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Alex has recovered enough to drive and after getting kicked out of the dining car, she takes the wheel. The city slips by you and you keep catching glimpses of wrongness. Signs that have changed, new construction, closed buildings. For you, it’s been a week, but the city has moved on. In the seat next to you Alex shifts uncomfortably.  “How do you live through it?” she asks suddenly. “Through what?” “Through the..the knowing. Everything. Like, since you’ve been gone I’d had some pretty drat dark moments. According to you, the God-Machine (she pauses momentarily, the taste of the title uncomfortable on her tongue) makes the world work right? Keeps it going. So..are the only choices available to mankind a god that does not care for them, an endless war against said god, or the end of existence as they know it? How can you, we, accept that? Every day.” You are silent for a while as Alex drives out of downtown and starts to follow a winding road to the river. “I don’t know,” you say. “But...I know some Unchained, and I won’t even say I’m one of them, that suspects something is broken and has been for a long time. We don’t even know the origins of the Machine, or what it really wants. We all just have this impression that...the world is because of it. That doesn’t mean everything will end if the Machine is taken down. Maybe the Machine is the thing that makes all the bad things happen. Wars, mass shootings, environmental disasters, plagues.....these are the things that I think the Machine wants. But...if we get rid of it does that mean less of those things? Or more? I have no idea.” You look out the window as the flat surface of the River reflects a cold moon. “The Machine isn’t all powerful. I think the River fucks with it. Or stops it, or something. I don’t know how or why. But..it means the Machine’s plans can be stopped, and that’s all I need. For protecting my home. And the ones I love.” Again there is silence as Alex takes that in. You can see she is working up to asking, and you suspect you know what. “ I want in. Totally and completely to..whatever it is you do.” “No.” you say simply. “Yes. Mabin, when you vanished I..like I said I went to a dark place. Your “friends” or Ring or whatever ghosted me. I knew enough to worry, but not enough to have any grounding, and idea of what was real or what was not. I spent the last three years convinced monsters would break down my door at any moment. And then you came back, and not as a human and you...you just casually....destroy my loving reality and then you want to leave?. Mabin, I can’t let this go, I can’t afford it. You..you can’t let me go. You need me, and to be honest you owe me.” “Alex, I--” “If, if I understand this right. Mabin, the cover Mabin, has been missing for three years. You think your apartment is still there? You think all the people that are part of Mabin’s cover won’t ask questions? If they are even alive. You’ve missed a lot girl. You cover might be damaged. It might be totally tattered. Can you even tell?” You paused at that. You hadn’t sensed a disturbance in your cover. But that might simply be that Mabin Pillager going missing was some how explainable. But it wouldn’t be, not for long now that you were back. You would absolutely need to reconnect with the people in Mabin’s life, and soon. And Alex was right, you had some explaining to do. “What are you suggesting?” you ask. “Quid pro quo, in reporter speak,” Alex replies. “You claim yur kind can do..deals. Like with the devil right?” “Pacts, yes.” “Can you give me..knowledge. Or information? Understanding, something like that about the Machine, how it really works?” “In theory,” you say slowly. “ But I would need to take something of yours. And I don’t really want to do that.” “What if it’s something I don’t want?” Alex insists. “Like what? I don’t need a cop background or an overly-expensive journalism major.” “What about a suicide attempt,” Alex says softly. This is the point where, if you were driving, you would have slammed on the breaks. But instead you just turn to her and wait. “It was a year after you had left. I thought you would have come back by now and..things in the world were getting bad. Everything seemed to be spiraling towards just..madness. Quarantine wasn’t helping, I’d lost my job at the paper and...everything was just gone. So...I had been stockpiling pills and...it was like falling asleep. Derrick my editor, former editor, had apparently been worried and just stopped by at the right time for me to not answer the door. It..it was a miracle honestly. And even now, knowing how lucky I was I can’t fully explain the why, other than I was sad. Just..sad. Which seems so selfish,” her hands flex on the steering wheel. “ Take that. Take that, the ER trip, the “wellness retreat”, the bills, the therapist...just take everything. 1. Do we want to take this as a Pact? Exchanging Occult Knowledge for this experience to shore up our Cover even more? A Yes B No After a few more tense minutes in the car, Alex pulls up to the gate of the St. Paul Marina. She cuts the headlights and looks out of the windshield skeptically.  “You sure this is a good idea?” “No,” you reply. “But Banks is the closest thing to an ally that Drift, the real Drift, had. He’s also decidedly paranoid and it might help me get my feet back under me before I try to reenter society.” “Do you want me to wait for you?” “You don’t have to.” “So, I will,” Alex says to herself. You allow yourself a smile before you exit the car. Last time you came here you went in the legal way, but for an early morning break in you decide that the extralegal entrance is the best option. You burn some Aether to tap into your true form, zipping up to the top of the fence and then onto the boards of a nearby dock with ease. The Aether burn will hopefully alert Banks that someone is out here so there will be less shotguns to the face this time. You use your Form to zip to J Dock, to avoid waking any other boat people by stomping past their docks. As you get to J Dock, you shift back into Human form and approach Bank’s houseboat, carefully but steadily. Salt crystals crunch beneath your feet as you walk down the dock. You are expecting some sort of reaction, but you don’t know what exactly. But nothing. You clear your throat loudly and then, after another moment of silence actually reach out and give the blue shrinkwrap and tentative whack, causing it to shake like a tent. Still nothing. You listen carefully, starting to wonder if perhaps you’ve made a tactical error. Banks may be the type of paranoid who doesn’t last in the same Cover for long periods. He might have ripped through a dozen souls since you last saw him. As your hearing adjusts you notice a sound that seems to be coming from behind the boat. Walking further down the dock to see around the thing, you hear it again. A hollow thudding noise. pok pok pok.........pok pok pok You finally see Banks, or you assume it is him from the duster and graying hair. He standing out on the middle of the frozen river, holding some sort of pole in his hand and whacking at the ice with heavy swings. He seems to pause after a few wild whacks, resting the tip of the pole on the ice and not moving, and then start up the whole pattern again. Against your better judgment you hop off the dock onto the frozen River. Part of you expects to break right through the ice, but it is solid enough and your knees creak from taking the shock. You don’t fall on your rear end, but it is a near thing. After steadying yourself you walk towards Banks. You’ve only taken a few steps, and he is in one of his pauses, before he looks up sharply, looking around before his eyes glance on you. “Stop. Moving!” he snaps. You are startled enough that you do as he says. “You’re making me miss the..” he stops, closing his eyes and leaning his forehead against the pole. He snarls. “Missed the reply. Damnnit.” He smacks his pole against the ice again in a wild staccato. Only now, that you are standing still, do you realize the minute vibrations of the ice every time he hits the pole on the ice. And you feel more, even fainter, vibrations when he stops. A code. you realize. He’s using the ice to carry some sort of message to an ally he has. The vibrations you cause when walking up to him must have messed up his decoding. It seemed like a very finicky way to transmit messages, but as far as realtime untraceable conversations, it was pretty smart. Finally Fenway shoulders his pole and looks at you. “How’d we first meet?” he asks. “You..stuck a shotgun in my face.” “That doesn’t really narrow it down. Our first conversation, run it by me again. Word for word. “ So in the cold of the morning in the middle of the river, you and Banks recreate your first conversation with each other word for word with the help of your perfect memories. He’s eventually satisfied that you are Ms. Ink, and heads back to his boat, welcoming you aboard. “Aren’t you curious?” “About what?” “Where I’ve been for the last 3 years?” “Oh...didn’t notice.”  2. What do we need from Banks? We’ll ask for any with votes. A We need intel, what has changed in the world of the Unchained since we left? B We need a place to crash, safehouse, bolthole..something. C We need him to get in touch with someone (if so who?) D We need gear (if so, what?) E We need something else..... 3. What do we tell Banks? A Shards are real. They absolutely suck. B Drift was processed and consumed by Beezlebub. C I’ve been made, The Machine is actively hunting me. My cover seems solid, but it knows Ms. Ink is a problem. D. Something else. _________________________________________________________ Outrail posted:You got beat up by a bunch of children? I do not want to talk about it. Feel free to have asked alex more questions, and of course ask Banks anything. Question 5: 1 = D, 2 = E, 3 = F: 1d3 2 - Mr. Bank’s Boat Urban Fluidity: 6d10o10h8 1 We upped our Cover, and have the option to make a new Pact with Alex We bought Special Message but have’t keyed it in yet. All votes are Approval unless noted CYOA Discord Server - Request the Minnesota:The Demoning role! Rules: From Kickstarter Preview Character Sheet World Map Dice Rolls Conspiracy/Plot Board Official Playlist   
