Your attention is turned almost fully to the matter of dealing with the intruder. You have the Kudzu brought down to you, and reabsorb its biomass, swelling yourself once more. Super Spy begins being modified, tentacles being stripped away in favor of repairing its more humanoid appearance. You make it far more pleasant to look at and ensure that even if it's probably recognizably inhuman to his searching eyes, won't provoke an instinctive bad reaction in Jeremy.
Then, you start thinking about how best to ask him things. You trust Sabrina, and she says not to trust him - So you've got to figure out how to make sure he tells the truth…or avoids telling the truth. And how to phrase questions and - Really, this is quite complex. You resolve to focus on the root of your issue: What is truth? All of your brainpower focuses on that question…
Truth is something good, that's undoubtedly true. It's a sign of trust. But you'd have to build that, and you doubt this is the ideal environment for such - Especially since he likely knows that'd be what you're trying. Wouldn't it be so much easier if people just didn't want to lie? Why do people want to lie?
To defend themselves. To put up walls. To hide away from the truth. This is true practically and in a slightly more metaphorical sense - A criminal avoiding being caught by lying is lying, just the same as someone who refuses to admit their vulnerability to another. But forcing people to reveal the truth isn't necessarily good, even if speaking the truth is…
But sometimes it can be necessary, can't it? To defend not only yourself but others. You want to release Jeremy, but you can't until you can be sure he's telling the truth! You feel a bit of power coursing through you as you think about that. Your desire to let him go - To set him free through the truth. You focus on that feeling, on that certainty that if only he would tell the truth, he would be free. And a song starts to rise in you, a chorus - But different from any song you've sung before.
It splits itself into three groups - A tripartite union of intent. One mouth sings of freedom - Of finding mistruth and setting it free to fly away. One mouth sings of justice - of finding out mistruth and digging it out of the ground to be exposed to the light of truth. And one mouth sings of something beyond both - Of
knowing what truth is.
Creation Report Updated!
Name: Super Spy!
Keywords: Perceptive, False Humanoid, Shield, Poison, Interrogator, Likeable, ESP, Lie Detector
Description: Inbetween human and inhuman, Super Spy truly appears to be worthy of the title of abhuman now. Wood stretches and warms itself, veins running beneath them as the wood is repaired and woven into it. Some might even consider it charming, in an uncanny way. But beyond mere exterior lies magic - A union of the desire to understand another and the need to break down their barriers to do so. One eye looks at the past, one eye looks at the present, one eye looks at the future. A singular point has a straight line drawn from it - And from the line, answers emerge, drawn forth by the song of truth. For the truth shall set you free.
After that's done, you lean back, mentally, and observe your work. You like it, but…you exhale through several mouths, in a small huff. You've spent a lot of time trying to fit in, and that's fine and all, but you also want to express yourself with some really crazy stuff! How's a girl to do that when doing so might risk her discovery and subsequent problems thereof? You pause, then form a hand to slap your central's face with. The solution's so simple! How could you not think of it before?
Already, you can sing a song - One you know well. The desire to not be seen, the fear of discovery, the hunger within you, and a shape seems to emerge almost autonomously from your flesh, though you realize your mind is sculpting it, even as your senses reject the idea of any influence on it at all. Your hand in your own production is, in a strange sense, limited - Because you cannot perceive it bar from the inside, which is a strange bit of cognitive dissonance. You are building yourself, of course, but you can't perceive that you're building yourself. Your perfectionism is somewhat sated by the fact that if you can't tell if there are any mistakes or rough edges, neither can anyone else. You actually wind up having to wall yourself off away from your many sensory organs to finish the project, allowing blind instinct and sensation to guide you as the song slows to a close.
You pause - Instinct warring with greed, as your instincts demand one final piece, your last unused item of power, to be plucked from your flesh and integrated. You look at it, mournfully, knowing that your perception of the object will vanish once it is integrated into the unknowable thing you have crafted. As you do so, your strange new sense in Super Spy slides open, staring at it - Staring past it.
"
Don't cry, baby…just because something is apart doesn't mean it's broken…" A whisper passes through you, coming from nowhere and everywhere, and an involuntary shudder wracks much of your flesh. That…was strange - perhaps it was the truth of the object's power? How useful, if so! Inspired, you discard your sorrow and eagerly allow yourself in the unknowable body to embrace the split-apart rocking horse, allowing its parts to separate within you, dividing your unknowable flesh into parts that are separate, yet together. It feels like a similar sensation to how your bodies are separate from your
Flesh, and you feel as if you can recombine and split the separate pieces as easily as that.
