Downtime 6 - Serenity

Chiemi Nakayama was a fresh college grad eager about her first day on the job at Hatsumoto Holdings, a small hedge fund headquartered in Mingmei. One of the managing directors, Wei Ming Chen, was impressed with Chiemi's background, but what made her stand out amongst the slew of other applicants was Chiemi's pretty face and slender body.

Little did HR know, Chiemi was actually Serenity in disguise, carrying fake credentials and identity created by a skilled decker on her team. Her goal was simple: spend four weeks learning the ropes and sitting in meetings, gathering intelligence about impending investments being made by Hatsumoto Holdings.

The Chiemi persona was a little too attractive. Coworkers began inviting her to after work parties, and she initially declined so that she wouldn't have to invent stories about background that could be challenged. Eventually, Chiemi relented, and went with a group of male and female coworkers to an izakaya after work.

One of the managers subjected Chiemi to all forms of sexual harassment, and Serenity had to act compliant in order to deflect any further scrutiny. Luckily, she got the manager drunk enough that a well timed punch spell put him to sleep. Although Serenity had dodged his advances, she had to figure out a way to carry this manager home. One dose of Laes, and the manager never even remembered the circumstances of the dinner.

Eventually, Chiemi was able to extract herself out of the position. She just wasn't a good fit for the role.

After that day, Chiemi no longer existed, and Serenity was able to provide useful intel to her info broker.

It was 2am by the time Serenity had arrived home from her dancing gig. She worked for a dance group named Angelspit, a roaming group that danced for various clubs and venues on contract. After hours of being on her feet, she was happy to be able to kick off her shoes. Her apartment was tidy and comfortable, with chic furniture and even a few pieces of artwork adorning the walls.

Even at this hour though, she felt amped and wasn't ready to go to sleep. She changed into more casual clothes and a heavy jacket, aiming to go to one of the little standing bars in the neighborhood to grab a quick beer and a late night snack.

When she arrived, the stand up bar was rather empty, even though the counter only hard room for 6 people. Recognizing Serenity, the owner, a middle-aged woman named Erina, took her order: one glass of Asahi Super Dry, and a few skewers of yakitori. She read the news on her commlink as she ate, until a random stranger struck up a conversation with her.

Despite her weariness, she forced a smile and tried to be pleasant, something she was really good at.

If I had more emotional range, I could be an actress, Serenity thought to herself bemusedly.

Serenity managed to duck out of the store after finishing and paying, and went back to her apartment. She took a shower, changed into pajamas, which for her was just a comfy t-shirt, and hoped into bed. She was out in moments...

With her regular gym closed down, Serenity called up her fence and tried to get a tip on a 'slightly underground gym', one where she could do some light sparring on top of the normal exercise routine. Yasuhiro, her fixer, gave her some info on a 'community center' where a bunch of runners had congregated.

The next morning, Serenity got dressed in yoga pants, a sport top, and a sweater, with an armor jacket on top. She caught a train over to the center and walked to the building.

This is it? Doesn't look like a gym.

Serenity went inside the front and looked around.

Inside the community center, the gym was empty, except for a lone dwarf, working a punching bag. For being so little, his kicks could reach surprisingly high. He has his back to the door, but the moment Serenity walks in, his ears perk up. He catches the bag, then turns around.

"Good morning, miss. I'm Sun Dashou. How may I help you?"

"Hello, I'm Serenity," the tall dryad said, folding her arms and looking around, unsure of the situation. It was a brief moment before she continued.

"My contact told me that this would be a good facility for workouts and for sparring, and that it was... underground, if you catch my drift. Equipment looks alright, but it seems so empty."

Having no clue about the legality of what he's done the past few months, Sun looks around a bit, then shrugs.

"The gym here is in a garage. I guess that's kind of underground...? Or was that a racist remark towards me? I'm still trying to get the hang of this whole being offended thing, so you'll have to let me know if it's meant as a racist remark."

Sun takes his gloves off and puts them aside.

"As far as the place being empty is concerned... Students will come in about an hour from now. I'm just doing some light training til then. You want to train? Just put your stuff to the side there. Or do you prefer to spar? I'm always up for some friendly sparring. Or are you just looking for info or someone to talk to?"

"Racist?," Serenity's said eyes widening. "Oh no no, that's I misunderstanding. I meant one that served shadowrunners."

She chuckled apologetically, and set her small duffel bag down and pushes it to the side.

"Well, I would like to take a look around the facility first, but afterwards, sparring sounds like a great idea," the pink and purple haired dryad said. "Is there some kind of membership or dues that I have to pay to join?"

"Membership? We have some folks living here. They pay a share of the monthly expenses. Others, like me, don't live here, but chip in as well. That's entirely on a voluntary basis, of course."

Using his arm to wipe the sweat off his brow, then using his pants to wipe the sweat off his arm, Sun continues: "A tour... Let's see.. Well... This is the gym and dojo, as you can tell. Right there is a small bathroom, cause if you gotta go, you gotta go. It also has a shower, in case you get stinky after training. Through this door is the office."

Sun shows Serenity to the office.

