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Old 03-08-2020, 10:10 AM   #21
johndallman
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Default Re: E4: I Grew Up in an American Town

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
While adjusting the CamelBak to water the pig, Kit says, “My parents still live there.”
“Wanna drop in on am?”
And Kit's life flashes before his eyes. Will roll to decline casually?
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Old 03-08-2020, 10:25 AM   #22
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Default Re: E4: I Grew Up in an American Town

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
And Kit's life flashes before his eyes. Will roll to decline casually?
Probably meant as a joke. If you're drawing dangerous cultists after you, you don't drop in on somebody's parents.

Even in Texas. :)
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Old 03-08-2020, 11:14 AM   #23
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

Lufkin is pretty big, it's an exciting place that draws people to visit healthcare specialists, movie theaters, zoo and neat restaurants, and sometimes touring entertainment even visits
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Old 03-08-2020, 11:19 AM   #24
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

I'm curious now if Kit has ever worked for TDCJ

Also about our heroes choice in footwear
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Old 03-08-2020, 06:56 PM   #25
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
And Kit's life flashes before his eyes. Will roll to decline casually?
While there are obvious hazards involved with arriving back home with two foul-mouthed Monster Hunters who fancy themselves comedians, a pig in a wig and the potential for dangerous, apocalyptic cultists on their tail, we must consider that it's coming on suppertime.

And Kit was home for the holidays and only agreed to drive down to Galveston that morning. He missed church and the game, but technically, Sunday supper is not yet lost to him.

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Originally Posted by tshiggins View Post
Probably meant as a joke. If you're drawing dangerous cultists after you, you don't drop in on somebody's parents.

Even in Texas. :)
We should hope.

Although maybe it needs to be noted that the PCs and most of the informed observers and analysts in Kessler's network believe that last night's assault on the UTMB-TDCJH was the last gasp of the cultists and that they are scattered and spent, certainly unable to put together any kind of threat this soon after a series of incidents which seem to have decimated their support networks.

Juman and Wojciechowski might not believe that there is zero risk involved in this operation, but they consider a fatal traffic accident caused by a random coincidence about an order of magnitude greater threat than the remote possibility of the cultists having any kind of reserve element available that could realistically find and strike at them this soon.

They won't start worrying about that possibility for at least a full day, more realistically several. From their perspective, before the OpFor can even try to find them, they need to escape the area encompassed by the law enforcement manhunt (potentially days), find hiding places (hours to days), secure some kind of ritual space (can't even start until dark), prepare a ritual (also nighttime activity) and then cast it (ditto).

Neither Night Rider can imagine the same cultists who carried out the attack last night managing all of that a mere 20 hours later, not to mention that even cultists must sleep, and after three nights of increasingly frenzied activity by the OpFor, the Night Riders basically rule out the possibility of them still having any kind of back-up or reserves that haven't already been committed.

Kessler's people are aware that this is potentially a global threat, well-funded and might be capable of calling in new people from somewhere else. But hardly fast enough to pose a threat on this first day. The first day, hell the first few days, are basically a holiday.

Of course, I'm not going to tell you how reasonable these estimates are.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Lufkin is pretty big, it's an exciting place that draws people to visit healthcare specialists, movie theaters, zoo and neat restaurants, and sometimes touring entertainment even visits
Well, I haven't been to Lufkin, but I spent some time today absorbing it through Google Maps and tourism websites. All I can say is that if Lufkin is pretty big, I really don't expect to recognize the name of your hometown. :-)

It seems to be slightly above the population of Garden City, NY, where my cousins live, and that's a tiny backwater village (albeit one within easy commuting distance of NYC). It's also got only slightly more people than Akureyri in Iceland and I'm pretty firm in my opinion that Akureyri is a howling wilderness of cultural insignificance.

That being said, our heroes need to stop and eat sometime. The Walker household is one option; albeit one that no mundane covert operative would consider. If they don't stop there, they need to stop somewhere else, probably before they leave Texas. Lufkin and Nacodoches are where they'd pass near to reasonable dinner hours, but late meals in Carthage or Marshall would remain possibilities. If they don't stop at any of those, their options narrow to fast food places, truck stops, convenience stores, gas stations and other all-night places.

