…No. It seems she genuinely did dismiss it as nothing. With a nod, you return the book to its shelf and turn to leave. Once you have exited the library and ducked into an alley, you planes walk away. The sluggishness of the transfer is… irritating, but better than the alternative of being unable to planes walk at all. Sufficient attempts bring you to a Mirror World that seems useful enough. The place where the city stands is instead occupied by a rather large but not particularly wild forest. Oddly, the bay itself is absent; where there was water in many of the other worlds, here there is more land and more trees. Well, you don't sense anything out of the ordinary beyond that, so you suppose this is as good a place to spend the night as any. Removing the ratty jacket you stole earlier, you put on your own jacket and release the Sliver from your pack. Then you send a spike of your will into the ground beneath you, attuning the forest to yourself.
Land Attuned: Forest (Tower Grove)
It doesn't take much searching to find a relatively clear place to set up shelter nearby -- and fortunately you have a spell to create one.
Extant Permanent: Ivory Tower (Grove Mirror World)
The tower isn't particularly hardy -- it wouldn't have lasted a day in Zendikar -- but it's shelter, even if it's not particularly defensible.
The Sliver walks in step with you, perfectly following your instructions. You admire Slivers, but you aren't so foolish to think you can control them -- that's why this one lacks all but the most basic of animal instincts and will only act on your orders. You are capable of creating Slivers that are exactly identical to the real thing instead of automatons, but you are reluctant to have full-minded Slivers around and not completely under your control when you have no means of enabling them to identify you as an ally. You distinctly remember obtaining a spell that could do that while you were in Ravnica, but you can't remember the spell itself -- it seems that your memories of Ravnica are still incomplete. Damn.
You begin to frown as you look at those memories in detail for the first time since you ended up in this place. It's not just that massive pieces are missing; now that you look at them, you're certain that the missing pieces are important. A figure dances at the edges of your tattered memory, someone in Ravnica who you interacted with often… A Planeswalker?
You shake your head and sigh. Too much is missing.
You enter the tower through the front doors, idly noting that they don't have any defenses beyond simple locks, Well, it's unlikely to matter; it doesn't seem like there's any wildlife here more dangerous than squirrels. Climbing the tower staircase, you find a room, lock the door, unfurl your tattered bedroll, and almost immediately fall asleep, Sliver by your side.
~~~~~
You wake up
[ ]At sunrise
[ ]An hour before sunrise
[ ]In the late morning
[ ]Write-in
And assess your situation. You have your Zendikarian outfit, a ratty jacket you stole from a hoodlum, a broken spyglass (And several other broken expeditionary tools of a similar nature), a torn pack, a Mindlash Sliver, and a tower. You have access to a green mana source and a black one, and you should be able to attune yourself to a third this afternoon. You also have access to a Spellbook...
You take a moment to actualize said spellbook.
Extant Permanent: Spellbook
It's rather useful, having something of such utility that can be created with no mana at all. While they will fade, you can store spells in its pages for a time. Your own spellbook is just barely small enough to comfortably fit in the most voluminous pocket of your jacket -- your expeditionary jacket, not the one you stole.
That done, you check the remainder of your spells as you prepare a plan for how to start the day.
You
[ ]Cast a Spell or spells, before doing one of the other options
--[ ]After sifting through your mind for something more appropriate (Request a specific sort of spell to cast)
[ ]Spend some time sifting through your spells and checking up on what you remember
[ ]Head out into the city and
-[ ]search for any clues to what might have happened to you
-[ ]Recruit someone's assistance (Write-in)
-[ ]Research more at a library
--[ ]A library other than the one you were at last night
-[ ]Get some proper clothes and some food
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Write-in
...Less options than they I usually give, and most of them don't really feel right to me. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to spend to come up with better ones, so in the meantime... Write-ins preferred, I guess?
