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Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset





:siren: You do not need to know anything about Shadowrun to enjoy this CYOA. :siren:
:siren: This story is friendly to newcomers of Shadowrun. :siren:
:siren: Check "So What is Shadowrun" below to get everything you need to know to get started. It's not very long.
:siren:

I also thought about how to convince you fine folks this might be worth a read. So I've taken the liberty of pulling quotes from the thread.

Bear Enthusiast posted:

Well, the time has come where I'm glad to finally be caught up with the thread after starting a few days ago and incredibly eager for there to be more.

As someone who adores Shadowrun this is probably my favorite piece of fiction in the setting (so it beats a few novels I read in middle school and the three PC games). As a very minor hobbyist writer I am consistently floored by how the setting comes alive in your prose, contributes to the plot and themes effectively, and all the while stays grounded where it seems like it could easily devolve into Mirrorshades Harry Potter.

Shogeton posted:

Well, just finished binge reading this one. Hotdamn, it is hella intriguing.

Esper posted:

Just discovered/caught up on this over the past two days. It's the first entry into the Shadowrun world for me. I love it and want to learn more - thanks for both introducing me to the setting as well as your great writing. The story is fantastic.

Chatrapati posted:

Just caught up with this. Excellent story! I'm not familiar with shadowrun, but I feellike I'm immersed in the setting. I really like seeing the behind-the-scenes rolls too, which I didn't anticipate. It's cool seeing how differently things could have gone.

Deadmeat5150 posted:

Wow... :stare:

Uhhh... :stonk:

Yeah... :suspense:

I want more.

nothing to seehere posted:

Just binge-read this entire thread: took 7 hours, but was worth it. Wish I'd found it earlier, but glad to be able to shape the story from here onwards. Your writing is incredible, Ice.

Althair posted:

Just caught up and want to say this is cool as hell. I can't get enough of your way of making the Shadowrun world come alive. I love how skillfully you make the characters distinct and believable while simultaneously doing the same for the world they inhabit. Everything feels very balanced.

Hexenritter posted:

This is absolutely brilliant and I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far. I think the pacing is shockingly good, especially when some of the other CYOAs I follow can have enormous gaps between updates (I'm looking at you, loel :v: ) due to real life circumstances, writer burnout and the like.

Your prose is excellent, and you're doing a fantastic job of characterising the various players. They come through as realistic, three-dimensional people with likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears and social quirks rather than two-dimensional cutouts (which I often worry some of my own characters tend toward).

CourValant posted:

And, caught up!

This CYOA is amazing so far, the writing is wonderful; its great to see character motivation drive plot, as opposed to just bouncing from one set of decisions to another while on rails.

Discord link for CYOA's in general

https://discord.gg/97PkqpN



Fuzzy, Kenji and Julie - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Morning - Blake Island

"Who knew that one square mile could fit so much bullshit into one little package?" griped an older student.

Summer was over and it was time for the first day of school. To the older students it was the same old garbage as last year. To the first years, they’d all been ripped out of their previous schools and away from their previous friends after being tested for magic. They were considered awakened which was a catchall term for anyone who had magic. The youngest were either fourteen or fifteen and the sudden transition could be disorienting. The beginning of school assembly added to that feeling of disorientation as an augmented reality cartoon fish appeared in the air and began to swim about. Given time the freshman would learn to despise the fish. Oh how they would learn.

The students didn't know exactly how old the augmented reality cartoon salmon was, but as is tradition in education the cartoon mascot was both old and dumb. It was the mascot of some sort of failed education branding program that never took off. Even surrounded by this much nature and magic, one still couldn't escape the matrix, augmented reality or the enormous sprawl that was the Seattle Metroplex. In fact if you went to the northeastern beach you could see the downtown area rising from the ground like some form of steel and concrete cancer. Its skyline was dotted with famous buildings like the old Renraku Arcology, now a gigantic slum hive named the ACHE, the Aztechnology pyramid and of course the Space Needle which still hadn't fallen down yet despite years of neglect.

If you were a tourist you could get that stock emerald city overlay in AR that made Seattle look vaguely like the city of Oz, but only if you didn't mind the mandatory data mining software that came along with it. Sadly even that load of shovelware couldn't help with the smell. The stink of over six million people and all that heavy industry that the metroplex was known for smelled foul and wasn't the greatest for the environment either. Thankfully they were all upwind of that. At least they were most days. However that was miles away. They were stuck in the middle of an inlet just west of the metroplex called the Puget Sound on a tiny island. This meant that they were far away from such modern conveniences like Stuffer Shacks with their greasy soy food, a matrix connection, social media and generally anything fun to do.

"Welcome to Blake Island!" said a cheery augmented reality mascot.



The cartoon mascot swam about in the air and magical looking sparkles shimmered in its wake. It came to an abrupt stop and hooked one of its fins to give the assembled students a thumbs up.

"And to those of you who were here last year, welcome back!” he continued, “I'm Sammy the salmon!"

"loving kill me," groaned another student.

Sammy the salmon wasn't programmed to notice the complaints of the students on the wooden benches. It was designed to educate children by educators desperate to stop educating. One of the teachers did shush them in a fashion that never went out of style though. At least as much as teachers could be said to have style.

"You're here because you're some of the most talented magically active teens of your age. Your teachers are here to mold that talent into something truly special. Well, your teachers and me of course,” teased the cartoon fish, “Now Blake Island just isn't a school for magic, oh no. It's chock-full of history too! Did you know that the Suquamish tribe used this very island as a camping ground and that according to legend, chief Sealth was born here? Seattle is named after him, so he was a very important chief indeed! I bet you first years didn't know that! Also in 1993, Bill Clinton visited this very island. Neat, huh?"

"Who's Bill Clinton?" whispered another student.

The student was answered by a single shoulder shrug from the student next to her. That whisper earned a second shushing from an increasingly stern faced older teacher. The student covertly activated her smart contact lenses and tried to access her social media feed as she desperately tried to check out of the assembly and post about how lame this school was.

“What the hell? I can’t even get a signal,” she said, and horror crept into her voice, "Wait, there’s no matrix connection at all?”

An error message in red text appeared in front of her and was accompanied by a second Sammy the Salmon that only she could see.

"Sorry kiddo," said the second Sammy the salmon, only to her, "No outside social media access on the island. If you want to link up to a social media account you can ask me later about Salmon Run!"

She groaned. She was new, so she didn’t know it yet, but Salmon Run had been terrible when it was first released and the school only social media site was dead now. It was rumored that the teachers liked it that way.

It was true that this was a school for magic, though it was also a high school, not college. If one was found to be magically active they were whisked off to a different school where teachers knew how to handle magically active teens. That sort of handling needed to be careful. The teens were a lot like live grenades, if grenades had feelings, opinions and raging hormones. So beyond their studies into their talents and the awakened world they'd also learn all the trivia the becomes instantly useless once one leaves high school.

It was also true that this place used to be a school for talented young people. However, reputations for excellence are made to be ruined. Twenty years ago the school was known for the high quality awakened it produced. Rich corporate types, politicians and the leisure class found that out and started parking their kids on the island’s school as if to soak in that knowledge and prestige like a sponge. Nuyen is no substitute for talent, but it sure does pay the bills. So while everyone here had some sort of magical talent, as is the price of entry, their actual potential was questionably varied. Also as their parents were loaded, the teens were almost all human or elven with very few exceptions.

However, parked in the back were three teens who did not buy their way in with nuyen. They bought their way in with talent. Nuyen had been allocated for "talented children of troubled circumstances". Officially it was to help pump new blood into the school and introduce "cultural diversity". Unofficially it was just a tax write off. Whatever the reason for them being here, there they sat.

This is their story.

So what is Shadowrun?

This is a choose your own adventure styled game based off the game Shadowrun. Shadowrun is a story about the near(ish) future where magic has come back, but technology advanced right along with it. So there's a mix of cyberpunk and urban fantasy with a sort of 80's aesthetic to it. Lots of neon, chrome and mascara in other words. A world where corporations are their own countries, America is fairly fractured, magic and spirits are back, there are other races besides humans along with animals that were only previously dreamed of, and that this is a new thing. Before 2012 magic was not a thing that 99.9% of the world experienced in a tangible way. Now magic and high technology exist in the same world, the old competing with the new and competing well. Dragons even run a few corporations. So imagine Bill Gates during the 90's. Ruthless, cunning, business oriented, but he's also eaten several people that you've heard of and is a gigantic magical flying lizard. One was even president for five minutes before being assassinated by someone.

:siren: The first arc is written from the perspective of someone who doesn't know anything about anything save for her little patch of the world which we probably won't visit again for some time. She helps explain the world. Here's the bare bones of what you need to know to understand the story. :siren:

1. This story is set in the near future. So high technology is here right now. Cars largely drive themselves, many jobs are automated and people can get cybernetic implants or new organs that allow them to be more than human or metahuman. On the other hand, not everything is wonderful. There is a stark difference between the rich and poor while urban decay is so prevalent that entire areas of the Seattle area are all but abandoned, yet largely forgotten people still live at the margins.
2. The internet, now called the Matrix, is wireless and everywhere. You either interact with it via augmented reality, which takes real life and creates an electronic overlay that most people see while interacted with the real world or virtual reality, which is a full computer simulation.
3. Magic is back in a big way and has been for over sixty years.
4. Other races of metahumans, what were previously regarded as fantasy races have been recently born into the world along with magic. They are the orks, trolls, elves, dwarves, etc and they all share the world with humans. However, unlike most fantasy novels, these metahumans don't live in caves or trees. They're regular people with regular lives.
5. The US is fractured and has become a number of different successor states. The western half is mostly controlled by Native Americans Nations (The NAN). Seattle is controlled by the UCAS, basically what remains of the old US and eastern Canada, which means Seattle is all out by its lonesome surrounded by nations that would love to take it over as it is the only UCAS city on the west coast. This is where the majority of the story will take place.
6. Corporations are people times ten. The biggest ones, nicknamed the "Megas" or "Triple A's/AAA's" have become tiny nations unto themselves that control enormous sections of the world economy.
7. Poverty is rampant and your social identification number (SIN) is how you get around in the world. However a fair portion of people don't have a SIN, sometimes as high as a third of a nation, making a permanent underclass.
8. Shadowrun is named that because of Shadowrunners. They're essentially mercenaries whose loyalty depends primarily on the promise of money and getting paid on time. They rarely work for one cause or corporation and this lack of stable work is an accepted part of their life. This means that that if you have the money, you can hire a team of skilled mercenaries with flexible morals who have no loyalty beyond the current job and are completely deniable. These anonymous men and women are promised money for theft, kidnappings, smuggling, assassination, infiltration and  really whatever you can imagine that's illegal. If they shadowrunners are lucky, they even get paid at the end of the job instead of getting screwed over.
9. This story isn't about Shadowrunners. They're around and shadowruns (the names for the jobs) do happen. We'll see some shadowrunners going about their dirty deeds, but they're not the focus of this story.
10. Instead of another story about sociopath mercenaries, this story is primarily about teens going to magic school. When they start school, they are considered little more than live hand grenades with feelings, opinions and raging hormones. They goal is for them to learn how to control their magic and not incinerate themselves or others by accident.

That's it. The rest I'll explain the rest in the story as I go.

So why are you setting this at a school?

I liked the idea for one. The school is for the children of the rich and influential, and the three teens the story will be focusing on are definitely not. Culture and social class clash interests me. It's not going to just be magical slice of life. The teens are competent to one extent or another and I'm going to push them towards danger. Just how much will be up to the thread.

Also when I read the novels the focus was almost always on people who were already shadowrunners for their own reasons and never on their initial struggles or how they got there. Struggle is interesting to me, as are failure and consequences. I'm going to be rolling dice, so if there's a bad roll they can get hurt or even die if they're really unlucky. They're not invulnerable Mary and Gary Stu characters. I've intentionally made them heavily flawed, because mercenaries who work in deniable operations probably don't have the best home life. At the same time as the teens get more and more into the life as runners (and it will be gradual) coming back to school after that firefight will probably feel more and more strange as time goes on.

Finally, this is a writing exercise for me. I was once a professional author and I never really lost the itch to write. I'm experimenting and honing my craft. I'm trying to write heroes that aren't reactive and trying to reestablish the status quo, villains that aren't proactive and trying to tear down the world. Just people with varied interests that clash when those interests conflict. No one gets tied to the train tracks by mustached men. Everyone should have a reason for what they do.

How often will you update?

Previously I updated daily save for Wednesdays and Sundays. Currently I update 2 to 3 times a week, but the updates tend to be about 4-6k words. :justpost:

Characters

Unlike other CYOA's the characters we don't pick will still exist. In fact the other two we don't pick will be important as they'll be more or less part of a crew of misfits. There will be three to choose from and we'll make a final choice about who we play at the end of those three short stories. The character we pick we will have direct influence over without skill rolls. How we treat the others and our charisma skills will inform me of how we act with them and how much they either like or don't like us. As this is the Blake Island School of Magic we will have or pick of three misfit students. Each will get a short story and at the end of the three we'll pick who we're actually going to play.

It looks like we'll be picking Fuzzy, the half feral teen girl who's good with weapons and animals. She has radically different ideas about life as someone who had to scrape for everything she ever had in a totally lawless and abandoned area of Seattle that was essentially a crumbling urban wilderness. She's a sort of all rounder, which is good because we'll be developing her skills over time and she can go really in almost any direction. Her thought processes are going to be more simple and direct and so that will inform how I write.

This is long

This isn't your normal CYOA on rails where decisions make no difference and there are no consequences. I'm highly responsive to peoples' requests and thoughts. It's also a bit of a slow burn. Not to say that there's not plenty of good stuff in there, but I do a lot of character introduction and development before we get to torching corporate security while wearing cybermascara. We'll get there. This is Shadowrun after all, but it may be a little while.

Be aware that this CYOA is already the size of several novels. It will take time for you to get through it, but if you like to read this is the story for you. This CYOA is more in the vein of a long form web series.

Building a character

After the four short stories are complete I'll put the character in some sort of situation that you will choose. It'll inform me of his or her skills. I'll try and make it entertaining. After that the character will earn karma. The amount of karma earned has gone up since the last edition. However if we spend karma I would rather have a justification for why we have earned that skill or skills or are going to earn that skill or skills. Doing shadowruns against megacorporations doesn't suddenly teach you how to speak Spanish after all.

CYOA

Normally I offer choices labeled A, B, C or 1, 2, 3, but those are suggestions. If I hear an awesome suggestion, nuanced or not and it's got traction I'll run with it if I can. It really is choose your own adventure. Not choose from a discreet list.

If you feel like your vote won't matter, I do pay attention to the "Yes, and" style of improvisation. If the thread is all going one way and you want to put your own influence on it, add your own suggestion to what the character should do or why they should feel the way they feel. If I like it, even if it doesn't have enough votes, I'll mix the "Yes, and" suggestion into the mix. I won't guarantee it, but good ideas are more likely to get traction with me. Please don't feel offended if I don't mix it in. It might still be a good idea, but I can't work all of them in.

Editing

Small side note. Let me know in the comments if I screwed up something in editing. I'm not exactly the best editor of my own work.

Disclaimer

The Topps Company, Inc. has sole ownership of the names, logo, artwork, marks, photographs, sounds, audio, video and/or any proprietary material used in connection with the game Shadowrun. The Topps Company, Inc. has granted permission to Ice Phisherman to use such names, logos, artwork, marks and/or any proprietary materials for promotional and informational purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not affiliated with Ice Phisherman in any official capacity whatsoever.

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 09:15 on Feb 23, 2021

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Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy and Rat Man – Tuesday, June 1st, 2074 – Morning - Puyallup Barrens

Fuzzy was never sure when she awakened to her powers. She just got better at reading animals which she'd taken for granted as a huntress. She was born in the abandoned urban area that was the Puyallup (pronounced Pew-Al-up) barrens. Its sister slum, Redmond, located about an hour away, was like a bone picked clean. However there was at least enough marrow for the dogs to fight over. In Puyallup there wasn’t even that, at least not where she lived in the deep barrens. There were just the dogs that ate one another.

Fuzzy figured that she probably had parents once. She wasn’t that great with the details. Time was fairly foreign concept to her. Even the sun was hard to see sometimes in the barrens due to the smog, the falling ash from Mount Rainier and besides all of that, the Seattle area doesn’t really do seasons all that well anyway.

The teenage girl didn’t look like anything special. Her blonde hair was short, uneven and looked as if she done it herself with a knife. It'd been cut that way to keep from being grabbed and to better fit under a gas mask. Her build was lithe and muscular with little fat to speak of and her skin was pale. Also she was short at only five feet tall. The teenage girl could be easily confused for a young boy as a result. Especially since she tended to hide her body under layers of leather clothing, and she often kept her face covered under her gas mask to keep the pollution and ash out of her lungs. Her eyes were a light blue, and her face, when not hidden, concealed fine, androgynous features.

Her most important possession was her bow that she’d cobbled together out of scrap. With it she would hunt and sell rats, cats, dogs, birds and other small game for their meat. She’d even occasionally kill devil rats, which were the size of a small dog, but only if she could find one alone. Their meat was inedible, but their hides were tough and would fetch a good price. It was rare that she would find one alone, and she could never be completely sure if there weren’t more lingering in the shadows near a solitary devil rat. They usually ran in packs that could take down a full-grown man, much less tiny Fuzzy.

The man who’d raised her when she was little would pay well for their hide to make leather and would render their meat safe to use as bait, though he could do nothing about their foul smell. So she ended up going to him when she needed something. As time went by, and she became a better huntress she received a better bow through trading her numerous kills. With a better bow she could hunt bigger game. She bought traps. Not just ones made of scrap glass and trash, but real traps that would snap a leg or rope that would break a neck. As she improved she hauled in more meat, more hides that swapped for more gear and food. Eventually she became successful as a huntress which meant a full belly most nights and hunting gear in good repair. Life was tough in the barrens, but good.

One day she spoke to the man who’d taken her in as a child, like he’d taken in so many other children. After one particular trade, Rat Man had handed her something called a credstick. She looked dubiously at a battered, black device, which was about the size and shape of a old style pencil, not that she'd ever seen a pencil. She was told that the tiny piece of technology contained something called nuyen, which was something called money. Out this far in the barrens, people didn't really use nuyen. After all it was just a number and people had seen the nuyen on their credsticks get wiped out before not a decade earlier in Crash 2.0.

On occasion, Rat Man would play tricks on her. He’d show her how she could be cheated, and she’d learn how to keep from losing her kill to someone with a quick tongue. She stared at the numbers on the credstick and wondered if this was another one of his tricks. After all, numbers didn’t mean anything to her. Only food, clean water and her gear mattered to her.

“Nuyen is like magic," said Rat Man, "It can buy you anything."

“Like meat?” asked Fuzzy.

She turned the credstick between her fingers as she inspected it. It baffled her and that meant she didn't trust it, though she appreciated that at least it was portable.

“Yeah, sure," he said, "Good meat too. Not just rat meat."

“You mean like dog meat?” she asked.

Rat Man wet his lips as he thought about what to say.

“More like soy meat," he said, "Maybe even some real bacon if you bring me two of those devil rats. Do you like pork?”

“What’s a pork?” she asked.

Rat Man smiled a greasy smile. He wasn’t creepy or scary. After all she’d lived and worked with him and the other children as far back as she could remember. He’d taught her how to shoot a bow when she was little, how to track prey, how to move quietly, how to butcher a kill and how to bargain for what she brought back. She knew men with creepy smiles, and she knew to run away and hide, or if necessary, menace them with her spear or shoot one of her precious arrows at them.

