Worth a shot, I suppose. Here's a character from an RP I'm having great fun with:
[X] Plan 'What's a Bloodfiend?' -[X] Character Creation. Describe the player agent. This is for narrative flavor only.
--[X] Name: Katherine Fouaciere
--[X] Gender: Female
--[X] Weapon: A rapier and a parrying dagger. She likes to go for exposed weak points like eyes and such.
--[X] Personality Traits (three single words max): Confident, Sarcastic, Detached
--[X] Physical Description (be it words or a "day off" picture): Long, black hair. Piercing red eyes. She wears either overly elaborate opera singer dresses or Bloodborne Hunter attire, depending on her mood.
Serving a Wing of the City - it's an honor that everyone dreams of, but few manage to achieve. Born to parents well-compensated by a powerful corporation, your road was paved with almost every advantage. You had no fear of dying in the middle of the street, in the middle of the day, down in the Backstreets because some Rats thought your organs were today's catch. You had every Ahn to buy the greatest education and extracurricular enrichment that money could buy.
Your road was perfect except for one flaming pothole: your parents worked for Loser Corporation.
Serving a Wing of the City - it's an honor that everyone dreams of, unless that Wing was named L Corp. When most kids bragged about how their parents worked for a Wing, everyone swarmed around them, wanting to be their best friend. To establish a connection whose payoff might be an offer of employment. You?
"I heard your parents worked for L Corp. Is that true?" Every head turned to you.
"I-"
"Eww! Aren't they burning babies today? You're why our Nest can't have nice things!"
Maybe you and the other L Corp. kids could've retorted that it was L Corp. keeping the Nest afloat with the sales from their unrivaled energy production and to stop biting the hand that fed them. If they were that ungrateful, maybe they should pack up, drop out of Nest L, and see how they like the Backstreets.
Except L Corp. didn't care about nest management, to which the gas masks on your and everyone else's faces can attest. As you left combat club for home, you took a deep breath of recycled air and sighed. Masks for pollution were supposed to be for the primitives in history, not the citizens of today. Today, because L Corp. held enough power to spite anything resembling regulation, even the Nest suffered from smog.
Stingy, stinky, smoky L Corp.; an actual Evil Inc. straight out of the cartoons. It's even said that other Wings excluded the children of L Corp. from their application pools in retaliation for the high energy prices and pollution. A few rumors sometimes made the rounds about a person or group planning to "fix" L Corp., but that would lead to war, and the prevailing attitude was the devil you knew... for now. Your gut said that great upheaval would happen in the future. But without a bit of upheaval in your personal life now, your fate was doomed to follow your parents, stuck as another L Corp. lackey. All you could do was study, train, and pray to your lucky star that an opportunity might open somewhere. Fortune favored the prepared.
Your star lit up with a big bang.
Elsewhere, a restoration company purchased a discounted physics-defying technology, known as a Singularity, from another company, and then somehow reworked it into teleportation. The restoration company rebranded itself as WARP and raked in massive profits while teleportation changed life as everyone knew it. With those profits, the company built their road to become the new W Corp.
WARP Corporation went from restoration to warping goods with teleportation platforms to warping people with teleportation trains. They started negotiations to lease space for and around their train stations with other Wings. And over your parents' protests of your new dream employer, all this expansion surely meant that W Corp. needed a few talented hands like yourself.
Present Day
A bright, sunny morning invites the City residents to enjoy the day as you step outside your skyscraper. Not even a smoke advisory from L Corp. for the region, and the air is as clear as the sky. You take in a crisp breath as you walk past the other skyscrapers. Bored-looking blue-coat guards supplied by the Zwei Association patrol the streets, save for the lady who grins and waves at you and the schoolchildren.
Unfortunately, there's a missed call from your mother... but after your last argument ("I'm cutting financial support if you accept W Corp.'s offer of employment!"), maybe it's better to give some space and let emotions cool. Or maybe cut ties for good; since you're living away from your parents, this is a good time as any.
A tingling feeling rises in your stomach as you make your way to the WARP train station for your first day at work. You can see through its blue-film glass walls as individuals and families await their trains, while the guards posted at the entrance look on. You almost look like them with the black-collared button shirt and blue tie uniform, except for the black protective vest marked with the W Corp. logo, a W-shaped blue arrow with another arrow dashing through. One of the guards catches your gaze and nods.
