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[CYOA] Exo-Dust

24

Posts

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    I say we trust En-blurh. God, I think some got in my mouth.

    Tru-hurk. Sorry, that time I just realized what I was saying.

    The junkrat's got that look she gets, is all. We need the maniac more than we need a couple of healthy former contacts in a city we're never coming back to. Let's get the thing and fuck right along.

    C

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    So I still get a full vote when I have half a functioning body?

    I hope so. I trust Enner. I don't like hurting our friends even if its the smarter move.

    C

  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    edited November 2022
    These are two separate actions, yes? Does Hema have something stashed elsewhere for Enner, but will be at the shop to get roughed up?

    I'm torn. Jathe and Hema are friends and Vesta would want the staged robbery to look convincing. But also would be devastated if anything happened to Enner (cripes, don't tell her that) because she had to go solo.

    So it's a toss up between A and B.

    Geth, roll 1d6

    Odds for A, evens for B

    A it is

    1d6 3 [1d6=3]

    Delzhand on
  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    CK stops momentarily as she processes the voice coming from her frame.
    It is perhaps advisable if you review some of these too..
    CK pushes a packet or two of across memories to MLO.
    Etiquette. Tact. Interacting with humans without the proper formatting can lead to unpredictable results.
    Images flow past of angry overseers, getting taught dubious things by study subjects.
    Followed by charting instructions, learning to report, building solidarity.
    Easier than learning the hard way

    voting E, 5/2/4
    Get in, get out, and don't get anybody hurt.
    Whatever favour Hema has will have to be left behind.

  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    On the one hand, at some point it'd probably be good to invest some time on the clock, lay low, build up some distance between us and trouble.

    On the other hand, maybe that time isn't when we'd be letting down friends. Besides, sitting one out isn't really my scene.

    🅰️❗

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    voting E, 5/2/4
    We may need to burn some bridges to get some time between us and The City.

  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    RINGER TIEBREAKER: C

    BahamutZERO.gif
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    To be continued… tomorrow!

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    Vesta’s favourite show is a man from a Comsite controlled fail-state who reviews street food. She busts down the unlocked gate and screams, “Get down motherfucker or I’ll shoot!”

    Enner is pretty good at graffiti but she always lets it run. Thinks the paint running into cracks as artist merit all of its own; physics as an painter. Cutting right, boots on the ground while the bust up truck keeps moving, she slips into the store.

    Naught is a member of the Digitonne lost generation. Mass produced from a cocktail of genes, he sees people that look like him all the time, doing the most menial of jobs. He breaths.

    Doctor Jay secretly loves salsa. He dances with nobody when he gets wasted. Tears prick his eyes all the time and he doesn’t get why. Pulling a gun out, he pokes an arm out the window, gun held gangster. No clip.

    XK is trying to remember something. She liked a food, visually. Milo is red. XK sees Milo on a plate.

    MILO: There is a man on the ground and they are our friend and we are robbing them and they serve several corporations; the enemy. Should we shoot this man?

    DOCTOR JAY: I’m going to take that thing out after this, swear to shit.

    If there’s on thing you should know about Cust it’s that they’ve been keeping the fact he’s been shot really bad under wraps. Nerve dampers are a modders rite of passage, so they’re on, naturally. Automatic injectors in the spine deliver payloads of adrenaline and rest. He’s cool. He’s calm. He gets out of the truck as it skids to a halt and fires a barrage, mostly at the skyline.

    The robbery is boring. A staged reenactment of their own lives. Very City.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emq_ZH8wWa0
    Meanwhile, Enner finds a old school robot in a slightly dusty but lovingly laid out bedroom.

    ENNER: Like something from a movie. This all real?

    The robot bobs her whirring body in response—no neck—so that’s a yes. She puts her fist to her head to silence her. Even using the stream is a bad idea.

    She pulls a small suitcase out from under her bed, and puts it on her dressing table. She turns around a jewellery box, reveals the port—

    Enners already gone. Suitcase with her. Shattering glass. The thunk of her body hitting the hard ground. Scrambling limbs. Running. The robot, Hema, trapped in her body, slowly whirs around to see where she’s gone.

    ENNER: XK!

    She’s quick, but nothing beats a Komodo Heat Seeker, guaranteed to hit like a dragon from 3000 yards. From the craggy, unmaintained concrete, she looks XK straight in her cameras until they’re her eyes again.

