After taking a moment to compose yourself, you begin making your way to the door--
"You do got a point," Marlow states, "about folks with medical needs. ...We might be able to swap a neighborhood out for another vocal, high priority target--one less likely to get hurt in the crossfire."
"...Like what?"
Marlow smiles, faintly--almost chuckles, but not quite. "And that's... well, that's what I'm still figurin' out. There's the mayor's office... maybe one of the bigger MondolMarts, since they're 24/7--"
"Ahh," you reply. "So less of an ethical quagmire but more likely to piss off all of the wrong people in a much more substantial way."
He nods. "Pretty much sums 'er up."
"Risk of learning little and then getting caught if we hit nothing but the police station," you mutter, "risk of accidentally killing someone if we hit a neighborhood... risk getting monster mashed if we take it up a notch. ...Ongoing and completely unknown risk to Franklin if we put it off too long. Boy, am I glad this is going to be an easy one."
"We should save it 'til tomorrow night, I think," Marlow concedes. "Give us time to get everything in order, and... well, maybe come up with some better places to cut power to. Options look pretty grim at a glance, though."
You could always just... not do anything at all.
Fuck.
Suddenly, the door swings open; Kate leans in, half through the door and half out it, attempting to rejoin the conversation while still smoking her cigarette. "Greeting card, motherfuckers."
"I know you're not smoking in the store," Marlow says firmly.
"I'm more outside than inside!," Kate retorts.
"Kate--" you begin-- "I'm sorry--"
"Shhh," she interjects. "Greeting. Card. Finch won't answer every phone call but I'll bet the dude gets all his fan mail."
. . .
"That's..." Marlow pauses. Squints, staring deep into the floor for a moment. "...That could work. We'd need to get his attention without making it too easy to decipher, though--"
"I can handle that," you state. "I know a bunch of... names, and phrases and locations and shit that Dr. Finch should recognize. ...Or the Choir knows them. I have access to things, regardless--I could drop some big sexy buzzwords into an otherwise innocuous greeting card message."
Marlow nods. "...Mail'll take three to five days, minimum--"
"It's never three," adds Kate,
"--and that's if the weather doesn't slow things down."
"Plan C alongside it, then," you state. "Or... I guess we're on Plan D, now."
Kate, hastily exhaling smoke out the door, leans back inside. "Are we?"
"Marlow thinks we could find some areas to de-power that would get all the repair crews' attention withOUT endangering anyone that needs power for medical reasons. The catch is that the only targets we can think of so far are like... isolated Mondol places. ...Or the mayor's office."
Kate's low chuckle gradually builds to far, far heartier laughter. "So it's more like Plan Give 'Em The D, then."
You sigh, but have to smile. "Or Plan Get D'd in the A. Can a vampire tell when their electricity gets cut off...? I guess it doesn't matter because Parsons would absolutely know it was us like, immediately. We need a different target, just... in a similar vein. Anyway, we've got until tomorrow night to figure it out. We can send Dr. Finch a card in the meantime, and--oh, shit, one more thing--"
You turn back to Marlow. "Infohazard. Is there a way to contact them? Like a... a tip line or something--"
"Oh, yeah," Marlow says with a firm nod. "One second, I'll grab it for ya."
He disappears into the back, leaving you alone with Kate.
Well. Alone with roughly half of Kate.
"Look," you begin, "I really am sorry--"
"You don't gotta apologize for caring about people," she interjects flatly. "I shouldn't have freaked out."
"I can apologize for not respecting your agency, though," you counter. "I can apologize for thinking I need to protect you."
You expect her to hastily jab back--
but something you said momentarily disarms her.
You do not get much of a chance to figure out what.
"Got it!," Marlow announces, returning to the front counter. He slaps a handwritten phone number down on the surface.
While you're logging Infohazard's phone number into your phone, a couple of customers enter the Back Room (followed shortly by Afu); you and Kate thank Marlow and take your leave.
It's about 5:08 pm.
Something still feels off but you're not sure what.
It might just be the Brainsate trying to fight off your deep-seated aversion to both directly bucking authority and of long term, possibly eternal consequences as an entire concept but it could also just be healthy paranoia because you are now plotting actual crimes. Small ones, on purpose, in contrast to the possibly huge ones you've been more or less committing by accident.
