Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn, Chapter 8. The Irregulars Are Together at Last [Tricube Tales + Mythic]
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| MOBILE POLLUTION THREATENS MAIDENSTEAD 'CITY OF LOVE' PLANS.
From Maidenstead Monitor, February 12, 1993. "Mayor Daily assures the board that Maidenstead will continue to promote itself as a place for friends and lovers." |
- "Previously on..." and Campaign Summary
- Character & Story Insights
- Chapter 8. The Irregulars Are Together at Last
- A Tragedy of Errors, Somewhat Comically
- Breaking In and Making Up
- Becoming The Eustace Delmont
- The Mantis and the Demontongue
- Updates to Progress Tracks and Threads This Session
- Doug's Commentary
- Mechanical and Story Notes
- Credits
Previously, on Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn
After a fight with Eustace, Hitomi runs off with Morgan where the two meet up with Hitomi's sister, Daphne, who has just broken up with Frank. After a brief run-in with the creepy Martin Reed, the three women drive back down to Gulf Shores. Along the way, though, Daphne reminds Hitomi that they know Amy Patel and that puts it all into focus once Daphne let's slip that something was going on with Amy's mom and dad. Back in Maidenstead, Eustace, Elly, and Jenny watch the tape and realized that someone has died while making pornography at the Rambler and there has been some degree of cover-up.
About Eustace & Hitomi and the Case of the Rambler's Inn
See the "..and the Case of the Rambler's Inn" campaign-arc page for more information.
It is 1996 and Eustace Delmont is a geek in his mid-20s who has moved back to the town of Maidenstead and now drifts as a slightly big fish (with curly hair and a beard) in a small pond. One day, while helping a minor electronics kerfuffle at town's main landmark—the weird and overlarge Rambler's Inn Hotel—with a long and storied past, Eustace met the girl of his dreams: Hitomi Meyer. Caught up in a plan to launch a subscription ghost hunting series by her adopted step-sister's boyfriend, Hitomi is down and out and distressed. Eustace and Hitomi team up, and fall in love, while trying to solve a constantly spiraling collection of mysteries.
Content Warning: Smoking, Drinking, Drugs, People Being Held Against Their Will, Trauma, Dog Theft, Foul Language, Murder (?), Other Crimes, Violence, Sex, Pornography.
This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details. The Image Oracles described in the post (gamemaster phases and mechanic notes, especially) are from the Maidenstead Mysteries one-sheet. They can be seen on the Tricube Image Oracles page.
Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.
Character & Story Insights and Seeds
Slightly-Future-Doug, here. As I was writing "Breaking In and Making Up" (the second scene in this chapter), I had to go back and forth a few times trying to get the voices and actions feeling like I was being properly in character. A big part of this is that the OG plan basically had Eustace and a chast of side characters, some of who were guilty. Hitomi got added, and then it was E + H + side characters. As a few slight twists showed up and the series pivoted to needing several new people — Morgan Carter, Raymond Clark, Jenny Adams, Elly Lopez, and Daphne Meyer — the style of storytelling that was primarily focused on nerd boy and alt girl falling in love while solving crimes was not quite enough. People who maybe needed a few lines of dialogue are suddenly recurring and developing.
Morgan is especially a victim of this. The bubbly, sensitive, people-person bank-teller who is chronically overlooked by the townspeople she knows better than anyone else has been regalated to a comic relief character who just goes "oh" or giggles as a kind of ineffective greek chorus. I want to give Morgan Carter a chance to grow and be important and, well, fall in love herself (mostly with herself).
I also work out some ideas and then don't commit them to the page until I actually get to them which is fine and fairly solo play but it means that in the months since it has started my own mental image of this series has changed so much it is kind of hard to not just restart people over and over. To get out of habit of trying to keep it all in my head and hoping for the best and into the habit of working openly on the canvas, I am going to try out "Insights" and "Seeds" alongside Threads and Tracks.
Insights are strong ideas that will help me to guide and build certain characters, events, and places. They should be understood to be "true" though ideas and concepts within them might change drastically as they are examined/tested. These are paints on the painting, but they might be covered over or scraped off to some degree where it makes sense.
Seeds are initial ideas and concepts I can use to frame things but are more prone to being rewritten. Seeds are planted but which ones grow and which ones do not are going to be open to the story. They are colors not yet added to the palette, but they could each add something to the canvas if they do get later used.
I'll start with just a few so this doesn't go on for too many pages, and in the future use them as I go so they don't get backlogged. BIG NOTE: Some of these might clash with previous things but so it goes. I have to make a start somewhere without getting too bogged down.
Those ideas and concepts I have that are a bit spoiler-y I will mark under a
+ CHARACTER INSIGHT: Eustace Delmont. Eustace is a dreamer with a good grasp of tech and a surprising grasp of people. However, he has so centered the "do-gooder" aspect to his personality that he is prone to disappearing into the scene if someone else tries to take over. He rarely speaks up for himself. Overweight, bearded, curly haired. Tends to wear plain clothing as if he was an office drone. As a lateral thinking daydreamer, he spends a lot of time processing information while rambling seeming non-sense only to later just announce his findings without pre-amble. A Doctor Who nerd, he maybe tries to follow the eccentric Doctor a bit too much as a character type. The point of this arc for him is to watch Eustace grow into the man we know he becomes: a person who solves crimes and fights back against some of the Alabama Weird.
+ CHARACTER INSIGHT: Hitomi Meyer. Hitomi learned her fighting spirit from his mom. Unfortunately, her mom's busy schedule meant that Hitomi spent a lot of time alone with her just herself and her music. She had friends, some semi-close, and a few romances that never really developed. When it is time for her to go to college, she finds herself burning out and suggests spending time with her adopted step-sister might help to get her back on track. Only when she gets to Mobile, Alabama, she realizes that Daphne is now heavily dedicated to Frank. She follows Daphne, which means she follows Frank, for nearly two years until she realizes she is still just as lonely as before, only now without her quiet space to develop and grow. The point of this arc for her is to become a person who stands up for what she truly believes in and to demand what she truly needs even when she is one of the biggest stumbling blocks.
+ CHARACTER INSIGHT: Daphne Meyer. Daphne is the kind of person who commands attention just by being in the room. Attractive, relatively smart, and very charismatic; Daphne can fall into various character-versions of herself without much thought. Her main drawback is that she is naturally drawn to strong personalities and attaches herself to them and develops strong feelings for them. Her and Amy Patel had a complicated relationship where she followed Amy until Amy went off to school. Then she met Frank and threw herself entire in Frank's dream. The point of this arc for her is to maintain her passionate, powerful core but to do it for herself and not trying to live up to someone else's leadership.
+ CHARACTER INSIGHT: Morgan Carter. Morgan has always been the little girl who did what she wanted while others teased and tried to change her. She is immensely good at reading people and remembers little details about folks for years. What she is not good at is thinking of herself as more than set-dressing. She has grown into a young woman with no good concept of exploring her own romantic ideas or her own physical and emotional needs. She defaults to a couple of responses on the surface but inside she has Eustace levels of processing data. The point of this arc for her is to learn to ask for what she wants and to actually take lead of things inside of waiting for someone else to finally notice her.
+ MYSTERY INSIGHT: Amy Patel. Amy knows something happened to her mom and went to the Rambler to figure out what. She knows her dad has suddenly talked about buying the place. What exactly happened to Amy is unknown. She might be hiding, held against her will, or dead.
+ MYSTERY INSIGHT: Vernon Majors.
Chapter 8. The Irregulars are Together Again
I know a place where I can go when I'm alone:
Into your arms (whoa)...into your arms I can go.
I know a place that's safe and warm from the crowd:
Into your arms (whoa)...into your arms I can go
And, if I should fall,
I know I won't be alone...
Be alone anymore
— The Lemonheads, "Into Your Arms"
Setting the Scene. A Tragedy of Errors, Somewhat Comically
Friday, June 21. 6:35pm.
The Back of Ralph Harley's electronics shop (off Main)
Chaos Factor: 8
Expected Scene: Hitomi busts in to save Eustace.