Taking advantage of Kit's Area Knowledge skill before it is rendered irrelevant by distance penalties, where would you recommend they have their dinner?

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
I'm curious now if Kit has ever worked for TDCJ
I shall make a point of disclosing every previous employer of Kit Walker before this tale is told. Note that he's only thirty two and spent about eight years in the Navy, so that's not a huge list or anything.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Also about our heroes choice in footwear
A somewhat curious curiousity, that.

If you will believe it, my notes do not actually mention a brand name of footwear for any of them. Well, that's not entirely true, I discover, but at any rate, it's not specified whether or not they are wearing any specific shoes, sneakers, boots or sandals at this exact juncture, whatever they may be noted as owning or having worn in the past.

Out of interest, what kind of footwear do you think they should be wearing, respectively?
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Old 03-08-2020, 08:26 PM   #26
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

Actually I think you've heard of where I'm from, but for any good reasons

This recommendation comes not as a resident of Lufkin, but as someone who visits their semi frequently due to specialty healthcare, shopping and of course movie theatres. Also a place to visit nice restaurants for events like birthdays.

The best place in my mind is the Sake Cafe, and the best dish there is the Snow Crab Naruto. The Sake Cafe also has a large fish tank which I am sure adds good karma. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the Snow Crab Naruto.

Since Kit is both relatively young and relatively recently in the military I'd expect him to prefer boots, so I would picture him wearing say Rocky 7in side zip boots. I know people who swear by the Rocky ability to keep traction on wet concrete in kitchens or where floors have been hit by pepper spray, and ability to handle wet surfaces surely must appeal to a SEAL and to someone from a sub tropical rainforest region both.

Juman seems to have a more laidback vibe, and with his tropical background I can imagine him liking more open footwear. So I can see him wearing Crocs.

Tomasz seems to have the most sense of style, so I imagine him wearing something stylish but still something he can spend time on his feet in, like Florsheim loafers or say Propet Mens Wash n Wear (the Propet Wash N Wear is a popular hospital shoe but it also comes in a stylish shiny black that you can wear in prison to, it has been my go to shoe for years as it is formal enough for business, comfortable enough for the gym, and is black and polishable)
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Old 03-09-2020, 06:29 AM   #27
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Actually I think you've heard of where I'm from, but for any good reasons

This recommendation comes not as a resident of Lufkin, but as someone who visits their semi frequently due to specialty healthcare, shopping and of course movie theatres. Also a place to visit nice restaurants for events like birthdays.
But you live close enough to Lufkin to go there to the movies?

I think I've heard you say you're either from Huntsville or close enough to it that you can work there. In any case, Kit's early jobs were all within Lufkin itself and all part-time. He went to Angelina College for a while after high school, before moving away and ending up in the Navy.

Anyway, if our heroes were not to stop by the Walker household in Lufkin, I'd guess that that meant they wanted to avoid Lufkin altogether. So, any place near the U.S. Route 59 between Lufkin and Nacogdochoes would seem suitable. Hell, if there is a good place to eat half an hour out of the way, that would be fine.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
The best place in my mind is the Sake Cafe, and the best dish there is the Snow Crab Naruto. The Sake Cafe also has a large fish tank which I am sure adds good karma. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the Snow Crab Naruto.
That actually sounds fun.

Aside, national stereotypes and TV shows have convinced me that most people who live in Texas (other than in the coastal areas and the Greater Houston area) regard sushi as an inexplicable California, or West Coast, affectation and would no more eat raw fish than they'd eat roadkill.*

Was this wrong from the start, have things changed in the last ten years or is Lufkin simply close enough to metropolitan Houston to be very different culturally from what I imagined?

I realize that Houston is one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse cities on Earth, but I somehow figured that a two hour drive north, up into Deep East Texas, would get you to a place where the people had more in common with rural people from various regions of America than with urban, metropolitan people from the biggest cities in the US.

