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Okay. No need to rush in willy nilly. You're on a bit of a time crunch since you have two (maybe three if you want to deal with Fang) Foxtrots to rescue after this but you still have time to be methodical about it. Right?

You pocket the SHRIMP VISION BIOMOD Benjamin throws your way.
>SHRIMP VISION MODULE obtained!

"No need to rush. We're not J-Corp, we don't plan on shooting the dog by accident or something." You're still a bit hesitant on letting BUGARM LADY help you out but fuck, Benjamin already got her. "We'll have Ms. Bugarm help us get in once we find an entrance. Sounds cool?"

Everyone but Clover murmurs in agreement.

Clover is obviously disappointed he can't go rootin' tootin' shootin immediately but seven people (your five allies + Seath + Bugarm Lady) outvoting him is hard for him to argue against. "Fine."

"Cool. Let's-" "Hark! I request time to change my attire! For it is unbefitting of a lady such as myself to not look as presentable as possible!"

You're about to tell Casey off but you think better of it once Kiara starts talking, "The clothes she, uh, stole from someone have some pretty decent specs to them. Just let the poor girl change into a new outfit."
"Ah, fine, fine." "Thankie, Nicky~!" Kiara dims one of her LED eyes in an imitation of a wink. Best to find somewhere somewhat private to do this at.

You stop by one of the many abandoned buildings on your way towards the warehouse. Luckily, it's one of the few buildings in this part of the slums without a lock on it. You usher in Casey (with Clover and Kiara as her bodyguards just in case) inside so she can change.

There wasn't anyone inside thankfully so the two are back out in only a few minutes. The outfit Casey stole actually looks pretty good on her. A starry black musketeer's uniform with sparkling dots all over it tightly clings to her body as if it was made just for her. The mask hides away Casey's face completely, with the only thing visible on the mask being similar sparkling dots.

The intimidating impact it might've had is lessened because 1.) you know it's Casey and 2.) she still has to wear her rags over it to keep up some pretense of a disguise.

"Delicious." Casey giggles like a young schoolgirl.

Kiara, meanwhile, doesn't look distinctly different but it's clear she upgraded herself somehow. Her metallic chassis has a slightly shinier sheen to it.

>CASEY has equipped MASK OF ONYX DARKNESS, STARSKY MUSKETEER UNIFORM, and MOONLIGHT RAPIER! She now has 3/4 FLESH, 2/6 RESTRAINT, 8 TALENT, and 7 CHARM! She is no longer in KNIGHTHOOD S-CORP REINFORCED CERMAIC BODYARMOR!
>KIARA has consumed the two remaining WATERLOGGED SILVER WALKIE TALKIES to gain +1 MAX RESTRAINT! She now has 5 RESTRAINT and now has HUX-A7-OVERDRIVE MODULE installed!

That RESTRAINT she has is pretty low. Even if that mask will protect her from the passive mental strain this place inflicts, it's not like that's the only way to lose your sanity. Hm. More and more things to worry about.

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The eight of you start the trek over to the warehouse. No one's really in much of a mood to talk because to be quite frank, everyone wants out of here. If it wasn't for the money, favor, and PARADIGM you were expected to get as a reward...

Well. Clover probably would've wanted to do it anyways because it was !JUST!. That's the least of your worries though. Something's off right now and everyone in your group can feel it. "Is it just me or are the roads and buildings...shifting?"

"Nope. I see it too, partner."
"Yeah, me too. Can't get a solid reading as to why, though."

You check your MAKESHIFT POCKETWATCH just to be sure. The small display on it reads "STRUCTUAL ANOMALY DETECTED: MANMADE CONSTRUCTIONS CONSTANTLY CHANGE AND SHIFT AROUND A 3 BLOCK RADIUS OF AN UNIDENTIFIED SPOT NORTH OF HERE."

The layout of the slums is shifting around your group. It's incredibly minute and subtle at first, almost dismissed by you as just shoddy construction, but everything is starting to warp in on itself. It becomes a LOT more notable the further you head towards the warehouse you're after.

The upper half of buildings slowly bend forward until they're at a 90 degree angle, making them look like backwards 7s. Pillars of concrete rise out of the sidewalks and road. There's small pockets of the road where there's a complete lack of oxygen in the air (you quickly learn to hold your breath when you pass one of those).

The windows on most buildings shine a minty green light that seems to literally burn away at anything it comes into contact with.

Your group learnt that the hard way when a small bit of Max's greyish-blue hair was set ablaze. Benjamin quickly put it out, of course, but it's clear something anomalous is happening here. You suppose that's why the SEAL OF BRAM'VESH have a base here.

"I've seen minor structural anomalies across a majority of the buildings in this sub-district but this is something else." Seath is awestruck by what he's seeing. You suppose it makes sense he never went down to the slums.

[UNDYING CURIOSITY + OPEN MINDED] Max and Benjamin are silently taking in everything around them like young children seeing fireworks for the first time. They really do share the same braincell.
[KIARA SEEKER] "Gotta say, this is the type of abnormality I like." Kiara is also pretty intrigued by reality seemingly twisting in on itself around here.

Clover, Casey, and BUGARM LADY don't bother to say anything. It's clear none of them care or like reality twisting on itself and they just want the job done. Casey seems too exhausted to offer her usual upbeat motivational nonsense.

Thankfully your group arrives at the edges of the SEAL OF BRAM'VESH base. As the man you 'dealt' with said, it's some sort of factory/warehouse that used to produce and store pizzas before it was promptly abandoned. While most of the warehouse has entered into disrepair, an old sign with a cartoonish mascot of a pizza slice with legs still hangs above the factory entrance.

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It's otherwise a massive, MASSIVE featureless block of concrete and steel that looks remarkably out of place compared to all of the warped buildings around it. It's almost like it was intentionally left normal.

You have a guttural feeling the anomalous alteration of the area around the factory is because of this gang.

"I think these guys may be more of a danger than I thought." You murmur to Benjamin and Kiara, who are probably the most experienced with anomalous stuff out of the group. "The structural and architecture anomalies avoiding this one specific building? That doesn't track."

"You're right. Either they found a way to protect it or, as the source of the anomalous influence..." Benjamin hums. "It wouldn't affect its own structure. This may be more serious than I thought."
"I highly doubt there's an anomaly there. Benny, you don't sense one, right? Max said you-" "Nope. Don't sense any manifested anomalies here."

Okay. So if it's not a proper Anomaly itself, you imagine it's some sort of SHIFTer influence or an excess of anomalous energy; could it be possible they're storing or producing A-Energy?

Hm. More to think of.

There's a handful of guards keeping guard of the main entrance. You have to guess there's about five of them but it's hard to see through the haze (and getting closer doesn't sound like a swell idea). All of them are missing one of their arms but in their place, twisting and squirming tendrils made out of raw muscle fibers hang limply by their side. None of them seem to have weapons beyond those tendrils, though.

They look pretty beefy, fighting in that way would draw a lot of attention. Would be quick, though, you DO have the firepower and range advantage. You can faintly hear them murmuring about 'the ritual not being worth it'. Seems they're loosed lipped, might be worth it to eavesdrop.

All of the security is focused on the front entrance however. BUGARM LADY points towards the side of the building closest to your group (which you'd guess is 'east' from the perspective of the factory). It's flooded with so much blackened smog that makes seeing through it damn near impossible but you catch a glimpse of a side entrance.

"Door locked most times." The BUGARM LADY chitters. "But it leads directly to food storage. Seal keeps most goodies there. Takes time but we could break in. There's ladder that leads to roof, roof entrance can let us watch more." So that's a possible entrance. Could lead right towards your objective or at least keep your profile low.

"Hey." Kiara draws your attention over to an odd sight. Towards the western side of the factory, you can barely make out a trio of SEAL OF BRAM'VESH goons and a delivery truck they're unloading stuff out of. The thing that draws your attention is what they're unloading: Coffins? "If they're kidnapping folks, wouldn't coffins be a decent way of holding them?"

Okay, that's something you would've missed if you went guns a-blazing.

You have to think about how you want to proceed from here. First off, do you give Casey anything for her shoddy mental health?
>GIVE HER JOYVEL ZETA (-the only JOYVEL ZETA pill, heals her to 6/6 RESTRAINT)
>GIVE HER BOTTLE OF SUMMERSET 1752 (-1 BOTTLE, leaves you with two. Heals her to 6/6 RESTRAINT)
>GIVE HER HOLY TEARS (-1 charge, leaves you with one. Grants her strong RESTRAINT regeneration.)
>LEAVE IT BE. SHE'S FINE.

How do you want to approach the WAREHOUSE? You have eight people in this group so it might be wise to split up. The more ground you can cover, the better.

Choose up to three. You may pick less.
>[CASEY ALLY + SUGAR RUSH] You know. You've never properly use SUGAR WAND X. Tell Casey to use it as a distraction, lure the gang's attention elsewhere. (-1 out of 6 CHARGES on SUGAR WAND X. Should buy you a lot of time but may draw unwarranted attention later.)
>[CLOVER ALLY] Go guns a-blazing. These guys are clearly a threat. (-2 REVOLVER ROUNDS from Clover, -2 PISTOL ROUNDS from Max, -3 PISTOL ROUNDS from your inventory. Should be enough to kill the guards, saves you time.)
>[SPENT TIME SCOUTING OUT] Have someone investigate the delivery truck and the coffins before you do anything. Something's clearly shady about that. (Choose two people to investigate: BENJAMIN, YOURSELF, MAX, SEATH)
>[BUGARM LADY IN PARTY] Send BUGARM LADY, CASEY and KIARA to sneak in through the side entrance. You trust they can be stealthy enough. (Helps to keep a low profile.)
>Eavesdrop on the guards. See what information you can gleam out of them. (Autopass with Kiara's help. Should gleam some useful information.)
>Send someone up to investigate the roof entrance and where it leads. (Choose two people to investigate: BENJAMIN, YOURSELF, MAX, SEATH.)
>Write in (Write in specifically who investigates what? Alter a vote within reason? Use an item? Something else?)

Welcome back. Sorry for two day delay, something came up. Let's get back into it.
Will update with Kiara and Casey's new equipment tomorrow, was just worried about getting this out since I'm already a bit late.)

>>6173836
>GIVE HER JOYVEL ZETA (-the only JOYVEL ZETA pill, heals her to 6/6 RESTRAINT)

>[SPENT TIME SCOUTING OUT]
BENJAMIN and YOURSELF because anomalies fuckery.
>[BUGARM LADY IN PARTY]
>Eavesdrop on the guards.
We need the information on where they keep the captive and dogs.

Welcome back, HandlerQM.

>>6173831
>SHRIMP VISION MODULE
It truly is as shrimple as that
>imitation of a wink
That's so fucking cool that I'm mad that other sci-fi settings with robots don't have their robots do the same
>Casey stats
We just need her FLESH up so she isn't instagibbed
>Kiara stats
5 RESTRAINT is the good minimum

>>6173833
>90 degree angle
Like Inception?
>twisting in on itself
Yeah I love cool architecture stuff like this in my media, thank you

>>6173834
>Max said you-
Oh right Benjamin can sense anomalies since the first time we hired him for the diner mission
>twisting and squirming tendrils made out of raw muscle fibers
Everything There?
>Coffins?
Ritual using corpses or kidnapped people from elsewhere?

>>6173836
>[CLOVER ALLY] Go guns a-blazing. These guys are clearly a threat. (-2 REVOLVER ROUNDS from Clover, -2 PISTOL ROUNDS from Max, -3 PISTOL ROUNDS from your inventory. Should be enough to kill the guards, saves you time.)
>Eavesdrop on the guards. See what information you can gleam out of them. (Autopass with Kiara's help. Should gleam some useful information.)
>[BUGARM LADY IN PARTY] Send BUGARM LADY, CASEY and KIARA to sneak in through the side entrance. You trust they can be stealthy enough. (Helps to keep a low profile.)

Listen to them to determine what the fuck is going on here. Send the bugs and bot through the side entrance to find the dog armed with whatever intel we get from listening in.

Then shoot as many of them as we can. It should be a good enough distraction to let the girls operate unimpeded.

Give Casey the JOYVEL ZETA pill.

>>6173973
+1
Welcome back QM

>>6173973
Support

>>6173945
Change
>>6173973
+1

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You already figured out how you plan on dealing with the SEAL.

BUGARM LADY, CASEY, KIARA --> SIDE ENTRANCE
YOU, CLOVER, MAX --> SHOOT UP GUARDS
BENJAMIN, SEATH --> BACKUP, FOLLOW SHOOT UP GUARDS GROUP
BEFORE THAT --> EAVESDROP.

Seath's too injured to sneak around and you don't want to risk injuring him more in a fight. You're also not sure if he has a weapon or not.

"Say, Seath, do you need a weapon?"
He simply flexes his bulky biceps in response. Ah. A puncher, like Lex, gotcha.

As for Benjamin, you rather keep him on a lease until you're out of D-Corp. It's clear this place can mess up with him good if his early spergout had anything to say. That and his two weapons are better saved for ACTUAL threats (using an anti-matter rifle here seems excessive!)

"Okay. Buglady, Casey. Start sneaking around back. Rest of us will stay here and eavesdrop until we learnt enough." You keep your voice low to avoid drawing any attention. You made sure your group is out of line of sight and earshot. "Kiara, help me eavesdrop. Rest of you stay behind for now."

Clover is about to say something but Kiara cuts him off, almost as if SHE has the mind reading power. "Clovey, I know where she's going with this next. You want to blow them to pieces after, right?"

"Exactly." You would snap your fingers for emphasis but, again, sneaking.

"Fuckin' finally. Can't wait to show these no good yellowbelly faggots what for." That's enough to temper him for now.
You toss Casey your JOYVEL ZETA bullet, which she eagerly swallows, before letting the two start sneaking over towards the side entrance.
>-JOYVEL ZETA, CASEY is now at full RESTRAINT.

The remaining six of you take your time sneaking over towards the guards so you can actually hear them. No point eavesdropping if you can't hear jack or shit, right? The six of you crouch behind a pile of old garbage right across the street from the factory entrance.

Max covers her mouth to prevent the smell from assaulting her. Everyone else takes it a lot better (you're 90% sure Benjamin doesn't even notice it), enough to focus on listening to the guards. You and Kiara take your time listening to what they have to say.

WHAT YOU HEAR
"Where the hell did you even find that machine?" "One of the proper D-Corp facilities got raided by some weird shady folks. We just looted it after. Doubt D-Corp even knows about it." "I dunno, man, it's clearly messing with the blocks nearby."
"Trust me. The A-Energy this puppy can produce can get us out of this slum. You know, break a few eggs to make an omelets!" "We're barely able to produce enough to keep the lights on..." "That's because we were using dogs. People make more energy."

WHAT KIARA HEARD
"Not sure why the boss wanted us to have these weird arm mutations things..." "Think it's one of those PARA-A-DIMES thingies our boss has. You know that weird meatball we had to touch?" "Eugh. Must be important if he keeps it locked up in his office."

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"Why exactly do we have that one Harvester guy locked away in that freezer room?" "Boss said he produces a lot of that A-stuff. Best to keep him alive. Fresh. Extract it from him."

Fucking hell, this is worse than you could've expected. Everyone but Max immediately picks up on what's going on here: They have a REFINEMENT machine here?! Or something close to it, you assume REFINEMENT is a P-Corp singularity thing.

"Kidnapping people and dogs to turn into mulch?" Clover almost sounds impressed at how depraved this scheme is. "Why not capture an anomaly at that point?"

Seath narrows his surviving eye to remember what they might have. "Probably easier to do this in their eyes. We don't have REFINEMENT machines but we do have EXTRACTION machines. Old tech P-Corp doesn't use."
Max seems to remember something once she hears 'EXTRACTION machine'. "My great aunt once showed me once of those. You stuff something of value inside a small compartment. Then you turn a crank to shred it. The more value it has, the more energy it produces."

The mental image of what they're doing with the people they're kidnapping is enough to make everyone here sick. Yeah, no, you have to kill these guys. That's barbaric.

Seath raises his hands in mock surrender when everyone silently asks him why the FUCK D-Corp uses that. "We usually throw in harvestings from anomalies! Not people!" Whatever, that's besides the point. Kiara breaks away from the group to join up with the others.

You toss Clover four spare REVOLVER ROUNDS from your inventory. You know he's running dry on normal ammo and you rather not use anything special unless you have to. He nods, loading them into his gun.
>You have 8 REVOLVER ROUNDS left in inventory. Clover will have 4 left after spending 2.

Benjamin pats Max on the shoulder, "Hey, you haven't used your gun in a while, sweetie. Maybe you should try using it?"
"You sure? I'm not really much of a fighter, Benny, haha." Max nervously titters about the idea of getting into a fight but after fighting an anomaly? A buncha lowlife scum can't be too bad. "But...eh, no wait, no, these guys are assholes. Fuck it. Sure! Why not."

"I know you can do it." "Fuck it, yeah, I can do it."

"We'll stay behind until you clear them out." Seath wheezes as he sits down behind the pile of left behind garbage. Benjamin sits alongside him, ready to say something to him once the rest of you leave.

You pull out one of the GLOCK 83s you looted in Q-Corp and load it up. Max scrambles to find the DERRINGER she brought a few missions back. Once everyone's locked and loaded, the three of you ditch cover.

The guards don't notice the three of you approaching at first. The haze combined with your disguises made you pretty hard to spot until you were close enough where even Max (as untrained as she is) could land a decent shot. Sure, this means the three of you have to stand right in the middle of the street, but you doubt any cars are driving down it.

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One of the five guards notices you and points his mangled tendril of an arm at you. "Ey, buddy, fuck off. We don't need-" BANG! Clover drew his gun before the guard even had time to process what happened. A hole is punctured right into the guard's head like a knife through butter.

He collapses to his knees but you immediately notice that he's not dead. Dazed and bleeding like crazy, absolutely, but a headshot should've killed him. "B-Bhe.Beh.EBh." He gibbers out, slowly stumbling back to his legs.

The rest of you step back in shock. Even the other guards were confused as to how their friend survived. Were they not told how the PARADIGM works? "What the hell-"

The tendril hanging off the lobotomized guard begins to rapidly expand in mass before shooting out at Clover! He easily dodges it due to how sloppy its arm was but it was close.

The other guards, realizing they have that ability too, all spring into action. The remaining four raise their arms up, aiming them at the group!

"Shit! Duck!" You grab onto Max's arm. The two of you dive to the ground hard right before four more tendrils shoot out, missing you by only a few inches. The tendrils imbed HARD into the concrete road your group is on...hard enough to get stuck.

The brain damaged guard's tendril refuses to unstick from the ground. He's no longer a threat.

The non-brain damaged guards manage to unstick their tendrils from the concrete but it's enough time for your group to unload onto them. Clover fires a lucky shot on a guard's knee, shattering the bone and sending the poor fucker falling to the ground.

Max regains her composure and lines up her sight at the third guard. Not trusting her aim, she unloads two center mass shots right into his chest. Two seeping red trails run down the guard's chest but it wasn't enough to put him down. He tries to charge at her but Max quickly splatters slick oil onto the ground right in front of him.

That's enough to send him crashing to the floor. The pain of face eating concrete after being shot twice is enough to keep him out of commission.

Two guards remain. They're clearly ready to get the fuck out of here. One scrambles to open the entrance while the other tries another potshot tendril shot at you. You decide to eat the hit so you have a steady line of fire: you got enough FLESH to spare.

You unload two shots from your GLOCK 38 right as the tendril smashes right into it. You're sent stumbling back pretty far away but your bodysuit blocked the worst of it.
>-1 (reduced from 2) FLESH! 7/8 LEFT!

He's still standing but one last shot from your GLOCK 38, hitting his center mass again, is enough to put him out of commission. He collapses to the ground like the other two.

The fifth guard...decides his life isn't worth it. He makes a break for it, scrambling away from his four dead or dying comrades, but he quickly gets his face pummeled by an unseen figure's fist. He smashes HARD into the ground, not at all expecting an attack.

Before he can get up, the figure begins to stomp down on his body over and over again.

You three turn to see that Seath is the one actually doing it. Seath doesn't stop stomping on the prone guard until you hear the guard's ribs popping and cracking like popping candy. After he's sure the guard won't get up for a long while, he and Benjamin rejoin your group.

There's an odd look on both Seath and Benjamin's faces but you don't bother pressing them about what they talked about.

"Woo." Max wipes her brow. "I expected them to take more hits, really."
>Max has 27 PISTOL AMMO left. You have 5 PISTOL AMMO left.

"Nah, nah, they're still alive." Clover gestures with his gun at all five of the guards. They're all bleeding out and groaning in agony, no longer a threat sure, but still alive. "Hardy bastards. Think it's worth double tapping?"

Benjamin exits the garbage pile cover to examine the injured guards. "No regeneration detected. Their wounds aren't healing, they'll bleed out soon enough. I'd give them 15 minutes tops."
Best to keep moving then. Your group approaches the now unguarded entrance: It's a rolling sheet door, hopefully unlocked.

It takes a solid moment but with everyone's help, you quickly lift it open long enough for everyone to get inside. Getting out the same way might be a pain in the ass but there's always the side entrance.

The actual interior of the factory is empty. Too empty, you were honestly expecting someone else to be here. Or to at least check on the commotion. No, there's simply hundreds of feet worth of conveyor belts and old rusted machinery meant to produce frozen cheap slop. There's some small platforms and ladders that lead up to higher sections of the machinery to aid in repairs but.

It's empty.

"You don't like this one bit." POI, beginning to demanifest, whispers to the group. "Best to keep calm. Keep your eyes out."
Your earpiece crackles to life. It's Kiara. "Okay, we're inside. We're in some sort of odd storage area, lot of coffins here. Only one guard here. Call you soon."

"Hey, seems like they left a note here." Benjamin points towards a makeshift map stapled to one of the machines. It seems you're in "MAIN LOBBY" and there's a few other locations listed. Where do you head to?

