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>>6101725
>Suptg archive
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Solarpunk%20Cleanup%20Agent%20Quest
>Quest doc including characters, equipment, mechanics, etc.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jhZljN9y7A8w6qFcD8wX_xYaKZP65ZH8EGrmgKQ-nIU
Hello! Join Agent Jarnafeldt as she fights criminals and monsters to earn the right to start a family as the long arm of the ecofascist dictatorship that the world has fallen under, and uncover the mysteries of the world that have returned since the fall of the old one - be they mutated horror, or something else entirely.
____________________________________


So today, you’re going to help one of many teams of engineers set up one of these devices and a whole nest of tiny drones that will form a massive network. And by help, you mean protect from anybody that might stumble on by.

With you, you have the assistance of your fellow agent who has been through a lot with you; L2S Manhunter Saemus Fahy. While you signed onto the section of Noita and the people who work with them in study and mastery of what they deem the Arcane, L2S Fahy took up an offer from the Stormwatch Director Katriina Jousten to perform routine testing on her esoteric inventions. It just so happens he is using a new version of one of her latest passions, biofueled exosuits. The first one was a muscle suit powered entirely by the wearer’s metabolism, (which was powerful… and far from pleasant) but this one is a bulkier armor fit with a reservoir for material that the suit’s power generator can “digest” and use to keep the wearer from exhaustion.

>>6101730
The engineers, who you and Fahy have caught up with after a short while of going through the clerical process of getting the mission underway, have told you that after a short walk to the site of installation, you will have to stand watch while they scale the wall and ceiling to set up the device in a place that makes it hard to destroy but easy for the drones to return to when needed.

Heavy rains the past few days have caused large pools of knee-deep or even higher rushing water to flush through the stormdrain’s recessed areas, creating islands of walkable terrain that surround the support pillars.

On this mission, Fahy plans to continue using this suit to give it a test run, and will bring his standard issue Volt Machetes.

You haven’t quite figured out what you want to bring. But you got time.

For this equipment vote, you have two polls, where you must place two votes in the worn equipment poll and three votes on the weapons poll for separate items. The first vote you cast for each poll will be listed as your primary vote, and the subsequent votes will be tallied as a regular vote. In case of a tie, whichever option had more primary votes wins. "No Sidearm" is an option included to allow voters to leave a single weapon slot empty for the sake of speed. Notably, not having a sidearm increases movement speed and helps with positioning, especially through heavy water.
Please refer to the equipment list in the Google Doc to see the properties of each weapon and rules involving equipment:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jhZljN9y7A8w6qFcD8wX_xYaKZP65ZH8EGrmgKQ-nIU/edit#bookmark=id.46hbiickh1ed

Pick up to two Worn Equipment:
>Stormwatch Fatigues
>Lignum Vitae Breastplate
>Lignum Vitae Kit
>Turnout Gear
>HAZMAT Gear
>Undercroft E1 Bodysuit (Fully tested; see doc for actual rules)

You have two weapon slots. The top two will be taken.
Pick three Weapons:
>No Sidearm
>Pneumatic Handaxe
>Volt Machete
>Searing Knife
>Kimmo Blade
>Stormwatch Pilebunker
>Undercroft Pilebunker
>Jarngreipr
>Pneumatic Battleaxe
>Volt Bardiche
>Stormwatch Flamberge
>Pneumatic Maul
>Stormwatch Crossbow
>Stormwatch Longbow

>>6101725
Nice music pick, QM!

>>6101746
>Lignum Vitae Kit
>Lignum Vitae Breastplate

>Jarngreipr
>Pneumatic Handaxe
>Stormwatch Crossbow

>>6101746
>Lignum Vitae Kit
>Turnout Gear

>Pneumatic Battleaxe
>Stormwatch Crossbow
>Searing Knife

>>6101746
>>Turnout Gear
We are in dirty sewers, who knows what kind of disgusting stuff is there. Turnout gear bare minimum. Escort mission may not be the best time to use E1 bodysuit, and we may need more mobility to protect the engineers than hazmat can provide.

>Stormwatch Crossbow
>Kimmo Blade
>Pneumatic Handaxe

>>6101903
+1

>>6101903
+1

>>6101903
Support

>i wrote "pick up to two" again instead of "pick two"
god fucking damn it

Either way, what is voted for has a strong majority.
>Turnout Gear
>Stormwatch Crossbow
>Pneumatic Handaxe
Writing!

