Logos 2.9
Gabbie
That One Writer
- Location
- Italy
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The TV was on, displaying the news, as Michael and Aaron sat on the couch in silence, relaxing. The articles were quite ordinary - cyber-attacks kept damaging Sonnesburg infrastructure, the mayor announced a new renewable energy project which promised to be the 'most efficient solar system in history,' and similar things.
One specific article caught Michael's ear as he tapped away at his laptop, keeping up with scientific journals and more 'ordinary' global news.
Apparently, there had been a freak electrical incident in some rural village in Texas which caused some small fires, and led the fire brigade to intervene. When the fire brigade arrived, they uncovered a small cult, hidden in the Texan countryside, which was using a humanitarian organization as its front. There was some token resistance put up by the locals, who attempted to keep the emergency services out.
Based on the counts made locally to keep track of the town's populace, only three people were missing - cult leader and his two children - and only one dead, that being the leader's sister, who died because of smoke-inhalation complications.
Freaky stuff, but not freakier than literal aliens and superpowers.
It was around nine in the evening, they'd all had dinner and were now relaxing in their own separate spaces - Hilary was happier than usual, as Aaron gave the green-light to allow her to send a message to her family through Abraham, saying that she was fine and would be away for a while until some things got better.
The poor man's become our messenger. We'll have to give him some money for his troubles.
"We should go talk with young Nila, Mikhail," Aaron graveled out, clearing his throat.
Michael closed his laptop. "Right."
It had been a week or so, since Nila moved in with the others. Things had been going relatively well; she was friendly with Michael and the others, and was very helpful with the chores they'd assigned themselves. On multiple occasions, she even volunteered to go out and 'scout' for anything out of the ordinary, because she knew how to go unseen on the streets if need be.
All things considered, she had adjusted incredibly well, both to the new environment and the new circumstances. She seemed to fit the bill of the 'superpowered secret agent' much more than Hilary, from what Michael could see - she thoroughly enjoyed putting her paranoid mind to use for once, instead of it being a hindrance.
Edgar had taken to jokingly calling her 'Bowery Queen.' Michael did not understand why, and Edgar had refused to elaborate what it meant past the fact that it was a pop culture reference.
All in all, Michael considered, this had been the right choice to make. When he went out a few days ago, he did so fully expecting to hit a dead end, but for the first time in almost two months now, Michael and the others had encountered a full, resounding victory which didn't leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.
Finding out about the aliens was an achievement that only brought more questions than it answered; giving a power to Aaron meant that he, too, was in the line of fire of this shadow organization; finding out about the deeper conspiracy only opened Michael's eyes to the abyssal quantity of shit they were in.
Nila was the first victory that was just that - a victory, a net positive. She was a blast to be around and she was happy to be here and do what they did. Michael couldn't ask for a better addition to the group.
With that said, however, it had been a week and it was time to talk about the lead Nila had mentioned. Edgar and Hilary wanted to be there as well, to hear out what she had to say, but Aaron strongly advised against it - it was better for Nila to have as few people there as possible, especially when recalling and recounting a highly traumatic event.
Michael and Aaron walked up to the door of Nila's room and knocked. "Nila? You there?"
The door clicked and opened. Nila had her hair tied up very loosely, wearing a pair of light pajamas and a large purple-black checkered shirt which was halfway buttoned up, and a black tank top beneath. Very relaxed.
Michael's chest felt as though it had collapsed inwards for a second upon seeing that. His cheeks flushed red, warmed by the blood rushing to his face. He had to quietly gulp a few times to regain control of his vocal chords. If Nila had noticed his reaction, she certainly wasn't showing it.
She smiled at both Michael and Aaron and leaned on the doorway. "What's up?"
Michael looked at Aaron out of the corner of his eye, who was patiently waiting for Michael to answer.
God fucking damn it.
"I was wondering if you felt ready to, uh, talk about what you mentioned the other day," Michael asked, thanking every deity in existence for the stability of his voice in this very moment. "My dad offered to help through it."
