A FAE-ful game

[An Aardvark]

There you are, just minding your own business. Doing whatever it is that you do on a Friday evening as an [investigative journalist/anthropomorphised dolphin/unspeakable horror from the infernal plane/whatever you want to be], when this weird orb appears in front of you. Just hovers there like it's staring at you. Actually it's quite freaky. Maybe you should call someone? Or whack it with a stick? Then suddenly the world goes aquamarine (it's the new black) and when you open your eyes, the orb is gone and you're... somewhere else. Almost as if you've been sleepwalking for a couple of days. Nobody else seems to have noticed anything wrong with you. But then why do you get the feeling that there's something not quite right about this?

[WindStruck]

Things might get cluttered and confusing with all three of us being in separate games, essentially, but all on the same thread. Wouldn't it be better to have a separate thread for each of us, until we meet up?

For now, I guess I'll just put my responses in spoilers.

Solstice was lounging in her home this Friday evening. Her home was in Faerie, and quite Summery indeed. It was an exceptionally hot and humid locale far, far away from any influence of Winter whatsoever. Likely, the real world place it was based off of could have been in Hawaii, Guam, or some other little island in the middle of the ocean, right on the equator. No forces of Winter, nary even a scout or envoy would dare come near this place...

At first glance, Solstice's home appeared like one of those tiki hut places. It sort of looked like one of those touristy buildings, though it all was far more authentic, as if all crafted by hand with only primitive tools. There was no air-conditioning here, not even a fan, and it was all open-air, with large windows spanning two walls and a door frame lacking an actual door which lead right out to a beach with soft white sand and clear, pristine waters. It was completely safe here, at least as far as the eye could see. Inside, the main room wasn't well-furnished, unless dozens upon dozens of pillows and a low table, consisting of a solid sheet of glass counted.

In one corner of the home, the walls were made of stone, housing a fireplace and brick-like oven and grill, which would make the place even hotter, and a spacious stone kitchen area, with a number of wooden and ceramic implements. Nothing even close to metal or containing metal could be found here. Also in that corner was a dark, solid door in the back, and as the bricks end, another wide open door frame, leading to more beach and tidepools. Looking out that door further, a lush jungle can be seen not much further inland.

Along the last wall, there were a number of doors. One of those rooms lead to Solstice's room, which was of a similar environment and a first overt example of 3D space not working as it should. It contained a wardrobe and a number of personal effects and trinkets, though for a bedroom, it distinctly lacked a bed, instead sporting an airy hammock near a curtained window, and usually a comforting breeze. Solstice wasn't in there, though. The other two doors on the wall in the main room lead to her mother's room and a library, though it may be more accurate to call it a disorganized repository of books / misc. storage place. The servant brownies tended to come out of and disappear in here too, and Solstice hadn't figured out how they passed to and from, but in the end, after some investigation, it was a detail she wasn't too concerned about.

This evening Solstice was studying a book in the main room of her home. Ah, this seemed to be more interesting than the others. It dealt with the French Revolution in the mortal realm, some hundreds of years ago. While not the most pressing of matters, her mother felt it was still important for Solstice to know, as its effects were still felt and remembered by the French people today. Her mother would be quizzing her too. Ah, this was the scary thing. Her mother knew every word in this book. She created it. And Solstice didn't want to disappoint her mother. Bad things tended to happen when she did. It was a strange relation she had. At first a loving and nurturing parent. Now.. her mother was a creditor and kept piling on the debt. It was all for the best, though, wasn't it?

In any case, Solstice still had plenty of time. Her mother would still be out for a few more days, and she'd have finished reading the book long before then. She yawned and rubbed her eyes, noting the dimming light as the sun was setting. She stood up and stretched, approaching several lamps around the dwelling, igniting them with a flick of her wrist. They never seemed to run out of oil. One would also notice that Solstice wasn't dressed. At all. All she wore at the time was a small, thin, silk sarong which was loosely tied at her hips. In her defense, she was at home all by herself, she wasn't expecting any visitors, and the temperature of the place practically necessitated scant clothing.

Solstice settled back down, rearranging the pillows a bit before opting to completely change positions, contemplating setting the book she was reading on the glass table. Or maybe she'd take it outside and read it while walking along the beach for a bit. Just then, however, she noticed a strange object out of the corner of her eye. It was the strange orb. She had no clue what this was, who it was, or..

As muddled thoughts of confusion cross her mind, she vaguely recalls dropping the book, the orb getting closer and then nothing.

[Illogictree]

A twig of that annoying rogue grapevine that had crawled down from the rooftop garden over the years in a futile attempt to find more soil elsewhere tapped against the window in the wind, its shadow occluding the smears of glowing neon LED signs through the rain-soaked pane. The arrhythmic rapping sound briefly distracted one of the occupants in the crowded one-person apartment, the light from her computer screen glinting off her reading glasses as she glanced up at it. Concentration broken, she looked back at the six and a half paragraphs of future forum post that she'd been working on and realized she'd lost the thread of her carefully-worded argument. She leaned forward and started re-reading what she'd already typed, her bushy tail twitching with annoyance in its place curled around her.

Tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap. A long minute of silence. Tap.

She looked up at the window again, a frustrated noise coming from her lips.

"What's the matter, Vix?" The second occupant wandered in from the kitchen into the darkened common room, weaving around the stacked boxes and shelves of obsolete data storage media toward the overstuffed and definitely-in-need-of-replacement couch. "Get banned from another forum?" With a knowing smirk she flipped a plastic packet through the air toward her friend.

'Vix' caught the packet and ripped it open, revealing the spongy food product within. It was mostly that spongy vat-grown protein stuff, arranged into different-colored layers that supposedly each had their own flavor and texture so as to mimic some sort of pastry with meat in it, but mostly tended toward unidentifiable and bread-like. Still, it didn't taste outright objectionable, and she was at least a little hungry. Without a second thought she dug into it, eating it one-handed as she scrolled back and forth through the post.

"Nah. Not yet anyway. Just realized my post isn't exactly the work of scintillating brilliance I thought it was while I was writing it," she explains between bites of her food. She looked up to where her friend had settled into the other corner of the sofa, munching on a bowl of salad.

