A Splinter in Your Mind - Matrix Quest

Reader mode


◉ 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.​
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[X] Plan Airbender

I like those stat choices. And though I'm not wedded to the martial art choice, drunken boxing feels like a particularly jarring choice.

NemoMarx said:
I wonder what's happening with that switch? I would normally just assume another trans character, changing gender presentation, but I think the wordings imply this was someone else switching in for her.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You know? Now that you mention it, that could fit with how RSI is stated to work maybe. Plural systems getting to shapeshift is convenient bordering on OP, and I am just a bit jealous. Also confused how it would even work for me since I don't really have a physical self-image and primarily think of myself as a computational process that happens to be running on a brain.

I wonder how all of this works for anyone with a nonhuman identity. Probably just doesn't. I bet all it can do is points in the latent space of something designed to model human bodies.
 
ancusohm said:
Huh. I've seen the first three Matrix movies, and I never once wondered where they got their clothes from. But now that I'm reading it, I suddenly want to know where they got that wool. Do they got some sheep hidden somewhere? Some old caches of supplies from before the machines took over? Some fancy device that can turn rocks into clothes?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Presumably one of the vast machines in the heart of Zion produces some type of industrial batch of resins that can be turned into wooly synthetic fibers with moderate difficulty and then hand spun and stitched and restituted into wearable clothes, in post-apocalyptic cottage production.
 
Marlowe310811 said:
Plan Aura
[X] Her reflexes and instincts to avoid danger. (+TWITCH)
[X] Her handling of firearms (-COOL)
[X] Capoiera

Is "tricking" an option? Like, the really flashy stuff you see Caity Lotz do in DC's TV programmes.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Your vote needs to look like this:

[X] Plan Aura
-[X] Her reflexes and instincts to avoid danger. (+TWITCH)
-[X] Her handling of firearms (-COOL)
-[X] Capoiera

I like this plan, Capoiera is cool.

Also "Aura" being the username of someone who posted in the thread is doing weird things to the vote count.

And since there is apparently approval voting,
[X] Plan Jackie Chan
 
Last edited:
[X] Plan Ribbon Dance
-[X] Her precision and power with her fists and feet (+FORCE)
-[X] Her handling of firearms (-COOL)
-[X] Kalaripayattu

One of the few martial arts that (in many schools) teaches weapons before barehanded, and also one of the few that uses the urumi, the spinning sword, coiling sword, or ribbon sword. Picture a bandsaw blade (or occasionally blades) on a sword hilt (length ranging from three or four feet to ten or fifteen), now wield it as one part ribbon dance, one part sword, and three parts steel whip. For bonus points, wear it as a belt, with an appropriately disguised hilt/buckle. It's wild.

Anyway, the fight in M2 with all the melee weapons on the walls getting used was neat, and I'd love to see more in that vein.
 
Last edited:
open_sketch said:
"Hold on, sweetie, you're going to be okay! I just sit, please sit down, oh bugger-"
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I kind of forgot Page had a British accent and it just slammed back in all at once lmao
open_sketch said:
Disengaging the macerators!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Concern!!!

open_sketch said:
Because wasn't the body you were trapped in.

It was your body.

You didn't understand anything else that was happening, lying against the side of some tub of goo in a cold and desolate place, unable to see past your hand, with steel sticking out of you, but you cried tears of joy, overwhelmed by it. You didn't have the energy to do anything else, you had no comprehension what was happening, but none of it mattered.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ejecting from the Matrix affirms your gender? Seems legit???
open_sketch said:
You turned to follow it, back to another expanse of blank space, and you saw a woman, reclining back on an elegant loveseat, smoking a cigarette. She was an Asian woman with a short sweep of hair, wearing what looked for all the world like an all-black Victorian dress partially rendered in PVC, with a pair of small, square sunglasses.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is peak fashion. Peak. Fashion.
open_sketch said:
"This one was programmed by myself and Chrysalis, as a little taste of home. But… I imagine you mean the one you lived most of your life in. The Matrix."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's a pretty decent word, to be fair.
 
Like many others,
[X] +TWITCH
[X] -FORCE

I know nothing about martial arts so I will decline to vote there.

open_sketch said:
I'm having my cake and eating it too: there's other trans people on the crew. So I get to have my supernatural validation metaphor for the trans character *and* trans people who just happen to be trans people outside it.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
QM, I'm really glad you're doing it this way - that is, having transness exist in multiple forms and not be reducible to a particular orientation to the matrix. If all trans people are their desired gender in the matrix and their assigned sex IRL, that has cissexist terfy implications ("believe whatever you like, out here in harsh reality you're just a [...]"). But if all trans people are actually cis in the real world, that has weird eugenic implications, like we don't actually exist in this universe and nobody ever has to deal with the idea that people can be genderweird without a gigantic evil simulation being to blame. Thank you!
 
Last edited:
Okay, so, I kind of want Alice to have something kind of weird and unique, and I like the idea of her using a gun, but 2-pistol gun kata is kind of generic, so what if she uses a rifle for some sort of staff or stick based martial art? It seems like something Coda, the in-universe gender fantasy of Alice, might use and is something I don't think I've seen anywhere else. With that in mind:

[X] Plan: Hit things with stick
- [X] Her accuracy with firearms and instincts in a gunfight (+COOL)
- [X] Her hesitation on the attack (-FORCE)
- [X] Jukendo
 
Last edited:
My mistake, must have deleted that by accident. I like the idea of her just not being that good with hurting people yet.
 
[X] Her reflexes and instincts to avoid danger. (+TWITCH)
- [X] Her hesitation on the attack (-FORCE)
[X]Wing Chun
 
[X] Her reflexes and instincts to avoid danger. (+TWITCH)
- [X] Her hesitation on the attack (-FORCE)
[X]Wing Chun

A style for fighting bigger and stronger enemies, I like it.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Back
Top