The team escapes the riot at the Javits-Bloomberg Center, and makes a new friend at The Ball Pit.
This episode of Fun City contains descriptions of the use of firearms, a brief mention of suicide and one scene of gruesome violence.
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Support the show at http://patreon.com/funcityventures
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@funcityventures is the show
@bijanstephen is TK
@randwiches is Viv
@nguersh is Luxe
and @shodell is Lash
@taylordotbiz is the bad boys and
@mikerugnetta is everything else
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Recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint BK
Produced, edited and sound designed by Mike Rugnetta
Pixlriffs is a hot soycaff at the start of a long day
Our music is by Sam Tyndall - http://cuneiform.xyz
Our art is by Tess Stone - http://notdrunkenough.com/
Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kestrel and Kit.
--
CC-BY Licensed SFX used in this Episode:
https://freesound.org/people/karlis.stigis/sounds/168640/
[00:00:00] [ Intro Theme begins ]
> Molly Templeton / "Artemis": [ IC ] In the early 21st century, magic reawakened on Earth, and alongside it, a new human race, with orks, elves, trolls, dwarves, and others. Humanity became metahumanity.
As technology proliferated and greatly advanced in the awakened world, global megacorporations seized ever more power, becoming de facto states with their own laws, courts, and armed forces. The corporations attempt to control all aspects of modern life. This has led to a vast and complex criminal underground which works for and against corporate interests. The independent career criminals who do what others can't or won't are called Shadowrunners.
The year is 2101. Welcome to Fun City.
[ Intro Theme ends ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: This episode of Fun City contains descriptions of gun violence, a brief mention of suicide, one scene of gruesome violence, and one really, just, extremely harsh burn on Matchbox Twenty.
[ Main Theme begins ]
> Mike Rugnetta / G.M.: Previously on Fun City, the team takes a job from Mo Ashina, of Combinatorial Ltd. They’re to collect biometric data from Verne Sollix, chief bureaucrat of NYPD Incorporated’s union, the Police Benevolence Association. The aim is to frame Verne for “criminal hobnobbery”. All this, to thwart a strike he’s architecting in the hopes of increased support from the city government.
Or so they were told. Upon cornering Verne in private at the yearly International Policing and Security Professionals Trade and Labor Consortium, Annual Exposition, the team learns his true reasons. Verne claims that international biotechnology megacorporation Evo, the contractually-mandated sole provider of medical care for all of NYPD Incorporated, has been “changing” officers who visit them for treatment. Verne offers the team a contract with the police union the moment a riot breaks out at the conference.
He is ushered away by his bodyguards, and the team confronts NYPD Reserve’s security detection mage, Cairn Hollbrook, whomst Viv, in a magically-induced mania, summarily melts. We join the team now as they survey the scene immediately following Cairn’s grisly demise, and in the midst of that same riot.
[ Main Theme ends ]
[ Gunfire. Shouting. Glass Breaking. ]
> Mike / G.M.: As Cairn melts into the thin, gross, polyester-patterned carpet of the convention centre, you smell this gross, kind of smell of - it’s like burnt flesh and hair, and his burning
leather jacket. Uhm, and the scene is really, it’s, it’s pretty horrific. Uhm, no, it’s exceptionally horrific. It’s really gross. It’s - it’s bad.
Everybody who is around you, who have been giving you wide-ish berths, still sort of engaged in a lot of their own fisticuffs, you know, police hitting rioters, rioters trying to jump on police and pull them down, and like beat them up and hit them with protest signs. You’ve been given a radius, uhm, and people haven’t stepped between what was clearly a very dangerous battle between you and Cairn and his - his henchmen, but uh now, everyone just pauses for a moment, and bolts. [ People Screaming ] And they run away from this intense destruction that Viv has visited upon this man who dared, dared challenge her.
Viv, as this happens, as you watch Cairn crumple to the ground, in just a unbelievably horrific mass of, ugh, of human, the spell that he cast on you, that was making the riot seem ten times worse than it really was slowly fades, and, with the exception of maybe some emotional damage, like, like emotional waves of realising in your anger what you’ve just done, you feel a little bit more like yourself. You at least don’t feel nearly as oppressed or hemmed in. I think the rest of you are probably some combination of impressed and horrified with your team-mate.
Though people are retreating away from you, the convention centre is still full of people, and the brawl has retreated like a couple yards, but it’s still going on, and there’s still a thick crowd that is rioting. There are still tonnes of fist-fights happening. You hear the sounds of the rubber bullets being fired outside. You hear all around you, this commotion. What do you wanna do?
> Bijan Stephen / "T.K.": [ IC ] Well Viv just melted a dude. We should probably get the fuck outta here.
> Nick Guercio / "Luxe Scythe": [ IC ] Yeah, I agree.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Should I call up, uh, Henley?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Is Henley already on the way?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I called him. Uh, I think he’s- he’s somewhere outside. I haven’t checked in.
> Mike / G.M.: So, if you look at your com, and you have your HUD up, it’ll show you where Henley’s-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Show me Henley, com. [Mike chuckles]
> Mike / G.M.: It’ll show you where Henley’s location is, and you can see that it’s not in the parking lot, the rear parking lot that you called it to, conceivably because this location is locked-down, and there are locations where it can’t get to, it doesn’t know how to pilot automatically-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So it’s geo-fenced? > Mike / G.M.: But it’s -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cool.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s geo-fenced. But it’s - it is a little bit of a walk outside of the grounds of the
convention centre, but, yeah, it’s probably like a block north.
[00: 05: 01] > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We should go get in the car.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Probably?
> Mike / G.M.: Can everyone roll Logic for me, and what I am looking for is two successes. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I got two hits baby.
> Jenn de la Vega / "Vivian Lakewood": [ OOC ] Two hits over here.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Two hits.
> Shannon Odell / "Lash Goodbog": [ OOC ] One hit.
> Mike / G.M.: Something dawns on all but one of you [ All laugh ]. You look around, and you realise that the Bloomberg-Javits Center is a highly surveilled environment. Not just because it’s a convention centre, and they have security concerns, but, this is a security conference. This is about the technology that you use to keep the public in line. There is 360 video of you in high-definition melting a cop.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ]: Well he was - he was... he was asking for it. [Mike laughs]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ]: That was an off-color joke. I feel not bad about it [ Mike & Shannon laugh ]. But no, he did try to kill us, so...
> Mike / G.M.: To be fair, you were the bad guys. I’m not-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ]: To be, to be fairer, we gotta go destroy those recordings.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I’m thinking-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ]: Let’s go-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I’m thinking - I’m thinking... nothing [ Nick & Bijan laugh ]. > Mike / G.M.: Yeah, what’s going on in Lash’s brain?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Lash’s brain? She’s like, “when’s the last time we ate?”
> Taylor Moore / "The Bad Boys": [OOC] [Taylor laughs] You smelled the burning uh, the burning guy-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, I was like hmmm-
> Mike / G.M.: You are slightly near an overturned nacho cart.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] [Shannon laughs] I am eyeing the nacho cart.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ]: Yeah, TK’s nauseated ‘cause it still smells like Hamburger Helper [Mike & Shannon laugh in disgust]. Man-burger Helper.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Ohhh-kay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC]: [Taylor sighs] Take the edge away.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah [Bijan laughs].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ]: We now have the same problem that we were going to do to Verne, which is that people, y’know, we were on video-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ]: Yes.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] -and there’s a recording, and we gotta go get that recording, otherwise
we won’t be able to move around New York.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Is someone gonna tell me?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC, to Lash] Oh yeah. We’re being watched.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ]: Uhh-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh yeah! You’re right!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We’re - we’re at a cop convention, there’s some cameras - it’s a security cop convention - lotsa cops, lotsa security, lotsa cameras...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ]: Yeah, not only are we being watched, but also, uhm, there’s almost zero percent chance that the person that Viv just melted was a protestor.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I like that you allowed the possibility.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ]: [Nick laughs] They were definitely a cop, or somebody working for the
cops, in a capacity, so that’s uhm... extra bad.
> Mike / G.M.: You guys are leaving the conference cen- can you tell me what you’re doing, right -
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So-
> Mike / G.M.: You’re not standing there talking about this stuff?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] No no no.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But right, currently, I’m- I’m- I’m saying, we should probably get to the car-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] We’re trying to get to the car.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] -except, except, we have to destroy that recording, so we have to stay
here, and find the person who - and find the data banks or something. > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Oh, we can’t destroy it remotely?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We might be able to destroy it remotely, but the security here is tough, as I think we’ve heard before, like, the the, the online security, the matrix security, is as high-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Right.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] -as the physical security.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] TK, you’re the person who knows-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We gotta go-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] -the most about this. Where would the security room be in a place like this?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s a good question. Before we do anything, I wanna run Paint Job, which, uh, I think it adds to my attack skill, or my attack spec on my deck, to assist in like Erase Mark tests, to get any marks that might have accumulated off me, uh because I sure as shit don’t want another decker coming after me in the matrix while we’re trying to find their shit.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Uh, Viv has found a terrarium, has overturned it [Shannon laughs], and is, uh just lazily sprinkling it over the mush that used to be Cairn.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I like that, you should look in, just look directly into any video cameras, just like, just eye them.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv does look straight at a security camera while she sprinkles the dirt over the, over the, the quote-unquote “body”.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] You’re, you’re repotting a plo - a plant inside of a man, that’s what you’re doing right now.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I’m trying to defuse the smell. I’m sorry, I’m used to this.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ]: There are hundreds of people running around you [Taylor laughs]. It’s like-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] And Viv is an island of calm.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ]: It’s like a big concert has let out, and everyone’s
panicking and screaming.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Well, they’re all running away from us.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ]: The smell of hair, burning, floating...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I think we should go find this hacker, and I think we should go break all of their devices.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, I’m okay with breaking all their devices, but, we have an opportunity to get away, and so if they’re on camera, and they go see us, just go back into the building to kill another cop, then I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to talk us out of it, alright?
I think we could maybe work out something with Verne if we get rid of the evidence and say look, “they were- they attacked us, we, you know, we didn’t wanna kill this person but they attacked us”, but I don’t think we’re - that same excuse is gonna work for the hacker. So if we can delete the information without hurting the - the person, who’s got marks on us, I think we should do that.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] That is compelling.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] That is-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] -a thing I didn’t think about [Shannon laughs]. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, I was getting ready to just-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] -to try and find this person. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] This is a cop.
> Mike / G.M.: As you guys are standing around erasing your marks and figuring out what is happening next, the crowd that is a part of the riot, is growing more and more dense [ Shouting. Commotion. Glass Breaking. ], and as this happening, the edge of the brawl is coming closer and closer towards you, and you’re starting to see more protestors and more police sort of unknowingly reclose the space that was opened when Cairn was exploded, and you actually see, kind of a little bit too late, that part of that crew is two large riot police, wearing fully blacked-out helmets, and carrying assault rifles.
They are headed right for your direction.
[ Threatening Music ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Well it’s time for us to skedaddle, gang.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I think we have to run at this point.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Henley’s uh, a block north, let’s just- let’s go.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, that is the direction that these cops are coming from.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Let’s run around the cops.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Can we run around the cops?
