Rules of Engagement (Prototype/MCU)

When you are as fast as you are, problem-solving is all about handling your problems in the correct order.

For instance, when confronted with the issue of an unwise gentleman following an otherwise unprepossessing young lady out for a moonlight stroll when said lady is idly hoping that she might be witness to a murder and then participant in a valiant act of a citizen's arrest followed by citizen's meal, you are pretty sure the young lady needs to handle the unwise gentleman first even if Leah is rather dubious and believes the valiant act of citizen arrest is far more important and is, in fact, the young lady's number one priority.

You disagree. And with a frisson of excitement of doing something against the rules you overrule her veto vote and ambush your stalker by darting into a promising alley and hiding among the refuse. When he follows you in, panting, cursing and out of breath, you rise quietly out of the trash and - sort of trip over something that shatters underfoot, slam into his back, and fall down, taking him down with you. Fortunately, at your speed and your strength when his head hits a nearby trashcan, both come out of the transaction a little dented and you don't have to figure out how to otherwise render him unconscious.

Success!

Well, sort of. The end result was the end result you wanted, anyway. You certainly aren't going to complain.

You start with his pockets. Its occupants consist of one cell phone, one remarkably empty wallet, and one ring of keys. You examine the cell phone then toss it over your shoulder: you have too many of these things already and not enough battery charging thingies to keep them running. The wallet's made of leather, and you chew on it thoughtfully as you take the keys and spin them around your finger contemplatively before deciding to keep them, though you suspect that they are not going to be very useful either. They sink into your flesh with little bubbling sounds.

Then, you take off his surgical mask.

His face is disappointingly unknown. You would go so far as to say it's bland and utterly forgettable. Sharp cheekbones, or maybe soft, a square jaw that's more of a lump, a youthfulness that looks anywhere between twenty and eighty... Okay, you're still bad at human faces. It's not really your fault. You don't have a lot of time to get used to them before they are either categorized as Bad or largely irrelevant. If not for hairstyle, clothes and skin color they all more or less look the same to you.

Also, you have other, sharper senses. You bend down and take a long, slow sniff and get a noseful of the gentleman.

Your eyebrows rise.

You sit back and think. Well. That's one questions answered. This person and The Favor representative knew each other. You can smell - ever so faintly - a trace of her perfume on his jacket, and a few other identifying odors. No doubt that's how The Favor knows so much: they simply follow people around. They followed you around. You feel conflicted. Parts of you feel under siege, like you're back in a labeled bottle and about to be decanted. Other parts are grudgingly impressed and mostly outraged. Yet others are going: 'so that's how the bastards did it, of course there was a trick'.

After a bit you decide that if you're not going to eat this guy, it doesn't really matter what you should feel, you have your answer.

"He smells like The Favor lady," you inform Leah.

If she weren't a teenager she might have had something usefully useless to say like: "Ah! They're following the money!" (the money being you), but she's admirably single-minded and reminds you, worriedly: "Dee. We can focus on that later - she's still out there, she's still dangerous!"

I'm dangerous too, you think to yourself, a little too smugly for someone who just tripped their way into success, but then a scream interrupts the two of you sets you bounding back into the night, Leah buzzing her way after you. Linda Belmont, lounge singer and amateur serial killer with a bad habit of knifing bums and vagrants in a misguided attempt to help cleanse society, disappears from the world a few minutes later.

When you come back to your stalker, the alley is empty.

Leah panics. You panic. A man with a head wound shouldn't be able to get far without the two of you being able to track him somehow, but you lose the scent when in the subways where there are too many people, and even when you backtrack back to his car and wait for him to come back, he never does. Did he see you? Does The Favor know?

Best case scenario he walked home, confused and concussed, but... but...!

The worst part is you don't actually know what to do even if you do find him. Every instinct screams at you to silence him, it's safer that way, but Leah and this God fellow who can look over her shoulder are shouting at you not to. So maybe it's for the best that you don't find him, in the end. What would he have even seen? Nothing more than a girl attacking a lady attacking a homeless man, before the first dragged the second off into the darkness and made her disappear. Nothing to worry about.

Which is easy to say, but your sleep is troubled by visions of labcoats and labeled plastic.

-----

A week passes.

You decide to spend it quietly. No feeding frenzies. No gangster hunting. No farm busting. You'll trust Leah. Jumping between bodies Leah finds a small home renovation company that decided to literally bludgeon a cheating spouse and the competition to death. You walk in as Linda Belmont, and when they panic and try to prove their innocence by bashing open your head with a hammer after you accuse them of murder, you discreetly let nature take its course before exiting with the contents of their strongbox.