>INGREDIENT PREPERATION. Considering the description of the EXTRACTION machine, a full human body probably couldn't fit...
>MANAGER'S OFFICE. Whoever's running this joint has to be here. Best to confront them now.
>FREEZER VIP. You did hear something about a Harvester being here. Maybe you can get an extra reward helping him?
>PRODUCTION MACHINE. Best to investigate the machine they're using. D-Corp would LOVE to reclaim it.
>ARTIFACT STORAGE. Who knows what unique anomalous goodies they got here?
>DISPOSAL. You doubt you're too late for the dog but you have to check here. Maybe someone survived despite everything.
>INVESTIGATE MAIN LOBBY. Why is NO ONE HERE?
>Split the group into two. Cover more ground. (Choose who goes where.)

>>6174574
>Split the group into two. Cover more ground. (Choose who goes where.)
>Nicole + Benjamin + Seath -> FREEZER VIP
This is extremely reminiscent of Benedict in the freezer containment unit way back in Adam's diner. These two were there back then, so they need to go secure that mystery Harvester under the same conditions. Seath can also learn from what the glowniggers are truly up to, and he can work with Otto/Handler on that since we showed the Handler that freezer way back then too. Nicole and Seath are muscle enough to handle any nasty trouble that comes around while Ben could maybe help warm up the Harvester? We have plenty of stuff to make a fire and I bet the Harvester will be thankful for the heat
>Clover + Max -> INGREDIENT PREPARATION
I assume the dog has to be in here, so we need to go secure it and bring it back alive for the side mission clear. This also gets Clover and Max to talk to each other a bit, since Max and Benjamin aren't really used to Clover yet. This is their first mission together outside of first meeting him in the casino one. I want to get Benjamin to group with Clover later in the mission too so that they can do the same getting-to-know talk or whatever. Max and Clover both strike me as being good with animals so they'll handle the dog fine, and we could pass max a TORCH GUN+ so that she can oil into torching any potential threat she or Clover can't shoot.

>>6174594
+1

>>6174594
Hmm, should we prioritise hunting the manager first? The manager probably heard the gunshot, potentially trying to escape with information or burn it. It's not like FREEZER VIP is going to disappear or something.

>>6175048
Change
>>6174574
>Nicole + Benjamin + Seath -> MANAGER'S OFFICE
>Clover + Max -> INGREDIENT PREPARATION

>>6174574
Changing my vote from >>6174594 to backing >>6175187

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Time to deal with whoever's running this joint. "Max, Clover, go check INGREDIENT PREPERATION. The rest of us are going to see who's running this joint."

"Smart choice. Doubt everyone vanished the moment we shot 'em guards. Probably trying to escape like the rats they are."
"Hoo." Max shivers at the mere idea of heading to 'INGREDIENT PREPERATION.' "Not the first time I'm going to see a dismembered body but..."

Benjamin awkwardly whistles in a vain attempt to distract you. "A-anywho. Let's get going, shall we?" You narrow your eyes at him but again, you don't have time to question him about that. The hell kind of foreplay are those two doing- Whatever.

Max and Clover split away from the group to head towards INGREDIENT PREPERATION. Seems to be east of the main lobby if the map had anything to say.

The map says the OFFICE is due north of here, so you're heading NORTH. You keep the GLOCK 38 close to your side in case of any ambushes. Benjamin is snapping his fingers in an attempt to create a spark via his power. Probably trying to warm himself up?

He stops once small embers start crackling at his finger tips. Seems like his ability recharges fast, huh?

The three crouch low to the ground before slowly sneak northwards. You keep close to the powered off machinery to hide yourself from anyone who could be watching you. The only sound throughout the whole MAIN LOBBY is the faint creaking of old machinery threatening to fall apart and your group's muffled footsteps.

Seath is rubbing his head in an attempt to soothe a nasty headache setting in. "Been a while since I've done field work."
"At least you'll be more useful than Molly was." That was probably not the best thing to say to him but you're not wrong.
Seath squints at that comment but he brushes it off for now. "Yeah. Hopefully."

[POI ACTIVE] Benjamin snaps his head right around. Did he hear something? "Someone's following us. I don't know where but they're following us. MOVE." It doesn't seem to be a delusion so...uh oh.

That's more than enough motivation to put some pep in everyone's step. You quickly shuffle past dozen after dozen of feet worth of machinery until you eventually find a small hallway that breaks off from the rest. Your ear picks up on the sound of something being...shredded. A paper shredder? Shit! At least you're close to the office now but they're trying to get rid of any evidence they have.

No more time for sneaking. You rise up and immediately break into a breakneck sprint in the direction of that shredding noise. Seath catches up easily with you but Benjamin, not being the most althetic, trails behind by a pretty decent margin. You have to tug him HARD with your telekinesis to get him to catch up.

Ah ha! You see the MANAGER OFFICE's door! You have to grind your heels HARD onto the ground to slow down enough to not crash right through it. You try opening it up normally to see if it's locked or not; nope it's locked.

Seath doesn't bother wasting any time.

He grinds one heel into the ground before leaning back and smashing his foot near the door's lock. It takes two or three solid kicks before the door finally breaks open.

The first thing that draws your attention is a disheveled, grimy old man lurching over an equally grimy and old paper shredder covered in pizza grease and blood. When he turns to see who broke down his door, you get to see his face and oof, he can't be any younger than 65.

His greyish brown skin hangs loosely over his disgustingly spindly frame, like he lost weight way too quickly for his body to handle. His hair is rapidly falling out in large, greyish clumps. He looks less like the boss of a Syndicate moreso than a boss of some shitty pizza place going on a crash diet.

The thing that catches everyone's attention is his eyes: they're sparkling. His irises have a light peach hue to them. A SHIFTer? Here? You suppose that tracks but damn, that's going to make things more complicated.

The rest of the office is pretty lackluster. There's a few opened filing cabinets with papers loosely hanging out of them and a few fake potted plants but that's it.

You see some odd papers still laying on his desk, half crumpled and torn.

"W-who are you? WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" The air around you is quickly flooding wiith something. There's a sickly sweet smell, like spoiled pepperonis covered in sugar, lingering in the air. "I'M JUST TRYING TO GET US OUT OF THIS PLACE! WHY ARE YOU RUINING OUR OPERATIONS?!"

Your head is feeling dizzy. Seath and Benjamin seem to be experiencing the same thing too. Shit.

[OPEN MINDED] "Aerosol based power." Benjamin points towards small flecks of something lingering in the air. "Flammable." Oh. You like how he's thinking.
[D-CORP HEAD RESEARCHER] "Wait. Don't blow him up, I think I saw some EXTRACTION manuals on his desk. We could use those to help deal with the MACHINE later."

How do you deal with the MANAGER? Pick up to three.
>[BENJAMIN ALLY + UNSTABLE] LIGHT UP THE AERSOL. BURN HIM. (-1 BENJAMIN RESTRAINT, EASY WILLPOWER CHECK rolling Benjamin's 6d6. Raises the DC of SEATH and SEEKER if picked.)
>[SEATH ADVICE] Have Seath grab the papers before any more are shredded or damaged. (EASY TALENT CHECK, rolling Seath's 12d6.)
>[POI ACTIVE] Your power's about to demanifest soon. Shoot him out to distract the MANAGER. (Immediately turns off POI, lowers DC of other skill checks.)
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + OPEN MINDED] Both you and Benjamin can tell there has to be something anomalously valuable here. Once you deal with him, search around the office. (EASY COGNIZANCE THRESHOLD, rolling 12d6 with Benjamin's help. Two thresholds.)
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] Restraint him via PUPPETEER. You'll have the others interrogate him. (FREE due to NOLNOL, EASY WILLPOWER DC, rolling your 8d6.)
>Didn't Ben say someone was following you? Keep an eye out just in case. (MEDIUM COGNIZANCE CHECK, rolling your 7d6.)
>Write in (Just shoot him? Try to talk to him? Something else?)

>>6175301 #
>[SEATH ADVICE]
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES]
>[SEEKER OF THE CITY + OPEN MINDED]
>Didn't Ben say someone was following you? Keep an eye out just in case.
First, we need to save paper to gain information on how many people have been kidnapped and shredded by SEAL. two, the information identity of dead/kidnapped people to give to D-corp (if D-corp cares or has resources to do it, or maybe Seath can help with this). to notify friends and lovers of one of the kidnapped or dead friends and family members. Third, the identity of the criminals/accomplices who were involved in this operation. Four, I don't want somebody sneaking up on us to attack us while we interrogate.

When we are done interrogating him, execute him for the attempt, successfully managing operations to kidnap random innocents and bystanders, throwing them into the shredding machine in order to gain money to escape the D-corp hellhole district (while understandable, it does not justify this unethical action done to many other random innocents and bystanders). He and his other SEAL members here will definitely do it again if we do not kill them all or “teach” them listen to not do it again.

>>6175318
I agree. We need to focus on securing the papers first, then interrogate him and kill him... but we CANNOT search the office with SEEKER + OPEN MINDED while he's alive and spreading his aerosol power around. Do you think we should use POI ACTIVE while it's still up?

>>6175320
>[POI ACTIVE] Benjamin snaps his head right around. Did he hear something? "Someone's following us. I don't know where but they're following us. MOVE." It doesn't seem to be a delusion so...uh oh.
If we consume POI with the POI ACTIVE option, would it also make it harder for us to tell when the unknown pursuer is on us?

>>6175320
Okay
>>6175318
Change
>>6175301
>[SEATH ADVICE]
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES]
>[POI ACTIVE]
>Didn't Ben say someone was following you?

Also, we still have gas masks and K-CORP UNIVERSAL PURGING AGENT to deal with the aerosol.

>>6175322
hang on
>How do you deal with the MANAGER? Pick up to three.
We can only pick 3 and we have no free actions here

>>6175351
[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] Restraint him via PUPPETEER. You'll have the others interrogate him. (FREE due to NOLNOL, EASY WILLPOWER DC, rolling your 8d6.)
>(FREE due to NOLNOL, EASY WILLPOWER DC, rolling your 8d6.)

>>6175356
I thought that free means the RESTRAINT cost we'd pay to use it like this is free due to the NOLNOL PILL, not that it is a free action

>>6175369
Correct. I should clarify it's not a free action and that it simply doesn't cost anything to do.
Normally your powers COST restraint so I clarified that it wouldn't cost any due to NOLNOL pill.

So FaO would need to remove one of the choices he picked .

>>6175321
I mean, it lowers the DC of other skill checks. All of them. So it'd help you watch out for whoever may be following you even if you spend it right now because searching for the person following you IS a skill check.

>>6175412
Thanks for the clarification

>>6175356
>>6175326
>>6175322
>>6175318
Come on, let's fix this vote up so we have only 3 options selected

>>6175318
+1

Can we throw the manager into the REFINEMENT machine to teach everyone here a lesson?

>>6175422
We can't +1 that because that's 4 choices and not 3

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>>6175422
>>6175424
I mean.
Capturing him doesn't necessarily mean you kill him.
You can't do it right away but if you decide you want to be cruel, you could spare him for now and find the machine to do that later.

Depends how much you value putting him into what people describe as an energy meatgrinder.

>>6175422
Remove [SEEKER OF THE CITY + Open Minded] from my response.

Chucking the manager into the REFINEMENT machine can be a stretch goal. We haven’t secured it yet anyways.

>>6175426
It’s about sending a message, QM.

Live by the energy meat grinder, die by the energy meat grinder.

>>6175429
I too want to shove this old man into his meat grinder

>>6175322
Change
>>6175301
>[SEATH ADVICE]
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES]
>Didn't Ben say someone was following you?

>>6175595
+1

>>6175422
>>6175429
>>6175462
On a morbidly pragmatic perspective, if there is a broadcast system in the warehouse, we can use the system to broadcast his scream of being shredded to death (making shredding machines slowly shredding him up to prolong his scream for psychological warfare) to terrorise, demoralise, and teach SEAL to not kidnap and throw innocent/bystanders into shredding machines ever again. This possible cause would make most or almost all SEALs here run away in terror or make interrogation much easier if we capture a SEAL member who will be much more willing to give up information. (Also, we can burn him too while being shredded as well. But I'm worrying the shredder machine will produce less energy because of this. His death will probably produce a lot of energy because he is a shifter. I want to donate as much energy as possible to slum. D-Corp probably doesn’t need the energy, only the shredder machines.) when we are done shredding him, donate almost all (enough energy for us to access the room and machines). A-energy shredding machines are storing to slum districts to make people's lives here a bit better.

Max definitely should not be watching this, and we need to make her close her ears and eyes and her to leave when shredding machines start shredding the man up to avoid restraint damage. Kiara, Casey, and Benjamin too. (I think Clover will oppose this shredding man plan, because he's probably thinking, "We are better than this.")

But there is potential for a backfire of this plan. Shockley will potentially try to use this against us in public opinion. In R-Corp district. We can take pictures of the dead and kidnapped victims caused by SEAL as a counterpoint and maybe record the victims testimony too.

>>6175826
We can get Clover to go along with it by smashing the machine when we’re done.

The old guy will be its last victim.

I dunno about broadcasting it. There’s a heavy spook presence in the area and that’s going to attract a lot of attention.

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>>6175462
>>6175429
>>6175422
SHE CALLS.

>>6175916
I am against destroying the extraction machine. I want to give it to D-corp to gain a lot of D-corp corporate favour. We can convince Clover if we give the extraction machine to D-corp. We can use the D-corp favour to get D-corp to compensate the dead victim family and captive. Secondly, we only broadcast it inside the warehouse, not outside the warehouse, and why will Spook search the scream? This is D-corp district with the highest crime rate, the spook very likely brushing it off as a syndicate doing usual syndicate stuff to other syndicates or usual brutal crime.

So it seems like SEATH ADVICE, ANOMALOUS ABILITIES, AND DIDN'T BEN SAY SOMETHING are winning.

We know the rules by now. Three anons, roll the following.
>12d6 (SEATH, DC 32)
>7d6 (BEN, DC 23)
>8d6 (ANOMALOUS, DC 21)

Rolled 3, 1, 1, 6, 3, 3, 4, 1, 6, 4, 1, 6 = 39 (12d6)

>>6175983

Rolled 6, 6, 3, 1, 2, 5, 3 = 26 (7d6)

>>6175983
Rolling for Ben

Rolled 3, 2, 3, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2 = 19 (8d6)

>>6175983
ANOMALOUS
CAPTCHA: N4N

>>6176005
Mmh.
Other two pass but that one is a failure (somehow).

Choose what you want to spend in order to make it a success, considering the MEAT GRINDER discussion. First to three gets picked.
>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT (-1 MOONSTONE FRAGMENT, leaves you with 3. You get to reroll three of your dogshit dice)
>"OPEN YOUR MIND" BRANDED PILLS (-1 PILL, leaves you with 1. You roll an additional 1d12 and you get to add a 1d12 to the next two COGNIZANCE/WILLPOWER/RESTRAINT checks made.)
>Who said anything about using an item? Rush in and headbutt him. (-1 FLESH and RESTRAINT, leaving you at 6/8 FLESH and 7/11 RESTRAINT. Autopasses the check. Benjamin and Seath have a 50% chance to heal 1 RESTRAINT each.)
>Accept the failure.

>>6176010
>Who said anything about using an item? Rush in and headbutt him.

>>6176010
>Who said anything about using an item? Rush in and headbutt him. (-1 FLESH and RESTRAINT, leaving you at 6/8 FLESH and 7/11 RESTRAINT. Autopasses the check. Benjamin and Seath have a 50% chance to heal 1 RESTRAINT each.)

Physical abuse seems to be the theme for today.

>>6176010
>headbutt him
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/c/c3/Scout_taunts05.wav

>>6176010
>>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT (-1 MOONSTONE FRAGMENT, leaves you with 3. You get to reroll three of your dogshit dice)

Rolled 1, 2 = 3 (2d2)

>>6176011
>>6176036
>>6176055
Headbutting it is.

Jeez, Nicole. Thinking about shoving him into a meat grinder, now you're smashing your head into him? You doing okay?
Writing. Rolling 2d2. 1 = HEAL, 2 = NO. First d2 is for Benjamin, second is for Seath. Statistically, you have a 75% chance of SOMEONE being healed.

>>6176067
>Ben knows Nicole by now so he finds it hilarious
>Seath just met Nicole and is still figuring her out, so he's not as enthused as he might be
Makes perfect sense in-story

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>>6176067
>Thinking about shoving him into a meat grinder, now you're smashing your head into him? You doing okay?

Rip and tear until it is done.

Sorry I haven't been around. IRL stuff and not checking the QTG.

>>6176067
It all makes (relative) sense. We ran across this guy committing horrible atrocities against a de facto captive population, murderous rage tends to follow.

I read a testimony from a soldier who liberated a concentration camp during WW2. They grabbed one of the camp commanders and drove a nail through his ballsack.

This is tame in comparison.

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In the split second before you make a move, a weird thought pops into your head.

[UNSTABLE] OKAY IF WE CHOP HIM UP IN THE ENERGY MEAT GRINDER, AND THE ONLY THING THAT COMES OUT, THAT'S LEFT OF HIM, IS HIS EYEBALL?
[UNSTABLE] THAT'D BE A FITTING FATE. JUST SOMETHING TO CONSIDER.

What?
You suppose you have no moral opposition to it but Clover would probably have a hissy fit over it. Though you suppose you could grind up one of his limbs. Clover might approve of that.

Shit, shit, you're getting distracted. The old man is about to lunge behind his desk! God knows what he's going to grab, you don't want to risk a fight.

You raise your hand up and focus on the tips of your fingers to shoot out your PUPPETEER strands. A few imbed into his shoulders but for some reason, he's not restrained. Slowed down, yes, but he's still able to move pretty decently. He's stretching his hands to whatever's hidden behind his desk.

Seath sees his chance to grab the documents while the old man is both distracted and slowed down. The old man tries to reach one hand towards what's behind his desk while reaching the other to stop Seath...but alas, he's too late. Seath easily grabs the papers while the old man is distracted

Sadly, the one currently being shredded is probably too damaged to be salvaged at that point. Nothing you could've done.

A fresh puff of the sickly sweet aerosol hits Seath in the face before he has enough time to back away. The effects of the spray hits him immediately. He barely has time to yell out a slurred 'FUCK' before he collapses to his knees. He's still awake but only barely. Seems like his power has a similar effect to chloroform. Good news is that he has a firm grip on the documents.

You and Benjamin are going to put your gas masks on. Benjamin helps you to put your gas mask on (given one of your hands is busy trying to restrain the old man) before he puts his own mask on. "I got a plan. Wait for my cue." You nod, ready to see what he has in store.

He digs into his labcoat to retrieve his trauma kit. You forget that those things can be pretty hefty given all of the supplies inside of them. He reels it back and tosses it at the old man's head. It hits with an audible THUNK, knocking the old man away from the desk by a few inches. A good distraction, honestly, gotta give him props.

You take this brief distraction in stride. You grind your hoof- no, foot into the ground before bolting over to the old man. You cross the small distance between you and the old man right as he was about to finally grab what was behind his desk.

You launch over the desk, landing right inbetween him and the desk. Before he has any time to react, you reel your head back and smash your head down HARD against his head. Your antlers add in some extra OOMPH to the headbutt since a good 5-6 pounds of kertin smashing down on anyone's head will hurt.

He falls to the ground like a sack of bricks. Easy win, baby. There's one major downside to what you just did.

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You also fall to the ground like a sack of bricks because holy FUCK, your head hurts like a BITCH now. A seething headache radiates throughout every inch of your skull.
>-1 FLESH and RESTRAINT! 6/8 FLESH and 7/11 RESTRAINT left!

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!" The old man is squirming on the ground. Blood is gushing out of two large gashes carved into his head. You feel blood dribbling from the tips of your antlers. Huh, neat. You easily managed to restraint him with your PUPPETEER ability now.

You turn behind you to see what he was reaching for- Is that a grenade launcher? You squint your eyes to see if you're just imagining it but no. That's certainly a grenade launcher. What the fuck.

Seath slowly stumbles over to where the old man is and promptly lodges his knee onto the old man's stomach. Yeah, he's not going any time soon. Seath's staring at you with complete abject confusion on his face; He had no idea how he should react to what you just did.

The awkward silence, interlaced with the old man cursing and screaming, is broken by Benjamin busting a gut. His nasally, high pitched laughter echoes throughout the tiny office. "Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Wow, guess that's one way to use those! Though isn't that something only MALE deer do?"

"FEMALE CARIBOU HAVE ANTLERS TOO, JACKASS."
"Hoo, hoo, hoo!"

Is he fucking hooting as well? You would squint your eyes at him but you realize he can't see that through the gas mask.
>Benjamin is now at 4/6 RESTRAINT!
>Benjamin gains 17% progress from encountering a SHIFTer and healing 1 RESTRAINT! He is at 128/170 progress.

You scramble to remove your gas mask to drape it over Seath's face, you have somewhere else to check real quick. You'll leave him and Benjamin to deal with the old man now that you don't need to focus your power on him.

You take a deep, long breath of fresh(ish) air now that you're out of the office. POI is flickering in and out of existence. You'd hazard she'll only exist for another two minutes. Hopefully that's long enough to see whoever's flowing you.

There's a faint static in the air, buzzing in your ears and making your vision (which is still slightly swimming after your headbutt) all sorts of hazy. You pull out your FEDKILLER, ready for whoever might be out here following you. You look down the hallway you came from.

>26!

There's a barely visible outline standing about five feet away from you. They're standing still, as if they're waiting for you to be distracted before attacking. You can't make out who they are or what equipment they have, they clearly have some sort of stealth tech or power active. All it takes is a blink for them to launch an ambush attack on you!

Being able to know they were there at all gave you enough warning for a counter attack. You spin your grip around so that you're holding the barrel of the shotgun and immediately swing at the cloaked figure. The stock of the gun smashes HARD against the figure's side. The figure just...takes it like a champ. Huh.