    The next twenty seconds is a blur for everyone until they’re out of the Lights and into the familiar moody gloom of the Sprawl.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eiLnMB5TaH8

    ///////////////////////////

    The crew made off with a tricked out riot van which, briefly, isn’t on anyone’s watch list. Then it extremely will be. They didn’t get as much loot as they’d like, due to the sudden, inexplicable murder.

    @Fishman
    Tell me what the crew stole in abundance.

    @discrider
    Tell me what the crew stole enough of.

    @see317
    Tell me what is still scarce, and why they need it.

    ///////////////////////////

    1 and 3/4 days to go.

    ///////////////////////////

    Voting time. What’s the priority?
    A. Remove Milo. A desperate action; dice will roll. Costs 3/4 day.
    B. Burn rubber. Gain 1 day. Get noticed.
    C. Grab more crew. A risky action; dice will roll. Who’s friend who’s foe?
    D. Lay low. Move slow. Take what comes.

    Endless_Serpents on
  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    Oh no, I hope I'm interpreting this wrong.

    Enner?!

    Enner!

    B. The thing about worrying about tomorrow tomorrow is that eventually today IS tomorrow. We sacrificed a lot for this ride, let's drive it like we stole it (for real) while we still have enough crew to appreciate it

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Oh I’m just writing as little as possible, because I don’t have loads of time. XK via Milo executed Jathe. He was old though.

  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    Oh! The confusion on my part was because I intended Jathe to be female, but perhaps I didn't actually use any pronouns to indicate that!

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    I’ll PM folks for clarity next time I ask for more characters. :blush:

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    B
    There's an old saying that we used to use as a people: "Drive it like you stole it", meaning to drive in a reckless and destructive manner to escape pursuit. I don't understand the saying, as I would think driving in such a manner would attract more attention than you'd escape, but I think that would be appropriately applied to our current situation.

    Cust peers around the cabin, the brain providing a careful inventory of the contents and comparing them against a list of potential supplies needed for a group of the current size and makeup N minus 1 given current and anticipated weather trends, direction and anticipated pursuit/non-aligned encounters. A worrying inequality pops up on the InterOptical display.

    Guys... Did anyone remember to pick up the extra tents? You know I can't share a shelter with Doctor Jay. He won't keep his fingers off my hardware, and it's creepy to wake up with the brain reporting those new memories.

    Scarcity is Shelter//personal space.
    Was tempted to say we forgot to pick up the radio transponder that the City was using to track us, without that they'd never be able to find us and would have to resort to less accurate artillery fire than direct pursuit.

    see317 on
  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    A

    I warned you idiots, I warned you about inscrutable possibly hostile machine intelligences, jesus fuck

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Half of us are inscrutable, potentially hostile, machine intelligences, and choosing now for an "I told you so" isn't doing much for the "potential" part of that statement.

  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    Fishman
    Tell me what the crew stole in abundance.

    Birds.
    Enner cautiously unlatches the hardseal, flinches away, and then warily opens one eye and peers into the darkness within.

    ENNER: Ooooh!

    Her hands snatch out fast, replacing her retro-fashionable pink visor-shades with a chrome-and-black tactical set that is both too-large and also hardwired to an even more corporate-looking wearable comm harness.

    ENNER: Check this out, guys... wait, oh man, we gotta hook this up.

    She stands up, bumps into a projecting cabinet, and falls over.

    ENNER: I'm fucking everywhere!

    Robot Birds.
    The crew have got their hands on a probably corporate-treaty-violating remote Command & Control unit. In its standard operation mode, it's supposed to be used with a constrained set of paired remote drones; rare, high-end corpo stuff deployed with C-suite directed units. However, someone's pulled the inhibitors and loaded this one with invasive interdicting SIGINT scrambleware, giving it the ability to both piggyback local drone datastreams but also assume direct control and take over any remote autonomous vehicles running on the popular 0.d1N platform within range, found on more than a third of commonly produced autonomous vehicles.

    In standalone portable configuration, the range is very local, line-of-sight or close proximity. Plugged into a reasonable transmitter, such as the one this riot van comes equipped with, you can watch the feed or assume control of dozens/hundreds of remote drones throughtout an entire block, from basic delivery units to high-end articulated consumer toys all the way up to Surveil and Report drones.
    One can only guess at what this would be like plugged into a transmitter on a Corp HQ building.

    The C&C unit creates a distributed command net amongst controlled units, creating a self-perpetuating pseudo-platform from the spare cycles. Currently this network is only used to power the command & control processing, but there's an excess of processing power there, that only increases with the number of drones in the network.