Extant Permanent: Simic Signet
Each Guild in Ravnica took a different approach to their Signets. For the Simic, theirs were almost (But not quite) alive, and would adjust themselves to fit their bearer's current form. Your particular one takes the form of an armband... for the moment, at least. Adjusting it, you move the band of dark green metal up your arm until it encircles your upper arm just below your shoulder, then move your sleeve to cover it. There.
Anyway, you didn't have enough time to finish your research last night, so you decide to resume it.
...At a different library. You feel that running into that particular librarian again would probably be a mistake.
*****
You use the same setup as last time, your coat wrapped tightly around your pack to make up for the tears. You… should probably fix that or something, eventually.
You find a library quickly enough, and soon find a section with relevant books and get to reading.
…..
Two or three hours later, you have a much better grasp on the history and capabilities of this place. Their emphasis on artifacts is… interesting, though nowhere near as extreme as Mirrodin's.
It's that emphasis that is proving very helpful now, thanks to this "Internet" they have. Once you knew about their existence, and had flipped through once of the less condescending books on their use (Who would use an instructional text that referred to the reader as a "dummy?" Not you, certainly), you found yourself using one of these "computers" instead of reading books. You did briefly get sidetracked on a site called "Wikipedia," but that only occupied about thirty minutes of your time before you realized that the page you were on, about a local sport called Soccer (Or was it football?), was not even slightly relevant to what you were supposed to be looking at.
In any case, by the time you're ready to attune yourself to a new mana source, you feel you're sufficiently familiar with the plane and its local culture to move along to something more productive.
Things on this plane are about as bad as you'd been afraid of, unfortunately. They try to gloss over it, but their entire plane is dying, being killed by these Endbringers. Not as fast as the demise of your own home plane, but slowly and surely, it is happening.
You pause at that thought. Zendikar… That's right, Zendikar is dying. You haven't been thinking about it much since you arrived. But…
Instead of doing something about Zendikar, you were here, on this plane, instead. Why was that? Why were you here, instead of on Zendikar? Had you, for some reason, decided not to stay there and help? Was there something important you were supposed to be doing out here, instead of using your Slivers to fight the Eldrazi? Had you decided to fight the Eldrazi? You don't remember enough to know the answers to those questions, and that troubles you.
Well, one way or another, Zendikar won't be seeing you any time soon, not until you get your ability to Planeswalk back somehow. You check your spells.
You
[ ]Attune yourself to a local source of
-[ ]White Mana
-[ ]Blue Mana
-[ ]Black Mana
-[ ]Red Mana
[ ]Attune yourself to a non-local source (Write-in)
And Cast a spell
[ ]Write-in
Afterwards, you
[ ]Pawn some stuff for money, then
-[ ]Get some food
-[ ]Get some clothes
-[ ]write-in
[ ]Go over what it is you can remember
[ ]Search the city for anything unusual
[ ]Recruit someone's assistance (Write-in)
[ ]Write-in
You'll notice that I skimmed over a lot of stuff in this update. I decided not to go over what you learned in too much detail, since the information would only be new to the character, not you guys. I may have gone too far in the other direction, however.
Anyway, I'm still having trouble coming up with options that would actually get things moving, short of tacking a random encounter table onto the search the city option or something. I'm not happy with the options above, but at this point I don't want to waste any more time on them than I already have. As stated before, write-ins for a course of action are preferred over the options provided, and will be given more weight than non-write-in stuff... provided the write-in gets at least two votes, anyway.
Dismissing thoughts of Zendikar from your head, you head off in the direction of the hill at the edge of town, the only local source of red mana. Fortunately, the library you picked wasn't that far from there; it only takes you about half an hour to get to a position where you can attune yourself.
Land Attuned: Mountain (Captain's Hill)
Afterward, you look through what you have and track down a pawn shop. What little you have is either broken or not useful to you at the moment (You can't really think of anything you'd need a drafting compass for, and if you really needed a Sextant that badly, you'd make one), but is very well crafted and, apparently, worth about 200 dollars.
