Whispers from the Deep - Biplanes & Bisexuality

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Character Sheets
  • Informational


    • Character Sheet
    Isabelle Morgenthau
    A Fisher

    Isa (right) and her boyfriend Arren (left)

    Hard Keen Calm Daring Wild
    +4 -2 +4 +1 -1
    Moves
    Creepy: When a comrade sees you perform a ritual, overhears your prayers, or sees signs of your alienness, they lose Trust in you. Once they learn one of your Moves, they are no longer affected, but they gain Creepy as well.
    Deep Ones: You can call on your patrons to Help you on a roll. On a 1, you Break after this mission.
    Blessing: When you dab fresh blood on a piece of working equipment, roll +Calm. On a 16+, take both. On an 11-15, choose 1.
    • Take +1 Ongoing with this item this Routine. (+1 Handling for a plane)
    • The item cannot break or be lost this Routine. (+1 Armour on 1 Section of the Plane.)
    On a miss, you need a bigger sacrifice. Don't disappoint.
    Ideomotor Response: Your plane effectively has a programmable autopilot. It does not have to be switched on and off; it "knows" when you are behind the controls.
    Soul-Bound: When you paint a rune in blood on an aircraft, you are linked. While in flight, you can take incoming Structure damage as Stress, 1-1. You can take a hit that would strike a Component as Injury, or give incoming Injury to your Engine.
    Bond: (Witch move learned from Wulf) When you hold an object of significance and make an emotional connection to it, take 1 Stress. The object becomes a magical Focus, and you learn it's Nature (Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Iron, or Blood).
    Contemplation: When you draw a ritual circle and stay within it, roll +Calm. On a 16+, you come out of it about an hour later refreshed; strike 3 Stress or 2 Injury. On an 11-15, it takes the whole night, and you're unreachable in that time.

    Mastery
    The Bushwack
    Ambush Predator: When you strike an enemy who is unaware of your presence, roll with Advantage.
    Forced Evade: When you fire to scare an opponent off, spend 1 ammo and roll +Hard. On a hit, instead of dealing damage, choose one: Target dives 1, target climbs 1, target loses speed in a forced turn. On a 16+, roll attack dice on them anyway.
    Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 AP.
    Scissors Snip: When you disengage, give an ally +3 towards dealing with your target.

    Familiar Vices
    - Drinking
    - Prayer
    - Dancing

    Vice Progress
    - Breaking Stuff: ☑☐☐
    - Cannabis: ☑☐☐

    Intimacy Move
    When you are intimate with another, choose one of you to get a hold. They can spend that hold to give the other a command: if followed, then forward to their next +Stat move, they will always score at least a partial hit, regardless of what the dice say.

    If you use this move in the air, there are two holds, and they can be distributed however you agree.

    The Company
    People
    • Isabelle (Fisher): The PC. She's out to find her way in the world. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Arren (NPC- Confidant/Observer): Your cute fish boyfriend. Artist and recently trained observer. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Wulf (Witch): Former bandit leader. Actually half wolf. Hot as hell. Ex-Goth. 1 thaler per Routine.
      • Hard +3, Keen +3, Calm -2, Daring +0, Wild +3 (Avenger)
    • Minna Hammerl (Soldier): Inexperienced but highly trained soldier and passionate duelist. Speaks all formal-like. The most beautiful woman in the world. 1 thaler per Routine.
      • Hard +4, Keen +1, Calm +2, Daring -2 (Professional)
    • Heinrich Engel (Student): Political science student working on his thesis-slash-manifesto.
    • Anny Meldgaard (NPC - Mechanic): A young half-Fischer, half-Himmilvolk woman from Piav, trained by the mechanics there. Looking for adventure and her origins. Blushes red?
    Aircraft
    • Isa & Arren's Plane: A Teicher Möwen seaplane. Steel frame, liquid-cooled engine. Deeply possessed. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Fang Howl: Wulf's helicopter. An experimental pre-war model. Liquid-cooled radial. Three wolf moon. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Pup: Wulf's Kreuzer Skorpion prototype retrieved from a sealed hanger. Gets a lot out of an underpowered engine.
    • Minna's Kobra: An inline-engine powered, wood framed fighter. All around an excellent machine. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Heinrich's Reconstruction: A canard plane with a 30mm cannon in the nose. Awkward and unstable but hits like a train. 1 thaller per Routine.
    ​
    Stress XP
    3 7
    ​
    Cash Expenses
    41 10.5
     