No, he was just physically greasy because he was Rat Man. It was a hazard of working with meat, fat and leather all day. That work showed on his body. Though he was barely taller than Fuzzy, the powerfully built older Hispanic man had big arms, big legs and since this summer had been a good one, a big gut. A big gut by Puyallup standards that is. No one would call him fat, though a gut like that in Puyallup was a mark of success. It meant that he wouldn't starve in times of hardship. His head was shaved, his nose was flat and wide and his lips were large. Like Fuzzy, he wore the same sort of homemade leather clothing made up of many animals in a patchwork with obvious, heavy stitches.

“Tell you what,” he said, thoughtfully, “You bring me two devil rats and I’ll bring you eggs and bacon. I’m talking about the real stuff, not soy meat. Do you think you can do that for me, Fuzzy?”

“I know what eggs are,” she scoffed.

“drat straight you do," he said, affectionately, "Like a little runner you are."

“I’m good at running,” she boasted.

So she set up a few traps. Lone devil rats were trouble, and she could handle them alone, but you rarely saw two. You either saw one or lots and lots were bad. She’d have to be smart and try to find one and then one more.

Fuzzy had a special place for skinning her kills. Too much blood and death attracted ghouls, and they were much worse than devil rats. She wasn’t a good enough shot to kill a ghoul as they were fast, but she was small enough to slip away in the crumbling steel and concrete buildings that dotted Puyallup or lead them into a trap. Ghouls don’t see well and most were as stupid as animals and Fuzzy was smart. Rat Man told her that traps were no good if they got ghoul blood on them, but more importantly she’d be no good if a ghoul got her. She was too sneaky for them though. They hunted by smell, but she smelled like rats.

Fuzzy and Rat Man – Friday, June 8th, 2074 – Morning - Puyallup Barrens

After a week of hunting she killed two devil rats. Making good on his promise, Rat Man cooked her eggs and bacon. She tasted real bacon for the first time and it was glorious. She came to the conclusion that porks are the best and that she wanted more. As she was clever, she even saved the bacon grease which she would later use to flavor her meals. After all, bacon grease was part of the porks, she reasoned. Though she wondered what porks looked like. Rat Man told her he’d seen them before. They were pink, had squashed noses and curly tails which she thought was funny, especially when he made the “porks face” at her. With a finger he turned up his nose and snorted at her.

“They snort like that," he said, "And they like covering themselves in mud."

“Well I like bacon. Can I get more?” asked Fuzzy.

“Get me two more devil rats and we’ll talk,” said Rat Man, slyly.

Fuzzy sighed as she thought about all the time and materials she’d spent hunting just those two rats. She’d had other kills, but a week for one meal barely seemed worth it, no matter how tasty.

“That took me a long time,” complained Fuzzy.

“Well it’ll take less time if you're tooled up," he remarked, "What’re you working with?”

She blinked at him in confusion.

“Let me see your gear,” he explained.

She narrowed her eyes and took a step away. Trust was all fine and good, but she needed her gear to eat.

“It’s mine,” she said, suspiciously.

“Do you want better gear or not?” he asked, impatiently.

“I’ll keep my gear. You can have new ends instead,” she countered.

“Nuyen,” he corrected.

“That’s what I said,” she lied.

You didn’t admit weakness in the barrens. However a few days later she had a new bow, repaired her spear and traded in her old, rusty traps for new steel traps. They weren’t made out of trash or anything. She even got real arrows with white feathers. She’d only seen raven feathers before, but these were white instead of black which awed her, and white feathers meant she’d be able to find lost arrows more easily. To keep herself from being seen she’d even bargained for a cap for her quiver to hide the precious arrows. She had to be careful with them though. They were expensive. Pretty and expensive.

Fuzzy and Puppy – Saturday, June 10th, 2074 – Morning - Puyallup Barrens

The next night she found a puppy while on the hunt. It was wandering around aimlessly, barely even able to walk without stumbling. This was weird for the barrens. The puppy was weak and weakness wasn’t permitted. It was a surprise that she was the one who found it instead of some other predator. She hefted a stone to kill it because meat was meat, but it started wagging its tail at her and was completely unaware of her intent. Consummate huntress that she was she still couldn’t follow through. It was just too cute and innocent. She sighed as she picked it up and lifted her gas mask to take a better look at it.

“You’re too skinny for meat anyway,” she complained, “There’s barely any on you.”

The tiny, brown puppy licked her face and despite her misgivings, she giggled as the puppy was generous and enthusiastic with its licks. Maybe Rat Man would have ideas about what to do with it. So she brought it to him mere hours later.

“Yep. Just a mutt,” he said, “I thought it might be a barghest at first. Their spines don’t come out until they’re older, but its old enough that its eyes should be glowing by now if that was the case. I had to check the astral to make sure. It’s a shame. It would've been a serious payday for you. It’s probably going to get big though. Are you going to keep it?”

She pulled the animal away from him and frowned.

“It’s mine,” she said, suspiciously.

“Got a name for it?” he continued, undeterred.

“Puppy,” she decided, instantly.

“Right,” he drawled.

Rat Man furrowed his brow as if remembering something. He let his eyes relax again like he’d first done when he looked at the puppy. Then his eyes darted to her and opened wide. His greasy smile broadened, though he quickly hid it. Fuzzy didn’t like that at all.

Fuzzy, Rat Man and Julian – Thursday, July 19th, 2074 – Morning - Puyallup Barrens

The next time she came to see Rat Man, which was more than a week later, she met an elf. He wore clean clothes and seemed to know Rat Man. She’d seen elves before as there was a small enclave of them in southern Puyallup, but she’d never seen one so clean. In fact, she’d never seen anyone so clean before.

The man was tall. His hair was long and blonde, and not greasy at all, yet still somehow shiny. His eyes were blue like hers too. Unlike other elves, his cheekbones weren’t high. If his pointed ears were hidden he could definitely pass as a human. He had strong features and a somewhat hooked nose. He wore funny looking clothes that she’d later come to know as a suit. When he smiled he intended to be disarming, but instead she was momentarily startled his straight, white teeth. She'd never seen teeth so white or straight before.

“Hello there. My name is Julian. What’s yours?” asked the elf.

She just stared for a few seconds and sized him up before supplying him with an answer.

“Fuzzy,” she said, simply.

“Okay Fuzzy,” he continued, “I’m a teacher. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Okay,” she replied, awkwardly.

That awkward silence stretched. She tried to catch Rat Man’s eye, but his features were neutral, and so she got nothing from him.

“I teach at a school called Blake Island School of Magic,” he explained further.

More silence. Fuzzy fidgeted nervously with her hands.

“I want to take you to school so you can learn,” he said, more carefully.

“Learn what?” she asked.

Julian smiled, which made Fuzzy feel increasingly nervous. She didn’t like it when people smiled if she didn’t know why.

“How to use your magic,” he explained.

If she was shocked or bothered by the fact that she possessed magic, one couldn’t tell just by looking at her.

“Oh. Okay,” she said.

“So you’ll come?” he asked.

“No,” she said, instantly.

Julian frowned. Fuzzy liked that. Someone who was all smiles wasn’t good, but she knew frowns.

“Why not?” he asked.

She shrugged and unsuccessfully tried to stop fidgeting. Instead, she only succeeded in cracking her knuckles.

“I’m fine here,” she said.

He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples which was a little funny to Fuzzy. No one should ever close their eyes this close to someone in the barrens, but here he was, doing it. She thought he was weird.

“You’re weird,” she said.

“I know,” he said.

“Okay. At least you know it,” she said, and smiled slightly.

“Are you happy here?” he asked.

She shrugged and he cocked his head at her. That she understood. He was trying to read her.

"I guess so," she answered.

“Well where I live there are no ghouls,” he said, as she smiled ever so slightly, “He tells me you hate ghouls.”

He made an expansive gesture to Rat Man, who nodded sagely.

“Good read,” she said.

“I’m sorry?” he asked, puzzled.

“What you just did. Good read. I care about that a lot. So yeah, I don’t like ghouls. They’re sneaky and fast and they eat people. No ghouls at school?"

He chuckled softly and smiled, which made her frown again.

“No. They’re not allowed. There are no ghouls on the island…”

Then he checked her back where her bow was unstrung and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“There’s good hunting there too,” he said.

“I’m good at killing devil rats now,” she said.

“I bet you are. There aren’t any devil rats there though,” he said, “There are a few deer, some birds and a lot of small game.”

“What’s a deer?” she asked.

With a smile and a flourish, he pulled out a pair of black goggles and a disposable commlink. She’d seen commlinks before but never used one. They were for making calls and checking something called the matrix, though Rat Man told her once that something called reception was bad out here.

“Wear these goggles and clip this to your ear,” he said, “I want to show you something.”

She squinted at the items and looked to Rat Man.

“It’s fine, I’ll watch your back,” he said, as he tried to suppress a smile.

She scowled at first, but after some hesitations she did as she was asked. It was just a simple disposable metaclip commlink, nothing fancy. There wasn’t even a display screen so the goggles had to do the work. However, the goggles stopped showing the world in front of her eyes and instead showed her deer. She was so awed by the look at the new animal that she didn’t throw off her goggles.

It was an introductory video with a man’s voice doing the narration. A soothing voice. She’d never owned a commlink before so this was all new. There were pictures that moved. Trees that weren’t scrubby, but tall and green. There was dirt that didn’t look sick and it wasn't all covered in ash. She marveled at the deer. Oh sweet meat those deer looked so big, slow and lazy compared to what she normally hunted and their heads were the wrong shape for sharp teeth. There were colorful birds too! She was puzzled by a change from the animals to young people who were smiling and hugging. The birds and deer were gone, and she wanted to look at them some more. She wondered how they tasted and thought that if they tasted anything like porks then they must taste amazing.

She had so many questions and Julian answered many. Deer didn’t have sharp teeth. Those brown and green plants were what trees and bushes looked like when they weren’t sick. That water was called the ocean and the name for the small part of the ocean was the Puget Sound. No, she couldn’t drink it. It was too salty. She reasoned that that was okay because most water was bad anyway. After quick consideration, she made her decision.

“Okay, how many devil rats do you want?” she asked.

Julian blinked in confusion.

“I’m sorry?” he asked.

Fuzzy huffed out a breath in annoyance.

“How. Many. Rats?” she asked, as if to a stupid child.

“None,” he said, slowly, “You don't need to buy your way in.”

“Oh, so I am for sale?” she asked haughtily, and frowned, eyes narrowing, “I am not for sale.”

“Oh! No! That's not it at all! You are definitely not for sale. I want to train you,” said Julian, quickly, “That’s what schools are for. Schools don’t buy people.”

“Oh,” she said, and turned her head, “Rat Man! Do schools cost new ends?!”

Rat Man sighed as he met her eyes.

“He wants to pay you to attend. He’ll pay you in knowledge. I’m jealous," he complained, "You’ll have opportunities I’ll never have. drat kid."

That grumble made her happy. It was the good deal grumble. She could trust that grumble.

“Okay. I have three things that I want before I’ll come,” she said, raising her fingers.

“And they are?” asked Julian, his tone politely interested.

“Yeah,” she said, sternly, “I want porks, new ends and Puppy comes with me.”

Story focus: Half feral teen in a strange land. A girl and her dog. Voted #1 most likely to escape ghouls. Half trained mystic adept.

Likes: Meat, hunting, porks, new ends, Puppy, lone devil rats, leather clothing, hoarding.

Dislikes: Ghouls, packs of devil rats, go gangers, bad water, people who correct her.

First Choice of the CYOA

Does Fuzzy think she was sold out by Rat Man?

In actuality, did Rat Man call Julian because he wanted to improve her life or score some nuyen? Maybe a mix of both?

Character Sheet

Name: Fuzzy (Smith is her technical last name)
Runner Name: None
Nicknames: Nogway, Fuzzy Nogway
Metatype: Human
Body: 4/6
Agility: 5/6
Reaction: 4(6)/6
Strength: 4/6
Charisma: 4/6
Intuition:4/6
Logic: 2/6
Willpower: 5/6
Edge: 4/7
Magic: 5/6
Adept Points: 5

Street cred: 4 (6 in Touristville)
Notoriety: 2
Public awareness: 2

Qualities:

Animal Empathy: +2 to all animal handling rolls.
Catlike: +2 to all sneaking tests.
Hawk eye: +1 to all perception tests and all range modifiers come down by 1. Long becomes medium, medium becomes short, etc.
Mystic Adept - Can cast spells, summon spirits, use adept powers, but cannot see the astral (without the adept power) or astrally project.
Natural Athlete: +2 to all running and gymnastics tests.
Legendary Rep: +2 to street cred in one place (Touristville)

Illiterate - Bought off
SINner - She has a system identification number. This is new and she got it when she entered school. She is now a person in the UCAS database and has to pay 15% in taxes.
Uneducated - Bought off. She'll be completely caught up by the beginning of year 2.
Phobia of promises (specific, minor)

Contacts:

Rat Man - Connection 3/6 Loyalty 6/6 - Shaman and armorer
Sasha Oliver - Connection 3/6 loyalty 6/6 - Blake Island student / Ares corporate princess / Assensing specialist
Kenji Okamura - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6
Marco - Connection 3/6 loyalty 5/6 - Blake Island student / Christian Theurgist Healer
Julie - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Touristville Healer
Devin Faris - Connection 3/6 loyalty 3/6 - Doctor / Ork and Troll activist preacher / Runs Our Abbey Underground in Touristville (located nearby the entrance to The Big Rhino)
Dave - Connection 1/6 loyalty 5/6 - Tacoma and Ork Underground street ear / Delivers flowers
Swamp - Connection 3/6 loyalty 2/6 - Knight-Errant R&D. Non-lethal weapons specialist.
Peter Duro - Connection 4/6 loyalty 1/6 - Deputy ambassador to the Seattle area

Enemies:

Christina (Last name unknown) Connection 2/6 occurrence 3/6 (Can appear at any time)
Human Nation (Human supremacist gang) Connection 2/1 occurrence 1/6 (Appears only in certain parts of Seattle: all of Tacoma, southwestern Renton and southern downtown)

Skills:

Archery 6 (+2 bows) + agility 5 = 11(13)
Animal Handling 2 + charisma 4 + animal empathy (adept) 2 + 2 animal empathy = 10
Banishing 1 + magic 5 = 6
Blades 4 + agility 5 (spearknife +2) = 9(11)
Binding 1 + magic 5 = 6
Counterspelling 2 + magic 5 = 7
Etiquette 2 + charisma 4 = 6
First Aid 1 + logic 2 = 3
Gymnastics 3 + agility 5 + natural athlete 2 = 10
Intimidation 4 + charisma 4 = 8
Navigation 5 + intuition 4 = 9
Negotiation 3 + charisma 4 = 7
Perception 5 + intuition 4 + hawk eye 1 = 10
Performance 1 + charisma 4 = 5
Pilot Ground Vehicle 2 + reaction 4(7) = 6(9)
Ritual Casting 2 + magic 5 = 7
Running 6 + strength 4 + natural athlete 2 = 12
Sneaking 5 + agility 5 + catlike 2 = 12
Spellcasting 2 + magic 5 = 7
Summoning 1 + magic 6 = 6
Survival 5 + willpower 5 = 10
Swimming 1 + Strength 4 = 5
Tracking 5 + intuition 4 = 9
Unarmed Combat 1 + agility 5 = 6

Knowledge skills:

Area Knowledge: Puyallup Barrens: Intuition 4 + 3 knowledge = 7
Area Knowledge: Seattle : Intuition 4 + knowledge 1 = 5
Art: Intuition 4 + 1 knowledge = 5
Critters: 4 intuition + 2 knowledge = 6
English: Native speaker
Gangs: 4 intuition + 3 knowledge = 7
History: 4 intuition + 2 knowledge = 6
Math: 2 logic + 1 knowledge = 3
Or'Zet: 4 intuition + 1 knowledge = 5 (basic)
Science: 2 Logic + 1 knowledge = 5
Spanish: 4 intuition + 4 knowledge = 8 (conversational)


Spells (7 free):

Heal - Heal one hit per round of damage. One try only per set of wounds. Touch based. Duration is permanent. Drain value -4.
Stun Bolt - Fling bolts of stunning force at range. Line of sight. Ignores armor.
Improved Invisibility - The target is invisible to all sight. The net hits are rolled against the target's logic+intuition. The subject can still be hidden if they're sneaking though.
Trid Phantasm - These area spells create convincing illusions of any object, creature, or scene the magician desires. They can create an illusion of anything the magician has seen before, from a flower or a credstick to a dragon breathing fire, as long as the illusion is no larger than the spell’s area of effect. Anyone who might pierce the illusion must successfully resist the spell. Simply make one Spellcasting Test and use the hits scored as the threshold for anyone attempting to resist at a later point.

Phantasm only affects living beings, while Trid Phantasm affects technological sensors as well.

Adept powers: 4.5/5 used

Animal Empathy 2 - Cost .5 Adept points - +2 at current level to animal handling checks.
Combat Sense 1 - Cost .5 Adept points - Roll perception to avoid being surprised. Add +1 to dodge tests.
Improved Reflexes 3 - Cost 3.5 Adept points - Adds +3 to reaction and 3d6 to initiative at the current level. The reaction improvement also increases initiative and dodge chance.

Gear:

One Hermes Ikon commlink (rating 5)
One bow
Hip quiver
Ares Pilum (Transforming Spear/Staff/Knife) [spoiler](In Julian's possession until summer) (No longer in Julian's possession. He saw that Fuzzy took down Minuet with a punch instead of her blade despite the fact that Fuzzy is far better with a blade. Her Pilum has been upgraded with the body (in this case teeth) of a fallen enemy with magic by Mr. Peters, but it lost its wireless capabilities. It is now a +2 weapon foci.)
One quiver (Full of normal arrows and 10 narcojet arrows)
One skinning knife (Well used and maintained)
Armor vest (birthday present from Rat Man)
Two steel traps
One puppy (Named Puppy)
One book of stun bolt (Learned)
Haptic Gloves
Haptic Clothing
Miracle Shooter game bow

Vehicle:

Marley Davidson Scorpion (Chopper)

Handling: 4(5)/3(4) (On road/Off road)
Acceleration: 2
Speed: 4
Pilot: 1
Body: 8
Armor: 9
Sensor: 2

Mods:

Smart Tires (+1 to on and off road handling. Can run flat.)
Security System 2 (Trying to steal without the key locks the vehicle down and needs 4 hits on a hardware test to undo.)

300 nuyen per month income (200 of which is used for the Ares pilum)

13780 total nuyen for the end of the year

Lifestyle:

Student Cabin (High) (Free during the school year)


Spent on:

Etiquette 1 (2 Points)
Buying off illiteracy (10 points)
Buying off uneducated (16 points)
Etiquette 2 (4 karma)
Animal handling 2 (4 karma)
Or'Zet (1 karma)
Magic 4 to magic 5 (25 karma)

Her spearknife getting turned into a weapon foci. 6 karma.
Ettiquette 2 to 3
Martial arts: HEMA (7 points)
Martial arts: Kyujustu (7 points)
Adept power level 5 (5 points)


Karma breakdown:

Money turned into karma: 7
Karma turned into money: 0
Adjusted Karma Earned: 103
Karma Spent: 98
Karma Left: 2
Lifetime Earned Karma: 96

Karma was earned when we (Don't read below if you don't want spoilers):

Kenji introduced us to Seattle and helped us become an educated person- 4
Treated Sasha with respect, softened our heart and healed the deer - 8
Ambushed gangers and disrupted a gang murder initiation - 8
Saved Oli from a ganger. - 2
Learning new stuff! - 2
Helping Tek - 7
Helped Kenji - 10
Pork karma - 5 (money turned into karma)
Summer karma - 5

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 09:52 on Feb 23, 2021

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
1. No - I don't think Fuzzy would necessarily consider this being sold out. It's scary and a culture shock, but also pretty drat exciting. Plus, the good deal grumble

2. Yes. Kinda. There's definitely something in it for Rat Man, but I like to think even a barrens freejack has some heart left. After all, he could probably have arranged for something horrible to happen to her for a quicker payday before he heard of Julian.