And after that, you head to a local thrift shop to buy some new clothing. You end up with a rather dapper undershirt and set of pants, as well as a black hooded jacket that is much nicer than the one you stole from that hooligan. After a bit of thought, you purchase a dark purple scarf as well.
It's only when you get to the restaurant you had decided to eat at that your day -- which will soon be turning into night by the look of things -- ceased to be uneventful.
While you didn't have to eat, going without food could cause problems, so you had asked around as to where a good place to eat was. General consensus seemed to indicate an eatery named "Fugly Bob's" of all things. Well, you'd eaten good food at places with stranger names, so you decided it was worth trying...
Which was how you ended up here, sitting in a booth, trying very hard not to stare at the group eating across the aisle. More specifically, you're trying not to look at a dark-skinned girl who looks very much like she does not want to be there.
Something about that girl seems very familiar, for no reason that you can discern. It's not that you get the feeling that you should know her; rather, you immediately labeled her in your head as someone you knew, and it took you a moment to realize that you didn't know how you knew her. You just did. And you know very well that that should be impossible, missing memories or no. Your memories may be in tatters, but you're rather certain you've never been to this plane before. So how?
This turn of events is... unsettling, to say the least. The food seems quite good once it arrives, but you find it hard to pay attention to eating in light of this strangeness.
Eavesdropping on their conversation reveals it to be mostly inane, though many of their comments don't entirely make sense to you even with your recent research. From the names that you catch, the girl's name is Sophia. Three of the ones with her are named Dennis, Chris, and Carlos; the name of the other one hasn't been said aloud while you've been listening.
You
[ ]Approach her table
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Wait for her group to leave, then
-[ ]Confront them
---[ ]Write-in
-[ ]Confront her once she separates from the rest
---[ ]Write-in
-[ ]Follow her
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Ignore it. It can't be that important, can it?
[ ]Leave, then Investigate the girl later
[ ]Interlude (Write-in)
[ ]Write-in
Just so you guys know, if you vote for an interlude with a character who would be present, then I will go with the popular vote and show it from that character's perspective.
Select: ->Sophia
...Sophia could think of many things she'd like doing over Christmas Break. A dinner date with Brockton's lamest was not one of them.
"So Ar-- er, Colin's locked himself up in his room again," Kid Win was saying "Anyone knows what that's about? I wanted to talk to him today about gadget stuff, but..."
The conversation switching from who-gives-a-shit to discussion of Capes was almost enough to make Sophia care. Almost.
"He's always locking himself up in his workshop for one reason or another." She cut in. "Maybe his blender's broken or he thinks he's discovered cold fusion. Who the fuck cares?"
"Well, he, uh, usually he doesn't actually lock the door and turn off the intercom. Something's up."
"We..." Clockblocker started. Then he leaned in before continuing at a lower volume. "We probably shouldn't talk about it further in public." He quirked his head towards the aisle. Sophia looked over.
Someone was sitting in the booth across the aisle, about five feet away. Whoever it was had a thick scarf and a hood up on their jacket -- Sophia couldn't make out anything about them from this angle. They had a large hiker's pack next to their table though, so it was probably a homeless person. They seemed more intent on their food than their surroundings though. Sophia considered the possibility of using her power and winging a few toothpicks at the backpack, see if she could embed them in the pattern of a smiley face. The guys would probably stop her though, which was a pity because anything would be more interesting than the discussion's inevitable return to that stupid sci-fi show that Kid Win and Clockblocker liked.
"Ah, right, right. So, did you catch last night's episode? You never actually answered."
Sophia groaned and slumped back against her seat. "Ugh... You know what? I don't care. I'm leaving." She got up from her seat.
"Hey, you can't--"
"Oh fuck you. I ate, I didn't order dessert, I don't have any reason to stick around. Ciao."
The last member of their little group sighed. "I... Should probably get going too you guys. Things've been pretty busy for me lately." He got up. "Enjoy your dessert, 'kay? I'll see you tomorrow."