"We do office-ial stuff here. Hahaha, you get it? That's a little joke from my part."

Sun chuckles at his own joke. The chuckling turns into laughing, and he has to lean against the desk to balance himself while shaking from laughter. Wiping a tear away, he says:

"Right, enough hilarity. Let's continue the tour."

They go upstairs.

"Here's the clinic. Our main doctor is out on a semi-permanent basis, helping a group in dire need of medical assistance. Some of us have some medical knowledge or magical healing abilities, which helps us get by in most cases that come in."

Pointing to a door in the corner, he says:

"Over there is the meeting room, and that door there is a workshop. I don't really know who does what in there, but yeah. It's there."

They go up another floor.

"Here's the living room. The summoning circle under the coffee table and sofa takes a bit getting used to, but is mostly harmless. Over there is the kitchen, the bathroom, and some bedrooms. And over there is another workshop. Again, I don't really know who does what in there."

"Thanks for the tour," Serenity says, wearing a polite smile towards the end of the tour. "How much do people usually donate for the costs in order to use the facilities here? I can chip in."

She looks around and doesn't seem to enthusiastic about the condition of the gym and the dojo.

There's a lot of good, generalized resources here, as well as a chance for networking with other runners though. Perhaps there's a benefit to seeing this through, Misaki thought.

"The gym I used to go to closed down, so I need to find a new place to work out. Want to do some sparring now?"

She stretched her arms up in the air.

Counting on his fingers, Sun murmurs... "WuJen... Torpor... Sam... Kin... Chou...Ichigo... Me... That's 7... Remember the 1... Divide by zero... Multiply by five... Hummm..."

He looks up at Serenity.

"We have roughly 4000 nuyen a month as cost and divide it every month amongst how many people are living here or are chipping in."

Sun's look changes, into one of confidence and determination.

"You want some friendly sparring? Sure, we still have some time."

They both go down to the gym. Sun puts his gloves back on, greets Serenity, and stands ready on the carpet.

Serenity winced.

"500 nuyen a month...," she said, her eye twitching slightly. "Well, as long as it's not a contract, I'll give it a try."

Serenity set her bag aside once they were in the dojo, and took off her jacket. She was wearing tight leggings and a cropped sport top, which showed off her slender figure rather well. She tied her hair back so it wouldn't get in her face, then donned whatever boxing gloves they had available.

"Ok... ready," she said, assuming position. She looked poised, but chewed on her lip nervously.

Serenity is lightning quick, and pounces like a cat, zipping across the dojo floor to send a kick in Sun's direction. However, Sun is quick on the defense and Serenity's attack fails to land.

She immediately backpedals and readies for a counter attack, smiling at Sun and giving in a taunting wink.

Sun attacks with a side kick. The motion is too big and wide to be any real threat.Serenity simply side-steps it, turning to throw a hook. Sun blocks it and throws a straight punch into the opening at chest height that's created. The positioning and distance is too awkward to really do much damage, but it does connect. Sun's face immediately turns red like a tomato and he retreats a few steps, staring at the floor.

Serenity uses this opportunity to go in with a flying kick. Sun steps in, grabs the leg and guides her to the floor. No matter what Serenity tries, she can't get out of the attack. A combination of momentum and Sun being slightly too hard handed results in Serenity getting the living daylights smacked out of her the moment she hits the carpet.

Serenity's eyes widen in shock when Sun punches her in the right boob. Her jaw drops in shock.

"HEY!," she protests, but the outburst only leaves her open to the next attack. She is swept off her feet, and lands hard with her shoulder to the mat.

"UFF!," she hacks as the wind is knocked out of her. She spends several seconds dazed and stunned, before sitting up and rubbing her shoulder.

Serenity looks for a moment to have injured pride, but shakes her head and tries to stand up.

"Good match, Sun," she says.

Sun, still visibly embarrassed about the boob-punch, tries to collect himself. With a cracking voice, he replies: "Thanks. You're not that bad yourself. Most don't last this long! Where'd you learn to fight like this?"

Still seeming a little dazed, Serenity walks to the side of the dojo and has a seat in order to catch her breath. She coughs and clears her throat, trying not to draw attention to the fact their her boobs hurt.

"Me? Oh when I was in college, I think I focused more on the karate club than I did on my studies. What about you?"

Sun takes his gloves back off and puts them aside, then grabs some water from a nearby cooler and hands it to Serenity.

"I trained all my life at the monastery back in Xiao. It's pretty much all I know. I must say living here in Mingmei is quite enriching. You get to learn and experience so many new things here, don't you agree?"

Serenity rubs her shoulder and winces.

"Some experiences better than others. I probably should have done weights and cardio before sparring," she chuckles.

She takes the bottle of water, uncaps it, and drinks from it.

"Thanks. The others that hang out here, are they pretty friendly?"

Pretti doesn’t live at the community center, but she definitely needs to get acquainted with the other runners. After all, she can’t expect to avenge a death by herself (or at all, if Emiko insists on not—it’s her friend)... and as for why she would, that’s complicated.

And Pretti’s not sure she wants to get into that now.

