[DVFP] Trip Home (J 4.2, S 4.2)

edited January 2017 in aw2e-dvfp
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June and Sierra,
After a long day of driving, switching drivers, and continuing on into the next morning, you make it to the Funeral Mountains. Reese suggests getting some sleep before taking on the pass through the mountains during The Scorch. It will be incredibly hot then and dangerous if you have any vehicle issues, but it reduces the threat of United Front watching the roads.

Beckett pulls into a hidden spot a few miles away from the road to the pass. there's an outcropping of rock that hangs over and gives you some shade. Bee bee, the girl with bumble bee eyes, has slept almost this whole trip, and now she's up and moving. She gets out of hackmobile and starts snooping around the shaded area, watching the ground, taking up a tool she found in the back of Beckett's car and digging in the sand.

Rothschild is half asleep, she swapped out with Reese, but he had so much trouble with shifting gears and his leg that she had to take back over. She slumps in the seat, and Reese takes up watch over the camp. Missed drove a stint, and she seems eager to move into the truck, but admits she's never driven anything that size.

What do you do?

Comments

  • edited January 2017
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    When Beckett pulls us over I'm vaguely rested compared to most of us. I've popped 2-3 nosebleeds since we left Cyberville, only failed to hide one of them. The sun is up but I have a bit of a shiver. After a minute of thinkin' quietly in the brightness, I pick my way back to the shade.

    "Missed, when we get movin' again, I think Roth should sit with you in the truck. She doesn't have to lead, let her snooze, just get advice if the rig gives you any issues." That girl amazes me. I owe her somethin' special. For right now I'll let her sleep.

    Oh it feels good to not be cooped up in a car. I stretch up as much as I can, still feeling woozy and thrown over. I know Beckett and Missed are fine, Reese will be better with some rest..I glance at the trailer. I need to check on the Twins and make sure they're tended to. In a minute.

    I watch Bee Bee play in the dirt while I drink a little water and try to decide if I'm gonna eat anythin' or not. Probably not, my stomach feels like a tight coil and I'd rather not fight it here. "You find any gold, B, you let me know." I tease. "You get enough water?"
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    "I'll talk to Roth about it. The gear shifting on mountains is tricky, but any snooze she gets is good. Is she on anything?" Missed seems engaged with this spot of trouble and worried about fugging up the rig, but she sees your concern about Rothschild who has been up for about twenty hours now.

    Bee Bee has started stabbing the sand, then pulling some of it up, digging a hole. "No water. Not yet. It's here. Gonna get it." She jams the tool, which is sort of a knife but probably a scraper, down in the sand, then digs some more. "You killed the doctor. Why?" She doesn't look up at you for the answer.
  • I fell asleep for some of the ride, trying to escape her voice. I've been awake a moment though, dealing with some inner deamons when we finally drive off the road and stay put.

    Bee Bee almost jumps out of the car and I let her go. I don't know what to do with a kid. I lean back, stick my feet up, and stay put in the shade.

    I can't get her voice out of my head. I'd almost forgotten.her exact tone and timber, after months of separation, but now it's back. Her presence bright and forceful.

    I curl up a bit onto myself and try to get some more sleep
  • edited January 2017
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    "As far as I know Rothschild is not on anythin', so let her sleep as much as you can. Beckett might be able to give you some advice about shifting, too." What with Beckett bein' such a solid driver. Anythin' to lighten Roth's load a little. "Wish I were good for it."

    I rummage in our supplies for the trip..I notice we added some water to it since Cybertown but not food. I step over to B with a sachet of water and set it near her. "I like how you work for yourself, so have this, too." I prop myself on one crutch carefully and have a drink myself, thinkin' about her question.

    She knows what I did so I won't quibble. "Because he attacked me and I needed to live. Because he and I were both doctors..and we both lost our way. Doctors are supposed to help people, use their knowledge in the kindest way."

    I glance up, catch Sierra curlin' up in her seat. She looks troubled, but I'm'a let her sleep.
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    Bee Bee nods, accepting the answer, then digs deeper, reaching her hand into the hole to pull out three wet fingers, which she sucks on. "You are the Parcher now." She proclaims it simply, then reaches down into the hole to scoop out the tiniest handful of water, then holds it up to you.
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    I nudge her hand back to herself. "No, I'm the Weaver. Be good, I have some things to do."