The two of them both walked out of the restaurant and headed off.
"...Are you following me, Rory?"
"No. I'm just heading back to HQ."
Sophia
[ ]Went to PRT Headquarter so she could ask to be put on patrol or something.
[ ]Shook Triumph and went off on patrol without telling anyone.
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Went home.
[ ]Texted her friend(s) while going to do one of the other things
-[ ]Texted Emma
-[ ]Texted Madison
-[ ]Both
[ ]Write-in
~~~~
You
[ ]Follow Sophia
[ ]Follow this Rory person
[ ]Continue eavesdropping on the people who stayed
[ ]Confront Sophia
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Finish your meal and head back to the Tower
[ ]Write-in
Continue: ->Sophia
Sophia groaned internally. It would probably be best if she headed back to the headquarters as well. Piggy and co. tended to get suspicious if she didn't regularly check in for sanctioned patrols instead of just going off whenever she felt like it. She'd probably end up getting stuck with Triumph, but in terms of company he was sort of tolerable as opposed to, say, Kid Win.
"Yeah, me too. Gonna see if they'll let me do a patrol tonight. Preferably solo, but..." She shrugged.
"Yeah." Triumph replied uncomfortably
Sophia spent a moment considering making conversation with him, but then she realized that that was a fucking stupid idea and whipped out her phone. A new message from Madison, stamped a few hours ago, asking to talk with her about "something important." Probably something stupid. And a text from Emma talking about...
Huh. This was... what? Sophia immediately replied to the text.
the *slaughterhouse 9*?She didn't have to wait long for a reply.
YES...Not that it was a very helpful or constructive one. She tapped out another response.
arent u in the smokys? why the hell are the 9 there? u sure its them?The next reply was a bit longer in coming
YES IM SURE!!
crawller n foffnear figtin at som mountan place near hereVACATION FUCKING OVER WORST XMAS EVERSophia took the time to give Emma some advice on how to stay alive. A minute or so later her phone was back in her pocket. From the sound of it Emma was doing okay considering that it was, you know, the Slaughterhouse Fucking Nine. It seemed that the Nine's current location was miles away from where Emma was at the moment, but that didn't necessarily mean much. After all, the nine were pretty much horror movie villains; the point when you thought you knew where they were was the point where they would suddenly pop up right--
"...Excuse me."
Sophia nearly jumped out of her skin as the voice sounded right next to her. She did jump off to the side and reach towards her back pocket. The woman who had been walking right next to her -- when had she gotten there, exactly? -- put her arms up in a placating gesture. "Sorry, sorry." She said. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Sophia relaxed herself and took a second look at the woman. Then she tensed up again. "You were at the restaurant. Are you following me?" She glanced around. Triumph was nowhere to be seen -- he must have gotten ahead of her while she was texting Emma.
The woman lowered her hands and gave an apologetic smile. "I didn't mean it in a creepy way, honest. It's just..." The woman frowned. "Have we met before? I'm certain I know you from somewhere."
Sophia raised an eyebrow. This woman...
...didn't look even slightly familiar to her. "You followed me all the way from Fugly Bob's because you thought I looked familiar?"
"Yes."
For a moment, the two of them stared at each other in silence.
"Well I don't know you."
"Ah! Terribly sorry for that then. It was an honest mistake." The woman turned to leave.
Sophia scowled. She
[ ]didn't have time for random loonies. Time to go see if she could get a patrol from Piggy...
[ ]was suspicious of this person. She'd duck down the closest alleyway, get in costume, and follow her.
[ ]wasn't going to let this woman get the last word on this. "Mistake my ass!"
--[ ]The woman's response (Write-in)
[ ]didn't buy it and, more importantly, was pissed off. Time for a few threats, maybe some violence.
--[ ]The woman's response (Write-in)
[ ]write-in
You
[ ]Find a back-alley and planeswalk back to your tower.
