You are Tom Gainer and you only slightly regret running into that burning building. Or so you muse as you remove the oxygen mask from your face. Your Super Union supervisor and date for tomorrow, Tiffany Cooke (aka Cicada Killer), is finishing up a conversation with local authorities. Most likely giving a statement on what they were doing and giving general details on your exploits up to their arrival. Slowly, you are able to breathe deeper without a wheezing sound.
"That was real stupid, you know." Cicada Killer chastised you as she sits down next to you. "You saved quite a few lives, but you aren't invincible. That's not in your power set." You look at her and notice significant worry in her eyes. "Crimson Beach has a habit of chewing through Capes. I've told you as much! But you go in without a second thought for your own safety and... and leave me behind to call in the guys who are TRAINED to jump into the fire!" That worry seems to be working into something a bit more extreme, but the blonde takes a deep breath and calms herself back down. "You're really suited to being a Cape, you know that? No hesitation running into a burning building and evacuate it and even put out the source of the fire before emergency crews can even arrive." She gives you an awkward pat on the shoulder. "Good job, Tom."
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug! >"I just did what anyone would do. I'm no more a hero than anyone else with a conscience." >"OhgodwhydidIdothatthatwassostupidIcouldhavedied!" >"I just hope we didn't lose our lead on Melissa McNeil. That fire was WAY too convenient." >Other/Write In!
---------- Welcome back, folks! Sorry for being away so long, but I was getting real busy with art school. With Midterms coming up already, I've kind of been scrambling.
>>"I just did what anyone would do. I'm no more a hero than anyone else with a conscience."
Glad to see you're back
Elijah Kelly
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug! >This meme
Asher Bennett
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug!
Jordan Jenkins
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug!
Colton Bell
Don't let the aborted fetus of the boards die.
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug!
Nolan Thomas
>"I just did what anyone would do. I'm no more a hero than anyone else with a conscience."
Jacob Phillips
>Screw this shoulder pat business, go for a hug!
They're not helpful. That board must die.
Julian Myers
Well okay then! I appreciate those informing of the changes! But since it doesn't seem like people want me to switch, I'll keep it here.
-------------- Anyway, the consensus seems to be to go for the hug!
Writing!
Nathaniel Baker
Looking at it from the outside, it looks so much worse than you remember, but that's quickly delegated to the back burner of your brain. Even without using your sound power, you can almost hear Tiffany's heart beating quickly as her hand clasps your shoulder. You barely have to do anything as your attempt to pull her into a hug is not even resisted.
"Thanks." You breathe out as your arms squeeze around her middle. She hugs back tightly, like she is afraid you'll disappear if she doesn't hold onto you. The moment seems to last forever before she breaks out of your hold. She's blushing slightly.
"Well... anyway we need to get back to work." The girl rolls onto her feet before offering you a hand up. You gladly accept and hand the oxygen mask back to the paramedic standing awkwardly behind you. "Since you managed to put out the fire before anything possible evidence could be damaged any more, there is still a chance that we'll have a clue on the whereabouts of the McNeil girl.
The two of you enter the building again and climb the stairs. The door is open as firefighters are retrieving their equipment. There are four areas of McNeil's apartment: The bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living area. Where will you start?
>Bedroom >Kitchen >Bathroom >Living Area
James Lewis
>>Living Area
Chase Young
>>Kitchen
Benjamin Price
>>Living Area
Evan Roberts
>>Living Area
Kayden Bailey
>>Living Area It's usually the first thing people see when they enter.
Speaking of, OP should probably archive to avoid misarchival.
Josiah Jones
"Let's start with the den." You pipe up first. Its the first area you enter and it seems to have suffered the least amount of smoke damage outside of the bathroom. "Its the main room for the apartment, so we can spread out from here." Tiffany nods and starts at the far corner by the couch.
That leaves you to search by the television and the coffee table. The table has three drawers built into the design, it seems. The entertainment set that holds the television is bare outside of the large flat screen and the cable box. From a glance you surmise that she must not have been a big TV buff.
There is also a lazyboy chair and foot rest sitting next to the table. On its armrest is a pouch containing remotes. There's not much you think you can get out of this one, but hey you never know what could fall under the seat.
>Search the entertainment set. You never know what could be hiding there. >Search the drawers of the coffee table. >Check under the seat of the chair.
Lincoln Sanchez
>>Check under the seat of the chair. Hell, we can get a few cents richer.
