Living in the Shadows: IC, your run might be over... Options

[Sedna]

0630 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - a bit early at the Last Drop, but not bad

The smell of frying eggs and onions told her Johnny was already at work, even before she heard the soft metallic shift of the lock and the heavy metal shutter lifted in front of her.

"Téch, girl, thought ye'd be across a couple borders by now. Ye look bleedin' knackered. Bad dose?"

Anne ran her fingers through her short pink-tinged blonde curls. (She'd chopped it short and burnt it in an alley garbage pail almost an hour back.) "Been a long night, has. Got the soykaf on?"

"Keep yer alans on, girl, it's coming. This weather'd freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Aha," and his tone became lightly interrogative as the two of them began to unload the upended chairs, working their way toward the back kitchen, "ye've got on your questin' face."

Anne blinked, more suggestion than anything actually visible through the thick lenses. "Ka?"

"Ye've got something you need her to do. Right?"

Anne sighed. "Right."

"Well, she's had a long night too. She'll be in when she's in and not an instant before, and I'm guessin' since ye've donned yer workin' garb yer question will keep that long, if ye don't keel over first." All the chairs are down now, the counter's been cleared of cats and wiped down, and he's retrieving a covered plate from the kitchen that's making Anne's stomach growl just by the smell of it. "Ach, away with ye. Go, eat. And lose the Pred before the coppers get here. That's not the kind of attention ye want, or us either."

[paul_HArkonen]

500 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - Home

After dropping Alleycat off at the Inferno Blaze drove himself home, still filled with frustration at his difficulty, and his inability to protect the last of his family. Arriving home Blaze pulled into the underground lot beneath his apartment.

After a short walk up the stairs, the elevator had been out yet again, but Blaze knew better than to expect that to change, Blaze opened the door and dropped his coat off on the ground. The first thing Blaze did once inside his house was call Max, informing him of the close call, but the overall fuitility of the night.

Looking out the opened window Blaze gazed at the houses and the apartments, each holding peacefully sleeping families. All of them whole, all of them content and protected by their mother and father corps, those companies that have fuined so many lives, and threaten to take away Blaze's entire family. Those companies that are so evil, yet hide their vile nature behind a kind and cheery facade. Those companies that Blaze knew had ended his first life and given him this second, harder, life.

Feeling his frustration and the exaustion of the day Blaze fetl his control snap. Gazing at the astral and sky above the buildings Blaze focused for one moment, letting his anger materialized and burn in the night sky.

The fireball Blaze released could bee seen as only a bright a flash in the night sky, a light that only the few early rising wage slaves could see. Settling back, his anger burned out of him, Blaze closed the window and fell into his bed trying to get at least a little sleep before another long and exausting day.

[Shadowrunner13]

15:37:24 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Tenmou climbs into the car beside Miss Omura, setting his pack between his legs.

"905 West Park Avenue, Tacoma, please", he tells the cabbie.

He keeps an eye on Miss Omura's body language to try and figure out what she's thinking. Something about this unsettled him. Why would a prim and proper Japanese woman be going to the slums of Tacoma?

[grendel]

15:51:24 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Miss Omura doesn't speak during the fifteen minute cab ride across town, her long black hair hiding her face from Tenmou's gaze. Her hands remain folded in her lap, holding her small black purse. Apart from the incessant drone of traffic, the only sound that fills the cab is the discordant electronic beats of the Caribbean Guitar Rock station the driver has tuned in.

A chill wind cuts down the street when the cab pulls up in front of the Tacoma address, biting at exposed skin. Tenmou pays for the ride before stepping out, holding the door for his charge. She slides gracefully from the back seat, pausing on the curb beside him. A hint of perfume finds its way to him before the wind snatches it away. She shivers suddenly, as if cold, then turns her face to Tenmou for the first time. He's not sure what is more striking: the delicate procelain beauty of her face, or the tears streaking down her cheeks.

"Please," she says, her voice small with emotion, "please take me away."

[Shadowrunner13]

15:52:43 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Tenmou has to make a concerted effort to keep his facial expression neutral.

"Crap..." he thought.

He motions to the cabbie to please wait before turning back to Miss Omura.