[ ]Follow Sophia
[ ]Go off to
[ ]Set your Mindlash Sliver to tail Sophia then go do one of the other options
[ ]Head off and
-[ ]investigate Sophia separately from following her
-[ ]Wander aimlessly until you (hopefully) stumble across something useful
-[ ]Attack a gang to secure some spending money
-[ ]Investigate something specific (Write-in)
-[ ]Secure some allies (Write-in)
[ ]Find a secluded spot, like a park or something, and meditate on
-[ ]Figuring out what you can remember
-[ ]Figuring out what exactly you have in your library and what you might be missing
-[ ]Figuring out what you can remember and what you might be missing
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Change your mind and continue confronting Sophia (Write-in)
[ ]Write-in
Interlude
[ ]End
[ ]Continue
Yeah, this update was delayed for two reasons. Firstly, it was kind of finicky for me to figure out how to properly do the vote at the end, for, well, obvious reasons. I'm still not entirely happy with how I solved the problem, seeing how it's still kind of messy.
The second reason was my inability to figure out how to represent a texted conversation without it looking incredibly obnoxious.
You spare a glance at Sophia as you turn and walk away. You still know her from somewhere, that didn't change... but you're fairly certain that she was telling the truth about not knowing you. Still an oddity.
...You needed to think. Ever since you've arrived, you've been avoiding thinking about what you might have lost, and haven't really thought much about who you are. What's more troubling is the potential for uncertainty surrounding that last one. You need to find someplace quiet to think about things and go over what it is exactly that you can recall.
You recall a park being located nearby, so you head over there, sit down on the grass, and think.
Your memories of growing up in Zendikar are... less intact than you'd like, but better off than most of your memories. You grew up an orphan in the continent of Ondu, in a place called... well, the name doesn't mean anything any more. A lot of people there studied the Hedrons, but you were never particularly interested in them yourself. In fact, later on you gained a distinct distaste for them... but no, you're trying to go through things in chronological order here.
No, you were more interested in Zendikar's livelier aspects, and you managed to apprentice yourself to a field mage. As your career progressed, you managed to survive any number of places, from the Hanging Swamps to the Teeth of Akoum. You learned the skills necessary to live as a Zendikarian mage, and while you weren't the best, you weren't too shabby either. While you did learn how to use blue magic during that time, those skills weren't just spells; any Zendikarian mage who went out in the field without non-magical combat training wouldn't live long. You still focused more on magic, but you still remember the training you received with one of Zendikar's traditional weapons. Even if you lost your actual armament, you still remember learning to use it and... yes, it seems it's still in your library as well.
Special Obtained: Equip Training (Trusty Machete)
You do not need to pay the equip cost to equip the Trusty Machete to yourself.
Unfortunately, your apprenticeship did not end with your graduation, but neither did it end with a death in the wilds of Zendikar. Instead, it ended in the hedron fields near your hometown. The incident itself is missing from your memory, but during that time your master died, your spark awakened, and you gained the use of red mana where you had lacked it before. You also know that your condition when you arrived at this plane is identical to your condition when your spark awakened, minus your injuries: Your accoutrements shattered or missing, and a number of holes in your clothing where you were wounded by... something. You know that you had a steady dislike for Hedrons after that, and when you did return to the place the battle occurred, the Hedron fields had fallen from the sky and your home town was... gone. A new settlement appeared there after a time though, to study the hedrons entombed in the muck of the savannah, and you made a point of stopping by there from time to time.
But that came later. After your spark awakened, you spent some time exploring other planes. You attempted to visit a place called Dominaria, only to find it somehow... cut off. It was after this that you found...
A gaping hole in your memories.
The break here is much less smooth than the memory of your spark's awakening. You can still recall bits and pieces, rather than simply all knowledge being gone. That difference... you can think of several reasons for that difference, about half of which are very bad.
Well, from the bits and pieces that still remain, you know that this was when you first found the Slivers. The exact memory is missing, but intellectually you know how you felt when you first found them -- awed. You know you began using green and white mana during this time as well.