As the glass doors slide open, a blast of icy air greets you. The light pouring through the glass walls creates a bluish glow throughout the station, while blue neon lights run across the floor. Transparent information light panels float in the air with departure and arrival times. Next to one, an ad plays a commercial jingle as a pretty WARP travel ambassador enjoys a sandwich with her family ("The first stop of any tour is always HamHamPangPang!"). Even the janitors are in uniform, armed with a trash picker. When an uncaring patron litters and leaves, one janitor strides over and strangles the cup with their picker. It hits you that despite being a busy, enclosed space, the air somehow remains fresher than even some of the apartments maintained by L Corp.
More people are waiting and chatting, but the blaring of a train horn drowns them out. A windowless WARP train rumbles and squeals as it decelerates out of a tunnel until it reachces a complete stop.
A feminine announcer's voice plays throughout the station. "Train LW-101 has arrived from District 18. It will be available in ten minutes."
The front doors open with a hiss. An entourage of W Corp. employees, including a team of armed agents, enter the cab. Perhaps a bit more intimidating than necessary, but there's no such thing as too much security in this District and conducting an arrival inspection is nothing unreasonable. The doors close. After a few minutes, the rest of the doors open one-by-one, and throngs of passengers disembark. Passengers who, just a moment ago, arrived from the opposite side of the continent-sized City.
After you breathe a sigh of awe, you take a side corridor to the W Corp. offices, where a series of signs guides newcomers to orientation. It's a mini-maze of sky-blue hallways past a couple keycard access doors. When you arrive at a conference room, about a dozen people are already inside, but not all of them share your build of a combatant ready to keep the peace. You had to pass a physical exam, but maybe different jobs have different requirements.
Fifteen minutes and a couple more newcomers later, a middle-aged dark-haired woman in a blue blazer and skirt arrives with a folder. She scans the room, then smiles. "Everyone's here and on time."
Of course. What incompetent Feather would dare to fail on their first day?
"My name is Vanessa, Hiring Supervisor of Human Resources. It's a pleasure to meet you all." Vanessa strolls to the front of the room, where a large monitor hangs on the wall. "I'm sure you're all dying to learn how W Corp. makes the magic happen, so we'll watch a short video to acquaint ourselves with the core operations. Anybody squeamish to graphic depictions of blood and gore?"
You and the other new hires look at each other, but nobody says anything.
"You've been warned. Once we're done with the video, each of you will grab a wPhone." Vanessa points to a side table covered with blue smartphones. "When you scan your ID card on it, you'll get a personalized agenda so that your department can get you up and running."
On the screen, a grim-faced agent leads his team into the spacious cab of a WARP train like what you saw earlier. In the dim blue lighting, engineers seat themselves at the dashboard and scroll through various midair information panels. The agent clears his throat. "Those monkeys over in Sales said that HR wanted live footage of a Schedule I cleanup for an orientation video, so they wiped their asses with the first-class tickets and took the day off."
The crew's chuckles come out stiff.
"Remember to keep an eye out for the three swordsmen; PR says they're candidates to become high-grade fixers. We charge in on my mark."
Their weapons crackle with blue sparks.
He calls to one of the engineers. "Open it up!"
The door to the first passenger car slides open, and the crew barges inside. What you see next makes your insides curl, and your fellow new hires cover their mouths and gasp.
Inside the train, blood is everywhere. A skinless person, somehow still alive and sprawled on the floor in his own pool of blood, groans at the newcomers. The crew ignores him and busts into the next car, where they find more of the same.
As the crew continues through subsequent cars, they now find passengers with more of their skin, covered with bloodied, shredded clothes. They look potentially mobile but listless until they see the crew entering.
"Alert the High Priest!" A few shamble for the back of the train, groaning with every step, while the others form a barricade. They scream as one agent punches a few in the face while another stabs with their polearm. Subsequent cars have their passengers with more or all their skin and clothes intact and on high alert in barricade formations. The crew suppresses them all the same.
After about a couple dozen cars, the crew encounters a bearded man in a suit. He wears a lot of red blood paint and a fleshy necklace. Two swordsmen flank him. Behind them is an altar made of skinless humans like the one from the first car. One altar limb twitches.
The High Priest points to the crew. "The prophesied Day of Reckoning has arrived! Slay the demons!" The swordsmen draw their blades and charge, one down the aisle and another over the seats.
An agent in the rear snaps to attention and raises his hatchet as the seat swordsman jumps, but too late; a sword stroke connects with the neck. However, another agent leaps forward and knocks that swordsman off his feet, then straddles and pounds his face in. The other swordsman gets a bunch of cuts on the other agents, but the agents swarm and pin him to the ground. One blue shock later, and that swordsman also stops moving.