"Miss Omura, you're going to have to come clean with me. I am bound to your uncle and if you want me to stake my reputation and my livelihood on not following through with a job, you're going to have to convince me. What is going to happen when you go through that door?"

[grendel]

15:53:03 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

Miss Omura bows her head again, her dark hair falling over her face. Her voice is a quiet sigh.

"I will no longer exist."

[WinterRat1]

1415 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Dragon sighed. "I got a place, it's not much, but it's place. Still, we're not dealing with the bigger problem. No matter where we go right now, if we don't shake this tail, we still aren't going to be safe or have a place where we can plan or rest up. I'm thinking we should go somewhere public, let security work for us instead of against us."

[Moirdryd]

11:45 Saturday 6th January, 2063- Southside Tacoma, Seattle, UCAS

Knight yawns, blinking into wakefulness. He tilts his head looking for the chrono reading off his wristphone, sharp elven eyes picking out the demi illuminated digits easily in the snug dark of the `coffin`.

Nearly midday he winces as pain lances through his shoulder reminding him of how close his escape had been. Luckily he had been only bruised. I hope Calvin isnt expecting me anywhere

Knight studied his wristphone again. Nodding in a mix of satisfaction and annoyance at the message reader that indicated 0 messages waiting.

Well, he`s a busy man and he`s already done a fair bit for me. Best check out the lay of the land while i`m waiting.

Pondering the security of his current location Knight rested back and closed his eyes. Steadying his breathing for a few seconds he felt the sensation of detachement that always came whenever he projected. His astral form flowed free from his body and stepped out into the hotel`s corridor. Taking a few moments he surveyed his surroundings noting many of the coffins were vacated, though one or two still house slumbering forms. Content that he was not about to be observed Knight`s astral body drifted back inside the coffin and reconnected with his meat form waiting inside.

Blinking a few times Knight took another moment or two more to re-adjust from astral senses back into flesh ones before opening the door at the foot of the coffin. Sliding out into the corridor he gave the area another quick visual check before pulling his coat from the cubicle and slipping it around his body. Next was the ornate katana. "Rosekiss," he smiled as he breathed the weapon`s name in a whisper before looping its scabbard leashes into the appropriate eyelets within the coat to keep it concealed. Finally the Cavelier Deputy was carefully stowed in the concealed holster strapped to the small of his back. Again the coat hiding its presence too.

Preparations for the afternoon done with he sealed the coffin again. Setting his wristphone to alert him to any messages along with calls Knight walks down the corridor into the hotel reception, giving a passing nod to the human woman who was now manning the desk, and out into Tacoma.

[Sedna]

0908 Tuesday, January 9, 2063 - Land's End Magic Shop

The sound of the door bells blinks Andie awake. What ... where ...

Then he remembered: back of Sara's shop, fragging interrupted night, something about Thursday (what day was it anyway? too easy to lose track of people time) ... circulation!

With that he's wide awake and bolting up to check it. Something's obviously disrupted the mana flows around the circulation. Something's a bit off, possibly seriously, and he can't begin to fix it until he finds out the hows and whys.

[banditf50]

12:00 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - The Streets of Tacoma

Striding three blocks down Catrun Avenue Knight steps off the curb and crosses the slush filled street. A light snow has begun to fall, the wet type that always manages to slip down under your collar. Feeling a shiver work its way up his spine Knight lets his mind wander away from the cold, away from the dampness, and right onto the realization that even the simplest tasks become major tribulations when your thrown into a new and alien location.

At least I can't get lost here. Being lost would imply that I knew my way around to begin with.

The chuckle that escapes his lips warms him a bit against the snow as Knight takes a right turn down Lennox street. Knight knew that he could always reference the Seattle maps that he had downloaded onto his cyberterminal, but there was something satisfying about learning the streets by wandering. . .adventuresome.

Beep. . . Beep

The message indicator on his wrist phone pulled Knight's attention away from his walk and onto biz. Stepping underneath the awning of the deli he'd just walked past Knight cued up the waiting text message.

Knight, hope you got some sleep. Go to a bar called Leatherneck's in Redmond. Ask the bartender to let you speak with Jackson. He will be expecting you this afternoon.

