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  • Locked thread
StringOfLetters
Apr 2, 2007
What?

Alouicious posted:

Oh whoops.

Well, all the same, Dick has my highlight.


Stay Cool, Frenchie.

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StringOfLetters
Apr 2, 2007
What?

Captain Foo posted:

The biggest takeaway here is that Dick, you're about out of people. Started with like, 16 rat-bastards. You've got seven killed. Not a lot of manpower left.

Session three will start either tonight or tomorrow evening; anything else you want to hash out before then feel free.

Actually started with like 30. :shobon:

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

StringOfLetters posted:

Actually started with like 30. :shobon:

whoops!! Guess you're still doing okay then, though that's still almost a third dead.

blurry!
Jun 14, 2006

Sorry for Party Flocking
(image incoming)


Adam Franken
The Freak
Map-Face
Monster Mash

Faceless

Look
Man, scrounged Armor, sad eyes, battered body

Mask
Hooded/masked cowl, dusty
[Image to be revealed]

Cool=0
Hard+3
Hot-1
Sharp+2
Weird-1

The Unexpected: when someone sees you unmasked for the first time, they take s-harm, in addition to anything else that happens.

Unmasked, you are:
Grotesque. Every PC who sees you goes immediately to Hx+3 with you.

Ashamed. You have hard=0 until you cover your face again

Faceless Moves

Juggernaut: take -2 on all "when you suffer harm" rolls.

Rasputin: shot, stabbed, and poisoned, you just keep coming. When you are being scary as gently caress and coming at someone, you get +1-armor. You still get shot and stabbed, bleeding just doesn't bother you that much anymore

Beastly: you get +1hard (hard+3).

Brutal Weapon
Big rear end Machete (3-harm hand messy)

2-armor


A bit about him

The children of the island sing songs about Adam Franken as they keep time with their jump ropes. Mean songs about his skin and face. Songs about how they found a man made from the parts of other dead men inside a coffin, washed up on the North Shore one stormy night. About how not to cross him or he'll take you apart and knit you back up again to look just like him.

...You better not fuss, you better stay in line,
or you'll get taken apart by the Frankenstein!...


Songs for children exaggerate some things, naturally, but can be uncannily accurate for others. Adam got his reputation around the island for taking apart people, but he never once put them back together again. His body looks like the divided territories of an old Golden Age map, crisscrossed in suture marks and scars from head to toe, but he was not a medley of corpses. He was found near-dead in one of many crates that washed up on the North Shore, not a coffin. Despite all that, it painted a strange tale, to be sure. One that gave him his name. A well read islander made a comment about some book called the Modern Prometheus when they saw him wash up. A book about Adam, a cursed patchwork corpse cobbled by an angel named Frankenstein. The name stuck. Adam didn't think it was amusing, but it beat the other names.

The truth is, Adam isn't a monster. Well, not anymore than any of these other people. He just looks more the part. He doesn't like killing, but he's good at it, to his grief. It pays his way, keeps him fed, no matter how heavily it weighs on him. Every knife wound or bullet hole he's sewed up reminds him. In a strange effort he knows doesn't outweigh his sins, he keeps a small, private garden on a tiny plot in southwest corner of the island. Every time Adam hurts someone, he plants something small, and every time he kills, he plants a tree. He tends them diligently when he can put down his swords and pick up his ploughshare, as it were. Life for life.

It's just a shame he has to break new earth soon. Garden's getting a bit too full.

As someone who's held to be a monster, even among a host of killers, liars and thieves, life can be lonely if one just lets things fall where they may. Like his little garden, Adam tends diligently to any friendships he makes, and if someone isn't on the receiving end of his nastiness, they'll find a rather cordial, agreeable fellow. Unfortunately, everyone knows that the way life's dice rolls, anyone can be on that receiving end.

