A Splinter in Your Mind - Matrix Quest

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◉ CODA ◉​

Alice Lovelace
​
Resolve
3/3​
Detachment
2​
Skill
6​
Gear
6/10​

Paths​
Path of Resistance
Level 1
When you Fight.exe.
When you gratuitously blow something up as an act of resistance.
The first time in a session you tell an authority to go fuck itself.
XP: ◉◉◉◉◎
You may spend Resistance XP to add or subtract Harm you give or take, 1-1.​
Path of Truth
Level 1
When you Prompt.exe.
When you follow your curiosity in a way that doesn't advance the mission.
The first time in a session you discover something new about the Matrix.
XP: ◉◉◉◎◎
You may spend Truth XP to reroll dice when you Charge or Refresh, 1-1d6.​
Path of Enlightenment
Level 1
When you Disconnect.exe.
When you refuse to back down or run away from impossible odds.
The first time you run out of Resolve in a session.
XP: ◉◉◎◎◎
You may spend Enlightenment XP as if they were Detachment, 1-1.​
Moves
Beginning to Believe: You gain +1 Detachment the first time you Charge.
Stop Trying to Hit Me: You take -1 Harm when on the Defensive in Fights.
Mine Now: Spend a Full Hit in Fight to disarm an enemy of their weapon. If you then shoot them with it, take +1.
Try Again: When you attempt a Disconnect you failed before and have not yet succeeded at, you may input one 6 as a True Hit.
Bit of Help: When you spend Detachment on any move other than Disconnect, you get two +1s. They can be applied to the same die or different ones.

Stunts
Jump Impossible Distances Lvl 2*
Hit with Implausible Force Lvl 1
Dodge Implausible Ways Lvl 1
Act with Implausible Slight of Hand Lvl 1

​


CW: Very 90s.

Also, this is going to be a seriously fucked up quest. I'm going to be doing my damndest to channel an appropriately edgy, teen-rage vibe. Expect violence, drugs, sex, etc.

There's also going to be some Pretty Uncomfortable Dysphoria-ing, trans readers be warned.​
 
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2.2 - Down, Boy
  • Threadmarks
    • You dropped back as he swiped an open hand for your head, and even though his hand was empty and looked normal you could almost feel the sharp edge of his fingers splitting the air as they passed an inch from your face. You came in low to hammer him in the kidney, sidestepped his return swing, and shoulder checked him against the wall for lack of any other option, conscious to not stand in the doorway for the sniper.

    The breath left him with a gasp as he crashed into the wood, and you backed away in time to avoid the next swing of his claws. He looked thrilled by the fight, licking his teeth and smirking as he circled into the smoke. Behind you, somewhere, you heard a crash and the woman who'd darted in shreik, and deep, resonate breathing through a mask.

    "Oh, good, I was worried this was going to be boring," he said, feinted toward you and dancing back, pleased to have made you flinch. "Look at you, defending a program. Bleeding for him." He breathed in, as if taking in the scent, exhaling a cloud of the thick fog that was building up around you.

    He darted forward again, you didn't move, and he stepped fully into the attack. You slapped his wrist down and drove you knee into his leg, aiming for the nerve, and he stumbled over as foot went numb. Planting both your elbows into his shoulders and putting him on his ass was almost easy. He tumbled back down the stairs outside, landing on his feet and looking quite put out.

    "Down, boy."

    There was another crash behind you, and you glanced over to see Enigma against the door to the back room, blindly blocking the woman's strikes with almost contemptious ease before, quite suddenly, her jaw locked around his wrist with an awful snap and she tore her head away. Blood sprayed onto the bookshelves. He showed no reaction to the injury except to smash her in the side of the head with a fist and kick her back onto the boards, but his arm hung limp and useless at his side.

    As your foe started scaling the stairs, cracking his knuckles in anticipation, there was the shattering of glass and a thud on the floorboards above you, then two gunshots.

    ---

    ⚅⚃⚁◻◻​
    ​
    What do you do? ​
    ​
    Reminder: This is a narratively driven system. You can tell me what you do outside the mechanics, and I will make it fit. If you aren't sure how dice will interact with a vote, ask and I will clarify. Also remember, you can Refresh and roll your missing dice at any time.​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)

    I'm just assuming DragonCobolt understands how everything works.
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    [X]Book it to the top floor, using the 4 to try to keep the wolfboy from pursuing (at least immediately)
    As much as we've gotta get rid of these two, if whatever's happening up there terminates our charge we've still lost
    Thank you for the reminder about refreshes, I'd have assumed this to be too tense for that otherwise. Would that heal our wound, too?
     
    Tetra said:
    [X]Book it to the top floor, using the 4 to try to keep the wolfboy from pursuing (at least immediately)
    As much as we've gotta get rid of these two, if whatever's happening up there terminates our charge we've still lost
    Thank you for the reminder about refreshes, I'd have assumed this to be too tense for that otherwise. Would that heal our wound, too?
    Click to expand...
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    It would! I mean you'll still have a horrible big gash in your head from having been shot a little in it, but it won't be hurting anymore.

    If you're a redpill, distracting yourself really is a miracle cure (which facilitates those scenes of characters getting the absolute piss kicked out of them and being thrown across the room, doing a little pose, and being back to asskicking form).
     
    There is a body we should be guarding, not playing with animals.

    [X] Take this chance to Refresh, and charge upstairs! No point failing the mission just because we wanted to do a cool fight!
     
