[DRYH] Takedown Notice (01)

Rich

What's been keeping you awake?
There's this girl, Jasmine (can you believe that?) that works at the Starbucks near school. She's a senior, but not at my school. I've been shooting video of her on my iPhone (secretly) for about a year. I can't stop thinking about her. Just can't stop, and now it's gotten to the point where I literally haven't even fallen asleep for a week. I just watch and splice and think and daydream.

What just happened to you?
I'm in the Starbucks and Jasmine saw the video I posted with her in it and she figured out it's me and she is pissed. She just called me a stalker creep in front of some of my soccer buddies. And this big dude that's apparently her new boyfriend.

Here's Jasmine, on a normal day:


She's sweet, popular, bubbly, and most recently you found out, she's also taken.

Anyways, you and your soccer buddies are in the Starbucks... this one:

Your buddies Jaime, Jason and Robert, they were all huddled around that table by the bookshelf on the right, with you. Things were great, you had the perfect angle to talk to them and watch Jasmine behind the counter. That was, before she spotted you.

She got a message, or a call, or something. Checked her phone, stopped helping customers, just left the counter un-barista-ed, went to the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later, eyes red (from crying, you think). She looked really upset, went over to talk to Darius. Here he is:


After Jasmine and Darius talked for a moment, he pointed you out to her, and she said loudly, "Wait, THAT'S the asshole? No wonder he's been in here every day!" She stalked over to you, and he followed. Your friends got up, but then, like the Red Sea, they parted, and Jasmine and Darius got right in your face.

CUT TO THE NOW:

Darius shoves you back, pretty hard, your back hits the wall and the table moves aside with a loud groan, "What's your problem, Benny? Why are you messin with my girl? You know I don't wanna be some alpha dog, but seriously, man. This stuff is creeptastic!"

That's when Jasmine spotted your phone, lying on the floor. You must've dropped it when Darius shoved you. She picks it up, then says, "Holyshit, D! He's recording us right now! What the hell?!?" She's staring at you like you're this awful, despicable person.

You glance down at your phone, just to make sure she didn't, you know, break it or something. And there she is, Jasmine, right on the screen, smiling. Smiling at you, it looks like. If only, right? Man, that's a good shot of her.

Darius is probably going to deck you now, unless you do something. Your soccer buddies, well, they'll probably pull him off you, but right now, they're just watching in a bit of horror. They look at you like they don't know you. It's weird, right?

What do you do?

WPTunes

I don't have a lot of experience with conflict. A few scuffles, but never been in a real fight. I put my hands out like, "whoah, hey..." and back off a step.

"Jasmine, you're famous now. And it's good, the video, really good! Did you watch all the way through? You're amazing!"

Rich

Darius snatches the phone from Jasmine, then drops it, on purpose, to the concrete floor. It bounces once, then flips over, the screen cracked. The Jasmine image frowns a little, looking around at the cracks in dismay, or well, it seems like it, since that was your last phone.

"Hey, you need to just go, alright? You can't come in here, it's... totally creepy, alright?" Jasmine's words tumble out of her mouth as she sputters behind Darius. Darius shoves you once more into the wall, and pulls back a fist.

But Jason steps up, not getting in the way or anything, "Hey man, be cool. There's like cops and stuff." He looks worried for you, grasping at straws. Darius is twice as big as he is.

Darius growls, "Get out of here, man. Don't come back." He kicks your phone and it skitters across the floor to end up slamming into the far wall by the door, glass popping up from the screen.

WPTunes

I take a look at my crowd. I've already lost face here, even winning a fight with Darius won't fix what needs fixed, and winning's about as likely as getting hit in the head by a meteorite, which I wish would happen right about now. I don't want my buddies to get hurt on my account, either.

I slink to the door like it was me Darius kicked, and pick up my poor busted phone on the way out. There's just the faintest suggestion of a storm cloud floating over my head until I'm through the door. I go around the corner to the back wall, next to the dumpster and lean against the brick, forehead first.