You don't need it, but you have figured out that money's sort of like like human biomass. Except not really. It can get you things because humans like it almost as much as you like biomass.

You look up some of the names that The Favor gave you. The process is... very boring. They act like normal people. So normal you're not sure what you're supposed to do because unless the man in purple shows up in person, you're not going to get very far just watching them. You spend a day following one Gordon Best, who doesn't have any apparent job but lives like he is very rich and puts a lot of things up his nose. Leah doesn't like him, much, but admits that that is no grounds for killing him. You spend another day watching a Father Frank, who is not an actual father, but rather a priest, and gives you the willies because apparently talks directly to God, though mostly he seems to talk to children and practice sports with them. Worst of all, he-

"Interested, young lady?"

-notices you watching him.

You spend a few hours forced to learn the anciente and noble arte of B-Ball. It involves bouncing a ball on the ground, but not too often, and then throwing it at people, but not too hard, and then tossing it into a net, but not that net, the other net, look kid, have you never played B-Ball before?

Father Frank later tries finding you something called a 'caseworker', but you run off. Leah calls him a good man, which is not much help to either of you, or even the priest.

As the week flies by the names start to mix and mingle with only the highlights standing out in your memory. A moment of kindness, a quiet act of heroism, a screaming row, a poorly executed fight, a car crash, a beautiful song - and a whole lot of nothing. It's fascinating. Speculative people eating has nothing on simple people watching.

You want to be human. Not just on the sidelines looking in, but as an actual part. Someone with a life and an address and - and friends and such. You're encouraged when somewhere along the way you realize you understand Leah. It's probably when you're watching a Doctor Amanda Farthing about to do something with her husband and Leah squeaks, jumps on your face and hustles you away, or when an Alex Connor, who has a job that involves a lot of underwear, goes to take a shower and Leah kind of wants to and doesn't want to watch, and like a bolt out of the sea you realize Leah's embarrassed. Knowing what people are thinking even without them telling you - it's like - it's like the opposite of lying! You're definitely becoming a real human now.

Identifying why she's embarrassed is much harder, of course, but you'll get better at it, you're sure.

You hum happily. It probably won't take long at all for you to figure out how to be human. You're making a lot of progress.

You see snow for the first time while trailing Gatot Winong, a Madripoorian diplomat who's in New Jersey while the embassy in New York is being repaired. It's just a light dusting: it falls through the air in little puffs of of white and melts as soon as it hits the ground. In between commenting on Gatot's nerd glasses and crisply tailored suit Leah tells you it's a good thing she's not human anymore. She's not sure she would have survived the winter. This makes you worry about the people in the streets, not to mention rats, dogs, and cats: if they all die out, what're you going to eat?! Leah tells you not to worry, it'll get cold, but not that cold. Rats always find a way.

But what about people?

Leah changes the subject.

You find yourself strangely distraught at the idea that Leah would have died if she hadn't already shuffled off from her mortal coil and lent it to you. It's... unfair. It makes you wonder how many other things are unfair. It's definitely getting colder too. Sometimes in the early mornings and late nights you can see your breath, and Leah is more often burrowing next to you for warmth. In storefront windows, turkeys are replaced by fat men, colorful leaves by snowflakes, and pumpkins by Christmas trees.

Sometimes, when you hope Leah isn't watching, you toss a handfull of bills at people who look like they need it.

It's just money, after all. Humans throw out useful biomass all the time, so you might as well return the favor.

Besides, you need to be nice. Leah has explained Santa Claus to you, and Santa Claus only gives presents to good girls and boys. The songs running in the malls only corroborate her story. Worse, like god, he appears to be omniscient.

See: "He knows if you've been naughty! He knows if you've been nice! He knows if you've been Bad or Good, so be Good for Goodness Sake! Oh! You better watch out, you better-"

It's strangely catching: you find yourself hoping that you are Good. At the moment, all that you know is that you're Not Bad, which isn't quite the same as Good. Good's... something even Leah has a hard time describing. She calls it being kind. Being generous. Being virtuous. Protecting people. Rescuing people. Being a hero.

You wonder if hunting down the man in purple counts. You're protecting others from him, right? Preemptively, as it were?

No, that doesn't sound right. But you remember the broken S-Sorry from the Jessica that put her boot through your head when she thought you were nothing more than a little girl and she had been ordered to break your arm. She sounded like someone who didn't want to be there.

Now, if only you could find him.