>>6101758
>>6101862
>>6101903
>>6101914
>>6101920
>>6101996
If the engineers are going to be climbing up walls in the massive, 40-50 foot tall storm drain chambers, you would want to defend them against things that can climb up walls, or people with weapons that could reach all the way up there. Between that and the rain (that’s generally filtered numerous times over, but this is suspected to be dangerously close to the undercity, sooo…), it’ll be hard to get toward enemies to really whack them, so a crossbow is a great choice. But in case they do get close, you got your axe.

After having picked up an operator for your mission-Sumika, as usual-and grabbing radios for the two engineers, you head on out through Helsinki. Realizing the majority of the walking from headquarters to the objective location will be in public view, Fahy takes off his helmet and walks around with the suit, which looks like some plain, featureless black jumpsuit.

On the way over, you ask Fahy if the suit is safe to use with the Volt Machetes, if there’s any metal parts, or places where water might pool up. Things that might be a problem if he lets loose that hyperconductive copper spray.

He shrugs.

Well, he is giving it a test run. You’ll do your best to make sure he doesn’t fry himself.

>>6102444
The engineers themselves are local Finns, and aren’t Stormwatch operatives. You were worried about chatter coming from them, but the average Finn is an asocial creature. Or at least very timid. They don’t bother you, and chat among each other. One of them is talking about a vacation with his family, to “avoid the birds this year”. You don’t know if they’re aware that there’s more than the usual number… but he’s already making the right choice, there’s no need to tell him any more.

Arriving at a station where the water of the stormdrains gushed out from large pipes, flashing your ID cards was enough to get the workers there to unlock the doors to lead you within. Crossing a catwalk through an airlock-style bay much like the one where you fought your first Hiisi, you find yourself looking over the stormdrain in its full function.

The oftentimes stagnant waters of the stormdrain have been plowed over by feet of rain pooling in the valleys between pillars, rushing down the slightest of inclines across a complex web. There is a main flow to the outlet, and tributary flows join each other in a way to reach the outlet. Much like a real river, you fondly note.

The water seems… mostly clean. Nothing is visibly wrong with it. Keeping your turnout gas mask off to get a good sense of scent, it doesn’t smell bad either. If anything, it’s eroding the concrete.

“Commence mission,” L4 Operator Nonoka Sumika chimes in on your earpiece. “Straight ahead, less than a kilometer away is the installation point for the device. As per the document, I recommend heading straight ahead.”

When you hop down the ladder and step by the main torrent, you can see the place the mission document mentioned before. A grassy, bushy knoll, underground; the “Lehto” as it’s called, a supposed sanctuary for any who stay there. Including the squatters…

Come to think of it, isn’t there a bar named after that kind of thing?

As your operator tells you what to do, as the engineers step wade through the waters with great care in each of their steps… you can’t help but need to see with your own eyes and ears. Especially since right now, it all feels so very... clear.
Roll for Attunement. As a student of the Arcane, you receive a +2d6 bonus. Two anons, roll 4d6.

Rolled 2, 4, 5, 4 = 15 (4d6)

>>6102445
Senses on max power rn

Rolled 3, 4, 1, 4 = 12 (4d6)

>>6102450
+1
I think the Lehto link is false. The bar is a sanctuary for anybody wanting a drink like how the real Lehto are sanctuaries underground

>>6102450
>>6102468
Try as you might, the sound of rain clashing against the streets, running down the grates, funneling into spouts that spill the water from on high down to the ground below is overbearing. Countless waterfalls, accompanied by clouds of mist block vision, making you unable to see if there’s someone already lounging in that hidden little grove. And trying to close your eyes and feel for a moment, there’s no thing that you can detect.

But there is something more primeval you can feel. A sense of nothing being right.

Not that you’re being watched or there’s something vile lurking about.

There’s just this crushing atmosphere. This sense of depression that is not yours, but you are a passenger to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbqbIXy1AgQ

The heart of the world beats with agony and sorrow.

>>6102943
“See anything?” Fahy questions, walking up to you. You shake your head. He seems unphased by the anguish in the air that you could cut with a knife. Putting on the helmet to his Undercroft prototype suit, he resumes looking like an unfeeling machine. “Let’s get rolling. You guys know the drill?”

The engineers finally realize they’ve been talked to, and looked at you with concern. One was small and thin with black hair and blue eyes, covered in what was clearly climbing gear. The other was a fairly burly older gentleman carrying lots of tools and the necessary equipment, functioning as a mule. The lighter of the two rubbed his arm and spoke in a constant monotone. “Are you sure about going through that patch of grass? You trust whatever’s there to leave us be? Can’t we go a little bit south of it?”

