I should probably warn you, my friend.
This one is going to get pretty teenage.
Performing as MC: Tom
Nobody in the City Police Department took those disappearing college students too seriously. Especially because pretty much all of the reported missing ones turned up a few days later with a very mundane story to explain their absence. Kids rebel, run away from home and generally do stupid stuff, who would have guessed?
But according to one distraught Allison Craig (who’s been apprehended wondering around campus harassing students) her daughter Emily has been missing for five days now.
“We can’t have you wondering around the grounds, ma’am, sorry. I’m sure your daughter has a phone, doesn’t she?”
The guard let’s her go in front of the campus' gate, probably hoping she’ll head straight out of his life and his evening shift, but Mrs. Craig starts grabbing students passing around her instead:
“Do you know Emily? Emily Craig? Long hair, brown, curly… Nice girl… Please, what about you? Have you seen her?”
And since CPD didn’t plan on acting on it, the job of finding her landed on shoulders of three very unlikely detectives.
Scarlett played by Pavel
You remember Scarlett, don't you? Half a year ago she buried her coat in a closet after crippling disabled kid’s father in self-defense. She honestly wasn’t going to come back to this business, but hey: college changes everything, right?
Flicker played by Kapik
Scarlett’s not the only Rift at the Uni looking for quiet times though. Flicker hasn’t done any vigilante stuff since how Gambling with Death turned out. See, unlike Scarlett, Flicker has actually been around the block. And Kapik has always been playing in her shoes and that stuff creates some serious bonds. I mean, remember that time she got roofied by a ghoul of a vampire married to Baba Yaga?
Yeah, what a mess.
But the point is, even if she took a little break, you can bet that if there’s a girl missing, Flicker won’t let it be. She knows all too well these things are never just an accident. Not in this City.
Nathaniel played by Pida
And of course, there’s our golden boy. You might be wondering why Nathan joined this search – it certainly wasn’t empathy for poor Emily, that’s for sure. Why would the prince of the university, a son from such a respectable family and a leader of such prominent fraternity spend his time wondering around dark corners of the City on some possibly misled hunt for truth which could very possibly end up being quite dangerous?
My guess? When you’re a kid like Nathan, being spoon-fed and pandered to every second of your life, a little dangerous adventure with a couple of misfits might be exactly what you're missing in life. Though I wouldn’t expect him to admit that out loud.
"Wait... So we're looking for this girl now?" Nathan asks, confused.
"Duh," Flicker says. "Someone's gotta."
"Well, alright but... Don't you think you're getting a bit ahead of yourselves with this detective stuff? Shouldn't you leave that to the police. I mean, why do you even care so much about her, you didn't actually know her, did you?"
Scarlett gets up from the table, her disgust clearly showing in her face. “If you disappeared like she did, would anyone be looking for you?”
“Um, duh, only the entire FBI,” Nathan replies.
[Pavel: Nathan's got an answer for everything, doesn’t he?]
[Pida: You bet he does.]
Now, even despite their attitude differences, are these three guys a good detective trio?
Perhaps.
But in hands of Pavel, Kapik and Pida, it’s fair to say they probably launched the least effective amateur investigation ever to be conducted in any RPG session EVER. Which is all the more absurd when we consider that Pavel had actually read V is for Going Viral Case a year ago when he first discovered City of Mist. Granted, some time had passed since then, but he remembered the rough outlines: there’s this Victor Chang guy who’s like super popular and leads some social club or something and he's actually the villain or… like, close to a villain or something and the final battle happens in a warehouse and there are zombies… I guess?
So when after about six hours of playtime (which were presumably more difficult to figure out for the desperate MC than the utterly incapable players) Flicker finally follows Victor Chang, school’s prodigy, into a shady looking warehouse, Pavel honestly thinks they have somehow managed to stumble upon the climax of the story. Cause this is the final battle, right? Now Flicker’s gonna go inside and there’s gonna be…
[Tom: The warehouse is full of huge metal crates and cages holding countless animals, from rhinos and lions to stray dogs looking like they’ve been dragged straight from the street, reminding wild wolves more than household pets anymore. There’s even a giraffe, tied by her legs with her long neck crooked inside her all too small cage.]
[Pavel: Wait what.]
Okay. So instead of the climax they discovered an - apparently homebrew - illegal animal trading operation. And, well, also burnt it to the ground on accident when Nathan couldn’t control his Dragon powers in his fight against the warehouse's Zookeeper.
That’s hour seven of play with none of the players having the faintest idea of what’s going on.
[Pavel: Anybody got any ideas cause I'm officialy stumped.]
[Kapik: It’s almost midnight and I gotta go to work tomorrow. Are we at least in a general direction of the ending, Tom?]
[Tom: *has actual smoke coming out of his ears, trying to figure out how to point his players where he needs them sicne they've missed half the scenes he had prepared*]
Alright. Perhaps it’s time to cut our losses. Scarlett has to take severely burnt Nathan to the hospital and Flicker…
Wait. Flicker is still on Victor Chang’s tail?
This girl just doesn’t give up.
