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Old 03-12-2020, 06:29 PM   #41
Icelander
 
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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Well, Teddy Smith's refusal to use a chicken is making sense now. If you dress a chicken in that tracksuit, it will (a) look very 2002 and (b) probably suffocate.
I suppose, though he mostly seemed to object to tattooing it. Something about plucking a live chicken.

Note also that while the tracksuit was desperately desirable in 2002, when Natalie Garza was in high school, it was also a hard-to-get fad item available at a few locations and mostly confined to celebrities, or at the very least richer kids with connections. Garza bought her years later, around 2008, when she had become a Deputy US Marshal and had the disposable income to afford it. At that point, they were also being sold in a lot more locations, including in Houston.

It's old, faded and out of fashion now, not to mention that at thirty-three, Garza wouldn't wear a pink tracksuit for anything but the gym (and even then, only if her other gym clothes were dirty). Doesn't mean that she likes having it stolen for porcine purposes, though.
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Old 03-13-2020, 06:53 AM   #42
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
I've certainly never been there.
Guyanna is weird and different, I'll give you that. I'm impressed on how much you have managed to get done with it.

Reading his accent is funny, because its mostly right. For example, this line:

Quote:
“Dis skinny kaka hole think he vex me with am botheration. Everybody all knows I use me handgun only out of the kindness of me heart, so as not to frighten dem bad men and jumbees with me lolo. Hold dem pig, banna, let us make the exodus.”
kaka, vex, and jumbee are dead on. On the other hand, I'm completely unfamiliar with "Banna". Juman has been travelling around the carribean for a while though, so its completely possible he's picked up a lot of west carribean terms, and you've basically said as much, and done a good job of giving yourself wiggle room.

Quote:
Well, you are the one who named Zamal Juman, suggested his origin and supplied the casting photo of him.

I can't tell from this picture whether that's a very dark-skinned 'pure-blooded' East Indian / Indo-Guyanese or someone of mixed race, most likely both East Indian and African heritage. In particular, the very closely-cropped hair makes it impossible to attempt to use its curliness or lack thereof as any kind of ethnic indicator.
Huh, that pictures a little more ambiguous than I thought at first glance. I suspect he's just indo-Guyanese,but you're right, you can't be sure. The mustache makes me think He's Indian , but that's just hair styling. The skin tone is perfectly within the East Indian range, if just a touch dark. He's not "Very Dark" though. The Indo-Guyanese population is quite dark. This fellow is just a bit on the darker side.

I've been enjoying the story!
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Old 03-13-2020, 07:45 AM   #43
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I'm writing this short story / novella / realistically-might-actually-reach-novel-length abomination at the request of my players, who wanted to know what happened to the NPCs their actions landed with the job of Driving Miss Piggy.

These forum posts are necessarily bowdlerized because of the profanity filter and are broken up in chapters differently because of post character limits, but otherwise reflect a fair first draft of the process.

Aside from entertaining anyone depraved enough to read amateur fiction inspired by a role-playing campaign, the primary purpose of posting the first draft on public forums would be to ask for pointers, suggestions and all kinds of nitpicks. About style, sure, but also about other things.

Basically, what should be done differently? What doesn't work? What might benefit from more focus? What is implausible or obviously written by a foreigner entirely unfamiliar with his subject?

One fairly obvious benefit to a decently readable story would be to introduce players* to aspects of the campaign setting that might not have come up in play yet, but with which their characters should be familiar. This naturally includes all kinds of minutia relating to the organization of occult researchers, troubleshooters and 'Night Riders' (Monster Hunters) funded by the centenarian Texan billionaire J.R. Kessler and the occult world in general, but it should also involve the wider world.

By design, the world of the setting is close enough to the real world for me to be able to use real-world data for most things, unless I have a special reason to want it changed. That being said, as I've been running campaigns set in the same world of emerging occult influences since 2010 and the status quo of a world outwardly identical to ours is obviously not sustainable, I want to make it clear that there are differences from our world at the end of 2018.

For example, while most of the United States resembles ours and about 80% of the people there are living under more or less the same conditions as in our world, there are places, both urban and rural, where the violent crime rates are significantly worse than in our world. For example, crime rates at some reservations are much higher than in the real world and the same holds true for Florida (especially coastal areas), much of the Gulf Coast and Maine, oddly.

This is a major political issue, although mostly one that already existing politicians have used as campaign platforms in ways that we'd consider plausible from them in our world, rather than many entirely new politicians having entered the national stage, but it's still a far-reaching change that will have a lot of impact eventually.

