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ProfessorCirno posted:You can focus on how tech is dehumanizing by specifically looking at how it removes you from the human experience not because COMPUTER BAD but because you're intentionally dehumanizing yourself so you can get a slightly better paycheck at your job where you murder people. Yeah I hear that Cruelty Squad is great at this but I just can't do it to my poor eyeballs. Absolutely agree
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Oct 25, 2023 09:27
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Speaking of merging tech, magic, and capitalism, has anyone tried recording a BTL from a summoned spirit?
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Oct 25, 2023 10:35
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I'm absolutely sure some sketchy black marketeers would sell you stuff purporting to be that and that some of those would be alien and brain melting enough that no one could tell for sure if they're authentic.
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Oct 25, 2023 10:45
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Speaking of merging tech, magic, and capitalism, has anyone tried recording a BTL from a summoned spirit? A spirit doesn't have any neurons to record the activity of. You'd be better served wiring somebody for recording and then have a spirit possess them.
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Oct 25, 2023 11:23
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You have horns and a tail because you needed new places to store cyber weapons, I have horns and a tail because I feel more complete this way. We are not the same.
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Oct 25, 2023 14:41
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Servetus posted:You have horns and a tail because you needed new places to store cyber weapons, I have horns and a tail because I feel more complete this way. We are not the same. Ok, but you do still store cyber weapons in them, right?
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Oct 25, 2023 19:46
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If you naturally grow tusks and horns and you didn't get them modified for extra killyness then you're just not worthy to be called goblinoid.
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Oct 25, 2023 19:58
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Akratic Method posted:Ok, but you do still store cyber weapons in them, right? Well obviously. I mean they are right there, and when you look at the upfront costs the extra bit was minuscule by comparison.
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Oct 25, 2023 19:58
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ProfessorCirno posted:And also, make magic way more weird and stop presenting it as a matter of holistic wholeness and soul connectivity, so that 'ware cutting you off from magic stops having such grotesque connotations. Dragonfall actually did this fairly well with Dietrich - his connection to his mentor spirit is going to loving kill him and pushes him into increasingly more dangerous stunts. You get the idea. It's funny that Dragonfall actually did this twice, with Glory getting a bunch of cyberware to cut herself off from her own totem.
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Oct 25, 2023 20:03
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Keldulas posted:It's funny that Dragonfall actually did this twice, with Glory getting a bunch of cyberware to cut herself off from her own totem. And then it breaks back through anyway because she's still compassionate enough to want to rescue innocents from a toxic shaman-led cult she was once part of.
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Oct 26, 2023 00:59
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Kith posted:2.5 is nearly half of that! C'mon Racter, you can shave off another point or two! Think of the possibilities! Look if your mundane character doesn't start with less than 0.5 essence you're not really trying I've even made viable magical characters who started with less than 1 essence (it's the only reason you'd ever want to do Exceptional Attribute: Magic, and it's not the most optimal way to make an Adept and definitely not the most optimal way to make a mage, but it is very funny and viable and therefore it's good) Anyways, the timeline proves Racter more or less right in about 30 years. As of the latest edition, it's possible to get at least 8 essence of cyberware and bioware without discounts, more because cosmetic non-augmentation ware which brings you closer to your self-image doesn't cost essence (and can actually heal essence damage). This stacks with better ware grades, genetic modifications and qualities which let you discount augmentation costs, and various other ways to discount augmentations (such as bundles or cybersuites, if they ever get reintroduced into 6e). Alternatively, you could get your entire body lopped off and turned into a full body cyborg, which costs a mere 5.9 essence and gives you the ability to swap into some cyborg bodies that can be augmented to stupendous levels, and all of those can fit significantly more than 6 essence worth of ware. There is also a very funny coincidence here with this conversation about breaking the essence limit coming after the mission with a vampire, because being a vampire also lets you break the 6-essence limit, although it takes until the 2070s for getting ware as a vampire to be made practical.
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Oct 26, 2023 12:01
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Vampires increasing their essence is kinda not very accepted in most places however. They lose one essence, minimum, every month and they have a special drain essence power they use to take essence from others. If a vampire assaults you and drains 4 essence from you it's like if you got 4 essence worth of ware. You're super extra screwed if you are/were a mage. Victims can get addicted to essence draining and vampire going above their 6 limit risks them doing it as well, or it increases the risk I can't remember exactly. Naturally they also need to drink metahuman blood daily (that doesn't cause essence loss at least). 