You continue to follow Gatot Winong, because Gatot Winong continues to be an enigma. There is something strange about him. Multiple strange things. He has no scent. He walks without sound. Every night he seemingly goes to sleep at a hotel, and every night he isn't there.

On Sunday Leah figures out the trick. The man wielding 'nerd glasses' during the day, is in the habit of wearing a lot of white leather and two swords strapped to his back during the night.


He is, for a human, very fast and very skilled. You are faster and stronger, and you're still not sure if you could reliably beat him. A sword through the eyeball would be no joke, even for you. You're not even sure whether he's a bad guy or a good guy: he sometimes fights with people dressed similarly to him, only in black, who smell wrong to you, and sometimes does nothing more than meet with people and deliver briefcases full of what is no doubt of interest to someone. He also does a lot of lurking and sometimes eats cold noodles on rooftops and can vanish into thin air if both you and Leah aren't paying attention.

You enjoy watching him work. It's instructive.

Then, unfortunately, he tries to kill you.

-----

You should have probably suspected something when he enters Swarthrit Park instead of heading to his hotel like usual. At two in the morning, it's very dark and you hurry after him a little too enthusiastically.

A disk of sharpened metal spins out of nowhere and tries to catch you in the throat. You snag it out of the air with a finger and toss it aside, but more follow, some thudding into your arms before you can bat them aside. They aren't too fast for you, but they've been painted black and you can't see them. You feel a tingle: they've been poisoned. A combat knife slips out of a convenient pouch in your flesh, and into your waiting hand as you burn the poison out. It's not like such a pittance could affect you: you might look like you weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet, but there's far more to you than most could imagine.

When the attack stops, your eyes dart around the forest, but you can't see anything. There's nothing, but your ragged breathing and the faint whisper of the wind. You can't hear him. You can't see him. You can't smell him. You're unnerved.

"Leah-" you begin.

A mistake.

His sword is silent as it thrusts out from behind you. You just manage to parry the blow, some instinct telling you to jump, corkscrew-like, sparks leaping as you force the blade up and away. The second, smaller blade, still takes you under the ribcage and pierces a lot of vital organs before being torn away in a spray of blood. You hit the ground leaking, your body automatically going into convulsive shivers.

Gatot speaks. "You are dying."

He's wrong, but you're not going to correct him.

"It is regrettable. You are gif-"

And then, because he's somehow still on his guard, he dodges when you get up and lunge, burning biomass in exchange for a split second of jet-like propulsion that leaves a tang of burning flesh in the air and hurls you fifty feet forward and into a tree. Wood and flesh meet with an almighty crack of sound. Breath explodes out of you, and explodes again when you hit the ground. The tree teeters and begins to fall.

When you get up, you can see it. The self-control you so admired is gone. Or rather, displaced. Not his, but his. He comes at you directly, without any regard for stealth, his eyes slightly unfocused. The man in purple did get to him. You have no time to wonder what for: he throws something at you, there's a faint bang and then your entire world is blue-lit agony. You black out. When you come back to life, every nerve aflame, there are feathers in the air and a dead birds and wildlife at the diplomat's feet. You have trouble focusing your senses: Leah's shouting at you to get up, get up, but you can barely focus, everything hurts, why does everything hurt...?

Another bird splashes to the ground in a line of crimson: it's immediately replaced by a squirrel that dies almost as quickly.

Gatot stumbles. He's mumbling to himself. "Compliance will be rewarded, listen to me, compliance will be rewarded, listen to me, compliance-listen to- me - me - me - me- "

Jerky as his motions are, he still manages to smash yet another borrowed body out of the sky. Leah screams. Wing and concentration broken, she can't jump like this... she has to...

You get up and lunge at him again, the fins around your ankles burning blue. The sword flashes.

You lose three fingers, a knife, and a long, jagged line of flesh extending from cheek to eye in the exchange.

He loses more. There is a fist shaped hole in his side. There is also, as it so happens, an actual fist in his side. He gives you a brief, uncomprehending look, before the pain makes him drop one of his swords. It clangs musically as it hits the ground. You twist your hand and he gasps, eyes rolling before they clear.

"...beautiful," he breathes, blood and agony dribbling out from between his lips.

You are hungry and in pain and angry. Your reply is full of teeth.

