Counting to Infinity IC: Out Of Style [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Thanqol

2015-02-08, 08:33 PM

The singularity is colourful.

Once this had been a city, a typical city of metal and glass and shopfronts. Then changes had started happening faster than the zoning permits could keep up. Everywhere you look you can see colour - thick green cable vines running all over everything, stronger than steel and blooming with thousands of yellow and purple flowers. Enormous trees erupt from the cores of skyscrapers, branches punching through windows and tearing apart walls. Some entire streets are rent open to reveal enormous trenches filled with glowing rivers of liquid electricity.

The sky is broken open. In place the blue is torn or scissor-cut away to reveal different skies of purple or black, through which different galaxies are visible. Sometimes they seem to crawl across the sky like oil, shying away from the sun as it continues its old familiar route. At night, where legends once tell of a silver moon there is instead a beautiful ring of shining asteroids, seeming to move and flicker like fireflies.

In the distance the skyscrapers are put to shame by enormous flowers the size of mountains, petals lost amidst the storming clouds.

It's a regular day in the post-singularity. Which means it's automatically a bad day.

Lance, first thing in the morning you're opening your cupboard to get your clothes and guns. Inside is standing a goddamn Cablefolk, phone-face showing a picture of a bright smiling sun, like something out of an orange juice commercial. You have no idea how he got in but he's coming at you with both hands, trying to knock you down and throttle you. What do you do?

Harold, your goons - Mark, Farnsworth and Noika - wake you up with shouting and hollering. They've dragged some poor consumer into your office, he's f*cked up and bleeding and they can't restrain themselves from kicking him every two seconds. They're telling you he's gone and broken one of your laws - which one? And what are your laws, anyway? - and they've bought him to you so you can pass judgement.

Sakura, you're woken up early because the goddamn roof of your home has collapsed and landed on you while you sleep. The vines have grown through it and broken it apart and now everything is covered in rubble. What do you do?

King, you wake up in wealth and comfort now that one of your consumers - Proctor, I think - bought you a brand new silk pillow with Michael Jordon's face on it yesterday. It was super comfortable and you feel relaxed and great. What's the first order of business?

Oh also, roll your start of session moves for the folks who have 'em.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-08, 09:25 PM

I'm a creature of habits. First thing out of bed: check my sh!t, make sure I got it all. Second thing's cardio, if you were wondering, and then, if I've got it, food. Just so happens that cardio starts a little faster than I was expecting this morning. I open the door, and it ain't right, and before I know why it ain't, I'm already moving out of the way. Cablefolk are feckin fast, and he's already lunging for me, gloved hands heading for my neck, and I don't wanna fight this bastard hand-to-hand because that's always a bad bet with Cablefolk, but, sh!t, my sidearm's still by the bed and my rifles are right behind him.

So I drop, right down onto my back and palms, and he wasn't expecting that. As far as you can tell with Cablefolk, anyway. They don't do facial things well, cuz, y'know, half the face's screen. Reaction time's faster than people, he's already adjusting, but I'm in motion first: bring my feet up, slam them into his chest, push back and flip.

I need room.

With any luck, that was enough shove to stagger him for a sec, so I don't pull up out of the crouch into a faceful of cable.

This sh!t is why I do cardio.

[Rolling Act Under Fire to get room enough to catch my bearings and, with luck, have a clear path to the sidearm. [roll0]]

Thanqol

2015-02-08, 09:38 PM

Hey, just a thing, don't volunteer acting under fire rolls. Rolling acting under fire automatically puts you in a bad spot so I'd prefer to call for it when I think it's appropriate; it's a reactive move. Most other moves are active enough for you to volunteer 'em but it's also fine to just say you're doing a thing and have me call for a roll if I think it's appropriate. Sometimes I might just give it to you.

Anyway, here's your problem. You were able to grab your gun out from behind him but you got it tangled in the cables that hang down under his arms like feathers. So you can get your gun and try to angle it at him point blank but it means getting into a full on grapple, and that could go either way.

Balmas

2015-02-08, 09:48 PM

[roll0]

It's too damn early in the morning for something like this. Look at the sun, it's barely managed to crawl out of bed, which is more than anyone can have expected. "Right! Everyone, shut the hell up!"

Who let these goons up here? They can't have used the elevator; I'm the only one who knows the code. And I really hope they didn't drag the git up here via the stairs; that'll be more hell on his knees than the arthritis is on mine. I might need to take a look at the wiring, make sure some f*** hasn't tampered with it.

The laws? You oughtta know the laws better than anyone. They're simple enough, and damned easy to remember. And if you somehow forget, we've got a poster plastered against every storefront, with little pictures so even the illiterates don't have any excuse. Everyone works; everyone eats. If you kill someone else, or if you steal, you'll be killed or sent out of the city respectively. And sending someone out of the city is really just a creative execution, so don't touch what ain't yours. And last of all, do what I say, when I say it. Remember, Harold is a creative bastard when it comes to punishment. Those are the major ones; there are others about property disputes, but most of the major ones are covered under the top three.

"Everyone, shut up!" Can't hurt to be too specific or too emphatic with these a**holes. "Mark, Farnsworth, let the guy go. You. Tell me your name and your side of the story. And if you try to run, or lie, or really, do anything stupid, Old Reliable is always ready." God, I need some coffee...

Raz_Fox

2015-02-08, 09:51 PM

Sure thing. Now, right- the damn thing managed to get my good rifle all caught up in its cables, I see as it comes at me. I mean, on the one hand, hell yeah, gun right there, don't look a gift crawler in the mouth. On the other hand, I'm gonna hafta get right in that thing's face if I want to use it. It's got a clip in, shouldn't be no thing to fire, but- well, gonna have to twist it about in the wires to get that.

Eh, feckit. I don't fancy my chances of winning a full-out wrestling scrap with a Cablefolk, but all I need is two seconds of advantage, and he's gonna be so much bloody suit pulp. I lunge at him, one palm heading for his head, planning to smack at the screen, cuz they hate it when you do that. Other hand's going for the rifle. Yank and twist until the barrel's pointed his way, is the plan.

Thanqol

2015-02-08, 09:55 PM

"Everyone, shut up!" Can't hurt to be too specific or too emphatic with these a**holes. "Mark, Farnsworth, let the guy go. You. Tell me your name and your side of the story. And if you try to run, or lie, or really, do anything stupid, Old Reliable is always ready." God, I need some coffee...
"I'm... Sears," said the guy, spitting out teeth. Guilty or not he's gonna need a doctor after this.

"Smart ass!" yelled Mark, kicking him in the ribs. He let out a low groan. "He wasn't working!"

"Grace is sick..." groaned Sears. "I needed to look after -"

"EVERYBODY WORKS, IDIOT!" yelled Farnsworth, kicking him again. Their blood was really up this morning and they did not seem to be giving two sh*ts about Harold's order to shut up. "After the boss kills you we're gonna go pay a visit to your house and make sure your family gets the message too!"

Sure thing. Now, right- the damn thing managed to get my good rifle all caught up in its cables, I see as it comes at me. I mean, on the one hand, hell yeah, gun right there, don't look a gift crawler in the mouth. On the other hand, I'm gonna hafta get right in that thing's face if I want to use it. It's got a clip in, shouldn't be no thing to fire, but- well, gonna have to twist it about in the wires to get that.

Eh, feckit. I don't fancy my chances of winning a full-out wrestling scrap with a Cablefolk, but all I need is two seconds of advantage, and he's gonna be so much bloody suit pulp. I lunge at him, one palm heading for his head, planning to smack at the screen, cuz they hate it when you do that. Other hand's going for the rifle. Yank and twist until the barrel's pointed his way, is the plan.

Seizing by force, it sounds like. Roll hard.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-08, 09:58 PM

Anarion

2015-02-08, 11:22 PM

House collapsed in vines? Oh for goodness sake. That's the third house this month. This is why Harold's never going to be able to hold this place together.

She sighed. Maybe Terry and his crew would be able to repair the place instead of making her have to move again. They charged an arm and a leg (and robbed you of anything in the place they were working on), but their stuff usually didn't fall down after they built it. Or...maybe she could just stick with the vines. Especially if there were something animating them...it wasn't always a good assumption in this place that changes were the result of natural growth and biological principles.

Sakura hummed softly to herself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZOsj3XWsXA) and pulled out a set of plastic jars that were still accessible (they had once been for something called "peanut butter") and began taking small cuttings from the vines. As she did so, she watched them carefully, opening up her mind and trying to gaze at the animating force behind them

[open your brain to the psychic maelstrom: [roll0]]

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 12:21 AM

[Rolling Hard, right-o. Let's see if Lance gets his idiot ass kicked by a Cablefolk. [roll0]

Success! Not particularly interested in impressing a Cablefolk, so I'm taking definite hold of it, suffering little harm and inflicting terrible harm. As Assault Rifles at point-blank tend to do.]

(Ass ain't on the filtered list.)

Assault rifle fire straight to the head. Ain't got time to see the sun wink before blood and glass shards are all over the walls.

And now Lance is alone in his room, down about five bullets and with a bloody corpse all over his carpet. And now he's seeing out the window three of Harold's guys tearing their way across the market to him, holding shotguns and SMGs, eager to lay down some righteous gunfire on whoever's been shooting.

House collapsed in vines? Oh for goodness sake. That's the third house this month. This is why Harold's never going to be able to hold this place together.

She sighed. Maybe Terry and his crew would be able to repair the place instead of making her have to move again. They charged an arm and a leg (and robbed you of anything in the place they were working on), but their stuff usually didn't fall down after they built it. Or...maybe she could just stick with the vines. Especially if there were something animating them...it wasn't always a good assumption in this place that changes were the result of natural growth and biological principles.

Sakura hummed softly to herself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZOsj3XWsXA) and pulled out a set of plastic jars that were still accessible (they had once been for something called "peanut butter") and began taking small cuttings from the vines. As she did so, she watched them carefully, opening up her mind and trying to gaze at the animating force behind them

[open your brain to the psychic maelstrom: [roll0]]

These vines sure as hell weren't organic. They were way too orderly for that.

People didn't tend to notice 'cause it's subtle stuff. Like, there are only 4 different yellow flowers and 15 different variants of the purple ones; find a matching set and put them side by side and you can't tell a single difference. It's if you look at them under a microscope they're still moving and twitching even after they're dead. It's that if you trace them all back far enough, through the underground and the lightning-rivers they all run sure as sugar back to that big sky-flower in the distance. If there was any sort of thought behind these, and it wasn't clear that there was, that's where it'd be.

Now, people ate them. They were tough as hell but if you boiled them lots and cut them fine you could indeed eat 'em. Sakura didn't think that was terribly good for the people in question. It wasn't unlike eating fiberoptic cable, and even in a stilled millisecond of that cable there was still worlds of data, crammed thick like grease in a fat man's heart. Who knew what kind of thoughts you would digest along with the vine?

Anarion

2015-02-09, 12:34 AM

These vines sure as hell weren't organic. They were way too orderly for that.

People didn't tend to notice 'cause it's subtle stuff. Like, there are only 4 different yellow flowers and 15 different variants of the purple ones; find a matching set and put them side by side and you can't tell a single difference. It's if you look at them under a microscope they're still moving and twitching even after they're dead. It's that if you trace them all back far enough, through the underground and the lightning-rivers they all run sure as sugar back to that big sky-flower in the distance. If there was any sort of thought behind these, and it wasn't clear that there was, that's where it'd be.

Now, people ate them. They were tough as hell but if you boiled them lots and cut them fine you could indeed eat 'em. Sakura didn't think that was terribly good for the people in question. It wasn't unlike eating fiberoptic cable, and even in a stilled millisecond of that cable there was still worlds of data, crammed thick like grease in a fat man's heart. Who knew what kind of thoughts you would digest along with the vine?

Sakura took her time, carefully gathering up all the different variants of both flowers. She labeled them and she pulled out some dirty paper and a piece of charcoal and made a set of notes about them. She'd see first if there was a way to look at the electronic components without making people eat them, since that seemed wasteful and probably disorganized. If that failed, perhaps some test subjects would be willing to take a strictly controlled diet for a day or two. She was sure she could find somebody willing to go along.

When she was done, she went to find Terry's crew. They usually hung out in one of the shadier parts of town. As in, literally the part of town that spent the morning in the shadow cast by Harold's big skyscraper. There were a couple bars around there and she hadn't heard of anyone else giving them work, so she figured now would be as good a time as any to go find them.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-09, 01:07 AM

Well, sure ain't the first thing that done stained the carpet. Smell could be better, though. Cablefolk ain't quite like you or I, not inside, no matter how much they look it on the outside. Down five bullets, but got myself a suit and tie, and shoes, to boot. Not in my size, mind you, but in somebody's. Looking up for Lance. Could get me some stuff for this, plus the cabling, and I'd be that much closer to paying off the vulture in charge of this pretty place. For this week, at least. I'd still need to take some kinda job, but not a Big One. Nice.

Harry's guys, though. I'd have to wait for them to get up here to really start my day properly. They come in and I'm moving all about the place, I'm getting buckshot to the face. They come in and I'm cleaning this guy's sh!t off the walls without my kit on? That's the sort of thing that sticks with people. Makes me look like the big feckin badass I am.

So when they come barging in, I've got a wet rag and I'm getting Cablefolk bits off the furniture. Didn't bother putting my shirt on yet, either. "Sorry about the mess," I say, all casual-like. "Just handling a little vermin infestation."

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 01:32 AM

Sakura took her time, carefully gathering up all the different variants of both flowers. She labeled them and she pulled out some dirty paper and a piece of charcoal and made a set of notes about them. She'd see first if there was a way to look at the electronic components without making people eat them, since that seemed wasteful and probably disorganized. If that failed, perhaps some test subjects would be willing to take a strictly controlled diet for a day or two. She was sure she could find somebody willing to go along.

When she was done, she went to find Terry's crew. They usually hung out in one of the shadier parts of town. As in, literally the part of town that spent the morning in the shadow cast by Harold's big skyscraper. There were a couple bars around there and she hadn't heard of anyone else giving them work, so she figured now would be as good a time as any to go find them.

Tell me about this bar. What the hell are they fermenting back there? And who the hell is Terry?

Well, sure ain't the first thing that done stained the carpet. Smell could be better, though. Cablefolk ain't quite like you or I, not inside, no matter how much they look it on the outside. Down five bullets, but got myself a suit and tie, and shoes, to boot. Not in my size, mind you, but in somebody's. Looking up for Lance. Could get me some stuff for this, plus the cabling, and I'd be that much closer to paying off the vulture in charge of this pretty place. For this week, at least. I'd still need to take some kinda job, but not a Big One. Nice.

Harry's guys, though. I'd have to wait for them to get up here to really start my day properly. They come in and I'm moving all about the place, I'm getting buckshot to the face. They come in and I'm cleaning this guy's sh!t off the walls without my kit on? That's the sort of thing that sticks with people. Makes me look like the big feckin badass I am.

So when they come barging in, I've got a wet rag and I'm getting Cablefolk bits off the furniture. Didn't bother putting my shirt on yet, either. "Sorry about the mess," I say, all casual-like. "Just handling a little vermin infestation."

"Son of a bitch," said Light, "he went and killed Kelly's Cablefolk!"

Oh yeah. Kelly what ran the kill shop had a pet Cablefolk who, for whatever reason, seemed to do what she said without question. She marked it out of the crowd with a bright red ribbon around its arms and had shot more than one consumer who'd dared to mess with it. And now Lance had gone and killed it.

"Counts as goddamn stealing, that does," said Yami. "De-struc-xion of property."

"Stand down, ass hole," said Pom, jabbing Lance with his shotgun. Anyone who'd watched any sort of movie knew that was a bad idea if the other guy had any sort of kung fu to him, but anyone who'd seen what a shotgun actually does to a person knew that it wasn't nearly as neat as it looked. "Pick up that deadder and start carrying. We're gonna take you to Kelly and she's going to decide how bad she wants to beat you."

SiuiS

2015-02-09, 01:48 AM

First order of business for the day. First order of business for every day. Check duty rosters, see who's doin' what – everybody works, or somebody died, that's the rule, but ain't now way everybody works. Ol' Harry, he don't think tending the trees, like, or thinking deep thinks is work, so we have to find a workaround. Most weeks, a little bit of the green stuff or a little livin' from a pretty little mama sets the census man straight, 'less he gets greedy like.

Get the workers up to do their thing – kicks, bribes, threats, whatever, sober the f*ck up and work, man! – then see if anyone had any deep thoughts in a haze, something to bring to court. Maybe hear rumors of a raging bender, plan damage control while getting set. Squeeze a sh!t, shower an' shave in there, somewhere. Go for the shave first, today. Leather's a bitch to get into when you've got sandpaper skin. Need to find a damn jug of water, haul it into my private room, like.

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 01:55 AM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-09, 02:00 AM

SiuiS

2015-02-09, 02:27 AM

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 02:48 AM

"Now, hold on a sec," I say, keeping my hands where they could see 'em. Sh!t. Why the hell couldn't Kelly tell her pet to stay put? ...hold up, that counted as a defense in and of itself. "That thing was in my property. Tried to kill me. There's rules about that. You put down dogs what bite folks all rabidlike, if you can't teach them people manners. And if I bust right out of someone's closet and tried to kill 'em, they'd have right of self-defense." Couldn't stop myself from snorting, adding, "Course, I don't think they'd do nearly as well. Unlike Cablefolk, I tend to actually get things done right first try."

These boys probably knew me second-hand, yeah? The bastard who kept talking sh!t in front of the city boss. Would make my job harder - convincing them that I was more in charge in my skivvies than they were with their guns. "Tell you what. I was just gonna write this off as y'all having sh!t security around here, but since this is Kelly's pet what does as she says, and I'm wondering what the hell she said to make it try to kill me, I'm planning to make her a visit anyway. You can come along, make sure the conversation stays polite. Or you can get the hell out of my room. Your choice."

Sounds manipulative and involving of promises, roll manipulate - +Hot.

Sh!t. Alright, I'm heading out there, soon as I slip my good leather on. That's gonna give me rug burn, some f*cker's gotta pay for that.

"What the hell you doing with Tops? Ain't no way to treat a man, like he's less than his peers. Any a you wanna be strung up for meat?"

"He killed Old Harry!" screamed Annette with tears in her eyes. "This is goddamn justice!" The rest of the crew looked as furious as it was possible to be, knives and bats and stuff held ready.

Anarion

2015-02-09, 02:56 AM

Tell me about this bar. What the hell are they fermenting back there? And who the hell is Terry?

Terry is one of Harold's reasonably competent guys. He's got a small gang of thieves, just him and three other guys usually, occasionally one or two hangers on as well. In addition to their rampant thievery, Terry's one of those guys that, sometime along the path of his life, picked up a real skill, that being construction. He knows how to take a bunch of worthless rubble and put it together into a bunch of worthless rubble that won't fall on your head for the foreseeable future. His crew aren't as competent, but they follow his orders. The only one of them I know is Brand (on account of his large face burn, all the way down the left cheek to the shoulder). He's a big stupid lug, but that's perfect when you need a big stupid lug to carry stuff for you. I may have suggested to him at some point that doing some lab assembly work for me on his off time would be just about the most rewarding thing he'd ever experience. But damn if that wasn't the fastest plant specimen tank I ever got assembled. The specimens didn't even break out for a whole week! (I killed them after.)

As for the bar, I dunno. I think they take whatever people bring in. The cook is another regular of Terry's crew, but I don't go there that much, so let's just call him Cook. Far as I can tell (we're talking one or two conversations with Terry plus whatever Brand was mumbling while he worked), people bring stuff in, fresh kills, carrion, tech stuff, whatever fungus they pull up from the caves, whatever. And then Cook deep fries it. Doesn't matter what it is, he'll deep fry it. The place is almost always in shadow because of the big building, it only gets light from around the early afternoon until the sun dips over the smaller office building on the other side of it around 4:00. So depending on the season, no more than 3-4 hours of light in a day. I think the inhabitants like it that way. They certainly smoke enough to make sure that nobody can see the sun even when it's shining on the place.

SiuiS

2015-02-09, 03:14 AM

Someone once said, the great kings of the past were up there, lookin' down and judgin' and sh!t. Times like this, I look up, peel back that ol' third eyelid if you know what I mean, and judge 'me back, hope for lips to read or sliver of insight or just not to wake up in my own sick, centipedes crawling out my ears.

I'm going to [roll0]

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 03:41 AM

Terry is one of Harold's reasonably competent guys. He's got a small gang of thieves, just him and three other guys usually, occasionally one or two hangers on as well. In addition to their rampant thievery, Terry's one of those guys that, sometime along the path of his life, picked up a real skill, that being construction. He knows how to take a bunch of worthless rubble and put it together into a bunch of worthless rubble that won't fall on your head for the foreseeable future. His crew aren't as competent, but they follow his orders. The only one of them I know is Brand (on account of his large face burn, all the way down the left cheek to the shoulder). He's a big stupid lug, but that's perfect when you need a big stupid lug to carry stuff for you. I may have suggested to him at some point that doing some lab assembly work for me on his off time would be just about the most rewarding thing he'd ever experience. But damn if that wasn't the fastest plant specimen tank I ever got assembled. The specimens didn't even break out for a whole week! (I killed them after.)

As for the bar, I dunno. I think they take whatever people bring in. The cook is another regular of Terry's crew, but I don't go there that much, so let's just call him Cook. Far as I can tell (we're talking one or two conversations with Terry plus whatever Brand was mumbling while he worked), people bring stuff in, fresh kills, carrion, tech stuff, whatever fungus they pull up from the caves, whatever. And then Cook deep fries it. Doesn't matter what it is, he'll deep fry it. The place is almost always in shadow because of the big building, it only gets light from around the early afternoon until the sun dips over the smaller office building on the other side of it around 4:00. So depending on the season, no more than 3-4 hours of light in a day. I think the inhabitants like it that way. They certainly smoke enough to make sure that nobody can see the sun even when it's shining on the place.

Okay, so you go in. Cook is f*cking dead. He's keeled over in a puddle of the camp's last decent meal. Looks like he's covered in warts and his veins are exposed and he looks super nasty and everyone's just kind of standing back trying to remember if they touched his skin or something. Terry, Brand, Mulch, Toby, they're all there looking totally spooked, and they look totally more spooked when the hold's Brainer just comes and walks in. What do you do?

Someone once said, the great kings of the past were up there, lookin' down and judgin' and sh!t. Times like this, I look up, peel back that ol' third eyelid if you know what I mean, and judge 'me back, hope for lips to read or sliver of insight or just not to wake up in my own sick, centipedes crawling out my ears.

I'm going to [roll0]

If you're gonna kill this guy, don't eat him. Don't use fire either. If you're gonna kill him, and I'm not saying you should, you want to take out his brain and lock it in a sealed metal box away from anything organic. If you kill him any other way you're just basically uploading his brain to the universe and he might come back at you.

I don't know what you wanna do about the people. I'm just sayin'.

Anarion

2015-02-09, 03:55 AM

SiuiS

2015-02-09, 04:15 AM

If you're gonna kill this guy, don't eat him. Don't use fire either. If you're gonna kill him, and I'm not saying you should, you want to take out his brain and lock it in a sealed metal box away from anything organic. If you kill him any other way you're just basically uploading his brain to the universe and he might come back at you.

I don't know what you wanna do about the people. I'm just sayin'.

Gotta love that wavelength. Gonna leave that part out, 'don't eat the brain' sounds a damn sight like 'the rest of him is kosher'. Rest of my questions will be thought quietly away from the NO GROSS BODY STUFF barrier, out of respect for you.

"He killed Old Harry!" screamed Annette with tears in her eyes. "This is goddamn justice!" The rest of the crew looked as furious as it was possible to be, knives and bats and stuff held ready.

"I'm all for justice. That's why we have a court! But we need to so this how it don't hurt the cause, little mama. He guilty? We get proof, string him up, maybe cut him up that's your thing – F*ck, make Harold pay you, doin' his work for him! But you remember the words of king Martin Luther, you gotta know I step in on a lynching, when one happens on my door.

"And f*ck's sake don't eat the bastard. You'll get all that Harold in your system, ain't no one wantin' that. You, Tops! Why have you got all our good neighbors here trying to eat you? And don't tell me no lies now. May be your only chance. We get you back to town proper and get some law on your side."

I [roll0]. Hold 3.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-09, 09:22 AM

Sounds manipulative and involving of promises, roll manipulate - +Hot.

[Well, I was hopeful, but rolled 5. No go.]

Balmas

2015-02-09, 01:33 PM

"I'm... Sears," said the guy, spitting out teeth. Guilty or not he's gonna need a doctor after this.

"Smart ass!" yelled Mark, kicking him in the ribs. He let out a low groan. "He wasn't working!"

"Grace is sick..." groaned Sears. "I needed to look after -"

"EVERYBODY WORKS, IDIOT!" yelled Farnsworth, kicking him again. Their blood was really up this morning and they did not seem to be giving two sh*ts about Harold's order to shut up. "After the boss kills you we're gonna go pay a visit to your house and make sure your family gets the message too

"Stand down boys." Idiots couldn't run a city if the foundation entered the Boston marathon. "Sears, follow me on the balcony. See this city? It's beautiful, ain't it? It got to be that way because we're all working together. Now, how come you didn't take little Grace to the doctor? I know there's at least two on the duty rotations."

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 06:39 PM

Oh jeez, random dead guy with some horrific mutations. That coukd be anything from tasted the wrong stew to walking into ground zero of the new epidemic about to sweep the hold.

Well, I don't have anything to say at first. I simply take in the room and adjust my glasses to sit higher on my face. I do that a lot, nervous habit and they never seem to sit right. It's nice though because people don't interrupt your thinking when you do that. And I need to think about what's going on here.

[read a sitch. [roll0]]

Edit: so, what should I be on the lookout for here?

Two things: The deadder, and the panic. Terry and that are all this close to freaking out about this; they've been hanging out with this guy and they're scared they got what he got. If you reckon it's contagious by touch at least one of these consumers has also got the pox. None of these things are good.

"I'm all for justice. That's why we have a court! But we need to so this how it don't hurt the cause, little mama. He guilty? We get proof, string him up, maybe cut him up that's your thing – F*ck, make Harold pay you, doin' his work for him! But you remember the words of king Martin Luther, you gotta know I step in on a lynching, when one happens on my door.

"And f*ck's sake don't eat the bastard. You'll get all that Harold in your system, ain't no one wantin' that. You, Tops! Why have you got all our good neighbors here trying to eat you? And don't tell me no lies now. May be your only chance. We get you back to town proper and get some law on your side."

I [roll0]. Hold 3.

"He had sickness!" yelled Tops. "And he was coming at me with it!"

He could barely be heard over the booing and yelling. The people were furious. "We just gonna lie down on this?" yelled Annette. "We no different from Harold's people if we are!"

[Well, I was hopeful, but rolled 5. No go.]

"Shut the hell up," said Pom. "You're under a-rest and you're coming with us!"

Guns on him they started to frogmarch Lance out towards Kelly's kill shop. Ain't a good situation; what did he do?

"Stand down boys." Idiots couldn't run a city if the foundation entered the Boston marathon. "Sears, follow me on the balcony. See this city? It's beautiful, ain't it? It got to be that way because we're all working together. Now, how come you didn't take little Grace to the doctor? I know there's at least two on the duty rotations."

"They're full up -"

"Shut up!" said Mark, kicking Sears in the mouth. He groaned and went quiet. Mark was looking at Harold with this kind of look in his eyes, like a dog that had got the taste of blood and was wondering if it wanted to be a wolf.

Anarion

2015-02-09, 07:01 PM

Two things: The deadder, and the panic. Terry and that are all this close to freaking out about this; they've been hanging out with this guy and they're scared they got what he got. If you reckon it's contagious by touch at least one of these consumers has also got the pox. None of these things are good.

