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Old 02-27-2017, 01:04 PM   #41
Icelander
 
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

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Originally Posted by corwyn View Post
Non ironically? I don't think so. The last time I heard it was Stuart Smalley on an old SNL rerun.
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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
I've heard it, but generally only from older people (like 70's+).
I was going for eye-rollingly old-fashioned, but trying to avoid cartoonish caricature. The problem is I don't know anyone in real-life who'd use Bowdlerised swear words* and thus nothing occured to me as I was playing in real time other than actual profanity or bad phony Alabama accent Nick Cage.

I could really use suggestions for Alabama-appropriate versatile words to serve the purpose of profanity in speech (covering hesitation, conveying emotion or emphasis, etc.). How does anyone manage to speak normally without such a useful crutch?

*My grandmother may use fewer curse words than my mother (who is hardly a prolific profanity-maker), but that's a function of being older, more collected and better at emphasising her speech without crutch-syllables. I can't imagine her actually angrily exclaiming a cutesy euphemism.
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Old 02-27-2017, 05:55 PM   #42
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Default You Look Good in My Shirt

Col. Burr and Townsend arrive in the guards' dining hall winded from carrying the unconscious form of Vicente Berrocal up the stairs. In the meantime, O'Toole and Taylor recon the upper floor of the barracks and ascertain that no other guards are there. Taylor observes O'Toole silently for a while and when they're sure there are no threats on the floor, holsters his sidearm with a grin. He starts putting on one of the dual-threat vests that the two guards in the dining hall had, over his white sleeveless undershirt, looking like the whitest rapper in the world.

Taylor: "You handle your weapon like you ain't fired one since qualification, but you move nice. Sure do know electronics and can pick locks too. You don't look death-squad for cutie enough to be CIA and there's no way you're military. Lemme guess, surveillance tech with HSI?"
O'Toole: "Wrong."
Taylor: "Naw. Maybe I got the alphabet soup agency wrong, but I'll bet anything that's what you do for a livin'."
O'Toole: "Not anymore."
Taylor: "Nope. Sure seems like being one o' the Men in Black ain't all it's cracked up to be. How does a nice Bahston ballplayer get into that racket?"
O'Toole: "Just lucky, I guess."

O'Toole and Taylor have moved past the kitchen to examine the security door to the armoury. O'Toole discovers that opening it will send a signal somewhere, probably to a status indicator light in a security control room. He immediately starts work at disabling the signal, asking Taylor to find him some tools. Col. Burr follows Taylor into the kitchen.

Burr: "No offence, Taylor, but I'm going to need your gun."
Taylor: "None taken, Colonel, but you ain't geting it. This here is life 'n' death. We can't afford to lock horns like a couple o' bucks in rut. We oughta be fixin' to make the best use of everyone. I was a teams Weapons Sergeant. You honestly gonna say that you're a better shot or got more small unit experience? I'm sure you were a great infantry officer, but you've been showing up for work in a suit or starched dress uniform for how long now?"
Burr: "And I suppose you got a lot of range time at the Castle?"
Taylor: "I been doin' combat deployments every year until 2011. You have many firefights as a field grade officer?"

Col. Burr looks like he's genuinely considering disarming Taylor by force, but then he visibly forces himself to relax. Maybe he realises how suicidal it would be to fight amongst ourselves while being hunted by the entire guard force or maybe something about the friendly grin Taylor is giving him causes him to reconsider.

Burr: "Do you give your word that you'll turn it over as soon as the emergency is over?"
Taylor [no trace of irony]: "My word of honour, sir."

Burr and Taylor bring a selection of tools from the kitchen to O'Toole, who has already started fiddling at wires with a Leatherman multi-tool. Dr. Anderson comes back from the bathroom looking much relieved and Townsend from the vending machines with some bottled water. Cherry Bell slipped into the kitchen once Burr and Taylor returned from there. She comes back holding a large kitchen knife.

Taylor [calmly]: "We done talked about this, Lynnie. For self-defence, baton beats knife. A man fixin' to bleed out from a stabbed belly can still hurt you, but a baton can hold 'em off if used right."
Bell [sighs dramatically]: "I can't make a sandwich with a baton, Chase."
Taylor: "You never could make a sandwich nohow, darlin'."
Bell [sticks out her tongue, wags her finger]: "Thin ice, buster."

Taylor throws a captured guard radio to Col. Burr. Very politely, Taylor asks him if he can find out where the jamming is coming from. Then he goes into the kitchen, holding the dual-threat vest he took from the other guard in the dining hall. He asks Bell to put it on. She twirls around, pats the oversized shirt she's wearing over her hospital blues into some semblence of straightness and with a saucy grin tells Taylor to show her how to strap on the vest. Obligingly, he goes to put the vest on her, as she leans backward into him with a teasing little wriggle. Taylor tells her what to do in the case of a firefight, making her promise to stay in cover. Then Taylor seems to forget where he is for a while.

Taylor [gruffly]: "You're sure looking good in my shirt, Sherilyn."
[Taylor lets go, colours]
Taylor: "I'm sorry, Lynnie. I never shoulda said that. All you've been through... I didn't mean to be acting jus' like, you know."
Sherilyn: "It's okay, Chasie-dear. I like that you like me."
Taylor: "It ain't okay. You ain't no toy or trophy. I'm not like them. You know that, don't you?"
Sherilyn: "I know you'll protect me, Chasie. No matter what."
Taylor: "I sure will, Lynnie. Because you deserve another chance at life, Lord willin'. Not because I think it entitles me to anything."

