Family, Duty, Honor

Family, Duty, Honor
Date 2082-03-22 GM Sarcarian Location Downtown, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Renraku Computer Systems	Shotozumi-gumi
Black Samurai Vip3r	Mooks	Kumi-in
This was an initiation run for Black Samurai.

Summary

In which Black Samurai attends his uncle's funeral, realizes he has family in the shadows, and finds himself a new swording mentor.

Background

Black Samurai's uncle Hayato Mori was forced to take his own life to atone for the dishonor inflicted upon him during the events of A Blast from the Past, and the day of his funeral has finally come. Unbeknownst to him, he is not the only Haven runner in attendance - his father's sister just so happens to be Makoto Mori, Vip3r's long-lost birth mother, who is estranged from the family but was close with his uncle when they were younger. Vip3r, for her part, has had no contact with that side of her family for years, so there is much potential for drama in the air as our story begins.

A Fight at a Funeral

Black Samurai is at his uncle's funeral at a Renraku-sponsored Shinto temple Downtown, mourning his passing with the rest of his family as well as a bunch of Renraku suits who he can barely stand the sight of; he has a brief chat with his sister before going view to the remains, as well as having a chat short chat with a spirit lurking on the astral who was contracted to guard them. Meanwhile Vip3r is relaxing at home playing some matrix games when she receives a call from Kakei Steve, the family lawyer, who tells Vip3r that her uncle that she never met has passed and that she is mentioned in the will. She is rather taken aback at the news, having not given much thought to that side of her family in years, but eventually decides that she should go to the funeral and attempts to make herself as presentable as possible.

After paying his respects, Black Samurai goes to talk to his friend Masuyama Kijuro, who is serving as a door guard for the event; he finds Masuyama dealing with a woman who is obviously high on a moodchip. Black Samurai recognizes her from old family photographs as his aunt Makoto and escorts her inside, staying close by while she mills about the funeral; as the two go to get tea, they encounter Vip3r, who Makoto seems to recognize but can't quite place her face (the two last saw eachother when she was quite young, and Vip3r is covered in snake tattoos and piercings that tend to draw attention). The two runners take note of one-another, noticing the icon of the ShadowHaven app on eachother's personas, but saying nothing for the moment. While Vip3r awkwardly tries to avoid her mother's gaze, Black Samurai overhears a Renraku suit make a metaracist comment about the two of their ears and decides to intervene on their behalf, politely asking the man to repeat himself before punching him square in the mouth, knocking him out cold.

The man's friends don't take too kindly to this however, and a trio of them advance upon Black Samurai intent upon dragging him outside and beating the drek out of him (after he shrugs off one of their punches). His sister (as well as the priest) attempt to intercede on his behalf and deescalate the situation, but he assures her that he has the matter well in hand; Vip3r takes notice of this, politely excusing herself from the awkward conversation with her mom to go and lend her assistance. Outside, Black Samurai asks to take his suit jacket off before immediately sucker punching one of his opponents, managing to hold his own against the three of them thanks to his augmentations (and Vip3r providing I Am The Firewalls through his heads-up display). The brawl continues for a few moments before Vip3r steps out and shames the three of them into stopping their attack with a pre-edged etiquette roll, managing to convince them that it is neither the time nor the place and that the dispute should be settled elsewhere; the Renraku salarymen reluctantly concur, but promise Black Samurai that there will be trouble for him later.

A Debt to be Paid

After fixing himself up a bit, Black Samurai heads back inside only to receive a call from Warboss, who he recently became heavily indebted to (see: Fortunate History). Warboss demands that he come to see him immediately, and Black Samurai manages to convince him to give him 10 minutes to settle his affairs; he tells Vip3r the situation, and she agrees to lend a hand. Excusing himself from the funeral by saying that it would be improper to remain after the confrontation, Black Samurai makes his exit as Vip3r tells her mom she'll be at the will reading later, though she does not reveal her identity for the moment.

