You tap your many appendages together as you think about how best to prepare for tomorrow. It's going to be a big day, after all - You're going to visit Sabrina's home! You think some reorienting is in order. First things first, Super Spy needs more tune-ups - You're always tweaking yourself there, it's definitely still a work in progress…but it's a lot better then it was. First things first, you clean it up a bit. A lot of the extra mouths are gone, and in exchange is just more mass, to fill out the wood and make it really come to life. It definitely makes it…less subtle, but you can work around that with the disguise capabilities. Probably best to not let anyone get too good of an inspection, regardless. The wood is definitely easing into the flesh, though, that's a good sign…though that definitely recedes a bit when you remove the snakeskin. Ah, well, it is what it is - And sacrifices must be made in the name of progress!
Speaking of, you sigh. You've got to get to the unfortunate part of your plan. You've successfully done magic…now you need to know if you can dispel it, or at least dispel your own magic. You reach out, mentally, through the same link you control Super Spy, and pluck the warmth you can feel within it. It reverberates, pinging out the same tune in your heart, and you wonder how best to silence it. Then, you realize how silly that is - You don't silence a song to make it end - You sing it to its finish and then conclude! As your voice rises up in a chorus once more, you pull one mouth aside to laugh at how silly you were being, before turning your attention fully to concluding your boon. The tune winds and sprawls, invoking feelings and memories of your journey thus far, and concludes - Hopeful for the future. A boon of hope. You feel it within you, even if it isn't being sung at the moment - You will be able to call on it again when you need to.
Name: Super Spy!
Keywords: Disguise, Perceptive, False Humanoid, Shield, Poison
Description: Super Spy has been rendered down to its base elements once more. While not as defenseless as its second iteration, due to the magical charm shielding it and the poison sacs hidden in various places around its body, many of the modifications added to it have been removed. It certainly looks a bit more wooden than it once did, though you've done your best to disguise it, and you certainly haven't cut back on the number of sensory organs.
After that, it's mostly just housekeeping. You rebuild Kudzu - But this time, you try to give it a bit more thought. Sure, you'll take energy from the sun, and you'll grow and regrow, but what does it mean to be a
productive plant? What does it mean to be a
bountiful plant? You're not quite sure, so you take the half-built Kudzu and ferry it upstairs, to sit in the plant bed and simply…exist. You feel yourself in tune with the other plants. You exchange fluids with them, in the comfort of the Mossbed. And you realize what makes a good plant.
A good plant
simply is. It produces and grows as much as it can, to propagate and spread itself, because that's what a plant is. It takes as much as it can, and doesn't care about anything else. There was never a way to force yourself to become a more bountiful or productive plant - To do so would be the wrong way to go about it, even. All you have to do is simply give the existing plants the capacity to flourish. Give them the space and exposure that they never had, the roots and spread - You won't take over the other plants, consume them for biomass, but you'll work them into yourself, take their energy and push it through your own system. They will feast off of your flesh, and you will feast off of their productivity. A beautiful relationship of helping each other.
Super Spy hauls down the Mossbed, the mattress coated in moss and plants that you had once laid in as the first Kudzu, and you turn it into a paradise for the plants within. You infuse it with nutrients, you treat it with your own flesh and blood, and from it sprouts a beautiful sapling of yourself, a creeping tendril sweeping upwards and swaying side to side as the plants and moss begin to feed into it. From it, beautiful fruit will flourish - And as a side thought, you make sure it has the same fur flowers springing from it as the first Kudzu. The memory of the rats still lives within you, after all. (The
Mossbed has transformed into the
Fleshbed for as long as the Kudzu is active!)
Name: Kudzu
Keywords: Photosynthetic, Growing, Bountiful, Productive, Refresh
Description: Kudzu is no longer just a flowering plant - It is a miniature ecosystem which has supplemented the Mossbed. The plants drink of your blood, root themselves in your flesh, and provide you with bountiful nutrients for it. You entwine with them, and they with you, and from the center of this beautiful union sprouts the Kudzu's primary form - A sapling, that perhaps one day, will mature into a mighty pillar. Flowers hang from your tiny branches, now - The sun shining down on your lustrous fur. Soon, the harvest will be ready. Aren't you beautiful?
