Never Make Deals with Catboys
| Never Make Deals with Catboys | |||||||||
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 Mr. Johnson (Mafia), Cesare Gianelli | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | |||||||||
| Blackhawk | |||||||||
Summary
The youngest Giannelli son, Cesare, is a notorious fetishist with a penchant for catboys and chrome. His tasting menu for the night in question was organic, free-range catboy. A little too free-range, as it happened. Embarrassingly, even his entertainment seems to have started to rebel against him, and he was plenty angry about the revolution. Unable to afford any more shenanigans on his hands that made their way back to his father, a request was pinged to the Haven asking for someone with the social graces and tracking prowess to come help control the pet population.
He might seem like an idiot – and he is – but this swaggering fool has traits in keeping with that of another notable Mafia playboy: Caesar Ciarniello. For now, he’s just a pup, but his proclivities have already put him in line to lean into the redlit side of the Italians’ business ventures. With the same reputation for laziness and sleaze, he keeps one of the luxury suites above the main floor of Stuck’s Carnival’s main casino and chases borgs and boys with a persistence that he does not show in any other area of his life. Still, he has a chip on his shoulder and is one to watch.
Background
On a dark, drizzly night in the Seattle exclave, fixer Sally Tsang reached out to a runner by the name of Blackhawk with what sounded like Mafia business that needed doing at Stuck’s Carnival. Home to a thriving black market trade, one might presume smuggling or wetwork would have been on the agenda. One would be wrong, though Sally conveniently left that bit out of the job offer.
The Meet
Blackhawk pulled himself away from casually watching Redmond teenagers fist fighting each other in a local park to take his Yamaha Nodachi for a spin out towards Auburn. When he arrived, he shed his heavier weaponry in favour of his standard cowboy hat, trench coat, and revolvers. Headed into a relatively civilized joint, he elected to work with stick and shock.
As he approached The Carnival, a blond human man watched him intently, initially muddying the waters about who the actual contact ought to be. Whilst Blackhawk was considering this, shadowy movements around the building caught his eye. Upon investigation, he found an alleyway on the (West) side of the building with a chain-link fence marked ‘Employees Only’ about halfway down beside a large dumpster. A small figure dropped down on the other side and met his eye, presumably the source of the flickering shadowy ears and tail that he had seen disappear around the side of the building.
With no real reason to pursue, he made his way back toward the entrance to the casino and entered. The blond man he had assensed earlier had vanished, the mundane blandness he gave off along with a sense of slightly sprained ankles and annoyance the only foreshadowing of the fact that he had been one of the Mafia members already having failed at the task he was about to attempt himself.
As he made his way in to find the primary host and head concierge, Armin Longo, a fabulous man with a familiar manner and delight in pretty boys a little too progressive for the conservative Mafia. His excellence at his job and positive rapport with guests of all stripes have earned him the tolerance of his Family employers, as has the fact that very little is missed by his keen half-elven eyes.
Armin greeted Blackhawk in his heavily Italian-accented English and flirtingly guided him to the private rooms at the back (North) side of the casino. The fourth door on the right held a rattled young Mafia member that reeked of liberal cologne use and nepotism. After a rough beginning trying to hammer out a deal in which he seemed insulted this service worker would question his request, his second-in-command (read: the trusted made man appointed by his father to act as his babysitter), Vincent “Vinny” Giovanni, stepped in and was able to come to an agreement with Blackhawk to pay out four hundred nuyen per head on the returned entertainers who had gone missing on the premises after their own men and the casino’s staff had failed to successfully wrangle them.
The Plan
Blackhawk set out to acquire the catboy targets with the understanding that at least six of the fifteen needed to be recovered in order to collect the bounty. He also made a concerted effort to recover them without weapons or violence, and to keep the distractions in the casino to a minimum in order to keep young Gianelli’s already tarnished reputation from earning even more ire from the higher-ups who would otherwise have to clean up his mess if the runner failed his mission.
The Run
The job was supposed to be relatively simple, but Blackhawk ended up using a mixture of negotiation, stealth, and tactical skills to complete the mission without arousing attention from Gianelli’s father or more senior Mafia members. He also had to negotiate his way through interactions with a Wuxing agent planted amongst the Mafia and provide leverage to one of the catboys in the form of a Yakuza daughter’s assault and murder of which Gianelli is rumoured to have been participant. Not only are they armed with information: he helped one young catboy with a recommendation and donation towards his first gun, so chances are we might see more of this group soon as they mount more elaborate events like this one.