In the setting, places as Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Newark, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Seattle and Washington DC have crime rates close enough to the real world not to be noticeably different. However, murders in places like Atlanta, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Cleveland, Houston, Mobile, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Savannah or Toledo are at least 50% more common than in our world.

A fair number of cities that in our world are reasonably safe or at least not nearly that bad instead have very high homicide rates, in some cases even exceeding 50 per 100,000 citizens; such as Beaumont, TX; Shreveport, Lake Charles and New Iberia in Louisiana (the surrounding rural areas also have unprecedented crime rates for their population densities); Memphis, TN; West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Key West, Florida; Portland, ME; and Roanoke, VA.

Several cities, among them Baton Rouge, New Orleans and St. Louis are hovering around a hundred murders per 100,000 citizens in the 2010s. In fact, New Orleans and St. Louis were both close to a 150 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017, a rate almost 150% higher than St. Louis has in our world and more than three times the rate of the real NOLA. This is somewhat correlated to increased gang activity in both cities, including several very violent ones that do not exist in our world, but mostly involves apparent 'random' violence, increased rates of domestic disputes that lead to homicides and also correlates with far higher suicide rates.

Then there is also the fairly major change to US politics that a proposed constitutional amendment to allow naturalized immigrants who have lived in the US for sufficiently long to run for President has been a fairly significant political issue since 2013, although it has not been ratified yet. Astute political observers link support for this amendment and the various court cases and legislative action connected to the cause to the immense popularity of former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, although he has not stated that he plans on a Presidential run for 2020.

There are also international changes of greater or lesser scale, including the fairly major event in the United States backyard that Venezuela is functionally becoming a failed state, with various armed factions and terrorists seemingly fighting there with allegiances and causes unclear. No reliable numbers for the homicide rates in the cities there exist, but pretty much everyone agrees that the official numbers have become worthless, with local officials going so far as to deny evidence of mass murder even when the international press publishes video evidence from social media.

Maduro is still officially in power, although increasingly the government seems in less than perfect control of areas outside the capital, and while the party line denies all reports of unrest and rioting having descended into civil war, news reports of guerrilla skirmishing in remote parts of Venezuela since 2017 appear fairly frequently in American media.

The United States also has more soldiers in Afghanistan than in our world at the end of 2018, largely because the security situation there and in neighboring Pakistan is a hell of a lot more confused and dangerous. In fact, Pakistan is contenting with so many terrorist attacks inside their borders by up to a dozen different factions that they might be said to be in the course of fighting an insurrection, although many of the factions also seem to be striking at each other and various civilian targets of dubious strategic value.

Considering that Pakistan has nuclear weapons, the security situation there terrifies both professional and amateur strategists, but both the Sharif and Abbasi governments have proved reluctant to accept direct American assistance. It is hoped that the government of Imran Khan will be more receptive to military assistance.

Numerous African countries are also suffering from problems that they do not have to the same extent in our world, with Algeria, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe all experiencing paroxysms of factional fighting and apparently senseless violence.

Are there any suggestions for how to incorporate some of this naturally into the narrative? Or requests for other aspects of the world that the story might touch on?

Or just criticism of what is already there and suggestions of how I should change it?

*Especially as two new players, who have not played in this world before, will join the game at some point. It would be helpful if the story was readable enough for them to actually consider reading it for pleasure and also contained enough detail to make the world of the setting feel more real and interesting to them.
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Old 03-13-2020, 08:01 AM   #44
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

How is TDCJ coping with the increased violence? It would seem that this would result in more offenders being sent to TDCJ, and what are the Stiles and Gist units like in extra violent Beaumont?

Is the Air Conditioning litigation still the major ongoing event?
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Old 03-13-2020, 08:48 AM   #45
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How is TDCJ coping with the increased violence?
Badly.

Although incarceration rates in Texas as a whole are only 5-10% higher than in our world, violence inside prisons is more common and more serious. Suicides and accidental deaths are also on the rise.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
It would seem that this would result in more offenders being sent to TDCJ,
Even more serious than the added incarceration rates (which are straining a system already close to a breaking point) are proportionally greater increases in the demand for mental health services. Statistically significantly higher numbers of both crime victims and perpetrators have serious mental issues and the incidence of claims of mental incompetence among defendants is at historic highs in many areas of the US, including Texas.

In Texas, specifically, the University of Texas Medical Branch is dealing with noticeably higher numbers of potentially dangerous inmates of TDCJ who require mental health care and the Rebecca Sealy Psychiatric Hospital has an active psychiatric care unit, unlike in our world.