E: Welcome back, dude. I've been waiting for this for a long time <3

Tias fucked around with this message at 09:39 on Sep 22, 2017

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.
Fuzzy doesn't think she was sold out. She's smart enough to understand when she got something good. Porks, no ghouls, and stupid-face deers instead of devil rats? That's something good.

And the rat man? Sure, there was something in it for him. Some kind of finder's fee. But he'd have gotten a whole hell of a lot more selling her out to Tamanous or the Mafia or something. Everyone's got to make sure they make a little on the side if they want to get by in the Barrens, but he picked the option that was best for her instead of what was best for him. That sentimentality might get him killed someday.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


jagadaishio posted:

Fuzzy doesn't think she was sold out. She's smart enough to understand when she got something good. Porks, no ghouls, and stupid-face deers instead of devil rats? That's something good.

And the rat man? Sure, there was something in it for him. Some kind of finder's fee. But he'd have gotten a whole hell of a lot more selling her out to Tamanous or the Mafia or something. Everyone's got to make sure they make a little on the side if they want to get by in the Barrens, but he picked the option that was best for her instead of what was best for him. That sentimentality might get him killed someday.

Yeah, this sounds about right.

RudeCat
Aug 7, 2012

The rudest cat for the rudest jobs


I'm in agreement with everybody else so far.

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.
Yo, this is phenomenal so far. Also, thirding this:

jagadaishio posted:

Fuzzy doesn't think she was sold out. She's smart enough to understand when she got something good. Porks, no ghouls, and stupid-face deers instead of devil rats? That's something good.

And the rat man? Sure, there was something in it for him. Some kind of finder's fee. But he'd have gotten a whole hell of a lot more selling her out to Tamanous or the Mafia or something. Everyone's got to make sure they make a little on the side if they want to get by in the Barrens, but he picked the option that was best for her instead of what was best for him. That sentimentality might get him killed someday.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy doesn't think that Rat Man sold her out.

Fuzzy has people she can rely on besides herself. She gets a small bonus to charisma and intuition and a small penalty to strength and agility.

The rat man told Julian about her so he could get her out of there, but not just for altruistic reasons. He got a small payday out of it. Everyone's got to make a living, right?

Rat man has become a permanent contact. I'll flesh him out more if we end up playing as Fuzzy.

Fuzzy's gear:

One bow
One quiver (Full of nice arrows)
One skinning knife (Well used and maintained)
One spear (Bad quality)
Armor clothing (Devil rat leather jacket and pants)
Two steel traps
One metalink commlink
One Credstick (50 Nuyen. Rolled a 5 on street lifestyle.)
One puppy (Named Puppy)

Fuzzy's weapons are currently unavailable to her upon reaching the island.

Fuzzy's Mood

Suspicious, but excited. Feeling naked without her weapons. Somewhat paranoid at the large group of people, but not full on paranoid as she is able to put at least some trust in people.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Julie Freeman

Sometimes to understand the child one must understand the parent. In Julie’s case, this would be her father, Charles Freeman. To understand her father one must understand two things. One, he loves his family. Two, he hates meta-humans. An immovable object and an unstoppable force. At first they clashed, but in the end either the force is resisted or the object is moved. Then things fell apart.

Charles Freeman – Monday, February 7th, 2039 - The Night of Rage - Seattle Metroplex, Tacoma

"gently caress you, knife ear!" jeered a man.

People don't know when they're living through history. Some might have a sense of it, but no one really knows for sure. No one in the crowd knew that this would later be called "The Night of Rage" by scholars in their ivory towers or by bitter, suspicious meta-humans for years to come.

In response to the outbreaks of violence, the young meta-humans, once thought to be simply fantasy creatures that existed in storybooks, the orks, trolls, elves and dwarves were rounded up by the thousands and stuffed into warehouses “for their own protection”. This came in the wake of recognizing them as people, but not human. They’d been given citizenship. They’d been given the vote. For that, theose warehouses were firebombed by human racists and hundreds of meta-humans would burn to death. Many who escaped would not find safety, but ran into the human lynch mobs.

"Get the rope!" cried another.

Men laughed while the elf cried for mercy and for help. Rope was thrown around his neck. New hatred for new races came out to play, but it came with old costumes. There were white cloaks with white hoods and pointed hats. They came with the old tools: Burning crosses, rope, firearms and strength in numbers. These were the tools of the trade of Humanis Policlub. They were brutal, but effective. Tried and true by many of their ancestors. The humans who didn't want a part in this stayed indoors tonight. Most of them looked the other way, though some few helped. Those who were caught would often share the same fate as those who were targeted. Atrocities aren't just committed after all. They're tolerated or even permitted. The Night of Rage never would've happened if people stood up in enough numbers and with enough ferocity to beat back people like sixteen year old Charles Freeman and those who stoked his fear and anger and enabled his violence.

Blood poured out of the mouth of the crying man. Someone had kicked out most of his teeth a few minutes ago and much of what remained was broken. They hadn't exactly been precise and so his face was a ruin, though his body fared no better. Beer was poured over his head and the crowd laughed as the noose was tightened.

The knife ears and the stunties were uppity, but they weren't too bad. Or at least that was what Charles thought. Then came the trogs just a few years later. All those "people" goblinizing at once, their bodies warped by magic. loving animals, that’s what he would say to himself. That’s what he would hear from his friends and neighbors. To him they were animals wearing the skin of humans to be shed over a few scant days through magic. Many said that they’d never been humans at all and he agreed with them. Many called them monsters. Some called them sons of Ham or demons. These were the thoughts of Charles Freeman and those like him.

In the end though, Charles only wanted to call them dead. No one knew what was next. Magic had come back to the world and the world changed far too fast and made too little sense for his taste. It was too much for Charles Freeman, but at least these freaks didn't have the vote. That is until they did. In sweeping proclamations around the world these monsters were declared people. Nationally that meant they’d been given rights under fourteenth amendment of the UCAS, what was left of the old United States after the country broke apart. He and others like him had seen a wave of similar rights being granted worldwide. Only a few countries wouldn't give these freaks the vote. Japan was a holdout, but few other countries had the bravery to stand up for humanity. Many of the humans decided that a stand had to be taken. A message had to be sent. The Night of Rage wasn't planned. It was a spontaneous explosion of violent rage. It was a bloody catharsis.

No one came to save the elf. The young man was hoisted up by the rope. His neck wasn't allowed to break as that requires planning and some modicum of mercy. Instead he was strangled to death and died hard over the course of minutes as he struggled and swung. His feet kicked while people pelted him with trash and yelled obscenities at him.

People in white hoods took selfies. "Had a lot of fun, wish you were here," one of the tags would read. No one stopped them. The metroplex guard hadn’t been sent out and many of the police were among their number. They came and went as they pleased. Charles lifted his mask just high enough to spit on the man. It was somewhat ineffectual. He was too high up and Charles wasn't particularly tall so it just hit the elf's ragged, bloody jeans. Charles smiled though. In his heart he knew that he’d done his duty to humanity today.

If one were to peek under the mask one wouldn't find a crowd of lily white faces. Not entirely anyway. The old hatreds simmered down as entirely new ones stirred up. In most places, race stopped being about skin color and started being about metatype. Whether you were one of the new elves or dwarves born into the world, or whether you were one of the orks or trolls whose body changed over the course of a few agonizing days.

In the minds of those there that night, humanity needed to stick together or be exterminated. It made for strange bedfellows. So when Charles dropped his hood it had covered not only a cheerful smile, but a brown, Hispanic face. His skin color never would have passed the paper bag test. He wasn't the only one hiding a darker skin tone under those hoods. In an ironic twist, Humanis was a sort of rainbow coalition of humans, any human, so long as they were willing to hate. They were accepting like that.

Charles, Patty and Julie Freeman - March 1st, 2059 - Seattle Metroplex

Charles was doing well for himself. The Lord said to be fruitful and multiply and so he did. He was thirty-seven years old and had seven, count them, seven beautiful human children. His wife, Patty, swore up and down that little Julie would be their last. He could deal with that. Neither of them were getting any younger after all. If he were lucky he'd be fifty-seven by the time she was twenty. It was time to stop making children and focus more on raising them.

He'd done well with his life. He worked with his hands like he figured a man should. He brought home his pay like a man should. He worked hard for his family like a man should. Life was good. Not great, but good. Humanis went "legit". They'd lost their momentum three days after the Night of Rage when a terrorist group took down the Sears Tower in Chicago. The media claimed it was some splinter group of Humanis, but they never made it stick. False flag terrorism, that's what it was. All that momentum, all of that change he’d hoped for evaporated overnight. Now they had to live with the freaks and Humanis went legit. Now they weren't anti-freak, they were pro-human.

You can't even say trog anymore without some ork or troll getting uppity. He feared for the world his daughter was growing up in. When he was younger one of those trogs made eyes at his oldest and a burning cross in their yard put that to rest. To him and those like him, those were the good old days. He decided to get out when he heard his fellow Humanis members speaking out against that. They were trying to get into "soft power". Trying to "change things" at the political level. gently caress that, he’d say. You can change things the old fashioned way: Boot knives, fire, rope and shotguns. It seemed that they’d gone out of style. Maybe he was just old fashioned. He didn’t feel old.

"Love you, little Julie," he cooed.

All of that hate vanished as he tickled his daughter's feet. It was hate that was replaced by fear. He always had that feeling when Patty and he had another child. He wasn't sure what he'd do, but he knew he'd do his best for his family. That's all he could do.

Julie and Paul - July 30th, 2072 - Seattle Metroplex, Tacoma

Julie Freeman could read minds and that terrified her. Well, not exactly read minds, but sort of. It happened in school one day. People fall asleep at their desks all the time after all. Her friend, Paul, who worked late at the Stuffer Shack, was asleep at his desk again.

"Hey Paul," said Julie, "Class is over. Time to get up."

She was a gawky teen, but her mom had been too when she'd been younger. Though Julie was sprouting up like a weed and had grown taller than not only her mother, but her father as well. Even in the 2070's acne was still a thing. At least if you were poor. And while she'd been able to avoid the worst of it, Paul hadn't. It must've been from all of that greasy soy food. She couldn't blame him though. He’d told her once that what food he got from school and the Shack were the only two solid meals he got a day.

"C'mon. We'll be late for lunch," she continued.

Talking to him usually got him up. Paul wasn't the best. He had terrible skin and didn't do well in school. If she were mean she would have said that he wasn’t attractive, but she didn’t. However he worked hard and he was human. That put him in her good books. Dad complained about public schools and mixing with...Well...She wouldn't say those words. They were people, just not human people. People people. Not like her or Paul, but close. She didn't talk to them much if she could avoid it.

“Come on Paul, get up. I know you’re hungry,” she said, louder than before.

Julie groaned, rolled her eyes and finally shook Paul’s shoulder. However something unexpected happened. She found herself transported elsewhere. Paul was working behind the counter at the Stuffer Shack and he was getting yelled at by someone. It was one of those gangers. This one was human. He wore black and orange colored clothing with a jack-o-latern on the back. Everything about the ganger looked filthy and his white and black face paint looked caked on. His hair was spiked orange as well. She saw that Paul's hands were in the air. The ganger had something in his hand. Julie froze as she saw a gun. She wondered if the ganger had seen her. Paul looked terrified and the ganger looked delighted.

"Gimmie your fuckin' creds, pimples," jeered the man.

He waved the gun in Paul's face and laughed. Then he turned the gun upwards. A gunshot barked and stucco fell to the floor.

"All your nuyen and a soy'kaf too. Pumpkin spice. My favy. Now give me your money or I'll just kill you and take it. Makes no difference to me," cooed the man as he laughed.

Paul was in trouble. Her dad told her never to look away. To do the right thing now. Now, not later, now. She could've hid or fled, but that wasn't in her. She was tall, but that didn’t mean she was big, and he had a gun. She tried to call the cops, but strangely she didn’t have her purse. No commlink. Instead she cast about for someone to get help, but there was no one.

In desperation, she found a glass carafe for soy-kaf. The classics never go out of style and the Stuffer Shack wasn't big on safety. They were big on piping hot soykaf that would keep people up for ours. She picked it up by the cheap, plastic handle. It was so full and she could feel its heat. It sloshed as she crept forward, and when the ganger began to level the gun at Paul she dumped it over his head. If this were some trid flick she would've quipped something heroic like, "Get away from my friend!" or "Here's your pumpkin spice!" Instead he screamed as the near boiling hot liquid drenched him. His gun dropped and clattered to the floor. He turned around and his black and white grease paint ran off his face in rivers as his skin blistered. He screamed. She screamed. Paul screamed.

She woke up, still screaming and so did Paul. She was in school. She was too terrified and confused, but she also reeled from a splitting headache. It felt like someone was driving her dad’s power tools into her temples.

"What did you..." started Paul.

"Lunch! We're late for lunch," she cried.

Her voice was reedy and shrill from the terror. Paul held his heart and caught his breath. He looked pale. He looked horrible in fact. She looked at those dark circles under his eyes which hadn't been there before. Why hadn't she noticed? She was supposed to be his friend. When he finally calmed down he began to speak.

"Sorry about the…Noise," said Paul, haltingly. "I had a bad day at work last week."

Julie couldn't stop herself.

"How bad?" she asked, quietly.

Paul rubbed at his tired eyes.

"Real bad," whispered Paul. "I got robbed. I almost got shot."

Eventually Julie figured it out. Not by trial and error, but sometimes she forgot and sometimes would touch people while they slept. Without fail she would jump into whatever that person was dreaming and emerge with a massive headache. She told no one. Dad didn't talk about it much, but his hate wasn't just reserved for meta-humans, but freaks in general.

Freaks like her.

Julie Freeman - June 2nd, 2073 - Seattle Metroplex, Tacoma

Julie had been careful not to touch anyone in quite some time and when the day to get tested for her magic status at school she simply declined. Her dad was proud that she’d had and had taken her out for ice cream after even though money had been tight in the past few years. It was her right after all, and sure enough a few teens in her freshman class turned out to be magically active and were taken to other schools never to be seen again.

Julie was smart, so she’d skipped a grade and therefore she’d been slated to be tested a year early at fourteen. She'd been terrified that they'd know anyway. She’d seen the bored looking mage from afar, but he’d never seen her. She thought that maybe she was in the clear. She could finish up school and go on to be a nurse like she'd always wanted to. They wore gloves when they worked on patients after all. That way she’d never have to make direct contact with anyone.

It happened on the softball field. Baseball is Seattle's home sport after all. It was seen as old fashioned, but you show civic pride by going to a Seadogs game and participating in little league. After all, the teams of old had been all human, though she wasn’t on an all human team. Those cost more money. So she was on a mixed team with humans and meta-humans. Many a kid swung a bat and caught fly balls during the baseball season or in her case, softball season.

She was in the dugout talking to a friend when something began to happen. Her skin started to itch. Not a regular itch, but everywhere. It wasn’t bad, but it felt weird and she just ignored it for a few innings. As the feeling continued and intensified past her ability to ignore it she scratched. Not just a little, but a lot. She got some weird looks because her chosen spots were everywhere which she tried to scratch all at once, but that darn itching wouldn't stop. In fact it got worse. The itching became pain. She doubled over from her seat on the bench. The pain felt like fire, though there was none. She screamed. Her friends looked at her in horror as she hit the ground. They didn't know what this was. The catcher, Philly, she knew though. Julie didn't talk to her much. She was people, but not people people, like her mom said. She was all right for an ork but they barely talked. So while the game stopped and people called 911, Philly crouched over her, her eyes lit with understanding.

"Don't worry. I know what you're going through," she said. "Here. Bite down on this."

It was her glove. Julie shook her head.

"Bite down. It'll get bad if you don't," she whispered soothingly past her tusks. "You're goblinizing. Most people don’t do that anymore but my cousin did. I know it when I see it. Bite down on this or you'll break your teeth when you clench."

Julie cried. Julie hurt.

“You’re going to be okay,” said Philly.

Julie and Charles Freeman - June 2nd, 2073 - Seattle Metroplex, Downtown

Goblinizing is the constant fear of teens and parents. Elves and dwarves are born and they don't have to go through this. Humans goblinize, though that was rare nowadays. Though it being rare had little to do with fear. Orks and trolls have ork and troll kids, and in some rare cases human, elf or dwarf kids. Mostly they turn orks. Orks are what you get if you make a human bigger and tougher with small tusks jutting out of their lower lips.

The process of goblinizing is awful. Magic rips through the body. It changes and rearranges the body with no thought towards gentleness. Bones crack and reform. Skin splits and twists. Tusks or tusks and horns in the cases of trolls sprout where there were none and their skin toughens as well. It's like being on fire for days. Like Julie’s body is flaying itself with a searing, jagged knife while a madman smashes and cracks bones.

Not everyone survives it which is why Julie was in the hospital. This was day two of three. Julie yelled herself hoarse on day one, though her voice was an octave lower than she remembered. She still felt the urge to scream, but could not manage it. Drugs normally help cut the pain, even if just a little, but she hadn't been given any. This was the University of Washington Medical Center. The biggest hospital in the 'plex and she couldn't get something to kill the pain. It was her father of course who had managed it somehow, though she didn't know that. No one had come to see her save for nurses and doctors. Then out of nowhere, the person she'd both hoped and dreaded to see walked through the door.

"Daddy..." she croaked, weakly.

Her voice was deeper than she remembered on the first day. She hated that voice- Her voice. If she hated her voice, than her father…She'd hoped that he'd put aside that hate. She prayed that he love her like a daughter and accept her. She was his after all she he was hers. She dared to hope.

"I'm not your daddy," he spat.

Her hope died. A new pain hurt her. It didn't cut her heart. That would've been too neat. This rejection slashed at her heart. The wound it left was ragged and as he continued to speak he left so many more. All she could see was her father’s hateful face, as if that hate was carved upon him. She’d seen that before and it scared her, but he’d never turned it on her.

"Well will you look at that. It’s a filthy little trog pretending to be mine. I spoke to your mother,” he seethed. “She says you're mine, but there's no way that's true. I'll have the truth out of her one day or another. But as for you…”

Those ragged, emotional slashes came at her fase. She thought she'd cried herself out days before, but more tears came. Fat tears welled up in her eyes. She shut her eyes and turned away from that mask of hatred that her father wore. She knew she was a freak ever since she'd touched Paul that day in school. She thought she could hide that from her family. In fact she figured she could have gotten away with it if she hadn’t touched anyone. Not this though. There was no hiding this.

"Don't you turn away from me," he roared.

She opened her eyes only to see a blur. As is turned out that blur was his hand. When he slapped her she saw static for a few seconds. Even from her bed the world spun. Her dad had never hit her. She’d had spankings when she was little, but that had stopped when she grew up. She’d never even been hit before. Reeling emotionally, physically and mentally, she was struck again and again and again. Slaps soon became punches to the body. Body blows became hands curled around her throat. She gagged as he wrapped his thick, working man hands around her throat and squeezed. Julie Freeman heard her own heartbeat hard in her ears.

Her father smiled. He wasn't some old man in his fifties. He was sixteen again and getting the rope to haul that knife ear by his neck. He was taking charge again, something those new wave pussies at Humanis didn't know to do. This was real. Strike out against the freaks. He fantasized about new Night of Rage. It could start right here as he put the lie that called itself his daughter to death.

