The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont, Episode 11 - Gathering New Allies
- "Previously..." and Campaign/Arc Summary
- Rebuilding the Squad
- The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont Episode 11 - Gathering New Allies
- Genny Yusuda
- Elsewhere
- Commentary: Soulburn and Runworld
- A Bird with No Wings
- The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness
- Doug's Commentary
- Mechanical and Story Notes
- Credits
- Taxonomy and Technical Data
Previously, on The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
Eustace Delmont — GLOW Order Psychic on the cusp of rising to full Witch — has died. Hitomi has managed to track down the Moonblink — Dave Akari's traveling hoverboat — and is planning on attacking but must deal with the emotional fall out of losing Eustace. Unknown to her, Eustace's spirit has been gathered by the Witches Three — the three otherworldly beings who are at the core of The GLOW — and has been taken elsewhere into dreamspace. Now Hitomi gathers up a new group of allies to carry out the mission for which Eustace gave his life: protecting the Order from a group of billionaires who seek world domination and an alliance with an ancient evil.
About The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
Eustace Delmont is a psychic on the cusp of "graduating" into a full-blow Field Psychic. He requests his right to Walk, a brief period of freedom to encourage psychics to see the other side of The GLOW. He tries to finish his long-time partner Jani Blum's final unfinished mission: to find a mini-disc and crack open the Patel crime family. He meets Hitomi Meyer, a criminal hacker. The two are now on the run between a powerful crime family and an even more powerful adversary: The Order and its plans for Eustace.
Content Warning: Occasionally very foul language, lots of smoking, quite intense violence, drinking, gambling, non-graphic sex, drugs, criminal behavior, and black magic. The GLOW is a world of spiritual torture and weird horror.
This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.
Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.
Rebuilding the Squad
Eustace Delmont is dead.
He is also still quite active but on another plane of existence. I am not sure if this will be a few scenes thing or a couple of episodes thing but at any rate the Outgunned way — and the Doug way — is to move forward. Eustace will be going through a few otherworldly moments. Hitomi will be getting revenge by going after Dave Akari and then Roman Patel. Eventually the stories will meet up, but it should take a few minutes.
KEYED SCENE: The next Major Twist or the fifth Minor Twist will set-up the return of Eustace Delmont to the world of the living. Somehow. I'll work it out.
When he does return he will be different. He will have the power of flight. He will also have extensive primal scarring.
For now, though, we need some new faces to help give Hitomi a chance. The obvious candidate #1 is Genny (Jinjuro Yusuda). The most logical Role for him is Commando. For his Trope we'll go with Party Killer. Genny is all about complaining about the situation though generally doing the right thing in a world where the right thing tends to get him in trouble.
For #2, we have a bit of a void. The other three main back-up characters: Libby (the mechanical dog), Bee (the twee sidekick), and BrokenRecord (the mentally frazzled street runner) are all poor choices. However, there was a moment where I considered keeping the Fractal Apocalypse and Shaolin Dragons as back-up allies. One of the previously introduced characters (from Episode Three - Bad Decisions Are Made) was Vavara Clean — bald [though finding art has changed this to more "really short haired], Eastern European, and a bit more serious than her partners in low-level crime. She would make a good hand-to-hand fighter with a parkour focus. Somewhere between street urchin and spiritualist. Her Role would be Fighter while her Trope would be Free-Spirit.
As for #3, I want a pilot-type that is attached to the party. An Ace with a helicopter. I have no previous person that perfectly fits this so we'll dive a bit into a few rolls. African-American by way of Central America. A bit chubby. The sort of character that gets a bit sidekick'd and left behind on the actual missions but occasionally comes into focus. Using Cyberpunk 2 we'll for Hispanic first name (#1, 75, Nemesio) and American last name (I like something a bit plain, like Jones). Nemesio Jones. Goes by Jones. Worked some overseas stuff with Genny before returning home to Texas. Eventually set up shop around the Pensacola area. Manages some flights out over the Gulf. Likes watching old cartoons and collecting old American comics. For him, Role = Ace. I think it will be fun to lean into his obsession with cartoons and comics and chose Neurotic Geek as his Trope.
In each individual case, we'll have a quickish scene all about set-up that introduces them and gives me a chance to work out their characterizations and such. I'll build them up from these basic foundations.
The GLOW: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont. Episode 11 - Gathering New Allies
Setting the Scene. Genny Yusuda.
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.
Time: 9:17pm.
