Gareth Hendrix and the Bunker Bigfoot [TriCube Tales Solo][Actual Play], Part 1
Gareth[1] listens to his old man talk on the phone.
Barlow Hendrix[2] has calmed down from earlier but the conversation doesn't sound good. Dad is talking to someone, one of the rougher wolves his dad used to run with. The phrase, "Look, it might get dangerous," is followed all too quickly by " Gareth is a good kid but doesn't..." and "might be good..." and, worse, "a bit of blood in his teeth..." and "it is what we do...what we should do..."
The conversation then goes on to mention phrases like "your time in prison" and "after that happened to your son" and Gareth feels his dad's particular shade of compassion like a noose tightening around his neck. Barlow wants his boy to be the new Big Bad Wolf and figures this old friend might be able to do what Barlow failed to do: find the buttons and push them. [3]
While Gareth contemplates confronting his dad - and knows that's a bad idea right now - when he hears one of the Kai Yotes, Raymond Campbell (fat and wrinkled in human form, fat and wiry furred in wolf) let out a low growl. It is so rare for anyone besides his dad to have such a bestial reaction that it takes a moment to realize that his dad's conversation had distracted him from a particularly buzzing sound.
A drone with a camera mounted is flying right over the Hendrix trailer and some of the Pack are starting to notice: ears sliding wolfish, teeth elongating. The Pack is on edge. [4]
Gareth whips out his cell and rapidly calls Tommy Hoyst. [5]
Tommy is Gareth's three-time lab partner and counts as a best friend as much as you can in Gareth's world. Romantic relationships aren't the only kind of relationship that Gareth tends to screw up.
"Tommy, what are you doing? You know people around here are pretty damned sensitive about government spy drones. You are going to get your expensive toy shot."
Gareth can tell that Tommy thinks this is funny and is dangerously close to antagonizing the people in the park even more. "Look, man, land that thing on my porch right now so I can show them it is yours and I'll let you touch my butt." [6]
Tommy laughs and replies, "Touch that booty and you buy me beer! You take care of my drone and bring it back to me!" It lands expertly at Gareth's feet. Gareth sighs and holds it up, showing the logo for Hoyst Coffee slapped on the drone. Lots of the older folks in the park stop off there in the mornings to get a cup and all would recognize this as Tommy's dad's drone used to get Instagram footage for marketing.[7]
Still, calming them down when the wolf is close the surface is not an easy task but Gareth says, "Do not worry. Tommy didn't mean nothing, guys. He didn't see anything. He was just excited to meet up with me. We are safe." Luckily, Macy shows up. Ms. Macy Maron. The adoptive grandmother of everyone under the age of 80 at the Kai Yote. "Y'all listen to Gareth. That Hoyst boy just foolin'. They ain't seen one another in months. We all run a little wild sometime." To this, the previously angry Kai Yotes start laughing. A Hendrix running a bit wild is a sign that all is right in the world. [8]
Gareth nods thanks to Ms. Macy and then stuffs the drone into his backpack (the one he still has from high school) and rides off. On his bike. The pedal kind. Cars are another relationship that Gareth never quite kindled.
Gareth only gets a block past the package store - the neon sign flickering between "Ice Beer" and "Cold Inside" - when he hears the signature whoop whoop of a cop car right behind. Jumping a bit, he turns and sees Nathan Callum, Stacy's older brother, with a big shit eating grin on his face.
"Well, well, well...if it ain't the trailer trash bitch boy who broke my sister's heart." [9]
"Nate, she..."
"THAT'S NATHAN, TWERP! No...better yet, OFFICER CALLUM. You show me and my family some respect!'
"Office Callum, your sister is an amazing person but you know she can do better than me. Stacy is going to go off, be a famous cheerleader for a national team. She doesn't need someone like me to keep her down." Gareth knows Stacy hates cheerleader types and is more likely to end up a middle manager at some growing firm, a ruthless but probably effective one, but Nate only cares about football stars and cheerleaders and still sees her Eighth Grade stint on the cheer squad as a sign of destiny.
Nathan Callum nods. "Yeah, you are damned right. Watch yourself, Hendrix. Stay away from Stace." Gets back in to his car, and drives off.
Gareth gets to Templeton Bridge, the world's most useless overpass. Back in the 50s, the bridge was built with much fanfare to allow State Route 44 (a major route between Mobile and Montgomery in those final pre-interstate days) to run unheeded by the Conecuh Company Rail Line that once put Bunker on the map. Now less than two trains a weak take the rail line and 44 is so dead that Gareth barely feels guilty blocking a few cars with his bike.
Tommy Hoyst has lost a lot of weight, in a good way, since last summer. Not as tall as Gareth, and it is really hard for people to be taller than Gareth, all things considered, Tommy looks a good deal more fit. Must be a killer with the ladies up at Vanderbilt, assuming Tommy's nerd side does not get in the way.
Gareth's heart sinks a bit, though, to see that Tommy is wearing a The Bigger They Fall t-shirt with Jack Fall's face on the front. Tommy, misunderstanding Gareth's stare as appreciation, turns around and shows a large Hoyst Coffee logo on the back.
"Check this shit out, my dad has already gotten a partnership. He's going to be catering the show. Jack fucking Fall will be working with my dad. Isn't that awesome!? Between you and me, that new Starbucks up in Cresthill has been hitting my dad, hard, but folks will start coming all over for a chance to get Jack Fall's autograph." [10]
Gareth works hard to control his emotions, feeling the wolf-brain inside of him struggle to howl.