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Oct 26, 2023 13:10
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Poil posted:Vampires increasing their essence is kinda not very accepted in most places however. They lose one essence, minimum, every month and they have a special drain essence power they use to take essence from others. If a vampire assaults you and drains 4 essence from you it's like if you got 4 essence worth of ware. You're super extra screwed if you are/were a mage. Victims can get addicted to essence draining and vampire going above their 6 limit risks them doing it as well, or it increases the risk I can't remember exactly. Naturally they also need to drink metahuman blood daily (that doesn't cause essence loss at least). True, but most vampire active powers kinda suck so 1 essence loss/month is about where you'd expect it to be and there are enough awful people in the world of Shadowrun that you could drain one of them every few months without being particularly worse than your average shadowrunner. As to essence drain addiction, that's also something you can mitigate if you have decent edge and good mental attributes (and since you're probably a mage, adept, or mystic adept, you'll want those anyways).
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Oct 26, 2023 13:59
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 Hey what's going on here? Oh I'm just sucking a few pricks (oh I'm incorrigible). as in very bad people. yeah I get it I get it. though if you are in the mood... some other time, I'm on the clock.
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Oct 26, 2023 14:08
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MJ12 posted:True, but most vampire active powers kinda suck so 1 essence loss/month is about where you'd expect it to be and there are enough awful people in the world of Shadowrun that you could drain one of them every few months without being particularly worse than your average shadowrunner.
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Oct 26, 2023 14:49
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This conversation sort of got this random idea from me, of 'essence donors'. Someone who plans on getting some cyberware basically putting up an ad for a vampire to pay for some essence before getting cyberware that would've cut off that amount of essence anyways. Hey, that vampire is helping to pay for said surgery and ware!
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Oct 26, 2023 20:47
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Now that is thinking ahead! I don't expect there are that many outed vampires out there since they are not publicly accepted in most polities but where they are they ought to be planning like this.
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Oct 26, 2023 21:21
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Have we gotten a lore update on how hosed Asamando has gotten? Last I'd read they were all about locally grown, farm to table, low food miles sustenance. Which is to say farming people as chattle to feed themselves. Honestly surprised someone hasn't nuked them yet.
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Oct 27, 2023 03:11
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Shadowrun was always a very interesting setting, strong enough to survive all the awful rule systems and even the uninspiring metaplot twists. The one thing you can always rely on is a writing team getting all up into some new and fascinating thing and subsequent writers making GBS threads all over that.
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Oct 27, 2023 10:30
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To be frank, I always felt that it was a bit weird that chrome that simply mimicked an ordinary limb would cost Essence. As far as I´m concerned it´s when you start putting in stuff like a cyber dick that can double as a assault rifle/bladed implement you start losing humanity since you are turning yourself into a weapon and not simply mimicking the old limbs functionality.
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Oct 29, 2023 21:34
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Racter strikes me as less of a cyberzombie and more of a technolich.
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Oct 30, 2023 19:58
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Rogue AI Goddess posted:Racter strikes me as less of a cyberzombie and more of a technolich. Racter feels like he's trying to go full Larloch, I'm doing my poo poo, I will get there, at most others are useful tools.
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Oct 30, 2023 21:59
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Sylphosaurus posted:To be frank, I always felt that it was a bit weird that chrome that simply mimicked an ordinary limb would cost Essence. As far as I´m concerned it´s when you start putting in stuff like a cyber dick that can double as a assault rifle/bladed implement you start losing humanity since you are turning yourself into a weapon and not simply mimicking the old limbs functionality. Don't kink shame me.