Nila's body language changed abruptly, as if violently splashed by an invisible ice-water bucket. She stood up straighter and pushed herself off the doorway, folding her arms to her chest. She nodded and hummed in agreement.
Aaron placed a hand on Nila's shoulder and gave it a very quick, friendly pat. "It's going to be alright, Nila."
And with those words, the three entered Nila's room and closed the door behind them.
"Let me preface by saying that I don't remember much, alright?" Nila said quickly, her voice audibly very tense. "I tried not to think about it too much, and that led me to losing out on a lot of the details. I usually remember these things."
Michael let his dad take lead on this.
"Nila, it's quite alright," Aaron said, walking over to the bed and sitting on it. He patted the spot next to him, inviting Nila to also sit, which she did. "My power is well-suited to helping people do things that they wouldn't think possible."
Nila nodded, looking down at the ground for a few seconds. "How does it work?"
"It works better if you don't know," Michael pointed out, as he took a chair and brought it closer to the bed. "Sorry."
"My son is right, unfortunately. I can't assuage your curiosity," Aaron replied somberly, turning his body more towards Nila. He smiled gently, a glow that radiated off of him like the cozy warmth of a fireplace in the winter. "You've been strong enough to go through the last few years in terrible condition; can you extend some of that strength to trusting an old man?"
Nila chuckled and nodded, unlatching her glance from the ground to look up at both Aaron and Michael. "Sooo… where to begin…"
"From the start, probably," Michael said flatly, in an attempt at humor. His tone didn't properly portray that, apparently, which made Nila look at him with a raised eyebrow. Aaron pointedly did not look at Michael. "Uhm, I-"
Nila's weirded out half-poker face broke, and she snorted amusedly. "Yes, I know, Mike."
"Anyway," Aaron cut in, to prompt Nila to start.
"Right." Nila breathed in deeply, her shoulders rising tall and then falling low in one smooth motion.
"It was night, I was on the crossing between Eleventh Street and Kimberley Avenue, sitting next to a street bench, trying to fall asleep. It wasn't noisy, there was barely anyone going by, so I was about to doze off - it was also very dark, since the street lamps in the area had gone out several hours prior for some reason, which in hindsight… was probably on purpose."
"After a while, a couple walked by in front of me, not noticing me. Perks of being a hobo, I guess They were clearly tipsy if not outright drunk, clinging onto each other, laughing at the slightest bullshit, all that stuff. They were probably coming back from a date or something like that, you could smell the hormones in the air."
"Then, it happened." She shuddered, stopping to get her thoughts in order. "A van stopped beside them, and men came out of it. No ski masks, no face covers, no nothing. It was too dark anyway. Must've been six, seven people. They grabbed the guy, tore him away from his girlfriend, and threw him inside the van. The girl was screaming, lord, she was screaming. I've never heard someone scream that loud, that terrified."
"That was when one of the men took out a gun and shot the woman exactly three times. Once in the upper stomach, once in the side, and once in the shoulder. That's a detail I can't forget for the life of me. The gun was silenced, but fuck was it loud. It shook me to my core. By the time the woman had even fallen to the ground, the van was already driving off."
"I was frozen for a few seconds, or more realistically a full minute, but when I came to, I bolted to my feet and rushed to the woman's side. I pressed on the wounds, used my clothes to stop the bleeding to no avail, tried to call for help, tried to get anyone who was walking by to react and help me and her, but it was all for nothing. Nobody gave a shit."
Nila sighed, her hands shaking, as if she was still feeling the warm, slick blood on them. "Next thing I knew, I had powers. The woman was dead, and nobody had called nine-one-one or even deigned to look our way."
Michael's jaw had dropped, at one point. Not because of the fact itself, not because of the woman's death, nor because nobody had helped; that happened regularly, people were assholes, that was a known fact of the world. No, Michael could not believe that it had happened so easily. So fast, so effortlessly.
It shook Michael even more to think that the man they took was, allegedly, a superhuman. And they still took him like that, as if he was just some ordinary schmuck. And they gunned down his girlfriend for the sole reason of existing in the wrong place at the wrong time; gunned down in such a way that it would look like a hit and run instead of like a professional job.