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Mar 16, 2022 20:08
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1. Yes. If nothing else, we can use it to help explain Mabin's being missing. 2. A 3. AB
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Mar 16, 2022 20:47
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the_steve posted:1. Yes. If nothing else, we can use it to help explain Mabin's being missing. Yeah this
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Mar 17, 2022 06:50
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the_steve posted:1. Yes. If nothing else, we can use it to help explain Mabin's being missing. Same
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Mar 18, 2022 03:37
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Where Were We Again? (Again) As Banks busies himself making some form of instant coffee, you attempt to fill him in on the Shards, including Drift’s apparent death and possession by Beelzebub. The other demon seems remarkably nonplussed about his ally’s death and you remark on it. Bank’s shrugs, “We worked together yeah, but when you’re as old as I am, you tend to not become attached, even to Unchained.” “And how old are you?” you ask. Bank ignores the question and sets a tin cup of coffee in front of you. “The Shards are interesting,” he mutters. “Assuming that Beelzebub was actually telling the truth about Drift’s findings, it means the Machine doesn’t have the control we thought it does, and least in a multiversal capacity. More importantly, it implies a lot about the River.” “What do you mean?” you ask. You’ve not sipped the coffee, nor do you intend to. You may trust Banks to a degree, but drinking or eating strange foods seem like a possible Bad Idea right now. “Most of us assume the River is some sort of ethereal...static or storm. Like when you are pirating cable and the signal between two stations gets mixed up. It doesn’t have a rhyme or reason, it just does. But this implies something different.” “What?” “Intelligence,” Banks says, rubbing under his eye patch. “If it can choose to make a Shard or not, it has the capabilities to make a choice.” “Or it’s just an automatic process, some trigger we don’t know about,” you say, skeptical. Banks has been a river rat for at least one Cover's life. This is not the first time you question if the Demon has gone mad about the River. “No, it’s more than that, it has to be.” Banks replies with a curious intensity. “Why does the death of one gangster set it off but someone else? Why the goddamn Metrodome collapsing, but not the Ford Plant? These choices are random, almost too random. It has a reason.” “Maybe..” you admit. “Have a little faith,” Banks says, looking out of the window. He is silent for a while before you prompt him by asking him to give you a summary of what has changed in the world of the Unchained. He grunts as he starts to dig around in cleverly hidden cabinets and storage boxes before unfolding what appears to be a map of the Twin Cities Metro Area, the same kind you could find in a gas station. Its paper is onion-skin thin, and smells slightly of grease. The map is scrawled over with various pencils, pens, highlighters, and crayons. You try to make sense of it, but are forced to have Banks walk you through it. “Biggest issue is that the Capitol and the Home Office lost a lot of their territory. Between the protests, quarantine, and general unrest, both of them have had to shrink their assets and influences.” You stop him briefly and ask, exactly what protests and quarantine? Banks looks at you, blinking with his one eye. Then he shambles over to the small bunk bed and flips it up onto his side using a cleverly designed hinge. Under the mattress is an honest to god red-string conspiracy chart. String ties together photos, drawings, news articles, and scraps of paper of every shape and shade of color.  “I can’t prove it, but I think the Machine has made its biggest movement since World War 2 towards eliminating us, or reaching its apotheosis.We’re talking a massive occult matrix, thousands of chain reactions and led to millions dead, essentially sacrifices, powering...something. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure it out...but now if we’re right and Shards are intentional, it might be trying to create its own Shard, or shunt itself or us off.” “Are you sure?” “I’m never sure, but it’s my theory.” “Walk me through it...” “Okay, I think point zero happened well before any of us were aware of it. So...March 28th, 2016, the Cincinnati Zoo.....” He spends the next half hour catching you up to the year 2022. You stop him half a dozen times, sure he’s just loving with you and making stuff up, but he is deadly serious. His seriousness doesn’t actually answer the question. Banks believes what he’s saying, but that doesn’t make it true. You make a note to verify some of his...stories. Still...you are, understandably, quite rattled by the whole thing, but Banks shrugs off most of your concern. “In the history of the world..it’s actually not that bad” he says, turning back to the map. Here is what you have gathered from Banks. 1. No one knows if COVID, the government response, or the rabid anti-health movement is the result of the God Machine, but every Unchained is sure at least something is, for the Machine seems to have benefited greatly from it. People, including Unchained, being forced off the street. Governments and those with enough money or power to buy their way into being able to avoid quarantine. Maintaining cover has become more difficult as everyone has started to keep a closer eye on each other at all times. Yet at the same time a lot of the institutions of power the Machine uses to move about in the work seem to have degraded or come under suspicion. Are these acceptable losses? Unchained interference? Or something else... 2. The murder of George Floyd and the Civil Unrest dropped the Unchained community into as much chaos as the mundane world. A lot of Unchained, especially those with tight connections to marginalized communities, rose up with good intentions and used their particular skills to help keep the vast majority of human protests peaceful. However, a lot of unscrupulous Unchained took advantage and added to the chaos, taking the opportunity to act on personal vendettas, get revenge, take out high value targets...some Rings and Free Agencies vanished overnight. As Unchained are the best at keeping tabs on each other, Banks was still learning about who had vanished. He also was compiling a list of Infrastructure that had been taken out under the guise of the protests. The major one he knew about was the 3rd Precinct Station, though if that has been done by Unchained or humans..it was hard to know. There was also murmurs of something being built in Minneapolis, but Banks hadn’t made his way over there yet. 3. As a result of the above, the two major power players, the Agencies the Home Office and the Capitol, have had their territory severely shrunk. Both being unable or unwilling to continue their major actions against the Machine and the smaller Agencies,”So both the Capitol and HO have had their territory nibbled away. Banks suspected that with the right pressure, one or both might be taken down. Or a merger of both could be forced. Still, he’d been around long enough to know that whatever happened, some other group would step in. 4. The God Machine also has been taking advantage of the chaos. To Banks, due to how slow the loving thing moved, this implied some forwarning of the events. It had planned for something to happen at least. It has used police and national guard responses to slowly bring about more authoritarian changes. More Tick Tock men in the guise of police, more spies of it’s own running around. More double agents among the Unchained. Banks even suspected it has gotten an Angel