[X] Let's Just Live
I want to lean into the interesting part of Zane's character, that he's a reluctant brawler. Going against that, sticking his nose back into the fighting, back into the gang stuff? Counter to the initial personality blurb.
We should look through the wallets we got, though. We haven't noticed the cards in character yet.
We came to the man for advice. So let's take the advice. Besides it's not as though choosing to just live will spare us from all the supernatural bullshit. Someone's going to come calling either because of vengeance, our cards, or just plain bad luck. The only difference is that instead of rushing into the supernatural and possibly getting in over our heads it'll instead be a slow and gradual process. I don't think I need to point out which of the two has better odds of survival.
The only difference is that instead of rushing into the supernatural and possibly getting in over our heads it'll instead be a slow and gradual process. I don't think I need to point out which of the two has better odds of survival.
I don't know what the rules of the game are, but if it's 'you get the power of the cards you capture', there actually is a huge difference between entering the contest when lots of people have one or two cards, or entering when there's a handful of people with the power of twenty cards each hunting us. We'd be able to survive better before our adversaries manage to snowball, while our advantage in CQC still actually matters.
On the other hand, Zane doesn't know there's a tournament. He's got very little reason to believe that he can go hand to hand with the likes of The Mauler, it was a lucky break he managed to keep the elder assailant between himself and the younger's fear attack. With a little less luck, Zane could have ended up worse than Spike. He's got no reason to believe that he's got magic, or that beating up more magicians will make him stronger or safer.
He's got very little reason to believe that he can go hand to hand with the likes of The Mauler, it was a lucky break he managed to keep the elder assailant between himself and the younger's fear attack
Indeed! The Mangler is quite fearsome - videos of it have been captured online. Even on a 120 FPS camera recording, rolling in slow-motion, it was still moving rather fast, exceeding the maximum velocity of a good car several times over, and having enough brute strength to flip over armored vans!
But if this is the threat these magicians represent, who but the Brawler, whose fist is the ardent punishment of mundanity, to stop them?!
The only difference is that instead of rushing into the supernatural and possibly getting in over our heads it'll instead be a slow and gradual process.
I don't know what the rules of the game are, but if it's 'you get the power of the cards you capture', there actually is a huge difference between entering the contest when lots of people have one or two cards, or entering when there's a handful of people with the power of twenty cards each hunting us. We'd be able to survive better before our adversaries manage to snowball, while our advantage in CQC still actually matters.
On the other hand, Zane doesn't know there's a tournament. He's got very little reason to believe that he can go hand to hand with the likes of The Mauler, it was a lucky break he managed to keep the elder assailant between himself and the younger's fear attack. With a little less luck, Zane could have ended up worse than Spike. He's got no reason to believe that he's got magic, or that beating up more magicians will make him stronger or safer.
That's fair but you have to remember that there are only a hundred cards and the setting is New York City which has a population of over 8 million people. With so few people having powers in such a large city their will be very few encounters between magic users in the short term. Of course people with powers will encounter each other eventually but even then they won't necessarily fight.
Here's the note from the prologue;
Dear Lucky One,We've made notice of your exceptional qualities and desirable traits. You are cordially invited to participate in a game that will change the fate of the world.Enclosed in this box is a god's name. Once you have picked up the contents within the box, you will be granted the powers of ancient divinity.We want you to use this power in any way you wish. We will be observing you and your actions. Please enjoy our gift.With great prospects -- Olympus Corporation
Nowhere does it say that there is a tournament. People are free to do whatever they like with the cards. Some obviously will take the cards of others intentionally or not but everyone won't be hunting for them from the beginning. With things set up like this it will take quite a while before having any more than 2-3 cards will be the norm. Plenty of time for us to safely submerge ourselves in all that goes bump in the night.
it's narrated, and there wouldn't be a point in telling Us since we already know this gives 2 cards off the bat for our exceptional luck, so I think its fair to conclude Zane noticed the cards, but of course has no idea what they are, and probably hasn't touched them.
After his conversation with Shen, Zane decided to go upstairs to one of the empty studio apartments and stayed the night over there with his uncle's permission. The night's sleep was relatively undisturbed and oddly calm, given the beatdown he'd delivered to a pair of wizards only a few hours prior.
Awakening in the morning with some intense bedhead, as was his routine, Zane repeated the rote advice on gardening his mother bestowed upon him ("always encourage bees into your garden, they are our little friends,") and then rose, showered off yesterday's nasty sweat, dressed up in some of his old clothes that Uncle Shen kept around, and consumed a luscious breakfast of crispy rice noodles, chopped boiled vegetables drizzled in garlic and soy sauce, and the more Japanese option of wagyu beef steak. It was a morning almost like any other, if perhaps one where he emerged a bit more well-fed in the end.
