Regarding Skye {Headstone and Skye}

[Charybdis Richelle]

{GM}

About five minutes after Pandora gets off the phone with Skye, Skye gets an incoming call indicator. Glancing at it, Skye sees that the call is from Headstone.

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

Once Skye picks up the phone:
’’Headstone here, I gave it some thought and I was in the wrong this morning. So I apologize for it.

On top of that, if anyone gives you any trouble for missing both meetings and ghosting all our messages, just tell them to take it up with me. So you do not have to worry about any of that.

Thirdly, after the run I can let you or if you prefer I help with it, inform the crew that your room is off limits at all times. Hopefully that will give you some peace of mind.

Only thing I ask of you going into this run, if I say or do something you take offense too. Please wait until after the run. Discussing it during a stressful run might put us all in danger. If it is something I can change about myself, I will do that for you.
I sent the plan over in the messages, but can send it again if you want. Any plan succeeding is a group effort. Only takes one to break it. We are all we have out there in the shadows, so we need to have each others backs. All I ask if you can follow the plan to the best of your capabilities. Nothing more and I will promise you that I will do my best to respect your boundaries.
Sound good, chummer? Headstone says sounding genuinely apologetic.

[Gremlin]

{Skye}

Skye listens to what Headstone has to say. When he's finished she replies, "Finally, an apology. Thank you, Headstone."

She shakes her head. "Look, omae. I'm a pretty private person. Maybe it's from growing up as a latchkey kid with no siblings, but it doesn't matter why. You really freaked me out this morning and when you tried to pass it off as no big deal I blew up. I mean frag, Headstone. I was half naked. Boundaries and consent are a thing, you know." Skye sighs. "I'm not trying to rehash what happened, I just want you to understand that what you thought was harmless didn't seem harmless to me. You ken?"

Skye starts to pace the room uncomfortably. "As far as the job goes, I think it's a bigger mistake now more than ever. As I'm sure you must be aware, Simpleton straight up lied to us. Not the usual stretching the truth Johnson drek. Straight up lied. I don't know what game Simpleton is playing and I don't want to know."

She sighs again. "I met O'Riordan today. He goes by Ace. I was downtown checking up on that girl from yesterday and he just strolls right into the diner where I'm eating lunch. The guy is a hardened 'runner. A killer. And he barely has any aura left so he's cybered out the hoop, even though not much of it is visible. I can tell you he's got some kind of wired reflexes, though. He can move fast," Skye says, stressing the last word.

"Just because the job is to use non-lethal force, Ace isn't going to know that," Skye continues. "I'm worried if the team goes through with this, someone is going to die. The job was supposed to be to snatch some noob. Low risk, low reward. Now it's suddenly to grab one of the most dangerous 'runners in Seattle. The reward isn't nearly good enough for the risk."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

''No arguments from me there. That was exactly my take on it as well.
We decided as a crew not to do wetwork and while not proud of it, it happened to be my specialty before we formed this crew. Grappling? Not so much.
The only shot I saw was driving up to him and jumping him with all nine crew-members at the same time. His gear might be worth more than what we own as a crew in total, but numbers matter. There aren’t many streetsams around without improved reflexes, so that wasn’t really a discovery when we heard it. Although one of the contacts did say he has better than improved, so it might be move-by-wire even and we also know it is alphaware. He even has a way to slip out of restraints and the usual ware of course that many runners have; smartlink, datajack, chipjack, cosmetic enhancements, probably went with the eye package too for more efficiency. Being alphaware he might even have had some room for bioware, maybe that is how he slips out of restraints, but haven’t heard about that yet. So let’s hope not.

So yeah, I am not happy with the run either.
However, we accepted it and I am going through with it regardless. I would not fault anyone from dropping out either, but if I had to do it alone. My chances of survival are even less. The crew came up with a better plan to grab him than I had. I trust the crew, so I trust the plan. Let me send it over to you.
The run starts in an hour or so. If we need to switch to shock gloves, additional magical back-up would be highly appreciated to subdue him.’’ Headstone replies as multiple buttons can be heard being pushed in on his secretary, as our technologically challenged Orc has once again trouble sending over a simple message. He eventually manages to make it happen.