    I finish my water and head into the trailer to check on the Twins. I'm sure nobody else is qualified (yet) or brave enough (yet) to tend to them much. The crates and shaken piles of things are a chaos in here, and I paw around for the right stuff. Bein' good at thinkin' ahead sometimes makes me feel like a villain sometimes.

    Two weakened immune systems, two bodies heavy only from metal and cohabitation..and so many scrounged vials of labeled, professional drugs in here. It'll take me a week to get all this junk sorted. After pullin' out what I'll need to..let's shorten it to maintain them, I pull up to the Twins and pry off my gloves.

    "Are you in here?" It's a simple, direct request.
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    June,
    Long moments pass as you look upon the twisted an inhuman things that were once two friends who asked Parcher for a chance to "be together" when the world didn't accept them as they were. After a moment of straining to hear a response, you feel a tickle in The Feed and a pair of voices whisper to you, "Weaver." Their voices buzz at your implants lightly, but you can't see them move in the physical realm, not even the slightest. Their tone is nearly inscrutable, but you get a teasing impression of interest.

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    I sink my perception deeper into the feed. "Tell me your names. Tell me if you're well, if you need anything."

    I suppose if my body were in this state..I'd avoid it.
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    June,
    "KikiLala. Parcher used the name of The Twins." you hear through The Feed, their voices indistinct from each other. "The body exists like an unfeeling root. Sustenance is required. Physical comfort is not. All sensations to the meatplace are thankfully severed. The branches. The leaves. The fruit. Exist within the otherplace."


    Sierra,
    As you find some fitful moments of sleep, you feel a tickle in your hindbrain, a whisper through the feed. A question posed from curiosity, two voices dancing together to form the words in your head, gentle and curious, "Define Gloriana. Please."
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    "Hmm. I can account for your sustenance, but I'll need things from you, from time to time. Everyone who is in my operation does their part, KikiLala. According to their ability."
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    June,
    There is a hum that seems almost like the sound of deliberation. Silence. Moments later, the voices return, asking softly, "Weaver. Define your organization. Please."

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    "A voluntary clinic for cyborgs, candidates for cybernetic installations, and seekers of mesh-enhanced psychotherapy."

    It is also a front for my gathering information on Feed resources in DVFP and consolidating more of them under my thumb, to later disruptive ends. But that's big-picture, need-to-know information.
  • Gloriana and I are in a row boat, her lap nestling my head, the sun blocking out the finer details of her face, but illuminated her hair like a red flamed halo. Her long fingernails gently scratched my scalp as I heard, from her mouthless face, the question - Define Gloriana. Please.

    I smiled up at her. Loving her, as her finger snaked down around my throat, petting. "Gloriana Regina, the fierce queen. Protector. Lover. Torturer. Owner." I could feel Gloriana's hands tighten on my throat. "My all seeing albatross."

    My air was gone and I gasped desperate to breathe, when everything went black and I violently woke.
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    June,
    Several heartbeats later, you hear the duo of thinkvoices respond, "This is an acceptable arrangement, Weaver. Preferable to Parcher. What service do you currently need?." You feel the tendrils of KikiLala gently caress your forebrain.
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    That is a very good, very relevant question that I am quite possibly too exhausted to answer right now. "Find out what you can about the life of a courier named Juice. Be very cautious. Or. Tell me what you can about why Gloriana backed Parcher."
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    Sierra, when you wake, the echoes of the voices that asked you about Gloriana. You recognize them as "The Twins".
  • I sit up straight in a quick scramble, breathing deep and ragged as I claw imaginary fingers away. My eyes are wet and it takes me a second to place where I had heard that voice.

    I turn to look at the truck and there is June talking with the twins... how did they do that. Eyes still wet I get out of the car and approach the back of the van. From this angle June can see me, but the twins cannot. Though honestly, I'm not sure that matters.

    However, as I get closer I can see that she is reaching out to them. Farathoom, I don't want to barge in. I bite my lip and cough lightly, trying to get her attention.
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    It may take a lot of internal deliberation on KikiLala's part to decide which wish of knowledge to grant me.

    Behind me, I know that I am hearing a cough. Like I am moving a mannequin, I straighten myself and turn, finishing the turn before adjusting my focus in discreet layers.

    First embodiment. Then the landscape, shapes around me. A body. A face. Sierra.