[ Nick and Mike start talking simultaneously ]
> Mike / G.M.: You have about two, two seconds to figure out what you want to do.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Let’s - we need to run somewhere to hide, at the very least.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Alright, let’s run back- let’s run back to where we were.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay, let’s run back-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] The back would be?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] The back of the back hallway.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] The back hallway.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Toward the auditorium.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: You run into the conference room that you were in, where you saw Sollix give his talk, and you run back to get into the back door, uh, that you came through, and it is locked.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] How locked is it? What do you mean? What can we see? Is it like - is it a security door?
> Mike / G.M.: You are pushing on it very hard, and it is not budging. It is not even shaking.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] To be clear, we have run into a conference room, we have gone behind a curtain, we are alone in this small space right now, is that correct?
> Mike / G.M.: No.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: At this moment-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC & OOC] Motherfucker.
> Mike / G.M.: -the two guards that you saw coming towards you, who saw you go into this conference room, have entered.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] So they’re - they’re just bee-lining straight toward us now. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So we’re - are we in initiative?
> Mike / G.M.: You guys are in initiative.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Roll initiative.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ]: And uh, well uh, well maybe before Bijan rolls initiative,
TK should roll his Will + Firewall.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC, muttering ] ...Hate you so much.
> Mike / G.M.: It will cripple you in some regard, but you can turn off all your devices.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I’m gonna do that, ‘cause I can only focus on one thing at a time [Bijan laughs]. But after I roll, what, uh, Computer + Firewall?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Will + Firewall.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Will + Firewall. Oh, fucking hell. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Wow.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Two hits.
> Mike / G.M.: As you guys are fumbling with the door trying to get out of the conference room into the labyrinthine hallways of the interior of the Javitz Centre, you hear uh, clomping through the door that you just came through, the two security guards - the two actually armed security guards - that have been alerted to your position ostensibly by uhm whoever, you know, you had realised was surveilling you.
They are dressed in head-to-toe fully tactical gear with flak jackets, uh their faces are completely obscured by the helmets that they’re wearing, and actually the visors are video screens which just scroll text across them that read POLICE BUSINESS: DO NOT APPROACH.
They see you, and they lock eyes with you, uh across these, uh, across the room. The first person to act is not in the room, it is Agatha.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Man.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I just wanna say, on the record, fuck Agatha.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] That’s on the record!
> Mike / G.M. It’s official!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] You can’t take it back!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Lash needs to roll Intuition + Firewall.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] In one turn I can try to be like, “She’s coming after you too?” [Mike laughs]. We can just look at each other, have a moment.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] One hit.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Frick.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Do you need to know what my living persona looks like?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Yeah, what does it look like?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] It’s three soccer balls like a snowman. It’s [Shannon laughs] and the same cartoon hands [Taylor laughs].
> Mike / G.M. Six cartoon hands, or two cartoon hands?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Two. ‘Cause it’s a snow - it’s like uh, it’s like one big soccer ball,
slightly smaller soccer ball and then - [ Shannon breaks off laughing ].
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] A very tiny- a- a normal head size, then?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] A normal head, with a, uh, instead of a hat that a snowman would wear it’s a uh-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Cow.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] It’s a cowboy hat.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Cowboy git, giddy-up!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] [ Shannon laughs ] And it has cartoon eyes... and nose [ Taylor coos ]... and ears... and-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] There’s ears on it? Just like a snowman!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, just like the snowman!
> Mike / G.M. You never shoved cauliflower into the side of your snowman’s head to make
cauliflower ears?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] There are no snowmen in the future [ Shannon and Mike laugh ]. This is all a guess. It’s like balloons.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Exactly.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Hey, recall: Fuck balloons.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, and two cartoon hands.
> Mike / G.M. We talking like Mickey Mouse with gloves on the end? > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah!
> Mike / G.M. Okay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Well, while Lash’s living persona in the matrix has its back turned [ Taylor laughs ] to wherever a noumena née Agatha is, is watching from, a small black thorn [ Taylor makes a popping sound ] plops itself right into the middle back of that soccer ball.
> Mike / G.M. And that soccer ball is - is none the wiser, at this point?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] None the wiser.
> Mike / G.M. Next to act, is TK.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So, TK takes a moment to appreciate how tactical these cops are. > Mike / G.M. I would say that TK is in fact extremely impressed-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M. And probably his first thought is, “if we take these guys down...”
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] “...I’m taking that shit.” So, I’d like to do a matrix perception check to find out where these fucking thorns came from. Uh, that’s three hits.
[ Background music tunes out. Rioting become muffled ]
> Mike / G.M. Scanning the environment in AR, looking at these dense clusters of icons that are running this way and that. All of the people that have their comlinks on, not running silent, involved in this brawl, like, they’re not thinking about their security, they’re not thinking about, you know, whether or not they’re gonna be - they’re gonna be surveilled, it’s not very smart of them, but it is the case that they’re here, you know there are protestors that have their comlinks
on, protestors that even have, you know some more serious pieces of gear around. You can see all of the icons for the guns that the police officers are using - a lot of their comlinks - and, what you notice is that there is, in the distance, in the direction of where the front sort of area was, the front parking lot, where you saw all of the cops congregating and stopping all of the protestors, you see that there is like a big blank spot, where there doesn’t seem to be anything.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Looks suspicious. > Mike / G.M. That’s all you get.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So I guess I- I wanna use a free action before I end my turn to tell Lash, “Hey, look over there, there’s a weird blank spot, I think that’s where our hacker is.”
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Cool.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] One more thing. I wanna switch my deck’s specs to... I wanna like
re-spec it, to make it more defensive.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Are you turning it off or not?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No, no. I decided against turning it off. I weighed my options! > Mike / G.M. The next person to act: Luxe.
[00:14:58] > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Luxe throws his hands up and yells at the two people who have come in in full tactical gear, “We’re working with Verne! I know you have somebody who's got marks on us, tell them to check the footage. Verne just offered us a job.”
> Mike / G.M. The large imposing figures, clad in black, give you no response. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Bullshit.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Guns raised to shoulder?
> Mike / G.M. Guns raised to shoulder.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] [ Bijan clears his throat ] Oh, oh wait I meant to do a con.
> Mike / G.M. Then roll it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Oh, sorry, I need - I need to roll for that...
> Mike / G.M. Here’s what I’m gonna say: you would essentially need to roll an extreme success of like, 7 or 8, because these guys are here under orders.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M. Their boss told them that someone killed a cop, and that they-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Sure.
> Mike / G.M. -ran into this room, or they saw you run into this room, you know, their boss told
them “these people killed a cop, you have to go get them- > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M. -please end- end them.” They’re not really interested. You can try to have a conversation with them, and they can try to relay it back to whoever it is that sent them there? It’s gonna be tough.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, I’m not gonna roll perfectly, so, yeah, I have four. The- the other- the other effect of this is that there is now footage of me telling them the truth about the fact that I have been offered - [Taylor laughs] I have been offered a job by Verne. You guys still proceeded to illegal kill somebody working for uh, a police, you know, a police function, so later on, this will be less tricky for us after Viv melts these guys into a puddle, to see us say “Look, we don’t want to fight, we’re working for Verne”, like, that’s, that’s on record now.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Hell yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] So, whether or not that works, that’s fine, but it’s on record now, it’s on the footage. So, I still have my little riot shield, and I’m about to hide. “You know that smell in there? It’s gonna smell twice as bad in here.”
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Threatening them! Good call. > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] No! That- That’s not-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Viv-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Officer ] Sarge? Sarge?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] If you- If you think that’s a threat, I mean the thing is that I’m telling you to stop, we don’t wanna fight, but if you do, then that’s the thing, I mean like that’s not a- [Shannon laughs]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Yeah, cops are famous for being able to really split the hairs and the subtleties of various levels of threat.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Alright, alright.
> Mike / G.M. Lash?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] So they are at the doorway, is this true? > Mike / G.M. Correct.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] And we are in the conference room?
> Mike / G.M. Correct.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] What’s above me, to the sides of me?
> Mike / G.M. I’m imagining that you are around the door that is where you exited and entered before, which is sort of to the left-hand side, all the way in the back of the room, so the closest thing to you is one of those collapsible walls that separates two big conference rooms and makes them slightly, like, separates a conference room into two smaller conference rooms. There are some chairs and tables around, mostly between you and them is yeah like bad carpet and uncomfortable conference chairs. Um, above you-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M. -is... the ceiling’s very, very tall, and you can see some big hanging softboxes
that are, uh, these lights that they have in conference rooms- > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M. -or in conference halls.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] How high is the lighting?
> Mike / G.M. Maybe like fifteen, twenty feet?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] And the lights hang below that?
> Mike / G.M. Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] About a foot?
> Mike / G.M. Sure.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay, uhm-
> Mike / G.M. Actually, they’re pretty big, I would say that they hang maybe three feet below that.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay, I’m thinking I jump, and try to swing my body at them. [ Nick & Taylor laugh ]. Like, because I’m guessing - how tall are they?
> Mike / G.M. They’re pretty tall, they’re maybe 6’5”?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I’m trying to remember how high I can jump [Mike laughs],
because I think there’s actually a calculation on high you can jump... > Mike / G.M. Hey, uh, Shannon?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah?
> Mike / G.M. I’m just gonna let you do it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Hah, okay [Mike and Nick laugh]. I think I’m going to jump, and
use my will to swing my body into their faces, at least to - to distract them for a moment.
> Mike / G.M. So is there one particular one you’re gonna try to land on? This is - is this like a, uh, uhm, uh, an Enhanced Clam Flip?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] This is an Enhanced Clam Flip, that involves me getting some leverage from the grabbing onto the light and just kind of cannonballing into the one on the left.
> Mike / G.M. The one on the left, okay. Roll a gymnastics test for me. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Right.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] This is very anime, I just want to go ahead and point out. The way this is playing out in my head? I love it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Three.
> Mike / G.M. As you launch from the ground to the, uh, hanging large softbox light that gently lights this conference room, uhm, and fling yourself across the room, sort of swinging back and forth [ Cartoon sound effect of spinning up and dashing off ] and finally hurtling through the air.
[Thump] You land with perfect force, your feet together, in the middle of the chest of the guy on the left, and both of you fall to the ground [Clatter of bodies falling down].
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I am, uh, about to be shot.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yes [Shannon laughs]. They might have rubber bullets, we don’t
know.
[00:20:01] > Mike / G.M. Is there- is there any kind of celebration that you want to do, or is mostly just fear at this point?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] It’s mostly fear.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK does a quiet “Hell yeah”. > Mike / G.M. Viv.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv impressed- is very impressed with uh, the Advanced Clam Flip and [Shannon, Bijan and Nick laugh] uh, because she sort of over-extended herself earlier, uh, she looks at the cop on the right and casts Control Actions at him, so... [Jenn laughs] let’s see.
Control Actions is mental, it’s uh, it’s a sustained kind of spell, I need to have line of sight, so I am going to cast it at a force of five, and, oh boy here we go, we got five hits. Resisting drain... five hits.
> Mike / G.M. So you successfully resist drain. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M. The guy who is writhing around the ground, trying to get a hold of Lash, you know, looks over - looks up at his friend to see what he is going to do... and he does whatever Viv wants him to!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] ‘Cause he glitched [Group winces audibly]. > Mike / G.M. Are you - are you sure?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Officer ] Yes I’m - I’m a vessel.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Wow [Mike and Shannon laugh]]. Wow.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Officer ] There’s a beautiful tall elf inside of me, and she’s in charge now.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] And you, and you glitch, so you like it [ Group laughs ]. > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] This is fucking...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Hey Viv, do we like notice any change in this guy, does he like go limp suddenly? What, what happens?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Officer ] He ain’t limp.