He smiled and Julie saw his smile. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she began to black out, but as she grasped at his hands she felt that power again. Dreams weren't going to help her, but this wasn't a dream. Something happened. Something exited her body through the hand she’d weakly tried to shove him away with and struck her father. He shrieked as her own pain fled her. The fire stopped. She stared at him in horror as the man she'd loved all her life tried to kill her and went down screaming. Eyes open, mouth agape, his shriek tore at his throat until it didn't. She watched him die on the floor, bits of his flesh now gone, as if rotted away in seconds. The pain came back. A nurse ran into the room at the commotion. Julie fainted. She had a single thought detached from all of this before losing consciousness.

"Why couldn't I have just passed out before he got here?"

There was no unstoppable force. No immovable object. Just an old man, the hate that was more important than his love, his daughter, her guilt, her new body and her magic.

Julie and Julian - July 14th, 2074 - Seattle Metroplex, Everett, Darrington Correctional Facilities

"Prisoner 417539-D, you have a visitor," said the guard.

She was tried as an adult for second degree manslaughter. She had no visible wounds to speak of, or at least none that looked out of the ordinary among all the rest of her body’s changes. After all, bruises are the least of what one goes through when goblinizing.

Julie had killed her father. She’d been found guilty on all charges. She didn't fight a one of them though her public defender told her that she had a serious case for getting off the hook. But what was out there for her? More pain? That was what she would ask herself over and over again. Would she want to see her family and their hateful eyes stabbing her with accusations? No, she didn't want that. She just wanted to stay here and be forgotten. She was too scared to live and too cowardly to die.

"Yes ma'am," she called back.

She stood up from her bunk bed. She was clad in her orange jumpsuit complete with her last name and number. It was baggy on her. She was a full six feet tall now. That was tall even for an ork woman. At fifteen she’d grown to her full height, though she was still willowy, at least by ork standards. Her skin tone was the same mocha color as it was before though her skin had roughened slightly. She wasn’t sure if that was from being an ork or because of the cheap soap in the prison showers. Her hair was the same as always. It was black, straight and hung down to her shoulders. Her eyes were dark brown, her mouth was too wide for her tastes even when she was human, and wider still now. Her facial features on her round face were pretty more than beautiful, though Julie believed she was neither. Quite the opposite, she hated absolutely everything about herself.

The guard patted her down. She was used to roving hands and invasive searches via said fingers, magic and tech. She'd become acquainted with the humiliation of squatting and coughing on day one and this was almost a year later. This was gentle by comparison.

"Right. Hands in front where I can see them,” said the guard, bored.

It was all routine by now. Cuffs go on, go where you're told, wash once a day, eat terrible food, watch the same shows in the lounge, keep your head down and stick with your kind. However, Julie felt like she didn’t have a kind.

“Or is there some club for magical trogs who kill their dad?” she whispered, bitterly.

“No talking,” said the guard.

Julie nodded silently as she accepted the guard’s authority. It was accept or be tormented. To her there was no choice.

So she was led past checkpoints and cells. Then even more checkpoints and more cells as she came to a part of the prison she was unfamiliar with. Cell block after cell block, row after row, every single prisoner in this wing was awakened. It was a rare thing that anyone here got slack. She'd heard that the day before she came some woman lit her mattress on fire and got ripped apart by an air spirit for her trouble. People talked about it for a solid month. Not that she Julie how to use her magic. She just wanted that part of her to go away.

She was lead into a room that she vaguely understood as a place where people received visitors, not that she’d ever been here. These were not the circular tables where people can touch. That's for lower security. No, this was a simple pane of bulletproof glass and an honest to goodness phone. Julie had only seen phones like those in old movies.

She wasn't familiar with who was on the other side of the glass. She thought that he was kind of cute in a way, though older, as she’d been starved for men to look at. Then she scowled as she noticed the pointed ears. This guy could pass for human if he tried, though it looked like he wasn’t trying. Of course the first man she’d seen in months would be an elf and she despised herself for feeling that way for some dandelion eater. He tucked a lock of blond hair behind his ear as he put the phone up next to it. Reluctantly she picked up her own phone.

"Hello miss Freeman. My name is Julian," he began.

"What do you want?" she said, curtly.

She felt the snarl building up inside of her, but suppressed it. That's what she wanted to do, but if she was defiant the guards would remember. Instead she looked at him with dead, uncaring eyes. She was so tired.

"I have an opportunity for you," he replied.

“What sort of opportunity?” she asked, warily.

That was her old self that momentarily came out to play. It was a shadow of the girl who’d loved books and been curious about everything. Despite her own efforts and the efforts of the prison, she’d asked. If her cellmate, Big Rita, had seen this, she would’ve gotten a glare and another lecture about sticking with her own kind.

“I'm a teacher. I’d like to teach you,” he said, with a warm smile.

She squinted at him, but couldn't help but smirk.

"You're kidding me," she said, and turned around to look at the guard. "Is he kidding me?"

"Eyes front, prisoner," said the guard.

She turned around immediately. Eyes front it was. Toeing the line was risky. Instead she stayed as far away from the line lest she find out exactly where it was.

"I'm not kidding you," he said. "You were brought to my attention and the attention of my school. We looked over your files and saw that you plead guilty to manslaughter without even defending yourself. I'm here to interview you."

Julie ruthlessly suppressed that curious side of her and reached for that hardened rind that prison had built around her. It wasn’t very thick, but it was all she had.

"Wow. I must be interesting," she said, sarcastically, “Please go on. Don’t pull any punches if this ends the talk any faster. Tell me all about how I killed my own dad. The orks in trolls in my cellblock love hearing about how I killed a racist.”

Julian’s gentle smile turned pained. If Julian hadn't been pulling his punches he'd have wondered how she'd cast a manabolt on her father and killed him without any training and without shredding her body from the magical drain while under extreme physical pain. Safe to say he was pulling his punches, but Julie wasn’t. However, it seemed like she was more interested in beating up herself.

"Punches? I thought I was being rather restrained, actually," he admitted.

"Seriously?" she asked. “Whatever.”

"I don't make it a habit to lie to my students," he said.

"I'm not your student," she snapped.

He quirked a smile and there was a short pause. It was almost theatrical.

"Not yet,” he said, with a hint of smugness.

Julie ground her teeth. They were large teeth with tusks on either end that pushed past her lips jutting upwards.

"Julie, what are you getting out of being here?" asked Julian.

She furrowed her brow.

"What?" she asked, her tone confused.

"What are you getting out of being here?" he repeated.

"I don't understand,” she said, still confused.

"Therein lies the problem. You don't understand. You're just..." he made an expansive motion. "Here. You're out in five years though it could be three with good behavior, which I have on good authority that you are well behaved. Then what? You're an untrained awakened with a criminal SIN. What's next?"

Julie shrugged. Julian leaned forward towards the glass.

"Speaking as the person who was once sitting almost exactly where you were once upon a time, I've got to say that you should take the deal," he whispered, and then grinned. "The food here sucks."

She couldn't help it. She giggled. It was lower than her human giggle and she hated it, but that's what it was. She smiled, and then realized why she shouldn't. She sighed.

"I deserve to be here," she whispered.

"Again, me out here, you in there, I've got to say that if this were a contest about who deserved it more, I'd be in there, not you," he continued.

"What? You’re just a teacher. You don't know anything," she snarled.

"Yes, I'm a teacher. That actually means that I know a lot,” he countered.

She glared at him. He took it as permission to continue.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Teens die during goblinization and sometimes that's just convenient", he said.

He made air quotes with both hands as he held the phone to one pointed ear with his shoulder.

"I know that a girl going through goblinization with a father linked to the Night of Rage probably wouldn't have survived if it'd happened at home,” he said, quietly, “Instead it happened at..."

"What?" she interrupted.

"The Night of Rage. It's in your history books," he said, bluntly. “You would have learned about it in school.”

"I know what the Night of Rage is,” she said, irritably. “It was a worldwide race riot that happened a million years ago. What does my dad have to do with that?”

Fear welled up in her. Fear and pain. She didn't want to think about her father. That wound was too fresh.

"I did the legwork. He was..." began Julian.

"Don't want to hear it," she interrupted.

"Okay,” he said, simply.

They didn't talk for a time. Despite herself, she was the first to break the silence. A morbid fascination was overtaking her. It was her curiosity that got the better of her. What did he want with her? What was this about her dad?

"Fine. Show me," she said.

"Show you what?" asked Julian, innocently.

She growled in frustration.

"You said you did the legwork. That means you have something," she said, irratibly.

"Perceptive. I like that in a student,” he complimented.

"I'm not your student," she snapped.

She found that she was no longer detached, but growing angry. Angry wasn't good here. It could get you tuned up just outside of the cameras with stun batons and heavy boots, thrown in the hole for a week or two or just killed if someone decided you were worth the paperwork. She struggled to get her anger under control. Julian realized what she was feeling. After all, he felt that once upon a time too. He’d been right. She was internalizing all of her anger and guilt. It was best to channel that in the correct direction to the real source. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right, but life rarely is. This was his gambit to get her out, but he didn’t want to play it this early. It was something to be worked up to as a last option. Julie Freeman had to want to leave. His efforts wouldn’t matter if she didn’t want to go. He was sure that he could talk her into leaving, but only if he kept her talking. This might shut her down.

"Are you sure? This was what I was going to pull out at the end to convince you, not the beginning. You can't unsee some things, Julie," he said, his voice concerned.

"I thought you didn't lie to your students," she said.

"I don't need to lie to you," he said.

He was improvising. However he was good at that. If he couldn't win her trust he'd use more brutish methods. Not by lying to her, but telling her the truth. Julian had convinced himself that he was going to walk out of here with Julie in tow and do it today. The way was paved. This was what he was good at.

"Yeah. I want to know," said Julie.

After some hesitation, Julian pulled out his commlink, tapped it and made a few gestures with his hands. Not magical ones, but he worked with his hands. He made flicking motions and the bulletproof glass became a screen. There were men in white hoods and a hanged elf. Scrawled underneath, edited to look like a postcard were the words, "Wish you were here." It was a selfie. Self-aggrandizement and narcissism never went out of style, nor did posting stupid things to the matrix.

"You know they're still prosecuting people from that night? I had a friend poke through their archives. Metadata never goes out of style. February 7, 2039,” said sadly, “The Night of Rage. The one holding that cell phone is your dad. You know, back when they had cell phones, not commlinks. We don't know if he killed that man, but he's reveling in it. Not just that. Social media accounts. Political affiliation with Humanis. Not the "family friendly" Humanis, but the stringing people up kind. Burning crosses in peoples' yard kind. White hood kind."

She looked away and that was the moment he’d been waiting for.

"It's not your fault," he said.

"gently caress you, knife ear," she spat.

He chuckled softly and shook his head.

"Going to have to work on that," he said, blithely.

The guard cleared her throat. The conditioning of violence and humiliation that is prison beat down her temper.

"You are who you are. You're not a freak. You're special,” he said, soothingly.

Unable to properly express her rage at this man behind the glass, Julie Freeman began to cry. A cry like this had been coming on for months, because one didn’t admit weakness in prison. But here she was doing it anyway. For his part, Julian looked away, but he didn’t put down the phone and neither did she. Minutes later when she was done she came back to the conversation. After all, the guard would wait as long as she was told. Her boss had been paid handsomely. This conversation wasn't done until Julie decided to come with him. That was Julian’s mission.

"What do you want?" asked Julie, feeling defeated.

"To teach you. I work at a place called Blake Island School of Magic," he said.

"What, like a principal?" she asked.

"Ah, no. No, I'm just a teacher," he explained, "A pretty skilled one if I'm pressed for an answer, but just a teacher. This year I’m also a talent scout for people like you."

"Like me?" she said, her voice tired, “What do you want with me?”

"You’re a troubled young person with talent," he said, “With the emphasis on talent. I only believe that you’re a threat if you’re given no other option. I’ve read your profile. Julie, I can give you other options. Many young people your age don’t feel safe being able to do what you do. I can help you with that.”

She paused, momentarily tempted. She licked her lips.

"I'm more than just some troubled student," she said.

She gestured with her free hand to what was around her. It didn’t take Julian long to realize that she didn’t mean the glass or the phone or the cheap chairs or the cameras, but the prison itself. He grinned ruefully.

"I might have some history with the hard cases, like I said. Years ago I was hired for my unique perspective. Here's my promise to you," he said, as he gave his pitch, "I become your guardian. We seal your criminal SIN and clear it completely when you graduate. You learn to control your powers, earn back your freedom and improve the quality of your food."

He waited for a beat before flashing a winning smile.

"It’s not hard to beat prison food, but we make due,” he teased.


Story Focus: Overcoming her hatred and guilt, learning to manage her power, finding a place where she belongs, voted #1 most likely to stand up for her friends.

Likes: Living in the past, good food, friendship, baseball.

Dislikes: Magic, metahumans, being a metahuman, feeling guilty, dreams, prison.

Second choice of the CYOA

Deep down, does she wish she'd died in that hospital?

Does she feel bad for calling Julian knife ear?

One last short story to go before we make a choice about who we'll be playing. Then we jump to the camp.

And not including this I wrote 4488 words. A real short story. They'll get a bit shorter as I move past introductions (for my own sanity if nothing else), though I'll try to keep the quality the same.

Name: Julie Freeman
Runner Name: None
Metatype: Ork
Body: 7/9
Agility: 3/6
Reaction: 5/6
Strength: 3/8
Charisma: 5/5
Intuition:5/6
Logic: 4/5
Willpower: 5/6
Edge: 2/6
Magic: 6/7 (Julie initiated)

Street cred: 4
Notoriety: 3
Public awareness: 1

Qualities:

Magician - Can cast spells, summon spirits and can astrally project.
Living Focus rating 6 - Can sustain spells up to level 6 for free.

Criminal SINner - She's a criminal. Narrative problems along with 1 notoriety. Bought off.
Bad rep - Killed her dad. It was in self defense, but she never defended herself in court. 3 notoriety.
Prejudiced (Common, Biased, Metahumans) - 1 to social rolls with all metahumans Bought off.
Prejudiced (Specific, Biased, Elves) - 1 to social rolls with all elves.

Contacts:

Fuzzy - Connection 2/6 Loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island Student / Touristville Connected
Sasha Oliver - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Ares corporate princess / Assensing specialist
Kenji Okamura - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Fixer / ACHE specialty Shadowrunner
Marco - Connection 3/6 loyalty 5/6 - Blake Island student / Christian Theurgist Healer / Boyfriend
Devin Faris - Connection 3/6 loyalty 3/6 - Doctor / Ork and Troll activist preacher / Runs Our Abbey Underground in Touristville (located nearby the entrance to The Big Rhino in Touristville's north end)
Big Rita - Connection 3/6 Loyalty 3/6 - Prisoner / Troll Street Shaman / Spikes Shot Caller
Patricia Freeman - Connection 1/6 Loyalty 1/6 - Mom
William Peters - Connection 4/6 Loyalty 2/6 - Teacher / Environmental activist / Tailsmonger with a specialty in local reagents/ Alchemist/ Cook

Enemies:

Christina (Last name unknown) Connection 2/6 occurrence 3/6 (Can appear at any time)

Skills:

Arcana 2 + magic 6 = 8
Assensing 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Banishing 2 + magic 6 = 8
Binding 2 + magic 6 = 8
Con 1 + charisma 5 = 6
Counterspelling 3 + magic 6 = 9
Etiquette 1 + charisma 5 = 6
First Aid 3 + logic 4 = 7
Intimidation 4 + charisma 5 = 9 (12 for notoriety)
Perception 3 + intuition 5 = 8
Ritual Casting 3 + magic 6 = 8
Running 1 + strength 3 = 4
Sneaking 1 + agility 3 = 4
Spellcasting 3 + magic 6 = 9
Summoning 2 + magic 6 = 8

Spells:

Stunbolt - Throw a bolt of stun damage. Bypasses armor. Doesn't work on machines.
Manabolt - Throw a bolt of physical damage. Bypasses armor. Doesn't work on machines.
Increase Logic - Increase logic by number of hits. Must be sustained.
Improved Invisibility - Be unseen even by machines. Must be sustained.
Levitate - Lift 200 kg for every hit. Unwilling subjects resist with strength + body.
Heal - Heal one hit per round of damage. One try only per set of wounds. Touch based. Duration is permanent. Drain value -4.

Metamagic:

Shielding: A character with the shielding metamagic learns to better protect herself and others against hostile spells as they are cast. When the magician declares spell defense, they can add additional dice to the spell defense pool equal to his initiate grade. These additional dice cannot be used for any other use of Counterspelling, including dispelling.

Knowledge Skills:

Area Knowledge: Seattle 3 + intuition 5 = 8
Botany: 1 + logic 4 = 5
English Native Speaker
Gangs 2 + intuition 5 = 7
Humanis Policlub 2 + intuition 5 = 7
Geology 1 + logic 4 = 5
Magic Traditions 3 + intuition 5 = 7
Magical Law 2 + logic 4 = 6
Magical Threats 2 + logic 4 = 6
Marine biology 1 + logic 4 = 5
Or'Zet (ork language) 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Spirits 3 + intuition 5 = 8
Zoology 1 + logic 4 = 5

Gear:
Commlink: Microtronica Azteca Raptor
Commlink: Metalink commlink (contains her notes, wireless turned off)
A full middle class wardrobe
Armor vest (armor 9)
Medkit: Rating 2
Trauma patch
Stim patch: Rating 2

330 nuyen


Karma Earned:

Getting some information from her initiation rite. - 6 karma
Keeping Mother Bear in the conspiracy. - 2 karma.
Helping Kenji out of his funk. - 3 karma
Julie and Minuet. - 9 karma.
10 karma (donating time to Touristville, 1000 per karma up to a max of 10. Just Julie.


Karma Spent:

Getting a home and having it paid until summer. - 5 karma
Julie initiates. -13 karma
Julie reduces her racism to all metahumans to just elves - 4 karma.
Julie learns about alchemy and picks up some knowledge skills. - 6 karma
Julie creates a spirit buddy. - 24 karma
Criminal SIN gets taken down to normal SIN. - 10 karma
Julie gets a specialization in gunshot wounds in healing - 7
Julie purchases cure disease as a spell - 5
Julie purchases


Karma breakdown:

Money turned into karma: 15
Karma turned into money: 5
Adjusted Karma Earned: 85
Karma Spent: 69
Karma Left: 6
Lifetime Earned Karma: 75

Lifestyle:

Student Cabin (Free) - High Lifestyle

House/Clinic - Middle Lifestyle - Comes with a workshop (a clinic)

3000 per month (Subsidized by Touristville) (Paid through year one)

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Feb 22, 2021

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


God, Dad really pissed me off. Like, in real life. But that's good, stories don't usually get to me in real life, I can tell this is gonna be amazing.

Yes, and no. We really are a self-loathing racist little rear end in a top hat to start off. Thanks, Dad.

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.
No and no. We're somehow less lovely than our upbringing would imply, but we're still not handling all this well. Also again, holy poo poo this is some good stuff!

RudeCat
Aug 7, 2012

The rudest cat for the rudest jobs


Yes and absolutely no.

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

Yes,
No

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Kenji Nakamura and Julian Smith - Monday, July 16th, 2074 - Seattle Metroplex, Downtown, Elliot's French Cuisine

"So yeah, I did some shadowrunning," admitted Kenji. "I figure I’d be up front about it since you asked. If I’m made I’m made. Delvers are a different breed of runner though. We don’t need to be as secretive about what we do since we work almost exclusively in the Delve. Like I said, I do guide work through the ACHE sub-basement, but it's nothing to thumb your nose at. It's a living, and living is better than dying. It seems like everyone wants to pick up scraps from uncle Deus' nightmare basement."