Taylor finishes fastening the straps on the vest and awkwardly steps away from Cherry Bell, face bright red. He leaves to go watch how O'Toole is doing. After some time, O'Toole says he's got the security wiring on the door disabled and asks Taylor if he ought to open it with a key from Reyes' keychain. Taylor nods and takes up position by his side and covers him while he opens the door.

There are no threats, but otherwise, the inside of the armoury is a huge disappointment. There are uniforms, vests and duty belts hanging there, with plenty of extra Mace, boots and various correctional paraphernalia, but the firearms were clearly kept behind bars and O'Toole didn't have any key for the lock on those bars. We can see empty gun racks, though, with plenty of empty boxes that seem to have held weapons and ammunition. There is still plenty of M885 5.56x45mm NATO, but no spare M16 magazines that we can spot. Taylor grimaces when he spots empty old US Army supply boxes that held linked 7.62x51mm ammo, some commercial match .50 BMG and an empty box of old black-tipped ammo for an M2HB. He grimaces even more when he sees three empty carrying cases for big rifles, some empty .338 Lapua Magnum ammo boxes and a case that used to hold M67 hand grenades.

O'Toole claims that he'll get this lock open too. He's not boasting, either, and we finally get access to the inner sanctum of the armoury. We troop in like greedy monkeys and in the course of our frenzied search, turn up an M16A2 that someone forgot and two more assault rifles in parts on a machinist's table. Taylor grabs the intact M16A2. With a great show of courtesy, he then takes off his M9 pistol and hands it to Col. Burr, who was just behind him and failed to grab the rifle first. Burr gives him a glare, but doesn't say anything.

Cherry Bell glides into the armoury, holding a plate of sandwiches. She gives one to each of us. Taylor smiles, thanks her and then bites into his sandwich, trying his best to appear enthusiastic about it. Cheese and jam. Not bad, for one of Sherilyn's sandwiches. Taylor notices that Dr. Anderson got bologna, ham, gobs of mayo and lots of cheese and is eating it with every sign of enjoyment. Which means that Sherilyn must really like him and that Dr. Anderson is either a very good actor or used to such terrible bachelor food that his tastebuds have atrophied. No one else seems very happy with their sandwich and O'Toole spits out what looks like peanut butter, mustard and candyfloss.

Ms. Bell gives an enthusiastic whoop of joy as she discovers a lone M67 grenade on the bottom of the case. Taylor places his hand over hers and asks her if he can carry the grenade. At her nod, he gently takes it away from her and puts it on his web gear. Taylor goes to takes a look at the M16A2s lying on the machinist's table. Unfortunately, they aren't disassembled for cleaning. Neither gun is even remotely functional.

Taylor can see that one of the rifles needs a trigger job and some work on the action and the other has a barrel worn to the point that it wouldn't stabilise mil-spec ammo, as well as a busted front sight. But since these aren't his guns and he doesn't have to account to anyone for numbered parts, he can scavange the least worn parts of each to make one functioning rifle. While he's working he tells everyone to suit up, vest, duty belt and anything useful they find.

Next to the armoury is a small office. There's no computer and the phones are all dead. There is an intercom there, though. Dr. Anderson and O'Toole start fiddling with it, try to see if they can get it to work without indicating to anyone where we are speaking from. Being able to open up a dialogue without attracting the SRT guards seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, they are unable to find any way to do that with the tools they have.

Taylor finishes up with the rifle and goes to check if any guards are heading to the barracks. He rigs some tripwires to set off the fire alarms if anyone opens a door that leads to their floor. When he gets back upstairs, Col. Burr has taken the repaired M16A2 and is loading the magazine with cartridges.

Taylor: "Probably wise. You oughta give your sidearm to somebody else, though."
Burr: "Neither Townsend nor Dr. Anderson wants it."
Taylor: "Ms. Bell was a soldier, sir. Not combat arms, but she went through Basic. And it's her life on the line here, as much as ours."
Burr: "Over my dead body does your crazy little girlfriend get a gun."
Taylor [icily]: "She ain't my girlfriend, Colonel. She's a lady been done wrong. An' I'll thank you to be polite or I might could recall that it was Army officers in nice suits like yours what done some of the wrong."
Burr: "I meant no disrespect to a lady, Taylor. Ms. Bell still doesn't get a gun."
Taylor: "Suit yourself, Colonel. By the time she really needs one, there's always your dead body."
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Old 02-27-2017, 08:24 PM   #43
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Default Re: Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Can you suggest a few surnames for his mother's kinfolk?
Spurlin, Dyess, Foley, Cowen, King, Scarborough, Thomas, Marsh, Moody, Ennis, Morrow,

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Thanks. What about a weekend trip in the summer? What are likely destinations? Gulf Shores, Mobile or somewhere further afield?
In most likely order, Panama City Beach, Fort Walton Beach , Destin

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Fair enough. So for someone to join the Army instead of trying to play for Troy or some other, less prestigious college, when he's told he's not big or fast enough for the Crimson Tide after the first few months of the season suggests a bit of teenaged petulance?
Probably, He basically was such a Die-Hard fan that it was Alabama or nothing.