> Mike / G.M. Uh no, you don’t, you don’t see- [ Shannon laughs ].
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] No.
> Mike / G.M. You can’t even see any skin, so you don’t see any reaction.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I just... I just want Viv to like... I don’t - can we - can we get out of this without like doing a murder? I don’t - ‘cause like - I - I - [Taylor laughs] I’m afraid. I’m afraid Viv is just going to tell that guy to shoot the other guy and then shoot himself.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] No that’s not what I was gonna do! > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Well look man, murder-suey.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] Wait, wait hold on. Do you get - does she - do you get - Viv. Do you get to command someone and like, do you get to take them over and then command them in the same turn? Or is it a complex to take ‘em over and then you gotta command them later?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I think it’s the complex to take them over and then I take their turn when in the initiative?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] Holy shit.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Is that correct? That’s how we played when I controlled the flame - the
- the - the flame spirit
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah the dog.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, the dog.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s fucking insane.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] Yeah, that’s true, ‘cause he just becomes a spirit of yours, yeah yeah yeah.
I don’t know, this is just me, I feel like, since we’re in the middle of combat, there should be no, like, inter-turn strategizing table-talk [Shannon and Bijan laugh]. If you wanna, if you wanna-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] You have no idea-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] If you wanna yell a suggestion to Viv, I think you gotta use
a simple action on your turn.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think you’re absolutely right. I’m just afraid we’re gonna murder another set of cops [Shannon and Taylor laugh].
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] You don’t know what I was gonna do!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I don’t, and that’s the scary thing!
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Oh my gosh.
> Mike / G.M.: It takes, for the person who has cast Control Action, a complex action to control actions, so you do it on your turn.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [OOC ] Mmm.
> Mike / G.M.: Which means we got it wrong in the last time, but we’ll...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Aw, shoot.
> Mike / G.M.: Is that okay? We’ll, we’ll do it that way from now on, does that sound fair? > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] So that, that person doesn’t have a turn?
> Mike / G.M.: So that person doesn’t have a turn anymore.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Ah, got it.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Worse, you control him but you took his turn, which is, [Jenn laughs] oof, fucking brutal.
> Mike / G.M.: So the first person to act is the person who cannot act anymore [Jenn laughs]. So he thinks to himself, I mean, what does he think to himself, inside of his own brain, trapped there?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] He’s fully conscious. He knows- > Mike / G.M.: Yeah, yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] He knows what’s going on.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] But he likes it.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Officer ] This is, this what he thinks...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Cannot move.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Officer ] “Finally” [Shannon and Mike laugh]. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Fuck.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, I relate to that [Bijan and Taylor laugh].
> Mike / G.M.: It’s beautiful.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Finally...
> Mike / G.M.: The guard that Lash has kicked in the chest and who is currently sort of trying to, uh, he’s trying to subdue Lash as they’re in a tangle on the ground, is basically going to try and get you in like a half-nelson [ Wrestling. Grunting ].
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Mm.
> Mike / G.M.: So roll your Reaction plus your Intuition.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Is this resist?
> Mike / G.M.: This is a die - you take your dice pool modifier now. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I take it now.
> Mike / G.M.: Yep.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I only got a single hit [ Mike winces aloud ]. > Mike / G.M.: You can tell that he’s maybe trained in this, a little bit.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Mm-hmm...
> Mike / G.M.: And that this guy has taken some grappling classes and he actually manages to get you in a hold uh, and he - he doesn’t hurt you - you don’t take any damage, yet, but you, uh, are gonna have to break free of his hold before you can take any actions, uh so he’s uh, you are now both standing, uh, but he’s gotcha.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And I like it... [ Shannon laughs ]. > Mike / G.M.: The next person to act is Agatha.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] And I rolled.
> Mike / G.M.: Great.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Yeah, and no hits [ Audience boos. Bijan laughs]. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] What?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Not a single one.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yay!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Get fucked Agatha! > Mike / G.M.: But not- but not a glitch.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] What am I, Matchbox Twenty’s second album? [ Audience laughs ]
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Ho-ho-ho!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Jesus.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Burn Matchbox Twenty! Take that!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That was harsh.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] We gotta put that at the front of the ep [Mike laughs]. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I want the hot take out there immediately.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I want a content warning.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Mo’ hits! > Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] [ Unintelligible]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Agatha ] Agatha is actually distracted by a lot of the action that she’s simultaneously watching on the vid-feed in her VR setup and - of, of what’s going on in the auditorium, where they are, uh and she blows it, she like misplaces and doesn’t close a bracket, and sh- no hits, nothing, nothing happens.
[00:25:09] > Mike / G.M.: TK.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Okay, so I guess I see Lash struggling on the ground with this dude, and
then there’s another guy who’s just standing there, I guess?
> Mike / G.M.: If you could see through his perfectly black, opaque helmet, you would see the broadest, most serene of smiles.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] How many attacks can I do, at once? I’m holding a baton, is the other thing, and I- I can punch, and can I like hit, and...
> Mike / G.M.: I would let you close the space and take a... take a swing, but that’s it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Wait, do you - do you need an exotic weapon skill to hit a baton? > Mike / G.M.: No.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] A club s-?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No, but thank you-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] A club?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It’s just a - it’s a regular - it’s got a fucking value...
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Alright, just double-checking!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I know, I appreciate it!
> Mike / G.M.: If you wanted to swing your blowgun like a club, I would let you do it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: It just might not survive.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah probably...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So, what I’m gonna do is just run over there and try and just clock the guy in the face. Like, I wanna do like a - I wanna jump and just, like, full extension horizontal, just leap at-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] The old Clam Flip Punch duo-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It’s - it’s something else!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] -that we’ve been, that we’ve been doing for- > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, we’ve, we’ve been-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] -years now.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We’ve - so we’ve been training in the gym together, that’s canon. So we work on our moves, this is one of them, but it requires Lash to be taken down first by an angry cop. So, I have, I actually have an, an unarmed combat skill, with a specialisation in boxing.
> Mike / G.M.: So I mean yeah, you might be better at that than-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I think - yeah. Alright, I guess I’m just gonna roll a shitload of dice, let’s go. It’s not looking good for- oh, no it is. One two three four five... Five! Five hits, holy shit.
> Mike / G.M.: As you dash to close the space between where you’re standing and- > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Huh-uh.
> Mike / G.M. -where this officer has subdued and grabbed Lash and put her into a half-nelson [ Wrestling. Grunting ], she’s like, squirming around in his arms trying to get free, you can tell, you can see, the way that he is looking at his partner, who is, for some reason, completely motionless and hasn’t said anything except for “Finally” in the last few seconds, like, he’s trying to figure out what’s going on, he’s trying to get the lay of the land and he turns and he looks right at you coming right at him.
You’re in full wind-up, ready to just sock him one, and he gets the bright idea that he’s got a human shield. He’s going to just sort of like position-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So-
> Mike / G.M. -Lash between you and, and him, as you’re winding up, and he bets wrong big time [Bijan laughs]. And he- he fakes left when he should have faked right, and you land a punch squarely on his jaw [ Punch ].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M. Inches from Lash’s skull! But, you looked good while doing it, and you connect.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Damage value of my arm is 6P. > Mike / G.M. Okay. These guys have a lot of armour, so... > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I figured, I mean...
> Mike / G.M. I apologise...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That is so- that’s more dice than I’ve ever seen in my life! > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Oh, oh my god.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] He’s not gonna take any damage.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Oh my god.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] He’s not gonna take any damage at all.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] This is so many... so many, so many!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Is he gonna damage me? Fuck.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, this has gotta be his limit right? Or I guess there’s no limits in resisting...
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Holy crap.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Shit.
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm, unfortunately, you connected really well... onto a fibreglass helmet [ Shannon and Jenn sigh ].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] With a metal arm! I don’t understand this game.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s just how it worked out.
As you connect, you realise that though you have placed this punch perfectly, you have made a slight miscalculation, uh which is that you are punching a very thick fibreglass helmet that has been made to withstand some extreme impacts. I’m gonna say that for your next attacks, uh, if you are punching, you’re gonna take a -2 dice penalty, because your hand hurts a little bit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Even though it’s metal? > Mike / G.M.: Even though it’s metal.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Okay.
[ Jenn scoffs in confusion ]
> Mike / G.M.: It’s like, uh, you know, the shock travelled up your cyberarm into your shoulder.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Uh-huh.
> Mike / G.M.: And now it’s, you know, you have a little bit harder of a time focussing all of the energy from your feet through your shoulder blades.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Mm. Sure. Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Kay you gotta give me a break here, c’mon! [ Bijan laughs ]. I- I did not
purposefully-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK, TK looks at his-
> Mike / G.M.: I did not purposefully roll one two three four five six seven eight nine ten.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah...
> Mike / G.M.: I did not purposefully roll ten hits!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK looks at his arm and is just like “Fucking bullshit.” Like, “Why did I spend that much money on this thing?” And then yells to Viv, “Cook him!”
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Cause it’s cool and looks good, and when it does connect, it connects really well. Uhm, okay. Luxe.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Luxe... [Shannon and others laugh] is still hiding.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Luxe, what does it sound like when you receive a call on
your comlink?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] It sounds like when you jump, uh, into a pile of money. > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] That’s what you hear [ Clink of Digital Coin]. [00:30:00]> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh I uh, I check my comlink.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Caller ID says YURI.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] “Oh shit,” and I look at the message? Is it a live-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] It’s a call.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] It’s a call? Okay. “Hey, I uh, hey! Yuri? It’s- it’s Luxe.”
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ Not Fully IC as Yuri ] You hear like some fumbling, “Hey Luxe, is that you?”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh is this Hector? No?
[Shannon laughs]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] I’ll lay it on thicker.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Wow.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri, with stronger Russian accent] Hello Luxe, is this you?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh good it’s you! Alright, good, I didn’t- I couldn’t understand you for a second. Yeah it’s me, what’s up?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Ah thanks for picking up my man. Now, you busy right now?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Very. [Sharp inhalation] Whatcha need?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Guess what?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] What?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] I have great news. I have great- I just, I hear a lot of sound going on behind you, you can talk now yes?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, I’m- I’m not doing anything else to be honest.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Ah that’s great, I cannot tell you how wonderful it is
to have friends I call when I need them and they answer the phone. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s why I’m here Yuri.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Well, guess what? Great news. I have another job for you.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh that’s great-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] So if you could come by my house in uhm... Hector! > Mike / G.M. [IC as Hector, from afar]: Uh, not uh, not tomorrow but the day after!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Two days. Come my house two days.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] Let’s talk, I have another job.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright. How’s- how’s the egg situation looking like?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] The egg situation is hot. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Alright! Okay, then two days it is.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri, cutting across Luxe] Over-easy! [Nick laughs] The egg situation is over-easy. This is how you say? It’s over, because it was easy. That’s what eggs... easy to cook! And then they’re over very quickly, because they’re so delicious.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Well I will be over there, uhm easily.