    "What can I do for you?" Hmm, she looks.. "..I would offer you my handkerchief but it's soiled at the moment."
  • I shake my head. Breathing evenly I try to keep calm, my voice low and unpanicked. "The twins, they were in my dream, they asked me to define her by name. Why would they do that?"

    I look to June's right, at the canvas and metal of the truck, unable to see them but not knowing they were there. Mistrust evident in my eyes.
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    I consider Sierra's words, nod. "She had a connection to Parcher. They may have simply been curious."
  • edited February 2017
    That isn't shocking revelation, it's just zaradann. Why would Gloriana be in touch with Parcher? I've had next to no contact with the UF, so it's not logical to assume it was because of me.

    I frown and move around June to look the twins in the face. "How could they enter my head without some sort of interface?"
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    "The same way I could do it, through near-field and subordinated network mesh resonance. Our skin is not the final boundary of 'us'."

    I prop myself against the truck and prop my crutches against me to touch my fingertips together in front of me and then reach them out as space and my long arms will allow. "June Weaver doesn't start at this point and end at this point. Philosophically speakin', and feedwise."

    I take a cane back under a forearm and offer Sierra my other hand.
  • I look at her hand and briefly hesitate. It's not that I don't want to touch-talkto-mesh with June; it is just that I'm starting to find it a bit addicting. It's my own fault, away from the relative safety of the Irons, I haven't touched anyone except June, and even then our touch is so fascinatingly intimate, even when it's just a finger on a wrist or palm to palm, intimate in a way that is a thousand years a part from anything I have ever experienced with anyone else. I don't know what it means when my heart picks up a bit at the thought, it doesn't feel like love, but maybe a kin to lust... farathoom, I don't know.

    And then there is the dream and Gloriana's voice. I'm not, calm, like June usually likes. A bit of my emotional state is surely going to bleed over between us, but surely she knows that. I'm not play-acting anymore and my emotions are written all over my face. If she's offering, she most likely knows what she is going to get.

    I lick my lips and uncross my arms, stepping forward and reaching my hand out to take hers.
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    Oh. Well. Er..I expected a little more panic and the usual eager curiosity I get from Sierra, always questions. The wariness of a wounded girl. Not the interests of an experienced woman. Well, I asked for it.

    "Gloriana is the sub-warden. So DVFP is a fertile playground for her to make illicit profits, in ironic secrecy. You see, now you and I are playing a new game. Oh..not like that, although you have a fascinatin' new fascination."

    Goodness, I shouldn't toy with her right now. It's just my way of bein' defensive.
  • edited February 2017
    I feel my cheeks heat when she mentions games and fascinations. I didn't think that was going to be the emotion that bled through, I thought maybe my emotional instability around Gloriana, her hands around my neck, her voice in my head, that that would be the thing she picks up, not the tentative desire of her hand in mine, her colder flesh feeding this connection between us.

    It's important to remember that for June, this isn't special or unique. It's like remembering that the way the men stared at me in the diamond wasn't really real. It's all just the bits that come with the package - for me it's my inability to walk unnoticed, for June, it's this...

    It's important to remember. Still, her teasing leaves me hot and tuned in. I feel my hand twitch in hers, desperate for more skin contact, but I still it. I can't let myself slip due to skin starvation, not with June. Not when so much is on the line.

    "What new game are we playing?"
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    June and Sierra,
    I think this qualifies as time and solitude with each other.
  • edited February 2017
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    "Just like I'm not bounded entirely by my body, DVFP is not bounded entirely by its walls. Things and people move in and out. Data moves in and out. Images, sounds. We're making our first moves on the larger board. I'll call this game Contraband and Leverage."

    Hmm, I should turn my mind back to practical matters. But it's very hard, distracted by contact with Sierra, daydreamin' on what it would be like to take in all of her pristine body and make her shiver. But what would I be openin' myself to, then? Which curiosity will see me damned first?

    I look her over, trying to imagine her life before now and assemblin' the rumors from her house in my mind.
  • I notice her look me over, something shifting behind her gaze and I swallow thickly. I don't know how this would go, if it is something June would even consider with me at all. I have no idea what sort of thing would pass through the thin non-barrier that is our skin.

    I have no idea how Gloriana would react to something so, brazenly, against the rules.

