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Glad to hear you're feeling better! It was worth the wait, Spirit's got a lot more under the surface than anybody realized. I'm pretty bad at freeform entry portions of cyoas so I'll let others hash out what to ask him. I'm still amused at how the conspiracy is actually between the POV character and the adults in her life, rather than with her friends, though this certainly makes things pretty complicated. I do hope either of the Juleses can get through to Kenji, and that Julie can actually share the vital info with him, and Edward, that she needs to. If one of the teachers tries to give her poo poo about it she can tell them her vision literally told her what she needed to do here. She just doesn't know why.
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Dec 3, 2017 04:58
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Xarbala posted:Glad to hear you're feeling better! Thanks! It's good to feel better. I just hope I've solved my problem so I stay healthy. As for Julie confiding in her teachers, I actually never thought that she would confide in her teachers instead of her friends. That really caught me off guard when that happened. I liked the reversal as it's normally teens versus the world as this has many of the same trappings of YA fiction despite not being YA. I fully expected Julie to confide in her friends which would've gotten them all to start talking. However that didn't happen so they're still keeping secrets from one another.
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Dec 3, 2017 05:10
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Ice Phisherman posted:Thanks! It's good to feel better. I just hope I've solved my problem so I stay healthy. With the best of intentions, instead of going through the natural narrative door, we walked face first into the doorframe.
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Dec 3, 2017 05:12
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Xarbala posted:With the best of intentions, instead of going through the natural narrative door, we walked face first into the doorframe. That's a fantastic and entertainingly apropos metaphor. Glad you're feeling better Ice, and I'm glad you were able to find your way through the block. I'm really busy taking care of my girlfriend who has decided to come down with the flu or something and when I'm not I'm under orders to spend time with her and watch TV without fiddling with my tablet, which I'm doing right now to type this so I'll have to let the others theorycraft some good lines of questioning. Did not expect this metaplane thing, at all.
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Dec 3, 2017 05:43
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Hexenritter posted:That's a fantastic and entertainingly apropos metaphor. Yeah. I'll allude to the metaplane, but we're not going there. Maybe in later years. However since that's both his home and he's made of Julie's experiences we get a second crack at what we missed. We would not have gotten this if we decided not to feed her that knowledge karma. It came with a cost of risking Mother Bear's relationship with Julie, but we barely got over that. Hope your GF gets better soon. 
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Dec 3, 2017 05:47
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Ice Phisherman posted:Yeah. I'll allude to the metaplane, but we're not going there. Maybe in later years. However since that's both his home and he's made of Julie's experiences we get a second crack at what we missed. We would not have gotten this if we decided not to feed her that knowledge karma. It came with a cost of risking Mother Bear's relationship with Julie, but we barely got over that. Thanks duder  We got lucky twice here. First, we didn't tank our relationship with Momma 🐻, second we managed to accidentally gain another chance to gain intel on the impending shitfest that is our future. This is an opportunity we cannot afford to squander.
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Dec 3, 2017 06:06
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Ice Phisherman posted:“Okay, so why do we still get Sammy the salmon pitching that social media platform for the island?” pressed Julie. I've been wondering about all this! Now I'm curious about the details of the contract. I wonder if the details of the Salmon Run contract are even available (sealed ten-odd-year-ago incident notwithstanding) or if Seattle is under "we are legally barred from disclosing which laws, public policies, administrative regulations, and/or contract terms you may or may not have violated" levels of fuckbarrel. Shadowrun may be even less of a wreck compared to real-world North America than I already suspected it of being 
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Dec 3, 2017 07:55
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First of all, Julie absolutely needs to spend Edge rerolling any dice the don't get hits. That's essential. Mathematically, that pushes her average dice pool up to effectively over 11 dice, depending on roll results. That essentially puts her at parity with Kenji. Aside from that, Julie needs to make it bluntly and explicitly clear to Kenji that she's worried about him and is going to help him. The same sort of 'whether you like it or not' approach that he took towards Octo. With any luck, that kind of an approach should mean that even if she flubs the Etiquette roll he might still decide of his own accord - regardless of the social roll - to open up. Worst case scenario, it might still convince him that he'd rather let Julie in on his problem instead of letting someone as powerful as her (from his perspective) blindly and stupidly fumble around trying to help him. A little side information too - if we give her spirit Etiquette and Leadership, he might be able to start using Leadership to give her moral support, boosting her dice pools, through their emotional link. Leadership is the skill used to provide people with moral support, tactical guidance, and also to convince people to comply with your wishes (distinct from Negotiation).
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Dec 3, 2017 10:55
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Double-posting to say that I've got an idea for the spirit's new form, but that this needs to get run past Mrs Maureen to make sure it's a significant enough change to work. I figure we dial up the art aspects of the spirit. Skin covered in something partway between tattoos and graffiti, glass eyes and teeth more evocative of stained glass then broken bottles, and hair of ivy like it's crawling on a wall (and later a beard of it too, when the spirit's Force has been increased to the point that it has a more adult appearance). Maybe some flesh with the tone and texture of rich, red brick under the graffiti. Really embrace the art, add a dash of life, diminish the recycled look. I think that might be enough to make the spirit safe, or at least safer, from being mistaken for Toxic, while also not changing his body's nature too much. Thoughts?
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Dec 3, 2017 18:39
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I like it, that's a slick-sounding look. Question, if he has LEDs for eyes, can he blind someone by flaring them or would we need to buy a power for that?