The Targets
A skilled thief and cat burglar, Mittens found easy money as hirable entertainment for wealthy patrons. Fascinated with the most perfect roulette ball, he attempted to pilfer it by stealthily lurking beneath the tables on the casino floor. Blackhawk found him first when he noted brown gloves resting on the roulette wheel that clashed with the black-gloved guest standing nearest to it. While he initially almost managed to escape, his chuckle was heard by the runner’s keen auditory perception. After refusing to steal a diamond ring from a nearby guest, Blackhawk agreed to obtain the roulette ball for him. After an awkward session of haggling with the croupier, he tipped the staff member two hundred nuyen and exchanged the prize with Mittens for a promise that he would not try to run. Mittens honoured this agreement and also provided him a tip on where to find another catboy named Corey Pawlson.
A non-verbal and amorous catboy who loves a chase, Corey had hidden out in the dining room of the casino’s restaurant and main bar. Blackhawk left Mittens knocking back martinis at the bar when he clocked rustling in a large nearby plant. With his incredible stealth, he risked the anger of the hostess who had allowed him to sit at the bar since he lacked a reservation for the restaurant itself. He played a game of red light/green light through the restaurant trying to DNI Corey, who mewled and treated it like a game. Blackhawk risked heading into the kitchen itself and in the end slung Corey under an arm and carried him back to the bar where he notified Vinny of the capture, masterfully avoiding conflict with a waitress who intercepts him temporarily on his way through the restaurant. Vinny sent some of his men to collect him and Mittens.
When catboys were light on the ground, Blackhawk decided to seek out the small figure he had seen on his way into the Stuck’s Casino at the top of the night. He inspected the area and found prints that led him, with gecko gloves, over the fence and up the West wall of the casino to a broken neon sign where he found the same figure making an effort to look at the stars. They had a genuine conversation, and Blackhawk asked if he can tell him who the shadowy figures he has glimpsed above further up on the roof are, but Chester was new to entertainment and did not know. Blackhawk traded him knowledge of a place where he can view the stars to get him to return to work, which Chester accepted. They agreed that he would stay outside and try to catch a glimpse of the sky, take in the fresh air until all the other boys are returned. In the end, Blackhawk signaled him when the rest were collected and he honoured his promise.
After leaving Chester, Blackhawk geckoed his way up to the roof where the two shadowy figures have vanished. He searched for them, saw nothing. The roof access door had been opened, but not recently enough to show dust in the air; nor had it made a noise of closing hurriedly. He looked down the (South) side of the building near the entrance and saw a ginger cat smirking up and him before walking into the casino. He notified Vinny’s men, but the cat managed to evade them. On the roof, he checked the far (East) wall and three catboys jumped him. Instead of immediately dodging them, he allowed himself to be tackled in order to get them in range. One sat on his chest and started to threaten him before Blackhawk managed to get the best of him and extract himself. They haggle, and Eamon, a shadowrunner himself, strikes a deal for three runs – one for each of the individuals on the roof who jumped him – and with exasperation Blackhawk agrees. When Eamon (runner name: Nermil) left the roof with another catboy named Fred “Scuzzy” Flumkin, it became apparent that the third figure was actually a wolfboy named Earl. E. Howl. Disgusted at the deception, Blackhawk vows to honour his word and have a chat with Eamon to renegotiate his ill-gotten deal.
After Earl E. Howl fled Blackhawk’s eerie chuckles upon realizing the deception, Blackhawk made his way back down and into the casino where he looked around for more of his quarry. One of the catboys was performing on-stage and he made his way over to watch the close of the performance. He followed him as he was walking away, and rebuffed his advances – not the first pass that had been made at him that night – before asking what it would take to get him to head back to his job. After a few false starts, the thrill-seeking entertainer accepted a performance by Blackhawk on-stage in catboy ears to return. Blackhawk obliged, pulling contact assistance to disguise himself and perform a popular country ballad to the applause of the crowd. Jack White kept his promise, and was so tickled at Blackhawk’s moxie that he called up two of the other catboys: twins Jingles & Jangles, who sight unseen turned themselves also.