Creation Report Updated!
Name: Emergency Scavenger
Keywords: Scavenger, Invisible, Imperceptible, Split
Description: Even you aren't sure what this part of yourself looks like. Its very nature rejects your complete understanding of it, allowing you to merely understand vague sensations and shards of knowledge from existing within it. You know you have multiple limbs that are well-suited for grabbing interesting things. You know you can swell yourself to store items you come across. You know that your flesh can split and divide itself to best squeeze through barred passageways, contain large things, and cover as much ground as possible. But all of these disparate pieces refuse to come together in an understandable whole, as a result of the magic you weaved when creating yourself. The added invisibility woven on top of that helps prevent it from giving you, and anyone else, you assume, a headache from gazing in its direction.
With your more creative urges satisfied for now with that particularly unknowable part of yourself, you dart outside in one body, splitting apart and beginning to search streets in a scuttle-crawl-stride. The other part of you, Super Spy, walks upstairs towards Jeremy's room. He should be awake by now, you're fairly sure, but you're not sure if Sabrina will be there or not…it'd be nice to have a friend there, but the future part of your truth-song thinks it will be easier if it's just you and him.
You push open the door and catch sight of Sabrina, looking out onto the street below. The windows are grimy and difficult to see through, but that doesn't seem to dissuade her. She glances back, tongue flickering out as she does so, and Jeremy glances up as well from his midday meal - A sandwich. His hands have been temporarily freed from his restraints to eat, but he looks a bit pale still. You wave to both of them and receive a nod from Jeremy and a wave back from Sabrina. "Looking better, Kid. Had some time to repair your, uh, frame?" She dances around what she knows about you, so as to not reveal more than necessary to your guest.
"Yep! So, I had some questions to ask you, Mister Jeremy, before we can talk about letting you out, alright?" He nods, mouth still full of bread. He swallows and sets the sandwich down in his lap, crumbs scattering as he does so. You restrain any visible signs of hunger, aided by the sweep of your unknowable selves in the street, and the garbage they're finding. You do resolve to have one of them come in here later to clean up, once your business with him is finished.
"So…what's the deal with the hat?" He sighs and launches into a clearly long-repeated speech. "It's a traditional-" You see Sabrina rolling her eyes behind him. "-garb, worn by court mages in the UCNV before the New World had even been discovered. Certain regimes had less than favorable views of abhumans, before they became as widespread as they are in more enlightened times, and thus mages often felt the need to wear large and loose-fitting clothing, such as hats and robes, as a way of disguising less than pleasing physical abnormalities in public. In addition, they provided plenty of space for foci, magical tools, and summonings that wouldn't cause strain on reality. I wear it to honor the originators of our modern traditions of magic." You nod, soaking up this new knowledge, but Sabrina can't help but get a small jab in. "You mean
your modern traditions of magic." He sighs. "Yes. Standard disclaimers regarding New World magical traditions apply - You know what I'm talking about, regardless." Your truth-song doesn't detect mistruth, but it does tell you that he is relatively passionate about these sorts of 'traditions' - A good way to push forward. But first, another question, to make it seem separate.
"I'm surprised you're not abhuman, Mister Jeremy - Your specialties seem like they would lend themselves to it." He chuckles. "I am, technically! I'm just able to…smooth down on a lot of the exterior. If you were to see inside me, you'd see a lot of redundant organs and rewired pathways…though none that really help me deal with things like your paralytics. No offense, but that's certainly something I'll be remedying later." You nod, not taking any offense at the quite sensible notion. Your truth-song flares slightly, though - Redundant organs aren't all he has. He isn't lying, but he's not telling the whole truth, either. You feel like he does that a lot.
"So, you follow Old World magical traditions?" He nods. "Oh, yes - I think safeguarding our history is essential. Despite recent troubles, we must respect where we came from…I fought for Aleria, though, don't get me wrong - I just don't think throwing the baby out with the bathwater is an acceptable response to the severing of…domineering ties, you know? It's part of why I, you know, joined up, hah." He seems almost embarrassed.