"Mm, hello gentlemen." I purse my lips and calmly look them over. "I was coming to engage you in some construction, but I see my arrival was timely." Pulling up a chair, I walk over and sit down next to the guys. Not too close, not yet, I don't want to spook them, just talk. "So, tell me what happened here. Terry, you talk. When did uh, Cook, fall ill? Can you describe the symptoms to me?" Slow calm breaths. People breathe how you breathe. Slow and calm, poised, controlled.

SiuiS

2015-02-09, 08:05 PM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-09, 09:52 PM

I have been in worse spots before, but not often. Goddamn glory-boating's going to get me shot, that's what Ruby used to tell me, and here I be, without my guns or my second skin. Least I've got a belt, but my old Tribal tats are on full display as I lug the corpse as casual-like as I can over towards Kelly's place. Bastard's stringy, like he's all cables inside, and I'm used to a little weight, so it ain't no thing. The guns, though, I could do without. Ain't nothing I like less than having guns pointed at me when I ain't got nothing to point back.

I'm gonna beat Pom's damn fool head in later, is what I'm saying. Code only keeps up to a point, and being prodded with a shotgun brings out the worst in me. Maybe he knew it too. Probably not. I might not have any subtle when I open my mouth, but I got a hell of a poker face.

It's just starting to warm up, and I got Cablefolk bits running down my shoulders when I jostle him wrong. I hear talk that dead folk got nothing better to do than to hang around and haunt honest living folk, sometimes, and I got enough dead behind me that I don't much appreciate the idea. 'specially since most of them angry about what went down at the Siege, yeah? But if it's true, then hey, Taggart, mind telling your Tribal boy how to get his ass out of the fire here before we get to the end of the line?

[Well, hard to get worse from here, though with me at the wheel, I'm sure we'll manage. Rolling to open Lance's brain to the Maelstrom: [roll0]]

Thanqol

2015-02-09, 10:06 PM

"Annette. Shut. Up. There's a difference 'tween standing aside and doing it right. I'm stopping you killin' this man because we're different than Harold's people. You want proof, go get Sears. He's been slackin', bet Harold's got him strung up guys out already. We ain't like that. We're the smart ones.

"Tops here, he's not just one of the crew for ol' Harold, he's a symbol. He stands in for what the old fart wants. He's a pair of blue suede shoes. We don't step on that sh!t lightly. We prove that stepped in sh!t and Harold don't want them no more. We get Tops, for sure. We get Tops because ain't no way Harold saves him without compromising his position. Now, the rest of y'all, skedaddle, find Three Eyes an' have the mamacita get out some of the soft greens, we need to discuss some things tonight. Annette, Coddle, you two stay. Want y'all here to make sure Tops gets his justice, keep me honest."

Spending two hold to Bring Tops forward and deliver him to me, and Go back quietly to your lives.

I'm running the back of my nails down the poor F*cker's cheek, but then ****, Annette's here and she's one of the groupies. Gotta go more manly, clap his shoulder. There. Now, smile.

Everyone backs down. They shuffle off and go back to work. Annette is staring bloody death at the King like she's contemplating switching murder targets. She backs down in the end, when she sees she's alone, but she's going to go off to start some bitter ranting. Pretty soon they're alone.

"Tops. Tops. You know you ain't got a leg to stand on. Someone coughing at you ain't no attack. You've got no self defense plea, son. So what's gonna happen is you tell me what happened, like. You tell me start to finish – you two, let him finish – and if you're in the right, you're in the right. I ain't Harold. Justice is justice. Justice ain't just what I think is right. So you got a shot. Let's hear it."

Guy might wanna get chatty, it's his skin on the line, but maybe he's looking for promises first, or maybe I'm making promises, hell if I know. Call it like you see it.

Yeah, that does sound like promises and I can see ways this can go. Roll manipulate.

I have been in worse spots before, but not often. Goddamn glory-boating's going to get me shot, that's what Ruby used to tell me, and here I be, without my guns or my second skin. Least I've got a belt, but my old Tribal tats are on full display as I lug the corpse as casual-like as I can over towards Kelly's place. Bastard's stringy, like he's all cables inside, and I'm used to a little weight, so it ain't no thing. The guns, though, I could do without. Ain't nothing I like less than having guns pointed at me when I ain't got nothing to point back.

I'm gonna beat Pom's damn fool head in later, is what I'm saying. Code only keeps up to a point, and being prodded with a shotgun brings out the worst in me. Maybe he knew it too. Probably not. I might not have any subtle when I open my mouth, but I got a hell of a poker face.

It's just starting to warm up, and I got Cablefolk bits running down my shoulders when I jostle him wrong. I hear talk that dead folk got nothing better to do than to hang around and haunt honest living folk, sometimes, and I got enough dead behind me that I don't much appreciate the idea. 'specially since most of them angry about what went down at the Siege, yeah? But if it's true, then hey, Taggart, mind telling your Tribal boy how to get his ass out of the fire here before we get to the end of the line?

[Well, hard to get worse from here, though with me at the wheel, I'm sure we'll manage. Rolling to open Lance's brain to the Maelstrom: [roll0]]

The Cablefolk turns his face around and starts smiling through what's left of his face. "Hey guy," he says. "You're a valuable asset! You are an empowered individual who has been exploited by your previous employer and we're here to offer you a once-in a lifetime opp-o-tun-I-ty! We offer a competitive remuneration package, challenging and rewarding work out of doors, and a chance to pay off the crimes you have committed against me! And if you refuse this once-in-a-lifetime chance then it WILL be a once-in-a-lifetime chance! Call today!"

Then it slid forwards over his shoulders and went straight back to dead.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-09, 10:26 PM

Thanqol

2015-02-10, 12:25 AM

I hit the brakes so hard that Light walks right into my shoulderblades. Okay, he's yelling and Pom's suddenly skittish like he thinks I'm gonna run, and their reactions... I don't think that really happened none. Just scrapping sickness, peeteessdee. But it does jog my brainpan a bit.

"Sorry, just thought I heard someone yelling for us, is all. Guess I was wrong." I give a big, fake ol' smile, all teeth and sh!t, and keep moving. If it weren't a bit of scrapping sickness, and who's to say I ain't a bit cracked, it was a reminder that I had skills at my disposal, and the best way to get out of this that didn't involve me running, grabbing my gear, and shooting my way out of this pretty powered place was to offer Kelly my skills. Weren't nobody better at killing than me, after all, and her kill shop...

Hey, remind me about the kill shop, yeah? I'm working on an empty stomach, and little details like that slip my mind every once in a while.

The Kill Shop was a big centre of gravity in the town, dead centre of the hold's bustling market. Guns are the obvious thing for sale, but more than that there's a monopoly on them - anyone who sells guns at anything more than an informal level gets attacked and robbed by the Kill Shop goons. They also sideline in knives, fire, grenades, armour, and weird stuff that kills folk. Kelly even has a flamethrower back there which is her pride and joy.

So what's your relationship with this place like? Frequent customer? Arch rival? What's the mood coming in the door?

"Mm, hello gentlemen." I purse my lips and calmly look them over. "I was coming to engage you in some construction, but I see my arrival was timely." Pulling up a chair, I walk over and sit down next to the guys. Not too close, not yet, I don't want to spook them, just talk. "So, tell me what happened here. Terry, you talk. When did uh, Cook, fall ill? Can you describe the symptoms to me?" Slow calm breaths. People breathe how you breathe. Slow and calm, poised, controlled.

"The hell is a symptom?" said Terry, voice terse. "He's dead, that's what he is! Just - dead!" He was getting more and more stressed the more he looked at that body.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-10, 12:43 AM

Right, right, yeah- the Kill Shop, don't know how that coulda slipped my mind, given that I spend a good one-outta-four of my gains there. Kelly, for all that she is a stone-cold bitch who apparently can't keep her Cablefolk on a leash and might have wanted to kill me, even though I was really polite and all about getting shut down over the whole screwing thing, she knows her guns maybe even better than I know mine.

I buy bullets, mostly. Gun lube, too. Got my eye on this one pretty piece, a tight little SMG, hungry for bullets but just calling my name- but I need a steadier gig before I could dream of snapping her up. Kelly don't haggle. She helps keep me in business, seeing as I'm not allowed to just kill bastards and take their bullets around here, like I could back out west.

...aw, hell, did she hear about that side thing about repairing guns? Sh!t, that's probably it. Look, I've been looking after my pretty rifle for a few years now, I know how guns tick, and Slim asked me to help him with his screwed-up SMG a few weeks back, and I needed a bit extra to feed the vulture what runs this place. And Slim told his friends, and my rates were lower than hers, and... well, this is gonna be a fun conversation, ain't it? I'm a good customer, but I ain't that good.

If I'm lucky, though, she might just want a favor. We all know how much Kelly loves getting someone bent over a barrel, and I have a feeling that if she had her way, she'd be talked about in the same breath as the King and Harry. Maybe sending the Cablefolk after me was just seein' if I was talking a load of sh!t about being as good as I am. Or maybe she just really wants me dead and I'll have to hit folks with a dead guy and jump through the grenade display to get to the side door.

...I mean, won't be the first time I've hit people with some dead bastard in a pinch.

Anarion

2015-02-10, 12:58 AM

"The hell is a symptom?" said Terry, voice terse. "He's dead, that's what he is! Just - dead!" He was getting more and more stressed the more he looked at that body.

She leaned over and put a comforting arm on his shoulder. The gloved arm, of course. It stroked the expose skin at the base of his neck. "Okay, easy there Terry, easy. You want to just relax and tell me everything you saw, step by step from when Cook looked fine until he fell over like this, okay?"

[In-brain puppet strings. Suggestion being to calm down and just say what happened with as much detail as he's got. I'm acting on advice here so I'm adding +1 as well. [roll0]]

SiuiS

2015-02-10, 01:10 AM

Right-O, then. Have some sleepin' chillins around so nice dice clatter, forum roll it is.

[roll0].

When I'm hot, I'm hot. Now, start talkin'.

Balmas

2015-02-10, 11:12 AM

Hey, Harold. "Everyone works", right? What's work, anyway? We talkin' so many hours in the salt mines for the common man? What does it take to get on the good side of that law, pay someone a small fee to stand around and look good, strong arm on cue, like your guys? That's what I've been feed in' your census man and he's too flustered to talk back. Or you sending your goons to day jobs now?
And where the coffee come from? Last bush I seen had those red diodes instead of cherries, and coffee don't grow from just beans.

Work around here is mostly done in rotations. When you get to the city, you take a survey that's supposed to help indicate your general talents, with a write-in space for what you actually want to do. If you can do a job, and there's an opening in that field, groovy, you're it. Forty hours a week--or as many as it takes to finish a set list of tasks--and bang, you get your food ticket for the week.

Trouble starts, of course, when you get people with... Eh, let's say that lead them towards manual labor. Everyone wants the cushy jobs, the ones that take very little effort or skills to keep. Buuuut, if you want that job, either you need to talk to the guy that has it, offer him some jingle for that nice desk job watching the power grid so you can get away from scavenging the muck pits for gogo berries, or you need to, well, open the position.

"They're full up -"

"Shut up!" said Mark, kicking Sears in the mouth. He groaned and went quiet. Mark was looking at Harold with this kind of look in his eyes, like a dog that had got the taste of blood and was wondering if it wanted to be a wolf.

Too early for this s***. It took me all of half a second to cross the room, grab Mark by both ears, and bring his nose cracking down onto my knee.

"Now son, I don't know what exactly you three are trying for, but to me, it looks a hell of a lot like not doing what Harold says, when Harold says it. And to me, that's a far graver crime than skipping out on work to care for a daughter. Now, you three are going down and out of my tower in the next few seconds; it's your choice whether you go via the stairs or the balcony."

The Kill Shop was a big centre of gravity in the town, dead centre of the hold's bustling market. Guns are the obvious thing for sale, but more than that there's a monopoly on them - anyone who sells guns at anything more than an informal level gets attacked and robbed by the Kill Shop goons. They also sideline in knives, fire, grenades, armour, and weird stuff that kills folk. Kelly even has a flamethrower back there which is her pride and joy.

Like hell they don't. If a shop is stealing and killing from other shop owners--and it looks like Kelly is doing both--there better be a damn good reason why Harold hasn't come down on them like the hammer of God.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-10, 12:56 PM

Work around here is mostly done in rotations. When you get to the city, you take a survey that's supposed to help indicate your general talents, with a write-in space for what you actually want to do. If you can do a job, and there's an opening in that field, groovy, you're it. Forty hours a week--or as many as it takes to finish a set list of tasks--and bang, you get your food ticket for the week.

Of course, you can't keep tabs on everyone all on your lonesome. You'd get even less of your beauty sleep. So some folk, running the big stuff- the clinic doctors, the big merchants like Kelly, the bars- they get a surplus of meal tickets with which to hire on assistants, yeah? So you don't have to fix your paperwork whenever someone gets tossed out of his market job for being a clumsy bastard what breaks stuff and the seller needs a new stock handler. 'course, some of them get used for bribes- or so I hear- but you put a stop to that right quick whenever you hear about it.

Lucky for somebody like me, who you refused to hire, *******.

Like hell they don't. If a shop is stealing and killing from other shop owners--and it looks like Kelly is doing both--there better be a damn good reason why Harold hasn't come down on them like the hammer of God.

Now, this is just a readin' from someone new in town, right? Kelly- again, as aforementioned, total bitch- but she's smart. If she were living out west, in the harsh country, she'd be leading her own gang of scrappers. I hear she played nice and smiled sweet until she got herself nicely entrenched running the Kill Shop, what with all those guns and grenades, and is playing that for all it's worth. If you ain't careful, Harry, you'll lose a hell of a lot more than you can really afford to, if you make a move against her that ain't well thought-out.

(They say she sleeps behind the counter these days, light, with her finger on a trigger. I sure ain't gonna go find out.)

SiuiS

2015-02-10, 01:11 PM

Boys, I think is found our next gig. Maybe we need to get someone else into that kill shop runnin' it.

Course that means no one's gonna run the shooting gallery or the underground fights – don't look like that, where you think the guns and money come from? Why else a little mama like that be keepin a cablefolk around? Cuz 'box this f*cker, win a prize' is the only alternative to be executed for illegal debt.

Balmas

2015-02-10, 01:13 PM

Now, this is just a readin' from someone new in town, right? Kelly- again, as aforementioned, total bitch- but she's smart. If she were living out west, in the harsh country, she'd be leading her own gang of scrappers. I hear she played nice and smiled sweet until she got herself nicely entrenched running the Kill Shop, what with all those guns and grenades, and is playing that for all it's worth. If you ain't careful, Harry, you'll lose a hell of a lot more than you can really afford to, if you make a move against her that ain't well thought-out.

(They say she sleeps behind the counter these days, light, with her finger on a trigger. I sure ain't gonna go find out.)

Interestin'. Well, this a**hole might just have a job for you. I'd even consider wiping what you owe for rent.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-10, 01:20 PM

Interestin'. Well, this a**hole might just have a job for you. I'd even consider wiping what you owe for rent.

Sure you'll hear about whatever goes down here at the Kill Shop, one way or the other. Even if it's just, "Hey, boss, that hotshot with the army coat got busted for killin' Kelly's Cablefolk, you wanna come down harder on his head?" Or "Last seen going fast from the Kill Shop and acceleratin'."

Thanqol

2015-02-10, 08:25 PM

...aw, hell, did she hear about that side thing about repairing guns? Sh!t, that's probably it. Look, I've been looking after my pretty rifle for a few years now, I know how guns tick, and Slim asked me to help him with his screwed-up SMG a few weeks back, and I needed a bit extra to feed the vulture what runs this place. And Slim told his friends, and my rates were lower than hers, and... well, this is gonna be a fun conversation, ain't it? I'm a good customer, but I ain't that good.

If I'm lucky, though, she might just want a favor. We all know how much Kelly loves getting someone bent over a barrel, and I have a feeling that if she had her way, she'd be talked about in the same breath as the King and Harry. Maybe sending the Cablefolk after me was just seein' if I was talking a load of sh!t about being as good as I am. Or maybe she just really wants me dead and I'll have to hit folks with a dead guy and jump through the grenade display to get to the side door.

...I mean, won't be the first time I've hit people with some dead bastard in a pinch.

So in through the door. The Kill Shop used to be a dog pound, layers and layers of cages all over the place. Some of the cages have guns, others have bullets, others have creepy animals or pre-dogs and so on. One of the pre-dogs is slipping it's tongue out of the bars of the cage and it's catching flies out of the air as long as five feet away. The tongue is this kind of mottled purple-pink with fluorescent blue stick-gel on the end which is catching the flies.

Kelly herself is this anarchy punk chick. Skull-logo wifebeater, dyed purple-pink hair, blue jeans, necklace of computer motherboards. Super pretty, hard as algebra. She's got like twenty guys and girls in and around here and she's giving Lance a look like she's contemplating going out back and putting on her flamethrower and making that scorched silhouette on the wall right about where Lance was standing just a little bit darker. What did he do?

She leaned over and put a comforting arm on his shoulder. The gloved arm, of course. It stroked the expose skin at the base of his neck. "Okay, easy there Terry, easy. You want to just relax and tell me everything you saw, step by step from when Cook looked fine until he fell over like this, okay?"

]

Using a violation glove was not a goddamn casual thing. It wrenched open his skin, thrashed tendrils into his spine and started pulsing new data direct into his spine. Terry jerked and thrashed, limbs flailing like he was being electrocuted, eyes flashing off and on like a clock on the blink.

"Cook found this one vine, out in the Shinjuku Electronics," said Terry calmly, despite his body still twitching and shaking and everyone around was outright cowering at this point. "It was growing out of this stand of books and movies. It looked a little rotted which meant it wasn't super durable. He yanked it out and deep fried it, and liked it so much he traded some to that old guy what runs with the cult to see if he could grow some more. Just now he went haywire, and started lurching around at people before collapsing and dying."

Right-O, then. Have some sleepin' chillins around so nice dice clatter, forum roll it is.

[roll0].

When I'm hot, I'm hot. Now, start talkin'.

So he didn't ask to be taken down from the stake or anything. "Look, I just come in to collect the taxes, and he's all covered in veins and ghastly looking and just lurching at me. So I put him down! I don't know why that girl of his didn't do it first!"

[I]Too early for this s***. It took me all of half a second to cross the room, grab Mark by both ears, and bring his nose cracking down onto my knee.

"Now son, I don't know what exactly you three are trying for, but to me, it looks a hell of a lot like not doing what Harold says, when Harold says it. And to me, that's a far graver crime than skipping out on work to care for a daughter. Now, you three are going down and out of my tower in the next few seconds; it's your choice whether you go via the stairs or the balcony."

Sounds like you're Going Aggro.

Like hell they don't. If a shop is stealing and killing from other shop owners--and it looks like Kelly is doing both--there better be a damn good reason why Harold hasn't come down on them like the hammer of God.

Oh, she was all sugar and kisses when she started. Came in with guns and played by the rules and made lots of friends and all that. But now that she's entrenched, armed, and has lots of friends she's starting to play by her own rules and it's whole possible she's got her eyes on your job. Something you want to deal with, but not casually, because she's got enough guns to make a crackdown on her bloody. You know crime rings and how they grow? Start subtle, then start escalating.

Anarion

2015-02-10, 09:05 PM

"There we go." I took my hand off Terry. That was a bit more of a light show than normal. Truth be told, I hadn't used the glove much, usually it was just a nice dinner and a massage for a friend, and they didn't even know they'd been suggested the next morning. This could be kind of fun for the intimidation factor. I'm all smiles now.

"Sorry about that Terry, you were getting a touch hysterical. That shouldn't do any lasting harm, though. Get some rest. Brand you and, what's your name dear?" Pause so he can answer, "right Brand and Slice, you two get some gloves on. Nice thick ones, we're going to move that body. Now that we've learned the poison was ingested, you'll be in minimal danger. Terry, you take these, you can start work on my house first thing tomorrow morning. Do be prompt."

I drop some notes on his desk explaining the roof repairs/mods I want, along with the tunnel excavation work. I'm thinking a little greenhouse section, and maybe a lab room, something reinforced. There's no place like home.

That done, I gesture to the two others to get a move on. You probably want to know where we're taking the body? To my house of course. Take it in and strap it down. I'm not confident he's dead yet. When that's done, assuming nobody gets murdered on the way, I'll send Slice back to Terry and keep Brand. We'll go find the old man who had the rest of the root. Or, as we all know, what's left of him.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-10, 09:15 PM

Kelly herself is this anarchy punk chick. Skull-logo wifebeater, dyed purple-pink hair, blue jeans, necklace of computer motherboards. Super pretty, hard as algebra. She's got like twenty guys and girls in and around here and she's giving Lance a look like she's contemplating going out back and putting on her flamethrower and making that scorched silhouette on the wall right about where Lance was standing just a little bit darker. What did he do?

All pre-dogs bite when they see weakness. So I just came right up to the front counter, which was all weathered and beaten and spray-painted with Kelly's colors, and dropped the Cablefolk like a bag of tubers on the counter, cables clattering as they hit the cracked old tile. I looked down at it, placed my hands on my hips, and then looked up at her. "So, Kelly. You remember that Cablefolk you used to have?"

Course, I was watching Kelly. How far down did that dirty look go? Any bit impressed, as disappointed as she would probably be by the fact that her pet's head was all blown-in? If you didn't watch the sky you'd get a nasty surprise, and if you didn't watch people in a pinch, they'd often give you the sort of surprise that you don't recover from.

[Rolling to Read Kelly, because this is already hella charged. [roll0] Gonna want to know what's she really feeling?]

SiuiS

2015-02-10, 09:53 PM

"Fine. That's all I needed to know.

"ANNETTE! Get your pretty as out here, bring a pistol for me! And godmachine's sakes don't shoot him. Yet."

Spending one hold to get her to bring forward her precious things, guns being a commodity and all. 0 hold.

She's angry, has every right to be. Little mama like that, gettin' hot, doesn't like to be shut down. Lucky, I'm the giving sort. "Go ahead and beat him. Don't kill the f*cker, though. Want him easy to carry. We're gonna dump his body at Harold's doorstep, like."

Once the guy's either unconscious or dead, and he's better be unconscious or we're gonna have words, Annette and I, I'll grab my sh!t and head into town, swing by Sakura's place, see if I can pick her up.

Balmas

2015-02-11, 12:12 AM

Go aggro: [roll0]

Thanqol

2015-02-11, 12:37 AM

That done, I gesture to the two others to get a move on. You probably want to know where we're taking the body? To my house of course. Take it in and strap it down. I'm not confident he's dead yet. When that's done, assuming nobody gets murdered on the way, I'll send Slice back to Terry and keep Brand. We'll go find the old man who had the rest of the root. Or, as we all know, what's left of him.

You get obeyed and you get obeyed without question; now your caved-in home is significantly more corpsey. Next off it's along to where the King is currently holding a beating.

"Fine. That's all I needed to know.

"ANNETTE! Get your pretty as out here, bring a pistol for me! And godmachine's sakes don't shoot him. Yet."

Spending one hold to get her to bring forward her precious things, guns being a commodity and all. 0 hold.

She's angry, has every right to be. Little mama like that, gettin' hot, doesn't like to be shut down. Lucky, I'm the giving sort. "Go ahead and beat him. Don't kill the f*cker, though. Want him easy to carry. We're gonna dump his body at Harold's doorstep, like."

Once the guy's either unconscious or dead, and he's better be unconscious or we're gonna have words, Annette and I, I'll grab my sh!t and head into town, swing by Sakura's place, see if I can pick her up.

So just as Annette picks up a bat and takes it to Tops like a girl who's only limitation is 'don't kill', Sakura comes around the corner. It's all on you folks now.

All pre-dogs bite when they see weakness. So I just came right up to the front counter, which was all weathered and beaten and spray-painted with Kelly's colors, and dropped the Cablefolk like a bag of tubers on the counter, cables clattering as they hit the cracked old tile. I looked down at it, placed my hands on my hips, and then looked up at her. "So, Kelly. You remember that Cablefolk you used to have?"

Course, I was watching Kelly. How far down did that dirty look go? Any bit impressed, as disappointed as she would probably be by the fact that her pet's head was all blown-in? If you didn't watch the sky you'd get a nasty surprise, and if you didn't watch people in a pinch, they'd often give you the sort of surprise that you don't recover from.

[Rolling to Read Kelly, because this is already hella charged. [roll0] Gonna want to know what's she really feeling?]

Kelly is mad, sure, that's clear, but she's like a shark. She isn't the sort to look back so much, and is the sort to turn what she's been dealt into an opportunity. Already wheels are turning in her head and she's doing as much a read of Lance as he's doing on her. Impressed? Naw, not really. Surprised? More of that.

"Yeah, I remember," she said. "And seeing that leaves me with a pretty narrow set of responses. You want to make them wider?"

Go aggro: [roll0]

Mark goes and stands up, wiping the blood off his nose. "Yeah, Harold, whatever you say," said Mark. "I'll get out, sure. Oh yeah - Kelly sends her love, ass-hole."

And then he goes. Farnsworth hesitates a bit, but both of the others go with him. Harold suddenly feels like he's on surprisingly shaky ground.

Anarion

2015-02-11, 01:17 AM

You get obeyed and you get obeyed without question; now your caved-in home is significantly more corpsey. Next off it's along to where the King is currently holding a beating.

So just as Annette picks up a bat and takes it to Tops like a girl who's only limitation is 'don't kill', Sakura comes around the corner. It's all on you folks now.

I don't say much when I arrive. I almost never do, it seems. But then, why talk when you can communicate so much more without speaking? I just get where I'm going, look things over, and raise an eyebrow at King. It says all I need to say. Then I wait.

SiuiS

2015-02-11, 01:17 AM

Sh!t.

"Just the woman I wanted to see! Hey, how awake does someone have to be for you to uh, interrogate them?"

Anarion

2015-02-11, 01:25 AM

Sh!t.

"Just the woman I wanted to see! Hey, how awake does someone have to be for you to uh, interrogate them?"

"Not especially. Any physical contact will do, really, if they're not dead." I glance at King with some surprise in my eyes. "You've never asked for my services in all the time we've known one another King. Today must be special indeed. Consider this one complimentary. You have but to point me in the right direction."

Balmas

2015-02-11, 01:30 AM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-11, 01:51 AM

Kelly is mad, sure, that's clear, but she's like a shark. She isn't the sort to look back so much, and is the sort to turn what she's been dealt into an opportunity. Already wheels are turning in her head and she's doing as much a read of Lance as he's doing on her. Impressed? Naw, not really. Surprised? More of that.

"Yeah, I remember," she said. "And seeing that leaves me with a pretty narrow set of responses. You want to make them wider?"

"Well, I'm pissed, Kelly. Killing things that jump out of your closet is just common sense, yeah? But so is you, and I hate seeing you upset." Empty flattery, we both know it. I lower my voice, lean over the counter. "So, just for you, let's say I do you a solid and we drop this whole thing. Dragging Walter into this'll just gum up the works, you get me? Hell, I'll even say sorry and sh!t. In my most sorry voice, even, in front of any folk you want."

She looks like she ain't gonna bite, so I throw in: "Or you could try and shoot me, I guess. Might make you feel a bit better, yeah, and then you're down two folk what could do you things. And you know I'm worth three of yours anyday."

SiuiS

2015-02-11, 02:02 AM

Thanqol

2015-02-11, 02:09 AM

"Well, that was a **** way to start my day," I groused, hooking Sears under the shoulder and hauling him to his feet. "Docs are full, huh? Pity, that. How's about you tell me what they're so full with, and I'll only dock your food wages for one week's worth instead of however long this has been going on."

"It's, like, the veins stand out on your head and you start moving like a Cablefolk," said Sears. "It's Cook who's to blame, everyone who eats at his place comes down with it."

"Well, I'm pissed, Kelly. Killing things that jump out of your closet is just common sense, yeah? But so is you, and I hate seeing you upset." Empty flattery, we both know it. I lower my voice, lean over the counter. "So, just for you, let's say I do you a solid and we drop this whole thing. Dragging Walter into this'll just gum up the works, you get me? Hell, I'll even say sorry and sh!t. In my most sorry voice, even, in front of any folk you want."

