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GUMSHOE: Night's Black Agents - Tinker Tailor Vampire Die
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<blockquote data-quote="writernextdoor" data-source="post: 5979381" data-attributes="member: 6689303"><p>[Mechanical notes are in braces]</p><p>((GM Notes are in double parentheses))</p><p></p><p>While the team worked at keeping the "doors of their minds" closed, they were treated to this scene - revealed to them as a shared dream experience...((meaning they were all observers within this one particular dream-state))</p><p></p><p>The food was cold. Again. And Billy Thompkiss was tired of cold food. He was glad to be off the streets, sure, but everything he ate here was cold. Not cold like it was frozen, not even cold like it wasn't done thawing, just cold like everything got cooked and then sat in a big fridge for ten minutes before it got handed out.</p><p></p><p>He looked around the cafeteria, and saw all the kids eating, oblivious to the fact that the food was cold and it shouldn't be. He consoled himself with the thought that most of these kids were used to starving, so they didn't look a gift cheeseburger in the mouth. </p><p></p><p>But Billy wasn't used to starving. He was a good kid, at least by his own standards and he was used to food being warm when it was supposed to be, cold when it should be, or no food at all. Your cheeseburger shouldn't be this chewy, and he knew it.</p><p></p><p>((After this scene, I explained that Billy had a VERY low-powered character sheet, so I'll include the spends when we get to them.))</p><p></p><p>He ate and chewed and watched. Billy loved to watch. He wasn't social like Katie or really good during sports period like Chris, but Billy excelled at watching. </p><p></p><p>Now he didn't know much about orphanages, but since he came into the Ephraim Adoption Agency For Lost Youth four months ago (he traded two sticks of gum for a pocket calendar), he realized that within the walls of the building, the kids were pretty much free to do whatever. </p><p></p><p>----------------</p><p>A morning bell rang at 8:30 to wake everyone up.</p><p>They were given thirty minutes to pick out clothes, brush their teeth and get dressed.</p><p>At 9, another bell rang and they were lead from their rooms to the cafeteria, where food was served from 9 until 10. </p><p>At 10, another bell rang and you could either have a play period, a reading period or a sports period. The periods lasted 2 hours.</p><p>At 12, the lunch bell rang, and lunch was served for an hour.</p><p>At 1, and then again at 3, you could have another play, reading or sports period.</p><p>Dinner was served from 5 to 6</p><p>Dessert was served from 6 to 7. It was also during Dessert that kids routinely went to the nurse or the clinician for interviews and check-ups, especially if they were due to be adopted or visited by possible parents.</p><p>From 7 to 8:30, you could do whatever. Most kids used this time to clean their rooms, hang out with friends or watch TV.</p><p>Between 8:30 and 10, you had the option of taking a shower or bath. </p><p>At 10, the double bell rang, and that meant you had to be in your room, lights out. There was a bedcheck at 11:30. </p><p>The whole process repeated every day. Except Sundays. On Sundays, the food was warm and constantly served. And there wasn't a bedcheck or a nurse visit. Billy wasn't even sure that more than 5 adults were in the building on Sundays. </p><p>------------</p><p></p><p>Billy knew the names of the adults who were around to help him. Mrs Washington, his assigned nurse. Mr Jefferson, the sports period teacher. Mrs Madison the reading period librarian, Mrs Jackson, the play period supervisor. </p><p></p><p>A lot of other kids envied Billy for being assigned to "Стадо N" which Mrs Madison said meant "Herd N" and that Herd was another word for "group of Orphans" but Billy knew she was lying. [BS Detector 1 point spend]</p><p></p><p>Herd N wasn't so bad. They had the laxest rules of all the Herds, and really the only time Billy even got in trouble was the night he wasn't feeling well and couldn't sleep. See, the rule was you had to be in bed and before midnight at the absolute latest, but Billy's tummy hurt, so he was coming back from the bathroom (he didn't like the one in his room, he liked the one at the end of the hall, because he liked hearing the people talking that strange language on the other side of the air vent)</p><p></p><p>He had been sneaking out to the hear the conversation ever since he was in the bathroom just before dinner and heard someone scream "Mace Hunter!" which Billy thought was like the coolest name ever, and he thought maybe it was like a television show (but he could never find it) or like an Internet thing (but Mrs Madison was always watching him when he went online), but if it was a person, it had to be a cool person because every time the name was said, people reacted. </p><p></p><p>So today, after his cold burger and soggy fries (Billy was starting to think that the people who made the food had a magic power to suck all the heat out), he told his lunchroom advisor Mrs Coolidge that he was going to a play period.</p><p></p><p>At play, Mrs Jackson asked him what he would like to play, and Billy said, "Today, I'm going to be Mace Hunter."</p><p></p><p>And then something happened. Mrs Jackson, who was already sort of pale, the way someone is when they sit under the umbrella all the time at the beach or the way someone is when you spill flour on them, got paler, and she hissed. She hissed like someone was letting the air out of her. And then she had to go lie down and left Billy and all the kids alone. </p><p></p><p>She left her laptop and her purse there though. </p><p></p><p>It didn't take very long to get the laptop turned on, and to find the password she kept in her wallet [Digital Intrusion 1, Filch 1], and Billy fired up Google and went looking for Mace Hunter.