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Nov 1, 2023 16:56
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Part 34 - The Long Hunt  Before we get started with the usual talky business, we have exactly 10 Karma to spend that fits perfectly into increasing our Willpower and Qi Casting to 5, something of a power number when it comes to proper Adeptery since it allows for buying and equipping some particularly useful stuff, and also immediately unlocks a new and very useful Adept ability:  Qi Focus: Make 2 melee attacks on one target. Increases chance for critical DMG. Cost: 2 AP. No cooldown. Qi Focus (and its later version Qi Onslaught) is one of the archetype-defining abilities of a melee Physical Adept that sets them apart from the usual normal dudes swinging hurty things hard. Unlike many other in-game tooltips, this one actually undersells the effect some because the ability's crit weights for 1.0x/1.5x/2.0x damage are 0.0/0.6/0.4, making the "increased chance" for a Qi Focus critical literally 100%. Numbers-wise this basically makes it automatically superior (if less flexible) compared to using two standard attacks, and a melee attack that always crits also has some other implications as well. Most obviously, guaranteed crits also increases the overall AP damage output, which makes 2.0x criticals particularly powerful. Another effect is that it somewhat counterintuitively makes the Melee Weapons skill largely redundant for melee Adepts, since the main draw of the skill is to increase your melee critical hit rate which Qi Focus already caps anyway. Since Adepts are the most karma-hungry archetype in the game already, this can either be an unpleasant surprise or very helpful depending entirely on whether you know about it ahead of time. Finally, guaranteed crits also makes the two unique Adept swords we've seen even better as they both have an on-crit effect (ongoing HP damage for Ardent Phoenix and ongoing AP damage for Distant Storms Foretold) and if you always crit, well, you obviously always get the effect as well. It's also worth noting that running up to an enemy within your immediate movement range to hit them with Qi Focus doesn't require a third AP for the movement itself, which is in a way the opposite of the problem the 0 AP ability Swift Strike had where running up and Swift Striking an enemy would still consume 1 AP for the movement, just like using a 1 AP melee attack. All in all this ability is going to be our go-to baddie chopping method for the foreseeable future.  But enough about us and our cool new skills, we have a fellow swordsperson to catch up with.    You worried you're getting rusty? No. That is not quite it. Rather, I wish to learn to bring my enhanced strength and speed to bear. In order to do so, I must ensure that my blindness does not hinder me. Perfection is a journey, not a destination.[Gaichu lifts his sword, offering it edge first toward you.] Do you see that edge? Forged by one of the finest swordsmiths in modern Japan. Diamond-coated edge, capable of cutting even the most hardened ceramic armors. But what good is a sharpened edge without the precision to apply it? When I was still a man, I could have cut a single pea in half with my eyes closed. Oddly, after becoming blind, I cannot replicate this feat.[Running the back of a claw along the blade's surface, Gaichu smiles thinly.] I think soon I will be able to perform this feat again. I simply have to train my body to ignore the senses that it no longer has, and pay attention to the new ones.Good to hear it, we know who to call if Kindly sends any jobs involving man-eating legumes our way. Now... What is it that you would like to discuss? Any thoughts about that last run?[Gaichu shakes his head, running a hand over his scalp.] Vampires. Trid producers. Fancy parties. This is not the sort of affair I assumed I would be participating in, as a shadowrunner. It seems strange, this rivalry between Shenyang and Ma. Most professional rivals don't hire augmented killers or freelance mages to solve their problems, yet Shenyang was insistent that only outside help could solve his problem. Why not simply kill Ma? Social mores in this city elude me, I confess.[Gaichu chuckles quietly, baring his teeth as he leans back.] And Ku Feng. What an incredible waste of space. I should hope that she takes my lessons and philosophy to heart - the life of a vampire is more perilous than my own, as her appetite is greater. Who knows, perhaps we will not have seen the last of her. Is there anything else? Has it been difficult to learn to fight while blind? It is not the easiest thing I have attempted, but neither is it the hardest.[Placing his sword off to one side, Gaichu turns to face you.] "Emptiness is form" is one of the great lessons of the "Hagakure." Train sufficiently, and both swordsmanship and obedience will come instinctively. That is the closest to perfection a man can attain. I don't put a whole lot of stock in being obedient.[Gaichu feigns surprise.] A lawless shadowrunner, have problems with authority? My goodness. I never would have guessed such a thing to be the case.Swordsmith must have sharpened his tongue some too while they were at it. So does that mean that in a perfect world, you would have killed yourself when you got infected? If an order should be unjust or foolish, it should not be followed. To waste a skilled warrior, as they would have by killing me... it is unacceptable. Obedience without a thought is to be cultivated, but so is the moral fortitude to know when to disagree. When I was new to the unit, I thought that to be a good samurai was the ultimate goal. That to serve justly with dedication was the greatest honor a warrior could have. We were all young and foolish once, I suppose. That kind of ideology only serves the powerful. We were taught that we were superior to everyone - that since we were pure humans, and Japanese, we would always win. I believe that most never question the validity of this claim, even when confronted with direct evidence to the contrary. Tell me about when your old unit ambushed you. Very well. [Gaichu draws his nails over his scalp, sighing.] My time in Fukuoka was tense. Since leaving Keihanshin, I had been careful to stay out of sight by moving on foot or in the back of automated delivery vans. I was running out of food, however, and needed to be in a city for that. Fukuoka is just big enough to get lost in, but not so large that a ghoul sighting could go unnoticed. I hid in abandoned buildings and storm drainage systems, and for two weeks I managed to stay hidden. The strain of having to constantly move was wearing on me, however. I made a mistake. What happened? I had to get out of Japan, but all of my contacts in Fukuoka had come up empty-handed when I asked for a way to China. I was running low on money, and I could feel the team catching up with me. A contact of mine in Kumamoto owed me a favor, and arranged passage for me if I could reach the city in forty-eight hours.