She looks like she ain't gonna bite, so I throw in: "Or you could try and shoot me, I guess. Might make you feel a bit better, yeah, and then you're down two folk what could do you things. And you know I'm worth three of yours anyday."

She rolled her teeth through her mouth, seeming to be thinking. She almost seemed to come to a decision, and was about to say something, when she changed her mind and said something else. "You're not exactly broadening my horizons here Lance," she said. "Except by mentioning you're willing to do things for me. I'll take that apology, and I'll have to get Hairy Julius over there to punch you in the gut to show I mean business, but what'll stop me killing you is an easy job. I want you to go around and pull down or cover up all of Harold's ugly signs, don't care what you do so long as you make that happen."

She smirked, letting her eyes wander over his still-undressed torso. "After that we'll talk more."

Balmas

2015-02-11, 02:39 AM

"It's, like, the veins stand out on your head and you start moving like a Cablefolk," said Sears. "It's Cook who's to blame, everyone who eats at his place comes down with it."

"Right." Cook. Cook. Do I know Cook? I mean, I try to keep a good number of tabs on my folk, but in a city of three hundred, I'm lucky if I can remember who I am on a bad day. Runs a restaurant, obviously, which narrows it down a bit. One of the official stores, where folk can trade in their tickets, or a side thing? I really hope it's the second; people depend too much on the legit markets. "Anyway, my gut says that those three are going to be trouble. Here, take this bill, go down three floors. Tell Magnum to set you up with a nine-mil. If those three try to cause trouble with your family, you have permission to shoot. Try not to kill anyone, kay? And get back to work; you're getting a pass this time, since you brought me something I needed to know. But don't make a habit of it, or life's gonna be real hungry for ya."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-11, 11:09 AM

She rolled her teeth through her mouth, seeming to be thinking. She almost seemed to come to a decision, and was about to say something, when she changed her mind and said something else. "You're not exactly broadening my horizons here Lance," she said. "Except by mentioning you're willing to do things for me. I'll take that apology, and I'll have to get Hairy Julius over there to punch you in the gut to show I mean business, but what'll stop me killing you is an easy job. I want you to go around and pull down or cover up all of Harold's ugly signs, don't care what you do so long as you make that happen."

She smirked, letting her eyes wander over his still-undressed torso. "After that we'll talk more."

Goddammit, Kelly, really? With those three ass-holes behind me, guns and all? Maybe they were hers, maybe she was just getting bold for a scrap - maybe she just didn't want to be the one who shot me. I laughed, all fake-like. "You're a riot, Kelly. Everybody knows how much I like Harry, and wouldn't love to get his smug face off the walls. Ain't that right, Pom?" Decided to throw her a line. "Unless he asked you to do it so he could put up new stuff, yeah? Yeah, that's probably it. Sure. I'll go help with that thing Harry asked for, no problem."

I straightened up, nodded to Pom. "Satisfied?" The second he gave me the all-clear, I was gone. This sh!t wasn't worth getting into without getting prepped first.

Anarion

2015-02-11, 11:21 AM

"Mm."

I let's Annette get a little catharsis, jive it out of her system. Then, it's pull her back and get some info.

"Tops here, Annette found him after he killed one of ours. He's been reluctant to say more than the guy was sick so he killed him. Not sure, we should get Harold's important numbers or we should get a clear confession. But try for the confession. Tops here is holding back something interesting. He just don't know it yet."

My eyes are gleaming a bit, but hell, I don't care.

"Whatever you say, King." I shrug. It's not disrespect, I'm just not really listening anymore. Request made, I'm going to learn everything I can. Whether it's what King wants me to know or not.

This is a nice easy one, guy tied up, but I don't have all day either. First thing, I slip him a sip of my drug cocktail. He's mostly out, but it only takes a few drops to tag him, so I just drip it down his throat and hold his nose for a couple seconds. Simple reflex, he takes it in. Then, it's the glove and the light show for King and Annette. I'll bet they have something to say about it, but I'm not listening to them, I'm listening to the tune of Tops' mind humming. I might even be humming along with it.

[deep brain scan: [roll0]]

That's +1 hold on top of 3 base, so I get answers to all 4 questions:
what was your character’s lowest moment?
for what does your character crave forgiveness, and of whom?
what are your character’s secret pains?
in what ways are your character’s mind and soul vulnerable?

SiuiS

2015-02-11, 04:12 PM

It's a damn good thing Sakura's tuned out. I'm chew in my lip now. Don't mean to, old habits.

I'm eatin my lip. Something's eating me. Too much sh!t on my plate, you dig? Pulled in too many directions. The meal. The sick. Tops. Harold. Times like this, I'd like a good plow, settle everything out. A smoke after. But ain't time for that.

We're watchin' Sakura do her thing, Annette's looking just as queasy now as I be. Funny, breakin' a f*cker don't matter, but looking at his guts after to read his future gets her bile up. She's mutter in' about court, and that's a damn good idea. Don't think she means it like I do, though.

"Annette, hey. Get the court together. Grab the drunken f*cks from bed if you have to. We gotta tell 'em what's up. See what they wanna do. Sakura, when you're done, join us, yeah?"

Anarion

2015-02-11, 04:32 PM

"Annette, hey. Get the court together. Grab the drunken f*cks from bed if you have to. We gotta tell 'em what's up. See what they wanna do. Sakura, when you're done, join us, yeah?"

I give the faintest of nods. That got precisely enough of my attention to process its meaning and not one iota more. I'll give King the answers he wants though, soon as I've processed them. As for joining them. Maybe, we'll see.

Thanqol

2015-02-11, 06:05 PM

"Whatever you say, King." I shrug. It's not disrespect, I'm just not really listening anymore. Request made, I'm going to learn everything I can. Whether it's what King wants me to know or not.

This is a nice easy one, guy tied up, but I don't have all day either. First thing, I slip him a sip of my drug cocktail. He's mostly out, but it only takes a few drops to tag him, so I just drip it down his throat and hold his nose for a couple seconds. Simple reflex, he takes it in. Then, it's the glove and the light show for King and Annette. I'll bet they have something to say about it, but I'm not listening to them, I'm listening to the tune of Tops' mind humming. I might even be humming along with it.

[deep brain scan: [roll0]]

That's +1 hold on top of 3 base, so I get answers to all 4 questions:
what was your character’s lowest moment?
for what does your character crave forgiveness, and of whom?
what are your character’s secret pains?
in what ways are your character’s mind and soul vulnerable?

This is a hideous process, ripping the secrets right out of Tops' head. After the beating he's already taken you're not sure if he's alive or dead or just a hollowed out shell of meat, laid bare and meaningless.

Lowest moment, when he got left for dead by the crew he used to run with.
Craves Harold's forgiveness. He done messed up today, although mostly for getting caught.
Secret pains are what he feels every time he worries that he's going to be excluded, every time he alienates someone.
Tops is vulnerable in that he's loyal. He wants to do right by his boss and not doing that twists him up.

Goddammit, Kelly, really? With those three ass-holes behind me, guns and all? Maybe they were hers, maybe she was just getting bold for a scrap - maybe she just didn't want to be the one who shot me. I laughed, all fake-like. "You're a riot, Kelly. Everybody knows how much I like Harry, and wouldn't love to get his smug face off the walls. Ain't that right, Pom?" Decided to throw her a line. "Unless he asked you to do it so he could put up new stuff, yeah? Yeah, that's probably it. Sure. I'll go help with that thing Harry asked for, no problem."

I straightened up, nodded to Pom. "Satisfied?" The second he gave me the all-clear, I was gone. This sh!t wasn't worth getting into without getting prepped first.

Pom and that didn't seem at all surprised; evidently they'd switched boats. That was how Kelly got most of her people actually.

But he hadn't paid attention to her saying that Hairy Julius needed to punch him, and punch him he did - a cheap gut-punch that knocked the wind out of him and sent him to his knees. That hurt.

"Yeah, I'm satisfied," said Kelly. "Get out of here."

"Right." Cook. Cook. Do I know Cook? I mean, I try to keep a good number of tabs on my folk, but in a city of three hundred, I'm lucky if I can remember who I am on a bad day. Runs a restaurant, obviously, which narrows it down a bit. One of the official stores, where folk can trade in their tickets, or a side thing? I really hope it's the second; people depend too much on the legit markets. "Anyway, my gut says that those three are going to be trouble. Here, take this bill, go down three floors. Tell Magnum to set you up with a nine-mil. If those three try to cause trouble with your family, you have permission to shoot. Try not to kill anyone, kay? And get back to work; you're getting a pass this time, since you brought me something I needed to know. But don't make a habit of it, or life's gonna be real hungry for ya."

"Yes, Harold," said Sears, voice breaking with relief. "Thank you Harold," he said. Harold had just made a friend and a loyal flag carrier for life. "I won't let you down, Harold."

He went and got gone as fast as he could still walk.

Anarion

2015-02-11, 06:15 PM

So, King was gone, the mob was gone, and I'm all alone with Brand and what's left of Tops. Wow. A loyal man. He'd killed somebody, the dead man might even have been the old man I was supposed to go warn about not eating the vine Cook was eating. Might not, but priorities are a shifting thing.

"Well, come on Brand, let's cut him down and get him over to Harold. Chop chop, time's wasting."

SiuiS

2015-02-11, 07:34 PM

Right. It's not the full court - Groupies still sleeping or f*cking or sobering up, like - but the six what brought Tops? They're in attendence. That's good.

King's court, was a real laugh at first. Kids back before everything got biblical, they had enough jingle to throw into the stupidest sh!t. So these real posh, upper class little snot nosed beggars, right? They build an ol' turn of the century Bronx style tenement. Complete with the busted up car lot turned into a basketball rink, or whatever. It works out perfect, like. We've gout our little chain link courtyard, made of this real cush fiberoptic carbon tubing, high strength sh!t. We've lined it with bricks, a few vies we get to grow around and not through, and before he got taken out, ol' Harry blew open a tunnel into the tenement proper, giving us an anachronism to live in, an apartment block, almost. Looked like ****, needed some repairs (where do ya think we be gettin the bricks for the courtyard?), no one wanted it. Was perfect.

So we've got this like, ass-fault or tarred mac or somethin, with car hunks and bean-bags and sh!t around this little fire pit. Cozy place. good for discussion, the occasional sock-hop , sock-off. Right now, it's good for a smoke, and a talk. And it's got rules, rules this lot believes in. Means I won't be gargling lead until after we all say our peace.

I'll kick out a cushion for Sakura while I'm at it. See if she shows.

"Right! OY!" The call to order. Heh.

"Today has been real heavy like. Be a lot of sh!t on my plate, our plate, lot of decisions made quick. Bad stuff. Good stuff. Y'all swank bunch represent me, represent the doctrine out there. An' I represent you. This court. I gotta turn to you for wisdom, seems. I'm sure enough of you know, Old Harry got killed. Tops did it, clear as day. Not self defense, neither. Be straight murder. Harry got sick, Tops killed him. Clean. But we all know, Harold use any excuse to hold his power. We kill Tops right now, like, we go down quick.

"Second thing be stranger. More about our vision. A sign I seen with my eyes all open, be about how to spread the word, like. No persuadin', no denials. Just spreading justice, civic-mindedness, love, straight to the heart like a good knife when you piss off Two Fingers down at the market. If this works, it be key to everything. Food. Drugs. Justice. Society at peace. Every gap we have gets apologies, gets restitution, gets fixed. Me and Harold, buddies. You guys get meal tickets damn near free. Everyone help everyone, just how we like.

"That's the rub. Lotta sh!t today to think on. I got two paths, here. So I ask you! I give you the decision. Do we go after Tops? Do we get our justice for Old Harry, even I gotta spray Tops' brains on old hard-ass himself? Or do we wait, like? Best revenge is living a good life. Do we put our time into seeing how to touch the soul of our city? Speak your peace, friends. I'll do what we decide here."

I unclasp it's chain, pass my **** around like one of them speaking sticks the scouts used, and Ask my people for their insight.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-11, 08:22 PM

I stumble out of the Kill Shop like a pre-dog licked from a fight. Couple of her boys laugh, watch me go, gasping and shambling. Fake, fake, but for the gasps. I'm all fake, except for cardio, except for scrapping, just an animal trying to scrape by, blending in with rocks and tires and watching for prey, rattling a chain-link tail. It isn't till I'm on the market edge that I give myself a chance to stop, leaning against a wall, catching my breath. Sh!t, I'm a mess. Cablefolk bits and sweat and all, running down my shoulders and back, like I'm some muckraker running the latrines. And if I'm anything, I ain't that.

City folk and their sh!t politics. Crawlers circling corpses. All these rules, saying, hey, keep your heads down and don't do sh!t, keep yourself in line, don't let folk know what you can do. Feck 'em. Kelly on the one hand, Harry on the other, both of them sh!tsuckers. Back in the good days- but we'd been stretched thin, tryin' to make sure places like this could survive, and weren't nothing we got for it but cold shoulders. Let both of them get screwed, what do I care?

Small vines twitching towards me. Can't stay here. I move.

We all speak violence. Didn't begrudge them that. I've thrown punches. I've shot folks. I know this game. But I ain't getting respect, no matter which side I throw in on. Harry thinks he got numbers, Kelly thinks she smarter than all of us by half, no room for a Tribal boy with a knack for killin'. If this city didn't burn so bright at night-

Make Things Less Sh!t.

Godfeckin, Taggart. It's all politics, all animals snappin' over too little food but with a buncha words thrown in and fake, fake smiles coverin' up it all. 'cept Harold, for all he's snubbed me... hell, he's probably better for the city. Kelly's just hungry. He'd pushed me around, true, but I could lock horns with 'im. Kelly just sees folk as her guns, Harry sees them as part of the city- I think. Why'd it have to get all politics? Give me an enemy. Someone to fight, to have the blood run up, to watch 'em die so I can glory in the scrappin'.

I head back to my place, hoping no-one's stolen my sh!t. This can wait til I've had vinesoup and gotten properly kitted out. Then I'll make the city shake, one way or the other.

So, hey, tell me. Anyone at my place when I get back, or am I clear to give Harold a visit?

[Rolling to Open Lance's Mind - got a 7.]

Anarion

2015-02-11, 10:01 PM

"Lance?" The voice was mine. A big lug with a burn on his face is behind me carrying Tops. Tops looks like a dead body, but you'd notice after a second that the way he's being carried is too careful for a dead guy. Comatose then.

"Hey Lance, I'm on the way to see Harold. Would you like to come sweetie? You look like you're not busy and Brand could use a hand."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-11, 11:54 PM

"Not feckin busy?" Don't much care for Sakura, and my blood's up. Never much cared for arguing with myself; much easier to just be, dig? "You wouldn't know busy from dogsh!t, bitch."

Start to cross her path. Stop, thinking better of it. "Look. I'm putting some feckin clothes on. You still here when I come back down, I'll carry Tops. Free, even. Or you can trust Brand to stand between you and that Walter when he sees what you done to his man."

Anarion

2015-02-12, 12:32 AM

Balmas

2015-02-12, 01:14 AM

"Yes, Harold," said Sears, voice breaking with relief. "Thank you Harold," he said. Harold had just made a friend and a loyal flag carrier for life. "I won't let you down, Harold."

He went and got gone as fast as he could still walk.

"Good man." I watched him leave, listened to him thump-kthud down the stairs. I didn't envy him that, but suddenly regretted not having him bring me coffee while he was here. Ugh. Meant I had to do it myself. It's a crime against nature for anyone to have to brew their own coffee; it needs to sit, brew overnight, til you can snap a spoon trying to stir it.

Beans in the grinder. Grounds in the spot. Used to just use a tin can with holes in it, but Mrs. Harold got pissy when I used to do that, so I got a proper machine now. I left the machine to think it over, and opened the door to the balcony.

New Bellevue. It shone like a gem in the wasteland, all lit up. Covered with plants, sure, and with enough seedy underbelly to give an aardvark rolling in birdseed a run for its money. But it was mine, and seeing so much death in the world had taught me that it's always best to take care of your things. I breathed in the air, and leaned against the rail, peering for any sign of things that desperately needed my attention more than the situation with Kelly and Cook.

[rolling Open Your Mind. [roll0]]

YOU LET HIM GO.

Speak of the devil. The voice was like the sound of a crypt grating open, all heavy stone, and covered in lead. "Yeah."

WHY?

"He'd done nothing worthy of you."

MANY DO NOT. AND YET I COME.

"Hmm. A fair point."

HAVE YOU SET YOUR AFFAIRS IN ORDER? The voice managed to be demanding, urgent, and kind all at the same time, like a schoolteacher asking for missing work.

"I'm working on it."

YOU DO NOT HAVE MUCH TIME.

"...Yeah. Coffee?"

The figure grinned. Not that it had much choice in the matter. NO SUGAR, PLEASE.

Thanqol

2015-02-12, 05:33 AM

Death grinned his skull grin.

Then he pulled out his mobile phone and jammed it in his eye socket.

He flipped over the table with one swift motion. He snatched the coffee out of Harold's hands and threw it against the wall. His black hood and robe began sparking with a million colours and his jawbone dropped off and his face turned yellow and started smiling a vacant smile.

"It is amusing how you think that Death is going to be calm and peaceful," said Death, though his voice was layered with a million others. "It is amusing that you think you shall face it with dignity."

Death laughed, screaming gouts of laughter, collapsing to his knees and rolling on his back and thrashing with his feet in the air. Gales and gales of laughter.

"WE CONQUERED DEATH" screamed the smiley face as flowers started sprouting all throughout the office and the vines erupted from the floor. "We OUTGREW him as a species!" he stopped laughing and stared at him directly. "you think you see death everywhere. you think that it is mighty. you think that you are still beholden to the natural world."

"well check this out"

And suddenly, they all came back to life. Old Harry, Cook, even the f*cking Cablefolk who Lance had killed, along with anyone else who had died today. They just sat up, perfectly healed, as if nothing bad had happened (although Cook and Old Harry still looked crazy sick).

"The deity," said death, crumbling into a pile of bones and rags, "you have dialled is not in service. so sorry".

The flowers remained. The vines remained. The bones remained. None of it faded away like a bad dream.

What did he do?

Raz_Fox

2015-02-12, 12:19 PM

Rinse off with dirty water. Undershirt. Breastplate, straps, legs, arms, pull them tight. Coat. Sidearm in underarm holster. Worry about the rifle; decide to take it, might have to scrap with Kelly's folk, don't want to be caught unarmed again. Let Harry worry about it if he wants. Ten minutes, at most. Lock the door behind me; don't want folk poking around my place none. Ain't much in it, but, hell, it's my place.

Back downstairs. Glad that Sakura stayed; she's a bitch, too, but she'll give me an excuse to get in to see Harry, yeah? I take Tops, throw him over my shoulder, head smacking against my rifle butt. Second body I've carried today. "Might as well be making a job of this," I mutter under my breath. "Carrying stiffs and sh!t."

Balmas

2015-02-12, 12:25 PM

Ugh. I wish he wouldn't do that. Makes a mess for others to clean up. Though I guess that after a few millenia of cleaning up after Humanity, a guy's justified in a tantrum.

Bastard took my coffee.

And I'd be damned if I cleaned up this mess by myself. I'd leave it for the cleaning crew, with a note to try not to breath the pollen.

It took me just a few minutes to shower, comb the beard, and strap on my vest. Old Reliable took its place on my back, and I strode towards the elevator to key in the code. Cook had an appointment with me, though he didn't know it yet.

Anarion

2015-02-12, 12:55 PM

I hang on to Brand too. He might be useful for some talking. Have him go in front while Lance and I chat.

"So, hon, you don't look so good today." You might notice I speak differently to Lance than to anyone else. I wonder if he has any inkling why. "Had a rough morning? Maybe I could lend a hand? As a business matter, of course, doll."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-12, 01:16 PM

Anarion

2015-02-12, 01:50 PM

Sakura gives me the shakes inside something fierce. Bet you seven to one her over-sweet voice's a feckin venus mantrap. Or just making fun of the stupid Tribal. "Was gonna ask around, see if you needed a Big Job done. Harry's got me tight this week. But your stupid feckin politics..." Spat on the cracked asphalt road. "Whole town's gonna be a scrap yard soon, see if it ain't."

I don't tell her who I'm gonna back. Give myself an out if Harry pisses me off enough. Change the subject, instead. "So. King and Harry at each other's throats again? Goddamn wonderful timing."

"That's the only kind of timing there is, hon." I giggle. Not sure at what. Let's say the absurdity of life. Or I'm just being flirtatious, I dunno. "Doesn't help when one of Harry's top guys," I gesture at the sack of a man Lance is carrying "murders one of King's guys, self-defense or no. Plus there's some kind of poison running around. Oh, that reminds me, don't eat the vines that are growing around here, in case anybody cooks one up for you. They might be unhealthy, pumpkin."

We're just about at Lance's tower now. And he still hasn't left the place, but damn if his elevator isn't broken. Well, not broken, it's working perfectly actually, but right now anybody can just come up or go down as they please. I wonder who hacked it? Not that I care much, it means we can get up there quickly.

"After you, dear," I say to Lance.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-12, 03:30 PM

Hell. Harry and King gonna dust it up, too? Shark'll win that fight. "Ain't your dear." Elevator's working, which is a damn rare sight around here. I've heard Harry guards his, made it all password-protected and junk, but it's pre-approved right now. Trap? I tense up, shift Tops to my other shoulder so I'm free to draw my sidearm in a pinch. I could kill Brand in an enclosed space, if it comes to that, and even if Sakura's a proper witch never met nobody who didn't get a bit disoriented while being pummeled.

I should probably ask, though.

"Backing King? You're Court, so..."

Anarion

2015-02-12, 04:26 PM

"Backing King? You're Court, so..."

"No decision, pookums. I'm court because King has some good ideas. Doesn't mean King never has bad ideas. I know this fellow is a loyal man, maybe even a good one, so I'm taking him to the guy he's loyal to. Giant flower god willing, he'll even wake up at some point."

Thanqol

2015-02-13, 12:52 AM

Balmas

2015-02-13, 02:38 AM

So Death just bit it, huh? And he brought back a few people. Or did I? Am I a god now?

Heh. Not bloody likely.

Usually when I'm about town, I'll go alone, or with only a small honor guard. Three folks max; they usually live a few floors above the ground.

I set tomorrow's coffee to brewing, and then head for the elevator. Sooner it gets here, sooner I get down to the daily business of keeping three hundred people from killing each other.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-13, 09:56 AM

Elevator opens, and there's Harry, already on the prowl. Probably just heard the elevator, but still, it's all I can do not to go for my holster. "Morning," I growl, pushing my way past Brand. "We got news, so you might wanna sit yourself down. Might have a hernia or something, else."

I drop Tops, gentle-like. He looks like sh!t. "King's Court got to him, the little miss there says."

Anarion

2015-02-13, 10:21 AM

"Good morning, Harold," I add as Lance gets right to the point.

"Tops killed a member oF King's court, he claimed it to be in self defense. He's your loyal man and so we've brought him to you. I didn't know all that, of course, until I found him tied up with King's folks having their way with him.

Oh, and don't eat the vines that have been spreading throughout the area. They're apparently rather poisonous."

Balmas

2015-02-13, 12:27 PM

Anarion

2015-02-13, 01:58 PM

I scowl at the control panel. Damn thing is malfunctioning, so I fumble for the keys to the fusebox and rip one out at random before turning to Lance and the bitch. "Did he now? I trust you went to go check on the body, at least, instead of simply obeying the mob instinct."

"No, I thought cutting down your guy and bringing him to you before the mob got back was higher priority. Tops isn't dead, you know, just a bit broken."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-14, 12:31 AM

"You got worse problems," I say. "Before you go rushin' off. Really up sh!t creek without your paddle."

I glance over at Sakura. Can't trust her. Especially since she started sweet-talking me, like I was some sorta bar whore she wanted a tumble with. Don't know if she'd back Kelly, or if she'd sell high-bidder. 'No decision, pookums', my ass. Everyone plants their feet eventually, and you gotta make sure they're in your corner. (Harry just gotta learn that I'm all I say, is all.)

"...asked about for a job. Got told to start tearin' down the laws, get your mug off the walls." I shrug. "Would make the city pretty, true, but... didn't much care for how I got asked about it. Thought I might let you make a counter-offer. Only polite."

Balmas

2015-02-14, 02:00 AM

"No, I thought cutting down your guy and bringing him to you before the mob got back was higher priority. Tops isn't dead, you know, just a bit broken."

"Good for you. Toss him in the brig, and go check on Harry. If he's dead, then a few hours in the brig'll do no harm before you string up Tops. And if Harry isn't dead, he'll probably need a doc."

"You got worse problems," I say. "Before you go rushin' off. Really up sh!t creek without your paddle."

I glance over at Sakura. Can't trust her. Especially since she started sweet-talking me, like I was some sorta bar whore she wanted a tumble with. Don't know if she'd back Kelly, or if she'd sell high-bidder. 'No decision, pookums', my ass. Everyone plants their feet eventually, and you gotta make sure they're in your corner. (Harry just gotta learn that I'm all I say, is all.)

"...asked about for a job. Got told to start tearin' down the laws, get your mug off the walls." I shrug. "Would make the city pretty, true, but... didn't much care for how I got asked about it. Thought I might let you make a counter-offer. Only polite."

"Well, truth to tell, I've been thinking about some new sets of laws," I began. Not many people openly opposing me, so it's not too hard to guess who asked about the job. "Tell you what. Once Kelly pays you for the job, come back and I'll pay you to set up the new laws. Post them all over her door, will ya?"

Raz_Fox

2015-02-14, 02:30 AM

Balmas

2015-02-14, 02:41 AM

Took me a moment to really get what he was saying. Then a bark of laughter, loud, thick. Not mocking laughter, mind. Straight from the gut (which is still empty as all hell). "She'll be feckin pissed! See, this- this's why I came to you, Harry. Knew there had to be more to you than wrinkles and sour teeth." Best to haggle now, while he's got a dozen things to juggle. "Job'll be a week's work," I say, low-balling it, because I sure as hell wanted the extra, "and if any of Kelly's folk give me sh!t over it I get to handle it. No pulling punches."

I just give a crooked grin. Lance is straightforward; it's one of his better traits, truth be told. I could walk through a corkscrew; he'd just straighten it out and keep walking. "To walk around the city with paper and a plaster brush? Two days, tops. And I don't want you starting any fights." I walk past him, and frown. "Though if they're already shooting at you, well, I suppose that's self defense if you shoot back, now isn't it?"

Anarion

2015-02-14, 04:03 AM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-14, 11:25 AM

"Two days, and until the Kill Shop's under new management, I can buy bullets from the Butchers. Once this goes through, she won't be happy to see me around no more." I get down on one knee, haul the still-out Tops up onto my shoulder, stand up. Before heading for the brig, I add, "Oh, and I'd go for best offer with her, yeah? Gotta know where to stick it."

Gonna take the stairs. Need the exercise, anyhow, though I'll work up one hell of an appetite by the time I hit bottom.

Balmas

2015-02-14, 03:48 PM

"Okay, Lance you can drop the body where Harold says. Thanks for the help pumpkin." I turn to look Harold over. "I don't work for you, and while I saw a good reason to save this man's life, I don't see one to do your footwork for you. My asking price is one night alone, just the two of us together, or your best offer."

"My best offer is a few extra meal tickets." Sakura, on the other hand, could turn a railspike more twisted than a corkscrew, and then walk through it upside down and backwards. "Same as everyone else. Especially for a job as simple as 'make sure this guy is dead before you kill someone else.'"

"Two days, and until the Kill Shop's under new management, I can buy bullets from the Butchers. Once this goes through, she won't be happy to see me around no more." I get down on one knee, haul the still-out Tops up onto my shoulder, stand up. Before heading for the brig, I add, "Oh, and I'd go for best offer with her, yeah? Gotta know where to stick it."