Or you could have some kind of mind parasite. You just don't really know these days, but NONETHELESS
Will Schrag | Snervalton | Skullrama | John Wood | Tom Axon | David J Wu | Sekwel | Mochi | Wisp Pandemonium | arbit | Travis Whittaker | Avasraali | Nicolas Arboleya | Trent Brossman | Clotty Cola | TacticOwl | SomeRando
4th Jan 2022, 1:25 AM
Cass
Ask Kate if she can help us get better at parkour? (If, y'know, you can bring it up naturally conversation with her and you aren't experiencing some kind of rejection sensitive dysphoria and if there isn't anything more pressing to talk about first)
Just an idea
Could do it while you walk to the next place, wherever that may be
Might get some looks from people but should be okay
(Actually you might not be okay but you do have brainsate and you do have a cool friend so those should reduce anxiety and give confidence hopefully?)
Feel like we need Plaire to work on coordination before we have her flip off of walls and such (at least in meatspace). Nevermind that she tires after a decent walk.
Not to naysay, in fact, I like the idea, but muscle tone and endurance are required prior to parkour. Maybe in a few days of missing the bus Plair can start with jogging. In the meantime calisthenics would help with upper body strength. Yoga might me something worthy too.
But Plair needs to build toward this goal. This isn't boot camp where it is all eat, sleep, and exercise.
Technically I believe there's a gym in town they might have a free trial of a membership that she could do? They would likely have yoga or calisthenics classes
Practicing parkour doesn't have to be anything crazy, it can even just start with jumping from one part of the sidewalk to another
Or keeping your balance while trying to move quickly on those lil car stopper thingies in parking spaces
Possibilities:
Hit up old library
Take another look at the pic of old librarian for any resemblance to VainGlory
That ex-Fed neighbour who had pics of exploded witch?
Get to know Maria some more
I don't think getting confused looks will improve Plaire's frame of mind; she's already rather averse to getting attention. Also, take into account the risks of unwanted attention, especially if Officer Johnson and/or the Wolfman and the Machine Killer enter the picture.
Now, doing something silly while just in the company of Kate and/or Cici, Bebe... only people she trusts, that would be okay.
Now that it’s been brought up, there are a few places that would work for the plan. Hitting the commercial district would have much less of a chance at hitting anything essential; stores with devices that need to be continuously powered generally have their own backup generators. Plus it’s a higher priority target to fix then homes, since no businesses == no sales tax.
Other then that, is there a production district in town? With factories and some such? That could be a good place to hit, people generally don’t rely on medical devices there. The only other place I can think of is MondolMall, but that probably uses the same power supply as the apartments there.
If we cut power to a not-Mondol business district so long as the business is not a hospital it would be less likely that people with medical devices would have problems because they would bring batteries so they can travel away from home. They at least need batteries while commuting and walking down the street so they would have some battery life away from home. Maybe not a lot but some. I remember there is wireless power in this universe so maybe batteries aren't needed while in any building (even when moving around in that building) but again they would still need batteries to commute.
If we are lucky the not-Mondol business district could suspect Mondol being at fault for the power cut not us, because Mondol does all that shady stuff including throwing bricks through Maria's grocery store windows.
If we are lucky Mondol would actually be happy if they found out we cut power to their competitors.
If we are lucky the business districts could forgive us for the power cut if they found out, were convinced we are actually the underdog and against Mondol, and maybe we accepted a quest to help fight Mondol for them.
If we are lucky the power cut would not kill any of those businesses. If it would kill those businesses (the power is never restored or the repair is too expensive) then it's tough I would consider cutting power to MondolMart instead but we can't because the attached Mondol apartments might have medical devices without batteries.
Just don't include our friends' businesses in the power cut unless they consent.
If we cut power to a Mondol office block (NOT MondolMart) we may avoid killing anyone or hurting non-Mondol businesses but piss off the Mondol management and lawyers in that office block, which could be way too much heat but may be the most ethical choice (don't hurt non-Mondol businesses and don't kill people with medical devices in MondolMart apartments). At least I hope Mondol offices don't also have attached apartments where people with medical devices could die due to lack of batteries.
I would like to know more about this option to cut power to the Mondol office block, Plaire could you ask?
What do you think about cutting power to a Mondol office block instead? As I said it may bring a lot of heat (managers and lawyers work there) but is the most ethical (don't hurt non-Mondol businesses and don't kill people with medical devices in MondolMart apartments). At least I hope Mondol offices don't also have attached apartments where people with medical devices could die due to lack of batteries.
