WickedCadrach

Fifteen minutes? "Oh? Is that all you need, Ya?" Emily shot back, a sarcastic lilt to the words as she cut the comms. Scrubbing Scylla's scanners, she locked onto the drone. Damn it. How had she missed that? It was going to be a propaganda piece, one served up on a silver platter because she couldn't stay back and just take the fucking pictures. Leaning forward in the tentacle cocoon of her cockpit, Emily's hips rose, meeting the supporting tendrils hugging her beneath her clothes, allowing the black, wet finger of the one pulsing against her clit to coil into a firmer stroke that rippled over her and down across her warm opening, nerve endings firing as sensation blurred with simulation in their shared psyche. Her tongue licking her lips in focus, she let out a furious hiss through the vent slits in her throat and sank her head forward into the warm flesh of the mech's inner wall, allowing the neuro-conductive fluid to slide over her face and reaching tongue, down her throat as she stimulated the sensitive, bumpy flesh of Scylla's core. Without words, the pilot guided her mech in a skating zig-zag, evading the predatory kaiju as one of the tentacles angled for the drone, its tip flaring as wireless transmissions started the hack. "Alright, girl," Emily subvocalized into the humming warmth of Scylla's soft interior. "Light him up." The remaining white-sheathed tentacles form a coil that hums with latent energy, a blue beam materializing in the center barrel of the interlocking spiral of flesh and steel. With a ozone-scented burst of plasma and high frequency lasers, the shot tears for the pursuing kaiju—goading it on to stay on their heels. //Burglary 2 = (Roll -1, -1, 0, +1) + (Burglary 1) + (fate point for Silicon-hearted Mech Hacker +2)// //Shoot 2 = (Roll -1, -1, +1, +1) + (Shoot 2)//

I feel... so bad for Dylan. They cannot catch a break. Someone is going to pull a Carrie by the end of this, and up till now, I would have put money on it being Velvet. But if Dylan's luck doesn't turn around...

Robin gave back a grateful smile. "That's ok. Stay as long as you like. Once the sun is down, I'm closing up and... well..." Robin leaned back across the counter, returning the whisper. "If I'm honest, I'm kinda freaking out. Could you maybe, um, sort of..." She took a deep breath, a finger straying to the cross necklace, steadying herself with the reassuring talisman. "Could you help me choose something to wear tonight? I've never even tried on a bikini. And I don't know if that's really me, but I really want to go and...." Her eyes meeting Velvet's, Robin mouthed 'help'.

Beach town thrift store? Dozens of colorful shirts from festivals, restaurants, and local attractions (probably every version of Playland's merch T-shirt from the last two decades). Same with bucket hats. Beach kimonos, everything from tiger-stripe to slick black with gold kanji prints. Also, everything that retirees living in the area have cleaned out (there's no way Potter's Neck doesn't have a minimum of two retirement communities). Old-Testament-esque sundresses, zoot suits, and the odd pair of parachute pants. Those are what leap to my brain anyway.

Personally, if nobody else minds, then I don't. We're in the opening scene and still kinda learning the game. (Plus, you have a convenient opportunity to update when putting Velvet in the Character Repository thread.)

That is bad luck, sorry I didn't catch that comparing the sheets earlier On the plus-side, I still think Velvet can be manipulative like you've imagined her; it's just a little mechanically different to get us on the same page.

I just looked it up, and this was from the 1st Edition sheet. It looks like they got rid of Manipulate as a basic move. Now the idea is that Strings are how you tempt and try to entice NPCs to do what you want, and if you want Strings, you gotta Shut Someone Down or Turn Someone On (or do something unique to your Skin's moves). I think our MC's right that even if you're framing this like you're on his side and looking out for him, it's still putting him on guard and cutting at his ego and probably fits a Cold roll with Shut Someone Down better. (Thought with your stats, I believe you still pass, so yay!) Use the first page of this sheet. It's the current rules-set https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/reference-sheets-and-core-skins1.pdf

So, @WritesNaughtyStories has reminded me that I too need to be responsible today. Once he gets a chance to get Dylan's reaction and any last actions into the scene, I'm down to have Robin text Velvet for help. Robin would probably default to inviting Velvet to her apartment unless Velvet gave her a compelling reason to go elsewhere (like Velvet's home or the strip mall or something?)

