The Savant

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

@Qia

Proceeds to...



definitely Emilia's reaction

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

Asterion Kairo

&

Hailey Vagabond

---

The chuckle that came out was hard to hold back, since Asterion was hiding in Krish’s body. Internally the men were speaking to each other while Asterion kept Hailey in his sight. Hearing the words the bomb-enthusiast was spitting out caused Krish to internally groan, Why do they always have to ask such stupid questions?

Whispering out, Asterion joked to Krish, “I think it is a good question. How have you not got bored of me already?” Those words were whispered under his breath while continuing to let his eyes lock onto Hailey.

Shut up. You know the answer to that question.

Everything went haywire for a moment when the bomb went off beside Krish’s head and Asterion naturally dunked from the explosion and covered his ears. Everything was ringing and there was a pounding internally that he couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Fuzzy eyes watched Hailey running away in zig-zag patterns towards the skyscraper, he shook his head trying to get control over Krish and himself, “Why do people always go after the skyscraper, do they not realize it’s pretty much a storage house for the most part?”

Not even that good of one, Krish added. I’m going to have a horrible migraine for days after this…

“O, shut up,” Asterion huffed out when he heard Krish’s thoughts about the skyscraper not even being that good. “How about you update it a little more than; right hand man?” he teased. Trying his best to slow down Hailey, he swung the rope dart out towards her.

Outcome Roll of 5

Asterion missed her again with the rope dart ability that Krish was so good at. Maybe he shouldn’t have jumped into his number one but he began running towards Hailey. Going to attempt to stop her by more physical means.

Hailey shot a glance behind her, looking aghast that Krish was catching up. Abruptly, she spun on her heels, withdrawing a knife from her coat pocket. Instead of giving Krish the advantage of trying to attack her first, she would get the first shot.

She launched directly at him, swiping at his neck area with her knife in a quick motion, a crazed smile on her face.

”Made a mistake trying to get close ta me, buster!”

Asterion did not want to actually hurt Krish in any way and he could hear Krish in the back of his head with anxiety. Asterion! was repeatedly echoed out when Hailey started swinging that knife towards him. Trying his best to move from the attack, he could feel a papercut slash come to light.

Okay. Time to get out. I think I can fight this better than you can boss,” Krish echoed out. Looking around to see what others were around. It was hard because of the smoke so Asterion jumped back a few steps. “There could be worse things than getting close to you,” which was the truth. There could be way worse things.

Asterion was trying to think, Do you have any pocket knives or weapons?, his thoughts rang out.

Krish internally sighed, I wasn’t on the clock so I only have my pocket knife, the man stated.

This was when the man started searching around his person for the pocket knife.

Hailey's grin only widened as Krish was rooting around for something, momentarily distracted. She used that opportunity to back off, turn, and run in the direction of the Kairo Skyscraper again. Across the street, and barreling through the double doors, finally within the lobby of the illustrious skyscraper.

Hailey immediately singled out a receptionist, raced over, and wrapped an arm around the receptionist's neck, holding up an unlit bomb.

”Nobody make any moves, or she gets it!”

Then she whispered in the receptionist's ear ”You're going to take me to your boss' office. Got it?” As she started dragging the receptionist to the elevators.

Standing there, Asterion glared, and he hated hearing how the woman wanted to get to his office. His office where his body was. At least Kaela was in his office and he knew Zarek and Elara were roaming up on that floor as well.

That was when a flash of light flashed brightly, Krish was grabbing his head, and the receptionist began to struggle in a way that she wasn’t before. Like something had taken over her.

Hailey gasped, leaping back like she had touched a hot stove. She stared incredulously at the receptionist, before her smile grew impossibly big.

”It's you. The top dog. The big boss. I should have known.”

She laughed. ”Something you don't want me to see upstairs?”

The bomb was clutched in her hands, still unlit. Hailey made eyes for the entrance lobby for a split second, before glancing at the receptionist again.

”Something that might be your, hmmm, source of power…?”

“My source of power is right here doll,” Asterion shrugged on the muscles of the receptionist he was in to get a better grasp of her motor skills. She had fine ones, but he was not used to them. That was when he tried to swing a kick at Hailey, it felt off in someone’s body that was probably a few inches over five foot instead of his regular tower six-three self.