installed somewhere in the state capitol or the Minneapolis PD. The Eye of Mordor was looking in their direction but so far no major offenses had been committed by it. It seemed to be just tightening the net.  1. Anything else you wanted to ask him? “So, what are your plans?” Banks asks. “You’re cover is likely pretty beat up, you are essentially a stranger in a strange land, and you don’t have any of your gear or connections that you normally would fall back on. I’d invite you to crash here but uh.....I don’t trust you.” “That’s fair...can you spare me a pen and paper at least?” Banks gives you the requested items and you draw up a Pact Between you and Alex. An Unchained’s understanding of the Machine in exchange for the bad parts of the last three years of her life. It would help patch up your cover a bit..but it wouldn’t be enough. You’d need something more substantial. “Have you been in contact with anyone from my Ring? Mrs. Kind?” you ask. You know she deals with Pacts more than you and might be able to help. “The crazy fire bitch? After you vanished, I split up from her and the blonde human.” “Alex.” “Yeah, her. I didn’t need the dead weight of either of them, and we were safer splitting up anyway. But, either way I’ve not heard from Kind, other than to know she’s not missing. At least not actively missing enough for people to be asking around.” 2. What do you do next? (we’ll do multiple. ) A Stay with Banks for longer planning your next move. Bring Alex in to help. B Go back to the MIWRC to see what has become of Mabin’s apartment C Check on both Mabin’s Grandma and Wilhelm Sager’s wife in the nursing home see if they are okay D Go to the Ring’s safe house for now, you need some space to plan your next move. E: Go Somewhere else (where?)  ______________________________________________________________________ Refuses to die! My family moved back to the Twin Cities in the fall and every day I drive by that goddamn Ford Parkway bridge from “Season 1”. It’s finally gotten to be too much. So, we’ll see what happens. A few things 1. If there is actually anyone reading this, welcome! Feel free to vote! Don’t worry about knowing what is going on in the story, I certainly don’t! We’re a spy robot back home after 3 years away, that’s a good enough description I guess.... 2. We all know my updating gets sporadic, so we’ll see how long this lasts. My new school is on spring break soon so I’ll have nothing to do but post and be forced to do chores at home. 3. I’ll need to go through and clean up some of the older materials and items below. Be patient please. I honestly forgot how this stuff works. And if there are any new CYOA conventions or types of play I might be unfamiliar with, please let me know. We'll see how long this "session" goes before I need a break. It is helpful to know people are reading, even if you don't vote, so feel free to sound off. That said, I am so strangely transfixed by the setting I'll gladly just keep doing this on and off. All votes are Approval unless noted CYOA Discord Server - Request the Minnesota:The Demoning role! Rules: From Kickstarter Preview Character Sheet World Map Dice Rolls Conspiracy/Plot Board Official Playlist
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Mar 25, 2024 02:45
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NinjaPete posted:Refuses to die! The setting looks fascinating when I browsed through the first post etc. but I'll admit I'm a sucker for urban fantasy in general. Is there some way to get a little insight on the setting? Or even just a list of the major characters? That would help me with jumping in. I get that we're some kind of fallen angel built by an uncaring machine god, but I have no idea who Banks is. If I just need to read through the entire thread to get the context, I can do that... it will just be a while. Also I'm not sure I understand what the conspiracy/plot board is for, but maybe I'm a dunce. Though that might come under "stuff that needs cleaning up..." JessAlias fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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Mar 25, 2024 03:20
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JessAlias posted:The setting looks fascinating when I browsed through the first post etc. but I'll admit I'm a sucker for urban fantasy in general. Is there some way to get a little insight on the setting? Or even just a list of the major characters? That would help me with jumping in. I get that we're some kind of fallen angel built by an uncaring machine god, but I have no idea who Banks is. If I just need to read through the entire thread to get the context, I can do that... it will just be a while. Yes, a character list is on my to-do list. For now, this summary post might be the best thing Summary Post
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Mar 25, 2024 03:37
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Welcome back! C, let's try and keep our cover intact Not sure I remember exactly what was/is going on or how the the in-universe rules work, but I think this is on track.
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Mar 25, 2024 03:46
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NinjaPete posted:Yes, a character list is on my to-do list. For now, this summary post might be the best thing This helped a lot, actually. I don't feel at sea anymore. I still feel like I don't understand everything, but staying with Banks doesn't make sense if he blatantly says he doesn't trust us. Given the whole 'being disconnected for ages and mysteriously vanishing' thing it only makes sense to see what happened to Mabin's apartment and also check in on Mabin's Grandma and Wilhelm's wife. So: 1. no vote, still too clueless to suggest any additional questions 2. (since we can do multiple) B and C for now.
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Mar 25, 2024 03:57
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C Also, woo hoo! Welcome back! I knew there was a reason I kept this thread bookmarked
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Mar 25, 2024 04:14
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Awesome.
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Mar 25, 2024 04:25
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 “I need to go see how much my cover’s been compromised,” you say to Banks. “I’ll need to touch base with my Ring and check in with my employer. We’ll hope he’s of a ‘better late than never’ mindset when it comes to intel about Mr. Drift.” Banks nods absently, his frantic mind already fixating on something else. He, a little brusquely, escorts you to the door. “Listen, Ink. I won’t pretend we’re partners or friends or anything like that. But you came to me first, and I guess that means a certain amount of trust or acquaintanceship between the two of us. I’ve gotta give you some advice..” “I know the Moscow Rules,” you remind him. “I’ve survived a pretty long time.” “I know. And I know that means you know when to listen,” He replied. “You’ve spend a long time here, and it’s easy to think you know these cities like the back of your hand. But, it’s easy for people like us to think in a too long-term mindset. The city changes, every single day. You’ve missed three years of changes. For all intents and purposes, this isn’t your city any more. You’re out in the cold, you had best remember that. I’ve seen Unchained who lived here for decades, leave for a few years and get taken down hard and fast because they didn’t know the landscape changed. Don’t be one of them.” You pause at the door, looking at him. Banks has given you a weird vibe since first meeting him. A paranoid loner for the most part, but that was a lot of Unchained. No, the weirdness you got from him was the whole unknowable nature of him, even more than other Demons. His methods and goals were utterly unreadable and alien to you. Worse, he talked to you as if he knew everything, as if he casually held all the cards. A underlying confidence and smugness about him. Other Unchained had that too, but since you were nearly 100 years old, you always wrote it off as arrogance. But Banks...was different. “Who are you, really?’ you ask, knowing drat well he’ll not give you a straight answer. “When did you Fall?” “When I was supposed to kill a man, a very long time ago.” Banks said, scratching at his eyepatch as he escorts your out. “ I don’t know if it was the right choice or not, and I don’t know how much that choice was all me or..something else. But I do know about ripple effects, and I know I’ve been feeling them ever since.That’s what makes us different from our loyalist Siblings.....we have to deal with the consequences of our actions.” He shut the door in your face and you swear you hear the sound of a shotgun being racked. Knowing an attempt at a good last line when you hear it, you head back to Alex’s car where, as promised, she is waiting. *** Alex is looking over the Pact contract you have written, though it is less than 20 words, she is taking her time. You do not want to push her, but eventually you ask if there is an issue. “No, just..you’ve clearly never gotten hosed over by signing up for student loans...makes you double check the fine print,” she grins humourlessly. “No...that’s not it..I just...I’m still coming to terms with this. Mabin...this is just so hosed. I mean how does this even work?” “I don’t know,” you answer honestly. “There are a lot of theories. It’s..hard to explain but we think it might have to do with some of our residual power to warp reality. A sort of..back door to into the universal operating system. We can..drag files around, copy them, move them from one “folder” to another. Just..the files are..memories.” “But..they aren’t just memories they are..the actual reality right?” Alex asked. “Like..if I had a lovely girlfriend I could.pact her to you and she would just..belong to you.” “Technically yes,” you say. “It’s how Mabin exists. I’ve collected a lot of bits and pieces of people’s lives over the years, and grafted them on to the idea of Mabin Pillager. The more I do that, the more real sh--I am.” “So, Mabin never existed before you. She...wasn’t real.” You shake your head. “No Mabin is what we call a Patchwork cover. She didn’t exist until I came up with her.” “I suppose that’s something,” Alex said softly. “You can’t literally take people’s souls from them....” she looks at you. “Can you?....Oh my god Mabin can you?” “I could..” you admit. Lying to her would be physically easy, but you cannot bring yourself to do it. “We can create Soul Pacts where...we can erase someone and just...step into their lives.” “Have you ever done that?” Alex says, her voice tightening. “No.” “I don’t know if I believe you. You said you can lie perfectly.” “I’m not lying now.” “Yeah but I don’t know that,” she slams her fist onto the dashboard, crumpling the paper the Pact is signed on. “I am sitting in my car talking to my kinda ex - kinda girlfriend, who is not even human. She’s a loving....alien demon or whatever and she’ll telling me that she can steal someone’s loving soul but trust her she’s never done it before. I don’t know if I believe her, I don’t know if I believe anything she’s told me. loving....this morning I didn’t believe in God, and now I'm suppose to believe God is not only real, but it’s a loving magic computer that wants to make the world the worst possible place because my magic devil robot girlfriend told me so. Mabin....this is so hosed up and I have to say all things considered I am being really loving cool about this, considering you want me to sign a literal deal with the devil!” You are quiet for some time, allowing her to slowly come down. “Alex..I’ve tried to tell you everything I can. And..I know you’re scared, probably the most scared you've ever been. I wish I could say it will be better, but I don't know that..I in fact doubt it. But I can tell you, that Pact would help both of us, at least a little.” She looks down at the paper, “You get my suicide attempts, my breakdown, and my all expenses-paid trip to a psych ward....I get as much an understanding of...all this....as I can handle...” “Yes.” “How do I know it's not a trick..not some lie to get...my first born in a year or a day or whatever...” “Our kind can't lie on those Pacts.” “Yeah, but how do I know you're not lying about that?” “You'll have to put some faith in me Alex.” She stares at the paper, as if trying to will it to make more sense. “Any on this becomes...reality?” “Yes.” “And..can this..is this...can you add something to this?” You hesitate, unsure about answering truthfully, but then finally, “Until it's signed yes.” “Put down that you won't hurt me,” she thrusts the paper back to you. This requires delicacy. The wording on Pacts tends to make all the difference.... 1. How do you phrase this clause? A As long as this Pact is in effect, Mabin Pillager will not harm Alex. B The entity known as Ms. Ink will not purposefully harm Alex physically. C The undersigned will not be able to intentionally harm one another physically or emotionally. D Ms. Ink will protect Alex, or else this contract shall be considered void. Alex does eventually sign it, as do you. And the Pact takes effect. For you, the sudden understanding and entire history of Alex's recent breakdown washes over you. You don't show it, choosing instead to remain stoic, but you feel the onslaught of despair. The slowly building up series of minor frustrations. Dead ends at work, general malaise about the world, an aching in your heart over the sudden disappearance of... Someone.... That ache turns into panic and obsession as the days turn to weeks and months. You can't concentrate on work or family. Then the pandemic. You start to think the world is truly ending and you figure, after a steady diet of pills and booze, that if it's all ending... you're going to check out early. It's perfectly logical. A co-worker busting down your door after one too many DMs that seem to have stopped being cute cynical jokes. The hospital, where you feel actually relaxed for the first time in years. Then the “other” hospital where you spend the first few months veering from embarrassed you “got caught” to pissed that these people think there is something wrong with you. It takes a long time for you to listen, and even longer time to convince your doctors that you are really listening. You are released, but you stay withdrawn. Your boss keeps you on as long as possible, the miracle excuse of Covid provides cover. Eventually though you are let go. You don't mind too much. In fact you think making a clean break is a good idea. Except....you keep returning to the place where..that Someone.... vanished. And then one day you find.... something....and it's almost like it's time for you to live again... Next to you Alex appears to be having a seizure in hi seat. Her Stigmatic marks, metallic lichtenberg figures, were glowing through her jacket, and seemed to be slightly burning the fabric. You reach out to hold her hand until she stops shaking and passes out. Gently, but with strength that is unnatural for Mabin’s small frame, you move her to the passenger seat. You get behind the wheel, and get to work.  Covers are more stable than a real person’s life. If you go missing or are uncommunicative, skip school, or don’t show up for work..to a degree reality works with you. People don’t notice your absence, or if they do, they work around it generally without comment. When you see them again there might be questions, but ones with answers that are readily accepted. This is all true to a point though. After a while, reality just can’t cover for you and people start to notice, and your Cover starts to degrade. Three years gone, means that Mabin may be severely compromised. You recognize that before engaging with any more Unchained or Loyalist agents, you need to repair what damage you can. Pacting with Alex helped patch some holes, but you need to repair your relationships. Let people know Mabin still exists and her disappearance was understandable. Maybe not forgivable, but realistic. The issue with this is that that the one person that will do the most to recover Mabin’s Cover is also the one you want to have this conversation with the least. And so you sit in Alex’s car outside the Ebenezer Loren Assisted Care center for at least a good half hour before summoning the courage to go talk to Mabin’s grandmother. Alex has regained consciousness, but she’s just been staring out of the window. You expect she’ll be like that for a while. You decide it is best if you just let her be, at least for now. “I need to go check on Fleur, and Eliza Sagar too. I suppose.” you tell her quietly. She nods, and then says distractedly, “Tell your grandma I say hi.......god...we’re so hosed aren’t we?” You can’t bing yourself to answer her, so you leave the car running and head inside. You didn’t know exactly what you expected, your memories of being in the hospital prepared you a little for possible Covid guidelines, but you supposed you naively thought you’d be able to walk in and see Fleur or Eliza right away. Because Mabin does not have proof of vaccination (though you consider using your powers to pull a vaccine card out of your pockets, you decide not to) she cannot come into contact with any of the patients or any of the staff working with them. The “front of house” staff is protected with face shields and paper masks. You are given a mask and told to put it on right away. You are then left in a corner of the waiting room until a masked man comes out to tell you that your wife has died. Technically she is Wilhelm Sager’s wife, and he has been dead for a decade. But you remember being him. You remember sitting across from Eliza at an old scarred wooden table, marveling and how heated up the woman got about politics. How it was more her than you that corralled the local farmers and dairy folks into the Farmer-Labor party of prairie socialists, making drat sure the working man got the money he knew his blood sweat and tears were worth. You remember being wrapped in a handmade quilt with her the day she finally accepted the