The following message is send over:

---
Plan of Execution

Phase one:
- El Cid goes with the target to the meeting.
- BB and Revs stay in the van.
- El Cid let’s the crew know where the target’s car is parked and th expected route they will take to the car.
- Team either goes in hiding outside the bar or stays in the van until it is time to jump the target.
- Once they walk into our trap. Tears in the Rain, Pacman and I rush the target and Bone Biter rushes El Cid. Bone Biter will aim his rush to push El Cid into the target.
- I will restrain the target once he is successfully pinned down.
- If we fail to keep him pinned him down, we will resort to knocking him out with shock gloves.
- If there is outside interference, Pacman will be the one disengaging to handle it.
- We will lift the target up and carry him to the van.
- Inside the van, we double-check his restraints and reapply them tightly each time he tries to wiggle out.
- BB will be the one removing his gear and checking him for weapons and other devices. We won’t let go of him until she gives the thumbs up.
- I will then apply the biomonitor.
- Once he is successfully secured, we will drive him to the airport. He stays on the ground in the middle of the van with us surrounding him. Each time he tries getting out of his restraints, we jump him and restrain him again. It will be up to him how uncomfortable his ride is going to be.
- During the ride over I will explain to him the rules. I won’t be answering any of his questions. Just the basics to make sure he understands the ride can be relatively pleasant if he behaves.
I’ll make clear that we are Shadowrunners and nothing more than that. We are going to transport him to a location. We don’t want to harm him and will only apply more force if he makes us. To refrain from trying to contact anyone, for we will do absolutely everything to get him to the location. So he is responsible for the lives of those trying to save him.

Phase two:
- Van arrives at the airport.
- We wait until Revs gives the sign that we can enter the plane. We all grab and lift him up. We move steadily while we transport him. Inside the plane, we stay on him like we did in the van.
- Once the plane lifts off, we restrain him to the plane itself if possible.
- From here on out, there will always be a minimum of 4 people surrounding him at all times.
- Watch rotation changes every 2 hours:
Watch 1: Headstone, Bone Biter, Tears in the Rain, Baby Blue
Watch 2: El Cid, Pacman, Bone Biter, Baby Blue
Watch 3: El Cid, Pacman, Headstone, Tears in the Rain
- (optional) If he has behaved so far, we can offer him a paid ride back. We’ll make it clear this will be after he has been delivered, we have gotten paid and he has finished up his business with the one who hired us. On top of that, we’ll let him know we are available for hire if he needs a crew of shadowrunners.
- Plane lands and we wait to move out until we get the signal from Revs.
- We grab and lift him up to carry him over to the next transport.
- That driver will be an outsider. He gets paid to drive, not to ask questions. If he wants to know anything, he gets charged the same price that we get charged for information. Which is 1k nuyen.
- We drive up to the hotel.

Phase three:
- We use the tranq patches on the target and dump him in one of our instrument suitcases.
- Into the hotel we go and move directly towards the room.
- We unload him and make sure we get paid.
---

[Gremlin]

{Skye}

Skye's eyes glaze over when she sees the amount of detail in that plan. She shakes her head.

"Headstone, having a plan is good but that goes way into the weeds of micromanaging. You can't try to write a detailed script about everything you think is going to happen," Skye says in exasperation.

She sighs and rubs her temples. "Look, I can't memorize all that. Shaman operate more on intuition. It's how our magic works. I can't stay on a detailed script like that. It's not because I'm trying to be obstinate, I'm just not wired that way," the teen shaman tries to explain.

Skye purses her lips, thinking. Then she offers a compromise."How about this. I'm supposed to meet Ace later to talk about something unrelated to the op. I can give you intel about what I see and you all can take it from there. Is that good enough?"

