Heartache

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

This AAR contains topics of sexual assault, forced augmentation, human trafficking, and other dark topics. Please be advised when reading that there are several triggering subjects contained within.

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. Lumin and Oberon try to blend into the party, with Oberon being approached by a young ork woman (who he promptly sneaks away with and drains of a point of essence while the rest of the team works the job), and Lumin spots other members of her journalism classes and sees what they know about Kristine. She finds a student who explains that Kristine mostly kept to herself, that she was focused deeply on school, but that her shadowrunner project was common knowledge, though she wasn't working with anyone on it. However Lumin was pointed to a rabbit SURGE in the photojournalism program that Lumin was able to discuss with, learning about a project the two had done a few months back where they were meant to capture what life in the different districts of Seattle were like in a photo taken within that district. They explained that Kristine was avoiding Tacoma and areas of Downtown, however the two of them had gone to downtown together before starting to be harassed by two Asian men, but Kristine spoke with them and they were eventually left alone.

Bunny Hop meanwhile manages to break through the maglock that keeps Kristine's apartment door locked and attempts to open it only to find it blocked. While the techno starts to bust into the door, shattering the door that is adhered to the door to prevent entry, she sends in a flyspy and connects with it, seeing that the apartment appears to have searched due to ransacking or simply being the home of a college student that lives alone. Within the apartment BHop finds paperwork that is written in Japanese, both from Lucky Rabbit Motors about the lease on her car, as well as a connected contract, a loan with the Shotozumi-gumi in the amount of 100,000 nuyen with a 10% interest per month. It's not clear if Kristine ran from the yakuza or if she was taken by them, but it is clear that she is currently in their clutches. The group leave the party and rendezvous at the pizzeria where they share all the data they've gathered.

The runners spend some time sharing info before they decide that if they're going to look deeper probably better to be somewhere private and head to Oberon's bolt hole. Having confirmed that Kristine is in the hands of the Yakuza, the runners set about figuring out where exactly she's being kept. Bunny Hop steps outside and calls Kousuke Yamada to check on the Shotozumi's holdings around Tacoma and any other bunraku parlors that might hold their target. At the same time Lumin moved to a private room upstairs to start searching through Yakuza clubs and other businesses for facial recognition. Putting the information together the group realize that the bunraku parlor is hidden somewhere in the Wizened Dragon gentleperson club in Tacoma and it's run by a Shotozumi named Yagami. John summons a spirit of air to go and scout the place out while Oberon and Blackhawk drive around the area with him getting a sense of the security. The spirit is able to pierce the ward and find Kristine down below the club, however in an attempt to find a way outside an adept on guard duty spots the spirit and engages it in combat, barely managing to escape thanks to John's expending some of his own luck for the spirit.

Lumin calls the Johnson, and explains that Kristine was taken by the Yakuza, and the team is thinking about negotiating for her release, while they agree to give up the pay that was offered to cover half of the debt, the Johnson agrees to take out a loan of his own from a bank to pay the rest of it. With that sorted, Lumin dives into the sleaziest host that the young technomancer has ever been in, getting a hold of the cameras in the basement and discovering that there are 16 bunraku doll cells that the yakuza were using at the moment, in various forms of poor health. Identifying their target, the group realize that Kristine has had several pieces of cyberware implanted in the last week and is still recovering from the invasive surgery.

Understanding that even if the group are able to negotiate with the yaks for Kristine's release, they are going to get raked over the coals for more than the 100k that is owed, and a general distaste of the bunraku and yaks in general, the runners decide that they are going to attempt to free the rest of the bunkraku dolls and somehow manage to do this without dropping yak bodies or pissing them off so as to avoid potential blowback. John and Blackhawk call Messner again, and ask if he is willing to house several people who probably have significant trauma, and the community leader agrees without hesitation.

The Run

Lumin gets back into the host and begins to use her techno powers to send a message to the yakuza within the club to convince them to come out. Seeing that they were forced to leave larger weapons behind, John attempts to influence those outside with mind magic, however is unable to get any of the abilities to stick, alerting the guards to the fact that some sort of magic had been cast upon them. Realizing that this meant the team would have to go with their louder option, Lumin immediately pulled the fire alarm using Puppeteer, the fade knocking the young technomancer out at the same time the alarm went off, causing Lumin to suffer dumpshock, but completing her job within the plan. BHop took over matrix overwatch while Oberon and Blackhawk infiltrated the club, John sending in the spirit of air that wished for vengeance against the Adept for the disrespect it had suffered earlier while staying within the van as the getaway driver.