Ayden Garcia
We've only just started. Seems a bit early to archive in my opinion.
Evan Kelly
>Check under the seat of the chair.
At some point we need to learn how to click our tongue for sonar.
Xavier Thomas
>Check under the seat of the chair.
Jaxon Martinez
>>Check under the seat of the chair.
Landon Brooks
Miss archivers mate
Brody Ramirez
Well, I'm just saying, if people were getting upset about *that*, then they may misarchive this thread.
>Check under the seat of the chair.
Noah Lee
>>Check under the seat of the chair. With how spiteful some people are you'd best archive it before someone fucks it up.
Josiah Butler
Digging under the chair for spare change... and hopefully a clue!
Writing!
---- Lets stay off that topic for now since it only brings chaos.
But I'll archive in a bit anyway.
John Barnes
>inb4 we pocket a dollar bill.
Jonathan Smith
You decide to start with the chair. It will probably prove the be the easiest thing to full check since there aren't very many places for things to hide. First comes the remote pouch. There are three remotes and a crumpled up receipt for Chinese takeout in it, but nothing of significant notice.
You move on to the seat itself. You shove your hands into the sides and feel around for anything that isn't a part of the chair's mechanisms. You feel the metal crossbeams and the spring for the chair's built in foot rest. You get another receipt for Chinese takeout. You decide to take a little closer of a look. Yung Sim's Mongolian Express. You dismiss it as just part of the college diet.
Next you put the chair on its side to check on what has managed to fall under the chair. There's quite a lot of dust. You imagine that the chair hadn't been moved from that spot since it was placed there. You take a knee and investigate the objects in the dust.
>roll a d100 for items >I will be taking the first 4 rolls as the contents.
Jaxon Jackson
Rolled 40 (1d100)
Ian Cooper
Rolled 90 (1d100)
Carson Jenkins
Rolled 52 (1d100)
Robert Hill
Rolled 89 (1d100)
Rev up that 1!
Oliver Ramirez
Rolled 82 (1d100)
Save restaraunt recipe, might be good food
Grayson Carter
Rolled 18 (1d100)
Andrew King
And there's our 4!
Writing discoveries!
Josiah Perez
Did we find something valuable?
Juan Baker
In the dust you find a total of $2.13 in loose change, another receipt for Yung Sim, a used phone card, and a used lottery ticket. Unfortunately its not a winning ticket. You take the change since, hey, its change. Other than that, the chair seems to be a bust. You call over to Tiffany, who seems to be doing a similar check on the sofa. She says she found a twenty, a hand full of pennies, a guitar pick, another lottery ticket and more receipts for Yung Sim. You think Ms McNiel has a favorite place to order from.
But other than that, you don't have much to go on from those two locations.
>Check the coffee table. >Check the TV/Entertainment set. >Change rooms and let Tiffany finish up here. >Other?
Lincoln Hernandez
>Check the TV/Entertainment set.
Jaxon Reed
>>Check the coffee table.
Christopher Smith
>>Check the coffee table.
Blake Thompson
>Check the coffee table.
Isaac Ortiz
Checking the table!
Writing!
Jason Thomas
You turn your attention from the chair to the adjacent coffee table. The applewood piece of furniture has three drawers build into its side. You decide that you will check them from right to left. The first drawer pulls open quite easily. Inside you find a small stack of Cosmo magazines and a small bag. On further investigation, the bag contains beauty products and other feminine accessories. You place it on top of the table and continue your search by opening the second drawer. You have to put a bit more effort behind it as it is much heavier than the previous drawer. There are a whole lot more magazines than the first one. Not all of them are Cosmopolitan, but they are all beauty and fashion magazines aimed at women. Not much to it.
The third drawer presents a much more interesting conundrum. You cannot open it. You don't know if it is locked or simply jammed.
>Force it open with brute strength. d100 >Use your sound powers to vibrate it loose. d100+10 >Ask for help from Cicada Killer. She has enhanced strength, after all. >Forget it. Let's check the TV set. >Other.
Ryder King
>>Ask for help from Cicada Killer. She has enhanced strength, after all.
Aaron Young
>not checking the time-stamps on the receipts to see if it's a regular habit you can catch her in. It's like none of you have ever stalked a girl before.
Levi Richardson
Curses! Check the magazines too! See when they started, there is a pattern here!