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  • Informational
    • 7-13: Smashing Pottery & Fidgeting
  • Threadmarks
    • ---

    "We can scout the hanger." You said, a very real weary sigh escaping you.

    "Oh, that's great!" Frau Osswald said. "I told you, son, never take their first offer." Nevermind that it was like, the fifth offer.

    "Good, now let's shake on it before I change my mind." You insisted, sticking out your hand. She looked at you suspiciously, then shook.

    "It's a contract. So, when can we expect your team to get here?" She asked.

    "Well, we're kinda already here. I'll be leading the team." You said. "My girlfriend kinda has an in with the fae anyway, so we're pretty well equipped for it."

    "Oh. That's... convenient." She looked down her nose. "This feels like bad faith to me... If I had known..."

    Hell no. You'd had enough of this.

    "Well, this'll be easier than bombing your town, which is what we were originally hired for." You said coldly.

    "... really?" Bruno said beside you, the colour draining from his face. His mother looked equally shocked.

    "I mean, easier on our conscience. It'd probably be actually easier to just fly the raid." You said, like it meant nothing to you. "Bruno, go tell them the deal is made so we can get our generators. We'll be staying here tonight and launching the mission in the morning."

    You walked out the door, and the moment you were out of sight you did a little fist pump of victory. That felt awesome.

    "Don't get too proud of yourself." A voice said, and you felt that horrible sinking embarrassment from being caught. Turning, you saw the woman in the fine dress, Beatrix, step around the corner, a cruel smile on her face. She looked maybe a half-decade your senior in age, but something about her reminded you of the cruel teenage girls you grew up with. "My mother might be vulnerable to you types in her old age, but don't think I didn't see you taking advantage of her."

    "Lady, we just offered her the best deal of her life. It might actual make things better around here." You said, and she sneered, stepping in front of you, arms crossed. The submachine gun was hanging at her hip.

    "Sure it was. What's your angle, parasite?" She said. Gross.

    "My angle is making my money and getting out of this town. Out of my way." You said.

    "I can stand wherever I like." She said. What a child.

    "Bee, come on. Let her through." Bruno said, coming up behind you. "Please."

    Beatrix's sneer twisted across her whole face, but after a second she stepped aside. "I'll be watching you." She said as you passed.

    "Yeah, well, uh, watch yourself." You retorted weakly, then you stomped out and back to your friends.

    ---

    "... and then she was all like 'I'll be watching you' and I was like 'Then you better pay up, I charge for the view.'"

    "Damn!"

    "That's awesome!"

    You were sitting back at the bar, watching workers scurry about the factory. The huge doors were open to let in the spring air, which must have been a relief from the heat of the kilns. A wagonload of fired pottery rolled out and up towards the airfield and the waiting zeppelin: the forewoman had apparently decided to use the trip as an excuse to pick up some cheap plates and stuff for back home. You watched curiously as a wheelbarrow of material was rolled out and dropped into a pile outside the factory.

    "Hey, what are those?" You said curiously. Kurt, who was still hanging around, shrugged.

    "The bad ones, I think. They didn't come out right or whatever. We crush it up and use it for pathways and stuff."

    You watched a worker throw a malformed plate out the door and smash against the rocks. A fun idea was forming in your mind.

    You went over and talked to the foreman, and after trading a small amount of money, you came away with two wheelbarrows full of nearly-intact but warped or broken products. Arren looked puzzled.