-----


Gains
Exp: +40 xp
Biomass: -8 + 3 + 2d10 (11) = +6
Skills: Little Gods Cult I - You are now aware that certain cultists are 'triggered' by the presence of obvious powers.
Materials: tanto, wakizashi, two sais, white leather costume, five electrical grenades, one gun
Knowledge: Vulnerability to electricity

Choose 4
[x] [skill] Form: Gatot Winong: A handsome diplomat from Madripoor who is more than what he seems.
[x] [skill] Awareness IV: You are aware of not only what you pay attention to, but also what is paying attention to you. At this level of skill, you are rarely taken off guard, can spot ambushes and are generally alert to danger.
[x] [skill] Blind Fighting IV: You could fight blindfolded or in complete darkness. At this level you could take on multiple opponents at once.
[x] [skill] Compliance IV: ?????
[x] [skill] Iaijutsu IV: You are trained in the use of the quickly taking your weapon out of its sheathe. At this level you would be considered on par with the lowest rank of ninja.
[x] [skill] Investigation IV: You are capable of looking for information using the resources at hand. At this level of skill you are both diligent and resourceful, achieving results that others would find unexpected.
[x] [skill] Kenjutsu IV: You are trained in the use of the tanto and wakizashi. At this level you would be considered on par with the lowest rank of ninja.
[x] [skill] Life Sign Suppression IV: You are trained in suppressing your vital signs. At this level your body temperature can go as low as room temperature, your heart will beat only faintly, and you can erase your scent even without any viral shenanigans.
[x] [skill] Throwing IV: You can throw objects with great accuracy. At this level of skill, you can hit a moving target in the dark so long as they aren't moving too quickly.
[x] [skill] French II: You are able to speak and write French up to a middle school level.
[x] [skill] Madripoorian III: You are able to speak and write Madripoorian up to a high school level.
[x] [skill] Mandarin II: You are able to speak and write Mandarin up to a middle school level.
[x] [skill] Japanese II: You are able to speak and write Japanese up to a middle school level.

[x] [skill] Bricklayer IV: You can work as a professional bricklayer with this level of skill.
[x] [skill] Plasterer IV: You can work as a professional plasterer with this level of skill.

What will you do during Week 7? (choose 3)

Investigate the whereabouts of the man in purple
[x][Action] Use your sense of smell and wander NJ hoping that you find him or his companions.
With the help of Black Market Rumors and Little Gods Cult I your chances of finding him are much higher. (1d20, success on 15 and above nets you Man in Purple Location, 9 and above nets you A Friend of a Friend, 4 and above nets you Little Gods Cult II)
[x][Action] Investigate the Little Gods Cult
The file that you got from The Favor has a list of names as long as your arm. Maybe one of them can help. (1d20 success on 4 and above gets you Little Gods Cult II, 9 and above, Little Gods Cult III, critical success on 19 gets you Man in Purple Location)
[x][Action] You'll have to resort to that which stymied you last time: the Internet!
See what rumors you can dig up. (1d20, success on 5 and above, success nets you Internet Rumors and the skill Internet Research I)

Feed (one action, one sub-action)
[x][Action] Feed on criminals
-[x][Action]using Leah's method
(QM rolls 1d3 for number of victims, occupations chosen by the random job generator)
[x][Action]using your method Unavailable this week
(QM rolls 2d9 for number of victims, honeypot trap, all thugs, numbers go down if you eat too many of them.)
[x][Action] Feed on trash
-[x][Action] landfills and such for a full stomach
(QM rolls 1d20, on a 2 and below, someone notices you, number increases upon consecutive feedings)
-[x][Action] dumpsters and such for +70 biomass
(QM rolls 1d20, on a 1, someone notices you, number increases upon consecutive feedings)
[x][Action] Feed on animals
-[x][Action] on small animals
(QM rolls 4d4 for biomass gain - numbers will go down slowly if you hunt too voraciously)
-[x][Action] on large animals
(QM rolls 5d10 for biomass gain - numbers will go down very quickly if you hunt too often)

[ ][Action] Train (using XP and biomass)
-[ ][Action] Choose any number of powers or skills to train so long as you have the requisite XP and biomass

[ ][Action] Develop (without using XP)
-[ ][Action]Choose 1 power or skill. Roll 2d5 to see how much XP is gained. Can pick a power or skill you don't yet have (e.g.: Superstrength) although there must be some sort of justification as to how you got it (example: hunting gorillas and bears). Minimum 10xp necessary to unlock it (you can indicate you're willing to supplement rolled XP with XP reserves). Development of any additional power or skill requires as an additional action slot.

[ ][Action] Miscellaneous Action Slot
-[ ][Action] Any action that would take less than five minutes or can be done simultaneously with other actions (e.g.: asking Leah about her past, buying a hot dog, catching rats, etc.)
-[ ][Action] At your current budget, you can buy 2 biomass worth of food each week instead of having to hunt for it.
-[ ][Action] Limited to two miscellaneous actions right now