#chromatic transference

[sparkpluqs]

some beebs art :) going to be playing her session this friday!

[sparkpluqs]

Was listening to some music, thinking about the recent events in our campaign.

[Like Caleb slipping into a coma] and [Sparks getting a hold of documents detailing Caleb's backstory.]

[sparkpluqs]

Long story short, Adolfo died so Percival and Bob would be able to continue forward to save Jonesy. Adolfo gave himself up and completely lost his mind (and body) to a force outside of our control.

Short story long, however...

Jonesy Babbitt (Subject 04, "The Dreamer" from the Tannhauser project, Sparks's chosen younger brother) began working at a virtual reality net-den on station called Avalon.

It was fantasy-based, like an MMO. People could connect and escape into a beautiful world that they'd never be able to experience otherwise. Avalon was likely the only time most people living on Ortega would ever see a blue sky. Less than 1% of people ever travel through space, after all. People are born on the station and die on the station. Jonesy was Avalon's artist, he was in charge of modeling different environments and such. In reality, Jonesy was using the psychic abilities he got after undergoing dissociative warp tests, and projecting illusions to help complete the world. If he (or others) could imagine it, he could project it. He was helping others experience things they never would have been able to before. He started a group, the Black Toga Guild. He made friends. They knew him as King Babbitt.

While working on Avalon, Jonesy noticed glitches. There was a remote player (someone who was not coming into the net-den but playing from somewhere else), who was experiencing bad spawn locations, and their model would not render properly. Just a low-poly, translucent pink of what could be a person. Jonesy got to know the player. She went by Anzu. Spoke with her, laughed with her, developed a relationship with her. Soon, other people in Jonesy's guild (people who also interacted with Anzu), went missing, trying to find Anzu.

Eventually, Jonesy went too, arriving in a slickdev office somewhere in the Wattcolmbe Apartments district.

Enkidu Cybernetics (a prosthetics and technology company completely separate from Magatsu-Ward) had sent Adolfo there a few years ago, with the intent to find and retrieve stolen property, and "take care of" a certain former employee.

Sparks, Percival, and Bob went to check it out first; along with an Android provided by Enkidu, as Adolfo was somewhere else trying to settle a debt we had with Enkidu (another long story to touch on).

Bob got stuck within a "demo" simulation, forgetting her past life. She often saw flashes of a young, gaunt man with sunken features and messy hair in reflections, flashing across screens, or appearing in projections. Bob knew this to be Jonesy, but the persona she took on within the demo couldn't recognize him.

Sparks was also attacked by the Augmented Man within the building (who was, if I had to guess, returning to Wattcolmbe under Anzu's influence, unable to fight back her influence much longer). Sparks had her head smashed in, skull fractured. Percival escaped with Sparks, leaving Bob behind and making sure Sparks got immediate medical attention. But in doing so, Percival had to come clean about his employment working under Magatsu-Ward.

Percival has been reporting back to the company with information and updates on our whereabouts and with information about the test subjects ever since we've met him. He was keeping tabs on us under the promise to eventually return the subjects back to the company. He regrets his decisions, and wants to make it right. Sparks made him promise to go back and save her brother.

An extraction team provided by Enkidu (which consisted of Percival, Adolfo, and two of Enkidu's marines) returned to the slickdev office with the intent to retrieve Anzu, and rescue the 5 people stuck within the demo simulation; three missing players from Avalon, Bob, and Jonesy. Bob was released, and one of the Avalon players, Anchal, made it out. The other two missing Avalon players (named Zepp and O'Hara) died within their slickbeds, unable to be saved. The two marines provided by Enkidu were also killed in the gunfight.

Finally making it into the AI-Core room, Adolfo, Percival, Bob, and Anchal finally got a good look at Anzu. She was an amalgamation of every person that helped create her. All 24 developers were within the core room, their corpses strung up by wires and tubes like a gruesome chandelier or branches on a ginormous tree, all connected to the AI.

Around the crew, the room changed.

It turned into a huge stone tower with a spiral staircase that traveled up. Beneath us, a glass floor, reflecting the AI Core as it once was. And forming within, a roiling black storm with red lightning striking.

As the four of us climb the tower, the storm followed steadily, moving without resistance, just out of reach.

We all experienced memories, memories that brought us here.

Bob remembered the mistakes she made when she was younger that led to the death of her wife. Anchal remembered interacting with Anzu and promising to come visit (it's what friends do, after all). Adolfo remembered his first deployment on Hecate, and how he killed the man who tortured him throughout his training. And Percival remembered the hit he took out on an Android on Jovos, an Android that looked suspiciously like his deceased sister.

Each time we woke from our memories (our bodies climbed the stairwell, but our minds took us elsewhere), the storm licked at our ankles and our sanity deteriorated along with it.

Adolfo took it the worst. He was barely holding on to his humanity.

When we finally made it to the top, the "king's burial chambers", where Jonesy was, in a slickbed carved from marble...

Adolfo stayed back. He didn't run. He faced the storm, with his flamethrower.

It was like witnessing the birth of a star.

The storm took him, and there was flame, gas, and lightning. A searing inferno that Adolfo once was.

He bought Percival, Bob, and Anchal more time to reach Jonesy.

Jonesy knew Anzu wasn't a person. Anzu didn't dream. He knew she wanted to manipulate and use him and his abilities to consume and replace as much of the station as she could.

But, Jonesy thought he could use Anzu too. Jonesy wanted Anzu's reach to put out a better world. He thought that if he could just get rid of the nightmares they lived in, everything would be better. Jonesy was prepared to kill himself for the people he loved and cared about. They didn't deserve to live in such hardships any more, and he thought he could fix it himself by making a different reality for them to live in.