*Not entirely based on TV stereotypes, as actual people I've met from various inland US states, ranging from Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana through Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have this exact attitude.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Since Kit is both relatively young and relatively recently in the military I'd expect him to prefer boots, so I would picture him wearing say Rocky 7in side zip boots. I know people who swear by the Rocky ability to keep traction on wet concrete in kitchens or where floors have been hit by pepper spray, and ability to handle wet surfaces surely must appeal to a SEAL and to someone from a sub tropical rainforest region both.
So, I know Kit's work-boots were Salomon Quest 4D GTXs and I know that when Wojciechowski approached him on the Penemue, he was wearing Vasque Men's Juxt Multi-Sport Shoes.

When he heard he was supposed to blend in, however, Kit dug into his gym bag for a pair of ratty, old Nike Air Force 1s, because he didn't want to stand out by wearing expensive 'tactical' footwear. Those sneakers are really past their prime and Kit actually found them in his old room over the holidays, where he'd left them more than a decade ago, but they work fine for going to the gym.

Kit also put on Wrangler jeans and a red and black button-up twill work shirt, as well as a warm Carhartt vest, which he's since shed in the car.

Like Juman and Wojciechowski, Kit keeps a work outfit in the trunk, along with any changes of clothes they brought, and that's where his tactical footwear is stored.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Juman seems to have a more laidback vibe, and with his tropical background I can imagine him liking more open footwear. So I can see him wearing Crocs.
You know what, that's fair, he does sometimes wear Crocs.

Now, I haven't worn them, but would they work for driving long distances? Because Juman put on footwear explicitly so that he'd be comfortable while driving for long, long hours.

Also, let's keep in mind that it's December 30, 2018. The heat is in the forties Fahrenheit and down in Galveston, it was wet, which made the cold bite more, so it's not exactly tropical at the moment.

If Crocs are comfortable enough to drive in, I imagine Juman is wearing them with warm, comfy socks.

That being said, to Juman, a professional look should invariably include well-polished black leather footwear, not these new-fangled lab-made materials camouflage rubbish. To him, a well-dressed tactical operator sports khakis and wears black boots you can use as mirrors. This doesn't prevent him from wearing whatever is necessary during operations, but his day-to-day wear aboard the Penemue definitely tends toward khakis and black leather footwear that might even be of some brand name associated with UK and Commonwealth police during the Cold War era.

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Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
Tomasz seems to have the most sense of style, so I imagine him wearing something stylish but still something he can spend time on his feet in, like Florsheim loafers or say Propet Mens Wash n Wear (the Propet Wash N Wear is a popular hospital shoe but it also comes in a stylish shiny black that you can wear in prison to, it has been my go to shoe for years as it is formal enough for business, comfortable enough for the gym, and is black and polishable)
Actually, Tomasz's outfit is hardly in line with his taste in rifles or cameras.*

He's wearing sweatpants, a hoodie and a winter jacket, as well as a pair of Converse All Stars. Granted, it's premium athletic wear by Reigning Champ and the winter jacket is Patagonia, so it's not all that cheap. The overall effect is something like an aging high school coach trying to dress young, with connotations of faded hippie, especially with his gray braid and white-shot beard.

*Which, however, might suggest a deliberate disguise, especially given that he changed out of the outfit he wore when he first appeared.
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-09-2020 at 07:52 AM.
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Old 03-09-2020, 08:37 AM   #28
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Default Re: E4: I Grew Up in an American Town

Very nice. In my experience, people generally refer to highways as "I-45" and "I-69," rather than "the I-45" and "the I-69." That might be a Midwestern/civilian thing, though, it's entirely possible Texans or military refer to them with "the" (I kind of doubt the latter, as my brother is former USMC and doesn't throw in "the," but it's possible), but if not I'd imagine Kit's semi-inner-monologue (narration is usually roughly from the perspective of the viewpoint character, even if the story isn't written in a first-person style) would leave of the "the."