"Heh. Maybe you should forget about it, Vixie," advised the other woman. Her teal-streaked quills were making more little holes in the sofa, the self-healing upholstery long having given up trying to deal with her repeated abuse. She frowned at the tapping sound coming from the window. "That's so annoying," she opined, "Why don't you just cut that down?"

"It's not my plant," replied Vixie. "I'd be worried if I cut it down it'd give it some kind of infection." She squinted at the post, started deleting and trying to re-write a particularly odious sentence (what was I thinking with this? what was the point I was so sure I was making?).

The other girl grinned. "What, you hoping for some free grapes one of these years?"

Vixie frowned as she deleted the sentence again, tried re-writing, then moving to edit another sentence that suddenly made no sense. Her pointy ears folded back in frustration before she angrily closed the window without saving or posting. Now annoyed, she muttered back, "The grapes would probably be sour." With that she stuffed the rest of her meal into her mouth and lay back in the sofa, chewing testily.

A low chuckle at the performance came from her friend. "Hey, let's watch a movie and forget about people being wrong on the internet, OK?"

Vixie swallowed her food and sat up a bit straighter. "Yeah, you're right, Dennie. Let's watch something." She swapped over to the movie app, transferring the output to the smart wall opposite the sofa. Images of movie and TV show posters slid across the wall. Dennie winced at how many of them featured giant robots and animated pretty boys.

"None of your usual mecha crap, OK?" pleaded Dennie as her eye trailed from the robots on screen to the boxes stacked in neat piles along the other walls. Each box, she knew, contained a small-scale plastic representation of the machines that filled those shows. Her gaze further traveled over the shelves and organizers filled with optical disks of all shapes and sizes, film reels, and even magnetic tape formats. The cover of each one boasted similar subject matter. There was even a stack of ancient media players to play them back, all hooked by a tangle of cables into a maze of digital converters that fed into the apartment's computer.

"Aaahhh, fine," said Vixie in a resigned manner, running her hands through the red fur of her tail before scrolling a bit farther. "I watched my episode today already, anyway." The app had pulled up a few films that both of them might enjoy, none of which featured giant robots. She pointed at one. "What about The Brain of Doctor Moreau III: The Paws of Fate?"

"With James and the 'bots riffing it?" Dennie said with a grin. "I hear it's so bad that even with them it's still best to watch it inebriated."

"Sounds like a great terrible idea to me," replied Vixie with enthusiasm. "Not like we'll be needed tomorrow, after all. Things have been pretty slow lately for us Finders. They can do without Silver and Excise for a weekend."

Dennie didn't look too sure about that, but she shrugged. "Well, I'm willing to take that risk. Just one problem: You're out of booze."

Vixie sat up again. "You looked?"

A nod. "Yeah, I did. Want me to run down to the store?"

A shake of the head, sending a ripple through the long silver hair that lent her her codename. "Nah, I'll do it. There's still some left from my last job." She stood up and stretched, her tail wagging back and forth about her curvaceous body. She picked her way across the room, taking up her stylish black and yellow jacket casually draped across a pile of robot boxes and slipping her arms into the sleeves as she stepped into her boots. She pulled off her reading glasses and stuck them into one of her pockets, then pulled on a pair of padded fighting gloves.

"You'd have more money if you took more missions. Ones that actually had a chance of reward," Dennie chided her. She nodded at the gloves Vixie was now sporting. "You expecting trouble?" she asked.

Vixie gave her a mock-serious stare. "I always expect trouble," she said, before giving a dramatic flourish and heading out the door.

She hadn't even gotten down the corridor before a blue orb appeared before her...

[An Aardvark]

You blink. The sand is hot and sticky under your feet. You look up and see the surf coming in. It washes over your feet, bathing them in cool water. You are still wearing your sarong, and standing barefoot on the beach.
"I hope you will not be wearing that thing when our guests arrive." You mother walks to stand next to you. She's wearing an elegant green dress which is de rigeur for a fae of the Summer court. "Now, tell me why Antoine Lavoisier had to die. I trust you've been reading your book?"


"Do you see him?"
The words hit you moments before the sounds of the bar. The cacophony of loud voices erupts around you, struggling to be heard over the repetitive beat blasting over the speakers. You look around the bar. Everything is bathed in neon blue. Everyone is dressed in some kind of electric-punk get-up. All metallic jackets and flashing lights. You look out of place in your black and yellow jacket.
"Silver?" someone says in your ear. You whip around before you realise that the voice is coming from the small, barely visible earpiece you're wearing. "Do you have eyes on Klein?"

[WindStruck]

Still in quite a daze, from a sudden shift of time and slight displacement in location, Solstice seems to hardly register her mother talking to her at first. When questioned about Antoine Lavoisier, she finally turns abruptly to her mother, looking into her eyes. If anything, the confusion in her face was apparent, and even the slight tinge of fear. Amora knew her daughter well. That was easy enough to read. Most likely, she may have thought Solstice indeed didn't know, and was fearing some form of punishment.

But Amora did not quite get the response she was expecting: "I.. I don't know, Mother. I was reading..." Solstice now turned around more, facing away from the ocean and looking more toward her home and up to the sky with just pure confusion on her face. "Guests? Did you come home early and arrange something sooner??"

It's definitely not like her mother or any Fae to lie, even about timeframes. Though her mother was almost always vague and didn't make concrete promises when it came to estimating the time she would arrive back. In the meantime, Solstice's state of dress still was not clicking with her, as she muddled through all the confusion. Being nearly naked in front of her mother wasn't anything she was ashamed of. The confusion swirling through her mind and trying to recall how she got here and what she was doing all this time if not reading completely dominated her thoughts.

[Illogictree]

Silver stumbled slightly at the sudden over-stimulation from the pounding bass and harsh lights, the press of the crowds and the scents of liquor and sweaty bodies.

"What the hell?" she muttered, casting around for anything or anyone familiar. "Klein? Who's...?"

Abruptly the realization hit her. Somehow she was in the middle of a job, one that she didn't remember. Her thoughts raced as she bumped against one of the clients in confusion. Klein. Who was Klein? Her target, right? No, wait, maybe contact. Or someone she was supposed to guard? No, if he was a contact she'd have dressed to blend in, right? Maybe not. The operation must be moving fast if she's just going in. Who was she coordinating with? Was she the only one right now, or were other Finders working with her on this one? Why couldn't she remember...?