    "What's this supposed to be?" He asked.

    "Fun!" You said. "Come on, let's get these outside the town. I have an idea."

    The five of you (Kurt was finally called away by his mother) wheeled the load out to a small clearing at the edge of town. The forest loomed imposing in front of you as you found some choice rocks. As your friends stood around puzzled, you picked up a pot, raised it above your head, and smashed it against the rock as hard as you could.

    It smashed with a wonderful crashing sound, splitting into three pieces. You turned to the team with a grin.

    "Who wants to break some shit?"

    The answer, it turns out, was everyone.

    To your surprise, Anny was the first to jump to the call, scooping up a mug with a broken handle and pitching it full force into the forest, where it smashed apart against the tree. She laughed, and everyone else eased up. Wulf picked herself up off the fallen log she was sitting on and spiked a vase into the ground, then Arren joined in, drop-kicking a teacup into a blast of tiny fragments. After some hesitation, Minna underhand tossed a plate across the field, and it landed intact against the grass. Hounded by boos and laughs, she ran out to pluck it off the ground and then throw it again, and this time it landed against a rock, still intact.

    "Come on Minna! Put your back into it!" You yelled. She rolled her eyes in the most exaggerated motion you'd even seen, then she stalked back to the group and badgered Arren for his rifle. He unslung it reluctantly, and the moment it landed in Minna's hands it snapped to her shoulder in an instant, and she then shot the plate dead center without even pausing to aim. The shattered pieces flew in all directions.

    "Holy shit, Minna." Wulf said, eyes wide. "That was amazing."

    "It was nothing. A stationary target." She said.

    "Huh. So there's no way you could hit, say, a thrown plate?" Wulf said, picking up another piece.

    "I have never tried..." She said. "We had a shooting gallery of moving targets back home, but it was very predict-"

    Wulf suddenly threw the plate across the field, and the rifle tracked and fired without hesitation. The plate tumbled and disintegrated in midair, and everyone cheered.

    At this point, physical smashing gave way to target practice. Minna hit almost everything that was thrown, though she eventually called a pause to it and handed the rifle back to Arren. Arren's attempts were much less accurate, though he still hit a few, then the pistols came out and you started just lining up items to shoot. Anny had never fired a gun before, and Arren lead her through the finer points of using a rifle, though it took her a half-dozen shots to hit a plate.

    Wulf was throwing items straight up and trying to hit them with her little needle-nosed pistol, cheered on by Arren and Anny, but you'd run out of steam (and ammunition) so after a few minutes, you headed over to the fallen log that Minna was sitting on and sat next to her. For the last few minutes, she'd been off quietly, tapping her foot rapidly and fiddling with a piece of broken pottery in her hands.

    "Hey, you okay?" You asked.

    "Yes. Sorry." She dropped the ceramic, and her foot stopped tapping instantly. "Am I doing something wrong?"

    "... no?" You said. "It's fine."

    You looked over to her, and noticed that while she was looking back, she was very distinctly not making eye contact, looking past you rather uncomfortably. You cast your eyes down, feeling a sort of difficult to place shame, like you'd interrupted somebody's fun. You weren't sure of what to say, so you watched as Wulf blew apart a pot with a snap of her fingers, much to Anny's delight. Minna flinched at the sound.

    After a few minutes, you noticed Minna's foot moving again, the hobnailed sole of her boot tapping arrhythmical against a rock, and you did your best to ignore it and not interrupt her.

    "Have I been doing a good job?" Minna asked, breaking the silence. Her foot was still tapping nervously.

    "Yeah. We had a rough first mission, but it was bad for all of us. And you really kept things us together and on-task when we got attacked. I'm glad we hired you." You said.

    Minna made a sort of noncommittal, frustrated noise and looked away. Her foot tapping sped up, and you noticed her starting to rock back and forth in her seat. In the distance, Wulf sent a pot tumbling across the ground with a summoned gale, and Arren tracked it with his rifle, scoring a perfect hit. Minna's movements were growing more rapid and exaggerated, with a frantic energy.