Eddie, Gravelguts, Lusman, Slate, Shredfuck, and all those others. They're all trees now, but you can bet their mates don't consider that recompense. A mixture of fear and need for what he can do, along with his reputation for surviving retribution to bring his own has kept Adam alive on this island. But even that brew is held in a fragile bottle poised to fall and shatter with the right wind. Someday his number will be up, but until then this freak will keep planting his blood-watered garden.

blurry! fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Jun 7, 2014

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

StringOfLetters are you still with us or are you dropping from the game?

StringOfLetters
Apr 2, 2007
What?
I'm here. I'm feeling pretty demoralized about this. It seems like everything I've written in or described has gotten arbitrarily burned down or killed off, nothing I've tried to do has panned out into anything else, and I'm not really sure what to talk to Dovefeathers about. Like, 'hey, how you doing? Want something?'

StringOfLetters fucked around with this message at 04:37 on Jun 17, 2014

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

StringOfLetters posted:

I'm here. I'm feeling pretty demoralized about this. It seems like everything I've written in or described has gotten arbitrarily burned down or killed off, nothing I've tried to do has panned out into anything else, and I'm not really sure what to talk to Dovefeathers about. Like, hey, how you doing? Want something?

hm. sounds like there's a fuckup probably on my part somewhere. if you want to catch me for a more interactive discussion, I'm usually on IRC, #badwrongfun on SynIRC in the evenings EST, or if that doesn't work shoot me a PM. Sorry that you're not enjoying things more, let's get this working.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Okay so tomorrow I'm going on vacation and then to a wedding; I'll be back Sunday or Monday. Enjoy the calm before the storm(s)...

DocBubonic
Mar 11, 2003

Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis
I'll be posting sometime soon, I'm thinking of what to post first.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

where is erryone

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Re-recruiting is tentatively open!!

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
If you're recruiting, I will get you a Touchstone or a Battlebabe Gunlugger, probably!

e: Drr I am dumb, I got two playbooks confused.

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 00:45 on Aug 22, 2014

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Already have a Battlebabe in the game!

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009
So this is a little outside the AW norm but it's the Quarantine anyway, so it's always going to stick out. Let me know if it's too weird, though, I'll think of something else.

Jackson-52 Mark, the Quarantine
XP [X] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ]



When the apocalypse happened, it didn't happen all in one go: things went from bad to worse to the end of the world in a fairly predictable manner. This left the Old World powers enough time to plot and plan, and start working on a contingency plan: key personnel would be buried in stasis vaults, seeded across the surface of the planet so at least a fraction of them could survive no matter what. Those scientists, politicians and military leaders would be entombed with cloned soldiers, vat-birthed and force-grown from their own genetic material so that they could provide spare parts if needed.

Specialist Jackson-52 is one of those clones. He was born (from his perspective) eight years ago, fed a steady diet of growth hormones and gene therapies designed to sculpt his body into an efficient machine, and given accelerated learning treatments. He can cook, clean, hunt, fight as a unit with his clutch-siblings, perform general maintenance and operate what little of Stasis' machinery he is authorised to operate. Defrost SOP specifies that if defrosted first, he should scout out the surrounding area, establish contact with civilisation (if there's a civilisation left), and determine whether it is safe to defrost the VIPs.

The only problem is, he's been outside a few times, and he still has no idea where to start.

Jackson-52 lives in Stasis, which is an underground bunker on the outskirts of town. Right now, he has two things on his mind: how is he going to accomplish his mission, and where the hell is Mathers-13?

quote:

Look
Man
Ancient fatigues
Young face
Clear eyes
Compact body

Stats
Cool+3
Hard+1
Hot=0
Sharp+1
Weird=nil

Moves
Combat veteran: you get +1 cool.

Leave no one behind: in battle, when you help someone who’s rolling, don’t roll+Hx. You help them as though you’d hit the roll with a 10+.

Eager to know: when you go to someone for advice, they must tell you honestly what they think the best course is. If you pursue that course, take +1 to any rolls you make in the pursuit. If you pursue that course but don’t accomplish your ends, you mark experience.