She raised her hand to her earpiece, reaching for the 'talk' button as she tried to place the voice on the other end of the line. "This is Silver. What's my situation? I ...think I might be compromised." Crap. Was this the effect of an enemy Agathion? They had so many varied powers that she could easily imagine memory-wiping as one of them. "I think my memory's been altered somehow."

She looked around again now that she'd had a moment to reorient, looking for anything out of place. Maybe there was a clue here that she was missing?


I want to Cleverly Overcome my confusion of the situation by spotting some clue.
[roll0]

[An Aardvark]

Amora's eyes flash with annoyance. "I told you when I arrived yesterday. The faeries of the court are arriving tomorrow." There is silence for a while as she narrows her eyes and glares at you. Then she sighs and looks out at the waters, glimmering in the noon-day sun. "Antoine Lavoisier was a French scientist who sided with the common people of France during the Revolution. He was a good man, and a good administrator. The French revolutionaries killed him for advocating the sale of adulterated tobacco." There is something odd in her voice. Her eyes avoid your gaze. "Of course, the reason he had to die is that he was an aristocrat, and the idea of having an aristocrat who was favoured by the common Frenchman went against the ideals of the new republic." Finally Amora turns to you. There is a sadness in her face you have not often seen. "No-one may escape the consequences of their birth. Remember that."

Before you can respond, her eyes harden once more and she looks at your half-dressed state with impatience. "Now go and finish reading that book. I shall expect you to answer well when our guests speak on the subject tomorrow."

[WindStruck]

Solstice shrinks back somewhat when her mother looks at her with annoyance. Though it wasn't anything overt or easily visible at all. Perhaps an extremely slight widening of the eyes and leaning only an inch back. Still, it was probably picked up.

After her mother explains and then issues her order, Solstice sheepishly obeys, turning to walk back into her home. Her feet dried off very quickly walking through the hot sand. She tried to brush them off before entering and not track any sand inside, but regardless, the brownies would likely clean any messes up. Especially before the guests arrived tomorrow.

Solstice still wasn't sure what happened to her. What she experienced. Should she tell her mother? Of course, at this point, it should be assumed every word that came out of her mouth was the truth. But something as far-fetched as this? Why, Solstice couldn't even explain what happened. It made a poor excuse, regardless, and as long as her mother wasn't punishing her, perhaps there was absolutely no point in bringing it up...

Stepping inside and peering around, Solstice looked around for the book. If she recalled, she had dropped it.. but apparently, other things had happened since then. Perhaps it was on the floor? On the table? In her room?

By the way, "half-dressed" is probably extraordinarily generous. Solstice is topless and the sarong she's wearing is quite small and a bit sheer. I think it barely even covers her butt. On the plus side, at least it's a light shade of green! Go Summer. :smalltongue:

[DuReign]

Valance Tor, Rooftops
Friar's Day, Dusk

Adaranth Brack, former spycatcher to the ousted Arcano-Mechanical Presidency - or was it the Presidium Arcano-Mechanicka? Eh, whatever - now troubleshooter, problem solver, and finder of lost children, a man frequently cursed by his enemies for his obnoxious penchant for one-upsmanship and general over-preparedness, a man who has laid low the most lofty of Corpori machinations with his own subtle tradecraft... had forgotten his hat. He had been standing on the rooftops overlooking the abandoned old Tessani Conglomerati factory, in the rain, for hours, and was nearly soaked to the bone. Because he had forgotten his damn hat.

He sneezed, loudly, into the elbow of his trenchcoat. He had remembered to bring his well worn auro obscuro, a little wind-up ensorcelled sound dampener in his pocket that looked like a ratty music box, which rendered his sneeze completely silent. But damnit all, he had forgotten his hat.

After hours of waiting, obscured aurally and visually with glamoured tools and cursing himself for not packing a hat or a flagon of wine, Brack finally saw activity creeping into the Tessani courtyard - very muscular and very dangerous looking cavaliere were escorting a white haired woman dressed all in black.

"Ah, here we go. Finally..." he said, squinting through the rainy gloom down at the figures entering the Tessani factory's courtyard.

They were not idiots like Brack and were carrying umbrellas. One particular giant of a man with a blazing red beard and a flamberge strapped to his back was carrying an umbrella for the lady, and Brack rubbed his liver at remembered pain. The man was Alfonse Domini, and in a prior run in with Brack he had nearly ruptured the smaller man's internal organs.

The lady, and Domini's boss, was Donna Tessani herself, widowed now 20 years. And she was here to meet with someone, about something important, and do certain somethings that would certainly result in very interesting somethings indeed.

But knowing what that something was, was not the job Tessani was paying him for. The job was simple - hang around while Tessani did what she needed to do, and keep on the lookout for -

There! On another rooftop, several towering buildings over, next to the closest power minaret - a shimmer in the humid air, a folding and flapping of what looked like space itself, a weird trick of perception that could only be a chameleon cloaked watcher. Such a cloak would normally render its user invisible to the normal eye. Brack, of course, had downed a vial of Elder Eye serum hours before, which while not giving him perfect true-sight, gave him enough of a sensory boost to notice a chameleon cloak if he were looking hard enough.

And looking really hard at things was mainly how Brack paid his bills these days.

Reaching into his trench-coat, Brack withdrew a wand of lightning-roasted alder wood and pointed it at the Tessani retinue's invisible spy nearly a hundred yards away. He wondered who the watcher was... an agent from a rival Corpori Profesionale? Some enemy of the Tessani's?

Brack spoke the wand's command word, a guttural sound very much like a burp, and the little wand grew warm in his gloved hand. A mystical sigil, only visible to him, flew through the air from the wands tip and inscribed itself on the chameleon cloak. The sigil would render anything it was inscribed on trackable to anyone else carrying the wand. Or any wand like it. Which happened to be the type of wand tucked into the cloaks of every one of Tessani's cavaliere.

Instantly there were shouts from down below; marked by Brack's tracer wand, the wearer of the chameleon cloak appeared to pop into existence out of nowhere. All of the very muscular and very dangerous looking men hell bent on keeping Tessani's secrets drew long rifles from under cloaks and barked a colorful assortment of threats to the rooftops.