Place: Juan Cafe, the After Hours Version.
Before we get to building a character for Genny, let's start out with a single question: would Juan have a place to cold storage a body [like, maybe not him personally, but somewhere he could call up]? (Even) → [c103] Yes? There's a corp prompt of "Piano Tuner's Anonymous". Let's build up from there. A building a few blocks from Juan towards the seedier section of the area. Piano Tuner's Anonymous with a weather-faded picture of a piano. Actually used to hide away bodies of various jobbers and on occasion sneak bodies out in various musical instrument boxes. Not owned by Juan but he and his jobbers are a major part of their business model so they would cut him some favor to stash Eustace's corpse. That's where Eustace is physically located during the interim.
Now: on to making Genny. He's a Commando. From that he gets a point in Brawn and several skills. For his Feats related to his Role we'll take Marksman (gets rerolls when handling rifle, shotguns, and machine guns) and Military Background (rerolls related to recalling/using military training). From the Party Killer Trope he'll take Nerves and the Feat Head on a Swivel (Free reroll with sensing danger/enemies, essentially).
He'll get an assault rifle with two mags. He also has his "microwavers". These are close range only, +1. Non-Lethal. Besides that he gets his scrying glass and a knife. From his part of the deal he has enough he will buy a bullet proof vest and have $1 left over. His flaw is that he distrusts folks. His catchphrase is "Like a goddamned Kindergarten class!" usually said as he is treating everyone else like a child.
PLAYED ON: March 23, 2025
Genny Yusuda.
The mood is appropriately funereal. Which strikes Hitomi as almost funny. With the exception of Myranda — currently chain smoking in the corner and looking more upset than Hitomi — most of the people here had a much more questionable relationship with Eustace. Genny and Julian both seemed terrified of him. Juan laughed it off but Hitomi knew that having anyone representing some degree of law and order — if the Order represents such a thing at all — was a point of contention. Bee treated Eustace like a violent uncle. BrokenRecord liked Eustace but then BrokenRecord is prone to have conversations with flowers she finds growing in the sidewalk.
Still when Genny drug a distraught Hitomi — and Eustace's inexplicably mutilated body — to Juan's in the early morning hours Juan put out an all-call to jobbers than the cafe was closed. Invitation only. Bee was summoned to put Hitomi to bed while Juan handled the body. In the midst of Hitomi's near panic attack at the words, "I'll take care of the body," Juan ensured her the body was going to a cryo-storage facility that owed him enough favors that he could cash in a dozen directives over the handling of Eustace without even scratching the surface. With that she relented and crashed for four hours — most of it nightmares involving strange crows and distant planets — before waking up. After a brief check-in with Mrs. Yuuki, Hitomi returned here. To find a sort of wake. Everyone here was someone that had worked with her and Eustace in these past few days.
"I said I am in," Genny repeats after Hitomi's seconds of shocked silence have lapsed into nearly a minute. The older man went from harangued uncle to protective big brother almost immediately after Hitomi had repeated the phrase "Eustace is dead" to him last night. Other people at the PS Nontooth Fillup had spotted the very-bad-stuff-happened corpse and cleared the area. Hitomi went into guardian mode, expecting the skeletal ServiSynths to kick up some sort of fuss but for some reason they actually helped to act as a screen and went around powering down the station to avoid any other customers.
How could she have known they had received orders from a force so inhuman that most people would go mad just looking upon them, the same force which killed Eustace in order to alter the shape of his soul?
"What do you mean you are in? There is no pay."
"Fuck the pay. If the story you said was true, then this is all of us. You and Eustace were going above and beyond. He punched through multiple people to get to me and get me safe. I want in. If these people work out their plan as intended, everyone's life will be hell. A world-wide battlefield sold to the highest bidder and people like me would end up shooting kids just to buy a loaf bread. Fuck that. Been there, done that."
"It's true. Fact is, since Dave's had the tech to create small-scale Harrowing for years now, it's probably worse than we think."
"Mochi...?," Bee asks from her corner where she has been sitting quietly for the past hour.
"Yeah, Bee?"
"Are we all going to die?"
Hitomi grunts and lights her first cigarette in hours. It's how she knows she is depressed. Her mood low enough that things like caffeine, food, and nicotine just barely call out to her. It tastes terrible. Her body is in some sort of panic-survival mode where it just wants to drink water and sleep.