Austin Powell
Rolled 53 + 10 (1d100 + 10)
>Use your sound powers to vibrate it loose. d100+10
Cameron Lee
>>Use your sound powers to vibrate it loose. d100+10 Less brute force, more finesse.
Julian Nelson
Rolled 1 + 10 (1d100 + 10)
Oops.
Colton Wood
Well, you tried.
John Martinez
>Ask for help from Cicada Killer. She has enhanced strength, after all.
James Garcia
Right now its a tie. A final gambit might save Tom from embarrassment with his sound powers. OR you can call on CK for help.
Vote will be active for another few minutes for a tie breaker.
Blake Smith
Rolled 16 + 10 (1d100 + 10)
Redemption roll!
Isaac Smith
Rolled 40 + 10 (1d100 + 10)
>>Use your sound powers to vibrate it loose. d100+10
Let's try to use brute force second.
Nicholas Ramirez
Hey Cicada. I need your help this drawer won't open. My noodle arms aren't cutting it.
Evan Turner
We are immune from sound crit fail thrice correct?
Connor Long
Indeed you are.
Going for sound powers. Writing!
Samuel Garcia
>We are immune from sound crit fail thrice correct? >thrice That sounds a bit high. I mean honestly how many times do you think we can roll 1 on a d100 in one thread? I'd say knock it down to 1.
Jaxson Lee
Considering we'd kill everything in at least a mile radius, I don't think it's that ridiculous.
Levi Jackson
Failure has consequences.
Charles Anderson
Yes, but mass genocide should take some working up to.
Evan Foster
Trust me when I say that one roll shouldn't decide if you fuck up a city, I made that mistake at one point.
Oliver Thomas
You don't feel like to you could just yank this thing out with your noodle arms and you don't think you want to damage your cool image in front of Tiffany by asking for help now. Instead, you decide to simply find the drawers frequency and vibrate it out. You tap on it to gauge its properties before snapping your fingers. An annoying high-pitched whine fills the general area as you struggle to find the correct tone to affect the wooden table.
"That the hell is that noise?" Tiffany asks in an annoyed voice. "Oh. You're doing your thing." She answers herself flatly before returning to her search of the room. After about a minute, you find it. The drawer vibrates violently and after another moment of threatening to break the table, the drawer pops open a crack. You grab it and are able to pull it the rest of the way without your power, though it does require much more strength than the other two. You grunt from the effort.
"You know you could have just asked for help." Your partner calls out, in a half-hearted lecture. "There's not shame in it."
"Yeah, but then there's no challenge." You shoot back in a joking manner. She shrugs and goes back to searching once more.
You pull the drawer open and examine its contents.
>roll d100 for discoveries. First 3 will decide what you find.
Jason Reed
One save from critfails is fine. Three isn't even a safety net anymore; you're not ever on the rope at that point.
Luis Rogers
Rolled 19 (1d100)
Set sail for fail
Cooper Miller
Rolled 74 (1d100)
Charles Torres
I agree that 3 is probably a bit too high. I might change how crits work. Maybe going for a Confirm/Save system.
Juan Campbell
Rolled 78 (1d100)
Say what you will, but putting that much consequence on a single roll is a poor idea from a QM's perspective.
Jacob Fisher
Rolled 22 (1d100)
Brayden Sanchez
What treasures have we uncovered?
Lets find out! Writing!
Adam Cooper
Then weaken the power. You want your cake and to eat it too. If you don't want critfails having horrendous catastrophic consequences, then don't have horrific consequential levels of power.
Kayden Thomas
I'm not saying that the three saves is a very good idea, I'm saying I prefer it to the alternative. But this isn't my choice to make so I'm going to take off my trip and let this conversation go because I realize that I didn't make my point very clear.
Ryan Barnes
How about we just have an escalating sense of critfails. We just had a bad noise going. well, now our crit range went from 1 to 95
just offhand idea
Jacob Mitchell
Inside the last drawer are more magazines. You instantly recognize one as 6 months old. Around the time you decided to become a hermit while you learned to use your power. The others, after light investigation, are even older. Also inside the drawer is an old convenience store cell phone. Probably what that pay card went into. And lastly, and what probably made the drawer stuck, is a large beauty kit. This thing is monstrous! You think Melissa must do her own make up for shoots because this thing has to be a professional's kit. The top is scuffed up something fierce, but that is probably from you forcing the drawer open.
All in all, it says something about Ms. McNeil's fixation with her appearance.