    "Minna, what's wrong?"

    "T-That is not what I meant." She said, stuttering out some of the words.

    "I... I'm sorry, I don't follow." You said. You studied Minna's face, but you found yourself having trouble reading her expressions. She looked, if anything, like she might be in pain. "Minna, are you okay? Talk to me."

    She bit her lip instead, looking down, clearly frustrated with something. Finally, she got some words together.

    "What should I be doing?" She asked.

    "... what do you mean?" You asked.

    "I would have something to do right now. A schedule. Orders. R-Responsibilities. I am not... used... to this." She said, haltingly. She sounded like she was taking great effort to choose each word.

    "Do you want those things?" You asked. After a pause, she shook her head. "What do you want?"

    "I don't know." She said.

    ---

    What About Minna
    [ ] Write in a response, and roll Get Real.

    Stress
    [ ] Add +1 to the Vice Track
    [ ] Add +2 to the Vice Track

    Remember, the more dice you roll for Vice, the more stress you might remove, but the more consequences you might take.​
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • open_sketchbook said:
    "Yeah, well, uh, watch yourself." You retorted weakly, then you stomped out and back to your friends.

    ---

    "... and then she was all like 'I'll be watching you' and I was like 'Then you better pay up, I charge for the view.'"
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    Isa is adorable.

    open_sketchbook said:
    After a few minutes, you noticed Minna's foot moving again, the hobnailed sole of her boot tapping arrhythmical against a rock, and you did your best to ignore it and not interrupt her.

    "Have I been doing a good job?" Minna asked, breaking the silence. Her foot was still tapping nervously.
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    So, thinking on this... one part of it is that she probably misses the structure and routine and order to things, sure. But I think the other part is that if you view yourself as being valuable because you're good at soldiering, or so on, how do you know if you're valuable during downtime? Minna hasn't had a time before where she stopped being a Soldier, and had to be something else in a civilian context, before this. (maybe).

    So if her self esteem and self image are bundled up in soldiering, she has no idea if she's doing things outside of that right or wrong. And when she asked, and we praised her for her combat stuff, that probably didn't help. She needs to know she's a good friend too, imo.
     
    NemoMarx said:
    So if her self esteem and self image are bundled up in soldiering, she has no idea if she's doing things outside of that right or wrong. And when she asked, and we praised her for her combat stuff, that probably didn't help. She needs to know she's a good friend too, imo.
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    I dunno if it'd be counterproductive, but maybe frame it as, like, being a good soldier requires good teamwork skills, and since her current squad isn't very regimented and organized and all that, then it's okay for her to just sort of not do anything productive with them, since that's good for teamwork and team cohesion? And that if she feels like she needs to do something later, then you can help her think of little things to keep busy and improving her skills that will challenge her but also let her engage in team-building activities on demand?
     
    I believe we have word of QM that Minna is something like autistic. All solutions should be viewed through that lens- for instance, hugging might just make her feel worse.
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    "You want gremlins? That's how you get gremlins." She said seriously. "Actually, anything we steal, we need to make double-sure doesn't have any fae passengers like that."
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    Gremlins aren't too bad if you know how to deal with them.
    Drop some oil on an incense coal
    Sacrifice some antifreeze
    Ask them to leave your stuff alone
    And go bug your enemies!

    [X] Add +1 to the Vice Track

    I do not trust the dice. Vice track means needing to trust the dice.
     
    Ooh, tough social situation. I'm tempted to try and make Minna more comfortable by formalizing her role and responsibilities in the group. If she misses having a schedule and spelled-out duties, maybe give them to her?

    But I'm worried doing that would encourage her to think of herself as nothing but a soldier, with Isa as her superior (instead of a friend).