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The strange part is it doesn't feel like hitting a human. You don't feel any real resistance; the butt of your shotgun slices right through the figure like nothing. The figure begins to flicker in and out of reality until, poof, they're gone.

The static flooding your vision and hearing vanishes.

[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] It reminds you of your own DISASSOCIATION power. Could it have been a secondary power of the old man? Or is it some other gang member's ability?

"Owner of power. Somewhere else." That's the last thing POI says before she flickers out of reality.
[PERSON OF INTEREST] Ah. Safer here.
>ALLIES lose the +1 COGNIZANCE + TALENT BONUS from POI! ALLIES no longer have a partial resistance to perception altering effects.

You got good value out of your power at least

You take a good long look to make sure no one else is approaching the office before you slowly step back inside. The old man's power reserve already ran out, he's now just an exhausted pile of old meat on the floor, firmly pinned down by Seath.

You guess his plan was to knock you three out before blowing your group to kingdom come. His power doesn't seem suited for long-term usage. Decent plan if he was dealing with some random syndicate goons.

"Fuckin'...didn't expect another SHIFTer."
"Two, actually." Benjamin nonchalantly clarifies. "Answer our questions honestly and quickly."
"We can make this as painful as we need to, friend." A heavy layer of sarcasm coats every word out of Seath. "Our trusted pharmacist also knows a lot about the human body."

The old man grunts affirmatively

You start off the interrogation, "How many people have you kidnapped?"
"32 over the last four days. If you count dogs and other pets, 52."

"Do you have any identifying information about who you kidnapped? We need names or other ways to identify them." Seath puts a bit more pressure on the old man's chest via his knee.
"Ngh. We keep all of their useful knickknacks in INGREDIENT STORAGE. Told my boys to not bother learning much about them. Makes the harvest harder for them."

Your stomach twists upon hearing that. No, no, you can deal with him later. More information first.

"I see, I see. Who are your associates?" Benjamin slowly unfurls his HARVESTING KIT. He makes a point to show the many sharp scalpels inside to the old man to prove his point. "I doubt you did it alone. Three people were enough to subdue you."

The old man gulps. "...We were given a tip on the EXTRACTION machine by a Mr. Angoneli. Said it would be a good way to get back at his employers for firing him. Sent some of his lads to help us break in, won't rat those out. Mr. Angoneli can handle a bit of heat. He can take it."
Seath reels a bit when he hears that name. "Was it a Mr. Roger Angoneli?" The old man nods. "Oh boy."

"What?" You don't know who that is, doesn't sound like a corporate name.

"That's a former Delta-class Security Director. We go from Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta to Epsilon to determine how important a role is."

"Alpha lowest, Epsilon highest. I'm a Delta as well."

"He got fired from his position due to a FUCK TON of extortion and mishandling of fund charges." Ah, shit, that's not good. A spurned higher up of D-Corp trying to mess with his own company after being fired? No good.

The old man sneers at Seath. "Release me or kill me. Four questions is enough." You know you could force more information out of him if you could but before you decide what to do with him, your earpiece (and Benjamin's as well) crackle to life.

First voice you hear is Kiara's, "Okay! Took us a bit but we dealt with the one guard. Most of the coffins contained, uh, meat giblets. Seems like this was a disposal area. Casey seems to be taking it oddly we-"
"Ah! Dost thou remember that this fine knight used to be a sanitation technician?" Casey's voice crackles across your earpiece. "A highly respected one! A highly respected one that has found a canine!"

Oh?

"Yeah, I think it's the one we're looking for, but there were a few dogs kept in here. Somethin' about the guard feeling bad for the dogs. Somehow he cared more about the mutts than the piles of gore he shoveled into coffins."
"Not much else to report here. Barely anything identifiable about the bodies. Doubt you can even use dental records."

"Good news, though, we found some implants in here. Implants have unique serial numbers most of the time so we can use them as identification?" Kiara seems to know this is a long shot but it's the best she can offer.

You feel sick just thinking about it.

Clover's voice crackles across your earpiece next. He's panting like crazy, must've been crazy in there. "Had to fight our way through some guys. Gotta admit, Max ain't as bad as a fighter as I thought."
"Hey Nicky." Max sounds like she's about to throw up. "Buncha guards in here guarding a handful of people in cages. We'll be busy freeing them."

The line goes silent. So, you found the dog and you found some people still alive in INGREDIENT PREPERATION. The issue now is...there's clearly another SHIFTer with actual powers somewhere in this factory. With POI no longer active, spotting the figures will probably be a big issue now. Not to mention it's an active threat that may be a bigger deal than some no-name guards.

How to proceed...
>You obtain EXTRACTION MANUAL PAPERS (Allows you to safely turn off the machine in order to transport it later. Should net a decent pay bonus) and GRENADE LAUNCHER (ATTACK ROLL: 12d12, can not be modified by any BOONS or BANES. Only has one shot. A direct hit kills any target with 6 or less FLESH, has splash damage of 3 FLESH that hits up to 5 targets.)

------------------------------------

CHOOSE HOW TO DEAL WITH THE OLD MAN.
>[HARVESTING KIT + OPEN MINDED] Let him 'harvest' the old man. Who knows what medical leaps he can achieve if he's allowed to dissect a living anomalous human? (MEDIUM COGNIZANCE/WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling 12d6 for Benjamin. Will massively boost his CRIMSON SPARK progress!)
(1/2)

>Take him prisoner for now. You have better plans for him. Die by the energy meatgrinder, live by the energy meatgrinder. (Increases the risks of exploring why you have him, unlocks a more 'satisfying' way to kill him.)
>Have Seath break his legs and arms. Let him bleed out. Slowly. (MEDIUM VIOLENCE CHECK, rolling Seath's 12d6. Likely earns FOXTROT FAVOR on success.)
>Just shoot him in the head. (-1 SHOTGUN SLUG. Quickest, saves you time. Not that satisfying.)
>Write in.

KIARA, CASEY and BUGARM LADY are free now, so they can visit a location on your behalf.

WHERE DO YOU WANT YOUR GROUP TO HEAD TO? PICK ONE NON-FREE ACTION AND ANY FREE ACTIONS YOU WISH.
>FREEZER VIP. You did hear something about a Harvester being here. Maybe you can get an extra reward helping him?
>EXTRACTION MACHINE. Time to reclaim this machine. Perhaps you can also let the old man get a taste of his own medicine after.
>CHECK UP ON CLOVER AND MAX. You need to learn what you can from the survivors.
>CHECK OUT MAIN LOBBY. IS THE MYSTERIOUS SHIFTER HERE?
>INVESTIGATE THE OFFICE FOR LOOT. (FREE ACTION, roll 4d100 to determine what loot you get. Risky, though, given the SHIFTer out and about.)
>GET EVERYONE TO LEAVE. NOW. You don't want to deal with a SHIFTer. (Skips the KIARA AND GANG vote if picked, obviously.)
>Write in.

WHERE DO YOU WANT KIARA AND THE GANG TO HEAD TO?
>FREEZER VIP. You did hear something about a Harvester being here. Maybe you can get an extra reward helping him?
>EXTRACTION MACHINE. Time to reclaim this machine. Perhaps you can also let the old man get a taste of his own medicine after.
>CHECK UP ON CLOVER AND MAX. You need to learn what you can from the survivors.
>CHECK OUT MAIN LOBBY. Warn them about the mysterious SHIFTer and that he might be in the abandoned lobby.
>HAVE THEM JOIN YOUR GROUP. You need to make sure that dog stays safe.
>Write in.

Sorry for delay.

>>6176120
Hey, it's fine, voting here isn't an obligation.

>>6176188
>>6176192
>Take him prisoner for now. You have better plans for him. Die by the energy meatgrinder, live by the energy meatgrinder.
DO THE THING
>INVESTIGATE THE OFFICE FOR LOOT.
There's 3 of us here. 2 of us searches the place for loot and the third one acts as overwatch in case the false copy spawns in to try to gank us. Bet they have like 1 FLESH and 1 RESTRAINT just like that one hologram double thing does. One good hit from even Benjamin should get rid of it
>ALERT ALL ALLIES VIA EARPIECE TO WATCH OUT FOR THE SHIFTER AND THEIR SPAWNING FAKES
They need to know asap. Kiara is aware enough that she'll detect the fakes spawning immediately. Clover and Max not so much.
>EXTRACTION MACHINE
We need to get rid of this old bastard asap
>CHECK UP ON CLOVER AND MAX.
As long as Kiara is with them, she'll be able to act as spotter for the group against the copies. The survivors meanwhile need to run from out the side exit because the mystery SHIFTer is lurking in the lobby.

Once all this is done, I want to rescue the FREEZER VIP and GTFO. What do you guys think? Is going for the freezer man worth the time to spare? We still need to go to the ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE for Clover after this before we say goodbye to D-Corp for a long fucking time. In fact, should we just change our mind on the EXTRACTION MACHINE entirely? I have no idea but it feels like we really need to prioritize here. I think no matter what we do, fighting that SHIFTer is not worth it

>>6176206
Wait the group with Kiara Casey and Bugarm Lady have the dog we need for the sidequest clear. We can't endanger that dog because they're our ticket for the reward. But that FREEZER VIP is a Harvester that's producing A-ENERGY like Benedict was... almost the exact same scenario here as back then

>>6176206
+1
Add
"Ask" the old man if there is a broadcast system here in the warehouse and where it is. (Psychological warfare time.)

>>6176206
As much as I want to explore ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE. I think exploring later in the future with Clover, Kana, and maybe Clover's other friends too.
I definitely want to get extraction machines to D-corp.
Add
Ask the old man who the harvester in the freezer is.

https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/5893937/
No.5910119
>"Maybe you don't have to leave it all behind." Offer your hand to him. "Maybe that persona is better somewhere else." (CLOVER will become a hirable ally. You imagine his other allies would be willing to work if you earned enough rapport with him.)
You imagine his other allies would be willing to work if you earned enough rapport with him.

>>6176206
>>6176192

I can support this. Should/can we just summon up POI again? We could guzzle some Holy Tears and I bet we will regen restrain from sticking this guy in the grinder. We can also ping mind read/radar on occasion to see if we get a hit on the shifter as we go.

But I do want out of this damn district soon. Also need to keep an eye on Seath since he is the Principal for this section of the mission.

>>6176231
>(Psychological warfare time.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMpRVY1imzM

>>6176192
Old man:
>Take him prisoner for now. You have better plans for him. Die by the energy meatgrinder, live by the energy meatgrinder. (Increases the risks of exploring why you have him, unlocks a more 'satisfying' way to kill him.)

Bugs and bot:
>CHECK UP ON CLOVER AND MAX. You need to learn what you can from the survivors.
Link up with the others and secure all survivors.

Us:
>EXTRACTION MACHINE. Time to reclaim this machine. Perhaps you can also let the old man get a taste of his own medicine after.
To the gallows with this piece of shit. Hopefully this will scatter the others, but they can get fed in too if they stay. :)

Normally I'd wait longer but an unanimous 4 person majority on everything but the free action (and the free action having 3/4) is enough to just go "yeah fuck it"

Two things. I need three anons to roll the following
>2d100
>1d100
>1d100

TABLE OF POSSIBLE LOOT
1-15: ILLEGAL AMMO STASH (The party has been burning through ammo lately, this isn't the worst to get. Holds 4 PISTOL AMMO, 2 SHOTGUN SLUGS, 2 REVOLVER BULLETS, and a random amount of SPECIALITY ammo for either PISTOL, REVOLVER, or SHOTGUNS.)
16-30: DRUGS. SO MANY DRUGS. (You'll obtain 3 random consumables.)
31-50: MONEY. YOU JUST FIND MONEY. (Holy shit, they really were making bank here. You'll obtain $615 and for every duplicate, multiply the previous amount by 2.2 (2 MONEY rolls = 1353, 3 = 2977, 4 = 6550))
51-70: D-CORP AND P-CORP ENERGY STASH (Seems like he was skimming a bit off the top. You'll obtain 2 A-ENERGY, 2 BOOTLEG C-EXTRACT (less valuable as a bargaining item but better as a consumable), and 2 random non-A-ENERGY or C-EXTRACT energy item.)
71-94: MINOR ANOMALOUS STASH (You'll obtain a random ODDITY ARMOR, WEAPON, EQUIPMENT or ACCESSORY. ODDITIES are a half step between PARADIGMS, they're rare and powerful but nowhere near as potent as PARADIGMs.)
95-99: TRUE ANOMALOUS STASH (You'll obtain a random PARADIGM. A true and honest one, real potent shit.)
100: MYSTERY BOX!!! (You'll obtain two random but very, VERY valuable items out of this.)

Secondly, IIvermory, normally I'd say that'd cost you but due to an old piece of equipment that's basically stapled onto you now (GLOVES OF UNKNOWN COLOR) and the NOLNOL pill reducing it further, you can do it for free. The only real downside is that it might hamper the regeneration the NOLNOL pills gives you.

Wanna resummon POI? (Locked whenever a majority is decided)
>YES (No RESTRAINT regeneration this turn but POI is back online.)
>NO (You'll heal between 1 to 2 RESTRAINT due to your mind not being restrained.)

Rolled 28, 85 = 113 (2d100)

>>6176467
>YES (No RESTRAINT regeneration this turn but POI is back online.)

Rolled 73 (1d100)

>>6176467
YES

Rolled 43 (1d100)

>>6176467

Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d4)

RESULTS: MONEY x1, MINOR ANOMALOUS STASH x2, DRUGS x1.

Rolling for the ODDITIES you get. I would normally wait longer but I have to do something in 3ish hours, so I'll assume zYQ not voting no is a 'yes' to save time. It's that or you have to wait way too long for the update.

1 - WEAPON
2 - ARMOR
3 - GENERAL EQUIPMENT/MISC
4 - ACCESSORY

Writing. Not rolling for drugs, you'll see what you'll get soon enough.

>>6176528
>armor armor
Yes good, more defensive gear for whoever is lacking

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"Release you? No, no, we're keeping you for now."
"Wait, no, you can't-" "Silence."

"Wait, before you do something. Old man, do you have a broadcast system here in this factory?"
"Eh? Nothing here has been operational for years, lady."
"Who's the Harvester in the freezer?" "Four questions is enough, DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT I SAID?!" <"Shit, shit, shit. Is that who they're after? Shouldn't have held that C-Corp Confectioner for Roger."> Oh? C-Corp? Interesting.

"Go ahead, Seath."

Seath lifts his knee off the old man so he can actually pick up the old man. He promptly lifts the old man off the ground with one hand before locking him in a chokehold. The old man desperately tries to squirm out of Seath's grip but the only people YOU know who could break out of that is Lex and Benedict.

Once the old man is barely consciousness, Seath removes the old man from the chokehold and shifts his position so he's standing next to the old man, hand on his shoulder. He has a FIRM grip on the old man's shoulder, he's not going anywhere.

Good.
>THE OLD MAN is now your prisoner! Exploring is riskier until you can kill him.

You promptly bite down onto your arm until blood is drawn, focusing all of your effort into resummoning POI. Soon, the same vague misty silhouette manifests out of the self inflicted wound. You can tell she's not too pleased on being resummoned with how moody she sounds.
"Feh."

Whatever, physical manifestation of one of your schizophrenic voices, you're too important.
>POI's effects are reapplied! No RESTRAINT regeneration this update.

While Seath and Benjamin stand by the door, eyes peeled in case anything else happens, you promptly chirp out a warning towards everyone about the figure you saw and to KEEP THEIR GUARDS UP AT ALL COSTS. You also command Kiara and the others to join up with Max and Clover, sticking together is important now.

As for the FREEZER VIP? You can probably still deal with him but it may require convincing BUGARM LADY to do it on your group's behalf so you can spend your remaining time here at the place Clover wants to go to. Might have to split the reward 50/50 with her. Hrm. You'll see if it's worth it later.

Sadly you can't play the old man's screams but at the very least, you'll jack all of the shit remaining here in his office. Though depending on how painful it is, his screams may be loud enough to echo throughout the factory anyways.

Let's see what you can jack from his office. You toss away the desks and filing cabinets with your telekinesis, trusting your WHISPER OF THE CITY boosted instincts to find where his stashes are. You tally up everything you find in this rink-a-dink office...

LOOT OBTAINED!
>$615
>WHITE POWDER x2 (Boosts VIOLENCE and TALENT by 2 for a short duration, heals 1 RESTRAINT, deals 1 FLESH damage)
>MINDSHATTER PILLS x2 (Also known as LSD. This stuff was clearly watered down stock though. Heal 2 RESTRAINT and boosts WILLPOWER by 1 for a very long duration on use.)

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>ZPZ DUST x2 (A highly illegal anesthetic that is known to have radical side effects. Reduces all FLESH and RESTRAINT damage taken by 3 for a short duration on use. While active, attacks have a far higher chance of inflicting CRIPPLING INJURIES.)
>SHIMMERING OVERCOAT (ODDITY ARMOR. A translucent coat that seems to flicker in and out of reality. +1 TALENT and MAX FLESH while equipped. Once per mission, the user may become partially intangible for a short duration. While intangible, attacks deal 2 less damage and the user can phase through walls.)
>BLOODSTAINED FIREMAN OUTFIT (ODDITY ARMOR. An old set of fireman protective equipment caked in ashes and blood. +1 MAX FLESH and VIOLENCE while worn, renders the user IMMUNE to any amount of fire-based damage.)

Hm. Clover probably won't change out his poncho, even if you have better equipment for him, so for now you toss the BLOODSTAINED FIREMAN OUTFIT to Seath to keep him safe. Max said something about his suit being armor as is but no point letting it rot. As for the overcoat, you'd probably give that to Kiara since she has no armor.

Granted you haven't felt the urge to give her any since she's a robot but with how serious things are getting, can't be too safe.

You hear something shifting around in the hallway right outside of the office. It's so quiet you would've assumed nothing of it if not for Ben and Seath both panicking.

[D-CORP HEAD RESEARCHER] "Anomalous phenomena detected. Head clearing up, I can see it now."

[OPEN MINDED + POI ACTIVE] "It's them! It's them again!" Benjamin's eyes are wider than dinner plates now. "Seath! Punch it! Punchitpunchitpunchit!"

You scramble out of the room to see what's going on.
The same figure from before, in its barely visible glory, is rapidly lunging at Seath! Seath's fist smashes into its face before it can land a hit on him but unlike last time, it just eats the hit.

Small wisps of smoke trail around the edges of the protective glove that's part of the ODDITY Seath is wearing. It only seems to have stunned the figure instead of actually doing any real damage.
[OPEN MINDED] "Wait." Benjamin digs for his LOST IN TIME crossbow and smacks the broad side of it into the figure. That's enough to one shot it and before you know it, it disappears.

"Fuck." Benjamin lets out an awkward laugh. "I think these things are immune to damage from non-anomalous objects. His armor is an ODDITY, so it let him hit it but for no real damage. I think you used FEDKILLER..."
"Well that fucking sucks." You sigh. That means only Max (due to wearing a PARADIGM uniform of armor AND being a SHIFTer) and Casey (has SUGAR WAND X) can do any real damage to the figures. The rest are basically useless in a fight.

Well, they could use ANTI-ANOMALY AMMO, that'd probably work. But that shit is expensive and you're pretty sure only Clover has them on his person.

You quickly relay this information to your allies over at INGREDIENT PREPERATION, you do NOT want them to waste ammo.

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You don't even know what limits this SHIFTer's power has. Can multiple be active at once? Does any damage transfer back to them? How long of a cooldown does his power have? How much mental strain does it put on them?

Too little information to plan anything around aside from "HUNT THEM DOWN AND TRY KILLING THEM???" At least the old man can be countered by some gas masks and a burly man keeping an iron grip on his shoulder.

Only way from here is towards the machine. If you recall correctly, it's straight ahead from the manager's office. You take the lead with Benjamin and Seath trailing behind you, both keeping an eye out in case another nearly impossible to spot figure approaches.

Thankfully you only had to walk about 30 feet until you stumbled upon the room you're looking for. You can tell it's the room by the copious amount of dried blood trailing to and away from a rusted iron door. One that so happens to be firmly locked if your attempts to open it say anything. It seems locked from the inside so you can't lockpick it.

You, Benjamin and Seath all share a look.

"I got a big fucking anomalous mace. Ben, you take it." You toss over your MACE OF ACERBITY over to him. "How tough do you think your feet are?"
"Pretty tough. I can probably kick it down with some help."

Benjamin stares down at the porcelain mace that is now steadily leaking black ooze (thank fuck that doesn't happen when it's sitting in your inventory). A glint of VIOLENCE is in the otherwise jovial and nerdy man's eyes. "Let's do this."

Seath begins to rapidly smash his foot against the door, over and over again. Benjamin quickly joins in and starts wailing at the door with the PARADIGM you gave him. The door's already starting to twist and warp from the strain of their two attacks. Hell, the acid is already melting through the door.

Once it's all nice and weakened, you take a deep breath to focus all of your anomalous energy through your antlers. You got NOLNOL pills active, might as well use FOCUSED powers while you can. With your now empowered TELEKINESIS, you pry the sealed metal door right out of the doorway it was sitting in. You carry it about a solid four feet away before letting it CLUNK to the ground like dead weight.

Time to see what's inside.

https://youtu.be/sBsLyXjxlTM?si=5RZtHzgL-klxH_uJ - ILLEGAL EXTRACTION

Turns out, you tore your way into a repurposed freezer section of the factory. The first thing that hits you is a massive gust of artificial freezing cold air. Didn't affect you any but both Benjamin and Seath are shivering like crazy after being hit by that.

The freezer is remarkably spacious for what probably was meant to only hold piles on piles of frozen pizzas. The ceiling stretches as high as the main lobby's, which was made to fit all sorts of advanced machinery, and it's wide enough where you could easily fill it up with 200 people and still have enough room to easily move around in. The layout of it is simple, though.