[Gaichu closes his eyes, resting his face in one palm.] If I had taken my time, I could have made it to Kumamoto without incident. But I let caution slip when I got his email. I thought that if I disguised myself, I could take the train there - get out before my unit got any closer to finding me. I still don't know how they found me. Magical tracking, perhaps - or simply a well-developed spy network. Regardless, they found me. They were waiting for me at Hakata Station. It was an ambush.At a public train station? Clearly weren't going for the subtle approach. That sounds dangerous. "Dangerous" does not express even half of it. It was during rush hour - the station was packed with civilians, but my teammates did not care. For a Red Samurai, success is the only criterion that matters. If I was dead, it would not matter how that came to pass. I assumed that a train had derailed, honestly. But then I smelled the telltale acrid vapor of the explosives.[Gaichu wrinkles his nose at the memory.] Once you smell it, you never forget. The plastic explosive that we used has a particularly sharp odor, like old cheese. Something to do with an olfactory taggant added to help track it if it is stolen. I remember stumbling through the dust and debris, trying to find my way to the rail platforms. They attacked from all sides, using the confusion to strike at once. I could hear Ishida and Takagawa behind me. Aomori and Sasaki charged out of an access corridor just ahead of where I had been standing. Sasaki threw a fire wall down behind me, cutting off retreat while Aomori started firing. That's a nasty situation to be caught in. One of the worst. Confined space, facing a mage and a heavy gunner? Those are losing odds, even if the attackers are ordinary mercenaries. I did the only thing I could think of: I charged Aomori and Sasaki. They were only fifteen meters away from me. The only advantage I had was that they were as blinded by the dust as I was - but I could still hear and smell them. Sasaki threw a lightning bolt at me, but I managed to roll under it. As I came up, Aomori's light machine gun was swivelling down. I felt time stretch out as I stared down the barrel.  He was your friend. That kind of thing will stick with you.[Gaichu snorts, waving a hand dismissively.] Spare me the two-nuyen psychiatry. Obviously, what you say is true... But the memory sticks with me so strongly for another reason. It was in that strike that I realized who I truly was. My whole time with the Red Samurai, I had focused on ensuring that I was worthy of the team. Everyone felt that way, but I felt it more acutely than most. I have always wanted to be the best. The fastest. The most precise. In the Red Samurai, I felt that to be less than perfect would be to let the team down. We were always told how lucky we were, to have been accepted into the unit. The moment my sword struck Aomori, I knew that I would survive the fight. They attacked me as they would an animal - they seemed to be counting on herding me into Takagawa and Ishida. Aomori didn't even try to get out of the way of my sword strike. I recall his eyes going wide. He looked surprised that I was using a weapon and not my claws. They underestimated you. What did it mean that I, an infected monster that was less than a beast, could still defeat the finest soldiers in the world? Red Samurai doctrine taught Aomori and the others not to fear me, and this overconfidence would be their death. I realized I had progressed beyond their ability to understand. My sword was as accurate as ever, but they could not account for it due to ideological blindness. That's the danger of letting ideology overrule facts. Precisely. All those years, I was worried I was not good enough to be a member of the Red Samurai - that somehow they had been pulling my weight. But I had been blind to all of the ways in which we were not training, or had avoided the harsh truths about our own abilities. We were so often told of our own excellence that I wondered if we had ever truly been tested. And you think becoming a ghoul made you a better warrior? Can you deny it? I could fight as well as when I was a man, but with eyes that had been opened to the hypocrisy of what Renraku had taught us. They taught us the lessons that made us useful tools. They do not want independent soldiers, but obedient ones. Sasaki was the next to fall. As I turned away from Aomori, I realized she must have seen me strike him. Her eyes were wide, and I could feel her fear and anger as she tried to summon another spell. She seemed caught between healing Aomori and attacking me. What about Ishida and Takagawa? My goal was survival, not victory. Takagawa was too far away, and I did not see Ishida - I only smelled him. So I ran. The trains had been shut down due to the explosion, but as long as I could get out of Hakata Station, I knew I could escape. They did not follow me out into the city proper. From what I heard via the Matrix, the event was reported as a terrorist attack that was thwarted by brave Renraku soldiers.[Gaichu snorts, lips curling downward.] Brave, foolish soldiers. So if you killed two of them, why are they still hunting you?