“Aye, yeah,” chimed his elder. “I’m sure there might be a pinch of truth in the tales, but not for you. And while they’re at it, none for us.”

Sumika blips into your ear with a comment. “I highly recommend it.”

Fahy is taking post ahead, looking back at you, knowing that the worst choice you can do is hesitate on wherever it is you’re going.

>The mission says to go straight ahead through that lehto, so you're all doing it. If there's any problems, you'll deal with it.
>You don't want to crack the whip at the engineers just yet, so you'll be fine with going around, closer to the secured south side.

>>6102945
>The mission says to go straight ahead through that lehto, so you're all doing it. If there's any problems, you'll deal with it.
Be aggressively cheerful and reassuring about it, though.

>>6102945
>>The mission says to go straight ahead through that lehto, so you're all doing it. If there's any problems, you'll deal with it.

>>6102962
+1
Channel the Don spirit

>>6102945
>>You don't want to crack the whip at the engineers just yet, so you'll be fine with going around, closer to the secured south side.

>>6102945
>The mission says to go straight ahead through that lehto, so you're all doing it. If there's any problems, you'll deal with it.
please no ambush

>>6102945
>The mission says to go straight ahead through that lehto, so you're all doing it. If there's any problems, you'll deal with it.

>>6102962
>>6103059
>>6103119
>>6103230
>>6103265
The gloominess is getting at you. You want to fight back against it a little. “Yes, I trust them!” You loudly reply as you march through the water, raising your legs up and over to not fight the mass. “I’ll have you know they’re very good at what they do! If they knew it wasn’t safe, they wouldn’t suggest a mission like this to go through this place to begin with, or there would have been a larger force given for the task. But no, the papers said two agents was enough, they said the lehto is safe, and they said this is the quickest route, too. If there is trouble, I’ll smell it coming, and we’ll be out of here before you know it!”

The workers pass odd looks at each other as you slip on your gas mask and lead the way. Pensively, they follow you.

What would have been a few minutes walk on a sunny day turns into a fifteen minute endeavor, with knee-deep rain water pushing and pulling at your legs as you move forward. A detour would have been a terrible idea, if only because it would take that much longer to get anywhere if not moving in the most direct way you can.

>>6103636
As you approach the Lehto, you stop the others so that you could take a better look at it.

The Lehto is situated in a hallway of some sort, its front and back set with a barrier to prevent the flow of water from the rest of the drain. Its ceiling covered in what could be mistaken for a web of silos; they are in fact a series of water wheels, spinning off the rainwater as it descends into the stormdrain. Across all of Helsinki, thousands of inconspicuous grates tucked away out of sight on the surface funnel water down into these tiny yet potent hydroelectric centers. Most are well maintained, but these are dripping, and spewing mist onto the grassy field beneath it.

A large glass prism is situated underneath one of these, emanating a pale light not too different from the color of the cloudy sky. Instead of using electric UV light to grow, it seems they use a network of special lenses to redirect sunlight into a laser they send from wherever it’s coming from into the prism.

The wall reads in a strong but fading text “SECTION XVIII” between the vines that grow up along it. Bushes linger at the sides of the hall, adorned with local Finnish berries. Grass is a bit sparse, not for a lack of resources, but from being well-trod. Aside from outcrops of foliage, there’s nothing large enough for something big to be standing behind, so you nod to the others and urge them to follow.

Moving with caution, you find that the lehto is fairly deserted. There are some signs of life; some choice sticks lying around, well worn from being handled and battered against each other. The mask hides your warm smile, as you think of the kids that might play here.

For the sanctuary that this place is, you feel like there is something missing. And as you approached the center of the lehto, you begin to see an large space where something was, seemingly recently, removed.

The thin layer of earth is only a foot or two deep, but there is a large, sprawling, squid-shaped trench with its center in the middle of the hall but stretching from nearly wall to wall. Water tinged with dirt pooled in the hole in the ground, and some of the trenches have broken walls, suggesting a direction of removal.

After a moment of pause, you put a finger to your ear to turn on the radio. “Sumika… is this the imprint of a tree?” Fahy, who moved on after acknowledging the hole’s existence, suddenly got interested.

There’s a large pause before Sumika finds the words. “Yes, I think it is. There was a tree here before,” she comments with a puzzled tone, followed by another pause. “Might have had to use it for fortifications. They know what’s coming.”

“Oh, no, I bet it could have just stood up and walked away,” Fahy mused, moving on once again.