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It's a cubic room that's mostly just a smooth icy, smooth expanse. There's only has two things of note in it: meathooks hanging from the ceiling and walls and the EXTRACTION machine itself.

Hanging off the MEAT HOOKS is, to your horror, the mangled bodyparts of at least a dozen different humans. None of them are alive, thankfully, but that's only because it's a random assortment of severed arms and legs. A few heads also hand loosely on the meathooks, staring vacantly into nothingness.

[BLIND OPTIMISM] Benjamin tries shoving away the horrific sight like nothing's wrong. "At least we're dealing with the person who did all of this, right?"
>BENJAMIN is now at 5/6 RESTRAINT! He gains 2% PROGRESS, up to 130/170 now!

Seath tries to hold back his disgust but he can't. He has to look away from the mangled mess of limbs. "Been a while since I've seen that, ha."
>-1 SEATH RESTRAINT! Immediately negated by HOLY TEARS healing 1 RESTRAINT, leaving him at 9/23.

You? You feel numb. Knowing you have the guy responsible for this helps you avoid taking any damage luckily.

The machine itself is, well, it looks a bit different than you thought. It's a 15 foot tall grey cube that looks like a generic testing object in a 3D modeling software. "EXTRACTION" is written in bold black Slussen (a common industrial font type) text on the upper half of it.

You count at least four small compartments and one large compartment scattered across its surface. The small compartments read "FOR SMALL GOODS." and the large one reads "FOR LARGE ONES, TAKES TIME". You assume this is where they'd stuff the...goods into.

The only person in here is a guard who's cowering in the far corner of one of the rooms. In her mangled tendril hand is- Wait, is that a radio?

!WARNING! RISK LEVEL HAS RISEN!

"T-they got the boss! Ev-everyone, leave your stations and h-head towards EXTRACTION! NOW! NOW!"

Fuck. You can already hear a raucous cacophony of maniac screaming and insane laughter echoing from all across the factory. A thunderous assortment of at least ten or twelve different footsteps, hard to tell with how much echoing there is, is making their way towards EXTRACTION.

Your earpiece crackles to life with Kiara's voice. "Did you hear that too? Seems like none of them are heading to us, we can extract the survivors just fine."
Clover's voice is next, "What in tarnation are you fuckers doing? GET OUT, they're clearly riled up over something."
Max's voice follows after that, "Ha! Nicole and Ben can handle it...right? We'll try to get the survivors out as quickly as possible."

The OLD MAN regains consciousness and is now squirming like a mad bastard. He fails to get out of Seath's grip and fails to even scratch at the ODDITY ARMOR he's wearing. But you know you have to make a decision now. How do you want to approach this situation?

You're shredding him no matter what. You brought him here for a reason. Why else would you have taken him prisoner?

Choose three.
>[UNSTABLE + OLD MAN PRISONER] Wait right until the crowd charges the EXTRACTION room before having Seath toss the old man into the grinder. Hope to GOD it scares them more than it enrages them. (CHALLENGING VIOLENCE CHECK, rolling Seath's 12d6. Likely heals a FUCK TON of RESTRAINT to everyone in your party if this passes. May need to convince Clover it was justified later?)
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Plan an ambush with Benjamin's help. Throw a HEMOGLOBIN GRENADE in the doorway and once everyone's stuck, have him set them ablaze. (-2 BENJAMIN RESTRAINT and 1 out of 3 HEMOGLOBIN GRENADES, MEDIUM WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling 10d6+1d3 with you assisting Benjamin. Likely to earn some RAPPORT from Clover for dealing with every last syndie here.)
>[RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS] Find a way to optimize the machine with the documents SEATH found. (VERY EASY COGNIZANCE CHECK, rolling 13d6+1d3 with Seath's help. Would've been far harder without the documents. May produce more energy from shredding him?)
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES] You haven't used FOCUSED PUPPETEER before. Might be the best time to use it. Try to temporarily win the female guard to your side. (Choose whether to spend 1 RESTRAINT, 1 FLESH or increase the check to a MODERATE level. MEDIUM WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling your 8d6. Lowers the DC of UNSTABLE + OLD MAN PRISONER and PERSON OF INTEREST. Buys a little bit of extra time too.)
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Clear your throat. Try to bluff the horde with whatever comes to mind. You already have their boss, you can probably mess with them somehow. (MODERATE CHARM DC, rolling 8d6+1d3 with Seath's help. May buy you time and some FOXTROT favor on success.)
>[CAPTAIN'S AUTHORITY] Tell your allies to make some sort of distraction! Anything to buy you time! (Moderately lowers the DC of other checks picked and slightly increases their rewards. Costs nothing to do but it does eatup an action that may have better results.)
>Write in (Kill him quickly instead of making a show of it? Deal with the charging horde some other way? Something else?)

----

Unrelated but I promised to do this last thread, here's some minor loot you got from recovering a torn piece of SEATH's outfit
>OBSCURITÉ FABRIC STRIP (Can be used to upgrade any piece of armor to always block an extra 1 FLESH and RESTRAINT damage from ranged attacks on top of its other benefits. Casey can use this best.)

Would've posted earlier but my power went out for a solid moment.
Before you ask, FOCUSED PUPPETEER would cost 3 RESTRAINT so it's not free even with your gloves and NOLNOL pill active. Though I felt it would be fairer to pick what price to pay for it.

You currently have 6/8 FLESH and 7/11 RESTRAINT. MODERATE is higher than MEDIUM, but the haze sorta muddies any other details beyond that.

>>6176737
>[ANOMALOUS ABILITIES]
SPEND 1 RESTRAINT
>[UNSTABLE + OLD MAN PRISONER]
>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
THEY BECOME CAPTIVE AUDIENCE TO THEIR BOSS BEING SHREDDED ALIVE
THEN WE BURN THEM ALL TO DEATH
I don't wanna diplomance or pacifist here after all the shit we saw and heard these guys doing. I wanna KILL

>>6176737
>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
>[RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS]
>[PERSON OF INTEREST]
>Write in
Kill him quickly, then throw him into the shredding machine to produce energy for donating to the slum.

I don’t want throw him live into shredding machine anymore, since every syndicate member heading towards us which give us option BENJAMIN ALLY to kill them all here.

>>6176769
I feel this is kind of pointless cruelty now, not that I am against all "pragmatic" cruel action, since I am one who wants to broadcast his scream being shredded live for psychological warfare purposes to scare off all SEAL members here in the warehouse, but since all the SEAL members are running towards us and have the BENJAMIN ALLY option to kill them all, it kind of makes throwing him live in the shredding machine seem pointless cruelty now.

>>6176769
Also, from a pragmatic perspective: why kill them all? Won’t it be better to let them live to spread horror stories of us throwing a live SEAL member into a shredding machine for psychological warfare purposes if we come back in this district in the future?

>>6176737
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] Plan an ambush with Benjamin's help. Throw a HEMOGLOBIN GRENADE in the doorway and once everyone's stuck, have him set them ablaze. (-2 BENJAMIN RESTRAINT and 1 out of 3 HEMOGLOBIN GRENADES, MEDIUM WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling 10d6+1d3 with you assisting Benjamin. Likely to earn some RAPPORT from Clover for dealing with every last syndie here.)
>[RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS] Find a way to optimize the machine with the documents SEATH found. (VERY EASY COGNIZANCE CHECK, rolling 13d6+1d3 with Seath's help. Would've been far harder without the documents. May produce more energy from shredding him?)
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] Clear your throat. Try to bluff the horde with whatever comes to mind. You already have their boss, you can probably mess with them somehow. (MODERATE CHARM DC, rolling 8d6+1d3 with Seath's help. May buy you time and some FOXTROT favor on success.)

>>6176769
+1

KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL

>>6176885
It’s not about tactical objectives, it’s about justice. This asswipe is going to reap the rewards of his actions.

>>6176946
Nah, I prefer shooting him in the head or snapping his neck, then throwing his body in the shredding machine.

ANOMALOUS ABILITIES: p/L, WMV
BENJAMIN ALLY: ALL
UNSTABLE + OLD MAN PRISONER: p/L, WMV
RECOVERD EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS: IOL, FaO
PERSON OF INTEREST: IOL
WRITE IN TO KILL QUICKER: FaO

So, you're burning the gang alive, that's for certain. But we have a three way tie. Let's make it so we vote for what you DON'T want to do.

First to three wins.
>Don't make a show of his death. Make it quick. (UNSTABLE + OLD MAN PRISONER will be skipped.)
>Don't bother speeding it up. Do we NEED more energy? (RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS will be skipped.)
>Don't bother messing with the guard's mental state. (ANOMALOUS ABILITIES will be skipped.)

>>6177054
>Don't bother speeding it up. Do we NEED more energy? (RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS will be skipped.)

Time for a good old fashioned terror campaign. Make their deaths so painful that no one will even think of trying this for the next decade.

That one guard can be our witness.

>>6177084
Fine.
>>6177054
>Don't bother speeding it up. Do we NEED more energy? (RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS will be skipped.)
We better goddamn make the D-corp compensate the dead victim's friends/family and kidnapped victims after this.

>>6177054
>Don't bother speeding it up. Do we NEED more energy? (RECOVERED EXTRACTION DOCUMENTS will be skipped.)

Rolled 3 (1d3)

Alright. Time to face the bloodshed.

Three anons, roll the following.
>8d6 (WILLPOWER, DC 26)
>10d6 (BENJAMIN WILLPOWER, DC 35)
>12d6 (VIOLENCE, DC 46)

Rolling the 1d3 on the Benjamin check for the sake of speed.
Passing the DC 26 WILLPOWER check will reduce the DC needed to pass the VIOLENCE check by 5.

Rolled 4, 5, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 5 = 27 (8d6)

>>6177111

Rolled 1, 2, 4, 5, 1, 5, 6, 4, 2, 6 = 36 (10d6)

>>6177111
rolling Ben WP

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Rolled 6, 2, 4, 6, 2, 5, 2, 5, 4, 3, 4, 4 = 47 (12d6)

>>6177111

>VIOLENCE

RESULTS
YOUR WILLPOWER: 27
BENJAMIN'S WILLPOWER: 39
SEATH'S VIOLENCE: 47 (beating a DC of 41 due to passing YOUR willpower check.)
ALL PASS. VIOLENCE IS AT 120%.
WRITING.

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>>6177189

>>6177189
Perfection

>>6177141
>>6177156
>>6177188
>>6177191
>>6177189
>>6177200
>WILLPOWER DC 26
>pass it by 1
>BEN WILLPOWER DC 35
>pass it by 1
>VIOLENCE DC 46
>pass it by 1 even though it got reduced to 41
The dice wills it
Violence will reign

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>>6177201

>>6177189
This shit has been two days in the making.

HandlerQM you are a master of keeping me on the edge of my seat.

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Okay.

A PROPER PUNISHMENT must be delivered. That much is locked inside your tiny doe brain. The issue is: How to do that WITHOUT being mauled by a fuck ton of PARADIGM boosted gang members?

It's not that you're defenseless. Far from it, you have too many weapons on you for any sane person. It's the fact you want to be a showoff and do it while they're watching. Outnumbered 3 to 13-14 (lady guard, at least twelve footsteps, old man squirming and fighting back while Seath's distracted) is not something your group can handle.

You want your allies to focus on escaping with as many hostages as possible as well.

So, first things first, you need to even the numbers. You snap around with your hand raised towards the cowering guard. Like last time, translucent pink strands launch out from the tips of your fingers out to you.

They try to latch onto her neck and the top of her head but the guard is trying her best to squirm away from the strands. Guess she can see them due to the PARADIGM she's linked to. It takes a LOT of focus and concentration and by the end, your mind is starting to BURN.

>-1 RESTRAINT! 6/11 RESTRAINT LEFT!
>WILLPOWER CHECK: PASS

Her eyes are now washed over in a foggy pink haze. "W-what's going on? Why am I...huh? Oh, hey guys! What's up?" Her voice is meek, soft, like she's still trying to wake up.

Seath and Benjamin are obviously unnerved at her mind being tampered with like this but they wisely hold their tongues for now. You three plan on shoving a man into an energy meatgrinder feet first while he's still alive. This isn't the worst thing you're doing today.

"Tell your friends that you dealt with us and freed the boss. It's a false alarm."
"What the fuck?!" The OLD MAN is thrashing even harder now. You think he's about to break his shoulder if he tries any harder. "I see those god damn strings! You're-" Benjamin promptly slaps his hand over the old man's mouth.

Turns out he barely has any teeth to bite down with and what few he does have can't pierce Benjamin's leather gloves. Bummer~!

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, sure." The female guard raises the radio up and sleepily mumbles into it. "Guys. They were a bunch of pushovers, the guards up front were dummies. False alarm."
The rumbling footsteps that were threatening to break into the room suddenly screech to a halt. It's clear the guards are suspecting something is up but for the moment it seems like they're buying it. You can hear them murmuring and mumbling to each other only a dozen or so feet away from the room you're in.

You'd guess that'd buy you two or three minutes tops. That should be enough to spring the rest of your plan into action. You keep your focus on keeping the guard under your thrall while Benjamin begins to tinker with the EXTRACTION machine. With the help of the manuals you saved from the old man's office, he SLOWS DOWN how quickly the machine shreds material.

The old man's eyes widen with a powerful kind of fear you will ideally experience in your life.

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The overpowering realization that you will die slowly, painfully, with full awareness of every agonizing moment.

It's powerful enough for him to completely forget he can actually scream for the guards to come help him now that Benjamin isn't covering his mouth.

Once Benjamin is done modifying it he begins pacing back and forth around the cube with obvious worry. "Okay. What now, Nicole, because as I see it we still have a dozen or so guards read to come in. They're going to obviously check us, right?"

"You know that HEMOGLOBIN GRENADE you got me? How flammable would you say the strands are?"

Benjamin hoots out another obnoxiously high pitch 'laugh'. "Incredibly. Z-Company is very strict about having NO SPARKS OF ANY KIND anywhere near the production line for these-" It clicks why you're asking that. "Oh that's horrific."

"The issue I see is that we would be blocking our only way out...but this armor you found?" Seath looks down at the ODDITY armor he's wearing. A fireman's outfit, ready to protect from such a thing. "We can rush past them once the strands weaken from the fire burning away at them."

"Okay." You finally let go of your FOCUSED PUPPETEER ability. The female guard collapses to the floor now that you're no longer controlling her. She'll probably need a minute to wake back up. You prime the HEMOGLOBIN GRENADE, ready to throw it at Benjamin's command. Benjamin quickly sprouts a pair of ashen wings out of his back before rising up towards the ceiling. He'll wait for his time to strike.

Seath drags the old man over to the machine with little to no effort. He slams his foot into the closed compartment at the bottom-center of the machine in order to open it up. A mass of whirring metal teeth is the only thing you see in the now opened compartment. This is enough to snap the old man out of his fear-induced trance.

"GUARDS! GUARDS, IT WAS A RUSE! HELP! FUCKING HELP ME!" Too bad he didn't notice the grenade in your hand.

It takes a second but the guards all immediately pour into the room you're in. Sadly this is exactly what you wanted. The moment Benjamin spots them, he gives you the order to throw it. In mere seconds all thirteen guards who stumbled in are now coated in thick, sticky and fibrous red strands.

They squirm and thrash like crazy in it but it only seems to help them get more of their bodies entangled by it.
[POI ACTIVE] You also notice a few odd distortions in the thick red mess. Did you catch a few SHIFTer conjured figures too? You think there's three or four in there.

Shit, that confirms whoever has that power can spawn multiple at once.
"YOU FUCKER!" "FUCK, SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF THIS!" "NGH!"

Seath disables the old man from struggling any further with one simple move: He intensifies the amount of pressure his grip is putting on the old man's shoulder. More and more force is put into it until his shoulder gives out with a sickening CRUNCH. The old man nearly blacks out from the agonizing pain he's now in.

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He shoves the old man onto the floor. He's too dazed to fight back when you shove him HARD with your foot, pushing his body close enough to the machine for his shoes to get stuck in the teeth of the machine.

The stainless teeth teeth inside the machine take their sweet, sweet time devouring its new morsel. His shoes and socks are torn to tiny shreds. Tiny shreds which are soon stained red once the teeth sink into his wrinkled flesh.

The sickening sound of bones being pulverized into dust and his flesh being grinded into a liquidly slurry.

The old man tries to drag himself out of the machine but Seath uses his foot to keep the old man from squirming out. Instead, the old man's body is pushed deeper into the machine. Every single inch of his body takes a lot of time and effort out of the artificially slowed down grinder to eat through.

The guards stop thrashing for a moment when they see what you're doing. You can make out a slurry of expressions but the main two ones are FEAR and BLINDING RAGE. Their bodies are now thrashing with the same desperation as their boss. The strands holding them back is straining underneath the amount of physical strain it's being put under.

It holds. For now.

Seath decides to taunt them while he slowly pushes the old man further into the grinder. "This is what you did to dozens of my district's people. To innocent men and women. To innocent animals. Hell, I wouldn't put it above you to do this to children."

"This pain you're feeling?" You kneel down right next to the old man. "It's only equal to 2% of the pain you forced this place to endure."

The grinder has shredded up to the old man's thighs now. There's so much blood and pulverized flesh spilling out onto the floor and soaking into your shoes. The old man is trying to bark out something but all that comes out of his is a high pitch wail that you can already hear echoing down the hallway outside of the room.

The rage that has consumed the guards slowly begins to vanish when they realize that it's already too late. The old man's hips are now nothing more than wet dog food and bonemeal now. Even with the machine being artificially slowed down, it still easily rips into the old man like it was nothing.

You didn't expect what happens next. A torrent of aerosol begins to spray out of every single orifice remaining in the old man's body. A thick, seedy cloud of it that's clearly one last desperate attempt to save himself.

All it takes to avoid it is you and Seath simply stepping back. You don't have to be close to him anymore, the machine already has its hold on him. For good.

Seath doesn't even turn to face the guards. "You'll die like this too. Maybe not as slowly but I hope all of you realize you deserve this." His voice is low and monotone. There's no joy in what he's doing. Only a grim satisfaction. "We'll keep one of you as a survivor."

The female guard you mind-fucked is wide awake now. Her gaze is locked onto her boss being completely pulverized.

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She's not saying a word. She knows nothing she can do will change what's happening next.

The old man's bowels and large and small intestine spill out once the machine crunches through his lower torso. The most horrifying part of all of this is that, even through the haze of aerosol around him, you can see his eyes.

Somehow, there's still light behind them. He's aware of every single moment of agony his body is being put through.

You decide to rub a bit of salt into the wound before he loses consciousness. You snap your fingers towards the ceiling. You have only one thing to say to Benjamin.

"Just imagine if they did this to Max. If they took her and did this to you in front of your face. You think they're above that?"

>BENJAMIN WILLPOWER: SUCCESS!

The mental image you put in Benjamin's head is enough to transform his wings from smoldering ash to wings made out of blazing blue flames. He shoots out a torrent of blinding blue fire towards the trapped guards below and just like that, the substance they're stuck in lights ablaze.

Benjamin is able to stick the landing once he loses the ability to fly. His ankles buckle and he nearly falls down but he didn't break anything! Good on him.

The old man can only croak out a limp, pathetic 'no!' as he has to watch his guards are now being cremated in front of him. It's the last thing he sees as his arms are pulled into the machine as well. That seemed to be the last straw for his body.

>VIOLENCE CHECK: SUCCESS!

All that anyone in the room can hear is screaming. The last, pathetic wails of the old man as his body finally shuts down. The fresh cacophony of low and high blood curdling screams that are being drowned out by the roaring flames engulfing all of them.

The old man's body is fully subsumed into the shredder not long after his arms got dragged in. You swear you still hear him pathetically rasping for mercy even as his face is torn off of his skull.

You, Seath, Benjamin and the last surviving guard can only watch the spectacle unfolding. The last bits of the old man being pulverized. The skin and muscle of the trapped guards charring and peeling off their very bodies. The sickening scent of burnt flesh and the iron-rich scent of fresh blood lingering in the air.

Seath's the first to laugh. A low, gravely tone befitting of his stature.
Benjamin joins in with his high pitch, bird-like cooing.
Even the guard is joining in with a defeated, soulless laugh at the sheer absurdity of what's unfolding before her.

God. You can see why some people are sadists. Seeing this unfold is so good for your soul.

>Seath loses 2 RESTRAINT from brief exposure to the aersol, 2 from WEAKENED SPORE INFESTED, but heals 10 RESTRAINT from the carnage unfolding and 2 from HOLY TEARS. Total: 17/23
>You heal 5 RESTRAINT. You're at full RESTRAINT!
>Benjamin loses 2 RESTRAINT from using his ability and heals 5 from the carnage unfolding. He's at full RESTRAINT!

>Benjamin obtains 11.5% SPARK PROGRESS! He is at 141.5/170!

There's nothing worth salvaging here. Seath can probably have someone come down here to retrieve it and you DO have the manuals. No point staying here just for the machine.

You and Benjamin are pulled into a forced hug by Seath. His body is large enough to cover up enough of both of you to protect you from the worst of the flames.

You three slowly trek past the blazing inferno that once might've contained guards that could've threatened you. The heat is suffocating but you two are protected from the worst of it thanks to him acting as a human shield. You didn't spot any of the blurry figures in the fire. Seems like his fire counts as an anomalous source of damage, good to know.

The three of you stumble out of the hallway and into the now eerily silent factory. That's when your earpiece crackles to life.

It's Clover.

[DOGMATIC MINDSET] "...You did somethin' mighty unnecessary, Nicky, I could tell that. We'll talk soon."

Well. Best to make it out of the factory. There's no signs of any more blurry figures and what few guards that stayed behind to guard the facility have long since left. You're outside of the factory before you know it- Shit! You forgot the Harvester VIP! You should go in and grab him!

