RIP Bozo

RIP Bozo
Part of The Name of Heaven
Date 2085-06-16 GM sleevey Location Issaquath, Renton (Seattle) Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven chiTIN	Night Hunters
Buck Digifex Lanius Saint	Goons Small Enemy Spider Big Guy Biggest Guy
Casualties and losses
Lanius Visits the Beach That Makes You Dissonant, Digifex Loses His Resolve	Yes

Summary

Night Hunters get clowned on, and the clown gets rescued.

Background

Caliban has done a terrible thing. In the wake of the destruction she's wrought, three technomancers, once bright-eyed and eager for the treasure hunt they'd stumbled across, languish in hopeless Matrix homelessness. Further straining their relationship, one of them, a technomancer with a harlequinn-esque, clown-adjacent living persona named b0z0, lashes out and latches onto insane conspiracy theories. His hostile prodding pushes the three apart.

chiTIN hurts for this, and for his friends as well. Despite being attacked and yelled at, he checks in on b0z0 every now and then, though hasn't heard from him in a week now. Fearing the worst, and unable to find or trace his icon on the Matrix, he resolves to ask for a few favors from some hacker friends of his, and the winding tendrils of his desperate plea snake into the shadows where the lowest amongst us might hear them.

Lanius, finishing up a practice session, hears from Adelaide Rollins about a smalltime hooding gig - track down and rescue a kid, simple work, simple pay, ne? Lanius instantly worries for her reputation as a heel, and Rollins talks corporate strategy and synergy and face-turns. "We'll get it in the edit," seems to be the only thing the two of them agree on in the end, but nonetheless, Lanius prepares to meet their Johnson in the downtown bar that he's holed up in, intending to go in person as well as on the Matrix.

Buck, while tending to his homestead, is visited by Cairn slithering out of his gutters. The snake has heard really cool things about this really cool skull, and would really love Buck to track it down. They've had their eye on it for a while, and only bring it up now because they finally have a concrete lead - a Johnson wants some shadowrunners to track someone down, someone who, in the days leading up to their disappearance, would post constant and consistently unhinged rants about his pet conspiracies and connecting data points and skulls that tie it all together. Buck, sensing nothing wrong in getting in good with Cairn with a favor to pay back later, easily agrees.

Saint, with a punctured lung and on ordered bed rest, languishes on top of a mattress, miserable in body for her injuries, in mind for her boredom. Alex "Good'ol" Samson phones in to save the day - she groans, barks a terse "What?." He tells her he's got a drek job for his drekkest runner, and offers outright that he's sending her primarily because he doesn't really like the client. Her eyebrows twitch. Through the awkward silence, Alex cheerfully reminds her that, if she gets paid at all (and there's no guarantee with this gig), he demands his standard %10 cut. Saint, incredulously, returns to the previous topic, and asks if he only ever pawns her off to people he doesn't like, and he instantly agrees and hangs up. She rolls to get out of bed and heaves an unhealthy cough, and decides to attend the meet purely on the Matrix.

Digifex speaks briefly with Argent. He has a gig lined up - not an impressive one, of course, but one he knows Digifex will want in on. Finding a kid, sure, it feels good to do good, ne? But more importantly, the kid might be a technomancer, along with the Johnson himself. For a devout Resonance gnostic, he is drawn to others like him, and easily agrees despite the dubious promise of pay.

The Meet

Syberspace is a mixed reality bar in downtown, one of many to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Dante's Inferno. Classically cyberpunk and accessible on meat and Matrix both, it is the ideal place for a secret technomancer to call a safe haven. Digifex, a sleek, futuristic, be-helmeted science-fiction hero, Saint, a blood-red knight, two swords at her waist, and two dark wings at her back, and Buck, who is Buck, arrive in the host one after another and swiftly clock the sad, alcoholic bug-man at the bar. Lanius, who arrives not just on the Matrix but also on the meat with a dashing little dress, can also instantly tie that sad alcoholic bug-man to a sad, alcoholic teen-man drinking at the bar.

After some banter, and a little bragging about sleazing free drinks off of the host, chiTIN digs into the history of his request - not so much because it is necessary, the runners seem to gather, but because this kid clearly needs the vent. His dear friend group has drifted apart after somebody "destroyed the world" of their host. (Saint, unimpressed, politely informs him that hosts aren't worlds). The situation truly broke the three friends apart - br34ker, their third, left the both of them behind, and b0z0, who styles himself as a clown on the Matrix, began to become hateful, conspiratorial, and detached from reality. Though apart and barely still friends, chiTIN has been watching his persona. He cares for them, despite what they've both said. And unfortunately, his dear friend b0z0, has gone completely dark.

As he speaks, Saint downs a bottle of simsense Glint Eye to prove a point that it isn't real. It very much is. She takes a seat.