</p><p></p><p>He found news clippings of a building fire in New York, and old photos of a man who was always drinking with pretty ladies. And he found a nice French lady's blog who mentioned him in kind of sappy sweet ways, the ways Billy thought adults in love talked about each other. So he wrote her an email.</p><p></p><p>"Dear Lady, My Name Is Billy And I Am Looking For Mace Hunter. I Live At The Ephraim Adoption Agency in Bartlett Tennesse. I would like to Meet Mace, I Think He Is Very Cool. Can You Have Him Come Meet Me? Billy"</p><p></p><p>Billy felt this was a particularly mature email, and sent it from one of the free email sites he read about in the newspaper.</p><p></p><p>About an hour later, just as play period was starting to wrap up, and Billy didn't see any adults, he checked the email to see if he got any responses.</p><p></p><p>He got one - a phone number - and he quickly wrote it down. Then he got offline and started deleting things off the computer the way Mrs Madison taught him. He deleted the Internet Browser, the folder labeled "Email" (Because he wrote one and didn't want anyone to read it, duh) and then because he used the computer, he deleted it too. It took a few times of figuring out what to delete, but he thought "Format" sounded a lot like "Laundromat" and that's where clothes go to be cleaned, so Format had to be what you do to a computer to keep it clean. </p><p></p><p>He formatted the computer, wiped it all down with a tissue and was in line to leave play period when the 3 o'clock bell rang.</p><p></p><p>------------------------DREAM ENDS HERE-------------</p><p></p><p>It was around 9pm when Mace finally sat down on the small recliner of the motel room and poured himself a watery whiskey. He had emptied his pockets on the nightstand, and was waiting for Nick to come back with a few books on dream theory and psychology when the phone rang.</p><p></p><p>"Hello?"</p><p>"Mace?"</p><p>The voice was young, eager, male and innocent.</p><p>"Who is this?"</p><p>"My name is Billy Thompkiss..."</p><p>"Hello Billy. How did you get this number?"</p><p>"I'm at the Ephraim Adoption Agency."</p><p></p><p>There was a pause.</p><p>"Where, Billy, where are you?"</p><p>"Bartlett Tennessee."</p><p>"Billy, I'm on my way. You need to stay out of trouble and keep this phone number handy. Can you do that?"</p><p>"Yes sir."</p><p>"You'll have to be brave, and you'll need somewhere to hide. Billy, is there a church nearby?"</p><p>"Um...yeah, But tomorrow's Sunday."</p><p>"Okay, Billy, listen to me, can you make one more call for me? I need you to call Father Craig in Memphis [3 point Network spend] and tell him exactly this sentence 'I think it's time for dinner.' Can you do that? Promise me you'll be careful, call Father Craig and get to that church ASAP. I'll meet you there and I'll have friends with me, okay?"</p><p>"Mace?"</p><p>"Yeah Billy?"</p><p>"You really are the coolest."</p><p></p><p>Mace's drink never tasted better.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="writernextdoor, post: 5979381, member: 6689303"] [Mechanical notes are in braces] ((GM Notes are in double parentheses)) While the team worked at keeping the "doors of their minds" closed, they were treated to this scene - revealed to them as a shared dream experience...((meaning they were all observers within this one particular dream-state)) The food was cold. Again. And Billy Thompkiss was tired of cold food. He was glad to be off the streets, sure, but everything he ate here was cold. Not cold like it was frozen, not even cold like it wasn't done thawing, just cold like everything got cooked and then sat in a big fridge for ten minutes before it got handed out. He looked around the cafeteria, and saw all the kids eating, oblivious to the fact that the food was cold and it shouldn't be. He consoled himself with the thought that most of these kids were used to starving, so they didn't look a gift cheeseburger in the mouth. But Billy wasn't used to starving. He was a good kid, at least by his own standards and he was used to food being warm when it was supposed to be, cold when it should be, or no food at all. Your cheeseburger shouldn't be this chewy, and he knew it. ((After this scene, I explained that Billy had a VERY low-powered character sheet, so I'll include the spends when we get to them.)) He ate and chewed and watched. Billy loved to watch. He wasn't social like Katie or really good during sports period like Chris, but Billy excelled at watching. Now he didn't know much about orphanages, but since he came into the Ephraim Adoption Agency For Lost Youth four months ago (he traded two sticks of gum for a pocket calendar), he realized that within the walls of the building, the kids were pretty much free to do whatever. ---------------- A morning bell rang at 8:30 to wake everyone up. They were given thirty minutes to pick out clothes, brush their teeth and get dressed. At 9, another bell rang and they were lead from their rooms to the cafeteria, where food was served from 9 until 10. At 10, another bell rang and you could either have a play period, a reading period or a sports period. The periods lasted 2 hours. At 12, the lunch bell rang, and lunch was served for an hour. At 1, and then again at 3, you could have another play, reading or sports period. Dinner was served from 5 to 6 Dessert was served from 6 to 7. It was also during Dessert that kids routinely went to the nurse or the clinician for interviews and check-ups, especially if they were