The two of them have came here to this bridge, this useless overpass, since they were sophomores in Bunker High (GO HORNETS!). They would stand here, like this, and look down at the tracks and back towards the town and just talk whatever shit and nonsense. He told Tommy about that first kiss with Stacy right here and lied about it being exciting. Tommy told him about Mrs. Hoyst running off with the banker right here, lying about not caring all that much.
They would come up here to trade Magic the Gathering cards (Tommy played it with some other nerds in school, Gareth liked the artwork but never had the knack).
"You know," Tommy muses, his face in that shape it takes when he is about to spout Bunker Lore, "Frank York's brother, Cash, once saw a drug deal go down right there," pointing to no spot in particular below the bridge. Gareth has heard this one, a half dozen times, but let's his friend continue. "It was one of the Bunker PD. They started threatening Cash. That's why the Yorks moved down to Pensacola our senior year."
Gareth shakes his head. Sometimes busting Bunker Lore is too much fun to pass up, especially when there's a bit Gareth doesn't want people to dig into...
"The Yorks moved to Pensacola because...you know, Jessica Feldman. Her and Cash had a thing and there was...you know...complications." Which is a lie. Jerry York, Frank and Cash's always drunk dad, had hired Barlow to do some work a few years back. Jerry got drunk enough to think screwing over Barlow Hendrix was a good idea. Big Bad Wolf and some old running buddies showed up a few nights later and whatever went down, Gareth does not want to know, but the Yorks left town less than a month later and cut off all communication. Gareth is banking that the dropping the name of Chief Feldman's daughter, attractive and rumored to be a bit of a player among the older men about town, would tickle Tommy's conspiracy mindedness. [11]
"No shit? Man, that dog..."
"Oh, here's your drone back. Maybe don't tease the pac...the park, ok?"
"Why you hanging around those fuddies, man? You have won awards for your photography. Get your ass out of this town. At least get up to Birmingham or Huntsville. Shit, Nashville! Join me up there. I can make room for you. Let's get you in some galleries." [12]
"I don't know, man. Maybe."
The two talk about other topics for a bit. Tommy nearly brings up Stacy, twice, but drops it. Tommy also talks about how excited he is for his dad.
"You believe this bigfoot stuff, Tommy?"
"Nah," [13] says Tommy, despite his love of conspiracy theories and cryptids, "But it is fun to think what if, eh? HEY, tell you what, we can skip this whole butt touching you were begging me to do if you do the thing. Just like when we were kids!"
The thing was that Gareth used to get up on the railing for Templeton Bridge and walk across it, risking a two story fall into the railroad tracks below. Fat, nerdy Tommy always thought it was peak but never realized that the real risk - Gareth would simply heal up broken bones and lacerations assuming none of the rocks just happened to be silver, after all - was pushing Barlow's buttons had the senior Hendrix ever found out. It was Gareth's one concession to the wolf. His one pushing of boundaries.
He leaps up and fairly easily walks a dozen feet down the bridge, a few passerby cars honking like the old days, either in celebration or condemnation. Like he was still sixteen, like he still had dreams of leaving Bunker behind. Fleeing the pack. Fleeing the wolf. Not feeling trapped by whatever all this coming down might be. [14]
Tommy whoops and hollers and the two laugh, for a minute, man and wolf. Like the world is not coming to an end.
-- Mechanical Notes --
- Gareth is an Agile Artist (photographer and filmmaker) who is a keen observer but has to try and hide his distinctive markings from normal folks. The hair on his head, arms, chest, legs, and back shifts to show the phases of the moon. Currently it is a waxing half moon, so he the left half of his body is full of white hair while the right side is all black. He dies the short hair on his head to be a kind of deep purple to avoid always having to wear hat.
- Barlow is a Brawny Tradesperson (construction) with a Criminal Background and who can be Bestial.
- Ace of Diamonds, Scene Shift: Negative (for Gareth). Flavor: Relationship.
- Main Scene Task: 8 of clubs. Scene involves 8 of Diamonds...an object.
- Tommy is a Crafty Web Developer who has an extensive education (mostly self taught since Bunker doesn't have the best schools) but can be impulsive.
- Side challenge to convince Tommy is a crafty one which is standard (3 of Clubs to determine difficulty)
- Rolled a 1,4 on the symbol oracle and got the coffee mug. Makes sense.
- Crafty roll to calm the Kai Yotes down. 6 of Diamonds. Standard difficulty. Scored two successes so wanted it go especially well.
- Scene card, Conflict + Effort (2): Queen of Spades. 9 of Clubs, so Standard Crafty. Oracle: "How upset is Stacy?" 6 of Spades. So like...not a lot. Or, more specifically, she is upset but maybe not AT Gareth but more just the whole resetting of things. As one does.
- King of Clubs. Negative for the primary plot: stop the show from exposing the werewolves. Finding out his best friend stands to gain a lot from the show continuing adds a big problem to it.
- "Did Cash York really witness a drug deal gone bad?" Ace of Hearts --> Scene Shift. 2: Negative (for Gareth). Involving property.
- "How well has Gareth's photography done?" 10 of Spades. Very well for a small town. He's won some competitions/conflicts with them, but never quite pushed forward with the art.
- Does Tommy believe in bigfoot? 7 of Hearts. No, and... his love of cryptid stories is kind of like people loving horror stories. A fantasy that he knows is a fantasy. But like...JUST barely no. So, almost...he wants to believe even though he pushes it away.
- Main Scene Challenge: 4 of Hearts, a Standard Brawny challenge. Relationship based.
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