The High Priest draws his sword, but his movements are shakier than an amateur's. "I-I'll smite you all in the name of God!" He screams as the punchy agent leaps into his face.
Are WARP trains supposed to operate like this?
"What the hell," mutters a new hire. "This is just a sick movie, right? What about the family trip I took a couple months ago?"
Footage cuts to the crew using handheld vacuums, which analyze the genomic and atomic structures. Over a time-lapse of eight hours, the crew sucks up or gathers the passengers in however many pieces they're in and spews or dumps them back onto their original seats.
Footage then slows to the lead agent using a genomic scanner on each passenger meat pile. "Cleanup complete. The passengers are ready for restoration." He returns with his crew to the cab.
A feminine voice announcer's voice plays throughout the train. "We have arrived at District 23. Our agents will now conduct the standard arrival inspection. Please follow their disembarkation instructions. Thank you for riding with WARP."
The crew, cleaned up as if the battle never happened minus one agent, walks through each car. Gone is the nightmare; replacing that are attentive passengers and the occasional hushed conversation. Among the passengers are three relaxed swordsmen.
The video transitions to an engineer discussing the "teleportation" Singularity; it's actually the smoke-and-mirrors of three. The first Singularity cuts reality. Engineers make two cuts to create a wormhole tunnel that connects two train stations. The trains travel the tunnel in ten seconds. However, the dimension inside the tunnel operates on a slower space-time axis. Slower to the pace of ten seconds here lasting millennia there.
The second Singularity is borrowed from a minor Wing, T Corp. To prevent time from degrading the train and causing it to malfunction in a different dimension, that "time" is bottled in a T-Box. As a side effect, passengers will also not properly degrade. However, confinement over thousands of years takes a horrible toll on the psyche.
The third Singularity is restoration. If the form of something changed, but the material that made it up is still relatively close together, the Singularity can revert the mass to its original state like a save point. It even reverts memories to the pre-travel state.
The engineer bows their head. "I'm sure you're worried about the KIA agent. Sadly, he's gone; Singularities are massive energy gobblers, and it's too much of a strain on our limited supplies to justify restoring non-passengers.
"That's why our various departments must work together to keep our colleagues safe.
"Public Relations uses their external connections to run background checks and assess customers. Sales hands first-class tickets to the most destructive individuals to keep them asleep in stasis for the journey or finds an excuse to keep them from boarding. And as you watched, the brave cleanup crews of General Services risk their lives to fix passengers."
Vanessa claps her hands. "Well, that's that. If anyone has any administrative questions, you can stay behind and chat with me. Otherwise, get your wPhone and head out; your Directors are expecting you in a few minutes."
The new hires, in a bit of daze, each grab a wPhone. You scan your ID card. Along with your personal information, a 3D holo map pops up with directions to a General Services conference room.
Welcome aboard to WARP Corporation.
INSTRUCTIONS. Submit a plan.
-[] Character Creation. Describe the player agent. This is for narrative flavor only.
--[] Name:
--[] Gender:
--[] Weapon:
--[] Personality Traits (three single words max):
--[] Physical Description (be it words or a "day off" picture):
--[] NPC Opt Out:
Note: Submitted characters who do not become the player character may still become NPCs, such as other cleanup agents, unless the submitter wishes to opt out. The QM reserves the right to pick and modify submissions as necessary.
-[] Workweek. Contribute W with the crew to suppress disorderly passengers. You have 100HP.
Passenger Advisory Report (Week 1)
Week 1 (Work) / Schedule II / If W<2, all agents take -15HP.
--[] Contribute W to the quota:
(Each W costs 10HP; there are six other agents who may contribute W)
No action is currently asked of the following, but it is published as advance notice:
Passenger Advisory Report's roll (Week 2): (3)
Week 2 (Work) / Schedule II / If W<5, all agents take -30HP
Note: Decisions for day off activities and agent relationships will be unlocked after the Week 1 update. Please wait for two more reserved posts.
Ah man, you should have put a spoiler warning. W Corp sounds bloody fascinating, almost enough to make me want to uptie the W Corp identities even without any Telepole EGOs.
Ah man, you should have put a spoiler warning. W Corp sounds bloody fascinating, almost enough to make me want to uptie the W Corp identities even without any Telepole EGOs.
[X] Plan: Perfectly Normal. -[X] Character Creation. Describe the player agent. This is for narrative flavor only.
--[X] Name: Kerry
--[X] Gender: Male
--[X] Weapon: Two swords designed to pull out the full power of W-Corp's technology in the art of splitting space.