[Gaichu does not answer immediately. He seems uneasy with the question, fidgeting with his fingers.] I am unsure why that would make a difference. Can you explain what you are driving at? If you train with your unit so extensively, won't it be impossible to replace the ones you killed? Ahh. I see. I think your mistake is in seeing this from a practical perspective. The problem is emotional, not mechanical.[Folding his arms over his chest, Gaichu continues to explain.]  Simply put, I am not dead. Ordinarily, a missing Red Samurai would be considered "dead" for purposes of reorganizing teams - but Renraku knows precisely what has happened to me. What's more, my failure to do my duty reflects badly on the unit. Others will undoubtedly resist joining my former squad, as it has been "tainted." So until they kill you, nobody wants to join their club?[Gaichu nods his assent.] Yes. That is the case. They cannot move forward and rebuild the core of the unit unless I die, both because of their own expectations and the stain on their honor. Even if they accepted my decision, the rest of the Red Samurai would not. This is the trap of their duty. They have hunted me in Japan, Shanghai, and Beijing, and now I am certain they hunt me here in Hong Kong. The cycle will continue endlessly for the foreseeable future. Such is the way of things.Hell of a story. But gotta say, it's a little weird that he's so resigned to making rounds on the death carousel with these guys for all eternity, kill-or-be-killed scenarios tend to have a more decisive ending. Wouldn't it be easier if you faced them down, rather than run? How do you mean? I have faced them several times in the past - in Fukuoka, and in Shanghai. Unless you have a deeper meaning I am unaware of, I have already done as you suggest. You're capable of striking back at them. Why aren't more of them dead?[Gaichu's expression darkens, and he folds his arms over his chest.] You think our battles have not been in earnest? You believe that I should have been more efficient in defending myself? I believe you define yourself by your opposition to your old life. What...?[Blinking a few times, Gaichu leans closer to you.] I am unsure that I clearly understand your meaning. Can you explain yourself more clearly? Think about it. You get to live as the ronin Red Samurai, unfairly cast out by his unit. Ahh. And you believe that absent that opposition, I would have little to define myself? That is very cheap philosophy, Taz, and unworthy of you. Prove me wrong. Who are you, without your unit?[Drawing himself up and puffing out his chest, Gaichu glares at you.] You tell me. What do you see? I am the creature that stands in front of you - what is it that I am, in your opinion? That's a cop-out answer and you know it. And your insistence upon labels is a weakness. Why must you name a thing in order to understand it? You claim I am nothing without my unit, yet you cannot answer a simple question. I am. I exist. That is the truth and sum total of meaning in it. There exists no objective, external force to impose meaning and value upon our lives. How I choose to survive is a facet of my life, but it is not the totality of it. You know their skills and training. You have the advantage over them. If you're as good as you claim, you should have been able to finish this by now. But I think sentimentality has left you unable to finish them off. Ahh, yes. Because I am such a weak-willed soldier of fortune that I cannot bear the idea of killing the last vestiges of my old life.[His tone is mocking as he spits his next words.] Certainly, that is more likely than the battles simply not going in my favor. It doesn't have to be a conscious decision. You're avoiding an all-or-nothing confrontation.[Gaichu is halfway through pointing an accusatory finger at you, but stops short as you speak.] There may be... some truth to what you say. I had not considered that my instinct to flee may be subconscious. I appreciate your concern about my history and my unit, but I assure you, I am doing all right. I must learn to adapt to my new condition and lifestyle on my own. The time will come when they find me in Hong Kong.Not knowing the time is a problem though, we're already in the middle of a whole lot without having to worry about Japan's Finest popping up out of nowhere in the middle of a job. What does "perfecting yourself" mean to you, anyway? I do not know. I am certain that sounds like an evasion, but it is not. There is no road map for being a ghoul who is also a freelance killer. I only know that my instincts are stronger now than they were when I was an ordinary man. Because of this, I must learn to make my own way in this world. There is no older teaching for me to reach for.[Gaichu suddenly cocks his head.] Is this why you are concerned about my history with the Red Samurai? I just want to make sure nobody comes gunning for us while our attention is elsewhere. A fair concern, I admit. I will take this under advisement. I do not wish this team to be harmed by my actions, or lack therein. I put a question to you, then... If you had been changed into a ghoul, what would you do? How would you improve yourself and learn to live with your condition?Hmm, hard to even imagine, but end of the day it'd be a waste to spend our remaining years just sulking and rotting away, been there and done that already. Plus hey, we've already gotten a headstart in sampling the cuisine and everything. I'd make the best use of my new abilities. Change is power. This is how I see things, as well. If I am to exceed my previous abilities, I must learn to make use of my new body, and understand its limitations. Without that, I will simply be a shadow of who I once was. The changes are not only physical, as I mentioned before. My mind is more instinctive now, and reasoning is more difficult. I tend to react quickly, without thought, but that also generally will turn the tide in my favor.