Your Friendly Neighborhood Shadowrunner

[wheyoftheadept]

Who: Saturday… and you?
What: Open prompts
Where: Locations noted in title
When: in the period between the intro and the next big event
Warnings/Notes: Second prompt may lead to discussing disturbing events in Saturday’s past. No sexual assault, but warnings for violence, child abuse, and eldritch horrors.


1. Free Tickets to the Gun Show [location: communal bathrooms]

Saturday looks at herself in the mirror and nods, satisfied. Even Maggie couldn’t argue the rightness of this; these uniforms were hideous, and too long, and she didn’t like them. Therefore…

She picks a thread out of her newly-created sleeveless jumper. It won’t stop unraveling, so she yanks and breaks it. Her former sleeves lie limply on the sink before her as she admires herself. The room is empty (to the best of her knowledge); her dignity is safe. She starts striking poses.

In her defense, those muscles are pretty impressive.


2. Let Sleeping Adepts Lie? [location: gardens]

The gardens aren’t really gardens, except for the patch that Bunny and Gadget have taken over, but they’re green and they’re quiet and it’s easy to avoid people. These qualities are why Saturday is kneeling in a remote corner of them, hands cupped open in her lap the way her father taught her. Holding emptiness. Control is an illusion. Go with the flow.

Keep your distance, and she looks peaceful. Come closer, and you can see her jaw is tight and trembling, and tears are trickling out from under her closed eyes.


3. Come Fly Away (Or Dream You Can) [location: rig exterior]

The rain never actually stops, but sometimes it lessens into a misty drizzle, the kind of thing a true Seattleite scoffs at. Saturday, being one of those, is out on the deck. It’s evening, going on full dark; the western horizon in orange fading into pink, and the sky above is clouded velvet. She’s tied cloth around her hands and feet for grip, and is running the pipes. Her shoes are sitting neatly at the base of a large beam. She has no destination in mind, no particular purpose; she isn’t in the training area because she wants to be outside, unrecorded, unmeasured, moving for the sheer glory of it. It almost feels like freedom.

Comments

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday frowns. There's a lot going on there, but one thing in particular catches her attention.

"Compliance action? Rebellious planet? What do you mean by all that? And what's the Great Crusade? And - why did this Horus guy betray it all? Because of the enemy?"

She doesn't say it with capitals, but with a certain inflection that leaves no doubt as to which enemy she means. It's the one with tentacles and soul-eating.

[greyerrant]

"That's a lot of history all at once, but I'll do my best."

He raises a single finger, "Compliance actions are our term for bringing worlds back into the Imperium after the scattering of Old Night. Humanity was united until at some point we lost the ability to travel between star systems, likely because of a phenomenon called warp storms but that is a lot to explain. Sometimes this involves a fight, because a fair amount of human cultures fell to superstition and worship of... the Darkness when night fell over the first empire of humanity."

"The planet which had 'rebelled' was Istvaan III. It truly had risen against the Imperium but it was influenced, we think, by Chaos. Which was ironic as our brothers were also thralls to Chaos already, and used our deployment on planet to bombard us with Virus bombs and orbital lances, killing off the loyal members of the Luna Wolves, the World Eaters, The Emperor's children, and the Death guard."

He is quiet for a moment, then continues, "The Great Crusade was the Emperor's attempt to bring humanity back together, and stop the predatory alien races which had enslaved or slaughtered humanity on so many worlds, like the Eldar, strangely graceful but capricious xeno-breeds that would enslave humans, or slaughter them wholesale at times, and at others leave us alone. Or the Orks, large, brutish fungal creatures that viewed humanity only as food, or something to fight. I think their religion, such as it was, was based entirely around warfare. We broke their Empire at Ullanor, and it was there the Emperor himself stepped away from the Crusade, to return to terra, leaving Horus Lupercal as his warmaster and chosen heir."