Time to watch the fireworks, Brack thought, leaning forward to get a good view. The chameleon cloaked spy, shaking off his or her initial surprise, was beginning to do some very fancy looking footwork on the other rooftop in an attempt to get away. The cavaliere opened fire, and a hail of lead smacked into the shingles where the spy once stood. Donna Tessani was shouting orders in her deep, stentorian voice.

Brack turned to pursue, reaching into his trenchcoat for yet another magical gadget - and gaped at what appeared to be a large weird looking orb, hovering in the air before him. He had not noticed it before, and the shocking thought that perhaps he had failed, that he had just screwed up royally and had been surprised by some unforeseen magical counter-measure, roiled through him.

"Wha-" he began, but the world went aquamarine in a flash, and Brack blacked out.

[An Aardvark]

"What?! That shouldn't have happened!" the unidentified voice squeaks in your ear. "Damn it! Where did those case files go?" A prolonged rustling of paper ensues. You wait, nervous and impatient. The other club-goers begin to notice how unusual your presence is. A passing group of antelope in shiny golden dresses gawp at your jacket, then begin to giggle as you notice them. There is a fox tending the bar, with red fur unlike your own. He gives you a toothy grin.

"Okay, got them!" the voice squeaks. "Howard Klein. Network engineer working on ODIN, apparently on a meteorological project. Moebius had information that he had been meeting someone at this club and he wanted you to follow the trail. We expected another meeting today so you were sent to tail him. He's a, er…" There was more rustling. "Twenty-two year-old polecat, usually wearing large glasses. No known Agathions." There's a pause. "You don't think... You still can't remember, can you? You don't think... It must have been an enemy Agathion, right? Maybe we should pull out now. It's not safe if you've been compromised."

Just as he says this, you spot something in one corner of the club. The At one of the private booths, you see a face. A small, scared-looking face with black-and-white bands and large, round glasses. Klein.


You tied the roll with the TN, so you succeed in overcoming your confusion, but at a minor cost, which is that you feel paranoid and a bit apprehensive about what could have done this to you. I'm going to say that involves you getting a temporary aspect called "A sinking feeling" with a boost which can be used against you.

Also, I'm going to compel your "Sexy Vulpine Investigator who can Create Mecha" aspect and say that someone tries to hit on you and distracts you from your target. You can pay a fate point to avoid it, of course


You find the book eventually. It's lying on the table beside your bed, looking for all the world as if you put it there. A scrap of paper is tucked between the pages as a book-mark of sorts. You turn to the page and notice two things. Firstly, the page is much further along than you remember reading. It's almost near the end of the book. You were only halfway through when you spotted that strange orb.

The second thing you notice, is that the bookmark is not simply a scrap of paper, but a note. "Chaion's archery range. Evening." You recognise Jesper's untidy scrawl. Then you turn the paper over. The other side of the paper also has a note, but this is not from Jesper. In fact, you don't recognise the hand at all.

"DO NOT SLEEP". The words are commanding, yet somehow desperate, and you do not know what they mean.


You stifle a yawn and shake of the urge to stretch your limbs. The sprightly chatter of a club at lunchtime surrounds you. Except, this is not your club. You look around. It is a restaurant. One of those strange little places that emigres always seem to start up on arriving in the city. This one seems quite the vogue. You see a couple of Duchesses sitting at the corner table, sipping some strange herbal brew in place of their afternoon coffee. There is a cup in front of you too, you notice for the first time. The colour is a violent purple. You sniff at it suspiciously. Some kind of ghastly tisane.

"Monseigneur Brack?" You look up and see a young woman wearing a long black walking dress with a veil. The veil, rather than hiding her features, draws more attention to them. But then perhaps she meant it to be so. She is smiling at you from behind it. Her accent and her profile betray origins far east of the caldera in which Valance-Tor stands. "A less gracious person than I would comment on the state of you clothes, M. Brack, but no matter." As she takes the chair opposite you, you notice for the first time that you are wearing the same clothes as you were on the rooftop. And they are still soaking wet.

[WindStruck]

Solstice eyes the scrap of paper with curiosity. She wonders: was she supposed to meet at the archery range this evening? Or had that day already passed? What really worried her is that if she promised to be there, then she needed to be there. But she couldn't remember! Stars and stones, what else had she said and done since then? It was quite a worrying feeling, though she could only assume that she still hadn't done much at all for the past few days. The second part of the note was fairly ominous too, but who wrote it?

Deciding on a course of action, Solstice approaches the window of her room, gently brushing past the curtains, and whispers Jesper's name. His True Name. She hoped it would attract the pixie soon enough, so she could at least ask him if she said she would be there at the time. If she made no promises, it looked like she would need to cancel.. reading this book for tomorrow was far too important.

Taking a look at the pages the bookmark was wedged between, Solstice skims over the text, finding it unfamiliar. Sighing, it appeared there was a lot of her mother's book to read. Again. She reclined into her hammock, flipping more towards the middle of the book, scouring it for the part where she last remembered. Eventually, she found the section and began reading from there. The thoughts, wondering what had happened still distracted her all the while, but for her mother, and also likely for her own sake, she tried to push through and concentrate.

[Illogictree]

"No, I can still handle this. If someone's messing with me this bad, we must be on to something. We can't stop now!"

Silver scans the crowd, eyes lighting on the nervous face matching the description.

"...I have eyes on Klein. I don't think he's noticed me yet. ...I can't see if he's meeting someone yet, I'll try to get closer."

Time's definitely running out, people are starting to take notice of her, and there's the unsettling possibility of an unknown enemy lurking about. She moves toward the other end of the club, trying to angle herself so she can see the rest of the booth.


Hehe, I will gladly take that compel. :smallbiggrin:

[An Aardvark]

You begin to read the book once more, starting from where you think you left off. The words swim around on the page. You can't concentrate. After nearly an hour of trudging through heavy, laborious French history, you hear a faint tapping on your window.

You cross over to it and throw it open for Jesper to climb in. The pixie looks uncharacteristically sombre. He looks around your room cautiously before swinging his legs over and flying in. "Why did you call me? Is anything wrong? I thought we were meeting at the archery range. I didn't want your mother to overhear us."



You see Klein look around the club, searching for someone. He looks in your direction. His eyes light up in recognition. He grins and waves. But not at you. Someone in front of you. You spot the figure moving towards the ODIN engineer. You start moving towards them yourself. You can still do this. Sure, the memory loss threw you for a bit, but you're stronger than that. Then suddenly...