[Gaichu squares himself, nodding several times as if agreeing with his own internal dialog.] Warriors must learn to push their body and soul to the utmost limit. So too it is with me, but my body and soul are no longer that of a man. I must learn to use these differences as an advantage, rather than a handicap. Perfection is not a destination. It is a journey. One must strive to become the purest form of oneself that one can be. So what will you do about your unit when they come looking for you in Hong Kong? I am unsure. You have given me a great deal to consider, and I do not mean that lightly. There are several actions and possible outcomes I foresee. I could, as I have before, relocate to another city. Flee Hong Kong, travel to somewhere further afield. Lagos, perhaps, or Montreal. It would have to be some place where Renraku's influence was minimal, and where the unit's presence would be immediately noticeable. This has been my plan of action in the past. I could also keep a low profile, staying here. Hope that they are unable to find precisely where I am hiding. Undoubtedly, Ishida would command the team to keep looking. I believe it would only be a matter of time before they found me, but if it were a sufficiently long time, they might be recalled. I could also confront them. Draw them out into the open at a time and place of my choosing - they are nothing if not predictable in their efforts to follow Red Samurai operational doctrine. That plan could succeed, but it could also put you and civilians at risk. And I am unsure how I would draw them out in the first place. I think you need to find a way to fight them.[Gaichu sighs, shoulders slumping a little.] I am unsure if that is the wisest course of action. I am going to need to think about this a great deal. Please, let me think on this. I will have an answer later. Before we head out, let's take a peek at what's surfaced in the memory crate today.    Why did you keep these chopsticks? [Raising his sword, Gaichu returns to his practice.] Tell me, have you ever heard of Tetsuya Nakamura? It doesn't ring a bell. He was a member of Shiawase's upper management for many years, running most of Shiawase Envirotech's agricultural development. A very bright star, in the corporate world. He died in 2052, and those chopsticks are what I killed him with. Chopsticks? Really? They were the closest thing to a weapon I had at hand. Nakamura took his security very seriously, and employed several highly augmented bodyguards. It was only through several months of extensive planning that we were able to get near him at all. When faced with a challenge, one is often forced to improvise with what is at hand. We had studied Nakamura's schedule painstakingly, particularly his twice-monthly trips to Neo-Tokyo. In Osaka, Shiawase's presence would have made any attempt on his life functionally impossible. In Neo-Tokyo, though... In studying his movement patterns, we discovered that he would eat at a particular French restaurant in Ginza every second trip, at precisely eight thirty in the evening. It seemed that he had a secret lover who lived in Roppongi, and he was visiting him during his business trips. Owing to this secrecy, he would give his bodyguards the night off when the two met. The restaurant in question was famous for its molecular gastronomy and the precision of their chefs - not to mention the view from the thirty-eighth floor. We managed to secure reservations near Nakamura's usual table, but only for two of us. It was decided that Sasaki and I would be the pair to kill Nakamura; Ishida and Aomori would wait one floor below, and Takagawa would keep watch from a nearby skyscraper. We carried small but high-powered pistols, as well as tactical knives. We expected it to be easy. Sounds like a good plan.Maybe we'll get to experience one of those too, someday. It was. But no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Sasaki engaged him in a contest of wills - I am not sure how that kind of magic works - but could not shatter his barrier. She was too busy dodging the lightning bolts he was throwing, and since the flames had set off the fire system... Well, it was not easy. Nakamura broke and ran, and I pursued him. He had a small holdout pistol - a PB-120 or something similar - and I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find.[Gaichu gestures toward you with the tip of his sword.] Those chopsticks. I slid them up into his brain stem, through the trachea. He died without making a sound - not that I would have been able to hear it over the sound of Aomori's machine gun, rattling away one floor below. Apparently the bodyguards were not truly given the night off, and were still nearby. What happened to Nakamura's lover?[Gaichu chuckles, tilting his head up toward the ceiling as he recalls the memory.] Takagawa managed to punch through his barrier with a well-placed .408 caliber slug from across the street. It didn't kill him, but it broke his concentration. Sasaki finished the rest. How did you get out? With the windows blown out, we fast-roped down the side of the building and disappeared into the night. It was not the cleanest job, but it was very memorable. I still remember the smell: ozone and bechamel, mixing with the cordite and Veuve Clicquot.We'll pass on dramatic chopstick murdering and roping down buildings if it's all the same to the powers that be. Doubt they'll give us the chance to get bored either, though.   This page seems to be missing a book, Gaichu.[Gaichu nods in agreement, and steps forward to deliver a crosscut to the air in front of him.] Yes. But that page is all that I wanted from the book. [Gaichu pivots on the ball of his heel, thrusting the tip of his sword into the darkness of the room.] The poet Saigyo. He was a master of conveying a sense of solitude and emptiness. And I have always found that poem to echo what I feel inside myself. Are you the mountains, or the islands? So often, it feels as if I am contained within a ball of ice, floating through the void of this life - cold and solitary. The moments I can share with those who have truly mattered to me chip through that frost, and let me scream out that I am not alone. Good talk, hope he'll figure out what he wants to do with his clingy overseas exes before they come knocking on our doors. That's all our boat business finished, so let's go for a walk.   