[FURY] Schoolin' (August1.0)

Rich

August

The old Gift Shop. SafeCo.

Eager eyes, six of them. Open ears, too. Three young lives you can shape and mold with stories. What was. What is. What could be. Bright-eyed Joey, son of Laika, sits there with that messy red hair of his, bangs almost covering his bright blue eyes. Rapier-thin Mox with those dimples. He’ll break some hearts, if he lives long enough. And Ghost, the girl from Gates’ flock, in her dark dress and long, curly hair. They’re here to listen. Hopefully to learn.

The roof to your place has a tiny leak. Joey turned over an old helmet to act as a bucket. It plip plops as you talk, almost like a rhythm. A tiny drum to mark out time to your story. That bloody rain drip dropping into the helmet as you tell your tales.

What story are you telling them right now? Who usually pays the most attention to the end?

Drumma flies down from her perch to stand on the edge of the helmet. It should tip over, with the extra weight. It really should. But it doesn’t. Drumma dips her head into the water, then quickly uses her beak to preen herself. Ghost watches, her dark complexion creased by wonder at the bird. You’ve lost her to Drumma, at least for a moment.

This is Ghost:


This is Mox:


This is Joey, Laika's boy


Speed, one of Admiral’s security guys stands at the door, one hand on the jamb, one hand on his holstered magnum. He watches silently and keeps trying to catch your eye. What happened the last time someone interrupted your lessons?

What do you do?

slickhop

I am telling the story of the seer Tecla and how her fear of losing control led to ruin.

Ghost usually pays the most attention -- something about the world outside of Gates and his credos.

As soon as I see Speed, I get up and whistle to Drumma. I'm doing this to ward off trouble from the Admiral, but I hate children. "Lesson cancelled," I snap.

Last time a lesson got cancelled, the Admiral hired me to entertain Alixa, the hardholder to the south. I earned enough jingle to refit Bon's old h-bike.

Rich

Ghost blinks, her attention drawn back to you as you dismiss them. "But August, what happened to Tecla?" Joey sees Speed and draws himself in, looking down and away.


Mox chimes in with Ghost, "Come on, August! Don't leave us hanging."

This is Speed, by the by:

"Yo Augie," Speed says in his normal overly friendly way. "Admiral wants you in for the motor duel. Some scratch for songs and such." He looks past you, at the kids. His gaze fixes on Joey, who shirks away even more. Still looking at Joey, he asks you, "You got time. For the Admiral, right, Augie?"

slickhop

August holds up her palm towards the children. "Be silent when grown folk are talking."

To Speed, "It's August. And why the flood are you looking at the child like that?"

slickhop

Reading Speed:
(Rolled: 2d6. Rolls: 2, 4. Total: 6)

Rich

Hey August, in the playtest rules for Read a Person, you get a question on a miss.

When you read a person in a charged interaction, roll+sharp. On a 10+, hold
3. On a 7–9, hold 1. While you’re interacting with them, spend your hold to ask
their player questions, 1 for 1:
• is your character telling the truth?
• what’s your character really feeling?
• what does your character intend to do?
• what does your character wish I’d do?
• how could I get your character to __?
On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but be prepared for the worst.

Ask away!

slickhop

Spending the hold to see if Speed is telling the truth when he answers.

Rich

"Who, that little rotter?" Speed asks, his eyes flicking over to you. He huffs a laugh, his fetid breath spewing out towards you. He throws a thumb to point at Joey. "Caught 'im poking around Admiral's, gave him a little reminder, or two." He sneers, "Like how ya don't see bruises? That takes a special skill."

And yes, he is telling the truth.

slickhop

August nods, glancing at Joey. "Thanks for telling me. I'll be sure he doesn't repeat the offense. Now then. Touch him again and I'll ask Dog to remove your fingers." All spoken pleasantly.

She flicks her fingers towards the door. "I'll be up to the Admiral shortly." A dismissal.

slickhop

Manipulate:

(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 4, 4. Total: 11)

Rich

Speed shrugs a little shrug of near indifference, "Races start in an hour. Don't dilly, nor dally." He turns to leave you with the kids, who have all stood up. You hear Speed's slow whistle echo down the corridor as he leaves.