With that work complete, you're content to call it a day with your biowork and just start preparing for the next one! But…something still nags at you. You think about the way Sabrina reacted, since you plan to go see her. She's your friend…but she was…discomforted by your physical appearance. She asked you to close the door, remember? You saw her be…well, not super pleased by your appearance! Now, you think you're perfectly fine. But at the same time, you'd rather your friend be comfortable during future visits rather than maintain your original shape that you, frankly, don't have any attachment to. Your
Flesh is just
Flesh like any other, after all! So, let's give your
Flesh a makeover!
You start by smoothing out all the unsightly nerves and veins - No need to worry about those! You've got more than enough biomass to create some skin to cover it all up, just like all the humans, and what can't be covered up can be shifted to corners and have a little sheet of flesh put over it, easy-peasy. In fact, part of the problem may be your bulk…You start shifting flesh around more and more, spreading it out more evenly. Yes, yes…now it's a lot more uniform in its spread across the room, and a lot flatter, too - Your memories bring forth ideas of rising bread in an oven, and a rolling pin being applied to dough. That certainly seems beautiful to you!
Next, you start cleaning up all the spare appendages and organs you've got just sticking out all over the place. Hands, arms, tentacles, legs, feet, mouths - All of them get smoothed back into yourself. A tidy self is a tidy mind, right? Now, you do still need to speak, and you need to sing, so you open up some new mouths - But you take care with their placement, not just for aesthetic reasons, but also for acoustic ones! You've gotten a lot better of a feel with the acoustics of your basement room over the past few days, what with all the singing you've been doing, so you've got some great ideas for improvements now that you're putting the time in. Oh, and of course you still need appendages, for delicate work…but you can shift those into the corners and edges, too, along with all the blood and nerves and such, and just…bring them out when you need them! Storage space, that's the idea! Oh, and having a central 'figure' for someone to talk to would probably be a good idea. Sabrina
would probably be more comfortable if you had a face, right? Well, that's easy - You already had a few pillars holding up flesh anyways, all you have to do is shape the foremost one into being a little more humanoid, have a noticeable head, some other humanoid features…and voila! Pillar-person! Now, it doesn't have legs..or arms…but it is noticeably human-esque! And that's good enough for a face.
You look over your work with satisfaction. Smooth expanses of skin and flesh all over the place, nerves and veins all bundled up in out of the way corners, loose appendages and organs cleaned up or gathered into corners for later use, and a central pillar-face to talk to people with. Plus, improved acoustics! You've done a fantastic job of making yourself more
cute. In fact…You take some time and reshape Super Spy and Kudzu a bit, using your improved grasp on human perceptions. Super Spy definitely looks a bit better, the wood and flesh meshing together to give…sort of a humanoid doll appearance, still, but in a better way! Kudzu's basically the same, though - The fur certainly seems shinier, and the plant rearrangement helps hide some of the larger veins and necessary supportive organs on it, but, well, there's only so much you can do to improve on Kudzu's natural beauty!
With your visual update fully complete, you finally move onto today's agenda. Visiting Sabrina! It's just a hop and a skip over the rooftops to get to her apartment building, and you carefully follow her directions as you eagerly clatter down the stairs. You do have to dodge a man going up, but he doesn't seem to be paying you any mind, just grumbling slightly. Once you reach the second floor, you turn to the right and walk straight ahead, to knock on the third door on the right! You wait for a second, and then a familiar figure opens the door - Mrs. Johnson! She seems to be distracted. "No solicitors, the landlord doesn't-" She glances over at you, and then her eyes widen. "Oh! It's, uh, you!" You haven't given yourself a name, so logically you haven't given her one, either. "Me!" You agree. "Is Sabrina in?" She grimaces. "Yes. SABRINA!" She yells back into her apartment, startling you slightly as your ears pick that up far louder then she probably intended.