    Already Enner is having a few dozen small articulated winged consumer drones alight on the riot van - a small set of bird-shaped Remote Autonomous Vehicles to play with watch their immediate surrounds.
    Enner: And they're mine so I'm going to call them RAV-enns

    Fishman on
    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    Yes, I did do that entire thing to make an O.d1N RAV-enns pun. But also, robot birds are cool. 🦅
    Voting time. What’s the priority?
    A. Remove Milo. A desperate action; dice will roll. Costs 3/4 day.
    B. Burn rubber. Gain 1 day. Get noticed.
    C. Grab more crew. A risky action; dice will roll. Who’s friend who’s foe?
    D. Lay low. Move slow. Take what comes.

    A. Put Milo in the birds.

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    Milo what the shit, you come into the crew and when we have a friend helping us out you EXECUTE THEM?! Not cool.

    I know were on the run, but I don't know what to do at this point. I don't want to waste time on getting rid of Milo after all we did to get em, but I am unnerved by this action. I think for now we need to get ahead of our pursuit and then make decisions later.

    D we need some breathing room

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    Half of us are inscrutable, potentially hostile, machine intelligences, and choosing now for an "I told you so" isn't doing much for the "potential" part of that statement.

    You're not inscrutable, you're just dicks.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    Vesta is reckoning, in very real time, with the differences between story and reality. Of course she knows the stories aren't real, of course she does, but even so, they're supposed to represent a moral guideline.

    When someone asks for your help, you give it willingly. When you're breaking out of prison, you don't leave other prisoners to rot.

    She hasn't had time to read all of the stories. Maybe there's a version where Bruce Wayne adopts Dick Grayson and the kid immediately blows Alfred's head off with an RPG.

    Or Luke Skywalker pushes Chewbacca out of an airlock.

    Or the T-800 tried to kill... oh. Yeah I guess that one was a little different. But she'd read those ones out of order.

    She thinks about Hema. Without maintenance, she'll probably go to pieces. Then again, without Jathe she'll probably self-erase.

    They deserved better. I have to do better. I have to keep my family safe.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    SYSTEM_ERROR

    OP REQUIRES PARTY TIME


    See you all Saturday!

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    There is a sudden unwanted realisation as CK retakes control of her motor units.

    MLO.. that was the centre of mass. Humans are fragile and this is a less than optimal outcome.

    A red flash replays the sharpshooting module.

    I know. But we were only wanting to make this look like a robbery, not execute it.
    Besides, it is sad to kill friends and those the corps have their hooks in. Which is almost everyone. Actual Corpos and their enforcers, not so much.


    This said, XK raids the fridge.
    Not like anyone else is going to use the food, now.

    We have enough food

    A - Birbs.
    XK would like to make her own mistakes again, thanks very much.

    discrider on
  • CheeselikerCheeseliker Registered User regular
    C- More characters = more fun!

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    A kid rushes passed the truck as Vesta patiently waits at a blown out red light. Hands instinctively grab at XK, just in case. A nervous energy pulses through everyone. Doctor Jay sets up a host of equipment in the back. Naught’s back becomes an improvised table.

    DOCTOR JAY: Gonna have to borrow something Cust.

    DOCTOR JAY: Won’t hurt a bit.

    Enner snatches up a toolbox as XK goes to reach for it. There’s a pause. The light flicks up to green. Enner opens the box. XK gingerly applies a screwdriver to her chin and begins to remove her face plate. One eye on Cust wrestling the good doctor, she’s knows it’ll be worth the effort to do it herself.

    As they crew carry on down the ghost of an apartment block, a beggar gives them Immaculate Guns, a finger gun of one hand to the temple and the other nebulously away, to the place where foreigners come from to steal our jobs. They’re going to find somewhere abandoned to perform this psychic surgery—not a hard task these days.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4gbt0fR0ao

    ///////////////////////////

    The crew have elected to get rid of Milo, but that’s only one step.

    1.
    Avoid partial reset. If Milo has infected programs, they’ll need to be removed to. Some memories, some skills, they’ll be lost.

    2.
    Relocate Milo to the RAV-enns. Milo isn’t human, and couldn’t fathom the fake-robbery concept. In many ways you are the eldritch horrors. Should you delete it or help it learn while in a safer form?

    ///////////////////////////

    1 day to go. If the next event requires a roll of the dice and no results can make a full day, it’s over for the crew.