No rush on my end. I know we have some seriously sparkling 'New RP Energy' going on, but I don't want anyone left behind.

Yes, please

Yessss... get him. I'm playing into my character, but as a player, I'm like 'someone fucking destroy Derek'. ~~ Also, if Velvet is leaving with Derek and his crew, Robin lets her go, but if she lingers, Robin is going to try to ask Velvet for advice on how to get ready for the party. Velvet is, like, the one cool girl that Robin knows even a little bit in this town, and it's extremely apparent how nervous Robin is about what to do, what to wear, if she needs to bring anything (seriously sheltered vibes).

As Dylan extended the money, Robin hurriedly cut them off. "No, no, that's ok. Really. He ended up paying and... and..." In the sliver of a moment between Dylan's glance to Selene and turning back to her, Robin took hold of Dylan's hand, wrapping her slender fingers around theirs to keep the money secure in their grip. There was an electric feeling in that touch, like a charge softer than static or like the prickling that rose in toes and fingers got when one came in from the cold. And without meaning to, her thumb shifted across Dylan's knuckle, ever so slighlty. Those dark eyes were looking at her. No, it was like they were looking past her, into her... like Dylan was gazing into her soul. They way they lingered below her eyes... hovering over her lips... Robin felt her stomach flutter and she let go of Dylan's cool hand as if she'd done something rude by touching them. "I appreciate you standing up for me," she said quietly. Gripping her elbow in a shy display, Robin seemed to shrink just a little, glancing to where Derek was departing and then back to Dylan, feeling her heart squeezed with the tension between them as she did. "Listen, I know Derek can be a bit... much..." she said diplomatically. "But I think maybe that would change if people got to know you?" Raising one shoulder in a light shrug, Robin sighed and pulled at her braid, trying to sort out some of the frayed hairs. "This party could be a good chance... for both of us. I... I think I'm going to go." As she said it, Robin looked into Dylan's gaze once more, her expression silently adding: I think you should go too. Knowing she won't have much time between the park closing and Derek's party, Robin breaks away from Dylan to look after Velvet. She tries to get the other girl's attention, but if she's already leaving with Derek and his crew, Robin won't leave the stand to chase after her.

I foresee a responsible night where only good decisions are made by everyone.

Robin's already flushed face turns a deeper shade as Derek leans close and puts the money for the drinks down. Her eyes widen and her hand reflexively comes up to brush the hair from her face and neck while she looked down. Derek Evans was asking her to a college party. In the space of Derek's wink, Robin's previous anxiety had somehow been swapped out for a new variety—the sort that tells you its a trap, that you don't really belong and even hoping that you could is laughable. Back home—before moving to Potter's Neck—she'd gone to 'parties'. Well... she'd gone to her church youth group's lock-ins... potlucks with all the parents on one side and the youth group girls and boys split into their own tables to gossip about each other. But her dad had never let her go to a 'party' party... one with no parents... with girls and boys her own age who didn't go to her church and who her parents didn't know. It was an alluring world, taboo and mysterious, that Robin had only glimpses of, caught from the TV shows her mother didn't know she watched: a world that frightened her as much as it intrigued her. "Y-yeah. The party. Cool. Cool cool," she said, her throat closing up for a moment and nearly making her choke as she stammered the reply out. "Will there be drinking?" she asked meekly, quickly waving a hand hurriedly adding, "Not that it matters. I don't care, I just, my mom has this... stupid rule... and I..." Robin could see feel the eyes on her before she saw them, and gave a nervous smile as she said, "Never mind," and listened to Derek's hype-man extolling the hedonistic virtues of the promised party. The mention of borrowing one of Charlotte's swimsuits made Robin's chest tight for a moment. She still didn't know if her cousin had come home yet or was still missing, not to mention she was taller and Charlotte's swimsuits—that already looked small on her—would look scandalously revealing on Robin. Then again, Selene seemed like she might show up... maybe Charlotte would too? And from the way Velvet was standing between the popular girls, Robin thought she'd probably be there... it looked like everyone would. But at that thought, Robin saw Dylan again, and her heart fell. She didn't know why she should feel guilty for something Derek had done... But she did now. And it was clear Dylan wasn't getting an invitation. Unless... was she wrong about that too? Derek couldn't be all bad, right? He had covered the drinks and stopped fighting when she asked. He probably was just being playful and she was overreacting... Her mother always said that 'boys will be boys'. That must be what that was, right? "Um, yeah, I'll–I'll see if I can make it," she said to Derek—but her eyes were on Dylan.