--[X] Personality Traits (three single words max): Neutral, Blunt, Empathetic.
--[X] Physical Description (be it words or a "day off" picture): Short White Hair, black eyes, outside of work usually wear the most comfortable clothing possible.
No Glasses.
Btw what's the timeline in this fic? Like where are we on it?
You know, we should pray that the Sales team doesn't mess up and let a Color into our mix then. Because W-Corp is still relatively young in terms of corporation age in this time line.
Your mother flashed a proud smile. Tonight, you and her were seated at a casual dining restaurant with money you earned from an internship with a minor Zwei-affiliated office. Your duty consisted of keeping an eye on schoolchildren crossing the streets. It nearly overlapped with your own schedule of getting to class on time in Academy L, but it's still money you earned on your own.
That internship was another thing your mother discouraged, since your family already had enough Ahn. But tonight, she was considerate to not mention it.
The food was okay, but the atmosphere was homely. Your mother, of all the 10,000 looks she liked to shuffle between, opted for a white sundress and to let her natural long black hair flow down.
You father called during your dinner of steak, brown rice, and peas. "Boss just told us to come home early. I'm sorry I couldn't make the dinner, but at least I should be back soon."
"Really?" she said. "That's great! Stay safe, dear!"
You nodded. "See you soon, father."
"I'm sorry again, Ji-Min. Especially since you worked hard for this."
"It's fine! You know... I'd pay for you to stay home more often, if I could."
"Thank you. I'll see you soon."
You and your mother joked a bit about the traveling that Lantern Office made him do every so often. Today wasn't perfect, but then, few things in life were, and all things considered, this was a pretty good evening.
The table next to you suddenly engaged in frantic discussion, followed by calls asking if everyone was okay. Another table nearby looked at their smartphones and gasped. The conversation vaguely sounded vaguely like an accident occurred.
Your mother also checked her smartphone and gasped.
"What's wrong?" you asked.
She winced, then showed you.
BREAKING: TRAIN WV-103 DISASTER – SECOND TRAIN VANISHED THIS MONTH, PASSENGERS PRESUMED DEAD.
Half an hour ago, train WV-103 failed to arrive at District 21. W Corp.'s engineers attempted to recalculate the train's current location but were unable to do so. As such, and due to the nature of W Corp.'s Singularity, they stated that the passengers on board should be presumed deceased.
This follows on the heels of a previous train accident earlier this month. W Corp.'s Singularity, teleportation, is normally used in its trains to instantaneously transport passengers from one station to another. W Corp.'s investigation concluded that the previous accident was caused by deliberate sabotage, but this could not be independently verified due to the involvement of trade secrets.
More details to come.
Neither you nor your mother said anything for a couple minutes.
"That's... a shame," she said. "Wings can be careless sometimes."
This was not going to be fun. "It's sabotage," you said. You weren't sure you fully believed the claim yourself, but her comment almost looked like an accusation that your dream was a poor choice.
"But didn't the first accident take place in W Corp.'s own District?" Her pitch then rose. "No matter how you look at this, sabotage is such an outlandish claim!"
"Do we have to go over this now!?" You noticed that your spat became the attention of other diners nearby.
Your mother swallowed. "I'm sorry."
The both of you took a few more bites in silence.
"I'm... just worried, y'know?"
You avoided looking at her. "Thanks."
"I don't know if W Corp. will survive this hit to their image. It's hard for a new Wing."
"Mother. Please."
The conversation fell into silence again. Your mother looked at her smartphone. "Oh no..."
"Huh?"
"Your father just sent a message... your Uncle Kumar, he... he was among the passengers."
"That's..." But it was hard to put anything into words. Whatever defense W Corp. wanted to propose, your mother must've felt she had every right to reject it. Nor did you now feel eager about jumping to W Corp.'s defense.
"He helped you a lot, didn't he? Kumar was the one who got you in touch with your tutors."
You stared at your empty plate. "Yeah... that's why... why I'm at the top of my class."
"Ji-Min, dear?"
You looked up at your mother, who wore an anxious smile.
@drearyArchon@questioningmeme Thanks for your submissions! Unfortunately, I'm neck-deep in the narrative and thus unable to include them right now, but I'm happy to keep them in my back pocket.
Your wPhone guides you back to a corridor before the train platform and then directs you into a conference room.
Four others are already seated. Three of them look like cleanup agents. A woman with blond pigtails, one pigtail with a streak of sky-blue highlights like she's cheering for a sports team, talks animatedly with (or maybe "at"?) another woman. The latter wears a stony frown like the grim agent from the orientation footage.