Before you do that, you see your four other allies patiently waiting outside of the factory. There's no sign of the BUGARM LADY anywhere. Huh. Benjamin's guess on the guards you shot earlier not warranted a double tap was true; They're dead as a doorknob.

Clover crosses his arms with a stern expression. "That scream lasted forever. I know you dragged out that death far, far beyond what's warranted. I understand where you were coming from but we're BETTER than these people."
[RASH] "Clover." It's clear Kiara isn't thinking about what she is about to say. "Cut it with the 'oh boohoo bad guy got shredded ' shit. He deserved to die. You almost sound like you wanted to spare him."

"No, no! He deserved to die, ya hear anyone said he didn't? What I'm saying is we ain't like these no-good savages. We don't stoop to their level."

"The people in those cells barely had clothes on, Clover. Why should we care about if he suffers when he doesn't care if other people suffer?" Max isn't trying to sound accusatory, she's geninuely bewildered.
"..." Casey rubs her throat. A low, soothing hum vibrates from deep inside of it. "Nicole Esquire surely had a reason, no? Did it not satisfy us to know they were all dealt with?"

Even Clover can't say no to that. He's trying his best to be the 'better man' in all of this but even he can't pretend it was THAT unwarranted. He sighs, "Yeah. Hardly hear any noise in there. Did you get rid of the rest of them?"

>Kiara, Clover, Max and Casey now have FULL RESTRAINT! Shredding people is the way to go, Nicole!
>+1 RAPPORT with Clover (+0.5 BONUS from BLOSSOMING HEART), now at 5.5/10! You'll get to pick a boon for Clover once you arrive at a new District!

Seath pats Ben on the shoulder. "Yep. This little bird brained dumbass managed to light twelve guards trying to kill us on fire. They burnt to a crisp."

You can't tell if Max is aroused, amazed, envious or afraid upon hearing what Benjamin's power did to the guards. Realistically? All four. "Can't even let me catch up, huh? Maybe I'll need to do something about that lately."

"Wait." Benjamin snaps his fingers, completely ignoring Max's thinly veiled flirt "Where's the buglady?"

"She left." Kiara shrugs. "With some harvester guy. She said she would handle it from here as a 'favor' for dealing with a rival syndicate. Dunno what his deal was."
>You missed out on the HARVESTER opportunity. Oh well.

>SIDEQUEST FINISHED!
>REWARDS: $600, 1 D-CORP FAVOR, and a PARADIGM of your choice! Due to retrieving the EXTRACTION MANUAL, you'll get to pick an oddity once you arrive at your next location.
>EXTRA REWARDS: $450 from the energy obtained from SHREDDING THE OLD MAN. You'll likely get another reward once the machine can properly be harvested.

------

Choose your last D-CORP location to visit.
>STYGIAN WATERING HOLE. A local bar known for having popular with criminals and syndicates. While it could provide back alley info, there's also a sentient anomaly there. SEATH could've been lured here.
>ROASTED SOUL CAFÉ. A coffee place associated with the rich and famous. Max should be able to get you into this. Gives you a chance to use that coffee coupon and to talk to some rich people who may know something.
>BODY GRINDSET GYM. Seath's probably not here but you could check this place out to help your allies build their GAINS. Could be that an incompetent Spook is waiting here too.
>ZENITH HOSPITAL. A Z-Corp hospital working to help out the poor and desperate of D-Company. Rumors say that weird experiments from D-Corp researchers are going on here. Maybe they saw Seath enter his paranoic episode?
>[CLOVER'S MAP NOTE] ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE. An estate of a formerly wealthy and powerful family known for having fox-based bioaugments. May offer some useful bargaining chips and lore about D-Corp + Clover.
>[UPGRADED MAP] NOWHERE. An ominously named stretch of D-Corp highway that has been consumed by so much darkness, it may as well be a void now. Researchers are spending days on days studying the non-existence of said highway.
>FUCKING LEAVE YOU HATE THIS PLACE. (Buys you more time to explore L, R, and/or M-Corp. Also good for team morale.)
(1/2)

Choose your PARADIGM REWARD!
>UNRELENTING HUNT. A long wooden arrow with a bronze arrow tip. It constantly vibrates, ready to move at a moment's notice. (WEAPON. ATTACK ROLL: FLESH+2. Does incredibly high MENTAL damage on hit and MARKS the target on hit. While marked, the target's location is always known to the user. The user heals a large amount of FLESH and RESTRAINT when they kill a MARKED target.)
>DOGCHEW. A very sturdy dog collar. Was apparently found at an old P-Company facility in J-Company. (ACCESSORY. +3 MAX FLESH while worn. The user may add d6s equal to 1/4th of their MAX FLESH to any check they make.)
>MISERY LOVES COMPANY. An old rusty switchblade that's no good at a weapon. Still yearns to hurt. (TOOL. When used, it links the user to a nearby target of their choice. Any FLESH/RESTRAINT damage or CRIPPLING INJURIES the user receives is transferred to the target instead. Goes on a long cooldown after use. Good for protecting weaker allies and for using otherwise harmful items with no downside.)
>WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS. A very fancy antique camera. Was likely a family heirloom. (TOOL. Photos taken with it show the near future of whatever was taken. Will offer cryptic advice on how to achieve or avoid said fate. Works well with FORGOTTEN SIGNAL.)

Sorry for delay. Hope shredding him was !FUN!. Tired now. Sleeping. Will update pastebins soon.

>>6177474
>[CLOVER'S MAP NOTE] ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE.
Self-explanatory
>WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.
This definitely must have.

>>6177480
+1
WOW!!!! NICOLE HAS /TWO/ CAMERA PARADIGMS NAO?!?!?!?! KIARA BESTIE CONFIRMED!!!!!!!! XDDDDDDD

>>6177472
>[CLOVER'S MAP NOTE] ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE. An estate of a formerly wealthy and powerful family known for having fox-based bioaugments. May offer some useful bargaining chips and lore about D-Corp + Clover.

I was gonna vote for running for the hills, but with everyone’s sanity restored I think we can do this. We owe Clover SOMETHING after the moral hell we just put him through.

>UNRELENTING HUNT. A long wooden arrow with a bronze arrow tip. It constantly vibrates, ready to move at a moment's notice. (WEAPON. ATTACK ROLL: FLESH+2. Does incredibly high MENTAL damage on hit and MARKS the target on hit. While marked, the target's location is always known to the user. The user heals a large amount of FLESH and RESTRAINT when they kill a MARKED target.)

I’d go for the camera but I know we’re going to forget that it exists about fifteen minutes after grabbing it. This is a weapon that pretty much anyone can use.

>>6177472
As an add on to my last vote>>6177507

>Talk to Clover. He’s clearly not okay with how things went.

We need to explain why we did what we did. Our reasoning was twofold:

-The people of the slums had suffered vastly more at the Seal of Bramvesh’s hands than we can even realize. This was about showing them that their suffering did not go unseen, and that retribution could be theirs.

-The survivor will tell the story of what happened. This will dissuade anyone from trying this again, lest the “deer bitch” show up and mulch them too.

The people in the slums deserve a win. We can’t fix everything for them, but at least we took out one of their biggest problems.

>>6177474
Changing vote from >>6177505 to backing >>6177507 and also backing >>6177509

I wonder if the BUGARM LADY rescuing the trapped Harvester VIP will have unknown impact later?

>>6177480
Add
>Talk to Clover
Explanatory reason to throw the old man live in the shredding machine: three reasons.

One, a morbid pragmatic reason: high morale/restraint boost to our team mental health to keep the mission going and the team to full mental combat readiness for potential combat situations with hostile, spook, and worse. And enduring haze too.

Two, ruthless psychological warfare reason: a warning to SEAL and other bad actors and syndicates here in D-Corp District to not kidnap and throw random innocents/bystanders into a shredding machine ever again.

Three, give a small bit of hope to people in slums within our realistic capability to do so. Reason: to give people of slums a small bit of comfort/relief/hope/sleeping at ease in knowing there are people out there helping them and giving justice, retribution, or revenge to bad actors.

But your concern about our morally morbid actions is completely understandable; rightfully want to voice your moral concern about our actions. You don’t have to completely agree with or like all our actions and reasons. The only thing I ask/request you to do in the future and now is to be willing to at least listen to my/our/team/friends reason/opinion first, then place your judgement on the information/reason/opinion currently in your hands. I admire your idealistic dream despite your flaw, and I hope that there are more people like you in this world who share similar or idealistic beliefs in hope, making better worlds, regardless of whether they are big or small morally good actions, even if they fail, and regardless if this idealistic dream seems naive or foolish. There is no reason to just simply lie down, roll over, and get washed away by the tide of misery, nihilism, suffering, and hopelessness.

>>6177507
>>6177539
Camera will be far more useful than UNRELENTING HUNT at spotting ambush, trap, dangerous, and undetected threats.

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>>6173828
Can we hold a small speech or farewell including our Party characters once we depart this D-Zone,
since we definitively aint coming back afterwards ever.

>>6177472
>[CLOVER'S MAP NOTE] ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE. An estate of a formerly wealthy and powerful family known for having fox-based bioaugments. May offer some useful bargaining chips and lore about D-Corp + Clover.

>>6177474
>DOGCHEW. A very sturdy dog collar. Was apparently found at an old P-Company facility in J-Company. (ACCESSORY. +3 MAX FLESH while worn. The user may add d6s equal to 1/4th of their MAX FLESH to any check they make.)

>>6177634
I like this idea

>>6177634
>>6177672
Bruh, seriously, while I understand the D-Corp district is a horrible place? What happens if an important mission or spook fuckery requires us to go to the D-Corp district again?

>>6177793
Locking the D-corp district story, lore and mystery forever because it is a nasty place is definitely something I am against.

>>6177793
>>6177796
Then it'd be super funny when we have no choice but to go back even after a cool speech

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Clover is clearly not okay with how you handled it. It's clear he's trying his best to hold himself back after his meltdown back at the facility, though, for your sake. You'll need to do SOMETHING for him.

"Okay. We're going to head to ONE MORE PLACE, that's right only ONE MORE, then we won't come back EVER unless we're paid SUPER WELL to come back here."

"Can everyone agree with that?"

"I'd rather fuck a cactus than come back here, partner."
"I'd still have to come here for work conferences but I get the spirit of what you're asking for."
"This company gets a F--- in my handbook! It's gross and icky and dark and I don't like it!"
"I live here and I 100% understand and agree, yes."
"How the hell do humans even live here anyways? Feels like territory E-Corp should've taken over. I agree, by the way."
"Absolutely! If it wasn't for Benjamin and Casey, not sure how I would've handled myself here."

"Great. Glad we're all on the same page. Clover, we're heading to your girlfriend's old house or whatever. Might as well reward you with something indulgent."
"Hey, don't listen to whatever Casey-" Clover's grumbling grinds to a halt until all that's left is a weary sigh. "Fair."

You need to get outta here ASAP. A PERFECT NOTHING can only help you travel safely one more time before the spooks can properly catch onto your trail and in a place like this? That's a recipe for disaster.

In your hands now is a new PARADIGM: A bronze tipped arrow. It doesn't seem particularly noteworthy by itself but when you accidently nick your finger on it, you can feel the onset of a seething headache beginning to form. Your NOLNOL PILL blocks it out for now thankfully.
>You heal 1 RESTRAINT to heal off the 1 RESTRAINT damage taken.

You think on how you should give this before heading to the ESTATE.
-Benjamin does have good FLESH but he's mostly been using his powers to fight. He also already has a melee weapon that deals MENTAL damage.
-Clover is a one-trick pony with revolvers. You doubt he wants to use ANY other type of weapon.
-Kiara could use it? She already has a lot of weapons as is.
-Casey doesn't have good FLESH and she also has that rapier for melee.
-Max...hm. She only has her DERRINGER and a shitty taser. Her FLESH is at a decent 5.

For now, you toss the arrow over to Max and the SHIMMERING OVERCOAT towards Kiara. You also decide to share a few more supplies with your squad.
>MAX obtains UNRELENTING HUNT, H-CORP BRANDED LIGHTER, UVX #1 x2, and TORCH GUN+
>BENJAMIN obtains RAW NOVASTONE CHUNK, "ÉTOILE" BLOOD REPLACEMENT VIAL, and TRANQUIZLER SYRINGE
>CLOVER obtains HOLY OIL and EXPLOSIVE REVOLVER BULLET x3
>KIARA obtains STANDARD ISSUE MEDKIT and HEAVY SHOTGUN SLUG x2
>CASEY obtains OIL BLACK BLOOD VIAL and STANDARD ISSUE MEDKIT
>-all of the mentioned from your inventory.

You have to leave now. The moment the survivor blabbers about a 'lady with antlers' melting her gang? God knows how many spooks will come rushing to the slums.

"Clover, Kiara, you two lead the way." You have the map, sure, but you trust these two to lead the way for now. Kiara being the GPS and Clover being the main star of the show right now.

Clover quietly mutters something to Kiara. You can't make it out but Kiara cheekily giggling to herself tells you it's something embarrasing.

"Oh, yeah, Nicky. Here's some loot for your endless pockets. Finally cleaned all of the GRIM off of the mystery loot."

MYSTERY LOOT REVEALED!
>$415, bringing you to $8030
>CHEST PAIN BRANDED CIGARETTES (ODDITY CONSUMABLE. A bootleg pack of cigarettes found in the Endless Wastes outside of City limits. Has three charges. Deals 1 FLESH and RESTRAINT damage on use but boosts three stats of the user's choice by 2 for a short duration.)
>BREAKER BULLET x4 (I-Corp's specialty ammo, mostly used by the Maus family. Can be used to fire a conceptual 'breaking' effect, adding +1d20 to any check the user desires. Can also be used as regular bullets for ANY gun.)
>BLACK TAR COFFEE x2 (Smells like cigarette ash and misguided dreams, not suited for human consumption. Boosts SPARK progress by 15.5% and grants a minor, permanent upgrade to a SHIFTer's powers.)

Huh! Neat.

Your group trails behind Clover and Kiara while keeping an eye out for anyone who may be following you. The blood that was clinging to your shoes fades away under the influence of A PERFECT NOTHING. It seems to do the same to Benjamin, Seath, and the rest of your allies.

The dark haze surrounding every corner of the slums seems to be shifting ever so slightly to hide your group away in it.
>A PERFECT NOTHING is out of charges! You doubt it can recharge before you leave the district.

You check up on Max real quick before you deal with Clover. She's probably the one going through the most after having to see what was inside INGREDIENT PREPERATION.

[SHELTERED?] You can't really read the expression she has. It's a mixture of forced smugness, relief, and anxiety that's hard to really describe in a singular emotion. She notices you looking at her. "Oh. Hey!"

The forcedness of her smug smile fades. She's genuinely full of herself now. "Don't worry about me. Knowing that bastard is dead? It helps wash everything down, you know?"
"I get that. Still, can't blame me, right?"
"Mmh. Yeah, I know, I'm a piss baby or somethin'." She lightly pats you on the head. You loathe how she's actually taller than you (antlers not included) by a solid three inches. You're like 5'6 or 5'7", so... "Don't worry."

>MAX gained 15% SPARK progress off screen! SHELTERED? didn't add any right now. She is at 115/180!

Clover's body is all sorts of tensed up. It's clear you have to talk to him about what happened. The slums around you soon fade away and now, you're out back into the safer part of this subdistrict.

Granted it's still hell out here but it's better than the slums were.

"Hey, Clover, look-"
"I ain't gonna rock the boat, Nicky. I get why you would want to do it."

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"Clover, look, it wasn't just for me to get my rocks off or somethin'. I did it for a reason."
"Yeah, Clover, let her talk." Kiara gives the both of you a small, hesitant smile. "She's trying to avoid any bad blood brewing between you two."

"One, yeah, I admit it. I did it to make everyone happy. No one liked that guy. All of you saw the awful shit he did."

Everyone, even Clover, has to nod in agreement to that.

"You can't deny that it was satisfying to know he suffered when he died. That was one of the reasons I did it: This place is a drain on our sanity and I wanted a win."

Clover tries to see your point but some part of him can't readily accept that. "I dunno. It feels wrong if you revel in death too much, ya know? Bad karma kinda thing."
"I sorta get that but c'mon. You have to admit he deserved it."

Clover shrugs. "Suppose so."

"Secondly, the people out back in the slums," You gesture towards the slums behind you. Your group has already walked a solid block away from it. Seeing it disappear from view is its own kind of mental relief. "They were suffering from gangs just like him. Suffering with no way to fight back. But we showed them that they can."

"Isn't that a good thing? Even if it's all futile, even if someone just as bad pops up later, isn't a few days of hope a worthy enough thing to give them? Don't people deserve that?"

Clover was looking at you before but now he's turned his back on you. You're worried he's starting to get sick of what you're saying but...your group stops in the middle of the empty sidewalk to check up on him.

Is he crying? He's not making any sounds but by the way his shoulders are shuddering, he's on the verge of it. He's clearly not looking at any of you for a reason.

"That's all well and good but what about the other gangs?" His body stops shaking but he's still on the edge of something. "What do you think they're gonna do when they hear what you did?"

"They hear someone shredded their boss alive, what do ya think they're gonna do? They're gonna start doing fucked up shit just like what you did to claim ownership over killing his gang. Who knows what'll happen next? What'll happen to the people in there, in the crossfire?"

"They won't do anything. Not for a while." You try his best to soothe his worries. "Look, I left a survivor. She'll spread the story of what happened. Who actually did it. Seath can probably tell some people up in D-Corp to spread rumors about me or something. We can make changes here. Even if it's only baby steps at first."

"I-, look. I don't expect you to accept everything I do. Hell, I expect ya to object to things if they're morally fucked up. But, please, all I ask is that you'll be willing to listen to our ideas and opinions first before you object. I respect you wanting to do things the right way. Doubt most people in the City see things your way."

"Just...I wanted to give them hope. Even if it meant staining my hands and doing something horrific."

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"To give the people in the slums a win. Even if you don't agree, you can understand why I did it. Right?"

It's hard to say how Clover is processing what you said at first. Mostly because he's not saying nothing.

He turns to face you. His eyes are a bit watery and you can tell they're starting to turn red. "...Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Even if it was a sick thing to do, I get that it was probably the best thing that could've been done."

"Just. Please, tell me first before you do somethin' like this again. I don't wanna feel like y'all don't wanna listen to me no more, ya know, if ya felt like I might complain about it. Ya know?"

You nod. It's only fair.

"Woo. Well, hopefully we won't have any moral quandary nonsense when we head to this estate." Kiara tries to break the tension with a teasing jab at Clover. "Question. Casey said you have some fox-headed girlfriend or something. You have a taste in animal women or somethin'?"

In the blink of an eye, Clover plants the barrel of his revolver right against Kiara's temple. "Shame I can't blow your brains out, Ms. Robota. Being all metal and circuits."
"And I can tell you couldn't even if I did have a brain. Yer gun ain't loaded, partner." Kiara perfectly mimics the southern drawl in Clover's voice. "Cute bluff."

"Pft. Damn you." "Damn you back."
"Ah, stop it." You lightly slug the two on the shoulders. "Save your energy once we have to fight a spook or somethin'. I got a lot of ammo but I don't need you wasting it on shooting my best friends-"

"Hark!" Casey interrupts the discussion by pointing at the building the two of you are approaching. Okay, wow, that's a lot bigger than you imagined it being just from the notes Clover wrote about it. You can't see it much from how far away your group is from it but you're in the right direction.

The scenery around you suddenly shifts as you begin to approach the edge of the estate's property.

Everything you've seen of D-Corp so far has been tightly patched together and completely flooded with people but the area you find yourself in is completely devoid of anyone. You don't see a speck of human life ANYWHERE. Only your group of seven.

The buildings that were once so plentiful are spreading out further and further away from each other until you eventually pass by the last building: An old and long since abandoned gun store. The road takes a left turn around it before abruptly ending.

One moment it was concrete, the next it ends at a loose sandy road. Sand, that's odd, you haven't seen a speck of that in D-Corp before. The rest of the road to the estate is like that. Said road is also surrounded by an old wooden fence. You peek around the last building for what seems to be blocks and all you can see past it is what appears to be an old stretch of empty desert land.

The only thing you see beyond endless stretches of dark haze shrouded desert and a distant manor is an old Torii gate with an old iron fence that was meant to block travelers.

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As you approach it, however, you note both the Torii and steel gate have crumbled from disrepair. Your group can easily walk past it without being slowed down at all.

"Seath? Mind explain' why it all shifted to desert?" You would ask Clover but you feel like he would know as much as you did.

Seath glances around the odd outskirts of this subdistrict. He seems to recognize what's going on here. "If I had to guess, we're in a dust bin. Some parts of D-Corp weren't treated the best by old D-Corp. No grass and crops to hold down dirt so it all just becomes dust and sand."

Once your group passes through the gate, you find yourself approaching the estate proper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIbf9s4B7k - ABANDONED KETSUK ESTATE

The sandy road transitions into a loose cobble road and the old wooden fence connects towards the estate's actual stone fence. Interspaced throughout the fence are stone lanterns that still glow a faint yellow light even after all of these years.

There's two paths past the manor, one east and one west, though only the one to the east seems to lead to another structure. The west one heads out through a gap in the stone fence and off towards some deserty wasteland.

The manor itself is a large oriental wooden manor that, as Kiara and Max both point out, remind you more of T and S-Corp's architecture than anything else. A wooden porch that has long since started to crumble from disrepair surrounds it and the two side sections, one of each side, connected to the main estate.

The size of the manor and porch is HUGE, for a lack of a better word. It's easily a big enough house to hold a family of six with a small army's worth of maids and butlers and still have room to spare. Even your fancy apartment at I-Corp is easily dwarfed by this manor.

Dead trees surround the perimeter of the manor. They've been dead for a while and when Benjamin tries to harvest the bark of one to study it, the bark crumbles into dust between his fingers. Clover promptly pulls him away from the tree once he realizes what he's doing.