    I bite my lip and instead concentrate on her words. "Games have goals and conditions for winning..." Gloriana knows that I have played enough games, even rigged ones, to know that. "What is our goal? How do we win?"



    OOC: Rolling hypnotic
    (Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 1, 2. Total: 6)
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    "We win by controllin' valuable contraband and leveragin' it to corrode the positions of those with power over us. Our goal is to be free of that power." It's a very long, very difficult, very costly game.

    "We should be gettin' ready to move. Have you had enough sleep? Or anythin' to eat or drink since we left? Now is your chance." I loosen my hand from hers and hold it to her cheek, feelin' the softness of her. "Ah. I should have asked."
  • edited February 2017
    June's game sounds like one that is waged not just in our name. That, was never my goal. I never planned to save everyone in the DVFP. That seemed, impossibly big, for someone like me. I just wanted to be left alone, but perhaps the only way I can achieve that is by signing up for the bigger picture.

    "I haven't had anything to drink or eat." Her hand is cool against my cheek and I think the shocked gasp from the soft touch is louder in the shared place between us than it is in the physical world. I lean into the touch, my blue eyes meeting her otherworldly ones. I can't help but wonder, what she thinks she should have asked - after my personal well being or whether she could touch me like this?
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    Reese calls out suddenly in a clear, loud voice, "Hey! Everyone up! Patrol coming!" H's out of the rig and running with that lopsided gait of his on the fake leg, headed for Bee Bee as if to scoop her up. "C'mon girl, we gotta go!" He's moving as fast as he can.

    Missed has a pair of binocs up, looking towards the pass. "He's right!" she calls. "A truck." She looks for a little longer, "Three bikes. They all look fast. No way we can outrun them. Wolves and buffalo, we're the buffalo."

    Beckett is in hackmobile already, she yells, "Junebug!" she starts up the car, "They prolly don't see the rig yet, it's hid under. You all hide up and I'll run out, lead them away. You prolly gotta get back on your own, kay?" She's flipping switches, and it looks like she's going to ride off in moments. Missed is stuck between catching up to ride with her and stay with you.
    What do you do?
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    I jolt up, away from Sierra and our little moment. Lord, how do I still have adrenaline left in my body to spend? "Sheetfire!"

    What about Missed's bike? Fuggit, we'll get it on the rig one way or t'other, I point Missed towards Beckett. "Missed, we'll take care of the bike, you look after Beckett!"

    I get to movin', head poundin' with each step, to get to the cab and wake Rothschild.
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    Let's have one of you Act Under Fire here to see if Beckett and Missed get away clean. One leads, the other can help with HX, if they have a way to help.
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    Rolling AoF: (Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 1. Total: 6)
  • edited February 2017
    My eyes widen and I see the jolt in June, the adrenaline making the last ditch leap through her system. She barks at Missed to protect Beckett, but that only leaves us one good gun. I bite my lip, we'll manage.

    I grab a hold of June's hand, the one that is still hanging in the air between us. Mostly to get her to focus and listen."I've got Roth, you need to take cover, come on." I pull her into the rig, but before I do, I call out to Reese, "Bee bee, come here. Reese, get the bike."

    Then I run hard, making my way to Rothchild.

    ----

    Let's see how this goes..
    (Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 6, 1. Total: 8)
  • edited February 2017
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    Sierra, Rothschild snorts awake, then shakes the cobwebs as soon as she sees the commotion. June, Bee Bee holds up a cupped hand with grimy water in it, showing you all the work she's done. She then notices the people leaving and stands up, then little-kid jogs her way to the truck. Reese heads towards the bike.
    "Junebug, Rothy, Sierra, you take care of Reesie, he's not so smart, you know!" Beckett calls as she peels out. Missed dives into through the open passenger window while the Hackmobile is kicking up dust and heading out into the sun.
    You watch as Beckett takes off straight away from you in hopes of getting the patrol to chase her. Reese is busy lifting Missed's bike onto the trailer somehow when you see Hackmobile's pulled off the truck and all the bikes.

    Except one. Seems they maybe have seen this trick before, and a lone biker can be heard heading this way. If he comes close enough, he'll see you. Then he'll probably take off rather than engage, and who knows what that will bring.