> Mike / G.M.: You hear your colleagues like, screaming and grunting in the background [
Shannon cries in mock pain ].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Because I know uhm- I’m sorry I gotta go, here...
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] There’s a policeman grunting in ecstasy [Shannon laughs].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] It’s not how it sounds, uh...
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri ] It sounds like a policeman is grunting in ecstasy over there.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, it is how it sounds [ Mike and Shannon laugh ]. I didn’t know you could hear a policeman.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Yuri, laughing] They all have same accent from academy. Great to hear you’re having fun. See you later! Yuri out!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] “Okay, alright, bye Yuri. Bongo!” Okay, uhm [ Background laughter ] so Luxe is excited by the possibility of a less complicated job, but he is in this one now. His- his attempts to con these people were met with less-than-recognition, uhm, I don’t think he- they care. He is glad they’ve got on record him saying that they work for Verne. He tries Verne again on his comlink.
> Mike / G.M.: I’m gonna say, that’s your turn. You chose to answer your phone.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay, answered the phone, it’s a complex action when Luxe does it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] When Yuri’s on the other end.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK looks over and says “Did you just take a fucking call? [ Shannon laughs ]. When I’m-”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] And that’s your turn! [ Taylor laughs ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] When I’m sprawled on a policeman with Lash, who’s just...
> Mike / G.M.: Lash.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] My turn. Maybe I wanna jump up again on to try to like, jump and swing my legs... I wanna be up on the lighting unit. [ Laughter ]. I wanna jump on the lighting unit.
> Mike / G.M.: Like off of- off of him, or...?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah like basically, I wanna-
> Mike / G.M.: Do you wanna like chicken fight him, and then...?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] No yeah I wanna kinda like use him, push hi- like push him and be- and jump onto the lighting unit. Like do a push-off [ Snort ] on the lighting unit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] She’s getting a couple extra inches of height off of this guy’s body. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Do you wanna be hanging from the lighting unit by your arms or by your legs?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I wanna be arms, like Ninja-Warrior-style hands on it. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And legs on it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Oh I see.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] She wants to cradle the light.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: I’m gonna say that this is not an opposed, since he’s a little stunned from being socked in the jaw.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: But that if you wanna do something that complex- > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re gonna have to get at least four successes. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: And I’m gonna make you roll gymnastics.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay, I got five hits.
> Mike / G.M.: You let me know what happens.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC, chuckling] So, Lash looks up, makes sure that the lighting unit is still there.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s swinging side-to-side, but it is still attached.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And she thinks back to the couple of times that she’s uh gone to a uh Ninja Warrior - Ninja Warrior is still going on - Ninja Warrior gym with TK. TK did not like the Ninja Warrior gym.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] No.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] And she like has the flashback of like ‘oh this is just like the swinging log thing’. So, she - she’s standing up right now with the police officer. She kind of bends down in a little bit of a squat, and kind of uses his body - she has her hands on his shoulders - and kind of uses his body to kind of, uh, leapfrog above him onto the lighting unit [ Cartoon Jump Sound ], and then wraps her legs around the lighting unit as well, so she is now swinging like a monkey on this lighting unit.
> Mike / G.M.: Uh, I’m gonna roll for the lighting unit. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay [Jenn laughs].
> Mike / G.M.: To just make sure that it stays, ‘cause this is not the sort of treatment that your standard conference-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Sure.
> Mike / G.M.: Is - you know, lighting equipment is expecting to... So as long as we don’t roll a
five or a six...
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: I think, I think you’re alright?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay. Phew.
> Mike / G.M.: You good. It creaks a little [Shannon chuckles in relief, sound of creaking light fixture]. And you successfully knock that guy back down again [Man grunts in pain].
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: You jumping like off of his knees and shoulders has pushed him-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] When did he get back up? > Mike / G.M.: He was up!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: He’s been up.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Because you went to punch him, but-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I- Oh I assumed you were on the ground, whatever. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] No, we were standing.
[00:35:01]> Mike / G.M.: So he’s uh, he’s like, uhm, stumbles back and hits the wall next to the door that he came in through, and then kind of slumps and starts to get up again. The next person to act is Viv.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Like stepping into a mech [ Nick laughs ], Viv physically runs her hands through her hair ‘cause that’s sort of how she starts to get into that mode of controlling someone else’s body, but it’s like mentally stepping into some sort of contraption where she has to y’know physically kind of mime it and uh, she dives into his brain, and there’s really not much going on.
[ Creepy Void Music ]
If, if you were to imagine what it looked like in his brain, there’s like, uh, uh, y’know, a control panel with nobody sitting at it. Well, she gets in there, and loosens the grip on his gun, and puts it down, next to him [ Clatter of Gun ]. And... [Jenn laughs].
> Mike / G.M.: Everybody in the room sees this, uh, y’know, up until this point basically motionless guy like extend his arm out and then just drop his rifle.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv just yells “Luxe”, and doesn’t do anything else, but she controls the body so it starts walking toward the other police officer.
> Mike / G.M.: Those are probably two simple actions. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: So if you wanted to have him do like one more simple action or a complex action, you could still get some stuff done, if you want, or you can call it done.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] As the cop, she makes her way toward the other one and attempts to grab one of his arms, to hold it behind him.
> Mike / G.M.: Do you want to grapple? Do you basically wanna- > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You wanna basically do to him what he did to Lash. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah... That is three hits.
> Mike / G.M.: The police officer that you are controlling successfully restrains his partner. Uhm, his partner does not take any damage, but uhm, you, you feel through the psychic link that you have formed that this is a solid grab. He’s got his friend. They’re, they’re hugging, but, but mean [Bijan laughs].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Should I respond to Viv? [ Shannon and Bijan laugh ] “I don’t know why you said my name!”
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Gun!
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] The gun was dropped, she said your name.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I see.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] What could possibly- [Mike and Jenn laugh]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I know, I get it.
> Mike / G.M.: The next person to act is the now restrained friend, which I think is me right, okay he’s gonna try to get out again.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC, singing slightly ] Grapple! > Mike / G.M.: I’m not even gonna-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Cop] Just surrender Sarge, it’s great! [ Group laughs ] Come on in, the water’s fine!
> Mike / G.M. [IC as Free Cop]: What are you talking about!?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Cop] Just let go, let God man!
> Mike / G.M. [IC as Free Cop]: Why did you drop your sidearm!?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Cop] It feels real good!
> Mike / G.M. [IC as Free Cop]: What feels good!?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Possessed Cop] “Jesus is my co-pilot, I think it’s him!” This is fake, he can’t talk.
> Mike / G.M.: No he-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Yeah, yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: The next person to act is Agatha.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Agatha] Lash, versus me with Will + Firewall please.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Four hits.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC, subdued] Goddamnit.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Agatha] Ahh, Agatha, confused from her last round where she very frustratingly was not allowed to land anything, fails again.
> Mike / G.M.: She’s really just on the - on - she hit the skids.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] She kinda hit the skids a little bit.
> Mike / G.M.: We’re out of initiative.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Oh, we’ve run out of-
> Mike / G.M.: We have run out of initiative. But also, I feel like we can go back into free play. Viv, you are still controlling the man.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm, and the man that he is controlling is not happy, so I mean, you guys are gonna have to figure out something that you’re gonna do, uhm and Agatha is still out there, trying to cause trouble, but seemingly having a hard go of it.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I assume when - both the rifles are on the ground? ‘Cause, uh- > Mike / G.M.: Correct.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So TK goes and picks up one rifle.
> Mike / G.M.: You have a rifle.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Luxe picks up another rifle. > Mike / G.M.: You also have a rifle.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] You wanna high-five? Rifle boys.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I jump down from the lighting unit [ Bijan laughs ], and land
gracefully on my feet.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Lash, what did you do with the Clam Flip that time? That was like there was a little extra on it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh you know, it’s clams that have been around for two days, they’re kind of stinky...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Did you just pull out the Stinky Clam Flip? > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yep!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Nice!
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] She Stinky Clam’d him.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv is concentrating hard with eye contact on this guy still, she’s still across the room-
[ Void Music ]
> Mike / G.M.: And he gets- he has to resist the force of it, is that what it is? Yeah you still have control over him.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I have a question. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] So we can just-
> Jenn / "Viv”: [ IC ] Viv is uh, concentrating really hard but just manages to get the word “Door!” out.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] “So I think, I think we should hit the door. Also Viv you can drop that guy we got guns now.” Wait, also, can I check to see, can I check the gun to see if there’s actual bullets in it?
> Mike / G.M.: After you’ve picked up the gun, uhm, it’s a very heavy, very expensive, very complex weapon and as you pick it up, you realise that it also has on it a very complicated smart system, so that it can only be fired by uh the men who you took it off of.
Uhm, that system comes in many different forms - sometimes it’s fingerprint, sometimes it’s biometric, sometimes it’s a comlink connection, uh sometimes it’s RFID - so you can’t tell right now you, you could, y’know, futz with it a little bit longer to try to- try to see but the digital readout on it that would tell you all of the pertinent information about it works - the gas suppression system, the silencer system, how much - how many rounds are in it - just uh has a big old lock on it right now.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Cool. So we can hack these later. Do you wanna skedaddle? [00:39:59] > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I think we should try to get to the car. I’d like to try to con
these guys but I don’t think they care, so we gotta-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, uh, Viv, can you move?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I can move, just gotta keep my eyes on them, and we-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Okay.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] -might be able to use them.
Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] “Can we go out the back? I mean, the door is locked, but can we - “ is it possible to break the door down, Universe?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, I mean just, if you hit it hard enough, you can- you will break it. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah let’s try.
> Mike / G.M.: You just- you just don’t know exactly- you know what I mean, like?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Lash you ready?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Or can one of you actually restrain the other one for me, or do we have rope, or anything like that?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] One of us has rope for sure.
Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] We had to give everything up.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Seeing how his helmet reacted to your arm, we might be able to just use that.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] They probably have uh ties and stuff on them, like zip ties and stuff- > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] They’re riot control. Luxe does a quick check. They have uh standard issue metal cuffs or uh riot ties, like the ties for wrists and stuff.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah you can see that on their belt they have yeah like a sort of thick plastic- > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: -things that you, you would slip two, uh-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: -two hands through.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We put them on both of them.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] & Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yep.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] And restrain them.
> Mike / G.M.: They fight but they are either confused or under control, so...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK - uh, which one is the one that uh TK hurt his fist on?
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm the one who is being restrained-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Held.
> Mike / G.M.: -by his friend.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So TK takes off his helmet and punches him in the face [ Jenn scoffs].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Luxe is disappointed because he, he - [Nick laughs nervously]. He really, really wants this to be okay when we’re gone, uhm but he says-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Not very hard, just like a-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] But he says to both of them, “You’re going to be hearing from Verne about this, we really do work for Verne”. It doesn’t matter if it’s true, I’m not trying to con ‘em, I’m just leaving that with them.
> Mike / G.M.: I don’t give a shit who you work for scumbag! > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Doesn’t matter.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Uh, yeah-
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah he struggles and uh-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Now TK really just wants to punch ‘em. > Mike / G.M.: Y’know-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Can I do it?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] [inaudible] door.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean he’s- are- are-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I don’t think we need to assault an officer, but obviously you will be
doing whatever you wanna do.