Sometimes, it was nice to be the owner's nephew.
And then after that, it was off to Midwood High via school bus.
Midwood was one of the more... interesting schools in Brooklyn. It was a huge place, as was the standard for the Big Apple; the student body's sheer figure was so robust that if some God descended and turned everywhere except the interior of the school into a wasteland, there'd still be enough people left to form a small township.
As was usual for any society larger than what an underdeveloped caveman brain deemed a tribe or a pack, there were hundreds of cliques and sub-cultures spread around. Although Midwood offered some pretty interesting AP courses and worked decently as far as competitions, known alumni, or extracurriculars, it was also a small infested patch of earth where gangs could freely recruit the disenfranchised or those simply uninterested in bettering themselves. It was more or less through his reputation as the best fighter in the entire school that Zane fell into the crosshairs of the Old Gravesend Demons, a known crime organization in Brooklyn.
The Gravesend Demons were an enterprising bunch, almost like eager yet stupid revivalists of the idea of turf wars. They'd been steadily cutting up their way to northern Brooklyn, essentially folding all lesser gangs and delinquent circles from Bay Ridge to Jackson Heights. It was an inordinate amount of territory for any kind of organized crime, especially when they were fighting against the NYPD - sometimes in a literal, rather than metaphorical way. Ever since the Mangler, the coppers allegedly started receiving more funding to suppress any similar 'incidents.'
There was a rumor spreading around, that at the very end of the chain of leadership, the man in charge of the Gravesend Demons was a mysterious figure known only as Mephistopheles, and that he possessed some kind of supernatural powers himself, and was solely responsible for the Demons' hegemony over Brooklyn. The rumor said that if any affiliate of the Demons truly wanted, from the depth of their heart, to make a deal with him, and they said his name, then he'd appear and grant their wish at some ill-defined but crippling cost. It sounded like bullshit, but then, so did aerokinesis and fear magic, and Zane had experienced those indirectly last night.
It was a good thing that Zane was near the bottom of the chain; a veteran grunt if anything, slightly respected for his diverse skillset and not much else. It'd make slipping out of this mess a bit easier once he finished studying.
As usual, the classes were pretty boring. As far as being a prospecting florist, Zane understood that he should've focused on gardening over business and marketing, but Uncle Shen insisted that he should aim for an Advanced Placement in a Macroeconomics course, or at least in Statistics. It seemed like a waste of time, and Zane wasn't a good enough student to believe he'd be able to keep up, but he tried his best anyway, to somewhat mediocre results. It wasn't really that he was saddened by this; he didn't believe it mattered too much. He didn't want to be wealthy like Uncle Shen - he just wanted a calm life and a calm retirement, maybe a family later on. It was, however, somewhat disheartening to know that, other than martial arts and tending to flowers, he wasn't much good for anything else.
There were over a hundred clubs in Midwood, some of them as inane as the Asian Society or Model United Nations. There was nothing for dedicated martial arts, sadly, as Zane might have felt tempted to attend that, if only to show a couple of tricks to other people interested in the subject. He didn't feel enough initiative to set up anything of the sort on his own - time was money, after all - but maybe it'd be worth looking into, in some nebulous future.
After he was done with his classes and had a fast bite of lunch at a local family restaurant, Zane decided he needed to take care of some business today...
---
As said, last time, [X] Let's Just Live was the victor.
You currently have 4.3 Ambrosia, insufficient to afford anything, but closing in on the low-hanging fruit.
At present, Zane has a day off. A day off is a day with no pressing activities, missions, or outside duties to attend to; aside from the usual of school, eating, and sleeping. On such a day, Zane is free to choose several activities, dependent on how much time he's got on hand.
Zane's current net worth and total assets:
- A normal leather wallet.
- A pair of stolen leather wallets containing over $1,000 between them.
- A pair of stolen smartphones, slightly old and battered, each one worth maybe around $180 at a pawn shop.
- $120.21, standard circulated US currency; clean, in his wallet.
- A bank account set up by Shen, currently has roughly $2,000 on it. Shen regularly sends over more cash and might be swayed to send more.
- A rough sum of $140 that various people (acquaintances, friends,) owe him and that he can reasonably get back on short notice from them.
- A pair of weird trading cards in plastic ziplock bags. If the Zucchezis bothered to preserve them this much, he should take them to a collector and have them appraised.
- Several changes of clothing.
- His own smartphone; an extremely battered, old model with an extensively cracked screen.
- A stolen pack of cigarettes.
- A stolen plastic lighter.
He should consider pawning off some of these!
What is going to be Zane's actions for today? Select a maximum of four. However, selecting fewer options means Zane will devote more time and focus to them, providing slightly better opportunities, rolls bonuses, and improved overall results. !Vote By Plan!