The ACHE was the name for the old Renraku arcology, which was one of the world’s largest megacorps. Nowadays the old arcology, which at one point had been the Japanese corporation’s headquarters in the UCAS was now a gigantic housing project full of one-hundred and fifty-thousand of the metroplex’s poor. However that number varied depending on how many people had starved to death that month and how many people the cops shoved inside, rinse and repeat. It was just too useful and too expensive to tear down despite what had happened there. Instead they packed people in. What turned it into a housing project from a high rise corporate arcology was the fact that something had hijacked it. That something had been named Deus, a killer AI that had shut the place up for years and during that time it had experimented on all of its trapped residents. Deus had killed almost everyone inside and was gone now, but if you knew where to look you could find the remnants of those experiments. The sub-basement where much of that had taken place was called the Delve and Kenji was one of its "tour guides", called a delver.

A few years after Deus had left it had been seized by the UCAS government. Few of the original one-hundred-thousand people that had been trapped inside had survived long enough to walk out. Normally there wouldn’t have been that many people, but the first few floors had once been a mall. Christmas shoppers had been shut away along with those who lived and worked in the old archology.

However, Julian didn’t seem to take Kenji too seriously about his claim that he was a shadowrunner. He was only fifteen after all. Shadowrunners were deniable mercenaries that the corporations, governments and individuals with the right amount of money would hire to do illegal and deniable jobs. Shadowrunners worked for no one but themselves and were by their very nature expendable. Delvers on the other hand had a reputation for going down into the Delve. They were specialists and while he’d heard that the work was extremely dangerous, it was barely illegal. After all, the ACHE didn’t have a functioning police force. Police that went into the ACHE didn't come out again. As a precaution, Kenji had been thoroughly medically, psychologically, magically and legally screened and he’d come up clean save for one interesting item, which had been deemed interesting but safe. Now that he’d been cleared it was time for the meet and greet.

“At the risk of sounding petulant,” whispered Julian, “What is this? Shadowrun babies?”

“Yeah, you totally sound petulant,” retorted Kenji.

“Then I’m in good company,” Julian replied.

Kenji drank his soykaf with one hand and made a fencer’s salute with the index finger of his free hand. They were at Elliot’s, a French restaurant that specialized in soy cuisine with a bias against normal humans. Not because they were humans, but because normal humans just weren’t atypical enough. If they put in the effort to distinguish themselves they’d be welcomed with open arms.

Kenji was dressed for the occasion, looking ghetto fabulous. His clothing and masculine jewelry were just tasteless enough to blend into the ACHE, but tasteful enough to be admitted into Elliot's.

However he was put off because Julian was older than him and looked like he might be his dad as they were both elves, both of a similar height and their hair was styled similarly. However, Kenji's hair was long and black while Julian's was blond and Kenji's eyes were a light brown compared to Julian's light blue. They even had just a similar enough facial structure that the mistake could be made that Kenji might be Julian's Asian son, though Kenji was too quintessentially elven in his looks to pass for anything save for an elf while Julian could pass if he hid his ears.

There were differences though. Kenji had more in the way of muscle, but ironically while Julian was handsome, Kenji could be called beautiful with fine features like his Cupid's bow lips, piercing eyes, pointed chin and killer dimples when he smiled. His looks, while striking, were both a blessing and a curse in the ghetto for a number of complicated reasons. However, what defined him most, and actually anyone from the ACHE out on the town was the whiff of burnt trash. It was hard to scrub away the smell that clung to its residents days, weeks or even months after they'd leave. It marked anyone who smelled like that as from the ACHE. Kenji had done his best, but it still clung to him, though barely.

Despite the small differences, they looked quite the pair. Eliot’s dress code of standing out meant the otherwise handsome Julian was bucking the system. This made Kenji look worse by as the teacher dressed in his best dumpy teacher’s attire and therefor completing the look of a father making his son embarrassed out in public, though neither were related. Julian was apparently a big enough deal or represented an organization that was a big enough deal that the offer caught Kenji's attention, but he didn't mind being seen in his teacher's worst while out on the town.

“So you’re trying to recruit me for this school of yours. That’s interesting," said Kenji, his tone businesslike. "This isn’t the first time I’ve been scouted, but it is the first time I’ve been scouted by a school.”

Julian smiled knowingly.

“Though I have to be up front and say that the pay sucks,” Kenji continued, "At least compared to what I'm used to billing for my time."

“The food sucks too,” teased Julian. “It's real though. There are a few soy items on the menu for the vegetarians, but you won’t find anything made of reconstituted krill or mycoprotein. I will say that while the pay isn’t the greatest, meaning non-existent, that education of this caliber is rarely free. Education like this makes you worth more. It opens doors and gives you options. As I understand it, while you are good at what you do, it’s niche and dangerous. It’s not going to last forever. The Delve is eventually going to run dry.”

Kenji shrugged in response.

“Maybe, probably,” Kenji agreed, “It’s sort of like a gold rush. And yeah, it super niche, but lucrative if you know your way around, and I do know my way around. It’s been my stomping grounds since I was a kid,” said Kenji.

Julian shuddered visibly. The ACHE had been seen such suffering and death that it polluted the astral plane, which was the realm of magic that many awakened could see and interact with. Julian had once assensed a meat packing plant for all of two seconds before fleeing back to his body on instinct and vomiting. That had just been from the suffering, fear and death of animals. The suffering of people wwas far worse and it was far more concentrated there. All of those people dying, being experimented on and trapped, honestly it was the perfect camouflage for Kenji. Magical talent could be recognized out in the normal world if one could see into the astral, but opening ones' senses to the astral either through the right mix of magical talent or through drugs was impossible in the ACHE without going passing out or going insane from the pain. So Julian hadn't found Kenji via the normal methods. Instead Kenji had been recommended. Kenji knew people. He knew people who knew people who knew Julian.

"I know that shudder,” said Kenji, “All you magic types wonder how an awakened can live in the ACHE. Well like I tell everyone, we adepts are blind to the astral unless we work at it. I didn’t. In fact I so rarely ventured out of the arcology that it wasn’t until a few months ago that I even knew I was awakened. I took the test and passed with flying colors even though I don't go to school, but honestly it didn’t change much. I am what I am, and adepts don’t need years of college like magicians. So I’ve been offered prospects that to another person would look enticing, but to me it's kind of slumming it. Yeah, before you say something, I realize how ironic that sounds. I’m here though. I’ll talk to you since you’re paying for my meal, but I’ll hear your pitch. I like Elliot’s. They do soy right.”

A waiter sauntered up to the table, dressed so smartly that he even made Julian look bad. He looked dubiously at the two for a brief instant. One looked like a dumpy teacher and one looked like an overdressed hoodlum who smelled bad. He plastered on his best fake smile.

“Gentlemen,” he said, smoothly. “Have you decided what to order?”

“I’ll have the Basque-Style Fish with Green Peppers and Manilla Clams,” said Kenji. “Also a slice of that Mocha Dacquoise Cake. Oh, and do you have those long sticks with chocolate that go in soykaf? What are those called?”

The waiter waited politely and kept up his smile. He opened his mouth to respond, but Julian beat him to the punch.

“I think that they're called Pirouettes or Piroulines,” said Julian. “I’ll just have your seafood stew.”

“My apologies, sir, we do not have Pirouettes,” said the waiter, “However we do have a number of pastries you could select.”

Kenji shook his head.

“I just wanted something for my soykaf. It’s fine,” he said, dismissively, "Should've gotten the tiramasu and no, don't change it."

The presence of the waiter was part of the charm of Elliot’s. He took their orders instead of them ordering wirelessly. The waiter was a pretentious display of wealth so other people coming here could feel that much more pretentious. Food was actually delivered by waiter instead of a robot, called a drone. Julian started from the top left of the menu and worked his way down, and rarely too far as he kept to the cheap food. Kenji had already ordered, but he’d gone to the bottom right and worked his way up as he kept to the expensive selections.

The waiter strode away having fulfilled his purpose as a callback to a time when waiters were necessary and thus enhanced the prestige of Elliot’s. Even the menus were real. In this new world of magic and tech, even menus were a luxury when it would be far simpler to order wirelessly. Augmented reality menus were the norm, so real menus with real laminate that needed to be printed in a shop were like finding a telephone in prison: Anachronistic and slightly bizarre. So it was perfect for Elliot’s.

Julian waited for Kenji to talk. He figured that Kenji wanted to talk, wanted to brag, to be noticed and appreciated. Occasionally Julian would explore with a light social jab here and there to keep him on his toes. Not too much though. Too much and he'd risk pushing him away. Too little and he’d get bored. He fired off a text and waited for Kenji to make the next move.

“The seafood isn’t real you know,” sighed Kenji. “Elliot's is good, but I like the real thing. That stew you orders? Soy and maybe some reconstituted krill. Maybe the green peppers are real, but the fish, clams, even the cake are all soy. I’ve had coffee a few times, but it's easier to find soykaf. In fact the real thing tastes weird to me.”

“Sure the seafood and kaf is soy, but this is Seattle. We’ve at least gotten a whiff and maybe even a taste of the real thing at some point,” retorted Julian. “If there’s anything that the bright boys and girls in the corps know how to do it’s to properly replicate the food Seattle is known for. It's cost efficient too. The school food isn’t fantastic, but it is real. Cooking the real stuff is a dying art, but it still is an art.”

“Hence the ability to gently caress up enough for old timers to complain,” teased Kenji.

Julian mirrored Kenji’s fencing salute with the same index finger. Kenji smirked. Julian for his part was mirroring Kenji. The small shifts in posture, the way he folded his hands, even down to what he focused his eyes on. Julian had read Kenji’s file. His specialties and one power was bent towards his voice and his personality. So he’d read Julian's attempt as a blatant way to understand his emotions and manipulate him. So Julian pretended he was doing so and in the doing accomplished his goal without giving away the game. Otherwise he risked Kenji sending false tells to lead him astray. In Julian's opinion it was better to be underestimated. So he pretended to be negligently twirling the glass of water in his hand, ice clinking against the side. He pretended to look bored while paying rapt attention. He pretended to lay back with terrible posture while attempting not to look interested in the other patrons and wonder if they were interested in him. He sat up straight and put his elbows on the table which elicited a thin smile out of Kenji as he'd done the same. Terrible manners and this was a terrible place for terrible manners, but as a badly dressed teacher and a teen who smelled faintly of the ACHE trash fires, they were expected to have terrible manners.

“I suppose you’re right,” said Julian.

Just then a man in a suit stepped into view, nodded to Julian, then to Kenji, and deposited a small, metal cylinder in the middle of the two men. It was what Julian had ordered, and it'd been quick too. He nodded back to the man, sent him a tip for the prompt delivery, gently tipped it over and rolled the box of Pirouettes with a finger.

“Oh, that’s cheating,” complained Kenji, but he was smiling.

“There’s another word for cheating. It’s called craft,” said Julian. “I’m crafty.”

He kept it rolling this way and that.

“Good point. All right, what do you want for it?” asked Kenji, his voice resigned. "I love those things."

“Well you’re one of just a few go to guides to the old arcology, and probably one of the few magically active one since it makes anyone who goes inside and looks into the astral go insane and die. Got any stories? You've probably seen some stuff. That's my price," said Julian.

“I didn’t think you wanted to hear about shadowrunner babies,” scoffed Kenji.

“Humor me,” said Julian.

“That’s not how this works. I’ll take fifteen percent up front as retainer," joked Kenji.

Julian let out a real belly laugh. That brought him back. He pulled out three of the long, thin, chocolate filled cookies with the delicate, crunchy outside and handed them to him. Kenji received them happily, stuck one in his soykaf, ate one and left the other to the side. He stirred with the straw shaped cookie and thought.

“I specialize in sections K through Q. Mid to lower parts of the Delve. Not the lowest. Down there’s it a death trap. You know the place went down in Christmas all those years ago? Some rooms haven’t been visited since all those people got trapped down there. People look at the ACHE and think it’s enormous and they know about the nuclear reactors underneath that power the place, but the sub-basement is massive. Years into the gold rush and we’re still finding untouched rooms. So now and again you find presents, dead guy in a Santa suit, artificial Christmas trees, tinsel, Christmas lights, and you know it's a time capsule from when poo poo went down. People in the ACHE don’t celebrate Christmas, or at least it’s bad manners. Well, we sort of do, but it's complicated and no one would admit it within earshot of anyone else," said Kenji, dismissively, "So you open up a room no one has opened since everyone are dead as gently caress and it's like Christmas every day. Anyway, I went to an abandoned section with this team lead by this guy named Razorboi. Not with a Y, but an OI. He let made the distinction frequently. His fists might have been filled with weapons, but somehow it didn't keep him from being a tool.”

Kenji shrugged and rolled his eyes at that. Mentally Julian did the same.

“They were a totally green team. They walked away from a few milk runs like they're hot poo poo and they think they can tackle the Delve. They were way over their heads, but I needed the money. I was barely past section M. Not even really testing myself, you know? Avoid the traps, test for rads or biologicals, pop turrets that may or may not have bullets, that sort of stuff. You know ghouls are down near the lowest levels? They're totally nuts too. Some ghouls can talk, but the ACHE just drives every single one of them insane for some reason, so if they talk it’s just gibberish."

Kenji pulled his Pirouette out of his soykaf and munched appreciatively on it.

"Well we didn’t even have to deal with them," he continued, "So I’m playing pathfinder and making sure these idiots don’t get killed because I get tips if everyone comes back alive. At least normally, though I’m not expecting it from this crowd. They think since they’re all chromed out with used gear and feeling kickass that they can tackle this place. That’s how it gets you. Long periods of boredom before wham, you get caught in a trap or you're drowning in ghouls. So we get the place, clear out the trash in front of the room, bust out the mini welder and in we go. So what sets me off immediately is that there are Christmas lights and that they’re on. Fourteen years later and every single one of them is working. They toss the place for artifacts and I’m on edge. I feel it in my teeth. I’m telling them that they should scrub the mission and I’m telling them that from outside the room, because I’m two seconds from noping the gently caress out. Then this idiot, Razorboi, this dumbass chromejob, unwraps a present. Why? I don’t know. Because he can. Chromejobs like him usually aren't paid to think so I'm not sure why he felt like he deserved a present. Anyway, inside of it he finds this concrete brick and everyone starts looking at it. The room gets bad fast. I see that brick and I start thinking about how when I was a kid. Like a little kid.”

Julian couldn’t help himself. His mirroring tactic was unraveled by the story. He leaned in closer as Kenji got quieter and quieter, but at the same time more animated.

“So I look at this brick. It reminds me of something,” whispered Kenji, “You know what it reminds me of? My little brother. I remember this time in the park where he held a bunch of blue balloons in his hand. So many that he might float up into the sky and he's looking all adorable in his overalls that little kids have that match the color of the balloons. He had this smile that could warm your heart. And I knew this was weird because it’s a brick, you know? It’s just this concrete building brick plucked out of Christmas present in the middle of Deus' murder basement. Everything is screaming weird, but I want to go in the room because I want that brick. You know why all of this is weird? You glomming onto it yet?”

Julian didn’t speak. He only shrugged, but stayed focused and interested. It was because despite himself, he was.

“See, my brother didn’t smile like that. He didn't have those blue balloons. No cute little overalls. See, I don’t even have a brother. Not dead, not alive, I don’t even remember my birth parents, but this brick is telling me these things and I think I’m not getting it full blast,” continued Kenji, “These shadowrunners are drawing down on Razorboi and his hand razors come out. This mage starts conjuring, freaks out, there’s gunfire, Razorboi screams and I’m fighting not to go in there and fight them to steal the thing. I run as far away as I can to the top level. So down there is probably a nice payday in nuyen and scrap cyberware. I know exactly where it is, but that brick is there and it’s a loving deathtrap. Now and again I wonder how my brother is doing before I remember that I don’t have one and that it’s the echo of some deathtrap set up by this psycho AI named Deus, and that it’s not the Renraku Arcology anymore. It’s the ACHE, arcology and commercial housing enclave, because someone in government has a sick sense of humor. I didn’t even go that deep. You just get fooled sometimes. poo poo creeps up on you. It's Christmas every day.”

“drat,” said Julian, meaning it.

Kenji took the cylinder of candy from Julian’s unresisting hand, gave it a toss, heard the rattle of the candy and smiled.

“Nice,” he said, with a smile, “Now you get to decide if that’s true or not.”

Forced out of his reverie, Julian smirked. It was hard to remember that Kenji was only fifteen, but easier to remember when he smiled like a kid just like he was now, big and broad. Life is hard on ACHE kids, Julian knew that much. Kenji had found his niche and he’d survived. Even if that story wasn’t true, it probably had enough truth to it hidden somewhere among the lies, if there were lies at all. That was when his smirk turned sour.

Their meal came and they ate in silence. Kenji managed to get not one, but two desserts, and shamelessly tasted Julian’s stew despite knowing it was a faux pax. He ate his own food with gusto and they didn’t resume talking until they were done.

“So about this school?” prodded Kenji.

“You’re going to attend," said Julian.

“You got it,” he said, cheerily.

“And you already knew you were going to," said Julian, wryly.

“Mhm,” he agreed.

“You were just hungry," said Julian, his tone mildly exasperated.

Kenji grinned and Julian shook his head.

“Expense accounts are great, aren’t they?" joked Kenji, "Besides, I’m doing you a solid by pretending to be wined and dined. That stew of yours wasn’t too bad and I’m going to order something to go. If I’m not going to be as active I can break some unwritten rules about table manners."

“No. It wasn’t bad at all,” said Julian, “The stew tastes like the real thing.”

Kenji smiled big and broad. Not only had he had his cake and eaten it too, but he was also filthy rich in Pirouettes.

Story focus: Scheming, schmoozing, lying, kinda sorta experienced with the shadows, learning how to put his skills to use for good or for ill. Voted #1 best smile.

Third choice for the CYOA. After this we’ll pick characters

On a scale of 0% to 100%, how much of his story was true? Or at least what's true and what's not? Go nuts. Whatever you feel like.

Did Kenji always know he was going to join the school and just wanted a free meal? Or did he decide during the conversation, and if so, when?

An easier 2500ish words this time. After all the questions are answered (feel free to keep answering the previous questions, I just wasn't done writing today) we'll wrap up and choose a character who we'll be playing.

Character Sheet

Name: Edward Okamura
Runner Name: Kenji
Metatype: Elf
Body: 4/6
Agility: 6/7
Reaction: 5/6
Strength: 4/6
Charisma: 8/8
Intuition:5/6
Logic: 2/6
Willpower: 3/6
Edge: 3/6
Magic: 4/6

Street cred: 5
Notoriety: 1
Public awareness: 0

Qualities:

Adept - Use adept powers
Home Ground: Ache - +2 dice to all rolls inside of or having to do with the ACHE.
First Impression: +2 Dice to all social rolls when meeting someone for the first time.

SINner - She has a system identification number. This is new and he got it when she entered school. He is now a person in the UCAS database.
Poor Self Control 4: LeBlanc Training - Kenji is a slave to his training.
Astral Beacon: Lights up in the astral. Also use of powers last twice as long.
[ur=https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3835049&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=18#post477316956]Compulsion (Severe) (Moderate): Leblanc Method slave[/url]

Contacts:

Sasha Oliver - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Ares corporate princess / Assensing specialist
Fuzzy - Connection 2/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island Student / Huntress / Mystic Adept
Marco - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Christian Theurgist Healer
Julie - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - Blake Island student / Shaman / Touristville Healer
Min Yun - Connection 3/6 loyalty 4/6 - ACHE Shadowrunner / Dog Shaman
Gentoo - Connection 2/6 loyalty 3/6 - Shadowrunner / Diving specialist
Sawbones - Connection 3/6 loyalty 2/6 - ACHE doctor
Clever - Connection 3/6 loyalty 3/6 - ACHE Gang leader / Fixer / Family member (cousin on moms' side)
Seymour - Connection 2/6 loyalty 2/6 - ACHE Fence
Octo - Connection 3/6 loyalty 3/6 - Technomancer
Julian - Connection 3/6 loyalty 2/6 - Blake Island Teacher
Knives - Connection 3/6 loyalty 1/6 - 1%er Biker Lieutenant and weapons dealer.