Oberon and Blackhawk engage in a pitched battle with the yakuza, where they fight on even terms with the six guards involved, Blackhawk being knocked down and relying on regeneration to live, while Oberon dropped two flashbangs before Mist Forming and sliding into the secret entrance to the basement while Blackhawk cleaned up with help from BHop and the sprite companion that she had brought. In the basement guarding the bunraku dolls was Yagami, who offered Oberon three hundred thousand nuyen to just walk away from the job and convince the rest of the team to do so as well. Deciding against that course of action Oberon attacks Yagami, only to find himself on the other side of a weapon foci and fighting for his life. Eased somewhat by Blackhawk appearing and supporting the banshee, the two runners were still being fought on equal footing to the mystic adept until Oberon struck him with the fear power and the yakuza leader fled, casting invisibility on himself and fleeing through an escape tunnel. Blackhawk attempted to follow and track him, however between the mission of getting the dolls out and the sirens nearing the club, they decided it was the better to simply complete the job while BHop erased the signatures of the two technos and wiped the cameras.

Managing to load the bunraku victims into the van, despite the protestations and suspicion of Kristine, the group managed to avoid detection back to the Ork Underground where they were met by Messner.

Aftermath

The bunraku victims were given over to Messner to get therapy and care while they are transitioned out of their programming and faced with becoming real people again, while Kristine calls Vincent on Blackhawk's extra commlink. While the girl does not wish to deal with therapy, or having to get a new identity or transfer schools, she is thankful to the runners and Vincent for coming to her aid. However she is corralled into therapy by a very persuasive therapist and her therapy animal

Rewards

10k Nuyen (5 RVP)

8 karma (8 RVP)

14 CDP (7 RVP +2 free)

Optional Contact: Messner Vukotic (https://shreloaded.net/wiki/Messner_Vukotic) (C4/L2 Fixer/Clinic Manager) (5 RVP or 10 RVP)

Blackhawk may purchase Lightning Reflexes at Chargen Rates

John Galt gets 25 Wild Index for dealing fairly with a spirit and offering it a chance at revenge.

-10 Shotozumi-gumi Rep

+5 Streets of Seattle Rep

+2 Ork Underground Rep

Narrative Consequences Opportunities:

- Bunny Hop owes 2 chips to Kousuke Yamada

- Bunny Hop has the number of an emo/gothic bunny SURGE

- Yagami escaped after seeing Oberon's face

- Lumin learned about BHop's yakuza connections

- The Wizened Dragon Gentleperson club is shut down by Knight-Errant

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

John Galt: DNI -> A headache that could probably talk for itself. Where's Lumin?? Bunny Hop -> Group DNI: Sleeping off dumpshock. If everything's cool on your end, I have a call I gotta make really quick, try not to get in another fight in the next like, five minutes, 'kay? John Galt:DNI: Well, you know, no promises. Figured I might tell a dragon to go fuck off on the way home, just to cap the night, you know?

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

John Galt

So this one time, we apparently decided to go hooding. What does that mean, you ask? Beating up gangers? No, of course not, it means we ended up raiding a bunraku parlor and turning the whole place upside. When I die to some fucking ninja attack, say something nice at the funeral. But hey, made some new friends, made some new contacts, got a kid out of the shadows. Can't believe I gave the money back...

Bunny Hop

[Akiha, bitter and dead-eyed and lying in bed, vegetates with a half-focused gaze at the burn and blade scars along her arms. Her decoy comm, ignored, jingles and washes over her for the dozenth time while the name Takashi Kurosawa flashes in the bottom corner of her eyes.]

[The SURGE'd bunny girl's commcode, a blinking dial pad, lingers mid-air as an untouched ARO. Akiha's red rabbit persona gently shoves it aside, out of sight. She hurts imagining herself alongside something so plainly wonderful as that fantasy.]

"Honto ni muda da wa..." [She whispers to herself, quiet and resigned.] "Watashi no koto..."

[At least the girls are okay.]