WHAT IF? Marvel/X-MEN

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote


In Character (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?586949-FAE-X-Men-New-Generation)
Out of Character (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?586106-OOC-FAE-X-Men-New-Generation)


Venom First Host
The Poison Saga and the bits leading up to it (possibly)



There was a knock at the door. Eddie and his other were both expecting it, so the unfamiliar teenage girl waiting in the hall was no surprise.

“Hello, Mr. Brock!” The young mutant’s somewhat uncanny gaze dropped from Eddie’s face to his shirt. “Hello, Mr. Brock’s friend! I’m Tai.”

Not sure about her Eddie.

Eddie wasn’t terribly sure about Tai either. It wasn’t that she seemed like a bad kid, there was just something…off about her. She was a little too guileless for a kid her age. Too friendly, that was the problem; he would expect someone meeting him and his other to be a little wary, maybe suspicious or even afraid…Tai didn’t seem to realize she was supposed to be any of those things. Eddie was already having second thoughts about kind-of-sort-of blackmailing the Institute into sending someone…

But the list of people willing to babysit for an ex-supervillain was very short. And it got shorter when you factored in that the ‘baby’ wasn’t human. So unless they wanted to leave the kid alone by itself again…

No! Can’t leave the little one alone. Might get hurt.

So Eddie motioned her inside anyway. Tai peered around with every evidence of interest, though there wasn’t much to see; the apartment wasn’t that big, and was a little run down. “You can put your stuff there,” Eddie made a vague motion in the direction of the ‘gym’ corner of his apartment, where all the weights were currently scattered somewhat haphazardly.

The teenager complied without a word, dropping her backpack with a thud, still gazing about as though she were in an art museum—then spotted the ten gallon tank by the window and made a beeline for it.

“Is this the baby?” Tai peered into the tank, her nose coming within inches of the baby symbiote. “What’s its name?”

“Don’t touch it. It doesn’t have a name yet.”

“Oh.” Tai, undeterred, held a hand up to the glass and greeted it in a cheerful voice: “Hello, little baby ooze monster! I’m Tai.”

He was having third thoughts now. Eddie tugged her gently away from the tank. “We have some things to go over with you before we go.

These,” Eddie held up a large bag of M&Ms “are for the baby.” He reminded himself he was talking to a teenager and added, “Only for the baby. Don’t feed it anything else. Don’t touch the baby under any circumstances, you’ll hurt it.” That was an exaggeration; he and his other had both done their best to impress on the infant that it was not to go bonding with the babysitter or anyone else without their prior approval…but there was no sense in tempting the little one. “No loud noises either, same reason.” He wondered if he really needed to bring up the prohibition on fire, and when his other prodded him decided he did. “Nothing burning or hot.”

Tai nodded along with all of this, expression serious, though the excessive degree of head-bobbing was undermining Eddie’s confidence rather than reinforcing it. “When does the baby go to bed?”

“No later than 8, and make sure it eats before then. We should be back by 10 o’clock, but if we’re not, you can sleep on the couch. You can have anything in the fridge except the booze, just clean up whatever mess you make. Anything happens, you have our number.” Technically, it was the Institute’s number, as they were paying the bills on it, but after the mess the X-Men had gotten he and his other into Eddie hadn’t felt the least bit guilty about blackmailing a phone out of them in addition to the occasional babysitting services. “Anything else? No? Then we’ll see you in a couple of hours. Keep an eye on the kid.”

And now well on to fourth and fifth thoughts, Eddie stepped out and shut the door behind him, trying to suppress the wave of apprehension that immediately followed – and then realized most of it wasn’t his.

The kid’ll be fine.

Sorry, Eddie!

----------------

The door finally closed with a thud.

They’re gone.

Sleeper was a little annoyed. The baby symbiote had already successfully bonded to a host – bonded to two hosts – gone into space, and helped save not only their Klyntar parent but both the aforementioned hosts from an unhinged Kree war criminal. And yet despite these accomplishments, both parents had decided not only was Sleeper ‘not ready’ for a little more in the way of personal freedoms, but that they apparently weren’t safe enough at Alchemax. So now Sleeper spent all of their time in their parents’ apartment, either under Venom’s excessively-watchful gaze or alone, without even the occasional entertainment they had been getting from watching the humans at the lab drop off to sleep mid-sentence during their ‘experiments’ with the pheromones they produced.

Their parents still wouldn’t even let them out of the fish tank!

And now this latest indignity; the ‘babysitter.’ Neither parent wanted them to remain unwatched when Venom was out doing superhero business, so Eddie had called up the X-Men’s Institute and arranged for a student to keep an eye on them while Venom was out. It was unfortunately perfectly in line with the rest of their parents’ overprotective behavior. It was nevertheless galling.

Something had to be done.

----------------

Tai watched the door shut with a degree of uncertainty. She still didn’t know why the professors hadn’t wanted her to babysit for Mr. Brock; he and his friend seemed nice. And for some reason no one else had wanted to, and of course it wouldn’t have been very good to leave the baby by itself, she was reasonably sure parents weren’t supposed to do that. But that wasn’t immediately important; the more pressing issue was that she wasn’t sure what to do with the baby now that she was alone with it.

To be fair, she wouldn’t have been entirely sure what to do with a human baby either; for some reason there never had been many people who had wanted her to watch their children. But she’d done a little reading when she found out she was going to be babysitting, and none of it really matched up with what she’d been told to do.

Mr. Brock hadn’t mentioned anything about diapers or a potty…or if the baby needed its teeth brushed before it went to bed (did baby symbiotes have teeth?)…and she hadn’t remembered to ask Mr. Brock if it needed a bath, which she should have, she’d read an article about infant drowning risks before she came over...

Mr. Brock had said to keep an eye on it though, maybe that was supposed to be a hint? Tai wandered over to go peer at the baby again, maybe she’d figure something out.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Sleeper missed having a host’s eyes and ears; they weren’t deaf, unbonded, but it was a lot harder to make out words. Likewise they could see, but unless they formed an eye out of their substance nothing was detailed or clear. Right now they could tell the human was standing over their tank mostly by the smell of her sweat and breath, with the dark pillar that was her body a decidedly secondary cue, and as close as she was they might be able to understand her if she said anything.

“You’re a cute little goo ball.”

…then again, maybe Sleeper was better off not being able to understand most of what the babysitter said.

“You don’t have any toys,” the human observed from that indistinct point overhead. “I’ll go find you some!”

Oh this should be good.

----------------

Tai examined the apartment with an eye to what might constitute a symbiote toy. It wasn’t a very big apartment: most of it was one room, with a bed, couch, kitchenette, old television and a set of weights stashed in a corner. There was a closet, and a bathroom with a tub. Everything was worn, old, or both; there were even large chunks missing from the ceiling and walls. (She hoped the Institute wasn’t charging Mr. Brock very much for her babysitting, it didn’t look like whatever it was he and his friend did paid very much.) There was also astonishingly little in the closet in the way of clothes, and most of that dusty – but it occurred to Tai that if his friend was pretending to be clothing most of the time, maybe Mr. Brock didn’t need more than that. And it looked like there had been at least one fight in here…

But she didn’t see anything that was obviously intended to be a toy for the baby.

So that left improvising! Tai started digging around to see what might make good toys.


[roll0]-6

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

I believe that’s a success…

The human was taking a long time. Sleeper considered the walls of their tank seriously; normally they weren’t supposed to leave the tank when they were alone. If they snuck out their parents would find out; that was the problem with being a mildly telepathic species, lying to your parent was difficult, and Sleeper atypically had two.

But it had occurred to them that on this occasion, someone was home, it just wasn’t their parents…and even if their parents disapproved after the fact, the odds were reasonable they’d blame the babysitter rather than Sleeper…and since she didn’t seem to be putting much effort into watching them anyway she—

—Oh wait, she was coming back.

----------------

Tai brought her spoils back to the baby’s tank and set them on the bed. She had a long piece of string – she thought cats liked string, she hoped baby symbiotes did too – a set of salt and pepper shakers, which now that she’d twisted the caps shut should make passable rattles – some paper and a pencil from her pack, though she wasn’t entirely sure if the baby could draw, not having hands – and last but not least a paper towel roll, after she recalled a Youtube video she’d seen involving a hedgehog.


[roll0]-6

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Something descended into their tank with them.

“Hi little baby symbiote. Do you want to play?”

Sleeper didn’t, exactly. They strongly suspected the babysitter’s idea of ‘play’ would be terribly inane. But Sleeper reasoned that any mental stimulation was better than sitting there doing nothing, so they tried to focus on the babysitter anyway.

Whatever-it-was twitched. They could just barely detect the movement; it didn’t have much mass. The thing didn’t smell like a host, so it wasn’t alive, and hadn’t been any time recently.

Just curious enough not to ignore the human, Sleeper extended a tendril to try to determine what it was the girl was holding. The human in question bobbed it up and down a little once more, obviously trying to entice them to ‘play.’

Organic fibers…plant material…it was a piece of cotton string.

What exactly are we supposed to do with this???

Annoyed, Sleeper yanked hard. The girl tugged back a little but she obviously wasn’t expecting them to be as strong as they were and she lost her grip on the string in short order. Sleeper expected her to try to reclaim it to resume the ‘game’ but from what they could make out of her stance she seemed hesitant to do so. They didn’t think it was fear; the human hadn’t acted the least intimidated when she’d jammed her nose in their tank earlier, nor was she giving off the right combination of scents.

After what they perceived as an awkward pause, they noted the human moving again. There was something in her hand now, a darker blot against the skin. She shook it, a very deliberate gesture (it sounded like it had sand in it) and set it within easy reach. “Do you want to play with this?”

Sleeper didn’t even have to touch the new object to figure out what it was; the smell was very pungent. Pepper. It was a pepper shaker. What does she think we are, soup? They threw the hapless spice canister away from themselves to relay their disgust.

“No? You don’t like it?”

Obviously!

To be fair to the human, Sleeper could have communicated this directly, via manipulating the girl’s brain chemistry. But at this point they didn’t have a great deal of faith that she’d pick up on it, and they were feeling sullen enough about having the babysitter in the first place not to bother trying.

The pepper shaker was removed and shortly thereafter replaced by what Sleeper recognized by sound alone was a sheet of paper. Followed by the light clink and gentle rolling sound of what Sleeper quickly discovered was a pencil.

“Maybe you want to draw???”

She was persistent, Sleeper would give her that. They pondered for a moment if they should throw the pencil away too, but it was becoming increasingly clear the babysitter was at least trying to fulfill her responsibilities, and this wasn’t so insulting as the previous attempts. But they hadn’t really considered themselves artistic before. Maybe…

----------------

Tai watched the baby with a little anxiety. It didn’t seem to like most of her ‘toys’ and she was a little at a loss as to what she could try if none of these worked. Complicating the matter were Mr. Brock’s instructions not to touch the baby and the fact that she didn’t know if choking hazards were a thing baby symbiotes needed to worry about since it didn’t look like the baby actually had a mouth. (But Mr. Brock had said she needed to feed it…Tai wasn’t sure how that was going to work.)