Enemies:

Christina (Last name unknown) Connection 2/6 occurrence 3/6 (Can appear at any time)

Skills:

Artisan 2 + intuition 5 = 7
Automatics 6 + agility 6 = 12(13 with laser sight)
Blades 1 + agility 6 = 7
Disguise 5 + intuition 5 = 10
Etiquette 4 + charisma 8 = 12 (14 new people)
Hardware 1 + logic 1 = 2
Impersonation 6 (8 LeBlanc) + Charisma 8 = 14(16)
Intimidation 6 + charisma 8 = 14
Leadership 6 + charisma 8 = 14
Locksmith 1 + agility 6 = 7
Navigation 3 + intuition 5 = 8
Negotiation 4 + charisma 8 = 12
Palming 5 + agility 6 = 11
Perception 4 + intuition 5 = 9
Running 1 + strength 4 = 5
Sneaking 5 + agility 6 = 11
Survival 1 + willpower 3 = 4
Unarmed Combat 1 + agility 6 = 7

Knowledge:
Ache Rumors 2 + intuition 5 = 7
Area Knowledge: Seattle 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Cantonese 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Mandarin 1 + intuition 5 = 6
English: Native
Gangs 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Japanese 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Hmong 1 + intuition 5 = 6
Korean 2 + intuition 5 = 7
Shadowrunner rumors 2 + intuition 5 = 7

Adept powers:

Commanding Voice: Roll leadership + charisma vs. target's willpower + intuition. +1 to defenders roll per person in the group to a max of 6 rolling for the highest. Take the highest dice pool. -2 cumulative penalty after the first time per 24 hours. If successful a target must do whatever they are ordered in five words or less or be confused. Targets will either obey or act confused. - 1 Power Point

Facial sculpt - Change your face! Adds its rating to impersonation rolls. Lasts for (magic) hours. - One rank - .25 power points

Keratin Control - Change your hair over the course of about six hours. It can be changed from curly to straight, long or short (though going from long to short needs a haircut). Also the nails can be grown out. Hair can be grown out even faster than six hours for one stun per hour shaved off. - .5 power points.

Melanin Control - Change racial skin tone to that of another race or metatype. The effect is immediate and lasts for (magic) hours. It takes a complex action. - .5 power points.

Weapons:

Combat Knife

6P
AP -3
Conceal -2

Colt Cobra TZ - 120

7p
Recoil 5(6)
Conceal +2

Armor:

Lined Coat - Armor 9
- Chemical protection rating 2
- Radiation shielding rating 2

Gear:

Gas mask
Survival kit
Grenade: Flash Bang
Paint Grenade (Lube)
2 Paint Grenade (DNA Chaff)
Renraku Sensei commlink
1 magazine APDS ammo (32 each)
2 magazines Stick and shock ammo (32 each)
10 magazines regular ammo (32 each)


-150 per week for Edward's counseling.

Karma rewards:

ACHE diving, keeping everyone alive and coming back with the loot - 9 karma
The horseshoe crab blood run on Gaeatronics - 8 karma
Taking care of Edward - 2 karma
Healing Octo - 4 karma
Operation lube grenade - 2 karma


Karma Spent:

Compulsion (Severe) to compulsion (moderate) - 6 karma
2 points into artisan - 6 karma
1 more point into edge from 2 to 3 - 15 points


Lifestyle:

Student Cabin

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Feb 22, 2021

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Almost entirely true. The one lie is that he does have a sister. Or rather, did. Oh and we have no idea what the gently caress set up the trap.

Totally knew he was going to school beforehand. He'll take anything that gets him out of the arcology. Even if he plays it off like he's fine, he's very emphatically not fine after that incident

Crazycryodude fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Sep 23, 2017

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

Mostly false, there are a ton of true horror stories about the ACHE but Kenji's figured out the kind of details that impress even the most savvy rubes and he also understands the value of making it personal. However, the biggest lie was claiming to be blind to the astral, he knew he was awakened way before he got tested as an adept and any other explanation would've been far less reassuring.

Yes, he specifically took the test expecting to be noticed by somewhere like the school. The other offers he received were better than he'd let on, but the school had more potential for the kind of long term payoff he'd been looking for.

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.
Julie wishes she'd dyed before she ever even goblinized. While she was human. When she was still loved. She doesn't have a death wish. She'll keep moving forward. But it would have been... easier that way. Kinder. For everyone.

She does feel bad about the slur. She's a racist - there's no denying that. But unlike her father, she has the basic human decency to feel guilty about it.

Kenji's story is completely true - every word of it. He gets a kick out of telling the truth, but only once nobody can be certain of whether he's lying. It's cathartic, but in a way that doesn't make him feel emotionally vulnerable.

And he still doesn't know if he's actually necessarily going to attend. He's said yes to move this forward, to get a better look at his options. He's ready to cut and run at any time, though, if it doesn't play out like he wants. Until the day he graduates, he's only going to have one foot in the door.

Side note, did most orks/trolls goblinize in the older fluff? Because in the current stuff, goblinization mostly tapered away after the initial wave, and most orks are born as orks to ork parents. Some people still goblinize out of nowhere, but it's uncommon, not ork-puberty. I'm not as familiar with the classic editions, though.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



jagadaishio posted:

Side note, did most orks/trolls goblinize in the older fluff? Because in the current stuff, goblinization mostly tapered away after the initial wave, and most orks are born as orks to ork parents. Some people still goblinize out of nowhere, but it's uncommon, not ork-puberty. I'm not as familiar with the classic editions, though.

I'm going to have to change this a little bit. It seems that orcs and trolls can have orc and troll babies. I swear that wasn't the case in one of the novels I read because there was a human girl with a bunch of ork brothers and she hadn't goblinized.

However it being more rare makes it all the more shocking. I'll think about it.

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.

Ice Phisherman posted:

I'm going to have to change this a little bit. It seems that orcs and trolls can have orc and troll babies. I swear that wasn't the case in one of the novels I read because there was a human girl with a bunch of ork brothers and she hadn't goblinized.

However it being more rare makes it all the more shocking. I'll think about it.


There are definitely throwbacks in both directions. Humans born to orks, orks born to humans, people born humans to orks and then goblinizing, and other combinations. You can even have troll parents with an unexpected dwarf child. It's not a cut and dry kind of thing, just greater trends.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



jagadaishio posted:

There are definitely throwbacks in both directions. Humans born to orks, orks born to humans, people born humans to orks and then goblinizing, and other combinations. You can even have troll parents with an unexpected dwarf child. It's not a cut and dry kind of thing, just greater trends.

In this case I'm going to let it ride. Teens goblinizing isn't going to be a huge focus. It might happen once more in the entire story. I'd rather write going forward than fix stuff going back. Nice spot though. Thanks.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



All right. I waited for a bit and got some answers.

Julie definitely wishes she died it seems. Not enough to take her own life, but enough to feel a ton of negative emotions. Small penalty to charisma, but a bonus to body for being tough enough to survive.

And it seems that she didn't feel remorse for tossing a racial slur at her soon to be teacher, Julian. Overwhelming no. Looks like she's going to be an angry, sullen, self-hating, racist teen. Poor girl. Penalty to etiquette (the diplomacy skill) and a bonus to intimidate.

For Kenji, one that he was lying and two that he was at least mostly telling the truth. So I'm going to give him some bonus dice to acting as everyone had a different answer as to not only his truthfulness, but his motivations. At the same time it looks like he always knew he was going to attend, but for different reasons. I may test if he's telling the truth at a different date.

Bonus to conning people for getting a great dinner and some extra to charisma for the plethora of answers. I feel like he might be untrustworthy though and relationships are formed with trust. He might have fewer contacts or become untrustworthy in general which keeps him from forming new ones.

:siren: Time to pick :siren:

Make your choice. Fuzzy, Julie or Kenji. What I will say is that if I feel like the character has been explored enough or things are getting dull we can switch again. We're not going to be locked in for the whole CYOA with one character. Or at least we don't have to be.

(Belatedly I've realized that all their names end in an E sound. Oh well.)

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Sep 24, 2017

Dog Kisser
Mar 30, 2005

But People have fears that beasts do not. Questions, too.
Julie, I think. Should make for an interesting viewpoint, if a very sad one.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Fuzzy. She seems like the kind of kid to pull together a band of misfits and stick it to all the rich assholes.

Plus we'll have the maximum amount of time with Puppy this way. It's mostly about Puppy, tbh.

RudeCat
Aug 7, 2012

The rudest cat for the rudest jobs


Fuzzy. She's coming into this as the ultimate outsider, I think that would be the most interesting way to see things at first.

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

Definitely Fuzzy for a bit. The perspective of a fish out of water type is the best opener for the school.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy, Christina and Sasha - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Morning - Blake Island

Fuzzy was interested in the talking fish for all of a few seconds, but grew bored. She had to wear those goggles that Julian gave her while many of the others wore smart glasses or looked at the cartoon fish with what Fuzzy thought were their eyes, though in actuality they wore smart contact lenses. The goggles were on too tight and she didn't know how to adjust the strap at the back. Technically she’d worn goggles before, but normally they were attached to a gas mask that more or less fit her as the Puyallup barrens is often too toxic to live in without protection. At least on the worst days. The fact that she was wearing these to see a floating figure which didn't really exist for the first time might intrigue or awe someone else, but this annoyed her.

This wasn’t helped by the fear and paranoia at being disarmed. She'd asked for three things: Porks, new ends and Puppy. However, she felt like some things were just so implied that going without them was insanity. She had no bow, no arrows, no spear, no knife and no traps. She wasn't big, so she wondered how was she supposed to defend herself while surrounded. Not from animal predators, because there weren't any on the island as it was too small to have any large predators. Big predators needed a lot of space. No, what worried her were the people, who were worse than predators. The people who surrounded her were people with magic. She'd never seen so many people in one place before without weapons. She wondered how anyone here felt safe without their weapons. She'd feel safer with a blade, and if she couldn't get her knife back, she might have to steal one.

"Hi! I'm Sonya!" said a smiling, young human Latina girl.

Sonya was tall. Taller than any woman she'd seen before, though as she thought about it many people here were tall. Her hair was dark and long, her face finely featured, her eyes dark. She didn't seem to be visibly armed. No scars. Pretty. Fuzzy wondered if she belonged to someone. That was often the case with pretty people in Puyallup.

She was waving with both hands to everyone and smiling big and broad with her teeth, which set Fuzzy's own teeth to grinding. Predators showed their teeth. She wore the same thing everyone else wore. Something teacher-Julian called a uniform. They were dark blue shorts and a light green shirt with the insignia of the island on it. Everyone wore the same colors. The gangs did that. Normal people wore whatever they could, but to Fuzzy, these were definitely gang colors.

"I'm Ross!" called another man as he stepped onto the stage, a pretty looking blond haired Caucasian man.

Ross' blond hair was short cut. That was just good sense. Long hair like that Sonya girl was begging to be pulled. It was how one was dragged down. No hair means no leverage. There was less to cling to in a fight. He was muscular, but bulky. He looked powerful, but slow. He had bright eyes and strong features, but no scars. She wondered how he’d gotten so big without getting any scars. Neither he nor Sonya were visibly armed. That was when Fuzzy noticed their teeth, both sets of them were clean and white. Both of them had all of them. She could almost count them they were so big.

Pretty was dangerous and the two were definitely that. It called attention to you and attention made you a target. They hugged in a strange, side armed way without looking at one another. Did they not trust one another? Obviously they did because they weren't looking at one another. They just smiled and showed their teeth to the crowd. Then something happened which set Fuzzy on edge. Everyone around her clapped their hands together. They were making noise, which one in Puyallup should never do unless they were safe. Fuzzy shivered. This was a bad place.

"This is weird," whispered Fuzzy, urgently, "I don't like it. They're loud."

"Way too loud," griped Kenji.

"Whatever," said Julie.

It seemed Julie didn't take the threat seriously, but Fuzzy looked to Kenji and nodded ever so slightly. He didn’t look like much to her, but she didn’t look like much either. She knew that looks could be deceiving and those that deceived lived another day. Kenji nodded back which she decided was good.

"We just want to say welcome to everyone!" continued Ross, "We were in charge of the junior cabins last year and we're honored and flattered to be chosen again this year. Not just for the seniors, but for everyone. If you need someone, look to us. We can help you."

Now it made sense to Fuzzy.

"Which gang are the Kab-Eenz?" whispered Fuzzy.

"I'll tell you later," answered Kenji, immediately.

Julie looked at her incredulously and then burst into a fit of resonant giggles. She was immediately shushed by a teacher. That teacher was a short, older, severe looking woman with a large braid. She must be tough to be so old. Fuzzy kept quiet while Julie held one hand to her mouth. Julie was strange.

"We hope you have a wonderful year at Blake Island and hope you learn a lot," said Sonya, "We're sad that this is our last year, but we hope you'll make it count like we have!"

They said a few more things that didn't make much sense to Fuzzy, but Ross mentioned something that piqued her interest.

"...And there's going to be a bonfire tonight!" he exclaimed, "Make sure to come by. It's tradition after all!"

They waved and stepped off the podium. More people talked, but Fuzzy thought. This must be the Kab-Eenz ritual initiation. She'd never been in a gang but she would occasionally see them while on a hunt. She'd once seen the beat downs new members got. It had been two minutes of kicking and punching. Afterwards the injured and bloodied man was hauled up, given a drink, some drugs and then hugged and patted on the back when he got up. She’d heard that not everyone involved in a beat down got up. Perhaps there would be some sort of branding? She’d heard of those too.

Apparently she'd missed something as she thought. She hadn’t paid attention, because everyone was up and milling about. She'd lost Kenji and Julie in the crowd. Suddenly panicked now that she had no weapons and not even the possibility of a possible ally she cast about for Kenji or even Julie. There was no one. Not even Julian. She drew someone else though. There was another pretty girl. She was an elf which was made obvious by her pointed ears. She was tall and had no scars. Her hair was long and red. She had large breasts and was somewhat chubby. No, Fuzzy decided, she would not survive long.

"I have to ask," drawled the girl, "Who does your hair?"

"Does?" asked Fuzzy.

The girl stalked around her. Fuzzy tracked her with her eyes, and when she was about to disappear out of sight Fuzzy turned to face her. Fuzzy squared her shoulders with the girl when she stopped.

"Dear, it looks like someone cuts your hair with a knife," she said in a stage whisper.

A few people behind her laughed and giggled. Fuzzy turned her head, not taking her attention fully away from this stranger. Apparently the look she shot them stifled those giggles. One even stepped back, which Fuzzy decided was good. Fuzzy flicked her eyes back to the girl.

"It is cut with a knife. I cut it. They took my knife," she said, curtly.

"I think they should've taken a little more," she teased.

"I only had one knife. They took it from me."

"I meant your hair, sweetheart,” said the girl, “Maybe...Even it out a little? Maybe I could introduce you to my stylist. I'm Christina. And you are?"

"Fuzzy,” said Fuzzy, curtly.

"I'm somehow not surprised," she said, and rolled her eyes.

In a fit of teenage cheek she reached out to try and ruffle Fuzzy's hair, like one might touch a stupid child or a pet. Fuzzy struck her wrist with the blade of her hand before she got too close. It was a reflex. The girl winced and pulled hair hand back.

"Owww..." whined Christina, "What was that for?"

"Don’t touch me," said Fuzzy, firmly.

A thought came to Fuzzy. Perhaps she wanted to do that strange sideways embrace? Is that what people did here? If she was, Christina wasn't telling. Those girls snickered not at Fuzzy, but at Christina this time. Fuzzy looked back at them again. They were close, but stepped back once more. There were three of them. They feared her which she liked. Fuzzy turned back to Christina.

"Christina. You are pretty. Your hair is long. Your arms are thin. Your hands look soft. You display your body for others. You are fat. I do not think you will survive long," said Fuzzy, honestly, "I will not protect those who look unable to protect themselves. You will only get yourself and others killed. Stay away from me."

Stunned silence followed in the seconds after. Then what came afterwards weren’t giggles or snickers, but a roar of laughter. Great guffaws of laughter. Rippling peels. Christina's face turned scarlet with impotent rage. She was weak after all and Fuzzy not only turned away from her, but took her eyes off her in a display of open disrespect. She turned to the girls behind her.

"Tell me you were recording that," said one girl, "Please, if there is a god you were recording that, Sasha."

"Bitch, I record everything. Nice one new girl," said Sasha, "What's your name?"

"Fuzzy," said Fuzzy.

Christina stalked away, thoroughly humiliated. Normally if she were to challenge Fuzzy to regain her pride she would have struck at Fuzzy, or at least shoulder checked her. Nothing came and so Fuzzy totally disregarded her as a weakling, and so she slipped entirely from Fuzzy’s notice.

"I've never seen someone gently caress up Christina up like that," exclaimed Sasha, "Nice!"

"I barely touched her," said Fuzzy, her tone confused.

"You could've fooled me. Want to get lunch together sometime?"

The other girl turned to look at Sasha.

"Okay, fun is fun, but you want to catch lunch with the weird girl?"

"That moment made this lame assembly into the best one,” retorted Sasha, “Way better than last year."

Sasha wasn't pretty. At least not pretty enough to fight over. She was thin, with shoulder length black hair, caramel colored skin and a big smile, but no scars though. Fuzzy relaxed. Not totally, but more than she had before.

"Yes. I was told there'd be porks," said Fuzzy.

"Porks?" asked Sasha.

"Bacon,” corrected Fuzzy.

"I see you got your priorities straight," said Sasha.

Fuzzy nodded sagely as the other girl left. Perhaps life wasn't too different from the barrens after all. She would find Kenji and Julie later. She could have a meal with Sasha so long as she brought enough food for herself.

Question time.

Did Fuzzy defeat Christina so soundly that she will be left alone, or did she make an enemy?

How much of her life will she share with Sasha at the lunch table if prompted?

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 09:42 on Feb 22, 2021

Strobe
Jun 30, 2014
GW BRAINWORMS CREW
She made an enemy. By humiliation if not by injury. Whether said enemy is potent enough to be more than mild inconvenience is still up in the air.

Superficial details. Nothing about her own capabilities or weaknesses. She doesn't trust Sasha yet.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Definite enemy

Some basics, but nothing too personal. Maybe little tidbits to keep her interested, but we don't trust Sasha. Yet.

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

Halfway between. Christina will be hostile to Fuzzy from now on but won't try anything overt because she thinks Fuzzy is practically a feral animal.

Don't really share much.

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.
She made an enemy.

And she'll share a lot, but her priorities are all screwed up on what is and isn't relevant information. She'll never reveal where she stashes or sleeps, never reveal how or where she does anything. That's valuable information that could be used to hurt or hunt her.

But details about how hard, mean, and dirty her life has been come easily. Freely, even. They've long since faded from traumatic to mere fact.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
She probably made an enemy. Christina probably thinks she's hot poo poo herself.