However, note that the higher homicide rates do not necessarily correlate with similar rises in less serious crimes and that a significant number of the 'extra' homicides are due to a higher number of spree killers, mass murderers, serial killers and the like. The absolute worst crimes are more common, but burglaries, grand theft auto, shoplifting or possession of drugs aren't significantly more common than in our world.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
and what are the Stiles and Gist units like in extra violent Beaumont?
Well, Beaumont has not featured a massive increase in incarceration rates to correspond with the higher homicide rate. For one thing, the rate of non-violent crimes is not rising at the same rate as the homicide numbers and for another, Beaumont is small enough that several mass murders and serial killer cases have pushed up the murder rate for the past years without much affecting the incarceration rate.

That being said, Beaumont has had to deal with several incredibly violent and dangerous prisoners in the last few years, some of whom have committed more violent crimes while incarcerated. It's definitely an outlier in terms of how many prisoners from there have required ultra-max solutions.

However, Beaumont also has a high rate of violent criminals who resist arrest and end up killed instead of arrested. Both the Beaumont PD and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office have SWAT teams in the setting that are more numerous, experienced and better equipped than in real life, because they've had a scary number of firefights.

Notably, while the SWAT deputies of the JCSO are part-time tactical officers as in most smaller counties, a good 25% of them are actually Reserve Deputies with some kind of special operation forces (SOF) background. The equipment of the JCSO is also state-of-the-art, thanks to the lavish support of a certain local billionaire.

Obviously, there are those who allege that the high rates of police shootings in Beaumont reflects a systemic problem in the Sheriff's Office and/or Beaumont PD, but Sheriff Zena Stephens, at least, who was elected in 2017, is very popular in Jefferson County and hard to criticize for racism (she's the first African-American female elected Sheriff in Texas).

Besides, it's not as if they are shooting jaywalkers or even drug smugglers dead, the firefights tend to be with actual serial killers or mass murderers and it turns out that this is substantially less controversial in the media than other types of police shootings.

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Is the Air Conditioning litigation still the major ongoing event?
Yes, with numerous unexplained deaths in crowded prisons attributed to inhumane temperatures by the victims' families.
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Old 03-13-2020, 09:12 AM   #46
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

Out of curiosity, is the partial memory loss experienced by Garza and Winding a function of the Facade? I was under the assumption that once someone "broke through" the Facade it no longer had any effect on them, but both Kit (who appears to have encountered Something that gave him those scars, which I assume drove him to join the Night Riders) and Garza (who seems to have broken through the Facade during the assault on the Aqueronte) initially perceived Miss Piggy as a woman (presumably similar enough in appearance to Miss Delvano to at least be mistaken to be her sister). The rapidity with which they broke the enchantment implies that once one has broken through, it's much easier to do so again. Is this correct?

One bit of advice I'd give on the writing would be to keep track of the tense of the narration, and strive to have it be past-tense as much as possible. It seems jarring and, to an extent the contradicts the rest of the writing, amateurish when the narration goes to present tense, making it read more like an entry in a play-by-post campaign than a story.

An advantage of choosing the cast you have - two exceptional veteran Night Riders, and a comparably-exceptional rookie - is that the veterans can quite naturally discuss previous cases they've had to handle, with Kit listening in eagerly to help get an idea of just what he's getting himself into. A road trip also potentially means listening to a lot of different radio channels, so any local oddities (national news is probably largely dominated by the events in Galveston, at least for a while) that are going on at the same time are likely to crop up in news reports, either while on the road or whilst eating in a diner. All this together can give you an excellent opportunity to flesh out the setting, giving both more background and more current flavor to help drive home that this is a much darker version of our own world, yet without getting all grim-dark.

A final bit of consideration is that there's plenty of fictional precedent to not concern yourself too much with how things should be different from our world - there's obviously a strong degree of historical inertia in the setting, otherwise the Butterfly Effect likely would have significantly changed history from sometime in the 80's onward (or earlier, seeing as Kessler doesn't exist at all in our world), rather than just the relatively small changes that have occurred.
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Old 03-13-2020, 09:13 AM   #47
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

TDCJ currently has excess capacity resulting in unit closures which I guess are not as likely to be closed now

Stiles and Gist in Beaumont already have staffing shortages (resulting in hiring bonuses if you want to work there!), I suspect they still have staffing shortages

Any interesting things about TDCJ OIG in this setting?
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Old 03-13-2020, 09:56 AM   #48
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Out of curiosity, is the partial memory loss experienced by Garza and Winding a function of the Facade?
Yes, that's right.

The Facade is powerful enough so that anyone with normal Will and without relevant Advantages will almost certainly rationalize a supernatural experience away. As for being told about the supernatural and shown evidence, that also rarely lasts, as believing that someone else is delusional tends to be easier than accepting the truth.