Emily's lips part in a soft gasp as the slick tendril between her legs adds a delicious intensity to the coils already wrapping over her. As the kaiju's interruption snaps them out of the tender moment, Emily growls in frustration. "Shit!" she snaps out, assisting Scylla with the evasive maneuver, tentacles spiraling them into a arc below the passing beast. "Wait... Where is it...?" Emily's eyes shoot wide, the information coming together. The Hive Habitation is undefended. Civilian convoys just pulled in. It would be a massacre. Her mind flashes with memories, a fifteen-year-old version of herself, too numb to really feel the horror that her body reacted to. It felt like she was having a seizure, her limbs trembling as her listless mind looked down at them, seeing herself covered in her family's blood, seeing the flames and the shadow of the kaiju above her... Emily blinked, shaking her head to force the memory away. Her arms and legs straining in the cockpit's web of flesh, Emily rounds Scylla toward the surface of the water. Tentacles wheeling and driving them skyward in a hurry, Emily goads Scylla into breaching the surface like a dolphin, taking the moment in the air to send a swift transmission. "Patches to Base. Contact. Repeat. Kaiju contact. We have undefended civies on location. Requesting immediate evac support. No Hive forces detected on site. Repeat. Requesting immediate evacuation support." As Scylla hits the water again, Emily leans up to the sensitive node above her head once more. "Looks like we're running interference for a bit," she whispered into the sensitive bud, the tip of her tongue extending to give it a light, playful lick. "Let's dance with him, girl." Emily urges Scylla on a tangent away from the habitation unit, but as she does, she twists one clawed hand up a blue laser bubbling the seawater as it sweeps in a line aimed at the enormous kaiju's flank. It might be suicide to directly engage, but if she could piss it off a little, maybe she could get it to chase them instead of going after the habitation block. //Emily rolls Provoke and gets (Provoke +3) + (Roll -1, -1, 0, +1) = 2 Let me know if she needs to roll anything else.//

Robin started in surprise. She hadn't known Dylan for long, but she'd never seen him this... animated before—she hadn't even realized he was looking this way, as Derek stole her attention the moment Dylan had raised his arm in a friendly wave. The righteous anger in Dylan's softer voice for the way Derek plundered the concession stand and the way Dylan rushed up to the larger boy to call him out on it—all of this sudden commotion made Robin's heart race. Confrontation. Outside her stand, the two stared each other down like stags in the forest about to tangle horns, and Robin's stomach folded in half as the tension rose. A few of the other college kids, following some feral instinct, took a step back to form a half-circle around Dylan and their king. Derek making the first move and pulling Dylan with a playful grab, may as well have been a spoken reminder, 'hey, I can break you. You really want to do this?' as far as Robin was concerned. "It's fine!" Robin blurted out, maybe a bit panicked in her tone. Forcing a wobbly smile on her lips, she reached under the counter and pulled out her purse, reaching for a few stray dollars and waving them like a white flag. "I-It's ok. Derek." Her eyes wide and pleading, Robin leaned forward on the counter, the late afternoon sun dappling over her skin where the long, black-silk strands of her hair clung to her neck. The sweat of working in the summer heat made her top cling her and the sudden shift in position slid the collar of her 'too-big' work shirt to reveal the pale curve of one slender shoulder. "Please, don't fight," Robin whispered to Derek, her voice inaudible in the amusement park din, but the look and small motions of her lips carrying the intent while she tried to keep her eyes from turning toward Dylan.