"Yeah, Bee. Some fairly powerful people are about to get a lot of people killed and everyone who dies is only going to make them stronger. Bonus points if we die screaming." After Bee starts stobbing, Hitomi wishes she could take it back. Only she knows what she said is true. No doubt the Patel-Akari alliance will sell this to the masses as some sort of innovative new forward thinking march of progress, but the reality will be a great slide back into feudalism. The great cycle of power. Power disperses and collects. Toss in the strange brew of The GLOW and Soulburn and Lamark and his Witches Three into it all and it will be unlike anything reality has witnessed before.
The whole terrifying puppet show barely holding the Earth up a few meters from the Gates of Hell relying on such thin threads. "That's the way to do it!," by the biggest Punch of them all.
Genny looks Hitomi in the eyes and lights up his own cigar. Juan shrugs and takes a sip of expensive coffee.
Hitomi stubs out her cigarette and reaches over to grab a room temperature sandwich that was meant to be her dinner over an hour ago. Takes a few bites and washes it down with sparkling water that has long lost its bubbles.
"Ok, Genny, you win. Let's form a band."
Setting the Scene. Elsewhere.
Ehhhh, just going to riff this one.
PLAYED ON: March 23, 2025
Elsewhere.
Eustace awakens to see stars and little else. There is an absence of sound. An absence of smells. A sense of a deep, dark cold runs through him. Against his back, he feels a rough surface. He blinks a few times and has the disconcerting sense that his eyes are not eyes but mere frames of reference. This becomes even more worrisome as he realizes that had he organic eyes, they would be boiled out of his skull. Because he is nowhere with an atmosphere. A place wholly hostile to human life.
He is elsewhere.
Sitting up — again another pretense to organic existence where it merely comes down to a shift in the frame of reference — he finds himself on a dark rock somewhere in the depths of space. Unsure how he knows this, he knows immediately that the one speck of light — admittedly brighter than others but on a scale where it is like comparing a rock to a grain of sand in the shadow of a mountain — must be the sun. He tries to bring together the psychic threads to run the math at probable distance from the center of the solar system but is shocked to find himself completely clear of the threads matrix. He knows he should be afraid but fear is for living things and he doubts he qualifies for the entrance exam at this point in time.
"You are standing on the remains of Yuggoth," says a voice behind him. More pretense at organic reality. Not a voice. Not words. Just an agreed upon lie.
Turning to face the speaker he sees the Witches Three and at least one pretense has ceased. They no longer appear anything like human. The three of them are each tripoidal. A body of three sharp angles jutting out from a central axis like three fish having swum together. In the center of the main fish body, where the dorsal fin would be, an arm extrudes with three joints between the body and the hand — an extra elbow of sorts — only the hand is a three fingered claw not unlike a crow's foot. Where the caudal fin would be the fish-like form tapers into a long twitching snake body, one per section. Each witch therefore moving around on three snake-like legs. At the top the three sub-bodies come together in a head like what would happen if you glued three beakless bird heads together into an obscene take on a triskelion. The true mouth seems to be at the top, with each body contributing a bony wedge like a three beaked bird only where the beak juts out of the top of their skull. A scattering of crab-eyes on stalks dot the head and upper torsos.
In the intersection between these three parts, large wing-like structures extrude and contract. The infamous cowls no doubt being some human trick to see them as robes rather than as what they are: appendages capable of interstellar travel.
A second of the Witches "speaks" — and Eustace senses this one is the Maiden of the three — "A terrible place full of vile things that met its end in a war finished before the genetic code for life on your planet was finalized. Destroyed by the war between its people and our own. A deadly war that ended both species at the same time. Scattered us to star winds to drift. Until a single piece of dead Yuggoth with the ashes of us three and a number of them broke free from its long stasis and fell down into the gravity well of your star."
The third — "Mother" — adds more details to the story. "Had Yuggoth lived, they would have turned your people into a kind of plaything."
Eustace sorts through all the various concepts that make up his being and finally finds one not unlike a voice. "Unlike yourselves? Turning us into playthings?"
Crone lets out a shrill laugh at this. "Lamark tasked us, tiny child."
Mother: "If we cheated a little and spread bits of ourselves into your human code, so be it. A dead race has a right to survive."
Maiden: "You surprised us by finding a connection to us. Not the first, but you called out to us harder than the others."
Crone: "Faced with the Symplegades you choose to steer your ship not into calm waters but deeper into the rocks and find home there."
Mother: "Flowing with the tempest like barnacles sinking upon a wrecked ship into the deep."
