ctrlsaltdel

Noble Arms: The ASEAN War - Thread Three, the Darkest Hour

WO "Mikey" Rangel

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Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, USA - 2022-11-19, 13:31, UTC-5

Mikey stood staring at the closed office door. She had already been standing there for a good ten seconds too long, and she was still working up the nerve to knock. It wasn't that she was afraid--at least, not exactly. She was, however, both wary and weary. When she had first been press-ganged into the Army, she had known that it would be unpleasant at first, but she had thought--hoped, really--that she would get used to it quickly. With the current administration's foreign policy, there was little chance of her getting sent out to actually fight somewhere, so it was really just a question of the indignities of military life.

What Mikey had found out over the last two years, of course, was that the indignities could be pretty damn undignified, and getting summoned to the CO's office was never a good thing. Even when they pulled you in to tell you something they thought you should be excited about, the main thing that came with it was higher expectations for a job she had never wanted.

Still, there was no point delaying the inevitable any longer. She raised her hand to knock on the door, but before she could, a voice called out from the other side.

"Ms. Rangel. Come in."

Aw, crap. Mikey briefly considered what it would take for an Arms Master to get busted down to Private; she'd miss the extra money, but at least people would stop calling her Miss. Then she opened the door, stepped through, and saluted, eyes straight ahead and over the head of the man behind the desk.

"Warrant Officer Rangel, reporting as ordered."

"At ease. Take a seat." Mikey stepped forward, planting herself in the uncomfortable chair with her hands in her lap. Her face was a mask; outwardly, she remained silent, even as she internally wondered what new training they had cooked up for her to run through.

"First things first. I want to say that you've..." The square man behind the desk looked her up and down, and from Mikey's perspective, he didn't seem to like what he found. "Well, you've definitely improved as a soldier since you were assigned here."

Alarm bells started going off in her head. That was probably the nicest thing a CO had said about her since she had enlisted. Were they prepping her for some new assignment? She had actually managed to make some friends here; were they going to ship her off across the country again?

The man behind the desk slid a manila folder over from a stack on one side. It was heavy with documents, and bore a red stamp across the front reading [TOP SECRET]. One paper stuck out the top of it, and Mikey could just barely make out the heading: Task Force Obsidian.

"Ms. Rangel, what do you know about the Philippines?"

---

La Casarita - Present day, present time

Mikey blinked blearily at Myron. What was the military's obsession with getting out of bed before the sun was up? It didn't help that, despite having been in-country for almost a week, she still felt like crap. Jet-lag and allergies--inevitable coming from Maryland's cold autumn to the warmth and humidity of the Philippines--had been kicking her ass, and were only beginning to let up.

Still, an order was an order. Mikey threw on her ACU trousers and t-shirt. The jacket stayed behind--even at this early hour it was warm and humid enough to make it uncomfortable, and her read on the other members of her new unit was that they wouldn't be terribly concerned with the state of her uniform--but she pulled the hat on to cover her bedhead. So dressed, she left her room at a jog, quickly catching up with Myron and the other members of the task force he was gathering.

"So, uh..." Mikey hadn't known any of the members of the task force for very long, and to tell the truth she found most of them a bit unsettling. Not only were they trained and--unlike her--practiced killers, but many of them were even younger than she was. Their acting CO, at least, was a couple of years older, but he was also the least approachable. So, when she spoke, her question was addressed to the group at large, rather than Myron specifically. "Anyone know what this is about?"

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Guardian Angel Haruki Good deal! If you want to write up a post detailing how exactly Emily tries to convince Agent Simonsen, I'll write up a response to you and Digmata at the same time. Per the move, make sure to include a detail about how her storywriting skills don't /exactly/ match up to the situation.

@rush99999 Cards have been reshuffled, cards have been discarded, and Justice is back in the deck, so you're free to Dazzle again =O

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Guardian Angel Haruki to clarify--when you Push Yourself, you have to take whatever the next card you draw is. Do you still wanna do that, or just take Death?