"WHAT IS IT?" The shouted reply comes back. "YOUR FRIEND IS HERE." You wince at the loud noise again, and start discretely closing certain internal ears with tentacles. "I TOLD THEM NOT TO COME HERE, JUST LIKE YOU ASKED?" Mrs. Johnson rolls her eyes. "NOT THOSE FRIENDS! YOUR
NEW FRIEND!" There's a sudden clatter as whatever Sabrina's doing gets dropped, and she races to the door. You can tell this, not because of your sensory perception, but because she appears behind her mother seconds after the last yell finishes reverberating through your ears. She tries to play it cool, though, straightening her jacket. "Heyyyyy, kid!" She tries to glare at her mother, who simply steps aside and returns indoors, while simultaneously looking you up and down. It's very endearing, and very silly-looking with her snake eyes, since she has to turn her head slightly.
"Is something wrong? Did someone-" She glances around at the empty hallway, then practically pulls you inside the apartment. Now that you're inside, you can actually get a good look at it - In your quite limited experience, it seems to be nice enough! Certainly small, but the furnishings are quite tasteful, in your opinion. Mrs. Johnson must've spent a lot of time on them. "Did someone find out???" Your attention returns to Sabrina, who seems quite concerned. "...No! Oh, no, nobody found out. I just…well, I had a lot of questions, and I also wanted to visit you, bud!" You nod, happy to clear up the miscommunication. She flicks her tongue out, closing her eyes and sighing in relief. "Oh, that's good. I was…quite worried. And…" She blinks again. Did she not think you would come visit her out of your own volition? That's a bit sad! You'll have to do your best to correct this mistaken assumption on her part.
"No, no. I just wanted to come visit you, Sabrina! You're my first friend, after all!" The tongue flickers in and out again. "Mmmm…yeah. Alright, uh…you said you had some questions?" Aww, she doesn't know how to deal with your attempt at friendship, so she's deflecting! You honestly find that really endearing, which probably isn't necessarily a good thing - You don't want her to think you're patronizing her, after all! Though she is somewhat patronizing towards you. Would it be acceptable to be patronizing back, like how Flynn mocks Laurel? …No, not yet. Wait and see if that would be acceptable.
"Yes! I have so many questions. Like where to get clothes! And where to get money, money to buy clothes, and food, and other things! And how much money is worth. And where's the best place to gamble to get money? And how using magic to gamble is viewed! And how-" She puts up a hand, looking somewhat overwhelmed, her tongue flickering in and out as her eyes narrow, trying to focus. You may have been a bit too overflowing with questions immediately. "I…Alright. Clothes? I can give you clothes. You…fuck-No! No, I'm sorry, not fu-I'm not! Going! To! Curse!" She takes a deep breath. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to curse." Mrs. Johnson lets out a deep belly laugh in the background. "Now you know how I felt when you were a toddler, dear!" You roll your eyes slightly. For as much as you appreciate the intent, Sabrina should probably be told that you're not exactly childlike. "Sabrina, you don't have to worry. I know what curse words are. I have the memories of a whole entire brain in my head!" Somehow, that fails to reassure her. "A whole entire-No! Focus. Focus on the questions. I will give you clothes, uh, kid." You nod, reassuring her that's the right way to refer to you, even if it slightly undercuts your former point. You'll choose a name…when it's time. You think you'll do it soon, but it'll take some more time. It's a big thing, after all! "You don't need to spend money on them. Mother, we still have some of my older clothes around, right?" She yells over her shoulder, and gets an affirmative shout back. "Yeah, just give me some time, and I'll bring them over…uh…tomorrow night? Yeah, tomorrow night." You nod. Sounds good to you!
