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In Pursuit of Virtue

Vindictus said:
I'm going to say that the CIA is the worst option here, because while it might give us training and connections... Well, to be frank, none of that makes up for the whole 'Being Mute' thing.

We can't send orders over the radio. We can't give verbal feedback to our guys. We can't cry for help if we're attacked.

Being mute fucking sucks. The other two routes have significant downsides too, but nothing as potentially troublesome as that- Hell, even being literally crippled is less dangerous in our position than being mute, because our job doesn't involve going out in the field at all.
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I thought CIA gave you a bum leg?

EDIT: Oh, it makes you mute too. Yeah, that's bad. It has literally the worst synergy with Psychology.
 
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To sum up-

Police- One arm, One eye. Pirate Modo Engaged.
Army- Hard of hearing, lowered sense of taste/scent/touch.
CIA- You've got no voice and you must scream.
 
Don't forget the cop has the least amount of relevant experience.

I assume that despite being mute you've either got an ASL interpreter, or some sort of machine that can speak for you. It's not the best fit, but it's something.
 
Personally, while I think the Army option leaves us at a disadvantage on Talk Like A Pirate Day, Arr, the disadvantages given are a lot more manageable than the other options. Of course, there's also the subtle 'Why should I eat? Nothing tastes good', 'I burned myself but never noticed and then it got infected and now my foot is dripping off' and other such happy fun time angles, but assuming we take some reasonable precautions [Chug our meal replacements, check for injuries every evening] we should be way better off with that one.
 
Vindictus said:
To sum up-

Police- One arm, One eye. Pirate Modo Engaged.
Army- Hard of hearing, lowered sense of taste/scent/touch.
CIA- You've got no voice and you must scream.
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To sum it up a bit more extensively (no worries, no way you could have known this from the information I presented):

Police- You took extensive damage to the left side of your body during the riots, focused towards the upper portion of your body. Doctors were able to save your leg, although you still walk with a slight limp, and your leg aches really badly when storms roll in; however, they weren't able to save your arm, and you ended up having to have it amputated due to extensive damage.

Your face was also fairly severely damaged. Although most of that damage was superficial, your left eye was damaged beyond repair. (You also have minor difficulty seeing through your right eye, you had to have reconstructive surgery on your nose, and you are missing several teeth.)

You do, however, have a prosthetic arm; a basic model that can do little more than hold glasses of water and such, but it is all you could afford on a retiree's salary. You also have a glass eye.


Army- As a result of Quietus' attack, you suffered some selective brain damage over the course of the "false death" he causes. The most obvious symptoms of this are difficulty in recalling some memories related to the attack, and a lowered ability to "feel" things with your senses- you have difficulty hearing, you "see" badly at distances and colours are washed out, you have difficulty discerning smells and tastes, and your body is remarkably insensitive.

The Army option is the one with the least severe damage, but the damage that has been done is most pervasive; it affects every aspect of your life.


CIA- As a result of the interrogation you underwent, you suffered extensive injuries to your right leg and throat. Although you managed to escape and drag yourself to a hospital, the damage to your leg was extensive enough that you have never regained full functionality in the limb; you still suffer from muscle spasms on a daily basis, and walk with a pronounced limp.

You also have extensive scarring on your throat that makes it difficult (although not impossible) to talk, and makes your voice sound gravelly. These injuries also cause you difficulty breathing and eating, forcing you to take medicine to ensure you can breathe without undue difficulty. You do have a voice modulator you can use to talk without causing you undue difficulty, but it's robotic and absolutely ruins your inflection.

Also, I didn't make this at all clear in the opening post, but you didn't actually work for the PAG. You worked for the SOG as, well, pretty much a spy as you'd think of them in spy novels and the like, doing a lot of covert infiltration and stuff. You just weren't willing to admit that over unsecured email.
 
Well then, this info only reinforces my desire to go with the CIA. We have two functioning arms, our senses are standard, and what difficulties we have can be worked around easily. So yeah, CIA is my choice.
 
Two functioning arms, but one fucked up leg and speaking is difficult at best.

Now, don't get me wrong, the Army negative isn't a bundle of roses here, but I still think it's a better option- THough the fact that we can speak if necessary has made CIA a lot less of a 'Hell No' for me.
 
Alright, character stuff. And not a moment to lose.

[x] Woman

Because why not, it will be a welcome turn of events for Tempera. She needs to write more female characters :|

[x] Psychology

We are quite blatantly going to be put in charge of a Superhuman Management/Oversight organisation, or at least some part of it. The better we understand human nature, the better we can understand these people, or at least understand their actions and the reasons behind them. This, beyond all else, is absolutely vital.

Plus a History degree is bloody useless but w/e.

[x] Police

In light of Tempera's elaborations on the extent of our injuries, I think the police option should be the best. Mostly because if we're going to be meeting Superhumans, we want to make a good first impression. That involves sympathy and competence. You can't get quite more obvious than a robot arm and a glass eye, and some pretty gruesome (if superficial) facial scars. With this aspect, the CIA would win out, and give us more upper body function at the same time. That said, CIA doesn't win, for one good reason.