But the baby goo monster had picked up the pencil in one of its blobby little tendrils and was making marks on the paper she’d left it, so Tai sighed a little with relief. The picture didn’t look like anything Tai recognized, didn’t really look like a picture at all now that she thought about it. More like writing. Maybe it was trying to write a story? She should have brought some books to read to it. She’d brought her Geology textbook, but was vaguely aware it was unsuitable bedtime story material…

----------------

Sleeper entertained themself by trying to write some of the Skrull they’d picked up from their second host. They briefly formed an eye to judge the attempt, and deemed it passable taking into consideration that they didn’t have a host’s hands to write with. Readable anyway. Not that the babysitter would be likely to recognize it, much less understand it.

They were almost done when they heard a pounding at the door. The babysitter had just been hovering anxiously overhead while they wrote; now she darted off to answer it. Sleeper twisted the pencil thoughtfully before dropping it; they’d wasted enough time on this. Maybe they could locate the remote while the human was distracted…Sleeper made their way up the wall of their tank and over the edge.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Tai wasn’t stupid; she’d seen the buildings on the way over and knew this area was what the teachers called ‘seedy.’ (Though why they called it that when there were no seeds in evidence, and seeds as far as she could tell bore no resemblance to the run-down buildings in this neighborhood, Tai wasn’t sure. She figured it was an other people thing.) So she checked the peephole first. But there was no one there.

Cautiously, she cracked open the door and peered down the hallway. Then the other way. Still no one.

A little bewildered, Tai shut the door again. Maybe whoever it was had knocked on the door by mistake? She decided not to worry about it. She needed to make sure the baby was—

The baby was gone.

----------------

Sleeper had made it to the couch, and was now investigating under it – their parents could never find the remote, so it stood to reason the device wasn’t out in the open where it would be obvious. They weren’t seeing any sign of it however…

They didn’t hear any speech at the door; Sleeper suspected it was the offspring of one of their parents’ neighbors, as they had gathered from their parents that the boy liked to cause some low-level trouble. Usually the boy didn’t bother them; Sleeper was aware their parents had something of a reputation that resulted in most of the neighbors keeping their children and themselves away from the Brock residence. But apparently either the boy was growing bolder or he had noticed their parents had left for the evening.

Sleeper didn’t concern themself. That was the babysitter’s problem.

Speaking of which, the human’s scent had taken on a distinctly distressed flavor. Her footsteps were no more than vague shadows but the sound was definitely headed away from the door...

“Baby?”

Ah; the babysitter had noticed their absence from the tank.


And I should post Sleeper’s stats since I’m using them:

SLEEPER

ASPECTS:
-Escape the Cage (High Concept)
-Mommy Had Good Reason for Not Abandoning Me (Trouble)
-Fast Learner
-Arrogance of Youth
-Alien Power-Up

POWER FACTS:
-Klyntar Symbiote
*Can bond with a host with the following effects:
*Enhances the host’s physical strength (and powers if applicable)
*Heals the host’s injuries
*Protects the host from most environmental effects (up to and including vacuum)
*Can influence and (depending on the host) control the host
*Can freely communicate with the host
*If bonded to a sufficient degree and for a sufficient length of time, the symbiote may retain a copy of the host’s powers
*Shape-shifting which allows the symbiote to camouflage with most environments
*Weak to fire and certain types of sound
*The symbiote is telepathically aware of other symbiotes in the vicinity
*Racial memory
*Limited ability to split into pieces and control the pieces
-Can sense and generate chemicals, including:
*Can communicate with creatures who are not the host via pheromones
*Can release chemicals that cause sleep, increase a target’s susceptibility to persuasion, and inflict other emotional responses with a high degree of precision
-Like its parent Venom, Sleeper can cling to walls, both while bonded to a host and not
-Can see things that are cloaked or invisible


APPROACHES:
+3 Sneaky
+2 Clever, Forceful
+1 Flashy, Quick
+0 Careful

REFRESH: 3

STUNTS:
Better Living Through Chemistry – When bonded to a host, once per scene, Sleeper can clear the host’s stress boxes.
I’m Invisible! - +2 to Sneakily hide from creatures susceptible to pheromones
Good Reflexes - +2 to Quickly Defend against physical threats when Sleeper or a close ally is endangered.


Tai to Cleverly Overcome: [roll0]-6
Sleeper to Sneakily Defend: [roll1]-5

[JeenLeen]

Noting that this is a fun read, and an informative example of FATE working out in a non-combat situation. Thanks!

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

And another tie! :P So, *checks Overcome* ‘succeed at minor cost’.

@JeenLeen Glad you like it! :)

“Baby?”

Tai checked in and around the tank first; it didn’t have any holes in it that she could see. She lifted it up and tested the bottom of the tank, but it seemed sturdy enough.

Hopefully it was just hiding? She was sure Mr. Brock would be unhappy if she’d let the baby evaporate.

“Baby? Where’d you go?” Tai checked under the bed, and not seeing the little gooey creature immediately started ripping the bedding off onto the floor in case it was hiding under pillows or in the sheets. “Baby? Baby?!”

----------------

The noise had briefly distracted Sleeper from their quest to find the remote. Still under the couch, they formed an eye at the end of a tendril to investigate, just in time to see a pillow land on the floor with a soft thud. Followed by a sheet, which landed on the growing pile of bedding. Then the extremely battered foam-rubber pad that normally lay under all the rest. And then, the human obviously straining under the awkward burden, the mattress too.

Has she gone mad?

After a few more moments of struggle, the babysitter managed to strip the bed down to the empty frame. She seemed dismayed; obviously she couldn’t see them.

“Baby, come out! Where are you???”

She started towards the couch.

----------------

Tai was getting worried; she expected to have seen the baby by now. What if she’d missed it? What if she’d buried it when she was stripping the bed or had stepped on it without noticing? (She paused a moment to check her feet, but both were clean.) She carefully examined one of the seat cushions before carefully tossing it over by the weights; she hoped the baby hadn’t somehow managed to hide inside any of the cushions, or the mattress, or anything else she would have to rip to open. She was reasonably sure Mr. Brock would mind…

She had run out of pillows and seat cushions and Mr. Brock’s couch didn’t have those little pieces of cloth that sat on the arm rests, so she couldn’t check under those. She did find the remote, buried under the cushions, but the baby wasn’t there either. She tried checking under the couch, but it was very dark. She frowned at the crevice; she hadn’t brought a flashlight, or anything else she could shine under it. There was only one thing left she could think to try.

----------------

Sleeper instinctively tried to recoil as the feet of the couch scraped against the tile flooring, then after a moment of inanimate protest the entire piece of furniture – minus the bits the human had already scattered around the room – tilted upwards and then down as the human flipped the couch forward. Unexpected light bathed them.

“There you are.”

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Sleeper tried to decide if they were in trouble. They didn’t think the babysitter would actually hurt them – but they hadn’t expected the girl to half-destroy the apartment looking for them either.

“I don’t think you were supposed to come out of the tank,” the babysitter’s voice contained an odd mix of sternness and uncertainty. “But Mr. Brock said I’m not supposed to touch you, so I don’t know how to put you back in.”

This was excellent news as far as Sleeper was concerned. There was nothing the human could do about them ranging about the apartment. Maybe if they climbed up one of the walls, they could see where the remote had gotten…admittedly they were then going to have to somehow get past the babysitter to obtain it once they found it, but one thing at a time.

“Wait, I have an idea!”

That was less promising. They sensed movement; the babysitter was approaching, there was something in her hands. Sleeper could tell they were close to the wall and tried to speed up.

A shadow formed above them, they had the sense of more movement in front of them, and then there was a dull clud from all around them at once. If they’d had a head in the usual sense, they’d have run face first into the wall of glass suddenly surrounding them.

“There! Now you’re back in the tank.”

----------------

“Reeeeeeeeeee!”

Tai jumped back, then dove forward again as it occurred to her the baby might be hurt – she hadn’t even known it could make noise until just now, and the noise it was making didn’t sound happy.

“Baby?! Baby, are you all right?! I didn’t hurt you?”

Maybe she had pinched it when she put the tank over it? She tried to look it over, but it didn’t look like any pieces of it had gotten caught under the rim. She didn’t see any bruising but then, the baby was mostly pitch-black to begin with except the occasional flitting streak of greenish-yellow, and she had no idea what a bruise would look like on a symbiote anyway.

The baby climbed the inside of the tank until it was on the glass wall closest to her, its body sticking to the glass like a tree frog. (So that was how it had gotten out!) A pair of bright red dots formed, like eyes. Tai got the feeling it was glaring at her.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” Tai apologized. “But you’re supposed to stay in there.”

The baby goo monster swirled in place a little bit, still sticking to the glass. Tai wondered if that meant it was listening, or if there was some other explanation.

Surely Eddie would have put a top on the tank if that were the case?

The thought struck her unexpectedly, and Tai wondered why she hadn’t thought of that before. If the baby could climb out whenever it wanted, maybe it wasn’t supposed to stay in the tank.

“Although I guess Mr. Brock didn’t actually say that…”

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

“…but then why were you in the tank in the first place?”

Sleeper stared at the human in frustration; their chemical suggestion had her thinking along the right lines, but she was taking her time about making up her mind. They really didn’t want the human chasing them around the apartment all evening, they were sure they could think of more interesting things to do.

“Maybe…am I supposed to carry you in it?” The human hoisted the tank up and flipped it right-side-up, peering down at them as though expecting an answer. Sleeper seemed to recall that the babysitter was supposed to have some sort of powers, but apparently super strength wasn’t one of them; they could hear her breathing had sped up and smell the trace amounts of sweat from her recent exertions. Probably not telepathic either, or they wouldn’t have needed to alter her brain chemistry to get her to understand them—

Sleeper’s thoughts were briefly interrupted by another pounding at the door.

----------------

Tai glanced down at the baby, then at the door. She was still holding the fish tank, which after consideration was too heavy and unwieldy to carry while opening the door (which argued against that being its purpose; was it supposed to be a symbiote crib maybe? Playpen?). She put the tank down, then went over to the door and checked the peephole again. Again not seeing anyone, she again cautiously opened the door and checked the halls. This time she thought she heard the clomping of shoes running away, but whoever it was was out of sight. Frowning, she closed the door.

----------------

Sleeper grabbed the opportunity to slip out of the tank again; they had spotted the remote, and had the device firmly within their tendrils by the time the babysitter was checking the hall.

Now to get the television on. They had hazy racial memories of their parent interacting with this device as well as clearer ones from their human parent; they knew there was usually a button at the top of the remote that turned it on. There was more than one button at the top however, and the remote was old enough the labeling was nonexistent. Nothing to do but try it and see what happened…


[roll0]-6

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

And that’s a fail…but it occurs to me this is the perfect opportunity to use her Stunt, so Tai uses Shortest Distance Between Two Points for +2 to Sleeper’s roll…

Sleeper had pushed all three top buttons, alone and in various combinations, before they were forced to admit it wasn’t working. But why not?