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Dec 3, 2017 18:47
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So do we have any questions for spirit at all? Here are the posts again if people wish to reread. Remember that spirit has access to everything that happened there and is not limited by Julie's perception. His limitation is that he doesn't know what's important. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3835049&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=31#post478071632 https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3835049&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=32#post478112950
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Dec 4, 2017 02:36
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Ice Phisherman posted:So do we have any questions for spirit at all? Here are the posts again if people wish to reread. Remember that spirit has access to everything that happened there and is not limited by Julie's perception. His limitation is that he doesn't know what's important. Systematically go through what he saw each person he recognizes doing, Fuzzy, Motherbear, etc. That should be a good baseline and might lead to other people . Actually start with naming everyone he recognizes, maybe someone else was there Julie didn't see. Toughy fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Dec 4, 2017 |
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Dec 4, 2017 03:54
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Ice Phisherman posted:He hugged her though and in that moment that was better than having all the answers. Answers are complicated. Hugs aren't. You're making me want a Spirit of my own. Ice Phisherman posted:"Try harder. Faster. I'll help too. Just ask. Is it just me, or is Fuzzy getting really pushy about this? To the point of being annoying? Yeah, I get it, you're concerned, do you really need to 'grill' Julie like that? Ice Phisherman posted:"She did too say funnel," he said, suspiciously. Don't ever change, Spirit Son. Ice Phisherman posted:We’re under contract. Huh. Wonder what that's about. Ice Phisherman posted:“Suck it up, Paige. Man, she even has a bad-rear end first name; Paige the hard drinking combat medic. She can put a bullet in your head, or take one out. She might date you or smack you. My kind of girl. Ice Phisherman posted:“Julie, we had this discussion. Your carelessness is endangering the people I care about. Now you brought me into this, and I understand why, but I’m wondering what choices you make down the road that are going to hurt them. I am not comfortable with how this is being handled,” scolded Mother Bear, quietly and severely. How could Julie have possibly known??! Ice Phisherman posted:CYOA Time 1) Who was there from Blake Island? 2) Who was in the crowd? (Protesters, Ares, Lone Star, Police, etc) 3) How many people died? 4) How many people were there in total? 5) Where was this riot (location?) 6) Why where the Blakers even there? 7) Who was attacking who? 8) What weapons did each 'faction' have? 9) Can you draw me an overhead picture of the riot? Who was where and when? 10) What did Ms. Maureen see? Ice Phisherman posted:Or Julie does confide in Fuzzy which would break her promise to Mother Bear, which would damage her relationship with her and Julian as well as cause other problems. Julie does not confide in Fuzzy; Fuzzy's going to run off with Corp-Princess soon enough and live in their high castle in the sky. Julie's going to need to keep her relationships with Momma Bear and even Julian if she's going to go native in the Underground. Ice Phisherman posted:Julie is going to have to try and win a single etiquette roll on this story's dedicated face, and he has 12 dice versus her 7. It's not fair at all, but that's how the dice came out with Julie v Fuzzy. I'll take ideas on how to tackle this as well. I will say that since Kenji has not been sleeping well that he won't have access to his edge. I don't know this system very well, however, it seems like we need to 'stack dice' for this encounter, anything we can do to up Julie's dice pool. So, get assist dice from Fuzzy, Marco, and Sasha, up her intelligence with that spell, use influence from Spirit Son, get some good food and liquor for the BBQ to loosen Kenji up, emotionally blackmail him intervention style. Anything and everything to 'stack them dice'. Ice Phisherman posted:Apologies for the long wait. I've been in the middle of a move and I had some problems with writer's block. The scene between Mother Bear and Julie was supposed to be more emotionally intense, but I kept running into dead ends. No worries Chummer, glad to see you back, and that you're taking more steps to improve your health. We're all rooting for you! Hexenritter posted:I'm really busy taking care of my girlfriend who has decided to come down with the flu or something and when I'm not I'm under orders to spend time with her and watch TV without fiddling with my tablet, which I'm doing right now to type this so I'll have to let the others theorycraft some good lines of questioning. You, I don't really care for you.  Hope the GF feels better soon; you're a doll for being such a good BF.  jagadaishio posted:Thoughts? I like the art idea (more graffiti and less tattoos), and again, I kinda want to ask why? The original inspiration for 'recycling' was because Julie has been harvesting reagents and picking up trash. How does the art aspect come into it? Its not like there is graffiti or tattoos at Blake Island, and Julie's background doesn't really include art appreciation. If this is the direction the thread wants to go down, fine. At this point, it makes more sense for Spirit Son to take on aspects of nature. Heck, just make him a camp fire since he and Julie seems to like camping.
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Dec 4, 2017 05:14
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Spirits of Man have to represent aspects of humanity. Human creations, human materials, human emotions and concepts, and so forth. Camp fires, natural features, all of that crosses hard into not only others types of spirits, but such a radical reorganization might be disorienting to him. The idea actually came from Fuzzy mentioning the graffiti mural in the Underground - the community that Julie feels at home in, to which she's attached and invested herself. That's Julie's background - not art appreciation, but aspects of the community that generated her Healing Karma in the first place. Anyway, whatever factors we try to stack on, absolutely do not use the spirit's Influence. Not only is using magic like that on your friends a dick move, it's close enough to mind control that its use is in a legal grey area.
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Dec 4, 2017 05:49
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Jagadaisho makes excellent points all around. Also welcome back and glad you're feeling better. I myself am back in LA where breathing the air is kind of like licking dirt.
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Dec 5, 2017 03:37
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I've been traveling, so I haven't been able to come up with some questions, I'd propose we question spirit how far exactly his knowledge of the riot extends, whether it's just whatever Julie saw or more? Maybe he knows things from inside the compound that the police were protecting?
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Dec 5, 2017 05:47
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I feel like it's implied he saw everything, beyond what Julie saw.
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Dec 5, 2017 05:49
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Deadmeat5150 posted:I feel like it's implied he saw everything, beyond what Julie saw. The fact that we fed him a memory though would imply that at most we could have fed him what we saw, and even if he knows everything we would want to know how "far" it stretches, both geographically and temporally. Presumably he wouldn't know what was going on in a Hong Kong board room while the protest was going on.
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Dec 5, 2017 14:02
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All right. Back on track. That means writing. It looks like we have our questions. We'll be asking specific questions as per CourValant's list and Toughy's suggestions. Looks like we're not going to confide in Fuzzy if we fail with Kenji. However Julie is going to pull out all the stops to make sure she succeeds. So I'll go hard with boosting etiquette, but if that fails we'll go with "come with me if you want to live" levels of intimidation which she is far better at. I'm trying hard to wrap up everything, but I have those plot threads I mentioned earlier. They are as follows: 1. Julie trying to help Fuzzy, Sasha and Kenji. 2. The barbecue. 3. our spirit's name and final form, 4. Touristville through Julian's eyes (as he'll be escorting Julie), 5. dealing with her relationship with Marco and him helping her with her criminal record, 6. talking to Mother Bear about accidentally letting someone else in on the conspiracy, 7. a secret revelation 8. Julie and finally her clinic opening at the end. 9. That doesn't include Kenji and Christina's story as well. I might not get to some of them now, but may instead roll them up into the fourth arc as I have really only tackled number six so far. Writing now. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 5, 2017 |
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Dec 5, 2017 18:54
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Ice Phisherman posted:All right. Back on track. That means writing. As long as you're okay buddy. Ice Phisherman posted:Julie and finally her clinic opening at the end. While I still don't agree with this, it would be a nice scene.