"It almost reminds me of one of the manors my family owns. You knew who lived here, Clover?" Max is clearly a lot more comfortable here than anywhere else in D-Corp. It's familiar to her. Granted, the manors her family owns don't have huge holes in the roofs and shattered windows but that's another story.

"Yeah. I wanted to come here to get some old collectables. C'mon. Not like Kana or her parents are gonna stop us."

Everyone follows behind him through the main entrance. The inside of the manor ain't much better than the outside, to be frank. The foyer's floor has partially caved in on itself to the point that your group has to stand very close together to stay on stable footing.

The paper screen in the middle of the room has been torn to shreds to the point where whatever was drawn on it is no longer visible. The old cactuses lined alongside the door are also long, long gone.

All that's left is a husk of green spiny plant matter.

Two hallways, one on each side, lead further into the house. There also seems to be a path past the paper screen.

"Oof. Please tell me you know the layout of this place." Kiara awkwardly laughs at how horrid the state of everything is.
"Hand me a piece of scrap paper."

Kiara does so. He promptly scribbles down everything he knows about the manor and its surroundings before tossing it towards you.

Seath and Max are both silently observing the manor, each drinking in the familiar yet desolate opulent of this abandoned manor.

You check his makeshift map. Where do you head to first, Nicole? Pick one, unless you wish to split the group.

>RESEARCH STUDY. 'Would work here with Kana and her old man. He used to make a lot of weird machines and such. Could salvage for parts.'
>HIDDEN TRAPDOOR. 'Yeah, this is the one secret I know. It's in the living room. Never bothered checking when I used to come here as a kid. Supposedly heads towards some ol' lab her ma and dad would work at.'
>FAMILY LIBRARY. 'Her mom, Cera, would always wander around here and keep it filled with the latest scientific textbooks. Maybe Benny and Seath could make some sense outta it. I never could."
>GRAVEYARD. 'It's out back, by that east path we saw. They built it in case anyone important died here. To keep the memories close, ya know?'
>KANNA'S BEDROOM. 'Frankly, doubt anythin' valuable is here. Mostly just wanna check here for old time's sakes. Maybe find a few mementos to bring back for her."
>LIVING ROOM. 'Me and Kanna would watch a lotta TV and play some ol' game consoles back here. Could have some useful antiques still.'
>GARDEN. 'There's an exit at the far back of the house. Always hated going there. I felt like somethin' was watching me there. Creepy shit."
>GUEST ROOM. "...Some of my old stuff is here. Lotta bad memories there. I want you guys to grab it for me."
>DESERT WASTES. "Never ventured too far out here. Think there's still a few old buildings and stuff there. Cera and Jin would never let us go too far."
>Split the group! (You may pick two additional locations to check out.)

Before you head anywhere, do you wanna give any BLACKTAR COFFEE to Max or Benjamin? You would still have the DILUTED ICP for your other SHIFTers.
>GIVE MAX TWO COFFEE (She'll gain a lot of progress and two upgrades to his SLICK OIL ability.)
>GIVE BENJAMIN TWO COFFEE (He'll gain enough progress to get a new ability of your choice, an upgrade to ASHEN WINGS and his new ability, and Max will gain a lot of progress due to Benjamin getting a new ability.)
>GIVE BOTH COFFEE. (Both would gain some progress and an upgrade to their current ability.)
>GIVE ONE ONE COFFEE (Choose Max or Benjamin.)
>GIVE NO COFFEE.

I'll decide to kick the ODDITY vote to whenever you head towards a location to explore here. Enough choices here as is. Sorry for delay again. Sleep kicked my ass.

Do we split into 2 or 3 groups? How pressed for time are we even? We do still have 2-3 more Districts to go to, but honestly this mission doesn't feel like it's overstaying its welcome or being too drawn-out to me like a couple other missions have had in the past. I think part of it is on this one we're going to different places so it feels like one big mission divided into 4 smaller ones.

>>6178274
>RESEARCH STUDY. 'Would work here with Kana and her old man. He used to make a lot of weird machines and such. Could salvage for parts.'

>FAMILY LIBRARY. 'Her mom, Cera, would always wander around here and keep it filled with the latest scientific textbooks. Maybe Benny and Seath could make some sense outta it. I never could."

>GIVE BOTH ONE COFFEE

>>6178274
Fuck it I'll stick to 2 groups
>HIDDEN TRAPDOOR.
Nicole, Clover, Benjamin, Seath
Nicole because this is the one important place I want her to see the most
Clover because of the bitter truth...
Benjamin because a certain man who used the place down there often is a lot like him, in a way
Seath because we need somebody else to witness that place
>KANNA'S BEDROOM
Max, Kiara, Casey
Yes get the girls to check out the room belonging to Clover's girlfriend, of course they'll find something nice for the two of them
>GIVE BOTH COFFEE.
They'll both like it if they share it

>>6178274
>HIDDEN TRAPDOOR.
Nicole, Clover, Benjamin, Seath, Kiara
I want Kiara BOON with us.
>KANNA'S BEDROOM
Max, Casey,
>write in
Make a few intimidating/scarily looking makeshift mannequin heads or bodies and weapons and place them near a window or entrance estate to act as a "tripwire" (the mannequin getting shot or something). and warn people there are multiple people guarding the entrance estate and there are people in it. The haze and darkness will help disguise/distort the mannequin's appearance, making people think it is actually a person.

Ask Max and Casey, once they are inside Kanna's bedroom, to lock the door and put a fragile glass or something that makes a loud sound when it falls on the ground near the door to act as a "tripwire.".

>GIVE BOTH COFFEE.

>>6178274
>HIDDEN TRAPDOOR
>GUEST ROOM.
>KANNA'S BEDROOM.

What if we use MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA here somewhere? Maybe pull an item from the past?

>>6178387
Why should Kiara go to Kana's bedroom? Kiara Boons will be much more useful to help with the HIDDEN TRAPDOOR.

>>6178609
Help how? Clover already knows where it is and how to get in there

>>6178647
>[ANALYZER MODEL UPDATE] Kiara's knowledge on the City has vastly improved, granting her obscure and forbidden knowledge that will help you during missions.
Analyse things in the lab.

File: KIARA.png (283 KB, 360x712)

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You were tempted to shoo Kiara over to Kanna's room but on second thought, she'd probably be better off in whatever hidden lab is hidden under the manor.

"Casey, Max, go check KANNA's bedroom. Lock the door when you arrive. Just in case." You point where it is on the Clovers makeshift map. Down the west/left hallway, then a turn to the right, then up a flight of stairs. You decide to be a bit paranoid and just in case?

You plant the old potted plants by the foyer windows, messing with the angle until they might look like heads in the distance. You're only doing this out of paranoia, though. "Rest of us will be checking out the lab."

Max narrows his eyes into small slits, "Alright. But next time we split up, I want to be with you or Benjamin."
"Fie? Thy loyal knight isn't suitable enough companionship for exploration???"

"No- It's not that! Really!" Max tries her best to keep up a smug smirk. "I just like being with them. That's all."

"Aw." She likes hanging out with you? That's adorable. "I'll take that into account, sure. Now. Kiara." You plant a hand on the android's shoulder. "You ready for some more weird bullshit lab exploration?"

"You bet I do! Imagine the stories I could spin about this place. A spooky abandoned lab hidden underneath an old manor once owned by a rich corporate family?" Her LED eyes develop a rosy pink tint to them. "Oooh. Prime real estate for a story."

"Ya know, Kiara, I gotta say," Clover is staring daggers into Kiara. It softens once he realizes she probably didn't mean any offense. "Mighty feels like no one could care. Ain't there a buncha stories like that? Shitty horror movies or somethin'?"

"Yeah, no offense Kiara, but I played like a dozen games with that plotline during the weekend." Benjamin smacks down Kiara's plan in a lightly dismissive tone. "Weird abandoned manors are super overused in stories these days."

"Aww. C'mon, surely we can make some spin on it. 'Mysterious manor found in D-Corp! What secrets of Clover Guan, owner of the illustrious Clover Suite, are hidden inside?' sounds exciting, doesn't it?"
Seath snorts, "You're making it sound like he did something really bad here. D-Corp isn't in the news much unless it's about us fucking up."
"Yeah, Kiara, I rather not have my allies arrested. Thanks."

Kiara's mood immediately deflates once she actually processes that, yeah, that sounded bad. "I'll workshop the title! C'mon, let me have this. A palette cleanser after what I had to see."
"Forsooth! Clover, think about it! Perhaps we could draw more customers to your suite!"

Clover scratches his chin. "Mrh. Only if you 'workshop' this idea with me, Kiara."
"Deal!" Kiara mimics snapping her fingers.

"Aww." You lightly nudge Kiara. "Being buddy buddy with the cowboy now? Forgetting about lil' ol me and my stories?"

"Pfft. I could write like four mini stories out of the stuff you're doing, I wouldn't forget about you. But cowboys are so cool..."
"Wait, huh? Thanks?"

"Fair enough! Can't blame ya."

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You dig into your inventory for the two cups of blackened tar pretending to be coffee. You toss them over to Max and Benjamin. Max hesitantly sniffs at the mixture. "Ew. This smells like old cigarette butts. We're meant to DRINK this?"

"I ate worse and I ended up fine!" You flash a thumbs up at Max.

She's still hesitant, obviously. Benjamin holds his glass up to her. "We'll drink at the same time, okay?"

That's enough to soothe her worries. They clink their glasses together and in one go, they gulp down every last drop of slurry.

There's a lull in the group as everyone watches to see how they'll react, Casey especially. She's holding her breath in anticipation.

Yet both of them shrug in unison.
"Tasted a bit bitter but the taste vanished sorta abruptly." "Eh. It wasn't brewed properly. Didn't taste like much."

Aw. You were expected an overly dramatic freakout or something. The rest of your group murmurs to each other with obvious disappointment in their tone.
>Max gains 16.5% progress due to her BOON! Benjamin gains 15.5%! Benjamin is at 157/170 and Max is at 131.5/180!

SLICK OIL UPGRADE!
>Max's OIL GLOB has splash damage, coating up to two targets on use. Oil-soaked targets hit by fire damage now take 4 extra damage instead of just 3.
ASHEN WINGS UPGRADE!
>Benjamin is now more experienced using his wings! Skill checks involving flight are slightly reduced and he can use firearms while in the air!

With that all said and done, Max grabs Casey by the shoulder.
"Verily! Let's travel, you and I!" "I suppose I do need a knight in shining armor..." The two disappear down the west/left hallway. Now it's you and your four lackeys.

Seath is scratching at the bandages wrapped around his injured arm. He's grumbling about a 'deep itch' inside of it. "Ngh. Can we get moving? We don't have all day."
"Actually, I lost track of what time it is. It's all pitch black outside." You really did. You know you have, at minimum, two districts to check.

Kiara's eyes dim for a moment before she gives you your answer. "It's about 12:45."
"Fuck, really? Felt a lot longer down here." Clover murmurs. "I remember why I never came back to this place."

Clover heads down the northern hallway (the one past the screen door) and obviously, your group trails right behind him. The hallway is more well maintained than the foyer but that's not to say it's any better deeper inside. The dark green wallpaper on the walls is peeling off like scabs on a sick man's skin. The dull orange wood that makes up the floor creaks and groans with each step your group takes.

"You said you lived here, right?" Can't hurt to pry a little bit. "Why was it abandoned?"

"Ah. Got abandoned when ol' D-Corp got kicked out. Ketsuks moved elsewhere. They paid for me to come along with. Made my pa real upset but I couldn't stand it here."

"Hm. The robot said you were Clover Guan, correct?" Seath steps a bit closer to Clover. "Who's your dad? I swear that name's familiar."

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"Personal space." Clover grumbles at the sudden intrusion. "His name was Star. Star Guan. Think that's his name at least."

Benjamin, Seath, and even Kiara hiss through clenched teeth. "Oof. Heard of him before, bad news." "Yeah, sounds like him." "Darn, I thought that name was familiar!"

You're at a loss, though, you never heard that name in your life. "Eh?"

[KIARA SEEKER] "Old, old D-Corp researcher who got arrested a few decades back. Twelve charges of false imprisonment, four charges of torture, two counts of first degree murder. Still serving time in a 'Behavioral Corrective Facility' somewhere."
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] D-Corp's version of Supermax for corporate employees. With the charges he has? He's properly on a life sentence.

Seath nods in agreement, "Was barely a kid when he got booked but I overheard it from my brothers. It was all over the news 25 years back."

"There's a reason I picked up my mantle." Clover pats at the heavily modified toy revolver holstered on his belt.

Oof. Yeah, can't blame him. Probably why he had such a bad reaction to you shredding that man earlier. You want to say 'sorry' or somethin' but you feel like it would be awkward TO say anything.

The five of you end up in an old living room. There's two hallways, one west and one east, and if Clover's map says anything the west hallway would go to the same place you sent Max and Casey. Good. Even if something bad happens, your groups won't be far away.

The living room itself isn't much to write home about. Peeling wallpaper aside, the room is sparsely decorated and furnished. There's an old fireplace in the back but all that's inside is dust and soot. Above it is a small shelf caked in dust. Might've had something on it a long time ago.

A few empty photograph frames hang above some old pots of dirt that are also by the back wall. The only piece of decoration back here is an old painting of a scenery mountain range.

The only thing else in here is an old kotatsu (some sort of T-Corp furniture that's a wooden frame with a heavy blanket laid on top of it) alongside a few old white mats. You and Kiara stare at it, then back at Clover, then back at the kotatsu.

"Hatch is hidden there." "Oh, absolutely, I see no other place it could be." "Was it THAT obvious, y'all?"

"You did say there was a secret here." "It's the only part of the room covered by anything here. Pots were too small." Seath and Benjamin both chime in. They move in to push the kotatsu away and lo and behold! There's an old iron trap door here.

"Mmh, weird, it used to be painted over to look like the rest of the wooden floor." Clover runs his fingers around the rust clinging to the trap door. "Only ever noticed it because it was colder than the rest of the floor."

"It has been how long ago? 30 or so years?" Kiara kneels down alongside Clover. "Paint or whatever probably just rusted off."
"I suppose. Let's make this quick. I don't wanna bore y'all with this old place too long."

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"Hey. I agreed to go here for a reason. No need to worry." With everyone's help, the trap door is pried open.
All it takes is one good look to realize this goes DEEP underground.

"AAAAAA IT'S THE P-CORP FACILITY ALL OVER AGAIN! FUCK!"
"C'mon, Clover." Kiara pats him on the back. "It's not going to be THAT bad."

Seath decides to speed things up by being the first one down the hatch. By that, you meant to say he fucking JUMPS down the hole. Doesn't bother grabbing onto the ladder, he just jumps right on down.

This promptly lights a fire under everyone to make sure this jackass didn't break his legs. Everyone immediately scrambles down the old rickety ladder. It's only when your group does this that you realize, oh wait no, it wasn't that deep after all.

The darkness flooding every inch of the air made it look a lot deeper than it was. Your group is probably only about 20 feet underground if you had to guess? Still pretty deep but not like 'P-Corp facility' deep. Seath seems uninjured by the fall even though that realistically, he's probably just hiding how much pain that stunt put him in.

https://youtu.be/2yZywLEZFIg - HIDDEN LAB

The actual lab itself is actually pretty tame for something hidden under the house. It's a cramped one room lab that clearly hadn't seen much use even before the place got abandoned.

The floor is flooded with old robotics schematics and dust-caked electrical wiring. Old leaky pipes on the ceiling are dribbling down brown-tinted water onto the floor even after all of these years. A series of five screens, obviously powered off, hang at the back of the room.

A table with an old computer monitor, which has a VHS (a VHS player of all things? In this era?) connected to it, sits in the middle of the room. It's somehow still powered on and is tuned to static right now.

Boxes of old engineering and robotics equipment are scattered all throughout the room. Old tape with nearly unreadable writing is taped one ach one. Might take eons to find anything useful in them.

The walls are lined with old bookcases that are filled with technical manuals, more robotic scrap, VHS tapes and even a few other old antique books. The weirdest thing you see in this room is a pair of six or eight odd jars on top of the bookcases. They're filled with brightly colored ichor that stands out like a sore thumb in the otherwise drab grey lab.

An old photograph lays by the powered on computer monitor. You pick it up and the image you see on it is kinda cute, even if you're not a fan of biomods that alter someone's body THAT much.

There's three figures in the frame, each of which are humanoids who have fox-like arms, faces, and tails. You've seen Kanna (one of Clover's friends) with these biomods. Some sort of family thing. There's a young girl with brown fur and a scarf around her neck, an older man with blueish fur and a pair of glasses, and a older woman with light yellow fur and a bright red bow tied to her hair.

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All of them are wearing kimonos as well. You feel your heart lighten when you see how geninuely happy all of them are. Each has a wide, beaming smile on their face.

You turn to show the photo to Clover. That gets a bright smile outta him.

"Ah, yeah, that's Kanna and her two folks. Cera and Jin."

"Wait. She had biomods even as a KID?"
"Mmh. I'll be honest, that's the one part I don't like about this family. They install those things into you when you're young. Real young."

"Not the worst thing corporate families do to their kids. If Max has anything to say, at least." Benjamin awkwardly rubs the back of his neck. "It was just the biomods, right?"
"Yup. Supposedly it was to 'enhance their senses' or somethin'. Think a few families have mods like these to seem more 'exotic' and 'wild'."

"That or they're degenerates." Seath couldn't sound snider if he tried. "Never liked augments, biomods, anomalous PARADIGM gifts, none of that."
"Yer starting to sound like one of them N-Corp freaks I had the displeasure of talking to a while back."

"I suppose Gabriel's teachings rubbed me slightly on me. Though I will admit, some of his teachings are...extreme."
"C'mon. Let's focus on investigating this place." Kiara claps her hands. The metallic banging it creates is more akin to two metal pipes smashing into each other.

"Something about this room creeps me the hell out." You murmur. Something about the air is off.
"Never knew what Jin did down here. Let's find out, shall we?"

Choose three things/places to investigate.
>[CLOVER ALLY] "Think we should look through the VHS tapes? In case he recorded anything?" Who knows what this Jin guy could've recorded. Check through them.
>[KIARA ALLY] Tell Kiara to search through the old schematics. She's an android, if anything she'd know what they're meant for.
>[SEATH ALLY] Have Seath examine some of the technical manuals. He's a researcher, he would understand them.
>Fiddle with the MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA PARADIGM. Try to get a glimpse of, or items from, the past. (MEDIUM WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling your 8d6.)
>[PERSON OF INTEREST] There's no power anywhere else in this house yet that computer monitor's on? Try to find any evidence of who could've been here earlier.
>[BENJAMIN ALLY] If anyone can figure out what that ichor is, it's probably Benjamin. Get some down and have Benjamin examine it. (MODERATE COGNIZANCE CHECK, rolling Benjamin's 9d6.)
>Try to salvage some old robot parts. If nothing else, Kiara can use them. (You'll roll 4d100 to see what you find.)
>Write in. (What do you want to try finding here?)

Choose an ODDITY to receive.
>ABORT/RETRY/FAIL (A jumble of loose computer keys. Has one use. Can be used to rewind time by one update. Good emergency option.)
>SHINING BLUE STAR (A glowing blue marble Has three uses. When used, teleports an ally over to you or teleports you to an ally of your choice. Useful when split up.)
>MYSTERY BOX. (A locked box. You don't have the key. What could be inside?)

>>6179032
>[CLOVER ALLY]
See the dank shit the mad researcher dad cooked up and his descent into madness
>Fiddle with the MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA PARADIGM
Do the cool thing
>[BENJAMIN ALLY]
Collect THE SERUM

>>6179032
>[CLOVER ALLY]
>Fiddle with the MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA PARADIGM.
>[PERSON OF INTEREST]
Did Star Guan secretly, somehow, escape the Behavioural Corrective Facility and place a clone/body double in his "prison cell" while he continued his research? Or maybe not him; maybe somebody else turned the computer on. Ask Seath if anyone has pulled a clone/double body trick thing in the past.

>MYSTERY BOX.
Other rewards are really good. Then the mystery box is going to have great rewards; it will be worth it.

>>6179032
>[CLOVER ALLY] "Think we should look through the VHS tapes? In case he recorded anything?" Who knows what this Jin guy could've recorded. Check through them.
>[KIARA ALLY] Tell Kiara to search through the old schematics. She's an android, if anything she'd know what they're meant for.
>Fiddle with the MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA PARADIGM. Try to get a glimpse of, or items from, the past. (MEDIUM WILLPOWER CHECK, rolling your 8d6.)

>ABORT/RETRY/FAIL (A jumble of loose computer keys. Has one use. Can be used to rewind time by one update. Good emergency option.)

I wonder if we remove some jars/ichor will trigger some sort of a trap or security system in here? The computer here has been turned on by someone else; is he/she/it still here?

>>6179032
I'm >>6179035
I forgot my ODDITY vote
>SHINING BLUE STAR

>>6179032
>[KIARA ALLY] Tell Kiara to search through the old schematics. She's an android, if anything she'd know what they're meant for.

>[SEATH ALLY] Have Seath examine some of the technical manuals. He's a researcher, he would understand them.

>[PERSON OF INTEREST] There's no power anywhere else in this house yet that computer monitor's on? Try to find any evidence of who could've been here earlier.

>MYSTERY BOX

ODDITY
SHINING BLUE STAR: pl/
MYSTERY: CY4, dz9
ABORT: zYQ

WHAT DO?
CLOVER: p/L, CY4, zYQ
SEATH: dz9
POI: CY4, dz9
KIARA: zYq, dz9
BENJAMIN: p/L
MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA: p/L, zYQ, CY4

So, Clover + MEMORIES + MYSTERY BOX are all winning, got a two way tie for POI and KIARA. Tell you what, I'll just handwave it and say you can do four actions this time. You brought an extra ally along or something. I don't care to tiebreak this specifically. So, POI + KIARA + CLOVER + MEMORIES

Two anons, roll the following
>4d6 (half of WILLPOWER)
>4d6 (second half of WILLPOWER)
DC is 26.