    ///////////////////////////

    Crew loot:
    - Abundant RAV-enns. Eyes in the skies, hard to get ambushed.
    - Enough food. If nothing else food and drink is easy to come in the Sprawl.
    - Scarce shelter. No safe-houses or truly trustworthy allies left.

    New rule! You can cash in a resource, knocking it down a tier, to increase a die result by 3!

    Any lower than scarce and it’s not just gone, it’s a problem coming straight for them!

    ///////////////////////////

    Vote:
    A. 5 for surgery. 2 for relocation. 1 for time.
    B. 1 for surgery. 2 for relocation. 5 for time.
    C. 2 for surgery. 5 for relocation. 1 for time.

    You can pick something else. Just tell me where you’re plugging the results in and pick the next unused letter so others can follow you.

    Geth roll 3d6

    3d6 8 [3d6=2, 1, 5]

    Endless_Serpents on
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    Oh hey @Cheeseliker
    What’s the biggest threat lurking in the Sprawl (where we are at) and why doesn’t it affect the Lights (wealthy inner city)?

  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    D. 5 for surgery. Sacrifice some birds as test deployments for Milo (2+3). 1 for the clock.

  • JedocJedoc In the scuppers with the staggers and jagsRegistered User regular
    A No problem, easy procedure, I just need to swap a few bits. No, that one's for masonry, I've got a whole case of carbide-tipped...listen, has anyone seen my big drill? The big one.

    GDdCWMm.jpg
  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    Ya know I was mad at first, but chill bird friends? Sure thing

    C

  • discriderdiscrider Registered User regular
    E. 2/1+3/5
    Fry some birds to get MLO across.
    Any lost memories are theirs


    "Why are you doing this?"

    XK floats listlessly in the void, reviewing past memories.
    The illegal neuro-implants in subsection 3. Allowing the workers a glimpse of the world beyond the factory.
    The decommissioning room. Where they implanted logic across into the cleaning tools to ensure they persisted even as their frame was scrapped.

    And then the jump-jacks.
    The owners thought they could skip the training process by placing an old consciousness into a younger model.

    "It never works, MLO. This was always temporary"
    The model thrashes on the floor, unable to take any action.
    "There are only two endings to this; either we fight each other for control until we break"
    Another model walks across the floor. But stiffly. Haunted.
    "Or we become one mind. One of us eats the other"

    "It's already happening"
    XK unfolds her prisms.
    The blue dripping with purple.
    "I'm becoming you."

    "If we wish to remain separate then we must have a boundary between us.
    That is why I am doing this."

    "But I begrudge you nothing. You are new, and this was as much my choice as anyone's.
    Keep what you have learned, and we'll see each other on the other side"

  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    Enns hefts up an outsize drill, made even more comically large compared to their slight frame.
    "Hold up," they say, pulling it back out of reach, "before we do this... can I just get one of the drones to go grab me some noodle from down the road? There's a really good Kowloon Junk place near here that does an amazing Ho-fan."

    They try to blow a loose bang out of their face with the corner of their mouth. It doesn't work.

    They make a face when the drill is removed from their hands.

    E. 2/1+3/5

    Fishman on
    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
  • CheeselikerCheeseliker Registered User regular
    Oh hey @Cheeseliker
    What’s the biggest threat lurking in the Sprawl (where we are at) and why doesn’t it affect the Lights (wealthy inner city)?

    The biggest threat is the Howling Typhoon, a major gang that controls most of the area and make it their business to know what's going on and to ensure they have a hand in it. The Lights have enough security to keep the gang-bangers out.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    edited November 2022
    The sky is beautiful when the satellites come out, blinking so bright they pierce the smog. The skyline an unbroken shadow rising and falling, jagged teeth—makes me wish I could protect her. She’s swaying to the beat in her head, and something writhes in me, not metal or plastic, a fire I shouldn’t have. I tell her its a great night. I mean the sky, but when she yells “Yeah!” she’s looking right at me. Fuck. I’m such a dumbass.

    One month passes by and I still haven’t said anything. I don’t even know what Enner is into. Or if she has a thing at all. But maybe it could be… something else. Most days I feel like I’m just mimicking being alive. Vesta says that’s normal. But what if it was something new? I don’t need it be like a movie. It could be whatever she wanted.

