Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot [Tricube Tales] [Solo RPG], Part 5: Safe Search On

[Safe Search On] [1]

When Gareth was 18 and Mr. Angelo was hinting that maybe Gareth should be applying to college, what stopped Gareth was not a fear of leaving Bunker nor a worry that he was not good enough. Gareth is aware that is work is good. He knows the basics. He knows the craft. Maybe he does need something to stand out but he is aware that he could have likely coasted right into a scholarship with his portfolio already... [2]

No, what stopped Gareth from doing more than nodding quietly and shyly is because of the Trouble. 

A year earlier he and Rod Davis had been playing catch. Rod was a nerdy kid roughly in the same social circle as Tommy and Gareth, but one with a bit of mean streak. Gareth would throw the ball so Rod could catch it and then Rod would throw it a bit harder each time. Sometimes well over Gareth's head. Sometimes right at Gareth's head. Gareth grew angrier and angrier and let...something...slip.

He noticed that Rod was just holding the ball, staring at Gareth. A look of fear on Rod's face. "Your....eyes...are...." and then the poor kid started to piss himself. Taking a few deep breaths, Gareth calmed himself down and then ran over a few seconds later, hoping his eyes had faded to gray. 

"Are you ok, dude?" 

Rod was crying. 

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. It was a bad joke. Tommy got me a pair of these red contacts, I thought it would be funny!" Pointing to nothing in his hand but hopping Rod's tears made it hard to tell that. "Shit, I'll throw them away. Don't tell my dad, ok?" 

Always invoking Barlow's name to make him sound more normal. How fucked up is that? "Don't tell folks that I turned into a wolf, my dad might spank me real good!" Is it worse that so many Bunker considered it a perfectly normal excuse? 

Rod quieted down and Gareth made a big deal about helping him clean up. Even played it off that he saw a sprinkler hit Rod in the crotch. They were laughing at the end but Gareth could feel the mood shift. 

They never really played together, again, but as far as Gareth knows, Rod never said anything. Just got into anime and online forums really big. Found out he enjoyed pretend friends more than real ones. Gareth can appreciate that. 

Rod now works at a gas station over on Interstate 65 near the motel Gareth does some work at. Seems friendly whenever Gareth stops by. Still, if anyone was to ever ask Rod if he ever saw anything weird around here...those red eyes. Would he recall?

After that incident Gareth went and spend time trying to find out about the Trouble. Felt that he appreciated his dad losing control. Wanted to really know his old man. After all, what could be Hendrix than having red eyes in public. Laughed about it a little. 

Gareth felt it should be easy to know what really went down. 2002. Never did a full count but it sounded like not even half the pack died but where were the others ones that never showed up to Kai Yote Trailer Park? Could Gareth be a hero and track them down? [3]

Gareth never found anything definite. Days of searching. An uptick of crime? Sure. Reports of missing adults and kids? Sure. Smuggling? Fraud? Corruption? Libel? Grand Theft Auto? Drug Busts? Extortion? Jaywalking? yes yes yes yes yes yes and so forth. 

Nothing about a group of men opening fire with semi-automatics loaded with a few thousand dollars worth of silver bullets. Nothing about strange conspiracies and sounds of wolves howling in the moon. Nothing about witches or secret societies working blood and moon magick rituals to stop the infamous loo garoo. 

That picture of his mom, holding that silver crossbow. How Ms. Macy was able to keep those who killed Jacob alive despite the story of her using wolf blood. Is that how it even works? 

It is years later, in the days building up to Jack Fall's arrival to Bunker, that a now 21-year-old Gareth really tries to understand the results. To put them into context. 

What if the the trouble wasn't a fight with the hunters? What if if the trouble was a Hendrix and a Maron deciding to declare war on its own pack? Or the pack declaring war on them? Gareth believes there are hunters, but how could a force be powerful enough to erase a mystical gang fight from the internet be also too powerless to track down Barlow Hendrix and Macy Maron living only about a third of a state away? [4]

If Ms. Macy could be involved in something so bad she was forced to leave her home and move to this podunk town but was so not frightened of consequences that she did not bother to change her own name, what might Gareth be capable of doing? How lucky was it that Gareth got a hold of himself? How narrow of an escape did Rod make? 

Fear that his dad might eventually find any of those searches in the search history led Gareth to smash the hard drive in his fist and then tell his dad that storm a couple of days back must have fried the power supply. They got a new computer a few days later. Gareth asked no more questions. Barlow gave no more answers. [5]

-- Mechanical Notes --

1. Scene type: 8 of Spades. Some sort of conflict or argument. A moderate one. King of Spades is pulled for the Main Scene card: things are bad for keeping the tribe hidden from the show. There are definite signs around town, moments the Kai Yotes made too obvious. Task: 8 of Hearts. Easy Crafty. We'll save this one for him trying to convince a school kid. Two successes. Extraordinary success.
2. "Does Gareth actually like his own art?" Jack of Spades. Very much so... but he does not feel completed.
3. "How many of the pack were killed?" 5 of hearts. So, less than half...but there's more to it. 
4. Hahahahahaa....ooooooooops. Turns out it took me 5 sessions to realize that the mythos I was building - a secret force of hunter types with various connections - made no sense since I have clearly established that Barlow Hendrix and Macy Maron are their actual names. So, you know, Hunters are real (silver crossbow, yadda yadda) but in this case. "Was the trouble caused by hunters?" 2 of Spades. Absolutely not. BUT... at least one hunter was involved. Lucy Hendrix. Who may have been killed by Barlow himself.
5. Set the search challenge as Crafty and then pulled, got a Queen of Clubs, so standard difficulty with 2 effort and Gareth ran out of Resolution before managing to roll a second 5. Because of the issues discussed in #4, rather than going with "The Hunters are all powerful" I instead with it a different approach: Barlow and Ms. Macy have been lying about the trouble. Gareth is aware of it, and this is part of why he has been living low and isolated. 

-- Doug's Notes --

I'm enjoying these brief-scene-sessions. Gives me time to chew and write and focus on some lore building without sweating more than 10-30 minutes of playing. This one was a bit unexpected but I offer it up as proof that solo playing is sometimes about digging yourself out of a hole and accepting the oddness as an opportunity. I really did intend for there to be this sense that Hunters Are Upon Us but realized I had kind of screwed that up and that none of the cards or dice had really backed this up. 

I like, though, that it re-establishes the Big Bad Wolf motif from the first couple of sessions. Barlow Hendrix is a dangerous man. Ms. Macy seems nice and matronly but she chose to stay with him. Had maybe already helped Jeb Hendrix do even more horrible things.