Rolled 4, 3, 1, 5 = 13 (4d6)

>>6179501
Here goes!!!

Rolled 3, 1, 1, 6 = 11 (4d6)

>>6179501

>>6179523
Please tell me we have an item for this...

>>6179524
We have Moonstone Fragment, for example, but I don't remember all the consumables

>>6179516
>>6179523
>>6179524
You do. With something as low as a 2 point different, it's mostly just asking "hey what item do you want to spend to pass this?"
Since, statistically, rolling a 2 or lower on a 1d12 or somehow rolling 1, 1, 2 or 1, 1, 1 on a MOONSTONE reroll is statistically unlikely.

Choose one. First with two votes wins since this is such a minor vote.
>"OPEN YOUR MIND" BRANDED PILLS (Leaves you with one. You'll roll 1d12 on the next two COGNIZANCE, WILLPOWER and RESTRAINT checks made.)
>STUNTED BINARYSTONE (Removes the one from your inventory. Raises your CONNECTIONS, WILLPOWER and a random stat determined by the QM by 1 for a long duration.)
>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT (Leaves you with three. Offers no bonuses after.)

>>6179527
You don't need to. Some of them would be wasteful to use (HIRCHSTONE boosts your WILLPOWER by fucking 8, SOMTOIN ZETA is more of a CHARM item, MINDSHATTER and HEMP heals RESTRAINT and you're at full, etc) so I just skip them.
I only offer the ones that people would realistically use in this situation.

>>6179530
>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT

>>6179530
Moonstone Fragment

>>6179530
>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT

>>6179530
>MOONSTONE FRAGMENT (Leaves you with three. Offers no bonuses after.)

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You look at the old rusted iron box Kiara handed to you. A heavy duty lock is latched onto it.
"Found this while we were exploring that factory." "Got the key?" "Nope! I'd guess it doesn't have one. Felt like some sort of anomalous doohickey so I went with it."

Right. You pocket the box for you.
>MYSTERY BOX obtained.

Something clicks in your head. An abandoned hidden lab that's roughly 25+ years old? Probably a good chance to use this old PARADIGM you've had since the very beginning. It's been consistently useful when you actually have the chance to use it.

You dig in your inventory for the old camcorder. Out of precaution, you decide it's probably best to pop a moonstone fragment as well. You begin to fangle with the camcorder while crunching on the rock as a yummy treat.

"What-" Seath narrows his one good eye. "You're not supposed to eat those! The intended way is to breath in the fumes; The rocks are just the vessel the fumes are stored in!"
"I have a W-Corp representative on speed dial." You mumble while crunching in your rock candy goodness. "I know what I'm doing."

"Crazy dame, yeah, but I met her." "Oh! Yeah, Wendy, I really should interview her later." "We even did a mission in a W-Corp mine with her!" Your other allies collaborate your story.
"Wait, Wendy? Wendy Walker?" Seath shakes his head. "Hoo. How much is Otto paying you again? This seems beneath you."

"$3250 for one day's work." The power button on the anomalous camcorder takes a LOT of effort to push down." Realistically, though, I mentally multiply it by 3x at minimum. I'm lucky enough to get a lot of favors and loot on any given mission."
"Yeah, sounds right." Seath closes his eye. He takes a deep breath to regain focus before searching through the lab. "Let's make this quick."

Benjamin and Kiara join him in looting this place but Clover stands right next to you. You have to crane your head pretty high in order to look at his face. "Yeah, Clover? Wanna watch this?"
"Can't mighty recall if I've seen ya use that before. I 'azard ya're doin' it for a reason, right, so I might as well."

"Sure, sure." You finally manage to make the hunk of junk work. Sepia-tinted footage crackles to life on the camcorder's screen. The lab basically looks the exact same aside from the five screens on the ceiling being turned on and being generally cleaner over all. The only major difference is an odd machine sitting by his desk.

It's a very bulky looking centrifuge that's as big as a minifridge. Various vials of liquid are resting inside in. A man with a fox's head is sitting at the desk with his back towards you. Both of his paw-like hands are gripping at his hair.

"Hoo." His voice is like an older version of Benjamin's. Nasally, high pitched, but a lot more exhausted. "What are you doing, Jin? You shouldn't be associating with this man."

Clover's face softens when he sees Jin. "He looked a lot better 25 years back. He's been getting a lot of grey hairs lately."

File: DARKER.jpg (10 KB, 480x360)

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His expression immediately hardens when another man enters the shot. He's nearly as tall as Seath but instead of being muscular, his body is bulbous and fat like an overfilled bottle of water. An old white labcoat is draped over his fatty physique.

His most noteworthy traits is the massive scar on the right side of his face. His right eye is permanently closed by the mass of scar tissue surrounding it. He has to be at least in his 50s (while Jin is in his early 30s right now, you think?)

"Star." Clover hisses.

You swear the old man's ear twitched. Creepy.

"Jin. Do you remember the promise we made?" His voice is low and gravely. A smoker's voice. "I remember. I took a sample from a very, very interesting subject-"
"You mean Clover." Jin grumbles. "It's usually him."

"Not this time." Star carefully places a vial filled with a thick slurry on Jin's table. "Stole it from P-Company. Make something out of it."
Jin turns slightly to face it. You can barely make out his eyes widening at the sight of it. "Incomplete Conceptual Presence energy? How in-"

"Shhh. Consider it repayment for the service you did for me. I wish for you creating a serum out of it. Something to create...a new brand of humanity, as it were."
"Isn't that what you wanted?"

Jin carefully pockets the vial. He doesn't bother responding to Star. He slowly rises from his table and shuffles over to an old box on the floor. Your camera shifts to see what he's looking at.
Huh. A pristine leather holster, wrapped in a bow. You cautiously reach into the camera screen to pull it out.

The footage cuts off the moment you do so. Hm. You know this camera only plays echoes of what happened, it doesn't actually let you change the past. Yet that felt oddly deliberate on Jin's part.

Clover isn't looking at the camera anymore. The mere glimpse of his old man was enough to turn the cowboy's expression sour. "He? Was working with Jin? Never said nothin' about that."
It's bothering you too after you got told what Star did. That bit about him harvesting from his own son, though...

A small maternal part of you wants to do something for Clover. You really wish you could do something but you doubt he wants to dwell on his past that much. You decide to toss the holster over to Clover.

A faint smile crosses his exhausted face. "Ah. I recognize this. Ol' collab done by R and C-Corp back in the days. Ended it way too early for lil' ol me to get but." He slowly removes his old raggedy holster before equipping the new one. The black leather has a fresh sheen to it.
>WILD WEST HOLSTER equipped! (A leather weapon-holder, perfect for duels at noon. Will be treated as a permanent upgrade instead of an accessory. Clover gains +1 MAX RESTRAINT!)

You and Clover hear someone calling for you. Seems like Kiara sound something interesting, best to check what's up.

---

"Am I reading this correctly?"
"Apparently Clover's stepdad or whatever was getting into some pretty shady stuff! This looks way above my grade."

File: ILLEGALDOCUMENT.jpg (4.44 MB, 4032x3024)

4.44 MB JPG

"He wasn't my stepdad, he was a family friend- Okay. Explain, robot. This looks worse than the schematics he used to show me."

The schematic laid out on the table was clearly written either in a rush or during a mental breakdown since to be honest? You can't make out half of it. A lot of arrows are pointed towards the hastily scribbled blob of lines that you think is meant to be whatever invention he's trying to make.

However, it's clear Jin's drawing aptitude wasn't up to snuff this time around. It's like a man with Parkinson's drew this. Completely nonsensical.

Kiara taps a finger onto a slightly more legible section of writing.
"SHADOW CARVER DIMENSIONAL PROTOTYPE V1. DARKNESS IS PHYSICAL PRESENCE HERE. ABSCENE OF LIGHT TURNING INTO MATTER?"
"SOURCE OF DARKNESS: NATURAL VEINS IN THE SOURCE HERE. BEEN LIKE THIS SINCE 1995 (MIDDLE OF SMOG WAR, DEATH OF OLD WORLD). REMNANT OF OLD WEAPON?"
"HE WANTS TO STUDY IT. I OWN HIM THIS MUCH. HAVE TO MAKE THIS."

Now that you squint a bit, you can make out that it appears to be a drill of some sorts. A large, bulky drill with a lot of redundancies built into it. You make out labels like "HEAT RESIST **EVERYTHING**", "TENEBRIS DETECTION ALGORITHIM", "DARK SMOG CONTAINER. NEED SIX, STAR WANTS LOT."

Seath steps over to your huddled group. His one eye goes wide when he realizes what you're looking at. "Shit. You have to hide that stuff NOW."

"Wait. Clover. Didn't you say they dug too deep?" You're the first to pick up on why Seath is panicking. You recall a conversation you had with Clover two or so hours back.
Kiara's the second. "Oh. Oh shit, uh, this was only a prototype! It's not their current singularity, right?"

"Wait. You're telling me Jin-" Clover's about ready to question Seath but Seath simply shushes him.
"Hide that shit. I don't want a Judicator to know we have ANY paperwork on a fucking singularity."

Oh no. If Star helped to commission this, how responsible is he for D-Corp being- Oh fuck.
>OLD D-CORP SINGULARITY SCHEMATICS obtained! (A technical schematic of a specialized drill meant to harvest darkness for the purposes of dimensional alternation. HIGHLY FUCKING ILLEGAL.)

"Kiara, do you know where we can hide this?"
"Absolutely. We're hiding this the moment we can. Just make sure no one captures you with this or you're dead."
"Trust me! Death would be the best outcome if you're found with that."

Shit, okay, that's even more of a reason to get out of here once Clover gets all of the knicknacks he needs.

Benjamin is busy scanning the walls while everyone is freaking out over the highly illegal document they found here. "You know. How is that TV getting power again?" He's in his own little world again, huh?" "This place has been shut down for what. 25 years?"

[PERSON OF INTEREST] He's right. It would be a waste of energy. Someone had to come down here and turn it back on.

"Hey, Seath. Just a random question. Star IS still in the corrective facility, yeah?"

File: THETAPE.jpg (95 KB, 640x425)

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"Hm? Should be." Seath shrugs as if the idea of him breaking out is infeasible.
"Like, no body doubles or anything?"

"I highly, highly doubt it. He sorta lost a lot of connections with people in D-Corp and those corrective facilities are airtight."
Hm.

Everyone scans the room for what could've powered this damn TV but damn, it was really hard to find it. No wires, no energy sources that could power it on, no hidden tampering to make it feasible. The only thing that broke the illusion was when Ben ripped off a sticker on the back of the TV.

It immediately causes it to power off. Benjamin slaps it back on. It powers back on.
[OPEN MINDED] "Some sort of ODDITY or a very, very shitty PARADIGM. I think it can power anything it's stapled to. Looks like it was placed recently."

You already have a PARADIGM for tech so you won't bother looting that.

Kiara scans the area and only manages to find one piece of evidence for who could've been here: A clump of white goo with flecks of fur stuck in it.
Everyone can immediately tell that's NOT something a human would leave behind. You've dealt with enough anomalous bullshit for one mission. You can only hope whatever anomaly left it won't come back.

You know an anomaly is nearby, though. Somewhere.

The earpiece in your ear crackles to life. "Hey, we're about done in this room." That's it. Huh, okay. One last thing to do.

The VHS tapes.

Your group grabs a few tapes from around the lab. Checking through them reveals that a good chunk of them are...painfully mundane. One was about Jin gushing over his daughter winning a talent show. Another was him complaining to the camera about tax increases. Five of them were him being overly gushy about his wife.

Clover and Benjamin are eating it up, each sharing the same goofy smile, but the rest of the group is bored stupid by it. It's not what you were looking for frankly. One tape does have something remarkably interesting, though.

Unlike all of the other ones, the fox-headed man is trying his best not to look at the camera. "Can't talk about this with anyone else. Decided it would be safer to make a video diary about it. No one checks down here."

https://youtu.be/-NMOlbJ_1b0?si=ZGytvA6irbzaRdU5 - TAPES

"I made a mistake. A massive one. I recently collaborated with a man who..." Jin runs a hand through the fur on his head. "I shouldn't have, frankly. The money was too much and I was, uh, in hot water with D-Company's High Administrator."
[SEEKER OF THE CITY + KIARA SEEKER + SEATH ALLY] All of you hiss at the same time. That's the title of the CEO of D-Company. It was probably the same even back then.

"But to put the blame all on him would be denial over my own involvement. He offered me the resources, the potential, to make something that could've helped the City. Something would've given those unfortunate enough a chance to exist. I was born into a prestigious family. I had the obligation to help people, damnit, and I..."

"That kid. That damn kid that Kana brought in. He. He rubbed off on me."

"Apparently his father wasn't even aware that kid was gone for a solid two weeks after."
"...With all of that childish bravado and buster he was spewing about wanting to be a 'hero of the City', that kid..."

The VHS tape cuts to static for a brief moment.
When it returns, Jin's face has twisted into a panicked and enraged sneer. "It was worse than I even thought. The researcher I worked with, he..."

"...Most of the blood samples I asked for. I told him where he was getting it. I thought it was all him. Maybe only a few from volunteers. Bits of blood here and there. I didn't bother pressing where he got them from."
"I was too enthralled by the idea of making something that could help people.

"Seven kids. Seven kids were found in his research lab. Five were dead, two were skeletally thin, rest were in some half-liquified white slurry. Still alive somehow."

"Someone broke into my house not long after. The only working prototype we had was stolen. All of the spare serums I had. Gone too."

"I. He went to my house after he was caught. Where my daughter and 'son' were. Kana...god, the look on Kana's face." Something dawns on him. He removes his glasses, resting a hand on his snout. "She heard someone banging on the front door. Apparently he only left when Cera came to check the noise."
"I don't want to know what might've happened. I. I need to make another serum. A better one. One to protect my family."

"I-I enabled a monster. I need to make sure this doesn't happen again. God, what if they tie back whatever he did to me? Would I get into trouble? I'm the one who fueled his research."

"...Am I responsible for their deaths? I suppose it was an outcome I earned if I didn't bother questioning what I was making him."
"Wait-" Jin scrambles out of his chair. The faint sound of something being drilled can be heard. "No, no, it wasn't ready to be used yet! Who the HELL DID HE GIVE IT TO-"

It cuts off. Back to static now.

Everyone turns to see how Clover is reacting but his attention is focused on the odd jars of slurry resting on the top of each bookcase. "..." An inscrutable expression crosses the cowboy's face. Even just looking at him is making your brain seethe, like he's subconsciously blocking your MIND READ ability.
>-3 CLOVER RESTRAINT! 3/6 LEFT!

Doesn't take a genius to realize what researcher he worked with after the MEMORIES OF A FORGOTTEN ERA footage.

Benjamin and Seath aren't doing much better. Benjamin is awkwardly rubbing his neck while keeping his gaze away from everyone else. "...Heh. I should really ask what Z-Company is doing with my prototype drugs, huh? I. Never really thought about it until now."

Seath simply shakes his head. "There's a reason we locked him up. No wonder why Jin left this District with you, Clover. You got off lucky."
"Uh huh."
Seath gets the message and lets Clover handle this without bothering him any further.

All of the bravado Kiara had about finding an exciting story hidden in this manor has vanished. "This. This won't leave this room. We don't have to tell anyone about it, Clover, okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks. I want out of here. We can keep exploring the house but I need some time. Okay?"

Everyone nods. Best to get out of here. The five of you climb up the ladder and back into the living room.

So. Jin accidently enabled a mad researcher to do some horrific shit and, if the document you found is authentic, might've been partially responsible for the haze throughout D-Corp?

Guess your instincts about this offering an interest into D-Corp and Clover was accurate. Just not in the way you expected.

Something fast and yellow rushes up to Clover. Before anyone can react, it latches its arms around him and pulls him into a big ol' hug.
It's only now that you realize said yellow blur is Casey. Max stumbles into the room only a few moments after Casey charged in.

"She, huff, said she felt, huff, something wrong."
"Hark! Do not be saddened, friend, for we have found trinkets!"

Casey lets go of Clover and properly holds up piles of old knicknacks from when Kana and Clover were kids. Stuffed animals, old childhood drawings, old video game handhelds, old clothes the two used to wear, the works.

There's even an old toy gun and hat in her hands. The toy gun looks like Clover's WILD REVOLVER but, well, not modified to actually be a gun.

This breaks Clover out of his stupor. It's as if what he just saw only a minute ago is no longer a factor in his mind. You're 90% sure it's just the nostagla overriding his other worries. "Thank you. Really looted that place dry, huh?"
"To be honest, I sorta focused on the clothes in case you ever. have. Uh. Yeah."

It's clear what she's trying to imply. Even Clover could pick up on it. His face is redder than a tomato now.
>+3 CLOVER RESTRAINT! Back to full!
>Several knickknacks have been acquired! You have a feeling this might help you later. You might obtain a new ally soon.

------

You should leave soon. Choose up to three locations to visit before leaving D-Corp. Period.
>FAMILY LIBRARY. 'Cera would always wander around here and keep it filled with the latest scientific textbooks. Maybe Benny and Seath could make some sense outta it."
>RESEARCH STUDY. "Let's find some parts to scrap and leave it be."
>GRAVEYARD. 'It's out back, by that east path we saw. Call it paranoia but I feel like someone's there somehow. Maybe it's just nerves."
>GARDEN. 'There's an exit at the far back of the house. Always hated going there. I felt like somethin' was watching me there. Creepy shit."
>GUEST ROOM. "...You can check it out. I don't wanna."
>DESERT WASTES. "Never ventured too far out here. Think there's still a few old buildings there. Cera and Jin would never let us go too far."
>WEIRD SLIME TRAIL. That's new. Is that fur in it?
>[POI ACTIVE] You swear you heard something in the foyer. Is it a trick of the mind or...?
>Just leave.

>>6179914
>FAMILY LIBRARY.
Gather KETSUK family stuff to gain favour and contact with the Ketsuk
>[POI ACTIVE]
this is important.
>WEIRD SLIME TRAIL.
I don’t want to leave the poor kids-now-goo-monster to suffer.

>>6179944
Also, the goo monster turned the computer on by itself, which means it is potentially not a mindless monster, still having some sense left. Which we can potentially talk with it.

>>6179914
>FAMILY LIBRARY. 'Cera would always wander around here and keep it filled with the latest scientific textbooks. Maybe Benny and Seath could make some sense outta it."
>DESERT WASTES. "Never ventured too far out here. Think there's still a few old buildings there. Cera and Jin would never let us go too far."
>WEIRD SLIME TRAIL. That's new. Is that fur in it?

Rolled 1 (1d3)

>>6179914
FAMILY LIBRARY
SLIME TRAIL
Coinflipping for GARDEN 1 or GUEST ROOM 2 or GRAVEYARD 3

>>6179914
>Just leave.

I know I’m gonna lose but I’m done with this place. D-Corp has been interesting but we’re not even halfway through our mission objectives yet.

Who knows? Between the information we found here, Seath’s contacts and Otto’s resources we may be able to fix this place someday.

>>6180018
>>6180023
Both of you are sure you don’t want to pick the [POI ACTIVE] option to prevent potentially getting ambushed by nasty things here? (Which ambush potential is really going to hit us hard since we will get attacked by maybe remnants of the experiment hostile monster here, which the monster may have special abilities to deal nasty special damage to us and the team.)

>>6180029
Garden and Graveyard are more intriguing to me, and I am a nostalgiafag so the thought of Clover's old bedroom of abandoned stuff reminds me of my own past

>>6180038
Nah, I don’t want to get splash potential from whatever hostile monster's special damage abilities here.

>>6180056
What splash potential? What are you trying to say you ESL faggot?

>>6180063
Splash damage.
I forgot to put damage in >>6180056

Rolled 1 (1d3)

Seems like the general plan is to check out the SLIME TRAIL and FAMILY LIBRARY. I'm just going to roll a die for the third one since WMV wants to just leave and the rest only have one vote each.

1 = POI ACTIVE
2 = DESERT WASTES
3 = GARDEN

Trying to update earlier this time since I'll be pretty damn busy tomorrow. Writing.

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So. You have three locations in mind. You decide to split it up as such.
SEATH + BENJAMIN --> LIBRARY
CLOVER + KIARA --> INVESTIGATE FOYER
YOU, MAX, CASEY --> SLIME TRAIL

REASONING
-Seath and Benjamin are the bookworms of the group. You trust them to find the most valuable books.
-Clover's probably the best fighter of the group and Kiara can easily spot anyone trying to approach. Perfect duo in case someone is following you.
-You want to see whatever slime anomaly is roaming around here and if it's what you think it is? Max and Casey should be able to calm it down.

Shame that you can't bring Kiara and Benjamin, the two anomaly lovers, to check the slime right now but they're better assigned elsewhere.

You're leaving immediately after this. You had fun here in D-Corp and exploring this abandoned manor but you got places to be, damnit. Judging by how uncomfortable Clover looks after the dump of information he was exposed to, you think he's on the same page.

You inform your allies about how you want to split up.
Benjamin and Seath both nod in agreement. They don't see any issues with this. Benjamin looks a tiny bit disappointed but, at the same time, relieved. "Tell me how it goes. After burning that moss heart..." Yeah. Can't blame Benjamin too much.

Kiara gives you a thumbs up while Clover grunts affirmatively. "Don't worry. We'll keep an eye out, don't want anyone to ambush us!" "Don't want any vermin mucking up this place. Too important for that."

Benjamin + Seath head down the east hallway out of the living room while Kiara + Clover went back the way you came. That leaves you with Max and Casey.

"Woo!" Max is equally relieved and worried about following the mysterious slime trail. "Mystery slime! That...smells like wet dog." You sniff the air and huh. She's right. Guess you didn't notice it until she pointed it out.
Casey squats down so she can examine the slime. She pulls out her weirdly wet snubnose revolver and holds the barrel of it to the slime.

