You are determined to explore all of the building, and you have the speed to do it all relatively quickly! You'll start from the bottom and work your way up. With that, you bravely whirl your way towards the stairs, starting at the Lobby.

The Lobby is a wide empty space - Almost cavernous, to your new eyes. Perhaps this place was important, before it became what it is now? You can imagine many people passing through here…but now, there is nothing like that. The floor is faded, where it is not outright ripped apart or coated in dirt and dust. The paint and paper on the walls is peeling. The windows are boarded-up, clearly not touched for months. The door…is blockaded shut, from the inside. Was this perhaps the work of your DONOR? There is one thing that looks as new as the day that it was presumably brought in - A place of honor, behind a desk that perhaps served as a reception area.

It is evil. It is wrong. You can sense the fear coming off of it, the hatred, the malice concealed behind a captured grin. It is a poster, caged behind glass and steel, depicting a man. The man is smiling towards you, not out into the lobby, towards you. His eyes follow you, no matter where you go in the lobby, always smiling. His left hand bears a hammer and his right hand steadies a beam, his clothes incongruous with the work he is doing - A suit and tie for what should be workman's garb. The poster practically shouts out the words emblazoned beneath the man: "TRUST IN US - UNITED STEEL CORPORATION OF ALERIA." You should destroy this, as soon as you can. But it will be dangerous. You know it. (Discovered ???)

You scuttle away from it in haste. It is clearly contained, for now. A problem for later. You continue to explore the Lobby, but there's little else here…you do find one thing, though - A door to a small office. A quick search inside shows that it's largely cleaned out, but…it seems they didn't bother to take out the trash beforehand. You dig through it, savoring the feeling of so many unique items of trash - Glass! Metal! Cardboard! But what's most interesting are the small bits and pieces of paper with scribbled pieces of writing on them, clearly swept into the bin en masse. You're able to piece together a loose chronology, based on their position in the trash…"Rent week late", "New tenant incoming", "Roof leaking" at the bottom, the least recent notes. Towards the top, things start getting less normal, clear signs of trouble start showing. "Walls cracking." "Building repairs too expensive, make do with patches - Call Jeremy". "3 weeks late on rent!!! Evict them if not in by next month." No more new tenants. The notes stop, coated by a layer of trash…and then there comes one final note, just at the top - "Moving Day." It seems this was an apartment building, before…well, whatever happened.

With this new knowledge acquired, you whirl around and begin to scamper up the stairs once more, eager to explore the first and second floors, where people lived! On these two levels, the floors are still stable - Rotting, but not yet rotted. The wood feels unnatural - As if it should be alive, not dead and pressed and folded into this shape. But it is preserved by the virtue of the closed windows and its distance between the ground and the sky. Squatters and vandals have clearly been here, in the past, though none are present now. Some of the apartments are just empty, their tenants having vanished into thin air or been picked clean. Others are full of things - Things you feel power from or can feel food in. It's a strange sensation, like a twitch you can't see. One of those powerful things smells like death, though. You'll leave that one for last, on this set of floors.

You slip into the first of the apartments that catches your eye. A family lived here. They don't anymore, and were hasty to leave - Or perhaps to be evicted, you think, your eyes picking up the signs of a struggle, and the broken belongings left behind. How many could there have been, from the setup of their home…three? Four? Five? How many children, how many parents? Your eyes glance around and make a quick estimation, reconstructing the home - It had to have been just three, two parents and a child. So much shattered…Doesn't leave much that you can take, exactly, though - Just the detritus of people who are no longer here. Maybe you'll be able to find them later? As you start to leave, your tentacles chance over something, and it's as if a shock goes through you - You flip yourself over to look at it, and see a tiny wooden rocking horse, split in two. You pick it up and cradle it close to yourself, hanging both parts from one of your less important tentacles. You feel power within it. (Gain Broken Toy - Keyword: Split)

The next one of interest is empty - The tenant clearly had time to leave. But what's interesting about it is what came after. The walls are coated in painted words, conversations played out over years and painted over in turn. A veritable mural consisting mostly of symbols you think represent animals, names painted in dramatic style, and occasional words that mean nothing to you. You reach out and touch it with one of your more tactile tentacles, and feel the layers of paint - Dozens upon dozens. This place…is…was…popular for this sort of thing, for some reason. You take note of the most recent paintings, the names and signs on them. You will recognize them, if you come across them again.

