So unless another free spirit bought out Buttercup, I'd say the answers are 'yes' and 'likely, since I wouldn't expect them to take a trip to the Mars base anytime ever'.

I was thinking The Princess Bride myself.

Space has mana, it's just in a high mana warp (10), per Target: Wastelands.

Space stations have mana warps of 8 to 10, depending on their population (more people = lower warp), and the moon has a base mana warp of 8 before population affects it.

It would be reasonable IMO to find a mana warp of 6 to 8 on Mars. With a well-populated base, a spirit could make it there and be profoundly unhappy, but alive.

This reminds me of a time when I was GM. The players were hoofing it to Shibanokuji Orbital Station on the Yamatetsu dime for a Halley's Comet party. One of the characters asked Buttercup (who I was roleplaying) if she was going to be there. She said, "No, space and I really don't get along that well."

huh? i thought they were unique. their home plane corresponds to the types of spirits the mage can summon, but nothing else.

There was an adventure possibly in "Blood in the Boardroom" where a Yamtetsu executive tries to learn her true name.

I also think that Buttercup working with Hetsaby was involved in corrrecting the mana imbalance caused by Lung, Ryumyo, Wuxing in "Survival of the Fittest".


Buttercup did play a substantial part in my campaign:

I ran an adventure where the runners were hired to kidnap the ork CEO of Yamatetsu. Some of the ork's bodyguards had been paid to look the other way during an assassination attempt. Buttercup caught wind of it and hired the runners through a Johnson ( she didn't want to be connected to the kidnapping attempt if it turned out her info was wrong ) to kidnap the ork CEO. ( I can't remember his name!) After the kidnapping was successful (thanks in large part because of the traitor) Buttercup revealed her participation in order to calm the ork CEO down and arrange for his protection. The runners then had to deal with assassins who tracked the ork CEO down with a material link. After that the runners took off with a body double for the ork CEO and provided a decoy for the traitor bodyguard while the real ork CEO with the proof the bodyguard's betrayal returned to Yamatetsu headquarters. The runners were surrounded about to be slaughtered by numerous Yamatetsu company men when the order came down for them to stand down and that the traitor bodyguard was to be fired. (with a severence package consisting of hot lead)

This led to some valuable Yamatetsu contacts that have had a continuing effect on the game.

Pretty much. The powers and Attributes didn't match up with the normal spirit type from that plane or anything. Those were instead determined by Force for physical Attributes, the summoner's own mental Attributes, and the summoner's selection of powers. At least in SR3 the plane didn't determine anything other than that is the plane you have to astral quest on to learn the true name and such.

Coupled with the adventure booklord mentioned, which I don't recall any details about myself, that would somewhat narrow down what kind of magician had summoned it originally. That could give a bit of insight to the general theme of it's makeup, but it still leaves it wide open for what physical forms it can manifest in, it's powers, and Skills. Especially if it is from the last cycle because totems and traditions had a much different form then, and as we've seen magic is organized largely on perceptions and mana level. Plus it has had a lot of time to do it's own thing, grow, and evolve.

If Buttercup is an ED era (or prior) ally spirit it could be just about anything, and have powers that are beyond those of any modern metahuman created ally spirit.