"You know, you're not really following the dress-code for this place." The leopard comes out of nowhere. "Although I must admit the silver hair look fits right in." He's hot. Of course he is. And rich, if his clothes are anything to go by. In short, he's trouble.

"Can I buy you a drink?" he asks, standing in front of you with his hands on his hips and a big, dumb grin on his face. You've lost sight of Klein and his contact.

Roll to overcome this conversation. TN = 2

And you have 4 fate points now!

[WindStruck]

First minor correction! I did not envision Solstice's room with actual glass windows, or windows at all, even. The house is quite open-air, after all, given the climate and lack of AC.

Solstice hears Jesper's tiny hissing whisper outside, and gets up, moving toward the open window to invite him in.

Solstice looks around too, cautiously, then nods to Jesper. She speaks softly: "I think something is wrong." Holding up the note she asks, "I believe you wrote this. The problem is.. I seem to be having issues with my memory. Did.. did I promise you or anyone that I would be there this evening?"

She looks at the pixie with a bit of curiosity and worry. If anything, however, she knew Jesper would have to answer her query truthfully. Or at least, he may dance around the answer.

[Illogictree]

Of all the things she was expecting to happen, she should have expected this. Another day... night? what time was this anyway?... she might have at least given him time to prove himself a douchebag rather than assuming right away, but she was on a job. And now she'd lost sight of Klein and his contact too!

What was the best way to deal with this guy? Right, turn on the charm.

"Dress code?" she says, playing it like this was a big revelation to her. "Oh, I didn't realize it was required. But I'm glad you like the hair, it takes a lot to work with it." She smiles and poses subtly. "And thanks, I'd like a drink. Maybe you could go pick some up for us while I find us a table? I'll have a..." she glances toward the bar, then at some of the other patrons to see what they're having. Her eyes alight on a flashy red-glowing drink in a skinny weirdly-shaped glass, held by a tall tiger lady wearing a sheer silver skintight suit with glowing green tiger-stripes. "...uh... whatever she's having," Silver finishes with a gesture, not quite believing the fashion choices on display around here. She turns back to the leopard guy and looks at him pleasantly but expectantly, hoping he'll fall for it and leave for a bit.


I will Cleverly Overcome this darn stupid conversation by tricking him into leaving! [roll0]

[An Aardvark]

"Memory problems? What do you mean?" Then Jesper's look of worry slowly changes to a mischievous grin. You almost regret telling him about your memory loss. Of course, you could always trust Jesper would do nothing that would bring you harm, but he was not above using something like this to get one over on you. "No, you did not promise it," Jesper says, swinging his legs back and forth absently. "I sent you the message to ask you to meet me there. You had not yet replied. You see, I have some information that might interest you. Of course, how much information I have will depend very much on what you're willing to exchange..." He looks at you with his eyes twinkling.

[WindStruck]

Solstic frowns sadly, with a nod, as Jesper's face take on a mischievous look. "I suppose you may take advantage of that as you will, but it is no laughing matter..." she says softly, with a sigh.

As she gazes out the window toward jungles, beach, tidepools, and ocean beyond, she says wistfully, "Unfortunately, I do not think I will meet you there this evening. It is important that I study the book that my mother gave me. And I am afraid I am reading through it a second time..."

Solstice looked down at the pixie, a tiny creature that would be exceptionally beautiful were he to match her size, and who currently wore just a few tiny scraps of leaves and petals. Managing a smile to her dear little friend, she reaches down, offering him an upturned palm to sit on. "And how do I know how much I want this information?" she asks mirthfully, still minding to keep her voice low. "Surely it is of little consequence if you merely told me what it pertained to?"

Jesper has a mop of yellow hair, the color of dandelions. Kind of looks like a dandelion too if you aren't really looking at him. His wings are like a butterfly's and look sort of like a stained glass window at a church, though there doesn't appear to be any sort of image or pattern to it otherwise. His eyes are aquamarine in color, he only stands at about 4.25 inches tall.

[An Aardvark]

The tall tigress looks in your direction just as you gesture towards her. She frowns, trying to figure out if she knows you. Then, her eyes widen in recognition. "OMG!!" she squeals, practically bounding over to you. "You're the Finder, aren't you? The one who can make those cute little robots? Ohmigod I wrote an article on you guys for our college newspaper. I'm such a huge fan!" She claps her hands and bounces up and down excitedly, somehow still keeping her drink entirely in her glass. "Wait, are you here on, like, a mission or something? Is this guy one of the enemy mooks?" She narrows her eyes and looks at the leopard, who takes a step back simply from the force of her stare.

"Uh... some other time, maybe," he says, backing away hurriedly in the direction of the bar. The tigress watches him leave, then whips her attention back to you. "You are on a mission," she says triumphantly. "You're wearing your yellow jacket and everything. That's like your trademark, right? I know, I had to do so much research for that article." She stands close to you and scans the room, leaning down to whisper conspiratorially. "Okay, who's our target and how can I help?"

You see Klein and his contact stand up. His contact is holding what seems to be a large brown envelope. They shake hands and the man starts walking away from the booth. This wasn't a sit-down meeting, it was some kind of exchange.

A sinking feeling [ ]
Overly helpful fan

[An Aardvark]

Jesper waves away your concerns. "Ah, do not worry Solstice. I shall not take advantage of what you have told me today. And you made no promises to me. But I would have a promise from you now." His wings flutter with excitement. "I heard something from a friend of mine who knows a pixie who's brother lives at the Summer Court. Suffice it to say, you will want to hear this news. Perhaps it may even help you prepare for tomorrow?" Jesper yawns, stretching his tiny limbs and spreading his wings. "I ask for very little in return. Simply that you number me amongst your friends tomorrow. Will you promise that, at least?"

[WindStruck]

Solstice smiles and says, "Of course I will number you as one of my friends, assuming that the subject even comes up. I have known you since I was but a small girl, and we have confided many things in each other. Dare I say, it even brings me joy, most times, when I see you. I would be lying if I said you were not a friend."