The final apartment of interest before you search the one that reeks of death seems empty at first glance. But your ears hear differently. This one's connection to the ventilation system is blocked - Something's in there. You scuttle over to it, heaving yourself up to it with your tentacles. A single tug on the grate is enough to pull it off, so clearly someone was using this space. Within is…a book? You pull it closer to yourself, feeling it - And you don't feel anything special about it. You pull it open and start to read through its densely packed words, handwritten in a cramped style. It details the day to day life of a young factory worker, someone angry at the world. He talks about something called 'the Great Crusade', how he can't sleep at night anymore because of it, how he dreams of screaming men and burning fields. He talks about the United Steel Corporation, and how much he hates them. Your non-occupied tendrils writhe slightly at that, thinking of the poster downstairs. But he also talks of hope. Hope of a better life, somewhere abroad, away from the FRA - Though you don't know what that means. Later parts of the journal talk about 'Necrocracy' and 'Necrocrats', an idea and a group which the author seems proud to belong to. He talks about how he's just waiting for his passport to be approved for travel to the 'Necromantic Council Republic of Runval'. The entries cut off there. Did he leave? Were his plans halted by whatever wound up happening here? You wonder…and you cradle the book close to yourself. Even if it is not powerful, it holds meaning, and you will reread it to learn more things, soon.

With book and toy clutched tight, tentatively, you approach the door that smells of rot and death. A simple twist sees it open into the sight of another empty apartment, but the smell permeates it regardless - It comes from the walls themselves, the only access point a tiny hole in the wall. You squeeze one of your tendrils into it to see what could be causing the scent - And find a scene of death. Rodents, clutching their paws in a death rictus of agony, dried pools of blood by their mouths. Rotting away in the walls, the person who poisoned them fled before they could clean up the evidence of their crime. You mourn for these rats, as you gather them towards yourself. Their deaths will not go to waste. They will be integrated into your flesh, and perhaps even reborn, in some way, though you cannot revive them in truth. You hum a mournful tune from one of your mouths, even as the others gorge themselves on the poisoned bodies, fresh blood dripping onto your tentacles. (Gain 1 Biomass, Gain Rat Poison - Keyword: Poison)

The third and fourth floors are in worse shape then the ones below. Cracks show across the walls, and in a few places, sunlight shines in from above - Holes in the roof hastily patched over with netting or simply not fixed at all. The wood warps in on itself in places and clear water damage is everywhere. Nobody has been here for quite some time, which makes the few things of interest you find all the stranger…

One apartment holds a molted snakeskin pinned to the wall with nails - Abnormal in that it is the size of a large child. You pull it down, careful not to rip it, and drape it across yourself, feeling it shiver with power. (Gained Shed Snakeskin - Keyword: Refresh)

Another has a business card, half-wedged into the doorframe, for Namreh's Theater of the Soul. The tickets alongside it are clearly expired, but you note down the address on them. Perhaps a place to visit, later?

On the fourth floor, you find a room completely exposed to the air - It must have been the primary beneficiary of many rainstorms, for in it you find flourishing clumps of moss where a bed must once have laid, now but a seedbed for the plantlife. You take care not to eat all of it - But it nourishes you regardless. (Gain 1 Biomass)