> Mike / G.M.: Do you also tie his feet up? I mean ‘cause like he still- > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, we tie their arms and feet up, yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Let’s go to the door?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] The door, the door is still-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] -is locked, we have to break it down.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Okay, I think we should try to get this door open.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Can we use the rifles as clubs and just beat at it?
> Mike / G.M.: Sure.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I give it to Lash ‘cause she’s much stronger than I am.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] You ready?
> Mike / G.M.: Both of you just roll Strength.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Lash, roll Strength, but also roll Will + Firewall.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Two hits. Bad boy.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I got four hits.
> Mike / G.M.: On Will + Firewall?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yes. And then, do I take a mou- wound modifier for Body? Okay, yes.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re rolling Strength, not Body though.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Oh, Strength. Uh, four, three.
> Mike / G.M.: You can see that when you hit it [ Slamming against the door ] you are separating it from the- like the lock is slowly being wedged out of the hole that it sits in. Uhm, you don’t quite get it but you feel like with another couple hits it’s gonna come through and you’re gonna be able to smash right through it. So just roll Strength again
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Okay, and then I’m gonna- I wanna run Paint Job again, afterward. > Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I got zero hits.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I got two.
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm, on your Strength? Okay, the door flies open [ Door slams open ] and you are greeted with a familiar all-white, uh concrete hallway, over-it hallway.
[Rioting Fades Away]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Love that.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Start to sprint?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yes.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: It is- it is completely empty, there is no-one in this back hallway.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I do- I do wanna erase that last mark.
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm I will let you take the length of the hallway to run Paint Job and to erase that last mark.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Cool, I think that’s...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv has the uh, policeman still join them but she makes him run ahead of
her, down the hallway.
> Mike / G.M.: You still have that guy with you?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Oh yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Oh, oh right, okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So this is kidnapping, that’s worse than punching a cop.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I just wanna make sure that we’re okay when we go outside.
> Mike / G.M.: So what do you wanna- tell me you wanna go, what do you wanna do?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] We wanna get to the car.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] We gotta get to Henley.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay uh, so just to be clear, you guys are also- you are heading for Henley, you are not heading for the location that you found that was like conspicuously-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I mean, no, we gotta- we, we should- > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] We’re heading for Bentley.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] We can figure out in- with Verne maybe later, if we can do anything about-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You snake through the hallways of the Bloomberg-Javits Center, following the rough map on your heads-up display that you have, you can sort of tell from the map that they gave you of the conference locations where the back of the conference center is, and you emerge through uhm another door this time one that is locked but since you’re on the right side you can get through very easily and uh you get out into the hot Manhattan afternoon [ Distant Traffic].
You’ve been spending all morning in this overly air-conditioned place and it sorta hits you like a tonne of bricks that it’s a hundred degrees outside, really high humidity, and you all realise sorta like you’ve been through a lot, you’re like a little tired, like a little worse for wear, uhm no-one’s really hurting, but like it’s also not ideal, and you have a police officer in tow, who, as you get outside, uhm sort of like comes to, like shakes a little bit and turns around and just uh looks Viv in the eyes and says [ Deep Inhalation ] “Thank you”, and then, and then just runs off in the direction uh that you were all heading, uhm off into horizon forever [ Shannon laughs ].
He walks, he walks into the sea and is never seen by his family again. His name was Greg Sullivan, uh he was a perfectly normal man who joined the force in order to pay for his kids’ education, uh y’know he didn’t wanna become a police officer but it was the only thing that was available to him, y’know.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Should we start doing eulogies for these characters that we keep murdering by various means?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Patreon content. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Well you never see him again, his family never sees him again, that’s because after he bathes in the river, he gets really involved in like the Dum- D- Dum- Dum-Sob- Dum - they call it Dum-Sob in the future, it’s the Dom-Sub scene - and he just becomes a little leather boy-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yesss!
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] -for the rest of his days and lives very happily. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I’m very happy for him.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] He learned what he liked.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We stan a leather boy.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yes.
[00:45:16] [Interlude Plays]
[00:45:45] [Interlude Fades Out]
[ Ambient Street Noises ]
> Mike / G.M.: After you watch the officer that you had mind-controlled run off into the horizon and leave your company you realise that Henley the Bentley is probably about like a couple hundred yards to your left just outside of the main campus of the Bloomberg-Javits Center.
[ Subdued Rioting Noises ]
You’re gonna have to weasel your way through some light commotion uh but out here in the back and up towards the left it’s a little bit lighter than it was inside and definitely a lot better than it was directly in front of the Javits Centre. Uhm, do you guys do that? You just gonna-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I think we’re still sorta booking it. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re just gonna book it?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. As you move towards in the direction of the pin that Henley has dropped for you on your comlink, you actually see not Henley come into focus, but a group of people around Henley who, you can’t really tell, uh but it looks like they are protestors, uhm and it looks like they are either beating up on your car, or they are about to beat up on your car, and as you walk closer and closer uhm you hear sort of light uh thudding noises and light impact sounds [ Smack ] as people shout “fuck the police, “fuck the NYPD”, [ Banging on Car ] like “take this rat”, “cyber-pigs go home” et cetera et cetera et cetera.
So it seems like these people have mistook your matte-black, blacked-out car for a police vehicle parked at a safe distance and have assumed that it is a target of some kind.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Seems racist. Black car? Hmmm. > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Mmm.
> Mike / G.M.: Are police a race?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Mm.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I wish that we had evidence that we melted that police officer to show them.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Hey Viv do you want to melt another dude? Just to-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] No, no I think uh Luxe may have uh, a good advantage here. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I just yell, “Hey,” at the protestors, “we’re not cops!”
> Mike / G.M.: One of them turns around and you see a sort of young elfin man wearing all black and a leather jacket, and he’s got a really like sort of torn ripped-up sign at the end of a piece of plywood, and he looks at you and he looks- he like looks at all the rest of you and then turns around and then just uh puts the, the two-by-four through Henley’s driver-side window [ Glass Breaks ], and smashes it [ Jenn winces ].
Two people on either side of him turn around and look at you and seem to be listening, but aren’t stopping the people who are around them from doing anything.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK is enraged.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv has Protect Vehicle, so she quickly casts uh just a force three Protect Vehicle onto the car so there’s no further damage. That is a physical spell, it’s a sustained spell, she does have to touch the car. So uh what she does is she lunges forward and puts her hand like kind of on the back, the trunk area.
> Mike / G.M.: It’s a thin pile-up of people there’s not a lotta - not a lotta folks here, this is like, y’know, a large group of friends, not a giant crowd, uh so you do actually manage to make contact and all but those two other people kinda aren’t paying attention - they’re just kinda trying mess up this car - so they don’t even really pay you any mind.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think I want TK to try Con. He doesn’t have the skill. Can I default that?
> Mike / G.M.: You can just roll Charisma, yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I should roll for this right?
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah you should roll.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah I should- yeah okay so I’m rolling spellcast, my magic skill, so it’s twelve. At force of three I have four hits.
> Mike / G.M.: I don’t actually know what Protect Vehicle does. Does it just create a forcefield that is of armour two?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Basically, for me, the way that I would describe it is: it sort of acts like a hamster ball, around the car.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] So kind of like a bounce-back situation. People can’t damage the car
any further.
> Mike / G.M.: And can they see it?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] It’s like a shimmering spherical thing, like a hamster ball.
> Mike / G.M.: Can you- I’m sorry I’m just trying to understand. Can you reach - can you reach through it?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I can.
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Cause your hand is on the car and-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] As long as I’m touching it.
> Mike / G.M.: As long as you’re touch- Oh this is like one of those weird sweepstakes where the person who touches the car the longest wins it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Mhmm!
> Mike / G.M.: Except you’re magic.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Mhmm.
> Mike / G.M.: And it’s not like that at all whatsoever [ Laughter ].
As you cast Protect Vehicle, uh a shimmering bubble forms around it and the people who were whacking it with poles and various other implements, kicking it, uh and trying to just cause trouble are sort of pushed away, and the two people who had turned around to look at Luxe kinda get their like- like sorta like pushes them out of the way and they stumble forward a little bit, and they actually- and they look at him and they’re like “Well then what are you?”
[00:50:28]> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We’re the only four people with the power to take the - to actually take the cops down.
> Mike / G.M.: I mean I’m convinced. Do you wanna roll for it?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. [ Bijan laughs ]. As you say this, uh, the two people who turned around to make eye contact with you are like, y’know, they’re like tapping their friends on the shoulder and like telling them to turn around.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Five hits, the oppose is uhm... > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] He was just gonna let you do it.
> Mike / G.M.: No but I wanna know what the oppose is anyway, so we’ll- we’ll make it official.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] The oppose is Con or Negotiation + Intuition.
> Mike / G.M.: The younger skinny uhm elfin guy that you saw put the two-by-four through Henley the Bentley - uhm and he must have been hammering on it for a while ‘cause those windows are pretty thick - turns around, looks at his friends, and his friends are like “Yo these- I
mean this guy says he’s like, like on our side”, and uh, and he says “What do you- what do you mean to take- what do you mean take the cops down?”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I look at them and I say, “You wanna help? Go-” > Mike / G.M.: Yeah? Is this- this is your car?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes it is our car. If you wanna help, go back to the Javits-Bloomberg Center and steal the security tapes, and destroy them. Now get the fuck away from my car.
> Mike / G.M.: The force of your conviction is so strong uh that you seem to have convinced at least these three sort of most active members of the group, and they actually look at one another and are like “oh shit yeah the security tapes!” like, this place is highly surveilled, there are a bunch of protestors like so- some of them are wearing masks, but some of them are not, and uh they actually kinda like look at one another and there’s like a slight righteous nod and they all go and gather their friends that were fucking you up your car and uh the elf guy waslike “Hey uh, sorry for busting up your window uhm but uh I-”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] How much money do you have on you?
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm, no- nothing?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay. TK do you want anything else? What about his clothes?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] No he’s sulking now, ‘cause he’s- he’s like “My fucking car, like you broke my fucking window.” I think he’s - I think he’s actually just walked over to the car and is looking at the damage, sort of like stroking it a little bit.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Stroking the shimmering...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah it’s like “Oh Henley, Henley you didn’t deserve this. You’re too good for this world.”
> Mike / G.M.: All of the street toughs put their hands up as if in surrender and, and walk away and you can see as they get some distance from you they’re like having a very animated conversation and pointing at various cameras around the Javits-Bloomberg Center.
I will off-camera roll some dice for them uh after we’re concluding with playing today and we will see-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh boy.
> Mike / G.M.: -if they manage, against odds, to actually do this [Shannon laughs]. You get in
Henley the Bentley after all of the uhm, the teenz.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] When Viv removes her hand from the trunk you can hear this little bop sound, and we all get into the car.
> Mike / G.M.: Where do you want to go?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Uhhh...
> Mike / G.M.: So let’s- let’s do a lay of the land here. We’ll- this is out of game time.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Sure.