As for the last question, Loken is quiet a long time, "I don't know why Horus chose to rise against his father, beloved by all. He was already his heir, his warmaster, his chosen son. He was the most popular man in the Imperium, and was invincible in battle. I suspect when he was wounded by a sorcerous blade on the moon of Davin something had... tainted him, but I don't know for sure. All I know is the gene-sire I had known for a century, and who I had followed into battle changed, his heart turned against the good of all, and he started the greatest war the galaxy had ever known."

[wheyoftheadept]

There are a lot of red flags in that explanation; a whole sea of them, really, merrily dancing to a tune that sends a shiver down Saturday's spine, especially combined with the things Cain had mentioned previously, before the whole thing got real awkward.

"Well. In any world where the enemy's coming through, they're generally somewhere at the bottom of any given conspiracy." No need to talk politics, not in her current mood. She'd just start yelling, and she's fought alongside this man. It would be rude. "I'd give good odds they had their talons in him, or someone close to him."

She picks at a leaf. "Maybe he'd decided the rebelling planets had a point, but more warfare isn't necessarily how you solve that problem. Not if you're the favorite son, which it sounds like he was."

Saturday's being kind. She can think of a lot of circumstances where a polite word to daddy wouldn't be enough - but there's no reason not to be kind. She's in a state and so is everyone else on this godforsaken rig; no need to make more tension.

[greyerrant]

"That was the strange thing, though. Istvaan was the only rebellious planet. Once compliance was effected on a planet, they generally quite swiftly saw the point of the Imperium, and were happy to be a part of it. It wasn't until after Horus raised his banner of treachery that things began to come apart. Knowing him, though, he planted the seeds of rebellion far before the final act of betrayal."

He nods at her words about solving the problem. "I don't understand why he didn't ask the Emperor for whatever changes in policy he wanted. He certainly had the capacity, and as Warmaster he easily had all the political power necessary to do so. THe senselessness of it all is what wounded me the most, I think. I have no idea why he decided to truck with these things from beyond. They are anathema to humanity." He is a bit more pale than usual as he speaks about this. The emotional wounds of such a betrayal have never really healed, only scarred over and been replaced by rage and vengeance.

[wheyoftheadept]

She'd be curious to hear what the happily compliant planets would say when there weren't big fuckoff men with guns standing over them, but - well.


"No one with noble goals would be working with those things," she agrees. "Even if they started out that way, they'd - twist it, make it horrible. Nothing good comes of them. Just - nasty little viruses, but worse, because viruses are at least supposed to be here. They're part of nature."

[greyerrant]

"Yes. Well, I think you understand the majority of it now, if not the details."

He looks pensive, "And now here we are, fighting for humanity in another way."

[wheyoftheadept]

"I'd say fighting for Jorg's bottom line, more than that." Saturday stretches now, glad of the distraction for all she'll still have to finish her internal grooming later. "I'll bet you half a dollar the people behind this operation are the same people who caused this mess. Jorg might be the only option, but I wonder if that's not because they arranged it that way."

A corp would absolutely destroy the world to get a monopoly - or just exploit the destruction of it. Saturday has no doubts about this.

[greyerrant]

"It strikes me with time and organization, we may then be able to provide our own option."

Not that he'll say more than that, but leading a guerilla action is something he's done before so successfully that they gave up fighting him entirely and just bombed the planet from orbit to deal with him.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Been thinking along the same lines." This is good. This is something Saturday can focus on. It's business: planning, logistics. Movement. "What have you been ruminating?"

[greyerrant]

"We must first know our enemies, and our allies. Gather information, act obedient, see who else chafes under the rules here, and who can be trusted with operational security. Once we have a who can help, who to avoid, we can make a plan to act."

He looks marginally more comfortable planning a military action than he did in all that talk about feelings and failure. This is something he knows well.

[wheyoftheadept]

"I already have a few people in mind - I think we all chafe like a motherfucker under their rules. What we need is a better sense of where people's expertise lies. Once we know what we've got, we'll know how to use it."