"Fuck." I hit my head against the wall, not too hard, but enough to feel it. "Fuck." Again. "Fuck." A third time. I turn around, slide down onto my ass. At a loss. Phone's busted (Dad'll kill me), Jasmine's pissed (and I know she's right), this Darius dude wants me dead (and he's probably right, too), my friends think I'm a freak (right). I just don't fucking know.

Rich

Jason watches you bang your head, and Robert is checking his phone. They don't know really how to react to this. Jaime stands over you, looking down, "Man... that sucks. What a dick. You got like, insurance on your phone?" He can see you don't when you look at him.

Robert says, "Hey guys, I gotta go. Jay, c'mon, man."

Jason looks torn, but then says, "Sorry, Benny. See you tomorrow, okay?"

Jaime hasn't left, even though he should. He lives way on the other side of town, and his dad is probably waiting for him in the parking lot.

WPTunes

"Jaime, it's cool, you can take off. I'm just gonna walk it off, you know?" I push myself back up to my feet. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

It is not cool. it is not even close to cool. So, let's examine this, okay?

• My phone is busted. No camera, and maybe even the footage I had gone. Not just Jasmine. A couple minutes of really cool atmospherics at the old elementary school. A good shot of a train rumbling past. Probably forty usable minutes since the last time I synced.
• My dad is seriously going to kick my ass. Plus, he's gonna ask what happened and I'll either have to lie or tell the truth. Neither one is good.
• A few people know about Busted Ketone now, which means more will tomorrow, which means my sister Heather will by 10 PM tonight.
• Jasmine knows who I am now. Not in a good way.
• The guys know there's something hinky going on, and they're gonna figure out what.

To summarize, I couldn't be more screwed if I had a slot running across my head. If Jaime does head to the parking lot, I'll take off, no direction in particular.

Rich

Jaime reaches down to grip your shoulder, like a bro-way of encouragement, "It's okay, man. Just a phone and a girl, right? Replaceable." Then he takes off.

You get up, head off down the sidewalk. It's a sunny day, complete opposite of your mood. It should be raining or something, you know? Stupid sun baking down and people walking like there's nothing wrong.

After a block, maybe two, you feel like somebody is behind you.

It's Darius. He's been following you. He's alone, maybe thirty feet behind you and there's no mistaking, he's following you. Intense eyes. Angry eyes.

As soon as you see him, he picks up speed, breaking into a run. He's going to chase you down.

WPTunes

There's a moment where I can't even break and run. I'm just looking at him as he gets closer and closer, like the bus that I threw myself under. I actually hold my hands out again in that "wait, wait" gesture until he's like eight feet away. Maybe three strides at his height and speed. The question is "take the beating or run like hell." I run. Like hell. Or a bat out of same. Whatever.

Rich

Darius is Three Pain, Benny.

You get to use all three Discipline. Do you want to take on one Exhaustion or add any Madness?

WPTunes

I'm (still) confused, fed up and terrified. And, I haven't slept in forever. I'm adding 1 Exhaustion.

Discipline: (Rolled: 3d6. Rolls: 5, 4, 3. Total: 12)
Exhaustion: (Rolled: 1d6. Rolls: 5. Total: 5)

Rich

Pain 3
(Rolled: 3d6. Rolls: 6, 5, 4. Total: 15)

Rich

Alright, Benny. Here's how it goes down. You succeed at running away from Darius (you rolled more successes than Pain). But Pain "dominated" the roll, which means two things:
- the success cost you something, either mentally or physically (sometimes socially)
- I (the GM) get a coin in my "coffer" that I can trade in later to manipulate a die roll of yours or mine after the fact.

So... how did you get away from Darius?

WPTunes

I run like a little bitch. It's like "feets don't fail me now," but I'm flailing my arms and clearly weeping from the stress. I leave Darius in the dust, but he sees (and I know) that I was totally freaked out and weak in the moment. I'm running so fast that my brain can't stop my feet for like a half hour. At the speed I'm going, that's a long way. I have no clue where I am when I finally manage to stop, and it's darkish and shadowed and there's trash on the street and... well, it's not a neighborhood I've ever been in, for sure.

Rich

Benny, please go here.