Digifex waxes on about the divinity of the Matrix. Not only is it a real world, it is *the* real world, with what most consider baseline reality a projection of its form. All the world is composed of information, and all information must lead back to the Resonance. The rest of the group blinks, but chiTIN vaguely agrees.

At any rate, their target's last known whereabouts are in Renton, the Johnson informs them, and occasionally described how he had to go outside for sunlight, how he had to color coordinate his natural green. The team, desperate for any clues at all, note this down with avid interest.

The Plan

After some quick reassurances and gentle pats on the back, the two major Matrix nerds in the group break to track down his online presence and trace his physical location from the pieces he's left. Saint and Buck, presumably, recline back at home. Saint, prodded into action by Lanius, "helps" with a Matrix search by screencapping a page of Gizoogle results and sending it as a compressed .jpg.

Nonetheless, they find their mark. His persona went offline deep in Night Hunters territory - unfortunate, of course, when coupled with the other fact uncovered by their sleuthing. b0z0 is most likely a Xapiri Thëpë, an elven metavariant that is exceedingly rare, and one that unfortunately plasters their chlorophyll-filled, nature loving bodies in a bright and Ancient green.

Given that he disappeared right in the middle of Night Hunters territory, if he weren't in danger just by being an elf, he is definitely in danger of being mistaken for a proper Ancient. The team move swiftly, and agree to meet in the suburb closest to his last known location, the most poorly kept secret of a dozen Night Hunter safe houses in an area rich with Humanis Policlub sympathizers.

On site, the crew adopt a stealthy approach and surveil the various properties. One of them is particularly notable - half a dozen skinheads sit outside, smoking, laughing, drinking - they sport plausibly deniable humanis tattoos, ones that can easily be covered with long sleeves and shirts. The presence of a small host on the Matrix seals the deal for the team's suspicions regarding this house in particular - and if they're wrong, hey, who's gonna feel bad about hitting Humanis?

Some brief discussion regarding strategy is had, but come on. Have you seen the list of runners up there? There's no way this ends in anything but an out-and-out slugfest.

The Run

The two Technomancers begin by sleazing marks onto the modest host the Night Hunters have set up here at their outpost by brushing their skinlinked hands up against a slaved car. With access granted, and the presence of a small-time security spider on-hand as well, the team opens up strong with direct connections on all the wireless tech the Night Hunters have on them and powerful data spikes to brick their shots as Saint and Buck race ahead to create the front line. Lanius follows with clinches, grapples, and holds as devices fry to smoke in her grip.

With the outside clearing up, Saint, without a thought in her brain, rushes forward to the wooden door leading to the inside of the house - and is promptly sucker punched by a fist firing straight through. She wheezes with the effort, and her stitches tear open slightly. Her doctor is displeased.

When the sawdust clears, two much more potent Night Hunters emerge from the home, their faces coated in tattoos, their bodies overwhelmed with highly illegal ware - one through the door that Saint just saw break, and one from the other end of the house. Digifex works swiftly on the Matrix to brick the full-auto weapon from the farside, while trusting Saint and Buck to handle the rest. As Buck full-autos through the walls to clear the chaff, Saint quickly confirms the lack of innocents in the garage and tosses a frag before sprinting after it. Though knives and fists reach for her, she squeezes through to the interior of the shredded home unbothered, briefly noting a trap door in the garage on the way.

The crew are treated to a helping of chunky salsa. The grunts break formation and drop their weapons in fearful defeat.

To the man glaring daggers at her through face tattoos and cybereyes, she asks if he has any keebs in the building. Yeah, he says. Obviously. There's one in the basement. He asks if he should raise a white flag, and Saint wonders out loud if the people he hurt ever did. He has a kid, he says, and she asks if he has a wife too, to balance out all the Humanis drek. She asks him if he teaches his kid to do shit like this too, and he says that's rich coming from such a chromed out knife-ear like Saint. She asks him who made her like that. He has no answer save to spit on her, and with a swift overhead strike, she executes him with only a trickle of remorse for half-orphaning a child.

The Beach That Makes You Evil

While Saint is being dramatic, the others find an escort shot by a bullet through the wall in the other room of the house. Lanius swiftly checks if she's with the supremacists, while the others argue that, even if she is, they did already surrender. After some deliberation and the compromise to revisit the issue if and when they can confirm her identity, the runners apply a trauma patch to staunch her bleeding and resolve to bring her with them before the police arrive. Buck gladly begins carrying her back to the vehicle. Kind of a situation they themselves caused, but at least their hearts are in the right place.

When the four regroup, they descend into the home's basement, a terrible, lightless little patch of dirt. Rotting food scraps sit untouched on two plates, and the corpse of a days-dead ork lies opposite the ladder, facing the wall.