The loss of ability to speak.

Well, the CIA option lets us speak some, but it is noted to be difficult and painful and generally best avoided. As someone who will be in charge of an Oversight committee, we're going to need to talk a lot. Speeches, discussions, ballsy shouting, all of these need a good, loud presence. Having a fucked up throat does nothing to help with that. It actually hurts that. And, since we're not going to be doing any of the actual fighting, upper body function is not exactly important. We need a writing hand and a pointer finger. That's it.

Running away, however. That would probably help when the inevitable building assault happens, and we need to run. A limp does not help, but its a lot better than a prosthetic leg.

As for the background itself... Pointing out that you worked as a security guard for a hotel would probably score empathy points with some of the heroes that came from less fortunate backgrounds. :p

[x] Yes - Engage Tutorial

I have no illusions that Tempera will pull any punches on this. Any help we get is any help we need. Plus we want an idea of what we're getting into, anyways.

[x] Third Person

Because why not. I do not need an explanation for this. You can't make me explain this Tempera. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.
 
Okay. I left the vote open for a while longer as I watched a movie, but I think this is about long enough; I'm going to close votes now.

@Swordomatic made some very persuasive arguments for his side. Also, some less persuasive arguments, but hey; can't win 'em all.

With everything in mind, I'm going to accept the following selections;

[X] Woman
[X] Psychology
[X] Police
[X] Engage Tutorial
[X] Second Person

Swordomatic's arguments for Psychology and Police were well-reasoned enough to sway me- although Psychology was already the winning choice, so it's not like he affected much there. Still.

Sorry to everyone whose votes didn't win. I have to go prepare some things for the tutorial now; expect the first post of it to be up in a few hours.
 
I don't mind this, as I was torn between CIA and Police, even if I chose CIA in the end.
 
Arc 0- Tutorial
(Jason Wells)
[Initiation]​

"You seen my tie?"

Drake- Phase- reluctantly looks up, dragging his attention away from whatever he was looking at on his phone. His thread on CSO, probably. He'd been boasting about the thread's creation for days now, ever since the Westhall job.

"Didn't leave it on the doorknob again, did you?" You shake your head, and he shrugs quickly, turning his attention back to the phone in his hands. "No damn idea then, kiddo. Told you it was a bad idea to have them girls over last night."

You shrug, not bothering to deny the accusation. It was true; he had warned you that sleeping with Jane and Natalie would be a terrible idea, especially when you had such an important meeting to attend to the next day.

Was worth it, though. Twins usually were.

You spot your tie, then, hanging from- how the hell did it get on top of the fridge the kitchen is three rooms away-

Padding through the kitchen to retrieve your tie, you flick the coffee maker on as you go. The smell of slowly roasting coffee beans pervades the air again as you slowly wrap the tie around your neck.

Phase's head shoves its way through the wall, right in front of you. You flinch violently, almost knocking over the dirty mug he'd left here to be washed earlier. "Jesus, Drake, I swear one of these days-" You hold your hand to your chest, trying to calm your heart as you hoped he hadn't picked up on the fear in your voice. He needed to stop doing that.

"Yeah, yeah." He rolls his eyes. "Irina just called, wanted me to let you know Salone changed his mind, won't be comin' today."

You grunt noncommittally. "Not surprising, I guess, not after that shootout with Thompson and them down near the east station. Irina think there was anything else weird about it?"

He tosses his phone to you. Aha, you were right, he'd been looking his thread over again. Pathetic. It hadn't even reached three pages yet. "Didn't say, so yeah, probably. Give Max a call, get him to follow one of Salone's boys? Probably the new kid, accordin' to Pete he's still scared after what your dad did to the guy he replaced."

"Can't afford to," you reply. "Got Max tailing that new guy, Terry or whatever is name is, the German guy who's been muscling in on Irina's territory. Guess I could always get that French chick to tail him, but..." You shrugged awkwardly; her name was Marcelle, but you didn't need to let Drake know you'd remembered her name before you'd even slept with her- was meant to be tailing Jasmine.

He pulled back through the wall, leaving it perfectly intact. His voice carried easily through the hotel room as he called back, "All up to you, boss-man."

You hesitated, glancing down at the phone in your hand.
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Your resources were still limited here. You had had so much more, back in Venice, in Paris, but- well; it didn't matter. You would make do with what you had. You always would.

It was hard, though. You needed information, you always needed information, and you just didn't have the manpower to get everything you needed.

Salone was usually a stable element. He did things the classic way, favouring money and brute force over all else. It was easy to think of him as dull, uninspired- but he was clever, too; he just didn't like taking hold of all the advantages these metas could bring with them. Nobody could survive as many years as Salone had without knowing the underground scene, inside and out.