They examined the remote more closely. There didn’t appear to be anything blocking the transceiver. Perhaps they were too short to manage the correct angle for the signal to reach the television? Or possibly the batteries were dead. Maybe if they got up higher they could test the angle…

“Oh you want to watch TV?…Mr. Brock didn’t say you couldn’t. Here,” the babysitter took the handful of steps from the door to the television, touched a corner of the screen, and device obediently flicked on. “There you go!”

Sleeper felt brief embarrassment. In retrospect it would have been simpler to do that in the first place…

The babysitter had perched herself on the back of the couch – she hadn’t bothered to right it before sitting on it, nor did she show any inclination to start restoring the rest of the furniture that she’d thrown into disarray – but they thought she was watching them. At least, her blurry form appeared to be facing them rather than the screen. It was hard to tell.

They considered the possibility that this was an elaborate trap on the part of the babysitter to get them back in the tank, then decided they didn’t care – the television was now on and that had been the point of this exercise. They slithered over to the couch to watch it.

----------------

After about thirty minutes of listening to the news anchor drone on about a teacher’s strike at one of the local universities, followed by some mishap one of the local fishing boats had suffered (Atlantean involvement was suspected), and finally an update on the latest participants in the “Rice Bag Challenge”, Sleeper was wondering why they’d wanted to watch TV in the first place. This was boring. They tried to remind themselves that this was still better than staring at the apartment walls until their parents returned, but that wasn’t helping.

The babysitter was getting up. Maybe she would do something more interesting?

----------------

Tai realized she was getting hungry. The baby seemed to be occupied for the moment, and Mr. Brock said she could eat his food, so she got up and made her way to the kitchenette. She’d already gone through what passed for a spice cabinet when she’d dug out the salt and pepper shakers, now she examined the fridge.

…Mr. Brock wasn’t eating very healthy.


[roll0]-8

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


And fail!


After a moment of thought, Tai dug out a pot and filled it part way with water. She put it on the stove to boil. (Despite the stove’s obvious age, the burner was pristine. Given the state of the rest of the apartment Tai suspected neither Mr. Brock nor anyone else who might have lived there previously did much cooking.) There were chicken nuggets in the freezer; Tai had never seen breaded chicken in soup before but non-breaded chicken noodle soup existed so she figured she’d try it. There was a packet of sauce in with the nuggets – barbeque sauce, she thought – obviously intended to be used with them, so she added that to the water with the nuggets.

Now for the noodles. Mr. Brock had a few packets of dried ramen buried in his cupboards. She opened one and plopped the noodle brick in with the rest. And the ramen spice packet too, although she was a little uncertain about adding that with the nugget sauce. Hopefully it would be all right.

The noodles were just starting to loosen up when there was another knock at the door.

Even Tai was beginning to figure out something was up by now. The soup didn’t look in danger of boiling over so she scurried over to check the peephole. She didn’t bother opening the door when she didn’t see anyone this time.

She also didn’t notice the baby wasn’t on the couch anymore. At least, not until she saw the baby on the wall by the stove, reaching towards the (hot!) soup-filled pot with a little tendril.

“No!”

Tai wasn’t allowed to touch the baby, and the baby was farther away anyway; she grabbed at the pot instead. A little too quickly; the pot and its contents ended up flying towards her, and the next thing Tai was aware of was a great deal of pain as a heavy pot full of boiling liquid collided with her face.


And while I didn’t see anything in the rules about stress boxes/consequences being filled for anything that wasn’t Attack/Defend, logically I think getting a self-inflicted hit in the face with boiling liquid is something that should fill a stress box, while at the same time being kind of hard to justify as an Attack roll. Since I’m my own DM, I declare that I can deal stress box damage without Attack rolls, therefore I am!

And she failed by 2, so let’s fill the 2-shift stress box.

Tai:
(O)(X)(O)

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Sleeper was…dismayed. They had only intended to investigate; their parents had never made a concoction like the one boiling on the stove, and of course they knew to keep away from the obvious heat source. It was only now, after the damage had been done, that it occurred to them that the babysitter didn’t know that they knew.

They were a little concerned as well. Humans didn’t have the Klyntar weakness to heat, but the species wasn’t immune to it either.

They formed an eye to look her over; ignoring their olfactory senses, she looked like a murder victim. There were reddish patches on her skin from the boiling liquid, and watered down barbeque sauce was dripping out of her hair, down her face, and had stained most of her shirt a shade of reddish-brown. Little chunks of fried chicken were stuck to her shirt, in her hair, and had made a violent splatter over the floor. And they were fairly sure she was crying; there was a thickness to her breathing that hadn’t been there before.

----------------

Tai was trying hard not to cry. That had hurt, a lot. And now her clothes were a mess and so was Mr. Brock’s kitchen and she wasn’t going to have any soup.

But the baby had come down off the wall and was back on the floor where it was safe. Tai retained enough peace of mind to turn the stove burner off before it could do any additional damage.

“Are-are you hungry baby?” Tai managed to sniffle. “Is that why you tried to touch the soup, you want food?”

There was barbeque sauce in her eyes, and her face hurt from the heat, and she was tearing up despite her best efforts, but somehow she managed to locate a plate and the bag of M&Ms. Tai hoped the baby symbiote could use a plate; she didn’t think she could get the M&Ms into a bottle at the moment, and she hadn’t seen one in her previous searches of the cupboards anyway. She didn’t think it needed silverware at least; no one else needed a spoon to eat M&Ms. Tai tried to cheer herself up by making the M&Ms into a little smiley face before setting the plate down next to the baby.

She was dripping barbeque sauce onto the plate. She hoped that was okay.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Tai wiped up most of the spilled food and put the now empty soup pot in the sink while the baby investigated its plate of candies. She tried washing the worst of the mess off herself into the sink too, but with limited success; mere water wasn’t enough to get the stains out of her shirt, and only succeeded in getting it wetter.

The worst part of the whole mess was that Tai herself was still hungry. Getting desperate, Tai opened another package of ramen and just started gnawing on the uncooked brick of noodles. It was crunchy and tasteless, but she wasn’t willing to risk the baby by trying to use the stove again.

Maybe this was why Mr. Brock didn’t cook.

After a moment of contemplation Tai sat back on the (still overturned) couch, watching the baby to make sure it could eat. She still hadn’t seen anything like a mouth on it, even if it could make noise. But it seemed to be managing well enough; it just sort of flowed over a candy and when it pulled back the candy was gone. Maybe it was like a snail, and the mouth was on the bottom? She should have put the candies on a see-through plate instead, then she could have picked it up to check…

There was another knock at the door. Tai ignored it.

Then there was a second, louder knock. “Open up!”

Wait, there was actually someone there? Tai ran over to check the peephole, still clutching the half-eaten brick of ramen. This confirmed there was, in fact, a person outside this time, and they were wearing a police uniform!

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


Per the Bad Guys (https://fate-srd.com/fate-accelerated/being-gamemaster#bad-guys) section, Officer Simpson here will be a mook rather than a full-fledged character.
+2 to rolls involving Law Enforcement, since he’s a police officer.
-2 to rolls involving super powers or anything similar (EX: alien technology would count for this even though it’s not strictly speaking a ‘power’)
Stress: O

He’s an ordinary officer who came because someone was complaining about a kid banging on doors. He was NOT expecting to be knocking on Venom’s front door today. :smallbiggrin: Probably good for him that Venom isn’t home…


Sleeper pulled their attention away from the M&Ms – they weren’t really hungry anyway – to focus on the voice at the door. It was too muffled and far away to make out more than the tone, but the voice didn’t match any of the apartment complex’s residents that they recognized either from their own limited experience or the memories they had inherited from their parent.

----------------

“Am I in trouble?”

The fact that he had to look down when she opened the door told Tai the officer had been expecting Mr. Brock. And the way his mouth worked silently for a few seconds before he actually spoke told her that whatever he had originally intended to say, it wasn’t what he was saying now.

“…Are you all right, miss?”

Tai still wondered what he had been going to say first, but even she could figure out why he was asking that.

“I spilled the soup,” she responded seriously. “I’m okay. Am I in trouble?”

“We…” Adults didn’t usually falter like that. Tai thought that was a good sign; maybe she wasn’t in trouble. She thought he would be yelling if she was in trouble. “We received a noise complaint. Someone banging on doors…”

The police officer (his badge read ‘Simpson’) kept trying to look past her into the apartment. Tai wondered what was wrong and tried to see what he was looking at, but only saw the pile of bedding and the overturned couch.

“…Can I come in?”


Officer Simpson has a lone teenager in a seedy neighborhood who looks like she’s taken a blow to the head (which she has) inside an apartment that looks like someone tried to ransack it (which also technically happened). This might not be what he was called in for, but it looks like some law-breaking might have happened, so he’s getting that +2 for his roll to try to investigate further.

Simpson to Overcome: [roll0]-6
Tai (Quickly Defend): [roll1]-5

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


Sorry Officer Simpson, it doesn’t look like you’re getting in today!


Sleeper slithered over to the wall and crept up it, orienting themself over the doorway via the sounds of the two humans talking. Whatever they were saying was probably much more interesting as understandable speech than as mumbling background noise. And…was that a police uniform? If that human was here to trouble their parents they were going to put a stop to that right now…

----------------

Tai closed the door most of the way. “I don’t think Mr. Brock would like that, he didn’t say I could let anyone in and you might hurt the baby by accident.” She didn’t think a police officer would hurt the baby on purpose. “Maybe you could come back later?” The police officer’s face made some funny contortions that Tai couldn’t quite decipher. “Are you okay?”

Officer Simpson slumped, falling against the door and slowly sliding to the floor.

“Oh no.”

Tai wasn’t sure how to proceed in this case; was it okay to leave the baby alone if someone fell unconscious like that?

After a moment of hesitation Tai stepped out into the hall, then carefully closed the door behind her. Hopefully the baby would be okay for a few minutes! But she was sure it wasn’t supposed to go wandering the halls by itself, it might get lost again.

Officer Simpson had ended up face-down on the floor. Tai awkwardly turned him over and checked for breathing and a pulse, like the teachers at the Institute had shown her.


[roll0]-6

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


And that’s a fail, let’s see if there are any Aspects Tai could logically invoke to bring up that roll…

Has Her Moments looks plausible. -1 Fate Point for Tai (2 remaining), +2 to the roll bringing it up to a tie.


After some checking Tai realized the policeman was still alive, just asleep for some reason. She was reasonably sure that wasn’t supposed to happen, so she tried poking him awake. When that didn’t work, she poked harder. Then shook him a little bit while calling his name. Starting to get annoyed – he had to be doing it on purpose, at this rate, and she needed to get back to the baby – she went back inside the apartment, filled the empty soup pot with water, then brought it back to the sleeping police officer and emptied it over his head.