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Any special condiment or method of preparation that will distinguish an ordinary sandwich anyone could have made from a Southern one with Alabama flavour?
None come to mind.

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Well, that sounds like a suitably odd culinary quirk for him. Can someone even get boiled peanuts in New England or anywhere else in America than the South?
It would be hard. I have seen them in the ‘can’ on store shelves but that was in the South-east and south-west. Finding in New England I would expect to be highly improbable. It would almost have to be in a specialty store of some kind.

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Does anyone actually use 'gosh' or 'darn'?
Probably but I would not expect to hear it very much. I really don’t remember hearing very much ‘substitute’ cursing. And what I did hear or rarely use would be considered mild today. -- Maybe ‘drat’, ‘cr*p’
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Old 02-28-2017, 05:42 AM   #44
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Default Alabama Flavour for Chase Taylor

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Originally Posted by Rathbone View Post
Spurlin, Dyess, Foley, Cowen, King, Scarborough, Thomas, Marsh, Moody, Ennis, Morrow,
I like King, Marsh, Moody* and Morrow. Spurlin is too much (it even looks like it's missing a 'g' from the end) and the rest I mostly find too normal. I'll rule out King on the basis we've got an NPC with that name.**

I might like Dyess, Cowen and Scarborough if I could figure out how to pronounce them properly. Dyess I can imagine several ways to pronounce and I can't imagine which one is right, whereas I can pronounce Cowen and Scarborough, but immediately start bleeding into an entirely different and far too British (Irish and Oop North, respectively) accent if I do.

Hmmm... looking over the names in cemetaries in Crenshaw County, I can spot a few I like.

Out of the following, which ought I go for as mother Betty May's maiden name?

Chancellor, Chapman, Everett, Harville, Holladay, Laird, MacGhee, Moody, Morrow or Shreve?

*Had no idea that was a Southern name. Californication's Hank Moody is pretty big city East Coast, as you'd expect from David Duchovny.
**Though Taylor might have cousins by that name and ask Dr. Emma King where her folks is from an' if they might happen to be kin. Which is unlikely, considering her lovely chocolate complexion and Taylor's blinding white skin (he used to have a deep tan, but more than five years in prison won't do your complexion any favours).


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Originally Posted by Rathbone View Post
Probably but I would not expect to hear it very much. I really don’t remember hearing very much ‘substitute’ cursing. And what I did hear or rarely use would be considered mild today. -- Maybe ‘drat’, ‘cr*p’
I've been doing a little Googling. Of course, 'Southern' colloqualisms that someone considers worth preserving may not be in current use and/or may not be used anywhere near Luverne, Alabama. Can you tell me if any of the following are appropriate or if they would be wildly off-putting and unsuitable for Chase Taylor to use?

Crud
Crud muffin
Dad-burned
Dang
Dagnabbit*
For crying out loud!
Goodness gracious!**
Gracious me!**
Horse feathers
Lord 'ave mercy!***
Kiss my grits
Mother of pearl!
Polecat
Scalawag*
Scannel*
Son of a biscuit
Tarnation*

*I doubt any real person has used these for a good century or so without irony.
**Awright, I'll admit that I personally cannot imagine a man saying that, ever. It sounds awfully like something a woman would only say as part of a stilted, put-on, affected Southern Belle performance (which I'd still probably find adorable, mind you).
***Sounds like something only racist caricatures say, though that may just be because the only times I recall hearing it, the speaker also sounded like Mammy... or worse, Prissy.
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Old 02-28-2017, 08:49 AM   #45
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Default Mr. Murphy, I Presume

Dr. Anderson and Agent O'Toole both declined a dual-threat vest from the guard armoury earlier. Taylor forced Dr. Anderson to wear one nevertheless, but accepts O'Toole's explanation that he prefers the concealable vest he already has on under his MIB suit. Taylor has found a box of 5.56x45mm ammo and begins stuffing his pockets with spare cartridges after finishing his talk with Col. Burr, who is trying to mount a Yukon Tactical NVRS on his M16A2, but can't find a rail mount for it.

Ignoring the tense conversation about her, Cherry Bell gives up on her attempts to flirt with Cam Townsend, who is forlornly looking for a healthy snack in the guards' vending machines. For some reason, Townsend appears terrified of Bell and only barely manages to be polite to her. Townsend almost jumps back when she tries to touch his hand, successfully avoiding any contact.

Ms. Bell laughs happily and lightly skips over to Dr. Anderson to chat. The good doctor treats her with friendly courtesy, asking her how her life has been since Project Jade Serenity and listening attentively to her less-than-revealing answers about having been bored for a very long time, reading a lot of old magazines, playing Solitaire and drawing pictures. Townsend comes up to Col. Burr and Taylor, nervously asking what happens now.

We all gather in a huddle in the guards' dining hall to discuss our next steps. Everyone is still on board with trying to find the jammer and take it out, but a complication is that neither Col. Burr nor Agent O'Toole can locate the jammer. There's no white noise to use to orient on the location of the jammer, just total silence from any handheld we try to use. After asking Dr. Anderson about the Warden's office in the main compound and what offices are around it, we decide that the odds are pretty good that the jammer would be kept in or near the Deputy Warden's office, which at least in Dr. Anderson's time there used to double as a control room for the security systems.