Hailey cackled, easily leaping out of the way. But there was something unsettled about her. She spied the entrance once again, glanced back at ‘Asterion’, and tossed a lit bomb at ‘him’.

”Catch!”

And Haiely spun on her heels, diving for the entrance, attempting to escape.

Outcome 9

Asterion paused in the smaller woman’s body for only a second when he heard that word, catch!, and those lighter brows furrowed while those pinker lips twisted on the face he was wearing. He had to remember that he was smaller in his body and waiting for the last second before he swung around and kicked it. “How about you catch it,” he added while the bomb was heading towards Hailey for the front doors.

Hailey looked over her shoulder at the last second, and dove, hands outstretched as she slid into the floor. The bomb exploded, shattering and scattering tile. When the smoke cleared, Hailey was crumpled in a small crater, burns along her arms and on her cheek, and her pink jacket tattered and blackened.

A small whimper could be heard floating up from the floor.

Krish moved towards Hailey to see if she was dead or not, “I think she is still alive, boss,” the man echoed out.

Asterion couldn’t help the feminine groan that left the mouth he was wearing. “I do not know if that is good news… Krish,” he muttered out while walking up to the unconscious woman. “Pick her up,” he gestured.

“Why can’t you?”

They both stared at each other for a second before he rolled those dark eyes and walked away. “You do look better in that body boss,” Krish chuckled while picking up Hailey’s unconscious body.

Asterion was headed up to his office now with Krish in toe with a knocked out bomb lunatic on his shoulder.

---

A few mobile devices began going off and two of the individuals sighed. Varek looked at his device first while pressing the button to stop the alert from ringing out. “I’ll take a look,” The blonde man stated while heading towards the Echo Chamber with a little bit of haste. It wasn’t like he knew exactly what was happening at the Echo Chamber but he assumed nothing good because of the system alerting the outer guards.

Meanwhile, within the Echo Chamber's backrooms, the intruder, unaware of the alarm pinging other members of the Kairo Alliance, made great haste. The backrooms were like a maze, and he flitted from one corner to the next, pistol drawn, until he finally reached the locked office. He paused in front of it before pulling out a locking and proceeded to kneel in front of the door. This was the office room with the earnings of the previous night tucked away in a lock box, and he was going to take all of it.

Varek got to the back entrance that was busted open and he groaned, “Asterion isn’t going to like this…” he mumbled to himself as he entered the area with a gun loaded and locked into his hands. Pointing it around to scope out the area to see all the nameless employees and a few other unidentifiable individuals. “Or that…” he moved a random person a little bit with his foot. That was definitely not an employee or worker in this backroom.

The man shut the door and locked it behind him before going through the hallway in search of whoever broke into the Echo Chambers, if they were still there.

Indeed, there would be the faint scraping of metal on metal that Varek would be able to hear, along with a pop as one of the office doors clicked open. The military intruder, unaware that backup had already arrived, had ducked into the office with the lockbox. His hands were already impressed upon it, ear close to the dial as he slowly ticked it over, hoping to figure out the code.
Varek got to the door of the office of the Echo Chambers and pointed his weapon at the unknown man, “Put your hands up where I can see them!” he was warning the man. “And drop everything or I will shoot,” the blonde man did not sound like he was playing around.

The military man stiffened, head snapping around to gaze side-long at Varek. ”...Shit.”

His gloved hands slowly rose, and he stood, stepping away from the lockbox. The tools in his hands clattered to the ground. That, however, was what he was looking for - Varek’s eyes to follow the tools as they fell.

Snapping to the side, the military man attempted to dive behind the desk, unhooking and throwing a canister at Varek’s feet. Tear gas would begin spewing out, filling the room in a smog that would claw at lungs like sandpaper and burn the eyes.

Outcome of shot Nat 20

As the man was snapping to the side and throwing the canister at him, Varek was aimed, and ready to the point where he shot while the man was diving behind the desk. The shot was quick and Varek was backing out of the room as quickly as possible while kicking the canister into the room and shutting the door. “God damn,” He was already coughing from the little bit of gas that he accidentally breathed in.

That shot entered the man’s inner thigh and the bullet inserted itself into his femoral artery.