And finally, in the last room on the fourth floor, you discover perhaps the strangest thing of everything you've seen thus far. At first, you think it's a human, jumping back in fright and instinctively trying to disguise yourself - But they sit completely still on the chair they're on. Then, you think it's a corpse. But as you creep closer, you pick out the lines and joints on it, you see the artificial make of its skin, and you realize that for some reason, somehow, there is a perfectly preserved wooden doll of a human in the fourth floor of this apartment building, abandoned to the elements. You reach out and touch all over it, setting down all of your cargo, trying to determine what it must have been used for. You see grooves and openings on its back, and slide into it, feeling your way around the complex internal structure, making the arms lift and the legs move. This is a work of art that someone made, and then, what, chose to abandon here? It can't have been here for long, given the state that the clothes are in - It's dressed in a simple white blouse and long blue skirt, pristine in their simplicity. Well, you're not going to let it go to waste. It's much bigger than most anything else you've grabbed thus far, and you struggle a bit with the weight, but this will definitely be worth it. (Gain Doll - Keyword: False Humanoid)

With your entire entourage of items in tow, you slowly make your way up towards the roof, weighed down by the items you've got and the biomass you've absorbed, doing your bare due diligence of caution by peeking a tentacle out - And then freezing when your tendril spots someone, who is most assuredly staring back at you, alerted by the door to the roof creaking open. Someone who is most assuredly not human.

QM's Note: And that's where we'll cut it for now! No vote for now, I'll get the next update out soon.

You don't know how to describe them other than a snake-person. Standing at what must be five feet and seemingly androgynous, they stare directly at you, round eyes bulging slightly. You notice that they don't have a tail, and seem to be standing on two legs, but that is definitely the head of a snake on a person in front of you, and what little 'skin' you can see beyond that seems to be covered in scales. You think for a second about what to do, as they stand stock-still, staring at you, mouth open, revealing their fangs and tongue. Resolved, you stick a mouth tentacle out from the door, beneath the eye tentacle. "Hi!" Oh, that came out all wrong! You sound far too high-pitched. No, no, redo it. More mouths. "Hi!" This time, it comes from a chorus of five mouths. So much better! You slowly start to drag yourself out through the door, weighed down by everything you've been carrying. The snake person steps back, dropping their cigarette and fumbling for something in the pocket of their jacket.

"Hey, stay back! I'm warning you, I'm a mage, so don't try any bullshit, I'll curse you!" They yell at you, their voice seeming quite feminine - But you don't want to assume, that'd be impolite. You chorus back. "No, no! I don't want to hurt you! Quite the opposite! I'm-" You realize you haven't come up with a good name. "-A friend!" By now, you've heaved your full self into view, and are disentangling your tentacles from the doll. The snake person manages to convey their distrust of you quite effectively by finally yanking a knife out of their pocket and pointing it at you. You shy back, even though you've got quite a few feet of distance between the two of you, which the snake-person takes with a note of triumph. "Hah! Thinking twice now? Yeah, bud, nice and slow - Tell me who you are and what you're doing here! Are you one of the Guard's constructs? Some tool of the Predators? Some executive fuck's pet?"

You focus entirely on one thing in that sentence. "We're buds? Oh, that's so nice of you to say, since we just met and you're, you know-!" Your many mouths smile. "I've never had a bud! That's like a friend, right?" If the snake-person was capable of blinking (which you don't think snakes are capable of), they probably would've, and the hesitation in their posture is clear. "I-, uh, yeah? But I wasn't-Whatever! Answer the question!"

"I don't know what most of those words mean! I don't guard anything, except myself! I'm not a predator, either - Well, I guess maybe? I eat a lot of things. But that makes me a scavenger, not a predator, right? I haven't eaten anything alive, and I think that's one of the requirements, but at the same time, the emphasis you put on those words makes me think that they're, like, people or things, not just words, right?" You burble, overflowing with words - With your first conversation! This is so fun! People must do this a lot. The snake-person seems to relax, slightly.

