Mission 2a - What's New Pussycat?

Rokudenashiko has nothing of note on her, but within her messenger bag is a cyberdeck, an autopicker, a maglock passkey, a sequencer, 6 different cans of spray paint, and several grenades. ((anyone got any kind of knowledge skill that would help identifying explosives or weapons?)) Seems like she carries around everything she needs to sneak into and out of a building. Other than the grenades, there are no other weapons in her bag.

((@Sam - as far as you know, plugging into someone's deck should be safe, but it never hurts to be cautious))

Sam inspects the cyberdeck for anything out of the ordinary, and comes up with nothing. The deck is an unmodified Sony CIY-720; identical to Sam's, albeit pink in color. A search of the system files finds the same kinds of base hacker utilities that Sam makes use of as well as a folder containing thousands of images of vaginas. Nothing appears to be trapped. There doesn't even appear to be any interesting stolen data. As hacker cyberdecks go, the contents are rather boring. If this were a cheap commlink, Sam would think it was a burner phone, but given the price point of this particular cyberdeck and the signs of use along its casing, he is pretty sure this is all she has.

((no useful knowledge skills for the grenades))

Sato messages his driver.  "Please take us on a leisurely tour of the city's highway system.  Try not to get snarled in traffic but stay a convenient drive away from Carl's."

((so from rereading everything Roku can talk but cannot move and is a bit disoriented from dumpshock))

Sato quickly fashions a blindfold for Roku from his tie.  

While he waits for her disorientation to wear off, he opens a small fridge and fixes himself a glass of expensive single malt whisky, one perfectly clear ice cube clinking in his heavy tumbler as he settles back in his seat.  

If she needs a bit of help focusing, he will gently put the cool glass against her cheek.

"I have to commend you.  You've been a very slippery fish to catch," he leans back in his seat and grinds out his cigarette in the ashtray as he waits for her reply.

Rokudenashiko remains silent, unsure what is expected of her.

Having found nothing of particular interest, except for thousands of vaginas, Sam attempts to recover files that have been deleted from this deck. He'll circle back to the vaginas later.
((I need to remember to rearrange my deck outside of initiative when I'm doing stuff...))
D7 F7 S5 A4
Sam Dekker carried out 15 launched of one d6 :

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Sato continues : "Our employer wants you dead.  Why is that?  It takes a lot to piss them off, so it seems much more than mere embarrassment.  Have you stolen something from them?"

Sato leans forward as he makes his point, the leather of the seat creaking a bit.

"The reason I'm asking is we have no particular desire to kill you.  Help us help you.  Convince us that we can resolve this while preserving your life."

Rokudenashiko, unable to do much in her paralyzed state, responds with her body flopped out on the limo seat, "Steal something? No. They are the thieves and bullies. They broke into my home, destroyed my art and murdered my husband when he tried to stop them. They say that my work is obscene and that the female body is obscene. They threaten any museum that displays my work uncensored with arrest if they do not cover it up and I'm the criminal.

"I got tired of their bullying and decided to fight back by hacking their systems and replacing the files with vaginas. Initially everything was supposed to be a joke. My art wasn't meant to be something you take seriously, but the police decided to react like cowards. Why should a female body be censored? Why should the word 'vagina' be considered obscene but 'penis' is not? What gives them the right to destroy my art and kill my husband?"



Meanwhile Sam starts piecing together some old deleted data. Much of it is corrupted as the old memory has been overwritten (mainly by images of vaginas, which he suspects may be intentional, in case the police ever got her cyberdeck), but some of it remains. He finds some Cowboy files that must have been stolen from police servers. So far they appear to be incomplete memos and dossiers, but his cyberdeck is still running its recovery software as Sato continues his interrogation.

Sato ponders for a moment - from what he knows of Desnian culture and art, does her story hold water?  Prudishness certainly exists in Desu, but would police stoop to violent B&E and murder to repress it?  Could it be a particular faction of hardliners?

((Desian Politics))


((Art))


Sato tries to recall any events related to her husband's death
((Current Events))

((Local Rumors))

Were the hitters shadowrunners?  Any stories about it he can remember?
((Shadow Community))


Sato tries to recall any factions within Desian society who would resort to such violent tactics to repress an impishly mischievous feminist.
((Esoteric Trivia))

((If Tetsu is still in the limo with us, I imagine he's losing his mind hearing about this police misconduct, and would be happy to answer Sato's musings about whether police would really do those things.))