"You know, why didn't you use that magic, then, no offense? Or now, even." He shakes his head fervently. "Uh, I didn't really have time, that's all! Not that I would've wanted to hurt you for attacking me, just would've run away or restrained you-" This is a lie, but not an unkind one. It is a lie to himself, as well. You remember how you felt in the heat of the moment, too. But there is another lie, there, too. A lie of omission. "-But, yeah. And, uh, no offense, but I don't particularly want to incur the wrath of you two for no reason when you're going to let me go anyways - As we talked about. No harm and no foul." An intentional push from him, there. He's willing to wait, but not forever. Another two days or more may see an escape attempt from him. You think pushing him harder on the topic of his magic would make him more suspicious…so you move on to another topic.
"No harm no foul is a good sentiment. I don't hold any ill will against you, and neither does Sabrina." She flicks out her tongue. "Yeah, sure." That's a lie, your truth-song helpfully informs you, but you already knew she didn't like him. He nods. "And I none against you! Uh, you were certainly a bit frightening at first, and still are, to be frank, no offense, but all I want to do is just go home and take a nice long shower. The activities of you two are of no further concern to me once that's done." You tilt your head. Your truth-song is discordant - Most of him isn't lying, but one part of him is. A physical part, not a mental part. Your strange new sense slides open once more, concentrating on him, and you feel something…
"
Real clever, isn't it? Indistinguishable from my real eye, works just like it, too. But it's got some real nice extra features as insurance."
You reach your hand out, gently, and cup his cheek. He freezes. "Jeremy, please hold still." Sabrina looks at you, her face conveying confusion…as you gently pluck out the false eye he has in his left socket. She hisses and yells out. "Shit, Kid!" Jeremy flinches backwards and lets out a yell, too - Not of pain, but of surprise.
(Gain Crafted Eye - Keyword: Recorder)
"What the-" Sabrina's about to keep yelling when she realizes that there's no blood on your hand, or coming from the now-empty eye socket. You smile at Jeremy, whose remaining eye has widened slightly. "It was a very clever trick, Jeremy! Honestly, you've got my respect - It almost fooled me, and we've got pretty similar specialties! You would've been able to bypass any compulsion or check we put on you that wasn't incredibly strenuous just by taking out your eye and setting it down somewhere where someone who could interpret it could take a look, wouldn't you?" Your tone is quite genuinely filled with admiration. Without your new sense, you would've had no idea this was here, and it's unlikely you would've detected the discordance between his eye's truthfulness and his mind's truthfulness. Your truth-song sings a note of triumph, as well - He is off-balance, now. You can press your advantage.
"Your magic is based around preparing these sorts of things, am I right?" You smile. "That's why you couldn't use it against us. You would've needed to prepare for it. You didn't expect a fight. If I had to wager, you've been subtly altering your existing preparations within yourself, haven't you? That's why you look pale - Your blood flow's a bit impeded." He grimaces. "I-uh, I-" You keep pushing. "You were going to pass this eye along to your friends in the UFM, weren't you?" His embarrassed, and perhaps slightly scared, silence, is answer enough.
Sabrina glances at you, impressed. "Wow. Good work, kid. I didn't spot that at all." Your smile widens! You did it! Woohoo! Jeremy pipes up, trying to defend himself. "Look, Scarlet, I-" You shake your head. "What do you do with the UFM? Were you going to try and help them recruit me by force?" He shakes his head. "No! No, I promise, I don't work in recruitment, I'm-" You stare at him, and he seems to crack slightly, emotion leaking through. "Look, I just pass information on from the Guard, and I recruit some of my coworkers, that's all, I don't go out to people on the street-"
"Then why did you recruit your apprentice? You approached her, not the other way around." He grimaces. "I found her through the Guard! She was a person of interest in a case, and if they got ahold of her, she would've been funneled into some corporate mage work program - Had the fire sucked out of her in the name of turning her into one of their tools. Come on, even you two should agree with me about that!" Sabrina begrudgingly nods, but you shake your head. "Just because a possible alternative was wrong doesn't mean that what you did was right." He seems to get defensive about that. "I don't know what you're trying to imply but I didn't treat her poorly! She got tutelage, her case got shuffled away, and what more can someone ask her for?"