We discuss several alternate possibilities that do not involve going somewhere where we know multiple armed hostiles will be waiting. Escape remains as impossible as before and we aren't sure enough that the Coast Guard believed Agent O'Toole's distress call to try to remain hidden and wait for help. Dr. Anderson suggests setting something on fire, so the Coast Guard will notice it when they check out the distress we made earlier. After he clarifies that he means an abandoned wing or building, not the main compound full of guards, orderlies and patients, this is received with warm enthusiasm, with only a single sour note.

Taylor: "That sounds mighty fine, Doc, but any fire big enough for the Coast Guard to notice would hafta be awfully visible from them towers, particular' with them thermal sights. I ain't sure anybody here wants ter light a fire if'n it means sporting new fifty cal hole."
Dr. Anderson: "Can we not use a time-delay fuse of some kind? We could set fire to these barracks when we leave."
Taylor: "Bless your heart, doc, you got plenty smarts as well as high-falutin' education!" [Taylor shakes his head ruefully] "I'll be plumb amazed, a Yankee doctor teaching me my business. If I had even a lick o' sense, I'd a-thunk o' that my own self. That's just what we'll do here, doc. Ya'll go on ahead to the tunnels, I'm fixin' to set an incendiary device for a cook-out them Coasties can see all over creation."

Dr. Anderson also suggests turning on the cooking gas in the kitchen before leaving an incendiary device in there, but Taylor vetoes the idea, as he claims it is too difficult to predict the timing or effects of a gas explosion and it might end up killing guards responding to the initial blaze or even rescue workers later on. Col. Burr has some concerns about Taylor staying behind again, but as he caught up with them quickly last time, there are no serious objections. Not only does everybody hope that the Coast Guard will notice a fire and come rescue us, but it's pretty obvious that anything that draws the attention of the guards to the barracks can only make any attempt to find the jammer and rescue Agent Banks that much more survivable.

A more tame suggestion from Dr. Anderson is using the showers in the guard quarters to clean up Vicente Berrocal before leaving. Everybody agrees that this is probably a good idea and Dr. Anderson asks Cherry Bell to help him. Berrocal is awake, but not very responsive. When he sees Cherry Bell, he starts screaming and Dr. Anderson ends up having to get help from Townsend and O'Toole to clean and dress Berrocal. Dr. Anderson wraps Berrocal's ribs in clean sheets. Then they dress him in a guard uniform and fastens a dual-threat vests on him. Dr. Anderson and Townsend then carry him down the stairs to the cellars.

O'Toole and Burr also have to carry the two unconscious guards down there, where they can be stashed in the maintainence tunnel on the other side of a blast door from the fire we want to set. Fortunately, the cellars are full of camping gear, so they get military style cots to lie on, though they are still restrained and the maintainence tunnel is narrow enough for the cots to block it.

At Taylor's request, Dr. Anderson comes back up to give Taylor the other chemical concoction that Cherry Bell and the good doctor mixed while they were in G Wing. Taylor also asks him to help him find some chemical to make a slow-fuse with, but once Taylor notices a microwave in the kitchen, he tells Dr. Anderson that he'll be fine and the doc should run after the others, try to catch up with them immediately.

With O'Toole in the lead, our heroes tramp ahead and start going through the tunnels, heading back to the main compound. The goal is to find the central building with the Warden's office in it and if things don't look too scary there, maybe try to find the jammer or Agent Banks.

If they spot any major threats, we'd reconsider and maybe just hide in the tunnels until the Coast Guard arrives. Taylor is supposed to follow the others right after rigging an incendiary device in the barracks kitchen and catch up with them long before they are likely to encounter any guards hunting for them. The plan is predicated on the guards not going into the tunnels, but judging from how reluctant they seemed to do that, it seems like a reasonable risk to take.

Dr. Anderson took some Armasight Vega NVGs in the barrack cellars, but they are only cheap Gen 1+ monoculars with a low-power built-in illuminator and Dr. Anderson didn't know to take a IR flashlight with them. Dr. Anderson quickly learns that the goggles aren't enough to navigate with in the dark tunnels, not without a flashlight to illuminate where he's going to step.

For O'Toole, finding the thoroughfare tunnel that our heroes came through presents no major problems. There are abandoned offices and laboratories to both sides of the larger tunnel and side tunnels that go north and south, one of which probably leads to the south wings of the main complex eventually. As these are all supposed to be abandoned, no one suggests exploring any of these tunnels. O'Toole moves slowly in the lead, with flashlight in one hand and pistol in the other.

When our heroes reach a T-intersection in the tunnels, O'Toole is horrified to notice lights in front. As soon as he notices, the source of the light emits a burst of rifle fire. With only a split-second to prepare, O'Toole barely manages to get up a PK shield in front of him. He can't stop bullets, but he does deflect them enough for the burst to miss him. Firing his pistol blindly at the flashes up ahead, O'Toole throws himself into an abadoned office to his left. Taking care to keep O'Toole's bulk between her and the fire, as per her promise to Taylor, Cherry Bell dives into the office as well.

