With the nasty business out of the way, you slow down your truth-song, recuperating the energy you spent on it. Parts of it fade away, allowing one aspect of it to take primacy, for now - You'll leave it in. Might as well! Who knows, maybe it'll find something interesting. Then, you take the unknowable part of yourself back in, melding it with your flesh. At a certain point, something snaps, and you're able to perceive its component parts again, which is nice. Then, you get to work on modifying
new things.
You need a way to make him not tell people about you. You've got his eye - And, speaking of, you slot that neatly into your core bulk and feel very pleased with yourself. It's a trophy! It integrates very easily, the magic settling into you. Then, you turn towards forging some kind of pact organ, because that's what you want, really. An organ that can take promises, and bind them to yourself and the other person. The idea of an organ compels you, for this one - You have been singing your magic, but a song always ends. A pact endures. And nothing is more enduring than flesh. You know that, in your heart. And so, you painstakingly carve a promise into your flesh with a claw, a bleeding and burning channel of letters filled with blood - One of obligation and duty to live and remain alive, to remain present. And then, you layer it in a coating of flesh, you feed into its channels more and more blood, and you allow the old blood to wash out, coalescing in a pool in your flesh. A moment more, and you arrange it to run like water from freshly formed taps, and sculpt the pool into a basin of bone and nail. You come, then, in the guise of Super Spy, and take the blood. You insert it into your veins, and let it flow through you. A pact is not made lightly, and it is a pact that you shall offer to Jeremy. It must be worded exceptionally carefully. It must be convincing. It must be persuasive. You must channel the blood in your veins, your connection to flesh itself, and have him bind himself to your blood. That will suffice.
You feel something change in yourself, in Super Spy. The blood pumps and roars in a way it did not, before. It is not a song, but it is magic. And it is something that will stay with you, for as long as the blood remains within your veins. For now, it is turned toward the matter of the pact, towards filling your heads with procedure and loopholes, for making your smile more real and your voice more natural - But later, it can be turned toward other things. Blood is, if nothing else, fluid, after all. And then, your attention turns to the last remnant of your small experiment of a scavenger - Your little wooden toy, split apart - But not broken. A key difference. You think to yourself…what would happen if instead of just storing it away, you bothered to simply integrate it into your core? It'd be easy, wouldn't it? Plus, it'd be useful without really restricting access - It's simply logical. Decision made, you move to embrace the toy after its distance from you, and bring it into your flesh, gleefully.
You feel the idea of it coalesce within you - But rather than enabling you to split apart like it did the scavenger, it synergizes with something else - Your broadcaster. It whispers to it, words you can no longer hear, but merely feel the thrum of as they pass through you. You can take a guess, though. Whatever is said to you, your ears uncomprehending, it takes root regardless - You feel a better connection to your split selves. You feel as if you could walk further than you could before, that your broadcaster is more equipped to handle the strain of being apart. (Your Broadcaster's Range is expanded for as long as Split is within the Core. You haven't run up against the limits of it, yet, because you haven't left the Street Outside, but suffice to say they are larger now.)
With that done, you head upstairs. It's time to make a pact. Sabrina isn't there, this time - Probably busy elsewhere, and thus, Jeremy is tied to the chair. He tilts his head at you. "More questions?" He seems calmer, now. You shake your head. "Nope! Just time to make an agreement, Mister Jeremy, that's all!" He sighs. "Well, you got me beat already. Hit me with it." You're tempted to raise your arm for a second, but then you realize that's probably not what he meant.
You consult with your persuasive and legalistic instincts for a second, and you inform yourself that the best way to handle this is to be straight with him, be as blunt but general as possible, and not beat around the bush. This is magic - The simpler you both make it, the simpler it'll be. "So, Mister Jeremy - You and I are going to do something very serious, so I want to approach this with your full understanding. You and I are going to make a
blood pact. You're going to take in a bit of my blood, and it's going to circulate around in your body, and if you break our promise to not tell anybody about me, Sabrina, or what happened here, it's going to tell me, alright?" You smile. "It won't hurt you, even if you break your promise. But if you get rid of it or even try to get rid of it, I'll know." He grimaces. "I assume this will also let you track me and whatnot?" You pause and think about it. "Within a certain range of myself, yes." This is a technical truth.
He chews on his lip. "...How'll it know? Listening? Or more, uh, conceptual stuff." You pause. You…probably ought to tell him the basics - But not enough to help him subvert it. "It'll know because it'll know." You think that suffices, and he nods, seeming to get what you're trying to get across. "Yeah, alright, that works for me." You don't sense any lies from him at this moment. It seems he's accepted this as the cost of getting out of here. "You said I gotta drink it or whatever? You gonna-" This question is answered for him in an instant as one of your tentacles whirs out and jabs a soft claw into his arm. "Ow! Give a guy some warning, please!" You think that was, perhaps, a bit pettier than you needed to be…your brain still doesn't like him, after all - But you're going to try to be better than your brain. "Sorry, I'll do that from now on!" He grunts. "Craziest thing is, I think you mean that." You nod, eagerly. Of course you mean it! You flex the you that is in him, and feel it mix and mingle with his blood - His magic. It won't deactivate when he leaves the range of your broadcaster, which is good. It'd be really awkward if that didn't work, after all. If he ever thinks he's broken that promise to you, you will know he broke his word. The blood will tell you.
With that, you set about untying him, and then walking him downstairs. It's a strangely silent affair - He seems to be in no talking mood, and you're not quite sure what to talk about! So, you simply lead him downstairs, and to the door. He pauses, at the exit. "...Thanks, uh, for, being so reasonable about all this." You shrug and nod. "No problem, Mister Jeremy! Remember - Keep your promise!" You wave as he hurriedly exits.
It is
March 30th, 1923. You have no current passive gains. Your current goals are to
ask if the man outside needs any help (Time Limit: One Day), 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,
Likeable,
Persuasive, Convincing, Mage, Lawyer,
Lie Detector)
Your Current Resources Are:
1x Shed Snake-Skin (Keyword: Refresh)
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.
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, Pactmaker, Split, and Recorder. You may add keywords to this, which will not be immutable and can be recycled and changed as you wish!
QM's Note: Let's keep going with the 12 hour moratorium and 48 hour voting period, those seem to be working out well!