But this wasn't nearly enough to start investigating.
Aaron waited a few moments, letting Nila calm down and relax, before asking his next question, "Is it alright with you if I ask you some more pointed questions?"
Nila nodded weakly. "Yeah, that's why we're here, right?"
Aaron smiled. "Can you think about the van? Did it have any striking details?"
Nila took a few moments to think. "No, I don't think so. It was black, unmarked, no windows."
"Do you remember if it had a license plate?" Aaron asked, his smile growing a little larger.
"It…" Nila's expression focused for a second. "It did. Yeah."
Michael raised both eyebrows, stifling a bark of disbelieving laughter. "Wow, really?"
Nila nodded, resolutely, with absolute certainty. "Yes, it was 8965 YQ."
Michael scribbled it down on a nearby piece of paper. "They go to all this trouble to keep their existence hidden and then drive kidnap vans with license plates. That's ridiculous."
"Victory comes not from your excellence but from your enemy's mistakes," Aaron said, sagely. After a few seconds, he added, "I think Sun Tzu said it. Or something. I'm old, give me a break."
Both Michael and Nila chuckled, which eased the atmosphere in the room.
Looking at the piece of paper in his hands, Michael got an idea. He whispered something in his Dad's ear, who nodded.
Aaron took a pen and notepad from Michael, and held them out to Nila. "Can you draw, Nila?"
"I used to be pretty good at it when I was younger, yeah. Why?"
"I'd like you to draw sketches of the men who did this," Aaron proposed quietly. "Is that okay?"
Nila took the notepad and pen warily. "I… guess? I can't remember them well, but I can try."
And then Michael watched as Aaron's power showed its true talent off - encouragement.
Aaron did not just make you better, he didn't merely improve you, it made you into something you weren't, gave you things you didn't have - and the scariest thing is that it did these things and had you completely convinced that it was all you.
Which is how, for the next thirty minutes, Aaron stood by Nila's said, encouraging her, prompting her to think, giving her questionably helpful art tips and small tidbits of genuine advice, until she produced not one, not two, but three quality sketches of some of the men there.
Michael was moderately sure that the men did have ski masks, and the van didn't actually have a license plate, but Aaron's power was simply conjuring those details and putting them in Nila's head to remember, because it was absolutely reasonable for her to have known those things, after all, had they been there.
After that, Michael and Aaron stood up.
Michael smiled at her as he walked out the door. "Thank you, Nila."
"You owe me dinner after this," Nila said quietly as Aaron walked off, a tired smile on her face. Noticing Michael had frozen up, she corrected, "Or dinner for the socially anxious."
"Uh…?"
Nila snorted in the way she usually does. It was characteristic; cute, even. "Lunch."
"I'll think about it. With this new info, we might have a lot to do in the coming days, so… yeah," Michael said. He commended himself mentally - that answer was perfectly non-committal, he could say yes or no later, when he could weigh all the pros and cons of the situation.
Man, I really am a neet, huh. Min-maxing dating. Way to go, Mike.
"Alright!" Nila said, her smile brightening slightly. "Good night, Michael."
With that, she closed the door, and Michael slumped massively.
"Did what happened just happen?" Edgar said, completely out of nowhere, making Michael jump a full foot into the air.
"Wha- Edgar! You scared me, you fucker," Michael exclaimed, hand over his rapidly beating heart. "Way to give someone a heart attack, dude."
"To answer the question," Hilary said from behind Michael, making him jump a second time, this time a foot and a half in the air. "Yes, I think it just did."
"Nice," Edgar said, high-fiving Hilary. As they moved to the living room together, he said, "We listened to the conversation to save you the trouble of telling us everything a second time."
"Nice. Thanks. We've got a license plate, and several good sketches of those guys' faces," Michael muttered out, plopping on the couch. "Running the license plate will be easy, but I don't know what to do about the sketches. It's not like I own any facial recognition software that I can run securely through law enforcement databases."
Hilary sat on the armrest of the couch, opposite of where Michael was sitting. "You could always ask Cypher."