You can't press further without revealing more than you want to. So you decide to push down a different avenue, taking advantage of his agitation. "And the Guard? Do you do good work for them? Or do you just collect a paycheck and spy on them?" He seems offended. "Of course I do work! There's plenty of things I can do without going against the UFM - The anti-gang push has needed a lot of manpower and magework after all."
"Not just a traitor, but a true hammer-head." Sabrina hisses slightly as she says it. He gets more heated in response. "Look! Being part of the UFM doesn't mean we don't stand for order - For civic responsibility! We're trying to make society better, not tear it down for our own gain." You see an opportunity to sneak in one of your other questions.
"And the attack on the United Steel Corporation?" He crosses his arms. "Look, I already told you, that wasn't my department, but yes - The corporations are blights on the Republic, despite being its nominal founders. They promote disorder, they promote poverty, and they see the powerful held in subservience to their inhuman structures. They claim to be meritocratic, but their structure rewards nepotism and honors those who achieve as much as possible with as little effort as possible, no matter how much exploitation of the truly hard-working it takes." This is clearly personal to him…but you think you've hit the limit of how far you can go, today. He's clearly getting frustrated, and if you push him much further, he may stop answering altogether.
You look to Sabrina, and gesture for her to join you outside. "I think I've asked all the questions I need to for now, Mister Jeremy. Feel free to finish your sandwich." He glances down at the sandwich on his lap and frowns at it, even as you and Sabrina step out the door and close it behind you. "Alright - quick question…what's the United Steel Corporation exactly?" Sabrina blinks. "Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn't know. I just kind of assumed…" She flicks her tongue out.
"They're the founders of Orion City. It's a steel town, through and through. A real transit hub for Aleria - Rail brings in a lot of ore and metal from outlying towns that handle mining and processing, the factories here take it and turn it into all sorts of things, from girders to furniture frames. It's not just steel, it's all sorts of metal, but they like the branding of United Steel, I think. They're one of the big Corporations, this isn't their only city, but it's definitely their biggest one, due to the coast and rail lines and stuff. Uh…they have the largest amount of shares in the City Board, and the Guard and Judges are basically all in bed with them because of it." You hold up a hand. "City Board?" She nods.
"Cities get governed by Boards - Which have seats allocated by 'controlling economic interest'. They're nominally answerable to the, uh, Congress, but that's as much a corporate institution as the rest of the government, so there's rarely any conflict that's not inter-corporate there. The Judges are supposed to be the people's check against corporate overstep, since they're elected, but, uh, as it turns out, they can be just as money-grubbing as the rest of society. The best thing you can say about them is that they might favor local business interests or a specific local rich person's interest over corporates…sometimes." She shrugs, and you nod, frowning. This all sounds pretty…bad, to your ears. You're not very well-versed in politics, and you don't think Sabrina's the best at explaining them, but it definitely sounds bad. You'll have to find out more…later, though - That all sounds very big-picture, and you're nowhere near any of it.
"Thanks, Sabrina. We'd better keep an eye on Jeremy, before he gets any ideas…" And so you both step back inside.
Meanwhile, your unknowable self is scraping the streets clean…but you haven't really found much besides inedible trash. You pick it up anyways, because you might as well - A clean street is nice, right? You do find one thing of interest, as you scour the street, and perhaps the reason why you've failed to find much edible on the ground. In a small corner of the street, where a lip overhangs a slightly receded corner, not quite a full alleyway, a man sleeps, draped in a threadbare blanket. It's far enough off the street that the average eye might not bother looking deep enough to see it and him. (
A Small Refuge discovered)
You gaze upon him from your low position, body swelled with trash. Does he not have anywhere to stay? You ought to ask him - After all, as your recent guest can probably attest to, while your accommodations aren't necessarily comfortable, they're probably better than being on the street. Besides - He seems like he needs help. Maybe he doesn't, but you'll never find out if you don't ask. Your scavenger scuttles home, depositing its haul of trash and inedibles into one of your pockets, where you begin to secrete acid to break it down. If nothing else today, you've managed to clean up the streets. (
The Street Outside has gained the Keyword: Clean! This doesn't really do much practically, but it is a nice thing to do.)
It is March 29th, 1923. You have no current passive gains. Your current goals are to ask if the man outside needs any help (Time Limit: Two Days), to investigate Herman's Theater of the Soul, and to close the Poster Portal (Time Limit: Ten Years). Your current Available Biomass is 0.