Maiden: "You seek to befriend the dragon rather than conquer it."
Eustace attempts to interrupt their constant lecture. "I am so very confused." All three laugh at this, which only slightly enrages him. Emotion finally finding a way into his strange aether-body. "I assume I am dead but how is my spirit here? We are so far from the nearest Soulburn."
Crone: "You think that we are limited by Soulburn?"
Eustace: "It is well known that the effects end at the edge of The GLOW. Out here should just be physics."
Mother: "Pah, little thing. Things impacted by those in Soulburn are not limited."
Maiden: "Only those in the Soulburn can see the miracles, though. Such is the limits of your fourth-dimensional minds."
Eustace stares at them. "Are you saying that witches have the power to change the world outside of The GLOW."
Crone: "Of course. There's a little white farmhouse in Nebraska. 107 Jerry Lane. Plinkett. Owned by the Dallas family. Only just now, I thought it blue."
Mother: "The Dallases see it as white because they are not in Soulburn."
Maiden: "The people of The GLOW do not see it at all because they are not in Nebraska."
"Then what good is it?"
All three: "One day one might be within the other: the farmhouse brought into The GLOW or the GLOW into the farmhouse."
Eustace stands in silence long enough that the Witches unfurl their wings and fly up into the space around the fragment of Yuggoth. In this environment, it is not like wings at all but more like manta rays. After a moment — in this non-place it could be a week later or days before the conversation even began — he speaks again. "27B-6. They use Soulburn to pull it to earth. Then, after it crashes and creates a new Harrowing, the people who never realized they were at an impact site wake up one day dead. Bootstrap paradox on steroids. You get the power to cast the spell after the spell has already been cast."
All three: "You can learn!" They dance and piourette in the absence of gravity.
"What happens then?"
Crone: "What happens when any one gains the power to destroy worlds? They make new worlds to destroy."
Mother: "Even now, those fools are seeking to align themselves to Him."
Maiden: "And when he has the Harrowing, he will rewrite the stars to always be right. He will bring R'lyeh up from the depths and humans will be as terrible as gods."
All three: "So long has he dreamed the dream of Harrowing in man until they were ready to give the dream back."
"Who?"
All three: "Cthulhu, high priest to Azathoth."
"WHO?!"
This brings more of that strange bird-fish laughter. "What does it matter," they all say at the same time and millenia apart, "if you stop it? Beat your drum, Skarl, and keep the mad center of the universe asleep."
With that, they stop and each raises a single trisectional arm and brings it down in a pantomine of knocking. In space, between here and that very distant sun, a large door appears and begins to open. It is the size of a few atoms and larger than Jupiter.
Without saying another thing Eustace kicks off of the shard of Yuggoth and pushes himself forward. Wings the color of every possible shade of visibile light at once flap behind him and propel him through the door. To elsewhen and nowhere.
Commentary: Soulburn and Runworld
March 23, 2025
Many, many years ago I wrote an RPG and played it with friends and posted bits of it online: Runworld. It was heavily inspired by a kind of pop-lit precursor to an over-fandom take on Philip K. Dick's writings. In it, there was an odd mechanic based on two drugs. The first was Run, which gave you the power to create miracles, and the second was Seek, which gave you the power to witness miracles created by Run. Only the people who took Seek could see the effects of those who used Run. It was one of several reasons why the world was fracturing into many versions of itself.
It was a hyper-paranoid, very strange sort of RPG that had a tri-stat system using descriptors that somewhat guessed several big shifts in the indie RPG landscape. After playing at it a bit, I left it drift into nothingness but the central concept I still really liked. Another major concept, that the world in the 2020s would devolve into a War on Meaning where realities split over and over due to people arguing about the meaning of words, is a bit less of happy place, considering reality right now.
While trying to think up what to do for this scene — where would be a good elsewhere, how strongly was I going to cast it into the Lovecraftian mythos with some major changes — the realization that Soulburn was kind of a repeat of that concept occurred to me. It allows for near infinite approach to miracles but you have to be inside the sphere of Soulburn to actually wield and witness those miracles. By sheer coincidence — as much as two ideas roughly two decades apart by the same author might be coincidence — I had stumbled upon the same paradox a second time. I figured it was good to just establish it as such.