From the looks of things, Sun just wrapped up a workout. Pretti herself had a hell of a workout today.

((I’m assuming this is the week following the mission, a.k.a. a couple weeks before my downtime.))

She tells Sun, “Your girlfriend just kicked my ass again. Even if I could use my kicks, I doubt the outcome would be different. Those locks... damn. It’s kind of a good hurt.”

Pretti can’t help but notice she’s not the only lady present with pink hair. With a slight bow, she says, “I’m Pretti.” Thoughts of revenge-killing are brushed aside by light-heartedness. “I mean, like, that’s my name.”

Pretti doesn’t bother explaining the rationale behind the name, which has something to do with her cyber. What is very plain to see is that Pretti is an elf waist-up, cyber waist-down. She wears a short wrap skirt, and only bothers with one at all because not wearing one makes Sun uncomfortable. But her cut-off Henrietta Hamster* tee-shirt exposes her toned midriff and a metal waistline exposed where the wrap is tied at one hip.

*((Oh, of course you know Brightworld’s female-lead mascot!
Brightworld = Disney World; Henrietta Hamster = Minnie Mouse))

She seems friendly and...

4 Con ((@Serenity, not sure your character would notice Pretti is sort of hiding something, or if you have a skill that would pick up on it. I rolled a 4 in Con, and don’t know SR well enough to know what might oppose that.

But based on the roll, I think you would see she put on a good principal-dancer stage-face. Sun would notice she seems...))

...much happier than when Sun last saw her, like a burden has been lifted!

"Petti, huh. Not far from the truth though," Serenity says, with a wry smile.

"I go by Serenity on the streets," the dryad says. She does her best to avoid staring at the mechanical bits of Pr3tti's body, and doesn't pry.

"Sun has been showing me the place. Seems pretty legit. Do you runners ever work together?"

Rolls to notice what Pr3tti is palming:
Exploding Dice
BOT
Today at 5:48 PM
@Misaki Ogawa (krickett): 2 hits (4, 1, 6, 2, 6, 4) opposing pretti's palming

Pretti replies, “Sun and I worked our last job together. I was shocked there was only one bullet in my leg. That job was my first time getting shot. And second, and third... I lost count of how many times I got shot.”

Pretti says this lightheartedly, but for a split second, her facade slips away. Just a quick look in her cyber-eyes that suggests getting shot was unpleasant.

Then her pleasant smile is back. “Oh, but enough about me, Serenity. I’m curious... what got you into this line of work?” Her stage face slips away again, only this time it’s a genuinely apologetic expression. “That is... if that’s something you want to share. No biggie if that’s like... secret.”

Serenity rubbed her sore shoulder with her opposite arm, wrinkling her nose in discomfort and she did so.

"Hm, well I suppose I've tried a couple of things to get traction in life, like going to college, doing ballet, and so forth, but pulling scores on the side is the only work I've done that has really made any traction. My parents never supported me financially, so I've always had to make the best of it on my own," Serenity said, as she untied her hair and shook her head to let her hair fall to her shoulders.

"How about you guys? Do you do anything on your downtime for fun?"

Pretti’s eyes light up at the mention of ballet. “That was my life growing up. I earned a spot as principal dancer a couple years ago. I did this act where we all dressed as amazon warriors—feathered helm, chain mail bikini top—flip sequin sports bra, really—and a little skirt thing.

“Of course I wasn’t cyber at the time. Losing my legs killed my dancing career, but found new hobbies. I got into skating and swimming.” As she mentions skating and swimming, her cyberlegs shift modes, revealing skates built in to her taloned feet. She has fins as well, presumably for faster swimming. “And kick-boxing, though not as a competitive sport.” If Serenity is skilled at unarmed combat, it should be apparent that Pretti could rip someone open with those talons. She doesn’t look like her punch would do much.

((Her STR is 4, but for her legs it’s 10.))

"Oh! You were doing ballet also? I should have realized," Serenity said, eyes widening. "I had to quit also, partially because I wasn't good enough, partially because my coaches were more interested in touching my ass than helping me improve." Serenity scrunched her nose up in disapproval.

"Well, even with mechanical legs, I'm sure you could put on some moves, but good to hear that you found a new profession."

Pretti says, “I quit dancing ’cause I got severed in half. By a... laser whip thing? Just two jerks fighting near the stage.

“Oh, but you woulda loved our troupe. Rising Up was the name, which is intentionally generic. Miss Esparanza was born a tunnel rat and dance was her way outta prostitution. She formed a kinda movement—a foster home underground where girls like me could train up, clean up and get outta the tunnels.”

Pretti could explain that the dance school wasn’t the only option, or the trouble she went through to earn her place, but she spares Serenity so many unsolicited details.

“I never had to worry about a man’s hand on my ass.” She playfully slaps herself on the skirt, emitting a metallic thump. “Never will, now that I don’t have an ass.”

Oddly, sharing this part of her life comes easy. Pretti genuinely enjoys looking into this part of her past that she can never take back. There are cherished memories, but no regret of what was taken from her. It’s also clear the term Tunnel Rat is not offensive to Pretti. She enunciates the term with an air of dignity.