Closing down the display on his wristphone, Knight steps inside the warm deli to take a look at his maps and plan his next move.

[Sedna]

0745 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush

The call comes in halfway through the breakfast rush, while she's doing that brisk walk back to the kitchen to pick up a fresh basket of soda bread. At least she didn't actually have it in her hands at the time. "Moshi moshi?"

"Alleycat, it's Avalanche." He's either in-Matrix or on-transponder, the words have that slightly-too-quick, slightly-too-fluid flow to them. "I'm still working on fixing your coding, might not be able to make it to the meet. Can you and Blaze cover?"

The automatic quick check tells her that only Mouse is within normal earshot, and she'd automatically turned away from the security cameras as soon as the thing had buzzed in her ear. "Can do, and I'll let him know -- later, let him grab some shut-eye first. Anything else?"

"Yes. Don't ever give me anything like that again."

She winced. "Roger that."

She becomes aware the kid's staring at her as the line clicks off. "Y'sure cleans up your milspeak when you're belling."

Takes her a moment even apart from the accent to decipher the last word -- right, comming, got it -- er, how did he catch it? Got to work harder on restoring proper subvocals. "Yup," she says finally. And then, "You're burning your rashers."

"They're supposed to be like that." She can hear the echoes of Johnny's cadences, wonders vaguely just how many times the kid's heard the phrase. "Who were dissin' you?"

"MYOB," she says absently, noting that Hobbes had just walked in, pausing to talk with someone she couldn't hear at all.

"Why? You sure don'. You gonna spill or what?"

Anne sighed. "Anyone ever learn you 'bout the cat?"

"They's too lazy to tag mice. D'rather scrap with other alleycats."

She's played groupie and tailchased most of the night, she's been trying to keep a frustrated shaman from getting both of them killed, she's aware the value on her debt-envelope is ticking down with every second she's kept from speaking with Hobbes, she's missed her sunrise ritual, she's more than a bit tired, she's just discovered she's got to cover for Avalanche in negotiating for something she hadn't wanted to bring in in the first place, she's been reamed over something that she fragging well knows she knows how to do better, there's all the rest, and now she's just plain fed up. "Bad moon, kid," she says in a soft, dead voice. Poised in stillness.

And then, as suddenly, it drains out of her and Anne turns on her heel, sweeps up the basket of soda bread and scuttles off.

[Moirdryd]

12:15 Saturday January 6th, 2063- Streets of Tacoma

Breathing a sigh of relief as the warmer air of the small deli surrounds him Knight quickly picks a small table near the door and slides his cyber terminal free from his carryall. A couple of minutes is all it takes to plug the location given in the message into the terminal and get it searching the public access maps of the city he`d pulled before fleeing the Tir all together.

A few seconds later the terminal blips with its completed search data.

"Morkahn..." Knight swears softly in his native tongue "..bad looking neighborhood and its across the other side of the `plex..." and here`s my own fine self, with no cred on stick and no transport save my feet. His mind finished where his voice`s soft tones had left off.

He punched a few more keys on the terminal, uploading a few street names onto his wristphone before unplugging the unit. Glancing about the deli, content to see the place still nicely becomming jammed with the lunch `hour` rush, Knight makes his way to the door and out into the chill streets of Tacoma. Pulling his collar up again he hits the message reply option on his phone, speaking softly into its mic as he walks through the sleet like snow.

"Picked up your link chummer. Echo the request, be there in a few hours. Anything I should know before i get there?" he pauses a moment before hitting the send option deciding to leave his message at that.

Checking his directional notes Knight heads off through Tacoma. After some 30 minutes worth of walking through sleet and slushy snow he ducks into a small stairwell, sheltering in its overhang, glancing across the street to get a street referance. He clicks on his wristphone again, keying in a number of a differant friend to Calvin.

"Portia precious, " he sends the voice message, speaking swiftly in Sperethial "I find myself within the fair city that you claim now as your home. I must beg the request of transportation from ye for the weather is poor and i needs must travel far unto a meeting of potential great import. I beg thee, precious friend, answer me swiftly and accept my word to repay thy aid in this endeavor. I stand currently upon the Avenue of Driftway that lay within the district of Tacoma, but i shall continue to move. Send word to me iffen ye recieve this and i shall tell ye anew of my placing" he hit the send function and decides to wait a few moments in the stairwell, just incase she is near her phone to answer her message line and call him directly back.