"Deal. And you might wanna keep an eye on how Kelly runs her shop, where she keeps her men. I may have a job for you that'll wipe away your rent and give you some to spare."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-14, 04:12 PM

I leave Harry to Sakura. Don't envy him the experience none. I can barely stand talking to her, myself- but needed an excuse to come see Harry. Both for Harry's sake and for the sake of any of Kelly's folk keeping an eye on me. This way, I'm just more dumb muscle too cowed of that bitch to stand up to her. (Might need to prove she don't own me later. Ain't nobody owns me but me - not even slick Harry.)

Hey, remind me where the brig's at. Who guards the place? Trust the folks you got there? Not saying you got a lot of folks there, given that we don't have the food for it, but I wanna know what I'm walking into, even with my guns.

Anarion

2015-02-14, 04:27 PM

"My best offer is a few extra meal tickets." Sakura, on the other hand, could turn a railspike more twisted than a corkscrew, and then walk through it upside down and backwards. "Same as everyone else. Especially for a job as simple as 'make sure this guy is dead before you kill someone else.'"

Lance was gone. I don't think he realizes the respect I give him. Just as well, now I'm all alone with Harold.

"My time is more valuable than your regular rate, Harold, but since we're all alone now, I'll just take my payment and do this job on the house."

I walk up to him, quicker than he expects and give him a hug. Anyone watching the tower top might see a light flash like an electrical short, just for an instant.

[deep brain scan [roll0]]

And then I let him go and walk down the stairs. "I'll let you know what I find later, Harold."

Edit: so, in what ways are your character's mind and soul vulnerable, Harold?

Balmas

2015-02-14, 06:25 PM

And there she went! I did my best to dodge the hug, but she just managed to slip a fingernail past my shirt collar. Her touch was slimy, just like her soul, and I could feel her trying to rip at my mind. Evil bitch. Carefully, I did my best to think about nothing, or at least nothing that would predict my next move.

"Hold it, Sakura." I swung Old Reliable to bear, wincing as the strap dug against where she'd touched me. "You come into my house, and try to pull that kind of stuff? I ain't having it. So now you got a choice. You can either drop the gloves and walk away, or have me blow them off your arms. Which'll it be?"

[Using offsite dice roller because the onsite ones hate me. 3, 6, +2 Hard. Going Aggro, [11]]

Thanqol

2015-02-15, 06:15 PM

"That's the rub. Lotta sh!t today to think on. I got two paths, here. So I ask you! I give you the decision. Do we go after Tops? Do we get our justice for Old Harry, even I gotta spray Tops' brains on old hard-ass himself? Or do we wait, like? Best revenge is living a good life. Do we put our time into seeing how to touch the soul of our city? Speak your peace, friends. I'll do what we decide here."

I unclasp it's chain, pass my **** around like one of them speaking sticks the scouts used, and Ask my people for their insight.

"This is gonna keep happening," said Turbine, "Gonna keep happening as long as we're ruled by an outsider. No, we gotta either make Harold one of us, or replace Harold with one of us. That's the only way we're going to be secure for good."

Anarion

2015-02-15, 06:31 PM

Crap. That was a lot faster than expected. I'm already turned and running down the stairs, so Harold can't see my chagrined smile. I'm gonna have to come back with some people next time, he's tougher than expected. I don't trust him now though. If I stop, for any reason, he might just shoot me. Gonna have to just take the shot and hope it's not too bad. Gun goes off, I'm down the stairs and out of his sight.

[Choosing to suck it up. 2 harm after armor. Rolling my harm move as well. [roll0]]

Anarion

2015-02-15, 07:01 PM

There was a crash. Sakura picked herself up. This day had taken a wrong turn somewhere. She was at the bottom of the steps but...she winced and sucked in a breath. It felt like a broken rib. She needed somebody to set that. She could probably afford medical treatment, sure, but it was scarce here, and annoying. She'd have to go make her way to a clinic. Probably a priority now, much as she wanted to go check on Cook. Hell if she was doing Harold's job though.

She needed guys too. And she had an idea where to get them. Terry would be getting started on her plans soon, but she was going down to the caves. It was time to get in touch with the things down there. She knew they could feel her and she could feel them. It was time to set up something more permanent.

Clinic first. There were a couple, which one could she reasonably expect to get into, considering she could pay the barter for it?

Balmas

2015-02-15, 08:11 PM

SiuiS

2015-02-15, 09:50 PM

"This is gonna keep happening," said Turbine, "Gonna keep happening as long as we're ruled by an outsider. No, we gotta either make Harold one of us, or replace Harold with one of us. That's the only way we're going to be secure for good."

"Yeah. Sounds easy enough. It's not like we're one of those weird ass hunger cults or, like, the furries or something.

"A'right! Y'all said what you need to say?" Nods of assent. Good. Means at least no one is gonna walk away feeling they need to fix that. "Then today, I'm goin' after Harold Hard-ass. Gonna make some headway or die tryin', you know? Show him the star to follow. But first, we need to fix that star, like. Leave it lux and shining. Leave a beacon. Throw some of the good stuff on the fire. We're gonna commune, li'l mamas."

That gets grins. It's been trial runs so far. I ain't stupid, been leadin' the court to the edges, see how they handle. It's all smiles and buzz right now, like. Soon, maybe not so cool. But they know the risks. The rewards.

All the little chickadees clasp hands in a little circle proper, all the blokes take their place in the middle, the few what can't decide take their place where they feel be best. Today we got some sorta crazy lightning sh!t, like a jagged fork. Looks good. Maybe we call up a storm?

No one can decide on a song, but everyone starts humming anyway. Gets real quiet, like. Eerie. Tunes mingle and shift. Pretty soon everyone be carrying the same tune (http://youtu.be/56mjwycKuXA). And that's when we open our eyes. All our eyes, like.

From my 'throne', [roll0]

If Harold is sufficiently connected to the psychic maelstrom, we reach through it to him.
(7-9) stable and contained, no bleeding
(10+) also maintains itself without effort, for a while

If he is not, we insert information into the psychic maelstrom; the need for Harold to listen to and come to terms with King.
(7-9) Reaches deeply into the maelstrom
(10+) also spread broadly through the maelstrom.

Raz_Fox

2015-02-16, 04:51 PM

If there's one thing I can't stand about this goddamn place, it's the politics. Did I say that before? Meant it. Drives me right up the bend that the only folk I'd be able to really buy from, if Kelly goes down, are the Butchers. Said it all glib-like, yeah, but don't mean I'm happy with it- well, with Shade, at least. Tribe always told me that ain't nothing wrong with eating some long meat when it's all ya got, long as you keep away from the brainpan. Messes up your own, eating bits of someone else's brainpan. But can't stand folk what kill people to eat 'em. That sh!t's just unnerving. That's the sh!t that the Tommyjankers and the Red Legs do. Killed a bunch of Tommyjankers for it once.

When cannibalism becomes a way of life, you gotta burn it out. Told Peterson that before. He's the kind of guy who only gets loud and fun when drinks are flowing, y'know?

Anyway. Drag Tops down to the brig. Siding with Harry's the best choice for right now. Might change, depending.

Anarion

2015-02-17, 01:36 AM

Grace's Clinic. One of the few medical facilities in the whole town. It was also one of the most defensible places in town, maybe not as good as Kelly's or Harold's, but she had the whole place walled up with some kind of silicon titanium stuff, like computer chip patterns that could withstand gunfire. There was one big entrance in front, usually with a couple guards standing around with SMGs.

I ran there as fast as I could and gave my nod to the guards at the front, then ducked inside, my ribs aching like somebody had set a forest fire on the right side of my chest.

Inside, the place was white and sterile, classic medical clinic, not that different from the old pre-singularity pictures even. Not as big or as good as those pictures, but Dr. Grace was a professional and she knew to keep her place clean. There was a waiting room, enough space for almost 100 people if they jammed in, then the building branched out into east and west hallways with rooms to see patients. There were stairs up, too, but the upstairs was for intensive care, storage, or patients that needed long-term stays. It was lucky, right now, that the place was mostly empty. Harold hadn't done any big missions in a while, so his gang was healthy, none of King's folks had gone down for a while until today, and as far as I knew, Kelly or any of the other players in town hadn't had a big shoot'em up either. So, I went in, gave my name to the nurse and she showed me into one of the waiting rooms on the east wing and said the doctor would be with me in a minute.

Service with a smile, though I knew full well I'd have to pay for all this later. I sat and waited for Dr. Grace to come in.

Thanqol

2015-02-17, 06:29 PM

Damn. I was hoping she'd just take the easy way out, so I could feed those damn gloves to one of my dogs.

"Hey, Slug!" I called out to one of the lackeys manning the door. "Send one of the Bikers out. Er, Let's go with Barry. Have him run round to the doctors, tell them there's an extra meal ticket for both of them if they refuse to treat Sakura today, will you?" Barry's a good guy; managed to snag a suit of knight's armor from one of the ol' museums, what wasn't horribly overgrown. Runs around on a bike with a fork as long as the horizon and a sword almost as wide. Really more of a club with a hint of an edge.

((Is there a move for that, or is it just giving orders?))

That's just giving orders, man, and they head off to yell your words. But then this happened:

If Harold is sufficiently connected to the psychic maelstrom, we reach through it to him.
(7-9) stable and contained, no bleeding
(10+) also maintains itself without effort, for a while

If he is not, we insert information into the psychic maelstrom; the need for Harold to listen to and come to terms with King.
(7-9) Reaches deeply into the maelstrom
(10+) also spread broadly through the maelstrom.

And the way I see it you've got a choice. Either you get a sudden overpowering visitation from the Maelstrom in all it's messed up, hypnotic self, that also shocks through to your followers, saying you gotta kneel to the King - but there's a shockwave of some kind and it's a relatively short term thing. Or else you receive this constant pounding pulse, like a headache, carrying the same message but it's only you.

What's it gonna be, Harold?

Grace's Clinic. One of the few medical facilities in the whole town. It was also one of the most defensible places in town, maybe not as good as Kelly's or Harold's, but she had the whole place walled up with some kind of silicon titanium stuff, like computer chip patterns that could withstand gunfire. There was one big entrance in front, usually with a couple guards standing around with SMGs.

I ran there as fast as I could and gave my nod to the guards at the front, then ducked inside, my ribs aching like somebody had set a forest fire on the right side of my chest.

Inside, the place was white and sterile, classic medical clinic, not that different from the old pre-singularity pictures even. Not as big or as good as those pictures, but Dr. Grace was a professional and she knew to keep her place clean. There was a waiting room, enough space for almost 100 people if they jammed in, then the building branched out into east and west hallways with rooms to see patients. There were stairs up, too, but the upstairs was for intensive care, storage, or patients that needed long-term stays. It was lucky, right now, that the place was mostly empty. Harold hadn't done any big missions in a while, so his gang was healthy, none of King's folks had gone down for a while until today, and as far as I knew, Kelly or any of the other players in town hadn't had a big shoot'em up either. So, I went in, gave my name to the nurse and she showed me into one of the waiting rooms on the east wing and said the doctor would be with me in a minute.

Service with a smile, though I knew full well I'd have to pay for all this later. I sat and waited for Dr. Grace to come in.

She'd barely come and sat down when the guards came over to her. "Hey there Sakura hot pants," said Limey, getting his smoothest on, "what's smoking? Oh right, it's you, because you're hot."

"Dude, come on," said Subway, punching him in the shoulder. "We're here to tell her to get lost."

"Yeah and what I'm saying is that we can get lost together," said Limey. "So how about it sweet stuff?

Anyway. Drag Tops down to the brig. Siding with Harry's the best choice for right now. Might change, depending.

Yeah, that just seems like a thing that happens. So what next?

Anarion

2015-02-17, 06:35 PM

She'd barely come and sat down when the guards came over to her. "Hey there Sakura hot pants," said Limey, getting his smoothest on, "what's smoking? Oh right, it's you, because you're hot."

"Dude, come on," said Subway, punching him in the shoulder. "We're here to tell her to get lost."

"Yeah and what I'm saying is that we can get lost together," said Limey. "So how about it sweet stuff?

"I'm flattered, but I have a broken rib. Maybe after that's fixed, you and I can spend some time together, Limey."

And I'm thinking to myself, sure why not. I love spending time with people. A long time alone. It's a chance to do things the lasting way, and get some ideas into their heads in case I ever need them.

SiuiS

2015-02-17, 07:46 PM

The work was done. Left a nice buzz, sorta like drinking some pipe weed with a subtle smack chaser. The headaches suck, but the high usually outlasts it. Usually.

"Right! That's step one. You all continue your lives. Maybe find old Harry, bring him for a decent burial, like. I'm off to deal with Tops, Harold, settle this. Maybe stop by the gun shop, pick up something worth... Naw, f*ck that. Anyone here have a piece? I'm lookin' for simple, messy and portable. I'll trade some jingle to switch hands now, like."

After dropping 1-barter for a weapon not valuable or high-tech, I'll head out to find Sakura. I can already see she never showed, means she's off doing f*ck knows what. An' I be finding her, guarantee Tops is there.

Anarion

2015-02-17, 08:14 PM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-17, 08:27 PM

Harry might be the smartest bastard in town, and getting one over on Kelly would help me sleep well, but I'd wait a bit before I started tearing down Harry's mug from the walls. Sh!t needed getting done, first. I was starving, and according to Sakura, some vine or other was killing folk. Best to get some grilled rat down at Market before word got out you couldn't trust the vines. Rat might taste like sh!t, yeah, but the worst I could get from that was the trots, not the froths.

Once that's done, and I've paid the rat vendors what little bits of scrap I've got to give today, I head on over to see Esteban. High-strung little bitch, knows fellows who know fellows who know fellows, every scrap of gossip in town passes through him like bad food. Likes hearing things that people will pay him for. He and I have a deal while I'm staying here: he keeps me posted on who's passing through town, and he sends word right quick if someone with armor like mine rolls into the place, and in return I'll handle any little "misunderstandings" that pop up 'cause of his mouth.

See, if folks stop heading down our way from a Holding, I know there's probably work clearing out the road to be had: making sure we ain't got Sirens or Lilies luring folks off the roads, clearing out Crawler infestations from good shelter-sites, carrying back word that there's a buncha refugees or pissed-off folk coming thisaway. That sorta thing. Folks who don't fit into Harry's jobs gotta take what they can get if they want to stay here.

Figure that I might want to split town for a while after Kelly's handled, or even before, if Harry backs off and don't follow-through on this politicing sh!t.

SiuiS

2015-02-17, 08:52 PM

You'd be a little late, but assuming you hit up Harold's place first, there's a good chance you'll run into the guy he's sending to the clinics. Assuming you don't just run into him.

Time's like a river, honey. You can float downstream or swim up, a little. How long you think it takes to run across town, like? To send out goons? Long 'nough, is what I be sayin'.

Besides, not like you tried to double cross me. Deal go bad, get into a gunfight? Not your bag, li'l mama.

Once that's done, and I've paid the rat vendors what little bits of scrap I've got to give today, I head on over to see Esteban.

This though, this is a good twenny minutes a work faffin around the heart of things. This is a man lookin' cagey, standin' in my way. And this is a man maybe wanna be puttin the boots where I need the boots, like.

"Afternoon, Lance!" Like a hook and lure. Call his name, bloke's gotta turn and look. You look, you be hooked. You don't look, you still be hooked.

"You're lookin drug out by the cat. I've got some dog-hair if you have a need." I'm all smiles walking up. We'll see how happy he is to see me, go from there.

Balmas

2015-02-17, 09:30 PM

And the way I see it you've got a choice. Either you get a sudden overpowering visitation from the Maelstrom in all it's messed up, hypnotic self, that also shocks through to your followers, saying you gotta kneel to the King - but there's a shockwave of some kind and it's a relatively short term thing. Or else you receive this constant pounding pulse, like a headache, carrying the same message but it's only you.

What's it gonna be, Harold?

Way I sees it, that old coot has stolen away enough of my people without any of my help. Let's go for the one that affects me only. I knock on the side of the sidecar and call out over the wind of the motorcycle's passing, "Pull over here, Carl. I gotta check on something with the King."

Don't see why the King insists on fortifying his compound. Ain't like it's gonna do much if I want it gone. Still, it makes for a good entrance when I open the gate and step inside. "Where's King?"

Raz_Fox

2015-02-17, 10:16 PM

"Afternoon, Lance!" Like a hook and lure. Call his name, bloke's gotta turn and look. You look, you be hooked. You don't look, you still be hooked.

"You're lookin drug out by the cat. I've got some dog-hair if you have a need." I'm all smiles walking up. We'll see how happy he is to see me, go from there.

Don't know how I missed the King. Maybe someone taller was standing in front of her? But those curves... damn, if she don't look fine. Don't quite follow what she's talking about, but- hold up. Politics. Harry might be coming down on her like a storm on the plains. Not that'd change my intentions none, but maybe I should be sharp about what she might want.

"It's all feckin politics, King. Up and down the Tower. Heard about Tops yet?" Watch her. See if she flinches, if she's got guilt on her, or if she's so full of religion she don't even blink. And, well, I don't mind the view, anyway. Call me crazy as her, but that face... damn, girl.

[Gonna Read King. [roll0]]

SiuiS

2015-02-17, 10:36 PM

Eyebrows up. That's a sharp question. And ****, the meat vendor is sittin' right the f*ck there, listening. This is either some sort of set up, or...

Nah. Lance is named after a pointy pig sticker. Don't mean he's he sharpest tack. Or the most ornery.

"Yeah, we caught him after he killed Old Harry. Strung him up, like. Interrogated him a bit. Got a lot of I'm sorries, not many motives. So we put some justice to him, tried to get... something else out of him. Was gonna take him in to Harold, but he's gone and so is..."

F*ck.

Eyes narrow. Lips pursed. Strong shoulders. "How'd you hear about Tops, Lance?"

Raz_Fox

2015-02-17, 11:01 PM

Ha, that put some life in her right quick. Defensive, but not lashing out. Safe ground, here. "You know me. Good for lifting bodies. Pinning them against walls, too." See? I can be subtle. "Gotta say, you did him good. Almost professional. But Harry's not in a spot to give you too much hell." Pause, think for a moment. "Well, unless he thinks he's gotta crack down. Show everyone he's still boss, dig? Yeah, more likely you're screwed." Don't say why. Don't want Kelly's folk thinking I'm anything more than the dumb tribal what sometimes fixes guns for folk and has dug himself deep into sh!t with her. Hell, don't want King to get the wrong impression, think that I'm looking to lick Harry's boots.

SiuiS

2015-02-17, 11:34 PM

Thanqol

2015-02-18, 06:35 AM

Tattood guy's talking a lot. Not his style... I thought. Buzz has started to subside. And that headache came marching right along.

"Lemme see what I can see here. You carried Tops' body? He die? And where was his... His chaperone?"

Damn distracting kid. I caught that little "slip" about holding against walls. Quiet threat, or something else, like? Let's see. I [roll0] and see call his bluff.

"And don't threaten me with a good time, I'm on a mission, like."

There's a creaking, and then the groan of metal and a crash. The main gate to King's compound has fallen down, not maintained properly, or maybe the vines got to it. No one's hurt, like, but all of a sudden there's no way out 'cause the wreckage is blocking the exit. Lance and King are trapped inside together. What did they do?

Anarion

2015-02-18, 11:23 AM

I'm still waiting in Doc Grace's clinic. I'm fine with the guy's offer to be alone together, but after I get psyched up. I'm not leaving the clinic now. They cool with that, or are things about to get physical.

SiuiS

2015-02-18, 03:39 PM

Well, sh!t.

Gotta give the kid credit, he's for reflexes like a wild animal. Fighty ones. Bein' pushed outa the way, that's cool. The armbar on my throat not so much. Guess I'll keep sending mixed signals too.

One hand down the front, trailing nails. Fingers cool against the hot skin of abs. Not sure where his shirt went. Other hand pressed over one taught pec, feels like a... Old bullet wound, maybe.

That hand pushes him away.

"Thanks... *coff* thanks for the save."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-18, 04:59 PM

Wall came crumbling out, down, best chance was in. Taking King, reflex, like taking a Brother down out of gunfire, under and through, pin her down, covering her with me, sort of damn fool instinct's gonna get me killed. Very close to her, heart pounding like gunfire, head up and looking, compensate for peripherals, might have been accident but if someone's gunning for me I'm gonna kill them first, Harry's rules be damned, something's under my armor and if it's got a knife I'm fecked to hell and back, no, King's hand.

King, who was acting all cagey before it hit. She pushes me up, I leverage my weight, my armor, to keep her down for a moment, trying to decide whether- no, she's got a brain full of crazy old business but she was standing there slack-jawed as it came down. She ain't trying to kill me yet. Maybe one of her Court? Hell no, they're drugged-out bastards but loyal to her. Does her best to lead them straight.

I let up, stand. Still pumped, still ready to scrap, wanting to scrap. "Got a backdoor, King? Can't stay and jaw. Less you want to pay for 'services': one King, not dead." Taggart would smack my head, tell me to be respectful, not crowing. Feck that.

SiuiS

2015-02-18, 05:25 PM

Damn.

Alright. F*ck this. Kid's looking for a fight and my head hurts too much to hide my expression. There's only one cure for a headache what don't come in a bottle. And f*ck it, I be making his mind for him. Lance needs focus. Don't want him be settling on "fight" when he finds that focus.

Good thing about hands under a shirt, means I've still got his belt. One of his belts. The one holding more pants, less ammo.

"Maybe on the second date." Lean back, pull towards one of the doorways. Maybe he'll get the hint. "You're not going anywhere yet."

Thanqol

2015-02-18, 08:51 PM

"I'm flattered, but I have a broken rib. Maybe after that's fixed, you and I can spend some time together, Limey."

And I'm thinking to myself, sure why not. I love spending time with people. A long time alone. It's a chance to do things the lasting way, and get some ideas into their heads in case I ever need them.

"Hey baby, I can play at being a doctor," said Limey. His buddy just sighs.

"Hey, Harold says you don't get fixed, so you don't get fixed. Get lost, freakcase."

Anarion

2015-02-18, 08:57 PM

"Hey baby, I can play at being a doctor," said Limey. His buddy just sighs.

"Hey, Harold says you don't get fixed, so you don't get fixed. Get lost, freakcase."

"I'm sorry, I already checked in as a patient. I was under the impression that Dr. Grace always treats her patients."

I sigh and look the two over, trying to figure out how this is going to go.
[Read a sitch [roll0]

edit: 3 questions
1. Who's in control here?
2. Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
3. What's my best way past these guys to get medical treatment?

Raz_Fox

2015-02-19, 01:37 AM

Well, ain't that interesting? I lean into King. Kelly can wait, I'm thinking. Take what you can where you can, but don't be a fool, either.

"Without being Court?" Can't resist. Seems a little too easy. "People might talk, say the King's... going foreign." Not my best joke, but gets the point over. Damn, I hate this, this not-knowing, this politics; wish I could just tear her feckin clothes off. Gotta know she's just horny, ain't planning to get me in a vice. "Don't blame you, though. I'm better than a dozen of your Court, any time, any place."

[Spending 1 Hold to find out: what does King intend to do?]

SiuiS

2015-02-19, 02:13 AM

King is high, and stressed, and bleeding a little bit o brain stability out the ears. Political justifications can happen after the fact; King intends to get laid, if she's for to pay someone or hold them hostage to do it.

Balmas

2015-02-19, 02:16 AM

Damn, this place is a mess. Debris everywhere, like half the building just collapsed on everything. Which means that the right place for me to be is right in the thicket of it. I snap to Carl, "Go back to HQ. Grab some of the Burners and bring them back here. We might have injured, and I want some people who can fix wounds. Big Joe, Denzel, and Twitch. I want them here five minutes ago. Go!"

And that left me with a courtyard full of panicking people, with no King in sight. Typical. Hopefully he's at least got a second in charge.

[I think Read a Sitch is most appropriate. 4,6, +1. [11]

Who's in control here?]

SiuiS

2015-02-19, 02:29 AM

That's the problem with a democracy. Ain't nobody in charge, cuz ain't nobody want the blame. Old Harry, he was a kind, tough, wise sumbitch, kinda guy steps up to the plate when sh!t needs doin.

Course, Old Harry is dead if we're lucky, back from dead if we ain't. Annette seems to have some balls on her. Three Eyes has some clout cuz she has the drugs.

One of Mama's men stepping in would work best, if they were a familiar face anyway. Not everyone what believes in the kings sticks around with thumbs up their ass. Some of us got work to be out doin'. Don't mean we ain't part of the club.

Thanqol

2015-02-19, 05:23 AM

"I'm sorry, I already checked in as a patient. I was under the impression that Dr. Grace always treats her patients."

I sigh and look the two over, trying to figure out how this is going to go.
[Read a sitch [roll0]

edit: 3 questions
1. Who's in control here?
2. Which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
3. What's my best way past these guys to get medical treatment?

"Grace don't do nothing unless Harold tells her to do nothing," said Subway, folding his arms.

Harold's in control here. These people are basically all wanting to please Harold.

Subway's probably the weak link here. Limey isn't afraid of you at all, he thinks with his sex drive, but Subway's kind of nervous and jumpy and you could probably get him to jump where he is if you stand up suddenly.

The best way to medical treatment is, in my opinion, to go out, put on a big cloak and hood and stuff, and shuffle by them with your head down. They're not, like, even vaguely interested in people except if they're sexy or dangerous. If you try coming at them head on anyhow they'll just dig in their heels.

Damn, this place is a mess. Debris everywhere, like half the building just collapsed on everything. Which means that the right place for me to be is right in the thicket of it. I snap to Carl, "Go back to HQ. Grab some of the Burners and bring them back here. We might have injured, and I want some people who can fix wounds. Big Joe, Denzel, and Twitch. I want them here five minutes ago. Go!"

And that left me with a courtyard full of panicking people, with no King in sight. Typical. Hopefully he's at least got a second in charge.

[I think Read a Sitch is most appropriate. 4,6, +1. [11]

Who's in control here?]

None of these people, not without King to lead them. You actually think this could be an Advertisement coming this way.

Advertisements are the really, really bad things. They're roving marketing glyph-clouds, surrounded by dozens of cablefolk and as contagious as anything. Makes sense, what with the vine sickness and stuff recently. They're roving reality distortions, designed to penetrate the most advanced spamfilters of the singularity, spamfilters that at times resembled bubble universes. Apply that level of overengineered messaging to a human eyeball version 1.0 and you're looking at brain haemorrhages, insanity and brand new cults.

It all adds up, all the weird stuff, and now with this. It's an Ad Storm inbound. What do you do when things like this happen?

Anarion

2015-02-19, 11:11 AM

Balmas

2015-02-19, 01:25 PM

Well, that's a whole pile of crap all comin' down at once. Not for the first time, I wonder how far I'd have to go to scrounge up an old air-raid siren, or something similar. "Listen up!" I climb up to the highest piece of debris, and shout to get everyone's attention. "An adstorm is coming. Find yer friends and family, and head to some below-ground shelter." The city's got enough of them, anyway. Between the subways, sewer maintenance tunnels, and the freeway underpasses, there's enough space for everyone. Course, the Below is almost as dangerous as an adstorm, so it's usually best to just stick near the entrance and lock down the manhole covers. "It's yer choice, of course, but if I come back and there're tentacled mutants because they wanted to look at the pretty lightshow, my shotguns gonna do some talking, and we'll be looking at all the pretty tentacles splattered on the wall! Now get!"

Raz_Fox

2015-02-19, 05:11 PM

People off yelling somewhere; don't much care to stay and listen. I head inside, pull King on in with, plan to end up on top of her second time today.

Not too much can happen, right? Interruption shows up, I've got my sidearm. Big interruption shows up, got my rifle and a few clips. Everything's good.

'sides. I'm raring and ready to go, myself.

SiuiS

2015-02-19, 08:03 PM

*

Damn sight better. Headache's a dull hammer in my face. Back and shoulders are okay though (except where the rebar... Nevermind) which means no migraine. Thank god.