That worked. Officer Simpson sat up, spluttering.

“I don’t think you were supposed to be asleep. Are you okay?”

Officer Simpson wiped the water dripping down his face out of his eyes. “W-what?”

“You fell asleep. Are you sick? If you’re sick you should go home. My mom and dad always make me stay home if I feel sick,” she told him seriously.

Officer Simpson muttered something and staggered to his feet; Tai didn’t quite make out what he’d said but he wasn’t yelling and he was wandering off so she decided he must have taken her advice to heart and went back inside.

Her first instinct was to look for the baby. Her second was to panic, because once again the baby wasn’t in sight. (She ducked outside, checking the hallway to make sure it hadn’t slipped out when she wasn’t watching, but didn’t see it there.)

Fortunately there was movement up above her head when she came back inside, and there was the baby symbiote – sticking to the ceiling over the doorway. A little gooey extension was twisted in her direction; it wasn’t making eyes right now, but Tai got the feeling it was looking at her anyway.

----------------

“What are you doing up there?” The babysitter’s voice floated up to Sleeper; as she was right under them the words were reasonably clear. “You’re going to fall.”

We are not going to fall, Sleeper thought in annoyance.

They weren’t quite sure what to do with themselves now; they had lost interest in the television and the human wasn’t doing anything noteworthy anymore. It had occurred to them, however, that based on the degree of ambient light and the amount of time that had passed it was getting close to their designated ‘bedtime’. And since the human had not, thus far, shown any ability to climb walls herself, fly, or anything else that could get them down if they didn't want to come down, they decided they were going to stay right where they were, out of reach, until such time as they figured out what to do next.


Tai to Cleverly Overcome: [roll0]-6
Sleeper to Sneakily Defend: [roll1]-5

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


2 vs. 7 O_O Wow that was a good roll. And that was more than +3 so a Succeed with Style…

…and I haven’t been keeping track of boosts at all so far. >_< Fixing that now!

Sleeper:
Succeeded with Style Defense, “The Baby is On the Ceiling” => “Out of Reach”

Tai:
Tied to Create the new Advantage, ‘Are You Not Entertained?!’ => “Slightly Entertained”
Succeeded with Style Defense, “I Don’t Have a Warrant For This” => “Swift Appeal to Proper Authority”


“Baby goo monster come down.”

Tai was getting frustrated. The little symbiote either didn’t understand her, or wasn’t interested in listening. The ceiling was too high for her to reach, and anyway she wasn’t allowed to touch the baby. Her powers were useless here as well; the baby didn’t have the X gene, so she couldn’t swap herself with it, and there was no one else she could ask to swap with it to get it off the ceiling.

She looked around to see if there was anything she could use to help. Maybe if she got up on the couch…

A few moments of tipping and pushing and she had the couch righted and pushed it under the baby. She got up on the springs – she hadn’t put the seat cushions back, reasoning they wouldn’t be useful – checked the distance, and decided she wouldn’t be able to reach the baby without climbing on the arm- or backrest.

Which she could do, but she still couldn’t touch the baby.

Tai frowned, then remembered seeing oven mitts when she’d looked for symbiote toys earlier. There was a spatula too. She could use those to scoop the baby off – she wouldn’t be touching the baby, the mitts would.

She retrieved the items, then got up on the couch and climbed somewhat precariously onto the arm, taking her just close enough to…

…watch it scoot across the ceiling out of reach again.

“No, stay,” she told it.

Tai got down, pushed the couch so it was underneath the baby again, and tried a second time, only for the baby to once again move out of reach.

“You’re a bad baby,” she informed it seriously. “I’m going to tell your parents you were bad.”

The little blob of goo seemed supremely unconcerned about this; a little bit of it was tilted in her direction but otherwise it didn’t appear to be paying any attention to her at all. She wondered how it was seeing her with no eyes.

This continued a few more times until Tai thought she had it trapped in a corner, but the little alien ooze monster was much more agile on the ceiling than Tai was trying to reach it there, and she wound up unbalancing and falling off the couch – banging her elbow hard enough to make her arm feel funny and leaving bruises.

At last she gave up in frustration. But it was getting close to the baby’s bedtime, and she still needed to give it a bath somehow…


[roll0]-6

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t


Oh yeah! *victory dance*

Sleeper:
Succeeded with Style Defense, “The Baby is On the Ceiling” => “Out of Reach”

Tai:
Tied to Create the new Advantage, ‘Are You Not Entertained?!’ => “Slightly Entertained”
Succeeded with Style Defense, “I Don’t Have a Warrant For This” => “Swift Appeal to Proper Authority”
Succeeded with Style Overcome, “How Do You Make Water Fall Up?” => “Bathtime Fun”


Sleeper watched the babysitter fall off the couch with a mix of disapproval and concern. Disapproval because it should have been obvious to the human she couldn’t get them down by now. Concern because they were fairly certain their parents would be upset if the babysitter broke herself.

Fortunately the human appeared to have given up trying to injure herself for the time being. She said something out loud that Sleeper couldn’t make out – again they wished for a host’s ears – and ran over to the kitchenette to go digging under the sink. They hoped she wasn’t going to try cooking again, they weren’t entirely certain how they would go about calling emergency services if she did…

She was under the sink long enough that they formed eyes to watch, so when she emerged with her quarry they could make out more than just blurs. A bucket, an atomizer, a sponge, a bottle of dish soap.

Does she think we are a stain now? Sleeper thought, indignant. They watched with growing irritation as the human filled the bucket with soap and water. This was going to end poorly and Sleeper strongly considered knocking the girl out – their parents should be home soon anyway, surely they’d been watched long enough...

The human had retrieved a broom now. She fiddled with the tool for a moment before she declared in a proud voice—this time loud and clear enough that Sleeper could make out the words:

“There! Now you can have your bath.”

We do not need a bath! Sleeper thought, indignant for entirely different reasons now. Their substance was perfectly capable of shedding most dirt and other foreign matter, and what they couldn’t shed wouldn’t come off with soap anyway. They considered tweaking her brain chemistry to tell her so, but refrained - they had serious doubts the bizarre little female would notice the thoughts weren’t hers, and a growing suspicion she might do something unfortunate if they confused her too badly. And she still couldn’t reach them on the ceiling…

That line of thought was interrupted as the sponge, impaled on the broom handle and now sopping wet with soapy water, poked them gently in the side.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

Tai was reasonably happy with herself; the baby had looked a little startled by the sponge at first, but it wasn’t making that unhappy ‘reeee’ noise, and it wasn’t avoiding the sponge. In fact, after a little while it seemed to decide this was a game.

She managed to get the baby clean – as far as she could tell while it was still on the ceiling anyway – and then tried to decide what to do next. It was the baby’s bedtime, and she didn’t think it was going to be any more willing to come down.

Although just in case she was wrong about that, she asked: “Will you come down now?”

As expected, the baby ignored her.

Tai surveyed the room. Maybe she could lure it down.


[roll0]-6


She got the bag of M&Ms and put a few at the bottom of the tank – hoping to herself that it was okay for the baby symbiote to have candy before bed; Mr. Brock hadn’t actually said it couldn’t.

“Come down little baby ooze monster, you can have some more candy if you go to bed!”

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

“Come down little baby ooze monster, you can have some more candy if you go to bed!”

Sleeper considered this. With the arrival of the police officer earlier, they hadn’t actually eaten all that much. Their parents would probably feed them when they got home, but there was never a guarantee of when that would be – if a robbery broke out, or a supervillain attacked, they might be late. And there was a limit to the amount of entertainment they could find on the ceiling.

But there might not be a similar limit on watching the babysitter try to get them down. Sleeper considered it…


Tai to Cleverly Overcome: [roll0]-6
Sleeper to Sneakily Defend: [roll1]-5 +2 (“Out of Reach”)

Sleeper is invoking the Boost “Out of Reach” so that grants +2 to the Defend roll and that Boost is now gone.

Sleeper:
Succeeded with Style Defense, “The Baby is On the Ceiling” => “Out of Reach”

Tai:
Tied to Create the new Advantage, ‘Are You Not Entertained?!’ => “Slightly Entertained”
Succeeded with Style Defense, “I Don’t Have a Warrant For This” => “Swift Appeal to Proper Authority”
Succeeded with Style Overcome, “How Do You Make Water Fall Up?” => “Bathtime Fun”

[JeenLeen]

Just noting I'm still checking this every so often and still finding it entertaining.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Glad to hear it! :smallsmile: I am tentatively planning an Issue #2 for combat practice.


Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

…and ultimately decided that it wasn’t worth it.

Sleeper scooted down off the ceiling and into their tank.

----------------

“Good baby,” Tai cooed at it.

She decided it needed a bedtime story. She still didn’t think it was supposed to be a bedtime story book, but she didn’t have anything else so she got out her Geology textbook anyway and started reading out of it. After about half a chapter the baby stopped moving around, hopefully asleep.

Tai read a little bit more before she decided it was safe to put the book away, then looked around. Mr. Brock and his friend weren’t back yet, and the apartment was a little messy, maybe she should clean it up now that the baby was in bed…


[roll0]-5

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #1 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote con’t

And fail!

Tai was just getting the last of the mess cleaned away when there was a thud on the wall outside and the window slid open. A visage that was mostly teeth peered in.

“Hello again Mr. Brock! Hello again Mr. Brock’s friend!”

“Call us Venom when we’re like this,” they chastised, before the adult symbiote pulled away to reveal Eddie’s face. Eddie paused as he noticed the stains on the girl’s shirt, visible and obvious even to normal human eyes. “…you okay kid?”

“I spilled the soup.” The girl’s voice was deadpan. But she didn’t seem to be in pain or seriously injured, so Eddie dismissed it.

The symbiote in his head however took this as a bad sign, and immediately started mentally poking Eddie with little anxious bursts. We need to check on our offspring, make sure they aren’t hurt!

Go ahead, you can check on the kid from here, Eddie thought back impatiently, and in response a liquid black tendril snaked into the window.

After a moment a jolt of anxiety/relief/pleasure sparked over their bond and Eddie was distantly aware of a sleepy murmur as parent and spawn greeted one another.

“Was the baby any trouble?”

“I had to get it off the ceiling. Is it supposed to do that?”

Anyone else would have sounded accusatory. Eddie…honestly couldn’t tell if Tai was trying for that and failing, or if she was genuinely curious if that was normal.

He decided to go with the latter; safer that way. “…Right, we forgot to mention that. We’ll talk to the kid. Anything else?” They could just ask the infant later; one advantage to having such a smart kid. But the reporter in Eddie didn’t see any reason not to question Tai directly; then they could make sure the stories matched up later.

“I forgot to brush the baby’s teeth.” Her expression was a little…off from human standard, but Eddie could tell that was bothering her.