two of you wouldn’t have children. She blamed herself, and you had quietly let her, one of many unforgivable sins you’d committed as the monster playing her husband. Feigning the sickness, allowing “Wilhelm” to die, and letting her spend her last years in this gilded cage, visited occasionally only by a young native girl who said her father had worked for the Sager’s once. Would it have been better if you allowed yourself a clean break? Walked completely away once Sager was dead? It likely would have been, but Eliza had been your anchor in the human world for so long... You didn’t have to act or feign the emotions of loss and sadness that played across Mabin’s face, if anything you needed to tamp them down a bit. After some time the masked man says that Fleur Pillager is able to meet you in one of the clean rooms. The “clean room” turns out to be a two-doored door divided in the middle with a thick tarp of clear plastic, pulled tight and affixed to the wall. It reminds you of Hannibal Lecter’s cell, or those phone-window rooms in prison movies. The whole thing also looks uncomfortably haphazard. Mabin’s grandmother is on the other side of the partition. She has aged greatly in three years. Once Fleur was a energetic old woman, the kind that kept the staff on their toes. Now she seemed just..frail. Wrapped in a quilt, her hair was in one single braid, she was wearing glasses, which Ink knew she rarely did. “Nookomis,” you say, moving quickly up to the partition. Fleur looks at you, she doesn’t smile, doesn’t laugh, just looks, with something like curiosity in her eyes. After a time, you add, “I’m so sorry.” “Do I want to know where you've been?” Fleur asks, breaking the ice. “I thought you were past all your fightin’ and trouble days Mabin.” “I am..it’s a long story Nookomis.” “Seems like we have the time.” she says. And so, using the background you have gained from Alex, you explain to Fleur about the breakdown Mabin had, the lost..everything, the pandemic, the hospital stay... Fleur Pillager takes it all in quietly. When you are finished she finally speaks. “So I suppose you think that’s an excuse to not see me..” “....Yes....no?” “Mabin Pillager,” Fleur says seriously. “You ain’t a runner. You survived your mom dying, and you survived that bastard father livin’. You know I’m all the family you got left, and you know you don’t ever need to hide from me or run from me.” “I know nookomis....I just....it feels like I’ve lost everything.” “Now you know drat well you haven’t lost everything. You got your name, you got your language, you got folk that love you. What the hell else do you need Mabin? “I just..I need to know there is a point to all this. I need to know I’m doing something.” Fleur shuffles forward a few steps, her iciness melting slightly, “You’re a Pillager. You’re Bear Clan. You’re job is to help those who need help, to be a protector. Long as you do that, you’re doing something. Yeah?” “Yeah,” you agree. “Now, you’re still in a mess of trouble here Mabin, long as I am concerned. But..since you’re here now and Gail from down the hall is being a real piece of work, I might as well catch you up on all the drama..” ***  After talking to Fleur, you still need to make a few stops to check on Mabin’s Cover. Primarily you need to travel to the Native American Women’s Resource Center, the housing where Mabin lived and worked for years. You drive Alex’s car there, reflexively keeping an eye out for signs at your various dead drops, to see if any one has left you a message. You are surprised to see a lot of them are simply missing. Garbage cans replaced, benches destroyed, trees cut down. You add setting up more dead drops to the ever growing list of things you have to complete. 2. Ink is considering how and when to start to get in contact with other Unchained to let them know she’s returned. How should she do this? A Seek out the dead drops and channels you know your Ring uses to try to contact them B Use your Special Message Embed to infuse a message to one person (who?) C Present yourself to the Home Office headquarters, you need to report to Mr. Post. D Hold off on that for now. “So what is it you want?” Alex asks, this is the first question she has asked since signing the Pact and awakening to a greater understanding of the God Machine. “You have goals right? You have some..sort of idealized version of Hell you are looking for. What is it?” “I honestly don’t know.” you say. “I’m just...tired. I’ve been working against the Machine for nearly a century. I’d like a break.” “Why don’t you do live in a Shard or something? It’s..influence..seems to be less there.” “The Shards could work for some people. But....it seems like a lie to me.” Alex returns to looking out the window, “The Machine just seems to be so...all-encompassing. You can’t win against it..you can’t ever kill it, it seems like your people have been trying to kill it since forever. It seems like it’s too much a part of everything. How can you cut out a cancer when it’s spread throughout the body?” You shrug, “I don’t know. There are some of us who think you can, those are the saboteurs, the violent ones. Some of us think the Machine can be..fixed..or reasoned with.” “What do you believe?” “I believe that....something very wrong has happened in reality. This,” you gesture vaguely out of the window. “It’s how it’s supposed to be. The Machine is behind that. Beyond that..I don’t know. Mostly I just try to keep me and mine safe.” “And that includes me now.” Alex said, her face wrestling with accepting her new understanding of her new place in the world.. “I understand that humans like me..Stigmatics..tend to have abilities. Can you tell what mine are?” “No, it’s different and...sometimes it’s nothing at all. We’ll have to monitor that.” You arrive at the Resource Center, Alex again stays in the car. Rocky, the ever present security guard, is surprised to see you, but not too surprised at either your sudden vanishing or your unceremonious reappearance. Rocky eventually summons the director Mary Running Hawk. Mary, who had always had a fairly good relationship with Mabin, was happy to see her, mostly because Mary seemed to be running under the assumption that Mabin had died. Mary gently informed Mabin that, sadly Mabin’s apartment was being occupied by another tenant, and what few personal items of hers she’d had, had been donated. Though, she thought Mrs. Gilchrist might have some things. Mabin, now officially homeless, was allowed to talk to Mrs. Gilchrist, the neighbor Mabin had had a semi-antagonistic relationship with. Though, she was also the owner of Makwa, the Norwegian Elkhound and all around Good Boy who promptly tackled Mabin in his attempt to get pets. Mrs Gilchrist turned out to have kept Mabin’s ancient and semi-dependable laptop, convinced that eventually the police would want it to help solve what Mrs. Gilchrist was certain it was a case of human trafficking. You accepted it, and the general sounds of disapprovement from her, for awhile before leaving. As you left the center, Mary Running Hawk did offhandedly promise to let you know if a unit opened up for you to inhabit. Sitting in the car with Alex, you debated what to do next. 3. Where do we head next? A Head to a secure safe room and establish contact with your people. B Go to a coffee shop or hotel and use your phone to check in on the various Unchained digital networks and sites to see if anything major is happening. C Prioritize finding a job or place to live, your cover needs it. D Go and crash at Alex’s for a few days to keep an eye on her. E Somewhere else -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All votes are Approval unless noted CYOA Discord Server - Request the Minnesota:The Demoning role! Rules: From Kickstarter Preview Character Sheet World Map Dice Rolls Conspiracy/Plot Board Official Playlist
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Mar 27, 2024 04:26
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1c2a3c i think
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Mar 27, 2024 05:11
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1. B 2. C - I think our absence is a mixed blessing in this case. Being gone and out of the loop like we are, we're not a very valuable target, so I doubt we're in any serious danger just showing up to make our report. 3. D - Probably not a great idea to leave her alone, plus we can always house hunt while crashing at her place. Taking a crack at doing it the mundane way, even for a few days would be beneficial to our cover, wouldn't it? Since Mabin is making herself known to people or whatever?
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Mar 27, 2024 06:24
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1B 2A 3D
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Mar 27, 2024 20:24
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A D D We've been gone a few years, a few more days won't hurt. Let's ground ourselves and catch up, world events properly and see if we can figure out what's going on before we insert ourselves into things.