Share some personal things. Fuzzy doesn't quite realize what information is personal and what isn't, it seems.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy, Julie, Kenji and Mother Bear - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Morning - Blake Island

Fuzzy was forced to attend something which was called "class" and "class" was bizarre. Everyone sat in a desk chair facing forwards towards an older woman that Fuzzy had seen earlier, as apparently Julian was not the only teacher. Fuzzy sat at the back in a corner so as not to have anyone behind her in case of ambush, which was good. The class size was far smaller than the size of the assembly and she counted only twenty people.

What startled her most was that everything was so clean and new. She'd never been surrounded by so many clean, new things before. In fact the shorts, t-shirt and underclothes she wore were clean and new as well. This was a first for her, though she did keep her old, scuffed up black boots. That feeling of newness all around was also bizarre, but a good bizarre. She liked clean clothes and last night she’d been shown that she had more. They were in the small house in a closet which she’d been told was hers. The house was barely two rooms, a bedroom and half bath, but to Fuzzy all of that space just for her floored her. Then again she’d been shocked when she realized that she didn’t have to share it with anyone. She’d slept in a clean bed with clean sheets last night for the first time ever. Rat Man had hammocks and cots, but they were often shared by other children. It felt good, but she didn’t entirely trust that feeling. She wondered how everyone here survived if they were surrounded by such ease and softness without growing soft themselves.

Also upon further examination she found that while the shorts and shirts everyone wore were mandatory, people accented what they wore. There were different kinds of shoes, necklaces, facial piercings, earrings, hair of many different styles and colors along with ornaments in them. Some of the older teens even had tattoos, though everyone here was young and had none, or at least showed none. One other person wore goggles for viewing augmented reality like she did, but most people either wore glasses or as she later learned, they wore contact lenses. Everyone had a commlink, though they rarely came out. However she was the only person who had a commlink that clipped to her ear so far as she could tell. It had drawn looks, but while that made Fuzzy feel self-conscious, she didn’t dare display weakness by taking it off.

The older woman at the front of the class cleared her throat. She had a grey, plaited hair down to her lower back, a leathery, brown face, maybe Amerind of some sort, and her face was creased in a permanent scowl, brown eyes hard. She was also much shorter than everyone else, stooped with age, though she did not use a cane. She wore a simple, purple dress and black sandals.

"I'm Mother Bear," said the teacher, "You may call me teacher or Mother Bear. I'm here to teach the introduction to magical safety course. I have been teaching classes like these for nearly thirty years in education and out. I plan to teach you not to do things, what not to do and how not to do them. I'm here to teach you how not to use your magic and how not to hurt others or yourself.”

Fuzzy noticed that Mother Bear stressed the word “not” quite a bit. She also noticed that many of students who looked excited at first found their faces falling.

“This is a safety course, and as of right now most of you are unsafe,” she continued, “Right now you are a danger to yourselves, a danger to others and unlikely as the case might be, a danger to me. Now most of you were assessed when you found out you were awakened at school. Some were assessed by less orthodox methods.”

Her eyes flicked to the back row where Julie sat.

"Julie Freeman. Stand up," said Mother Bear.

Julie looked around at the room. She was the only ork in a room that did not contain a single other ork or troll. There were only elves and humans. She stood up nervously, her eyes forward.

"Julie here is the most powerful awakened in terms of raw magical power not only of the freshman class, but including the sophomore, junior and most of the senior class,” said Mother Bear.

Julie allowed herself a rare smile. Fuzzy saw her back straighten with pride, but then she slumped seconds later for some reason, which Fuzzy found strange.

"She has absolutely no control over her power and seems to have some instinctive idea of how to cast a manabolt," continued Mother Bear, "Combat class is not until junior year, and then we only teach non-lethal spells. Lethal spells are taught as an optional course for those on the security or military tracks and only in their final year. Consider her to be dangerous. Do not mess with her. There’s always someone who jumps the gun and learns combat magic before they get to school every semester, but you’re the first person in all of my years who didn’t learn it on purpose. Let me be clear, using combat magic on any student for any reason is grounds for immediate expulsion. Even the non-lethal stuff won’t be tolerated on campus unless you’re under the guidance of one of the teachers with their permission. Please sit down, miss Freeman.”

Everyone turned to look at her and Julie had to weather their attention. Julie, now scowling and miserable, sat back down.

"As of right now until this course is finished you will not bully one another. You will not be snide or cruel towards one another. You will not get into any physical altercations with each other. Until all of you learn to get your powers under control you will not use them. You will not show off or mess around,” said Mother Bear, sternly, “The course is two weeks long and mandatory and if you do not complete it to my satisfaction you will stay with me even longer during your free time, which is my time. Anyone violating these rules will be tied to the shame pole in the middle of campus for the weekend.”

She made a hand gesture and a picture of a pole appeared against the blackboard which lit up in augmented reality, though in normal reality it remained a simple blackboard. Then simpler graphics rolled across the screen in black in white of a simply designed person being lead to the shame pole, tied to it and being made to speak to others when they approached. She pointed at each picture as they became relevant.

“Anyone who breaks these rules will be subject to the shame pole. You will tell anyone who passes you what you did. You will tell them why you did it. You will tell them you are sorry and you will mean that you are sorry. Unlike when I was a girl, you will be allowed food, water and bathroom privileges. Feel blessed," growled the tiny old woman, "Today you have one and only one test. You will describe to me what I just said back to me. This will not be a written test so the inattentive ones can't cheat. You will use the application relevant to this class. I have administrator privileges for all of your commlinks and so I had it installed while we were talking. Anyone who fails this test will be tied to the shame pole for an hour. If there are too many of you I will get creative. The rest will have free time. You have five minutes. Begin."

Sudden fear spread through the teens. People began to work furiously with their commlinks to describe what Mother Bear just said back to her. In another age the scribbling of pens and paper would've been heard. Now people mumbled and tapped on their commlinks or put on haptic gloves to tap on keyboards that existed only in augmented reality. There would be no cheating.

Fuzzy did not know what to do. Her commlink was on but she had no idea how to use it. The shame pole sounded bad. It would draw attention to her and leave her vulnerable. She’d never owned a commlink before and had no idea how to use it. After some desperate flailing with the commlink she found what she thought was a test, but wasn’t entirely sure. However, something stopped her.

There were words. Fuzzy didn't know what they meant. Not a few of the words, not some of the words, but almost all of the words. Fuzzy didn't know how to read. Julian made it seem so easy to work the commlink when he helped her before, but the words stopped her. She sighed and resigned herself to the shame pole. As she looked around, she could tell that she wouldn't be the only one. She took off her goggles. They hurt her head and were still too tight. She now saw the world as it was. The blackboard was just an empty blackboard once again now that she no longer saw the world through her goggles.

Out of the twenty students of the freshman year there were four that were consigned to the shame pole: One girl, one boy, Fuzzy and surprisingly enough, Kenji.

"Class dismissed,” said Mother Bear, “Everyone find something else to do for an hour then go to lunch. Except for you four, all of you will stay and talk to me."

The girl and the boy looked disheartened, but Kenji only looked bored. She went to each of them one by one, but cast an angry look at Kenji.

"Elizabeth, why were you not paying attention?" she asked.

Withering under the mighty gaze of the diminutive woman, she whispered something.

"Speak up. I'm old,” snapped Mother Bear.

"I was texting someone," she said, miserably.

"And since the range on texting is limited, it’s not hard to find out who,” barked Mother Bear, “Follow the AR tags for the shame pole file that's being installed on your commlink. I don't want to waste my twilight years punishing you myself. I'll get the highlight reels later. Remember that you're not just wasting my time, but wasting your own. Shame pole. Go."

She scampered off. Mother Bear glared again at Kenji, but turned to the other teen.

“Damien, why were you not paying attention?” she asked.

"I was..." started the young man.

"Texting as well,” interrupted the teacher.

Apparently her question had been rhetorical.

“It looked like you were texting Elizabeth it seems. Peer to peer. It’s a short hop so you dodged the matrix block."

She raised her bony fingers and clapped a few times.

“Congratulations, you figured it out. You thought you were being sneaky. You’re not,” she said, flatly,” And yes, I read the chat logs. Neither of you are clever and you in particular need to work on your flirting technique young man. Even I thought those texts were bad. Next time I'll send out a mass text with the file. Hrm, tell her too. I’ll make good on that threat so don’t test me. Anyway, I trust you have listened to my lecture by proxy and know what to do?"

"Yes ma'am," he said, humiliated.

"I am teacher or Mother Bear, not ma'am. However, your heart is in the right place. Remember next time."

There was a pause before he nodded.

"Yes, Mother Bear," he amended.

"Good boy," she said, "Now go to the shame pole."

Off he went. She rounded on Kenji and glared at him. Kenji smiled placidly.

"Well?" she seethed.

"Porn," he said, placidly.

"Pornography!" she bellowed, her face inches away from his, though she had to look up. "You were watching pornography during a safety class! A class in which I teach you how not to injure or kill one another or yourselves! That is not acceptable behavior!”

Her hard little eyes attempted to burrow into him, but failed to make even the slightest impression. He continued to smile placidly while she sentenced him.

"Shame pole, and if you ever do something like this again I will eat your entire weekend, young man," she seethed, "It won't just be the shame pole. I've run people like you ragged back in the army and I've only gotten better at it with age.”

"So I just follow the..." started Kenji, blithely.

"Get! Out! Now!" she exclaimed, each word its own shout.

He turned to Fuzzy, winked at her in a way that made her feel decidedly uncomfortable and left. Fuzzy didn't know what pornography was, but it must have been very bad for her to yell at him like that.

"And what is your excuse young lady?" she seethed.

She didn't turn that anger on Fuzzy. Instead she tracked Kenji as he left. Her face was back to her normal scowl when she was met with Fuzzy's commlink in her upturned hand. She'd taken it off her ear.

"What? Is it broken?" she asked.

She reached out for it, but Fuzzy clenched it in her hand and pulled it away.

"It's mine," she said.

"Young lady, I'm not interested in if it's yours. I'm interested why you weren't paying attention."

"I was paying attention," said Fuzzy, "I always pay attention."

'Your inability to send me your results tells me otherwise."

Fuzzy ground her teeth. Admitting weakness was bad, but she was stuck between admitting she didn't know how to use the commlink and being accused of not having paid attention.

"Do not harass other students and do not be violent towards other students or I will go to the shame pole," recited Fuzzy, "If I am tied to the shame pole I will tell everyone what I did when they pass. I will be given food, water and bathroom privileges. Failing the test will lose my privileges at lunch. Disobeying your rules in the future will take the entire weekend."

Mother Bear’s scowl lessened in intensity and she quirked an eyebrow. The teacher’s posture became more relaxed and she clasped both hands behind her back. Fuzzy reasoned that the old woman must be dangerous to move her hands so far away from someone so close.

"Okay, so you learned the lesson. Honestly I don't understand why it's so hard to listen," she said to herself, and her tension continued to ease.

Her eyes slipped out of focus for a moment.

"Your commlink is barely even set up. Why are you unprepared?" she asked.

This was again a choice to admit weakness or not. Everyone else was gone though. She resolved to be prepared next time.

"I don't know how," admitted Fuzzy.

"You mean to tell me that you are a fifteen year old girl and you don't know how to use a commlink? I find that unlikely," she said, dismissively.

Her eyes were still unfocused, but then they came back into focus a full minute later. Fuzzy waited silently and was rewarded for her patience.

"Oh. So that's what I missed at the staff meeting. You're from the barrens. Redmond?" she asked.

"Puyallup," amended Fuzzy.

"And from deep enough in that you didn't use one of these? I’m half surprised you're not toxic,” she said, under her breath, “Julian wouldn't bring that back here, no...Girl, erm, Fuzzy. You don't know how to set that up, and I see that you didn't even bother to try. Can you read?"

Fuzzy said nothing.

"No, I suppose not," she said, wistfully, "Feel naked without your weapons too, huh kiddo?"

Fuzzy’s eyes narrowed.

"Julian took them. He made promises about what I would get but not about what would be taken away," said Fuzzy, angrily.

"Don't worry, kiddo. You get used to it. I was in the army for eight years. We awakened are never truly disarmed. At least once you get older," said Mother Bear, who smiled wickedly.

Fuzzy shivered. She’d been right. Mother Bear was dangerous.

"I'll see if we can get you some of your things back. Within reason of course,” she added, “You must be powerful if Julian thinks getting you caught up is worth the school’s time."

Despite the invitation to talk, Fuzzy said nothing.

"No shame pole for you. Go enjoy yourself. It's a nice day outside. You don’t get many of these in Seattle and probably none out in Puyallup. I'll tell Julian to help you set up your commlink," she said, "Among other things..."

Fuzzy and Sasha - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Noon - Blake Island

Fuzzy was free for a time and so she went home and spent it with Puppy. He was in her room. He had a cage, but she didn't allow him to be put in it. It was a big cage, so it seemed he was expected to be very big indeed which pleased her. She spent some time with him outside so he could explore and not use her room as a bathroom. She played with him and he licked her face when she picked him up, which she did often. Fuzzy giggled and smiled a rare smile, and when it was lunchtime she brought Puppy with her. After all, he needed to eat too.

Puppy was the star of the show at one of the outside lunch tables, though the lunch line inside wasn't open just yet. He gamboled about on the top of the table wagging his tail and occasionally barking and growling. Girls and even a few boys cooed over him, but most didn't stay for too long. She kept Puppy within arm’s reach so no one could steal him, but did allow others to pet him if she was holding him and kept a close watch so no one would sell him or make a meal of him, though the people here looked well fed. Some overfed in fact, which was strange. Perhaps they were storing up fat for the winter when times were lean, but a few people were definitely overdoing it. Instead of staring at the overfed people, she turned her full attention back to the table. She sat with Sasha, Julie and a few other girls she didn't recognize.

"He's sooooo cuuuuute," cooed Sasha, "What's his name?"

"Puppy," said Fuzzy.

"I love dogs. I didn't know we could have a dog here," said one of the girls.

"You can't," said Sasha, "Not unless your magic specifically works with animals."

The girls looked to Fuzzy and then to Puppy as they suddenly understood something Fuzzy did not.

"I bargained to bring him along," said Fuzzy, proudly.

She felt a little full of herself. After all, no one else she’d seen so far had dogs on the island. She also noticed that Julie kept quiet, but seemed as if she wanted to come closer. At the same time not twenty feet away from her there was Kenji. He was tied to the pole with thick rope around his stomach, though two others were tied with him as well. He spoke to someone else who was not tied. Everyone tied and untied laughed uproariously and the untied young man pelted towards a crowd of people. The young man talked to a crowd of people and the laughter spread like wildfire. Fuzzy was brought back to the conversation by Sasha.

"Where'd you get him?" asked Sasha.

"I found him while hunting," said Fuzzy.

Fuzzy omitted that she'd nearly killed Puppy when she first met him. She knew not to say that much at least. Sasha seemed to like dogs.

"Oh cool. What do you hunt with?" asked Sasha.

"Bows, traps and sometimes a spear," said Fuzzy.

"My brother does some bow hunting sometimes on the weekends," said one girl, "Very exclusive. They’re private hunting grounds."

Fuzzy didn't understand why he kept new ends in his butt, but these people were strange. Perhaps he had a lot and had to hide it.

"It explains the look you got going on," mused Sasha, "Cut your hair with a knife, hairy legs, all that whipcord muscle on that small frame of yours. Real woman empowerment. I like it."

Sasha scratched Puppy between the ears absently as Sasha continued to make assumptions.

"I like hunting. Anything I can find, really. I can't be picky," said Fuzzy, "Most of my clothes are leather though."

She took pride in that after all. She could share a little bit. It wouldn't hurt her to let them know she was dangerous and if she was dangerous people were less likely to start problems with her. If people were less likely to start problems with her she wouldn't be tied to the shame pole and if she wasn't on the shame pole she wouldn't be isolated. A reputation for being dangerous would make people less likely to hurt her.

"Neat. I wear synthleather even though it feels like slumming it. I would wear real leather, but it takes all of that care," said the girl, "It’s a big hassle. So what kind of leather is it? Cow I assume?"

"Something exotic?" probed Sasha, eagerly.

They were corporate princesses after all. To them, Fuzzy wasn't some poor half feral barrens child. No. She was wearing the same thing everyone else was. Her commlink was cheap, but everyone knows that metalink commlinks are just burners. No one uses that as a main link. Everyone knew that. To them, Fuzzy was just making a statement that she didn’t need to display riches. Rich people weren’t considered weird, they're eccentric.

"Devil rat," said Fuzzy, thoughtlessly.

"Ew," said the girl.

"Shut up, no way," said Sasha, her voice awed.

"That's gross. They're dog sized gutter rats," complained the girl, "You really wear that stuff?"

Fuzzy felt uncomfortable all of a sudden. She picked up Puppy and clutched him to her.

"It's mine," she said, quietly.

She was talking about Puppy, but the girls took it another way.

"I think it's bad rear end as hell," said Sasha, "Going out on an urban safari to go and kill devil rats with a bow and a spear? Then getting a leather coat as a trophy? My dad would never let me do that. Hey, do you have the coat?"

"It's mine," repeated Fuzzy.

Though the subject of "mine" was now her coat, not Puppy.

"Yeah, can I see it though? I'll know if you killed it. I'm really good at assensing," said Sasha, excitedly, "If you killed it then it should be linked to you. So you killed it, right? You're not just bullshitting me?"

Fuzzy felt stuck again. Either she'd be called a liar or she had to produce her coat. Her coat was in her room and she could easily go get it. Fuzzy wanted lunch though and people began to go inside of the main building where all of the good smells came from. Who knew if there was enough though? She thought Sasha wasn't going to let it go and this was a way for Fuzzy to display her prowess as a huntress. No, decided Fuzzy, Sasha was just way too interested. Her brown eyes were alight with thoughts of the hunt. Fuzzy respected that, but still was unsure of how to feel as she thought about how to respond.

What happened

Now that we picked Fuzzy I'm in the process of creating a sheet for her. She's smart enough to learn how to use a commlink, but she has no skill in it. However she's functionally illiterate. Not terrible in a world where everything can be in audio through your commlink, but definitely a problem. So she had a good roll and a bad roll.

Despite having no etiquette skill Fuzzy rolled a critical and so was able to not only not get put on the shame pole, but is getting her commlink set up and will be taught how to read with no public shaming (so far). :toot:

Fuzzy didn't do that well in the social etiquette test even with a bonus from shutting down Christina earlier and the bigger bonus from Puppy (they are teenage girls after all). She failed, getting only one success while they got four (a critical) and gave away way more than she planned to. The girls seem to have accepted for the moment that Fuzzy isn't some half feral teen who hunted rats the size of dogs to live. No, she's big into women's empowerment and goes on ultra cool urban safaris to hunt dangerous creatures with primitive weapons.

What's next

She can go and get her coat. It's only a few hundred feet away after all.

After that she can try and do damage control/build relationships with Sasha, talk to Julie (currently alone), talk to Kenji (currently on the shame pole) or something else.

edit: Did some editing.

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 10:13 on Feb 22, 2021

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Get the coat. If Sasha senses that we really did kill it, she'll know we're not the kind of person to gently caress with. Then see if we can't introduce ourselves to Julie. Mother Bear said she's the most powerful magician in the whole place. That's the kinda person you want to be friends with.

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.

Crazycryodude posted:

Get the coat. If Sasha senses that we really did kill it, she'll know we're not the kind of person to gently caress with. Then see if we can't introduce ourselves to Julie. Mother Bear said she's the most powerful magician in the whole place. That's the kinda person you want to be friends with.

Exactly this. If there's still time, talk to Kenji relative safety, plentiful resources... He seemed friendly earlier, and we can afford to build that rapport. Plus, he's wasn't afraid of the teacher at all - he knows how to show strength like these weak, soft people don't.

Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy and Sasha - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Noon - Blake Island

Fuzzy wasn't used to this. She was used to being challenged, but by nature or gangs, not in social situations. Rat Man was who she trusted with people and he'd been good to her. She was suspicious of almost everyone else to one degree or another. The people here were nice, but niceness was often a trick. These people seemed to have different values than her and she didn’t understand them. The coat was easy to show, even positive as it would demonstrate her prowess and truthfulness, but maybe she needed to learn what was important to these people if she was going to talk to them. She realized that she wouldn’t be able to keep to herself. She needed allies if she was to survive here.

She stood up abruptly without excusing herself and took Puppy with her to the sound of a few disappointed, "Awww's," and she went back to her cabin, which took a few minutes. Her room was clean and Spartan with no ornamentation or affectations at all. Most of her personal effects were practical and lethal after all and therefor missing. However she'd been allowed to keep a few things and her coat was one of the few items she had. She had a sneaking suspicion that some of her less clean clothes were gone forever as well. That galled her. She could throw things away. She wasn't a hoarder after all, but when she threw something away she made sure it had no more value to her before she did.

Her coat came with pants, but those could get hot. There was neither zipper nor buttons to fasten it at the front. There were just a number of laces that could be drawn and tied together. Her jacket was not just leather, but armored as well as it was her hunting attire. There was reinforcement at the vital points: Neck, stomach, heart, sides, forearms and elbows. It even came with a hood and that gave her head a little extra protection too, though it was sort of lumpy. She wasn't actually sure if she killed what she wore. She never saw Rat Man make it. That was his business and she hadn’t made clothing for him in years. She’d been better at butchering kills for him when she was little. All of her attempts as making clothing were rough at best, even by barrens standards.

Still, the odds were good that the kill was at least in part hers. After all, the pieces came from many pieces. It smelled a little though. She'd never noticed it before, but in this clean place the unclean stood out. She came back wearing it. A few heads turned as she stalked back towards the lunch table wearing armor clothing. That made her nervous. She didn't like the attention. She brought Puppy back with her as well, who wiggled excitedly as he was introduced to people once again.

"Here it is," said Fuzzy.

As she sat down the other girl moved away a bit.

"Ugh. That coat reeks," she complained, “Wait, is that jacket armored?”

Fuzzy shrugged at her and looked at a more dubious looking Sasha.

"Yeah, you might want to wash that," said Sasha.

"Okay," said Fuzzy, simply, "You asked for it. So it's here. You can tell if I killed them?"

"Yeah. Might take me a minute," said Sasha.

"Make it a quick minute," said the girl, obviously put off.

Sasha's eyes went out of focus and she frowned in concentration.

"It's in so many pieces, not just one piece. I'm having a hard time with it," said Sasha.

"Hurry up," complained the other girl.

Another minute passed before Sasha reached out. Fuzzy was curious, but backed away just enough not to be touched. Frowning, Sasha stopped and looked not at Fuzzy, but almost through her.

"You don't like to be touched," declared Sasha, who blushed slightly.

"No," confirmed Fuzzy.

"Sorry. Is pointing okay?" asked Sasha.

"Pointing is okay,” responded Fuzzy.

Sasha pointed to pieces of the coat one by one, her eyes unfocused. The other girl, mildly grossed out, still looked on with a sort of morbid curiosity.

"It's made from six different animals, but all the same kind," she said, distractedly, "I’m guessing that’s devil rat. It's gone through some really heavy chemical processing. That threw me off at first. Anyway, the left sleeve and right lower part of the coat are from animals you killed, both different. The rest are from other people."

Her eyes came back into focus again and she rubbed her temples.

"You know, this is really fascinating and all, but could you put it away?" complained the girl, "I really don't want to have that around while we eat lunch."

"I'll put it back," said Fuzzy.

"Can I hold Puppy until you get back?" pleaded Sasha. "I know he's yours, but he's so cute."

Fuzzy puffed out her cheeks, looked down at the wiggling Puppy who'd been wandering around on the lunch table under Fuzzy’s supervision and nodded.

"Be nice to him," said Fuzzy.

“I will,” said Sasha. “I promise.”

Sasha seemed okay to leave Puppy with for a few minutes. Fuzzy’s anxiety was higher than normal as she thought of Puppy being gone and as she left she almost immediately regretted her decision. She walked back to her cabin quickly, again drawing stares from the patchwork armored leather clothing. Once she broke line of sight she ran all the way back. She put it away and wondered how she would go about getting it cleaned. She sniffed her clothing, didn't notice any stains from the armor, nodded and went back to sit. Sasha held Puppy and Puppy seemed to like her. She even let Puppy lick her face. Fuzzy smiled. Rat Man had told her that dogs were good judges of people. Maybe she could like Sasha too. The girls went to get in the lunch line with Puppy cradled in the crook of Fuzzy's arm.

Lunch was an absolute feast and there was so much to choose from. There were sandwiches with real bread that was soft and not moldy at all. She had her choice of condiments and there were so many. Was the meat in her bread real? She wasn’t sure what kind it was. It wasn't porks, dog, cat, raven or rat. She may have gotten excited and used too much mustard to get a good taste of it. There were soy fries, apple slices and mashed potatoes and gravy, and Fuzzy splurged on the gravy. By chance she picked up the chocolate milk since Sasha got one too. They were by the pint in those small cartons that had never changed even over a century later.

The lunch lady didn't know what to make of her. In her excitement Fuzzy resolved to ask what everything was upon her second visit to the line when everyone was gone. What was painfully obvious to others wasn't to her. She'd seen the fries before and knew what bread was, but that was it. Apparently the meat was called chicken. She got a little extra of the meat for Puppy, who was intensely curious about what was on her tray and snuffling merrily from his place inside of her coat. She’d expected to have to haggle for her food, but apparently it was already paid for. Eventually she made her way back to the table.

"Don't get excited," complained Sasha, "The food isn't as good as last year. The soy fries are definitely a new addition."

She wrinkled her nose as she uttered the word soy almost a curse.

"Food is food," said Fuzzy.

The food was amazing and there was so much of it, and it was real, not soy. She'd only had real food a few times in her entire life as she sold most of her meat for cheaper food, but here there was so much of it. She huddled over her tray a bit to make sure no one would take any and fed Puppy some scraps. She knew enough not to eat everything with her hands, but was somewhat perplexed by the chocolate milk carton. After waiting she managed to open it without looking foolish by watching Sasha. Fuzzy decided she liked the brown water and so while she tore through her food with a will, she would delicately sip the chocolate milk, and savor its rich texture and flavor. Puppy would have to do without that. That was hers. She drank half and decided she would save some for later.

The girls at the table mostly ignored her and talked about other people at camp while Julie ate quietly. The topics mostly seemed to be about people: Who was here, who was missing, boys they liked, who was dating whom, favorite teachers, how much they both loathed Mother Bear, how much they missed social media and having a stable matrix connection. Apparently they’d been here last year.

Half of their conversation was nonsense to Fuzzy, so her attention slipped away from them. Fuzzy's attention turned to Julie. She sat close, but far enough away to be alone. She stared at the ork girl who noticed and glared back. Done with her food, Fuzzy took Puppy and her milk over with her so no one took it and sat down next to Julie.

"What?" asked Julie.

"You're powerful. I thought I'd talk to you," said Fuzzy, simply.

Julie’s expression soured.

"I thought you'd want to stay away from me. You know, no control? I could go off like a bomb at any moment?" she seethed.

"You'll get control," said Fuzzy, "You wouldn't be allowed here if you were that dangerous. I think she's just making sure everyone else knew."

Fuzzy’s response seemed to short circuit Julie’s prepared retort. As Julie thought about what to say next, Fuzzy waited patiently for her to speak and idly pet Puppy behind his ears.

"Well you seem to be doing well for yourself. Mother Bear didn't put you on the shame pole like Kenji over there. What, did talk you way out of it?" she asked.

Fuzzy nodded. Julie snorted deeply in disgust, covered her mouth, looked angry and then away. Fuzzy idly stroked Puppy as she looked at her.

"Maybe you shouldn't be seen with me," whispered Julie. "Don't think I don't know, but you, Kenji and I are different than everyone else here. I'm not stupid. You're weird, but you could fit in. You could carve yourself a little niche like you're doing right now. I don't know what Kenji's deal is, but maybe you could fake it till you make it. Me, I can't. I'm different than everyone here."

In a fit of sudden empathy for the girl, Fuzzy offered her some of her open, half consumed chocolate milk. She pushed it towards her. Julie didn't understand at first, but frowned more deeply in disgust.

"I can get my own, thanks," she said, scathingly.

Fuzzy took it back and nodded, unaware of what she'd done wrong, only that she’d offended Julie. In fact, Fuzzy felt a offended. That was serious generosity she’d just shown her. Charity like that was rare in the barrens and she'd been refused by her outright. Fuzzy decided that this place was strange. Confused, she stood back up to sit back with Sasha and the other girl whose name she hadn't bothered to learn yet. She thought she might talk to Kenji, but she felt like she didn't want to screw things up even worse. Navigating social interactions was complicated. Instead she kept an ear open during the conversation while Julie ate alone.

"I don't see why you want to talk to her," said the girl.

"Mother Bear said she was the most powerful person in the school," said Fuzzy.

"You mean in your year?" asked Sasha.

"No. In the school," said Fuzzy.

"Holy poo poo," said the girl.

"I'm soooo jealous," groaned Sasha, "I have to scrape by for power. I'm really only good at assensing. I'm great with the astral, but..."

The two girls cast a second glance at Julie who was purposefully not looking back. One was wary of her power, one envious of it.

Lunch ended and everyone went back to the magical safety class. There she was lectured extensively on what not to do by Mother Bear. She talked about how to control ones' emotions. That a spell was best stopped before it was cast and not after, as it couldn’t be taken back. That if one was feeling unsure about their power to contact a teacher immediately. So many rules and Fuzzy did her best to memorize them all.

Mother Bear’s lecture sort of felt like how Rat Man taught Fuzzy about weapons and traps. Then it clicked. This was about weapons safety, but with emphasis on controlling her emotions as well. This she understood and by the time the class was over she felt like she had a solid grasp on what not to do. Knowing what not to do was best because it kept one from getting killed and she didn't understand why everyone else looked so bored. Didn't they know that this would keep them from getting killed? It was so bizarre.

Now that class was done, it had grown dark outside. It was fall after all. She could go to the bonfire if she wanted. She didn't want to bring Puppy in case she lost him so she put him back into her cabin. After that she wasn’t sure. There didn’t seem to be any instructions on what do and she was left to her own devices. She thought about what to do next as she sat on her bed.

Choice time

So in Shadowrun you can succeed and fail at the same time, called glitching. Fuzzy did that while speaking to Julie in an etiquette test. I'll let you all decide what that means. How did Fuzzy succeed and how did she fail while talking to Julie?

How do we feel about Sasha and how do we think Sasha feels about Fuzzy?

How is Fuzzy going to spend the rest of her night?

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Feb 22, 2021

super sweet best pal
Nov 18, 2009

No opinion on the character interactions.

Go to the bonfire for our gang initiation.

Tias
May 25, 2008

Pictured: the patron saint of internet political arguments (probably)

This avatar made possible by a gift from the Religionthread Posters Relief Fund
The glitch is probably to do with Julies opinion of us. I'd wager that if Fuzzy becomes more ostracized, Julie will like her more, or perhaps attempt to encourage Fuzzy to become an outsider so they can be miserable together.

jagadaishio
Jun 25, 2013

I don't care if it's ethical; I want a Mammoth Steak.
The success is that Julie likes Fuzzy more. The glitch is that she felt pitied. Even if she thinks the weird girl is pretty alright, that kind of pity is a real blow to her fragile self esteem. Being nice to her will get pushback until it stops feeling like pity.

We think Sasha isn't dangerous or trying to backstab Fuzzy. In Barrens terms that's practically a BFF. Sasha, though, is mostly just curious about the audi weirdo. They could end up friends maybe, or they could never talk again. Depends on whether Fuzzy stays interesting/builds a rapport or not.

Let's make sure not to eat too much. Wouldn't want to barf during the gang-joining beatdown. Just enough nourishment to keep her energy up, then save something that'll hold for later after the bonfire.

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


Yeah I like that. We think Sasha is a relatively harmless rich girl, maybe even a potential friend. She seems nice enough. Sasha thinks we're totally weird, but in like, a kinda cool way. Also, everyone loves Puppy. We're going to the beat-in tonight, better to be initiated into the... Kab-eenz, was it? now than to get caught on the outside if they stop taking new members. They must run the whole drat place if even the teachers are advertising it.

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Ice Phisherman
Apr 12, 2007

Swimming upstream
into the sunset



Fuzzy and Kenji - Monday, July 23rd, 2074 - Evening - Blake Island

Fuzzy gave Puppy some food and water for a few days just in case she was too injured to come back immediately. The bonfire was tonight and she wasn’t sure if it was optional, which meant she had to attend. In the barrens people made fires for a reason. Nothing that could be burned was wasted. She didn't think that the teens looked particularly vicious, but looks could be deceiving. Not to mention that one didn't have to be vicious if they were getting beat in by twenty people which was what she was expecting. Fuzzy groaned, resigned to her fate of being initiated into the gang that she’d come to think of as the Kab-Eenz. She wanted to get it over with rather than live with the fear of it. She’d never been in a gang before and wasn’t looking forward to this at all.

It was just past dark, but this close to the Seattle metroplex it was never truly dark. The light pollution lit up the night like a beacon. Planes and drones dotted the night sky with their own moving lights while buildings provided larger, stationary ones. Ships in the Puget Sound, the body of water that surrounded the Island, moved to the north and south as the Bremerton ferry and Southworth-Fauntelroy ferry made their last stops for the night. They conveyed travelers back home to places far nicer and more importantly, upwind of the smell of the metroplex. The path to the bonfire was lit by lights and small arrows in augmented reality which brought Fuzzy to the right spot. Plus it was hard to miss the music. She didn't know what it was. It was something cheerful and upbeat with female vocals which she found a strange choice for a gang initiation. The music grew louder as she grew closer. People danced, chatted, ate food and a few played in the surf. Fuzzy steeled herself for whatever was to come as she stepped into the crowd.

The bonfire was bright and there were people all around her. She didn't fear for her immediate safety. Initiations would be constrained by ritual, but when she looked at people they looked as if they were just having a good time. There were drinks on a table as well as snacks. There was a full spread of finger food both fancy and not as well as large, orange coolers for drinks. Seeing that everyone else was freely eating and drinking from the table she grabbed a red cup, filled it with some sort of liquid, tasted it and found it to be delightful. It tasted like the apple slices she had before but in liquid form. Then she slapped together a hot dog with plenty of condiments. Even Fuzzy knew about hot dogs after all. She snacked and waited.

An arm was thrown around her shoulder and she froze, her instincts kicking in, hot dog half chewed. She wondered if this was it.

"Hey fellow weirdo," said a familiar voice.

She looked and saw Kenji's pale face and distinctive, fine features. He was taller than her by a foot, had an above average frame and with black hair that recently combed by his fingers.

"Hi," said Fuzzy around a mouthful of food.

She swallowed and relaxed by a degree.

"So I promised someone that I’d keep an eye on you today. I have to say that you're doing better than I expected. You're not a wallflower, but not trying to reach above your station either. I respect that,” he said.

Fuzzy said nothing in response.

"See, I'm trying to carve out a place as a lovable bad kid with a heart of gold. An outsider basically," he said, and lowered his tone, "Because that's what we are, because pretending like we belong won't work forever."

Again, Fuzzy said nothing. Kenji looked at her more closely.

"I'm trying to weave a reputation that I can comfortably fall back on before that day comes. Maybe accessorize to speed up the process. By the time people really figure out what I actually am, I’ll have made enough friends to ride this out," he continued to whisper, his tone probing.

Kenji eyed her suspiciously as her silenced extended on. Then he smiled.

"I can tell that that you and I, we're embiggened by this place, but I have a perfectly cromulent way to help us both,” he said, magnanimously.

Kenji sighed as Fuzzy continued to say nothing. He drew her in closer and leaned his head down. He spoke quickly and quietly, just barely audible over the sound of the music and the partying students.

"You have no idea what you're doing. You're quiet so you don't betray that. It'll work for maybe a few weeks before you fail. At that point one of us is going to get outed, which will probably out the others. Say nothing if that means yes," he said, and grinned.

Fuzzy glared at him and grumbled.

"Fuzzy, when I first saw you here you looked like you were prepared for a fight. I came here to you because if you were going to hit someone, I'd rather it be me so I can play that off instead of you getting into serious trouble. So instead of thanking me, maybe you just tell me what exactly you think was going to happen when you came here," he whispered.

To an outside observer it might look like Kenji was flirting heavily with Fuzzy. His body language, his posture, the way he whispered all betrayed an oily charm that he was working on her, and that Fuzzy was uncomfortable being near him. For her part, Fuzzy wondered if he was telling the truth. She sighed and decided to put a small measure of trust in her fellow outcast. After all, she'd considered him a possible ally hours before. It would be best to test that.

"This is a ritual gang initiation for the Kab-Eenz. Possibly beating, possibly branding," whispered Fuzzy.

She hoped against hope it wouldn't be any worse than that and she concealed her concern behind a scowl.

"I'm being lulled into a false sense of security before it happens,” she finished.

He nodded once and thought about it for a few seconds before nodding again to himself. Fuzzy sighed internally. She was right. He was confirming it.

"Yeah, I can see why you're being quiet now. Fuzzy, you're wrong. This is a party. This is not a gang and you are not being initiated. People are here to socialize and not beat each other up. You're in no immediate danger unless you place yourself there. I'm willing to teach you how to talk to people and what's expected so you can survive here. Don't give me an answer right now. Talk to me tomorrow at the shame pole," he whispered.

"I don't understand," she whispered.

Fuzzy felt wildly uncomfortable as Kenji slipped an arm around her waist.

"C'mon girl, it's fine, don't be like that," he said, and projected his voice.

People turned to look at them and Fuzzy’s back stiffened and fists balled up as she readied herself for a fight. His lips pressed against her ear as he whispered one last time.

"So we're going to end this abruptly. When I'm done whispering you'll step away from me, hit me, then walk away scowling. When everyone asks tell them I grabbed your rear end," he whispered.

The hand that rested on her lower back dropped, but he didn't grab her, though he made the motion with his hand. Fuzzy felt wildly confused, but not knowing what else to do in this sort of situation she channeled her fear and confusion into a strike. With strength that surprised her, she reached back and did not slap him like Kenji expected, but punched him. Her punch was perfect and there was a smacking sound as she drilled her fist into his face. His head snapped back and he was flung to the ground. He wasn't out, but he was definitely hurt. People stopped and looked at them. There was a chorus of "Ooohs" and "Ouches" and "What happened's" and even a few laughs. Not knowing what else to do she stuck to the script, picked a direction and walked away.

Choice time

Fuzzy hit Kenji hard enough to knock him out, which would have been bad, but rolled enough of his body to barely stay conscious, taking eight out of ten hit points of stun damage.

Fuzzy walked away, but was never given a direction. Does she go towards the docks, the cabins or the woods?

Kenji seems to be sure he's going to the shame pole tomorrow. Are we going to meet him? And if so, will we take his offer? Kenji didn't ask for anything, but Fuzzy is actually decent at negotiation in case he asks for something in return.

Author's note. Fuzzy is living in her head quite a bit and that's not particularly fun to write or read so I'd like to get her talking. How I get her talking is up to you folks, but if not Kenji it'll be someone else with different results depending on who we pick to trust.

Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Feb 22, 2021

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