Actual Scene: 8 → altered scene. We'll give the kids a break and have the scene be surprisingly positive after the previous cliffhanger.
The gang needs to heal and with the Altered Scene (due to the high Chaos Factor) is a great way to say "Hey, they just had a traumatic experience after strong soul searching." The alteration is that it was actually Raymond Clark. Rather than an arrest due to spotting Eustace, Raymond saw some strange person he didn't recognize getting into Ralph's after hours and ran in, saw Ralph was there, and just peaked in.
Partially because I made a mistake last time. We know from the scene in Elly and Jenny's apartment that the disguise worked. Sure, Ralph recognized him, but that's Ralph. Ralph is like a surrogate uncle to Eustace and Hitomi, both. Jenny went through some shit to make that sweater. I don't want to dampen that.
Then she went through more shit because I realized I had left in a scene where traumatic things occur. I'm an idiot.
Rather than make any kind of roll to figure out Jenny's recovery, I'm going to say that Eustace, Elly, and Raymond were damned champs and she's a damned champ and is making it back ok, she just needs time.
Overall, this entire chapter might be a good time to close some dramas and traumas before the player-GM inflicts more.
+ KEYED SCENE: After Eustace regains his Resolve, we are going to get a proper glimpse of the future Mr. Delmont.
Unfortunately, there is one moment to revisit first. What happened to the "other" Dr. Patel. Did the fall kill Dr. Jasmine Patel? (Likely) → 82 Yes. (High Chaos Factors are fun when an 82 can be a yes answer). But ok, the crime is not murder in her case, just that her husband panicked on the scene and there are now various related crimes going on.
Let's build up the late Dr. Ariel Patel. Her parents were from Vietnam but moved to Hong Kong to pursue careers. There they had Ariel. I had actually looked up names from Hong Kong that would have matched the time period and found this list of pen-pals from Hong Kong (I think, anyhow, dated 2001). I rolled d100 and picked the 35th name.
As usual, we turn to Universal NPC Emulator for some basic notes and back apply them to what we already know. 100 Confident 13 Statesman + 43 Titled 85 Inquisitor. That 100% paints a picture. She was confident, noble, and in control of situations and good at getting to the bottom of things. A motivation not already discussed in basic passing lore was 03 Attempt 90 Legends. Not only was she going to be a big person in her field, but she planned on rewriting genetics. She had a thing for being the star in adult films and being watched by other powerful people. Dr. Roman Patel's actions were deeply due to trying to protect her legacy and a stupid action on his part.
It's enough lore to say that Ariel and Roman met at a conference in Mobile that he was sponsoring. This was 1969. They fell in love and she moved to Mobile and got citizenship. They had Roger Patel in 1971 and two years later had Amy Patel (making Amy 23 in 1996, the same age as Daphne, which we've established). Both Roger and Amy have a combination of their parent's good looks and sharp intellect though Amy is almost a "clone" of her mom while Roger is the same for the dad.
A Tragedy of Errors, Somewhat Comically
Friday, June 21. 6:35pm.
The Back of Ralph Harley's electronics shop (off Main)
Daphne returns from a phone conversation with a very confused Reverend Maurice Meyer with a finger in the air, ready to bring big-sister fury down on Hitomi. Instead, Hitomi grabs Daphne's finger and Morgan's hand and drags both women with her into Ralph's. [1]
The first confusing thing: Ralph looks up, a mostly smoked cigar clamped in his teeth and old western paperback in his hand. Hitomi looks at him for some clarity and he just nods towards the back room. She continues into the back room with the others now following of their own accord.
The second confusing thing: Jenny and Elly are in the corner nearest the door and Elly is clearly wrapping Jenny in the biggest embrace she can manage.
The third confusing thing: Rather than being arrested, Eustace is sitting and laughing at some joke while talking to the hottest cop Hitomi has ever seen. And the cop is currently sitting back in another chair and has his feet propped up on Eustace's lap. The cop is not wearing any shoes. His socks have...pickles?...on them.
The fourth confusing thing: The large green sweater is on the table behind Eustace and seems to be covering, based on the light glowing through it, a TV and other electronics.
The fifth confusing thing: In lieu of wearing said sweater, Eustace is just in a pastel, button-up shirt — possibly the plainest thing in all of Aunt Elvis's clothing collection — and is showing off a massive red, fairly lacy, bra stuffed with what Hitomi thinks might be socks. Eustace is still wearing the skirt. And stockings. And shoes.
She looks from confusing things three to five and eventually just stares straight at Eustace as he finally glances up to see her, and the others, and looks like he is about he has a hundred words to say and around two breaths to say them so opts for nothing. The hot cop looks up to see what Eustace is looking at, and now he too is staring. Unlike Eustace, he looks like he is waiting for the comedy show to start.
She closes her eyes and contemplates leaving the scene and re-entering to see if it makes things make more sense but after a count to three she snaps her eyes open.
"He is an innocent man. I've contacted my family attorney! Eustace, answer no questions until Jeremiah gets here!"
The hot cop laughs. "I don't think that can be true. Euc, innocent? What did I tell you about lying to women, again?"
Before Eustace can defend himself, Daphne jumps face first into a metaphorical pool like she has just remembered she can barely swim: "Eustace? This is Eustace? This is kinky shit? Is that absolutely not a guy, HI. TO. MI?!"
The first thought that comes Hitomi's mind is that she always knew Daphne could say her name right at some point.
As hot cop laughs, Eustace stares down at himself as his brain, overwhelmed as many are by Daphne, searches for a response that he feels he should give. "Umm, is it the bra? This is...I mean, gender really..."
"THIS IS THE MAN YOU ARE GOING TO MARRY?!"
Everyone in the room not named Daphne goes dead silent and freezes in place. Hitomi's only sign of life for half a second is to blush so hard she worries she is having a stroke.
"I...," starts Eustace.
"No," says Hitomi, cutting him off.
"Did she say...?," Elly says from near the door.
"Don't," says Hitomi.
"Hey, um...," tries the hot cop, poking Eustace in his stomach with a pickle-socked toe.
"NO!," says Hitomi, even louder. She then looks over at Morgan for any assistance and Morgan's eyes are so filled with delight that they have shifted from brown to almost golden. No help there.
Daphne realizes the metaphorical pool is deeper and darker than she possibly imagined, and that it contains sharks, so she makes one last attempt to find the light of hope, "Ephy..."
Hitomi whips on her older sister hard and says, with emphasis so sharp you can hear the punctuation. "Everyone. Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Right. Now. Ok?" The smile at the end was both unnecessary and kind of frightening. Just to show solidarity, Morgan slaps a hand over her mouth.
"...James owns horses...," Daphne finishes despite best effort to stop talking. Her body floats down below the surface to be found by future metaphorical explorers.
In the front room, everyone can hear Ralph clear his nose.
"Jenny, are you ok?," Hitomi asks.
All heads turn towards Elly and Jenny. Elly opens her mouth, and closes it. Opens it again, and closes it. Her immense brain with all of its amazing abilities has found a series of phrases in these past few exchanges — not to mention the entire day leading up to this ridiculous stack of conclusions — and the video which is still causing her to feel on the edge of shock — and she just got back in from a family vacation — and now she is torn between defending what she thinks might be a slight on her best friend's character while also trying to speak up for her girlfriend.
Luckily, as Elly is sorting herself, Jenny speaks for Jenny without help. "No, Hitomi, I am not alright. I'm pretty bad actually. But, I have some awesome people around me. I have wonderful people who help me. I will be ok. I promise. Eustace, thank you for trying to block the video. Officer Clark, thank you for helping me to sit down. Strange blonde woman, thank you for...well, being loud at a time I thought I needed quiet. Hitomi, I...well, we'll talk later."
Jenny gathers up some of her things and takes a few awkward steps as she tests that she really is good for trying to get home. "Now, if you will excuse me, I am going to go home, and I am going to take a bath in some very pleasant smelling soap we got last summer in Japan. And then this one," pointing at Elly, "Has promised to put on a cute maid outfit and serve me some tea. While wearing cat ears." Jenny walks over to Eustace, looks down at him, "We better be invited to the wedding."