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

“But it didn’t have anything but candy for dinner, it will get cavities…”

“The baby doesn’t have any teeth,” Eddie responded. Explaining that the baby was a shapeshifter and would sprout teeth if it needed them was more explaining than Eddie wanted to do right now.

“Oh.”

Eddie could tell this was going to turn awkward if he didn’t act fast. “You ready to go home? I think your ride’s here.”

Tai nodded, ran and grabbed her backpack, and Eddie-as-Venom scooped her out of the window and carefully deposited her on the sidewalk outside. Then they finally slipped inside, shut the window and took stock.

“…What happened here?”

There were some random bits of rubbish by the baby’s tank, but Eddie didn’t pay that much mind. A smear of barbeque sauce hidden under the counter – okay, the girl had had the stuff all over her, and had said she’d spilled something, that was at least accounted for. Dirty dishes in the sink – that they also expected from a teenager.

More concerning was the fact that the couch was halfway across the room and at a right angle from where it had started out. In addition the bed had, for some reason, been stripped down to the frame, and the mattress, sheets and other bedding were neatly stacked on the floor. Their oven mitts were soaking wet, which at least explained why they were hanging from the shower rod in the bathroom. The broom had fallen out of the closet, and for some reason there was a sponge stuck to the end of it. There wasn’t much apartment space to make a mess of, but Tai had somehow managed…

“…Next time we ask for a different sitter.”

…And she had left her homework up on the refrigerator door, for some reason. At least, Eddie though that’s what it was supposed to be. Her handwriting was atrocious…wait, that wasn’t English writing. Was that Skrull? It was. What was that school teaching those kids???

Eddie was too lost in thought to notice his other was getting impatient with him. No, Eddie. We should call her again next time!

...and now he was noticing his weights, which had previously only been organized in the sense that they were all in the same corner, were now neatly lined up from largest to smallest. Eddie wondered what went on in that girl’s head…and then the symbiote’s mental prodding finally got through.

“…What? Why??? The place is a mess.”

We don’t need the apartment to be neat, Eddie. Is not important, Eddie. She did not let our offspring be hurt. Did not try to bond with the little one. Did not try to take the little one. She made sure our offspring ate! She’s a good babysitter, Eddie. We should call her next time we go out.

TO BE CONTINUED in Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2!

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)

Boosts in Effect:
(None)

Stats recap:

FACE-OFF
Tai Verdebelt

ASPECTS:

Spanner in the Works (High Concept)
No Social Skills (Trouble)
Curiosity, the Joyful Destroyer
Whole Hog
Has Her Moments

POWER FACTS:

Can swap the minds of any two targets. Limitations:

Both targets must have some form of consciousness – so swapping the mind of a human and a dog is possible, but swapping a human into a tree is not.
If one of the targets has powers, the powers stay with the original body (with some grey area if the powers are knowledge-based or otherwise not anchored in the body, EX: magic spells learned through memorization would stay with the mind that learned them).
The flip lasts anywhere from several hours to a day, but Tai can end it early.
She can flip herself with someone else, but the someone else has to have the X gene (this limitation ONLY exists when swapping herself) – best anyone can tell, it’s her powers’ way of making sure she can get back.


APPROACHES:
+3 Quick
+2 Flashy, Clever
+1 Sneaky, Forceful,
+0 Careful

REFRESH: 3

STUNTS:
Savant Insight – Tai sees the world differently than most people, this gives her +2 to Cleverly Create an Advantage to discover a hidden Aspect by spotting normally overlooked clues.
Mind Like A Maze - Tai gets +2 to Flashily Overcome an Obstacle involving logic or puzzles.
Shortest Distance Between Two Points – Tai latches on to details most people don’t notice, and can draw attention to these; if she gives up her action to assist an ally’s action, their roll is increased by +2 instead of the normal +1.

BACKSTORY:
Tai was always a little odd. Though she came from a normal family – both parents happily married with steady jobs, an eight-year-old brother who absolutely adored his older sister, all living together in a quiet neighborhood – somehow this never translated into an average childhood…

…because Tai never quite ‘got’ people. People were those strange animals that got upset when you watched them quietly, laughed if you asked them questions, or looked uncomfortable when you wanted to do social things with them.

Her parents got increasingly concerned when it became clear it was not a phase Tai would grow out of, and they pushed her to get out more, socialize, make friends. This backfired in short order…and then one day one of the schoolmates Tai had awkwardly tried to befriend acted rude enough that even Tai noticed, and then he found himself in the body of his ex-girlfriend. A spate of similar incidents soon followed, until they were eventually traced back to Tai.

Perversely Tai’s parents had no issues whatsoever with their daughter developing powers: they were, in fact, secretly relieved. Because this, they felt, was likely the cause of their daughter’s social awkwardness, and they hypothesized that proper training would clear up whatever psychological difficulties that were affecting her mental state. So they shipped her off to the Institute with smiles and affection and genuine well-wishes, confident that all would soon be right with the world.

Fate points remaining: 3
Stress boxes: Only one may be checked per hit
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequences: Multiple may be filled with one hit, but only if they are blank to begin with
Mild (2-shift):
Moderate (4-shift):
Severe (6-shift):


SLEEPER

ASPECTS:
-Escape the Cage (High Concept)
-Mommy Had Good Reason for Not Abandoning Me (Trouble)
-Fast Learner
-Arrogance of Youth
-Alien Power-Up

POWER FACTS:
-Klyntar Symbiote
*Can bond with a host with the following effects:
*Enhances the host’s physical strength (and powers if applicable)
*Heals the host’s injuries
*Protects the host from most environmental effects (up to and including vacuum)
*Can influence and (depending on the host) control the host
*Can freely communicate with the host
*If bonded to a sufficient degree and for a sufficient length of time, the symbiote may retain a copy of the host’s powers
*Shape-shifting which allows the symbiote to camouflage with most environments
*Weak to fire and certain types of sound
*The symbiote is telepathically aware of other symbiotes in the vicinity
*Racial memory
*Limited ability to split into pieces and control the pieces
-Can sense and generate chemicals, including:
*Can communicate with creatures who are not the host via pheromones
*Can release chemicals that cause sleep, increase a target’s susceptibility to persuasion, and inflict other emotional responses with a high degree of precision
-Like its parent Venom, Sleeper can cling to walls, both while bonded to a host and not
-Can see things that are cloaked or invisible


APPROACHES:
+3 Sneaky
+2 Clever, Forceful
+1 Flashy, Quick
+0 Careful

REFRESH: 3

STUNTS:
Better Living Through Chemistry – When bonded to a host, once per scene, Sleeper can clear the host’s stress boxes.
I’m Invisible! - +2 to Sneakily hide from creatures susceptible to pheromones
Good Reflexes - +2 to Quickly Defend against physical threats when Sleeper or a close ally is endangered.

Fate points remaining: 3
Stress boxes: Only one may be checked per hit
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequences: Multiple may be filled with one hit, but only if they are blank to begin with
Mild (2-shift):
Moderate (4-shift):
Severe (6-shift):


Sleeper was napping when the knock came this time; the noise loud enough to wake them. Light-sensitive cells activated bringing blurry color to the world, but nothing of note revealed itself. Then their parents opened the door and a familiar voice called out:

“Hello little baby symbiote! I’m here again! And I brought you toys!”

The babysitter again.

Sleeper was still ambivalent about the human babysitter. To some degree she was entertaining to watch – or at least a wide margin better than sitting in their tank doing nothing – but the same unpredictability also made her somewhat worrying to be around. Sleeper felt there was a non-trivial chance that if they tried to get her to feed them she might jump out the window or set fire to the apartment.

But here she was, so they were going to have to make the best of it.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2

Trying out a different dice roll version because I’m tired of doing math. :P

Tai held the box of toys up for Mr. Brock and his friend to examine. The grown-up symbiote – as usual pretending to be Mr. Brock’s clothes – broke its disguise to snake a tendril into the box and occasionally extract one of the playthings inside.

Tai hoped everything was okay. Mr. Brock had specifically warned her off anything with bells in it, citing the noise. Working from that, Tai had taken the initiative to exclude anything with a loud squeak, or anything electronic period – lots of electronic things made noise, and anyway making Mr. Brock buy batteries so the baby could play when he lived in a place like this didn’t seem very nice.

She had brought a teething ring – Mr. Brock had said the baby didn’t have teeth, but Mr. Brock’s friend obviously had teeth, so Tai made the logical assumption that the baby was going to get teeth eventually, and would want to chew on something when they came in. Some wooden blocks were in there too; Tai still wasn’t sure if choking on small objects was something symbiote babies could do, so they were largish blocks. There was one of those cat toys intended to hold treats inside; Tai thought the M&Ms should fit in it and then the baby could play while it ate. A hamster ball and some plush animals had been added for variety. And finally an actual children’s book: on consultation with Professor McCoy she’d ended up with one of the earlier Harry Potter books, which she hoped the baby would like.

“Everything looks okay, kid,” Mr. Brock told her after making faces Tai couldn’t decipher at some of the things in the box. “Just put it down wherever.”

Mr. Brock went over the usual rules, plus a few new ones – the baby wasn’t allowed on the ceiling anymore, she was to clean up any dishes she dirtied, she was not to dismantle the bed or any of the other furniture – while his friend sort of petted the baby and swirled around it in what Tai assumed was a symbiote hug. Then Mr. Brock told the baby goodbye, and told Tai they would be back later, and they were out the door and she was alone with the baby again.

The baby had already climbed out of its tank and was making its way to the floor, so Tai broke out the toys. All went well for about an hour, and then…


Tai: [roll0]
Sleeper: [roll1]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Pinned by Debris (Sleeper)

Boosts in Effect:
(None)


The hamster ball had proven to be unexpectedly entertaining. Once Sleeper got the hang of occasionally being flipped upside-down by the momentum, it allowed them to go at much greater speeds than their normally-gloopy body would allow without the level of concentration needed to form into a ball themselves. Steering it was still a bit of a difficulty, but they were sure that was normal at this stage, and their parents wouldn’t mind if they bumped into the furniture a few dozen times…

Sleeper wondered if this was how human teenagers felt about their first car.

They were still wondering when the world collapsed on top of them.

----------------

Tai jumped to her feet as there was a loud CRASH! against the side of the building. Dust was raining down from the ceiling and a net of huge cracks had appeared in the wall. Outside a flock of pigeons exploded into flight. A second CRASH! rattled the building and the wall fell inwards, but she’d had enough Danger Room practice by now to get out of the way before being buried in bricks and old mortar.

A large, bright green man slid through the new hole in the building, his movements coordinated and vaguely insectile. After a moment Tai realized he was only green because he was wearing a full-body suit: bulky armored sections that didn’t seem to impede his movements at all, and a long tail ending in sharp blades. She thought she remembered seeing him on the news fighting Spider-man.

He glanced around the ruined apartment and grinned, revealing inhumanly sharp teeth.

“Brock’s not home? Good, then this’ll be easy.”