Burr curses loudly and fires two bursts into the multiple flashes in front of him while stepping to the side to take cover in a doorway to his left. It's a waiting room of some sort and the door is open. Burr fires from the doorway, rapid single shots now, fast enough to cause the fire in front to slacken noticably for a second or two, enough for Townsend to throw himself and the wheelchair with Berrocal into the room. As he does, Burr goes down with a shouted curse.

Dr. Anderson had almost caught up with the others when the shooting started. Happily for him, however, he was still far enough behind to be able to take cover in a side tunnel and peek out. He can't see the people shooting at the others, but sees flashes reflect of the tunnel walls and bullets hitting the door where Burr, Townsend and Berrocal took cover. The noise of gunfire is deafening and ricochets zip around the tunnel like angry hornets.

Once Burr is no longer shooting back, the fire intensifies to the point that the door starts falling apart. More than three men are firing constantly, which implies four or five firing in turns. Even without tactical training, Dr. Anderson can see that there is nothing stopping the enemies in front from moving forward to enter the rooms now, if they so desire. And if they have grenades, as the empty M67 case and flash-bang packaging in the armoury implies, they can throw them into the rooms any time they want.
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Old 02-28-2017, 05:01 PM   #46
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Default What We've Got Here is a Failure to Communicate

Taylor collected sheets, rags and spare clothing in a large pile in the kitchen, around the microwave. Then he found a plastic pitcher and filled it with candy wrappers and other trash. He then covered the pitcher in a fleece blanket and placed it in the microwave rolled in a sheet. Taylor caps off his crafts project by placing the volatile mixture Dr. Anderson gave him near the microwave and pouring cold frying oil over the pile of cloth.

Thinking for a while, Taylor next ties string around the safety lever of the M67 grenade and takes out the pin before positioning the grenade under a lot of greasy cloth. That way, he figures it ought to throw burning debris all over the kitchen when the blaze has caught enough for it to reach the string.

Taylor turns on the microwave and pours the rest of the frying oil around in the kitchen before he leaves it. He doesn't head west for the stairway down to the cellar, though, he heads for the small office with the intercom that is north of the dining hall, next to the armoury. Placing the rifle on the table, Taylor presses the intercom button.

Taylor: "Warden Tyrrell, I was hopin' we could chat for a spell. You got us all wrong, ya see. We ain't here for any kind of inspection and we're not the folk paid to care if anything doesn't add up in here. If'n nobody gets hurt, we can work things out. I think you know there's people who sent us who might could smooth over a few mistakes if we can end this without killin'."
Warden Tyrrell [furious]: "You're a lying, hillbilly bastard! Give my Queen back to me or I'll kill you all. She's mine!"
Taylor: "What we've got here, Warden, is a failure to communicate.* I ain't done stole Ms. Bell. I cain't. She ain't livestock nor any other kind of possession. You don't own her. Onliest one own her is Sherilyn herself. Sherilyn can go where ever she wants. Seems to me that she might wanna go where there's men got more manners. That possessive macho bullcrap is jes' too cliche for an aging fella obsessed with a young lady he know darn well is too good for him."
Warden Tyrrell: "You're dead, redneck scum."
Taylor: "Is that so? Then why doncha jest goosestep along down here and show all your little jackbooted goslings what a great man you are. Hand-to-hand, you and me, Warden. You can fight for the noble cause of keeping women as possessions and I'll do it for the pleasure of whoopin' yer fascist butt. Ain't nobody else need to be involved. I'll even let you bring along a knife. Reckon' you an old coot. You'll need all the help you can find."

Satisfied that he has done enough to draw most every available guard to the barracks and thus away from the Warden's office, Taylor stands up to leave. At that moment, the fire alarm starts blaring and the sprinklers all come on. Taylor can hear surprised shouts and running feet in the lobby of the barracks as the guards react to his tripwire. Figuring that the layout of the building means that trying to reach the cellar would expose him to view, Taylor checks the chamber of his rifle and waits. From the sound of running feet, there are four to five guards. If they search the south side of the building first, closer to the main compound, they ought to be still there when the bomb goes off. In the confusion, Taylor figures he ought to be able to escape, hopefully without killing any of them.

Unfortunately, even with the sprinklers on, there is a pretty foul stench of melting plastic coming from the kitchen. Taylor can hear three men running the length of the dining hall, headed for the kitchen. One of them enters the kitchen and Taylor hears him kicking around in the pile of cloth. Raising his eyes to the heavens, Taylor sighs and raises his voice: "Manhanock guards, watch out! There's a fire bomb fixin' to blow up this here kitchen. I don't wanna kill any of y'all. Git out of there, now!"

Judging from the panicked shouts and scrambling as several men run backwards from the kitchen, not one of the guards found this statement hard to believe. Taylor can hear now that there are five men, four of whom are more or less just shouting in confusion and one of whom, addressed as Randall, is cussing the rest out. Further away, however, Taylor hears a series of rapid shots echoing underground. With all the echoes, he isn't actually certain of the direction, but as he is sure that there are several rifles fired in three round bursts and at least one pistol fired wildly, he is certain enough that these are guards in the tunnels firing at the others.