Then she heads out the door.
Elly, following after an improving Jenny, stops and motions Hitomi to follow them a little bit. Hitomi, feeling more like she is floating than walking, goes out of the back room to stand by a shelf of ethernet cables where Elly is waiting. Elly stands on her tip toes and leans in close to Hitomi's ear where she not so much whispers but chants in the quiet tone of ancient curse, "Whatever the fuck this is, you hurt my boy again, I'll cut you." Going back down to flat foot, she processes what she said. "Well, I won't, I am not good with knives, but the sentiment stands."
Elly gets a few feet away and turns back, talking loud enough that even Eustace has to hear, "You do look pretty, though, Chica. But, and I cannot stress this enough," nodding back towards the backroom, "He doesn't need pretty. And he doesn't need to have people throw clothes at him. Sort your shit, both of you."
Elly walks up to Jenny, nods, and then the two leave.
Ralph is so still he has practically become a mannequin in his own store. Hitomi almost feels worse for him than she does herself.
As she re-enters the back room, hot cop pulls his feet out of Eustace's lap and slips just slightly into cop mode. Speaking for Eustace who seems to have decided that never opening his mouth again is for the best.
"So, there's some shit going on and I am asking in my most charming voice, can someone please tell me what it is. Morgan?," he looks to a person he trusts to know the general happenings in any room. Morgan, hand still on her mouth, makes some vague noises behind her hand that sound like Latin being spoken by a songbird and then lets out a slightly shriller version of her normal giggle. Absolutely no words escape her fingers unscathed but her eyes and body language remain bright. This is possibly the happiest Hitomi has ever seen Morgan and Morgan tends to be happy as a default state of being.
Hitomi waves a hand to make hot cop look at her — his eyes are so blue, good lord — before asking, "Is Eustace not being arrested?"
"Euc? Of course not. Not this time. He's a regular in the jail cell, though, am I right? You should see his record!" Hot cop slaps Eustace on the back but Eustace remains really quiet and really still. In fact, the out-of-his-depths Delmont has decided now is the time to stare at a water stain on the wall that has likely been there for at least a decade or two.
"Then, and excuse me Officer...Clark?...why the do you have lights on outside?"
"Oh, shit, let me go get that. I saw a strange woman breaking into Ralph's and had come in all heroic before realizing it was Eustace and them doing some sort of costume event." He then runs out.
This just leaves the three women who fairly quickly turn to start staring at Eustace. Eustace, making eye contact with the water stain, decides it looks like a turtle. And, as a turtle, it was most likely named Julian. However, Julian is telling Eustace he needs to respond sometime or this is how stories get started about someone, and so the singular Delmont asks, without turning his head, "Can I talk now?"
Hitomi nods. Not hearing a response he turns to look at her, and she nods, again.
"Thanks, hi. Well, I guess the disguise worked. Also, um, who is she?"
"This is Daphne. She's my adopted step-sister."
"Oh, the one with Frank...no...I was mistaken, sorry," he says and corrects uncomprehendingly as he sees Daphne starts shaking her head somewhere between anger and crushing depression. [2]
Hitomi walks over and sits down in front of Eustace-in-a-bra, places her hands on his hands which have settled on Aunt Elvis's "Sassy Librarian" skirt, and, recalling Elly's words, tries to go slowly, gently, and plainly. "Eustace, I am very sorry I threw any jeans at you."
He turns his hands to he grab hers and leans in close enough that she feels her breath tighten.
He says, by way of his own apology, "I shouldn't have listened to your conversation."
"How much did you hear?"
"Just Morgan and you talking about needing to flirt with someone called Patrick?." He glances over at the super-quiet-mouse Morgan. "Is he nice?"
Morgan lets out a snort from behind her hand and the songbirds chirp back up again. A bit higher pitched this time.
Daphne is tired of being quiet, "Who the hell is Patrick? How many guys you got, girlie? Does that one wear..."
Hitomi has swiveled and stares Daphne back into silence while still holding Eustace's hands.
"Patrick is..."
At this time, hot cop comes back in and announces that Ralph felt it was time leave. The shop is locked up and he wished Ralph a good night and said he would take care of everything. He takes in Eustace and Hitomi holding hands the aplomb of a friend that assumes that Eustace knows exactly what he is doing.
This breaks the moment enough that Eustace suddenly explodes back into proper Delmont reality. He drops Hitomi's hands and stands up to face the police officer. Says, "We watched the tape, Raymond, it is rough."
Daphne steps between Eustace and the hot cop and asks, for the first time all evening, a question somewhat relevant to the situation, "I'm sorry, hi. You are just...My name is Daphne Meyer, and who might you be?"
Raymond introduces himself and shakes her hand and Daphne, suddenly remembering that she is newly single, decides to make the most of it. The two blondes get fairly flirty, fairly fast.
Eustace, feeling like he is finally freed from being the set-piece in a tragi-comedy, reaches back quite awkwardly takes the bra off. He gathers up his sweater and wonders if he should put it back on or just give up on the whole disguise.
"Eustace?," Hitomi asks and he looks up to see both her and Morgan staring intently at the image on the screen. The paused state has caused a few lines to appear, but the still picture clearly shows four nude people around a bright flame. "Eustace, what is this...?"
"Oh, I was going to show Raymond but Jenny had a panic attack and we were giving her some time."
"So you lept across the table and tossed your sweater on it?"
"I panicked. I couldn't think straight."
"Is this some sort of occult porn?"
"No, it's worse, but I need you to make sure that you are prepared. Think, worse because whatever you are thinking, it probably is worse. It is not easy to watch. Maybe Morgan and your sister can..."
"Nuh uh, Kinky Shit," says Daphne, her hand currently on Raymond's shoulder, and Eustace can hear the capital letters, "You ain't getting my sister alone for whatever this is. I want to watch, too."
"I don't...I mean...is there some...?," he wonders if he should look around for hidden cameras and decides he needs a long nap sometime very soon. "Ok, you can watch. Just, tell me if you need to stop it. I have located the stop button now. I even labeled it," which he has, with silver marker, "Morgan?"
Morgan finally takes her hand down from here mouth and a fair amount of the joy in her eyes has dimmed. She remembers the way that Jenny looked just a few minutes ago. "If Hitomi is going through it, I want to be here."
"Fair enough. Raymond?"
"Let's see the tape, Euc."
"This is evidence of a crime, sort of. I do not know entirely what it means. I also want to be honest and say that I stole this tape after breaking and entering, just in case it comes up. I am telling you this as a friend and putting a lot of trust that whatever happens next."
"Eustace," Raymond says, "I got you, buddy."
"Ok," Eustace rewinds the tape and plays it back from the start.
Hitomi feels a sense of foreboding and so barely acknowledges the fact that she is watching porn until she sees Morgan's left leg start vibrating at the speed of a hummingbird wing. Daphne on the other hand, sounds delighted at the start.
"I told you, kinky shit!," she says with her best "I TOLD YOU SO" face before she starts to squint and gets really close to the screen. "Eww, that's Amy's parents. Damn, no wonder she's so sexy, look at her parents, you'd have to..." and then trails of as Amy's mom falls off the bed, trips, and slams her head. Her only response to setting the body on fire is to shout out, "Oh my god. AMY!"
Morgan and Hitomi both remain quiet. Hitomi feels her brain go into analysis mode. Whatever that was, she senses that Eustace, at least, is part of it. She doesn't know how she can help but she is going to do what she can.
Whatever Morgan is thinking is unknown, but she grabs Hitomi from behind and hugs the taller woman quite tightly.
This time, Eustace gets to see the aftermath. He was afraid there was some twist where the burning body would start twitching and it turned out he was witnessing a murder. Instead, it just ends with the four people realizing all this is being filmed and the same very busty white woman who putting up a argument — probably pretend as some corny-ass script that went awry — runs over and knocks the camera over. Shortly after that, it goes to static.