Gear
Assault rifle [XCM-556] (3-harm close loud autofire hi-tech)
9mm sidearm [MPFA1] (2-harm close loud hi-tech)
Military body armour (2-armor valuable hi-tech)
Fatigues and scrounge

Stasis
I emerged from stasis a few weeks ago
Remaining in stasis are the rest of my unit (ten clones) and my superiors/genetic templates (two scientists, Terrence Jackson and Louise Mathers).
Stasis has remained untouched because it has deadly defences. Anything that comes within a hundred yards of the bunker is killed by smart-missiles.
When I emerged, Spc. Mathers-13 Tamsin was nowhere to be found. I have no idea where she could be. Stasis records her accessing the medbay, the armoury, and leaving, then very little until my defrosting.

Stasis' medbay is unlocked and functional.

Hx
Ebbs +0
Sansa Merci +0
Sethro +0
Paris +0


code:
BEGIN LOGFILE EXCERPT
1308575225 WRN PERIMETER VIO NA NA
1308576700 ... PERIMETER VIO NA TERM
1308577106 ERR MATHERS-13 TAMSIN POD FAIL
1308577107 WRN MATHERS-13 TAMSIN POD LOCK RLS
1308577332 ... STASIS DOOR ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577339 ... STASIS DOOR ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577361 ... STASIS DOOR ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577362 WRN PERIMETER VIO MATHERS-13
1308577377 WRN PERIMETER VIO NA NA
1308577411 ... PERIMETER ACC MATHERS-13
1308577411 WRN PERIMETER VIO NA NA
1308577412 ... STASIS MED ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577415 WRN STASIS ARM ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577416 ... STASIS DOOR ACCESS MATHERS-13
1308577416 ... PERIMETER VIO NA TERM
1308577418 WRN PERIMETER VIO MATHERS-13
1308601145 WRN PERIMETER VIO NA NA
1308627859 WRN JACKSON-52 MARK POD LOCK RLS
END LOGFILE EXCERPT

Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Dec 11, 2014

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Jackson-52 Mark, somewhere in the game thread, you found a map. Tell me in a little more detail where Stasis is, and how the nearest settlement reacted to your appearance.

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"
Poor Winston, the Angel



“This island is a piece of poo poo. People are killing each other all over- the Khans, Wrecks and Wracks, Puck’s gang and Dovefeathers’ crew, all circling each other, knives out. I heard tell the Kells, or what’s left of them, were going after those cannibal assholes out in the tall grasses. There’s a monster that stalks the woods, there’s the dead zone where people just loving…disappear, there’s all this poo poo on this island and then there’s us. The people who try and live day to day and not get killed in a dickwave between people angry people with guns.

There’s a rule on the island: if you’re not useful, you don’t get to survive. It’s not a big place, people rub elbows like it’s a small town. That’s why I patch, that’s why I stitch and set and splint and pull lead from bloody holes. I save more’n I kill, and that’s a good record for a sawbones here. It keeps me in the rotgut they brew in the market, in the skunk they grow out on Wolf Mountain, in something approaching peace.

Because at the end of it all, that’s what I’m looking for. Peace. For people to live like loving people and not like hyenas at each other’s throats. I want to be part of a community, you know? That’s why I like baseball. You get people playing a game, all of a sudden they’re not a gang, they’re a team. I ain’t got a lot of people in the All-Island League yet, but I’m trying. “The Beautiful Game,” I think they used to call it. I like that.

So that’s what I do. I try to keep people alive. I try and get them to do something other’n kill one another. I know the island won’t let me, won’t let us win, because the island hates us all. That’s why there’s always enough bullets washing up on shore but never enough chillstabs or antibiotics or whatever else is useful for keeping people around instead of getting rid of them.

But poo poo, what are you going to do, cry about it? Play ball, motherfuckers.”



quote:

Cool +1
Hard +1
Hot 0
Sharp +2
Weird -1

Man, scrounge wear plus utility, haggard face, bright eyes, rangy body

Moves:

Infirmary: you get an infirmary, a workspace with life support, a drug lab and a crew of 2 (Rocker & Gentleman Jane). Get patients into it and you can work on them like a savvyhead on tech.

Sixth sense: when you open your brain to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+sharp instead of roll+weird.