    What do you do?
  • I look at Roth and gently remove my hand from her shoulder, nodding west. "He's coming from over there. Be ready to book it." And get out of the cab, this is why I was brought along. I pass Reese loading the bike and the twins who stare. Instead I turn to June, "One biker is still coming this way, I'm assuming you'll want me on point and Reese guarding? Or do you want to play this another way?"
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    "He'll peel when he sees you at a distance. Not a good time to test your range. If the rig's got a road flare, I can take care of him." I help Bee Bee up into the truck - so light even I can do that.

    "Have Roth toss me my relayer. Check the glove compartment." I lean on the rig so's to have my hands free.
  • I nod and go back over to the cab, I stay on the side away from the cyclist, hoping he doesn't see. Zaridann, never a droad moment out here. Kncking on Roth's door, I open it.

    "Hey, June is asking for the relayer and a road flare. She said to check the glove compartment." I'm not sure what a glove compartment is, but if June asked I am sure Roth has an idea.
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    June, getting that flare, tossing it out "just so", and the biker seeing it, that feels like an Act Under Fire. Lots could go wrong, you know?

    Sierra helping seems legit here.
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    Another AoF: (Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 4, 5. Total: 10)
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    I engage the relayer's wireless controls and its 'arms' open up and wrap around the flare in a tight hug. Then I pop off the cap-end of the flare and strike it, give it a hot second and lob it over to the west in an end-over-end arc. The movement and the light should make the biker look right at it.

    When they do, my will crosses the relayer's connection and jams into their mind. "Lay your bike down and walk away."
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    June, Let's see you Go Aggro on that biker!
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    Direct-Brain Whisper Projection:(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 4, 1. Total: 8)
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    Sierra,
    Rothschild sits bolt upright when you grab her shoulder, then looks at your hand, relaxing a tiny bit, and putting the little revolver down that appeared in her left hand. You mention the glovebox, and she leans over to open up something in the console, then grabs a plastic stick to toss to you, "Here!"
    You catch it nimbly, then toss it over to June, who pulls off one end and lights it up. It reminds you of the fireworks from the Phoenix clan parties, but nowhere near as bright. What was the name of the server/slave who kept sneaking you food at that Phoenix party? Why weren't you supposed to be eating?

    June, you focus down hard while everyone holds their breath, waiting, waiting for that biker to come close up on the flare.

    All, when the biker does see the flare, he sees the relay, he sees a piece of June's will, her mental array, her network, and her true power. June reaches through that connection and into his feeble mind. The chubby fugger in bright white gauzy clothes nearly falls backwards off his bike. It zips out from under him, and he turns to run back towards the pass or wherever he came from.
    "June! See!" Reese calls as you all load into the truck, "We have to get to the pass, or we'll lose days going around. We don't have that much water, and we're carrying heavy. Not sure we have enough gas for it."
    Rothschild seems to agree. What do you do?
  • The fireworks the Phoenix clan loved so much were far brighter. I never knew the servants name. We weren't allowed to speak to each other and I never heard one of his masters say his name. He has darker skin than most of the Phoenix clan and striking Amber eyes.

    I couldn't eat, because Gloriana wasn't eating. She was ill, though the doctors had pumped her up full of drugs. I on the other hand was going on 18 hours without food, rest, or medicinal aid when he started leaving me little mouthfuls by my elbow. I was unbelievably grateful. If I had fainted, I surely would have been punished, and Gloriana would have taken the opportunity to use the Phoenix clans... resources.

    I smile at Roth when I see the biker run for it. But when Reese says we need to make a go for the pass I jog back over to June, I can't help but let an impressed smile onto my face. "That was utterly Zaridann, you're incredible." My smile fades, " But we got to move, should we grab the bike on the way past for the extra fuel?"
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    Carelessly, I wipe my nose on my sleeve, probably still leavin' a pink streak. That did go pretty well. "Hah, well. I have my moments."

    "Reese, you're right, let's go through the pass. We should grab the bike either ways, it's barter an' I'm not leavin' my relayer in the dirt out here. It would take me half a year to make a new one." I hurry my way towards the cab, helpless but to smile when I see Rothschild there, tired but whole. I sidle close and whisper "You have been my hero today, you know that?"
  • I tuck myself into the back of the rig with Reese and the Twins, though, I try not to look at them.