You can’t help but slip out a laugh. Shaking your head, you realize it’s not terribly relevant, and with a hop over the ravines, you keep going.

>>6103638
The lehto was a great choice, because while its ground was sopping and wet, you cleared so much distance through it without trudging through water. By the time you reached the site, you were worried for the integrity of the equipment.

The base of operations for installing the Wifi drone hub was in a corner upon heightened ramp with a flat platform at its top. The south wall curves into the ceiling, while the east wall extends northward for maybe fifty feet. North of you is a long wall that serves as the exterior for another hydropower hall. East of you are pillars that stretch on into the dark mist.

On that dry footing, the engineers set down their bags and began pulling out hammers and pitons.

They’re going to be climbing up to the ceiling to install this like a mountain climber. It makes a lot more sense why they chose the very thin, waifish Finn for the job.

Noise of work began to ring out as they began drilling into the wall to start his ascent. The stormdrain’s peculiar shape and structure warped its acoustics, but the sounds of the hammer meeting metal echoed through the chamber. Your earpiece blipped as Sumika moved you from the channel the engineers could hear so they could talk to each other in peace.

“So how are we doing this?” Fahy whispered onto the radio. “Where do you want me?”

Pick one.
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.
>Post up a distance away from them. It’s better that whatever action happens doesn’t happen near them.
>Defer to Sumika’s order, whatever that is.

>>6103639
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.
Deny attackers the dry ground. Keep em wet so they can be zapped safely with the Volt Machetes. THEY have to come to US if they want the workers dead

>>6103807
Plus can't the crossbow bolt serve as a lightning rod? It'd be a great combo of Fiona tagging an enemy and then Fahy wrecks them when they get almost out of the water

>>6103639
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

>>6103808
Love me combo attacks.

>>6103639
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

They are the target if any action starts, so yes we stay by them

>>6103639
>>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

>>6103808
Unfortunately, the crossbow bolts are made from plywood shoots coated in hard resin with artificial bone broadheads (the process of making arrowheads from real bones of human overpopulation is too exhaustive a process) (metal is too expensive to waste on projectiles made to kill humans unless you're a Chicago Red Dog or MNP Deathsquad Agent) (even then Deathsquad might use projectiles that melt, disintegrate or evaporate for many hits in order to obscure the cause of death)

>>6103639
>>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

>>6103639
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

>>6104003
A sad day for combo enthusiasts everywhere.

>>6103639
>Keep watch with your crossbow on the ramp while Fahy stays on the ground level right beside the engineers. It’s the best way to use your advantages and keep any attackers away.

my body is an crumbling temple
I am trying to write an update for tonight but my sleep has been really shit today

>>6105464
Get well soon, QM. Get some rest.

update;
what felt like simple dehydration when waking up has been plaguging me all week no matter how much water I drink
tooth infection seems to be the culprit, and I have to wait for it to subside to have a decent night's rest; i've been sleeping three hours two times a day and can't focus for the past 4-5 days

>>6107095
Brutal. Had it looked at?

>>6107095
>tooth infection
Dentist
get that shit checked out, top of your list. That crap can be horrid
Recover well QM

>>6107099
>>6107108
I did, I have antibiotics. Gonna have to have a root canal sooner or later too. I managed to dodge that while I was a kid, and all that did for me was set me up to get one as an adult. Either fuck up early or not at all, no halfsies.

>>6107110
yeah def that root canal, its worth it.
Its not something to avoid. Dental pain does NOT go away, it will come back worse.
I hope you go to a dentist that will numb you up properly, I had a root canal for an infection and the nerves were very inflamed so it was not a painless process for me.
The other dentist I went to for it numbed me to hell and back and I felt okay during it.

>>6107110
I'm glad you're on top of it. Get well soon, QM.

>>6103807
>>6103812
>>6103854
>>6103889
>>6104069
>>6104592
>>6104944
You sling the crossbow down from your back to help sell your plan. “Fahy, I need you on the ground, around this corner pillar here. I’ll stay up here. If there’s someone suspicious, I’ll take the first shots. If they run they run, but if they try to scale the wall, you can flank them. There’s plenty of space for me to move around and get a clear shot, so you won’t be in the crossfire.”

You imagine the Irish boy smirking. “Sounds good. This suit ain’t exactly fast, so a knife in the back is not gonna happen… but splitting their attention is good enough to do them in, I’m sure.”