> Mike / G.M.: You have a scan of Sollix in order to implant in cold storage, if you would like to.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] We have like one day left on that [ Riot Noises Fade Out ]
> Mike / G.M.: You have the r- basically the rest of today and probably like some of tomorrow in order to get a scan of someone else if you do not want to have Sollix be your target or do anything else that you want, y’know, try to get in communication with Mo Ashina, do something else, do nothing.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Mo Ashina is the Johnson? > Mike / G.M.: Is the Johnson, yep.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I think we should get in contact with Verne as soon as possible because we just messed with the police, they have security footage of us, someone’s gonna be coming to find us I feel like we’re about to be found so we need to find Verne and like straighten out exactly what we’re doing.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, I’ll try to contact Verne again-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Maybe-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Is that where you guys wanna still go-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Maybe we can send him more of a message in video instead of calling? > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah let’s leave him a voicemail, I agree. I mean, he seems like the kind of guy who would check a voicemail.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Or just like photos and be like ‘Hi this is what we have, but also, want to talk.’
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Verne right now doesn’t know that we’re gonna maybe not hand over the footage so he might be kind of freaking out and hiding. We need to let him know we’re not gonna hand over the footage, necessarily.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] If he talks to us.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] If he talks to us.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I’m down with that.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] So let's send him a message that says that. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes.
[00:54:56]> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Immediately after you reach out this last time to Verne you receive an encrypted message [ Clink of Digital Coin ] in response uhm all it says is, ‘Too hot, laying low, do the same’, and then an image file uh is sent to you, and it’s of a uh- it’s of a uh large troll in lederhosen uh wearing a pointy little green felt hat with a red feather in it. He’s standing on a beautiful mountainside somewhere maybe in the Alps.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Uhm I share the message with everyone, if it didn’t go to them already. “He’s laying low”.
> Mike / G.M.: He’s laying low- is he in, in the Alps?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] He’s in the Alps?
> Mike / G.M.: Is that what I’m to take from that?
>Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Oh no, he’s much younger in the picture [Nick laughs]. > Mike / G.M.: Oh okay.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Okay [Jenn laughs].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Text- text him back ‘Nice pic’.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, Verne is laying low, he’s our only real shot at getting information and safety on this side of the ball otherwise we’re gonna have to go after the people we think are trying to set him up.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Meanwhile I think I wanna call Gabe in case, y’know, as our situation is now compromised, like the task at hand is now compromised, Mo Ashina knows where we live.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh right, to make sure Gabe’s okay. > Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Or that we can move the boat.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Well I don’t think- I don’t think Mo Ashina knows that we’ve- we’re- we haven’t done the job yet.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I’m just saying that, if whatever we decide, and our boat is in somehow some kind of danger, I wanna make sure that Gabe knows that we can move it or not, like what do we do when we can’t move the boat.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah that’s a- that’s a yeah- that’s a good idea to at least tell Gabe “Heads up-”
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] “-shit’s going down, be on the alert.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay I like that how do you guys feel about going unannounced to the place where Mo Ashina works, tying her up [ Jenn laughs nervously ] or restraining her in some way and getting answers from her.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I don’t think we should go over there-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] -’cause it seems like they’re pretty well secured also.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I also- I also don’t think we should go home right now, either. > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Maybe we should go to the Ball Pit.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] We could go to the Ball Pit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Let’s go to the Ball Pit!
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Have a meeting at the Ball Pit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Have some Milk.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Who are we meeting with?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Just us.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh, we should altogether-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] And then to call Mo Ashina.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, let’s go to the Ball Pit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Going to the Ball Pit.
[Ominous Transition Music]
> Mike / G.M.: As you guys are leaving the grounds of the Javits Center, the crowd starts to become a little bit less dense, you move away from all of the din, all of the shouting, you- or Henley, rather, has somehow managed to place itself in a side parking lot that is not so closely guarded as the rest of the grounds, and you manage to get through the security checkpoint that is directly in front of the Javits Center, uh that has been put up.
[Ambient Traffic Noises]
But as you traverse from the West Side north, one of the many security checkpoints that are put between the Manhattan neighbourhoods is in effect. Uh this neighbourhood actually has been put on lockdown uhm because of the riot. All the cars that are leaving the neighbourhood just go through - basically it’s like a glorified MAD scanner, that you can drive through.
You just sit uhm in traffic for a little bit, you watch cars go one-by-one through this tall twenty foot plastic thing that has just got all of these wires draped around it, you can see all of these RFID readers on it, it’s lined with bright LED lights, you can see two really bored cops standing on either side of it as they wave cars through [ Horns Honking ]. You have probably about five or six cars in front of you, so, something in the area of maybe ten minutes at most uhm before you have to go through it, is there anything that you wanna do? [ Horns Honking ] Before you get- before you have to drive through it?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Maybe we should do something about these giant guns that we have?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah, I was gonna say, can I try and uh hack the gun?
> Mike / G.M.: Uh yeah sure.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Sure.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] But also I feel like if we could- we could sell unlocked guns for extra cash.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah, but do we wanna have them in the car with us right now? > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Well are-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] While we go through the checkpoint?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We can’t just throw- they’re gonna see if we throw them out
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Right but I mean do we wanna somehow conceal them? > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Do one of you still have the helmet?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] No.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] No.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think we can-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] These guns are probably connected to the matrix, and we need to get rid
of them. I- I don’t even think hacking them- we either need to hack them to turn off their matrix- > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] -actions or we need get - or we need to dump them.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Discreetly. I think you and I- > Mike / G.M.: You’re like four cars away now.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Should we- we should just get- oh, we can’t get out of line ‘cause it looks suspicious. So we’re like... Mmm, we’re stuck with some guns, obviously [ Nick laughs ].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Some hot guns.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] We still have cop IDs, don’t we?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Would they know that these guns don’t belong to us?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yes
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Pretty easily.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] We have- we have- we have some fake credentials uh of- from the uh, the Squirrel Division, what is it?
> Mike / G.M.: The Critter Division!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] The Critter Division.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I can’t imagine they would have gigantic- [Shannon laughs].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Uh, I don’t think they need these things. So uh I think maybe we could take our chances on just uhm if you can, can you just break them with your mental techno-powers?
> Mike / G.M.: You’re like three cars away. [00:59:59]> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh boy, uh...
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah if you could like, I mean, let’s see, what can I do?
> Mike / G.M.: You just- what do you wanna do? Do you wanna erase everything that’s on
them? Do you wanna format them?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] No, we want to make-
> Mike / G.M.: Is that what you’re trying to do?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] No we wanna make sure that they- that they can’t detect them otherwise I think we’re just travelling through illegally and there’s no problem but-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Exactly. If it’s a MAD scanner type thing it’ll see whatever we have on us anyway. Uh, we could try and format the devices and y’know, and then they’re just guns, I guess?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] As long as they’re not broadcasting a signal that just tells- > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah let’s- let’s do that. I guess I’ll Format Device.
> Mike / G.M.: So while you roll that up, Luxe, can you tell me about the IDs that the MAD Scanner is - y’know like what are the SINs and the IDs that the MAD scanner is gonna see? What are you - what do you have prepared? Who are you going to pretend to be, if anyone?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] We have uh some Critter Division credentials that have been uh faked it’s uh it’s the whole team of GG Allen and Catherine O’Hara and Barney Flintstone and Oprah. And uh, so those are all standard we were at the conference but we had to leave because it got violent and that’s kind of what we’re gonna be presenting.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re about- you’re about two cars away.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] What are you doing? I’ll do it too, on the other one.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Format Device.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Format De- it’s Computer + Logic you said?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Two hits. [ Distantly ] So that’s probably not gonna work...
> Mike / G.M.: TK, try as you might, it turns out it’s a pretty complicated piece of gear and you think if you had like two more seconds you could probably figure it out but as of right now you do not get it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I had three hits, on the other gun. > Mike / G.M.: You successfully turn that gun into a paperweight. > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Great, and I hid it under the seat.
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Kay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We still have one gun.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re one car away.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I think you should hold the uh uhm can we just say we picked- picked it up?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] [Inaudible]
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] We confiscated it, from an illegal dealer > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We confiscated it from some teens!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah we’re gonna have to, yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] That’s all you man.
> Mike / G.M.: As Henley drives you through the MAD scanner, you see some dull orange and red lights light up as one of the very bored looking police officers suddenly sort of like comes to and flags you over to the side of the road and he goes over to the broken window and talks directly to, I assume TK is in the driver, the driver side?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Uh yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] Good afternoon individual or citizen, uh we’ve noticed - our equipment is showing some signs of potential firearms in the vehicle. Uh we’re gonna need you to uh present your SIN numbers for scanning please.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Uh, yeah. TK says, “Okay that sounds fine” and presents his Barney Flintstone SIN.
> Mike / G.M.: The piece of equipment that he double-checks the SIN with uh seems to beep happily, and he wants to know about the Critter Division. He’s never heard of it before.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] It’s a pleasure to see someone else on the uh police and private security industry, Officer Flintstone it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve never heard of uh, what is this, a Crit- Critter Division, sir?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, yeah...
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] What is it you do there, sir?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We- we catch critters, and study them. It’s- it’s uhm.... a science outfit.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] Well it sounds a lot better than standing out here and running an old MAD detector all day sir, I’ll tell you that.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I can tell you it is.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] Unfortunately sir because we’ve detected some firearms in the car and I can see here the Critter Division is not rated for firearm deployment we are going to have to do an ocular assessment of the individuals inside the vehicle and any firearms that could be present sir.
> Mike / G.M.: He starts to stick his head - like very obtrusively and awkwardly [ Shannon laughs ] - stick his head into the driver side window.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] Sorry sir this is a standard ocular assessment sir if you could lean back sir.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK leans back and is just like “Look, we, we confiscated this from teens, you can take it if you need it.”
> Mike / G.M.: I’m gonna say, allow yourself to roll, uh roll Charisma. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] It is two dice [ Taylor laughs ].
> Mike / G.M.: But if Luxe- if Luxe wants to roll straight Charisma-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Teamwork!
> Mike / G.M.: I will allow you to extend your dice pool and limit by however many successes he gets.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] If you totally fail this roll this is gonna be very funny.
> Mike / G.M.: ‘Cause- ‘cause like right, you’ve watched him do this over the day, like, you’re
on his vibe, you’re on his wavelength.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] He’s- TK’s like sweating bullets, he’s really- he’s really not- this is not something he likes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I got two hits.
> Mike / G.M.: So add two to your dice pool.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] One hit [ Bijan laughs ].
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Wisdom or Intuition? > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I think it’s Intuition.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah I would roll Intuition.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Or Negotiation, if you have that.
[01:05:02][ Bijan and Jenn laugh ]
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] Well alright that checks out. Looks like you’ve done a great job here Officer uh taking... whoa boy how’d these minors retrieve a firearm of this capacity and quality? Phwoa, boy what’s the world coming to? Kids huh?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Kids, huh.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop] Well you’ve done a great job Officer and I hope uh you’ll take this back to the Critter department evidence locker and I wish you all the speed with the honor and security uh.. Personally sir, it’s great to see that a thin blue line extends even to... [ Taylor breaks down laughing ]
> Mike / G.M.: Uh.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh my god.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Traffic Cop ] “Even- even as far as the Critter Division Officer, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” And he looks at everyone else in the van. “Y’all have a great day now.”
> Mike / G.M.: The readout on Henley turns from a dull red to a bright green and waits for a tap on the ignition button in order to go back into autopilot.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK taps it and says, “Thank you sir. Cops out!” [Cool Scene Transition Music]
[01:06:42][Cool Scene Transition Music Fades Out]
> Mike / G.M.: You guys wanna go to the Ball Pit?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Just to lay low and talk.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Mhmm. TK’s really craving some Milk.