Gear:
Angel Kit (6 Stock)
Sawed-Off (3-harm close reload messy)
Motorcycle Jacket (1 armor)
Baseball glove

Poor Winston dosses down in Tiger Club, his infirmary in Grey Ferry, near the ball diamond he spent last summer clearing. "Infirmary" is kind of a grand term- it's a few cargo containers with some cots and equipment and poo poo in it. Rocker and Gentleman Jane line in Grey Ferry proper.

What keeps Winston up at night is the fear that a) the people on the island are all that's left in the world and b) that the island is trying to kill them all and finish the job, hence his passion for fixing people up and getting them to use bats for something other than cracking each other's braincases.

(I put him in Grey Ferry because it hasn't really been explored yet, and the DZA kind of has the other side of the island sewn up as his territory)

Vulpes Vulpes fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Aug 22, 2014

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, somewhere in the game thread, you found a map. Tell me in a little more detail where Stasis is, and how the nearest settlement reacted to your appearance.



That's where Stasis is, sunk in the bedrock of a cliff. The entrance is a hatch-door in the side of a rocky outcropping, then down four flights of stairs.

The bunker is mostly self-sufficient - it can synthesise protein bars from shrimp, seaweed and plankton, and desalinate sea water for drinking, but the process is pretty slow. Right now, it's definitely got enough stockpiled that Jackson-52 can afford to feed himself for a while, but the stores weren't designed to be cracked open for another few decades. At max capacity, it was supposed to provide enough food and potable water for all 14 of Stasis' occupants for three months, but it's far off from that. Besides that, the medbay can probably keep him from starving to death for a little while, although it won't help with the hunger pains or the fatigue, if it comes to that.

Jackson-52's only been awake for 18 days. So far, he's only made one trip into O'Malley's Respite, although he's travelled far enough south to catch a glimpse of the Market. He wasn't dumb enough to go out in full kit, but he figured even without the armour, he'd still stand out - guess there's just enough people in military-style fatigues carrying ninemils around that he doesn't stand out that much, at least from a distance (up close, there's something pretty clearly off about his body proportions - too short, too wide, sort of androgynous). People stared a bit, but if anyone reported him to the authorities, he doesn't know and nothing's come of it yet - it's not like he went around waving a sign that says "HEY, I'M FROM THE HIDDEN BUNKER NEARBY."

Really, he only got close enough that he could check if people still spoke English - as far as he can tell, that's the case. Other than that, he's been mapping the area around Stasis, working in concentric circles, because that's what defrost SOP says. He should be paying more attention to his surroundings and making sure no one's seen him, but he hasn't - he's been distracted, wondering why he was defrosted fifty years early and what happened to Mathers-13.

He's going to have to go out properly real soon, though - maybe tomorrow, or the day after. Go to O'Malley's, try to find out what's left of the Government, maybe see if the local authorities can be trusted, and definitely figure out where Mathers-13 went - because it takes two of them to authorise the lock release on the other pods.

(Basically holding out on committing to having met the important people for now - I'd rather you picked who Jackson-52 falls in with if you're taking me, especially as my Hx goes to whichever PC I met first. I figure your next round of questions can establish what happened when I visited the Respite asking questions and looking for who runs the show, who I met, etc.)

Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 17:40 on Aug 22, 2014

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Omen, the Touchstone



The end of the world. That's what everyone calls it. The end, and now we live in the hereafter.

It is a lie. The world did not end. It fell apart, and now we scrabble and fight over the trash of centuries. Re-enact the follies of our ancestors, repeat the conflicts of old, but in a sad pantomime of greatness.

Humanity deserves better. We must break the chains of ages, the tyranny of a past. We must wipe the slate clean so that we can rise again, free to make something new. We must forget so that we can truly learn again. This is time for torches and hammers, to burn away the lies that hold us back and smash the icons of dead heroes. Our work is only partly done. It is time to finish it, and then we can reach for the destiny we deserve!