Occultists among Kessler's people have various theories about the Facade, but perhaps the most mysterious part about it is how comparatively many people who know about the supernatural in the modern era were already believers ten years ago, whether they had encountered true paranormal phenomena or not.

There was a time in 2008-2011 when it seemed impossible to anyone already in the know that governments would continue to deny the mounting evidence. And, crucially, both before that time and during it, various people were convinced of the existence of the supernatural in conversations with trusted friends and went on to found all sorts of informal organizations designed to prepare for the official revelations that would follow.

Somehow, however, even the events in Haiti 2010 and the collapse of Iraq into a failed or at least fragmented state in 2011-2014 under circumstances that were decidedly murky to anyone who knew about the supernatural did not result in the public acknowledgement of occult influences. To people who came to their own conclusions from much less evidence in earlier years, that seems crazy.

One theory is that anyone who was predisposed to penetrate the Facade had mostly already done so and the resistance of those who remain reflects the existence of some kind of mental block among a lot of humanity. In game terms, this is not a matter of those in the know necessarily having Illuminated, but instead, a very significant number of modern, secular, Westernized people in the world having the trait Mundane Background, which imposes a -5 against the Facade.

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
I was under the assumption that once someone "broke through" the Facade it no longer had any effect on them, but both Kit (who appears to have encountered Something that gave him those scars, which I assume drove him to join the Night Riders) and Garza (who seems to have broken through the Facade during the assault on the Aqueronte) initially perceived Miss Piggy as a woman (presumably similar enough in appearance to Miss Delvano to at least be mistaken to be her sister). The rapidity with which they broke the enchantment implies that once one has broken through, it's much easier to do so again. Is this correct?
This is mostly correct.

The Facade doesn't stop affecting someone just because they've broken through it once. In fact, it takes some people hard work just to retain their memories of supernatural events. There are occult methods of acquiring partial immunity, but for most people, the way to retain a clear head about the supernatural is to have very good Will and lack Mundane Background.

The 'Night Riders' pretty much have to be Will 13+ and among them are people with awesome strength of character and willpower. In general, people who are exposed to a lot of unnatural things tend to be a lot more variable than mundane people in the real world, both much more likely to have crippling mental trauma, but also more likely to display incredible talents or abilities related to their drives and motivations, even if they don't have explicit magic gifts.

In game terms, a lot of Night Hunters have Talents, other Advantages and very high mental Attributes that are vanishingly rare in the real world, if they are even possible. This may be due to the subtle influence of various spirits drawn to paranormal phenomena.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
One bit of advice I'd give on the writing would be to keep track of the tense of the narration, and strive to have it be past-tense as much as possible. It seems jarring and, to an extent the contradicts the rest of the writing, amateurish when the narration goes to present tense, making it read more like an entry in a play-by-post campaign than a story.
This is an excellent note and I acknowledge freely that I do not pay as much attention to tenses in my writing as I should.

I doubt I'll go back and edit past episodes, but I'll fix it in the actual draft, as well as keep it in mind for future chapters.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
An advantage of choosing the cast you have - two exceptional veteran Night Riders, and a comparably-exceptional rookie - is that the veterans can quite naturally discuss previous cases they've had to handle, with Kit listening in eagerly to help get an idea of just what he's getting himself into. A road trip also potentially means listening to a lot of different radio channels, so any local oddities (national news is probably largely dominated by the events in Galveston, at least for a while) that are going on at the same time are likely to crop up in news reports, either while on the road or whilst eating in a diner. All this together can give you an excellent opportunity to flesh out the setting, giving both more background and more current flavor to help drive home that this is a much darker version of our own world, yet without getting all grim-dark.
All good points.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
A final bit of consideration is that there's plenty of fictional precedent to not concern yourself too much with how things should be different from our world - there's obviously a strong degree of historical inertia in the setting, otherwise the Butterfly Effect likely would have significantly changed history from sometime in the 80's onward (or earlier, seeing as Kessler doesn't exist at all in our world), rather than just the relatively small changes that have occurred.
This is true. Historical Inertia seems to be a factor in some ways, at least in that the Butterfly Effect is not evident compared to our world.

That being said, I want to have the world of 2018-2019 diverge more from the real world than the setting did in the 2010-2011 because the occult influences and supernatural events taking place are so much more common and powerful. I don't want all significant events to be connected to the PCs or people they know, because I want there to be a sense of a living world where strange things are going on without the PCs being involved.

---

Finally, I'm trying to write the next chapter, but events in Iceland have interfered so much at my workplace that even procrastination from actual work has suffered. This morning, a ban on public gatherings that is to last for four weeks was announced, which has affected a lot of plans.