Heading to the Big Rhino, the pair of runners enter the restaurant down through the basement to the Ork Underground; they earn more than a few stares as they make their way to Warboss' base of operations - an underground fighting pit where he is seeing to Skraacha operations with some of his subordinates. Vip3r is rather distracted by the presence of Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy (who she recently helped to rescue from prison, see: The Flamesaw Redemption), but Black Samurai takes note of a fighter in the pit wielding a familiar looking sword which he is able to identify as his late uncle's. However before he can leap down to confront the thief and demand his return he is summoned into Warboss' presence, who tells him that he wants him to go into Yakuza territory and negotiate a trade of drugs for a sword (a weapon focus called "Summer Wind" in Or'zet) which they have in their possession. Not having much of a choice, Black Samurai agrees and is given a bag of cereprax and directions to a club Downtown called Equilibrium.

A Meeting with the Kakei

Outside, Black Samurai goes on an angry tirade to Vip3r but manages to make his composure test for Driven to avoid barging back inside to get his uncle's sword back immediately; she manages to put together that the two of them are related, but keeps it to herself for the moment. The two of them return to his car and make their way to Equilibrium, finding a pair of be-suited yaks outside. Not particularly keen on the idea of walking inside with a bunch of drugs just begging to have them stolen from him, Black Samurai instead decides to sneak around back and climb in through a window, with Vip3r sneaking one of the pills of cereprax and dropping into the club's host in order to provide assistance with the motion sensor blocking his path. Once he's in, Vip3r uses puppeteer to force the host's spider to dumpshock himself, and his cries of pain attract the attention of the bodyguard outside the manager's door who runs to his assistance, allowing Black Samurai to slip inside and introduce himself to Kakei Steve.

Steve is initially taken aback by the unexpected and unannounced visitor, but Black Samurai acquaints himself well, saying that he is there on behalf of a mutual associate and offering an exchange of goods. At the mention of swords, Steve perks up and shows off his collection - Black Samurai shows off his sword knowledge and manages to ingratiate himself to Steve, negotiating a trade of 150 tabs of cereprax (roughly 3/4 of what he was given, planning to return the surplus to try to get a bit of extra goodwill out of Warboss) for the sword he is after. He initially promises Steve that he'll get him a replacement, but proposes that instead he have a duel with Steve's bodyguard: if he wins, he takes Summer Wind in exchange for the drugs as agreed, but if he loses Steve keeps it and he'll bring him another as well. Steve agrees, wanting to see some swording action, and Black Samurai heads to kit up.

A Duel with a Yak

With Vip3r providing him remote support (and the yak spider doing the same for Steve's bodyguard), the two swordsmen meet for their duel in Steve's dojo. Black Samurai juices up with betakami and is slightly quicker on the draw as a result, landing a glancing blow on his opponent and just managing to dodge the resulting counter-attack. Steven and his buddies trade bets on the outcome as the two slice and dice at eachother, each swordsman managing to cut his opponent rather badly - Black Samurai takes a bad cut across his chest before giving as good as he got, knocking his opponent down in a dramatic spray of blood and bidding him to surrender, managing to intimidate him into giving up the fight with a few choice words provided by Vip3r. Steve, thoroughly entertained, congratulates Black Samurai on his win and asks if he "wants to see something cool", preparing to chop off the bodyguard's pinkie for the failure before being dissuaded from doing so by Black Samurai, who says that he fought well and doesn't deserve punishment for doing as he was told. Steve agrees, a little reluctantly, and gives Black Samurai the sword he came for, letting him exit (through the window, naturally) without trouble.

A Conversation with a Sword

With Summer Wind in hand, Black Samurai sees to his wound before he and Vip3r drive to Redmond, to the headquarters of the School of Clashing Blades Smashing Fist. Black Samurai brings the sword to the chainmail-clad guards out front, who tell him to bring it upstairs to the quarters of Sword; he is initially taken aback by the spirit, being momentarily blinded by the sight of it on the astral plane, but humbly presents the sword he brought and tells Sword how he won it in honorable combat. Sword seems impressed with his tale, seeing something in the young samurai, and offers some words of wisdom and the chance to join his school in order to further refine his technique. He agrees, managing to make it outside before the kamikaze crash hits and he passes out.

Aftermath

After receiving medical attention, Black Samurai and Vip3r share a few words before heading back to Warboss to drop off the remaining drugs. The runners then head to Kakei Steve's office for the reading of the will (Steve, for his part, is rather surprised to see him again), with Black Samurai receiving some family heirlooms and Vip3r finally reconciles a bit with her mom, telling her who she is and getting a hug and a commlink number to contact her.