due to be adopted or visited by possible parents. From 7 to 8:30, you could do whatever. Most kids used this time to clean their rooms, hang out with friends or watch TV. Between 8:30 and 10, you had the option of taking a shower or bath. At 10, the double bell rang, and that meant you had to be in your room, lights out. There was a bedcheck at 11:30. The whole process repeated every day. Except Sundays. On Sundays, the food was warm and constantly served. And there wasn't a bedcheck or a nurse visit. Billy wasn't even sure that more than 5 adults were in the building on Sundays. ------------ Billy knew the names of the adults who were around to help him. Mrs Washington, his assigned nurse. Mr Jefferson, the sports period teacher. Mrs Madison the reading period librarian, Mrs Jackson, the play period supervisor. A lot of other kids envied Billy for being assigned to "Стадо N" which Mrs Madison said meant "Herd N" and that Herd was another word for "group of Orphans" but Billy knew she was lying. [BS Detector 1 point spend] Herd N wasn't so bad. They had the laxest rules of all the Herds, and really the only time Billy even got in trouble was the night he wasn't feeling well and couldn't sleep. See, the rule was you had to be in bed and before midnight at the absolute latest, but Billy's tummy hurt, so he was coming back from the bathroom (he didn't like the one in his room, he liked the one at the end of the hall, because he liked hearing the people talking that strange language on the other side of the air vent) He had been sneaking out to the hear the conversation ever since he was in the bathroom just before dinner and heard someone scream "Mace Hunter!" which Billy thought was like the coolest name ever, and he thought maybe it was like a television show (but he could never find it) or like an Internet thing (but Mrs Madison was always watching him when he went online), but if it was a person, it had to be a cool person because every time the name was said, people reacted. So today, after his cold burger and soggy fries (Billy was starting to think that the people who made the food had a magic power to suck all the heat out), he told his lunchroom advisor Mrs Coolidge that he was going to a play period. At play, Mrs Jackson asked him what he would like to play, and Billy said, "Today, I'm going to be Mace Hunter." And then something happened. Mrs Jackson, who was already sort of pale, the way someone is when they sit under the umbrella all the time at the beach or the way someone is when you spill flour on them, got paler, and she hissed. She hissed like someone was letting the air out of her. And then she had to go lie down and left Billy and all the kids alone. She left her laptop and her purse there though. It didn't take very long to get the laptop turned on, and to find the password she kept in her wallet [Digital Intrusion 1, Filch 1], and Billy fired up Google and went looking for Mace Hunter. He found news clippings of a building fire in New York, and old photos of a man who was always drinking with pretty ladies. And he found a nice French lady's blog who mentioned him in kind of sappy sweet ways, the ways Billy thought adults in love talked about each other. So he wrote her an email. "Dear Lady, My Name Is Billy And I Am Looking For Mace Hunter. I Live At The Ephraim Adoption Agency in Bartlett Tennesse. I would like to Meet Mace, I Think He Is Very Cool. Can You Have Him Come Meet Me? Billy" Billy felt this was a particularly mature email, and sent it from one of the free email sites he read about in the newspaper. About an hour later, just as play period was starting to wrap up, and Billy didn't see any adults, he checked the email to see if he got any responses. He got one - a phone number - and he quickly wrote it down. Then he got offline and started deleting things off the computer the way Mrs Madison taught him. He deleted the Internet Browser, the folder labeled "Email" (Because he wrote one and didn't want anyone to read it, duh) and then because he used the computer, he deleted it too. It took a few times of figuring out what to delete, but he thought "Format" sounded a lot like "Laundromat" and that's where clothes go to be cleaned, so Format had to be what you do to a computer to keep it clean. He formatted the computer, wiped it all down with a tissue and was in line to leave play period when the 3 o'clock bell rang. ------------------------DREAM ENDS HERE------------- It was around 9pm when Mace finally sat down on the small recliner of the motel room and poured himself a watery whiskey. He had emptied his pockets on the nightstand, and was waiting for Nick to come back with a few books on dream theory and psychology when the phone rang. "Hello?" "Mace?" The voice was young, eager, male and innocent. "Who is this?" "My name is Billy Thompkiss..." "Hello Billy. How did you get this number?" "I'm at the Ephraim Adoption Agency." There was a pause. "Where, Billy, where are you?" "Bartlett Tennessee." "Billy, I'm on my way. You need to stay out of trouble and keep this phone number handy. Can you do that?" "Yes sir." "You'll have to be brave, and you'll need somewhere to hide. Billy, is there a church nearby?" "Um...yeah, But tomorrow's Sunday." "Okay, Billy, listen to me, can you make one more call for me? I need you to call Father Craig in Memphis [3 point Network spend] and tell him exactly this sentence 'I think it's time for dinner.' Can you do that? Promise me you'll be careful, call Father Craig and get to that church ASAP. I'll meet you there and I'll have friends with me, okay?" "Mace?" "Yeah Billy?" "You really are the coolest." Mace's drink never tasted better. [/QUOTE]
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