Taylor glances at the intercom, but in light of their warm and friendly rapport, he instantly rules out any possibility of being able to reason with the Warden over it. And even if he killed the five guards in a matter of seconds, it would take him longer to reach the spot in the tunnels than any firefight at knife-fighting distances was likely to last. That leaves one thing he can do.

Taylor: "I'm a-fixin' to come out, hands up. Do I leave the rifle in here or do I carry it by the barrel?"
[pause]
Guard Randall: "Uh, leave the rifle."

Taylor walks out of the office with his hands on his head. As he passes the open kitchen, inside the kill radius of the grenade, his skin crawls, but a surreptious glance reveals that while there is black smoke from the microwave, there are no open flames yet. Inside the dining hall there are three guards with M16A2 rifles and two men dressed as orderlies holding M9 pistols. All of them are aiming at Taylor. The orderlies hold the pistols clumsily and look more likely to shoot Taylor by accident than on purpose. The three guards seem nervous too, but their guns are steady and it doesn't take a sharpshooter to hit at less than twenty five feet.

Taylor: "One of all y'all get on the intercom right now and tell the Warden your friends are shooting at Sherilyn Bell down in the tunnels. Now! What do ya think he'll do if she gets hurt because you didn't tell him quick enough?"

After a short pause, Randall motions Taylor to the side with his rifle, to a bench next to a wall. As soon as Taylor cleans the route, Randall rushes past the kitchen and into the office beyond. Taylor can hear him shouting into the intercom as steps back to stand by the bench.

Randall: "Red ball, red ball! Sir, it's Randall in the barracks! You better tell that freak to shut it down right away and call the boys in the tunnels. Ms. Bell... uh, the Queen, sir, she's down there! They're shooting at her!"

In just a couple of seconds, Taylor can hear the radio on his shoulder squawking as a panicked Warden Tyrrell shouts through it that all guards cease fire immediately. Then he addresses men named Arden and Vane by name, ordering them to avoid any shooting until they are certain that the Queen is not in the line of fire. The Warden tells them to secure her at all costs, safe and sound. If they can't get her away from the traitors, they should wait for reinforcements rather than risk hurting her. Taylor sighs in relief as he hears the shooting die down suddenly. Several guards somewhere else try to ask for clarifications at the same time, but as soon as Arden has acknowledged, all noise from the handheld stops, cutting off a guard named Mondale mid-question.

Taylor: "I been a-wonderin' wotcha boys fixin' to do next. Y'all know the Coast Guard is coming? Yeah, y'all sure do know, awright. They musta been calling nonstop on every channel, phone and satellite link. See, here's the thing, boys. So far, I ain't seen you do anything illegal. Maybe y'all jest been lied to, maybe y'all confused. Tell the truth, I ain't too sure myself what's been a-going on. But I'm from Homeland Security. Banks and O'Toole are federal agents. If'n you got guns on any of us when them Coast Guard boys get here, I ain't gonna be able to keep them from shooting y'all. Looky here, boys, I got ID in my wallet. D'ya mind?"

Neither of the two guards remaining in the dining hall have moved closer to Taylor, both maintaining shooting stances just out of 21' from Taylor. One of them has his finger on the trigger and reflexively tightens it as Taylor starts to reach for his wallet. Taylor raises his hand again, placatingly, abandoning the attempt to get his wallet. Taylor can see that Randall has stepped out of the office and is watching him from the hallway in front of the kitchen. Randall orders the other two to secure the prisoner and then follow him down to the tunnels. Before Randall can move to the stairway, Taylor stops him.

Taylor: "Please don't go down there, Randall. There's armed cops down there. You think it's y'all in charge, 'cause y'all got guns. It ain't like that. I reckon' y'all got enough tactical training to know what it's like down there in the dark. Confused, narrow, blinding, scary. There's gonna be shots flying every which way an' you ain't gonna control who gets hit. If'n y'all go yonder, people are going to die. An' even if y'all don't die, killing cops means you never live free again, neither. Prison or a place like this, for what's left of your lives."
Randall: "You shut your hole! Secure him, Summers and Lamb. Remember what's at stake here."
Taylor: "Tactical teams are gonna kill everybody still holding guns. Y'all know there's no way out if you gonna fight. Let's just all calm down. Y'all can start by not shooting me and we'll talk things out."

*Nothing? Not even a disgusted grunt of recognition from the Warden? Guess some people just aren't fans of the classics.
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Old 02-28-2017, 05:49 PM   #47
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Default Re: Alabama Flavour for Chase Taylor

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
Hmmm... looking over the names in cemetaries in Crenshaw County, I can spot a few I like.

Out of the following, which ought I go for as mother Betty May's maiden name?

Chancellor, Chapman, Everett, Harville, Holladay, Laird, MacGhee, Moody, Morrow or Shreve?
I like Chancellor or Morrow. I knew of a couple of Families by those name in that general area.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
I've been doing a little Googling. Of course, 'Southern' colloqualisms that someone considers worth preserving may not be in current use and/or may not be used anywhere near Luverne, Alabama. Can you tell me if any of the following are appropriate or if they would be wildly off-putting and unsuitable for Chase Taylor to use?