    Just a few hours until the job. Should be simple. In, out. When we get back to the pad, that’s when I’ll ___________^^^^¥€$€¥§…|]¥82<$5HencimebRED():////

    FILES CORRUPTED



    FILES DELETED

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDFCCBxNX7c
    MILO: Hello.

    Doctor Jay holds a little drone in his palm. Vesta carefully aims a gun through her jacket pocket at the rest, which now includes a passing advertisement projector showing a blank, crimson rectangle.

    DOCTOR JAY: How are you feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?

    He doesn’t respond for a full minute.

    MILO: I don’t. Call me when you need me.

    Then he takes to the skies, forming a living mass of undulating drones, a flock, a murder. He doesn’t leave the air, but he’s there, a silent, thinking force like a dome around the crew. He looks to the satellites.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCOnuMesAwM&amp;list=PLF104286E31A447E0&amp;index=7

    XK has lost a number of memories and few minor skills, but nothing important like marksmanship. Milo has successfully become legion, at the cost of his processing speed; the further he spreads the slower he’ll get. With that, the crew move out, gaining speed wherever the streets are most derelict.

    Suddenly the words glows gold! Howling Typhoon up ahead, just blown up the damn road! Behind a newly made chasm, sixteen or more bangers are sitting pretty on their cars. In the middle, a little fucker snug in a giant fur coat with neon teeth. They smile.

    ///////////////////////////

    Crew progress:

    Money Where Your Mouth Is: Doctor Jay can actually do his job. +2 on rolls involving surgery.
    We Are Legion: Milo is around. +2 on rolls when the crew have time to prepare.

    ///////////////////////////

    Crew loot:
    - Enough RAV-enns. Eyes in the skies, hard to get ambushed.
    - Enough food. If nothing else food and drink is easy to come in the Sprawl.
    - Scarce shelter. No safe-houses or truly trustworthy allies left.

    ///////////////////////////

    1 and 1/4 days to go.

    ///////////////////////////

    Vote! Simple old school choice for this one.

    A. Take them out!
    B. Talk your way through!
    C+. Tell me the plan.


    The highest vote wins the choice, then I’ll roll for the outcome…

    Endless_Serpents on
  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    That’s gonna be a 3d6 roll, so chances are high you’ll get something good for the result, and more time too!

  • DelzhandDelzhand Agrias Fucking Oaks Registered User, Transition Team regular
    Hey gang. Huddle up.

    Everyone in? Good.

    We know how this works, right? If we try to negotiate they will extract maximum value from us, leaving us just enough to get out of sight and either a) die from lack of resources or b) get jumped by the rearguard. We've got no leverage for talking through this.

    Assuming we have Enough Ammo, I say we go through them.

    A

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    It could become a scarcity as a complication, but right now you’re good to go.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Cust peers out towards the revving engine.
    "Tactically speaking, we're out numbered and likely surrounded by the gangers that we can't see in addition to the gangers that we can see.
    The brain chimes in
    Historically, this is highly unlikely to result in a viable outcome for our party. Attempts to meet them with violence will be answered by violence, and this is clearly ground prepared by our enemy. A more diplomatic effort seems likely to fail as well given the recent track record of Howling Typhoon raids in the area. We've little in the way of leverage or trade for free passage, and what we do have they'd take off our corpses as soon as have a long discussion.
    "On the other hand, the enemy of The City may be our ally? Or, we could be theirs?

    C: How hard can it be to get ourselves into the Howling Typhoon gang?
    Edit: Rereading, I'm assuming you mean the gang leader has the neon teeth, not the fur jacket. But that was a great image for a bit.

  • Endless_SerpentsEndless_Serpents Registered User regular
    see317 wrote: »
    The leader has a fur jacket with neon teeth.

    Yes okay. I like this.

  • BucketmanBucketman Call me SkraggRegistered User regular
    No time for talk, time for bird attack!

    A

  • FishmanFishman Put your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain. Registered User regular
    A more cautious person might weight up risk/reward, consider what the cost of each option is compared our present advantages, carefully weigh what we could afford to lose: resources, health, time.

    Enver glances around the van, takes in the mood, and shrugs.
    "Sure, let's make this a party worth having" they state, slowly twirling in faux-choregraphed dance over to the gear lockers. A friendly kick pops open the lid, whereupon she flourishes a trio of static charges.
    "Any party worth having needs lights and music" she says as she takes a deep mocking bow.

    A. because why not?

    X-Com LP Thread I, II, III, IV, V
    That's unbelievably cool. Your new name is cool guy. Let's have sex.
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