Wandering back into the marble-floored corridor where private game rooms were located, Blackhawk waited, trusting his gut. His patience paid off when a well-dressed catboy in a green jacket darted from one room towards another across the hall. They interacted, but the individual’s manners were so polished and he was so obviously well-off that it threw off the investigation. Additionally, Blackhawk had DNI’d the ginger cat named Heathcliff after obtaining the name from Jack White, mistakenly thinking that this catboy was one and the same. When he realized it was not, he started to let him go before realizing he was one of the missing boys as well! Hearing Blackhawk had carried Corey, he asks Blackhawk for a piggyback ride through the casino. With the request denied, he settles for an owed favour for himself or his family with the understanding that they may find mutual benefit in future: Olivier Nodd may be a Fixer or a Johnson.
One more down, Blackhawk checks the gaming tables on the main casino floor. A broad-shouldered man in a grey hoodie turns out to be an elder catboy (catman?) who has seen some things the same way Blackhawk has. Fresh off of a smarmy DNI with Heathcliff who has insulted Blackhawk’s competence to do his job in which he finally tells the runner not to bother contacting him or trying to find him unless he actually finds all the others, Blackhawk settles into several hands of Texas Hold ‘Em with Winken Goddard. They discuss the races being bet on across the trid screens in the casino, and a horse named Silver is recommended to Blackhawk. From a place of mutual respect, and a general consensus that indignant and underpaid work is simply a facet of life in the city, the silver-haired catboy makes his way back to work.
Minding his own business playing slots near the secondary bar, Cal initially thinks that Blackhawk is aggressively hitting on him. After the confusion is cleared up, Cal teased Blackhawk for being assigned this job by his fixer. They have a brief exchange in French, in which Cal demonstrated his fluency. He ultimately asked for a contact in exchange for going back to work, and Blackhawk pays back Sally Tsang (a.k.a. Taxi Sally) by giving the catboy her information. It backfired and the pair were DNI back and forth every time Blackhawk saw the catboy for the rest of the evening.
Continuing his hunt, Blackhawk encountered someone who was more than just a bully like Eamon out for any opportunistic advantage in the form of Xhu Jin. A Wuxing plant, they had a back and forth in which Blackhawk disclosed some of his history in an effort to encourage Xhu that some games are not worth playing, especially with corporations. Xhu disclosed that they have people close to them in the line of fire if they do not perform for the corporation, but as a collector of interesting things and specialty intel, they demand Blackhawk’s name in exchange for their cooperation. In the end, Blackhawk narrowly sidesteps a bet in which he would have been locked into a cage for the night in Xhu’s stead should he lose their wager. At the last moment, Xhu walked away, bored of the game. He has a long memory and a poker chip Blackhawk threw to him, to that may not be the last time he makes an appearance. The indication of tensions between someone at Wuxing and the local Mafia in Stuck’s Carnival is concerning.
Nearing the end of his long night, Blackhawk searched around again, looking high and low. In the washrooms near the front of the building he found a loose ceiling tile and hoisted himself up into the gap where he found handprints and signs of someone crawling around up there. Without proper lighting as he followed the tracks, he used the glow from a red laser dot to slowly make his way until he ran into a vent. The vent had a half-bent grating with a stuck screw. He was able to use a bullet in the subtle glow of the scope to open it enough to squeeze in himself. He followed the vents, using his sniff snoff abilities to snorf out the scent of sweat and follow it back to… a ceiling tile opened above the hall where a large chandelier hands over the marbled hall between the private poker rooms. He, in an infuriatingly well-done combination of gymnastics and gecko gloving lowered himself from the ceiling. Most of the people in the hall showed little concern, but a troll bodyguard called to him to make sure he was not going to be a problem. A waitress saw him dangling from the edge of the wall and ceiling and walked to the main floor, set aside a tray of drinks, and simply left the building never to return after deciding it was above her pay grade to deal with creeping figures that might be assassins. Blackhawk made his way down to the floor and managed to get some information from Bonita Clare, the troll bodyguard; and Albert, another runner who was nondescript and by all appearances a competent man. He found two catboys within the room, Blinken Goddard and the elusive and dismissive ginger catboy, Heathcliff. They talk for a while an Blinken explained a bit of their mischief along with a reluctant Heathcliff, who was more interested in martinis than the shadowrunner’s task. As Blinken left, he told Blackhawk that he thought he “might be close to the end of your task, winding it down for the night”.