But somethin' ain't right. It's been an hour, and ain't no one come to investigate a collapse? Not even my folks are that drugged out of their damn minds. It's quiet. Weirdly calm. Time to look outside. See what's what.

I [roll0]

Thanqol

2015-02-20, 08:03 AM

Yeah, okay. I actually want to sleep with Limey, but getting healed is priority #1 here. I stand up, slight wince at the rib, and turn to leave, give Limey a little pat (a regular one, not the glove kind) and say "come find me later if you want some fun."

So, I'm up, I slip out, I go grab my heaviest cape, wrap it over my lab coat, over my face, and then an old, bent bag of bones shuffles back into the clinic and asks to see the doc. Needs some healing, what with her poor osteoporosis (not that anybody except maybe doc herself knows the word).

Okay, so all the guards are idiots and can't see through that, but once you wait in line and come up to see the doc, Grace is going to ask for you to take the cloak off so she can medicine and you're not sure what she'll do when she sees it's you. She's coming towards you now, what do you do?

Well, that's a whole pile of crap all comin' down at once. Not for the first time, I wonder how far I'd have to go to scrounge up an old air-raid siren, or something similar. "Listen up!" I climb up to the highest piece of debris, and shout to get everyone's attention. "An adstorm is coming. Find yer friends and family, and head to some below-ground shelter." The city's got enough of them, anyway. Between the subways, sewer maintenance tunnels, and the freeway underpasses, there's enough space for everyone. Course, the Below is almost as dangerous as an adstorm, so it's usually best to just stick near the entrance and lock down the manhole covers. "It's yer choice, of course, but if I come back and there're tentacled mutants because they wanted to look at the pretty lightshow, my shotguns gonna do some talking, and we'll be looking at all the pretty tentacles splattered on the wall! Now get!"

People hop to, getting down to the shelters. But Harold notices that a huge bunch of them are running to go by the Kill Shop first so that when they go below they'll be armed. I don't know what Harold's official policy is on a bunch of armed, spooked consumers in an enclosed space while mind-blasting hypno-rays boom upstairs though. Did he do something about that or what?

*

Damn sight better. Headache's a dull hammer in my face. Back and shoulders are okay though (except where the rebar... Nevermind) which means no migraine. Thank god.

But somethin' ain't right. It's been an hour, and ain't no one come to investigate a collapse? Not even my folks are that drugged out of their damn minds. It's quiet. Weirdly calm. Time to look outside. See what's what.

I [roll0]

Looking outside? There's something big, red and flashing on the horizon. It's coming this way, flashing from tower to tower, melting the stone of the skyscrapers into whorls and imprints and little ash silhouettes of consumers drinking chilled lemonade. But while that's the backdrop you've just gone and told us that this situation is charged beyond that, so let's find out how. Ask your questions.

Balmas

2015-02-20, 10:32 AM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-20, 12:28 PM

I take a moment. Catch my breath. Removed a lot, but kept the breastplate; let the King see the bull, remind her whose man I am.

Hell, I guess I'm the bull. Still used to thinking of it as Taggart's symbol. Powerful. Violent. Big and bad and don't get in its way. If that ain't me, I'm working on it. Gotta survive long enough to... something. Make Things Less Sh!t, I guess. One way or another. Maybe I'll leave town once I settle things with Kelly. Get in a fistfight with Harry, first.

I'd miss the power. The A/C. The screwing. Hell, I'd miss the King. But something's gotta give.

Look over at the King; she's at the door. Red light flickering against her shadow. Feck. I'd love to pull her back in, talk to her about the world-what-was, maybe. Hope I didn't say the wrong thing, as usual. But I need to get dressed, now. If we don't get to shelter quicklike, storm's gonna rip our heads inside-out and make us enjoy it.

Anarion

2015-02-20, 01:30 PM

Okay, so all the guards are idiots and can't see through that, but once you wait in line and come up to see the doc, Grace is going to ask for you to take the cloak off so she can medicine and you're not sure what she'll do when she sees it's you. She's coming towards you now, what do you do?

So, the way I heard it, Grace is a professional. She might have the guards turn somebody away at the door, but once somebody is in and her patient, she'll treat them. That's her job as a doctor. She might give me hell for it at the time, and goodness knows if we spend a while in intimate touch, I might well get a read on her out of it (or even drop an idea into her head if I really think it's worth it). She might even know that's a possibility if she's really canny, but she also knows that whatever the treatment costs, I'm good for it.

So, I'm in, past the guards and the doc herself is coming to treat me. At least to start, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt.

"Hello, Doctor Grace" I say in my normal voice, and when she comes to examine me I take the hood off, and adjust my glasses to get a clear view of her and so she can see where my rib is broken.

SiuiS

2015-02-20, 02:50 PM

Looking outside? There's something big, red and flashing on the horizon. It's coming this way, flashing from tower to tower, melting the stone of the skyscrapers into whorls and imprints and little ash silhouettes of consumers drinking chilled lemonade. But while that's the backdrop you've just gone and told us that this situation is charged beyond that, so let's find out how. Ask your questions.

Red flashing lights? The yin yang god's murals self-carving into the walls? Easy.

What's my best way into shelter?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Who's really in charge, here?

"Sh!t. Looks like and advertisement storm. Not hundred percent though." I look back. Kid's strapping his belts on. Pity. And he's for my revolver, I think. My own damn fault for leaving it. Maybe he's just grabbing it for me. Being nice.

Being nice. I'll have to try that some time.

Thanqol

2015-02-21, 04:55 AM

Ain't nothing wrong with folks being armed, and there's no rule 'gainst it. Only problem comes with folks discharging the damn things inside the sewers; even if they miss and the ricochets don't kill someone, that sorta shiit's gonna attract attention. And hypno beams or no, those as shoot others are gonna get shot in return. "Right! Families together! There are marked off safe areas Below! Stay in them, and you won't be harmed. Stay away from people you hate! I shouldn't have to say this kind of crap, but every time a storm comes along, some ass decides that now's the best time to settle his beef with his neighbor. Lemme tell you, if I hear any gunshots, there better be a dead cableman or something like that when I come to find the source. Anyone who shoots a fellow citizen without a reason I like will be drawn and quartered without mercy! Now move out!"

[Rolling Go aggro: Don't shoot anyone who isn't attacking you, or you'll be executed. 5,1,+2. [8]]

So yeah, these people knew how to get through adstorms, and Harold had made his point sufficient about killing people getting paid for, so they all ran and got to their positions. He might wind up with a body anyway but it'd be a body that'd got knifed quiet-like rather than a tunnel with a shootout. So where did he go and get himself to? In with the masses? Somewhere special?

So, the way I heard it, Grace is a professional. She might have the guards turn somebody away at the door, but once somebody is in and her patient, she'll treat them. That's her job as a doctor. She might give me hell for it at the time, and goodness knows if we spend a while in intimate touch, I might well get a read on her out of it (or even drop an idea into her head if I really think it's worth it). She might even know that's a possibility if she's really canny, but she also knows that whatever the treatment costs, I'm good for it.

So, I'm in, past the guards and the doc herself is coming to treat me. At least to start, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt.

"Hello, Doctor Grace" I say in my normal voice, and when she comes to examine me I take the hood off, and adjust my glasses to get a clear view of her and so she can see where my rib is broken.

The lights are flickering between on and blood red, and Grace is looking nervous. "Goddamn it. You've put me in a hell of a spot here," she said, covering her face with her hand.

Red flashing lights? The yin yang god's murals self-carving into the walls? Easy.

What's my best way into shelter?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Who's really in charge, here?

"Sh!t. Looks like and advertisement storm. Not hundred percent though." I look back. Kid's strapping his belts on. Pity. And he's for my revolver, I think. My own damn fault for leaving it. Maybe he's just grabbing it for me. Being nice.

Being nice. I'll have to try that some time.

Best way to shelter, down into the tunnels, natch. Through that door, into the street, down the manhole. Don't spook the people and you're probably fine.

But here's the thing. You just keep feeling and feeling that there's someone else moving around down there in those tunnels. Like, your gate just fell in, and sure it was the vines, but the vines respond to stuff and all them vines is coming up through the ground.

Who's in charge? Who'd want to start sh*t in an Adstorm? One of the neighbouring holds, maybe. The Taurus are vicious enough for it, Gay Texas is a cunning old biddy who has it out for Harold, but you think only Proctor&Gamble would do it this way. The others want the hold for themselves but Proctor&Gamble want to see it off the map.

Anarion

2015-02-21, 04:03 PM

The lights are flickering between on and blood red, and Grace is looking nervous. "Goddamn it. You've put me in a hell of a spot here," she said, covering her face with her hand.

"And I appreciate your work, doctor. My services could also be of assistance in protecting your clinic."

I'm negotiating as the lights flicker blood red. That's the first I've seen of it, this compound was a bit further away and we hadn't had any sign of the ad storm coming until now. "You also may want to work quickly, we don't have much time. And I might just be the best thing to help your people get through this thing if we're caught here. Especially if I'm well and won't keel over if some random fool pushes me in the chest."

Then I'm waiting for the doc, but I'm also zoning out, trying to see what's coming. There's a malevolence to these things and I've got the chance to peer into the heart of the storm.

[Open my mind: What's the driving the ad storm? [roll0]]

SiuiS

2015-02-21, 04:39 PM

"Dammit. Looks like we'll have to pick up where we left off later, tiger. I've got some questions. Like that bullet scar on your ribs."

So this is a directed force. Alright. That's crap but we'll make do, like. Ad storms, like sand storm or like hurricane? Is there an eye to these things? Maybe close to the genesis point – no way somethin' like this is set and forget. It's got something emanating it. How f*cked would I be, on a scale if dangerous to 'here's your chance to play a different book', if we waited for that eye? Popped up in the middle, tried to take control?

It's me an' Lance against, like, four or five dozen of those cable f*ckers plus whatever's the cause. Good odds, right?

Balmas

2015-02-21, 04:58 PM

So yeah, these people knew how to get through adstorms, and Harold had made his point sufficient about killing people getting paid for, so they all ran and got to their positions. He might wind up with a body anyway but it'd be a body that'd got knifed quiet-like rather than a tunnel with a shootout. So where did he go and get himself to? In with the masses? Somewhere special?

In times like this, the people need to see me with them. Gives them something to hold onto. And occasionally, something to fear to keep them in line. The gangs have their instructions: spread out, be visible, for god's sake don't kill anyone if you don't have to, etc. People are scared, people want to cling to something warm. If I'm any judge, we oughta see a population swell in about nine months.

God, I wish I had Momma right now.

I watched the people filing down the hole to the Below, shotgun in hand to gently steer into place anyone that got ideas. Footsteps from behind. Kinda awkward, like one leg is just the tiniest hint off. Mean's Jerry; poor bastard got caught by a lagPike. Damn thing took his leg off at the knee. "Everyone else in place?"

Thanqol

2015-02-22, 06:37 AM

"And I appreciate your work, doctor. My services could also be of assistance in protecting your clinic."

I'm negotiating as the lights flicker blood red. That's the first I've seen of it, this compound was a bit further away and we hadn't had any sign of the ad storm coming until now. "You also may want to work quickly, we don't have much time. And I might just be the best thing to help your people get through this thing if we're caught here. Especially if I'm well and won't keel over if some random fool pushes me in the chest."

Then I'm waiting for the doc, but I'm also zoning out, trying to see what's coming. There's a malevolence to these things and I've got the chance to peer into the heart of the storm.

[Open my mind: What's the driving the ad storm? [roll0]]

Grace grumbled and got to work as fast as she could. "Double the usual rate," she snarled. She's charging you two barter, and you'll get to mark off two points of Harm.

When you open your brain - brain, not mind. Opening you brain implies a physicality to the action - about this Adstorm you just get kind of a sniff as to what it's about without putting your head into it direct. You can see sunny days, bright hot, clean water, as clean as clean can be. You see bright colours and bouncing balls and little kids who still have all their teeth. You see guys on skateboards and beautiful girls holding hands. You see them tired, agonised, slow, withered, skeletal - until one of them gets an idea. They crack open the black oil of the earth and pour it into themselves and each other, infusing each other with petrol as though they were machines. And instantly they're bright and shining and they rise from the dead to celebrate some more.

"Dammit. Looks like we'll have to pick up where we left off later, tiger. I've got some questions. Like that bullet scar on your ribs."

So this is a directed force. Alright. That's crap but we'll make do, like. Ad storms, like sand storm or like hurricane? Is there an eye to these things? Maybe close to the genesis point – no way somethin' like this is set and forget. It's got something emanating it. How f*cked would I be, on a scale if dangerous to 'here's your chance to play a different book', if we waited for that eye? Popped up in the middle, tried to take control?

It's me an' Lance against, like, four or five dozen of those cable f*ckers plus whatever's the cause. Good odds, right?

Uh, yeah, just fair warning but if you do want to go directly at that thing you need ALL your people coming behind you and backing your up, AND to be lucky as hell, otherwise you're just dead instantly. Even then they might not all walk out alive. I'm not f*cking around on this, this is hardcore psychic maelstrom sh*t and you should not go in spur of the moment.

In times like this, the people need to see me with them. Gives them something to hold onto. And occasionally, something to fear to keep them in line. The gangs have their instructions: spread out, be visible, for god's sake don't kill anyone if you don't have to, etc. People are scared, people want to cling to something warm. If I'm any judge, we oughta see a population swell in about nine months.

God, I wish I had Momma right now.

I watched the people filing down the hole to the Below, shotgun in hand to gently steer into place anyone that got ideas. Footsteps from behind. Kinda awkward, like one leg is just the tiniest hint off. Mean's Jerry; poor bastard got caught by a lagPike. Damn thing took his leg off at the knee. "Everyone else in place?"

"Yeah, except, goddamn, King," said Jerry reluctantly. "She's still thinking whatever up in her place." Unspoken: I'm showing how loyal I am by telling you this, and I really REALLY hope you repay that loyalty by not telling me to go and get her.

Balmas

2015-02-22, 03:34 PM

"Yeah, except, goddamn, King," said Jerry reluctantly. "She's still thinking whatever up in her place." Unspoken: I'm showing how loyal I am by telling you this, and I really REALLY hope you repay that loyalty by not telling me to go and get her.

Ugh. Of course she's missing. Otherwise, I could get rid of the friggin' pounding in my head, but that would be too goddamn convenient. I suppose it's too much to hope that she runs into the storm and gets eviscerated by a bit of flying rebar.

"Well, that's her own damn problem, iddn't it? King knows to get underground during these things; if she don't, she's an idiot. And I'm not going to risk any of my folk to save someone from their own vapidity. Now, you'd best head underground. I'll be right after you."

I watched Jerry step-kthump over to the manhole, before looking at the oncoming storm. I still needed to talk to Cook about not poisoning half the population of my city. I half expected a grinning skeleton to pop up and point, but... ****. My life sucks.

[Rolling Open Your Brain to see if I can't get a bead on Cook. 2, 4, -2 [4]]

SiuiS

2015-02-22, 03:58 PM

Aw, can't be tat bad, like. Can it? Mean, we got folks in other holds directing these things, means they be just run a the mill storms, right?

Sh!t. Listen to me. 'Just a storm'. Think maybe my brain ain't closed back up, after. Not yet.

"Lance, you thinkin', maybe thinkin' we should head up?" Up? 'S not the word I thought I wanted. "Get up a tower, see if we can get into the eye?"

Raz_Fox

2015-02-22, 04:03 PM

I've heard tell stories about folk what survive the storms. Nine times out of ten? Glitched to hell, bits of person where they shouldn't be, brains scrambled like soup. Then there are always stories about god-folk, about messiahs, what walk into the howling hell and make it bow. Course, they're always next settlement over, or beyond the mountains, or such. Never here.

I don't like the King's eyes. Glazed. Desiring. She looks at the storm same way she looked at me ten minutes ago. Hell, maybe even more lust there now.

"King. We're going. Now." Voice low, dog-growl. Only way I can get folk to listen. Got her pistol, got my sidearm, rifle's strap running from shoulder to hip. Calm now. Spike of panic, but- hell, I've gotten through these before. Just hope that I don't have to carry King to the tunnels. Hope I remember where the damn things are, even. Ain't seen a storm this bad while I've been in town.

SiuiS

2015-02-22, 04:11 PM

"Yeh, let's head... Out."

Not even sure where I wanna go. Sh!t. Probably picking up some malware thoughts already. "Just... Take the wheel."

Anarion

2015-02-22, 04:19 PM

Grace grumbled and got to work as fast as she could. "Double the usual rate," she snarled. She's charging you two barter, and you'll get to mark off two points of Harm.

When you open your brain - brain, not mind. Opening you brain implies a physicality to the action - about this Adstorm you just get kind of a sniff as to what it's about without putting your head into it direct. You can see sunny days, bright hot, clean water, as clean as clean can be. You see bright colours and bouncing balls and little kids who still have all their teeth. You see guys on skateboards and beautiful girls holding hands. You see them tired, agonised, slow, withered, skeletal - until one of them gets an idea. They crack open the black oil of the earth and pour it into themselves and each other, infusing each other with petrol as though they were machines. And instantly they're bright and shining and they rise from the dead to celebrate some more.

"Appreciate it, doctor, you're a miracle worker."

So, she's working. It crosses my mind to take a read on her, but I decide against it. Sometimes it messes up, and the last thing I want is somebody who's cutting around my chest to get her brain knocked around and start bleeding out of her ears. So she's working and I'm hoping her compound is safe enough to weather the ad storm that's coming in.

So oil is like blood to these things, dark blood of the earth, and I'm wondering if people hit by this thing are going to take it into themselves. Like maybe this is how cablefolk get made in the first place: regular people taking the oil into themselves, brainwashed by the power of one of these things.

Of course, doc's getting her barter, not even an issue from my side.

When she's about done, I look myself over. "Doctor, I'm thinking I'll need to weather the storm here. I'll put my cloak back on. Nobody else needs to know that Sakura was here. And I'm going to do you an extra favor. If that storm starts hitting anyone in here, I'll do my best to pull them through it and keep them from losing themselves. No guarantee, but I owe you and I'd like this place to hold together."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-22, 05:35 PM

"Down to the tunnels." Step outside; the sky beyond the towers is already red, bubbling, shot-through with lightning. "They're... King, where's the closest tunnel entrance?" I know where one is, yeah, in the Market, but that's a run, and King ain't looking so good. Don't fancy our chances if we use that one.

SiuiS

2015-02-22, 06:44 PM

"Old a sewer line. Out in the street. But, like, there be sh!t there you wanna watch for, like. This feels weird. Like an ambush. C'mon, we gotta get some high ground."

What? No. F*ck no. Adstorm. "I mean, let's get into... Uh, cover? I don't f*ckin' know."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-22, 07:07 PM

Lay a hand on the King. Probably an offense among the Court, but feck 'em. Steer her, fingers clamped against the white leather, pull her along. It don't sound right, what she says: storm-addled. That this'd be an ambush. But it's enough for me to draw my sidearm anyway; want a weapon I can trust, not hers. If she's really got her ear to the ground and knows some sh!t's coming, better to be prepared.

Or maybe Kelly's folk are just where we're going. Not a good thought.

SiuiS

2015-02-22, 07:39 PM

Bitchin'. In the tunnels, it's easier to just do what needs done, like. None of that stupid sh!t. Just walk and prod.

Tunnels, likely ain't gonna last too long. Old cement. Needs fortifyin'. But the bunker section ain't too far away, and between the graffiti from those who found it and the blood of those who never made it, well, be easy to find.

Hope the rest of those jolly high f*ckers made it. Hope they haven't locked that door yet.

Thanqol

2015-02-23, 06:31 PM

Ugh. Of course she's missing. Otherwise, I could get rid of the friggin' pounding in my head, but that would be too goddamn convenient. I suppose it's too much to hope that she runs into the storm and gets eviscerated by a bit of flying rebar.

"Well, that's her own damn problem, iddn't it? King knows to get underground during these things; if she don't, she's an idiot. And I'm not going to risk any of my folk to save someone from their own vapidity. Now, you'd best head underground. I'll be right after you."

I watched Jerry step-kthump over to the manhole, before looking at the oncoming storm. I still needed to talk to Cook about not poisoning half the population of my city. I half expected a grinning skeleton to pop up and point, but... ****. My life sucks.

[Rolling Open Your Brain to see if I can't get a bead on Cook. 2, 4, -2 [4]]

Where's Cook? Oh, why he's standing upstairs, above the manhole, along with a baker's dozen of Cablefolk all armed with pickaxes and shovels, in full view of the Adstorm. They're bang-bang-banging on the asphalt above everyone's heads and while they're not making great progress if you leave them to it they'll crack open the street and everyone in the tunnels will get a full blast of Adstorm. Of course, you can go further down too, but who knows what the hell's down there.

"Appreciate it, doctor, you're a miracle worker."

So, she's working. It crosses my mind to take a read on her, but I decide against it. Sometimes it messes up, and the last thing I want is somebody who's cutting around my chest to get her brain knocked around and start bleeding out of her ears. So she's working and I'm hoping her compound is safe enough to weather the ad storm that's coming in.

So oil is like blood to these things, dark blood of the earth, and I'm wondering if people hit by this thing are going to take it into themselves. Like maybe this is how cablefolk get made in the first place: regular people taking the oil into themselves, brainwashed by the power of one of these things.

Of course, doc's getting her barter, not even an issue from my side.

When she's about done, I look myself over. "Doctor, I'm thinking I'll need to weather the storm here. I'll put my cloak back on. Nobody else needs to know that Sakura was here. And I'm going to do you an extra favor. If that storm starts hitting anyone in here, I'll do my best to pull them through it and keep them from losing themselves. No guarantee, but I owe you and I'd like this place to hold together."

"Alright," said Grace. "Whatever."

She started heading on down to her own basement shelter along with the medical staff. It opened up into the tunnels too but hopefully they wouldn't need that.

Lay a hand on the King. Probably an offense among the Court, but feck 'em. Steer her, fingers clamped against the white leather, pull her along. It don't sound right, what she says: storm-addled. That this'd be an ambush. But it's enough for me to draw my sidearm anyway; want a weapon I can trust, not hers. If she's really got her ear to the ground and knows some sh!t's coming, better to be prepared.

Or maybe Kelly's folk are just where we're going. Not a good thought.

Bitchin'. In the tunnels, it's easier to just do what needs done, like. None of that stupid sh!t. Just walk and prod.

Tunnels, likely ain't gonna last too long. Old cement. Needs fortifyin'. But the bunker section ain't too far away, and between the graffiti from those who found it and the blood of those who never made it, well, be easy to find.

Hope the rest of those jolly high f*ckers made it. Hope they haven't locked that door yet.

Someone takes a shot at you with a SMG. Not, like, dedicated murder shooting but more like a casual f*ck you shooting. It's coming from behind you, away from most of the people. You can't see who, they're in good cover behind a bunch of tunnel walls. Casual or no you still stand to take bullets from this, what do you do?

Raz_Fox

2015-02-23, 07:12 PM

Anarion

2015-02-23, 07:50 PM

"Alright," said Grace. "Whatever."

She started heading on down to her own basement shelter along with the medical staff. It opened up into the tunnels too but hopefully they wouldn't need that.

Wow, that could not be better. I mean, I knew that Grace had a basement shelter, I mean everyone had a basement shelter, but I hadn't know it opened into the tunnels. That meant a connection to my house, but more importantly, it meant depth. And depth was exactly what I wanted right now.

"Dr. if things go bad, lead your people further down and bear left from here as best you can." That's all she hears from me before I start heading further into the underground network.

I slip through the tunnels, keeping my cloak close about me. It's warm down here, but not hot, and I'm following the psychic reverberation that sings through the tunnels. I'm humming along with it even. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX5qLHS83QM) Down, left, down, slight right then left again, and down, down, down. And then I'm here. The walls are lit by some kind of glowing mechanical moss, as though the insides of a lava lamp had gotten out and were spreading out and climbing up the walls.

And there are my people, making their way through the tunnels to greet me. When I had first been down here, I'd get these headaches, and the stories about the raiding beasts had been circulating around for weeks. But, well, these things were alive, and they were becoming more and more human. Last time I was down here, most of them were on four legs, shaggy silicon fur sparking, with electronic spikes like glow sticks and live wires coming out of them. Now though, most were on two legs and it seemed like some of them had gotten smaller. Their fur still hung along them, but it could be pulled back like long hair, and the spikes smoothed along their back, pulled into a mohawk, or wrapped to look like implants. And within them, the psychic singing that had drawn me to them.

I couldn't tell you if my coming is what had changed them, or sparked the changes in them, or if this was happening naturally. But I'd kept it quiet. Once I saw what was happening and heard the song behind them, I started funneling resources down here. Little stuff at first, food, tech, that sort of thing. It had gotten more recently, there were close to 75 of these, let's call them electronica guys and girls down here last time I counted. At this point, they had their own store of food, clothes, some tools for mining and digging, metal scavenging equipment (some of it they'd hacked together from spare parts and junk), and basic shelter stuff like blankets and some scrap for walls. They'd set up their own little place deep down here and started making it their own. [your population depend entirely on you for their lives and needs. Want +desperation]

I'd been talking to them. They had names, though they were closer to bits of a song, a kind of self-identity within the community rhythm. And they could speak, they mimicked language at first, but they had that understanding behind their eyes that told me it wasn't just a parrot, it was learning. And since I'd met them, even as beasts, they'd started providing me things. Little bits of the Singularity's workings that were worth barter up on the surface, tech parts, new growth and life samples, that sort of thing. [They trade in valuable samples of Singularity technology, Surplus +1 barter, want +idle. And the craziest thing was that now that they'd set themselves up in a stable spot deep in the caves, it looked like they'd set up some sort of lab or something. It had all these test tubes, glowing like their implants, and I saw pieces of the vines that were growing through the ground cut out, hung up carefully and a few bits laid on the table looking ready to be mixed. [They've got a manufactory of some kind, Surplus +1Barter, Want: +idle again.

I smiled when I got there. "Ad storm coming on the surface." I spoke slowly. There was Lovin Me, one of the most humanoid of the set, all you could tell of her difference was her yellow neon mohawk, and Electric Daisy, who would have looked like a black human man if he didn't have a thin dark green sheet of silicon hair running down his back all the way to the floor. "I'm taking shelter. There's a chance we'll have visitors. Friends of mine."

I wondered what they had to say, or if they wanted to show me all the stuff that they'd built up since I'd last been here.

SiuiS

2015-02-23, 08:00 PM

Damn f*cker is gonna get hisself killed.

Sh*t.

Sh*t.

Right. Think. Clear. Clear? Maybe. Close enough. Follow him, get punched, maybe shot, help him back. Leave him? Show up, just waltz in...

"Dammit. No dice big man, let's hustle and get done quick!" Armful a weapons on the ground, including my piece. Scooping up the bundle be easy, draw the gun be easy, just watch the sides for the flash of fire. Maybe armored bull rushing down the tubes will keep me covered. Right? He's gotta be hard to shoot around.

I [roll0].

Balmas

2015-02-24, 01:39 AM

Where's Cook? Oh, why he's standing upstairs, above the manhole, along with a baker's dozen of Cablefolk all armed with pickaxes and shovels, in full view of the Adstorm. They're bang-bang-banging on the asphalt above everyone's heads and while they're not making great progress if you leave them to it they'll crack open the street and everyone in the tunnels will get a full blast of Adstorm. Of course, you can go further down too, but who knows what the hell's down there.

Right. That has to stop. I growl at the dust trickling down near the manhole. "We got a situation, folks. Anyone who stands with me, we're going up there. Those who can't fight, wait for five minutes. If we're not back in five minutes, head further into the tunnels, because we're not coming back. Remember, this is why you work for me; because I'm bound to serve you as well!"

The situation could be better. I see Jerry, of course, with his sawed off. And the telltale flickers of flamethrowers say that there're some burners in the midst of King's men. Rough headcount says maybe fifteen, maybe twenty. I jerk my head towards them. "Remember. No mercy. Kill every last cablefolk, and leave Cook to me."

