Heartache

Heartache
Date 2085-06-22 GM OrionRequiem Location Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Shotozumi-rengo
John Galt Lumin Blackhawk Bunny Hop Oberon

Summary

In which the runners aid a man to find the love of his life.

Background

A few months ago Vincent Zalpha met a young woman by the name of Kristine Salwood. They hit it off and began dating, however, Salwood fell into debt with the Shotozumi-gumi and fell behind on her payments and was kidnapped by the Shotozumi and brought to one of the "up-and-coming" bunraku parlors hidden in a Tacoma gentleperson's club.

The Meet

Arriving at the Pinnacle House in Redmond, the runners meet up with Mr. Johnson in one of the corner booths and note that he is obviously uncomfortable with the idea of being in this runner bar and near the other runners. He also appears to be quite run down for some reason. Once the runners introduce themselves the Johnson explains that he is looking for his girlfriend of a few months who disappeared two weeks ago. Lumin recognizes the picture as a fellow student in her journalism study courses, and the young techno confirms that she's been gone from the classes for two weeks.

Mr. Johnson says that Kristine didn't have many friends and wasn't close with her parents, but that when going to Knight Errant they said that it was already under investigation despite none of her professors or others noting that she was missing in his own investigations. He provides the runners with a photograph of Kristine as well as the license plate of the car that she is leasing as starting points. He also told the runners that she was working on some sort of assignment for school that had her looking into runners who participated in "hooding", and that she had been hanging out around Tacoma and was even going into the Ork Underground at times. He offers the runners 10,000 nuyen each to find her and making sure that she's okay. Even if she doesn't want to see him or continue dating him, his main concern is that Kristine is safe and able to continue to follow her dreams.

It becomes clear that the Johnson is very new in the criminal underworld, as he tries to pay the runners upfront for their services, but they explain that the pay is for once the job is complete, and take off to do the job.

The Plan

Bunny Hop runs a matrix search on the vehicle and finds out that it's parked outside a Bellevue apartment that is filled with UDub students like the missing person they're looking for, across from Mario's Pizzeria, and also that it had been tagged by gridguide around Tacoma, UDub proper, the local supermarket and stuffer shack, and other public locations, though it had been sitting outside the apartment for about two weeks. The technomancer also finds out that the car is a lease from Lucky Rabbit Motors, but not yet owned. Blackhawk calls Ghaz and inquires if the Skraacha lieutenant knows about their missing person. Luckily for the runners, the cowboy comes through and he does recognize the picture, telling Blackhawk that she was looking into Messner Vukotic's clinic, but had enough common sense to avoid Skraacha business.

The group split into two parts. John Galt and Blackhawk head to the Ork Underground to meet with Messner and ask around, while BHop, Lumin, and Oberon head to the Bellevue apartment to search her home. John and Blackhawk get into the OU without issue thanks to Blackhawk's contacts with the Skraacha and make their way to Messner's clinic where the Russian expat explains that the student came by to attempt to identify one of the therapists who worked there about this hooding project, but the therapist would refuse the interview before Kristine would leave and then return a few days later to repeat the same request. He didn't know about any trouble she was in, but from the little that he talked with her he learned that she apparently had some sort of debt that she was dealing with in the last few weeks that was causing her some stress.

Meanwhile, Lumin, BHop and Oberon disguise themselves as college students to infiltrate a party that is being thrown across the hallway from Kristine's apartment.

Game Quotes

[Flustered] "You're such a rat! You sold me out! I was just looking!" "I got you the commcode of a cute emo Bunny SURGE. "thank you" is typically the combination of words that people use for a service like that." [Embarrassed] "...F- Fine, yeah, thanks I guess..." -BHop and Lumin after leaving a college party