Michael almost choked on his own spit. "Cypher? The cyberterrorist organization that had been terrorizing Sonnesburg and County for the last six months in the name of 'justice' and shit like that?"
"Yeah," Hilary said, fidgeting with the edge of her shirt. "You know, we're kind of criminals, as far as the government is concerned. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, you know."
"She makes an incredibly fair point, Michael," Edgar said sagely. Michael was convinced that Edgar was trying to imitate Aaron and failing miserably. "But Devil's Advocate for a sec, how the hell do we reach out to this guy-gal-whatever? If the super-CIA can't do it, what makes you think we can?"
Michael rested his head on the couch behind him. "We put messages out on the deep web, in some sort of code, we take the risk, and they reach out to us if they think we're worth their time."
"Good idea. Let's do that," Hilary said.
Nice! You have made several wonderful rolls, and the result couldn't have been better! You have managed to extract a license plate and several facial sketches out of Nila's story, and got a deeper look in Aaron's pwer - it borders on abilities that the PRT on Earth Bet would define as 'Trump 0'! With that said, you have 17.6 Charges to spend.
What will Michael do?
[ ] The Quick Way - Send out feelers into the dark web and call Cypher's attention. Surely, a cyber-terrorist group of their caliber will have resources that Michael cannot possibly have. As such, asking for their help is a sure way to achieve results. As Hilary aptly put it, you two share an enemy. Aaron doesn't feel confident about this, but none of the other options you have show as much promise as this. One must beware of the price to pay for such services, though.
[ ] The Slow Way - You don't negotiate with terrorists. What they can do, you can do with enough time - you're just as smart as their leader, for sure. Accrue resources and tools, reinforce your computer's security, create a computer like the one you have at home, or something along those lines. This is a very slow route, which will possibly take weeks, but will ensure you remain independent and will inevitably strengthen your cyber resources. Aaron is equally unsure about this option, if not more than seeking out cypher.
[ ] The Cowardly Way - You don't have time to do either of those things. The government is after you, for God's sake. Give up on this lead and seek out other things to do going forward. For obvious reasons, Aaron confirms this as secure.
- [ ] PR Work
- [ ] Friendly Sparring (+++Power Use)
- [ ] Socializing (++Socials to the selected character)
[ ] Write-In
One specific article caught Michael's ear as he tapped away at his laptop, keeping up with scientific journals and more 'ordinary' global news.
Apparently, there had been a freak electrical incident in some rural village in Texas which caused some small fires, and led the fire brigade to intervene. When the fire brigade arrived, they uncovered a small cult, hidden in the Texan countryside, which was using a humanitarian organization as its front. There was some token resistance put up by the locals, who attempted to keep the emergency services out.
Based on the counts made locally to keep track of the town's populace, only three people were missing - cult leader and his two children - and only one dead, that being the leader's sister, who died because of smoke-inhalation complications.
Freaky stuff, but not freakier than literal aliens and superpowers.
It was around nine in the evening, they'd all had dinner and were now relaxing in their own separate spaces - Hilary was happier than usual, as Aaron gave the green-light to allow her to send a message to her family through Abraham, saying that she was fine and would be away for a while until some things got better.
The poor man's become our messenger. We'll have to give him some money for his troubles.
"We should go talk with young Nila, Mikhail," Aaron graveled out, clearing his throat.
Michael closed his laptop. "Right."
It had been a week or so, since Nila moved in with the others. Things had been going relatively well; she was friendly with Michael and the others, and was very helpful with the chores they'd assigned themselves. On multiple occasions, she even volunteered to go out and 'scout' for anything out of the ordinary, because she knew how to go unseen on the streets if need be.
All things considered, she had adjusted incredibly well, both to the new environment and the new circumstances. She seemed to fit the bill of the 'superpowered secret agent' much more than Hilary, from what Michael could see - she thoroughly enjoyed putting her paranoid mind to use for once, instead of it being a hindrance.
Edgar had taken to jokingly calling her 'Bowery Queen.' Michael did not understand why, and Edgar had refused to elaborate what it meant past the fact that it was a pop culture reference.