"Aw, c'mon, Sumaiya!" says Pigtails.
Sumaiya points with her eyes at the head of the table; a balding man in a suit stares at the interaction.
"Who, him?" Pigtails pokes the blue beauty mark on Sumaiya's cheek. "Director doesn't give two birdshits about the janitors."
The Director snorts. You notice a severe scar on his neck.
Another guy chuckles, that one with dark-blue shades.
As Sumaiya's face reddens, you take your seat far on the other end. When Pigtails sees you, she smiles and opens her mouth until Shades cuts her off with a smile of his own. "Blaine, you'll scare the newcomers."
"Ha!"
A pair walk in together. One looks like she just crawled out of a crypt and could maybe do with the recent enthusiasm. You almost miss the person with light purple hair next to her. The woman takes one look at the Director, gulps, and keeps her head down as the pair take a seat.
One bonehead jacked up on one muscle augment too many lumbers into the conference room.
"The last one," says the Director. "Close that door."
"Uh, dis da right place?"
The Director pinches the bridge of his nose, then looks at you. "You. Close that door."
You close the door while Bonehead figures out how to sit down.
"Introductions. I'm Director Ghaith, head of General Services. You've all seen the orientation footage, so congratulations on being selected by me to join the most important group in W Corp." The Director slowly claps.
"Gosh," says Blaine. She glances at the Director and the zombie woman. "The vibe in here is a bit..."
"A bit appropriate? Yes. Now, I'm here in case anyone needs anything that your seniors or team captain can't provide. Captain."
Sumaiya brushes aside the shoulder-length black hair in her face and stands. "Good morning. I'm Sumaiya, the morning shift Cleanup Captain. Let's work hard together to keep the trains orderly."
Next up is Shades. "I'm Miguel. I'm a senior, or at least, whatever definition passes as 'senior' for this cleanup crew."
You feel like you'll regret asking, but you raise your hand anyway. "Uh, how long have you, er, been working?"
"A month. Sumaiya started a week earlier, and Blaine started together with me."
Blaine jumps to her feet with a grin and quick wave. "That sounds like my cue! I'm Blaine, your final senior." She punches up. "Let's work hard together to keep each other SAFE!"
Sumaiya briefly smiles, and Miguel nods.
Then, the zombie. Thin with deathly pale skin, long white hair, slightly sunken pink eyes, you wonder how she even passed the physical exam. About the only thing lively on her are a pair of small blue stud earrings. Zombie takes a deep breath. "I'm Helena. I used to lead an office sponsored by W Corp. that gathered information throughout District 12. Among other things. Uh, my partner," she glanced at the person next to her. "They did a great job specializing in disguise."
The Director gestures for her to sit. "I always get sick of dealing with you. Sit. They can introduce themselves. Next."
Helena quickly sits down.
Her partner looks at her, then the Director with an unflinching expression. "My name is Lian. My boss-"
Helena finally smiles. The Director shoots them both a stink-eye.
"-and I will bring the high level of effort that we put into that office, into this team."
"Next."
Bonehead scratches his buzzcut. "Dorian. Nice, uh, to meet you all. One ding led to anodder and da Director was... kind enough to hire me?"
"Sure. Last."
You stand up. "I'm Ji-Min. This is my first job out of school." A glowy pride warms your chest. Despite all your hardships and W Corp.'s secrets, you joined a Wing that's not L Corp.
"Which one?" asks Sumaiya.
"Academy L."
"Academy L, huh."
The Director frowns. "Sumaiya. Enough."
She shakes her head. "I'm Captain now. I don't want another calamity like last week. If it happens again, then it's on me."
"What?" you ask. "What's wrong with Academy L? It's the best in the District."
"And that's not saying much. Even with all the other corner-cutters, L Corp. is the most notorious. I'm sure they cut corners on training, too. In fact, I heard rumors that L Corp. was forcing other employers to hire its kids, but this is too dangerous. Their horrible reputation is too well-deserved."
You shake your head. No way, even here, why won't L Corp.'s shadow fade?
"Sumaiya," says the Director. "This job is meritocratic. If Ji-Min can't keep up, then that's a self-solving problem."
"Hiring Ji-Min might just be filling a quota to you, but the failure of one agent can be the difference between life and death for the rest of us. I can't put our lives into her hands so carelessly. I can't."
"Hey," you say. "Have you even seen me fight? I can get the job done just like you. Besides, it's not like W Corp. was scraping for leftovers. A Wing chose me; that says a lot about my capability."