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Dec 5, 2017 21:15
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Julie, Mother Bear, Julian and spirit - Thursday - January 26th 2075 – Early evening - Blake Island Spirit wasn't used to being the center of attention. In fact this was the first time he'd ever even been in a room with more than two people. Spirit was pressed up against her. "So spirit," began Julian, "Let's start small at first. Julie was at the aid station, right? Who was...Will be? We'll go with was," continued Julian, who frowned at his own confusion. "Who was there and what are they doing?" Spirit looked to Julie and Julie nodded. "Mother Bear was there. She was standing up and watching the people. She wasn't healing anyone even though there were people who were hurt, but I only saw this place for under two minutes so she might have healed people earlier or later. I don't know. She talked about how bad everything was, how everyone needed to leave and she swore a lot." Julian and Julie both suppressed smiles. Mother Bear grunted as spirit continued. "Fuzzy was there. She was really angry. She seemed to know something, like what Julie had asked she'd asked before. She talked about Sasha and how she...Um...She..." started spirit. She looked to Julie again. Julie found his hand and squeezed it. "How Sasha killed herself," whispered spirit. "She healed someone, who talked about stuff and missed his brother, punched Julie when she asked about Sasha, threatened Julie with a knife later, told her what to do and gave her a note. I don't know what it said." "It said, "Win one argument," or something," said Julie. "I don't know what it meant." "There was also Kenji. I know enough about him to know who he is. He kept saying that he wished Kenji was here though, which was weird, and wishes that he never tried to merge or something? He said, "He didn't want me," a couple times. He didn't seem too concerned about what was going on. He just looked sad and scared." Her two teachers looked to Julie as she tried to figure out what this meant. She had some ideas, but she wasn't sure just yet. She shrugged. "Oh, also Mr. Faris and his wife were there. Sort of. They worked another aid station close by. Not the same aid station though," added spirit. "Mr. Faris?" asked Julian. "He's my pastor," said Julie. "He's Touristville's doctor. His wife is a nurse." "Right," said Mother Bear. "Is anyone else there? Anyone else from Blake Island?" "Not that I know, no. Everyone else is sort of see through. It's hard to make out faces. I don't know why," admitted spirit. "Okay, let's take a different track. Do you know who was in the crowd?" asked Julian. "No one specific," said spirit. "In general then. What stands out about the people there?" asked Julian. Spirit gave this some thought. He furrowed his brow and stayed silent as he pondered before finally answering several minutes later. Everyone stayed quiet and Julie noticed just how unnaturally still he was. After all, he didn't need to breathe. "One side was only humans. They waved cloth on sticks," said spirit. "With paintings on them." Mother Bear pulled out her commlink, thought better of it and sighed. "Right, he can't see augmented reality," groaned Mother Bear. "Can't ask him about the flags." "Really?" asked Julie. Julian nodded and explained. "Spirits can't interact with the matrix. Even a display looks blank to them," said Julian. "Okay, so they were waving flags. I can guess which sorts of flags they were waving," continued Julian, darkly. "Please continue." "The other side had flags too. They were mostly orks, but there were some elves, trolls and even humans were there as well. There were more of them. This crowd was bigger than the other crowd. At least I think so," said spirit. "A good old fashioned race riot. Great," groaned Mother Bear. "Fantastic." Spirit looked nervously up at Julie and Julie patted him reassuringly. He seemed to be needing a lot of that. "The last were the people in black armor. They had flying machines and cars. They were really big and hand guns. The armored people weren't doing so well," said spirit. "Why not?" asked Julian. "Because the two crowds were attacking each other, but they were attacking the armored people more. I couldn't see under their masks, but some were big like trolls. It looks like they were trying to make a line, but it was thin. I couldn't get close enough to safely hear what they have to say though," said spirit. "Why not?" asked Julie. Spirit looked at her and she felt his confusion. "It's really bad there. I can only stay at the edges," said spirit. "You can't...You know...Stop it?" asked Julie. "No. Can you?" he asked, genuinely curious. "No. None of us can," said Julie. "Any idea about how many people were wounded or killed?" asked Mother Bear. "Paige!" cried Julian. "He's a boy!" "He's not a boy. He's a spirit. A young one, but bad things are going to happen and we need to be ready for it. If there's going to be a lot of death and injury we need more than a few aid stations. People need to know so they can get ready to receive wounded," sighed Mother Bear. Both Julian and spirit looked incredibly uncomfortable. Again, Julie squeezed his hand. Spirit's answer came slowly, but steadily and his eyes were downcast. "I don't really know," said spirit. "I can't get close without risking myself. In my home I mean, it's not safe in this part of it. There were a lot of loud noises though. Like bangs, all at once," explained spirit. "For how many seconds?" asked Mother Bear. "What does that have to do with anything?" asked Julie. "Odds are they tried some warning shots leading up to this," said Mother Bear. "If there's a second of gunfire it wouldn't be as bad, but if it's sustained that means it goes from bad to worse. The longer the fire is sustained the worse it is." Spirit closed his eyes and counted out loud. As the seconds ticked by Julie and her teachers grew more and more worried. "Six seconds. Some longer. A lot longer, but most were about six seconds. The machines were making loud noises too. They went for longer. Twelve seconds exactly," said spirit. "Then a lot more later, but it was from everyone." Mother Bear swore while Julie and Julian stayed silent. "How many people were there?" asked Mother Bear, quickly. "They move around too much. I can't tell. I tried getting into a building to get a better view, but I couldn't. None of the doors open. I also tried climbing a tree, but I wasn't so good at that. I could only stand up on cars and trucks and stuff because everything is flat. Lots of people though. It's a big park and the streets around it were completely full of people. Most of the space that was cleared out was in front of the armored people. There was some place to move out there, but not that much elsewhere." Mother Bear and Julian quizzed spirit about the park for a while. He couldn't see augmented reality and none of the street signs were physically there in the downtown area which made identifying the area hard. AR signs were cheaper and far more lavish than physical ones. The tall buildings around the park for the most part weren't distinctive. There was a highway to the west which he could see from street level to the west and a church to the north, which stood out because it was the only building with physical signs and distinctive architecture. They nailed down the location when he mentioned the Space Needle, which he could barely see over the tops of other already enormous buildings. "That sounds like Denny Park," said Julian. "It's one of the bigger parks in the downtown area." "What's Denny Park?" asked Julie. "Nothing special. Green spaces drive up prices for property values so the downtown area has a ton of them strategically placed," said Julian. "It's not huge, but big for a park in downtown Seattle. Maybe a couple of acres at best. It's a really nice part of town though. Not as great as it used to be, but it's going through gentrification right now. I used to hang out at Matchsticks when I was younger. It's right down the street." "Of course you hung out a Matchsticks," scoffed Mother Bear. "What's Matchsticks?" asked Julie. "It's a bar," said Julian, quickly. "Anyway, do you know why Mother Bear, Fuzzy and Kenji were there?" Julie noted that Julian looked flustered for a few seconds and frowned, but turned to look at spirit. "No. I don't know why any of this happened. Everyone is yelling and I can't tell who is telling the truth and who isn't, and I'm not there for long enough to make sense out of anything. Since it's a memory I can't ask questions of people like Julie did. I can only relive it." "So all three sides were attacking one another, but they were mostly attacking the people in the middle from what you were saying. The armored people who were they in the middle of the park?" she asked, and spirit nodded. "Were they lined up north to south or east to west?" Spirit thought about it. "North to south." She asked some more pointed questions. The line of officers was thin. The armored men, who were most likely police were using vehicles and barriers to shore up their numbers, but the protesters were in the process of pushing some of those over. The protesters had weapons, and so did the officers, but spirit couldn't really identify any of them. People were being hit by water cannons, there were cans full of smoke that were fired high, there were machines that were attached to trucks but they didn't seem to be doing anything he could see though people didn't like them. Mother Bear asked pointed, specific questions before she came to her last one. "Was there blood?" asked Mother Bear, quietly. Spirit nodded. "A lot of it. Yeah," he whispered. Julie's heart ached for him. She felt awful for burdening him with this. She mentally berated herself for not knowing better. She knew she wasn't sure exactly what experiences she created him with, but this was one of them. Despite not knowing any better she still