New Beginnings

The noise in the bar continues on over your discussion, it seems some of the rowdier patrons are overly excited about seeing a minotaur in obvious runner's clothes and one is even bragging about getting a death glare from him to one of his friends.

Jinx, all seems normal to you, at least as normal as a runner bar can be. Plenty of burner comms in the matrix, some mid-end comms that probably belong to the passersby, and a decently strong host that likely covers the bar's security. As far as personnel go, the same pattern continues. Other than all of the runners this is a pretty normal bar and the overall mood seems jovial.

Eddy, the bartender flashes you a smile when she sees the tip and says, "Shiden will be with you shortly." You notice that even that short exchange seemed to make her restless as she moved on to the order. From the lack of obvious 'ware you can only imagine that her skills are being wasted in a bar.

Vato, your White Russian with a shot of rum is delivered without so much as a word or a look. You notice plenty of eyes on you, but that's nothing new being a minotaur. One of the many wannabes you gave a death glare on your way in is now bragging to his friends about it. He wouldn't last two minutes against regular corp sec, much less HTR.

Rook, when you say that Shiden is paying, the bartender flashes you a bright smile and then returns to her tasks. You're not quite sure why she smiled at you, but you feel that it was more likely to be laughing at you rather than smiling at you.

Daniel, the crowd seems friendly enough, although a couple will glare at you wondering why you're being so friendly. Many of the regulars recognize you and return friendly greetings before going back to their conversations. As you look for the Johnson you see a short Japanese woman walk up to the three by the bar and she gestures to you.

The figure appears next to you with little warning, a Japanese woman with long black hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a business suit scarcely over five feet tall. "If you all will follow me that would be appreciated. Grab another drink if you wish to bring it with you and grab the straggler as well." She leads you down a hallway past the backroom and into another room near the rear entrance.

When you enter it, it looks like a corporate executive meeting room, the walls obviously made to appear as if you were in a skyscraper in sunny downtown Miami. In the far corner of the room is another door and standing next to it is a Japanese man a couple of inches taller than the woman with a Katana sheathed at his side. The meeting table is seated with seven chairs, the near end being a chair clearly meant for the minotaur. Doing the math, perhaps the seventh chair is for the man in the corner.

As the woman sits at the opposite head of the table she motions for you to sit and when you're seated she begins to speak. "You may call me Shiden. I believe that you are all loosely familiar with each other. Now, if it's not too much of a rush, we shall begin discussing business. You were brought here for a job, however, the offer is a bit more than simply a job. If you are not aware, I act as a fixer for some of the more... connected individuals in the region. Should you earn it, I shall also act as a fixer for your group. Are we clear so far?"

Daniel takes a seat and makes himself comfortable.

"Hello miss Shinden, I’d like to start by saying that I’m incredibly intrigued by what you’ve said, do you mind if I ask some clarifying questions?"

"See I’m a little curious what you mean by "the fixer for our group", as you’ve mentioned, we’re familiar with one another from around the way but…" Daniel motions to indicate the other runners at the table, "…we are not really affiliated in any official capacity. We’re you intending on recruiting us in order to form a team so that we may perform jobs for you?"

Afterwards Daniel just shrugs and says "I mean I could also just be completely overthinking this, I’ve done that before."

When Vato enters the room he makes a curt almost imperceptible bow towards the female host then makes eye contact with the man with the katana and takes his trenchcoat off to hang it over his designated chair so he is considerably less armored and cannot grab anything from his jacket a move to convey quite literally he is disarming himself.

His game face with a prospective employer seems to be one politeness, quite contrary to the horseplay and joking when he was alone with the other runners. He is content to let others talk for the moment, calmly nursing his White Russian.

Rook has plenty of criminal experience, and is probably known in the streets and underworld, but he has never technically been a shadowrunner.

In an act of overcompensation and trying to appear comfortable and confident he does his best to take up more physical space then his small frame would usually require, and keep his normally loud mouth shut and let the more experienced do the talking.
He does a quick assessing of Shiden and the other man in the room and lights up his last cigarette and leans back in the chair.

Eddy moves in and settles into the closest non-oversized chair. He pointedly puts his back to the door, if possible and faces the pair.

"Ma'am. Names Eddy if anyone didn't know that already. Pleased to meet you all."

He looks everyone in the eye as he scans across the room, keeping a calm pleasant Corp approved smile on his face.

"I am also interested in what you mean by 'this groups fixer'. You looking to set up a stand-by crew, or got something more long-term in mind? Those kind of arrangements typically run a few more zeros than a typical one and done. No offense intended, of course, just wanna make sure we're all on the same page here."