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Mar 27, 2024 22:59
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1 - B seems the best option. Promising not to hurt her emotionally is far, far too broad. What if we just say something that makes her sad, or grumpy? 2 - No vote, I still don't fully understand what some of these options are. 3 - D
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Mar 30, 2024 02:11
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As you and Alex pull up to her duplex inPowderhorn, the tension in the air is palpable, like a thick fog settling in on a chilly evening. The neighborhood is quiet, the houses standing like silent sentinels against the backdrop of the city's skyline. Alex’s duplex is one of the many oddities of the Twin Cities housing market. A side-by-side Spanish style two-unit duplex with a shared courtyard. Alex used to lovingly refer to it as the “hacienda” when she was younger. Though she could afford to move out to a better place by now, she had stubbornly stayed here after graduating college. "Home sweet home, I guess," Alex mutters as she turns off the ignition. She glances over at you, her expression a mixture of exhaustion and apprehension. She has aged 5 years today, her face is drawn and tight. "We'll have to make the best of it. We’ve been roommates before. Just like old times." “Yeah, but back then you thought I was just a witch or something,” you mumble. “Yeah...yeah..techno-organic horror beyond the understanding of space and time was..not really on my radar when I was looking for red flags,” she says in an attempt at levity. “Mabin, you don’t need to stay here, I assume you can get another place if you want.” You nod, your mind already racing with plans and contingencies. It would be trivally easy to find a hotel to crash in, convincing the staff that you belonged there, or easy enough that the room you’d be staying in simply didn’t exist. But..that would mean abandoning Alex. And though you’d never mention it to her face, you were sure she was right on the edge of shattering completely now. You didn’t want to leave her alone. "Yeah, we'll figure something out, long term, but for now..I want to stay here." you reply, trying to sound more confident than you feel. You climb out of the car and make your way up the steps to the front door. You can't help but notice the quaint charm of the neighborhood, the neatly trimmed lawns and the cozy glow emanating from the windows of neighboring houses. It's a stark contrast to the chaos and uncertainty swirling around you. Once inside, you settle into the living room, the soft glow of the lamps casting shadows on the walls. You take a seat on the worn leather couch, while Alex perches herself on the edge of the coffee table, the Pact contract still clutched in her hand. “It’s amazing, I know why I signed this, and I know what I gave up for it. And now..I even have a slight idea of how it works..but it’s still so hard to believe that this works. It’s like when I was a kid. I couldn’t wrap my head around how planes and lift worked. I knew planes flew, I saw them fly all the time, and I even had a vague idea of how it worked, but if I ever sat down and tried to think about it....it was like trying to sculpt water or something.” You nod, trying to be understanding. As an Unchained you had an innate knowing of the Machine and all it’s uses of occult-physics. Even the oddities you ran into that defied your explanations were summed up with “weird poo poo”. But sometimes, human thought and actions left you feeling similar to how Alex felt. You had emotions, just like a human, but they affected you differently, your responses were..alien to a human. “So, what’s the agenda? Other than me ordering a pizza,” Alex asks. “I need to plan my reentry carefully. Banks made a good point that I don’t know the layout any more. It like returning to your hometown after being gone a decade and assuming everything is where you left it. I think my first order of business is to reach out to my Ring. I have to hope some of the group dead drops we had are still active. I can spend a day checking out the physical ones, setting a meeting place for them to touch base with me. I’ll also see if I can access any of our shared burner emails still. Though once I vanished they should have changed the passwords.” “Do you need your laptop for that, or do you want to borrow my phone?” You reach into your coat pocket, twisting reality and probability around your hand as you check to see that...yes.. You did have a a cell phone in there. “I got a burner,” you say pulling it out. You don’t recognize the brand name on it, but it will connect to public wifi as good as anything. As you power it on you are mildly delighted to see it even came fully charged. “Can’t you just like..astral project on someone?” Alex asks. You nod, that is one of your abilities, being able to spy on a location or individual. But, it’s an imperfect technology, and failure could be catastrophic. “Yeah, but this is safer, at least for now. And I want to keep my head down as much as I can. Not only is my cover still shakey, but I still have a pretty bad Glitch.” “That’s when reality pretty much bites you in the rear end for loving with it right? And what’s yours?” “That’s a...simplistic way to say it...but yeah. And I..basically am compelled to admit any wrong doings to law enforcement or authorities....for a while.” “I’m sorry, you’re saying the binding laws of the universe are making you a narc?” “...Again that is a simplistic way to say it. But yes,” After Alex is done laughing, you continue. “Assuming I get some acknowledgement, I’ll have to set up a meeting place. Somewhere public and busy enough two or four people chatting won’t stand out.” “I can offer some suggestions. Covid did thankfully make everyone a lot more interested in ignoring each other in public places.” You nod, “In addition to that, I need to find a job, for both myselves. Assuming that Mr. Post is still with the Home Office, I have something coming my way, but I’m going to need the Ring’s help approaching them. A lone Unchained showing up and demanding payment won’t go over great. Mabin also needs a job, but she’s not particularly qualified for much.” Alex waves that comment away, “Mabin’s qualified for loads of weird Milennial bullshit jobs. We’ll figure that out. But can’t you just like...make money appear? Like pull a stack of cash out of your pocket?” “I could but, that cash needs to come from somewhere. If i did that enough, people, and the God Machine, would notice. So I do things like that sparingly. And currently I’m hesitant to do that because...technically if it comes from somewhere else, it’s stealing. And if it’s stealing it’s a crime and..” “Quantum Physics mandating snitching, right.” Alex says. “ But worst case you could do that, or something else to bullshit your way into getting a job. Like, you could give yourself a P.I. license like mine right?” “Normally, if not for the snitching, yes.” “Okay, so we find Human you a real job, and...Unchained you a spy job,” Alex says. “I’ll help you find a mundane job, and a meeting place for you and your allies. You do the spooky stuff. I’ll also handle the most important task of ordering pizza now.” As Alex busies herself, you use your new burner phone to access the public Minneapolis wifi. As expected it is slow and maddening to use, even for a 90 year old semi-immortal being like yourself. Still, you manage to get on and try to access the throwaway group emails the Ring had access to use. You are not surprised to see that the majority of them are no longer accessible to you. It seems that you’ll spend early tomorrow morning traveling to the group’s dead drops in hopes one of them is active. Once you write off those as a lost cause, you head over to craigslist. Through some long unspoken understanding, Demons in the Twin Cities generally use craigslist anonymous postings. You aren’t sure exactly when the practice started, though now you realize maybe Banks does, but it is engrained enough that even after 3 years, you can safely assume it’s still in use. Normally you would use it to catch up on news, but for now you are looking at possible jobs or missions that seem to have some sort of reward in them. After scanning through the Want Ads, service postings, and missed connections and picking out the ones that use fairly standard Unchained cryptographic signals in their author user names, you find 4 possibilities.  Green Thumb Needed posted:"Hey y'all! 👋 Need someone who's a pro at growing fancy plants 🌿🔮. Got some special flowers that need some TLC. If you've got a green thumb and know your way around rare flora, hit me up! 