blamed herself. Spirit squeezed her hand back and leaned his head against her arm. It wasn't much, but it did keep her from spiraling into a depressive funk. "I'm running out of questions," said Mother Bear. "Too much to prepare for. We're talking at the bare minimum 400 police officers opening up on a crowd for six seconds with lethal ammunition along with drones for twice as long. Can we do anything to stop this?" "Should we?" asked Julian. Mother Bear glared daggers at Julian but Julian met her gaze. "It's brutal and cold, sure, but if Ares truly is responsible for Tempo, they killed and addicted way more people than this. Tens of thousands dead from overdoses and hundreds of thousands addicted. People don't respond to nuance. It takes easy to understand events to shift your average person from complacency. If we keep any of this from passing we let the corporations off the hook and they're free to do it again. I think the choice is between a gush of blood over a few days or continuing to trickle blood for years," said Julian. "So what, we just let people get butchered?" fumed Mother Bear. "I've seen the bad side of life. You have too. People get butchered either way. We just like our butchery predictable. This isn't and that's why it disturbs us," countered Julian. "People know the everyday terrors are horrible, but at least they're familiar. This isn't, but it spurs people to action. It gets people off the sidelines." "You don't know that. You don't know where this ends," spat Mother Bear. "I can't believe you're not talking about heading this off. Do you really want this to happen?" "Violence is horrible, but sometimes it's the least horrible of all the options. I'm saying we explore other options, but we don't dismiss it out of hand. The corps aren't about the iron fist. They're about the velvet glove. Both squeeze you just the same. One just feels better than the other," said Julian, hotly. "You're not even there!" shouted Mother Bear. "Well I will be. Count on it. I don't expect other people to bleed for me," spat Julian. Julie averted her eyes and merely listened as her two teachers bickered about ethics and what the right course was. In the end neither of them was willing to budge on what the right course of action was, and neither of them seemed to notice Julie or spirit. She was used to this, but spirit wasn't, and she comforted and distracted him with comforting emotions. He couldn't run though he wanted to. The wards cast by his teachers were still up. They kept him in as surely as they kept intruders out. Minutes later her teachers didn't so much conclude their argument as stop talking about it. Neither looked at one another. "Fine," said Julian. "Just great. Anyway, back on topic. Paige, do you have any more questions?" "No. Not right now," she said, hotly, and she panted like she was out of breath. "Julie?" Julie was startled. She was surprised she'd been notice. "Oh um...What about a map?" she asked. This distracted her teachers. The walls of the mana lodge were adobe, but the floor was bare dirt. He hopped off his bench and began to draw what he saw, now grateful for the distraction. The map wasn't complete, but there were two crowds, one with the humans on the east and one with the metahumans and humans mixed in on the west with a line of police in the middle. There were vehicles, obstacles and buildings, but it was crude and incomplete. He marked the aid station on a small area on the western edge nearest to the highway at the northwestern edge of the park. "Okay, now did Mrs. Maureen see anything? Say anything? And where did she start?" asked Julie. Spirit drew a meandering line that was almost right at the edge of the police line which reached eventually to the aid station. Julie's voice must have reached far to be heard over the riot, but it was Julie's initiation after all. In real life they were sitting right next to one another and were connected by the ritual. Julie shuddered though as she realized just how closely Mrs. Maureen came to being in the line of fire. She'd been mere meters from the front lines when she appeared with Julie. "Any idea on when all of this happened?" asked Julie. "No. It was daytime though," said spirit. "I don't know when it was besides that it was day. It was warm though." The student, the spirit and the two teachers looked around at one another though the teachers didn't look at one another for long. No one had any more questions. They knew where this was happening, but anything about when or why was in short supply. The meeting broke up. Mother Bear wanted to be alone which left Julie and spirit alone with Julian. He shrugged at her. "I thought you and I could talk about other matters for a few minutes. If you're available that is," he said, offhandedly. "I don't know how you can be cool after all that," said Julie, tiredly. Julian's eyes widened. He slowly shook his head and put a finger to his lips. "You have to be," he mouthed. Julie gulped and nodded. She'd been careless again, though only slightly. She was secretly glad Mother Bear wasn't around to see what she'd done. Julie, Julian and spirit - Thursday - January 26th 2075 – Early evening - Blake Island It was dark outside when everyone left. Julian pulled out a flashlight and those who were left were all able to hear Mother Bear leaving quickly in the dark. Her normally slow shuffle was replaced by a quickly receding gait. Julie had no idea Mother Bear could walk that fast. Julie, Julian and spirit all walked on the trail in the dark, though Julie could see perfectly as she was an ork after all. Seeing in the dark was one of the perks. "I just wanted to check in with you," said Julian. "We meet now and again, but I prefer to let you, Fuzzy and Kenji have autonomy. Fuzzy and Kenji are independent for their age so they don't tell me much though I keep tabs on them as best I can. You keep out of trouble so I don't pester you as much. I just want to say that I'm proud of you is all," said Julian. "Um...Thanks?" said Julie, awkwardly. "I know about the clinic and your home in Touristville," said Julian. A bolt of panic shot through Julie at the thought of being ripped away from her home. Julian seemed to sense this and waved one hand in a placating gesture. "I was actually having trouble with where to send you for the summer. I don't have room at my place and that probably wouldn't be appropriate. There are some summer internships I could set you all up with and they'd come with room and board, but you, Julie, did that all on your own. You're still a minor though. The clinic I'm all about. After all, you're serving an underprivileged community, but your own house at sixteen? I mean, wow. You're ambitious." Julie relaxed, but was still wary as she walked along with Julian. Spirit stayed at her side, though the opposite one from Julian. "Yeah, they dug it out for me. The clinic is kind of small, but there is room to expand if I get the money for it. The crossroads section isn't that well developed. Most of the tourists sticks to the districts they came in at. North, west, east, nothing really out south, so people do pass by, but not that much since I'm located on the southern side of the crossroads. So you're not mad for not telling you?" she asked. "Well, I'm your guardian. I'd rather you keep me in the loop. Young awakened do get taken advantage of and I can help you keep that from happening. In a way you are getting taken advantage of but it's not in a way that endangers you so that's on you. There's not a lot of money to be made down there, but I'm not sure if you care that much, do you?" he asked. "I can make money other ways," said Julie. 'The reagents. Right. Again, you're selling yourself short. I hope you realize that it's going to get lean once you leave. People scrape and fight over reagents out in Seattle. It could get you killed by some gutter shaman. Having done it myself I don't recommend it. There is some money set aside to keep you going over the summer, but not a lot," said Julian. "We were hoping to set you up with stable and secure internships over the summer to keep you all occupied." "Okay, so you have a suggestion," said Julie. "Right you are," said Julian, brightly. "I'd like to make myself available to you. Work like this is good for my soul, you know? You have a clinic, but I realize you can only really heal people of physical trauma. I know which spells you have. You only have the one healing spell, no diagnosis spell and nothing to do with sickness. You'll only be practicing emergency medicine and a heal spell doesn't cure everything. Otherwise you may accidentally seal up debris in the wound and turn minor surgery into major surgery." Julie sighed heavily. She could tell he wanted something, but she didn't know what. "What do you want?" she asked, bluntly. He answered her question with a question. "How well equipped is your clinic? Do you have access to competent staff? Who puts the word out so you can turn a profit to keep well stocked and keep that competent staff? Who handles your taxes and protects you from malpractice suits? Who works the clinic when you're away during the school year? Who runs security? On and on. I'd like to help," said Julian. "I notice you don't mention anything about my criminal record," probed Julie. "A little bird told me that you're dealing with that. I don't want to interfere," said Julian. "Except for all of that other interfering?" asked Julie. Julian barked out a laugh. "I'm offering help. I know people. Not just professionals, but donors. In fact the same set of donors who helped get you into school," said Julian. "Wait, I thought you said you picked me," said Julie. Julie blushed at the sudden statement as those feelings of feeling worthy and praised came back to her. Julian smiled big and broad as he continued to walk. "I did pick you. I picked Fuzzy and Kenji as well, but there wasn't enough money in the budget for you. There was a gap. So