"A Wing was forced to choose you, and what makes you think I want to trust an apple from a rotten tree?"
"Are you that limited in your skill to assess the capabilities of others? I shudder to think of what'll happen to this crew when you underestimate the passengers!"
As Sumaiya slaps the table and opens her mouth, the Director holds up his hand in front of her and looks at you. "Ji-Min. I see where this is going. Realize that 'General Services' also means the management of W Corp.'s in-house fixers. I can find you a more fitting role. Yes?"
Part of you wants to take the offer and say good riddance to working in this nightmare and the people here who hate your guts. But that would mean accepting the shadow forever. And if one disgruntled employee can punt you with a mere complaint, what's stopping the next person from finding a way to manage you out of W Corp.? "Director, you surely had a hand in deciding to hire me as a cleanup agent. Were you wrong?"
"Never." The Director taps the table for a couple seconds, then looks at Sumaiya. "I understand that you have concerns about Ji-Min's capabilities. You can trust that I expect a baseline competency, and I have observed Ji-Min's performance myself during the hiring process. Whatever corners were cut, it's not a problem here."
"...I understand, Director."
"Dismissed."
As the Director leaves and the others file out, Sumaiya pulls you aside and takes a deep breath. "For what it's worth, I'm... sorry about earlier. I can't shake my doubts, but I'll... I'll believe in you."
You slowly nod. "Sure."
Sumaiya leads the crew on a tour of the facility. The seniors walk and make small talk ("So! Tell me more about your old office!" "..."). An occasional question pops up ("Dis cafeteria, does it serve delicious meals?" "Yes."), although some are dumber than others ("Beer?" "No. And consumption of alcohol is forbidden during working hours.").
Your wPhone, along with everyone else's, beeps with a notification of an inbound train.
"Our first train," says Sumaiya. "The Passenger Advisory Report, or PAR, says it's a Schedule II train. Newcomers, don't waste this chance to adjust yourselves."
Miguel heaves a sigh. "And after last month, we seniors aren't going to waste this breather."
"Don't get too complacent. After making it through Hell Month, it would be a shame to receive a negative performance evaluation."
"Hell Month?" asks Dorian. "Da hell is dat?"
Blaine sticks out her tongue. "Train after train was Schedule I the last four weeks. You guys have it sooo easy; Miguel and I, our first train was a Schedule I. We seniors made it all the way to the end with our seniors, only for them to die during the last week."
"The armory." Sumaiya stops in front of metal double door and scans her ID. The doors open to a large storage room where a few clerks manage racks of various weapons, shelves of vests, and several unknown tools. You catch a faint whiff of burnt rubber before it fades. "Grab your favorite weapon and a vest. Once we're done cleaning, we'll return everything and wait in the lounge until the next train." She briefly discusses something with Helena ("You're free to go enjoy your day off after this cleanup.").
Lian peers down the hall. "You said Engineering was nearby?"
"They keep our gear in top shape and store their Head-knows-what crap here."
You examine a pair of Kukri knives; not only do these things stack the bleed, but the edge has a blue glow that softly hums. Once you satisfy yourself with your examination of the knives, you put on a vest. With mixed emotions about your dreams and reality, you also don your W Corp. cap.
"Well, well!" An unfamiliar deep voice and several footsteps come from down the hall. "Wassup, Captain Sumaiya."
"Captain Teresa."
As you step out with the others, you see a wiry man with a box cut. His leather gloves are pristine, as if his hands are a District treasure. Teresa leads a few others, including the new hire you overheard at orientation who muttered the wishful thinking that the footage was just a sick movie. "Just a short while ago, you were a baby blue learning the ropes. And now? You're leading a whole team." He snickers.
Sumaiya scowls. "I heard your Director rejected your project proposal."
Teresa breaks into an expression like hers. "You should smile a bit more. Misery Terrorists might come for you."
"That Urban Nightmare has nothing to do with me. Stop goofing around while we're on the train."
Back to a snicker. "That's harmless fun. Let's go."
Dorian whispers into Blaine's ear. "What's with dem?"
"Inspections fucking gambles on which of us will quit or croak."
On the platform, you ball your fists as the train squeals to a stop and the door to the cab opens with a hiss. An hour ago, you thought nothing of the arrival inspection team. Who would have thought that inside the train was such a hellish world?
The Inspections team's new hire clutches his head and winces in pain, to which Teresa clicks his tongue. After everyone enters and the door closes, Teresa takes a moment to speak. "Were you, Head forbid, thoughtlessly preparing to mutter about the passengers? In public?"