Crafty still has nothing new to report regarding her mother's notes and the Go players aren't feeling talkative, so we'll check on Matthew first.   What's the matter, drone bite your tongue?[He continues looking shyly at the ground, and doesn't answer.] What's going on? You don't seem yourself.[Matthew mumbles something under his breath. After a moment, he looks up suddenly.]  Can you do me a favor, Taz? I can't leave the lot right now. What's the favor? I was supposed to pick up my medicine this morning, but I overslept. Can you get it from Ambrose, for me? Ten-Armed Ambrose? Sure. Thanks. For all the weird things we've seen, a gloomy Reliable Matthew feels especially out of place. If Law is acting quiet and humble today too, it's time to get really worried.  [The goggle servos whine softly as a set of lenses focus on you.]  Taz! What's going on? What have you been up to? Wait, were you just telling someone about me? Don't worry, T-Zero is Whampoan. He's so cool he's like refrigerant. So what can I hook you up with today?Not sure if the Whampoan part is the reassurance he thinks it is considering our past dealings but ah well, surely it's fine to tell this guy an inconsequential story or two. I've got some more metadata for you. Entertainment bigwig Neville Ma has a vampire associate. She healed him after his recent auto wreck, in exchange for living the high life.[Law scratches his tousled hair.] Uh... no one's gonna believe that... I know it sounds crazy... It's not that, it's... um... That's word-for-word the plot of a side quest in the new expansion pack for "Guangzhou Heat: Year of Snake." Everyone's playing it. Memes like that are flying *everywhere* on the boards right now. I mean, I believe you Taz, 'cause you're legit... but *no one* else will. Here, I'll still hook you up. I guess reality is as strange as fiction.As before, we'll take the 200 nuyen over some useless program. Thanks. See you later, Law.  Usually we leave Spider Shen last during these tours, but since we're here for actual business today, we'll make an earlier stop this time.  How did you know my name? I never told you. You think all I do is sit on this boat and wait for you to show up? Come on. You're Kindly Cheng's pet shadowrunner. Your name's all over Heoi. [Shen grins, gesturing at you.] You stand out, woman. That's a good thing. It means you're becoming somebody, not staying one of the forgettables.[Shen stands, twisting left and right to a chorus of cracking vertebrae.] So. What do you need today? What's with the sword? This little thing?[Shen runs one hand over the glass top of the case, smiling fondly.] This... Is a masterpiece. Crafted by my own hands, as a gift for White Ming. He's being elevated to a Red Pole. One hundred and twenty centimeters in length. Three point five centimeters width at the base, tapering to two point seven five before the tip. Half a centimeter in thickness, with a twining dragon motif along the fuller. And... It lights on fire when the appointed owner holds it. Very nice indeed.[Shen's annoyance is as glass shards in the reply.] Nice is a bouquet of orchids. Nice is a fine meal after a hard day. Nice is pleasant weather while you relax on your boat. This isn't nice. This is a masterpiece. You think it's easy to make a sword like this? Hell no. Took me four drat months. Few Red Poles in any triad can claim a weapon as fine as this, and none of them are masters of Wudang Sword like White Ming. His skills with the jian are peerless in Hong Kong, and any who face him in combat will know when he draws his sword that they have no chance against him. Nice, indeed. Pfeh. What goes into making a sword like this? Time. Patience. Good steel stock, to be certain. A fair amount of alchemical materials like Orichalcum, crystals, et cetera. The real key is human bone.  We'll be sure to spare a thought to whoever donated their bones for a good cause, because we now have the 5 Qi Casting required to wield the Distant Storms Foretold that we previously could only stare longingly at. Between this blade's AP shockery and Qi Focus, nobody's consciousness is safe. We also have juuuuust enough cash on hand to grab Martial Defense I as well (which also requires 5 Qi Casting to equip), a spell that makes our life both easier and longer by making critical hits much less of a concern.  Now that we've spent all our savings on shinies, it's time to visit the clinic and the club and then figure out where to head next. Maybe it's about time we finally pick up Is0bel's request so that she'll actually talk to us again sometime...  Here's Gaichu's comments on the other outcomes of the Repulse Bay job since he has the most to say about each of them, with some repetition omitted. If Ku Feng was asked to have Neville Ma fire Penelope Wong, and Ku Feng herself was sent to hiding: You were right to chase Ku Feng off. This way, her influence over Ma is ended, Wong will be fired, and we stand to make quite a bit of nuyen. People may find ghouls repulsive, but vampires *kill* their victims. I can subsist on corpses, but Ku Feng requires the living: to have left her in public would have condemned many more to die. In hiding, she may run afoul of a greater predator, at least.If Wong was not fired, and Ku Feng was sent to hiding (the version where Ku Feng is killed is nearly identical to this one): It seems that we might have been a bit hasty - perhaps Dr. Shenyang would have been more pleased if we had convinced Ku Feng to get Penelope Wong fired. That said, you were right to chase her off. A free and relatively careless vampire is dangerous indeed.Finally if Wong was fired, and Ku Feng was left to hang out with Neville Ma: I am also unsure why you chose to let Ku Feng stay with Neville Ma. I suppose it did not matter for our pay - since Wong will be fired, Dr. Shenyang will undoubtedly be happy with the outcome. But a vampire, running loose in Repulse Bay? I am certain that some day she will become too cocky for her own good. Say what you will of ghouls, but at least our appetites are not so deep or permanently damaging as a vampire's.