Almost feeling like it's self-compelling "A bit too honest", but we will have to see if this causes trouble in the future later. :smallsmile:

Also note the "assuming the subject even comes up" clause. Because it's one thing if someone asks Solstice about it, but it's an entirely strangely-awkward matter if she's supposed to just randomly blurt this out.

"Now then, what is this news? And are you planning on being here tomorrow as well?"

[Illogictree]

Well, that was one problem down, but looked like another had just landed in her lap. "Uh, yeah, n-nice to meet a fan," says Silver, taken aback by her bouncy attitude. She can smell some sort of liquor on the tigress' breath as she leans down to her. Well, at least she isn't trying to hug her or anything, that would be even more embarrassing. And maybe hazardous, tigers were usually pretty strong in addition to being tall. "You're right, I'm on a mission. Can you hold that thought for a second?"

She reaches up to her earpiece. "Klein's made a hand-off of some kind. He's given his contact an envelope. I can't tell if he received anything in return, but they're both on the move. Which should I tail?"

While she waits for confirmation, she turns back to her fan while trying to keep an eye on the targets. "Look... uh, what was your name? ...This could get dangerous, and I don't want you getting hurt, all right?"

[An Aardvark]

"I am touched, Solstice. Touched indeed," Jesper says. "But I was going to tell you my news!" He stretches up towards your ear. "Okay, so I have a friend who knows a pixie at the Summer Court. My friend overheard talk that some mortal warlock is trying to open passageways to Faerie! They don't know what it's about, but the Queens are all in disarray over this. And that has something to do with why they are coming here." Jesper flops back down onto your palm and stretches his tiny limbs. "Which is why I will not be here tomorrow. But do not forget your promise."



The voice in your ear squeaks again. "Which one? Oh... I mean, the mission objective was to tail Klein and see if he made contact but I guess the larger aim is to investigate any leaks in ODIN so we could follow the trail." There's a pause. "I'm sorry. I'm a bit of a rookie. I'd say stick with Klein. Unless, you know, you think it's worth following the contact?"

"Wait, Klein?" the tigress says. "You mean the mousy little polecat guy? I know him! I can tail him if you'd like! You can take the other guy!" The tigress grins excitedly. "Oh my god I'm on a mission with the Finders! This is so cool! Sorry! You must be used to fans by now, right? My name's Cindy. And don't worry about me getting hurt! I can handle myself just fine!" Looking at her, you have no doubt she could probably hold her own in a brawl. Strong, lithe muscles under the skintight bodysuit. But you doubt she could go up against an Agathion by herself. Of course, you're not expecting any trouble from Klein...

[WindStruck]

Solstice looks a bit concerned as Jesper tells his news. Mortals traveling to and from Faerie was not unheard of. Especially powerful ones could rip a temporary hole just about anywhere, though this was much easier in places where The Veil was thin. In such places, Fae could slip between the two worlds almost effortlessly. Well, except Solstice. She still hadn't quite gotten that down. But there were also Ways. These were much more permanent entryways into Faerie (to some extent, as some still required conditions). Most were guarded, and some were sealed off. Still, she wondered if the warlock was trying to create a more permanent Way himself?

Still, it must be a pretty serious issue if the queens were coming here. "Wait. The Queens?" Solstice asks dubiously. "Do you mean the Summer Queen and Lady? Or... you couldn't possibly mean both the Summer Queen and Winter Queen?"

And apparently her mother thought French history would be an important subject tomorrow as well, with news of this warlock? Solstice continued gazing outside and shook her head in disbelief.

[Illogictree]

There's no time for hesitation, and this might just let her hedge her bets. Plus it was low-risk for Cindy, as far as she could tell. Silver pulls her cell phone out and gestures to the tigress. "Got your phone?" she asks. They just need to tap their phones together to exchange their contact information. "You follow Klein. Try to keep out of sight if you can." She looks down at Cindy's attention-getting attire, thinking that was unlikely. "If anything strange happens, don't get involved, call me right away and I'll be there as soon as I can. Got it?"

[An Aardvark]

"Hah! The winter queens would never come this far into the realm of summer," Jesper says. "No, I believe it is the Lady who is coming here. The new one. With some other faeries, I think." Jesper stands and flits his wings. "That was all the news I had, but you must agree it was worth your promise. Well, I should be off before your mother sees me. If she had not told you about the Queens I do not think she will take kindly to me having revealed the secret."



"Got it!" Cindy takes out her phone - who knows where from, for her bodysuit doesn't seem to have any pockets - and taps it to yours. "Roger that, partner. I'll take it from here! Over and out."

The contact is heading for the exit. He's wearing some kind of large coat which obscures his features, but it is such a violent silver colour that you doubt you'd lose him in a crowd. Underneath the coat, you see brown and grey fur and a bushy tail. Probably something canine. Maybe a wolf? You guess you'll find out.


Okay, lay out your plan for following this guy. Are you going to be on foot? Does Silver have a vehicle of some kind that she usually drives? Is she prepped for a rooftop chase?

[WindStruck]

Solstice nods with a slight smile and says, "Well I knew someone from the Summer Court was coming, at least. I just did not know it would be her... Farewell, Jesper." With a nod, she let the pixie leave, gently extending her hand out the window, and then she turned back to her room.

Jesper was rather anxious to leave, and rightly so. Her mother didn't approve of the relation the two had. Perhaps she just didn't understand. They were like childhood friends, except the problem was Solstice's childhood was waning and all but gone now, and Jesper would probably never 'grow up'. It could be that her mother thought Jesper would be holding her back and was a bad influence. One might compare the way the two dressed (or rather, didn't dress) and jump to such conclusions. Or maybe, her mother was just tired of pixies and their antics after the centuries or even much longer she had been alive.

But regardless, Solstice needed to get back to reading that book. Sitting back down on her hammock, she took the tome up again, noting her pitiful progress within the past hour. All she could really do was adjust her position for maximum comfort, and she hoped she could concentrate through the rest of it.

[Illogictree]

First objective: Get that guy's face on camera. Silver might recognize him - she does have "Personal Enemy of Isengrim" as an aspect after all, so if he's connected to Dymanex she might pick up on it. If nothing else they can later run him through facial recognition for another clue. If the opportunity presents itself, she'd like to get hold of that envelope too.