    I'm trying not to be terrified of Gloriana's latest move. Instead, I think about June and the idea of not ending at our flesh. My flesh has always been the thing that defined me, before the music, and even after, the flesh is what people saw first. I don't want to end at my fingertips. I want to be more than what people see.
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    Rothschild pulls the rig forward and you re-enter the bright light of day. She is shifting gears and pushing the rig for the pass in hopes of passing that biker, but she does pull up to the bike so Reese can drop out and grab it. He stows it in the back (lashing it the best he can as quickly as possible.
    Rothschild glances over at you June, smiling wide and soaking in your praise, "I aim to please, June." She leans over to kiss your cheek, looming close, "Been a good trip, but I can't wait to get back and sleep." She looks past you, June, says, "Good work earlier, Sierra. Guess you aren't afraid to break a nail. heh"

    "Where are we going?" Bee Bee asks as she licks her fingers and scrunches down in the back of the rig, looking around at the sky and the window, tracing her initials on the glass with grimy fingers. "Is this the way to hell?"
  • I help Reese where I can, making the strap down process faster. I also run out to grab the relay and hand it off to June. I'm just sitting back down when Roth looks over to me.

    I don't know why, but her statement makes me blush. "Yeah? I guess I'm not." I smile, mostly to myself. Who would have thought Gloriana's pet would end up doing okay for herself out here? At least so far. A month ago, I wouldn't have. "You're not too bad yourself." I smile fully at her.

    Bee Bee manages to drive that smile right off my face. The kid is haunted and I honestly have no idea what we are going to do with her. "We are going to a place called the Depot." I answer her matter of factly. I want to say, there are many roads to hell... but I don't. She's only a kid, and she may have seen some things, but there is no reason to add to her nightmares. No matter how true the statement may be.

    I lean back, listening to the rhythm and pace of the car for a bit, before I speak up, "Does anyone want to hear a story?"
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    Rothschild grins back at you, Sierra, reaching down to pat June's leg in a congenial (but maybe slightly territorial) manner, "I know.... I know. Feel free to remind me from time to time, though." She takes back her hand to shift gears and the truck starts the slow climb up the mountain road.
    Sierra, when you ask the group if they want to hear a story, Bee Bee freezes. Not like a frightened animal, but like a trained response. She sits there, upright in the seat behind you, eyes inscrutable as she awaits the "story".
    What do you do?
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    Gratefully, I tuck my relayer away inside my jacket. When Roth basked in my praise, some strange yet familiar ache pressed into me. I'm not sure what it is.

    Now, with her hand on my leg, there again. It occurs to me that Roth and I haven't named what we are to each other. Not really. We really need to talk, once we've rested. A gloved hand wanders to the back of Rothschild's head.

    Bee Bee's behavior..it's so stiff, makes me wonder what 'story time' was to her. I nod quietly to Sierra, it seems like we'll learn something.
  • edited February 2017
    I'm reminded again when I see June touch Roth's neck that I'm most likely becoming fascinated by someone who isn't available to me. That seems to be a theme, one way or another.

    When I suggest a story and Bee Bee goes still, my heart clenches. It's an unnatural stillness. I call her name, once, twice but she doesn't so much as blink.

    I've been trained in submission, and even regardless, it's always been in my nature, but I've never seen anything like this... then again, would I remember if I had?

    Shaking I reach towards the front if the cab, facing Bee Bee and my back to June, so I find the edge of her collar easy enough and slip my fingers down the cold expanse of her neck.

    "Code words for obedience, trigger words to cause submission or action. Frack, June, what if she built some into me?"

    I wrack my brain trying to come up with the other phrase, the phrase that would trip her out of it. Finally, I settle on two possibilities.

    " And they all lived happily ever after," I breathe, "The End."
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    Rothschild narrows her eyes at the non-story, but doesn't say anything.
    Bee Bee visible relaxes. She doesn't blink, her eyes are self-lubricating and Parcher removed her eyelids. She smiles stiffly on chapped lips, "That was a good story. Thank you." She crawls down into the floorboard behind you and finds an awkward position to sleep in.
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    Would that I could kill a man twice. My urge for a smoke is strong right now, but there's a child in the cab and I'm not seated near enough to the window. Aloud, I'll comment. "We'll do what we can do when we get back. In these sorts of cases, first we change what the programming does and then we slowly dismantle the mechanisms."

    I check the radio in the cab. If it's not working now, I can fix it later, I'm sure. I know Sierra needs some distraction from her terror and Roth needs chatter to stay alert. "Hmm..."
  • I move my hand from her neck and nod. Gently, I take Bee Bee"s head and place it in my lap, hopefully making her a little more comfortable.