With the gas mask, the military man was relatively safe as the room filled with gas. However, it didn't stop him from screaming in a hoarse voice as he collapsed abruptly behind the desk, hands clutching his leg. It hit an artery, he was sure, and any movement might cause the bullet to stop acting like a weak plug.

Swearing curses under his breath, he ripped off his jacket and tore at his shirt, creating a temporary bandage to wrap around the bullet wound. Already, spots of red were beginning to seep through. Then the belt came off, and was wrapped over top of it.

He wouldn't bleed out immediately if he was careful.

That did mean, however, that he was a sitting duck. Half-heartedly, he pulled his pistol out of his holster, removed the safety, and turned it against the bottom of his chin. But he didn't pull the trigger… Not yet.

Varek was going to play the waiting game and hope the man doesn’t die in the office. He had to be careful because he was clearly armed with gadgets — hopefully no more canisters full of gas — and he stood a few feet from the door trying to listen to what was happening on the inside. When the gas stopped seeping from the cracks of the door and it was safe to go in, he would.

Seconds turned into minutes. Gas slowly dissipated from the room, through the ventilation, through the cracks. Soon, it was evident that the gas was no longer a threat, and Varek would be able to safely open the door. And, huddled behind the desk, he'd find the military man clearly ruminating on death with the way his gun pressed into the bottom of his chin.

Varek waited until the gas didn’t seem to be an issue anymore and he cautiously opened that door even though he didn’t have to be that cautious — unless the man was a great shot. Opening the door and looking around, he tried to keep his footsteps light but anyone could hear him. “Hey, let’s not go out that way buddy,” Varek began as he gestured but he wasn’t sure if the man huddled up by the desk was that lively or not. It was hard to tell.

The military man gritted his teeth behind the mask, his grip on his gun trembling a bit. ”Take another step and I'll show you just how serious I am.”

“I can tell that you're a serious one bud. I’m not trying to test you but I rather you be alive then dead so please put the gun down,” Varek tried talking him out of it but he knew he wasn’t the best for negotiations which was why he was a guard.

The military man stared for a long moment, his grip on the gun continuing to tremble. Before he clicked his tongue, removed the gun from his chin, and tossed it in the direction of Varek’s feet. Essentially unarmed, the man hissed in pain as the slight movement caused his wound to tear a bit.

His voice was hoarse. ”Fine… you win, Kairo man.”

---

Interaction(s): Collaboration Asterion & writers NPCs with @Estylwen NPCs
Location:
Asterion & Krish versus Hailey are around/in the Kairo skyscraper
Varek and military man are in echo chambers

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

For someone playing so passively... it's definitely and so passive to be sneaking right into a mafia leaders den. Also, dude, you keep complaining about absolutely everything if it doesn't look to be going exactly the way you want. You have complained about multiple things at this point, trying to get people to bend to your will, and you keep making contradictory statements. I'm sorry but it's quite annoying. I've been trying to hold my tongue about it but you just did it again.

Complain. Complain. Complain. But your characters are doing exactly what you are complaining about that others are saying they might possibly do to you.

You never once said "Hey Sav, I am going to have someone sneak into your base. What does your skyscraper layout look like? How do you want this to go man? What is the outcome we both want to get to this," you just did it though you are demanding that you have a decision on outcomes because it's your characters and your territory. Hypocritical and childish.

And I don't care if this gets me in trouble with everyone else and upsets you. I am okay with those consequences.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

What I'm mainly hearing out of this conversation from the lovely GMs side is that no matter what you do. You have consequences. There can be light to severe consequences no matter what. Yet, she is saying she's giving people a safety net by not allowing them to get kicked out of the ringer if all he'll does break lose.

Everyone has to be careful about what they are doing. Though she'll make sure anyone can go recover in an unclaimed territory if need be.

This is a roleplay that is competitive. It's not pure arena but it has PVP qualities which is why it's a great attraction. There has been way more roleplay than PVP scenarios for the most part... Being upset with what ifs and the inevitable of this roleplay is only going to dampen the mood.