Since the Witches Three were introduced back in the second ever The GLOW post, they were noted as likely inhuman forces. They have been broached a few times. Outside of hinting them as more crow-like, I had no real idea of what they were. In the back of my head, I had the idea that they were alien forces somehow beholden to the initial impact event. When I was writing this scene, I came up with the entire description as tripoidal fish-bird-snakes and how they were tied into the world lore pretty much on the spot.
There is a glitch between that early post and this one though. In that one, they turned the White House blood red as a warning. By the logic of this post, that would only have worked if the White House had been subjected to Soulburn. My only real explanation is that while Soulburn enhances their powers greatly and allows them to return briefly to reality, their true powers extend past it in more limited fashion. That or someone snuck cannisters to the WH. Either/or.
The reference to Cthulhu includes an important clarification at odds with many modern retellings of the Cthulhu Mythos. In the original story, Cthulhu is not seeking to destory humanity. The reason why people might serve him is not a paradox that needs any trite answers. In fact, the wording is this:
These Great Old Ones, Castro continued, were not composed altogether of flesh and blood. They had shape—for did not this star-fashioned image prove it?—but that shape was not made of matter. When the stars were right, They could plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars were wrong, They could not live. But although They no longer lived, They would never really die. They all lay in stone houses in Their great city of R’lyeh, preserved by the spells of mighty Cthulhu for a glorious resurrection when the stars and the earth might once more be ready for Them. But at that time some force from outside must serve to liberate Their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented Them from making an initial move, and They could only lie awake in the dark and think whilst uncounted millions of years rolled by. They knew all that was occurring in the universe, but Their mode of speech was transmitted thought. Even now They talked in Their tombs. When, after infinities of chaos, the first men came, the Great Old Ones spoke to the sensitive among them by moulding their dreams; for only thus could Their language reach the fleshly minds of mammals.
Then, whispered Castro, those first men formed the cult around small idols which the Great Ones shewed them; idols brought in dim aeras from dark stars. That cult would never die till the stars came right again, and the secret priests would take great Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom. Meanwhile the cult, by appropriate rites, must keep alive the memory of those ancient ways and shadow forth the prophecy of their return.
It makes a lot of sense given the various balls that I have been juggling — some from my own mind, others found through months of dice rolling — that The Harrowing with its hints of Mythos from the very start might in fact be the mechanism to which They seek to rise.
It occurs to me this entire episode might essentially be lore. That's ok. I'll no doubt get a few roles in but the second arc of The GLOW has been missing quite a few lore scenes already and its nice to sit down and try and work out what everything might actually mean.
Expected Scene: Hitomi and Genny gather up Jones.
Scene Test: [c112] 4. 2d10 = 2 + 10. Minor Twist (1 of 5). "Your hardware is recalled." Jones is available but his copter is being worked on.
Actual Scene: They show up to LoGrav — Jones' business — to find out that the particular helicopter cannot fly.
Setting the Scene. A Bird with No Wings.
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.
Time: 11:23pm.
Place: LoGrav, Nemesio Jones' Helicopter Rental Business.
This is mostly to establish Nemesio Jones as a character. Like with Genny, 2/3s playing this scene will be working on a character sheet with a quick in-character scene.
Jones is definitely an Ace. From this he get Nerves (and some skills). Jones is going to be the type of pilot who likes taking care of his ride [maybe why he gave into a voluntary recall] and getting there with skill over any crazy stunts. This will give him Proven Driver (free reroll when handling a helicopter) and Mechanic (free reroll when repairing a ride). His gear is the Green Lady (a green helicopter of practical functions) and "she" has a speed of 1. He might get an upgrade ver shortly. His weapon of choice is a shotgun.
For his Trope we are going with Neurotic Geek. For this, he'll take Focus [much more about brains over sneaks]. For this Feat I think Scientist [Engineering] would fit him the most. Got great scores in college but his laziness and general avoidance of struggle left him a bit behind so he went into military tech before found that was worse and was semi-rescued from the life by Genny.
DATE PLAYED: March 27, 2025.
A Bird with No Wings.
The black man behind the counter calls out as they walk through the doors, "Sorry, folks, we are closed for a week." A TV screen is showing the Super Friends work through the kind of world-destroying problem that can be solved in twenty-two minutes. The room is thick with cigar smoke. The man, not badly dressed, has a cigar and a pint of ice cream and seems to be watching Saturday morning cartoons. Hitomi notes the shotgun in each reach just in case the "folks" don't take the hint about being closed.