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Guardian Angel Haruki Whoops, sorry, I overlooked your reply at first. No, I think we're pretty much on the same page there =) Your ELE is 2, but you have -1 Forward, so your card is:

Death - Neutral - Something ends, and something else begins

Death is The Crow's resonant card; if you want to try drawing another card, you can push yourself at the cost of ticking the Phantom Clock.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

@Digmata Your BIZ is 2, so you get:

The Wheel of Fortune - Neutral - You are at the mercy of the fates
The Tower - Negative - Something terrible happens

The Wheel of Fortune is Luka's resonant card _oof.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

I don't know if this is Investigate or Dredge the Undertow but I won't be using my remaining card here.

@Digmata, I was about to say "don't you have two cards still held?" and then I Remembered lol. I think this could go either way so I'll let you pick which one you prefer. your GEN is higher than your BIZ, but keep in mind that when you Investigate you have to play every card you draw. eta: investigate will get you specific questions answered; with dredge i'll give you more of a General Vibe

@Guardian Angel Haruki hm, out of those two I think Everything is a Nail definitely fits better--do you have any specific ideas as to how mastery of writing stories could help her out here? if not i have some thoughts, but if you already have something in mind i'd like to hear that first.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

She studies his surprised reaction and listens to his...well, not quite so official demand for their identities. She retorts to the man, borrowing a line from an enigmatic character she once read, keeping her tone even and calm, "Don't you know it's rude to demand our identities without introducing yourself first?"

@Guardian Angel Haruki

The man lays his hand on his gun and flips open the holster's latch, but for now, the gun stays where it is. He does, however, take a couple of steps back from the three of you, and the side of his body with the gun is turned away from you; if he does draw, he'll be in a good shooting stance.

"Well," he says. Clears his throat. Looks back and forth at the four figures in the diner. "Ok."

A cacophonous sound comes from the kitchen, metal crashing against metal, followed by a distant screech.

The man takes a deep breath.

"I'm Agent Ray Simonsen, IDLN. I know you haven't heard of us, but here's my badge--" As he speaks, Agent Simonsen reaches into his jacket, then freezes suddenly. "Um. My badge." He reaches in the other coat pocket--awkwardly, as he refuses to take his hand off of his gun. Checks his pants pocket. Frowns.

"Well, I'm with the IDLN. We're an agency responsible for handling sensitive cases, like the one breaking all the dishes back there. What you're doing right now is obstruction of justice. I ought to arrest all four of you, but I've got other stuff that's more important to deal with, so if you all just get going to whatever halloween party you were headed to, I'll look the other way this time."

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Can I control Luca's basaball guy?

@Digmata

Hm--it's up to @rush99999 whether they're cool with it, but keep in mind that it's part of Luka's Eidolon, and therefore part of him--so any moves it makes will use Luka's stats, and any damage it takes will reflect on his Damage Track.

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Reaching out onto the table, Luka willed a crystal ball into being. 'For my life, my payment to Santana is the woe of those who have done him wrong.' Luka thought to himself as he peered into the depths of the orb. 'How might we best uphold our end of the bargain here and now?'

@rush99999

Justice - Dissonant - Life is a stage, and you've forgotten all your lines

Luka, you gaze into the crystal ball that your Eidolon conjured for you, and the glass begins to swirl with color. As you focus on the deal you made with Santana, the dancing ribbons of light shine the same gold of E*D*E*N's sign--but then the ends of the strands start hissing and burning like fuses down their length, and within a second the whole pattern turns Tyrian purple. The pattern begins to spin in place until it forms a vortex, and your hand is pulled towards it with the irresistible force of a black hole.

As soon as your finger brushes against the crystal, your vision goes black. You feel as if you are, at the same time, perfectly motionless and moving at incredible speed; your normal frames of reference are all ripped away from you, leaving you with no way to know how long that contradictory state lasts. When it does finally end, you are no longer in the diner. Instead, you stand in...

Well, the closest thing you can relate it to is a courtroom, but it's no court that's ever been built by human hands. The floors are ebony hardwood, polished to a dark shine. Words, written in text too small to read while standing, have been etched into the wood and inlaid in gold leaf. Though you cannot make out the actual text, from where you stand the formatting looks like a legal document, with long paragraphs separated into multiple levels of headings. To your right, a man sits at the prosecutor's table, waiting patiently, but you cannot make out any of his distinguishing features. The table to your left is empty; no one stands in your defense.