You swear the gun is actually sniffing at the slime. You and Max both look at each other as if you're processing the bizarre sight unfolding. She doesn't really use her gun a lot so it's always a bit shocking to see this.
Though you can't complain too much about weird guns. You have a gun that's the physical manifestation of your hatred towards federal agents.

The revolver whimpers, squirming away from the slime.

"Hm!" Casey promptly holders the snubnosed revolver. Why is it specifically a revolver though-
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] It finally clicks. It's a model referred to as a 'British Bull Dog' snub nose revolver. Old world country that doesn't exist anymore but people still use the name.

It took your mind that long to realize the pun. Guh!
"It only reacts to that when it smells another dog! Mayhaps we shall require treats and toys! Ooo, maybe the fox-headed high class consumers who once lived here had chewtoys for personal use-"

"Aren't foxes and dogs different?" You ask.

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"Foxes are canines, no?" Casey asks back.

"We're missing the point guys. Let's follow the trail so we can get out of here. Maybe we can head to L-Corp next, get some actual sunlight." Max isn't wrong either. That might be an excellent change of pace after eons here in the dark.

The three of you trail after the trail of sticky white fur-goo that's splattered all over the ground. Well, it's not one solid line of slime and moreso like a trail of droplets falling off of something. As if the entity was injured or, better yet, melting.

It leads down the hallway Benjamin and Seath went down. Your group passes through an abandoned kitchen area that's not much to note aside from a door at the back that leads outside of the estate. There's also a hallway further east (heading to another room) and a hallway south (where you can hear Benjamin and Seath talking) but there's no trails heading down either of those.

A heavy layer of goop coats the backdoor's doorknob. You spare your two allies from touching it by using your telekinesis to gently open the door.

Stepping outside leads your trio into a pretty simple patio setup. Some old chairs scattered around alongside some tables that have clearly seen better days. The patio roof, obviously, has collapsed from years of not being maintained.

A simple wooden fence surrounds the backyard area which is pretty damn massive if not mostly empty. The only real thing of note here is the garden far northwest of here (that seems to still be doing well, oddly!) and an old shed directly north from here.

"There." Max points towards a discolored patch of sand. Seems like the entity went north since there's splotches of discolored, wet sand in that general area.
"Ahh." Casey sighs as if she's reminiscing something. "I imagine this is what Acquisition Agents must do. Trailing down, hunting bizarre entities that can be harvested for a profit. Truly, a honorable career."
"I don't think we're harvesting anything." You shake your head. If it's what you think it is, you rather be gentle with it if possible. "Let's just check on it, okay?"

"Yeah, I agreed with Nicole. Everyone looked pretty tense when you came out of that trapdoor. Let's try to keep things calm; I don't want to stress anyone out."
"Oh! No worries! I was simply enjoying the moment."
"It's-" Max giggles at how airheaded Casey can be sometimes. "Yeah! Let's enjoy it. Hopefully it'll be peaceful, right?"

"Hopefully." You murmur.

The trek towards the shed isn't noteworthy until you're about halfway towards the shed. That's when you hear it. A wet, gurgling noise like someone's failing to flush a clogged toilet. Intermixed in that sickening noise is...you think it's barking? But like a person mimicking a bark instead of an actual dog's bark.

Max puts on a brave face but her voice betrays her worry, "It'll be peaceful. It'll be okay."

The trail of discolored sand continues past the front of the shed but suddenly ceases the moment it turns around the shed.

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Seems like whatever the entity is, it's waiting behind the shed. Hiding, maybe?

Max takes a deep breath before calling out to the entity, "Hello? Anyone there? Show yourself, we want to know who's here."

"Ghh...Snn...Hhh..." Something wet and heavy is being dragged around the shed. The entity, still obscured by the cover of the shed and haze, is struggling to breath. Every movement causes it to heave and gurgle as if the mere act of moving is causing it great pain.

It slowly crawls closer and closer towards your group. You can hardly make out its figure because of the haze but from what you can see of it? It's far, far too big to be anything but an anomaly. It easily towers over your group by at least 12 feet, if not more.

Soon, it's close enough for your group to make out what it is...and you wish you could unsee what you saw.

https://youtu.be/yvMoXc6wnBg - MELTED ANOMALY

The entity is an amorphous white mass that has partially melted onto the sandy ground. Large clumps of fur and skin cling to the sticky white surface of the creature but it's clear the skin has been rotting for a long, long time, it has taken on a sickly greyish green hue to it. The fur, while still pearly white, is matted and tangled with random objects like twigs stuck inside of it.

It has limbs in the technical sense but they seem to be more like loose suggestions than solid, defined arms or legs. Two large nub-like appendages on the front of the anomaly seem to act as its front legs while its back legs are too melted to really be much help.

With the sheer size of the damn thing, any movement it tries to make is slow and painful.

It has no discernable face, only a series of six small openings on its front that open and close at random intervals. The only other identifiying thing about the white mass is a pair of folded, floppy ears made out of a slightly more solid white goop.

It's barely holding its own shape together. Huge droplets of white slime and ooze dribbles off of the anomaly and onto the sand below, turning the floor it is now standing on into a mess of slime and wet sand. The thing that hits you, though, is the stench of rotten flesh around it.

[SHELTERED] You and Casey have both smelled worse but Max's still not used to disgusting smells like this. She holds back a gag, trying her best not to vomit.

The anomaly begins to shake and tremble. Blackened ichor oozes out of the six holes on the front of its face. Shit, does it see her gagging as an attack? Some of the ichor splatters onto your arm before you have any time to attack.

It rapidly burns through your rags and the armor underneath. You quickly wash it away before it can burn right through you but shit, your skin feels raw underneath...
>-1 (REDUCED FROM 2) FLESH! 5/8 LEFT!
>CRIPPLING INJURY: ACID MARK OBTAINED! (You take 1 extra FLESH damage from attacks!)

[BLOSSOMING HEART] "W-wait." Max regains her composure real quick, not wanting anyone to be melted.

"I-I didn't mean to offend. I...look." Max raises her hands up as a show of surrender. "We aren't here to hurt you."

Casey keeps her voice low, deciding that high energy isn't the best way to handle this particular 'customer'. "It's going to okay. Are you lost? Do you need help"

That seems to calm down the anomaly for now. "Ghh...glurg...want...help..." Its voice is a mangled mess of three or four separate voices. "Doctor...here. Need...help. Doctor...fix...me. Doctor...lives here?"

Max stammers to think of something to buy some time. "We're waiting for him too."
"We can wait here with you if that's what you need. You don't have to be alone." Casey whispers calmly at the anomaly.

The anomaly doesn't seem to react for now. It simply sits still.

A quiet but insistent beeping is coming from your pocket. You cautiously check it and, yeesh, the P-CORP ENERGY DETECTOR is going ballistic. The amount of energy in the air is far, far higher than anything normally produced by anomalies. It's like it is made out of pure A-Energy.

[SEEKER OF THE CITY] This is clearly one of the entities Jin saw. It still remembered him after all of this time.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] If it's looking for treatment, perhaps you can offer it treatment. That might be enough to calm it.
[SEEKER OF THE CITY] It might be wise to keep Benjamin away from it. He might remind it of Star, especially if Benjamin gets a bit loopy.

You take a moment to remember the five or six work types anomalies prefer...

How do you want to deal with this entity? Choose two actions and any number of free actions.
>[NURTURE] Hug it. It's clearly scared. Perhaps a hug is all it needs. (Choose who to hug it: You, Max, or Casey. The target will take 1d2 FLESH damage and a 50/50 shot at a CRIPPLING INJURY.)
>[APPEASEMENT] Play fetch with it. You have some icepicks to spare now that you're not in I-Corp. Perhaps some fun can help distract it. (-3 out of 6 ICE PICKS. No check needed.)
>[BONDING] Talk to it. Try to learn more about it. Maybe it just needs someone to listen. (VERY EASY CHARM CHECK, rolling 9d6 with Max's help.)
>[SUBDUE] Use the two A-ENERGY SIPHONs you have. It could help in treating it by managing its size. Tell Max and Casey to keep it calm. (-both SIPHONS. MODERATE RESTRAINT THRESHOLD CHECK, rolling 8d6 with Max helping Casey. Three thresholds.)
>[OBSERVE] Have Max figure out how to 'treat' this anomaly. She probably picked up something from Ben. (FREE ACTION, MODERATE COGNIZANCE CHECK, rolling Max's 8d6. Moderately lowers the DC of EXTRACTION and SUBDUE.)
>[EXTRACTION] Empty out some of your pill bottles and try to collect some of the acidic slime. Go along with the 'treatment' angle. Maybe Benjamin can use it. (MODERATE TALENT CHECK, rolling with your 8d6.)
>[CASEY ALLY] "Perchance, may I tell it a story?" Let Casey talk to it. You have no idea what she has planned. (FREE ACTION. RISKY CHARM CHECK, rolling Casey's 7d6. May upgrade Casey? You're not sure.)
>Write in.

>>6180500
>[NURTURE]
Casey. Self-explanatory.
The monster kids definitely haven’t felt the touch of affection for a really long time here. I highly doubt Star is treating or giving any care at all to the kids he experimented on, like how the BEST DAD EVER, BONDREWD, is in terms of "affection.".
>[APPEASEMENT]
Star definitely hasn't or doesn't want to play games with his lab rat kids. I will not be surprised if the star literally put lab rat kids in some cell with only food and water. And nothing else whatsoever in cell for kids to play with to pass time.
>[CASEY ALLY]
Give Casey one SOMTOIN ZETA.
I doubt Star tells stories to his lab rat kids.

Picking [OBSERVE], [EXTRACTION], and [SUBDUE] is definitely a bad idea because the monster-kids are going to be reminded of how horrible Star treats them.
[OBSERVE] = lab rats-kids locked in the experiments chamber getting experiments on while Star "OBSERVE" the mutation.
[EXTRACTION] = Star forcefully "EXTRACTION" a sample from the mutated lab rat kids.
[SUBDUE] = If any lab rat kid is uncooperative, then Star will have to "SUBDUE" them for making experimentation much easier.

In short, do not treat the monster kids the way Star treats the kids. treat monster kids on how people treat heavily mentally and physically scarred fearful kids.

We need to first gain the trust of monster kids by showing affection and playing games. Then finally, bonding.

>>6180523
>Casey with SOMTOIN ZETA
One hell of a mindfuck in the making. Let's do it.
+1

>>6180523
+1
I second giving the hyperactive airhead a dose of LSD. As long as we maintain a safe distance.

>>6180500
>>6180523

Eh, sounds okay to me.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

Everyone is agreeing on the same thing. You're even giving her drugs? Wild shit.
Rolling 1d2 for the amount of FLESH damage

Three anons, roll the following
>5d6 (Half of CASEY check)
>5d6 (Second half of CASEY check.)
>1d2 (CRIPPLING INJURY chance. 1 = INJURY, 2 = NO INJURY.)
DC was 31 (after CORPORATE DOUBLESPEAK) but with 10d6 being her roll now, it's a MEDIUM or MEDIUM-EASY check instead of a RISKY check.

You might have to give her some items to patch herself up after this, though.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6180815
We have the money and we havw the supplies. We can easy patch her up after
I'm going crazy and rolling CRIPPLING INJURY coinflip

Rolled 1, 4, 6, 4, 2 = 17 (5d6)

>>6180815

>Casey #1

>>6180820
Dang.

Rolled 2, 6, 3, 5, 6 = 22 (5d6)

>>6180815
Rollin’!

>>6180820
Yowch. We have some UVX on hand so it won’t matter much.

>>6180824
>>6180834
Aaaand that’s a 39! Good shit.

Just noticed you specifically had an item to negate the CRIPPLING INJURY on yourself. So we're consuming an old AUTOSTIMPAK item to heal that.
As for Casey, she has 2/4 FLESH and the ACID MARK crippling injury.

What do you want to invest in healing the funny bee? You may choose one or you can choose multiple. First to three wins.
>QUNQUN PILL (Heals her CRIPPLING INJURY. You have two of these.)
>ENCHANCED GAUZE ROLL (Can heal a CRIPPLING INJURY or her two FLESH. Choose one when you pick this. You have two of these.)
>UVX #58 (You have two of these. Heals 3 FLESH, fully healing her, and heals her CRIPPLING INJURY but drains her RESTRAINT for a while.)
>Wait, she has an implant. Tell her to use that. (She has four charges. She can spend 2 to heal the CRIPPLING INJURY and another 2 to heal 2 FLESH. Tell her how many to spend.)

>>6180837
>Wait, she has an implant. Tell her to use that. (She has four charges. She can spend 2 to heal the CRIPPLING INJURY and another 2 to heal 2 FLESH. Tell her how many to spend.)

Burn all 4 charges.

>>6180843
But what if we need those charges to get her out of crit if she's wounded during the BASE ASSAULT?

>>6180846
You regain 2 per mission. I should've clarified that.
DAEMON IMPLANT (Has four charges. Can spend 1 charge to add +2d3 to any skill check, can spend 2 charges to: Heal a CRIPPLING INJURY, 2 FLESH, or 2 RESTRAINT. Regains 2 charges per mission.)
This is what you're using, to be clear.

>>6180847
OK thanks for clarifying

>>6180837
Backing >>6180843

>>6180843
+1
She’ll get two more tomorrow for the base assault.

>>6180837
>Wait, she has an implant. Tell her to use that. (She has four charges. She can spend 2 to heal the CRIPPLING INJURY and another 2 to heal 2 FLESH. Tell her how many to spend.)

>>6180843
>>6180849
>>6180880
>>6180894
Signal read, writing.
Two things
1.) She can see YOU now.
2.) You'll finally be getting out of D-Corp out of this, yippie! No more infinite darkness. So start getting used to slightly more detailed skill check descriptions from now on.

>>6180897
>1.) She can see YOU now.
Finally, a character can see us anons... somehow. Too bad for her, we're stuck guiding Nicole on this crazy story.

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>>6180897

>1.) She can see YOU now.

Does she think I am kawaii~

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A tiny part of you wants to harvest SOMETHING from this thing and you have a guttural feeling it wouldn't mind but, no. It's better to be kind to this creature. To try to make things right.

You can't fix it in one go, you know that much, but maybe you can relieve its suffering for a brief moment.

You toss three ICE PICKS on the ground right by Max's feet. She's quick to realize what you want her to do. She picks up the scattered ice picks and with a lazy toss, she throws one past the anomaly.
Its 'head' slowly shifts around in the direction the pick was thrown. With a sluggish but excited pace, it drags itself after the pick.

Max cautiously smiles while she plays a, admittedly bizarre, game of fetch with the anomaly. "There, there. Don't exhaust yourself too much."

It takes about a solid two minutes for it to drag itself thirty feet (which is how far it was thrown) over to the pick.)

When it comes back with the first pick, held loosely in one of its front appendages, it's already a melted mess. The metal head reminds you of the fluid you'd see in old thermostats. The handle's not far behind in being completely liquified.

"Good job! If you get the next two within two minutes, we'll get you a treat! A special one all of us have prepared just for you!"
"T...reat...?" The anomaly's voice is filled with doubt. "T...rick? T-trick...us?"
"Absolutely not." She gives both you and Casey the side-eye. She expects YOU to figure out what it is. "I promise you. Cross my heart, hope to die."
"Prom..ise."

"I promise." Max places her hand over her heart. "Now! Let's beat your record! I know you have it in you!"

You turn to Casey while Max is busy playing catch with a far more excitable dog anomaly abomination. "So. What the hell can we give it that's a 'treat'?"
"Hmmm! This is quite the pickle. Could we feed it a tasty snack, perchance, like a $9.99 Triple Kilo with Cheddar?"

"Maybe? But most of the food I have is laced with drugs, bad idea. I have some old fish but even if we did give it the fish, it's a big anomaly. It would want a lot."

"That is an issue. We simply do not have the supply to satisfy it that way." Casey's stumped for a moment and so are you. You decide to propose a pretty dangerous idea given what it did to that metal ice pick.

"What if one of us hugged it? When's the last time anyone has touched it? I'm willing to do the deed. It would hurt like a bastard but I'm your leader. It's only fitting-"
[QUEEN BEE MINDSET + MERICURAL] "Nay. You hired us for a reason." Casey snaps at you with a stern tone that's far more befitting of a peeved probation officer than a LARPing bee(?). "I respect you caring about the welfare of your employees. But an employee must do their fair share of work."

Damn. You raise your hands up in mock surrender. "If you say so. I still want to help so, here, have this." You toss an old pill from your inventory: a SOMTOIN ZETA pill. A small half-and-half grey-crimson pill you had for a while.

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Casey nods and pops the pill into her mouth right as Max's voice draws everyone's attention.

"Good, well, not sure what to call you. Who cares, good job!" Max claps to celebrate the dog anomaly returning with a pair of melted and smoldering ice picks. "If I counted that correctly, that was 1 minute and 30 seconds!"
The anomaly is panting and huffing, sending white goo-like slobber onto the ground below. It hisses and crackles upon contact. "T-tired...b-but fun. Fun. Fun. Happy!"

"Well! You're getting your treat. I'm sure my two excellent servants will help you. It seems like the doctor is very busy, after all." Max gestures

Casey's eyes are immediately awashed in a crimson and grey haze as the drug finally hits. Her body suddenly locks up once it fully washes over her. She regains her senses as quickly as she lost them but she seems different yet at the same time not.

It's more like whatever makes up her spirit has been shifted sideways.

CASEY'S NEW BOONS AND BANES. She'll regain her old BOONS/BANES when the drug wears off, which won't take long.
[HAND OF CORPORATE LOVE] REPLACES OPTIMISTIC SPIRIT. The Company has it figured out. Trust them to know what's best for you. Casey now passively heals FLESH to you and other allies.
[ALL IN THE MANUAL] REPLACES CORPORATE DOUBLESPEAK. The manual knows all! Teach those around you how to best face life's problems! Casey passively lowers the DCs of all TALENT, COGNIZANCE, FLESH and RESTRAINT checks by 4.
[QUEEN BEE MINDSET] Hasn't changed. Mostly because it does nothing yet.
[BUGMEAT] Replaces PARADIGM PERSAUDER and MERCURIAL. Very modern! Very utilitarian! Optimal shape! It's Casey! Casey is immune to the effects of PARADIGMS, ANOMALIES, SHIFTers and ESOTERIC DAMAGE. This includes positive effects and allied powers.

She opens her arms out towards the anomaly. "I'm here for you. You earned a reward, did you not? For all hard workers must benefit from their rewards, yes yes, and you are a hard worker indeed." She's cognizant but her voice sounds wonky and slow like a poorly recorded VHS tape.

The anomaly abruptly lunges at Casey but it's immediately stopped by Max whistling at it. It stops mid-lunge the moment it hears Max's command. "Uh nuh. Be gentle with her. She's not as big as you, you gotta remember that!"

"Ngh." The anomaly shifts slowly over to Casey. It loosely leans against Casey. Acidic goo spills all over Casey's body but she doesn't care. She wraps her arms around and gives the gooey dog anomaly a hug.

[HAND OF CORPORATE LOVE] "it's okay." The acidic goo still burns at her, she's not immune to that it seems, but she braces through the pain. "we can put anything we put our minds too hello hi =)" Her voice is artificial, plastic, but equally warm and loving.
"W-warm. P-pressure. Don't. Remember."

"of course you dont =)"
"a meanie hurt you didn't he ;("
"we are not like him we are your friends =)"

"W-won't. Hurt me?"

"do you want to hear a story :?"

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Max shoots you a look. You simply shrug, you didn't expect the drug to mess with Casey this much. You decide it would be best to let her talk to the anomaly in relative peace.

"S-story. Yes. Long time."

"you see my story is a simple and quick one i do not have much time" She grimaces when the acid melts away at a decent chunk of her face. You can see liquified hunks of skin running down her cheek like wet tears. "it is of a lonely bee who got lost."

"the bee was with a lot of fun bee friends just like her! calming officers with free samples, busy bees doing lots of works, men with nice firm handshakes :>"
"but the bee felt lost there she wanted to see something else no one knows why though"
"do you know why :?"

"No friends...trustworthy?"

"no no it was that she didn't know what to do"
"she spent so long in that same place she lost track of time and who she was all she remembered was a vague want to help people"
"that doesn't help anyone though right if even she didn't know how to do that"

"Hard. Think. Want doctor but. Where doctor...?"
"exactly so she wandered around trying to find people to help like her bee friends but she wandered further and further and further away from the hive to do so"

"until she couldn't remember where her hive was and where her friends were and she had no idea where she was at"
"We. Memories hard. Speech. Hard."
"until she wondered why she even left to begin with then she realized that she didn't know what her goal was"

The anomaly stirs in her grasp as if it's vaguely piecing together what she's putting down. It came here to blindly search the manor for a man who hasn't lived here in decades. You suppose Casey has also been wandering blindly. She did once said she didn't even know how she arrived at this City.

"Doctor not...here?"

"all she knew is what she wanted so so long ago but so so long has passed perhaps a shift in goals is necessary"
"in order to help others she must help herself if shes sad and frightened she cant be a happy worker people like :("
"like how you are not happy dog you are sad wandering dog" She trails a finger down the anomaly's 'chest'. "what you need is a friend to help you like how i was sad bee until i had friends to help me too"

"i have many friends but i could always make more do you wanna be our friend =)" She gestures a goo-soaked arm over to you and Casey.
"if we are friends we can help each other figure out what to do even if we are lost and dunno what to do :("

>39!

The anomaly shifts in her arms for a moment. As if trying its best to process what Casey was saying. It leans against Casey for a moment before an idea clicks together in its head. "Don't...want people...hurt like us. Want to...protect."

"then protect those weaker than you you are big and strong show them you mean no harm and save those who need saving =)"

Casey lets go of the anomaly. She quickly wipes off the slime when the anomaly isn't looking.