Mostly Armless

Mostly Armless
Date 2085-02-18 GM jit Location Seattle, Redmond (Touristville) Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Cutters	Independent
Gehenna Lichtenberg	"Beating" Chester Abernathy Tommy Gilligan Charlie Simmons
Casualties and losses
N/A	Tommy Gilligan, Charlie Simmons

Summary

When people say they'll pay you in exposure, they don't usually mean exposing their spinal column.

Background

"Beating" Chester Abernathy is a former Urban Brawl-star with a devastating past. His wife, ten years ago, left him and took their seven-year-old daughter with her. She gave him the ultimatum - the game, or your family, and he, in his arrogance, believed he could choose both. Afterwards, he instantly quit and begged for her return, though could not reunite with his family. Crushed, he turned to Better Than Life chips to fill the void in his life, and quickly spiralled into the life of a chiphead addict.

Several weeks ago, that all changed. His daughter, nearly the age of majority, has gotten in touch. She wants to reunite with her father - and filled with the warmth of this revelation, he seeks to quit. He calls friends who have countless times tried to get him clean, and tells them this time he means it. He will change his life, travel to New York, and reunite with the most important person in his world.

That said, he happens to owe a lot of money to a lot of bad people. Lichtenberg just so happens to work for "bad people." He also just so happens to be a pretty bad person himself - so bad, in fact, that after Chester Abernathy and his crew of Urban Brawl-stars rough up the enforcers the Cutters had sent to collect on his 15,000 nuyen debt, his fixer and surrogate father figure, Pappy, decides he might be the perfect person to collect on a washed up, augged up, deadbeat chiphead who thinks he's too good to make good on his debts. That said, the razorboy needs to be balanced to be wielded effectively. A drop of yin to counter his yang.

Gehenna, fresh off her debut in the shadows, is contacted by her fixer as well. Whispers are lingering in the shadows regarding her work on Shakedown Breakdown, and those whispers are... flattering? Well, they say that she works for cheap, anyway, and does decent work for it besides. Good enough for the Cutters - they're trying to recoup losses after all. Silas sends her to the Lazy Samurai, a bar deep in Touristville and a notorious Cutters hang out at that, and tells her to continue curating her reputation in the shadows, if her current status as a bargain item isn't too her liking.

The Meet

While Pappy and Lickitung shoot the shit over a game of cards, Gehenna arrives, obviously out of place. Pappy waves her over and gestures toward a seat. He asks if she's the one that magenapped a guy right under the Crimson Crush's nose, and she reluctantly affirms, much to his relief. He knows she works for cheap, he explains, and she's a good enough talker for what he has in mind. He explains the situation - that a derelict chiphead with more chrome than brains needs to pay up - and also explains that the muscle he'd sent previously wasn't able to cut it, gesturing toward a small crew of Cutters nursing wounds and griping in the corner of the bar. Librarian is their solution, but even this brief conversation reveals that the man is a sociopath at best as he jokingly asks if they're afraid to get a little blood on them.

"People are assets, Axl," Pappy sighs as he explains, as if he's explained this a thousand times before. "And you can't just go destroy assets because you think it's fun. That's not how to run a business, kid." Licorice smiles and shrugs.

He offers 4,000 base pay to Gehenna, up front, for her help in the matter, and tells Liechtenstein he can tack an extra four-thousand onto this guy's already substantial debt for the extra trouble. Gehenna swallows her seething frustration and agrees.

The Plan

The two of them thank Pappy for his time and move to interrogate the gangers nursing their wounds in the corner of the bar - gangers who, although they were excitedly talking shit amongst themselves just a moment before, become nervously quiet as Lamborghini approaches. He tells them to relaaaaaaaxxxxxx, we're all friends here, right?

The more personable and focused of the two asks them tactfully for any information they can offer - they have the guy's address and some brief video footage. Their man apparently has a couple of bodyguards who insist he's done with them for good, chromed up and ready to brawl. They even make good on it, too - they rough up the gangers, swing chrome fists and break teeth, and the four of them scatter.

Information secure, they drive to the address on Lo-fi Hip Hop Beats to Study and Relax To's bike, the razorboy jamming to his tunes all the way. On arrival, Gehenna knocks on the door - only to be met with utter silence. She knocks again, listens closely at the door, and can hear only the muffled sound of a scripted conversation playing off a trid projector.

Lesbian breaks down the door and confirms the obvious - they've hightailed it out of there since that first attempted shakedown. The whole place is trashed - burnt out chips litter the floor, drying blood stains the door, and not a soul has stayed behind.

The two of them trade verbal jabs with one another, and it culminates in a bet - there's gotta be evidence here of where they went, right? Fifty nooj says Lofwyr is the one to find it. Gehenna, in an act of pride, accepts.

She finds, in the kitchen, a still-warm pot of prepackaged soup, and the cabinets splayed open and stripped of nonperishables. Nothing obvious is here.

Limerick, however, has more luck - in the bedroom, clothes are thrown haphazardly across the floor, as though packed in a frenzy. He finds a series of trophies along a shelf, matted in dust - all save for a blank space toward the end. A clean square sits where a trophy might have been, suggesting it was packed and taken very recently.

More digging reveals the coup de grace - a budget motel's keycard, branded with the logo of a national chain, and the address of a place local to Touristville. They're not so lucky that it also has a room number written on it, but it must have been dropped in quite a hurry to have been forgotten as is.

Target secure, they saddle up and track their prey.

Game Quotes

"Better he looks at the glass than the vampire's thick ass."- L' "The Hog" Hog

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Lichtenberg: I don't get this drek. Old man is like 'go here, scare this guy into paying' and then he gets mad when a few people die to get there. Washed up old urban brawl man is still kicking around, I ain't that stupid. But noooo! It's all 'people are assets, Axl' and 'torturing potential customers just makes them turn somewhere else'. I'm sick of it.

Had a hell of a lot of fun slicing up those orks, though. Hah hah! Makes the lecture worth it.