After Chang finished his business with the Zookeeper in the warehouse (seems like he traded him some crates marked with Helix Labs logo in axchange for a shipping container full of… people? It was only later that the players found out these were illegal immigrants being used by Victo... Well, we'll come back to that.), Flicker manages to follow him to a planetarium behind northern campus to some sort of a party of that social club Emily joined right before her disappearance – just like all the other kids who had been reported gone to the police earlier. Seems like Victor is the leader of this social club called... wait, what's the name again?
“Welcome to the Star Mixer!” Victor shouts. “My dear friends, tonight you’ll be a part of something truly special. You’ll have a chance to become a part of something much, much bigger than yourself! Nothing short of a brand new loving family!”
As if the entire scene was choreographed, a line of students with blank faces walks inside the auditorium, carrying plates with drinks for everyone. And everyone – with Flicker’s exception – happily takes them up on the offer.
And then the projector - rotating wildly and shooting flashes of the night sky in all directions until now - stops dead in its tracks and throws an entirely different picture on the walls: image of a teenage girl’s face.
Victor raises one of his hands clenched in a firm fist. “HAIL VECTOR!” he screams.
The entire room follows his example.
[All the players: Okay seriously what the hell.]
Alright, it's past midnight and I think we could all use a little Downtime, right? Players and Characters alike. Let's fast forward a bit, about two weeks, both in real world and the City.
Nathan had to be taken to the hospital of course. Thanks to his parents’ money and influence he was back on his feet in a few weeks after undergoing a state-of-the-art skin transplantation which left him with only one stripe of scarred tissue on his left arm.
His parents marched him back to school at their earliest convenience. Since they're paying such horrendous digits for it he might as well not waste them on a hospital bed, right? The fact that Nathan became suspect number one in the case of that warehouse fire also wasn't helping atmosphere at home.
But in a way he was actually looking forward to come back to school.
It meant the investigation could continue.
"Alright," Flickers says, recalling the night at the planeterium. "Once they drank whatever Victor gave them, they just snapped. As if somebody turned them off, total zombie mode. And then they all got on some bus and left god knows where, but seriously, creep factor up to 9000."
"So what's the plan now?" Nathan asked.
"Simple. Get back there. This time with a formal invitation. And find out what the hell is Victor doing to these kids."
To player's surprise, this plan is actually working pretty well. Flicker soon manages to get invited to one of the Star Mixer hang outs in a local café. This one is just a selection round to see who's good enough to be invited to the next planetarium party so Flicker needs to bring her A-game. Which is why Scarlett and Nathan reserve a table in the same café with earpieces and stay there as backup, pretending to be a couple on a date.
And although Scarlett was determined to be disgusted by the entire notion, she reluctantly has to admit that it doesn't completely suck.
"So… What do you usually talk to girls about in situations like these?" she mumbles after a long, boring silence.
"Um… They usually ask me about horses. That’s what they bring up when they’re too shy to talk about my money. What stuff do you usually ask in situations like these?"
"Well um... I don’t really... do situations like these anymore."
Flicker's voice knocks on their eardrums. "Chang is here," she whispers. "He looks weird though. Like he’s… Sick or something."
"Just don’t drink anything," Scarlett warns her. "And if you need our backup, the safeword is cheesecake."
"But what if actually do want to order a cheesecake?"
"Then you resist it."
But despite all players' expectations, mission goes surprisingly smoothly. Flicker impresses Victor with her geeky charm and gets a card with the date and time of the next mixer.
Initiate the mission Flicker: Double Zombie Agent.
“Just remember… whatever you do, don’t drink anything, right?”
That night, Flicker joins the parade of drunken Star Mixers in the planetarium and is therefore witness to one of the wildest parties college life could possibly offer. Nathan and Scarlett are there too, just a bit more out of sight: they have hidden in the utility room before the whole evening started, so all they can hear now are the echoes of wild partying supplemented by smell of bleach and dirty mops.
Then Victor Chang's voice takes over when he reprises his performance from the other night. Though something is different. He definitely sounds worse, sicker, more tired… Much more like an exhausted herald than a narcissistic mastermind they took him for.
It’s at this point where the players first realize Victor might actually not be the villain. Just another victim.
Then his zombie-students walk in with the drinks.
“Bottoms up everybody!” Victor Chang’s voice sounds from Scarlett’s earpiece.
“Flicker?” she whispers, but there’s no answer. There’s no sound at all. “She drank it,” Scarlett exhales. “C’mon, we have to get her…!”
“No!” Nathan stops her. “I’m sure she’s just keeping her cover…!”
“Well what if not? I didn’t finally find my first friend just to have her turn into a zombie!”
But Flicker’s indeed alright. Just before her lips touched the glass she managed to catch the entire room in a time-loop, giving herself enough time to spill the drink unnoticed.
Then the entire room of now blank-faced students heads out of the planetarium to the bus waiting outside. Somehow (AKA thanks to some lucky dice rolls) all three of them manage to get on board as well. Once they make it to the bus, Scarlett touches Flicker’s hand lightly – and she responds with a slight nod.
It’s alright. They’re still themselves. On a bus full of brainwashed zombies heading… where exactly?