All in all, Michael considered, this had been the right choice to make. When he went out a few days ago, he did so fully expecting to hit a dead end, but for the first time in almost two months now, Michael and the others had encountered a full, resounding victory which didn't leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth.
Finding out about the aliens was an achievement that only brought more questions than it answered; giving a power to Aaron meant that he, too, was in the line of fire of this shadow organization; finding out about the deeper conspiracy only opened Michael's eyes to the abyssal quantity of shit they were in.
Nila was the first victory that was just that - a victory, a net positive. She was a blast to be around and she was happy to be here and do what they did. Michael couldn't ask for a better addition to the group.
With that said, however, it had been a week and it was time to talk about the lead Nila had mentioned. Edgar and Hilary wanted to be there as well, to hear out what she had to say, but Aaron strongly advised against it - it was better for Nila to have as few people there as possible, especially when recalling and recounting a highly traumatic event.
Michael and Aaron walked up to the door of Nila's room and knocked. "Nila? You there?"
The door clicked and opened. Nila had her hair tied up very loosely, wearing a pair of light pajamas and a large purple-black checkered shirt which was halfway buttoned up, and a black tank top beneath. Very relaxed.
Michael's chest felt as though it had collapsed inwards for a second upon seeing that. His cheeks flushed red, warmed by the blood rushing to his face. He had to quietly gulp a few times to regain control of his vocal chords. If Nila had noticed his reaction, she certainly wasn't showing it.
She smiled at both Michael and Aaron and leaned on the doorway. "What's up?"
Michael looked at Aaron out of the corner of his eye, who was patiently waiting for Michael to answer.
God fucking damn it.
"I was wondering if you felt ready to, uh, talk about what you mentioned the other day," Michael asked, thanking every deity in existence for the stability of his voice in this very moment. "My dad offered to help through it."
Nila's body language changed abruptly, as if violently splashed by an invisible ice-water bucket. She stood up straighter and pushed herself off the doorway, folding her arms to her chest. She nodded and hummed in agreement.
Aaron placed a hand on Nila's shoulder and gave it a very quick, friendly pat. "It's going to be alright, Nila."
And with those words, the three entered Nila's room and closed the door behind them.
"Let me preface by saying that I don't remember much, alright?" Nila said quickly, her voice audibly very tense. "I tried not to think about it too much, and that led me to losing out on a lot of the details. I usually remember these things."
Michael let his dad take lead on this.
"Nila, it's quite alright," Aaron said, walking over to the bed and sitting on it. He patted the spot next to him, inviting Nila to also sit, which she did. "My power is well-suited to helping people do things that they wouldn't think possible."
Nila nodded, looking down at the ground for a few seconds. "How does it work?"
"It works better if you don't know," Michael pointed out, as he took a chair and brought it closer to the bed. "Sorry."
"My son is right, unfortunately. I can't assuage your curiosity," Aaron replied somberly, turning his body more towards Nila. He smiled gently, a glow that radiated off of him like the cozy warmth of a fireplace in the winter. "You've been strong enough to go through the last few years in terrible condition; can you extend some of that strength to trusting an old man?"
Nila chuckled and nodded, unlatching her glance from the ground to look up at both Aaron and Michael. "Sooo… where to begin…"
"From the start, probably," Michael said flatly, in an attempt at humor. His tone didn't properly portray that, apparently, which made Nila look at him with a raised eyebrow. Aaron pointedly did not look at Michael. "Uhm, I-"
Nila's weirded out half-poker face broke, and she snorted amusedly. "Yes, I know, Mike."
"Anyway," Aaron cut in, to prompt Nila to start.
"Right." Nila breathed in deeply, her shoulders rising tall and then falling low in one smooth motion.
"It was night, I was on the crossing between Eleventh Street and Kimberley Avenue, sitting next to a street bench, trying to fall asleep. It wasn't noisy, there was barely anyone going by, so I was about to doze off - it was also very dark, since the street lamps in the area had gone out several hours prior for some reason, which in hindsight… was probably on purpose."