[ ] Visit Pawn Shop - And pawn off all that good shit. Zane knows a local pawn shop owner who'll give him a good price. [ ] Practice Martial Arts - Where and how? Visit the gym? Visit a dojo? Spar against Uncle Shen? Find a practice dummy? Beat up people? [ ] Wander Around - Wander around somewhere. (Which district of New York?) [ ] Visit Uncle Shen - A second visit in as many days? The old man's heart will melt at this rate... -[ ] Duel Time - Spar with Uncle Shen while you're at it. (Free Action if above is picked.) [ ] Appraise Cards - Ask people around campus if they know anyone into hardcore trading, and track that person down to ask for their opinion on the black cards. [ ] Go Shopping - And purchase what? [ ] Call Mephistopheles- Action locked: Zane Li Black has no reason to call Mephistopheles at this time - he is not even certain of the entity's existence! [ ] Write-in - Something else?
Additional Choices:
[ ] Brawler Charge [7 Ambrosia]- Restore a single use of the Brawler of Midwood perk. Can't afford; gain more Ambrosia first! [ ] Brawler's Repute [25 Ambrosia]- Instead of a single use of the Brawler of Midwood perk, you can have three per Arc or major story event. Can't afford; gain more Ambrosia first!
[X] Plan Relax
- [X] Go shopping for flowerpots and a packet of mysterious seeds.The lady of the gardening shops says they are mysterious, but you asume its just the seeds that sell badly.
- [X] Visit Uncle Shen
- [X] Plant the flowers and leave them with Uncle Shen to keep them safe.
Is there anything on either side of the cards? If not, they're clearly not trading cards- nothing identifiable, nothing to trade, no way you could trademark 'is a black card'.
If there is something... uh, we should look at that before appraising them? should take, like, a minute tops.
From a doylist perspective I don't think we'd get screwed over for picking the only investigate-the-cards option we're given- the choice of investigate action seems kinda odd if it's not even going to work. But also, from what information I have, the investigation action seems not very good of a decision; we wouldn't want to reveal we have the cards, and we're not likely to get anything from 'trading card enthusiasts'.
[X] Plan Very Slight Investigations
[X] Write-In: Investigate alone. check each thing you pilfered off the Zuchezzis to see if anything looks magical or odd about it. especially anything both had, since both had magic- so, the wallets, the phones, and the cards. What material are the Cards made of? the wallets? can you open the phones? if the Cards have no visible pattern, can you feel anything running a finger along them, like brail? etc, etc.
[X] Visit Uncle Shen
-[X] Duel Time
[X] Write-In: Discretionary - whatever Zane would like to do, not for survival, but out of his own emotions. I don't know enough about his character to know what that would be - maybe it'd be gardening? maybe more sparring? food? I dunno, I'm not Zane.
Note about the investigate- my proposal obviously leans towards the cards being important, because I know they are, but similar logic can be applied to the wallets, checking if they have a pattern in the stitching, seem the right size, etc.
Is there anything on either side of the cards? If not, they're clearly not trading cards- nothing identifiable, nothing to trade, no way you could trademark 'is a black card'.
Before asking people is there anyway for him to google it (reverse image search or something)? When he gets no responses he'll know in-character there's far more to the cards, if no one's trading them then why did the brothers care so much?
Also this quest seems super interesting so far can't wait to read more of it! Will we potentially meet the other potential PCs at some point?
Before asking people is there anyway for him to google it (reverse image search or something)? When he gets no responses he'll know in-character there's far more to the cards, if no one's trading them then why did the brothers care so much?
Zane isn't tech savvy. He spent a good chunk of his life on the streets; certainly, "google it," wouldn't be his first thought upon finding something. He prefers to rely on the solidity of experts that he can directly speak to.
Presently, it appears the Quest is in a collective deadlock of several plans and little support for any of them. If this does not resolve itself to the QM's satisfaction by Monday, the QM is going to select one of the plans and move on, judging them by metrics of in-character appropriateness, personal preference, and random chance.
[X] Plan Very Slight Investigations
[X] Write-In: Investigate alone. check each thing you pilfered off the Zuchezzis to see if anything looks magical or odd about it. especially anything both had, since both had magic- so, the wallets, the phones, and the cards. What material are the Cards made of? the wallets? can you open the phones? if the Cards have no visible pattern, can you feel anything running a finger along them, like brail? etc, etc.
[X] Visit Uncle Shen
-[X] Duel Time
[X] Write-In: Discretionary - whatever Zane would like to do, not for survival, but out of his own emotions. I don't know enough about his character to know what that would be - maybe it'd be gardening? maybe more sparring? food? I dunno, I'm not Zane.