    Hmmm. Maybe say she doesn't have to know what she wants right now? Grant her formal permission to take some alone time (if she wants) and offer to schedule regular 'debriefings' to provide regular structured feedback (and let her voice her needs)?
     
    I think the best we can do is give her options. Like, lay out two or three paths of behavior that would all be OK, and walk her through what she *could* be doing. If the issue is mainly that she's awesome on execution but has only ever had the one path laid out, then helping her with the skill set of 'defining options' might be best.
     
    Simon_Jester said:
    I believe we have word of QM that Minna is something like autistic. All solutions should be viewed through that lens- for instance, hugging might just make her feel worse.
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    This is true, though I do feel the need to point out that this is not a universal trait of autistic people. Some of them (myself included) really like hugs.
     
    random_npc said:
    correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't her philosophy all about wringing folks for all they are worth? why would they disapprove of someone negotiating intelligently?
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    Because she feels like she got cheated, and her worldview relies on faith that she is the one that wins negotiations when things are honest. if she lost, it must be somebody's fault

    for the most part i am avoiding leaning into the believers here being hypocrites about their system, but Frau Osswald has some other ideas going on about her self worth and abilities. ironically, most of her followers are much better not!Objectivists than she is, more willing to play the game, so to speak, but even then the cult of personality part is somewhat counter to the supposed beliefs they follow.
     
    open_sketchbook said:
    "... and then she was all like 'I'll be watching you' and I was like 'Then you better pay up, I charge for the view.'"
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    Ah, l'esprit d'escalier.

    That said, I'm really glad no one decided to start a revolution, because a cult of personality would have shot back.

    [ ] Write in a response, and roll Get Real.
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    No real idea what to do with this though. However, Trying to induct Minna into the Fisher religion like this seems wrong, kind of exploitative somehow.
     
    Minna is definetly autistic - I'd know, I played sensitivity reader for this chapter.
    So please keep that in mind while voting.

    Also, please keep in mind that Minna is currently quite overwhelmed by several things. It's sadly all-too-common that autistic people get pushed into things they don't really want in such states - because communication can be really hard (you can already see that here), saying no can be even harder, and so on.
    So please be gentle with her and actually take care of her overwhelmed emotional state, rather than looking for a quick fix pushed on her by Isa.
     
    actually, i want to address this a moment.

    whispers had thus far had two autistic characters, because there are a surprising number of people with autism in my life. one was Irma from the gun shop, the other is Minna.

    one of the things i understand can be frustrating is when portrayals of autistic people end up following into a narrow band of stereotypes, and i've done my best to try and avert that. while it's true there are some elements that are somewhat consistent in autistic presentation, i know it's frustrating that the vast majority of autistic portrayals are of nerdy men in technology portrayed as pitiable, as savants who can't take care of themselves, or as a way to make a child in fiction seem even more vulnerable.

    the main difference between how i wrote Irma and how I write Minna is that Minna masks a lot more. masking refers to techniques that autistic people use to blend in, because overt autistic traits can often draw negative attention or even be distressing to witness by allistic people. masking isn't nessesarily a good or bad thing, it's just an adaptive strategy.

    Isa doesn't really know what an autistic person is, really, so she doesn't know what to look for in any case. but Irma seemed immediately different to her, whereas Minna initially seemed to fall inside what she thought of as a typical range of fussy and aloof. Minna has had to learn a lot of adaptive strategies for her life. masking is one, note taking and scheduling is another. she has some sensory issues, but gunshots don't make her flinch anymore and she wears that full oxygen mask in the air because the face protection and polarized lenses help.

    adaptive behaviours only take you so far. i have chosen to present Minna's soldier move, Stiff Upper Lip, as partially representing her masking. she's stressed enough now that it is difficult for her to force herself to make eye contact or not stim around others. that's partially what's happening here: the stress of her first two missions, and then her frustrating inability to figure out her place in the group downtime, is very overwhelming for her. i'm clarifying that stuff here because there is nobody in the story who can properly articulate it right now, and because understanding is important.

    to be clear: i have been writing Minna with her being autistic in mind since her return to the story (in the initial job interview her own known traits were "soldier", "inexperienced" and "hot"). i hope it's clear that this isn't something i sprung into her characterization out of the blue.

    edit: i'm an insensitive fuck so i wanna make it clear that @Serafina has been a huge help with this and is 100% responsible for me not totally fucking this up.
     