"After a while, a couple walked by in front of me, not noticing me. Perks of being a hobo, I guess They were clearly tipsy if not outright drunk, clinging onto each other, laughing at the slightest bullshit, all that stuff. They were probably coming back from a date or something like that, you could smell the hormones in the air."
"Then, it happened." She shuddered, stopping to get her thoughts in order. "A van stopped beside them, and men came out of it. No ski masks, no face covers, no nothing. It was too dark anyway. Must've been six, seven people. They grabbed the guy, tore him away from his girlfriend, and threw him inside the van. The girl was screaming, lord, she was screaming. I've never heard someone scream that loud, that terrified."
"That was when one of the men took out a gun and shot the woman exactly three times. Once in the upper stomach, once in the side, and once in the shoulder. That's a detail I can't forget for the life of me. The gun was silenced, but fuck was it loud. It shook me to my core. By the time the woman had even fallen to the ground, the van was already driving off."
"I was frozen for a few seconds, or more realistically a full minute, but when I came to, I bolted to my feet and rushed to the woman's side. I pressed on the wounds, used my clothes to stop the bleeding to no avail, tried to call for help, tried to get anyone who was walking by to react and help me and her, but it was all for nothing. Nobody gave a shit."
Nila sighed, her hands shaking, as if she was still feeling the warm, slick blood on them. "Next thing I knew, I had powers. The woman was dead, and nobody had called nine-one-one or even deigned to look our way."
Michael's jaw had dropped, at one point. Not because of the fact itself, not because of the woman's death, nor because nobody had helped; that happened regularly, people were assholes, that was a known fact of the world. No, Michael could not believe that it had happened so easily. So fast, so effortlessly.
It shook Michael even more to think that the man they took was, allegedly, a superhuman. And they still took him like that, as if he was just some ordinary schmuck. And they gunned down his girlfriend for the sole reason of existing in the wrong place at the wrong time; gunned down in such a way that it would look like a hit and run instead of like a professional job.
But this wasn't nearly enough to start investigating.
Aaron waited a few moments, letting Nila calm down and relax, before asking his next question, "Is it alright with you if I ask you some more pointed questions?"
Nila nodded weakly. "Yeah, that's why we're here, right?"
Aaron smiled. "Can you think about the van? Did it have any striking details?"
Nila took a few moments to think. "No, I don't think so. It was black, unmarked, no windows."
"Do you remember if it had a license plate?" Aaron asked, his smile growing a little larger.
"It…" Nila's expression focused for a second. "It did. Yeah."
Michael raised both eyebrows, stifling a bark of disbelieving laughter. "Wow, really?"
Nila nodded, resolutely, with absolute certainty. "Yes, it was 8965 YQ."
Michael scribbled it down on a nearby piece of paper. "They go to all this trouble to keep their existence hidden and then drive kidnap vans with license plates. That's ridiculous."
"Victory comes not from your excellence but from your enemy's mistakes," Aaron said, sagely. After a few seconds, he added, "I think Sun Tzu said it. Or something. I'm old, give me a break."
Both Michael and Nila chuckled, which eased the atmosphere in the room.
Looking at the piece of paper in his hands, Michael got an idea. He whispered something in his Dad's ear, who nodded.
Aaron took a pen and notepad from Michael, and held them out to Nila. "Can you draw, Nila?"
"I used to be pretty good at it when I was younger, yeah. Why?"
"I'd like you to draw sketches of the men who did this," Aaron proposed quietly. "Is that okay?"
Nila took the notepad and pen warily. "I… guess? I can't remember them well, but I can try."
And then Michael watched as Aaron's power showed its true talent off - encouragement.
Aaron did not just make you better, he didn't merely improve you, it made you into something you weren't, gave you things you didn't have - and the scariest thing is that it did these things and had you completely convinced that it was all you.
Which is how, for the next thirty minutes, Aaron stood by Nila's said, encouraging her, prompting her to think, giving her questionably helpful art tips and small tidbits of genuine advice, until she produced not one, not two, but three quality sketches of some of the men there.