I talked to some friendly donors about your situation and they made up the difference for all four years. Exceptional young people who will do exceptional things. They'd be happy to hear about your academic accomplishments, but they'd be absolutely thrilled to hear about you setting up a clinic in your community. They may even dig deeper in their pockets for you if I work on your behalf. I'd just like you to think about it is all," said Julian. "Um..." "Yes?" "How much does it cost to go to Blake Island for a year?" asked Julie, curiously. "Roughly? Well just in tuition, room, board it costs 150,000 nuyen." "It costs 150,000 nuyen per year to be here?!" spluttered Julie. She was so distracted she nearly slipped off the trail. Spirit nudged her in the right direction before that could happen. "Ah, no. That's per semester," said Julian. "It costs 300,000 per year. Much of this was waved in your case. There was some money in the budget for you and my donor connections helped make up the shortfall. It was waved in Fuzzy and Kenji's case as well by the by. You eat non-soy food; the real stuff and expertly cooked, you're supplied with clothing, excellent lodging, fantastic security and if I might say, you're taught by excellent teachers and not just in magic. Fuzzy for example gets private tutors who have to physically come here since matrix access is restricted. Class sizes are only large in the first year before people start to branch out and find what they want to do with their lives. You'll be hard pressed to find a class with over ten students come next year. Spell casting and summoning classes tend to be a bit big, but the earlier you specialize the more your education is tailored to you. Or did you think that Mother Bear, a master shaman, spent nights for two months tutoring you without getting overtime? You have a serious leg up over the state schools and even most corporate schools because we don't indoctrinate you with corporate propaganda. They make you sign those all those nasty long term contracts with non-compete clauses which would make practicing your magic outside of that corporation illegal." "That sounds awful," said Julie. "The contracts?" "Yeah." "Yeah, they are. They're hard to enforce unless you live in the UCAS and not in an enclave, but corps are vindictive. They take shots at you if you break faith with them no matter how terrible their contracts are, and not just at your career. Literally. Shots sometimes," said Julian. Julian mimed holding a pistol towards the ground. He pulled the trigger. "Bang," he said. "You're not making me feel better," grumped Julie. "I'm not trying to. This is me passing on sage advice not to get mixed up with them unless you know what you're getting into. Corporations will chew you up as surely as street level nonsense. Be careful who you work for and be careful who you work with," said Julian, seriously. "Most of these other corporate kids are going to get fed right back into their corporations. Don't let your circumstances fool you. Sure they're loaded with nuyen and powerful, but that power comes with costs and expectations. You're better off than they are. You have freedom. They don't, or not without gnawing off their own leg like a wolf caught in a trap. I wouldn't be surprised if you get offers come the summer. Your little spirit is you declaring to the world that you're meant for great things at your age. Even if you were a decade older I'd consider you screaming that to the world. Be careful. Don't sign anything without understanding everything about the contract. Learn to defend yourself." "What, defend myself? Why?" asked Julie. "For the obvious reasons?" said Julian. "No, that's a good question. Fuzzy and Kenji can handle themselves, but you're a powerful shaman who is only going to get stronger who is unconnected to any organization besides ours, which is just a small school. You don't really have anyone looking out for you. You're not strong enough to stand on your own. You're in a fragile position. If you had money I'd suggest hiring private bodyguards until you get stronger. Corporations often kidnap unwilling talent." "I'm...I'm not really feeling comfortable with this, Julian," said Julie, nervously. "Too bad. I'm sorry, Julie, but you don't get to grow into your power. It's already there, big and bold, and so are you. You're good for now. I can guarantee you're on a few dozen lists to recruit as talent the friendly way, but once people learn that you're six months into training and already summoned a spirit ally you're going to get offers, polite and not so polite. I can hook you up with a few organizations that can protect you, but that comes with costs and my donors won't spring for private security. Which is a big part of why I want to help you. You were fine before. Now though? Your spirit is a declaration to the world of your power. You'll have some time to figure it out though. The rumor mill usually takes time to reach the powerful." "Why didn't Mrs. Maureen tell me about any of this?" whined Julie. "Mrs. Maureen is a sweet a lovely person, but she's a pure academic. She's deep into the metaphysical world, and she knows it pretty well from what I understand. The real world? Not so much. That's my domain," said Julian. "Can we talk about something else then?" asked Julie, desperate to change the subject. "Sure, the conversation isn't over. Just postponed. we'll talk more later." "Right...Okay...About Kenji?" "Ah, right," said Julian. Julian's serious demeanor changed to something friendlier. They were near the school proper now. They could both see lights in the distance. Julian paused and Julie and spirit had to turn around. "My advice? I've read his files, so I'll help you cheat a little. He's smooth. He's used to brushing people off. He's used to keeping people at arm's length," he said, as he ticked off his habits on his fingers. "He's not used to people getting close to him. He's not used to kindness. He's not used to people who don't take no for an answer even when they should have reasonably been outmaneuvered." With each new reason he pushed his fingers back down until he made a fist. "Kill him with kindness. He needs a friend. I can't really be one," he admitted. "I'm a teacher. Despite not wearing a tie and people getting to use my first name I still have to distance myself from my students. I have to be objective and professional, or at least I have to try. Otherwise I'd just baby everyone and no one would learn. You on the other hand can be a friend. Go be a friend. Maybe pick up dinner for him. I hear he's been taking meals in his room lately." "You heard about that?" asked Julie, suspiciously. Julian grinned sheepishly and shrugged. "I actually just checked his personal file again to be honest. He hasn't been eating much. Any more skipped meals and he’ll get flagged for a talking to about health and wellness by Mother Bear and that probably won't go over so well. I’d rather solve problems like this informally. A teacher has a harder time connecting to a student than two peers have of connecting to one another. He likes pizza by the way. He always takes three slices, or at least that's what the data says. He always goes for the works when it’s available which I have just put in an order via commlink so you can bring him a pizza box. Also he seems to love a big wedge of apple pie, piping hot. Maybe comfort food is just what the doctor ordered,” said Julian. "He doesn't seem particular about drinks though. Nothing on that end, sorry." Grateful for something that she could actually possibly accomplish, Julie's worry was suppressed as she was able to think of how to busy herself. “That sounds great. Thank you,” said Julie with a smile. “No problem. If it doesn’t work you come and see me. We’ll figure out what else to do together,” said Julian with a smile that matched hers. Julie and Kenji - Thursday - January 26th 2075 – Evening - Blake Island Spirit went back to camp with Julian's flashlight and Julie went to go get dinner from the lunchroom. She had to wait for a few minutes for the pizza to finish cooking so she spent time with Fuzzy and Sasha, who both looking delighted as Sasha just learned her spell. Marco was there too who looked congratulatory. She spent a few minutes talking to them all and kissed Marco on the cheek which made him blush and smile. Plans were made for a cookout tomorrow on the southwestern beach. It was too late to cook out tonight, but a party was on for tomorrow. Fuzzy inquired about Kenji and Julie not only had a plan, but a good plan. That plan consisted of a large box of pizza loaded with real meat and real vegetables with real cheese and real sauce. Extra garlic. There were two pieces of apple pie and two bottles of Fizzychug soda. Before Julie left she stuffed the clam dip recipe into Fuzzy's hand with instructions to get the ingredients along with some tortilla chips, though she'd get the clams. Then she walked out with her food. She was a woman on a mission. "Just what the doctor ordered, and doctor Freeman is on the case," she whispered to herself. She was trying to psych herself out and it was working. She had his favorite food and she was going to be a friend to him. She was going to kill him with kindness and not take no for an answer. She strode purposefully to his cabin, walked up the two wooden steps, balanced her food precariously on one hand as she knocked gingerly on his door. She listened and while there was movement inside though wasn't movement towards the door. She knocked again, this time she was more insistent. She'd knock all night if she had to. This was important. She knocked again and again and again. The door finally opened. Kenji looked like an absolute mess. His hair was greasy despite him having just run a wet comb through it. His eyes were red from lack of sleep and it looked like what little sleep he'd gotten was in his clothes as they were rumpled. He didn't look like