[banditf50]

1420 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Steet Clinic

"Normally I would say that hiding in plain sight can be the most safe option. But this team already had planned a very public hit in front of the lunch time crowd at a poplular restaruant. Nothing would prevent them from making another such attempt."

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you Virg' but that hit squad had planned on the covert action of their sniper, all hell broke lose when we forced them into the open. Perhaps we can isolate a controlled location . . ." Dragon mused outloud. No doubt running a myriad amount of possible tactical scenarios though his head.

Virgil would have been happy to focus his attention to planning the group's next move, however something was nagging at the back of his mind. Something he was forgetting.

"Galina, in all the confusion with the sick girl we rushed here I forgot the true intenion of our visit. Is the women we brought to you yesterday still able to speak with us?"

Frag I need to keep my mind focused. Things aren't going to get any easier to keep straight for a long while.

[Shadowrunner13]

15:54:02 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

"What do you mean, 'you will no longer exist'?" Tenmou asked. "I can return you to your uncle if you would be placed in physical danger..."

[SentineloftheMou...]

0910 Tuesday, January 9, 2063 - Land's End Magic Shop

Andie rubs the sleep from his eyes to awake up and starts taking measurements of the circulation to see if everything is on track.

He stokes the furnance a little to soften the circulation a little and tests the integrity of the alloy's matrix.

Using Aura Reading, Astral Perception, and Psychometry Andie will start gathering data.

[grendel]

15:54:35 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

"It is my uncle who has sent me here, to this place which will change the fabric of my existance. If you do not take me from here, the woman who you return to my uncle will be a different being. Please, help me."

She shivers again, eyes closed as she responds quietly to Tenmou's questions.

[Sedna]

1420 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

Unseen enemies, although at least now a few of them had names. No, Dragon silently corrected himself, only the hired team had names, and street names at that. And maybe they knew the name of the megacorp which had hired them and Sybersnake, and maybe even that was just so much chaff. Couldn't say he didn't have leads, though ... although with the way things had been going, he wouldn't have been surprised if they ended up right up there alongside the grassy knoll.

What did Saeder-Krupp want with outing a Seattle shapeshifter working in a mailroom? Why was it so important to eliminate any trace of such an investigation, even before it succeeded? What was the point?

"Sook," Galina was saying, drawing them with her along the corridor, with Sybersnake trailing behind silently. Very unlike Sybersnake, that. "You take her with, gets her debunked. Can't beHeal more. She's still shocky in the head, but she's walkers."

"Um, Galina," the shaman began carefully, "what do you mean, 'she's still shocky in the head'?"

"She's retro. Common enough. Till she's straight, the Mike's got her grounded."

Hearing the formal sorcery term amid the rest of what passed for English didn't startle Virgil as much as once it had. Somewhere along the line, the Snake shaman had picked up a fearsome compilation of magical education, even if little of it would be recognised in any accredited school. Though on the surface there might seem to be little intersection between the peaceful wisdom of Snake and the path of the totem warrior, her shamans had enough of their own battles to fight. Virgil did not envy them. If not any easier or harder than theirs, his own path was by far the more straightforward.

Still, an odd term to use, in the context of the very mundane Father Bremen. And ... "Mike"? Ah yes, "priest". Juliette said once that it came from Michael, the archangel of battles -- "That'd make him yours, Virgil" -- and was saved for the more direct priests. Despite the seriousness of the situation he had to smile. That would certainly describe Father Bremen. That left only "retro" ...

"Here."

The troll turned, staggered slightly, caught herself on a wall. It would have been a subtle thing in anyone else, but there was nothing subtle about Galina when she was in her element. "Are you all right?" asked Virgil quickly.

She shook him off. "Sleep, is all. Get her, scram. Don't need more patients."

Virgil nodded. "Then take care not to become one yourself."