That being said, I did write two chapters yesterday, so even if I miss this one, I'll have maintained an average of daily updates. I'll try to get it up as soon as possible, but noises from our break room indicate that my fellow attorneys have broken out the booze, so it's plausible that I might fail to finish the next chapter.
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Old 03-14-2020, 03:40 PM   #49
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Default E8: Daddy Issues

Thinking quickly, Kit was able to turn his body so that an armful of pretty young waitress didn’t brush against the Glock holstered on his hip. His Carhartt down vest and a nice twill work shirt did a good of preventing the weapon from printing, but no concealment holster was going to feel like any part of a normal human body.

Not that Dickey’s BBQ was a 51% establishment or gun-unfriendly, but concealed carry was supposed to mean concealed carry and Kit considered it impolite to draw attention to the fact he was armed. Besides, Alexis Adams’ mother was friends with Kit’s mother and Kit really didn’t want to risk a motherly interrogation on the subject of daily carry.

Kit smiled politely at the girl and patted her arm. “It’s good to see you, Alexis. I’m, uh, actually up here with some guys I’m consulting for. I got out of the Navy six months ago.”

Striking turquoise eyes sparkling with mirth, Alexis grinned impishly, “Oooh, so you’re like a secret agent now? Former SEAL badass turned covert black ops contractor working for S.H.I.E.L.D. on like super-extra-secret ‘Ghost Protocol’?”
“What? No! Jesus, what the hell has Ashley been telling you?” Kit tried to conceal his shock. “I’m in grad school in Austin, this is just like a technical advisor thing, because I had some free time for a few days and I needed the money.”

Leaning closer to him, Alexis said, in a low voice, “Relax, Kit. Your sister didn’t say a word about anything she shouldn’t. I mean, she talked about little else back when you signed up, but she never talked about any specifics. [Faeces], we were in junior high, we didn’t know any specifics. After Ashley got over her shock that her glamourous brother went to Coronado instead of Hollywood, she mostly talked about how proud she was of you.” Alexis sighed in mock exasperation, “Of course, nowadays, unless it’s about fancy Asian fusion food or some quasi-famous friend of that guy Richie Samar, I’m not getting updates from Ash. Too busy up in New York trying to write the next ‘Game of Thrones’ to keep up with old friends.”

With a playful poke at Kit’s chest, Alexis continued, “But, c’mon, you join the Navy and go from tweeting constantly and updating your Facebook every hour to like nothing, for years! My cousin Frankie Vasquez is a Yeoman on the USS Carl Vinson and he didn’t stop posting on social media just because he joined the Navy. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what kind of job you had there. Besides, it’s not like the existence of Navy SEALs is secret or something. Y’all been on TV a lot.”

Raising his hands placatingly, Kit nodded. “Okay, okay, you’re right. I didn’t even drop social media because of security concerns. It’s just, well, BUD/S isn’t really a part-time thing and I needed to center myself. It was a pretty big lifestyle change for me. I thought I was in shape, because I worked out some, but I really, really wasn’t, not the right kind of shape. By the time I had some free time again, I’d gotten out of the habit, I guess. Chasing likes or followers didn’t seem that important anymore.”

“I get it. Once you’ve found your Death Star, I guess social validation from strangers becomes less important. Anyway, it’s not like you were ever as thirsty as your humble-bragging sister. Not by a long shot.” Alexis stares admiringly at Kit. “You never needed to be. You were just, like, low key slaying without even trying.”

Kit reddened and shook his head. “Awww, c’mon, Lexi. Back when I was in high school, I used to think Bobby Buchanan’s older brother Kurt was the coolest guy around, because he’d played second-string linebacker for the Aggies, had an old Mustang and was like a really easy-going boss at O’Reilly’s. I saw him just last week and he was still working at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts fifteen years later. Had this big beer belly, huge bald spot and told horrible dad jokes. Nice guy, but not exactly Mr. Cool. When you’re a kid, it’s easy to think friends’ older siblings are a lot cooler than they actually are.”

The girl slid closer to Kit, holding his gaze steadily with a teasing smile on her lips. “Your hair looks just fine to me and you sure don’t seem have a beer belly. Considering that you haven’t made even one pun so far, I think I’d maybe risk a sudden onslaught of dad jokes.”

Kit made an apologetic face and cleared his throat hesitantly. “I’m sorry, Alexis, I’m interrupting you while you’re working. And I’ve really got to get to my group, I’m on the clock too.”