Hurting non-Mondol businesses may be a problem because Mondol might never bring the power back on or charge too much.
Or if they do have apartments, maybe we could cut power to the MondolMart or office block and hope people could attach their commuting batteries in time to survive. Or maybe the batteries are always attached and our plan is even less risky. Plaire, could you ask about attached batteries?
+1 Plaire should probably bring up both cutting power to non-Mondol businesses and blaming it on Mondol if necessary and the other option cutting power to a Mondol office block. Discuss both options with her friends.
Gasp! That's... that is... I dare to say, Machiavellian!
Also, a valid plan, if nothing else. We should just use today for scouting and researching, so we don't end up seriously hurting any innocents. But the idea of pinning that on Mondol is just too sweet to pass up.
Oh, and we may end up facing Wolf Bastard, Machine Killjoy and/or Oinker Johnson. So let's be extra careful.
Since it looks like we're not doing the Franklin plan today, we have a few hours to fill. Some suggestions on things to do:
-make plans for visiting the Old Library. Set a definite time with Bebe for her to escort us, buy some steaks to feed mutant wolves. Marlow should come along, he's been there before and did some ghost-investigations so he knows a fair bit about the place
-visit the gun range and look into gun training/ownership
-go to a used game store to check out their selection
Not clear where Plaire is headed next. But on the way there:
--Theorycraft how Captemon might work in the Alacazar and ways of testing it.
--Plot how to deal with or avoid the crazed gunwoman.
I see four big possibilities:
a) She gets to swap out abilities based on monsters in her game posse.
b) She gets the trainer ability to capture and deploy monsters. I don't think she'll be happier with the "right to knows" working for her.
c) She can see stats and do things with the accomplices.
d) Something with the dating portion of the game.
Depending on how the perception part of things works, only some monsters or backgrounds might provide benefits.
I'm concerned that the Captemon game may end up being like the Mustachio volleyball game that gave Plaire no powers at all. It wasn't on the list of power-granting games given to us by the TFLs and the only other way we know to find out if a game grants powers is trial and error. Plaire seems to understand that these games grant powers through proprioceptive imagery(see page 96), but is there some way to know whether a game has in fact affected her mind such that she's been granted an alcazar power?
Fair concern. I'd somehow bundled it into being by one of the companies on the list. I'd also misremembered it as having dating elements. They're only there through her mods.
Right now, it is all trial and error. But Plaire knows enough to start speculating and testing.
From what I understand, knowing what causes these effects is one of the big things we hope to learn from from Franklin. It would be nice is she could tell when something was working.
I really think we should talk to Cici- I think she may have advice on how to deal with the police and may even know good places to hit in the city. Technically bringing in more people can be risky but I think she's not going to add more danger.
If by "that alien" Darkness meant our alien and by "retconned" literally retconned - a time paradox might have taken place. Sentence quote: "And this role, and we barely have the faintest idea what that last part even means because the damned security system fucking retconned that alien out of existence." If outcomes of the Thale Incident events in this timeline are the same as those we remember, then this should the same timeline, and it has repaired itself. With the patch being another person on the same role. And we are unable to remember what did not happen to us. In this case Vainglory may very well be the patch. And Finch might not understand the message with encrypted events that never were.
I just re-read that section again, and yes that does seem like what they're saying. There are a number of time travel/manipulation models in fiction, so it's also possible that there's a more fluid, "time is a river" sort of situation where individual timelines don't really exist independently of each other... but I digress. Also right before that, they mentioned having lost about 3 months in a few seconds by choir time. Is that how much time elapsed between Thale and joining to Plaire? I thought it was a bit longer, but... wait... was it about three months between the *very last page* of BiM, when we were breifly following Michelle then? That would make a lot of sense actually.
Unrelated to all that, but I also noticed there was an infinity symbol inside a circle on DaM's hat, which featured predominately on that big runic diagram plate in the graveyard area.
I don't know what we said to Kate, or if it's a big deal - might just be *my own* RSD acting up - but we should give her space to speak her mind without prying into her shit. She probably will, right?
One thought I had - the Blood crew are still connected, right? Anything Finch sees, Mine will de facto see, and if Mine is Vainglory that could have Consequences. I'm not saying she is, but that theory has some weight.
(also maybe we could get double meta and ask her to keep an eye out for fluffy white cats wearing bow ties and glasses)
Concept: Both send a card and call Dr. Finch. The card is more likely to get his attention but slower, so it probably wouldn't hurt to give the phone call a try first, I think.