She walks up him and puts a trio of items down in front. [1]
He glances down at what whoever this person who clearly failed listening class might have tossed on his clean counter and chokes on his cigar smoke. "The first three issues of Doom Patrol Revives!?"
Hitomi leans over the counter in full flirt-with-geek mode. "The only three issues." A 1974 limited run meant to hit at least eight issues. The Doom Patrol, killed off in lagging sales in pay disputes, were resurrected by being shifted into The GLOW. It rankled people on both sides of the divide and DC shelved it rather than attend a congressional hearing (or an Order Tribunal).
"Is this a birthday gift?"
"Is it your birthday?"
"Um, yes?" [2]
"Jones, what did I tell you about lying to women to get laid?," Genny asked from near the door where he had stopped to watch Hitomi work her craft.
"GENNY! Holy shit. Is this your daughter? She looks just like you!"
Genny and Hitomi look at each other. It's Hitomi that answers, "No, no relation. Genny said you are the best helicopter pilot in The GLOW."
"I said he was the most affordable pilot."
"At this moment, that's the same thing," she slaps her hands down to stop Jones from sliding the three comics off the counter. "How fast would we be able to take off?"
"June 11 at the earliest."
Hitomi makes a low growling noise in the back of her throat and then walks back to a black fake-leather chair and sits on it to light up. "How much to speed that up midnight tonight?" She blows smoke into the room which is immediately lost in Jones' hefty contribution from a night of cartoons, cigars, and snacks.
"Sorry, no can do, Genny Jr.. Recall on the rotor control. The Green Lady is currenly unable to take off."
"Fuck!"
"You are telling me." He points at the comics and Hitomi nods. He picks them up and starts very gingerly flipping through them while making a giggling noise. "Where did you get these?"
"A collector who will wake up to find them missing in the morning. Word on the street is that she uses Fractal Dreams due to crippling insomnia."
"YOU STOLE THEM!?"
Hitomi shrugs.
"Oh shit! Insomnia? You stole them from Alessia? She's gonna be pissed!" [3]
Another inhale. Another exhale. Another shrug.
"They call her the Gumshoe!"
"Jones," Genny interrupts.
"Yeah, man?"
"If you can't fly, who can fly us?"
"Why do you need so fly so bad you steal comics from the grumpiest damned comic hoarder in the entire GLOW?"
"It's bad, Jones."
"How bad can it be? Compared to normal? Isn't that just Tuesdays, here?"
"Bad enough I am doing it for free."
Nemesio Jones stands up at Genny saying this and is shaking his head. "Oh hell no. That's it, I'm retired. Jinjuro Yusuda on a crusade means it is time to leave the state and not look back."
Hitomi pipes in, "The bastards killed Eustace. Sort of..."
"Who the fuck is Eusta...you know what, fuck it. No, I change my mind. I'm double retired."
Hitomi walks closer. No flirting now, it is all business. "People are going to die."
"Let me guess, if I don't help then a busload of orphans are going to end up in pies."
"More like a billion people."
"A billion people!?," Jones starts to laugh at this but catches Genny's eyes. "Wait, no shit, Yusuda?"
"No shit."
"Fuck."
Hitomi points back to the helipad where the Green Lady is inactive. "If you can just point us to somewhere who fly something like that, as soon as possible, then I'd appreciate it."
"If you can steal comic books from The Gumshoe, can you steal a rotor control?" [4]
"Yeah, probably."
"Ok, I'm getting my coat and my tools. I'll retire tomorrow."
Expected Scene: Hitomi, Genny, and Jones pick up Vavara.
Scene Test: [c32] 6. 2d10 = 2 + 5. As expected.
Actual Scene:
Setting the Scene. The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness.
Date: Tuesday, June 4, 1996.
Time: 11:23pm.
Place: Gorgath Park in Pensacola.
This scene will likely be even quicker since Vavara doesn't talk much. Let's build her.
Her Role is The Fighter. She gets Brawn for this (plus the skills). Her first Feat is 100% Martial Artist (free Reroll when fighting and reacting unarmed). Her second will be Flying Kick (essentially she can get to Close and Medium opponents for 1 Adrenaline and get a +1 for leaping into the fray).
Her Trope is Free Spirt (she'll take Crime). The Feat she gets from this will be Parkour (free reroll when doing, well, parkour).
She also gets a $1 item of her choice. We'll go with grappling hook which she uses in her moving around and getting up and around places. She'll also have a can of Thoughtfulness that she tokes from occasionally.
DATE PLAYED:March 27, 2025.