Biting her lip, Alexis squeaked, “No, [faeces], I’m sorry. I’m babbling, you’re busy.” Quickly, she pecked Kit on the cheek, before jumping nimbly away. “Go ahead, find your group, I’m bouncing. Maybe I can trick someone into thinking I actually do some work here. Catch up later?”
“Yeah, for sure,” Kit replied. “Great seeing you and my best to Mrs. Adams.”

---

Both Juman and Wojciechowski were looking in Kit’s direction when he finished his conversation with Alexis Adams. With a wide grin, Wojciechowski motioned him over to the table. “Come here, Kermit. We even ordered for you. Two meat plate, brisket and ribs, your choice.”
“Just brisket, thanks.” Taking a seat and pulling a plate full of still-warm hickory smoked brisket toward him, Kit started eating. “I don’t need the sides, if you want them.”
Wojciechowski frowned, “What? Potato salad and rolls are best part.”

As Juman wordlessly appropriated the orphaned ribs, potato salad, rolls, fries and other sides, Kit shrugged apologetically. “I’m just trying to do a low-carb thing. Seen a lot of guys gain too much weight after they got out.”
The older man nods gravely. “Yeah, good idea. I didn’t want to say anything, but you look fat. Sort of bloated. If you have the fries, you’ll be looking like Zamal here before long.”

Without slowing the pace of his eating or even looking up, Juman gave Wojciechowski the finger. Kit grinned tolerantly at the wiry man. “So, Tomasz, are you just naturally [a sphincter] or is it a kinda coping mechanism for what you do?”

Wojciechowski looked pensive for a while, as if he were giving the matter real consideration. “Talent without hard work only takes you so far. I honed my craft for decades, long before I did what I do. Important thing to remember, it is not only hobby, it is passion and purpose.”

“Jesus, dude, that explains a lot,” Kit said. “Uh, you ordered all this food and didn’t get any water. Don’t you know iced tea is like mostly sugar?”
Wojciechowski shrugged. “We get water in car and I like iced tea. Just order some water.” With a leer, “I’m sure that cute little waitress would love to cater to your filthy desires.”
“Shut your mouth, dude! Alexis could be your granddaughter. Hell, I remember her in braids and little girl pink frocks.”

At that, Wojciechowski’s leer only intensifies. “She can put on braids and pink frock if she wants, but she’s no little girl. For some weird reason, she was panting all over you, but if you’re going to be picky, maybe she has good sense to appreciate experienced man.”
“Dude, we’re on the job, said Kit. “Hitting on waitresses doesn’t seem very professional. Besides, no matter how unlikely that anyone finds us tonight, I’d rather not risk any innocents.”
Juman rumbled, “Dis stargyal don’t look na innocent.”

Kit sighed loudly. “Whatever. You two dirty old men just lay off little Lexi, whose ears must be burning over there, and then we can maybe go back to our actual jobs. Where are we going to stay tonight?”

As he stuffed an enormous amount of fries down his gullet, Juman scanned around them, making sure that no one was listening to their conversation. “We is gonna get out of Texas tonight. We should hit Texarkana before midnight, banna. We can stop at am, but unless you’s too tired, it’s better to push on through the night.”

Wojciechowski leaned forward and spoke in a low voice, “The best time to stop is early morning to afternoon. Morning represent renewal. Enchantments don’t last past mornings, not without something to protect them or a lot of power poured into them. So any divination cast at night to find us probably won’t last past morning.”

“We could mebbe get all the way up to St. Louis,” Juman said. “If we really tink dis a good idea, going by dis place with all dem murders and magic there.”
“Wait,” said Kit. “Is St. Louis full of magic?”

“Crossroads, boychik.” Wojciechowski stole a fry from Kit’s abandoned sides before Juman could finish it. “Ley lines and very old Places of Power. So we’d be easier to track with divination once we get there. Not to mention the risks involved in playing tourists in America’s Murder Capital. But it’s calculated risk. While we’re in Texas, we don’t want to be found, but once we’re far enough away, our job is to distract our esoteric friends. We want them chasing, just not catching us until we’ve got a tac team ready to pick them up.”

Juman nodded. “Lenky shrimp man is right. I don’t know about dis St. Louis, though. Dem Sons of the Bird could object to a casual visit from Night Riders. And all dem bundoor bad men in am North side is dangerous when we don’t even know dem sides in am.”

Wojciechowski grinned. “Don’t worry, Zamal, we won’t stray into neighborhoods where people look more like you than me. That should make us safe enough from random street crime or scary ethnic gangs. As for the Sons of the Bird, that non-aggression pact, truce, whatever you want to call it, seems to hold up fine. They don’t bother us; we don’t bother them.”