As the engineers got to work and Fahy slid on down to dredge through water to his ambushing spot, all you had to do was wait and be ready. The engineers said that it could take one or two hours, depending on how good the concrete actually is at supporting their weight with the methods they’re using. If one fails, then they might have to use another more time consuming one.

And as everyone is busy working that out, you’re just very bored. Operators can’t afford to keep the air busy with casual chatter unfortunately, so you will have to sit and wait.

And wait.

And wai-

BSSCCHT SSCCCHT

Ow!

Your ears sting from a sudden outburst of radio static, and your turnout gear stops you from simply yanking out the earpiece. You look around to bitch about it with someone else, but curiously, you’re the only one reacting to the sudden cacophony.

>>6107723
A voice begins to tune in from beyond the channels. It is a man’s voice, low and snappy, but warm, like a meek campfire. “Talk, talk, talk. Who can hear me? I know you can hear me. I need words. Talk. Talk. Talk.”

Incited from pure annoyance into speaking before your Operator can get a word in, you speak eager to get him out of your ear. “Who is this? Sumi-err, Operator, did you invite someone?”

The voice lets out some bored humming for a moment, and without addressing you in particular, begins reading something aloud. “L2S… Trollslayer, Fiona Jarnafeldt… Wildbad, Calw Landkries...”

… Where the fuck did he find your hometown-

“Wait. Jarnafeldt?” The mysterious speaker lets out a curious utterance before being momentarily lost in memory. “Ah. The Prodigal Daughter. Come to follow in your mother’s footsteps, in one way or another.”

You’re very much not liking how Sumika is not cutting in. “Who is this? Why is nobody else talking?”

The low voice was uplifted, though you could hear the eyebags on his face. This second wind comes with both elation and delirium. He doesn’t sound terribly old, so you chalk up his frenetic tone to overwork. “Greetings. I am called Zephyr. Chief Architect and Hydraulic Filtration Engineer of the Helsinki Stormdrain System… it’s maintenance, that is. The one they call Leshy is an… acquaintance of mine.”

The information that an Old Oak is talking to you should be reassuring, but there’s something amiss, you sense.

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>>6107747
"Do you know how Stormwatch agents get promoted to L3?” He asks. He speaks as if gasping for air from deep water. You can’t tell if that’s the radio being dysfunctional or not. You don't reply immediately, and he quickly presses further before you fully digest the question. “Would you like to?”

Choose one. Or write in.
>Yes, you'd like to be told.
>No, you don’t want to know.
>You think you already know how.
>Take off the earpiece and tell Fahy it's acting up.

>>6107751
>You think you already know how.

>>6107751
>You think you already know how.
...

>>6107751
>>No, you don’t want to know.
We'll go what we have to do to get what we want. Anything is irrelevant.

>>6107751
>>Yes, you'd like to be told.

>>6107751
>>Yes, you'd like to be told.
I don't know if my vote went through or if my IP changed but just in case
>>6107117
im this anon

>>6107772
>>6107795
>>6107952
>>6108020
The name “Zephyr” is familiar. Sumika had referred to him in confidence to you as you explained how you met Leshy in the forests above Helsinki. “Overworked, but a bleeding heart,” she described him.

You have a feeling it’s actually him, and not some trick. Squatters knowing how to hijack Stormwatch channels would have been done for months now if they could.

As for his question…

… You think you already know.

You have this creeping feeling in the back of our heart and at the furthest reaches of your fingertips. They sting both the same. It burns like a vat of acid that can burn through even steel resolve.

But you don’t want to rely on this feeling. There is someone willing to tell you.

Even that comes with a level of difficulty. “Go on,” you reply.

And the world suddenly becomes heavier.

>>6108540
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPvNk9t36WM

Since time immemorial, every living, breathing, thinking thing has had to kill to define its place in the world. There are no exceptions. From the meager krill, to the most sage human. Every act of sustaining oneself comes at a cost of blood and malice. Even in a theoretical world where mankind no longer needs to eat, where man is immortal; something would require they abuse each other to exist.

All of existence is abuse and subjugation of others, or being subjugated. And for all of man’s wisdom, power, and opportunity, there is no exception.

Could there ever be an exception? Could one even exist in this world, escaping this dichotomy?

I had read accounts of the old world, preserved in literature. In one such account, I had read that invading soldiers had approached a mother and played with her child, made funny faces, made it laugh, and let it touch the pistol that had been pressed against its forehead with curiosity and wonder before pulling the trigger.

Horror such as this was common. It is still common. It will continue to be common.