the normally calm and collected Kenji Okamura. "What?" he asked, shortly. He was also short with her. That was new, or at least new in the last few days. She stepped forward but he was at the edge of the threshold and didn't budge so she had to take a step back onto the top step. She cleared her throat importantly. "You're not doing well and you're my friend. I wanted to check on you to see how you're doing," she said, honestly. She ruthlessly suppressed her self-criticism. She didn't have time for weakness. This was the plan and it was going to work. She was going to kill him with kindness and not take no for an answer she reminded herself again, silently. As Kenji's stomach growled at the smell of pizza he looked down and Julie suppressed a smile of triumph. On top of the box inside of a sealed plastic lid was apple pie and the precariously balanced sodas. She thrust it into his midsection which pushed him a step back so she could step up. It was either that or crush the pizza box which Kenji was not prepared to do as his stomach overrode his brain. Another small victory. "Pizza. The works. Apple pie. Piping hot. Also some Fizzychug soda. It's my favorite. I thought we could talk for a while," said Julie, sweetly but firmly. Kenji looked down at the food and his poker face broke into an honest and hesitant smile which he concealed with a wider, far less genuine smile. "This is thoughtful, thank you, Julie," he said, smoothly. Julie narrowed her eyes at him. "Thank me by talking to me," she said through gritted teeth, sweetness now gone. "I have a lot to think about tonight," he continued. "Maybe tomorrow? Again, thanks for the food. I really appreciate it." He tried to close the door on her but his door bumped into her. She would not be driven away no matter how polite he was. "Kenji, I'll go if you do one thing for me," she said, suddenly. "Is that a fact? Holding my doorway hostage, are you?" he quipped. "Yes. In fact I am," said Julie, seriously. There was an awkward moment as the two stared one another down. Kenji's stare was polite and Julie's was firm. Both were unyielding. "Okay, for the sake of my doorway then. What's on your mind?" chuckled Kenji. "Tell me that you're okay. Tell me that my worries are unfounded. Tell me that there's absolutely no reason for me to be here. Tell me that and I'll go," she said, pointedly. Kenji's fake smile and friendly demeanor vanished as she demanded the truth from him. Unable to lie as she so ruthlessly pinned him down he thrust the pizza box back into her midsection. The sodas and apple pie wobbled precariously. She was forced back onto the second step and out of the doorway. The box she held took some dents. "Goodnight, Julie. Thanks for playing," he said, deadpan. He tried to close the door on her, but she stuck her foot in the crack. She was thankful that he didn't simply slam the door on her foot and he didn't seem prepared to do that. In that moment of weakness she shoulder checked the door open, sent him stumbling backwards, strode in, kicked the door closed and slammed the pizza box down on a table. She was now able to see inside as he'd blocked the view of his room with his body. The place was an explosion of clothing and smelled like old sweat. It looked worse than just messy. It was like his room needed a shower as desperately as he did and only the heavy smell of pizza had covered it up at the door. Kenji glared at her as he regained his balance and she opened her mouth before he opened his though it was a close thing. "I am not here to deliver you food like a servant, I am not here so you can bullshit me with fake smiles and pretend to be all right and I am not going to let you scare me away again!" she yelled, and she found that her eyes were filled with tears as she whispered, "Just stop it. I'm not going to stop. Just talk to me. Please." She felt drained and she wasn't sure if she had anything left in her after that outburst. Today had been so bad and she wasn't sure how much more fight she had left in her. She still did her best to stand straight and keep her weariness off her face. Kenji looked away as he made his decision, squatted down and pulled something out of his mini fridge. "Fine. You can stay. You want some drinks?" he asked. He pulled out a clear bottle of chilled liquid. It was a liquor bottle that simply read "Gulag". Julie frowned. "What happened to the mouthwash bottle?" she asked. "Aren't you afraid of being caught with that?" "Ask me if I give a poo poo. You want to stay you deal with me as I am. No bullshit, remember? You want some or not?" he snapped. One of her sodas idly fizzed past its cap on the simple brown rug that came stock with the cabin. She picked it up as she stalled to think about what to do next. She was in, but was that the hard part or not? She'd never thought this far ahead. In a moment of weakness she allowed some self-criticism to slip past her emotional guard, because she'd never thought about what to do next. CYOA Time So Kenji reluctantly let Julie in. What do we do now? We’re out of edge and he’s still better than Julie with etiquette. If we fail an intimidation check it’ll effect his loyalty negatively, but it could work. It’s high risk though. Kenji is also offering drinks. Does Julie partake? Sasha isn't here to limit everyone to just one drink this time. Also, Julian has offered to help Julie with her clinic. He seems self-interested, but not malicious. Is she interested? -- I rolled an edge for Edward, who shares Kenji's pool of edge. He gets a crit. It's not a great crit though as it's only one hit, but it's enough to get something. Two hits would have given everything. Julian rolls etiquette and gets 3 hits on 14 dice. Julie rolls perception to see through him and gets 4 hits on 8 dice. Critical. She realizes that he's up to something, but she doesn't know what. She gets 3 hits on judge intentions which is a success. His intentions aren't malicious, but they do seem partially self-serving though she doesn't know why. He gets something out of this besides "good karma". She asks what his game is and he's not telling. 1 hit versus his 7. Julie has 13 dice (etiquette 1 + charisma 5 + aid another 6 + loyalty 2 – 1 racism) versus Kenji’s 10 (charisma 8 + perception 4 – 2 for being tired) dice. Since Kenji has not been sleeping well lately he’s out of edge. Julie has one edge left. Let’s roll it! Julie gets 5 hits, but I’m wary of a critical and hope for the best. I reroll failures to get 3 more hits for a total of 8. Normally she's limited to 7 hits on social tests, but her street cred bumps that up by 4 since 4 is what she has in street cred. Kenji rolls 10 dice. He gets 5 hits and crushes Julie’s attempts again with a critical. Julie would've had to have gotten 11 hits to beat his crit. Julie has had it with Kenji and rolls intimidation. She has 12 dice because she’s good at that. No loyalty bonus this time as she’s threatening him. Kenji is surprised and has only has 6 intimidation + 3 willpower -2 for being tired for 7 dice. No edge this time. Julie gets 4 and Kenji gets 3 hits. Kenji sees that she means business and reluctantly invites her in. That would’ve gone badly if she failed. For once her bad reputation pays off, because that wouldn’t have been possible without her notoriety, or at least it would’ve been far less likely. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 6, 2017 00:21
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 I... I've been in a situation pretty similar. Only I was Kenji, and didn't have charm or good looks to fall back on. The outcome was my best friend beating the poo poo out of me for being stupid. It paradoxically worked and I managed to pull my poo poo together. I don't think that will work here, Kenji doesn't have a miltary mindset. I don't know what to do.
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Dec 6, 2017 00:49
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Deadmeat5150 posted:
The dice worked out in my favor. I was really hoping she'd fail that etiquette test and blow past Kenji's fake attitude. That's how the dice came up and I am pleased. This has headed off Fuzzy's meddling because Julie is now making serious, honest attempts to help Kenji. Fuzzy is a good person, but she's still very aggressive. That's how we played her allllll the way back in September/October. Glad you got out of that mindset, Deadmeat. People say that violence isn't the answer, but it actually sometimes is. It's just usually the best of a bunch of bad choices.
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Dec 6, 2017 01:24
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Shitballs. I'm, uh, actually at a loss here. It's been long enough since I had to smack someone out of a spiral like this that I may have lost my mojo
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Dec 6, 2017 01:35
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Hexenritter posted:Shitballs. I'm, uh, actually at a loss here. It's been long enough since I had to smack someone out of a spiral like this that I may have lost my mojo I have to say that after that incredibly tense scene it would be incredibly comical if Julie genuinely didn't know what to say or do.
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Dec 6, 2017 01:42
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Ice Phisherman posted:I have to say that after that incredibly tense scene it would be incredibly comical if Julie genuinely didn't know what to say or do. "Iiiiiii uhhhh, ummmmm, I ai yi yi....*slow raspberry*... Well, gently caress... Drink?"
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Dec 6, 2017 01:53
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If she tells Kenji anything about the future everyone involved will die the second anyone hostile forces him into a corner about it. Whatever else Julie does, she CANNOT tell Kenji about the future. She MIGHT be able to tell Edward.