She's thinking of her little chat with Cayde, and the run they're putting out feelers for.

"Gonna need intel on the Jorg, too. Test runs. You know the cameras don't work?"

[greyerrant]

"I did not know that. Unfortunately, while I can manage battlefield and operational stealth, it is rather hard for someone of my bulk without a falsehood, tech I do not have access to here."

He nods, "I'll speak with whoever you have in mind, I assume the network system is monitored heavily?"

[wheyoftheadept]

"It is, but if you drop him a subtle message he'll arrange a meet." Saturday nods. If nothing else, Loken is muscle and expertise; those are two things any run needs when it goes sideways. And every run goes sideways.

"It's monitored out the ass. There's this anonymous guy who claims to be on our side who set up a private subnetwork, but - dunno, I need to ask someone I trust who knows tech better. Or see if anyone posting on it gets rounded up and shot," she says, somewhat grimly.

[greyerrant]

"Who is this Him, so I know who I contacting?" He is quiet for a moment, "Unless you are keeping the identity quiet for security reasons, I'll understand that as well."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Nah, just lost in my own thoughts. You wanna talk to Cayde. Tallish fellow, made of metal, can't miss him. He's run crews before, same as me, knows his stuff."

She smirks a little. "He's the guy who told me the cameras don't work."

[greyerrant]

"Made of metal. Is... is he... is he a robot?" Loken can't hide the distaste in his words. AI are bad, bad news in the Imperium. Then again, AI are pretty awful in shadowrun as well.

[wheyoftheadept]

"No, he's like that cool russian dude, a human in a robot body? I'm kinda fuzzy on the details, but he's more like a cyborg, I think." Saturday is super unclear on the details, but her understanding of AI is god-computers, not sarcastic shooty men. Cayde doesn't fit.

Although god, she would have liked to see Jorg vs. Deus, from a safe distance.

[greyerrant]

"I see." Loken he looks visibly relieved that hasn't encountered an abominable intelligence. "We have those where I am from. The astartes, if mortally wounded, are often given an augmetic shell and made into war machines called dreadnoughts. I assume the principle is similar." Though apparently on a much smaller scale if she refers to him as a cyborg.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Uh - maybe?" Every new fact she learns about this Imperium of Man place is slightly concerning. But Cayde and Saint seem fine with their conditions, so maybe dreadnoughts are the same. "Anyway, he seems a decent operator."

[greyerrant]

Most dreadnaughts are when they aren't in terrible amounts of agony or asleep or in violent bouts of murderous insanity. You know. Like you do. "Stealth and infiltration specialist?" Loken guesses, picking up on the subtext.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Far as I can tell. Which is what we need at first, stuck in the house of the enemy an' all. Test limits, gather intel, figure out what Jorg knows that they ain't telling us. Develop a plan once we know the territory." She stretches. "That's me an Cayde's thinking, anyhow."

[greyerrant]

"It is in agreement with my own."

He looks directly at Saturday. "Will you be all right? Emotionally, I mean. I don't imagine there is much in the way of camraderie or counsel here."

[wheyoftheadept]

" - yeah, sure." Again, his straightforwardness startles bare truth from her. "I mean - no, but like. I can keep on top."

There's been way too much for her to ever be okay again. But it's horrified her to realize - she was trained for this. This was what 'jisan had meant, all those years.

"That's what the meditation is for, right?" she adds, with a touch of humour to disguise how tired she is.

[greyerrant]

"Yes, that is what it's for. I will say you might want to try gardening as well."

He is quiet, and moves to leave, before stopping, and says, "Don't let your loss swallow you, don't become only a soldier and a machine for revenge. You are young, and still have a chance to become something other than a weapon."

As for himself, well, that choice was made well before the heresy began. He is a weapon, though his humanity comes from being a weapon that still questions its' purpose.

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday blinks, uncertain what to make of it - the man barely knows her, but -

She's touched, nonetheless.

"I'll keep it in mind. Thanks."