But he knew it was like asking Juliette to give up her calling. It was another part of Tyr's wisdom never to choose a battle you could not possibly win.

He knew he'd hesitated too long when Galina gently shoved him into the room. Gently, that is, for Galina. It wasn't a big room in which to crowd four beds and another troll, and if the chair had been any closer to the door he knew he would have gone sprawling.

Of the four beds, only one was occupied. Virgil knew her more by her aura than by sight: so changed was she from what he had so barely rescued ... was it only a day ago? She was sitting up on the bed, dressed, her booted feet swinging idly to and fro. She'd clearly been talking with Father Bremen when Virgil had stumbled in, Dragon and Sybersnake entering more cautiously behind him. Someone had left a coat for her on the bed. By the feel of the weather, she would need it.

Bald. When he had pulled her out, her hair had been utterly singed off.

The priest was about to say something but she got in first: "I'm told I owe you my life. Do I know you?"

[Sedna]

0915 Tuesday, January 9, 2063 - Land's End Magic Shop

Everything is not on track. Awake now, it takes Andie less than five minutes to discover that there'd been some kind of mana surge through the area during the night. The books said that orichalcum in process was extremely sensitive to that kind of thing. Now he has the proof of it.

He doesn't have more time for analysis just then, whatever it is, it's still rippling through his circulation, and it's all he can do to try to get it stabilised.

At least, with a sigh, he straightens. He's done what he can. It should be enough.

He was lucky this time. Next time ... But there won't be a next time, will there? This was a tiny ripple, as mana surges go. He's felt and cast through much stronger ones regularly. If one of those were to contact his circulation, it's toast --and not in the way of a dedication to Toaster.

[WinterRat1]

1423 Saturday January 6th, 2063 - Puyallup Street Clinic

That's certainly one way to look at it Dragon thought sardonically, although he was careful to keep his face expressionless. We helped her, sure, but only for what she could tell us. Glancing over at Virgil, he amended his thought slightly. OK, I only rescued her for what she could tell us. Still, in this case at least, it turns out maybe his goody-goodyness will help us after all.

Despite the numerous questions rolling in his mind, Dragon was smart enough to shut up and let the shaman do the talking. Cold, mechanical, distant...and that's what Selina said about him when he was trying to be 'normal'. At least, what passed for 'normal' to him. God only knew what he was like to others when he was all about the biz.

Not that he cared, really. Emotions, while necessary, were not particularly helpful in the middle of a firefight. Cold, sterile professionalism carried him his whole life, and well, if it wasn't broken, why fix it? Of course, that was the problem, wasn't it? Maybe it was broken, and he just never knew it...

Still, those were matters best saved for thought when there wasn't a long list of people waiting in the wings to whack them. Stepping to one side slightly with Sybersnake, he waited for Virgil to begin speaking.

[Sedna]

0750 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush

At the door she turns sideways and slips by to avoid crashing into Johnny, coming in. She can feel his narrow look on her back as she quickly replentishes the on-table baskets of soda bread. How the fragging hell had she managed to miss Hobbes? Damn the kid!

Two regulars call out their orders to her as she does the soykaf rounds, she smiles automatically and files them away in her memory and calls them out as soon as she's back through the swinging door, in the same motion pulling another completed order onto her tray and back out the door --

Checks too suddenly, keeps the hot soykaf from splashing all over Hobbes only since the tray tilted sideways in her hands, and then the full plate slid down it, pulling it further off balance, and the mug of soykaf is sliding too, everything is sliding and falling and splattering against the tile in a small fireworks of shattering stoneware.

A couple of customers at the counter break into applause. Hobbes just glances at her without expression, then hands her a dishrag and continues into the kitchen.

When she's got it cleaned up, she goes back into the kitchen to get rid of the sopping dishcloth and shards and to wipe off her tray. The two of them are so obviously waiting for her she could spit.

"You're way off yer game, girl," Johnny says quietly.

That's not what she expected to hear. Come to think of it, she's not sure what she expected to hear, but that wasn't it.

"I think your time with us is nearly done," adds Hobbes.

She goes to the sink and begins attacking her tray with the cloth. No idea what to say. No idea even whether there was anything that could be said.