I think the idea of Velvet being in the orbits of a bunch of cliques without being truly 'in' with any of them is a cool starting place. If Velvet knows little tidbits on ppl they'd have to be really little though (like Selene's honey) because mechanically, big influential knowledge would be a String. I might offer that Velvet has noticed Robin wears the same little silver cross necklace every day.

Not Guilty. Al dente, please! The next person loves mushrooms.

"One corndog with mustard," Robin said, her voice lilting with a tired but pleasant melody to it. And expecting Selene's next question, she apologetically added, "and we still don't have any honey. I've asked my aunt Mari about it, though, so I'll let you know if we get some." As she pulled the spigot to fill the small girl's free water cup, Robin's smile faltered a bit. With her other hand, she rubbed the back of her neck with a damp rag wrapped around an ice cube, sighing into the momentary relief from the oppressive heat before turning back to the underclassman. "You're sure you haven't seen Charlotte around? I know she runs off like this sometimes, but it's been almost a full day..." Robin looked out into the late afternoon sun as if she might see Charlotte leaning against the overflowing trash can, between the college football players and the giggling upper-classmen girls. Her cousin was not there though, but following those girls' pointing fingers, she saw Dylan. He was staring into the distance the way he so often did, and she thought she could see a depth in those eyes. It was like he was looking into some invisible world that only he could see. Robin's heart fluttered, and she unconsciously bit at her lower lip, tugging the pink flesh ever so gently as she tried to imagine what those dark eyes saw. "Oh, shoot!" The water cup had overflowed onto her fingers, and she quickly grabbed a dry rag, stopping the spigot and dumping a little of the excess down the drain as she blushed in embarrassment and handed the cup to Selene. She was about to apologize on reflex when Derek crashed into the booth, shooting off his fake words of thanks for 'covering him' while he began to pass out drinks. "Oh, sure... no problem," Robin replied, but her gaze was caught on the drinks he was piling up. "Um, Derek, I can–I can get your friends some water cups if you like? Or are you...?" she stopped shy of outright asking if he was paying for them as he glanced her way, her stomach managing to tie itself in knots around the butterflies that rose from looking into that handsome smile. "Never mind," she said meekly... It was only a few drinks after all.

Cool I have an idea, but I'll try to be quick (I don't want people to feel like they have to 'take turns' necessarily. We can always edit to tweak stuff if people's replies come right on top of each other).

Ok, so I want to make sure I understand the game flow right. @roll to seduce framed our first scene (love it btw), and put some framing questions in green text. We're answering those framing questions in this discussion thread, right? But then are we waiting for another post from our MC? or are we good to start writing into the scene? (I just don't want to jump the gun if I misunderstood) ~~ Selene was on her way home, but stopped to visit Robin and get her daily snack. They are were chatting. What were they chatting about? @Chiyako What if Robin is a bit anxious and asking Selene if they've seen Charlotte? Maybe Charlotte got angry and left the apartment yesterday, but she didn't come home. She's done it before, so while Robin and her aunt are worried, they're hoping she just crashed on a friend's couch or went to smoke weed on a swing set somewhere.

you're good. The advantage of play by post is that it's not happening in real-time. That's tough. There are some things I'm like that on. I need to set phone alarms and post-it notes or I will just literally never do them. I will also procrastinate on stuff to the point where I'm staring at my calendar and saying insane things like: "If I write 10k words a day for the next four days I can finish without needing to ask for 'a couple extra days'."