Jasmine, now, she was the one you were worried about. New blood, like you, only here for a couple of months before you moved over here. She was sharp, sharp like you, sharp like Drake had been, back before this new power went to his head. She was invited to this big pow-wow along with everyone else, and without the backing of the Wells name, to boot. Whatever she'd done to get an invite, you wanted to know about it, and you wanted to know yesterday. Not knowing might get you killed.

And this new kid, Terrence- you didn't know nuthin' about this kid. That worried you. People you know, people like Salone- they were dangerous, but they were predictable. You could stay ahead of them, outthink them, outplay them if you were smart and tricky and always kept a hand on your gun. People you didn't know- well. You couldn't very well predict people you didn't know.
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[] Do you want to reassign one of your PI's to follow Salone's man? If so, who?
[] 0.9x Max- not necessarily the better PI, but you trusted him, you knew how he worked, you knew what he'd take bribes on and what he had a personal stake in. You'd asked him to track down Terrence because if Terrence was able to bribe Max into working for him, you'd know exactly what type of person this guy was. (A liar. A dirty, dirty liar, just like you.)
[] 0.8x Marcelle, the French girl. You didn't know her, didn't trust her, but she was damn good at her job. You were pretty sure she was a meta, but there was no way in hell you were gonna bring that up in front of her; no way that could end up going well. She's get the job done, you knew she would. You just hated not knowing if Salone would be able to buy her.
[] 1.3x Leave them both as they were. They were known elements, and you needed the information they were providing... And, well, you just didn't care. Salone had always been a coward, skittering away at the first sign he might get in trouble. Like a cockroach, that one. He'd probably just learned you were coming and decided to bugger off elsewhere.
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Information gathering is one of the key points you'll have to learn to deal with as the quest progresses. Unfortunately, you won't always know what information you need, or how to get it. As such, you're going to have to get used to trying to figure out what to do through the clues I've given you in the narrative. I'm being remarkably blatant with them at the moment. I wouldn't count on my generosity lasting too much longer.


I'm also using a weighted voting system when writing updates from a particular character's point of view. Actions that are more in-character will have weight to them, while actions that run counter to a character's overriding goals, motivations or character/personality traits will have less weight to them. For example, in this post, both actions that require Jason to countermand his previous orders and place some measure of trust in both Drake and his PI's have less weight to them, while the action that affirms Jake's desire to believe he is right has more weight to it.

A vote with more weight to it counts for more votes, in the purely statistical sense. A single vote for 'Leave them both as they were', for instance, is worth 1.3 votes, while a single vote for 'Send Marcelle' is only worth 0.8 votes. As such, if you wish to vote for, let us say, less in-character decisions, I suggest you argue your point well.

Of course, if I am presented with compelling enough reasoning behind a particular vote, I will not hesitate to run with that choice over the choice with more votes behind it.​
 
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[X]Do you want to reassign one of your PI's to follow Salone's man? If so, who?
-[X] 0.9x Max- not necessarily the better PI, but you trusted him, you knew how he worked, you knew what he'd take bribes on and what he had a personal stake in. You'd asked him to track down Terrence because if Terrence was able to bribe Max into working for him, you'd know exactly what type of person this guy was. (A liar. A dirty, dirty liar, just like you.)

If you know he's dirty, then you know what he'll crack for, and if you know what he'll crack for, then you have something that you can use on this guy, which could mean another lead and another thread to tug at until it snaps or unravels.

Besides, he might actually surprise us and not sell out.
 
Alright. I'll be gone for a few hours, but I should be back in four-five, at which point I'll answer questions and close votes.

As always, now would be a really good time to post any thoughts and arguments you have.
 
[X]Do you want to reassign one of your PI's to follow Salone's man? If so, who?
-[X] 0.9x Max- not necessarily the better PI, but you trusted him, you knew how he worked, you knew what he'd take bribes on and what he had a personal stake in. You'd asked him to track down Terrence because if Terrence was able to bribe Max into working for him, you'd know exactly what type of person this guy was. (A liar. A dirty, dirty liar, just like you.)
 
Alright. I'll close votes in an hour; now's the time to finalize anything and post any arguments you have.
 
[x] 1.3x Leave them both as they were. They were known elements, and you needed the information they were providing... And, well, you just didn't care. Salone had always been a coward, skittering away at the first sign he might get in trouble. Like a cockroach, that one. He'd probably just learned you were coming and decided to bugger off elsewhere.

As much as I want to figure out what Salone is up to - We have two virtually unknowns to focus on first. Let's get a bit of basic information on the two new players, than we can focus on the known. Remember, something something unknown knowns known unknowns something WMDs.
 
Right. Okay; I'm closing votes now. There were arguments for both sides, so I'm falling on the side of [X] Leave them both as they were, as it has the highest vote count after adjustment.

The post will be up in either around four-five hours, or in around twelve hours, depending on if I finish it before I sleep or not.
 
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