Crud
Crud muffin
Dad-burned
Dang
Dagnabbit*
For crying out loud!
Goodness gracious!**
Gracious me!**
Horse feathers
Lord 'ave mercy!***
Kiss my grits
Mother of pearl!
Polecat
Scalawag*
Scannel*
Son of a biscuit
Tarnation*
Crud and Dang I did hear a bit. And For crying out loud! was used from time to time. I may have used all three of those on rare occasions.

The rest you've summed up pretty good. I have heard a lot of them on various TV shows and/or Movies about the south.
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Old 02-28-2017, 06:34 PM   #48
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Default Re: What We've Got Here is a Failure to Communicate

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Taylor: "Is that so? Then why doncha jest goosestep along down here and show all your little jackbooted goslings what a great man you are. Hand-to-hand, you and me, Warden. You can fight for the noble cause of keeping women as possessions and I'll do it for the pleasure of whoopin' yer fascist butt. Ain't nobody else need to be involved. I'll even let you bring along a knife. Reckon' you an old coot. You'll need all the help you can git."
Over an open intercom? That's a death sentence.
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Old 03-01-2017, 01:15 AM   #49
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Default Re: What We've Got Here is a Failure to Communicate

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Over an open intercom? That's a death sentence.
In what sense?

Taylor figured talking at all would bring the SRT guards running for his position, but that reaching the barracks from the main compound would take 2-3 minutes. He planned to be gone by then. The guards would then have to search the barracks in addition to any other places they were patrolling, leaving fewer to worry about guarding fixed points, like the jammer or any prisoners, such as Agent Banks if he still lives.

Randall, Lamb, Summers and the two orderlies, James and Gilbert, just happened to be headed for the barracks to fetch coffee and snacks. They didn't hear the conversation, because they were outside between the main compound and the barracks while it took place, and only realised something was off in the barracks when the fire alarm and sprinklers went off as they opened the doors.

If you're referring to any kind of legal consequences, it's dubious that suggesting a bare-knuckle fight to someone who is clearly proposing to kill you and others with firearms is even illegal. It could be argued that the intent was to reduce risk and harm.

Even if taunting someone who is threathening you were found to be illegal, any consequences would ensue after we were rescued. Taylor figures that if him having 25 years left of his sentence in Fort Leavenworth doesn't prevent Onyx Rain from being able to make use of him, a minor potential charge for inciting violence or threathening the Warden won't bother them much. Taylor also has considerable doubts that Warden Tyrrell will survive the events of the night, going so far as to feel a very un-Christian urge to take a hand in the matter himself.

Or do you mean something else?
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Old 03-01-2017, 05:10 AM   #50
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Default Bye, Bye, Blackbird

O'Toole is sitting with his back to the wall next to the open door to the corridor. His ears are ringing and he's breathing rapidly, but he manages to keep panic at bay, which he figures is pretty good for a first firefight. He scans the office looking for another way out, but it seems to be a dead end. Through the ringing in his ears and the concussive blasts of the rifle shots, he can hear loud cursing and a lower voice a short distance further down the corridor. He asks if everyone is all right.

Townsend [shouting]: "Burr is shot in the shoulder. I'm dealing with the bleeding. Are you hurt?"
O'Toole: "We're fine here."
Townsend: "What do we do, Agent O'Toole?"
O'Toole: "Beats the hell out of me. Try not to get shot?"

O'Toole can hear shouting from the guards in front and then the fire from there dies down. The handheld radio on Cherry Bell's guard vest squawks commands to 'cease fire, cease fire'.

After a few beats, O'Toole lets loose a string of profanity and reaches for the Motorola in his pocket. He turns it on and can immediately hear someone calling for help on Channel 16. It's Bob the Orderly and he seems to be getting a reponse. Unfortunately, Bob is babbling about monsters eating people and Cherry Bell mind-controlling everyone, but he also mentions the guards attacking federal agents and hunting down orderlies who object. O'Toole decides to stop Bob before he confuses the Coast Guard too much. He presses transmit.

O'Toole: "This is Special Agent Danny O'Toole, badge number 969642, US Customs and Border Patrol, temporarily detached to the DHS Office of the Inspector General. I'm confirming my earlier distress call around 2200 hours and requesting urgent assistance. Federal agents are taking heavy fire from the guards at Manhanock Asylum, who are in a state of mutiny. We've got men down, need medical assistance and SWAT now!"
Operator: "Sir, can you confirm for us your location? Over."
O'Toole: "[i]Location?! I'm still on the ----ing island, numbnuts! Where the ---- else would I be? Just now I'm in some abandoned office down cellar being shot at by a bunch of yahoos with assault rifles! Where the ---- is my ----ing back-up? Out on a romantic cruise?"
Operator: "Sir, we are responding to your emergency as fast as we can. Any information you can give us will help us do that. Can you tell us what the status of Agent Banks is? Over."
O'Toole: "----, no, I can't tell you that! He's just as missing as he was the last time I told you this. And if you don't ship up here in an all-fired ----ing hurry, you won't find us either. Trace my ----ing cell phone, triangulate this radio message, trace any ----ing electronic thing DHS has listed as issued to one of us. Send in the helicopters, cutters, SWAT, everything! This is a real ----ing emergency!"
Operator: "Roger, a response is underway, sir. Can you tell us anything about the numbers of the perpetrators? Over."
O'Toole: "How many guards are here? It's all of them! From the ----ing Deputy Warden on down, they are all trying to kill us. Estimate at least twenty ----ing hostiles, armed with military ----ing weapons. That's ----ing machine guns and grenades. ----!"
Operator: "What about hostages? Can you confirm hostages? Status, numbers, location? Over."
O'Toole: "Damn it, don't you get it? They've either got ----ing hostages or they've killed federal agents and maybe a ----load of other people. I don't know where they ----ing are, because I'm pinned down in a stinking cellar by automatic weapon fire, like it's ----ing Fallujah! Get your candy---es here before these re-res get bored of waiting and toss grenades in here!"