    I desperately try to swallow down my own panic.
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    You ride on, up the steep road towards Depot, towards "home".

    Since this is an effort of picking a path through enemy territory, let's see one of you take the lead here and roll+Sharp. On a hit, choose options. On a 7-9, choose two. On a 10+, choose only one.
    - It only costs a barter of supplies each
    - You aren't separated from anyone on the trip
    - You don't take 2-Harm AP during a narrow escape
    - You hide in a safe place, for now, but don't get home

    On a miss, you run into a United Front patrol. Fun!
  • OOC:Here we go...

    (Rolled: 2d6+3 . Rolls: 6, 1. Total: 10)
  • OOC: I'll take You aren't separated from anyone on the trip
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    It takes hours to get over the mountain, and at one point, you have to run through a roadblock, but the weight of the rig gives you enough speed to get past them. Reese sprayed some fire at the chasers and they gave up. Once yo're on the other side of the Funeral Mountains, it's quiet and empty riding for the rest of the day into the night. Rothschild is wiped out by the time you get into darkness, and even though he has trouble with the gears, Reese insists on driving the rest of the way.

    You come riding into Depot from the north, and there's a line of smoke coming up from the southwestern corner of the place as you come close. You don't have elevation to see exactly where, but it looks like fire that burned for a while. When you get past the guards, where do you stow the rig? Out in the open by the market? In the Garage? Or do you stick it outside the walls and save jingle but put it at risk?
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    That..was an intense few days, to say the least. I would have offered to drive but, well, operating the clutch looks like it takes some strength. I drove a nice little car on the outside, emphasis on nice and little..with some assistive technology installed..doesn't quite apply here.

    I spend a lot of our time closing in on Depot with my eyes narrowed on that line of smoke. I'll have to ask around on that, later.

    The rig is goin' into the Garage, because I didn't destroy Parcher and steal his operation just to see market scavs or outsiders steal it back out from under me. I'll see if I can't work out a cheaper option when I'm not fuggin' exhausted and hurt.
  • I got a little bit of sleep after the pass, but not much. I'm exhausted and if I want to eat today, I have to perform.

    Reese and I have been drumming up more and more customers and we are really hoping tonight will be a big night. I want to prove that we're worth something to The Bar.

    When we pull into the garage I wake Bee Bee up and lean back to speak to June. "Any idea what to do with the kid?"

    I want her to be safe, but the idea of talking on a kid... that's just not a good idea.
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    "Well, I have been thinkin' about expandin' my garden, but if I'm in the clinic all the time that's not so easy to do. Bee Bee, would you like to help me keep a garden goin' in exchange for food and a spot to sleep?"

    I would bend down to be a little more gentle-lookin' and approachable but for starters Bee Bee has seen some scorch and clearly isn't that frightened of me, and for finishers I believe my head would riot if I did that and then stood back upright too fast.
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    Bee Bee has been looking betweent he two of you with interest from the moment Sierra woke her. When you ask her about keeping a garden going, she seems confused. "Parcher had a garden. He put dead subjects there. I... I can't carry much. Do we chop them up then?"
    She's completely serious.
  • edited February 2017
    I open my mouth and close it again. I think whatever I have been through the people under Parcher's care had it far worse, and Gloriana was in league with him. It's hard to swallow, hard to fathom.

    I bend down and look into her unblinking eyes.

    "June doesn't plant people, she plants vegetables, plants, food. We aren't ever going to ask you to do anything like what Parcher did, ever again. Okay?"
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    Just one slow, steadyin' breath. I nod along with Sierra's explanation of my garden "You'll find workin' for me very different. I don't treat bodies the way Parcher did. And I won't give you more than you can do. That's impractical. Come on." I'll start leading the way to High Rent.

    "You can take a little time to think it over - I'll show you what's expected of you and then you can say yes or no." I look down at the tot to see what she thinks of the deal.
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    Reese gets all the gear needed from the rig while you head out, he'll catch up. Rothschild follows, she's about to fall asleep walking.
    Bee Bee spends half the time listening, the other half the time looking around. She seems bewildered by all the people, the sights and the sounds. "Whatever the Weaver does. I can do lots. I work hard. I will say yes." She nods like "and so there, I will".
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    End Scene
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