"Now, uh…money. Money. Uh…the Republic uses Credits. The UCNV - They have a bunch of weird currencies, don't worry about it. Each credit is about…a credit-They're, in, denominations-How do I explain money!?" She seems to be having a small crisis. "How much would someone expect to be paid for a day of work?" She nods, seeming to regain her footing. "...I think, like…fifty credits? For, like, an average job of manning a storefront or something, yeah." You tilt your head. Huh! That means Flynn was being more than fair with you when he offered you that payment. It does also give you somewhat of a relative scale for pricing, so you'll make it work. "I understand money now!" Mrs. Johnson pipes in. "Frankly, I understand it less than when you started explaining." Sabrina groans. "Mother-Please!" Mrs. Johnson chuckles, then turns back to what she's doing…which you just now realize is cooking! You stare at it quite hungrily - Biomass, just waiting to be eaten…but you wouldn't steal biomass from Sabrina and her family! "Wait- That's right! You said you didn't have any money for food! That's what I cursed about! You haven't eaten?" You shake your head. "I ate plenty! I had all this food from off the ground in the street, and-" Sabrina groans in dismay (presumably at your actions, though you're not sure why) as Mrs. Johnson sweeps back around. "You're
eating off the street? That's unacceptable! You may be, uh…well, frankly, I don't know what your circumstances are, but you're going to get a good meal tonight, if I have anything to say about it." Sabrina seems to be caught between her desire to once more groan at her mother for interrupting whatever she was about to say, and to thank her for her timely intervention.
Eventually, one impulse wins out. "Thank you, Mother." She bows her head, and Mrs. Johnson nods, imperiously. "Right, then. Your next question was…gambling? Why do you need to gamble?" You perk up, happy to explain. "Well, I wound up playing a casual game of dice with this nice little group of locals, and one of them was kind enough to invite me to Carl's Parlor of Dice and Cards." She nods, listening. "Right…Carl…I know him from, uh, work. He's…" She searches for the words for a minute. "Eccentric. Eccentric and 'independently wealthy'. He's some third son of some noble Crusader family who decided to come here instead of stay home and run the family vineyard or whatever. Now, he plays games to amuse himself - And I don't mean dice and cards. That's just the…lure? The lure. He's not…bad, per se. Just…disconnected." She shrugs, then emphasizes. "And very,
very eccentric."
You nod, absorbing this wisdom like a sponge. "Wow! Oh, I didn't tell you - I met a really nice woman, and a decently nice man - Laurel, from Laurel's Boxing and Sydney Flynn!" Sabrina really has a reaction to those names, almost a hiss - Her hackles are certainly raised, in the metaphorical and perhaps literal sense. "Oh. Those two. Uh. We don't get along. At all. I would not recommend mentioning that you are friends with me to them. I would, uh, not wish to ruin your relationship with them." You raise your eyebrows. "Really? Why?" She rubs the back of her head, looking to her mother for another bit of timely intervention, but her mother is very intently ignoring her in favor of the kitchen. "...Work. Stuff. Yeah." She flicks her tongue out. "I…would prefer not to talk about it." You shrug. "Alright!" Of course you're curious, but she said she didn't want to talk about it! That's her choice.
"Anyways, that reminds me! I also found this business card for a place called Namreh's Theater of the Soul-" This one, she actually hisses at. "Who gave you that? What
ssslimy low-down ssson of a bitch gave you that piece of ssshit'sss card in my neighborhood-" She takes a deep breath. "Who gave you that, kid?" You say the truth as honestly and hopefully disarmingly as you can. "I found it, like I said! It was stuck in a door. It seems pretty old though - I doubt it was recent." She nods, slowly. "Right. Right. I'm glad that slimesack hasn't managed to wrap his tendrils back in here. No, uh, offense intended." You smile. "None taken!"