Hitomi breaks the silence. "My apartment. Now!"
Setting the Scene. Breaking In and Making Up
Friday, June 21. 7:35pm.
On the balcony outside of Hitomi's apartment over Ralph's shop.
Chaos Factor: 7
Expected Scene: The friends take care of each other. Also Hitomi and Eustace finally stop being jackasses.
Actual Scene: 7 → Altered. 10. Add a character and remove a character. Image Oracles: 4,4 Padlock + 6,3 Strongbox.
Oh yeah, Jeremiah James. He will show up. They will hand the tape to him, and then Daphne will go off with him for a bit to try and smooth things over and come up with a cover story.
And, that reminds me, Hitomi left her pants and some stuff behind. There are some pockets because she had a lighter and her cigarettes and gave some money to Daphne last chapter. Just not the keys. They will need to break into her apartment.
What is the roll to break in using the 3d6 method? Agile + Brainy. Standard. 2 Effort.
I just realized I forgot Libby the Lab. Like, the entire other half of the Hitomi and Libby dynamic. Back in Chapter 5, she takes Libby for a walk and then it was just sort of assumed she was going to be out for a minute but that turned into around 12 hours. Which is not that long, per se. Libby could just be in the apartment. Or with someone. Either way, we are still in trauma free zone. Let's find out. Is Libby still in the apartment? (50/50) → 77 No.* That was just barely a miss (which would have also been a random event). As it is, someone agreed to watch Libby. { Ralph | Tanya } → Ralph. Harley ran up food and took Libby the Lab for walks while taking his cigar breaks.
[ * future-Doug here! It wasn't until a couple days later (since I played this) that I paid attention to the fact that I got a "NO" and then almost immediately ignored it. I'm confused where my confusion was. Libby should not have been in the scene, later, but she did fine and set up a couple of cute points. Besides, if Ralph had her then they would just, you know, gotten in the last scene since Ralph was still there. Even if it did matter, I'm fine with the mistake. The moral of the lesson, here, is that goofs happen and sometimes the fun part of solo is (accidentally) ignoring the rolls, I guess. ]
I'm a terrible pet parent.
Breaking In and Making Up
Friday, June 21. 7:35pm.
On the balcony outside of Hitomi's apartment over Ralph's shop.
"Shit," says Hitomi, coming to grips that she not only left her keys back in the apartment of a pair of women who are likely knee deep in much needed Sexy Times at the Tea Cafe (now with Cat Ears)™, but she has also left her lighter and cigarettes in Morgan's car. She wonders if it would be rude to leave a group of shocked and exhausted friends behind to go get them?
She can't bum one off Daphne because her sister is out front talking to Jeremiah James, the family attorney by way of the church attorney. He showed up, told a somewhat bemused Raymond that his client was taking no further questions, and then sat in confusion himself as Raymond tried to explain that Eustace was not under arrest. Then Eustace, not under arrest, shoved the Betamax cassette into Jeremiah's hand and asked if his firm could keep this under lock and key until Hitomi herself asked for it and no one else? Jeremiah started to protest until Daphne, swinging into full Southern Belle mode, walked the attorney outside to explain some things.
"It's ok, boo!," Hitomi shouts at an excited Libby who hears the noise outside the door. The lab is doing her best to help them tear the door down with claws and barks. "The helpful policeman is saving the day in real time! How's it going, Ray?"
"Fuck!," Raymond answers. He had bragged he knows how to break into locks. But it is not going so well. [3]
While being a terrible burglar and a worse liar, he has been asking questions about what he just witnessed. "Why don't we just take this tape to the cops? The people I work for? Hello, Euc!?"
Eustace is doing that thing where he stares out into space. Hitomi is pretty sure he is processing everything and will answer eventually. Like when he was figuring out the "disruptor" and off in his own head. If she pushes, he would probably remember he can pick this lock but she wants him to rest and do his thing. She decides to answer for him.
"Eustace explained it. He was in the room. He didn't know it was the room at the time. The cops had already been there. Only he just walked into a death scene that some folks have managed to cover up but not so much they actually, you know, covered it up." Eustace makes a grunt that has a tinge of panic to it. She pats his hand and then leaves hers in his. It would be nice if he acted like he noticed just a little.
"This lock is bullshit! Right, but if the cops had been there, why didn't I hear about it?" [4]
"Because Roman Patel has enough money to buy the entire Rambler, and obviously someone is trying to make money off of someone."
"Ha! Nearly there. Ok, but who?" [5]
"I mean, who doesn't like money? The main crime was destroying the evidence of a crime. Assuming that rich people making their own porn films is ok — I don't know the laws in Alabama — it's not like they are covering up murder. More like amateur cremation. Which, wait, that might violate something."
With a deep bow, Raymond finished picking the lock. The front door opens and the stale smoke and old beer smell is only half a second behind Libby crashing into Hitomi's arms like a slightly stunted, plump, brown freight train. Raymond bends and pets the excitable dog. Asks, "I mean, who are those other women, though?" [6]
Hitomi glances at Morgan to see if Morgan has any idea. Morgan shakes her head and tries to smile back but some of the light has faded. Hitomi grabs her new friend and pulls her inside. Eustace eventually follows after, mumbling something about, "But wouldn't they, the cyclops..."
Not trying to decipher anything from that, Hitomi grabs food and pours it into Libby's still pretty full bowl. "Mr. Harley did not use the measuring cup, did he sweetie? It's ok, it can be a cheat day for all of us!" She starts rummaging for snacks but her and Morgan cleared the cupboards pretty bare the night before.
Libby the Lab, too excited to eat for once in her life, runs and butts her head against Eustace and Morgan briefly before sniffing Raymond — who has sat down in a extremely well-used chair that actually belonged to Ralph's grandfather — and then crawling up into the cop's lap.
Hitomi finally answers the question Raymond asked before coming inside, "They are definitely on the suspects list. Any cops who need money?"
"Like you said. Who doesn't like money?" He is shoving his pretty face down into Libby's fur and Hitomi is afraid she might not get her dog back.
"Morgan? Have any cops put in any large deposits lately?"
Morgan shakes her red hair. "No, nothing out of the ordinary." [7]
"Hmm," muses Raymond, "Maybe the payment isn't in cash."
The four of them remain silent as Eustace moves from mental math to falling asleep while standing. She asks Raymond to give her a few minutes and he nods while Libby settles down on the cop-shaped bed she has adopted.
Hitomi walks over towards Eustace and puts her hands on his chest and pushes him back towards the bedroom. "Let's go, Mr. Delmont." She will figure out the sleeping arrangements shortly — won't be the first time she crashed on a sofa — but for now makes him sit on the bed. After a second he falls back and closes his eyes. Considering he started his day sneaking into a love tunnel and ended it with finding out what happened in said love tunnel, the exhaustion makes sense. Eustace will try to take care of everyone and everything else, first, while his own mind crashes out.
Morgan follows them in after a few seconds and crawls in next to Eustace. Without opening his eyes, he reaches his fist up and Morgan bumps it with her own. No doubt a common exchange when he meets her at the bank.
Looking down at them both, she feels a pain in her chest. Part of it is that reminder that new people in your life, no matter how much you love them and they love you, have had a whole history you will never share completely. If you are lucky, you get to make new notes. Even then, you go through stages where you have to improvise and guess and hum along until you figure out each other's rhythm. This is one of the reasons why it was easy to keep others out for so long.
She remembers Morgan talking about it being easy to have a crush on Eustace when he is not around and realizes this is a town of people who love this guy when he is an idea but give him stacks of shit and things to do when he is there. Complain about how he broke something or didn't do something just right. And he mostly just takes it and then goes on doing the things the need while they pretend to not notice. He probably even folded her pants, apartment keys and all, and put them down. Next to Tammy.
A mirror looking for an object to reflect.