Your Current Assets Are (Bolded words are Biomass):
1x Super Spy (Perceptive, False Humanoid, Shield, Poison, Interrogator, Likeable, ESP, Lie Detector)
1x Emergency Scavenger (Scavenger, Invisible, Imperceptible, Split)
Your Current Resources Are:
1x Crafted Eye (Keyword: Recorder) (Special Note: Jeremy can no longer see through this eye, so don't worry about that.)
Your fully explored areas:
Your Home!
(Sub-Areas of Interest: The Lobby, Empty Apartments, Fleshbed, Roof)
You know of the following unexplored areas:
The Street Outside
(Sub-Areas: Jeremy's General Groceries, The Alleyways, The Apartments, Laurel's Boxing, Sabrina's Apartment, Roy's Office, A Small Refuge, ???)
The Rooftops
(Sub-Areas: ???)
Explore a newly discovered location or sub-area! Make sure to specify which asset is exploring - This will have an impact on what may or may not be discovered! Feel free to include write-in instructions if you so desire.
Sometimes, you need to play defense - Or simply linger in an area you've been before! This means patrolling that area and finding out what's changed about it, or if it's going to change in the future.
Frederick was such a nice young man, you feel at least a little obligated to visit! Sure, you don't have any money, but you're sure you can talk your way into it, to at least watch or something. And maybe you'll even see Frederick again!
Note: Visiting here will unlock a new Location. You can assume this of most 'visit' actions.
You're visiting this place with Sabrina to investigate it! So that you can shut it down, because it probably seems to be evil!
You can visit Sabrina whenever you want, if you need her help with something, or if you just want to hang out! Mrs. Johnson has promised to feed you whenever you drop by, which you're quite happy about. Free biomass is always good! Plus, her food actually tastes good. You will gain biomass from this. Feel free to specify topics to discuss with Sabrina (or Mrs. Johnson).
He seems to be lonely, really! Though sometimes he seems like he wants to be lonely, and that's alright. But when he doesn't want to be lonely, you can visit him, and talk! Maybe he can even help you sort out your potentially perilous housing situation…or help you avoid getting in trouble for it, at least! Feel free to specify topics to discuss with Roy.
You've got a prisoner in your home! This is a somewhat precarious situation, to be sure. Not only will you have to ensure he's watched and his basic needs are handled to avoid him escaping, but you also need to figure out a long-term solution for him. You can't just keep him locked up forever! This action will cover talking to, keeping watch on, and theoretically dealing with the prisoner - Feel free to specify which, or any specific topics to discuss with Jeremy. You may assume you are checking in on him at the beginning and end of each day and ensuring his basic needs are met, such as Sabrina bringing food for him, but a 24 hour guard on him will necessitate taking this action.
Well, you've got a standing offer to come clean at Laurel's Boxing! She seems really tough, and Mister Flynn seems to be a bit of a…you think the term is 'scoundrel', but you're looking forward to going there again! Make sure to specify which asset is going to work. You will gain biomass from this. Feel free to specify topics to discuss with Laurel (or Sydney).
The man who sleeps outside seems as if he might be the sort of person who needs help - But you can't be sure without talking to him, in some form or another. You're not sure if drawing attention to him is the right option…but you're also fairly sure that he won't be around for long, if you've interpreted the temporary nature of his small refuge correctly
You need to deal with the Poster, and there's only one way to find out how - Experimentation. Throw something at the poster and see what happens. Note: This may cause damage to whatever assets you throw at the Poster.
Create an asset and pick as many keywords as you'd like for them, so long as you have the Biomass!
Recyle an asset or parts of an asset. Make sure to specify which asset and/or which keywords. Important Note: This can be done in the same 'turn' in which you create a new asset with the biomass from the old asset!
You currently have the Immutable Keywords of Magical Biohorror, Broadcaster, Immobile, and Idealist. You have the normal keywords of Cute. You may add keywords to this, which will not be immutable and can be recycled and changed as you wish!
QM's Note: Fun fact, my computer broke, so I wrote all this on mobile. Forgive me for any typos/grammar errors. I managed to secure an alternative, so hopefully I won't have to do that again. Anyways - Since this is coming out pretty late, I'll have a longer moratorium to try it out. 12 hours for moratorium, then 48 hours to vote!