Your first clear memories from that period are of you finding an otherwise empty plane and building a hive there, with Slivers of... all... kinds... Hm. You know that you were unable to use black mana during that period, so why were there black slivers there at the time? You... have no idea. Something's not right with that.
Well whatever the reason, your idyllic life there came to an end when the hive was attacked. Your memories of the attack are fuzzy, so while you're fairly certain that it was the Phyrexians who attacked you you can't actually recall how they got there to attack you in the first place. Whatever the reason was though, you were overrun in fairly short order, and in spite of your best efforts the hive was overtaken by Phyrexian forces.
Your memories lose all clarity for some time after that. You know that you spent much of the time afterward hiding from other planeswalkers. You know you returned to Zendikar at some point after that, and learned to use black mana while you were there. What you don't know is any specifics. Your first clear memories of what happened after that are from what must be centuries later at the least, when you went to Ravnica--
Hm. You think you went to Ravnica twice actually, maybe three or four times, but your memories are sufficiently mangled that you can't separate the different visits from one another. You spent some time with the Selesnya there, but while you liked them the feeling wasn't reciprocated. The Simic liked you quite a bit though, and offered you membership. You were very keen on finding ways to improve your Slivers -- more so than usual, for some reason -- so you accepted, and then that motherfucker Momir Vig swiped your notes! That son of a bitch!
You unclench your fists and sigh. Okay, you'd forgotten about that. But you'd gotten your research notes back fairly quickly and he was only an apprentice so you decided to go easy on him and not report it. It was only when he was much older that it became a problem.
You're pretty sure that happened on one of your later visits? It happened when Vig was a lot older, and you don't think you stayed on Ravnica for a single stretch of time that was that long.
Well, you only really recall one other noteworthy thing about Ravnica. There was someone you spent a lot of time interacting with there... You can only recall them through the ragged edges of your missing memories, but you're fairly certain that it was someone important who you shouldn't be forgetting.
Regardless of that though, some time after your first visit to Ravnica you ended up on Mirrodin and were quite taken with the Myr. They reminded you of the Slivers in a few respects, so you spent some time working with them. You don't have any complete memories of it, unfortunately, and don't really remember anything else beyond the name of the plane and a few days worth of time studying the Myr. A pity.
...And then there was the awakening of the Eldrazi. Your memories of the actual awakening of the Eldrazi are gone -- in fact, nearly all of your memories starting with when the Eldrazi woke up are completely absent. The only thing you can recall about them is scene after scene of destruction--
You screw your eyes shut and move ahead. At some point after that, you encountered... something... and everything after that is a jumbled mess. You recall a distinct sensation of shattering and then you were falling and then... well, you woke up in a body that was more human and less Sliver than you were used to.
Your eyes open. Well, that was... moderately useful. Now you just had to figure out what to do next. Presumably this would involve Sophia, partly because you still have no idea where you might know her from (Since you're now much more certain you didn't spend any time on this plane before you got in a fight with that thing), but mostly because you're fairly certain she's been following you ever since you ended your conversation with her.
You take a glance at your spells.
You also have your Signet, so you can convert that one red mana into one blue and one green in an instant, and you have a Mindlash Sliver in your pack.
[ ]Call out to Sophia and
-[ ]Try to secure her assistance.
-[ ]Tell her to stop following you
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Try to shake Sophia and
-[ ]Planeswalk back to your tower
-[ ]investigate Sophia
-[ ]Wander aimlessly until you (hopefully) stumble across something useful
--[ ]In a specific area (write-in)
-[ ]Attack a gang to secure some spending money
-[ ]Investigate something specific (Write-in)
-[ ]Secure some allies (Write-in)
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Write-in
Interlude?
[ ]Sophia
[ ]Write-in
[ ]No
Note: You can write-in a specific method for trying to lose Sophia. If you don't, you'll just try using mundane methods. As always, write-ins are encouraged, and not just for that specific part.