"I-I apologize, sir."
Teresa taps his own head. "What a fool you are to forget about your own Procedure J. Reminder to all: unless you're a masochist, make sure you're in a designated secure place before discussing company secrets." He takes off one of his gloves, but his "hand" is several cables, plugs, and ports.
Next, Teresa connects a finger plug into a train port. The rest of his team takes a seat as information panels float in the air. "Diags clear. Whenever you're ready, janitor."
Sumaiya takes a deep breath. "This is our first train as a team. Because we're dealing with a Schedule II, this is our safest opportunity to let the newcomers practice.
"And remember what the Manual says: even though we're fighting the passengers, we're fighting for their sake - to fix them back to normal and free them from the nightmare." She nods to Teresa. "Open it up."
Your turn to take a deep breath.
And maybe you should've held it longer, because there's one thing you don't get to experience from the footage that you do in real life: the stench. You cough a bit on heavy iron. Helena nearly retches and Lian grimaces.
As Dorian strolls forward, your head buzzes with the careless risks that he's opening himself to.
"Hey, uh," you stammer. "Shouldn't you be more careful?"
"She's right," says Sumaiya. "Always keep your eyes open. You never know when a mangled passenger will jump you, and they love to use the seats as fortification in combat."
Blaine hurriedly glances at the space in front of each seat before she catches up and taps Dorian on the shoulder. "Slow down there, big guy."
"Mmph." Dorian scratches his head.
Nothing else of note happens in the first car. Nor the second car.
The third car is near-spotless except for the blood trail running in the middle of the aisle. Despite the blood, you have yet to see a pasasenger.
"We in da right train?"
Sumaiya opens the fourth car. A couple bloodied passengers spill out and groan.
"Apparently," says Lian. "How does this even happen?"
Passengers cover every inch of the floor. Several passengers even lay on top of other passengers. The rows of seats each have an individual passenger draped on them, as if someone important was laid to rest.
A nauseous feeling rises in your stomach. You will it down until the sensation passes.
Sumaiya surveys the car with an anxious look on her face. "This train might've developed a caste system where the outcasts call the garbage dump their home. Someone, or even all of them, might even be pretending to be a body to trap the unwary for the 'fun' of it. This sort of place is especially dangerous."
You nod as an idea pops into your head. "We're, uh, in T-time though, right? Don't we have all the time we need to... pick them off one-by-one from a distance?"
She nods. "Good thinking. Not every situation demands brute force. And we'll do just that. Helena, Lian, prod the closest ones."
Lian points something like a closed canopy-less umbrella at a passenger and presses a trigger. A spear booms out of the shaft. It pierces and zaps a passenger, who squeals and twitches for a moment.
Helena flicks her wrist while holding... a pen? Ah. It must be that ink Singularity. Even today, some executives keep a utility pen on hand as a defensive measure. As you wonder what modifications W Corp. implemented, you hear the pen click. Blue ink splatters over the passenger, who screams as blue electricity ravages their body.
Sumaiya turns to everyone else. "We'll move the cleared bodies behind us. Newcomers, don't overexert yourselves; if you get hurt, you're stuck with the pain until we return to reg-time."
Dorian ignores her and carries both passengers under his arms, but you doubt it's a problem for him.
"Eh," says Blaine. She carries another passenger that Lian just harpooned. "A little work never hurts."
The other two seniors carry bodies at a slower pace. If that's fast enough for them, that's fast enough for you. Work continues at a steady space in silence apart from Blaine humming an occasional tune, which you recognize as an excited pop song looking forward to a day off. Eventually, you and the crew clear the room.
Car after car remain empty. With any luck, you hope that all the passengers threw themselves into that one car.
Near the end, a man built like a fixer leads a car full of young kids in silent physical exercises with his polearm. By whatever miracle, only the fixer has major injuries and the kids look mostly intact. As you all enter, he turns to face the crew with his polearm ready, and shouts over his shoulder in an unknown language. The kids gather in the aisle behind him with deadly expressions and raise their fists.
Sumaiya gulps, and you don't like the odds that her next order is going to be pleasant. So far as W Corp. is concerned, what happens on the train stays on the train; violence now doesn't count as violence against an actual person. And yet...
"Wait," you say. You step forward, put your knives on the ground, and raise your hands. You soften your voice and put on a smile. "Okay, okay, going to be okay..."
"Follow her lead."
It's an awkward chorus and horribly off-key, but the fixer and the kids lower their stances. The fixer drops his polearm, raises his hands, and sings the word "Okay" over and over. The kids follow along.