Ghost looks at you with questioning eyes, but doesn't ask anything out loud.

What do you do?

slickhop

August waits until he leaves, then she turns to the kids."Maybe there's time for one more story.". She shakes out one of her headdresses from the waterproof canvas satchel on the floor, clears her throat. "Before the waters, before the breaking, before the now, there was a child named Rime." She slips the finger cymbals past her knuckles. Her cadence is different than earlier; before, August was just talking. Now she's telling a story. The headdress makes tinkling noises as she moves her head, the cymbals a dramatic counterpoint.

The words of the story have poetry, but lurking beneath the imagery is a pointed, plain fable about a hurt young person and their revenge against the one that did wrong by them.

She shows that the story is over by sounding the cymbals three times. Into the silence that follows, she says, "Ghost, Mox. Get out of here. " When they've gone, to Joey: "Show me."

slickhop

Artful and Gracious:

(Rolled: 2d6+3. Rolls: 1, 1. Total: 5)



POTENTIAL CHEATING DETECTED. If it appears that dice were rolled in this post, they may need to be disregarded as fabricated.

Rich

Ghost heads out, following your direction. Mox follows, but he hovers by the door, watching. Joey motions with a wave of his hand for Mox to go, promising to catch up.


Once you're alone and you ask Joey to show you, he shifts uncomfortably, "It's... it's whatever, August. I've got it." He shirks from your touch.

slickhop

August removes the head-dress, placing it carefully back into her satchel. "If you want to handle this yourself, you can. Probably. But I need to know how bad it is."

She starts to tidy up the things the children were using as seats -- the turned over bucket, the box filled with shrink-wrapped keychain replicas of the Needle, the rusted-shut suitcase. Being non-threatening. "I figured showing'd be easier, but if you wanna just tell me, that works too."

August lets the rain splash into the helmet. She'll empty it later. She's been sugaring blood water and fermenting it for the last while, thinking that it might make a nice hooch. But no reason to let Joey know that.

"And I'm thinking you'd rather tell me than Laika."

Rich

Joey looks at the helmet, not sure why you'd do that. He moves over to a wall, leans against it, his tone sullen, "Not fair, August. Bringing Laika into it." He sucks his teeth, "If I tell you... you won't tell her? Because I don't need her trying to kill Speed, or whatever. Then Admiral's on us. I've got it."

slickhop

Internally, August is thinking of what she needs to do to get ready for the races and wishing the kid would stop dithering. But she keeps that off her face. She tries talking to him like an adult.

"Laika's not gonna know unless she has to. So, what happened? And what were you snooping on? You know I'd never string you along like this. " A joke; August hasn't been doing this teachin' thing for the Admiral for long, but still, she always strings them along like this.

Rich

Glumly, Joey says, "I tried to steal some. Some hooch. You know, for me an' Mox." He swallows, then adds, "Ghost maybe, too." He scratches his forearm, "Speed snuck up on me, grabbed me... and took me in his room. Shoved my face in some water. Like, clean water. Made me..." His voice cracks a little. "I thought I was gonna drown. But he just held me down for a little bit. Sent me away." At the last, he looks up at you, meets your eyes.

slickhop

August shakes her head like she's shaking water off her back. Kid got her all worked up over this? "Joey, if you want to sip some firewater, you gotta either ask for it or earn it like the rest of us. If Speed tries to start trouble with you, tell me."

She laughs. "Heck, if you're gonna try and pilfer it, you know that Mox has plenty of booze in his house right? Some of them antiseptics Bon uses come out of the same stock as the Admiral." Course, Bon takes real accurate count of those sorts of things, but August doesn't object to them getting caught by the right person.

"Now git. I have to change."

When the boy leaves, August collects her things, throws them on the back of her bike, and heads over to the races. Can't be leaving the Admiral waiting. With any luck, she'd run into Dog. August'd told Joey she wouldn't say anything to Laika, but Dog'd probably want to know about Speed messin' with one of hers.

Rich

Please go here.