Sam also wants to check the veracity of the murdered husband story Roku just told. He does a quick matrix search on what the official story of that event might be.
((Either briefly pausing the recovery operation if he needs to, or else multitasking to do the matrix search))

Sam Dekker carried out 12 launched of one d6 :

, , , , , , , , , , ,

((@Sam - yep, it's Roku's deck doing the work. No need to keep rolling, I'm just posting what you see as you get it. Just takes some time to finish. If you want to take a closer look at anything that happens to pop up, then have Sam do so))

A search on the matrix by Sam for anything regarding that story only turns up an obituary for the guy. There do not appear to be any news reports about it, but he does seem to be dead. There are no details in the obituary about the circumstances of his death. Just turning up that one obituary actually took quite a bit of effort for Sam, as if information about the death was likely squashed by a powerful organization. Cowboy would fit the bill.


From what Sato knows about Desian culture and Desian police in particular, the murder seems a bit much, but everything else seems within norms. A common saying among them is "our job is not to know the law, but to enforce it," which is often used as an excuse to charge political enemies with crimes that do not necessarily make sense in the context.

One particular mayor who had a long standing political feud with the police was arrested just last year and charged with vehicular manslaughter among other things. His actual crime was parking illegally, and while his unattended car was parked on the side of the street, a drunken biker happened to crash into it and die. Since the mayor did not stay with the vehicle to report the incident, he was also charged with Leaving the Scene of an Accident despite the fact that he was nowhere near the vehicle when it happened and had no way of knowing the incident had even happened. Though there was no real precedent for charging someone that strictly, the courts sided with the police and that mayor is now facing 30 years in prison. Sato has heard of many similar examples of police overreach when in pursuit of people they deem as undesirables.

Sato messages the group with what he recalls.  He counts on the blindfold to prevent Roku from seeing him using an AR window.  He ends his group message with this : 

"I am inclined to believe her, though we need to convince her to give up her crusade or emigrate somewhere else if we are to save face in the contract we have with the keisatsu.  What do you think?"

Sam shares the little bit he's been able to dig up about Roku's husband's death.
"Even that much was tough to find. It does look like the police are covering something up. I'm trying to put together some deleted files from her deck, still. There seems like more to this story.
But, I'd much rather not turn her over to the Cowboys. If we can convince her to disappear, that would be much better. But, they killed her husband and she just doubled her efforts going after them. I don't know how we'll convince her to run away now."

Sato spends a few moments absorbing all this information, his lips pursed in thought.

"I have to admit, we're not the biggest fans of the Cowboys.  Their particular...style of doing things...tends to be frequently at odds with...let's say with our artistic sensibilities about how we like to do our job."  

As the limousine accelerates onto the highway on-ramp, Sato pauses his speech to light a cigarette, cracking the window to allow the plume of smoke to escape.  

"For the sake of argument, let's say we decide to believe you.  We still need to accomplish the spirit of our mission.  Our reputation for execution...sorry, poor choice of words...our reputation for 'following through' reliably on our assignments is a matter of girii for us and we need to keep up appearances."

"We want to help you, but if we claim to have silenced you, we would need some assurances that you would...be silent."

"We could fake your death and provide edited videos to the cowboys as proof, but any continuing mischief on your part would out us and ruin our reputation."

"Another possible option could be, we could give you a chance to start all over again in a new land which is much more open to someone of your radical thinking - perhaps we could get you a berth on an airship to Victoria where your particular brand of scandalous art might tickle some new patron.  There's a lot of pain and anger here in Desu for you and it might be just the thing to leave town."

Sato leans forwards again, the cigarette wafting a cloying scent in her direction.

"Are you willing to do this?"

Rokudenashiko attempts to shake her head but does not appear to have the muscle strength for it yet. She shouts, "Never! They started this and it would be an insult both to women and my husband's memory if I don't continue to fight them."

She pauses a bit then more calmly says, "I can disappear. But I can never leave this country or give up my fight. The police are terrible and I aim to prove it."



Meanwhile Sam pulls up more deleted files. Case files, more dossiers, more memos. One in particular catches his eye because he spots the name, "Mariko Ayumi". The dossier is the same one that was given to your group when you started the job, but with the notable difference that her real name and SIN are included in the report.

Sam shares the dossier around.
Over comms: "I don't think this changes much, but it's more evidence that the police knew more than they wanted us to believe."

"What would be a win, Mariko?" Sam pipes in. "In your fight. With the police. What's a win? When will you have won? Is it just about, uh... Is it all just any vaginas?"
Roku can't see him do it, but Sam blushes.

Rokudenashiko pauses a moment as her name is spoken to her, but eventually answers, "If I had to say, there would be two things that I would consider victories. First, I want the men who broke into my home and destroyed my life to pay for what they have done. If the system was generally honest, that would be enough. But Cowboy is wicked and have not only protected these men but hunted me for years to keep me silent. I will see that they are further embarrassed until they are forced to lose their contract with the country that I love. Once they have lost their contract, they will have no further need to stay in this country.