Only she kind of hates the her she sees reflected in him. The girl that expected him to play to her romantic fantasy when the exact way he was acting was the romantic fantasy. She doesn't need Eustace to act like other guys. She needs the goofball that still listens to every word you say even while off in his own head. She needs the nerd who works with technology that no one ever uses any more and isn't all that great at it himself. She needs the hero who went down into dark tunnels just because he knew something was wrong.
And she needs the her who put on fancy clothes and for a second tried to share her song with someone else.
Oh hell, where did she leave the bunny ears? Oh, she might owe Jenny a pair.
People keep looking to Eustace like he has all the answers then half-ignoring him when he tries his best. He has grown to treat himself as a background character in his own story, having no idea the effect is having on others. Maybe it is time that someone points out how wrong he is. Maybe it is time to explain.
"Hey, Eu?"
"Yeah?"
"Oh, look at you, you still got lipstick on. No, wait, don't wipe it off. Hold up. Morgan? I'm going to snag your lipstick from your purse. Now, just a second...there."
Morgan, not even looking at the refreshed lipstick, lets out her signature giggle. Hitomi feels her chest loosen and feels like maybe, just maybe, they will survive the storm coming next. Not tonight, though. Tonight is for arms and beds and grandpa chairs and cuddly dogs and maid outfits and all sorts of things you can fall into when you need to rest and heal. Too bad she doesn't have a...
"Oh, shit!"
Eustace and Morgan both sit up at Hitomi's shout but she is over at her bedside table where there is a mostly used pack of cigs and a couple unused lighters. Three cigarettes left. She does her usual "Want one?" gesture and to her surprise both accept. She sits down and now all three are at the foot of her bed. A triptych titled, "Exhausted and Smoking Quietly." They can hear Raymond snoring under Libby's siren call.
"I sometimes smoke a pipe," Eustace says out of nowhere. This is very nearly the first fact he has said about himself to her and she laughs at the utterly ridiculous, yet utterly appropriate comment.
"Of course you do, Eu, of course you do." She looks over at him, cigarette in his mouth and lipstick smeared on it, and a whole new sensation hits her in the chest. It's like being sexually attracted by a particularly serious clown.
He looks back at her, smiles, and her chest is full of sound and fury. "You look very nice, Hitomi. Like, very nice."
Explain yourself, girl, she tells herself. No roundabout. No cushioning. If you don't let this one in, you won't have a chance like this again.
"I wore it for you. Like, very for you. I mean, I got it for a stupid plan where I was going to try and trick this jerk guy to give us blueprints of the Rambler. I wanted to help you out," she says and then inhales and exhales before continuing, "Then I realized, talking to Elly, that I didn't want to wear it for the jerk. I wanted to impress a boy. You might have met him. Total nerd. Wears really boring shirts. Won't shut up about tech. If you see him, tell him my name is Hitomi."
"Yeah, well, I climbed my fat ass over a fence to get this one girl's dog back and committed a crime because I realized that she was going to probably forget I existed as soon as I walked off. She's this awesome girl. New around here, though. Really grungy. Big t-shirts. Probably a tattoo. Smokes a lot. Has pretty eyes. Her dog is super cute. Just tell her my name is Eu and I'm too stupid to say what I need to say when I..."
"Eu, you need to stop talking and kiss me..." and for a half second the two of them very nearly make it...
Unfortunately, a bang in the living room is Daphne entering the scene by opening the door with glee brought about by her own good deed. The elder Meyer sister has returned with her usual mixture of owning a scene and ignoring the obvious. Including the two people who really, desperately need the whole world to just shut up and leave them to some things.
"Ewwww, girl. You need to clean. Jeremiah is a saint. He will keep the tape locked up. Oh hey, you got Libby sleeping in your lap. Sorry I didn't mean to wake you up. Hitomi? Where you at? Libby, I'm sorry for not listening to your mama about taking care of you. I am the worst aunt. But you have to show up to explain to dad about the whole engagement thing. I don't think Jeremiah has any way to play such a tape so I just told him it was wedding vows and no one was to see them until the big day."
At the word "wedding," Eustace and Raymond both start to ask variations of the same question when Hitomi shouts, "DAPHNE!," loudly and emphatically enough that Libby jumps and starts running around to figure out how her aunt's name is actually mom's code words for treats. Leaving the bedroom to face her sister from the door, Hitomi says, without taking her eyes off of Daphne's lovely but continuously confused face, "Mr. Hot Cop. My sister has just went through an emotional break up. She needs someone to help her through it and that person needs, I mean, truly NEEDS to have weed. You are an Alabama cop, how much pot you have?"
"Um, yeah. I have a...some...in my car." [8]
"In your cop car? The one downstairs? Just a few short steps away?," Hitomi clarifies. She stands there and wills the two people in the living room to develop psychic powers.
"Yeah."
"Is it for evidence?," Morgan asks, from the bed. Hitomi glances back and is surprised to see Morgan looking truly concerned that the beautiful boy in the living room might not be completely on the up and up.
"Ah, well...," Raymond answers kind of slowly.
Hitomi turns back to face him and nods her head towards the door while saying in a deadpan voice, "No, no, don't tell us what heinous crime you prevented to get it. Think of our poor hearts." Raymond might embrace friendly idiot as a state of being but Hitomi deeply appreciates that he is not stupid when it comes to giving his friend a fighting chance. He gives a thumbs up and gets up to leave, stopping only to wait for Daphne who is still a time zone back and trying to figure what she did wrong this time around.
"Daphne, dear?"
"Yeah?"
"I love you enough that I moved to this country to be with you but can you very pretty please with extra sugar on top go get high with this strange, gorgeous man and give me a minute? A lot of minutes. Hour or two?"
Daphne walks to the center of the main room and leans just far enough to see Eustace with even more lipstick on than before with Morgan by his side and a clear spot on the other side of the bed where Hitomi had been just minutes before. She walks up to her sister and gives her a long hug. Then keeps hugging for a minute more. Making up for lost time after the confusion of this past couple of months on the road.
Daphne, still embracing Hitomi, whispers, "'Absolutely not a guy my' ass, girl. Good luck!" Daphne pecks her sister on the check, grabs Raymond by the arm, and heads out the door.
"Morgan?" Hitomi turns and looks at her new favorite person in the whole wide world.
"Yeah?"
"Do you want to go get high, too? Or we can make sure you get home, if you need."
"I'd really rather stay with you and Eustace if that would be ok." [9]
"Um, we are about to...wait, are you sure?" Hitomi chides herself for not remembering that Morgan has turned watching people and understanding them into an entire lifestyle. The people-person mirror-waiting-for-a-reflection versions of Eustace's own. A lifestyle that has barely made room for Morgan to explore her own needs and comfort levels. The past day has really pushed the latter so it makes sense that she is in a place where she needs to find the former.
"Is it ok with you? I can go if its not," Morgan asks, worried she went too far. She is already starting to shift to stand up but Hitomi smiles and stops her.
"You know, I think it really is ok. How about you, Eustace?
"Oh, I don't get high. And I don't think I should go home right now, Milly would..."
"No, jack ass, do you mind if Morgan stays?"
"Oh," he says, looking at Morgan, dangerously close to shifting back into Eustace "The Handyman" Delmont right in front of Hitomi's eyes. "Ok, sure. Anything you'd like to..."
Hitomi trusts in the boy to figure things out, shortly. She closes the gap to the bed, already pulling her jacket off. Eustace quickly figures out (a) what the hell everyone has been talking about, (b) that yeah, it's ok, and (c) some questions can be left unanswered for now.
There's always tomorrow.
Setting the Scene. Becoming THE Eustace Delmont.
Saturday, June 22. 9:04am.
In Hitomi's apartment over Ralph's shop.
Chaos Factor: 5
Keyed Scene: Eustace starts putting things together (and the Irregulars truly gather).
In game terms, the above scene represents a full reset for everyone. Not every reset in this campaign will involve convoluted sexy times, but at this point it works. It does make sense that an actual, literal rest would be a good time to reset things.
At this point, the current state of the Progress Track will be processed by Eustace who has been pulling things together. We will test two Standard Brainy challenges to see how much he puts together, but he will put together enough the story can move back into being a detective mystery.