"You do got a point," Marlow states, "about folks with medical needs. ...We might be able to swap a neighborhood out for another vocal, high priority target--one less likely to get hurt in the crossfire."
"...Like what?"
Marlow smiles, faintly--almost chuckles, but not quite. "And that's... well, that's what I'm still figurin' out. There's the mayor's office... maybe one of the bigger MondolMarts, since they're 24/7--"
"Ahh," you reply. "So less of an ethical quagmire but more likely to piss off all of the wrong people in a much more substantial way."
He nods. "Pretty much sums 'er up."
"Risk of learning little and then getting caught if we hit nothing but the police station," you mutter, "risk of accidentally killing someone if we hit a neighborhood... risk getting monster mashed if we take it up a notch. ...Ongoing and completely unknown risk to Franklin if we put it off too long. Boy, am I glad this is going to be an easy one."
"We should save it 'til tomorrow night, I think," Marlow concedes. "Give us time to get everything in order, and... well, maybe come up with some better places to cut power to. Options look pretty grim at a glance, though."
You could always just... not do anything at all.
Fuck.
Suddenly, the door swings open; Kate leans in, half through the door and half out it, attempting to rejoin the conversation while still smoking her cigarette. "Greeting card, motherfuckers."
"I know you're not smoking in the store," Marlow says firmly.
"I'm more outside than inside!," Kate retorts.
"Kate--" you begin-- "I'm sorry--"
"Shhh," she interjects. "Greeting. Card. Finch won't answer every phone call but I'll bet the dude gets all his fan mail."
. . .
"That's..." Marlow pauses. Squints, staring deep into the floor for a moment. "...That could work. We'd need to get his attention without making it too easy to decipher, though--"
"I can handle that," you state. "I know a bunch of... names, and phrases and locations and shit that Dr. Finch should recognize. ...Or the Choir knows them. I have access to things, regardless--I could drop some big sexy buzzwords into an otherwise innocuous greeting card message."
Marlow nods. "...Mail'll take three to five days, minimum--"
"It's never three," adds Kate,
"--and that's if the weather doesn't slow things down."
"Plan C alongside it, then," you state. "Or... I guess we're on Plan D, now."
Kate, hastily exhaling smoke out the door, leans back inside. "Are we?"
"Marlow thinks we could find some areas to de-power that would get all the repair crews' attention withOUT endangering anyone that needs power for medical reasons. The catch is that the only targets we can think of so far are like... isolated Mondol places. ...Or the mayor's office."
Kate's low chuckle gradually builds to far, far heartier laughter. "So it's more like Plan Give 'Em The D, then."
You sigh, but have to smile. "Or Plan Get D'd in the A. Can a vampire tell when their electricity gets cut off...? I guess it doesn't matter because Parsons would absolutely know it was us like, immediately. We need a different target, just... in a similar vein. Anyway, we've got until tomorrow night to figure it out. We can send Dr. Finch a card in the meantime, and--oh, shit, one more thing--"
You turn back to Marlow. "Infohazard. Is there a way to contact them? Like a... a tip line or something--"
"Oh, yeah," Marlow says with a firm nod. "One second, I'll grab it for ya."
He disappears into the back, leaving you alone with Kate.
Well. Alone with roughly half of Kate.
"Look," you begin, "I really am sorry--"
"You don't gotta apologize for caring about people," she interjects flatly. "I shouldn't have freaked out."
"I can apologize for not respecting your agency, though," you counter. "I can apologize for thinking I need to protect you."
You expect her to hastily jab back--
but something you said momentarily disarms her.
You do not get much of a chance to figure out what.
"Got it!," Marlow announces, returning to the front counter. He slaps a handwritten phone number down on the surface.
While you're logging Infohazard's phone number into your phone, a couple of customers enter the Back Room (followed shortly by Afu); you and Kate thank Marlow and take your leave.
It's about 5:08 pm.
Something still feels off but you're not sure what.
It might just be the Brainsate trying to fight off your deep-seated aversion to both directly bucking authority and of long term, possibly eternal consequences as an entire concept but it could also just be healthy paranoia because you are now plotting actual crimes. Small ones, on purpose, in contrast to the possibly huge ones you've been more or less committing by accident.
Or you could have some kind of mind parasite. You just don't really know these days, but NONETHELESS