To the final climax of course.
The bus unloads his human cargo at a derelict building at the edge of the neighborhood. They all walk inside, single file like trained majorettes, our three heroes still pretending to fit in with stiff movements and expressions devoid of any emotions.
That is until the sightinside the house inevitably twists their faces with shock and horror.
[Tom: At first, it looks like a pile of flesh: human bodies, still alive, though completely still, intertwined in a careful choreography, forming a decadently elegant throne, perhaps 10 feet tall with a single person on its top. It’s the girl who’s face you’ve seen in the planetarium. She’s sitting there with her feet up: laid on naked back of none other than Victor Chang.]
“Cheesecake?” Flicker gulps.
“Cheesecake,” Scarlett nods.
Then the throne starts talking. It's just a barrage of quick shouts in a vacuum but pronounced with strange, overacted intensity.
“You’re looking great today!” one of them says.
“We’ve missed you so much!” goes another.
“You’re so much more fun than your brother. Don’t drag him along next time, would you, he’s such a bore…!”
[Players: The… fuck…]
[Pida: For real? That’s what we're up against? Crippling case of overcompensated selfdoubt and hate stemming from unresolved sibling rivalry? Seriously? Why can’t she just want to take over the world or something! What are we even supposed to do about this?]
But you know what I think, my friend?
I think that if anybody had a chance against a person so deeply hurt as poor Victoria Chang… It was these three. Pretty much any hero can take down a baddy who wants to destroy the universe. But only a few of them can do what had to be done here.
“Victoria!”
Scarlett steps forward and as she breaks the line, the human throne under Victoria changes into a human shield. Some of her pawns charge at Scarlett, but she doesn’st hesitate.
“You need to stop this! Trust me, I know how you must be feeling right now…” And even though she’s never seen this girl before, she does. That scene, her dirty boots on her brother’s back, that says it all. “To have all that rage and jealousy and… darkness bottled up inside you, I know that all too well! But you can’t deal with that by hurting others!”
[Pavel: I burn my “I can tell you hurt” for a hit. Give her 3-tier Guilty status. And whatever happens, Scarlett’s not gonna fight anyone back. We have to do this right.]
The wall of Vector-zombies lunges at her. Flicker snatches her out of their way in the very last second.
"I'M NOT HURTING ANYONE!” That's Victoria speaking, albeit not with her voice. She speaks through the mouths of all of her subjects.
“That’s bullshit!” Nathan screams. “What about Emily Craig?”
“She’s here. Happier than she’s ever been." And this time it's just one voice: Emily's, followed again by the choir. "WE ARE ALL PART OF A NEW, HAPPIER FAMILY!"
“You’re holding her hostage! All of them!" Nathan shouts on. "You can’t break up families just because yours suck! And trust me, I would know something about that! But I don’t go around brainwashing people just to feel better about myself!"
[Pida: I burn my “Huge ego” for a hit, expanding her Guilty status. No fire powers. Not even a defending firewall. Nathan wouldn’t want to risk that, not with innocent students in his way, not with what happened in that warehouse.]
The wall of human bodies wavers, but only for a split second. Next comes the rage born of denial. Kapik uses Flicker’s Flashes of Tomorrow Power Tag to investigate Victoria’s stats. And as he learns, in order to talk her down like this, they’d have to get her Guilt status to 5.
[Pida: Well shit.]
[Kapik: We’ll never make that! You guys are burnt and Flicker doesn’t have tags for this!]
[Pavel: *aggressively going through the rulebook Hermione Granger style* I got it! We can use Leverage! If you roll Convince, MC can accept your knowledge about the target as power tags.]
[Kapik: Yeah, but we don’t know the first thing about this girl!]
[Pavel: Well, how lucky that somebody still hasn’t burnt her Flashes of What Was Here Before, right?]
And so Flicker steps forward. While the hordes of Victoria’s pawns swallow Scarlett and Nathan like a human avalanche, she grabs the first one she sees and through his connection with Victoria, she dives deep into her memories. And she sees it all.
How her whole childhood their parents' attention was always privilege of her older, more talented brother. How when their mother died, he was the first to say goodbye to her – and before she had the chance to do the same, a long, piercing beep filled the room. She even sees the lab where they’ve done those horrible things to them. Doctors in white coats with Helix Lab logos on their chests. She sees the first time Victoria gained control of her brother and his face, blank and numb, when he said in monotonous voice: “You’re the best sis I could ever ask for.”
Then Flicker comes out of it. Victoria’s kneeling in front of her, exhausted, gasping for air.
“I get it, Vic," Flicker whispers. "He got chances you didn’t and that’s not fair. But you’re not fixing anything with this. I think you were a good sister and I’m sure he thinks so too. Maybe he just needs a chance to prove it. And I’m sure you don’t need to control people for them to like you.”
Then she hugs her.
The crowds surrounding Nathan and Scarlett drop to the ground one body at a time.
Victoria’s eyes burst with tears.
And no more words are said.
[This play-through of V is for Going Viral is based on an official City of Mist supplement written by Amit Moshe.]
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