Also, I'm reading Juman as sounding like Tosh from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.
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Old 03-09-2020, 09:50 AM   #29
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Default Re: E4: I Grew Up in an American Town

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Very nice. In my experience, people generally refer to highways as "I-45" and "I-69," rather than "the I-45" and "the I-69." That might be a Midwestern/civilian thing, though, it's entirely possible Texans or military refer to them with "the" (I kind of doubt the latter, as my brother is former USMC and doesn't throw in "the," but it's possible), but if not I'd imagine Kit's semi-inner-monologue (narration is usually roughly from the perspective of the viewpoint character, even if the story isn't written in a first-person style) would leave of the "the."
Thanks. I went back and changed it, it never would have even occurred to me to leave off the 'the'.

Also, I noticed that I'd accidentally killed Mrs. Suzanna Wojciechowski in a previous episode, which I've also corrected. She's still hale and hearty at 76, living in Krakow, which is why Tomasz didn't arrive in Galveston until the night of the 30th of December (and that only after changing his flight, originally supposed to be after the New Year's).

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Also, I'm reading Juman as sounding like Tosh from StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.
I haven't played that game, but the voice actor looks like he's approximately the same generation as Zamal Juman (Dave Fennoy is about a decade older than Juman, but close enough).

Mind you, Juman is not supposed to be Rastafarian in any way, shape or form. It's just that Guyana is an Anglophone country, culturally Caribbean, and there are similarities in speech between those countries. There were Rastas in Georgetown when Juman was growing up, but he never belonged to that subculture. Indeed, he hardly could have, as very few Afro-Guyanese would have accepted him as part of their number, even if he were not a police officer.

That being said, Juman can speak perfectly idiomatic 'street' Georgetown dialect, albeit a dated version, well enough to pass for a lower-class thug of pretty much any native Guyanese ethnicity, as long as he was wearing a mask. Juman could pretend to be Rastafarian; just as he could exaggerate a rural 'coolie' character (neither of which might fool a native, but both of which should pass muster well enough for typical Hollywood voice work). He can also speak a slightly more educated 'official' English that is shaped by British instructors, bureaucracy and legal system, but retains a musical Caribbean lilt.

Juman's time in the States has not added much of a Texan touch to his speech, but that might be due to the international character of Kessler's organization. Several types of Commonwealth/British accents are almost as common as Texas or other Southern US accents, especially among the senior people. Not to mention a wide variety of French-accented English and a slightly lesser variety of Spanish-accented English.

Probably around 30-40% of the people who spend the most time on Penemue have Dominiquais or St. Lucian citizenship (both Anglophone Caribbean countries), but most of them are born elsewhere and have dual (or more) citizenship. For that matter, both Juman and Wojciechowski have luxury bungalows on the island of St. Lucia, spend a lot of time there (after receiving US citizenship in 2012 and 2015, they registered their St. Lucian homes as their home of record for tax purposes) and are citizens in good standing there.

Then there are people like Dr. Lapointe, whose diction and word choice is a fairly posh 'Oxbridge' Received Pronunciation, but who still retains a touch of exotic music from his Congolese and Francophone origins. As he is the one who taught both Juman and Wojciechowski much of the theory behind their occult lore, his academic choice of terms naturally affects their vocabulary in relation to thaumatological matters (though Juman is less likely to use such terms in daily speech unless precision of definition is important for some reason).

And, yes, I am working on the next episode.
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Old 03-09-2020, 11:42 AM   #30
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Default Re: [MH] (Caribbean by Night) Driving Miss Piggy

Into Deep East Texas into and approaching Louisiana many people have the 'eat it if it don't eat me first' flexibility of spirit that puts things like Nutra Rat (nutria), raccoon and frog legs on the table. So sushi is not a bridge to far for much of the population.

If it's cold and wet crocs are a bad choice, since water and wind can get through the holes easily. They are perfectly comfortable for driving.

Perhaps the Cole Haan Howland Penny Loafer would be a good choice? It's very comfortable and designed for driving having traction on the back of the heel

In particular while I work in Huntsville I used to live in Jasper and my mom still lives there, and from Jasper the nearest major city is Lufkin, it's about an hour away as the car flies from where I lived, and Jasper and Livingston both lack movie theatres

Unfortunately I lack any ideas for stuff on 59.
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