He swung his tail at the couch.


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Pinned by Debris (Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
(None)


The couch slid across the floor and slammed into the door, blocking it. Tai looked around frantically for the baby, and finally spotted it—still in the hamster ball, it was trapped in place by fallen brick and bits of wall. The man in the scorpion costume loomed between them, still grinning with those very sharp teeth. He wasn’t paying any attention to the baby, which Tai thought was good.

“Where’s the suit little girl? Tell me and I won’t have to hurt you.”

“Suit???” Tai wondered why he wanted a tuxedo. And anyway it wasn’t very nice to go breaking into someone’s house…

“The symbiote suit you stupid little runt!” Tai abruptly found herself being held up by her shirt collar, and she could no longer feel the floor under her feet. “I know that thing spawned, where is it?”

“…You want to take the baby?” Tai wanted to make sure she was understanding the angry green man; she knew she got confused a lot and this seemed like an important thing not to be confused about. Surely he meant something else…

“Yes.” Now even Tai could tell he was getting annoyed.

“…You’re a bad man!”

((SWAPPING Scorpion with Random New York Pigeon))

Tai was usually not allowed to switch people without asking someone first. But after a rather exciting afternoon involving some anti-mutant protestors who turned out to be armed, Professor Summers had taken her aside and explained that it was okay not to ask first if someone was going to get hurt otherwise. Tai didn’t always guess when that was going to happen, but now seemed like one of those times.

There was no flash or other obvious outward sign Tai had used her powers, barring two:

One of the pigeons that had flown off earlier came tumbling back down outside (Tai assumed the bad man didn’t know how to fly, and her powers wouldn’t help with that – she hoped the pigeon would be okay when it got its body back).

And the pigeon-in-the-bad-man’s body screamed and threw her across the room.


[roll0] +2 from Stunt, ‘Quite the Tail’
Tai to Quickly Defend: [roll1]


----------------

Sleeper, meanwhile, was a bit occupied.

The crash of brick all around them wasn’t of the appropriate intensity to do them harm, but it was disorienting and cut off most of their field of vision. As that was already limited by their own physiology and the hamster ball, right now all they could really see was a great deal of shadowy darkness and a large green blur in the direction the babysitter had been in.

But they could recognize that voice, even if they couldn’t make out the words. Mac Gargan. One of their Klyntar parent’s previous hosts, who had tried to take Sleeper when they were spawned, and a very dangerous individual even without symbiotic help.

He was supposed to think Sleeper was dead.

And right now he was probably killing the babysitter. They should probably do something about that. Their parents would be upset if she died.


[roll2]
Success will remove the Aspect, “Pinned by Debris”

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


And after adding the +2 from Scorpion’s Stunt, that’s a hit on Tai!

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Sleeper:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Sleeper has managed to free themself from the rubble.

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Pinned by Debris (Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
(None)


Tai managed to curl up and roll when she was thrown like she’d been taught, but that didn’t do anything to help against the long, mechanical tail blade that came slicing down afterwards, and Tai felt a line of fire on her arm where it had hit.

The pigeon-in-angry-man’s body was panicking: flapping its arms, jumping up and down and stumbling around the rubble-strewn room, the suit-tail twisting crazily behind it. Tai was pretty sure it was trying to fly away. She was sorry she couldn’t let it do that, because she was also pretty sure if she put the bad man back, he would try to take the baby again, and if she switched it with a different bird she would have just terrified two pigeons which wasn’t better.

She needed to do something, however, because the pigeon had flapped over to where the baby was, and it was liable to hurt the little goo monster by accident.

“No, no, bad pigeon!”

She got up and waved her arms at it, trying to shoo it away from the little symbiote.


[roll0]


----------------

Sleeper managed to fling off the rubble after a moment or two; there were little holes in the hamster ball which Sleeper assumed were meant to be air holes, but functioned just as well for them to slip tendrils out and push away the bits of brick and wall with a little work. As they had encountered Gargan before and knew what he ‘tasted’ like, it should be simple enough to put him to sleep once Sleeper had easier access to open air. Then the babysitter would be saved and maybe, maybe their parents would figure out they didn’t need her here in the first place.

Sleeper was still grumbling to themself when a large green foot came flying at the hamster ball.


[roll1]
Sleeper to Quickly Defend: [roll2]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


That’s a fail for Tai, so the Aspect is being created but Pigeon!Scorpion gets the free invoke.

Sleeper is going to invoke their Stunt “Good Reflexes” bringing it up to a tie, so no Stress is accrued but Pigeon!Scorpion gets the Boost, ‘Baby is Rattled’

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Sleeper:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion


Sleeper managed to brace themself appropriately just in time to be launched across the room like a kickball. The hamster ball impacted the far wall, bounced off, bounced off the ceiling, and finally rolled to a stop behind the blurry figure that was Tai.

At least, Sleeper was pretty sure it was the babysitter. They were more than a little disoriented after that.

They got their bearings enough to notice that Gargan was doing some bouncing around the room of his own. Sleeper wondered what the problem was – they still couldn’t make out the supervillain’s words with any clarity, but he was being very loud and the tone sounded panicked, not threatening. They decided it didn’t matter; enough of the appropriate chemicals in the air and he wouldn’t be doing anything but sleep…


[roll0]
Pigeon!Scorpion to Quickly Defend: [roll1]


----------------

“You HURT THE BABY!”

Tai was mad. She knew she had scared the pigeon, and that hadn’t been very nice of her even if she hadn’t done it to be mean, so she wasn’t mad that it had hurt her. But the baby – that was different. The little symbiote hadn’t done anything to the pigeon, and here the pigeon was kicking it across the room.

So she was mad. But she wasn’t altogether certain what she should do about it; she couldn’t put the bad man back without making things worse, and the pigeon was currently a lot bigger and stronger than she was. Plus it was flailing around a lot; she didn’t think she could get close without getting hurt again.

…there was still an awful lot of rubble on the floor.

So Tai picked up some bricks and started throwing.


[roll2]
Pigeon!Scorpion to Quickly Defend: [roll3]



[roll4]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Tie for Sleeper AND for Tai.

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Sleeper:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
Trapped and Confused (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Tai


Tai thought she must have scared the pigeon worse with the bricks, or maybe her yelling did it, because it tried to jump up to the ceiling. It stuck there, somewhat to her surprise, and started tearing at the ceiling bringing large chunks of it down. Tai could just see a hole forming when there was a scream from the floor above and the pigeon-in-the-green-man’s-body fell down to the floor again. It darted back in her direction; it was weaving a little bit now, and Tai wondered if it had gotten hurt.

But it was going to hurt the baby again if she didn’t stop it. Tai thought back on something Professor Logan had said about stopping people who were bigger than her, then curled up and threw herself under the pigeon’s legs, trying to trip it. She hoped she was remembering this right.


[roll0]
Pigeon!Scorpion to Quickly Defend: [roll1]


----------------

Oops.

Sleeper had forgotten they were still in the hamster ball when they released the sleep gas, with the result that it was mostly confined with them. What was leaking out through the air holes would only be enough to make Gargan woozy.

It was obvious that wasn’t going to be good enough. The green blur that was Gargan was approaching fast, and was getting close enough Sleeper could even kind of make out the scorpion tail of his costume.

…and it looked like the babysitter was going to try to stop him with her tiny human body. This couldn’t end well.


[roll2] add +2 from Stunt Quite the Tail
Sleeper to Quickly Defend: [roll3] add +2 from Stunt Good Reflexes

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



A hit, a palpable hit! :D

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Sleeper:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
Trapped and Confused (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Tai


Tai felt the armored green foot hook under her ribs and was sent sprawling sideways. The big metal tail came down where her head was but, with a rush of adrenaline that seemed to come out of nowhere, Tai was able to push herself out of the way before it hit.

----------------

Sleeper didn’t have lungs to sigh with relief, but they would have if they could have. The burst of stimulants they’d sent at the babysitter seemed to have done their job; she did not seem to be in any more pain or injury than she had been before Gargan charged –

– or at least, she wasn’t screaming and the taste of her blood in the air wasn’t any stronger than it had been a minute ago. Sleeper couldn’t spare the concentration at the moment to make eyes and see more than blurs.

(None of this would be happening if they had their own host. Maybe their parents would be reasonable after this.)

----------------

When Tai looked up from her near-miss she saw the end results of her tripping attempt: the pigeon had face-planted on the floor and cracked the angry man’s nose, blood was trickling down its chin.

Tai felt briefly sorry that she had hurt it, but it had kicked the baby and hurt her arm and now that they were fighting Tai wasn’t entirely sure how she was supposed to make that stop without more fighting. One of the professors had brought up ‘de-escalation’ at some point but Tai hadn’t understood it very well and eventually decided it was probably an other people thing.

Anyway, she wasn’t sure if it would work on a pigeon.

She had to do something though, because now that it was hurt the pigeon was thrashing around a lot, and the tail on its suit was flinging wildly around. In fact it was flinging in her direction—


[roll0] add +2 from Stunt Quite the Tail
Tai to Quickly Defend: [roll1]


[roll2] add +2 from Stunt Quite the Tail
Sleeper to Quickly Defend: [roll3] add +2 from Stunt Good Reflexes

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Two hits, and Tai is going to take the Mild Consequence Bleeding in place of stress.

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
Trapped and Confused (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Tai


Tai’s feet were swept out from under her and a lot of blood started trickling down her leg. Meanwhile the hamster ball with the baby in it went flying across the room again to knock into the wall. “Baby!”

Tai had one thought in her head now – stop the pigeon from hurting the baby anymore.

She flung herself at the angry green man’s body and started hitting it in the face.


[roll0]
Pigeon!Scorpion to Forcefully Defend: [roll1]


----------------

Sleeper had to get their bearings after that hit. The hamster ball was spinning wildly – and by extension so was the rest of the world, and they were too dazed to immediately stop it. It was a good thing their species didn’t have a digestive track, or they would be emptying it right now.

At last the ball hit a piece of debris and jarred to a stop, and they were able to take better stock of the situation.

They could taste more blood in the air, and they were reasonably certain it was the babysitter’s. They decided they needed to try a different tactic; clearly Gargan was pumped up on adrenaline at this point, or he wouldn’t be charging around the room like a mad bull. They should be working with the supervillain’s biochemistry rather than against it. So instead of sleep, maybe fear would be the appropriate response…


[roll2]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


That was terrible.

Sleeper spends a Fate point to re-roll that.

[roll0]

Sleeper’s Fate points remaining: 2

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Sleeper ties after the re-roll (and I forgot to specify the Aspect for that so that will be Fast Learner; Sleeper’s met Gargan before so adapting attacks to his biochemisty on the fly seems plausible), and creates a Boost (But Fear Itself) instead.

Tai is going to invoke the Boost Trapped and Confused for +2 to her Attack roll and that Boost goes away now. She is also going to spend a Fate Point to invoke Whole Hog for another +2 and thus actually does damage, filling Pigeon!Scorpion’s 2-shift slot.