When this world was rightly burned in nuclear flame, humanity had a chance to create something new from its ashes. Instead, it incentives this behavior. Instead, it enforces this behavior. Instead, it wishes to make you worse.

There are one hundred and eighty-two thousand souls living down here, in squalor, but alive. They too are subject to the cycle of abuse and abuser in order to survive, they kill and be killed, but everyone is. Of those souls, forty four percent are children. And they, too, are overpopulation, Fiona.

In fact, in truth, nothing else matters. Everything you have killed up to this point has been an irrelevant obstacle. Trolls, assassins, jotunn, even rogue Stormwatch agents. Kill as many as you like. The cost for admission to this life you seek can never be paid with a mountain of bodies. The only accepted currency is your soul.

To achieve L3, you have to kill one child of the undercity. There is no other requirement. Just one.

There it is. That swelling in your fingertips. That knife in your heart.

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>>6108545
Everyone around you and before you has crossed this Rubicon of the soul. Your leaders. Your peers. Your forebears.

Even… Papa?
Mama?

And to bring life into this world is to subject them to the same fate as you. To damn other souls to yet another abuser. To perform a nine month long signature selling the soul of your firstborn to the devil which corrupted you. To doom an innocent child who will one day grow old and face the choice you, and many others, and many more, will face. To create not just a monster of yourself, but of your children as well.

And we endorse this. This is our vision of a better world. We refuse to do anything else.

Would you look at your child the same, knowing they will stand over the mangled corpse of the innocent? Would they be able to survive the guilt of telling their parent that they had done that awful sin? Would you be able to withstand telling yours? Will I, one day, look upon how many milliliters of hemoglobin have been filtered from the water of this section of the Stormdrain and be able to tell how many must have died for the sake of you, your child, your child's child, and all who follow?

Or would you like to break this cycle of suffering and debasement?
>Yes, you could never hurt a child.
>No, you will find a way to move on despite this.
>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him.

>>6108548
>>No, you will find a way to move on despite this.

>>6108548
>>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him.
Enough of this, we can ask the others if its true.

>>6108548
>No, you will find a way to move on despite this.
There's many people out there who also go throughout their entire lives without ever having killed somebody, but our fact of living and existence requires us to be aware of life and death even if we don't like it.
I really don't know how to refute what Z is saying other than "if we hate it so much, we might as well all kill ourselves and leave this planet to the people we don't like, who will keep doing the same things we hate regardless"

>>6108548
>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him.
I dunno why

>>6108548
>>No, you will find a way to move on despite this.
We're a big girl who's work is killing. We'll get over it.

>>6108548
>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him.
NOT LISTENING NOT LISTENING LALALALALALA

>>6108861
Killing a child isn't that easy of a decision to come too.
Nor do we have any evidence to assume this is truly the only ONLY way.
either way. He doesn't deserve our answer, and who knows what our answer might be until we are actually before an innocent child.

>>6108548
>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him

>>6108548
>>Throw the earpiece away. He speaks sedition, and whether or not he is testing your loyalty or if he is a sincere traitor to MNP, you have heard enough out of him.

>>6108548
>No, you will find a way to move on despite this.

Sorry for no update yesterday; I'm feeling much better now.
Writing.

>>6109442
I'm glad to hear it. Welcome back QM!

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Nein. Nein nein nein nein nein, you want none of this. Null, keine, nein. Whatever he is putting down, you are not picking up; you are flipping the table over and walking away.

You rip off the gas mask and take off the headphones too. Taking deep breaths and shaking your head, you wipe your face from sweat and let the cool stormdrain air rush against it.

The sound of rain smashing and flushing through the stormdrain systems are drowned out by the sounds of drills digging into concrete behind you. This alone would make for poor ambiance, but there is one saving grace. Here, the smell isn’t too bad. Petrichor is better up above, but the water rushing along the ground is filtered a dozen times over. Its scent is clean. There are times where you hate how clean this city can be. This, this you will permit. For this moment.

In this moment, you’re glad it’s not filthy.

… You don’t have an answer to what he said.

You don’t plan to have one, either. Such bold proclamations of if you could do something or could not fall apart when it comes time to put it to practice.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy, after all.

At least, for something like this, you would say that. For something that’s much easier to be proud of, you could gladly say you are up for the challenge, to take on the odds. This isn’t something you could brag about. Something you shouldn't be confident about.

It’d explain why everyone keeps so quiet about it. Shame stops them from bragging, but they always compel you.

Maybe there will be a situation where it could be easy. But there just as might not. It could take years. It could happen today.