Anyone can take out anyone. I have 3 different characters, INCLUDING yours little bird up in asterions business. You think he's gonna take it lightly at all if he catches that little spy of Glyde's up in his skyscraper? You have to be out of your mind with a thought like that. That's gonna he consequences. It all depends on what happens but actions have consequences and whatever asterion decides, if he finds that spy, all depends on everything else and he's currently being put in a horrible mood.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

@Estylwen

Tag. I don't think there is anything I can do when it comes to the second part of what you had for Nickel since all the staff and everything is completely knocked out in the Echo Chamber.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

@Estylwen

Yes, we can collab. Send me to link or whatever to where we are collabing.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

🎵🎶 Deck the streets with shadows creeping,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!
Crime and greed are never sleeping,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!
In the alleys whispers linger,
Deals are made with deadly fingers,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la,
Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la! 🎵🎶

<3

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

I'm really just spitballing ways to maintain a degree of parity so that the map doesn't turn into a Monopoly board.

As far as personnel expenditure on defense, I'm putting up the idea that sacrificing the requisite personnel can effectively counter an invasion without having to go into a drawn out battle sequence.

I'm of the opinion that the Personnel really should have it's own functional identity, and yhat it and Wealth should have actions in which they can act independently of each other. (EG - The above suggestion, and making District upgrades a Wealth only expense).

As I've more or less inquired previously, what's the point lf the personnel metric if it's just going to be used in exact tandem with Wealth and not play into the process of invasions and defense, etc? Would it not be simpler to just consolidate everything into Wealth and trust that no one is gonna pull a 'gotcha,' by having a full on army come around the corner in the middle of a battle? (Endgame scenarios notwithstanding; if we get that far into this I'd be dissappointed if we didn't have forces of 100s if not 1000s in a city-wide fire fight.

@Little Bird

You realize without bodies, making a check to wealth means nothing? For example, if I have $100,000 to build a house but I do not want to hire a group of people to build that house. How is that house going to be built? How is that money going to actually be used? Having personnel a little distracted from wealth investments just makes sense. You need someone/some people at least to focus on whatever you are upgrading.

You cannot upgrade an area and just think it'll magically be upgraded without anyone touching/working to get it upgraded.

Now, I could see there being already established weapons/gyfts/etc... in a personnel and your character sending out troops to go fight another district/take other a district without expelling extra money.

But to spend money, especially on something like upgrading/building. You need to actually have people to do that.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

For one...

The word personnel is not a singular amount unless it's a singular group. Personnel means a group of people employed by an organization. So if you have 1 personnel, you do not have one person, since you would have one group of people.

If you had 5 personnel, you do not have 5 people... you have five groups of people.

Secondly, I do not believe that personnel in this role-play are hard factor numbers and our main characters are the bigger parts of the equation. There are going to be different amounts of personnel (more groups possibly for richer districts versus smaller and so on) and if you are using your personnel or not (or they are dying or not), etc... etc... A lot of variables and factors.

To want hard numbers, the most realistic questions, outcomes, answers, etc... would take way too long to actually do for an role-play that is setup like this and IF you wanted to spend that time, you'd have to make a whole system like Dungeons and Dragons 5e or use a pre-made system like DnD 5e for everything.

Edit:

What I am emphasizing above is being a little creative, a little flexible, and not overly worrying about accounting for each number. That would be like worry for every single background character in a Marvel movie or action movie in general. It doesn't make sense too.

Because if that is what we are doing, then our lovely GM would have to figure out how many personnel we each would have. Which means she would have to figure out how many are in a group of 1 personnel (be that the same or not for districts which are classified different) and then we would all have a horrible time either calling them thing 1 and thing 2, naming them, and putting little backgrounds on who they are and that could literally mean doing little quick sheets of 100 people for your business.

So why stop there? If we already gotta fill out a quick little sheet for ALL and each person that you have control over. Why not make a quick little sheet for every civilian in your district(s)? It would only make sense to make it more realistic and so on.

Except... that would suck all the fun out of the roleplay by having to pre-start or stop to get all this information to be setup to have the most realistic or hard factual outcome.

Nocturnal Memoirs: An Urban-Fantasy Mafia Epic

@ERode Noted, I've updated it. :>

@Little Bird The Personnel gives me an idea how big your mafia is. You could have no wealth, but without a personnel block, you could send two hundred mafiosos to a fight. ^^; I mean, I doubt anyone would do that, but it's a safety measure and helps with realism, I think.

@Estylwen

Now that you said it. I'll get to work on making 200 NPC/side characters for that to happen /jk jk