Omen is a sign of things to come - or so she believes. She sees herself as the forerunner of a new civilization, one that can only arise by erasing the remnants of the past so that humanity can truly start anew. Her goal is to destroy every reminder of the world before the cataclysm. She knows the work will probably take longer than her lifetime, but she hopes to inspire enough people with her vision of a liberated future to carry it on after she is gone. The first stage is to remove those who are actively working to restore the institutions that existed before the cataclysm, and those who are using the icons of that past to justify their own petty tyranny. She couches her arguments in terms of logic and speaks of historical imperatives, but there is a deep well of anger for those who clad themselves in the raiment of the past, that speaks to some terrible experience she does not divulge.

She makes for a dangerous ally though. If a chance to accelerate the time when the past can be erased, she'll take it, no matter the collateral damage. She tries to take the long view, to act with pragmatism (or at least as much pragmatism as can be brought to bear in support of a utopian view), but ultimately she's a fanatic, and prone to the foibles of that sort. She has an unshakable belief in the righteousness of her cause and her own abilities as the leader to bring it about. Omen is a woman with iron will, extreme self-discipline, scorn for opponents and obstacles, the cold determination of a zealot, and the drive of a fanatic. She has the ability to convince or browbeat weaker persons by the singleness of purpose, imposing intensity, personal sacrifice, and complete conviction of the possession of the absolute truth. Omen is capable of terrible and violent acts, not out of cruelty or bloodlust, but out of expediency. She is entirely indifferent to the use of terror, in the sense that she gives no extra moral weight to a peaceful solution or a violent one, judging them solely in terms of efficiency.

Omen almost never removes her mask and hood. She believes this makes her anonymous, that it keeps her cause from becoming too closely identified with a single person. She is blind - perhaps willfully - to the fact that her attire presents an even more memorable and iconic appearance than otherwise.

quote:

Look: Woman, survival wear, striking face, steady eyes, restless body

Stats: Cool=0 Hard+2 Hot-1 Sharp+2 Weird-1

Moves:

Visionary: when you share your vision of the future with another player’s character, roll+hard. On a 10+, hold 3 over them. On a 7–9, hold 2 over them. Whenever you like, you can spend your hold, 1 for 1, to have them mark experience. On a miss, they hold 1 over you, on the same terms.

Towering presence: when you give someone an order or a warning, roll+hard. On a hit, they choose:
• they do it, following your order or heeding your warning.
• They freeze.
• They back away, hands where you can see them.
• They attack you.
On a 10+, take +1forward against them as well. On a miss, they do what they like and you take -1forward against them.


Indomitable: when you go into battle, roll+hard. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 2. On a miss, hold 1, but take -1forward. During the battle you can spend your hold 1 for 1 to:
• Name an npc within your reach. You kill, disable or disarm them (MC’s choice).
• Name a character within your reach. You redirect their attack to another character within your reach, or else to nowhere — into the ground or a wall or the sky.
• Name a character on the scene, but outside your reach. You cross the distance between you before they have time to adjust or react.
• Name a character within your reach. While you keep fighting, you intercept any attack directed at them and they suffer no harm.
• Ignore all harm to yourself from an incoming attack.


Gear:
Token of hope
Magnum (3-harm close reload loud)
Big knife (2-harm hand)
Oddments worth 1-barter
Fashion suitable to your look, including at your option a piece worth 1-armor

quote:

Token of Hope
A pin with a torch on it.
A symbol of the future that is only now becoming possible.

It’s just a symbol, replaceable. It’s precious for what it means, not what it is.

When you go among people, offering hope, they respond by giving you food, shelter, companionship, trust, and any small thing you need, worth 1-barter or less, generously or grudgingly according to their nature.

When you go among people, exploiting their hope, they respond by giving you food, shelter, companionship, trust, any small thing you need, or even straight-up jingle, worth 1- or 2-barter. They won’t suffer you forever.