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Dec 6, 2017 02:04
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Well, definitely don't put forward the idea for a merge, Kenji genuinely hates Edward too much to consider it and will straight up delete himself if Edward forces the topic. So how about a more mundane form of reconciliation instead? Has Edward ever, really, genuinely considered what he does to Kenji, apologized, or tried to make it up to him? Kenji's outright stated that Edward is his slave owner and we don't know if Edward realizes that. EDIT: Also, hmm! What to talk to Kenji about. I got nothing about saving him emotionally, I'm not really equipped for that. As far as stuff to talk about, maybe not the future in specifics re:the corp situation, but maybe be honest with him about what we do know, like how in the vision we were told to basically let him be recruited by someone? Also that in the vision she heard the LeBlanc woman was good people and could be trusted, and Kenji can easily put two and two together. Back on the immediate topic, I still don't know what to talk about, but this has to do with him not knowing what to do with relative freedom, especially the freedom to feel and be himself and not just a social weapon right? Maybe ask about if this has anything to do with that? Except more delicately because if you phrase it like I did that must be some terrible etiquette rolling. Runa fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 6, 2017 02:21
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Julie's special power is bad etiquette rolling. Unfortunately her only good social skill is scaring the piss out of people
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Dec 6, 2017 02:46
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Xarbala posted:Has Edward ever, really, genuinely considered what he does to Kenji, apologized, or tried to make it up to him? He bought him a chili dog this one time.
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Dec 6, 2017 03:33
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Maybe get "drunk" together? Julie's size should give her some tolerance to stay with Kenji, maybe just two friends drinking and talking and when the liquor starts working get into the meat details. This is of course banking on Julie's Orcish tolerance for booze if Kenji can still drink her under the table it won't work.
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Dec 6, 2017 03:42
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Who are we kiddin, julie's gonna blab if she gets drunk. Maybe this needs to happen though?Ice Phisherman posted:He bought him a chili dog this one time. Man! Yeah, I think a more ordinary reconciliation needs to happen, regardless of whether or not fusion dance is going to be the end-goal. Edward's got a lot of work to do to make things up to Kenji.
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Dec 6, 2017 04:21
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Sit down with him, have some pizza and a drink (Julie's been craving some junk food, and there's nothing better for soaking up liquor). Don't push him hard on talking about what's going on - yet. Once they're both warmed up, though, talk to him in blunt, simple terms - things he can't just talk his way around. Talk about how, regardless of whatever he intended, he'd made a friend, and she isn't going to stop being his friend. So he can just come out and tell her what's up so that she can at least try to help. Or she can keep coming back and kicking in his door every day until he relents. Or he can just tell her. Or she can snoop and prod and intrude into his private matters. Or he can just tell her. Make it absolutely goddamn clear that she's his friend no matter how he feels about that fact, and that as far as she's concerned that means that not trying to help him is not an option. Set it up right and he might choose to relent even if we fail the social roll, just more resentfully. Kill him with kindness. And then make him take a loving shower, holy poo poo.
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Dec 6, 2017 04:35
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Toughy posted:Maybe get "drunk" together? Julie's size should give her some tolerance to stay with Kenji, maybe just two friends drinking and talking and when the liquor starts working get into the meat details. This makes sense to me! I'm not sure she'll have a higher tolerance than accomplished drinker Kenji, but he's already had a head-start. And I don't see why we shouldn't allow Julian to join in at the clinic.
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Dec 6, 2017 10:54
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I broke down and I've been doing some bookkeeping. The character sheets now have links to certain events (like karma) so I don't have to hunt through the thread anymore as that had been eating a lot of my time. I'm not a big fan of bookkeeping so that's why it took me so long to do it. Current karma totals are thus: Julie: 1 karma left of 53. Fuzzy: 16 karma left of 53. Kenji: 47 karma left of 53. From earlier in the thread it looks like I made an accident all the way back when I created her character sheet. I'll be wiping out her lightning reflexes quality because when I read about it through the chummer character creator it didn't mention that it was incompatible with other forms of increasing initiative. This means she has some points in positive qualities. I'm going to reassign them because the thread wanted improved reflexes, which is a better magic version of this. The change should be negligible. She'll just have a few new qualities and maybe a new skill or two. It's a big pain to list them all to vote on so I'm just going to do that on my own. However everyone does get to vote on other stuff. See below. Also I've decided to give her a few free knowledge skills. She learned not only how to read but she's gotten up to the seventh grade in terms of studies. I figure that's worth some free points in knowledge skills. We spent 26 karma on getting educated, so I'll give 5 free karma worth of knowledge skills. Let me know what knowledge skills you'd like her to learn. This means we can buy 5 skills at level 1 or 2 skills at level 1 and improve an existing skill to level 2 or really focus on improving 1 skill to level 2 and getting a random skill to level 1. They should be connected to her studies in some way. Think normal middle school education. If she wants to continue to learn Or'Zet to become fluent rather than understanding at a basic level I'll allow it, but it'll be karma intensive to get there. A total of 15 karma to become 100% fluent or 10 to become fluent in -just- the spoken word and be basically literate. The next level costs 3 karma. Kenji on the other hand is a special case. We've barely touched his character in terms of karma. That's my fault as I kept his character sheet hidden for so long. Let me know if there's anything you want me to do with his character in particular. I will say that his astral beacon quality from having a wrecked soul is permanent. We can't buy that off. In that way Kenji is permanently damaged. The rest is negotiable with karma and some roleplay. I'd also like to know where to take his adept powers. Do we go charisma based or combat based with his powers, or do we try and strike a balance between both? As for Julie, she still has to save up some karma for helping spirit. As I said before she can purchase karma at 1000 nuyen a hit up to 10 karma but that takes a day each time she does it. She's also going to have one final "run" to make karma. How much she gets depends on how well she does. We need 10 karma to buy off her problem with her criminal record and at least 3 karma and possibly 5 to change spirit so he looks okay. It's going to be tight. I'll be waiting until later today to write anything more. It seems like the thread is mostly all about "I don't know what to do, let's drink" because Julie was focused on piercing through Kenji's outer shell. Still waiting for more votes though. We're coming up on the end of Julie's arc. Maybe five more posts before I start arc four. It's running a little long compared to Fuzzy and Kenji's stories and I'd like to wrap things up. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 14:06 on Dec 6, 2017 |
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Dec 6, 2017 13:48
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Fuzzy should pick up some History for sure. Probably a point or two in Literature and Mathematics too. Maybe a bit of Area Knowledge (Seattle) just because of how she's been going around the city with Sasha. Maybe Security Companies with a specialty in Knight Errant, for obvious Reasons? For Kenji, I figure he picks up a combo of Combat and Social. For the combat stuff, probably an emphasis on reaction, defense, and initiative - stuff for surviving, if not necessarily winning. Improved Reflexes, Combat Sense, that kind of thing. My preemptive vote for the spirit's modification is definitely picking up the Etiquette skill.
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Dec 6, 2017 15:44
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Ice Phisherman posted:Be careful. Don't sign anything without understanding everything about the contract. Learn to defend yourself." Finally, some sense from an adult. Again, this is why I didn't want to tie in with the Underground. They may not be a Corp, and, that doesn't make them less dangerous and or vindictive. I really don't want Julie to live in Ork-Town for the rest of her life. Ice Phisherman posted:CYOA Time Julie does not partake. "Kenji, I'm here as a friend to make sure you don't spiral out of control, and I may be on the cusp of being too late for that. You haven't been eating, clearly, you haven't been sleeping, and you're not taking care of yourself. Drinking isn't going to help. So, what say we have a slice or three, eat that pie, chug that soda, get you feeling right? Then, you can tell me what is bothering you so much." Ice Phisherman posted:Also, Julian has offered to help Julie with her clinic. He seems self-interested, but not malicious. Is she interested? Yes, Julie accepts Julian's help. I think Julian just wants to be able to keep tabs on her, and this is a good way of doing it. He's still her Guardian, I say cut the guy some slack. Ice Phisherman posted:Let me know what knowledge skills you'd like her to learn. If she's going to be running a clinic, then I say Math and Reading/Writing are the big core skills. Ice Phisherman posted:I'd also like to know where to take his adept powers. Do we go charisma based or combat based with his powers, or do we try and strike a balance between both? I recommend charisma based; if Kenji wants to focus on being a fixer, then let's give him the skills to be successful. Ice Phisherman posted:We're coming up on the end of Julie's arc. Maybe five more posts before I start arc four. It's running a little long compared to Fuzzy and Kenji's stories and I'd like to wrap things up. Yeah, I agree. While 'Days of Future Past' and 'Spirit Sonny' have been fun, Julie's arc has been dragging for a little longer than expected. Her tale kinda exploded to include a lot more development with other character's than the other arcs as well, which padded the length. @Ice: How much planning and effort did you put into Arc 4? What I mean is, are we locked into the Fuzzy perspective, or, can we do a more narrator viewpoint?