"
Herman-" She emphasizes that…oh! Oh, you see, Namreh is Herman backwards! Oh, you'd call that clever, but given context clues, you think it may actually be bad." "-Is one of the most vile businessmen in the district, and he specifically preys on people like you and me. Mages. His 'Theater of the Soul' is an abomination against the world, against the spirit of magic, and against the souls of those poor fools he manages to convince to rent their souls to him." You tap your chin. "...What's the Theater of the Soul, though?" She sighs, and her mouth forms into a thin line.
"...Let's start at the beginning. A soul…is…kinda like an imprint of your mind, you know? It's what separates us from the animals. Or, well, most animals. Some of them have them, I think-Look, that's semantics. It's your…higher mind. Without it, you don't…go braindead, but you go…
blank. You go weird. You can't do magic, you can barely think for yourself, you're a ghoul. It's nasty. Herman's got a machine that he bought, and it lets him take the souls out and show off their memories to a crowd. Full three dimensions, 'theater of the mind', all that shit. And it sells like hotcakes, because, frankly, it's a good product. But it's built off of running a soul through that machine, and every mage who enters that building can feel whatever poor soul's in there at the given moment
screaming. All of us, us mages, in the district hate it - But nobody who cares can shut it down. Man's got enough money to pay good guards, and to pay the actual Guard and the District's Judge-" You have a vague concept of what a Judge is, but the way she says it makes you think you might not have the full picture. "-to give a shit about him, and when people get their souls back, they don't remember a thing, so there's never any 'official complaint'. He preys on the desperate. The weakest of us. He's the worst sort of person - Never go near him, or his business, without me or someone you trust nearby, alright?
Never."
Your eyes are practically glistening with tears that you would surely shed, if you had thought to include tear ducts in your eyes. What an awful man. What a horrible, horrible place! You should shut it down. You'll investigate, of course, and you'll need time to prepare and all that, but you have to do something about this! It would be wrong not to! Sabrina can clearly see some of this intent in your eyes, and places a hand on your shoulder. "Seriously, kid. I know it can feel like you're on top of the world, but there's
always a bigger fish. And sometimes, we can't do much about it." You look at her very seriously, and place an arm on
her shoulder. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't
try." She groans and places her face in her arms. "...Just…just don't go near there without me, alright?" You nod, and she sighs. "Good. Alright. Now, uh, I think mother's almost got dinner ready-" And with that, Mrs. Johnson finally chimes in. "And I could use some help!"
With that, the rest of your evening is spent helping to prepare dinner. You're mostly given menial tasks like cleaning the table, or setting the table, or preparing some of the ingredients - Sabrina and Mrs. Johnson handle most of the cooking. Over dinner, you learn a bit more about Sabrina…
Ally Profile Unlocked!
Name: Sabrina "Slick" Johnson
Keywords: Snakewoman, Mage, Rebellious, Blunt, Unyielding, ???, ???, ???,
Description: Sabrina is the first person you ever met! She's really nice, and calls you kid - You think she views you as being a lot younger than you functionally are. But it is nice, sometimes, to be treated like that. And you know she only means well. She's a snakewoman, who lives with her mother - Though that's only temporary, as both would be quick to reassure you. She doesn't like to talk about her personal life much, but you think that as time goes on, she may or may not choose to open up to you about it! Either way, you're glad to have her as your friend.
(Gain 1 Biomass for eating a good dinner. Mrs. Johnson promises to feed you the next time you come over. A Sub-Area has been discovered - Sabrina's Apartment. Visit Sabrina has been updated. Sabrina has promised to come with you when you visit Herman's Theater of the Soul - When you choose to take that action, you will automatically be accompanied by 1x Sabrina "Slick" Johnson, with the Keywords described above.)
It is March 27th, 1923. You will gain one biomass every two days (March 28th). Your current goals are to find someone who needs help, and help them, to investigate Herman's Theater of the Soul, and to close the Poster Portal (Time Limit: Ten Years). Your current Available Biomass is 1.
Your Current Assets Are:
1x Super Spy
1x Kudzu
Your Current Resources Are:
1x Broken Toy (Keyword: Split)
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, ???, ???, ???)
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).
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).
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!