    Taking Tetra's vote and modifying it:
    [X] Use the 4 to shove a big bookcase into the stairwell to block wolfboy (can this count as a Flexible partial-success-as-knockdown?); and
    [X] Book it to the top floor (maybe shouting for Enigma to come with us?)

    I'm thinking like, wolfboy has to avoid a big falling bookcase and there's books tumbling all over the place and bonking him on the head while we scarper stairwards
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    Okay, I think its sleepytime, sorry for the relative lack of updates today. It was a weird day.

    Also, thank you everyone for reading and commenting, especially all the big effortposts with lots of quotes and comments. Those posts are unbelievably motivating!
     
    [X] Use the 4 to shove a big bookcase into the stairwell to block wolfboy (can this count as a Flexible partial-success-as-knockdown?); and
    [X] Book it to the top floor, shouting for Enigma to come with us
    Hopping on board with antigravitas' idea, though we seem heavily outvoted
    For the record here I don't actually think that Enigma should come with us, but I expect him to be able to make that call, and if I'm wrong and he'd be overwhelmed against two foes then obviously I do want him to retreat, so making it clear that we are mindful of him in some fashion is good
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    open_sketch said:
    It would! I mean you'll still have a horrible big gash in your head from having been shot a little in it, but it won't be hurting anymore.

    If you're a redpill, distracting yourself really is a miracle cure (which facilitates those scenes of characters getting the absolute piss kicked out of them and being thrown across the room, doing a little pose, and being back to asskicking form).
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I always figured that if you didn't get instantly killed by trauma or if the cumulative feedback didn't do enough of a number on your internal organs to actually flatline you from heart failure or whatnot redpills basically all had Call of Duty-style regenerating health, so most injury was only a big deal insofar as it might slow and stun you and let someone set up for causing said massive trauma.

    Otherwise, I figured it'd be something like "my leg's not really broken lmao" *unbreaks her leg*
     
    X] Use the 4 to shove a big bookcase into the stairwell to block wolfboy (can this count as a Flexible partial-success-as-knockdown?); and
    [X] Book it to the top floor, shouting for Enigma to come with us

    Stay on Target!
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)

    We are bodyguarding, so let's get to the body in question.

    Also, with the whole "pain is literally an illusion" I imagine someone with a Buddhist's monks upbringing may have a massive edge in staying alive. Though I guess any veteran redpill gets to that point eventually regardless.
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)
     
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)

    YEET
     
    PurposefulZephyr said:
    [X] Bait the wolfboy into leaping at you while your back is to a window, duck, and fling him out head first with the 4+1 for 5! Then turn to the woman and grin at her, then give her the old Morpheus 'come on' (refresh.)

    We are bodyguarding, so let's get to the body in question.

    Also, with the whole "pain is literally an illusion" I imagine someone with a Buddhist's monks upbringing may have a massive edge in staying alive. Though I guess any veteran redpill gets to that point eventually regardless.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Isn't our charge upstairs? Or am I missing something?
     
    open_sketch said:
    "Not like anything rots," Vector added.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Bit of a late reaction, but this more than anything really hammered home to me how fucked things are with the biosphere. If things are in such a bad state that even bacteria are disappearing, maybe the Earth really is irreparable. Although that makes me wonder, how is there even still oxygen in the air? Something the nanocloud in the sky does as part of absorbing sunlight, perhaps? Or maybe there just isn't, but because we've been in a ship, cities, or the Matrix all our lives, we don't know it.

    It feels like there are quite probably already things profoundly wrong with the carbon or water cycles, which have not caught up with us yet as it's only been a geological heartbeat since the war, but will eventually lead to Earth becoming either a barren snowball, or possibly like Venus. Inhospitable for human life even with the fairly intensive levels of support both the free humans and the Machines are already doing; possibly even inhospitable for machines at their current levels of technology.

    Really hammers home the urgency of our struggle, and the unsustainability of the current paradigm - this can't go on forever. Whether it's clearing the skies, trying to find a new planet, or some other plan, we need to do something if either we or the Machine wants to see another millennium, I think. This can't go on indefinitely.

    Anyway, voting time:
    open_sketch said:
    Reminder: This is a narratively driven system. You can tell me what you do outside the mechanics, and I will make it fit. If you aren't sure how dice will interact with a vote, ask and I will clarify. Also remember, you can Refresh and roll your missing dice at any time.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    I agree that we need to get to the top floor, like, yesterday, but I feel like we're not pushing the limits here as hard as we could be?

    Remember, any time we're not actively pushing the envelope of doing the impossible to get Disconnects or using up dice at breakneck pace to get more Charge is kind of wasted time, in one sense. We need to free our mind!

    [X] Shout to Enigma that they're upstairs. He can hear his own damnself, but we're a newbie.
    -[X] Use our six to jump out the window, do a sick physics-defying spin, then run up the wall and go in through the top window, just behind the enemy who presumably entered that way.

    We then have a 4 and a 3 to spend, and fighting defensively + Twich, both of these are partials which we can use to hold up enemies pretty effectively without taking damage when we get upstairs. Then we Charge, and shoot someone in the face with their own fucking gun.
     
    Admiral Skippy said:
    Remember, any time we're not actively pushing the envelope of doing the impossible to get Disconnects or using up dice at breakneck pace to get more Charge is kind of wasted time, in one sense. We need to free our mind!
    ...
    -[X] Use our six to jump out the window, do a sick physics-defying spin, then run up the wall and go in through the top window, just behind the enemy who presumably entered that way.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I appreciate your aggressive style, though I would've figured "run up a wall to get to the next floor" would be in Disconnect territory
    Well that and we do have the option of trying to do a partial recharge to hit pair 6s
     
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