I don't think anyone has Strings on NPC (or vice versa) If I've tracked correctly... all backstory stuff is about done. Only a bit of clarification on string between Hollow and Infernal, and deciding if Velvet's last two strings are going to Mr. Ascars. Witch - Selene: Symp Token 1 : Velvet's Notebook Symp Token 2: Dylan's Picture String given to Robin - caught snooping in Robin's younger cousin's things Hollow - Dylan: Gained String on Selene - watched her walking on the shore at night, 2x String given to Robin - Robin has seen they live alone in the abandoned house Infernal - Velvet: Gained String on Dylan - (Not really elaborated yet? Dylan thinks they can help/save Velvet somehow) String given to Robin - Robin helped buy time for Velvet to be independent and escape Mr. Ascars... if only for a little. 2x Strings unassigned - might be given to Mr. Ascars Mortal - Robin: Gained String on Dylan - She watches, awkwardly obsessing over how they live. 3x Strings given to Dylan - She s captivated by them, obsessing over their mysterious allure and believing they are kindred, wounded souls Our NPCs so far are... Aunt Mari - Robin's aunt, manager of concession stand, owner of apartment Robin lives in. Robin's Mother - lives in crowded southside apartment with Robin, Aunt Mari (her sister), and cousin Charlotte. Charlotte - Robin's younger cousin, punk, hates that Robin and her mom moved in. Classmate of Selene. Mr. Ascars - Velvet's dark patron, mysterious older man-about-town Ellie / Elisa - tall, athletic basketball player with a crush on Dylan. Thinks Dylan is shy enough to be a loyal/compliant boyfriend. Not sure if Dylan is guy or girl and doesn't approach them due to internal gay panic? Selene's father - Spoils Selene, has custody, says they are separated because mother accuses him of things he didn't do. Selene's mother - separated, accused Selene's father of 'acting inappropriately' and it was severe enough to cause separation, though Selene is kept in the dark on the details. Danny - a younger high school boy who went on a date with Velvet and went missing shortly thereafter. Ongoing missing-person's case. Derek Evans - Athletic and tall, MVP varsity college football. Owns a car. Thinks he's above rules and respect for others. Works the concession stand and steals from the till, but Robin doesn't turn him in because she desperately wants a friend and is harboring a small crush on him.

That's a vibe that makes a lot of sense to me. Cool. Yes to everything you said; let's do it.

I can see how some word on 'scenes' might help. I'm open to it. ~~~ It seems just about all of the backstory Strings are assigned. @WritesNaughtyStories are you still up for Dylan being designated Robin's Lover? From what we've established, it doesn't seem like they would have a relationship at this point, but I can picture a one-sided obsession developing. What I'm imagining (and feel free to alter) we might say that Dylan's abandoned house is on the route Robin walks from work at the concession stand to her home in the southside apartments. The first time she saw Dylan, Robin's cousin Charlotte might have told her something like, "Oh, that's Dylan. He's weird." And then during a chance encounter on her walk, Robin spoke with them, receiving the lie about their parents being in Greece. Every time she walks home, she looks for them, magnetically drawn to their eyes—those mysterious deep eyes... like dark wells reflecting starlight from the very bottom (at least, as she sees them). And when she sees them coming and going from the abandoned house, she begins to build a tragic narrative in her mind, growing obsessed with this imagined version of Dylan who understands her pain just like she understands his (she doesn't) and who would be so good to her if they were together. If you're good with that, then Dylan gets 3 Strings on Robin, and Robin get's 1 on Dylan (I think I would frame it as her watching him so intently, when she can, that she's caught some of his idiosyncrasies—like carrying that Marlboro box but not knowing what's in it or catching that he goes to the pier, but not why) The quote from the core book is: "You gain a point of experience whenever you fail a roll (a result of 6 or lower), as failure and adversity nudge your character toward growth."