Rewards

For Black Samurai:

• Membership in School of Clashing Blades Smashing Fist (6 RVP)
• 4000 nuyen worth of family heirlooms (1 RVP)
• 4 karma (4 RVP)
• +3 Shotozumi-gumi rep
• 2 chips on Warboss
• Optional Contact: Sword (C3/L3 Sword) for 5 RVP or 10 CDP

For Vip3r:

• First Impressions (11 RVP)

For Both:

• 2 CDP
• Optional Contact: Kakei Steve (C6/L1 Fixer) for 6 RVP or 12 CDP
• +1 Skraacha rep

Game Quotes

Black Samurai: "I think you dropped something back there - maybe your pride? You know - because of how bad that punch was?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Akira

My uncle used to play cars with me; now he's in an urn. He died twice: first when his mother killed the joyful child he was to groom him the Renraku way, and second when whatever happened in that office.

I don't plan on forgiving Renraku for any of it.

Should I have punched the guy at the funeral because he was using racial slurs? Yes. But SHOULD I have? Wow, I'm still coming back on a pretty hard yes. Huh. I can't imagine that'll bite me in the ass later, and who doesn't enjoy a good sucker punch when it's three on one? No honor among thieves. Thankfully, another Shadowhaven thief was in attendance, and she quietly lit up my AR after--wait--she was hacking my dumb ass, wasn't she? Huh.

I'll give her a pass, considering she helped me sneak out of the ensuing fist fight just in time to get called by WB and then actually helped me deal with WB.

Where the shittiest thing happens. Samsara--the big dumb sweet fraggin' IDIOT, has Hayato's katana. I mean there was a job and stuff, but that dumb ass idiot took his sword. That probably explains why I was standing over a Renraku-branded death vase. So, we get sent to sell drugs to the Yakuza in exchange for a sword...so we take the time to go help one set of bad guys make trades with another set of bad guys, and I'm feeling like that old trideo villain from this movie. I just want to kill half the people at Renraku before taking up gardening...but no, I gotta go deal drugs because of a shitty job downtown. This is now my life.

So, we trade the drugs, and I take out my day on this poor guard who just wanted to like--make sure a guy wasn't dead. I'm not proud of that--I nearly killed him. Well, he's a guard for a Yakuza boss so he probably had it coming, but I shouldn't have just taken my day out on him.

Piper

So. I get a call from someone I don't know, who calls me by my old name--not the one on my last legal SIN, but the one I was born with--and invites me to a funeral for an uncle I've never met from a family I've never really been a part of. I think it's pretty reasonable that I was pretty fraggin' rattled by it, so like... you can't fault me too much for forgetting when the funeral was, and showing up in a club dress and on novacoke. Right?

I figured that a few hours of being uncomfortable would be worth it for potentially getting a decent amount of money, and right when I started to wonder if I might've been wrong, Akira starts a fistfight with some Renraku fraggers who called me-- I guess-- the Japanese equivalent of a "filthy keeb." I was about to let him deal with it on his own, but I appreciate that he defended me, and my chiphead mother who's somehow still alive against all odds kept asking where she knew me from and I wasn't prepared to tell her, so I figured I'd better go keep him from getting his dumb hoop kicked. And, what do you know? Berating those guys for their inappropriate behavior somehow worked.

Since I've got marks on his comm, I hear his entire call with Warboss where he's getting asked for a favor at the worst possible time, and I guess he assumes I was sent by the Haven as backup, because he drags me along with him. Which, fine, because spending an evening with a bunch of Renraku corp men isn't really my idea of a good time. Turns out, the motherfragger who called me is a fucking Yak, and we've gotta bring him a bundle of Cereprax to exchange for a sword. I swipe one of the pills for myself, which proves to be a great idea, because I infiltrate their host flawlessly, decide to round our number down so we've got some extra to bring back to Warboss to get Akira out of trouble, and I'm able to help him cheat a little in a duel against our Yakuza chummer's bodyguard. Gotta say, I think we make a pretty good team.

All things considered, I think this actually went pretty well in the end. I have a family again.