I want to Sneakily Overcome his hiding of his face and take a picture with my cell phone. I'll spend a Fate point to invoke my "Sexy Vulpine Investigator who can Create Mecha" aspect, as I've done this sort of thing before in my line of work. I'll default to "Succeed at a Cost" for this if I fail. 4d3-6

Second, as mentioned, actual vehicle ownership is fairly rare. Silver certainly doesn't own one, but she definitely knows how to drive. Before leaving the club, she'll use her phone to call in a car in case the guy gets into one of his own.

And yes, she's ready for whatever action she needs to take to follow him. Back alley and rooftop chases are nothing unusual to a Finder.

[An Aardvark]

You settle into a comfortable position and try to read about the French Revolution. But the book is so long and the pillows are so comfortable. It is not long before you find your eyes closing of their own accord. You try to fight it, but there is something about today which makes you especially tired. Maybe the memory loss had affected you more than you realised. Whatever the reason,
perhaps just a little nap would help...

You awaken with a start. The morning sun streams into your room. You must have fallen asleep. You certainly feel refreshed and well rested. But it was a strange, dreamless sleep. Almost as if the world had blinked out of existence for the night. Strange.



You follow Klein's contact out of the club. As you exit, you realise where you are. The Turing district. The site of old government facilities in downtown Eigen, brought back to life as trendy cultural hubs for twenty-somethings with too much money and not enough alcohol. The particular den of iniquity you have just exited is called the Machine. The city noise is almost as bad as the music from the club. But it's soothing, as is the cool ocean breeze.

Still, this is no time to enjoy the breeze. You look for Klein's target and see him hailing a car. Now you can see that he's a coyote, past his prime but still with a cunning look in his eye. He looks around as he gets in, but his gaze doesn't linger too long on you. Good. He hasn't spotted you. You quickly snap a photo on your hidden camera. You get into the next car after him.

"Please present identification," the automated system says in its musically lilting tone.

You got the advantage with your roll. For your next go, you can present your identification card or a Finder's counterfeit. I won't make you roll for it since it sounds like something Silver would normally have. Then say where you want to go.

A sinking feeling [ ]
Overly helpful fan
Photograph of a coyote [ ]

[Illogictree]

It seemed her luck was changing finally, thought Silver as she slid into the car's seat. She flicked on her phone and brought up an app, before tapping it to the car's console.

The vehicle's computer gave a chime as the false ID set up by the app passed its security. "ID verified. Authorized for manual mode. Change to manual mode?"

The vixen smiled. The new version of the vehicle cracking app had worked; it was always an arms race between the hackers and the security programmers, and for now the Finders were keeping on top of it.

"No, stay on auto mode for now," she said, then pointed at the car the coyote had just climbed into. The holographic HUD highlighted it. "Follow that car for now. Be ready to change to manual drive mode though."

As the cars glided quietly into the street, Silver kept an eye on the target as she settled back into her seat and checked her phone. First things first, how long was her memory gap? She looked at the date and time to figure it out, before checking her message history to see what she might have been up to since leaving her apartment on that Friday evening.

[WindStruck]

Oh. It's morning...

Solstice yawned and stretched languidly.

Welp. Despite having fallen asleep earlier than she intended... Solstice at least felt absolutely wonderful. She knew she still needed to get this book read, but at least she had made peace with the fact that it wasn't going to be finished by time the guests arrived. Speaking of which, when were guests from the Summer Court coming? Later today, she assumed. Perhaps noon at the earliest?

For now, Solstice lingered on her bed, breathing deeply and trying to relax again, just enjoying being alive. But eventually, she relented, figuring she would need to stop procrastinating and boldly face the morning and what was in store for her today. Rolling out of her hammock, she yawned and stretched one last time before padding out of her room, still in just her sarong.

Actually, Solstice wasn't quite feeling absolutely wonderful. She had realized not too long ago that she felt hungry. She began approaching the kitchen area of the home, wondering what she was going to eat. Of course, actually cooking something wasn't strictly necessary at all. Solstice could probably summon a wide variety of foods she could imagine, at least, to an extent. Still, she played with the idea of summoning something raw and then cooking it...

Hm, more on Fae physiology, which isn't really well-documented in any books, I believe. So I'll try to explain it, and I hope you find it makes sense and is satisfactory. Physiology is also a somewhat ironic word to use, since physics in the Nevernever are more like a meek suggestion.

Firstly, most Fae eat, breathe, and sleep. Though more powerful ones can actually stave off these needs or may not need them entirely. Breathing and sleep/rest come at typical rates as expected of a similar living creature. But eating is done at less of an expected rate. So long as a Fae is in the Nevernever, they can sustain themselves on food found or summoned there. And as long as they only eat food from the Nevernever, they can actually keep eating all they want and never get full or bloated. All excess energy dissipates.

Speaking of which, all matter in the Nevernever that hasn't been imported from the real world is made of ectoplasm. Perhaps there's even subtly different types of ectoplasm, but hey, you can't really science the Nevernever, can you? Beings in the Nevernever eat food made of this ectoplasm. Therefore, they are made of it as well. As you may also remember, things made of ectoplasm which are taken into the real world end up melting and evaporating when magic no longer holds it together.

Living Fae creatures, though made of ectoplasm, are safe from this effect so long as their will and life force persists. It's kind of strange, but perhaps think of it as a perpetual machine made of ectoplasm which continually asserts itself. Obviously, as you've seen in the books, so long as the Fae is alive, they do not simply melt in the real world. If they die in the real world, they do eventually start to rapidly decay and melt away. Dying in the Nevernever, however, their body persists and it may even be possible to revive them should some other being be kind enough to bestow upon the victim a portion of their life force. This is not talking about "mantles", however, which are pretty much indestructible and could be said to move onto another suitable host should the one it currently inhabits dies (for example, the mantle of Summer Lady).

About eating ectoplasm: well, what happens when a human stumbles into Faerie and eats Sidhe food? Well, it's said when they go back home, they get very sick. If a human lingers long enough eating this stuff, it's as if they're wasting away. But they don't feel these effects until they leave the Nevernever. Stay too long, and they'll simply die, impossible to go back to the real world. Something like this happened to Solstice, but of course she was fed the food of the Nevernever since she was an infant. Even her mother's milk counted as such.