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    [X] Just go for a walk
    -[X] Talk about something, preferably something Minna's interested in, and hopefully unrelated to the current stress.

    Yes, it's avoiding the actual problem at hand by allowing Minna something else to focus on. But I don't have a better solution, and it's better than pushing her into cult whose ramifications she certainly doesn't realize and may not desire.
     
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    [X] Just go for a walk
    -[X] Talk about something, preferably something Minna's interested in, and hopefully unrelated to the current stress.
     
    10ebbor10 said:
    No real idea what to do with this though. However, Trying to induct Minna into the Fisher religion like this seems wrong, kind of exploitative somehow.
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    That's why i'm taking two hits on the vice track. It's exploitive playing to issa's religious vice. I don't think it's a good choice, but ithink it's a human response to stress if your 'vice' is religion.

    I don't know what right choice to make, so why not make an entertaining wrong one?
     
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    All i want is more Deep Ones in my life.
    Minna is troubled, when we're in trouble we can always ask Deep Ones for (bad) advice, why should we not give Minna the same option.
     
    OK, trying to convert her pushily is or ought to be right out. She's vulnerable right now. But I'm not opposed to converting her as such, if it can be done.

    [X] Just go for a walk
    -[X] Talk about something, preferably something Minna's interested in, and hopefully unrelated to the current stress.
    -[X] Mention in passing, because of course you would, that when you're confused or distressed, you listen to the Deep Ones.
     
    Valmond said:
    All i want is more Deep Ones in my life.
    Minna is troubled, when we're in trouble we can always ask Deep Ones for (bad) advice, why should we not give Minna the same option.
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    It could be her personal hell.

    Minna has basically build her life around the strict rules of her home, and she still uses and relies upon those to an enormous extent, to the point where not having such a schedule causes significant emotional strain. This doesn't mean that she isn't capable of coming up with her own ideas or having independent thoughts. It just means that she appears to show a strong preference to having a predictable existence with concrete solutions for concrete problems.

    The Deep ones are not in the market of concrete solutions.

    Fundamentally, they're not quite capable of understanding the physical reality. They don't really understand the world, though they do try to understand humans. The problem with that is that if you come to them with a certain problem and expect a fixed solution, you get nonsense. Worse, if you try to explain the rules to them, they won't get it. To them, it's an outside concept problem.

    So, that means that giving Minna her own personal Deep One results in a constant voice in her mind(*) with which she has to try and communicate, but who simply isn't capable of understanding her world in the way she wants it to be understood. Fundamentally, it must be an incredibly frustrating thing, and you can't back away from it. You can't get rid of the Deep Ones.

    * Which incidentally is probably also a massive issue for a person from whom communication is an effort.
     
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    10ebbor10 said:
    Fundamentally, it must be an incredibly frustrating thing, and you can't back away from it. You can't get rid of the Deep Ones.
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    I actually considered that, and i felt that the suffering, bad decision and pathos
    would both be in character (we converted wulf) and be really entertaining to read.

    We may also want to covert the mechanic.
     
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    Yeah I actually agree with Ebbor here. Also, calling on the deep ones smacks of sidestepping a personal issue anyway, so it'd be narratively unsatisfying for me a bit?

    I think we're going to have to solve this with talking and understanding.

    [X] Just go for a walk
    -[X] Talk about something, preferably something Minna's interested in, and hopefully unrelated to the current stress.
    -[X] Ask if there's anything Minna used to do that was particularly comforting for her.

    [X] Add +1 to the Vice Track
     
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