The main scene setting question we have is, "Is Eustace in bed when Hitomi wakes up?" (50/50) → 12 Yes. Ok, so Hitomi will get to see him put some of the things together live.
We also need to keep aligning this adventure in time. We know that Daphne and Hitomi have to go and talk to their dad about the whole lawyer thing, so we'll say that's at 2pm. Secondly, we know that Morgan has something on Sunday.
+ Keyed Scene: By Saturday, June 22, 2pm, Daphne and Hitomi have to go and talk to their dad.
+ Keyed Scene: By Sunday, June 23, at least Morgan has to go and do the church thing.
Becoming THE Eustace Delmont.
Saturday, June 22. 9:04am.
In Hitomi's apartment over Ralph's shop.
For the second time in two days, Hitomi wakes up playing big spoon to Morgan's little spoon. Only this time both spoons are completely naked. All three. Through Eustace is much less a spoon as a big guy trying his best to not fall off a bed filled to capacity. Hitomi has no good sense of how this situation is going to play out but the sensation of being surrounded by two people she would trust the absolute most in the world to take care of her is amazingly warm.
Actually, quite warm. Either they are going to need a bigger bed or a better air-con unit. Summers in Alabama take more than a couple of years to get used to.
She pulls out of the middle and sets her feet quietly down on the floor. She doesn't want to wake them but now that a few things have been worked through, some simply more basic life necessities are being quite persistent. She needs to pee. She needs to smoke. And she needs coffee. Maybe not in that order.
Avoiding gathering up the several pieces of yesterday's outfit and not quite ready to go back into grungy t-shirts, she instead grabs up Eustace's shirt by way of Aunt Elvis and it is large enough to be a full body stocking for her.
Opening the bedroom door and heading towards the kitchenette, she notes Daphne crashed out on the sofa, currently using Libby as a pillow. Libby does not seem to mind. Hitomi's Walkman is on the floor in front of the sofa.
No Raymond, so hot cop buggered off, last night. Daphne, covered in a couple of towels as makeshift blankets, seems awfully dressed for much have to have gone down. The strangest part of it is that Daphne seems to have cleaned up most of the mess. Strike that, all of the mess. Hitomi is not sure that the apartment was this clean when she first got it.
At around the same time the coffee pot finishes making its gurgling noises, Libby pulls out from under Daphne, waking her up. Hitomi points out the coffee pot as Daphne blinks back the effects of deep sleep. Hitomi sees Daphne focus hard on her face for a few seconds.
"Hitomi," Daphne says.
"Yeah?"
"You have lipstick like, all over your face." Daphne points at her own face and circles around a few times to illustrate the width of the effect. She shuffles over to grab the coffee cup from Hitomi's hand.
"Shit," Hitomi says and heads into the bathroom to take care of need number one and bonus need number four: washing her face. A full bath would feel great but that can be stored somewhere around need number seven.
Walking back into the living room area, where Daphne is leaning against a counter and scratching the inside of her ear with a manicured finger, Hitomi asks, "Did you clean my apartment last night?"
"I got back in after an hour and it was a bit, loud, so I snagged your Walkman, listened to someone called The Lemonheads and cleaned until it quieted down."
"Ah, sorry."
Daphne waves a hand. "Payback for putting up with me and Frank all these months."
Need number two wakes up.
"Hey, big sis?"
"Yeah?"
"Bring your smokes, we need to walk Libby."
They have been walking back and forth in the alley between the businesses off of Main Street, like Ralph's, and those off of Jimmy Carter Lane which runs north of it and parallel. On a Saturday morning in a sleepy town like Maidenstead, it's pretty dead. On the busiest lunch time and the middle of peak Christmas shopping season, it would still be dead. It is just one of those liminal spaces that exist anywhere there are collected places of commerce. One old lady who works at the Cupcake Boutique, three storefronts down from Ralph's, came out five minutes ago and, upon seeing the half dressed Hitomi, simply waved. Besides that, it has just been Libby and two sisters catching up.
"Hot Cop got me out to the car and then made me wait for a second. He didn't explain but I think he was waiting to see if Morgan was going to need help home. I finally pointed out that I think she is staying and completely unfazed like Eustace pulls all the ladies all the time, Raymond said nothing but dug through his passenger seat and gave me a single, tiny joint. Really tiny. The jerk. He spent around half of my attempt to get high making sure I was ok. I thought about trying the emotionally vulnerable, woe-is-me angle but frankly it was kind of nice to just hang out with a guy and chat. I just managed to not break down crying and after I was done he asked if I needed to go anywhere and I said I'd rather stay with you. He told me he would check in today and then left."
"Officer Raymond is a proper Southern gentleman weed dealer, I guess."
"Eh, might have been nice for a little flirting, though. Oh, he told me to take care of Eustace."
"Eustace's friends like to do that."
"So who the hell is he?"
"Eustace?"
"Spill it."
"I honestly don't know. I hope to find out." Hitomi goes to give a basic run down of the meeting and everything but they are interrupted.
"What was all that about us getting married, last night?," Eustace asks from up on the balcony, causing Libby to run upstairs to get petted.
"Um, I panicked," Hitomi answers, echoing Eustace's explanation of not finding the stop button the night before, sticking to her new open-and-honest policy. "I thought you were being arrested and I knew this one," the thumb of the hand holding the cigarette pointing at Daphne, "was going to ask too many questions unless I shorted out her brain for a second."
"Ah," he says.
"You have the sweater back on," Hitomi notes.
"And the skirt," adds Daphne.
"No pants," he points out, "tore the last pair I was wearing. And no shirt because I couldn't, ohhh, you are wearing it. Looks nice. I had a slight panic thinking it had somehow disappeared. Or had gotten...well, um. Anyhow, this outfit will have to do."
He walks down the stairs and rather than approach the two sisters, walks instead to the back of Ralph's shop and punches in the code to open the door.
By the time Daphne and Hitomi (and Libby) have gotten to the door of the shop, Eustace has a piece of red chalk out and is drawing something on the wall. He has also written "Julian" under a water stain, for some reason.
"Hey, Eu, what's up?"
"Shhhhhh," he says, but kind of gently, a nice summer breeze saying, "Thank you for shutting the fuck up."
"I have the hardest damned time remembering the layout of the Rambler. There's that old spring house that got turned into Wellon Tower. The 2nd floor and 3rd floor walkways. Daphne, you were staying there, can you help?"
Daphne shrugs and joins him and the two start trying their best to reconstruct the strange layout of the Rambler using various pieces of chalk completely for some symbols like an eye, a drop of water, and a flower on the outside. And what seems to be a tunnel marked with a heart and a flame. [10]
As she is waiting for someone to explain, she feels a tug on her shirt and turns to see Elly standing behind her. In her left arm she has Hitomi's jeans. Neatly folded.
"I can see by the shirt that you two finally sat down and talked to each other."
"Elly, I'm sorry that..."
"Nuh uh, none of that. We were both in a mood last night and both of us seem to have spent the night with the people we needed the most. Let's be friends, ok?"
"Ok."
"Jenny is grabbing coffee and cupcakes from the Boutique. She'll be over in a minute. What are they doing?"
"No clue."
"Reset," Eustace explains by not explaining a damned thing.
When Elly tries to prod again, he makes the same nearly gentle shhhh sound like a sea wave lulling you to sleep under threat of violence.
Eventually, Jenny shows up and the couple hands out coffee to everyone but Eustace who waves it aside. In the meantime, he has (1) grabbed a charcoal stick to add in some floor counts and (2) dug through a box of parts and pulled out a briar pipe which he now clenches, unlit, in his teeth. After staring at the image a bit longer, he turns around and finally addresses the room. Red, blue, green, and brown chalk smeared all over the sweater and skirt and his hands blackened by the charcoal.
Daphne fares little better. She is enjoying herself.
"Reset," with all the flair of a Professor who just spent half an hour pontificating on metaphysics instead of arts and crafts.