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

''It is a summary of what has been discussed. Expecting people to remember everything that has been said in a long winded meeting is simply not viable. Making the usefulness of meetings obsolete.
However, I trust in the crew and if you say this works better for you, I believe it. So it sounds good to me.
Luck in the shadows, chummer'' Headstone responds fully trusting in Skye's skill and experience to know what she is doing.

[Gremlin]

{Skye}

Skye looks confused for a moment, then shrugs. "Okay then, I'll report in after I've talked to Ace. That means you won't need me on the plane, right?"

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

’’On the contrary, I would have preferred you to be on the plane with us. If it were up to me, you would be here alongside us the entire way. Together with the crew as one. We are about to face great opposition and your presence here would be invaluable to me.
However, it is me trying to respect your wishes by you informing me that you cannot stick to the plan.

What you feel as micromanaging isn’t me telling you what to do. It is not my role to tell you what to do. My role is to keep 9 people moving in the same direction.
The plan I wrote up is merely a way to make everything that has been decided upon by the crew more easily digestible for everyone to follow.
Look, things never go as planned, but this gives a good base to act from. A reminder to fall back on so we don’t get stuck discussing trivial matters during an active run. This is what makes the difference between amateurs just winging it or professionals working in sync with another.
If one person decides not to go along after everyone has had an equal opportunity to decide on how we are going to do this, it would only serve to frustrate the other eight.

If you want me to sum up the last two days of meetings, information gathering, negotiations and then describe it in one word. It would be ’boring’.
Bored out of my mind. But my opinion on it doesn’t matter, that is not part of my role. I am responsible for doing my job correctly and if the crew decides to move in a certain direction, it is my job to facilitate this.

We are currently past the stage of information gathering and have moved on to execution. That is what the final meeting was about. The moment we gathered all the information and finalized our plan of action. It doesn’t mean there is no more information to gather, though. Your meeting could still prove useful.

Personally, all I care about is the target’s strengths and weaknesses. He is just some drek who needs to be moved from point A to B.
I don’t get paid to care about him.
The run we took on is to transfer him, make sure they hand us our paycheck and keep the crew safe while doing it. Heck, in another life, I could be sharing beers with him and be best of friends. In another, he could be my arch-nemesis. Not relevant in my book.

So, if you ask me, what do I prefer?
That would be for you to join us in the flesh. I would have no problems with you first going to the meeting, but would prefer if you got out before he does. So you can help subdue him and join us to the airport. You are one, if not the most powerful member in this crew, any magician generally is. Your presence could save our skin when drek hits the fan. Just know I respect whatever decision you make. All I ask,  if you do decide to join us in the flesh, is to stick to the plan as best as you can. Nothing more. Things will go wrong; it’s life. Drek happens.

I hope I explained my thoughts on it a little better.
Know that I respect whatever you decide you want to do. If flying more solo works better for you during this run, I completely trust that as well. So there is no pressure to do anything that doesn’t feel right’’

[Gremlin]

{Skye}

Skye pinches the bridge of her nose as she listens to the monologue. When Headstone is finished she says, "Brevity, Headstone. It's just like all of those super long summaries. Just keep it simple, omae. All you had to say was 'I think it would be better if you come on the plane, too'. To which I'll say, we'll see. I play it by ear and follow my intuition."

She sighs. She debates whether she should tell him if he wanted her there to badly he could have called at any time during the day. But she lets it go. "I'll go and talk to Ace, like I was planning on doing anyway. I'll let you know what I see in the bar. I seriously don't have anything that can help with the grab itself. I mostly make illusions, you know that. All of my spells are for avoiding combat. But we'll see what happens. Nothing ever goes according to plan anyway."

[Juramenta]

{Headstone}

''It is not about getting on a plane'' Headstone sighs. ''But, you are right about one thing, I guess. If you never try following a plan, no plan will ever work. That is a given.'' Headstone responds realizing this is an exercise in futility.
''Good luck in the shadows, chummer. We'll be in touch wishing her well before hanging up.

@Chary, you can close this thread now