💰💼 Serious folks only, let's talk business. #PlantWhisperer #GreenThumb #SeriousInquiriesOnly" A demon likely either cultivating or trying to harvest some strain of cryptoflora. It seemed fairly innocuous, but the fact that this was a Demon asking for help in dealing with magical plants likely meant there was something else, either the plants were under heavy guard, or they were pretty dangerous themselves. Eyes that Sparkled in Moonlight posted:You: Enigmatic figure with an aura of intrigue. Me: Captivated by your enigmatic presence, needing it, wanting it to complete my orbit. Let's meet again under the cover of darkness and explore the depths of the unknown. Reply with the color of your shadow." This one might also just be an annoying mortal. But, assuming it was a Demon, it looked like someone was looking for a go-between for some clandestine work. An Unchained needed an intermediary for some business. ATTENTION NEIGHBORS posted:Listen up, good folks of the Twin Cities! Have you been hoodwinked by a smooth-talking contractor, only to end up knee-deep in a swamp of shattered hopes? Well, gather 'round, for it's time to expose the dark underbelly of deceit spun by Deimans’ Contractors! Together, let's rally against this charlatan and take back what's rightfully ours! Reply with 'Eternal Vigilance' to join the ranks of truth-seekers and fight back against these swindlers. Let our voices ring loud and clear against the backdrop of deception! #JusticeForAll #ScamAlert #MAGA This was unusual. It seemed as though a Demon was calling for some sort of group effort against another Unchained, or possibly a Ring or even Agency. Either way it was a fairly public call for a hit squad, with a promise to split the profits. Seeking Curiosities and Oddities posted:In search of rare treasures and antiquities with historical or mystical significance. Willing to offer competitive prices for authentic items. Please provide detailed descriptions and your asking prices. Serious inquiries only. Let's make a mutually beneficial arrangement! Fairly straightforward. Someone was looking for some sort of artifact, or Aether Stockpile, or even a Gadget. Something worth enough to pay for another Unchained to do the actual heist. You look at your phone, thinking which, if any you should reply to. You can’t possibly do them all... 1. What job are we going to take? (We can’t do them all, but vote for two) A Green Thumb Needed B Eyes That Sparkled in the Moonlight C ATTENTION NEIGHBORS D Seeking Curiosities and Oddities. After sending out some initial inquiries, the food arrives. As you eat with Alex, she runs down some meeting public meeting places. “Okay, option one, is MIA. It’s still open to the public. It’s an art gallery, so large spaces with pairs or small groups talking quietly. The exhibits or the cafe give you some options to keep moving too. And since it’s an art gallery, there’s not really standard clientele, so one one stands out. Option two, the Sculpture Garden. All the benefits of the MIA, but it’s outside so you have more space and in theory more anonymity. Issue is...since you’re outside, in theory you could have surveillance from a pretty far distance. Option three, hey..want to see some theatre and pay ridiculous prices for a lovely cocktail or beer? Visit the Guthrie Theatre. This is assuming you guys can do something to deafen your speech, but sitting in the dark in a crowded theatre means you’re pretty anonymous. Option four, Como Conservatory. Basically...listen it’s just an art gallery with plants. Still, lots of winding paths and hidden alcoves. So, you could be given some privacy. And if things go tits up, the building is made of glass so I assume you can just blow it up. Option five, the stone arch Bridge. You know, it's the walking bridge that spans the River. I figure, it's public, outdoors, near the River, and old and spooky so I assume Demons would like it. That might be a stereotype... Option six, Mall of America. It’s the wo--hey wait hold on..no Mabin, come back. Mabin I’m serious, okay? Don’t lock yourself in the bathroom I’ll just shout through the door. ” 2. Which location do we choose for our Ring meet up? A Minnesota Institute for the Arts B The Sculpture Garden C The Guthrie Theatre D Como Conservatory E The Stone Arch Bridge F The Mall of America G Somewhere else. After talking through your choice, you grab your coat, at which point Alex stops you. “Where are you going?” “Dead drops, I’m going to send out the invitation.” ‘Mabin it’s like ten at night.” “Yeah, they should be pretty easy to get to unseen now.” “I mean sure. But..listen you get tired right? You need to rest.” “This is more important.” “No, it’s not,” Alex snaps. “You loving...interdemensionally time travelled, destroyed my entire concept of reality, twice! You had what I have to believe was a tense conversation with the demonic equivalent of a Sovereign Citizen. You learned there’s a goddamn plague going on, your wife is dead, your grandmother is alive, which is weird to say. You lost your job, your home. You are trying to get in contact with people you don’t know you can trust while avoiding a literal omnipresent god. And you ate like..most of a large pizza by yourself. Mabin, you are dead on your feet and you are going to make mistakes. So you’re going to get a few hours of sleep and you’re going to do it right now and you’re going to sleep on the couch because I am not going to invite you to bed because that is a whole other thing I can’t deal with right now okay?” “........okay,” you mutter. “What was that? ‘Okay Alex, you are as wise as you are beautiful and without you I certainly would have gotten shot with a holy bullet or whatever can kill me’?” “...close enough.” “I’ll set an alarm, we’ll get you up in plenty of time to do spy stuff. But for now sleep.” You give in with minimal protesting after that. Alex fusses about getting you pillows and blankets before going to bed herself, after swearing to set an alarm. You can’t sleep at first, and instead listen to the sounds of the city at night. The city has its own soundtrack, one you realize you actually missed during your time away. After awhile though, those sounds lull you to sleep. At about 3 am, you are awoken by Alex, who feeds you and then gently kicks you out of the door so you can work your mission and she can go back to sleep.  And so you start the long and arduous process of leaving messages at your various dead drop sites. These sites are fairly varied, hollowed out brick in a wall, fake rock in a garden bed, tree knot hole along the River bank, stuck in between pages of a specific book in a specific library, chalk marks pointing to a nearby trashcan, a magnakey stuck behind a sign. At the site closest to Mabin’s old apartment (a medicine bottle buried under a park bench) you find a note from Mrs. Kind. Quickly skimming it (she’d written the thing in Icelandic), it basically amounts to her demanding you check in since you’ve been MIA for a week. After that, no more communications. It’s possible, likely even, that the Ring assumed you were caught or Burned, and cut off communications. It was an understandable and prudent reaction, and you’d have to keep it in mind when meeting your Ring contact. 3 Who are we wanting to meet from the Ring? Who are the messages addressed to? A Mr. Ruin, the Destroyer who specializes in razing and neutralizing Infrastructure. He is not technically the leader of the group, but he is the most strategic and major actions tend to revolve around him, also an excellent researcher. B Mr. Tone, the Messenger who is more concerned with socialization and data retrieval. He has a few influential Covers which he uses to keep an eye on mortal and Unchained affairs in St. Paul. C. Mrs. Kind, the Guardian that has a knack for murder and mass destruction. She has a cult of Williams Sonoma employees and she has worked solo with you multiple times. D. None. Whoever shows up, shows up. Having done all you can, you head back to Alex’s place. The messages you left suggest a meeting place and a time in 4 days, hopefully enough time so sometime checks the drops. 4 days seems like a long time, but you expect you’ll have plenty to do. All votes are Approval unless noted. Vote for anything you want to happen. CYOA Discord Server - Request the Minnesota:The Demoning role! Rules: From Kickstarter Preview Character Sheet World Map Dice Rolls Conspiracy/Plot Board Official Playlist
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Mar 31, 2024 01:13
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1A 2E 3C
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Mar 31, 2024 01:39
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1. AD 2. C - I like this one because it costs money, which anyone who "knows" will assume we'd avoid since Mabin is currently broke and unemployed 3. B - Feels like the smartest bet, assuming any of them are still around
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Mar 31, 2024 02:28
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1AD, 2d, 3d
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Apr 1, 2024 01:00
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1-AB 2-C 3-D
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Apr 2, 2024 15:10
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1A 2A 3D Yay, more Demon! Is the Hunted status gone?