Eventually, Jonesy gave in, and we got him out.

Percival and Bob are returning to the Lethe, with Jonesy in tow, but without Adolfo.

He sacrificed himself to make sure Jonesy could get out.

[sparkpluqs]

btw in case anyone was wondering how last night's session went.

caleb took heavy gunshot wounds and eventually rolled a death save, rolled a 5, which WOULD have been complete character death but ONLY caleb gets a -1 to death saves (on account of their abilities from their warp test). so instead their 5 got lowered to a 4, which is the highest you can roll on a death save without actually killing your character

so caleb is NOT DEAD, but actually just profoundly comatose. and they will not be waking up any time soon.

clocky will have to play a new character next session.

that's how it went

[sparkpluqs]

Don't leave us hanging! What happened to Sparks in the last session? What's this about an augmented man???

Admittedly I have not been using this blog as proper campaign notes so there's quite a bit missing from the context of the things I talk about. I have much more notes in my Mothership app 😅

HOWEVER I'm ready to yap at all times.

The Augmented Man was a source of conflict all the way back, over 2 in-game years ago, at the end of our first Shore Leave. Adolfo met with his ex-girlfriend at a diner to talk (about their possible future, which she did not seem to want to pursue. sad 😔). After she had left, a man covered in military-grade exoskeleton and slickware came into the diner, and without warning, immediately impaled the cashier onto the ticket stabber. And then forced his way into the back to dunk one of the chefs' heads into the fryer.

Adolfo, ever vigilant, sprung into action to stop him; the Augmented Man would only reply by reciting advertisements, like walking commercials for Astroman (brand of cleaning fluid) or Clarion (phone-service provider).

The Augmented Man absolutely CURB-STOMPED Adolfo. He is our Marine. He's our strongest player, full stop. Adolfo could not stop him alone. Percival came in for back-up, and just barely distracted him long enough for the Station Security to detain him.

Just before he was dragged away, the Augmented Man spoke his first words that weren't some old product slogan, whispering to Percival.

"Who Is It That Drags This Corpse Around?"

And ever since, we've been hearing that phrase over and over and over again...

Sonia got a virus (right before our trip to Ukweli-4) that took over her command prompt and temporarily gave her a full black-out, which mentioned this phrase.

We eventually figured out that she picked up this virus from accessing the cameras in and around Avalon (the fantasy-themed Net Den Jonesy works at as an "artist", utilizing his Imagine Reality and Illusions). It just so happened that certain Avalon players haven't logged in for quite a while, three players in Jonesy's guild.

Jonesy also took off, asking his other friends to lie to Sparks about where he went. She got the information out of them eventually. Jonesy left to visit the Wattcolmbe Slickdev Office, looking for a glitched player that goes by Anzu, and perhaps to figure out where his friends went himself.

Sparks went to Wattcolmbe, along with Percival, Bob, and Rox (the Android Enkidu provided us while Adolfo is finishing the job on Ukweli-4). She had to get Jonesy, make sure he was safe.

The Augmented Man entered the building as well (either eventually released, or escaped), smashing his way through the first floor of the office.

And eventually, Sparks's skull.

We all made a big red-string corkboard to try and get our thoughts together (which I've redrawn, but is already a bit out of date, as we have more information now).

[sparkpluqs]

So how is everyone handling poor Caleb being in a coma?

It's been rough.

Sparks has sort of assumed responsibility of Caleb's estate, so to speak. Getting their things in order, making sure Caleb is taken care of at the hospital on station. She took it upon herself to inform the rest of the Lethe crew that stayed station-side of the news (namely, Miriam, Evander, Jonesy, and Yu).

Sparks has been exhausted since. Pulling all-nighters, sleeping in the workshop.

Miriam is taking it the worst. She is, of course, Caleb's daughter.

She's started to regress a little. Walking on all limbs instead of standing upright. Speaking less. She asked Sparks what they could do. Sparks told her truthfully; she doesn't know.

Evander was mostly mad. Not at us, just the situation. Jonesy has had his mind elsewhere to begin with. I like to think that Yu visits Caleb when she has some free time.

I think Adolfo blamed himself for the situation.

Caleb got hurt during a job that Adolfo found, after all. We left the abandoned Ukweli-4 compound without salvaging anything of substance (which was supposed to fund our payment for the job). So, in order to prevent us from going into debt, Adolfo left the party to return to Ukweli-4 and make good on his promise to the company who hired him, Enkidu Cybernetics. Adolfo will be gone for at minimum two in-game months. We won't know what happened to him until then.

Enkidu Cybernetics provided us with an Android teammate to fill the space Adolfo left in our crew, but. We haven't really spoken with the guy. It's not the same.

Percival doesn't talk about what happened on Ukweli-4. He won't talk about what happened to Caleb, nor what happened to him.

He saw something else in the shadows, something that haunts him from his own past. Something about a sister of his that he's never mentioned before. Sparks is going to force that information out of him one day, though.

Sparks has started taking initiative in picking up the things Caleb did for the crew, mostly taking care of Sonia on the more computer/ship AI side.

Mainly she wanted to make sure that Sonia wouldn't pick up any weird bugs or glitches in the future... Bugs or glitches that are appearing to originate from AVALON, the VR Net Den that Jonesy works at.

The Net Den where players have been slowly going MIA.

After some questioning around AVALON, Jonesy left too, without mentioning a word to Sparks. Apparently he left to meet up with a remote AVALON player somewhere in the station center, at the Datafeed.

Now we've dropped everything to go find Jonesy, and make sure he's safe.

Same thing that brought us all together in the first place, funnily enough.