The One Who Imbibes Thoughtfulness.
During the day, Gorgoth park is a place full of families, kids, and college-aged couples. At night, it is full of street punks showing off boards and tricks. At dawn, a group of ServiSynth cleaners make sure the PM does not distupt the AM, but overall it is the sort of place where rougher elements tend to avoid which makes it too authentic for tourists and outside the care of city surveillance. Hence, a great spot to meet up for a quick stop.
Genny parks his truck over near the concrete skate park where a dozen punks on boards are showing off and hanging out. Marijuana smoke mixes with tobacco but besides that the harsher element is restrained. Word is that a gang pushing crack tried taking the skate park a week back and were not so much thrashed as completely ignored until they limped off with only a bit of cred attached.
After a minute, three of the skaters break off. An outside observer would just see two black men with a slightly older — and vastly more serious — white woman. Nothing to raise any eyebrows. Hitomi, riding in the truck bed, recognizes Banshee, Vorpal, and Vavara. Banshee is still running Happiness while Vorpal has seemed to move on to huffing straight Bliss. Vavara — Hitomi is unsure if this her street name or actual name — is either rocking no artificial emotions or has chosen whatever "Quiet, sexy, and badass" might be.
"Did you get my message out?," Hitomi asks as they approach the truck.
Banshee nods and then starts giggling. "Yeah, Brokie passed on the word. V here volunteered right off. She wants in. One way to stop Brokie from going, herself."
Hitomi thinks what it might like to have BrokenRecord along on a life or death of billions mission — Darya being an accomplished parkour artist, shit fighter, and strange talker — and is glad that Vavara stepped up. "Thanks."
Vavara hops into the back of the truck like two-meter leaps with graceful landings are nothing and then makes herself comfortable. "Where first?," she asks. Again, Hitomi hears that hint of some Eastern Euro accent.
"First we have to steal some helicopter parts. How are at breaking and entering?"
Vavara does not answer but starts stretching which Hitomi takes as a good sign. "Ok, let's go."
DOUG'S COMMENTARY
March 27, 2025
I have enjoyed a lot about this arc and killing off the titular character might be the kind of zany twist that I enjoy the most. There are at least a few stories where someone "dies" and comes back as something different and its the kind of twist-trope — right next to the sort where the hero is a secret antagonist/monster — that still, to this day, gets me right in the happy vibes to read (assuming it is done well). This does not mean I started out trying to hit that note. The original idea was that Eustace had Witch powers but it might show up at one moment as a big finale. The scale of this whole arc was meant to be kind of small and personal but various forces have driven it outward. This is now a world-saving big-budget plot. We are about to have people parachute out of helicopter into a hoverboat while a dead man turns into a magic crow. That's something weird.
And special. To me, at least.
I really don't know how this series will end up but I'm happy to be here.
On a more technical side, I have added the second of two "features" to hide non-direct-story elements. For those that do not need my long winded commentary or notes they can trim that out as well.
MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES
- A dice roll in THIS session, how about that? Anyhow, for her to find 'the bribe' let's go with Crime + Streetwise. I need an Extreme with every 'miss' requiring $$$. That latter bit is not needed since she gets it.
- Screw it. Is it Jones' birthday? (even) → [c72] NO! It's about as far from his birthday as it can be (which would then in early December).
- Just snatched a quick name from [c74].
- Rotor control is nonsense of course but let's pretend.
CREDITS
The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont is played using Two Little Mouse's Outgunned and Outgunned: Action Flicks (especially, but not limited to "Neon Noir" and "Great Powers"). It uses Larcenous Designs' Gamemaster Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk 2E as its main oracle.
Other sources used include:
- Zach Best's Universal NPC Emulator.
- Cesar Capacle's Random Realities
- Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number
- Matt Davis' Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk 1, 2 and 3.
- Geist Hack Games and Paul D. Gallagher's Augmented Realities.
ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION
Genny comes from this photo.
The space door is from this photo by Kai Pilger on Unsplash and this illustration/render.
Nemesio Jones (after some debate) came from this photo by ManuelTheLensman on Unsplash.
Vavara Clean is this photo/model. Originally she was balder and just a bit younger but I'm going to slightly shift her up since she is the more sensible member of the ShaoDras.
Taxonomy and Technical Data
- World: The GLOW
- Campaign: The GLOW
- Arc: 1996 Psychic Eustace Delmont
- Post: 11 - Gathering New Allies
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