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Apr 3, 2024 05:42
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Part One: The Plant Lady The sounds of screaming children put your teeth on edge as soon as you entered the building. You were already annoyed at having to travel to Edina, but your contact insisted on it, and being stuck in the large indoor park of Edinborough with dozens of screaming kids was the cherry on top of a poo poo Sunday. Edinborough Park was a 1 acre indoor facility. It had a large botanical garden area, a children’s playground, a running track, and a pool. It would have been a very cool palace for children or for parents who didn’t want their kids interacting with filthy dirt or filthy ethnic kids. As Mabin, though you did your best to remain unobtrusive, you should feel the stares of dozens of Karens keeping an eye on you, waiting for an excuse to call security to kick you out. This was just the way of Edina. You remember Edina as an honest to god Sundown town of the North. It was a community that, at ,least as recently as 1960 was publicly boasting it didn’t contain “one Negro or one Jew”. This was the darker side of Edina, a suburb that seemed to suffer greatly from affulenza and was joked to stand for the acronym “Every Day I Need Attention” as a reference to it’s populace who seemed to consider themselves “from Minneapolis” whenever the news needed someone to decry “urban issues” while doing everything in their power to never set foot within the city proper. Both of your Covers had held nothing but disdain for the suburb, and even as a unhuman demonic machine you found it tedious. “Fuckin’ cake eaters,” you mumble to yourself. “Mtu anayekula keki,” someone says in Swahili behind you. You turn to see a older woman wearing athleisure wear that does not seem to be either athletic or leisurely. She has blazing white hair cut in a severe pixie and is wearing dangling earrings that seem like they would get in the way during any sort of exercise. Considering she approached you, and her choice of language, you make a hazard this is your contact. “Mrs...Green...Thumb?” “Clover,” the woman replies.”Ms. Clover. C’mon, we’ll walk and talk.” “Won’t we attract attention that way?” you say, hurrying after her as she walks off. “They’ll all just think you’re my maid or something,” Clover waves a hand dismissively. “Sorry about the venue, needed a public place I was fairly sure you’ve never been to before.” “You know about me?” “I did a little research. There’s not much about you Ms. Ink, other than you stay out of the suburbs for the most part and have been taking odd jobs for years.” “Yeah that about sums it up,” you say, dodging a five year old who somehow managed to give you a very entitled stink eye. “You said you needed help.” Clover nodded, falling back to talk to you personally. “How much experience do you have with cyptoflora?” You think back to the temporal talking moss that you encountered while traveling from here to the 1920s Shard. It’s maddening speech patterns had made the thing unintelligible to you. “Some. Not much but some.” “It doesn’t follow the same sort of order and structure that the Machine, or even we follow,” Clover was saying. “I’ve made it a passion of mine to observe and interact with rare cryptoflora, both to document it, but also in a practical sense gain intel or tools that others might not have....analysis...research..that I can do. So I tend to try to find things that make me valuable.” “And you found something.” “My compatriot did yes. There appears to be a flower growing in a public garden that used to be an Infrastructure. The Infrastructure never got dismantled correctly, so this flower as been seeped in it for years. From what my partner said, it seems like this plant, whatever it is, is capable of actually naturally producing Aether.” You considered that. Aether was the waste product of the God Machine’s Infrastructure using the ephemeral Essence to power itself. As Angels, you were all able to power yourself and draw on the near limitless supply of Essence to use your abilities. When you fell, you were cut off from Essence and had to make due siphoning off the “waste heat” of it, Aether. But Aether was dangerous to collect, as it tended to only appear around active operations or facilities used by the Machine, or as energy radiation cascading off pissed off Angels. “I mean, that’s interesting,” you say. “But how it that different from a stockpile? Or even using some abandoned Infrastructure?” Clover shakes her head,”When I say ‘naturally occurring’, what I mean is a self regenerating source of Aether Not a limited pool like a stockpile, but something theoretically infinite, And not tied to anything Machine related, thus under the radar. And, if I can get my hands on the plant it’s possible I could cultivate it, creating clones or offspring..” “Meaning, you could make more infinite sources of Aether.” “Exactly,” she grins. “So where is it?” “Well that’s the problem . The garden it’s located in is hundreds of acres big - don’t bother asking where I won’t tell you yet - and though it’s not active Infrastructure, I have to assume it’s still under some sort of security measures. I can only narrow down the location so far by sense, I need time to do it. That’s where you come in, another Unchained to split up the search area.” And someone to take the brunt of any ‘security measures’. You think, “What about this partner you’ve mentioned a few times.” “He’s in the wind. He wanted to find the Aether plant himself, cut me out of it, and vanished. I don’t think he found it and harvested it though, the bastard wouldn’t have been able to keep himself from gloating.”  Clover turns towards you and leans back against a railing. “What do you think? Are you in or out? I’ll pay you, and you’ll also get a cutting of the plant if I can propagate it. We’ll need to move in a few weeks, before it starts to warm up and the thing starts to bud.” 1. Do you have any other questions to ask her? 2. What do you say (you have vote for this after asking questions if needed A Sure we’ll do it B Sure we’ll do it (plan to screw her over) C No, we’re not interested D No, we’re not interested (try to find the plant without her) Part Two: The Pack Rat “Feel free to move the raccoon,” the proprietor of Hunt & Gather instructed. You shake the cuff of your jacket to cover your hand and do as he says, careful to avoid actual skin contact with the taxidermy specimen that somehow still looks diseased. Hunt & Gather was, in theory, an antique shop. But it looked more like a hoarder had leased out an entire building and filled it full of madness. Items fitting only the loosest definition of “antique” were piled and shoved into every possible space with little to no rhyme or reason. You understood there were supposedly a dozen or so “dealers” that operated in the store, but you wondered how many of them were Covers or at least fake IDs for the Unchained owner of the store. He was a tall skeletal man, balding with what hair remained hanging off his skull in lank strips. He appeared to have a permanent leer and was unsettling enough that his employees did what they could to keep him out of the story as much as possible, which seemed to suit him just fine. He’s introduced himself as Mr. Bauble, a name which you’d recognized but hadn’t actually met. He was a dealer and collector of unique items and goods. Despite his appearance and lack of interior decorating sense, the fact that you have heard of him was enough for you to give him some respect, and treat him cautiously. He was more cunning than he seemed. “I’ll get right to the point,” Mr. Bauble said. “I’m putting together a team to recover some artifacts. I’ve recently come across the location of a cache of gadgets and other devices, but it’s too well guarded for me to get into alone. I need a crew.” “Guarded how?” you ask. “It’s not Machine security. It’s mortal. And Unchained.” That gave you a bit of a pause. Stealing from other Demons often was more dangerous than stealing from the God Machine. Demons held grudges. “Who’s the target?” “I’m not telling you until you say you’re in.” He leaned over the counter separating the two of you. His hair left a thin greasy track across the glass. “But it's not anyone you’re loyal to. I did my research before agreeing to meet.” “Can’t you tell me anything else?” He shook his head, “High risk, but high reward. We break into this cache and there’s two items I want, everything else the rest of you can split.” “So you have others signed up?” “A few, but we’re still filling out the crew. EIther way, we’re moving on it soon. 3 Do you have any questions for him? 4 What do you say? A We’ll sign up B We’ll walk away C We’ll sign up (plan to keep one foot out the door and bail if needed.) D Something else?  _____________________________________________________________ Listen I really loving hate Edina and I am never going to apologize for it. It has a Warby Parker store that I’ve been to once and that is the only good thing I can say about that loving place. Update took longer because the idea of handling essentially 3 updates in one was a lot, plus my classes switched over this week. In the end we still need to meet Fine at the Guthrie. All votes are Approval unless noted CYOA Discord Server - Request the Minnesota:The Demoning role! Rules: From Kickstarter Preview Character Sheet World Map Dice Rolls Conspiracy/Plot Board Official Playlist
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Apr 7, 2024 22:14
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2A - Seems fairly legit, and I don't know why we'd double cross her when the reward is a nice one. 4C - I don't know why but I feel crazy suspicious of this dude. Besides this isn't committing to betraying him... just being ready to move quickly if something goes wrong. I'll leave question-asking to other folks.
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Apr 7, 2024 22:49
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1. Any chance your "friend" might try to interfere or stop us? Do you have anyone else helping you on this that I should know about? 2. A 4. B - I doubt our cut would be worth the trouble we'd have to go through for him to get his poo poo.
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Apr 7, 2024 23:02
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2A 4B
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Apr 8, 2024 08:30
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JessAlias posted:2A - Seems fairly legit, and I don't know why we'd double cross her when the reward is a nice one.  Any theories about how or why this plant is producing aether? Energy can be created, so it must be processing something.
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Apr 8, 2024 21:28
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JessAlias posted:2A - Seems fairly legit, and I don't know why we'd double cross her when the reward is a nice one. 
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Apr 9, 2024 01:35
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2A 4B - Too soon in our comeback to start making enemies
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Apr 12, 2024 14:54
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