"...Alright. You seem…too…mmm…You're just a kid, aren't you? Some kinda kid, at least. Never seen an abhuman look as, uh…no offense, but whatever you got, it's definitely the most divergence I've ever seen. Sorry about the, uh, freakout, I…shoulda known better, right? Folks like us gotta stick together." They stick the knife back into their pocket, rubbing the back of their head and flicking their tongue out slightly. You blink several of your eyes. "What's an abhuman?" They tilt their head, tongue flickering out again as they speak. "...How old are you, kid?" You glance up at the sky, and try to remember how long it felt like while you were exploring the building, and where the sun was when you were inside not too long ago. "I think one day! Sorry, I don't have any kind of clock where I am! It could be two days! Or less than twelve hours! But probably not beyond either of those…"

They raise their hands. "Alright, alright, let's, uh, let's start from the beginning, here…"

After a long explanation from you, which she occasionally interrupts with questions (You got confirmation of her gender while you were talking!), she sits on the edge of the roof to think, and you hop up there alongside her, so that she's not doing it alone, and you get to talking again! She's really quite nice, now that she's no longer pointing a knife at you. Her name is Sabrina Slick! She says that's not her real name, but it's the name she goes by, so it might as well be, right? You agreed whole-heartedly, and said that you don't have a name yet, which she kind of grimaced in response to! But you think that means she's not mad, which you can't be sure of, it's just kind of…the feeling you get from her facial expressions, which, according to what little memories you have, are a lot different from normal ones.

She helped clarify some things for you, too. Like what Aleria is! Apparently you're in the Federal Republic of Aleria, which is the 'only' state in the New World 'worth mentioning'. It's March 21st, 1923, and you're in the city of Orion…which provides some additional context to who Orion Starlight is! She must be local! You don't ask about her yet, though. That seems…personal. And you like Sabrina, don't get yourself wrong, but you just…don't know. Hm. What a strange feeling arises in you at the thought of telling her. You're not sure what it is! Anyways, she also explained what an 'abhuman' is. Apparently it's the term for people like her (and maybe like you?) who aren't like normal humans because of magic! She says it's hereditary, so they're technically not human, but that it gets really complicated, so you're better off just thinking of them as people who look different! Which is fine by you, everything's just flesh in the end. Or maybe not! Maybe that's reductive. You'll have to think about it.

Regardless, she's really cagey about some things. Like what she does, and where she works, and anything about herself, and what that whole 'mage' business is. She kind of waved that one off with 'well, you're obviously one. And it's different for everyone, sorta, kinda, or, well, I'm definitely not fit to be teaching you blah blah blah' - She really can stretch out an excuse! But you're alright with that - You're happy to just have a 'bud' to talk with at all! She even promised to come by tomorrow to talk more, but she said her 'host' would get worried if she was gone too long. You asked if that was like a DONOR, and she said it was more like a landlord, but you're not quite sure how those two things go together. Still, you waved her goodbye with all your tentacles, because that's how you're supposed to do it, and she looked back, sorta-sighed, and pulled something off her neck and gave it to you. She told you to "wear it, or put it on whatever you said is your…body, or…just keep it, alright? It'll keep you safe, kid. Mage's promise." And you felt that power of her promise running through it! Or maybe it's magic. It's a very pretty necklace either way, with all sorts of interesting shapes and carvings hung from it. Then she left, just leaping over the gap between roofs! You can't wait to see her again. (Gained Charm Necklace - Keyword: Shield)

With that particular encounter done, you haul your vastly expanded stock of goods back to yourself, and start to plan for tomorrow! You've got so much to work with, now, after all…

Asset Situations​

Explore [Area] with [Asset]​

Expect Sabrina's Visit​

Deal With The Poster​

Biomass Options​

Create an Asset.​

Recycle An Asset​

Modify Yourself​

QM's Note: So, I realize I probably misspoke/gave the wrong impression when I answered a prior question saying that new assets will exist in time for the 'next round of actions' - By that, I meant the next round of selected actions. I purposefully spaced out the initial 'create asset' and 'send on mission' as part of the tutorial, but any assets you create during a turn can be used during this turn. To enable this - I am going to encourage you to provide names to assets you create in the future! Get funny with them, get silly with them, I'll do my best to run with it, and I'll indicate if something doesn't fit the setting. To provide an example:
[] Create an Asset: Mini-Sabrina: Snake, Friendly, Huggable
[] Expect Sabrina's Visit with Mini-Sabrina

In addition, feel free to format things as plans, and feel free to include write-ins!
[] Expect Sabrina's Visit with Mini-Sabrina
-[] Set up a fun tea party for you two to have!