> Mike / G.M.: You’re going to the right place. You pull up to the Ball Pit, and it is the very familiar colorful walk-in freezer door plastered with a bunch of balloons. You open the door and... uh, Viv, do an assensing test for me. Do some assensing.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Okay. My Assensing is at a four and I have my Intuition at four, so that’s eight.
> Mike / G.M.: Don’t you have a little - do you not have a boost to that, or do you?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] No. Oh, two hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Who is going in first? Tell me the order that people are going into the Ball Pit. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Viv is generally last, so-
> Mike / G.M.: And TK was pretty excited.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Yeah I’ll go in first.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Then you and then me.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yep, then, then Luxe.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Then Lash.
> Mike / G.M.: So as TK opens the door, you come into focus in the world like, you had some difficult experiences over the last couple hours, maybe were kinda just zoning out in the car and there’s something about maybe about the sound of the Ball Pit door opening, or you know you expecting music to come pouring out as soon as it’s open uhm, and you kinda like snap to and you realise that there is a- a magical presence that is very powerful at the Ball Pit.
You can’t tell whether it’s good or bad, uh you don’t really know, but you can tell that it’s very strange and that it looks - it’s just very unique, it’s very hard to tell what it is and it is a sort of astral signature that is unlike anything you’ve seen before and it kinda seems like it’s trying to - it’s trying to wrestle itself into the shape that you see.
The rest of you don’t see any of this. You don’t assense, is that correct, TK?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Uhm... he’s got uhm ma- a magic skill, so maybe theoretically, but I don’t- I don’t know.
> Mike / G.M.: Opening the door, you get like yeah like a light sort of ‘oh there’s something different about the Ball Pit from the last time we were here’. Uhm, and what you notice is that there is no music playing, and the thousands of pinpricks of light that were in that lighted, lifted hallway are not on, uh and the Ball Pit is dark.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Hmmm. Wait, uh- > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] What’s that Viv?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I’m feeling something. Do you remember when we were heading to Jast and I assensed the environment? I felt sort of uh turned on and warm? I don’t know how to explain this, but-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I didn’t know you were turned on.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] But that’s - this is how I detect other magic users and uh- uh- I’m not turned on!
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s good.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC, laughing ] Okay, Viv [ Shannon & Taylor laugh ].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Viv, we’re-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I’m sure - I’m sure it’s - excuse me.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Viv, we’re at work. We’re working right now.
> Mike / G.M.: Is this an HR complaint waiting to happen?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] But I just feel- I feel a presence and I don’t know if it’s familiar or not.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Are you thinking that we should check out what this is? I mean are- are you looking to stay turned off-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Stay turned on?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I’ll hang back here near the door. I just - I don’t know, I don’t feel like I’m in danger or if I’m in a safe place right now.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Viv, we don’t want to leave you alone.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I’m gonna to send a message to Gabriel and see if there’s anything
that’s happened with the Ball Pit-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] -since uh the last time we were here.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Right.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Right, okay.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Great job.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Should I call the Johnson? I know we were thinking about doing that. Should I do that now?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Well let’s figure out what’s weird about this thing. > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I’ll call the Johnson later.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, so I guess I’ll send a message to Gabriel and ask “Yo did anything happen with the Ball Pit since the last time we met you there?”
[01:10:05]> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Gabriel?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC, sing-song ] Gaaaabe.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Gabriel?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC, sing-song ] Gaaaaabe is... There’s no reply. Resply.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Curious. I guess we just gotta go in then.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv kinda rubs her stomach, a little bit, like she’s hungry, but-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] TK is-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Not exactly sure what is happening.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] TK’s in it for the Milk. Uhm, so we walk inside, what do we see?
> Mike / G.M.: In order to find out, Taylor and I have to roll some dice, hold on [Mike chuckles].
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Hoo boy.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Uh-oh. What happened to Gabe?
[ Crash of Dice ]
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s too many.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I don’t like that.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Give me a final tally. I think I’m in the ballpark.
> Mike / G.M.: Uh, it is... I believe it is twenty. Hold on, hold on, hold on hold on hold on... > Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Twenty? That is...
> Mike / G.M.: Roll twenty.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Jesus.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC, bad Irish accent ] Jaysus, Meery, and Juiceph.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] That’s too many dice... Well it’s an illusion so it can’t kill us all. > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Nine.
> Mike / G.M.: Please roll, Taylor...
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Mmm.
> Mike / G.M.: Fourteen dice.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Four.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay, hold on. Please take two stun damage.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Alright [ Taylor clears throat ].
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] What? [ Jenn laughs ].
> Mike / G.M.: When you guys walk into - are you staying behind or are you walking in? > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I’m just behind; I’m the last person.
> Mike / G.M.: But you’re still gonna go in?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yep.
> Mike / G.M.: Okay. When you guys walk into the Ball Pit, uhm it’s a little dark as you reach the end of the floating hallway, and it’s almost like you kinda have to feel your way around but like you’ve been here before so you sorta know which way to go.
Uhm and when you do make your way in to the dark and surprisingly quiet room uh, it’s kinda like someone just flips on all the house lights, uhm all at once, and you get to see all the grime on the floor, you get to see where drinks have been spilled over the years of this place uh has been open, you get to see sorta some of the the balls are actually a little rickety, and like maybe you question how safe this idea for a bar really is.
You also see three figures; you see three people. The first is closest to you. It is a dismembered body in a pool of blood. It is a hairless man covered in tattoos. You see, slumped over the bar, a squat man [ Horrified Intake of Breath] with a beard-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] No. [ Crackling Electronic Music]
> Mike / G.M.: And floating, several feet off the ground, in the centre of the Ball Pit is a five foot ten human-ish figure with brick red skin wearing a bright ornate very intricately decorated glistening sort of sparkling gold tunic with billows and billows and billows of fabric. It stretches from his shoulders, sort of extends out, goes all the way down to his knees where you can see his red calves sticking out from underneath it, and his golden slippers.
There’s a small golden crown that levitates slightly from the top of his head and spins. He’s bald, and ringing his body are hundreds of arms moving this way and that, making little waves in the air and you can see his dark eyes, and he opens his mouth, and speaks.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] Apologies for you friend, and acquaintance. It’s necessary to display the veracity of the message I have come to give you.
> Mike / G.M.: His tunic sort of ripples a little as he bobs up and down in the air.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ maybe OOC ] Viv is still not sure if she’s turned on or not [Shannon & Mike
laugh].
> Mike / G.M.: That’s fucking wild.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ maybe IC ] Hard yes from TK.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] I have come to deliver a message to you. In two days your friend Yuri will offer you a new contract. You will not accept it, and should you interfere with Jast Columnar, once more, the consequences to you will be... unbearable. Do you understand?
> Mike / G.M.: As he finishes this sentence, you see all of the arms that are around him, all of the arms that sort of ring him in a kind of Lovecraftian peacock-ing, uhm are a dull kind of gold color, and as he says, this four brick red arms come out from underneath the tunic, two attached to his shoulders, and two extend out from his back and they are tipped with long brass blades.
[01:15:11] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] The consequences are mortal. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] O-kay [ Taylor laughs ]. This is a lot. Who are you?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] I am a messenger.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I don’t have time for this shit.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s our fucking friend. Tell me this is a joke, tell me that’s not Gabe. That’s our fucking friend.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] “I have one request in addition,” and he looks at Viv.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Speak.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] “Of you.” And he begins to sort of float down and toward you, and he says, “You are in possession of an artifact that belonged to Jast Columnar. Where is it?”
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] It is at the bottom of the sea.
> Mike / G.M.: You’ve seen him the whole time, he’s been very kind of like even-keel. He hasn’t really - he’s had a very straight face and as soon as you say this he - you can tell he’s got like this slight look of just total confusion.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] Are you lying? Do you attempt to deceive me?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] No.
> Mike / G.M.: Uh, okay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Fucking get ready motherfuckers.
> Mike / G.M.: Uhm.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Great.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Ohhhh yeah dog.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Great.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] That’s the six. C’mon... Hehehe.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I see like four thousand. There’s gotta be a limit on this person.
> Mike / G.M.: Uh, there is.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] There’s gotta be a limit.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah, there is.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Technically.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] They can only kill us once [ Jenn laughs ].
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Tchah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] As far as we know there are no ghosts in the Shadowrun universe.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I feel like this is-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] There are. Are there?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I don’t know if Gabe is really dead, I feel like this is maybe an illusion.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] It might be. We don’t know that.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] We don’t know that, but it could be.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Can we tell how powerful this magic user is? I mean very quickly. > Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Well I’d have to assense again, but do I have time to do that before he
attacks me?
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] One thing we know is that Viv is not horny for this.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Situation: not horny.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Nope.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] What was her name? Uh, the flamingo-
> Mike / G.M.: Martha.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Martha!
> Mike / G.M.: Martha.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Viv liked Martha.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah, Martha-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] We all liked Martha.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I was hoping it’d be Martha
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] In the meantime can I-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] I fought so hard to bring her back [ Nick & Taylor laugh ].
> Mike / G.M.: And I- I’m- I’m on board. I also love Martha.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] I like Martha.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Can-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC, imitating Martha ] “Hello” [ Jenn laughs ].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Can Luxe go check on Gabe or is Luxe like, ‘this is- wouldn’t be a good idea’?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] You’re what we would call rapt, and you’re about to find out why.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Yeah I mean, I would let you, if you wanna.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah I wanna see if Gabe is actually-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] To go run away?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] No-
> Mike / G.M.: No.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Just to see if Gobe- Gabe is okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Wants to go- wants to-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Like to move?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Yeah, laying right there. [ IC ] Luxe goes to check on Gabe to see if his friend has actually been decapitated.
> Mike / G.M.: When you get close you can tell that the heat from the blood indicates it’s very fresh and that this has happened maybe within the last five minutes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Luxe just starts crying.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as The Emissary ] You can hide nothing from me. All is
revealed [ Ominous Music ].
> Mike / G.M.: Everybody please roll Willpower + Logic.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Five hits.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Is this a social- a social test at all? > Mike / G.M.: No.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Mental.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ OOC ] Viv got six hits.
> Mike / G.M.: Thank you.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] I got three.
> Mike / G.M.: Got it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] I got five hits.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Shit, we rolled pretty well.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ OOC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: You guys did roll really well. He’s gonna - he’s gonna hurt himself a little bit.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] Casting big magics huh?
> Mike / G.M.: It’s to describe uhm in words what it is that you feel. It’s like someone is thinking for all of you.
You don’t feel the need to take any actions, you don’t feel compelled to move, but it’s like someone is rifling through the card catalogue of your own brain and that you for the - maybe for the first time in your whole lives are no longer in charge of what you think about, and you see all of these things sort of just flitting past very quickly in your mind’s eye and the - the environment of the Ball Pit kinda fades away as you remember an old boxing match, as you remember some footraces, maybe some bets that you won, some bets that you lost, as you remember some high-powered meetings and you think fondly about your condo uh, and you remember all of the conversations and fights that you have had with your contractor.
Viv, you remember a hundred years of beaches and individual seashells that you’ve found, and different colored sand, and you remember...
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] That I know them.
