret that we returned it with noone being the wiser, not a boost to our rep but it does get us in good with Yellowjacket's dad. So far, we might learn more that requires different action.

[Xander]

Nonononononono, No.
I've got an idea. This is all one job, right? If we play our cards right, we can get paid thrice. Hivemind wants the harddrives, Orange lotus might be convinced to pay us for the guys responsable for messing with their plans, and Claudia will pay us if we can help clear her name with the Orange Lotus and keep the troublemakers from getting at her. So, we inform Cairo that she didn't betray them, but was attacked and lost one hard drive. Now, if we can manage to convice him that we need the remaining hard drive to lure out this fifth group and set up a trap, we might be able to convince them that the hard drives were destroyed in the fighting and offer the prisoners as a consolation prize. With Orange Lotus hopefully satisfied by the troublemakers, we'll hopefully be cleared to trade the hard drives to Hivemind in secret for payment. With the troublemakers in Orange Lotus's hands and the hard drives in hivemind's hands, Claudia will be safe and will pay us. So, triple pay for one job. What do you guys say? Should we shoot for the jackpot?

[Fabricati]

I dunno, Xander, that seems immensely complex.

[Xander]

Yeah, but nothing worth doing was ever easy. And I'd say getting paid thrice is worth doing.

[The_Codfish]

Doubt we'd be able to give the hard drives to Hivemind without Orange Lotus finding out about it. Nah. Let's not let greed cause us to stumble. It's better that the Primary Professionals get a reputation for being reliable and "trustworthy" than as opportunity-seekers, no matter how competent they may be.

[Xander]

Fair enough... At the very least though, we can get paid twice.

[Andorxor]

Priority 1: Save Claudia
Priority 2: Don't produce unnecessary enemies
Priority 3: Gain a advantage,be it monetary,reputation,information,technology or allies

Priority 1: It should becomes known that the hard drive is no longer in her possession and that she wasn't involved in any treacherous activities.
Priority 2: We couldn't probable evade to make the Iron Cossacks into enemies,but we should not try to play Hive mind and Lotus
Priority 3: Possible targets are the mission payments,whatever is on the hard drives and the decoding technology for the drives.

Lotus could probable be satisfied if we get Anastasia Dalestky into trouble or get them the drives.Hivemind can only be satisfied by returning the drives.That means that we should arrange a save virtual meeting between Cairo ,Claudia and Hivemind.And propose a plan to eliminate Anastasia by using the drive and Claudia as bait,in the end the drives should go back to hive mind and Lotus has loosed a enemy.That should satisfy everyone.

[The_Codfish]

Xander: Unfortunately, I'm not sure if Johnny would be the type to take money from his siblings (unless we decide he was, I guess). I mean, if she was asking for his help on a job, then yeah. But this seems to be a life-threatening thing, you know? You don't need to pay family to help save your life. On the bright side, she'll probably be grateful enough for the help to give some kind of reward.

Oh, and after reading Mom DeRouge's backstory tidbit, I just wanna ask if Jesse knows Johnny is related to the Madame?

Also, does anyone remember ever seeing what YJ commissioned Henri for?

[kd7sov]

> What, from Claudia's perspective, would be the ideal way for things to go from here?

> Yeah, get what you can on the Jannisary

All right. As I see it, Claudia's the number one priority. You don't turn your back on family.

Helping the Lotus should be compatible with Claudia - they want the drives, she wants to get the drives to them - but if their goals come into conflict, Claudia prevails.

I don't think we can help both Hivemind and the Lotus. I also doubt Claudia would appreciate us trying to give her hard-won loot back to its owners.

If the Cossacks are involved, I wonder whether YJ might be able to call in a favor or two from Oktoberist.

...Oh, hay. I just realized - the Hivemind mission is, from a certain perspective, a family mission too. More tenuously, since Frederick is only involved at a remove, but that wrenches my argument a bit.

[The_Codfish]

Concerning business, I don't think Oktoberist might be all that friendly. 'Cause, you know. Work hours.

[Andorxor]

The lotus is family too.They raised Jessica

[The_Codfish]

We gave Orange Lotus the "lion's share" last time. How about this time, we give the hard drives to Hivemind, and help Orange Lotus fight back against the Iron Cossacks and whatever Jannisary is. This way, everything goes back to "normal" and all Orange Lotus would really suffer is a waste of resources. Nothing to stop them from trying to steal the hard drives again, except for a beefed up security.

But I digress, I'm thinking too far ahead now.

[Shadow Phoenix]

Haha quite the railroading. And something grim!

Since we need to provide info , a strategy could be

=> clear Claudia name toward the Lotus.
=>provide both Lotus and Hivemind with the actual detainer of the hard drive. Let them do fight for the thing.
=>use the second drive as a prize for the size we could want to side more with later.

Ask her on the time elapsed and the help used for the heist. That could give clues on the identity of the ones who double crossed her.

[Kiroth6]

That's an impressive kind of panic attack.

First, Check to see if she is being tracked or followed. Then get her somewhere safe to contact the others. Do not go directly home until you are sure you're not being followed.

Trying to play them all can go wrong very easily. It will be probably be easier to keep her safe if you placate one and cut a deal with them to let Claudia off the hook. This is might be easier with Orange Lotus but I'm wary of getting too cozy with them. I'd hold off deciding who to go with until we can hear from YJ what is probably on those discs.