And did he just say there were one hundred eighty thousand people living underground?! How!? That’s ridiculous! How can they possibly manage to upkeep a population like that? That’s, that’s about 20% of the entirety of Helsinki! One in six people who live in Helsinki would be living down here if that was anywhere near accurate. That’s absurd. Completely, wildly absurd. There's no way…

>>6109723
“Oy, Fiona!”

L2S Fahy makes his way over toward you, as to a void yelling so loudly. “Something wrong with your mic? Operator been trying to talk to you.” In response, you tell him you’ve been hearing static from your headphones, so you took it off to hear what’s going on around you better instead. He relays this to L4 Sumika, and after a minute, he says, “You’re going to have to put it back on to see if she’s got it right, right?”

To your displeasure, you put the headphones back on.

“-ow old to become a monster. Of this, you have my promi-”
BSSCCHT SSCCCHT
Ow.

Through the static, a voice you trust far better comes in. “Hello? Fiona? Can you hear me now?”

“I can now!” You reply, relieved to be past… whatever the hell that was.

Sumika seems very annoyed - not at you, you can tell from the tone of her voice she’s very angry at the computer. “Can you describe what happened? I suddenly noticed your connection dropped.”

>Lie and say that you got some interference or something. Just a whole bunch of static - don't worry about it.
>Say that someone intercepted your signals and started raving at you. Not far enough from the truth to be a lie...
>Admit someone hijacked the line and somehow knew all about you. If you’re in trouble, you’d like Sumika to have your back.

>>6109725
>>Lie and say that you got some interference or something. Just a whole bunch of static - don't worry about it.

>>6109725
>Lie and say that you got some interference or something. Just a whole bunch of static - don't worry about it.

>>6109725
>Say that someone intercepted your signals and started raving at you. Not far enough from the truth to be a lie...

>>6109725
>>Say that someone intercepted your signals and started raving at you. Not far enough from the truth to be a lie...

>>6109824
>>6109831
>>6109895
>>6109915
You don’t really know a good answer so you’re going to sound confused. “Sounded like someone tried interfering with my radio in particular. Some direct jam, or something. I might have heard something? I hope you understand, I didn't want to listen to close to such harsh static.”

Sumika’s mind trails off with her voice, her timid voice crumbling as she goes on. “Direct interference… Only people who could try something like that on us would be military, or…” You can hear her shake her head in frustration. “Must have pawned some tech to the highest bidder before getting dealt with. Don’t worry about it.”

Don’t worry about it, she tells you, as crunchy digitized voices begin to murmur in the office background. Your operator takes off her headset to hear what’s going on. You can’t hear anything, but whatever it is, it sounds fairly important. Before long, Nonoka is back on the microphone.

“We have a situation here,” the Nipponese operator says coldly, sternly, collected. Whatever uncertainty it was that had been plaguging her mind, it has been thoroughly cleaned up. “I have to depart to help perform an interview. Someone’s on their way to pick up after me, but hold on for now.”

Fahy throws his arms up as he begins to walk back into position. “Can’t it wait a bit?”

Sumika for a moment considers precisely how much shit she would be getting into for elaborating. “It absolutely cannot,” she answers. “I must go now - good luck.”

"Take care!" You tell her. You might need that luck she offered you.

Roll for Savvy. Two anons, roll 3d6.
Making Fahy’s 8d6 roll after yours have been rolled.

Rolled 4, 3, 2 = 9 (3d6)

>>6110417

Rolled 5, 3, 6 = 14 (3d6)

>>6110417

Rolled 3, 5, 4, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5 = 32 (8d6)

>>6110420
>>6110553
Time for Fahy's Savvy roll. Posted forward and an expert on manhunting, he has a great set of eyes and ears to let you know when a bad batch are about to come rolling up.

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The worker that was scaling the wall struggled with his next bolt. He was halfway up and now close to directly over you. Several hooks connected him to pitons he had set previously. The worker has to be careful about how much he is drilling; once he’s done he has to fill up the holes he’s drilled to make it unable to be accessed. You also overheard that he was given a budget of ten minutes of drilling power to work with, but you have no idea if that’s supposed to be not a lot of time or plenty.

As the worker above fumbled for the next piton, Fahy comes in on the radio.

“Three. Two are wearing some heavy gear. Might be more of that pilebunker junk, but there’s something else. A metallic clank in their footsteps. I can’t look, they’d see me.”