Michael was moderately sure that the men did have ski masks, and the van didn't actually have a license plate, but Aaron's power was simply conjuring those details and putting them in Nila's head to remember, because it was absolutely reasonable for her to have known those things, after all, had they been there.
After that, Michael and Aaron stood up.
Michael smiled at her as he walked out the door. "Thank you, Nila."
"You owe me dinner after this," Nila said quietly as Aaron walked off, a tired smile on her face. Noticing Michael had frozen up, she corrected, "Or dinner for the socially anxious."
"Uh…?"
Nila snorted in the way she usually does. It was characteristic; cute, even. "Lunch."
"I'll think about it. With this new info, we might have a lot to do in the coming days, so… yeah," Michael said. He commended himself mentally - that answer was perfectly non-committal, he could say yes or no later, when he could weigh all the pros and cons of the situation.
Man, I really am a neet, huh. Min-maxing dating. Way to go, Mike.
"Alright!" Nila said, her smile brightening slightly. "Good night, Michael."
With that, she closed the door, and Michael slumped massively.
"Did what happened just happen?" Edgar said, completely out of nowhere, making Michael jump a full foot into the air.
"Wha- Edgar! You scared me, you fucker," Michael exclaimed, hand over his rapidly beating heart. "Way to give someone a heart attack, dude."
"To answer the question," Hilary said from behind Michael, making him jump a second time, this time a foot and a half in the air. "Yes, I think it just did."
"Nice," Edgar said, high-fiving Hilary. As they moved to the living room together, he said, "We listened to the conversation to save you the trouble of telling us everything a second time."
"Nice. Thanks. We've got a license plate, and several good sketches of those guys' faces," Michael muttered out, plopping on the couch. "Running the license plate will be easy, but I don't know what to do about the sketches. It's not like I own any facial recognition software that I can run securely through law enforcement databases."
Hilary sat on the armrest of the couch, opposite of where Michael was sitting. "You could always ask Cypher."
Michael almost choked on his own spit. "Cypher? The cyberterrorist organization that had been terrorizing Sonnesburg and County for the last six months in the name of 'justice' and shit like that?"
"Yeah," Hilary said, fidgeting with the edge of her shirt. "You know, we're kind of criminals, as far as the government is concerned. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, you know."
"She makes an incredibly fair point, Michael," Edgar said sagely. Michael was convinced that Edgar was trying to imitate Aaron and failing miserably. "But Devil's Advocate for a sec, how the hell do we reach out to this guy-gal-whatever? If the super-CIA can't do it, what makes you think we can?"
Michael rested his head on the couch behind him. "We put messages out on the deep web, in some sort of code, we take the risk, and they reach out to us if they think we're worth their time."
"Good idea. Let's do that," Hilary said.
***
Nice! You have made several wonderful rolls, and the result couldn't have been better! You have managed to extract a license plate and several facial sketches out of Nila's story, and got a deeper look in Aaron's pwer - it borders on abilities that the PRT on Earth Bet would define as 'Trump 0'! With that said, you have 17.6 Charges to spend.
What will Michael do?
[ ] The Quick Way - Send out feelers into the dark web and call Cypher's attention. Surely, a cyber-terrorist group of their caliber will have resources that Michael cannot possibly have. As such, asking for their help is a sure way to achieve results. As Hilary aptly put it, you two share an enemy. Aaron doesn't feel confident about this, but none of the other options you have show as much promise as this. One must beware of the price to pay for such services, though.
[ ] The Slow Way - You don't negotiate with terrorists. What they can do, you can do with enough time - you're just as smart as their leader, for sure. Accrue resources and tools, reinforce your computer's security, create a computer like the one you have at home, or something along those lines. This is a very slow route, which will possibly take weeks, but will ensure you remain independent and will inevitably strengthen your cyber resources. Aaron is equally unsure about this option, if not more than seeking out cypher.
[ ] The Cowardly Way - You don't have time to do either of those things. The government is after you, for God's sake. Give up on this lead and seek out other things to do going forward. For obvious reasons, Aaron confirms this as secure.
