Book Five, Chapter 4: Scouting

“No… romantic… subplot,” I said as I wrote it on the piece of paper we were using to gather our plans on.

“And I think he was suggesting that I use The Penthouse trope,” Kimberly added. “The note about accommodations was pretty clear.”

“Right,” I said, adding that bit.

Sal had talked so fast and so scattered that I feared I might have missed some of the actual clues he gave Kimberly.

“So I gather from the Atlas entry and Sal’s advice, that Antoine will be a cop, you will be a reporter, Dina will be the missing girl’s mother, and I will be your news producer,” I said as I went over my notes. “Anybody got anything else?”

Isaac was the only one to speak. “How does Sal know who is going on the storyline? I mean, he just assumes that Antoine will be there and that you, the Filmmaker aspect will be the news producer. What if you two just don’t show up?”

Isaac questioned everything. It wasn’t a bad thing.

“Tropes always make assumptions,” I said. “Even my I don’t like it here… trope makes assumptions about who will be on my team. Speaking of, when we were looking at the Omen, it said the difficulty was ‘I’m getting goosebumps’ but that was with eight of us there, so it will probably be a bit harder than that with fewer players.”

The Final Straw had been offered to us before on the jobs board where we found the Subject of Inquiry storyline, but that must have been a different version. This one seemed harder.

“Location Scout told me the movie will be shot all around Eastern Carousel,” I said. “There were no notable hidden locations or anything. That’s good to know.”

“Makes sense,” Antoine said. “A missing child would involve a wide search. I could see the story going anywhere.”

I nodded.

“My Lifting the Veil of Silence trope never activated while we were over there,” Kimberly said. “That means the enemy does not target women specifically. We already knew that, though. It’s Benny.”

“You had a much more pleasant experience with the scarecrow than some of us,” Dina said. “Of course, my experience probably doesn’t mean anything.”

When we played The Final Straw II, Dina had dared Benny to kill her. He obliged. Meanwhile, Kimberly and I got out without a scratch. Benny picked favorites, only killing those he believed were worthy of death based on his own judgment.

“Atlas says no deaths are required,” Kimberly added. “Thank god. That means no Looks Don’t Last, and no Deathwatch, right?”

I thought for a moment.

“Yeah,” I said. “If we can walk away unscathed, we should try it.”

“We shouldn’t plan on dying if we don’t have to,” Antoine added.

We were in agreement.

“Okay,” I said. “Cassie, did you get any readings?”

Cassie put her fingers to her temples. Her I’m Blocked trope was proving difficult for her to activate on command, but that was probably built into the trope.

“I sense the supernatural,” she said.

“The supernatural?” Isaac asked with a smirk, “In this storyline? I wonder if the flying scarecrow knows.”

Cassie glared at him.

“Let her work,” Antoine said.

And she did, but with little success.

“I’m sorry,” she said, as she realized all eyes were on her. “I’m just not getting anything.”

“Take your time,” Kimberly said. “We aren’t in a rush. Just get to know your trope.”

Cassie went back to her meditation.

We stared.

“Maybe we should leave,” Isaac suggested. I wasn’t sure if he was being a jerk or if that was his legitimate suggestion.

Cassie was wearing her emotions on her sleeve for whatever reason. “I’m trying, I swear,” she said. “I’m not normally this stupid, I promise.”

She squinted hard.

“No one thinks you’re stupid,” Kimberly said.

Isaac looked like he was about to say something, by Antoine stared him down.

“Cassie,” I said. “You’re putting a lot of points in Moxie, I notice.”

“I’m supposed to,” she said. “The Atlas said so.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m not criticizing that. It’s just, putting in the stat points isn’t the whole picture. Moxie is about performance. Maybe if you actually tried to play it up, it might work better. Like when you use the Anguish ability.”

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My meager experience with psychic power might have been coming in handy.

She nodded. Her fingers came down from her temples. “That’s easier because the pain kicks in and I don’t have to pretend so much.”

She took a deep breath and lifted her hands, “I see, yes, I see…. There is a presence,” she started to say. Whatever her I’m Blocked trope was meant to do, it hadn’t kicked in yet.

Isaac got up from the table, hiding a giggle from Cassie. It was for the best.

Eventually, with lots of flailing and attempts to tap into her abilities, she succeeded.

“They’re angry!” Cassie screamed. Tears started flowing down her face. Her power was working. “They don’t like me looking, the spirits. They don’t like me looking!”

“Keep looking, Cassie,” Kimberly said. “What do you see?”

I’m Blocked was all about opposition. It was designed to detect opposing spiritual forces.

“There is great magic at play. Forces that ought to be left alone. They are angry and they want blood spilled. A child of the earth, life endangered, heartbroken. … someone violated the sanctity of that land… You are old, but we are older,” Cassie stopped talking for a moment and then, in a soft whisper, said, “Your choices transform you. What will you become?”

In a split second, Cassie’s head was thrust downward and hit the table before we could stop it.

We crowded around her in concern.