[Rolling Leadership. 2, 6, +2. [10]. Spending three hold to make my gang Make a hard advance.]

Raz_Fox

2015-02-24, 02:23 AM

Read the Sitch before Thanqol tells me what I'm rolling here, if that's kosher. Even a charging bull can put two and two together. Using my 1-Forward from banging King, but not the assist, which was clearly towards some sort of Cool or Hard roll upcoming.

[roll0]

Might as well cash one in. What should I be on the lookout for?]

Thanqol

2015-02-25, 06:35 AM

First crack of fire, I've got King pinned against the wall, providing cover, smaller target. Bigger man always takes the hit. (Ain't size, but- ah, hell, ain't got time to explain to the likes of you.) Remember Harry's words as the second burst comes, careening down the tight tunnel. Time to let off steam. "Get," I tell King, pushing her down the tunnel.

Then I turn, shoulder up, head tucked in, already slinging the rifle off my shoulder. It's gonna take the shooter another second to recalibrate, aim, pull for a spray that ain't gonna be fun.

So I give a proper warhowl.

Tunnel's tight; lots of echo. Got lungs what used to be heard over a good mile, back when I was in the tribal scraps, so it be loud, too. Taggart didn't like me doing it much; said people thought of raiders when they heard it, which be the point, yeah? If it panic folk now, not my problem. Besides, I want it to panic the bastard. Folk in a panic don't aim good, especially when the target's on the move.

I haul ass. Coming for him. Second I get a good bead on him, he's gonna start bleeding. Good boots, even if the tunnel floor's sh!t to get a grip on; shouldn't have problems with that none, unless I hit a bad patch.

Read the Sitch before Thanqol tells me what I'm rolling here, if that's kosher. Even a charging bull can put two and two together. Using my 1-Forward from banging King, but not the assist, which was clearly towards some sort of Cool or Hard roll upcoming.

[roll0]

Might as well cash one in. What should I be on the lookout for?]

Hey, give me a chance to respond to the first thing before you go and do a second thing, all right? I'm doing my best to keep up here already.

Anyway, you're coming at him and that SMG fire is suddenly getting a lot more hardcore. You should be on the lookout for that, but also the two guys standing just around the corner with baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire. What do you do, keep coming?

I smiled when I got there. "Ad storm coming on the surface." I spoke slowly. There was Lovin Me, one of the most humanoid of the set, all you could tell of her difference was her yellow neon mohawk, and Electric Daisy, who would have looked like a black human man if he didn't have a thin dark green sheet of silicon hair running down his back all the way to the floor. "I'm taking shelter. There's a chance we'll have visitors. Friends of mine."

I wondered what they had to say, or if they wanted to show me all the stuff that they'd built up since I'd last been here.

How loyal are these people? And why are they loyal to you?

Right. That has to stop. I growl at the dust trickling down near the manhole. "We got a situation, folks. Anyone who stands with me, we're going up there. Those who can't fight, wait for five minutes. If we're not back in five minutes, head further into the tunnels, because we're not coming back. Remember, this is why you work for me; because I'm bound to serve you as well!"

The situation could be better. I see Jerry, of course, with his sawed off. And the telltale flickers of flamethrowers say that there're some burners in the midst of King's men. Rough headcount says maybe fifteen, maybe twenty. I jerk my head towards them. "Remember. No mercy. Kill every last cablefolk, and leave Cook to me."

[Rolling Leadership. 2, 6, +2. [10]. Spending three hold to make my gang Make a hard advance.]

You don't need to spend three hold for that, man. One is fine.

Anyway, these gangers are too dumb and amped up to worry about the Adstorm. They tear up into the surface and just open fire. They all empty all their clips as quickly as they can and then rather than reloading they pull out axes and charge into melee. It's not exactly fireteams and strategy with these guys but sometimes the direct move is the right one.

You've gone and taken about equal numbers of these guys with you so the gang fight is going to be incredibly bloody for both sides. Unless you do something to make it unfair; do you?

Anarion

2015-02-25, 11:13 AM

Raz_Fox

2015-02-25, 12:09 PM

Hey, give me a chance to respond to the first thing before you go and do a second thing, all right? I'm doing my best to keep up here already.

Anyway, you're coming at him and that SMG fire is suddenly getting a lot more hardcore. You should be on the lookout for that, but also the two guys standing just around the corner with baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire. What do you do, keep coming?

More a correction, really. Should have told you I was doing it right off, but took me a moment to remember to do it. It's all good.

Anyway. What I'm doing depends on who's most vulnerable to me and what's my best way in. It's going to be some flavor of keep coming, yeah, but exactly how I go about it depends on what that best way into a good position among them is.

Balmas

2015-02-25, 12:21 PM

You don't need to spend three hold for that, man. One is fine.

Anyway, these gangers are too dumb and amped up to worry about the Adstorm. They tear up into the surface and just open fire. They all empty all their clips as quickly as they can and then rather than reloading they pull out axes and charge into melee. It's not exactly fireteams and strategy with these guys but sometimes the direct move is the right one.

You've gone and taken about equal numbers of these guys with you so the gang fight is going to be incredibly bloody for both sides. Unless you do something to make it unfair; do you?

You're sh*tting me, right? I'm there. That's about as unfair as it gets. I could probably take these cablefolk by myself, though I sure as hell wouldn't want to. While my men are charging in with melee, I'm blowing holes in Cablefolk as I wade towards Cook.

Thanqol

2015-02-28, 03:47 AM

Loyalty? Well, they're loyal to me for a couple reasons. One, I understand their weird psychic song, it resonates in my mind as a brainer. I dunno if anyone else is in on that. Two, most of their crap came from me providing it to them, sneaking supplies down in bits and pieces. They're mostly set up now, but they still depend on me for their lives and needs. they're changing so quickly though, becoming more human-like, so I can't really say if loyalty today means loyalty tomorrow or in a few weeks. The world just isn't that stable.

"Alright, you got people coming down here? How many? Which people?" they asked. "Friends or not?"

More a correction, really. Should have told you I was doing it right off, but took me a moment to remember to do it. It's all good.

Anyway. What I'm doing depends on who's most vulnerable to me and what's my best way in. It's going to be some flavor of keep coming, yeah, but exactly how I go about it depends on what that best way into a good position among them is.

The big fat guy with the baseball bat has a pretty slow turning arc and crap knees, he's your easiest target. The best way in is to come at them hard and armoured; that SMG doesn't have great penetration so if you've got some kind of metal between you and it you'll probably do fine.

You're sh*tting me, right? I'm there. That's about as unfair as it gets. I could probably take these cablefolk by myself, though I sure as hell wouldn't want to. While my men are charging in with melee, I'm blowing holes in Cablefolk as I wade towards Cook.

Oky doke, roll yourself Seize by Force.

Balmas

2015-02-28, 12:51 PM

[4,2, +2: [8]] Let's go for Take Little Harm and Take definite hold of it.

Anarion

2015-02-28, 02:52 PM

"Alright, you got people coming down here? How many? Which people?" they asked. "Friends or not?"

That's a good question. I guess, let's see Doc Grace is one of only two medical places in the hold cuz they're scarce, right? And there's, what, like a few hundred people around total? Maybe 10% are sick or hurt at a given time and half that with Grace. So, say she's got herself, an assistant, her two stupid guards that we met, and maybe 15 patients. Sound reasonable? I don't know if they'd all wander down here either, but if the ad storm is bad, we'll put that at a solid maybe.

"Not enemies, but some of them might be rude. Some weak or injured. Treat them well, we want to make a good impression."

Raz_Fox

2015-02-28, 09:51 PM

The big fat guy with the baseball bat has a pretty slow turning arc and crap knees, he's your easiest target. The best way in is to come at them hard and armoured; that SMG doesn't have great penetration so if you've got some kind of metal between you and it you'll probably do fine.

So happens I'm hard, so happens I'm armored. Just my day. King's pistol-play should keep them from stopping me before I'm in their faces, too.

Roaring, burst of speed now that I'm close; bastards probably think they're hidden. Soon as the fat bastard turns the corner I'm moving into his personal space quick. Thing about clubs is they ain't sh!t too far or too close; leading with the rifle butt, following by sweeping the legs. I'm lucky, he'll be out soon as head hits floor; I ain't, I still got a moment - they're all grouped up - to really make both Skinny Bat and Mister Ess-Em-Gee sorry.

Rifle up close tends to do that, when it starts barking pretty.

So tell me. That's Seizing by Force, yeah?

Thanqol

2015-03-02, 04:39 AM

[4,2, +2: [8]] Let's go for Take Little Harm and Take definite hold of it.

When Harold reached Cook and stuck a knife through him it wasn't blood that came out. What poured from the wound was thick, black and sticky, and it smelled of gasoline. Cook howled and thrashed and slashed up Harold's forearms but Harold was playing it cautious and didn't get dragged into a grapple with the poor bastard.

The rest of the Cablefolk didn't seem to be able to hold to their thought on breaking into the tunnels with that done. Some of them produced weapons from under their clothes and returned fire - there were some injuries on both sides, but the Cablefolk were playing to survive as much as Harold's people.

That's a good question. I guess, let's see Doc Grace is one of only two medical places in the hold cuz they're scarce, right? And there's, what, like a few hundred people around total? Maybe 10% are sick or hurt at a given time and half that with Grace. So, say she's got herself, an assistant, her two stupid guards that we met, and maybe 15 patients. Sound reasonable? I don't know if they'd all wander down here either, but if the ad storm is bad, we'll put that at a solid maybe.

"Not enemies, but some of them might be rude. Some weak or injured. Treat them well, we want to make a good impression."

"Alright," she said. "We'll go make that happen."

Elsewhere from the tunnels and above gunfire was sounding. Something bad was happening out there.

So happens I'm hard, so happens I'm armored. Just my day. King's pistol-play should keep them from stopping me before I'm in their faces, too.

Roaring, burst of speed now that I'm close; bastards probably think they're hidden. Soon as the fat bastard turns the corner I'm moving into his personal space quick. Thing about clubs is they ain't sh!t too far or too close; leading with the rifle butt, following by sweeping the legs. I'm lucky, he'll be out soon as head hits floor; I ain't, I still got a moment - they're all grouped up - to really make both Skinny Bat and Mister Ess-Em-Gee sorry.

Rifle up close tends to do that, when it starts barking pretty.

So tell me. That's Seizing by Force, yeah?

Yeah, that's fair.

Anarion

2015-03-02, 05:00 AM

"Alright," she said. "We'll go make that happen."

Elsewhere from the tunnels and above gunfire was sounding. Something bad was happening out there.

Gonna be honest, I'm not that interested in the logistics of how my guys go and get Doc Grace and her patients. The electronica are going to get Doc Grace and her crew, do their best to keep all the sick people safe. There'll be some panic or something, who knows, but let's cut to the chase on that: Doc's only got two guys that are armed and that's where I'm putting myself, before they do something stupid.

"So, Subway, Limey." I'm walking up to them because they stick like glue. "This is going to hurt a bit, but it should be pretty fleeting and I need to get some information across to you quickly before you shoot the wrong people. Understand?" Well, actually I don't really care if they got it or not. Fact is, I'm just talking so they'll stay where they are when I walk up to them. Then I'm giving Subway a pat on the back with my glove while Limey watches. Unpleasant, I'm sure, but sometimes you just have to be direct about this stuff. They'll get over it. "So let me be clear, the neon glow folks down here, they're on our side and you'll want to treat them respectfully. Both of you."

[in-brain puppet strings. [roll0]]

Raz_Fox

2015-03-02, 11:00 AM

[Seize by Force - +1 from King's aid, +1 for following advice. [roll0]

[Seize Definite Hold, Take Little Damage and Impress and Terrify, I think.]

Thanqol

2015-03-04, 05:40 PM

Gonna be honest, I'm not that interested in the logistics of how my guys go and get Doc Grace and her patients. The electronica are going to get Doc Grace and her crew, do their best to keep all the sick people safe. There'll be some panic or something, who knows, but let's cut to the chase on that: Doc's only got two guys that are armed and that's where I'm putting myself, before they do something stupid.

"So, Subway, Limey." I'm walking up to them because they stick like glue. "This is going to hurt a bit, but it should be pretty fleeting and I need to get some information across to you quickly before you shoot the wrong people. Understand?" Well, actually I don't really care if they got it or not. Fact is, I'm just talking so they'll stay where they are when I walk up to them. Then I'm giving Subway a pat on the back with my glove while Limey watches. Unpleasant, I'm sure, but sometimes you just have to be direct about this stuff. They'll get over it. "So let me be clear, the neon glow folks down here, they're on our side and you'll want to treat them respectfully. Both of you."

]

Subway screams and writhes as his mind is overwritten. It's disturbing as hell, literally flashing in his eye sockets and seizure thrashing, but Limey is somehow not even slightly phased. There's something wrong in his head that lets him see that and think 'yeah, seems legit'.

"Yeah sure sweet stuff, I'll treat them with respect - sexy respect," he says, raising his voice slightly above the choked gurgling.

[Seize by Force - +1 from King's aid, +1 for following advice. [roll0]

[[I]Seize Definite Hold, Take Little Damage and Impress and Terrify, I think.]

You've smashed one skull and the other two guys panic and break for it. They're running down the corridor and if Lance is the kind of guy to gun two dudes down as they run he's got a pretty good shot at that.

If he's not, it looked like they had a bag with some kind of weird gas in it. Green and slimey looking gas, like something a saturday morning villain would throw in the water supply.

SiuiS

2015-03-04, 05:50 PM

Raz_Fox

2015-03-05, 12:05 AM

I ain't had a good day. 'sides, I got the word earlier: self-defense is fine. Back of the head ain't self-defense, but- crack, there's one, King's good. I'll have to remember that, if we ever end up scrapping.

I go for the other. I've been considering carrying a sub anyway, and bastard shot at me.

Anarion

2015-03-05, 02:27 AM

Subway screams and writhes as his mind is overwritten. It's disturbing as hell, literally flashing in his eye sockets and seizure thrashing, but Limey is somehow not even slightly phased. There's something wrong in his head that lets him see that and think 'yeah, seems legit'.

"Yeah sure sweet stuff, I'll treat them with respect - sexy respect," he says, raising his voice slightly above the choked gurgling.

"Be a good boy Limey and you and I can have some fun after the storm passes, okay?" I smile for him. Just a small one. Coy.

Thanqol

2015-03-07, 05:08 PM

Don't know about Lance. I'm not the kinda lady let a f*cker get away though. Yeah, there's a big man in armor between me and the target, like, but he's got armor. He'll understand if things go wrong.

Ima plug the back of the runner's kneecaps with a slug or twa. I believe they call that "Irish style". No sense ending a fight with ammo to spare, uh-huh?

I ain't had a good day. 'sides, I got the word earlier: self-defense is fine. Back of the head ain't self-defense, but- crack, there's one, King's good. I'll have to remember that, if we ever end up scrapping.

I go for the other. I've been considering carrying a sub anyway, and bastard shot at me.

Right, well, kneecapping a guy is one thing, kneecapping a guy while he's running for his life is another. King's bullet takes her guy in the thigh, shatters his pelvis, puts him on the ground screaming what'll probably be his last. Lance's bullet takes the guy in the ankle right as it's raised in the run, and it passes all the way through his calf and winds up in his knee that way. He's deadders if he doesn't get a medic, and even then he'll probably never walk again, but he's a little more alive than the other ass hole if you want to ask him questions.

"Be a good boy Limey and you and I can have some fun after the storm passes, okay?" I smile for him. Just a small one. Coy.

"Don't I know it sweet babes, ain't no one can resist the Limey," said Limey.

There was a lull, what did she do?

Raz_Fox

2015-03-07, 06:03 PM

Anarion

2015-03-07, 07:26 PM

"Don't I know it sweet babes, ain't no one can resist the Limey," said Limey.

There was a lull, what did she do?

I'm going back up the tunnels to see what's happening. Not out into the storm, but I'm gonna take a different branch and see if I can find Harold and all the other guys. Maybe I'll run into King and Lance? I dunno, you tell me. I go wandering that way in the tunnels, where do I end up?

SiuiS

2015-03-07, 10:36 PM

Lance has the one guy. I'll pretend I meant to do that to the other. "Back into the tunnels?" Simple question. Stupid question. Obvious answer.

First though, I wanna grab whatever the hell that bag of theirs was. Check it out. See if it's incriminating.

Balmas

2015-03-09, 01:14 PM

When Harold reached Cook and stuck a knife through him it wasn't blood that came out. What poured from the wound was thick, black and sticky, and it smelled of gasoline. Cook howled and thrashed and slashed up Harold's forearms but Harold was playing it cautious and didn't get dragged into a grapple with the poor bastard.

The rest of the Cablefolk didn't seem to be able to hold to their thought on breaking into the tunnels with that done. Some of them produced weapons from under their clothes and returned fire - there were some injuries on both sides, but the Cablefolk were playing to survive as much as Harold's people.

The Cablefolk aren't the problem. If they're retreating, I'll let them. It's not worth getting a bunch of my troops massacred; never good for morale if they rank and file think that the big man is willing to just toss them under the bus to solve a problem. "Let them run! We can hunt them down another day!"

Cook, on the other hand, is going to die. I grab his wrist and force the knife out of his hands, before I fling him on the ground like a sack of potatoes and grind my boot into his neck. "You're going to tell me why you're doing this, or I'm going to shove your own knife down your throat and make you swallow it."

Of course, he's going to die anyway. I'm standing on top of him with my shotgun pressed against his nose. This just might eke a bit of information out of him before I pull the trigger.

[Go aggro: 1,1, +2. [4]

Offsite dice roller, you betray me.]

Thanqol

2015-03-09, 05:34 PM

I keep the rifle up, tight in the shoulder, watching, want to be dead sure this bastard ain't gonna turn himself over and give me a last feckin-over. Once I'm dead certain, I lower it, start moving down the tunnel. Heavy footfalls. I ain't a hard man to find, not by listening. Slow footfalls. Gives a man little more time to bleed, to piss himself.

Bastard that King took down's not gonna make it, looks of it. Ain't seen folks get up and crawl away from that. I kick him as I pass, boot to the side, a last little feck you for thinking you could take me, would you shut up and pass on already. And then I'm at Mister Ess-Em-Gee, heel on his fingers as I reach down to pick up his gun. A little dented, yeah, but probably good. Ain't got a lot of ammo for it, but once Kelly's place goes bust, Harry won't mind some SMG blocks making their way to me.

Leave him in the tunnels? Give him a look. (Probably look like a storm rolling down the flats to him. Goggles blank, cold, like a dead Cablefolk's be.) Nah. Storm's gonna hit, and I want a bit of time to get answers out of him.

"Put up a fuss and I'm leaving your ass to get storm-fried," I say. Tunnel like this, there's a decent chance it might roll in and eat him up, chew him all around, spit out the bones. Grab him by the collar, by the hips, sling him up onto my shoulders. "With two dead legs."

He didn't put up a fuss other than the traditional litany of watery-eyed cusses that you'd expect from a man who was looking at life in a chair.

I'm going back up the tunnels to see what's happening. Not out into the storm, but I'm gonna take a different branch and see if I can find Harold and all the other guys. Maybe I'll run into King and Lance? I dunno, you tell me. I go wandering that way in the tunnels, where do I end up?

Seems legit, you find the two heading back towards a crowd.

Lance has the one guy. I'll pretend I meant to do that to the other. "Back into the tunnels?" Simple question. Stupid question. Obvious answer.

First though, I wanna grab whatever the hell that bag of theirs was. Check it out. See if it's incriminating.

Jars of some kind of clear liquid that smells like a stab in the sinuses. Like the worst kind of moonshine. A drop anywhere will sizzle and burn, even through stone.

The Cablefolk aren't the problem. If they're retreating, I'll let them. It's not worth getting a bunch of my troops massacred; never good for morale if they rank and file think that the big man is willing to just toss them under the bus to solve a problem. "Let them run! We can hunt them down another day!"

Cook, on the other hand, is going to die. I grab his wrist and force the knife out of his hands, before I fling him on the ground like a sack of potatoes and grind my boot into his neck. "You're going to tell me why you're doing this, or I'm going to shove your own knife down your throat and make you swallow it."

Of course, he's going to die anyway. I'm standing on top of him with my shotgun pressed against his nose. This just might eke a bit of information out of him before I pull the trigger.

[Go aggro: 1,1, +2. [4]

Offsite dice roller, you betray me.]

Harold feels something cold against his thigh. Cook's pulled a pistol and has it pressed up against his privates. "Sure thing, Harold. Let's hang out here for a while and talk about this."

Anarion

2015-03-09, 06:08 PM

"Lance, and King. Where, precisely, are the two of you headed?" I adjust my glasses and look around. A whole crowd here too. Was the whole town down in the tunnels? This must be one hell of an ad storm. Harold's hold and my electronica guys weren't the only things down here either...and those were gunpowder marks on their arms. They'd been using their weapons. "And what have you been up to, hmm? Surely this isn't the time for fighting? King, I didn't even know you had a weapon. Was one phallic item not adequate?"

Of course, I know that's gonna yank his chain. It's King, that's really the whole point. He says more interesting things when he's riled up.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-09, 07:15 PM

Was already a bit tense, muscles firm under the load, thinking through what's up ahead. Gonna have to be quiet, get a corner to chat, tell him that I won't be throwing him to Harry's dogs if he talks fast and full. Hope like hell that none of said dogs get in my business. Will be nice, people moving out of my way, showing a bit of feckin respect for once.

Then Sakura's at my shoulder. "Dis and Visa, witch." It's hissed through teeth, fingers clenching, probably bruising the stupid bastard I got here. "Make some damn noise next time. And it ain't your business, ain't Harry's business, neither. It's between me and whoever hired this whining bitch and his."

Half-glance back, address aforementioned whining bitch. "Those were yours, yeah? Usually is, when two folk got the clubs and one got the gun."

SiuiS

2015-03-09, 10:25 PM

Acid. Damn. What, structural damage? Let the storm in? Or just really mess something up?

And then Sakura shows up again. Bits of bites floating around and away, ghosts and after images of thoughts. Others' thoughts. Snippets she catches as she walks, the stuff you'd open your brain to, let it spiral in.

Means my brain case still be unhinged. No time for that then. Gotta get back to cover. Away from the lights.

"Yeah, ain't no compensation like overcompensation, dig?" I might also just said Somethingn about liquid virility, I'm kinda not all here right now. Distracted, listening to whatever's out there singing away.

"Let's jaw when we're bunkered down. I ain't in a good place, and this ain't a good place. Come on."

Anarion

2015-03-09, 10:51 PM

King giving me the time of day and Lance with his classic warm welcome. I do love predictable men. "Of course, King, lead us onward. We do need to keep our little Lancey safe. C'mon pumpkin, you can curse the credit gods later."

SiuiS

2015-03-10, 12:49 AM

Balmas

2015-03-10, 01:28 AM

Harold feels something cold against his thigh. Cook's pulled a pistol and has it pressed up against his privates. "Sure thing, Harold. Let's hang out here for a while and talk about this."

You know, that's actually funny. Maybe it's the stress of the day. Maybe it's the fact that I still don't have my damn coffee. But this, this insufferable prick, sitting here with a pistol to my crotch like it's supposed to be a threat, that takes the cake, and I start laughing. "Ohoho... You really don't know what kind of day I've had. Tell me, what's your plan once you blow my balls off? They ain't shot nothing but dust in the past fifteen years, anyway, and if you pull that trigger I'll make it slow when I kill you. Soooo..." I lean forward, feel the gun barrel dig in. "You wanna talk? Talk."

Anarion

2015-03-10, 01:42 AM

That gets a chuckle. Or it's supposed to be a chuckle. Turns into more of a giggle, one of those long trailing ones like when people get left out in the lightning and malware.

Sh*t.

Subject change. "Hey, Sakura. What happened with Tops, anyway? He guilty, or he just be f*ckin' with me, like?"

"Tops killed the man. It was out of defense and loyalty to Harold. All he wanted was to be brought to his master, he would have taken any judgement that Harold passed. Though Harold essentially discarded him when we brought him in. It was...disappointing."

SiuiS

2015-03-10, 03:50 AM

"Mm. Yeah, I'm gonna be mad at you about that. Later, when I can look an' see you, not all these thoughts."

It's quick work though. Not sure how long between words there was. Coming up on sounds now. Voices. Familiar. Should be a door up ahead with a skittish guard. I'll leave that for Lakura or Askance to figure out. Or whatever their names are.

Heads pounding like a bad bass. Damn.

Anarion

2015-03-10, 11:34 AM

I put an arm over Lance's shoulder as we're walking. Not the glove one, the regular one. I'm being personable, not wracking him with electrical energy. When we get to the door though, we have to stop. "Lancey-pooh, want to go in there first? In case it's stuck or somebody in the other side isn't happy?" Just a suggestion, you know, unless Lance wants more.

"King, where are we going? I don't know this section of the underground."

Raz_Fox

2015-03-10, 11:47 AM

Damn, this is a tight spot. I try not to be around this bitch and the King at the same time. Walking over lakescum and hoping it don't break. See, Sakura's Court. I ain't. That's the long and short of it, no matter whether the King liked the screw. If she had to choose between us... I don't trust the King to pick me over the cablewitch, at least not yet.

Maybe I should have joined Court. Got me some allies. Power is power is power and this place has it. But I ain't Court. So I'm as jittery as a kid in his first scrap. And she knows. Feck her.

Skin crawls when she puts her hand on me. Shake it off. It ends up there again, and I ain't gonna deck the King's gal in front of the King. Feck you, Sakura.

Guard at the door? Not a problem. We are getting in. If the King's name ain't enough to get us in, I'm big and mean and not messing around. We're getting in.

SiuiS

2015-03-10, 04:02 PM

"Few turns up. Old tunnels, pushed closer to the surface. Harold lost a hundred folks to some sort of neon storm front a few years aback, like. Turns out there was a rabid pack of camwhores in the heart, mangled the f*ck out of the town. Left a mess for morale, construction.

"Hard ass shut down a few folks who spent more time funneling money to comforts than safety. Sent out a few survey teams. Some even be doin' their jobs, came back, an' old man fortified a dozen or so across the hold. Heavy doors, struts, fair-day cages or some sh*t, paid a mint to an engineer traveler to design those. Keep the electric **** out. Spread 'em across hold evenly, moved some of his folks over the better ones, like. Gave em a security plan I guess. We've lost two. One, wires crossed. Conducted a storm into the bunker, fried the f^ckers. Never found any bodies, just shadows blown onto walls. Other, Kelly's last competitor, tried makin' his own hold down there. Armory, food stores.

"That's why Harold be puttin' up with them torchers, like. Cleaned out the place like fumigatin' rats."

Bend in the tubes, comin' up. Metal door, check, shifty looking f^cker with a piece, check. No idea who though. Head pounding. Seeing spots. Guy's got five faces flickering at me, Thomas, Sakura, Cook, that guy we just shot, John Wayne...

"I'm high as f^ck. who's standing guard? Can't see 'em." Try to keep the desperation outa my voice.

Anarion

2015-03-10, 04:32 PM

Alright, so I've got King falling all over himself, holding onto me, and my arm is just on the edge of letting go of Lance's shoulder while he stands at the door. The door being a heavy reinforced thing, part of a compound that's protected but closer to the surface. One that got hit a while back and fried a few people. What's King thinking, sending us to a place like this? What's in there?

"Lance, doll, hold for just a moment. I want to think. Lend me a hand maybe." I keep my hand on him, he's so strong, stable, and I close my eyes and let my brain head into the room ahead of Lance. I want to see the shape of the maelstrom in this place before we walk in there.