- [ ] PR Work
- [ ] Friendly Sparring (+++Power Use)
- [ ] Socializing (++Socials to the selected character)
[ ] Write-In
Michael Ringstein
Brawn: ▰▰▰▰▱
Athletics: ▰▰▰▱▱
Dexterity: ▰▰▰▱▱
Wits: ▰▰▰▰▱
Social: ▰▰▰▱▱
Knowledge: ▰▰▰▰▰▰ (!!!)
Guts: ▰▰▰▱▱
Skills (very broad summing up, tell me if more are to be added):
Brawn: ▰▰▰▰▱
Athletics: ▰▰▰▱▱
Dexterity: ▰▰▰▱▱
Wits: ▰▰▰▰▱
Social: ▰▰▰▱▱
Knowledge: ▰▰▰▰▰▰ (!!!)
Guts: ▰▰▰▱▱
Skills (very broad summing up, tell me if more are to be added):
- Computer engineering
- Software engineering
- Hacking
- Internet security
- Analytical thinking
- Mathematics
- Beginner martial arts
- Abraham Blau: Friendly acquaintance. He likes you, even though he thinks you're a little bit weird. You met him because he knocked on the apartment door as a part of his introductory rounds to the neighbors. You didn't even know you had neighbors.
- Aaron Ringstein: There's no one else in this world who loves you more than your father. There's no mountain he'd leave unmoved for you. The trust he feels for you is beyond words; your relationship is so strong that your power struggles to process it in full.
- Miriam Ringstein: Your mom. The sweetest lady in the world and 95% of that sweetness is aimed at you. She'll always listen to your troubles and be there to give you a hug, or cook your favorite dish. Even if she sometimes comes out with sentences that would make a dried prune cringe its last drops of water.
- Edgar: He likes you and appreciates you deeply. Your friendship is a deep and strong one, despite not having known each other for very long. There's an unspoken bond of mutual protectiveness between you two.
- Kali: Thinks you and your friend Edgar look interesting.
- Alex: She likes you and would like to know you more.
- Hilary: You and Edgar helped her when she felt like she was dying. Going through this traumatic experience together has made her feel closer to you.
- Nila: She feels deeply appreciative and thankful for what you're doing for her. She appreciates your paranoid, survival-oriented mindset and would've even accepted and even agreed with you had you chosen to leave her on the street. Despite recent developments, you have refused to look.
- Socially Useful Cloud: The host gains the ability to visualize his own relationships with other people as 'colorful clouds' around their heads which only he can see. Different colors mean different things, and the host gains instinctive and innate understanding of what they mean.
- Power Investiture: The host gains the ability to impart non-hosts with a parahuman ability tailored to that non-host (among other minor boons), based primarily on the nature and strength of the relationship between the host and the target.
- Power Generation: The host gains the ability to impart himself with parahuman abilities based primarily on the nature and strength of the relationship between himself and other hosts, and the other host's own power. Generated powers can have weird interactions with powers imparted via the host's other ability.
- Severing: The host gains the ability to create 'cuts' into anything he touches - the size of the cut is dependent on how much skin contact there is between the hand and the object. It appears to not be able to cut into flesh.
- Strike Enhancer (Edgar): The host gains the ability to store, amplify and redirect potential energy around them in a radius of two feet, starting from their skin. This potential energy can be used to increase physical parameters, and accumulates very slowly over time into permanent parameter increases.
- Advisor (Aaron Ringstein): The host gains a strong inner sense that allows him to distinguish which things, places, and people would be good or bad for someone. This effect is stronger for detecting negative things than positive ones, stronger still when someone he cares for is involved. On top of that, the host gains the ability to inspire/convince people (and things, based on experimentation) of virtually anything, as long as it is within the realm of possibility, up to virtually no hard limit. Inspire someone to lift weights, and their muscles will physically perform better, subtly changing physically to do so. Talk to a criminal about how his way of life isn't right, and he will change his mind. These effects will generally last a varying amount of time, which the host will be innately aware of when performing the action.