There is no response from the Motorola, not even static. O'Toole can hear the guards who had been shooting calling to him now. They want the girl, alive and unharmed. While still fiddling with his radio, O'Toole asks Cherry Bell if she knows some way out of there, but receives no answer. The guards are demanding that Ms. Bell be sent out immediately or serious consequences will follow.

Townsend: "We've got a wounded man. What about help for him?"
Guard1: "Send out the girl and we can talk about it."
O'Toole: "That doesn't sound like a very good deal for us, buddy."
Guard2: "And are you in a position to negotiate?"
O'Toole: "We've got the girl. Your boss wants her, right?"
Guard1: "Send her out and then come out yourselves with your hands on your head. That way, we won't need to kill you."

O'Toole looks at Cherry Bell and starts to ask her opinion, but is shocked to see no sign of her in the small office. He scans desperately around him, but is forced to admit to himself that he is alone in there. He opens his mouth to shout out that he doesn't even have the girl anymore, but fortunately realises just in time that doing so would invite a flurry of grenades.* Instead, O'Toole doesn't say anything and starts concentrating, with his eyes closed. He's feeling out the corridor with his telekinesis, looking for anything metallic. He hopes to find a wrench or piece of pipe with which to bang on the heating pipes, trying to make the guards think that Terry the Minotard is coming up behind them.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anderson is watching the doors that his fellow DHS employees dived through. That area of corridor is lit up by what appear to be flashlights** from the T-intersection, but a slight incline in the tunnel prevents Dr. Anderson from seeing all the way there. He can tell pretty clearly where the flashlights are coming from, however, which allows him to focus on the area where he believes the guards are standing. He concentrates intently on making anyone in that area fall asleep. Not just make them drowsy, but plunge them into a dream state as soon as possible. He has never used his powers at this range or against so many active people in an adrenaline rush, so he doesn't know what to expect, but even if it works, he calculates that it will be at least a minute until anyone falls asleep.

While he is concentrating, he can see Cherry Bell walk nonchalantly through the lighted area. No one seems to notice her except Dr. Anderson, as the shadows seem to cloak her lithe form. Cherry struts down the corridor like she's walking down a runway, flashing Dr. Anderson a gorgeous smile when she notices him hiding there and grabs his arm when she passes. She leads him down the tunnel, away from the guards, O'Toole, Townsend, Burr and Berrocal. They retrace their steps to the service tunnel leading to the barrack cellars, where there is a door they can shut to be able to talk.

Dr. Anderson: "Where are we going, Ms. Bell? We cannot head back, the barracks will be on fire by now."
Cherry Bell: "Oh, Mr. M, don't be difficult. We can't go forward and it was major Boresville back there. Let's go find Chase. He can get us away from here."
Dr. Anderson: "What about the others?"
Cherry: "Screw 'em. It's their mess and they oughta be able to get out of it. They're the G-Men, I'm just a damsel in distress. Anyway, I don't like any of them. O'Toole is a ----head in a suit, Burr keeps giving me squirrely looks and I think Townsend might be a fairy."
Anderson: "That aside, Taylor was supposed to follow us. Since he is not, something must have happened to delay him. He would not want us to go in there again. It is either on fire or he has been attacked and is fighting guards."
Cherry: "Maybe we could help. I could take out some guards. Wouldn't that surprise dear lil' Chasie?"

A stupendous noise interrupts their conversation. Behind them, rapid firing breaks out. Dr. Anderson realises that his powers won't be much use in a full-blown firefight and he and Ms. Bell quickly climb over the restrained guards in the service tunnel to reach the blast door to the cellars. Once they get it open, they can hear the blaring fire alarm in the barracks and when they stop into the cellars, sprinklers douse them with water.

Dr. Anderson notices that the water is fresh, not foul-smelling, suggesting that the sprinklers have been going for long enough for the stale water in the pipes to run off, to be replaced with fresher water from tanks. Dr. Anderson also thinks he can hear someone talking upstairs, but isn't sure. Holding hands, Cherry and Anderson start to climb up the stairs as stealthily as they can.

*I swear to God that O'Toole's player was going to tell the guards that Cherry Bell wasn't in there with him. I have no idea why he wanted to tell them that. OOC, I told him that if he did and they believed him, there was absolutely nothing stopping them from killing him by throwing grenades in there, without even having to come in, and the GM ruled that as Danny O'Toole isn't stupid and actually has police training, he could take back his decision to commit suicide by crazy guard.
**Tactical lights mounted on M16A2 assault rifles.
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