To their immense relief, a wilted green elf, feral like an animal, scrambles away from the light the trap door brings and digs his little nails into the compact earth. He seethes and hisses that the skull is here, that all the lines connect, that it whispers to him, that this is the core of everything. And sure enough, half-emerged from that buried Earth, a human skull protrudes.

Digifex, with more context than any of them, instantly tells them that the kid needs to die. Saint, too baffled to even be angry, bluntly asks why, and Digifex waxes about disruption to order and dissonant chords, while Lanius instead beelines to pull the skull from the Earth.

Lanius visits the beach. (Please have Bean fill out her experiences here).

When she emerges, she grabs a gun and agrees. Digifex argues that this disease will spread and that it cannot be allowed to. Saint tells him, bluntly, that if he really believes that then to just shut up, stop being so morally grand-standing, and just do it, fully prepared to disarm him when he tries. Buck goes a step further, planting his wide body firmly between the barrel of a gun and the kid scrabbling in dirt, informing both of them he will be leaving with the kid hefted over his shoulder, alive, though the rest of them need not be.

Lanius counters, though inelegantly, that Digifex is right. With the repeated words "the beach that makes you evil" however, the two proponents of choosing life are radically unimpressed and unconvinced. Digifex, as he lifts the gun to fire, finds it being kicked swiftly out of his grip, and Buck reaffirming his role as a wall. Before the gun is picked up, he wirelessly ejects the magazine, and with a conflicted heart, he questions his commitment to his beliefs.

In the end, all four emerge and load up before Knight Errant are able to arrive.

Aftermath

An anxious kid in a hoodie sits outside a Barrens dive, and glows with relief as the runners roll up with his friend in tow. Without waiting for them to approach, he dashes forward and dives to engulf his lost friend in an enormous hug. With Lanius hard at work online submitting her footage of the run to her agent and picking away at the secrets of the Beach that Makes You Evil, Saint and Buck emerge and congratulate the kid on a job well done. Saint ruffles his hair, and even smiles seeing their reunion.

Digifex is not so pleased. He is broken, torn between breaking the Dissonance that he knows is an affront to the divinity of the Matrix, and consolidating that with the innocence of this boy barely more than a child afflicted by it. He leaves the scene with fewer answers than he arrived with.

Buck is able to take the skull home and present it to Cairn, who is very pleased with his work, and promises rewards in the future for his efforts.

Somewhere distant, a woman with purple eyes stands shoreside to the Pacific. She gazes contemplatively toward the horizon, and considers, briefly, a skull.

Rewards

• 500 nuyen (0 RVP but ch1t1n is a man of his word)
• 10 Karma (Didn't shoot the kid, saved Charlie)
• 14 cdp (6 RVP)
• +2 Positive Ancient Reputation, Digifex gets +5
• -20 Night Hunters Rep, Lanius gets -30
• -10 Humanis Policlub Reputation, Lanius gets -20

• 1 Public Awareness, 2 for Lanius for the photo shoot

• Lanius gets 5 rep with CAPWF

• Optional Qualities:
  • Analytical mind for the searchers
  • Touch as Nails for Buck (physical or stun)

• Optional Rewards:
  • Up to 28k in legal or restricted delivery drones/cars (basically nothing military, nothing with guns on it, use your best judgement, this will be subtracted from the run rewards like an optional qualities)

• Relevant Parties may take a submersion discount.

• Buck gets +1 chip on Cairn for bringing it a REALLY fucked up skull (he LOVES it)

• Narrative Consequences:
  • Charlie (the woman of the night that was caught in the crossfire) survives the nights event, however she is hospitalized with an extended stay. She is currently in a coma.
  • b0z0 lives and is entrusted into the care of ch1t1n and br34k3r. It is unclear whether he will recover from the brush with dissonance.
  • Lanius's new single does very well for about three hours before it is struck down with threatened legal action.
  • Derrick Clark, the Home Owner's Association Attorney bankrolling that chapter of the Night Hunters is very publically dead. Humanis starts using this in their advertising for the upcoming election.

Game Quotes

"I guess etiquette would be better for racially profiling him..." -Bean, as Lanius

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Digifex

"Everything was simple going until the damn kid had to be dissonant. If he's not fully gone, I can only hope that something can help, whether a paragon's divine blessing or a wiz doc, I don't care, just don't let one more of us fade into nothing. I'll say I won't hold out hope, but Paragons, I have to."

Buck

"You know, usually I like my dust-ups with a little less creepy-murder-basement-pits and a little more fun-in-the-sun. But then again, any day I get to save a sick kid and put down some racists is a good day. And everybody important walked away more or less unscathed. Or... Well, almost everybody..."

Saint

"They were seriously gonna kill some kid over the 'beach that makes you evil' or some shit - the frag does that even mean? Drek, he's got people who love him, you see how big that hug was? Glad he made it outta there - he'll be fine with friends like that by his side... Hope the girl makes it too."