You are in between the two tables, directly in front of the bench. Around you has been constructed a witness box, of sorts, made out of the same wood and carved with the same designs as the floor. Your wrists and ankles have been manacled together, so that you can barely move them; the chains extend out behind you, seemingly into infinity. A strip of purple cloth has been tied across your mouth, binding your speech as well.

Sitting on the ledge of the witness box in front of you is a card very similar to the one you were given by Santana, but with a different picture on it. Instead of showing you astride the world, it depicts you laying in the cup of an ancient scale of tarnished silver. One arm has been thrown over your eyes; the other is held outstretched, as if in a futile attempt to turn aside a killing blow. A globe sits in the other cup; the green of its earth is mottled with brown, and the blue of its seas looks sickly. The scale is tilted almost all the way in your direction, leaving you dangling just above the swords emerging from below. Across the top, the card reads XI - Justice.

"AH." A massive voice rings down at you from above. The judge's platform is in front of you, but it extends almost fifty feet in the air; purple marble forms the columns at each corner, and the word "ORDER" has been carved into them, over and over, in every human language and script. You would normally have trouble hearing someone speak from that distance, but the pronouncement coming from the lofty figure crashes upon you with the force of eternity. "I THOUGHT I HAD SENSED MOVEMENT IN THE CURRENTS OF THE DREAM WORLD, AND I WAS CORRECT. YOU HAVE AWAKENED, AND I CANNOT BIND YOU; THE SERPENT HAS ENLISTED YOU INTO HIS SERVICE." He considers you for a second. "OF COURSE HE DID. YOU ARE THE EXACT KIND OF CREATURE HE MOST FAVORS. SELFISH, THROUGH AND THROUGH. AN..." He spits out the next word, syllable by syllable, as though trying to get the taste out of his mouth. "INDIVIDUALIST." Though you can hear the judge, you can barely see him; he is present mostly as a silhouette of powdered wig and pressed robes, and his purple-red eyes shine from that darkness to meet you with a piercing gaze.

"SO, YOU SEEK YOUR MASTER'S GUIDANCE?" The judge makes a dismissive noise. "HEED MY ADVICE INSTEAD. THE SERPENT WILL SOON LOSE THE LAST OF HIS POWER, AND WITH IT WILL GO WHATEVER BOON HE HAS GRANTED YOU. ABANDON YOUR MISSION, AND SAVE YOURSELF UNNECESSARY SUFFERING." He points his gavel over to the jury box; you cannot make out how many people sit in it, nor most of their features, but you do recognize one of the jurors as the man who just confronted you in the diner--the one responsible for your death. "OR YOU WILL BE JUDGED BY A JURY OF YOUR PEERS." He turns the gavel on you, and your heart sinks through the floor. "YOU HAVE ALREADY BEEN FOUND GUILTY, LUKA DURAND. KNOW THAT WHATEVER MEAGER PROTECTION YOUR PATRON HAS GIVEN YOU HAS NOT PUT YOU BEYOND MY POWER."

The gavel slams with a thunderclap, and your vision goes black again. When it returns, you are back in the diner. No time has passed, but the feeling of the gag around your face remains, even as the cloth itself has vanished, and your tongue tastes like ash in your mouth.

---

Game Stats

Phantom Clock: 2 PM
Party Experience: 1
Fate Deck: 14/22

Luka Durand

Damage Track: Fresh
Other:

• Dissonant Effect: So long as Justice is in the discard pile, any attempts to Dazzle will act as if you drew The Moon

Emily Sanderson

Damage Track: Fresh
Other:

• -1 Forward

Ashley Whitlock

Damage Track: Fresh
Ready For Anything:

• The Fool - Neutral - You become who you are needed to be in this moment
• The Hermit - Neutral - Your actions isolate you
• The World - Positive - For a single moment, the world bends to your will

The Crow

Damage Track: Fresh

Eidolon: Conspiracy Theory

Since Justice is his dissonant card, perhaps Luka gazes into the Undertow only to find Shades of Justice that take issue with the inherent unfairness of his privileged life waiting to gaze back. They proceed to steal the memory of what Luka was looking for and go on to be the unknowable force that interferes with his Dazzle attempts.

@rush99999

Oh, I like this, and it dovetails nicely with something I already had in mind.