Tai’s Fate points remaining: 2

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
Trapped and Confused (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Tai
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


Tai’s inexpertly-aimed fist hit the angry green man’s already-injured nose and the pigeon started screaming. The noise took a moment to reach Tai in her laser-focus pummeling but when it did, she was sorry again; she knew it wasn’t very nice to go hitting people. But she couldn’t just pick him up and throw him out either, he was much bigger than she was.

The pigeon, however, seemed to have had enough. It managed to break away after a minute and crouched, then leaped straight up flapping its arms frantically.


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Wow, good roll! Pigeon!Scorpion uses the free invoke on Spooked for a +2 and a success.

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion) – 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


The pigeon went leaping upwards and smashed right through the ceiling. No one screamed this time; Tai wondered if whoever had been up there had gone away.

Tai heard a crash of glass a moment later and saw the pigeon-in-the-green-man’s body go arcing toward the ground outside. When it landed it looked around confused, and Tai thought maybe still scared, as its suit-tail was still whipping around wildly. Very wildly; a few people who had been outside the building and saw it immediately turned and ran away, yelling about scorpions. And as far as Tai could tell that was scaring the pigeon worse.

“No no no no someone’s going to get hurt!”

Tai scooped up the baby in the hamster ball and went to run downstairs, but the couch was still blocking the door and she couldn’t get out. She needed to move the couch…


[roll0]
Success will remove the Aspect, Not Getting Out That Way.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion)

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


…and the couch was being a bad couch and not moving. It was kind of heavy to begin with, and there was a lot of rubble around the legs too. And she was doing it one-handed as she refused to put down the baby at this point. Nevertheless Tai wished the couch had parents of its own she could complain to, there were people outside and they were going to get hurt if it didn’t let her out…

That reminded her; this was probably enough of an emergency to call Mr. Brock. At the very least he should know she was taking the baby out of the apartment, since she couldn’t leave it here by itself.

She pulled out the phone the Institute had given her in case something happened while babysitting and dialed Mr. Brock’s number.

Up came the voicemail.

Tai scanned the room while she waited for the beep, trying to see if she could find another way out that didn’t involve the door.

“Hi Mr. Brock, a bad pigeon broke the wall and I need to go stop it before it hurts someone. Don’t worry, I’m taking the baby with me so it won’t be by itself. Bye!”


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2

The wall wasn’t blocked, and the angry green man had gotten in that way, so Tai decided to check it out.

Mr. Brock’s apartment was on the second story – not far up, but not so close that she could just hop out of the hole and run out either. The exterior wall was badly damaged, but there were no visible handholds where the angry green man had gotten in, just a lot of cracks and some rubble at the bottom.

After a moment of thought Tai, still trailing blood, ran to the closet to dig out an extra bedsheet. (She remembered Mr. Brock had forbidden her from dismantling the furniture, and anyway there was rubble on the bed too.) She threaded it around one of the bed’s legs to make a U-shape and then hesitated: she was going to need both hands for this. But she couldn’t leave the baby here, it might hurt itself on all the broken bits of building. And she hadn’t brought her backpack with her this time, not having had any schoolwork to do today.

Tai settled for shoving the baby’s ball under her shirt and then making sure the latter was thoroughly tucked in. Then she wrapped her hands around the ends of the sheet and used it to climb down the outside wall.

She had to let go to reach the ground, but by then the ground wasn’t that far away – she was going to have trouble getting back in. It also occurred to her she should have told Mr. Brock the door to his apartment was blocked when she’d called him – but no, she realized, he and his friend could stick to walls and come in through the hole in the wall. Or maybe just push the door open; he was probably stronger than she was. It would be okay.

But now that she was on the ground she had a different problem: the pigeon was out of sight. Tai could still dimly hear screams and the occasional loud crash, hopefully that was the right direction…Tai ran towards the noise.


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2

Tai was lost.

She could still sometimes hear loud crashing noises, but this was New York, and when Tai found herself looking at a couple of taxis with bent-up fenders and men yelling next to them she realized she’d gone the wrong way.

She was getting very worried, now; the pigeon could have hurt someone and what would her teachers think if she let that happen? She’d get in trouble, and she was setting a bad example for the baby too.

There was no help for it; she was going to have to ask for directions.

Tai looked around for someone she could ask.


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


Police code was referenced from this site. (https://www.n2nov.net/nypdcodes.html) I have no idea if it is accurate.

The men with the taxis were still yelling and she thought it would be a bad idea to interrupt them, and there was another couple eating lunch at a nearby café but one of them made a not-very-nice-sounding remark about teen pregnancies when Tai approached so Tai decided they probably weren’t nice enough to ask.

But there was a police officer on the corner! Maybe she would be nice.

“Miss, you’re bleeding, do you need help?”

Oh good, Tai wasn’t even going to have to ask!

“Yes, Miss Officer,” Tai responded sincerely. “There was a big angry green man who broke into Mr. Brock’s apartment and he ran away and I can’t find him.”

The nice officer blinked. Tai wondered if there was something in her eyes. “…You mean the Hulk?” She reached for her radio.

“…No?” Tai was pretty sure that was someone else, Mr. Hulk had his hair showing. And he turned into another man who wasn’t green, she didn’t think he would need a costume. She thought he might be bigger, too. And anyway she was sure Mr. Hulk was nice and wouldn’t have gone and broken Mr. Brock’s apartment – not on purpose, anyway.

It occurred to Tai she should probably tell the nice officer lady some of that. “He had a costume on, it had a tail and there were sharp things on it and they cut me.” Tai motioned to her injuries, but kept a hand on the hamster ball under her shirt so the baby wouldn’t be jostled. “Did you see him, do you know where he went?”

The police lady put her radio to her mouth. “Dispatch, this is Officer Knight, we have a 10-24, suspect is armed – ”

Officer – Knight, apparently, unless she was like the professors at school when they wore masks and her real name was a secret – asked Tai a few more questions and tried to get her to sit down with the promise of an ambulance. Dispatch and what Tai thought were other police officers rumbled scratchily back and forth over the radio.

Tai meanwhile got increasingly fidgety. The pigeon was going to get away and hurt someone. And the baby was sloshing around under her shirt, she thought it might be getting bored. Or—

“—suspect spotted, 52nd and 10th—”

Pigeon! Tai knew where that was! It wasn’t that far from here! “Thank you Officer Knight!” And with that Tai bolted in the direction of the intersection in question.

“Miss—miss, please wait—I have an ambulance on the way—”

Officer Knight’s voice grew muffled as Tai turned the corner and gradually faded away.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Tai is far enough from the apartment now that those Aspects no longer apply, so Old and Run-down Apartment and Not Getting Out That Way are going away and being replaced by New York City Streets.

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Old and Run-down Apartment (General)
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Not Getting Out That Way (General) - 1 free invoke for Scorpion
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion)
New York City Streets (General)

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


Sleeper was torn, metaphorically speaking. On the one hand, they were trying to keep the idiot babysitter from getting herself killed, and her charging after Gargan at top speed ran contrary to that.

On the other hand, they were outside now!

There wasn’t much to see, presently, what with having been shoved down the babysitter’s shirt, but they could taste the smell of a hotdog vendor nearby, and hear nearby humans arguing. Thanks to their racial memory, Sleeper knew the police in general had had enough bad experiences with their parent – correction, both their parents – and their older siblings – that they deemed it would be a bad idea to show themself right now, so they would have to settle for just scent and sound.

This was, regardless, a great deal more interesting than watching the paint flake off the walls.

----------------

The pigeon wasn’t on 52nd and 10th.

But it was nearby; Tai saw it clinging to the wall in an alley not far from there. Maybe it had just moved.

As she watched it jumped and tried flapping its arms again, only to crash into the opposite building and go tumbling to the ground. There were no people around, but Tai saw a police car go driving past towards 52nd and 10th.

Tai wasn’t quite sure what to do now; if it were a normal pigeon she supposed she should try to catch it with a net, or even just leave it alone because a normal pigeon wasn’t going to hurt anyone. But it had wrecked Mr. Brock’s apartment just because it was afraid, and she was sure if she switched it back the angry man would be worse.

Wait, pigeons liked bread, didn’t they? Maybe she could lure it with some bread. Somewhere away from people. Or at least keep it from panicking until the police came to arrest it (did the police usually arrest pigeons? Tai wasn’t sure). Tai looked around to see if there was somewhere she could get some bread.


[roll0]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2



Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion)
New York City Streets (General)

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


…there was a pastry shop!

Tai ran over only to find the man behind the counter locking everything up.

“Mr. Baker Person I need to buy some bread,” Tai said breathlessly, trying to address the shopkeeper and pull out her wallet at the same time.

“Are you crazy? The Scorpion just went by not five minutes ago, we’re closed until the police give the all clear.”

“The angry green man with the tail?” Tai processed this. “He’s not a scorpion he’s a pigeon, and I need to feed him so he won’t hurt anyone.”

The man behind the counter paused, a keychain with tiny little keys dangling from one hand. They made a pretty jingling noise before going still. “Wait. Did you just say a supervillain is blackmailing you for bread?”

Tai looked confused. She knew what ‘blackmail’ was, but couldn’t figure out how it applied to the current conversation. “…No? I don’t think so.”

“…You know what? This is too much crazy for one day.” The shopkeeper pulled a loaf of bread off a shelf and tossed it onto the counter. “There you go. Now please let me lock up.”

“Thank you!” Tai dropped some money on the counter, snatched up the bread, and ran back to where she’d seen the pigeon.

It was not having much more luck flying.

Tai felt sorry for it again; it kept jumping into the air and didn’t realize it needed to catch itself when it started coming down again, it just flapped its arms harder. It had sort of figured out it could stick to walls but didn’t seem to want to stay there, instead using the walls to jump higher – which lead to higher crashes.

The angry man’s armor was starting to look a little dented.

It shook itself after another crash landing – Tai was reminded of that feather fluffing thing birds did, although of course it didn’t have feathers right now – and she took the opportunity to tear off a piece of the bread, crumble it up, and throw it at the ground near the pigeon.

“Come here, little pigeon, I have some nice bread for you,” Tai coaxed. “Oh, it has little bits of oatmeal on the top, that’s neat. Don’t you want to try some, little pigeon?”

----------------

The babysitter was insane. That was the only logical conclusion Sleeper could come to. Who in their right mind tried to bribe a supervillain with baked goods?

(…and where had she gotten the idea that Gargan was a pigeon…?)

Sleeper had risked oozing a bit of their substance out of the hamster ball and through the fabric of the babysitter’s shirt so they could see what was going on, so now they could see that Gargan didn’t seem to know what to do either. There was something weirdly tentative about the Scorpion’s movements, and he wasn’t attacking the babysitter again even though there was nothing between him and her and Sleeper was now plainly visible. Gargan was actually eying the crumbs on the ground, scraping at them with a foot.