Blackhawk looked high and low for the final catboy, checking the suit where Winken was breaking it down like a classic go-go dancer and Corey Pawlson was turning himself inside out to try to get his mitts on the runner. Xhu tempted him with more information if he wanted to give his name or provide some other piece of information, which Blackhawk again declined. At that, he asked Cal if he knew anything, but the catboy was too wrapped up in messaging with his fixer to pay much attention. He told him the name of the new and final catboy.
After going around a lot of the casino again and striking out, Blackhawk went to large doubledoors at the end of the private area hall. Heathcliff saw him through the door and heckled him, and inadvertently tipped him to the final catboy hidden behind the bar within the room where Heathcliff had been making drinks. The small catboy with a cowboy hat was enamored of Blackhawk’s persona and asked for his hat, which Blackhawk would not give him. Eventually Blackhawk gave him five hundred nuyen for a gun of his own and recommendation, which he happily took and went off to work. Odds are this will have ramifications, and there is a non-zero chance this will be the origins of a new organization in the Seattle exclave, someday. Maybe.
After all the other boys have been found and wheeled and dealed back to work, Heathcliff sipped his martini and chatted with Blackhawk, who managed to talk him from a hostile position to a suspicious one. It turned serious, Heathcliff revealing misgivings about his employer and a veiled insinuation that the younger Gianelli needed to be managed. He, like the others, is unhappy with the poor etiquette of the man, but also wants dirt to level him if needed. Ideally, he prefers to work for his father or one of the more senior members of the family both for his own ends and to better position the catboys as a sub culture.
Blackhawk had made an effort to ensure the catboys were not being harmed or mistreated by the Gianelli brat during each capture, an extra step that earned their trust and confirmed that they generally had a favourable impression of Vincent Giovanni also. Not only were they just having a bit of mischief, they were punishing young Gianelli for his habitual stiffing on their usual and perquisite fees. Rumour has it that’s about all there is stiff about the lecherous nepo baby. They hoped to embarrass Gianelli and potentially inflame his difficulties within the Ciarnielli-run Mafia crime family. Blackhawk used his intel on the missing Yakuza-connected woman, Yamaguchi Akemi, to provide Heathcliff leverage against Gianelli should he step too far out of line, thereby protecting the catboys and potentially other entertainers that might run afoul of the Ciarniello Family prince’s ego and temper. Heathcliff seemed to think there might be reason to suspect Gianelli was into darker things than what most of them had encountered in his relatively public dealings.
Aftermath
In the end, Blackhawk managed to return all fifteen of the missing catboys and unveil the reason for their actions. He had to flex his social abilities and learn that sometimes approaching people with a little small talk and commiseration can open doors to make tasks easier. One waitress might have quit her job after seeing a cryptid dangling from the ceiling, but he made a good impression on the troll woman, Bonita Clare, guarding one of the private poker games and found two potential contacts: Albert, another runner; and Olivier Nodd, a well off potential future Johnson. The shadowrunner called Nermil, Billy Eamon, also holds his marker for aid in three runs. He managed to dodge the attentions of Wuxing's agent for the most part since he was not the explicit target, but it might due to remember the interaction in future and keep an eye out for this dangerous cat.
As an added benefit, the catboys have some laxatives hand-acquired to taint Gianelli’s booze for a minor prank if he steps out of line again. Blackhawk had a positive interaction with Vincent Giovanni as he settled up with him, and also mentioned Albert was looking for an in with the family, which Vinny took in stride and intends to follow up with the man to explore. Gianelli might be a prat, but Blackhawk made a good impression with the more senior Mafia member, Giovanni. If he needed an in to the family, the made man with knowledge and respect amongst the Family members might be willing to discuss it with him in future.
Rewards
Never Make Deals with Catboys Run Rewards:
Total Run Time: 9 hours, 30 minutes. (w/7*1.6 Multiplier)
6k Nuyen (3 RVP)
5 Karma (5 RVP)
6 CDP (3 RVP)
+2 Base CDP
11 RVP Total
(-3 favours owed to Billy Eamon and the Catboys)
(+4 available contact(s): Olivier Nodd, Albert, Vincent Giovanni, and Bonita Clare)
(+1 optional clothing/disguise item: catboy ears - no armour/mechanical value)