Select: ->Sophia
Sophia crouched on the edge of the hill. About forty feet down and a hundred feet away, that suspicious woman sat on her knees, eyes shut.
For forty damn minutes.
Sophia was starting to think that maybe, rather than being some suspicious stalker or secret cape or something, it was just your garden-variety crazed hobo who had legitimately thought she looked familiar. Except her instincts were becoming more and more insistent that this was not the case with each passing moment. Everything about the way that woman had approached her had been suspicious, and the woman's complete nonchalance the entire time just plain irked her.
Having to waste nearly an hour watching the woman do absolutely nothing wasn't doing much for Sophia's opinion of her. Sophia sighed.
"Are you just intending to watch me meditate? That must be incredibly boring."
Sophia jumped, startled, and flung herself behind a tree. She glanced around it. Yup, the woman was standing now. And looking straight at her.
What the hell? How had she been spotted? She had been in her gaseous form following her, so she was making absolutely no sound and was pretty hard to spot against the night sky.
"Come on, why don't you come down here? If you wanted to learn stuff about me I'm always up for a chat!"
Okay, seriously, what the actual hell. Miss freaking Militia usually couldn't tell when she was following her. Who the hell was this chick?
...Someone dangerous. A Predator.
That was the thought that went through Sophia's mind. She hastily dismissed it. It was just a feeling with little to support it beyond the woman being very good at knowing when she was being followed. But that was enough to catch Sophia's interest. She was about to step out from behind the tree to confront her when the woman spoke up again.
"Come now Sophia, there's no need to keep being so shy. I already know you're there, so why don't you come out so we can talk like civilized people, hm?"
What.
This woman had better just be a damn good guesser, Sophia thought as she stepped out from behinds the tree. She crossed her arms in a falsely confident pose, her cloak swirling dramatically from the movement she made as she stepped out. "Oh, so close," She said, trying to make her voice about half an octave deeper than it normally was. "You should have quit while you were ahead. Until you called me 'Sophie' I almost thought you weren't shooting in the dark. I... Am Shadow Stalker."
There. Hopefully she bought that.
Sophia
[ ]decided to just ask the woman some damn questions.
-[ ]Write-in (Specific lines of questioning)
[ ]discretely reached for one of her Tranq bolts as she approached. Capture and interrogation.
-[ ]Woman's response (Write-in)
[ ]decided that now was the best time to start making threats.
-[ ]Woman's response (Write-in)
[ ]Decided that now was the best time to get out of here while the getting was good.
-[ ]Woman's response (Write-in)
[ ]Write-in
The Woman
[ ]didn't push it, and continued the conversation without pressing on the identity thing.
[ ]made it clear that she wasn't buying that this was not Sophia...
-[ ]but dismissed it and continued the conversation.
-[ ]and pressed the issue.
[ ]Write-in
and replied to any questioning by
[ ]Avoiding stating anything about herself and replying evasively.
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Lying(Write-in specifics)
-[ ]And attempted to recruit Sophia's aid
[ ]Answering honestly...
-[ ]but substituted mundane events for what actually happened.
-[ ]in the most outrageously unbelievable manner possible.
-[ ]without any deception.
-[ ]And attempted to recruit Sophia's aid
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]Write-in
"So, why the hell are you stalking people," Sophia growled. "Answer me that, if you're taking questions."
Sophia walked down the incline, trying to keep her costume billowing behind her as she went. She stopped trying when she nearly slipped on a sandy portion of the slope.
"Well, when I saw you in that restaurant--"
"What restaurant?" Sophia interrupted. Okay, so she hadn't bought it. That was bad.
"The one I saw you in. Obviously. Fugly Bob's, it was called?"
"Haven't been near the place tonight. Obviously you're still confusing me for someone else."
"Uh-huh. Pretty sure I'm not, but if you're so insistent...." She rolled her eyes. "Now, do you want me to answer your question or not?"