When you go among people, acting with hope, they respond by spreading your name everywhere they go, to everyone they meet, with admiration, revulsion, fear, or contempt, according to their nature.

pre:
HX:
pre:
Improvement:
OOOOQ >>improve experience
__ get +1hard (max hard+3)
__ get +1cool (max cool+2)
__ get +1hot (max hot+2)
__ get +1sharp (max sharp+2)
__ get a new touchstone move
__ get a new touchstone move
__ get a followers (detail) and fortunes
__ get a gang (detail) and leadership
__ get a move from another playbook
__ get a move from another playbook

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Omen, is there any collateral damage you do regret?

Jackson-52 Mark, was Weed scared of you? How'd your conversation with Bick go; did he try to recruit you?

Poor Winston, what's your relationship with Bonner like?

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Captain Foo posted:

Omen, is there any collateral damage you do regret?

I regret all of it. Just because it was necessary in service to the Cause does not mean I wish there had been another way, that I had possessed the wisdom or ability to avoid the cost. The path to our destiny will be a bloody one, I know this, but I am merely human, I know that even though I pursue the right course I am not infallible.

The incident that haunts me most... There was a town, called Mainframe. The techno-priests there believed as strongly as I, even though their doctrine was anathema. I had thought them an easy obstacle to overcome. They preached non-violence, and would not touch a weapon, even in defense of their own lives. Surely, it would be a simple task to push them aside, destroy their icons of the fallen past, and free them from their bondage.

I never would have imagined that they would embrace their slavery so thoroughly that they would sacrifice their lives to protect their computers, their disks, their archives. Without lifting a finger to fight they would interpose their bodies between their charges and any threat.

I was too inexperienced to realize what the culling there would do. That it would not merely be a waste of the lives of the techno-priests, but that it would break so many of my followers, and would leave us vulnerable to our foes. I was overzealous, and the cost of that lesson was painful in the extreme. Just because something obviously must be done, does not mean it must be done obviously.

I will not make such a mistake again.

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"

Captain Foo posted:

Poor Winston, what's your relationship with Bonner like?

Bonner…he hasn’t been the same since his kid, Brenner, died. That one wasn’t on me, kid had a broken neck and was cold when they brought him to Tiger Club, but Bonner wasn’t hearing it. Crying, raging, tearing at his clothes and would have been pulling his hair out if he had any. He and some of his boys taking up the whole infirmary, that loving gun of his, a bore as big around as my eyeball, pressed up against my nose. Wasn’t exactly listening to reason, you know?

It was tense, but he eventually realized that a) his boy was dead and b) shooting your town’s stitcher for being incapable of raising the loving dead wasn’t what you could call a ‘solid leadership move’ and took the kid’s corpse out to the ocean, like everyone does here.

Since then, our relationship’s been…cool, I guess. I provide a service here, but Bonner’s a hard man, you know? Doesn’t show emotion, always solid. Like the rocks on the shore, no matter the waves crashing up. An iron man like that, he doesn’t like having people around who’ve seen him crack, people who aren’t his gunboys. However, Bonner’s too much of a pro to make something of it, or at least I think. He’s got his plate full with the moves the Queen of the Double-Dubs has been making over'n the other side of the island.

That said, I step light around him. He’s not much of a ball fan.

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, was Weed scared of you? How'd your conversation with Bick go; did he try to recruit you?

I left for the Respite before dawn, hoping to get into town before people started waking up and avoid getting attention that way. I found Weed passed out in an ambush position off the side of the road, high on something, don't know what, he kept babbling about a "maelstrom" in his sleep. Woke him up with a poke from my rifle and he was understandably terrified - he pissed himself while I was making sure he wasn't armed. After that, he was willing to co-operate and point me to the person in charge. Whatever happened since we were put in Stasis, it seems pretty clear that there's no government and no infrastructure to speak of. Weed was clear on that much - it's all petty gangs squabbling for control of the island, and no one has any idea what happened while I was frozen.

The meeting with Bick was frustrating - I asked to see his boss, but he stonewalled me with questions about where I'd come from and what kind of gear I had. He made vague promises that if I'd come work for him (no mention of his boss), he'd set me up with the right people to answer my questions. I didn't push the issue since it didn't look like he knew anything about Mathers-13, and I noticed him setting tails on me when I left - I'm pretty sure I managed to lose them in the crags, but they at least know I went east. I'm guessing they're going to be keeping an eye out for me the next time I hit town - I told Bick I'd think on his offer and give him a reply in a couple of days.

