Omake: Hiromipunk - Contracts are Death

The salty umami satiation of noodles in rich broth are an opiate for the masses beyond easy description, and so Hiromi did not attempt to try as she slurped down Wing Huang's finest offering -a modestly better experience than most, as expected for a noodle vendor frequently haunted by hungry, arrogant and vicious Arasaka students. It was a place which saw the birth of prospective ideas alongside the death of hopes, with many of Hiromi's peers clustered in small groupings to discuss whatever social stocks were rising or falling in the mini-corpo cliques. Hiromi felt herself being calmer than usual thanks to a focus on using the 'cold blood' skill, which let her slip into a meditative mindset even while not in a pose or a quiet environment. She was still only level 1 in the skill, which was annoying, but the slow crawl of XP dings indicated that she would eventually reach whatever perks awaited her at the lofty milestone of 2. She also needed to work on 'Awareness' for the same reason.

More importantly to Hiromi's mood was the overall level XP or more accurately how none of her Skill XP seemed to be adding into it, which meant that her lonely pairs of Stat and Skill points were all the more rare and unspendable. How was she meant to level up if not by grinding her skills?

Hiromi ordered more opiate in the form of some unctuous Tonkatsu* ramen and focused her wrath upon some innocent yet delicious dumplings. Huang's was her favourite noodle-stand -at least when solo- to come to for a reason, it was a comfortingly simple and effective place for sitting alone to contemplate things.
*Wing Huang's Tonkotsu Ramen now served with Arasaka approved 'Chashoo' pork-belly substitute.
Her noodle therapy was of course interrupted by a familiar if mildly unwelcome face intruding through the open entryway of the noodle bar, the leading annoyance being one of Hiromi's friendlier classmates, a shining picture of condescending corpo legacy by the name of Rei Oyoka. Their parents were colleagues in a way that meant Hiromi could never quite push Rei away without causing mind-numbing lectures on the importance of 'contacts', and that meant Rei had often decided that Hiromi was some sort of little sister who needed nudges back toward the shining path of Arasaka bootlicking.

Something inside Hiromi told her this was about to be a social battle, an altercation for the fate of her wallet and/or academic credits, Rei being a font of terrible, bad and occasionally borderline psychotic ideas like any other young corporate magnate with ambitions.

Hiromi chose not to self-reflect on her low opinion of her own chosen path in life.

Instead her lips curved into a welcoming smile that her perk hinted was the best approach to turn Rei's incoming pitch into Hiromi's gain, Rei giving a grin in return as she took a side-saddle seat on the stool next to Hiromi.
Rei chirped "preem outfit, Hiromi-san, deeply loving the whole 'clubland ganger' style" as she digitally ordered some dumplings for herself.

Obvious flattery was obvious yet did not stop Hiromi from preening a bit about how much her new perks were helping out here, a shift of her pose showing off in a way that made XP flow in for her personal grooming and style skills. Then Hiromi followed her hunch to turn herself fully toward Rei while pre-empting the eager corpo's intent "here to make me an offer, Rei? Something for our Contract Investigation class, perhaps?"

Rei grinned without losing a beat despite the shift in the conversation's control, giving Hiromi a wink "more a gift than an offer, Hiromi-san, and more personal than academic" whilst flicking over a file to Hiromi. The pretension in Rei's attitude always drove a crawling sensation of annoyance up Hiromi's back, the slightly older girl being only a single year up on her at the academy.

It was a contract for purchasing a stake in some business, a game-selling stall of some sort, that Rei was buying out as part of her year's 'Advanced Business Functions' class, and Hiromi felt her elation surge till she tamped down with Cold Blood, flicking through the document while letting her perk highlight the holes and traps within. Rei was friendly but not without her ruthless arasaka edge, so the thing had quite a few clauses that subtly gave her the ability to take control or void the contract without Hiromi's input. Reading the contract, copying it to a new document and then making alterations on the fly gave Hiromi a slow yet pleasing influx of XP for bureaucracy and intelligence, especially as Hiromi turned to the arduous task of not being too vindictive or vicious, the complexity of needed clauses upping as Hiromi added in safeties and closed holes.
It was like complicated programming with legalese, logic and a few needed flick-throughs of corpo-law reference docs -Hiromi's perks showing their worth again as the documents lodged into her mental filing, perfectly recalled whenever needed- as she built up a decently balanced counter-offer.

Rei's expensive eyes flashed as she caught the counter-offer then went through it with a raised eyebrow, incidentally eating her first pot-sticker as she perused Hiromi's changes, pupils flickering a little when she began flickering through her own legalese glossaries to pick apart the language used. Hiromi waited patiently while finishing her own noodles, observing all that she could about Rei in an effort to up her awareness skill with the added challenge of peripheral vision only.

Rei finally spoke up "this is... Quick work! Nice solid wording, though I'd love to know why you think a 15% stake is more fair than the 10% I offered initially. You haven't upped your contribution."

Hiromi wiped her mouth carefully before turning to speak with a smile that matched Rei's own in intensity, following the hunch of her perk to place a hand on Rei's before putting on a warm tone "because I believe in the project, and because it's compensation for the ownership loophole you tried slipping on me like a noose, Rei-san. If I'd signed that initial contract I would have been defaulted out of my stake within the week, and we both know that. Your sneaky clause about 'mandatory stakeholder meetings' was pretty hard to spot."

Rei blushed at the touch and even more at the warm trickle of accusation coming from Hiromi, showing some shame with an admissory head-nod before speaking again "I... Okay, true on the sneaky clause bit, but I promise I'd have never booted you or any of the other stakeholders out, Hiromi-san! It was just a bit of insurance to ensure I retained control. Forgive me?"

Hiromi gave a shark's smile while patting Rei's hand, delighting in the dings of Cool, Cold Blood and Persuasion XP that occupied a corner of her vision "forgiven, and I'll sign, but let me help you get in on the ground floor of a new venture I've been working on myself. Just a little business with BDs" Hiromi flicked over her own contract, this one pushing for capital investment in return for a small stake in the developing BD sales business Hiromi had worked out while chatting with Nox. She had updated the contract with her perk's help while grinding for bureacracy.
Rei looked it over, cocking her head and saying "this is... Shockingly simple. Not generous, but quite ironclad."

Hiromi chirped "It's generous! Stocks up to 10% if you want to spend the eddies, and only a 2% minimum stake. Between the returns from that and your contract getting signed, it's like you're getting two pay-days at once."

Rei nommed another two pot-stickers before accepting her victorious defeat, prompting Hiromi to grin as they both signed contracts simultaneously, eddies transferring back and forth in a dance of commerce. What made the transfer even sweeter for Hiromi was the first ding that followed afterward, of course, carrying the System's reward for a social battle well played.
Social Rival made into an Asset. - 300XP

That was levelling XP. Flipping Rei from an annoyance into an ally, tied to Hiromi by contractual tethers, had earned her almost a tenth of the way to level 4! Hiromi would have giggled aloud but for the grace of Cold Blood, instead keeping calm while Rei excused herself and Hiromi ordered some mochi to celebrate the newfound path to power. She was so distracted, in fact, that she missed the normally obvious rumble of a particular purple-haired friend's approaching engine. Her awareness only picked up Motoko at the last moment as her solo friend swept in with nervously excited eyes and a faint air of concern.

"Hiromi... Can we have a private chat? I need to ask you something weird."

I apologise for the upcoming butchering of Motoko's character.