>There's still the entertainment set. Check that. >Go to another room (Kitchen, Bathroom, Bedroom) >Other?
Nathaniel Collins
>>There's still the entertainment set. Check that.
John Cook
>>There's still the entertainment set. Check that.
Angel Martin
>>There's still the entertainment set. Check that. CK, not to seem like a type of stereo, but you have any idea about this make-up kit? Seems high end but do you think it fits for McNeil? Pricewise or whatever.
Kevin Brown
Check the phone log, see if she had any connection to anyone we know about. See if there are any texts saved
Brayden Diaz
Time to check the entertainment set. I'll be nice and also add in the question to CK as well.
Carter Jackson
Calling that she's a shapeshifter.
Nicholas Peterson
Maybe. Or her powers deformed her in a hideable way but it all went askew in a big way.
Jackson Lopez
You decide there really isn't anything you can do with the makeup kit, so you move to examine the tv and the setup it is on. But before that, you think someone of the female persuasion might have a better grasp on the value of the makeup kit.
"Hey, Cicada Killer. Do you know anything about this kind of kit?" Tiffany looks up from behind the couch. "I'm not really a make up person, but I'll give it a check." Its not much, but its something. Now back to the last bit of interesting stuff in the room.
Well, interesting might not be the word for it. For the most part it looks barren. The flat screen itself looks like an older model. The cable box looks like its not even plugged in. Those are the only two pieces you can find. You have a feeling in your gut that you should still check the shelves carefully.
>roll d100. This time you have a goal number. Hit it or go above it and you win the prize! Don't and you'll have other chances to learn this information elsewhere.
Ethan Barnes
Rolled 79 (1d100)
Tyler Rogers
Rolled 76 (1d100)
Here comes the snow.
Logan Morales
Rolled 21 (1d100)
Rolling for unknown number.
Sebastian Rivera
Rolled 74 (1d100)
Jaxson Walker
Rolled 81 (1d100)
Landon White
Winner!
Writing your prize!
Luis Garcia
You feel around the back of the set, seeing if there might be something more to this set than appearances. You reach around behind the television itself and find something a bit odd:
Yung Sim's Mongolian Express.
Well, really just another receipt for one. Its all balled up like they were aiming for the nearby waste bin, but from the looks of it, they aren't a good shot. You grumble a little at how messy this lady is and start to toss it away properly, but something on the back of the receipt catches your eye. Its an address.
You bring this up to Tiffany as she finishes her, apparently fruitless, investigation of the makeup kit. You hand her the piece of crumpled paper and and explain where you found it.
The squints at it for a second before turning it over and reading the receipt itself.
"The address is for some place in the Husk. Normally I'd dismiss it as being older than the incident that made it, but the time stamp on the receipt is rather recent. As in, around the time the disappearances started."
She gives you a look of both excitement and grave seriousness.
"I think you've found our kidnapper."
>HELL YEAH! Celebratory high-five! >Keep calm and cool. "Let's check out this address. It might be where our abductees are being kept." >Other!
Anthony Howard
>>Keep calm and cool. "Let's check out this address. It might be where our abductees are being kept."
Ryan Stewart
>>Keep calm and cool. "Let's check out this address. It might be where our abductees are being kept."
Caleb Hernandez
>>Keep calm and cool. "Let's check out this address. It might be where our abductees are being kept."
Josiah Wood
>Keep calm and cool. "Let's check out this address. It might be where our abductees are being kept."
Jeremiah Morris
Writing!
Jace Hernandez
You keep your excitement of solving your first mystery as a Cape in check and coolly suggest to Tiffany that the two of you should scope out the address. After all, there is a chance that might be where your missing guys are being kept. Cicada Killer agrees with you and you both exit the apartment and let the emergency crews and police do their job as well.
Like before, Tiffany holds onto you as you fly towards what is almost unanimously voted the creepiest part of town. The Husk looms out in the distance like an ugly scar. Something in the back of your mind is hesitant to go there, but you decide not to listen to it. If there's a chance you and Tiffany can save these people, then you have to go!
The trip will be a long one as evening starts to fall. There is time to ask Cicada Killer some questions or you could make some precursory strategies in case things turn violent with your suspected kidnapper.
>Ask Tiffany questions (Write in what you want to know) >Form a potential plan of attack.
Grayson Hall
>Ask Tiffany questions (Write in what you want to know) She got really emotional during the fire aftermath. Did she lose a friend like that? >Form a potential plan of attack.