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Dec 6, 2017 22:31
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quote:Finally, some sense from an adult. Again, this is why I didn't want to tie in with the Underground. They may not be a Corp, and, that doesn't make them less dangerous and or vindictive. I will say that whether Julie stays in Touristville or not is up to the thread. We can even minimize her presence there without totally leaving. Ritual magic like what happened with Octo is a great way to keep the clinic running for days without her having to physically be there. If she gets good at ritual magic she can passively make money from the clinic and have other people run it for her. That would take a significant investment though and Julie is strapped for both karma and cash, but it's 100% possible to get her out of Touristville while still passively helping the place. Touristville is well developed as a location so I don't want to completely leave it, but I am eager to develop new areas. Specifically either some locations in the Redmond Barrens or the Puyallup Barrens as well as one or two of the districts in Seattle itself. Again that will be up to the thread whether I develop a place further depending if we want to stay or not. CourValant posted:@Ice: How much planning and effort did you put into Arc 4? What I mean is, are we locked into the Fuzzy perspective, or, can we do a more narrator viewpoint? I prefer third person perspective with a focus on the character we're viewing at the time. I've always been terrible with sticking to a strictly third person limited/unlimited perspective which is why I normally paid editors to clean up my prose. I'm not classically trained in writing so my technical writing skills are fairly terrible. At some point I'd like to take some creative writing classes to tighten up my prose, but that's waaaaaay off. I will say that depending on who we choose to focus on for arc 4 we'll focus on whomever the thread chooses. My story boarding has been for Fuzzy. However I'm 100% okay with that not being the case. I'll just have to change the story around a bit. I go where the threads takes me and so I'll be flexible. That's part of the experience of CYOA. If we choose Fuzzy we'll spend some time seeing how she's grown up, introduce the physical adept teacher who she'll be working with this semester (coach Bolt), go back home to visit Rat Man and see where she came from, deal with Sasha subtly mentioning that she'd like Fuzzy to intern with Ares for the semester and the push back (or not according to the thread) against that and see where she came from before launching into the plot. We'll also resolve some of Kenji and Julie's untied plot threads as I'm not going to be able to get to all of them. Plus Fuzzy is going to hang out with some orks and trolls at a metal concert and mosh with her fancy new powers despite the fact that she's barely over five feet tall and maybe 110 pounds. She's a human, but she's ork enough to hang out with the Touristville orks. As for planning and effort? Most of the planning and effort I've made have went into the middle and ending of arc 4. Maybe 20 hours of thinking about it? Mostly on my walks so I'm not just laying around bonelessly thinking about webforum stories. I've created and discarded a number of ideas for endings before arriving at one in particular. I've had it planned out since about the middle of arc 2. I want to make a satisfying ending. Maybe not satisfying to the characters, but satisfying for the reader. I tie up loose threads, introduce new plot threads and prime year 2 for conflict at the personal and societal level. In short, the winds of fate are going to leave the Blake Island teens. The plot will stop revolving around them because I can really only maintain the conceit that the world revolves around them for a short time. Instead the focus for year 2 is going to be change. Those winds may have left, but they're not gone. Instead they can chase them and be the change they want to see, or at least try. In stories heroes normally fight villains to maintain the status quo. I say gently caress that. In year 2 I want the heroes to challenge that status quo in ways that the thread would find interesting and each teen will be chasing their own project. Also when Marco leaves I'm going to introduce a new male character and I've decided to make him pretty controversial to challenge some people in the thread. I've decided that he will because Marco doesn't really like trouble that much and the teens are probably going to seek out trouble. Marco will still make appearances but he'll become a tertiary character who is mostly contacted by phone or maybe he visits the area now and again to see how everything is going. The new character, Sasha and Big Rita will become more prominent secondary characters. At least if Sasha survives that is. After arc 4 I launch into a new CYOA for a while and see if I can make it entertaining enough to sell it on the market. Since it'll be my own IP before I try my hand at Blake Island year 2. Maybe upgrade my internet and do some actual play podcasts with some good and cool goons so other people can enjoy. After all, I'm probably a better GM than I am a writer as I've been GM'ing for the better part of a decade while I've only been writing professionally for a few years. Maybe make some amateur audiobooks out of Blake Island narrated by yours truly. Finally launch the patreon since I said I've been wanting to do that for months now. Launch the website and market the story to Topps and failing that, just make a web serial out of it. All that good stuff. I'm recovering and I'm 90% sure I should be good to get my life back on track again and writing can be a nice little side business. Once I'm done with arc 4 I'll work on some back end stuff like editing, website creation and patreon while I storyboard for Boomtown, the next CYOA I'm going to run. It'll be non-Shadowrun. Depending on how it's received I may alternate between Boomtown and Blake Island, or go with one of several different ideas if Boomtown isn't as well received. I'm more interested in working on the back end stuff now that I'm taking more time and not posting every day. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Dec 7, 2017 |
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Dec 7, 2017 01:03
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Ice Phisherman posted:My story boarding has been for Fuzzy. However I'm 100% okay with that not being the case. I'll just have to change the story around a bit. I go where the threads takes me and so I'll be flexible. That's part of the experience of CYOA. Cool, good to know. That being said, you realize you just 'poisoned' the well with all the story details on Fuzzy? Who is going to vote against seeing Fuzzy at an Ork metal concert, except me? Ice Phisherman posted:Maybe upgrade my internet and do some actual play podcasts with some good and cool goons so other people can enjoy. I volunteer as Tribute!!! I even found my original childhood DnD dicebag recently! Ice Phisherman posted:Finally launch the patreon since I said I've been wanting to do that for months now. Link? I said I'd support you Buddy. Ice Phisherman posted:Once I'm done with arc 4 I'll work on some back end stuff like editing, website creation and patreon while I storyboard for Boomtown, the next CYOA I'm going to run. Can't wait to see it!
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Dec 7, 2017 01:15
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CourValant posted:Cool, good to know. That being said, you realize you just 'poisoned' the well with all the story details on Fuzzy? Whoops. I'm going to blame it on shop talking with cowriters. Ah well. It's not too much of a spoiler and the thread might choose to avoid some of that. quote:I volunteer as Tribute!!! It'll be a bit. I'll need to upgrade my internet at some point. It's not exactly stable or reliable at the moment. I was thinking of doing mini-campaigns and tightly editing them so it's fun to listen to rather than hearing a bunch of dice rolling and table chatter. So run Shadowrun for a few months, some call of C'thulu, Dresden Files, Red Markets, that sort of stuff. quote:Link? I said I'd support you Buddy. It's not up just yet (still). I'm focusing on my editing. I'll make an announcement when it's up. quote:Can't wait to see it! Thanks! I'd like to use it to help drive eyes towards Blake Island and allow people to catch up too as the story is enormous. I'll be switching to The One Ring system, but heavily modified. It's my favorite.
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Dec 7, 2017 01:24
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