Solstice is not subject to being sick (or actually, it would be straight up dying) upon leaving the Nevernever, however, because she is Fae. What does this mean, exactly? I dunno. Unlike a stumbling, bumbling idiot mortal who ate Sidhe food, Solstice identifies as a Fae completely. Maybe it has to do with the way the mind/soul works, attuning to the ectoplasm or something, I don't know. Fae creatures do not get sick or melt. The ectoplasm is bound fully to their mind and soul. To a regular mortal, however, we could say the ectoplasm is not bound to their mind and soul. And therefore, it has no access to the magic needed to sustain it.

Edit: more theorycrafting!

Speculatively, it's possible for a mortal wizard who has befallen such a fate to sustain themselves with their own magic, though they'd need to be ready for this effect in advance, and.. it's quite taxing. Not taxing like lifting something insanely heavy or trying to solve a difficult calculus problem. Taxing as in.. "try to keep thinking the word 'elephant' constantly. or you die". A wizard would have to constantly be making sure they were sustaining themselves, always. And that would also get tiring after a while. Theoretically, it's possible that by continuously eating only real food, one could transition back to a state where their body will not give out on them when going back to the real world.

[An Aardvark]

You check the date on your phone. Monday! You've lost your entire weekend! Still, it doesn't look like you were up to anything exciting anyway. Your message log shows a text from Moebius yesterday, but of course the message itself was automatically deleted minutes after you read it. Probably a mission briefing. Something you could really do with at the moment.

"Incoming message." the car announces, interrupting your train of thought. "Message from unknown sender. Message reads: "DON'T SLEEP." End of message."



You wander down to the kitchen are and look around. The brownies are hard at work, cleaning the house in preparation for your guests. Your mother, on the other hand is nowhere to be seen. You can only assume that she is also preparing for the guests from the Summer Court. As you think about what to prepare for breakfast, you notice something else that is strange. A card on the kitchen counter. As before, the words "Don't sleep" are scrawled on it in big letters.

[WindStruck]

Another message that says "Don't sleep." Why? she thought. Now she does recall the other note behind Jesper's, but nothing seemed to happen when she dozed off last night. No dream either, which was a bit weird, but.. hey, at least she didn't have anything against how well she slept and how nice she felt. Still, what was the meaning of all this? Solstice was starting to get a bit concerned, if not annoyed, over this.

Taking the card up, she approaches a brownie, crouching down with an arm extended, showing the card. "Hello, Fisk. Good Morning. Do you know who wrote this or put this on the counter?" she asks. Though the brownies were pretty much like lowly house servants, her tone was friendly.

Brownie names:
Fisk
Liltly
Neema
Obros

[Illogictree]

"...What the hell?" mutters Silver, looking at the car's console. She taps the display touchscreen trying to bring up the message logs. "Replay that last message," she says. "Where'd that come from?"

Today was just getting stranger. And annoying. The leopard guy, Cindy, the fact she was paired with some newbie, and now she'd somehow missed a night of cheesy movies and booze with Dennie. Or... well, more likely, she'd enjoyed it, but forgotten about it.

Now she was starting to worry. She hadn't figured out what'd happened to her memory yet. It was possible this guy she was following was the one who'd done it, but it was just as likely to be someone who was still back at the club. A worry crept into her mind that maybe she'd put the tigress in danger. She was kind of annoying but innocent - or, at least, uninvolved.

Silver looks at her cell phone again and thumbs up Cindy's contact info. She stares at it, debating whether to call her. Although, given the other girl's attitude, she likely hadn't the foresight to turn her phone to vibrate. Calling her at the wrong time might put her in danger.

"Crap..." she mutters. She wasn't used to being so lost and confused. That was maybe the thing that frightened her the most right now.

[An Aardvark]

"Good morning, Miss Solstice," the brownie squeaks, startled at being addressed. "I don't know, Miss Solstice. I found it there this morning when I was cleaning the kitchen. I assumed your mother had placed it there, so I left it undisturbed."



"Message from unknown sender," The computer says once again. "Message reads: "DON'T SLEEP." End of message. Sender's ID not found. Possible error in databank. Would you like to run diagnostics?"

The roads have been changing slowly as you've been following the car. From the bustling hipster areas of the renovated Turing district, you're now entering the district proper. The old government facilities, first built in response to rising fears about Exotech smuggling and Agathion research. They fell out of use when the wave of paranoia had passed and the government no longer found the research politically useful. The streets here are deserted, lined by grimy buildings falling into disrepair. Your car and the coyote's are the only ones on the road.

[WindStruck]

A concerned look washes across Solstice's face. "I.. do not think my mother wrote this..." The implications lingered in the air. If not her or her mother, then who? A brownie? A guest? But there were no guests. The only other option was an intruder. Though she couldn't really say this out loud; she didn't know for certain. It didn't look like her mother's writing. And besides, wouldn't she have just told her not to sleep, personally? It simply was not like her to leave strange notes like this.

With eyes wandering distantly, she finally looks back down to the brownie and says, "I shall speak to her later about this."

Rising back up, Solstice wandered back to the kitchen area. Assessing the grill, which was made of bone grates and matching the current motif of the home, Solstice summoned some lumps of charcoal inside it with a wave of her hand, then set it all on fire waving the opposite way. With a similar gesture, she made four strips of raw bacon appear upon the grill. The delectable scent of cooking bacon soon began wafting through the home.

Then, with a twist of her hand, a pear appeared in it. She cut it in half with a knife and, twirling a finger, drizzled honey on it from out of nowhere. She stood there contently munching on her pear as the bacon cooked, using a long bone fork to flip it occasionally.

[Illogictree]

Silver snaps out of her reverie to realize her situation. She felt like she'd been just on the edge of remembering something important about that Friday night with Dennie, but that was forgotten as she noticed the lonely streets she was on.

"Crap," she mutters. If the coyote hadn't been suspicious of her following him, he certainly would be now.

She watches the other car, looking for any changes in its movement.

EDIT: And then she gets impatient.

"Car, give me manual drive mode," she says.

The computer beeps in response. "Releasing controls." The foot pedals and steering yoke rise out of their recesses. Silver puts her hands and feet in the proper positions. "Changing to manual drive in three... two... one... Manual mode engaged."

She steps on the accelerator pedal, increasing the speed of the car as she steers it around the other car. As she pulls parallel, she risks looking into the other car to see what the coyote is doing.