He keeps his hands neatly folded on the table before him and sits up straight with relaxed shoulders.

{Any serious objections to a long term gig? Assuming the pays ok, if course.}

She smiles politely at each one of you who spoke to her in turn before speaking. "I apologize, I may have misrepresented myself. Rather than being the fixer for your group, the deal would be better represented by saying that when you work for me, you work in this group. Naturally, you are free to do as you please when not working in my employ. Furthermore, as I mentioned this is your chance to take a step up in the shadows."

Shiden pauses to sip her glass of water and gives another smile. "I am aware that you have not worked together before, but your skills have been evaluated as presented by your contacts and, given a trial run, I am prepared to work with you towards... more lucrative deals."

Jinx, your matrix searches for Shiden come up with little information, and all of that is largely pointless unless you want to know some trivia about a nearly 150-year-old plane. Your search on the man however provides some information that could be useful. There are a handful of poor-quality pictures that claim to show the man standing in the corner of the room. The information you can find seems to be attempting to link this man to an incident at the Nicaragua Canal that never made the news about five years ago and a high-profile heist of a museum in London that involved a dragon and the Queen. While there is plenty of rumors they all seem to agree that this runner specializes in wet work and is mostly active in the Caribbean.

(I'm not opposed to a long term gig, was just more curious as to her intentions and expectations of the arrangement given her wording.)

Daniel listens to Shiden speak, nodding his head as she explains her intentions. "I myself am very interested in your proposition and have no objections to step into the big leagues so to speak. I assume that while working for you as a part of this group we would benefit from your support? Perhaps interceding on our behalf when necessary or facilitating payments to the right people if needed? If so I'm definitely on board."

Having said his piece Daniel relaxes back in his chair, eager to hear what his fellow runners think of the deal.

"Yeah, I'm game to hear the rest of the pitch. I'll say up front I'm not about geeking people just for some scratch. I mean someone draws down on me or mine, sure, they're fair game. But I tend to pack non-lethal for the most part. And I'm definitely not about kids and non-combatant kills. Other than that, I'm down for pretty much any job you can think up."

Eddy keeps his calm corp demeanor as he speaks, making eye contact with the others in the room.

"No offense intended to anyone who's a bit less concerned with violence, it's just not my cuppa tea, as they say."

"I seem to be the least scrupulous amongst my peers, a position of comfort mostly and occasionally more dangerous"

Vato smiles as he sips from the White Russian

"Let's hear about that trial run of yours"

Shiden acknowledges each of you as you talk. "Certainly I would seek to protect my investment in you, so long as it doesn't cause too much trouble for myself. As for the types of jobs you would be working, I wouldn't force you to do anything you are uncomfortable with. As for getting down to business, this trial run will be an extraction job."

She pulls out a commlink and you receive a file from her, she then pulls out physical folders and passes them around the table. "This will be your target for extraction."

++
Name: Toussaint Accoune
Meta: Human
Gender: Male
Age: Late Teens
Affiliations: LH47, Little Haiti Street Gang known primarily for drug dealing and gun smuggling
Mission: Extraction
Details: Toussaint's father, who used to be a high-ranking member of LH47 has since left the gang, but in retaliation, the gang is holding his son who still appears to want to be a member. He is being held at the LH47 headquarters near Lemon City park deep within LH47 territory.

Toussaint is to be extracted alive and unharmed, how you wish to deal with the gangers is up to your personal discretion.
++

The picture attached to the file shows a lanky dark-skinned African-American teenager with close-cropped hair. Shiden watches you as you look over the file. "Pay will be ¥20,000 for the group," she states rather casually before continuing, "cold credsticks of course."

"To the best of your knowledge. Awakened or Mundane? To the best of your knowledge any ware we should know about?"

Rather than trying to negotiate Vato is fishing for useful elements, elements that may help drive the price up

Seeing the looks of dissatisfaction on several of his prospective teammates Daniel tries to upsell Shiden on this new group. "Perhaps a higher level of compensation is in order? While this is indeed a trial run, this job will also set the tone of our relationship. This is just my opinion but I think that all of us, you included would benefit from a bigger investment into our future together." {Hey, I can try and get us a better price but in the future I don't appreciate being called "Kid", My name is Daniel.}

Rook's initial impression is to shake hands on it right now. 20k is way more than he could ever hope to make in a month, even after splitting it equally.
However, Rook is inexperienced in Shadowrunning, but not niave. He leans back and let Daniel do the negotiations.