Maybe a peaceful option isn't always possible. But if the only thing that matters is the cleanup getting done, then W Corp. shouldn't care about the method to do it.
Week 1 (Work) / Schedule II / If W<2, all agents take -15HP
Helena: (100HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 3M) ~ (70HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 5M)
Lian: (100HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 1M) ~ (70HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 3M)
Blaine: (40HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 4M) ~ (70HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 4M)
Miguel: (40HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 5M) ~ (100HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 5M)
Dorian: (100HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 2M) ~ (70HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 4M)
Sumaiya: (40HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 6M) ~ (100HP, Rapport +1, Favors +0, 6M)
INSTRUCTIONS. Submit a plan.
-[] Day Off. Distribute AP into one of the following.
--[] Rest. The Manual clearly states that agents are supposed to use the day off to maintain their health. Just follow the Manual and you'll never go wrong. Each AP restores 20HP. Until a story path is selected, Rest includes the following effect: "Increase Burnout +1 (reduce max HP by -10 per count)." Note that burnout count remains even after a story path is selected. If no option is selected for day off, this option will be automatically selected with 0AP applied.
--[] Overtime. For the Feathers willing to sign away their freedom and truly embrace life as a Company Asset, the Wing in return will offer the greatest compensations. Begins the Wing story path. Day off decisions will focus on carrying out missions of various risks and honorabilities for the Director. You do not receive strikes, and the Director will authorize special assistance for you during Schedule I weeks if Rabbit Protocol is on cooldown. Costs 1AP to select.
--[] Cooking Club. Time to make the friends that you never had a chance to make before while engaging in your favorite hobby. Begins the Friendships story path. Day off decisions will focus on managing social relationships with your clubmates and cooking. You may generate Food, which will be shared with your fellow agents to increase Rapport. Costs 1AP to select.
--[] Dating. You've got a stable (and high-risk) job with a Wing, and you're physically strong enough to survive crazed passengers and take care of yourself. That makes you a sexy commodity! Begins the Romance story path. Day off decisions will focus on building a life together with a love interest. You will receive passive healing each week. Costs 1AP to select.
Note: Specific mechanics for the chosen story path will be introduced the Week after it's s selected.
-[] Workweek. Contribute W with the crew to suppress disorderly passengers.
--[] Make requests:
--[] Contribute W to the quota:
Passenger Advisory Report:
Week 2 (Work) / Schedule II / If W<5, all agents take -30HP.
hmm.
Wondering why isn't there a system of passenger list to check if The next trains opening will be the death of this bunch or not But I guess that will be demoralizing so they don't do it
[] Plan Job Security
-[X] Workweek.
--[X] Contribute W to the quota: 1 AP
-[X] Day Off
--[X] Rest 1 AP
--[X] Overtime. For the Feathers willing to sign away their freedom and truly embrace life as a Company Asset, the Wing in return will offer the greatest compensations. Begins the Wing story path. Day off decisions will focus on carrying out missions of various risks and honorabilities for the Director. You do not receive strikes, and the Director will authorize special assistance for you during Schedule I weeks if Rabbit Protocol is on cooldown. Costs 1AP to select.
-[X] Relationships
--[X] Lian
AP: 3/5
Health: 100-20+20(-10 Burnout)=100(90)
Chance of successful schedule: 65%, no Strike on fail, not enough rapport to get protection.
[] Plan Job Security II
-[X] Workweek.
--[X] Contribute W to the quota: 2 AP
-[X] Day Off
--[X] Rest 1 AP
--[X] Overtime. For the Feathers willing to sign away their freedom and truly embrace life as a Company Asset, the Wing in return will offer the greatest compensations. Begins the Wing story path. Day off decisions will focus on carrying out missions of various risks and honorabilities for the Director. You do not receive strikes, and the Director will authorize special assistance for you during Schedule I weeks if Rabbit Protocol is on cooldown. Costs 1AP to select.
-[X] Relationships
--[X] Lian
AP: 4/5
Health: 100-30+20(-10)=90(80)
Chance of successful schedule: 90%, no Strike on fail, not enough rapport to get protection
Passive healing from Dating would be nice but I don't see a slow bleed out as our biggest threat. The greatest danger is either large bursts like emergency's or Strikes.
While Cooking would be nice to raise rapport with new agents fast I hope that we will be able to maintain friends that can protect us without it, but not getting strikes is great and opens a lot of new avenues for us.
I chose to raise Liam's rapport because he has the least M.
If rest does not cost burnout we want to rest twice in Job Security II.
No Glasses.