"Fast forward, Delmont, you already said that bit," fusses Elly from the back.
"Waking up next to a snoring Morgan..."
Hitomi can feel Elly's delighted questions bubbling up but Eustace is still in lecture mode...
"...I thought about the time I accidentally reset the bank's security system trying to, well, not important. Turns out there was a couple of old outdoor cameras still hooked up but had been long powered down. So, I get a call the next day talking about these cameras that were recording an angle outside and showing nothing but the new trash bin and a brick wall that was put up during an expansion. The old cameras kept screwing up the system and overwriting actually needed tape. So...reset..."
"What you are saying is," says Raymond Clark, now standing behind Jenny, "Someone pulled a Eustace and reset something that was meant to be powered down. I brought you a tea, Euc, 'cause I know you work best with tea."
"Awesome! Exactly, I thought it weird that the cameras in the tunnel were still on. It got lost in the noise in my head, though. Thing is," he points towards a spot opposite side of the water drop from the eye, "Gunther's office is all the way over here. The line from the Gygax to the fountain (and the balcony which I am pretty sure was this one (pointing to a stick figure drawing)) unless the range was wide enough to take out the whole Rambler and I think I would have heard," he makes a range of three thin blue lines, "gets nowhere near it," back to red for a G, "which means...," like a teacher prodding the class. [11]
 |
| Imagine a water stain shaped like a turtle with the word "Julian" written under it somewhere to the left of this. |
"Which means there's another video control room in the Rambler that controls the cameras in the love tunnel, and one hidden room indicates a lot more," answers Hitomi, enjoying the routine.
"What's going on?," a very sleepy Morgan asks. She has on her own clothes but she has turned the shirt inside out.
"What's going on," says Eustace, finally taking charge of the situation, "is we are about to draw straws to figure out who is going to flirt with someone named Patrick Yost."
Setting the Scene. The Mantis and the Demontongue.
Sometime on Friday night.
Some place near the Mobile docks.
Because some mysteries need a little bit of direction (or I will end up just writing a mystery novel and blaming some dice after the fact) and because I realized there is at least one character that really should be here but so far is not, I want to set up a fun little hook in the tradition of mystery novels having teaser chapters that show elements of the crime, etc but without all the details.
Only, since I just lectured myself about hiding details from myself, there will be quite a few details figured out.
First, sticking to Chaos Factor 5, is Amy Patel still in the Rambler? (50/50) → 88 No.
Ok, next, is Amy Patel still alive? (50/50) → 6 Exceptional Yes. I am actually deeply glad of that.
Ok, that means this scene involves her. Just her and our mystery guest? (50/50) → 14 Yes.
Maybe more are part of it but for now, she can be working "alone". Actually, no, let's roll on the character table and, within reason, see who at least a partner might be: Chief Elmer Raylon. I can live with it. This might be a good reason why he is so against stopping someone like Eustace who has a habit of stumbling into things from being anywhere near the Rambler (but also isn't able to bring the force of law against him since most of what he is doing isn't really against the law unless Martin Reed presses some sort of trespass charges).
~ MYSTERY INSIGHT: Amy Patel is no longer in the Rambler and is doing very well.
+ MYSTERY INSIGHT: Chief Raylon is working with Amy Patel.
What is she wanting to get out of this? Character Motivation → 62 Misfortune 18 Diminish. She's trying to diminish the misfortune that might impact her. Does she know exactly what happened? (Very Likely) → 18 Yes. She knows what happened to her mom and some of the people who were involved. She is looking to find an angle where it doesn't end up with her losing everything. Makes sense.
Is she looking for { the tape | Eustace himself } = the tape. She knows there is a tape. Does she know that someone stole the main copy? (50/50) → 12 Yes.
I am good to go with this.
The Mantis and the Demontongue.
Sometime on Friday night.
Some place near the Mobile docks.
He leans forward and lights her cigarette for her. The room they are in is in partial shambles. Old desks have absorbed too much sea air. Black mold marks the walls where the peeling wallpaper does not cover. A few framed paintings lay on the floor, smashed and broken. Dust and large pieces of detritus crunch under foot. But, it is relatively unknown so this makes it valuable property for the moment.
Back in the 60s, it was a shipping office specializing in the ivory trade. As regulations tightened, the company shuttered pretty fast. Until it was bought out recently in a bid to turn some of the old docks into a high end resort. Recent shifts in fortunes have slightly scuttled the deal, so the property goes mostly unnoticed besides by the rats and the seagulls that call it home.
Besides the two of them, her brother sits in the back, smoking a cigar and being in a mood.
She looks at man across a heavy metal desk. She has taken to wearing hooded jackets and skulking around. He, on the other hand, is wearing an absolutely impressively fitting suit jacket. She gets the sense that he is a good fifteen- or twenty-years older than her but his age is unguessable. His eyes are a deep blue and when she looks at them, she gets the sense of a cat. She doesn't know if she likes that yet or not. He feels a bit dangerous if she missteps and she likes to be the dangerous one.
"Five thousand just to find the tape. We increase the value from there depending on what happens next. You are the guy who can get this done, right?"
"Yes, ma'am, that's me."
She slides a 3.5" floppy disk across the desk. On it are codes to withdraw some operational cash, some instructions in text files, basic data and blueprints she has gathered, and the words "DO NOT WATCH THE TAPE" written on the front. "You know what this is, right?"
"It's a paycheck, Ms. Patel."
As he and his sleek suit make towards the door, she calls him to stop for a moment.
"Why do they call you Demontongue, Mr. Blue?"
"Oh, ma'am, who knows? Some things just happen. My mom said a witch gave it to me," he answers with a wink.
And with that, Jani Blum — aka Johnny Blue, aka Demontongue — heads downstairs to make preparations to find a missing tape in Maidenstead.
Updates to Progress Tracks
The coming to the conclusion that there are hidden chunks of the Rambler that must be explored nets 2 more Progress Points. Besides this, this was making up for lost Resolve and missing Karma and helping to act as something like part 2 of a story break to re-align some things.
| The Mystery of the Rambler's Inn | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5F | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10F | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15F | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20E |
| P | P | P | P | F | F | P | P | F | F | P | P | ||||||||
| Shenanigans at the Dog Show | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5F | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10E |
| P | P | P | P | F | F | ||||
New Characters and Threads
+ Character: Special Agent Jani Blum is an Agile FBI Agent who is Good at Deception but Unethical. He is currently undercover as a shady private eye named "Johnny Blue". Exactly why the FBI has put him on the case is unknown. His actual behavior is unknown.
+ Character: Jeremiah James is a Brainy Southern Lawyer who is Good at Storytelling but Lazy.
~ Character: Daphne Meyer is getting moved to the supporting cast and so is no longer a background thread character. She is a Charming Film Star who Commands Attention but Doesn't Look Before She Leaps. (Note: her actual quirk is more like "She attaches to strong personalities and sort of fades into the background but CURRENTLY that most likely won't happen so we'll keep something more likely to show up in play).
+ Thread: The FBI is investigating Maidenstead.
+ Thread: The Hunt for the Missing Tape.
~ Thread: Amy Patel is missing will be changed into Amy Patel is plotting.
- Thread: The Love Tunnel Incident is merged into "Dr. Ariel Patel Is 'Missing'."
- Thread: The Break Up is being removed as so relatively minor for the moment. We know Frank and Daphne get back together eventually but we can put that aside mostly unless Frank himself shows back up, which he might.
- Thread: The Cyclops Disruption can be cut because this episode is likely the last strong use of it. They know what happened. They know its impacts.
Because the "TV deal" is probably related to the overall mystery (we know Mike is plotting something with Gunther), it will stay in.
Doug's Commentary
January 6, 2025
Staring with this post, I want to date my commentaries by rote so that if I come back and make any changes, etc, it is easier to just have that system baked in.