At least I got to scout the town out, so I've got a good idea of where most things are. I noticed a clinic of some kind, looked pretty busy - the logs indicate Mathers-13 was followed back to Stasis and checked her kit out of the armoury before heading back out, so if she got wounded maybe someone there would know. I'm going to wait for a couple of days to give Bick's boys the runaround, then head back out in the dead of night.

Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 20:09 on Aug 25, 2014

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Poor Winston, who are you getting your news about the Wrecks and Wracks from?

Omen, who has seen you maskless? Are they still alive? Do you even know?

Jackson-52 Mark, did anyone seem to be an authority at the Market, or what?

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"

Captain Foo posted:

Poor Winston, who are you getting your news about the Wrecks and Wracks from?

I got to keep the supplies coming for the Club, and when people bring stuff into the Ferry, people like to talk. Market’s like the heart of the island, and even here in Grey Ferry we got people coming and going from it. Bonner doesn’t like it much, likes having our own little market here, but there’s not much he can do. Fishing’s good on our side of the island, but for other stuff, well, it’s the Market.

I got a good relationship with Winnipeg. She’s one of the nomads, like Ginger and the Grasscutter, the convoy kings and queens who make their living moving poo poo around on this rock. She runs a little foot caravan, armed to the teeth to keep the gangs off, does runs from O’Malley’s and the Market and Grey Ferry. Usually picks up fish here and other poo poo and then trades it for washup goods at the market, mostly from Wrecks and Wracks and carts it back here. She keeps me in supplies, mostly. Even found me a handful of real, no-poo poo baseballs one time. You better believe she knew who to go to for that one.

She’s been having run-ins with some weird fucks lately though. Mostly tall grass between the Ferry and the Respite, and there’s some gang that’s taken to dressing up in camouflage, like all covered in grass, and trying to ambush the caravans, Winnipeg’s included. No one’s taken one alive yet, but there’s been rumbling, people saying that Bonner needs to take some guys out and sort out the Grassmen once and for all.

The Calvinist is first among ‘em. He’s too popular with the gunboys for Bonner to take out just like that, but’s he’s pushing his luck. If anyone’s going after Bonner’s spot, it’ll be that old bastard, starting poo poo in his bar.

Of course, there’s the Wave-Folk as well. If their priestess, Ithaca, every got it in her head to turn her fisher-cult into more of political power than an economic one, there could be blood spilt there too. For now though, she and Bonner are tight, and what she says, the Wave-Folk do. Messianic poo poo, you know.

After the raid on the W&W and the Market war, we got a few old fashioned refugees in here at the Ferry as well, coming in with the caravans. New faces like Karcher, Henk and Tumbleweed. Bonner tends to have a pretty open policy about immigration, but there’s talk, man. They seem like normal folk, and no one wants to say “spy”, but they ask a lot of questions, real quiet like, and they seem to got a lot of jingle to flash around.

Dunno man. Strange days. The Skinner Family even beat the Sad Bastards 6-2 in Friday’s game, and everyone knows the Skinners can’t play for poo poo. Who know’s what’s next.

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009
Sorry Foo, only just noticed the follow-up question. I'll answer it tomorrow this weekend! (sorry :v:)

Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 00:00 on Aug 30, 2014

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Whoops, same here.

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Captain Foo posted:

Omen, who has seen you maskless? Are they still alive? Do you even know?

None alive. Not because of any design, simply by chance. After Mainframe, the group of followers I was reduced by infighting, and then dwindled by mischance and accident, and the malicious actions of the enemy. The last who saw was Corvus, who I had trusted but turned on me in the end. He blamed me for everything that had happened. In a way he was right - I had set us on this course and I would see it through no matter the cost. His will broke in the end. I didn't walk away unscathed either. I still bear the scars from his blade. But I do not know how he could have survived the fire that left me stranded here.