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Dec 1, 2023 19:05
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I’m pretty sure we’re going to have to deal with the Red Samurai for Gaichu’s personal quest, right?
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Dec 1, 2023 23:05
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Oh yeah. I mean, obviously.
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Dec 1, 2023 23:44
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spoiler: Things will get redder.
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Dec 1, 2023 23:47
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Gaichu is such a fun character. Real credit to the writers that both of the "evil" party members are interesting and have complete, complex worldviews.
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Dec 2, 2023 02:09
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sebmojo posted:Oh yeah. I mean, obviously. It would have been funny if they had kept all that buildup up and foreshadowing, and then made his personal quest something completely different.
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Dec 2, 2023 03:56
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It's pretty lit that instead of making Them stock evil, they gave large reasons as to why racter and gaichu would follow up on the more brutal decisions. Especially Gaichu, in his case, it's pretty much the cultural shock of having been part of a special unit with special treatment and special trains of thought. Racter, Gobbet, Isobel and even our gunshow have standards on which they can find common grounds from time to time. Gaichu though is a stranger in strangerland, his customs so to speak very different from shadowrunners. Makes him super interesting.
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Dec 3, 2023 10:17
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I enjoy how Gaichu here initally tries to balance his realization for just how far the fascist corporate stooges he was with would go in not giving a poo poo about civilians, and then immediately after tells you a story about publicly assassinating innocent people with pride in a job well done. Also his complaint with the Red Samurai isn't even that they are what they are - it's that he's now better at being a killer then they were.
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Dec 3, 2023 11:03
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Gaichu, to me at least, doesn't seem particularly Evil, but he is dealing with stuff in a very different way to most. He was a professional doing a job in his descriptions but does not target civvies. His team seem to have dived headfirst into redemption via violence.
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Dec 3, 2023 11:19
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He never says he didn't kill innocent bystanders, just that the amount of wanton destruction employed by his former team against him caught him by surprise.
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Dec 3, 2023 11:26
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Dance Officer posted:He never says he didn't kill innocent bystanders, just that the amount of wanton destruction employed by his former team against him caught him by surprise. So he assumed staying in a massive crowd would provide some safety since they didn't ever go *that* far, but now they did.
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Dec 3, 2023 13:47
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Gaichu is presently a half-reformed fascist. When he was a Red Samurai he was essentially a member of a corpo Waffen SS. That he's interesting and not a monster is ironically thanks to his personal growth since contracting HMHVV.
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Dec 3, 2023 15:10
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What I like about Gaichu is that the truly scary part about him isn't the obligate cannibal part.
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Dec 3, 2023 20:30
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Agaragon posted:What I like about Gaichu is that the truly scary part about him isn't the obligate cannibal part. If anything, it's the chillest part of him. He gladly admits that he has no need for live subjects, corpses work just fine, and he has a knack for cooking them a certain way. He's one of the few cannibals whose hunger for flesh is the least threatening part.
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Dec 4, 2023 10:04
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Mindopali posted:If anything, it's the chillest part of him. He gladly admits that he has no need for live subjects, corpses work just fine, and he has a knack for cooking them a certain way. He's one of the few cannibals whose hunger for flesh is the least threatening part. And, you know, Shadowrunner. It's not like he's just going out and murdering random homeless people to eat. You and he are both in a career where producing corpses regularly is a perfectly expected part of business. Not much reason to give a drat if he has further use for some of them so long as he's responsible enough to carry his own groceries back to the ship.
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Dec 4, 2023 10:14
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Some of those corpses don't have much meat on em though. Too much metal.
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Dec 4, 2023 11:11
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The Lone Badger posted:Some of those corpses don't have much meat on em though. Too much metal. Doesn't matter much when there's a dozen of them.
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Dec 4, 2023 17:29
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