First, that final bit was the dumb-happiest I have been in a minute to write something on this blog. It occurred to me that if The GLOW 1996 is essentially an alt-canon version involving several characters from Eustace & Hitomi then it might be fun to bring Jani Blum in from the other side [only now an FBI detective who still makes ethically questionable decisions to pursue cases]. The scene is a reversal-of-fortunes scene from the Prologue with a couple pieces of dialogue copy-and-pasted with mild changes. A 3.5" floppy instead of a mini-disc. Technically, MiniDiscs where around but I did liked the change. In that story, Demontongue and Nurse (Eustace Delmont's codename) have long been friends. I feel like the the two personalities will again get along but much in the same way I rewrote Macy and Barlow to be a bit more likable, Johnny Blue might swing the other way. We'll have to see when the two meet up.
Fun fact, that "chalk" drawing of the Rambler is very close to the original layout of the Rambler which was second-ever sketch I ever made back when started contemplating the series in July 2024 (the first was Eustace essentially drawn as a 25-year-old version of myself). One thing left out of the story until now by complete accident is that the Rambler has a spring that flows through it and part of its odd design is based on the spring (with walkways between towers going over it). The inspiration for that was basically the Embassy Suites at Huntsville, Alabama's Big Spring Park which has a walkway over the spring between the hotel and the convention center. I wanted to put that back.
One thing this accident necessitated is that the spring is now on the other side (coming in from the north and flowing to the east) because it would have interfered with established layout to have it on the original side, while also making the tunnels make less sense than they already do. Since I have a mental model that the tunnels move towards the beach and were probably related to some kind of illicit shipping back in the day, I just swapped the spring around as flowing away from the beach though it almost definitely curves back on the south side of the Rambler. That is only of minor importance for now.
In general, this series has had several moments that have made me actually laugh at my own writing. A lot of lately is obvious Daphne and Hitomi who kind of act the same but also are loud in different ways.
Remember kids, practice safe sex, take care of yourself, and do not smoke around your pets IRL. This is fun sexy romance mystery romp full of idiots who talk more than they listen.
My dad-and-fussy-uncle side tried to come out pretty hard in the writing of this. I had a bit where they openly discuss protection — and you should always openly discuss protection as comfort levels — and then I eventually decided that much like my policy of not worrying about which genitals fit where, I would just leave it to "they worked it out". I didn't fill in the blanks for myself or for anyone else. Three people who all love each other in different ways and who deeply respect each others' boundaries had a fun time while doing both of these things.
I knew for a minute — essentially from the end of Chapter 1 — that the story would eventually work around towards Eustace and Hitomi actually hooking up sort of early in their relationship since a major concept of this story is that they are not necessarily traditionally attractive people — Eustace is a terminally distracted fat nerd with unsociable hobbies and Hitomi smells like stale smoke and dresses like, well like Shaggy from Scooby Doo but with an alt-twang — but both just immediately consider the other to be ridiculously attractive. I screwed that up a bit in the previous couple of chapters with folks suddenly swinging to thinking that Hitomi was super hot but I console myself with it being mostly her sister and new friends saying it (and Martin Reed is a creep).
It finally felt like a good time to get the Eustace & Hitomi part of the series underway. The Morgan aspect was a little unexpected, and of course the single die roll that lead to that decision could have been interpreted or played out in different ways, but I want to give Morgan some facets that do not immediately fit into "mama's little good church girl." It was subtle in the last chapter but Morgan having her loving mother call it her a little tea pot (i.e., short and stout) was an implication that the mom who is also short and stout holds it against her youngest in proper Southern Mother fashion (my mom would often compliment-insult me in similar ways about my weight a lot growing up which was part of the reason I had trouble losing it, it can be emotionally draining). You also have Morgan's older sister, Sally, teasing her for the things she likes. Morgan has been taught to sit back and just not be noticed. It just felt like a good scene for Morgan to say that she has been part of all the same stress and drama and she is very vulnerable just like everyone else. I do not imagine it will be a regular thing for them.
Just as note, despite how sweet and helpful Raymond is, I am still considering him to be in the running to be a possible bad guy. The rest of the Maidenstead Irregulars are pretty much locked into their support roles, though.
Speaking of Morgan and Raymond, one of the reasons I spent a lot of time trying to get the second scene just right is because I had a few moments where a couple of jokes were a bit line-crossing in principle. I wanted to make sure I said what needed to be said without going over. There were some other jokes I deleted before moving on the third scene where Eustace, both literally and figuratively, wakes up.
I intend, after this point, to get back into the more game part of the roleplaying game. This and the last chapter were fairly largely driven by characters being developed and working on rhythms and such. It's time for Eustace to start leaping over some more fences and stuff.
The MUSIC SHOUT OUT for this post is The Lemonhead's 1993 Come On Feel... with special shout out to the song "Into Your Arms." That was my introduction to The Lemonheads and Evan Dando and the video might do a good job of explaining why it was a good song for this chapter. I remember some folks around me remarking on how "queer" it was but really there is, and should be, a big difference between the concepts of [ people showing affection for each other and being comfortable being themselves ] and [ queerness ]. Not even apples and oranges. More like apples and toy dinosaurs. Both are awesome. Both are fun together. But some people get one and some people get the other and some people get neither. I hope you get which ever Venn diagram of those two that makes you happy. Anyhow, playing The Lemonhead on loop while writing through all the bits of this chapter really helped me to center that idea of just supporting each other.
Now, if you want to talk about queerness, we could maybe bring what an awakening it was for me to play "Big Gay Heart" (from the same album) on absolute loop.
I will likely have to start the next one to see how things go before I have an idea which soundtrack will work.
MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES
- Doug's Note: I need to revisit the scene later to find out more about Hitomi's dad handles things, but for now, he and Jeremiah James will have to wait to be developed later.
- Did Eustace actually remember any of Hitomi's story? Standard Brainy → he gets three successes. He listens to everything Hitomi says. Normally I wouldn't allow him any rolls right now since he is still out of resolve but this one is flavor.
- No successes.
- No successes.
- One Success, one to go.
- One more success, he finally gets through with just one Resolve remaining.
- What an amazingly practical question. (50/50) → 85 No.
- Does Raymond have weed? (50/50) → 72 Yes.
- Does Morgan want to go home? (50/50) → 98. Exceptional No.
- Two successes.
- One more success, bringing it to three total. Stuff will still be vague, but he is definitely making progress.
CREDITS
Eustace Delmont and The Case of the Rambler's Inn is played primarily using Richard Woolcock (Zadmar Games)'s Maidenstead Mysteries Tricubes one-sheet and Tana Pigeon's Mythic Gamemaster Emulator is used to handle a lot of the scene management and basic oracle checks. Various tables Tricube Tales Solo (also by Woolcock) and various articles from Mythic Magazine also show up.
Other sources used include:
- Cesar Capacle's Random Realities
- Madeline Hale's Table Fables: Modern
- Matt & Erin Davis's Book of Random Tables: Modern, Book of Random Tables: Eldritch, and Book of Random Tables: 1980s - 1990s
- Zach Best's Universal NPC Emulator.
ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION
The art this time is a CC0 licensed photo by Riya Panchal from the WordPress Photo Directory. The original alt text provided reads, "A tranquil lake reflecting the vibrant hues of a setting sun. The water is calm, mirroring the soft oranges, pinks, and purples of the sky. Silhouettes of trees and distant hills frame the peaceful landscape, while the fading light casts a golden glow on the surface of the water, creating a serene and breathtaking atmosphere." In that light, I doubly apologize for bringing into the Maidenstead fold.
The techniques used to modify existing photos into fake artifacts from The Maidenstead Monitor is to open the photo in GIMP. Then crop and reduce the photo's size to something roughly appropriate to 1996 as if it had been clipped from a newspaper. Then, desaturate it and adjust contrast and brightness. Apply Distort → Newsprint → "Circle" and tweak settings until I get a good effect. Next, I posterize it down to <10 colors (all the way down to 2, depending) when it has the look I want. Finally, I scale the whole image back up to a width of 1280 to represent some loss of integrity due to the images being scanned and copied a couple of times (presumably from Eustace & Hitomi's future notes and records).
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