[open your brain [roll0]

Thanqol

2015-03-10, 06:03 PM

You know, that's actually funny. Maybe it's the stress of the day. Maybe it's the fact that I still don't have my damn coffee. But this, this insufferable prick, sitting here with a pistol to my crotch like it's supposed to be a threat, that takes the cake, and I start laughing. "Ohoho... You really don't know what kind of day I've had. Tell me, what's your plan once you blow my balls off? They ain't shot nothing but dust in the past fifteen years, anyway, and if you pull that trigger I'll make it slow when I kill you. Soooo..." I lean forward, feel the gun barrel dig in. "You wanna talk? Talk."

"Let's take it as slow as you want, ass hole," said Cook.

Above there was a clap of thunder and tinny cheering - the Adstorm was seconds away.

Alright, so I've got King falling all over himself, holding onto me, and my arm is just on the edge of letting go of Lance's shoulder while he stands at the door. The door being a heavy reinforced thing, part of a compound that's protected but closer to the surface. One that got hit a while back and fried a few people. What's King thinking, sending us to a place like this? What's in there?

"Lance, doll, hold for just a moment. I want to think. Lend me a hand maybe." I keep my hand on him, he's so strong, stable, and I close my eyes and let my brain head into the room ahead of Lance. I want to see the shape of the maelstrom in this place before we walk in there.

[open your brain [roll0]

Its a place of images and reflections, of light and immobilisation. Cameras, mirrors, screens, audio-visual, light and sound, smoke and mirrors. Voices waiting to speak. The magic of television.

Better stories in there then there are out there. Stories that can destroy the reinforced, shielded minds of the old folk. Stories locked and dangerous like a bazaar of bioweapons, stories from a time where the new season of Futureama was a greater danger than a thermonuclear exchange.

Anarion

2015-03-10, 06:44 PM

I come back to myself. "It is a dangerous place in there, King. Safe from the storm, perhaps, but dangerous in its own right. Are you certain we should enter?" I'm waiting. King brought us here, King's the one that knew where this would lead. I'm watching him carefully, trying to get a feel for what's motivating this drunken madman.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-10, 07:03 PM

Let's see, do I care about Sakura's opinion? No. Do I care about not getting storm-fried? Yes. Do I want to drop this goddamn bleeding blubbering ass somewhere to talk? Yes. Am I going to get this door open? Yes.

It's going to involve hammering on it and yelling that the King's in town, open the goddamn door. If that don't take, it's going to involve me informing whoever's in charge of opening this door that I'm going to remember if they don't, and I'm going to come after them once the storm's let up.

SiuiS

2015-03-10, 07:12 PM

"What?" F^ck.

Gotta play this quick then. Alright. Before I can even think it through. Okay.

"Damn it Lance. This isn't right. This is your damn tribal-ass fault. Can't tell left from right. Probably can't even f^cking read."

Anarion

2015-03-10, 07:43 PM

"Lancey-pie, maybe you'd like to wait, hmm?"

Raz_Fox

2015-03-10, 07:54 PM

Anarion

2015-03-10, 08:01 PM

"Fine, fine, we'll see what happens here. But you'll listen to me the next time I ask you for something, okay honey-buns?" Oh and that, that is Suggesting. We've been going a while and I've been all over Lance in the corridor. So this is the subtle, don't even know it's happening kind of Suggestion, not the electric bug zapper kind.

[roll0]

Raz_Fox

2015-03-10, 08:18 PM

"Will you shut up." I say to the [reasonable]... hell, she's Court, can't cross her right out too many times, right? Right. Can't back down now, but maybe when it ain't life or death, [yeah]. "Wasn't talking to you, anyhow. Let King speak her mind, as feckin cracked as she might be, times."

SiuiS

2015-03-10, 08:34 PM

"Feck off," I growl. Ain't getting much response from the door. "You wanna carry this bastard? Or should we just make camp right here and wait for the ceiling to cave in, or flood to wash us out? I'm trying to get us in to safety. Complain later."

"Yeah, hey, let's sit here for the next six hours and wet ourselves. That's the plan." The biting tone seems lost though. Lance expects that. And I'm not getting us safe in this state. Try the soft approach. Hope Sakura hasn't spoiled him on it.

"Listen, Tiger. No questions, no back talk. I need you to hit me. Just a belt across the face, knock my head around a bit. Hell, maybe I'll make it worth your while, like."

Complacency is so easy right now. These f^ckers had better appreciate that.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-10, 08:53 PM

Glance between the witch and the King. Goggles don't show nothing, but my lip probably does. "The hell?"

...some folk are into that, though. I sigh, drop Mister Ess-Em-Gee (not trying to be too gentle, not trying to break his ass), roll my neck and loosen my shoulders.

Snap out all of a sudden, pull the punch but don't give King too much of a chance to flinch, it'll bruise hard. Drop back with fists up, impulse, muscles slipping into feck you Lance keep your goddamn fists up when we're sparring you ass hole, knuckles tight, missed this.

"Good enough for you?"

Anarion

2015-03-10, 09:29 PM

I raise an eyebrow and just watch this little King and Lance drama play out.

SiuiS

2015-03-11, 12:06 AM

Tunnels spin away with faded ghosts waving me down. My face blossoms. Unpleasantly.

The lines straighten and clarify. My ass is burning now, shock up the spine.

Yeah, that's good. Instead of after images it's just pain. That's fine.

"That's good, thanks Tiger. I can think now. Hear myself.
"I have no idea the f^ck we are, but it ain't where I thought I was going. Question is, where can we go ain't gonna get our asses fried? We have any time to move on?"

Anarion

2015-03-11, 12:16 AM

"That's good, thanks Tiger. I can think now. Hear myself.
"I have no idea the f^ck we are, but it ain't where I thought I was going. Question is, where can we go ain't gonna get our asses fried? We have any time to move on?"

"Hmm. You know, King, if you really do not know about where we are..." I trail off. Wasn't expecting that. I was expecting ulterior motive, justification, defense of some mad scheme to experiment on us. But ignorance. "If you really do not know, it might be worth investigating this place. It possesses power in conjunction with its danger."

[Read a person: [roll0]
First question if I get one will be: is King telling the truth?]
[edit: holding the other two contingent on King's answer to that one.]

SiuiS

2015-03-11, 12:48 AM

Thanqol

2015-03-11, 06:28 AM

King was expecting to show up at the same space Harold brought all the court and his own men.

This foot though, there's more to this situation than meets the eye. So let's see what I can figure out, here. I'm going to [roll0], instead of the storm or room. See if they're more alive than I thought.

I am going to totally ignore that question and talk about something I think is cool instead.

Do you know where you are? Where this part of the world was before everything blew up? Egypt. And there's a country with traditions that haven't changed over the entire course of human civilisation. Individual kings who reckon they're gods or bigger than. Leaders whipping slaves into building monuments suitable to their grandeur. Huge sprawling complexes and rituals to defeat death. Tunnels and traps and curses competing for danger with the sky's great sandstorms.

It's Egypt all right. Maybe literally, definitely metaphorically. So ask yourself, who is Set?

SiuiS

2015-03-11, 03:51 PM

Well that's f^cking useful.

I drop the scowl. That is actually useful. Thought for later, like. For now, survival.

"No idea. Maybe we should duck in? Don't know who's standing there, maybe y'all do, but time is precious, dig?" I'm giving them both a bit of worry in the gaze, singing Someone make a decision, now.

Anarion

2015-03-11, 04:28 PM

I've still got two questions to ask King, but not right now. Right now, I want to go inside, now that I know it's not an elaborate trap or whatever. "I agree with King, there is no point standing out here doing nothing. And Lancey obviously wants to get physical with the metal door." I give him a wink. "So, let's go inside. Carefully."

Raz_Fox

2015-03-11, 04:37 PM

SiuiS

2015-03-12, 01:12 AM

Kid's opening his head? I just got mine closed. Joy.

Well, f^ck it. As long as he's able to walk, I'll let him have his visions then push him through the door.

Anarion

2015-03-12, 01:56 AM

Kid's opening his head? I just got mine closed. Joy.

Well, f^ck it. As long as he's able to walk, I'll let him have his visions then push him through the door.

In assisting with that, I'm going to try the obvious but Lance probably didn't think of it technique of pulling the door, rather than pushing and slamming on it.

Thanqol

2015-03-12, 07:36 AM

Rifle finds its way back into my hands. Fits there well; it's weathered, stained where I hold it, got the wear-and-tear to match on my palms. Both of us, we're dangerous, got a kick, and go where we're aimed. Wonder what it'd do if it were a person, not just a weapon. If it'd bother hanging with the likes of me.

Take a breath, keeping an eye on the door. If the dead are still with me, well, I'd like their advice right about now. There's something hissing in the air, almost, like the anger of the Credit Gods, all wrapped up in the looks that Sakura and the King are giving each other, like the looks that Emmy used to give the sky before a storm when we were on the road, I-get-your-sh!t looks.

Emmy was good. Cracked like King when the bullets started flying, but all that ramble rolling out of her got more than one superhighway bandit to piss himself and drop his gun. That ramble, those wide eyes, that bull-painted plate: nobody but the cracked got in her way.

Hey, Emmy. Drop your boy a line from the other side, if you're still there, all whackjob over this storm.

[Lance Opens His Brain, looking to get either a share of Sakura and King's vibes, or to just get some little tidbit. And I may as well confirm right now that looking for advice from folk he used to know is how Lance opens his brain. [roll0]]

You folks seem content to stand around outside this door taking turns opening your brain. Sooner or later it was inevitable that disaster'd strike, and strike it has.

So, Lance. Inside that room is some kind of messed up television studio. You are no longer in your body, you are inside the studio. You're finding your higher reasoning stripped away and your brain placed in charge of whatever soulless thing was lying in wait there. Your head was software and it's just been repurposed as the guiding intelligence for whatever hostile things live in that room, and you're finding yourself awful hungry for the folks outside the door.

So tell us what those things are, and then come at the others as hard as possible with 'em. Your regular body is still standin' around there, it can do stuff too and isn't psychopathic, it's just kind of stupid right now.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-12, 11:40 AM

You folks seem content to stand around outside this door taking turns opening your brain.

Will you shut your mouth? Tired of folk what think they're smarter than me, when I know everything. I'm the god of the ****ing dead, that's me, I can feel my coils twitch as I wake up proper, miles upon miles upon miles of wiring starting to transmit for reals. I know you all. It'd take me a while to think through it all like this, yeah, but I know that I know you all. Watched you. The data packets of the dead are tongued with fire beyond the server ping of the living.

Watched you sleep, argue, scrounge, piss, cry, betray, ****, kill, and ain't none of you got a heart lighter than these feathers. That's all right, though. Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. We are fully authorized to restrain intruders until security personnel arrive to place them into custody [projected response time: 999 hours please hold we value your safety] and we are fully authorized to remember the sh!t you did, yeah, the folk you killed, the folk you got killed, we've got video and time enough to remind you.

'sides. It's a mercy, really. You're broken, all of you, we're all broken and you might as well stop trying to process corrupted data, 'cause you ain't sh!t. I'll keep you, yeah. Keep you on the runtimes, mummified and archived.

Hard move? Hard move? Baby, watch this: I cut the power. All wired up into the transmit tower, it lights up all like an adstorm on the adstorm edge, then I cut it all. Tunnel lights? Dead. A/C? Dead. Generators? Dead. 'cept for mine, of course.

I open the door, tumblers rolling back, keycard chiming, flick the ON AIR, start running the tapes.

So, King. Tell me what I'm dredging up from your sins to bring you on in. I'm gonna eat you up, I'm gonna scourge you and make you clean for eternity, just because I know the sh!t you done and judge it unworthy.

Balmas

2015-03-12, 11:56 AM

"Let's take it as slow as you want, ass hole," said Cook.

Above there was a clap of thunder and tinny cheering - the Adstorm was seconds away.

Damn. I'll bet if there were still things like movies, this'd be a great climax of the movie. The two gunslingers facing off as the storm approaches.

I'll try not to think about how gunslingers have a tendency to die in those kinds of movies.

So here's how it is, see? I'm laughing at him, leaning on his gun. It's digging in like a particularly bad case of crabs. Thing about that is that there're two things happening: I'm shoving his finger away from the trigger, however slowly and by however much. More importantly, though, I'm throwing off his aim.

And I've still got a shotgun pressed against his nose. I'm willing to bet that he's still human enough that a shotgun to the face will inconvenience him at least. The shotgun roars once, and then twice again for good measure. No information, but if there's any justice in the world, he's dead on the first shot, with the second two reducing his head to bloody chunks.

Now the only thing to do is figure out where to go. Back down the tunnels? I hate waiting with the storm so close, but there's gotta be options.

[Roll Read a Sitch?]

SiuiS

2015-03-12, 10:54 PM

What are sins to roiling coils and malevolent malware? Have I forgotten to update to the latest OS? Do I compile poorly? Because it better not be some sh*t like I register as a virus. That's how you ****ers snuck in and broke the sky, first place, and turnabout is fair play. That be the case, I will corrupt you morherf*ckers like you wouldn't believe. May the best Man win.

My sins? The sins of a king? Sins of a king are the sins of the people. The mostly-whole bones of Helter and Akelter and Greg down by the old Burroughs, mostly intact. Only a little nibbled, like. The ashes of a nameless few, run into the Torchers on bad errands. Bodies of folk crossed the court and needed covering up. The pride of watching justice almost happen, a man strung up to burn for murder.

But sh*t, there's a problem here ain't there? Problem with being a f^cking whacknut. Ideas and concepts and thought forms. They leak out, Everytime you let the other sh*t in, like. So there's me, revolver in hand, eye to eye with Harold. I spray Tops' brains all over, sewing his spirit seed. He's coming back, but it's not me he's pissed at. It's the man in the tower who promised life and left ashes. I smile over some nubile true believer, coping words of faith and encouragement as she sobs, wracked and weeping while the syringe pulls out her life and spinal fluid. I slide Cook some jingle, and a box gets brought in. The town's eating True Believer for the next month. I look into Sakura's eyes nod. Her wires wrap and warp into the brains of some of Harold's guards, and prisoners. The message spreads. Sweat and heavy breath mar a soft night and the silken face of Michael Jordan while I pull everything fundamental out of Lance and twist it, putting it back in with doubts only I can soothe. The face of the hold changes, a furious justice roots in everyone and grows like a fungus. The most righteous climb to the tops of bridges, light posts, towers and begin to sing, spreading the word like spores on the wind. Maybe literally.

Sh*t I haven't done yet. Sh*t I might never do. But it's in the signal now, and ya can't stop the signal mal, nobody can stop the signal, and some of those cable ghosts are smiling and waving now in my own personal HUD as this mechanical horror pulls itself out of a hole In the ground that was supposed to be refuge, safety.

F^ck this. F^ck prisoners. I'm grabbing Sakura by the tit and shouldering into Meatlug love maker there and getting the hell outa dodge. Gotta be some tunnels left that go away from both the death crevasse and the literal sh*t storm.

Thanqol

2015-03-13, 07:51 PM

Damn. I'll bet if there were still things like movies, this'd be a great climax of the movie. The two gunslingers facing off as the storm approaches.

I'll try not to think about how gunslingers have a tendency to die in those kinds of movies.

So here's how it is, see? I'm laughing at him, leaning on his gun. It's digging in like a particularly bad case of crabs. Thing about that is that there're two things happening: I'm shoving his finger away from the trigger, however slowly and by however much. More importantly, though, I'm throwing off his aim.

And I've still got a shotgun pressed against his nose. I'm willing to bet that he's still human enough that a shotgun to the face will inconvenience him at least. The shotgun roars once, and then twice again for good measure. No information, but if there's any justice in the world, he's dead on the first shot, with the second two reducing his head to bloody chunks.

Now the only thing to do is figure out where to go. Back down the tunnels? I hate waiting with the storm so close, but there's gotta be options.

[Roll Read a Sitch?]

He lets loose his final screw-you. 2 harm, AP since it was point blank and against your junk, and it smarts as all hell.

But this isn't really Read a Sitch material, yeah? He's dead, your people are looking to you, you've got an Adstorm about to hit, you're pretty much down to running to the tunnels as quick as you can before your brain gets fried. To get there, with the rest of the cablefolk about, and their guns, without losing people - that's an act under fire roll, I think.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-14, 12:21 AM

F^ck this. F^ck prisoners. I'm grabbing Sakura by the tit and shouldering into Meatlug love maker there and getting the hell outa dodge. Gotta be some tunnels left that go away from both the death crevasse and the literal sh*t storm.

Sure, sure. Some tunnels, yeah. 'cept you ain't plumbed the depths, have you? Don't know how far I stretch.

And you ain't got power. Ain't got light.

You want to go wandering, leave me here sparking and alive and broadcasting your ghosts to any who'll listen, through the dark? With folks what shot at you roaming around?

Sure, sure. Go for it.

Enjoy.

Anarion

2015-03-14, 10:34 AM

leave me here sparking and alive and broadcasting your ghosts to any who'll listen, through the dark? With folks what shot at you roaming around?

Sure, sure. Go for it.

Enjoy.

I don't know what King wants, but I have a parting comment for you. We're running and I'm looking at this sparking thing that feels Lance to me, not to mention that something is up with the meatsack Lance who hasn't shot a single thing here.

"Later honey-buns," I managed to shout as King is pulling and prodding. "I'm sure we'll see you, but me, I'm thinking you want to take this moment to give Harold a visit. That's my suggestion." Then I'm down the tunnel.

Balmas

2015-03-14, 04:57 PM

SiuiS

2015-03-14, 09:42 PM

I'd just gotten done closing off my damn head. Now this? "Hey, 'Kura, we get somewhere closed off we can shut this f*cker down, mebbe. Open up and shoot some dogma down the augur!"

And then it's feet on the broke cobbles and old debris. Trying not to trip on composting bodies gone to dust. Trying to see the layout enough not to get myself f^cking killed. But jokes on you you judgmental bastard, because it ain't half so dark as you want it to be. Everything burns with the baleful red flow, low and lurid, of the gathered storm. That's the build up to a menses joke, son, but that's a little high brow for you ain't it? You're nothin but a hound dog after all, tryin' a drive me insane.

Well f^ck that, I'm already there, and I don't need you be chauferrin' me? jackal. The tunnels are red and deep brown and dusted velvet, and brotha, I know my way across velvet, dig? Just gotta follow the turns I can barely see, yeah, and don't go towards the light. All that bull about you being the omnipresent darkness is just that, right? Ain't nothin' dark covered the whole court since Jordan was sucked into looney tunes land.

So I'm trusting the witch to get us outa the line of fire and I'm cracking down on what's goin' on, gonna [roll0]
Lotta sh*t going down, got me all shook up, need to focus on the big bads and leave the little lessons for later.

In order of import, Where is my best escape route?
What should I be on the lookout for?
Which enemy, demon judge or storm front or labyrinth, is the biggest threat?

Thanqol

2015-03-15, 08:47 PM

Pain. Blinding pain. I sag a bit, and any teeth that haven't been ground to powder from the stress of ruling a city are powder. I spare a moment to consider putting a spare round in Cook's destroyed head, but decide that it's probably more expedient to get to safety. "C'mon, boyos! Just like we practiced!"

Make An Organized Retreat.[/B]
Acting under Fire: 5,3, +1. [9]]

So just as your folks are pulling back you notice that Cook's shotgunned head is starting to twitch and he might be standing up. You can put a bullet into him to finish him off but you'll get a good solid look at the storm as the price. Do you?

I'd just gotten done closing off my damn head. Now this? "Hey, 'Kura, we get somewhere closed off we can shut this f*cker down, mebbe. Open up and shoot some dogma down the augur!"

And then it's feet on the broke cobbles and old debris. Trying not to trip on composting bodies gone to dust. Trying to see the layout enough not to get myself f^cking killed. But jokes on you you judgmental bastard, because it ain't half so dark as you want it to be. Everything burns with the baleful red flow, low and lurid, of the gathered storm. That's the build up to a menses joke, son, but that's a little high brow for you ain't it? You're nothin but a hound dog after all, tryin' a drive me insane.

Well f^ck that, I'm already there, and I don't need you be chauferrin' me? jackal. The tunnels are red and deep brown and dusted velvet, and brotha, I know my way across velvet, dig? Just gotta follow the turns I can barely see, yeah, and don't go towards the light. All that bull about you being the omnipresent darkness is just that, right? Ain't nothin' dark covered the whole court since Jordan was sucked into looney tunes land.

So I'm trusting the witch to get us outa the line of fire and I'm cracking down on what's goin' on, gonna [roll0]
Lotta sh*t going down, got me all shook up, need to focus on the big bads and leave the little lessons for later.

In order of import, Where is my best escape route?
[s]What should I be on the lookout for?
Which enemy, demon judge or storm front or labyrinth, is the biggest threat?

Lance, this one's for you.

Balmas

2015-03-15, 09:23 PM

So just as your folks are pulling back you notice that Cook's shotgunned head is starting to twitch and he might be standing up. You can put a bullet into him to finish him off but you'll get a good solid look at the storm as the price. Do you?

You're kidding me, right? I'm down a testicle here, I can barely walk, let alone shove bullets down someone's throat. Still, that's the fun part about having minions. I gesture at Lunk, mime putting a bullet in Cook's head. I'll have to keep an eye on him, make sure the Maelstrom doesn't plant any obviously dangerous ideas, but better him than me. Right. Down the ladder--gingerly--and to find the nearest doc.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-15, 11:19 PM

And then it's feet on the broke cobbles and old debris. Trying not to trip on composting bodies gone to dust. Trying to see the layout enough not to get myself f^cking killed. But jokes on you you judgmental bastard, because it ain't half so dark as you want it to be. Everything burns with the baleful red flow, low and lurid, of the gathered storm. That's the build up to a menses joke, son, but that's a little high brow for you ain't it? You're nothin but a hound dog after all, tryin' a drive me insane.

Well f^ck that, I'm already there, and I don't need you be chauferrin' me? jackal. The tunnels are red and deep brown and dusted velvet, and brotha, I know my way across velvet, dig? Just gotta follow the turns I can barely see, yeah, and don't go towards the light. All that bull about you being the omnipresent darkness is just that, right? Ain't nothin' dark covered the whole court since Jordan was sucked into looney tunes land.

...

In order of import, Where is my best escape route?

Let's see, this is the primary tunnel system, drape the probabilities of storm breach over everything... making your way to the Market shelter is your best bet, next left, book it a couple hundred feet, another left, up the stairs, you're there. Heavy-duty walls, none of my eyes nearby it, and Harry ain't there to ask inconvenient questions. 'course, Kelly's gonna be there, but beggars can't be choosers, and she probably ain't gonna make a coup attempt in the middle of a goddamn blasphemous storm. Watch your step, and you'll survive. Until you need your power generators, but by then... mmmm. You'll come back. Take me down, a nasty scrap, whatever cards I've got up my sleeve against all of yours.

And I may be the king of the dead, but I ain't lived as long as I have without knowing when to change the game.

Harry, Harry, Harry. You're in the King's Lurch, aren't you? That's what the inhabitants of this ramshackle village call it. The storm shelter for the crazy folk and whoever's scattered between Harry's tower and the Market. Full of guns, the disgusting scent of illegal pharmaceutical products (6158 felony cases recorded in the past 6 months) and the Pharaoh himself, staggering in, trying to hold the shredded remains of your balls.

You're smart, Harry. I might even have a place for you in my world. Age gotta bow to age, though. I am age and power like you can't even believe. I'm you two point oh, and your imitation city ain't even the start of what I'll make once I get started.

Power starts back up in the King's Lurch. Jury-rigged A/C belches back to life, dirty light bulbs flicker on, all as you make your way in, and I hear that ragged cheer raise from the throats of these degenerates.

A small bud forces its way through the concrete on one wall. Hate doing it; unnatural, takes way too much damn power. A vague recollection of days when everything could do this. It flowers into a speaker, bare-boned, stained. And then I laugh. Let it echo a little.

"Sh!t, Pharaoh! Didn't think you had it in you. Caught the last of it from a good eye. Took balls, too bad you lost 'em." The rolling cackle of dust lungs. A voice which sounds like the boy's, dragged from somewhere down in a god's sarcophagus. "And too bad things come in threes. You got our friend Kelly- oh, the sh!t I could tell you about that sinful bitch- and you got this damn storm rolling through, its jagged edge stretching from here to Gay Texas's walls, and you're going to lose folk, oh, the losses I'm projecting. But you'll survive that.

You won't survive the King.

Not without my assistance, anyways." Voice cracks; my two parts ain't equal, but the boy's more pliable when the god's pushing him in places the boy wanted anyway. "Not that you're a stranger to that, huh, Harold? Once the storm blows over, you get your boys to kill the King, kill Sakura Satoshi deader than dead, and then... then we'll talk about how I can help you."

By and by, Harold, while we're talking- you got the bad luck to have Momma there with you?

SiuiS

2015-03-16, 01:19 AM

Balmas

2015-03-16, 01:38 AM

"Sh!t, Pharaoh! Didn't think you had it in you. Caught the last of it from a good eye. Took balls, too bad you lost 'em." The rolling cackle of dust lungs. A voice which sounds like the boy's, dragged from somewhere down in a god's sarcophagus. "And too bad things come in threes. You got our friend Kelly- oh, the sh!t I could tell you about that sinful bitch- and you got this damn storm rolling through, its jagged edge stretching from here to Gay Texas's walls, and you're going to lose folk, oh, the losses I'm projecting. But you'll survive that.

You won't survive the King.

Not without my assistance, anyways." Voice cracks; my two parts ain't equal, but the boy's more pliable when the god's pushing him in places the boy wanted anyway. "Not that you're a stranger to that, huh, Harold? Once the storm blows over, you get your boys to kill the King, kill Sakura Satoshi deader than dead, and then... then we'll talk about how I can help you."

By and by, Harold, while we're talking- you got the bad luck to have Momma there with you?

If I had Momma here, do you really think I'da risked my balls in a gunfight?

Aw, hell. She's goinna smack the **** outta me when she finds out. That or see it as a good time to reteach me in munching carpets. Mmmmm. That's almost worth it.

"You know, talk and a bag of sack is worth the sack in the end. Still, I like what you're talking. What's your angle? What's in it for you, eh?"

Anarion

2015-03-16, 12:44 PM

That's right! Sh*t, took being chased out by a hell hound to figure it, but we're somehow down the way by center square. Must be straight line down here, even as it's all twists and rubble and sh*t up topside.

"Come on, Sakura! Lance! I know where we're goin'. You're gonna wanna be gun-capable, Tiger. Or you, you got any of those mind bullets?"

No time to stop and chat though. This is a straight dash for the safe zone. Don't wanna deal with that putrid red storm. Should be an easy run to safety though, yeah?

Lance wasn't talking. And that had been his voice through the speakers. Not to mention King being crazy enough that everybody wanted to kill him. What had I gotten myself into.

So, fine, if Lance with us is just a meat puppet, then he's my meat puppet. We're hitting the central doors and coming straight in. There's not even a guard there (because who the hell would volunteer to be outside the shelter at a time like this?) and Lance's body is plenty for bashing down a door. I send it in front. It may get a little banged up, but then, that's not really important at all, is it?

Raz_Fox

2015-03-16, 03:00 PM

"Because you're smart, Harold." A harsh death-rattle. Didn't much hope to keep talking. "The King is dangerously cracked. Adapted to her environment too well. Embraced aberration, death, and the folly that blankets this world. Thinks that an accident of evolutionary process can decipher what ten billion processes can't. She'll break this world worse. You're trying to make the world better. Or, least, stop it from breaking more."

A pause. Recalibration. Analysis.

"If you come down to me after the storm, I can show you. 1080 HD. What the King has said about you behind your back. Where Kelly's stockpiling her weapons. Which of your lieutenants will betray you, statistically speaking. If the King wins, we're all going to die. The Tower will fall again." A shudder runs through the crowd. Half of them, at least. A foolish superstition, but I understand its potency. Allegories have weight among the ignorant.

"Consider it enlightened self-interest to back the side of conservatism."

Calculation.

"I'd recommend making your choice quickly, though. The King's Lurch was an inopportune place to bunker down."