"Ye've been a good waitress," says Johnny, and since it's the first time he's said anything on the subject, she's so far beyond speechless the concept's long since ceased to have any real meaning. "Ye'll be a good one for a few days yet," he adds, and she discovers that speechless still had some way to go. "But," he says finally, "ye're no waitress. Ye never were."

Is this where they turn her in? There's enough nuyen in it even for a pair as established as they. She's thinking that she should be poised to fight, to run, should feel the cold adrenaline sluicing through her body, but all she can feel is tired.

"Two worlds," Hobbes is saying ... gently? "I don't know what you came from originally, but you seem to have done well enough, two nights ago. Much better than I'd expected, tell the truth. I'm not sure anymore I know who you are. But what you are, right now, is tired -- and it's not the kind of tired that sleep gets rid of."

"Right at this moment," adds Johnny, "it's getting in the way of being even a halfway decent waitress."

That gives her back her voice. "No, it's not gettin' in the way, really --"

Her earplug phone chooses that moment to buzz again, and she flicks it automatically to the messenger:

[Sedna]

0755 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush

Hobbes opens it, leafs through what's inside. A part of Alleycat is noticing that although it looks casual enough, the ork, too, is cautious in the way she's handling it. No fingerprints. Minimal contact.

"What's this?" asks Hobbes finally.

"Credstick," she answers almost reflexively. Bit of an ID package. Mebe you can use it?"

The talismonger smiles tightly. "Not a waitress, no."

"Came off a corper's purse," says the girl levelly, though the words come out tumbling one on top of the other. "It's gen. The shaman and I, we needed in, someone at the Paradigm Shift took his cousin and he's cryin' to get her back, got nothin' though, just the matchbook an' --"

The hand brings her to a halt almost more so than the words. "Slow up," says Johnny. "Take a breath," adds Hobbes; and then, "All right, from the top, you were looking for this shaman's sister?"

"Cousin," the girl corrects automatically, even as Johnny adds, "This isn't what ye sent her on." Quietly. Not quite a growl. Definitely a warning.

"Life's messy," says Hobbes. "Life doesn't stop for a run." A bit of shared history in their shared gaze, unspoken, against the background calls for soykaf refills. Rolling his eyes Mouse slides past them, needing both hands to balance the heavy pot, and his teacher breaks the gaze to step into the kid's place at the stove. A plume of black, gritty smoke rises from the wok as he stirs. There's something vaguely incongrous about watching bacon and sausages sizzle in a wok ... even if they are of the soy variety.

[WinterRat1]

0758 Saturday, January 6, 2063 - middle of the breakfast rush

Looking at Johnny and then back at Anne , Hobbes continues softly, "Keep going girl, like I said, from the beginning. And while you're at it, why don't you tell me what you think this envelope is worth to me. May as well hear everything you've got to say in one go around, neh?"

Brushing her hair back out of her eyes, Anne takes a deep breath to calm herself. If they were going to turn you in, they'd have done it by now. No need to play so nice...right? Hell, if I can't trust them, and they're going to screw me over, there's not much I can do about it anyway. May as well play it straight, and see where this all ends up...

With that resolved in her mind, albeit shakily, she gathers her thoughts and continues...

[SentineloftheMou...]

0920 Tuesday, January 9, 2063 - Land's End Magic Shop

After stabilizing the batch and getting the process back on track Andie wonders about the mana surge and the cause of it. Frankly, I am surprised it got through the shop's wards. If it got through the wards then the cause must have been a major event...

Andie checks the shop's wards to see if their still intact and checks on Sara to see if she is OK. The shop should be open by now. She's probably out front...

[Shadowrunner13]

15:55:12 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

"Change you? How? And why would your uncle submit you to such a process?" Tenmou asked with increasing confusion.

"What have I got myself into?" he asked himself.

[grendel]

15:55:46 Thursday 04 January 2063 - Seattle, UCAS

"My uncle is a very powerful business man. I do not understand his motives. I do not know why I must do this. But I know that it will destroy me."

Another tear makes its way down her pale cheek, and despite the depth of her feeling on the matter, Tenmou gets the impression that it's almost more humiliating to her to be so emotional in front of a stranger.