I wear the mask because the Cause is paramount, and no single person should become irreplaceable, nor an icon of reverence. Should I fall, someone else should take up the mantle and carry on the work. Still, I do not always wear it. Among friends and allies sometimes I need to show my face as a matter of trust, and sometimes even I need to set it aside for a moment of rest. That I am seen as faceless here is my first obstacle - for the real cause is friendlessness. I need to renew the ranks, ensure that someone will always be there to persevere.

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, did anyone seem to be an authority at the Market, or what?

From the expressions on some faces - the sour kind - I'm guessing no one likes the way things are, but yes. Someone calling themselves Sally Sledge apparently runs the place on behalf of one of the local warlords. I got the impression the bombed-out-ruins look of the place has something to do with that, but the local merchants clammed up real fast when I pressed them about it - probably had something to do with the armed heavies patrolling the streets. That, or my coming from out West.

Anyway, I pulled a headshot of the Mathers off the Stasis databanks - 38, but they all look the same, like any other cloneline - and waved it around, but no one had any info. They seemed willing enough - I'm guessing that with whatever gangland war went on recently, I'm far from the first person asking about a lost relative or other. I was directed to a hospice run by a Father Idiya, which seems to be the centre of whatever disaster relief they have going, but no one there knew anything either. Still, the place felt a lot friendlier than O'Malley's Respite - I guess war has a way of bringing people together.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Jackson-52 Mark, you're in. At the next session break, coming up soon, we'll do your Hx.

Gorbash, Vulpes, thanks for the apps!

Bear Enthusiast
Mar 20, 2010

Maybe
You'll think of me
When you are all alone
Being Weird is the best you guys. Scratch that, this game in general is the best.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Bear Enthusiast posted:

Being Weird is the best you guys. Scratch that, this game in general is the best.

:3:

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, you're in. At the next session break, coming up soon, we'll do your Hx.

Gorbash, Vulpes, thanks for the apps!

Sad that I didn't get in, but thanks for the opportunity to app! Let me know if another spot opens up. Probably I'd come up with something a bit different, though.

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Comrade Gorbash posted:

Sad that I didn't get in, but thanks for the opportunity to app! Let me know if another spot opens up. Probably I'd come up with something a bit different, though.

Will do! It was definitely a hard call to make.

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, you're in. At the next session break, coming up soon, we'll do your Hx.

Gorbash, Vulpes, thanks for the apps!

Yay, awesome, thanks!

For Hx, mine is +2 to the first person I meet, which would probably be Ebbs right now based on timing, but if some time has elapsed between the end if the current session and Jackson-52's defrosting, it could be anyone near O'Malley's or maybe even someone who was in the Market when I visited it.

Everyone else gets +1. You're all loving weird and Jackson-52 doesn't know what to make of you.

Lemon-Lime fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Sep 5, 2014

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"

Captain Foo posted:

Jackson-52 Mark, you're in. At the next session break, coming up soon, we'll do your Hx.

Gorbash, Vulpes, thanks for the apps!

Thanks for the opportunity anyways! I'll continue following the crazy island antics.

Bear Enthusiast
Mar 20, 2010

Maybe
You'll think of me
When you are all alone
I'm a big fan of "Bage" as a shorthand for "Bagel". And I was already a pretty big fan of "Bagel" as a name.

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009
FYI Foo I'm away for a week from tomorrow with only my phone to post on, so I may be slightly slow to post.

(Also hope my last post isn't too short/low-effort, I'm in the middle of packing.)

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Lemon Curdistan posted:

FYI Foo I'm away for a week from tomorrow with only my phone to post on, so I may be slightly slow to post.

(Also hope my last post isn't too short/low-effort, I'm in the middle of packing.)

Thanks for the heads up, if you want to just take the week off and not worry about it, post here when you're back and I'll shift Jackson as needed

Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009
Cool. If you need me to post for any reason I'll still be able to, it'll just be posts like the last couple I've made and not longer ones. Thanks!

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Lemon-Lime
Aug 6, 2009
I'm back, FYI!

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