"I have been leaving the vagina images as a way to cover my true intents and to tell the Cowboys that I refuse to be afraid of them. The loss of face also prevents them from reporting the incidents. But really I have been searching their databases for information. Anything that could tell me who was responsible for my husband or anything that might shake confidence with the emperor so he would no longer wish to do business with them. I haven't found what I want yet. Nor am I sure that I could get the information to people who matter even if I did. But just because it's hard, doesn't mean I can give up, even if I have to risk my life to keep going."

Tetsu, who has been silently polishing his axe this whole time says, "She is not wrong. That corporation is evil. She'll be dead within the day if she is captured or handed over. The kind of information you are looking for isn't going to be found laying around on a matrix server. You need to go into the air-gapped UV systems that they have in HQ.

"I can help you get in there. I have some things I want to find out myself and can't do it on my own. You gotta knock off the vagina drek though. You're going to be dead now. You can already change your face, I'll help you change your identity and we can take care of this together."

Sato nods.  

"That's exactly right.  You need to be 'dead' to them to save face, but even that can help us.

"(1) We forge a video 'proving' Rokudenashiko's death
(2) We can use Tetsu's knowledge and some Matrix scouting to find out where the information is.
(3) We have an excuse to enter the building - we have to go back to Cowboy HQ to show proof of her death and claim the reward.
(4) After that, perhaps Mariko and I can use our disguise skills to escape notice and get into that room and extract the files."

Sato steeples his fingers.

"I love it when a good plan comes together.  I will need some electrochromic clothing to aid our disguises though.  While I make a few calls, can you work on step (1)?"

"Well, that seems like a really dumb plan. They know who you are. And it's because of the vaginas." Sam blushes again. "They led us right to you." He blushes deeper now, as saying "the vaginas led us right to you" makes him remember the fully rendered 3-D image of Roku's vagina, whose owner he's talking to right now. He pauses to think.

The story that Roku is telling is that she was doing some vagina art, and the Cowboys wanted her to stop. And she wouldn't, and so they put a hit out on her. And they killed her husband when they were trying to kill her. This all seems a little bit of a stretch, but for the moment he believes her story. He would still like a bit more corroborating evidence that tends to show that's what happened, and he continues looking through her deck for it.

"I think that this, um. Can work to your advantage. If we show up tomorrow. At the Cowboys. If we show up tomorrow with evidence that we uh. Got ride of you. They'll believe it. And that should take some, you know, some pressure off you. But, you have to stay hidden. Like Sato and you said. And you can't be Vagina Girl anymore. If you need to do, um, something. To cover your tracks. You should, uh, cover your tracks with something that. Something that doesn't lead right to you."

"So, we uh. Fake your death. And then you need to lay low. And then, in a few weeks, they won't be expecting you anymore. You probably won't take, uh, down the Cowboys. But, maybe we can get the info on the guys who killed your husband. In a few weeks, I'll hack in there with you. And I think, uh, we might be able to get the info to someone who might be able to help."

Sam turns his attention to Sato, but avoids eye contact.

"If you want to try breaking in to the Cowboy HQ. I guess. I guess you can try that. I guess. I really think. Uh. I think letting some time pass. Um. I think letting them think they won. And letting some time pass. I think. Um. Letting their guard down. I think it's safer. To let some time pass and let the heat die down."

"Either way, though. If you're on board with us, Mariko. We need to start work on faking your death."

Mariko says, "I was not trying to hide the fact that I had hacked the systems or even that I was the one doing it. The systems are quite secure, so them finding me was just a matter of time. I was trying to hide what I was doing so they didn't decide to proactively destroy any files that might have been helpful before I could find them."

Tetsu says to Sato, "We have a reason to get into the lobby, but not the server room. Cowboy always has bounties posted of some kind or another, so we can at least get that far just about any time we like, particularly after they know we can actually cash in these bounties. Point is, like Sam said, we don't need to rush this and if we hit them so soon after her 'disappearance' things are going to look fishy. We'll be the first ones they start hunting. Best to let them think they've won and lower their guard.

"I'll help her lay low for a while and gather some intel. Then, when the time is right, I'll contact you guys. I'm sure we will need at least Sam's hacking skills and Sato's disguise skills because hacking into a UV server is more than a one man job.

"For now, lets figure out the whole faking her death thing and then after we get paid I'll disappear with her for a while. I have contacts in Cowboy who can maybe help us make this all happen. They aren't too happy with the way Cowboy does things either."

“Sounds good. Sounds like we need a drone with a good camera and some good direction skills to make the raw snuff footage. Maybe we can call on Chougou to borrow one of his.”