Sophia started to deny it again, then stopped. "Fuck it," She snarled, "Just answer the damn question." She could figure out how to handle it after she knew who the hell this woman was and what she was up to.
"Right. Well, when I saw you -- sorry, this Sophia person who is clearly unconnected to you in any way -- in the restaurant I knew that, presumably through some mystical shenanigans beyond mortal ken," She quipped, "We were more connected than just simple strangers. I recognized her face and, more importantly, knew her body language on a level beyond what should be possible for strangers. Of course, things beyond mortal understanding aren't really beyond mine, so I followed you to unravel what was obviously a mystery of the ages."
"Uh... huh." Sophia resisted the urge to smack the woman across the head -- they were only standing about ten feet apart, now -- and just growled in annoyance instead. "You're going with 'I thought I knew y-- her.' Right. Whatever." Sophia took a hissing breath. "Okay, how did you know I was following you?"
"Well, I grew up on a different world with incredibly hostile wildlife. You can only really survive as a researcher there if you can learn to tell when you're being stalked by a Caustic Crawler or a Pulse Tracker or some such."
"Uh." Okay, not even remotely what she was expecting to hear. "You're claiming that you knew I was following you... because you're from space."
The woman shrugged. "No, it's because you are, apparently, less stealthy than deadly stalking predators. But you were doing a decent job for an amateur. Keep practicing and who knows? Maybe you, too, will become as stealthy as an insect the size of a small house."
Sophia scowled and took a threatening step forward. "Do you think this is funny?"
The woman tilted her head and gave a sort of nonplussed look. "Ehhhh, not really, no. You're not as interesting as I thought you'd be, considering that you're one of these 'superheroes.'"
Sophia glared at the woman, an effect somewhat ruined by her mask. "You are not an alien."
"Nah, more of an extra-dimensional cosmic entity temporarily forced to be a bit more... puny than usual."
"...Stop mocking me."
"I will when I see something worth mocking."
"That doesn't even make any sense"
"Neither does your outfit, but I have thus far refrained from pointing it out."
Sophia grit her teeth. This was stupid. She wasn't going to stand here and have some uppity hobo make fun of her all night. Especially not one that had figured out her civilian identity. She
[ ]was going to get the woman to cut the crap. "Just answer the damn questions."
-[ ]"Or I'll hurt you."
-[ ]"Or I'll call the PRT on you."
-[ ]"Or I'll sic the police on you for stalking an underaged girl."
[ ]had had enough of this shit. She turned to leave...
-[ ]with a warning. "I'll be keeping an eye on you."
--[ ]"...And don't you dare tell anyone my identity."
-[ ]and headed off to take her anger out on gangbangers.
-[ ]and headed home. Fuck this.
-[ ]and headed for the PRT. Someone had to be told about this.
-[ ]and pulled out her phone to rant about this via text.
-[ ]and doubled back around, to keep following the mystery woman.
-[ ]Write-in
[ ]was done asking questions. She attacked...
-[ ]...in order to capture and interrogate her. She'd get the answers one way or another.
-[ ]..in order to beat her within an inch of her life, as a warning.
-[ ]...with intent to kill. The woman knew who she was.
You
[ ]Write-in
Sorry, it was going to mostly be write-ins for the above anyway.
Interlude:
[ ]Continue
[ ]End
Ugh, still unhappy with this one. Can't help but feel that I failed to deliver, among other reasons.
Anyway, one of the options may or may not be Taylor, but writing in someone's name will get a different interlude than you would get if you voted for their listed option. I'll tell you right now though that "The Student" is not Taylor. I'm willing to tell you that because, well, it's really hard to guess who this one is -- there's absolutely no reason to believe that this character is at all relevant at the moment.
And yeah, this is about a week before her trigger. Given the timing, the way I interpreted the sequence of events is that Sophia set up the locker prank upon returning from Winter Break, which where I live at least ends around January fourth.