But enough wondering; he was definitely in range for another burst of sleep gas.


[roll0]
Pigeon!Scorpion to Quickly Defend: [roll1]

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Issue #2 WHAT IF? Tai Babysat for the Venom Symbiote – Part 2


And Pigeon!Scorpion doesn’t have a 2-hit box empty, so that’s the end of the fight!

Tai:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift
Consequence (Mild) – Bleeding - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion

Sleeper:
(X) – 1-shift
( ) – 2-shift
( ) – 3-shift

Pigeon!Scorpion:
( ) – 1-shift
(X) – 2-shift
(X) – 3-shift

Aspects in Effect:
Familiar Babysitter (Tai, Sleeper)
Spooked (Pigeon!Scorpion)
New York City Streets (General)

Boosts in Effect:
Baby is Rattled (Sleeper) - 1 free invoke for Pigeon!Scorpion
Disoriented (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper
But Fear Itself (Pigeon!Scorpion) - 1 free invoke for Sleeper


Gargan toppled to the ground and started breathing heavily.

Sleeper didn’t have lungs to sigh with. Once again they regretted the lack of host. But it was over, and now as long as the babysitter didn’t jump off a building she should survive until their parents returned.

----------------

“Little pigeon are you okay?”

Tai eyed the unconscious angry pigeon-man. She wasn’t sure why he’d fallen over; she thought for a moment there might be something wrong with the bread, but he hadn’t actually eaten any of it.

Experimentally she tore off another piece and sniffed it, just in case. Then after determining that it smelled okay, nibbled it. She was pretty sure she was still awake. So it wasn’t the bread.

Maybe the pigeon was just tired? It was probably very tiring trying to fly, and it had been very scared, too.

She hoped it would be okay, even if it had attacked her and the baby. She sprinkled a few more crumbs in front of the pigeon in case it woke up before the police came, and ran to go get them.

----------------

Mac Gargan was having a bad day.

Once he’d realized Brock was MIA and the suit’s spawn was virtually unguarded it should have been easy to grab the little abomination and get out. But that was before he found himself plunging out of the sky, suddenly a lot smaller and with a beak for a face.

The crash had not been fun. Luckily his new, smaller size and cushion of feathers had protected him from any serious damage, but it hadn’t come with instructions for his new wings, which in Mac’s opinion made up for the lack of broken bones. It meant he’d gotten a bird’s eye view – hah! – of his own body staggering around like a panicked drunk, and he was helpless to do anything about it.

The fact that the kid got hit a few times didn’t even make him feel any better; somehow someone that inexperienced had managed to get the drop on him and stuff him in this useless ball of feathers!

Mac fluffed himself up and sulked on the roof while he watched his original body escape Brock’s apartment, flapping its arms like a moron. This was going to end up on Youtube and he was never going to live it down and there was nothing he could do about it, so he figured he was allowed some sulking.

He was still at it when the police came by and started putting up crime scene tape around the building. There had been people screaming inside earlier and more on the street when his body burst out; Mac surmised someone had called 911.

Hrmm, maybe today wouldn’t be a complete loss after all. With a little luck Brock wouldn’t know what had happened and would end up getting arrested when he came back home…

Mac had lost himself in fantasies of a symbiote kill squad burning Brock to ash when his perspective shifted violently to the inside of an armored prison van.

It took him a moment to get his bearings. There were restraints around his wrists and hands – the kind that were built for people with super strength – more locking his ankles to the wall of the van, and the getting-familiar weight of a shock collar around his neck. He was still wearing his armor, but it was badly damaged and the tail had been chained to the wall. Experimentally he tried commanding it but it didn’t even twitch; either it was broken or someone had managed to disable it. There were also armed guards on either side of him with high-powered weapons trained on him, and it looked like the police outside were just about to shut the doors and cart him away.

And out there was that kid, clutching a plastic ball and talking to one of the police.

Mac snapped.

“What are you doing! This is that kid’s fault!” He lunged for the exit, only to come up short as the restraints did their job. “She made me do this, this is all her fault! You’ll see! She’ll rip your face off and paste it on something else and—and—ARRGH! I WENT LEGIT! I’M A LEGIT SYMBIOTE HUNTER YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!!!” BZZT! “OW! I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!”

----------------

Venom was just finishing webbing up the last of a gang of robbers (really, why would someone go and rob a mattress store???) when the phone vibrated again. They had been distantly aware it had done so before, but as they had been in the middle of a fire fight they had been forced to ignore it.

But they had time now. They hit the ‘answer’ button and walked up the side of one of the nearby buildings away from prying ears.

“Mr. Brock, is the baby allergic to peanuts?”

Both Eddie and his other shared a moment of brief concern. “We told you our offspring isn’t supposed to eat anything but the M&Ms,” they scolded.

“Yes, but the police said I’m not supposed to go back to the apartment and this store doesn’t have any plain M&Ms, they just have peanut M&Ms, and Skittles.”

Technically it only had to be chocolate, and they were about to tell her so when the rest of what she’d said registered. “Wait, police?!”

“Yes, they came because the angry man in the scorpion costume broke the apartment. I’m sorry I tried to call you earlier but I got your voicemail.”

“Where are you now?” Tai told them. Venom was already swinging in her direction. “…stay right where you are, we’ll be right there.”

----------------

Eddie’s other was back to pretending to be clothes, but it had been a near thing, and Eddie was positive the half-drunk homeless man outside had seen enough to ID them if anyone took him seriously. They were both sufficiently frantic not to care.

They found Tai in the candy aisle of the tiny local grocery store, just as she’d said. She was carrying the hamster ball she’d brought over earlier, and their offspring was inside it pretending to be a rather large black and green rubber ball. There were fresh bandages on the girl, and enough dried blood to be concerning if apparently not crippling.

Both symbiotes broke their disguises sufficiently to extend tendrils to one another; spawn greeting parent, and parent anxiously checking spawn for injuries.

Eddie for his part barely let the girl get out a greeting before going into interrogate-the-witness mode. “What happened?”

What followed was a confused and confusing ramble that Eddie wasn’t entirely sure he was making sense of.

“I was watching the baby play in the hamster ball and there was a big crash, and a big angry man broke the wall, and he was in a green suit with a long tail and Officer Knight said he was called The Scorpion, and he said he was going to take the baby” Tai was starting to get upset “so I switched him with a pigeon—”

“Wait, you what?”

“I switched him.”

“You switched the kid with a bird.” Gargan wasn’t that stupid, how had she managed to pull that off?

“No, not the baby. The angry green man. I put him in a pigeon and I put the pigeon in him so he couldn’t take the baby. Professor Summers said it was okay to do that if someone was going to get hurt.”

Eddie managed to puzzle out that Tai was talking about her powers, and decided that that line of questioning was unimportant next to the information that Mac Gargan had tried to kidnap their kid.

We should kill him Eddie.

Eddie was inclined to agree this time, but Tai was continuing.

“But then the pigeon got scared I think, and it was running around swinging its tail a lot, and it got on the ceiling,” Tai was definitely upset now, “and it started breaking things and it hit the baby, and it kicked it—”

It was a good thing his other had already determined their spawn was unhurt or at that point they might have done something they would regret later. As it was they had a teenager bursting into tears in a public place and drawing more attention than they wanted. Eddie dug around for a tissue and handed it to her, patting her shoulder awkwardly while trying to see how many people were taking notice.

“Whoa, whoa. The kid’s fine. What happened after that?”

Tai managed to get a hold of herself after a moment and a very loud nose-blowing. Some of the people giving curious looks went back to their shopping. Eddie wondered if they could steer the kids outside into a nice private alleyway.

“After that the pigeon tried to fly away, and it was going to hurt someone so I went after it, and then I got lost, and then Officer Knight found the pigeon so I gave it some bread and then it fell down. And then the police came to take it away—”

“Kid, that was really dangerous,” Eddie scolded, but he was mostly doing so for form’s sake - most of his concentration was being spent trying to placate his other, who was not terribly bothered that Tai had gone after Gargan so much as she had taken their spawn with her when she went.

Could have been hurt, Eddie!

You said the kid was fine.

But she didn’t know that Eddie—! We shouldn’t let her babysit anymore!

I took the kid with me into space after that crazy Kree host of yours, are you going to tell me I shouldn’t be looking after it next? And that had resulted in actual injuries to the spawn in question. She did pretty good, considering.

…

Tai meanwhile bobbed her head, oblivious to their internal dialogue. “I know, Officer Knight said I should let the police handle it next time.”

“Did you tell them about the kid?” That could be a problem if she had.

“Yes, they brought a ambulance and I wasn’t sure if the baby was hurt, so I asked them to check on it.” Tai looked uncertain. “Did I do a bad thing?”

Eddie mulled over the best way to answer that, while simultaneously feeling their chances of getting out of this without the Symbiote Task Force coming after them circling the drain. Oh well, it wasn’t like they could go back to their apartment anyway, with it half-demolished and surrounded by police…

“In the future don’t do that; there are a lot of bad people who’d try to take it, and some of them would kill it.”

“Oh.” Tai looked shaken. “Like Sentinels?”

Oh right. That school she went to did have that problem. “A lot like those. And most doctors don’t know how to treat symbiotes anyway, but you didn’t know that. Did they do anything to the kid?”

Tai looked – well, Eddie’s best guess was annoyed. “They laughed and told me it wasn’t a baby it was a ball. But Officer Knight gave me some band-aids for it,” the teenager dug around in a pocket for a moment before pulling out a rather crinkled handful of adhesive strips “only I didn’t see any cuts on the baby so I don’t know if they can help.” Tai looked uncertain for a moment, and Eddie finally realized she was expecting him to take the adhesive strips, which he did. “And then I thought the baby might be hungry so I tried to go back to the apartment, but the police said it was a crime scene and I had to stay out, so I came here. And they don’t have any plain M&Ms.”

“We can take care of that. Can you make it home on your own okay?” Tai nodded. “You should do that then. We’ll call you if we need you.”

Eddie took the hamster ball and his other maneuvered to be closer to it such that it really looked like his black leather jacket was stuck to the thing with static cling. The telepathic back-and-forth between the two symbiotes was so much like a human kid being embarrassed at their parent’s fussing that Eddie smiled.

It was weird having a kid. Nice, but weird.

Eddie grabbed a couple chocolate bars for the infant and a bottle of strong liquor and headed for the checkout line. Maybe it wasn’t too late to bribe that drunk into forgetting he ever saw them.


The scene is now over, so Tai’s Minor Consequence is now cleared, and as my own DM I hereby declare this a Minor Milestone. Per the rules I can now switch out a Stunt for a different Stunt.

Mind Like A Maze is going away; it was kind of rushed in so I could have Tai finished in time for the original game start and in retrospect it doesn’t really fit her character. It will be replaced with the following:

Troubling Childlike Behavior - +2 to Cleverly Defend against individuals who would object to harming children.