Kit blinked his eyes in disbelief a couple of times before interrupting. “Hold the [fornication] up, guys! Sons of the Bird? Really?”
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-15-2020 at 02:34 AM.
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Old 03-15-2020, 03:31 PM   #50
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Default E9: Sons of the Bird

Juman waved a greasy rib in dismissal. “Am is only what Izzy Landry called dem, actually.”

“Yeah,” said Wojciechowski. “Izzy was team lead in New Orleans back then. Classically educated, you might say. He’d read most every science-fiction and fantasy story ever written. Also had Anthropology degree from Rice; almost as useful as his fandom. Falcon or birdman was major religious motif in Mississippian culture; what used to be called Southern Death Cult. So when we run across necromancers digging up pre-contact mounds, walking around with skulls, crystals and birdman symbols, Izzy called them ‘Sons of the Bird’.”

Nodding his head, Kit said, “Like in Heinlein’s ‘The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag’.”

“Exactly,” continued the wiry old Night Rider. “Baton Rouge PD was working murder case back in 2011 and Izzy got his hands on some crime scene photos through NOPD. He had good instincts, must have had feeling that the case had occult angle. It was kidnapped little girl found dead after a week; maybe six-years-old, blond, cute, good family, so the case got lot of press. Two other girls missing in Louisiana, but different kind of family, not much press. Anyway, Izzy recognized the spirals tattooed on the murdered girl and some other symbols as associated with Southeastern Ceremonial Complex.”

Wojciechowski fell silent and gave a subtle look of warning to Kit, who looked up to see the pretty brunette waitress approaching their table. “Hey, Kit,” the girl said. “Can I get you a drink or something? We don’t have any beer on tap, but if you promise to pour it into the Big Yellow Cup and pretend it’s not Sunday, I can bring you a bottled one from the Shell cooler.”

“Uh, no,” Kit said. “We’re fine, Alexis, really.”
“Wait, miss,” said Wojciechowski. “I wouldst not leave you so unsatisfied. Could you get our young friend some ice water? I wouldn’t mind some soft serve, either, but only if it’s no trouble.”

Alexis looked surprised for a moment and then turned to give Wojciechowski a dazzling smile. “Of course. Anything for Kit’s friends.” Coyly, she asked, “Are you guys, like, in movies?”
Wojciechowski looked at Kit with an amused grin. “Now, koteczek, why would you ask that?”

With an apologetic glance at Kit, Alexis answered, “Well, he said he was a technical advisor. I guess I figured, you know, with his background, it was maybe for a movie or TV show.”
“Quite right, miss,” Wojciechowski replied gravely. “We’re location scouts. But please don’t mention it to anyone. Non-disclosure agreements, you know.”

“Oh, for sure! My lips are sealed. Like, not even a hint to anyone, I swear.” Her lovely eyes the size of saucers, Alexis bubbled with barely suppressed delight. “You guys should totally cast him. Ooh, is it like a werewolf movie? Vampires are so canceled. He’d be a totally awesome down-home werewolf, like sort of sensitive, but still way badass. I think we, as a culture, are just over fake heroes in entertainment. How about people who’ve actually walked the walk, like Audie Murphy or Jimmie Stewart?”

Kit blushed an interesting shade of pink and stammered, “Uh, Lexi, you think you could you get me that water?”
“[Excrement], I’m sorry,” Alexis said. “I’m like an awful waitress. Please just, like, try to tip for effort, not performance. Or if you could like grade on a curve, that would be great, because I’m definitely crushing Shurleene today.”

With a sprightly spring in her step, the girl turned away to fetch the order. Wojciechowski’s eyes followed her admiringly until she was out of hearing range. “So, boychik! Technical advisor?”

“I had to say something, didn’t I?” Kit was visibly uncomfortable. “Pretending to be tourists might work on people we don’t know, but Alexis has been friends with my sister since they were toddlers. I had to explain what I was doing with two older guys she didn’t know from Adam. It was the first thing that came to mind.”

Wojciechowski nodded thoughtfully, “Is good. Not bad cover story. Maybe we should make werewolf movie. Zamal can be ravenous beast covered in unsightly hair and driven by unnatural hunger.”
Juman polished off the last of his extensive meal before grunting, “And ayo play dem little kutnee who mek story with am big bad wolf?”

Grinning mockingly, Wojciechowski replied, “No, Zamal. You’d be the exotic were-gorilla opposed by heroic Kermit, bare-chested protector of pure Texas womanhood.”
“OK, boomer,” said Kit. “Maybe workshop that pitch until it sounds less like it was written by a card-carrying Klansman.”
“Help, help! I’m being repressed!” Wojciechowski waved his hand and addressed Juman in his best approximation of English accent. “Didn’t you see it? That was ageism, that was!”