> Mike / G.M.: They’re - and they’re friends of yours. And you remember, not of your own volition, but you are forced to remember, very clearly, the moment that you offered Jast’s gun to the sea, and you threw it into the east river, this gleaming object into the water, and it rushed up, cradled it, grabbed it, and brought it to the depths, and as you come to, the memories fade. You are back in the Ball Pit, and Chester’s standing in front of you, asking you...
[01:20:31] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] You folks okay? You don’t have to drink to stay, but you can’t just stand in the middle of the pathway like that.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Oh! Uhh [ Viv clears her throat ], uh, ah yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Ches - Does Chester have a big beard?
> Mike / G.M.: Chester’s got a big beard.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ OOC ] Okay, alright. I just wanted to make sure that was... [ Nick starts laughing ].
> Mike / G.M.: I don’t know if that’s canon but that’s how I picture him, so I don’t know. Just ‘cause Taylor’s got a big beard [ Mike laughs ].
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Can we try to call Gabe again?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Yeah, go ahead, uh... > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I try to call Gabe again
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] We just shtarff- Viv starts shuffling into the Ball Pit like, like “oh, ah, duh, yeah okay” [ Jenn laughs ].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK’s like “What. The. Fuck.”, and just has a like - he like either needs a nap or just like needs a big drink, and is just driven by sleep or drunken - like he’s like “This is too much for me, I’ve had a long day, it’s like 1PM.”
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] I say “Whoa aren’t we gonna talk about what just happened a lil’ bit?”
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] TK’s already halfway to the bar.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I, uh...
> Mike / G.M.: Chester’s following closely behind you.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester] It’s uh, it’s happy hour.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv is just looking around the Ball Pit for anyone that looked like the person that was speaking to them.
> Mike / G.M.: Ball Pit is completely empty except for Chester. There’s no-one here. > Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Hmm...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Hey Chester?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Yo.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Uhm, do you know when Gabe is gonna be here?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Uh, I’d have to check the schedule but uh,
probably at least once or twice in the next week.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh, okay. When’s the last time you talked to him? > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Uh, couple of hours ago.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh okay. Do you have any of those...
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Milk?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] No.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Oh.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] The juiceboxes.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Fresh out.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] You’re s- fresh out? Okay. They must go real quick, like right at 9AM when you open, when is it?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Well it is happy hour.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay. Alright. Well there’s nobody here, so I guess you drink them and-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] You just missed the lunch rush.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Just missed the lunch rush. Always missing it. I’ll take a milk.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Please. Big, big glass of milk for me.
> Mike / G.M.: We didn’t resolve your - if you wanna reach out to Gabe...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah I’m reaching out to him. I- I already sent him a message but I mean I understand that he might not get back immediately, but...
> Mike / G.M.: There is- yeah, there is no reply
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] “Wait, was this a warning to us?” [ Shannon laughs ]. Lash just
cannot-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Good job Lash.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Lash cannot figure out what is going on.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yes, we - guys, I don’t know if I told you this, but back at uhm the Javits-Bloomberg Center, we got a message from Yuri offering us a job in two days. This thing just-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh is that who you were on the phone with?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah I know-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] During the fight?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, I apologize, alright? I didn’t have much else to do [ Shannon laughs ]. I wanted to take the call-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah, just take a call.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah I did! I took a call.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] I understand, it’s nice to feel useful, but you could’ve helped.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I could’ve helped and I didn’t, because I took a call and we’re here now, and so-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] In his defense we’re not actually done with this job, so, we may as well get as many as we can.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, he did offer us a job in two days, so, uh - to meet him in two days for a job - uh, this warning was-
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Did you say yes?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I th- I think I said it would be really easy. The exact words [ Taylor
laughs ]: it was- would be over- I would be over-easi-ly.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh...
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Like I would be over there, easily. It was a- it was a-
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Were you punning again?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I tried to pun. It wasn’t easy.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Jesus fucking Christ. We talked about this.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, but basically, that’s a yes.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] We talked about this.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] That’s a yes, I did say yes, but I guess, y’know, I don’t know how seriously we should take this warning but uhm, I - it seems pretty serious. Uhm...
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah, I would say.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Viv sort of like bends over and her hair just falls forward, and she just
kind of massages her scalp. You can hear her like scratching like like this.
> Mike / G.M.: Little bit of sand falls out.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah like a- a- like a sand dollar also drops to the ground.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh, that reminds me! Viv, I- I picked up these two rings from that uh Cairn fella [ Magical Keening ]. Uhm, I thought maybe you could use them, or at least know what they are.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Oh.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I give- I give the rings that were in my pocket to Viv. > Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Okay. Huh.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Just taking calls and stealing rings over there. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay yeah.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] A lotta shit we don’t know about.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I know.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I’ll- I’ll look into this. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Thank you.
> Mike / G.M.: You can tell right off the bat that these are powerful foci, but you, yeah, without spending a little bit of time sort of examining them you can’t tell exactly what level or what they’re good for.
Uhm, in your hand they do feel like they’re kind of a chore to hang on to. Like they, even though they’re not slipping out of your hand, as soon as Luxe hands them to you, you kinda get this inescapable feeling [ Magical Keening ] that you’re like worried you’re gonna drop them or you can’t actually hold on to them.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah, so she clutches them in her hand, but then stands straight up again and says, “Whoever that was, it was looking for the gun. Jast’s gun.”
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] But I sacrificed it to the sea. It was the only thing they were after, I think. > Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Sounds safe.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] You think they’ll be able to find the gun again?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Perhaps. But I do not boss the sea around.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] No.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I answer to the sea.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Any word from Gabe?
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I’m- I’m just- should we go back and check on him?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Hey, uh, four milks here.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah, thank you.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] And uh, I’ll tell ya, these are gonna be on the house.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh thanks Chester. Really appreciate it.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Thanks Chester.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] What’s the uh-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Looks like you could uh... use it.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Yeah. Did- has anybody come in here in the last hour or so? > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Well yeah I just told ya earlier-
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] The lunch rush, yeah, yeah.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] -you missed the lunch rush.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] I’m sorry, has there been anybody that’s come in in the last ten minutes?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Well it’s the weirdest thing, y’know, I’m not really one for taking breaks but just a while ago I felt sleepy and laid down and took a nap for about ten minutes.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Oh.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] You took a nap?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester ] Mhmm. Right there behind the bar.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Did you choose to take a nap?
[01:24:59] > Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Chester, sighing ] In hindsight perhaps not.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh boy [ Mike laughs ].
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] Did it feel good?
> Mike / G.M.: Does anyone really choose anything?
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC as Chester ] I’ve always said that the nap chooses you.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] He’s- he’s whittling [ Mike, Bijan & Taylor laugh ] a piece of wood.
> Mike / G.M.: Somehow there’s a porch in the Ball Pit now? Where did this rocking chair come from?
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] TK sits in the rocking chair. > Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, uhm-
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] There’s not a rocking chair. That’s not canon! > Bijan / "T.K.": [ OOC ] I dunno man.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Okay guys, I think we drink these milks and we high-tail it to find Gabe.
> Bijan / "T.K.": [ IC ] So back home?
> Mike / G.M.: You’re all drunk! Okay.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We go to see if Gabe’s okay.
> Mike / G.M.: Henley the Bentley takes you to uh the parking lot near the boat, and you cross the pier to get to the Mrs. Egg.
Viv, were you to assense - I’m just gonna give it to you - were you to assense, you would see that there is basically like almost a magic slime trail here, and that someone with a very unique, very easily recognisable astral signature - this person that you just interacted with -
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah. [ Ominous Music ]
> Mike / G.M.: - was here probably an hour ago, maybe an hour and a half ago. They are no longer here, but they’ve - they’ve sort of slimed their way through.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Ugh, you guys, [ Viv sighs ]. I’m getting that feeling again: that I’m not quite turned on but sort of.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We gotta find a better way to say this. > Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] We know- you know what it means- > Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Aroused.
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay.
[ All laugh, especially Taylor ]
> Mike / G.M.: It is more succinct.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ OOC ] Fucking take three Viv.
[ Mike and Taylor recover from their laughter ]
> Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Okay, yeah, let’s use aroused. What were you saying?
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] I have that same feeling that- from when we walked into the Ball Pit, I felt uncomfortable, uh-
> Mike / G.M.: But I would say it’s not nearly as strong, like you know- > Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Yeah.
> Mike / G.M.: There’s like, when you were going to the Ball Pit-
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] Trail’s disappearing
> Mike / G.M.:There was this bright, like, yeah exactly.
> Jenn / "Viv": [ IC ] This person was here.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] Oh no.
> Shannon / "Lash": [ IC ] & Nick / "Luxe": [ IC ] Gaaaaaaaaabe! [ Main Theme begins ]
> Mike / G.M.: You are now leaving Fun City. Thanks for listening, if you want to support the show, get access to ad-free episodes, our Discord, Fun Chatty and more head to and of course thank you so much to all help keep this ship afloat give us a rating on iTunes come say hey to any or all of us on Twitter.
[ Main Theme ends ]
[ Outro Theme begins ]
> Bijan: I am Bijan Stephen, and I am T.K. You can find me online @bijanstephen on Twitter, which is B-I-J-A-N S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Or on Instagram, and you should just google that.
> Jenn: I'm Jenn de la Vega! I am Viv. You can find me online @randwiches, that's the word sandwiches but just replace the S with an R.
> Nick: This is Nick Guercio; I play Luxe Scythe. You can find me on Twitter @nguersh and Instagram @nguercio, G-U-E-R-C-I-O.
> Shannon: This is Shannon Odell; I play Lash Goodbog. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @shodell, S-H-O-D-E-L-L.
> Taylor: This is Taylor Moore and I play all the Bad Boys. I'm @taylordotbiz.
> Mike: My name is Mike Rugnetta, I am your G.M. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @mikerugnetta. You can find the show on Twitter @FunCityVentures. Fun City was recorded at Fortunate Horse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It was produced, edited, and sound designed by me, Mike Rugnetta.
Pixlriffs is a hot cup of soy-caffe at the start of a long day.
All of the show’s music is by Sam Tyndall. Our art is by Tess Stone. Our Discord mods are Olivia Gulin, Kit, and Kestrel, and the voice of Artemis is Molly Templeton.
[ Outro Theme concludes ]
> Mike / G.M.: The elevator in Mo Ashina’s spacious office dings, and opens. Out of it steps
Martha.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Martha ] Ms. Ashina?
> Mike / G.M. [ IC as Mo Ashina ]: What is it? I have a lot on my plate right now. Please come to me with solutions and not problems.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Martha ] I have something you need to see. > Mike / G.M. [ IC as Mo Ashina ]: Okay.
> Taylor / "The Bad Boys" [ IC as Martha ] Uh, she makes a slight twitch of her wrist. She takes control of the wall of screens in the room, and on every one is the same low-quality security camera footage of the Javits-Bloomberg Center, and they’re all showing the same thing: they’re showing Cairn, the security mage, turning into a puddle of liquefied flesh and fats.
> Mike / G.M. [ IC as Mo Ashina ]: “Jesus Christ [ Mo sighs ]. I should’ve known!” Mo Ashina puts on one of her haptic gloves and makes a decisive downward pointing motion towards her desk, and then says, “Jerome! Get me B-Team on the line.”
[01:30:26] [Spookier Outro Theme concludes]