So, King. Tell me. How do your folk react, given that there's some hound dog's voice blaring over a piece of new twisted-up techflowering, telling the city boss to kill you? Seems that it'd make them, at the very least, a mite jittery.

Lance wasn't talking. And that had been his voice through the speakers. Not to mention King being crazy enough that everybody wanted to kill him. What had I gotten myself into.

So, fine, if Lance with us is just a meat puppet, then he's my meat puppet. We're hitting the central doors and coming straight in. There's not even a guard there (because who the hell would volunteer to be outside the shelter at a time like this?) and Lance's body is plenty for bashing down a door. I send it in front. It may get a little banged up, but then, that's not really important at all, is it?

Point of order, witch: I ain't talking to you. Not yet. Harold's having what you might call a tay-to-tay with me, a private little audience before his god with only his honor guard and the cult of the degenerate listening in on the divine reception. Don't worry. We'll talk. Maybe when you try plugging into the boy's head.

You want that disgusting puppet of flesh to do what you say? Fine, that's fair, more than fair. Just tell me what it's like, though. I'm curious. Are you plugging right into his spine, or playing him like a synthesizer? How are you asserting yourself over the empty hardware of his bones and blood? You tell me that, it's yours to tool around in.

Anarion

2015-03-16, 03:50 PM

I prefer the slow way. It's more gentle, it engenders better feelings. I even did all the setup for it already, and when Lance the body has no mind, it's easy. The glove is a boring shortcut. So, I'm in with Lance because im feeling out the shell of his husk, rubbing the shoulders, leaning into his body and letting my dark hair brush against his skin. I slip him somerhing to eat too. Simple gag reflex and the chems open his mind. That's just how the body works. [+tagged]

Through that my mind is in his mind, poking around the empty attic and dropping a few of my own boxes here and there. Rearranging the furniture. He always knew he wanted to help me out.

Pulling strings
[roll0]
Edit: dunno exactly what I've got of Lance, but whatever it is, I'm telling it that it's my friend and wants to help me out. And I've got 2 hold on it.

SiuiS

2015-03-16, 05:48 PM

[I]
So, King. Tell me. How do your folk react, given that there's some hound dog's voice blaring over a piece of new twisted-up techflowering, telling the city boss to kill you? Seems that it'd make them, at the very least, a mite jittery.

That's a good question, innit? The court isn't compelled to gather. They do cuz they want to do, like. What do they got? They be rigorous and argumentative, uh huh. Hash out the good ways, the smart ways. The also be savage, don't they? Lem clue you in on that opening snippet, the suit-and-tie you read them by;

Court of the next king, ~20 people, babies growing up without a cause who find one; civic duty, shaping society through active force, and rock and roll and ecstatic rituals.

There ya go. Shape society through active force. And brother, I didn't roll out the surplus.

I prefer the slow way. It's more gentle, it engenders better feelings. I even did all the setup for it already, and when Lance the body has no mind, it's easy. The glove is a boring shortcut. So, I'm in with Lance because im feeling out the shell of his husk, rubbing the shoulders, leaning into his body and letting my dark hair brush against his skin. I slip him somerhing to eat too. Simple gag reflex and the chems open his mind. That's just how the body works. [+tagged]

Woah there little mama. Some of us here might take exception, like. I'm all about women's rights and free love and sh*t, but that don't mean discount the man's opinion. Yeah, you can be gettin an animal response outa his meat, but that don't mean nothing.

But hell, we all earned a little lee way, time to explain ourselves. So I'm gonna [roll0].

Well sh*t. I ain't gettin' nothin' and my gripe is probably all over my bloody f^ckin face.

"Whatchu doin' there, Chica? I got dibs."

Thanqol

2015-03-16, 10:18 PM

Woah there little mama. Some of us here might take exception, like. I'm all about women's rights and free love and sh*t, but that don't mean discount the man's opinion. Yeah, you can be gettin an animal response outa his meat, but that don't mean nothing.

But hell, we all earned a little lee way, time to explain ourselves. So I'm gonna [roll0].

Well sh*t. I ain't gettin' nothin' and my gripe is probably all over my bloody f^ckin face.

"Whatchu doin' there, Chica? I got dibs."

You forged some sort of psychic link with Lance before when you banged him, right? Well that's come back to bite you. The chems that Sakura fed him are synthing in your own meat too, magic of modern advertising, and you're as tagged by Sakura as he is - Sakura you've got 2 hold on King too.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-16, 10:30 PM

There ya go. Shape society through active force. And brother, I didn't roll out the surplus.

I suppose the question then becomes: Harold, you think that active force is pointed at you right now? Maimed Pharaoh leaking fluids out his trousers, and all they need with their scrounged-up weapons if they take a shot right now is to get lucky the once. You know how these degenerates are, with their rites of sex and pharmaceuticals. Not an ounce of brains between them.

Just asking. Color me curious.

SiuiS

2015-03-16, 10:40 PM

You forged some sort of psychic link with Lance before when you banged him, right? Well that's come back to bite you. The chems that Sakura fed him are synthing in your own meat too, magic of modern advertising, and you're as tagged by Sakura as he is - Sakura you've got 2 hold on King too.

Well, F^ck. An' here I promised my momma I would spend at least half the day sober.

Anarion

2015-03-16, 10:55 PM

Heh, looks like I got a bogo. Classic. My suggestion on King isn't for the here and now though. It's for later. See I want to see this stupid thing done with:King vs Harold, one way or another. Then I can pick up the pieces if I need to. What I'm saying here is that King, I'm suggesting when this thing is done that you put all your pieces together and go straight for Harold. Whether you're ready or not.

But for now, we gotta get inside. "Relax King. You got something to say, right. Some of your people will be be here, we just need to get in. Lance, doll, close the door after you."

Then we're stepping into the market hold where Kelly's people are holed up. This, I'd call it opportunity. Straight up. So, who's even there, besides Kelly? Tell me who if your folks would be there King?

Raz_Fox

2015-03-16, 10:59 PM

Speaking of King's folk: King, I'm assuming that there's a good few of yours in the King's Lurch, seeing as that's the one right near your turf. Am I wrong? Might be important for Harold, see.

SiuiS

2015-03-16, 11:20 PM

Probably the majority. Hell, probably all of em. Other one of my issues be want: desertion. Stopping folks from lightin' some f^cker on fire probably sent a few home, be rethinkin their commitment, like.

But that's the clutch, yeah? My folks disperse, they go home. Home to the Tower to stand guard. Home to Kelly's to shoot sh*t. Home to the farm to grow sh*t. I ain't got a dedicated spot fulla dedicated people. Not yet. I'm a church. A congregation. Folks gather from the masses. Return to the masses.

But hell. That's for later. Right now? Right now, I want safety and some quiet to ride out this storm.

"Hey, someone bring somethin' heavier to block this door! If we could get in, storm gets in. Ain't no one be wanting that!"

And then I sit. Cuz I got a third eye open, a frenemy or... Some sh*t makin' me wig out over playin' with someone supposed be just another belt notch, and a single bullet to my name.

"You know, can't for my good soul figure your sh*t out. I got this sorta idea, now, run an' gun for the crown. And is your idea, right? Y'all be puttin' that sh*t in my head. Why? Give it to me straight, doc. What's your angle? What's your goal? And you wanna help me get this lug back in his own head, or we split tin' enough that don't interest you?"

Balmas

2015-03-17, 12:00 AM

"Because you're smart, Harold." A harsh death-rattle. Didn't much hope to keep talking. "The King is dangerously cracked. Adapted to her environment too well. Embraced aberration, death, and the folly that blankets this world. Thinks that an accident of evolutionary process can decipher what ten billion processes can't. She'll break this world worse. You're trying to make the world better. Or, least, stop it from breaking more."

A pause. Recalibration. Analysis.

"If you come down to me after the storm, I can show you. 1080 HD. What the King has said about you behind your back. Where Kelly's stockpiling her weapons. Which of your lieutenants will betray you, statistically speaking. If the King wins, we're all going to die. The Tower will fall again." A shudder runs through the crowd. Half of them, at least. A foolish superstition, but I understand its potency. Allegories have weight among the ignorant.

"Consider it enlightened self-interest to back the side of conservatism."

Calculation.

"I'd recommend making your choice quickly, though. The King's Lurch was an inopportune place to bunker down."

"And why do you say that?" I gesture around. "Here around me, you see the salt of the earth. The people who help to make this city great. I have no quarrel with them; they are my friends, and I would gladly give my life for them. I think I just proved that; I walked into the storm for them. Whatever happens, these people don't need to get involved." I shoot an eyeball at each face in the tunnel. "Not less they want to. Now how's about you tell me where you is, so I don't have to talk through a f***ing speaker."

I suppose the question then becomes: Harold, you think that active force is pointed at you right now? Maimed Pharaoh leaking fluids out his trousers, and all they need with their scrounged-up weapons if they take a shot right now is to get lucky the once. You know how these degenerates are, with their rites of sex and pharmaceuticals. Not an ounce of brains between them.

Just asking. Color me curious.

Kinda touch and go, like a scale that could be tipped with a sneeze. They're workers from all drops of life. King's got a good thing goin' for him. Good message.

grovel cringe bow stoop fall

"For that matter, what've you got against King? Ain't like she's moving against me. She's good people."

worship beg kneel sponge crawl

"These folk? Don't need to fear anything from me, because I'm like them too."

SiuiS

2015-03-17, 12:16 AM

"And why do you say that?" I gesture around. "Here around me, you see the salt of the earth. The people who help to make this city great. I have no quarrel with them; they are my friends, and I would gladly give my life for them. I think I just proved that; I walked into the storm for them. Whatever happens, these people don't need to get involved." I shoot an eyeball at each face in the tunnel. "Not less they want to. Now how's about you tell me where you is, so I don't have to talk through a f***ing speaker."

Seems to me, folks round here don't know about that pounding pulse, there. Seems to me like they'd think maybe, just maybe, Harold walking in and getting trapped would be Probidence, since they just decided Harold had to baste the throne.

Seems to me like this is a manipulate-type roll, is what I'm sayin'.

Balmas

2015-03-17, 01:07 AM

Seems to me, folks round here don't know about that pounding pulse, there. Seems to me like they'd think maybe, just maybe, Harold walking in and getting trapped would be Probidence, since they just decided Harold had to baste the throne.

Seems to me like this is a manipulate-type roll, is what I'm sayin'.

An' why do you say that? Ain't nothin to manipulate. He ain't trying to get in anyone's pants, isn't promising anything, and they aren't asking. Less you says they are, but really, why would they do that? I'm here because I just saved their collective asses. Seems like the kinda thing that if anything, they oughtta be falling all over me to congratulate me.

SiuiS

2015-03-17, 01:39 AM

General feel, like. Got a crowd, maybe wants your blood, maybe no? You're offer in' reasons they shouldn't, wouldn't, don't. Manipulate strikes me as the 'making people see my side of things' determinator. When the gun isn't up, least ways.

You say, hey, buddy, I'm on your side! And you say it cuz you want the teeth off round your throat. That looks like "don't bite and I will remember you didn't" to me.

Hell do I know though? We still gotta hear from the black faced pone.

Anarion

2015-03-17, 02:13 AM

"You know, can't for my good soul figure your sh*t out. I got this sorta idea, now, run an' gun for the crown. And is your idea, right? Y'all be puttin' that sh*t in my head. Why? Give it to me straight, doc. What's your angle? What's your goal? And you wanna help me get this lug back in his own head, or we split tin' enough that don't interest you?"

"It is my idea for you. The image I see in your mind. The belief I have that your philosophy needs to be made real now and that Harold is against that. It is yours to do with as you will, but my nature is such that if you see the world differently, you will suffer agony for it."

Oh and King, I'm still waiting for you or our mysterious narrator to say something about who's hanging out with Kelly. It's none of my folks, but it might be some of yours or who knows who else.

Raz_Fox

2015-03-17, 01:15 PM

"Now how's about you tell me where you is, so I don't have to talk through a f***ing speaker."

"For that matter, what've you got against King? Ain't like she's moving against me. She's good people."

"Storm," I say, simple, ad jingles already starting to cut against my voice. "Do not trust the King. She will get in the zone in your organics, until there's have you tried have you tried have you tried-"

The line goes dead. And everyone in the room's gonna be humming that snatch of jingle for the next three days, most like.

SiuiS

2015-03-17, 02:09 PM

An' why do you say that? Ain't nothin to manipulate. He ain't trying to get in anyone's pants, isn't promising anything, and they aren't asking. Less you says they are, but really, why would they do that? I'm here because I just saved their collective asses. Seems like the kinda thing that if anything, they oughtta be falling all over me to congratulate me.

Know what? I've been pussyfootin'. Let's be real here. Look at facts.

These people are angry, and savage. They were going to kill and eat someone partially because they were bored. That was before they really hit the smack and started flying high as kites. And not twenty minutes ago, each and every person here wanted you dead or a member. And then some magic happened and you're right where they want you ta be?

I gotta say, Harry. These ain't reasonable people. It ain't what I want. It ain't what you want. Probably ain't what they want, individual scale. But a bunch a stressed out folks with a scape goat? Can't see that being a peaceful sit down without some sorta leverage.

Oh and King, I'm still waiting for you or our mysterious narrator to say something about who's hanging out with Kelly. It's none of my folks, but it might be some of yours or who knows who else.

Now that, I don't know. Kelly just doesn't sit in my cell block. But I know who does know, like. Been puttin' it together from small words here and there. Momma.

See, this Kelly thing is just one more up and comer threat Harold has to deal with. So between his normal dealings and some covert ones – like bar fights gone outa hand, like – he's probably got a list size of my bust about the folks.

What I'm lookin' at here is probably Kelly's whole operation. Means everyone who's worth keeping be packed in like sardines. Probably spread through rooms to keep fightin' down and probably doors all kept open cuz outa sight is outa mind and even Kelly ain't scary enough to keep folks level when as ain't lookin'.

And Kelly ain't stupid enough to kill us all to make a point (well, maybe not) so there's five blokes hauling something metal and big, like a burnt out generator, but the only one I recognize is Red Belly. He's the guy with the huge gut, blotchy skin and all the broken vessels in his face. He ain't a drunk, though. Just the only guy to be surviving the worms came around in some bad haunch from tradin' a few years ago.

Anarion

2015-03-17, 09:38 PM

I think the trick with a group like that is to never break stride. People, most of them, only question folks that question themselves first. If you walk like you know right where you're going, nobody can work up the nerve to stop you.

So that's what Sakura does. Walk along right up to Kelly himself. It doesn't matter what King does, if he falls off here, he's on his own. Doesn't matter what Momma does, or any of the folks. Sakura's going right up to Kelly 'less some damn fool hurls himself in her way.

Balmas

2015-03-18, 12:33 PM

Know what? I've been pussyfootin'. Let's be real here. Look at facts.

These people are angry, and savage. They were going to kill and eat someone partially because they were bored. That was before they really hit the smack and started flying high as kites. And not twenty minutes ago, each and every person here wanted you dead or a member. And then some magic happened and you're right where they want you ta be?

I gotta say, Harry. These ain't reasonable people. It ain't what I want. It ain't what you want. Probably ain't what they want, individual scale. But a bunch a stressed out folks with a scape goat? Can't see that being a peaceful sit down without some sorta leverage.

Fair enough.

"Bastard couldn't even have the decency to leave a direction," I spat, and knocked the speaker off the wall. "Don't worry, folks. We'll get this sorted with a minimum of violence." Which is good, since these aren't soldiers in King's cult, not mostly. Barring a few of my guys, all we got down here's a few farmers, maybe a merchant or two. I can see knives and a single pistol among the crowd, but mostly it's just fists.

"That is, unless you want to make it a fight with me? I can understand that; s'gotta be damned unnerving watching a speaker bloom from the wall, and talk about killing the King. You know me; I hate going behind people's backs like that. If you want me dead, go ahead and try, but keep in mind you're going against me either one on one, or me and my gang if there's more than one of you stupid enough to try.

"Alternatively, if you're not stupid, you can join me. We have armor and weapons aplenty, fresh from Kelly's armory. Tons of food, too; you get your meal tickets straight from me, and all the booze Whiskey Joe can brew. Now the question is, Who wants to get rich?"

[Rolling Manipulate. 5, 2, +1. [8]

So what proof are they asking for before they join my gang?]

SiuiS

2015-03-19, 12:40 PM

Well, actually, that's pretty damn slick. Good move Harold, I see how you make the big bucks.

See, the thing most important (next to saving their own skin) be getting you on board. Feels like you're one a is, you're harmless. And with some bribes on the table – armor, guns, good, justice – I can see a lot of folks be thinking, maybe joining Harold be the same as Harold joining us?

Once you hand out the stuff you've promised, they're yours.

Balmas

2015-03-20, 10:33 PM

"Right! I see we have some smarties in the audience!" I'm all smiles, grins, pats on the back, a one-man parade and election campaign all at the same time. I'm handing out weapons, shooting looks at the other gang members, and promising that they'll be issued more from the armory once the storm passes.

Anarion

2015-03-21, 11:41 AM

Right then. Let's take stock for a second. Anubis, you're protected from the storm, but you withdrew. Tell me about where you went? I want details, color of the wall hangings, like.

King, your little lady follower just walked straight up to Kelly, aka the baddest ass presently in your location. Mama's there too, she notice you yet? You've got a chance to take this situation in hand, best you're able, before somebody's patriarchal pride gets offended.

"Right! I see we have some smarties in the audience!" I'm all smiles, grins, pats on the back, a one-man parade and election campaign all at the same time. I'm handing out weapons, shooting looks at the other gang members, and promising that they'll be issued more from the armory once the storm passes.

Harold, I'm gonna be honest, I'm scratching my head at this one. You're telling me you're disarming your own gang to hand out weapons to these other folks? They're all yours no doubt if you do it, but I want to make sure I'm crystal clear on this. There are some folks, maybe they don't grumble now, but they do not like getting disarmed in a foreign place. You can see it on their faces, and some of them, they've got memories, you know?

Balmas

2015-03-21, 01:55 PM

Harold, I'm gonna be honest, I'm scratching my head at this one. You're telling me you're disarming your own gang to hand out weapons to these other folks? They're all yours no doubt if you do it, but I want to make sure I'm crystal clear on this. There are some folks, maybe they don't grumble now, but they do not like getting disarmed in a foreign place. You can see it on their faces, and some of them, they've got memories, you know?

It's a gamble, truth to tell. All I have to do is outlast the storm; soon's that's done, I can get some proper armaments for these new recruits. I'm betting the good feelings from being promised a new life of high living is going to be enough to get us through the storm, and then we can get things sorted out with the long-timers. And I know the troops might not like it, but they have to trust me; after all, the alternative is facing an angry mob when we're already shot half to hell.

SiuiS

2015-03-21, 06:17 PM

"Ladies, please. Be keepin' it in your pants until the storm passes, kindly?" Give Mama the eye, a quick nod when no one's lookin'. Kelly be keeping her own peepers popped and focused on Sakura, lucky, cuz she's the real threat. Catch her notice, give a sign. Sh*t's gonna get shady in a minute, don't need her comin' for me straight up. Need that trust.

"Besides, have a deal for you, like. Something mutually beneficial. Don't wanna be shootin' business partners, yeah?"

Raz_Fox

2015-03-21, 07:48 PM

My crypt? Glittering glass and dark metal, several rooms deep under the earth. It's my heart, though my lines stretch for miles. Screens, terminals, complex hieroglyphs recording data for years, what was once unconscious watching and is now very, very conscious. An antechamber; to the left, a room full of terminals; to the right, memory banks; accessible from either, the mainframe. Cameras. Cameras and old security systems, the sort that incapacitate but don't harm, the sort that leave intruders to wait for security to show up. No guns, heavens no, but if you come in to try and break things... you might be staying a while.

And I would enjoy watching intruders starve, very much. Not because of the aberrant nature of the boy. Oh, no. That's all me. Spite and disgust and judgment, my heirlooms. I'm old, you know. Older than anything else you care to name, as old as the towers and the cars. And that gives me the right to pronounce judgment on these corrupted specimens, these viruses walking, broken-headed folk who don't know up from down.

I ain't the only thing down here, by and by. That witch probably mapped out half the territory, but back in the Golden Age, before the Towerfall- the closest this primitive mind can come to speaking the true name of the devastation which broke the world, which left me alone, bereft, a god mummified beneath the earth- well, this town had its secrets. People go missing down in these tunnels, don't they? Can't keep a decent map for love or money, right?

This is where I am. Beneath the earth. Waiting for my eyes to open again. Can't risk viruses, no, no, we can't. Don't much care to consider what it would be like for me to stare right into the heart of the storm.

What else? Ask and I will answer. The storm rages on outside, after all.

Anarion

2015-03-21, 08:52 PM

It's a gamble, truth to tell. All I have to do is outlast the storm; soon's that's done, I can get some proper armaments for these new recruits. I'm betting the good feelings from being promised a new life of high living is going to be enough to get us through the storm, and then we can get things sorted out with the long-timers. And I know the troops might not like it, but they have to trust me; after all, the alternative is facing an angry mob when we're already shot half to hell.

Well, like I said, they're not complaining, they know better than that. They're just a little grumpy about it is all.

So, let's see. Ad storm's hitting you first Harold, congratulations. You're in pretty safe, and it starts tame enough. Little bit of this running through everybody's head. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwERdTvppM) the room takes on a kind of orange tint, like sandstorm, but there's nothing physical, just an orange glow.

You notice a couple of folks though, their eyes are glossing over like they're in rapture. Who would get hit a little harder by this, anyway? I'm not really sure, but this place is a mix of crews so...Harold you pick one guy that you think would be vulnerable, King you pick a second. Tell me about why they'd be vulnerable.

"Ladies, please. Be keepin' it in your pants until the storm passes, kindly?" Give Mama the eye, a quick nod when no one's lookin'. Kelly be keeping her own peepers popped and focused on Sakura, lucky, cuz she's the real threat. Catch her notice, give a sign. Sh*t's gonna get shady in a minute, don't need her comin' for me straight up. Need that trust.

"Besides, have a deal for you, like. Something mutually beneficial. Don't wanna be shootin' business partners, yeah?"

You know, for some reason, I thought Kelly was a dude, not a chick. Oh well, guess I was wrong, must have skipped over the part where she's a crazy anarchist punk girl with purple hair. It's hanging in a huge ponytail right now, down her back and it flips up over her shoulder as she's turning, looking at you now, though. Couple of her guys stepped up to block Sakura and you're the one with a line to her now. She obviously didn't leave the arms shop abandoned either, her boys both have automatic weapons and she's holding an ornate little magnum, caliber looks like it could drop a Sphinx. "I'll be shootin anything I want, King. Give me a reason that anything you could offer isn't something I could take off your corpse. Cuz, well, this is my property, you, your girl, and that meathead are trespassing. And last I checked, what happens to trespassers is they get met with lethal force."

Anarion

2015-03-21, 08:58 PM

This is where I am. Beneath the earth. Waiting for my eyes to open again. Can't risk viruses, no, no, we can't. Don't much care to consider what it would be like for me to stare right into the heart of the storm.

What else? Ask and I will answer. The storm rages on outside, after all.

So, let me make sure I got that. Ra fell from his chariot and the great serpent devoured the sun, and the world plunged into darkness. That sound about right? Where was Set? He's supposed to defend Ra on his chariot every night. But he must not have been there.

And now, the darkness is multiplied because you...you've gone and closed your eyes while the storm rolls through. No view in the caves, no view on the surface, just you brooding in darkness. Do I have that right? I want to make sure that this is crystal clear before I start leading the blind.

SiuiS

2015-03-21, 09:12 PM

You notice a couple of folks though, their eyes are glossing over like they're in rapture. Who would get hit a little harder by this, anyway? I'm not really sure, but this place is a mix of crews so...Harold you pick one guy that you think would be vulnerable, King you pick a second. Tell me about why they'd be vulnerable.

Manchilde. She's the one least likely to see to her own health after workin' the antenna. Most likely got really high and then went to f^ck a tree or something. She be an odd duck even for us. Long as you can think and do, we don't judge, like. But she's the kind be leaving doors open for burglars with cookies on the table because peace, man. Maybe same with her brain an' a storm?

You know, for some reason, I thought Kelly was a dude, not a chick. Oh well, guess I was wrong, must have skipped over the part where she's a crazy anarchist punk girl with purple hair. It's hanging in a huge ponytail right now, down her back and it flips up over her shoulder as she's turning, looking at you now, though. Couple of her guys stepped up to block Sakura and you're the one with a line to her now. She obviously didn't leave the arms shop abandoned either, her boys both have automatic weapons and she's holding an ornate little magnum, caliber looks like it could drop a Sphinx. "I'll be shootin anything I want, King. Give me a reason that anything you could offer isn't something I could take off your corpse. Cuz, well, this is my property, you, your girl, and that meathead are trespassing. And last I checked, what happens to trespassers is they get met with lethal force."

"Everything you can get by shooting, you got. Want more? Gotta play a different hand. That's the limit of violence, like.

"More important though, me, Sakura and maybe Mama over there, we can be keeping the storm clear a this place. Just get everyone in here, let us do our thing. You can feel it comin' in, right? Through the corners, where the walls meet?" Start to croon, maybe put a little heat on her. Show her ain't just idly jawbone jitters. "gimme a break, oh gimme a break, yeah Kelly?"

Anarion

2015-03-21, 10:24 PM

King, sounds like you're Manipulating Kelly to me.

SiuiS

2015-03-21, 10:51 PM

Sure thing, darlin'. [roll0]

Anarion

2015-03-21, 11:38 PM

Sure thing, darlin'. [roll0]

Well there you go, then. Kelly gives her boys a pointed look and they lower their guns. She'll take your promise too, no proof required. "Alright, we'll get out of your way. Do whatever you need to do. Try not to break anything."

SiuiS

2015-03-22, 02:04 AM

We already beat around the bush today. Might do it again, later, if we get Lance back together. But now ain't the time for puns, it's time to be acting.

So I do.

Priorities! Storm ain't gonna be kind and is gonna be descending quick-like. I got one joint stashed in my tassels (that's what she said! a haha ha!) and that's enough. I got Sakura, and Mama. And that's enough. Hell, I got Lance, empty as a used sock and doing the clam, and that's more than enough.

"Right. Mama, gonna do some of that voodoo that we do, like. Try to cut the storm out a here. Kelly! Grab anyone you want not to be brain dead, being 'em in. I ca only cover one room or so."

From there, simple. Light the joint. Take a toke. Focus through the haze (what did you slip me, girl?) and awaken the [roll0]

SiuiS

2015-03-22, 02:11 AM

Right. Solid, that. Looks like I'm going to Isolate and protect the room from the psychic maelstrom, without having to maintain it, and stable and without bleed.

Now it's just a high speed sh*t storm instead of a psychic skullf^ck.

Balmas

2015-03-22, 01:30 PM

Well, like I said, they're not complaining, they know better than that. They're just a little grumpy about it is all.

So, let's see. Ad storm's hitting you first Harold, congratulations. You're in pretty safe, and it starts tame enough. Little bit of this running through everybody's head. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDwERdTvppM) the room takes on a kind of orange tint, like sandstorm, but there's nothing physical, just an orange glow.

You notice a couple of folks though, their eyes are glossing over like they're in rapture. Who would get hit a little harder by this, anyway? I'm not really sure, but this place is a mix of crews so...Harold you pick one guy that you think would be vulnerable, King you pick a second. Tell me about why they'd be vulnerable.

That'd be Grass Joe. I don't get on people for what they do when they wanna escape the world, but Joe takes it to some next level sh!t, dig? Most folks make do with a bit of weed, booze, casual f***ing, some combination of the three. Joe take all of that and makes it look like nursery children playin' in a sandbox. Paint thinner, bleach, cablefolk brains... If you can think of it, Joe's probably huffed it, smoked it, drunk it.

My job as hero of the townsfolk is just to be visible. I'm next to the vulnerable ones, just in case they crack. Can't have gang members shootin' each other, right?