Looking around, Kit noticed that the other diners had left. A couple of other wait staff had started to clean up the other tables and the ‘Open’ sign on the door was turned around. Alexis returned with a glass of water and a bunch of soft serve ice-cream on a tray. “Et voila! Put freshly sliced lemon in the ice water and got you all some ice cream. I’m crushing the bonus round here. We’re closing, but don’t worry, just finish up at your own speed. It takes forever to bus the tables and the gas station is open longer anyway, so nobody is really gonna mind.”

Kit thanked her politely when she put the water in front of him and Wojciechowski grinned wolfishly while taking a lick of ice cream. “So sweet, miss. Don’t worry about your waitressing skills. Charmingly original much better than cold and efficient, koteczek.”
Scrunching her nose, Alexis asked lightly, “What’s that you keep calling me?”

Koteczek?” Wojciechowski shrugged apologetically. “In my country, it means kitten. No offense intended, miss.”
“None taken, I guess.” Alexis put her hands on the back of Kit’s chair. “I’ve been called worse. Today, even, though in Shurleene’s defense I kinda was being a little bitch. Just take care to stop at ‘kitten’, mister, and don’t graduate to anything Mel Gibson might say when he’s liquored up.”
“Your wish, charming koteczek, is my command.”

“It is? Cool, so you could put in a good word with your bosses?” Alexis grinned brightly. “I’ve been thinking; you should totally pitch them Kit’s play. ‘Riddle of His Being’, sort of a riff on a sequel to ‘Peter Pan’. It was like the event in Lufkin in 2005. Well, the theatrical event of Angelina College that year, anyway. I could even read for my old part.”
“I don’t know, Lexi,” Kit said hesitantly. “Don’t you think it might be a bit weird if you played a baby fairy now?”

“Christopher Robert Walker,” Alexis said in mock anger. “I know you’re too smart to remark on a lady’s age. For your information, I can still fit into my costume, although it covers a lot less than it used to.” She giggled. “Anyway, this is the age of prestige television. We’d age the little fairies up a bit, so they could do HBO-style sexposition, sort of like a Greek chorus with more glitter and less clothing. It’s darker and edgier, so they’d all be like totally sexy, slutty fairies, all scheming against each other for Peter’s affections.”

Kit frowned. “That’s totally derivative of the themes of the original, utterly opposed to Peter’s dramatic arc and disturbingly like something The CW or Starz might make. Guess it’s lucky for Ashley you’re going into nursing or you’d be quite the competition.”

Alexis laughed with delight and leaned closer to Kit to whisper into his ear. “Sup? Hashtag life goals, I was gonna be really cool and low-key about seeing you, but, TBH, I suck at adulting. So… I left my handle, number and anything else I could think of on a note by the check. So, just, you know, DM me or whatevs. TBT call me maybe?”

Exquisitely uncomfortable, Kit could tell that Wojciechowski and Juman were watching with amusement. Sighing, he turned in his chair and smiled kindly at Alexis. “Sure. I’ll call. I mean, I’m busy for a few days and there’s some stuff going on at home, but I’ll call. For sure. It’ll be nice catching up.”

Smiling back uncertainly, Alexis said her goodbyes swiftly and walked back to the counter without looking back. Before Juman could grab the check, Kit pilfered the post-it note attached to it. Juman left a couple of $20 bills and Wojciechowski made a face at him, added another $20, and addressed Kit. “C’mon, żabko. The road goes ever on and on.”

“And wither then?” Kit wondered.
Wojciechowski grinned, “I cannot say. We’ll talk about it as we drive. After you tell us about ‘Riddle of His Being’, of course. It’ll be good for Zamal to be exposed to some culture.”
Juman smacked his lips. “You tink I ain’t got culture and am? How about dis? Get yo magga [fornicating] bam bams to my goddamn cyar, cause we gots miles to go before we sleep.”

As they walked to the car outside, Kit looked back and waved to Alexis, who waved back hesitantly. Then he turned to Wojciechowski and said, “While I’m sure both of you could do with some culture, I’d rather hear about the Sons of the Bird and St. Louis. Maybe I’m being overly picky about that sort of thing, but if there’s any chance of running into child-sacrificing necromancers, it seems kinda relevant to our choice of routes.”
“Bah,” said Wojciechowski. “Sounds like classic deflection to me. You’re just trying to avoid talking about why you’re not excited to call cute kitten in there.”
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-16-2020 at 05:11 PM.
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