Laying down just at the corner of the ramp’s peak with your crossbow trained forward, you empty your lungs, roll up your sleeve, and press your bare wrist into the concrete. You try to feel for vibrations. If you feel it from where you are, it’d be some really heavy gear they’re using.

A piton strikes the ground next to you. The pulse of the metal striking the concrete was as sharp as its ringing sound.

And with that as a reference, you start to hear it.

Clunk. Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.

Almost like horse shoes. Deep metal clattering, going against the floor. They’re wearing something on their legs.

You line up a shot ahead of time.

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>>6111548
From around the corner, three men step forward, brandishing wooden clubs.

Two are wearing this heavy metal brace around their legs that extends all the way up to their torso, just the lower back. From the front you can only tell that the metal parts in the front serve to bind the thing to their legs, and that the bulk of the machine sits behind the heel and rises up to the knee. Their shoes seem to have been modified, but they’re quite the ways away. The distance is too great.

“Hoooo,” remarks one of the scrappy underdwellers in their weird undercity accent as he steps forward, looking up at the engineer on the ceiling. “What’s all this?”

You can tell he hasn’t immediately recognized you as a person. He sees you, but at this distance, with this lighting, atop the ramp and behind the sights of a crossbow, you might just look like some tool and a bag. Not sure how long that’s going to keep up, especially if you have to adjust your aim.

Anything more wild than adjusting this lung shot for distance would give you away.

>Shoot them as soon as you line up a good shot (Engage: 7d6t1)
>Wait until he draws closer so Fahy flanks them

>>6111569
>>Shoot them as soon as you line up a good shot (Engage: 7d6t1)
It takes time for us to reload, its best for us to fire now so we can reload and fire again sooner.
If they come charging in we got Fahy.

>>6111569
>Wait until he draws closer so Fahy flanks them
The patient hunter, like Papa.

>>6111569
>Wait until he draws closer so Fahy flanks them

Know your target.

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>>6111569
QM I have great and terrible news for Don. How will this affect the quest I wonder.

>>6111569
>>Wait until he draws closer so Fahy flanks them

>>6111826
It will affect the reader's perception of Fiona, mainly. Jihoon steals ideas from ME, it was I who came up with clubbing Sault.
Also, coincidentally, I will not be running in the latter half of October because of multiple real life things I have lined up that also just happen to be in time for Don's Canto huh how about that

>>6111859
Kim is /here/ with us. I just know it.
I had a laff when I first saw your support page and it was full of fully leveled and uptied Dons. I appreciate the autistic dedication

>>6111569
>>Shoot them as soon as you line up a good shot (Engage: 7d6t1)

>>6111578
+1

>>6111578
>>6111733
>>6111849
>>6112130
The squatters step a few meters closer, and as they do, you get a better look at the contraption on the legs of one of them as they turn to examine the surrounds. They’re long chunks of metal that go up to the knees. The top of them seem to be screwed on with a cap, while the bottom feed into some specially designed boots. They look like platform shoes, almost. Past that, they look like regular underdwellers.

“Lapdogs,” muttered one taking the lead with a pair of goggles. “Get down from there and get the fuck out of here, before I come up there and drag you down myself.”

Understandably rattled, the engineers don’t respond. They are afraid of saying the wrong thing, upsetting them, or worse, whoever is listening into your audio feed.

The curious one had completed a rotation, having confirmed it’s just the two engineers. “Where’s their escorts?”

Familiar heavy boots begin trodding through the water to make themselves known to everyone in earshot, kicking up water and sloshing through the current in an uncompromising stride. All of them turn to face Fahy, who is gleefully twirling his volt machetes. Instead of a grinning face, all the underdwellers see is the gold cyclops eye upon the LED screen face.

“That’s some nice trash you got,” Fahy spoke in his awkward Finnish. “You all finally... engineered it, backward….?”

Cackles and laughter lasted just a second. You hold your fire; the leader is stepping toward Fahy, still several meters away. You’ll leave that one to him, and readjust your aim to the lackey with the strange equipment. With all this, there’ll only be the one normal squatter left.

“Yeah, I figure they did,” their leader mumbles. “You know, we’re always looking for new things to grab. We take what we can get. Tell ya what; get out of that bodybag, and you won’t be taking a trip to the soilent plant in one.”

Fahy steps onto dry ground, kicking his boots dry. You notice something about your peer’s suit, now that you’re actually looking at it. It also has some object grasping the calf, though it’s obscured by the bagginess of the suit. “No can do, friend. No can do.”

The leader nods to his fellow who also had the machine on him. “Go deal with those other faggots, we got this one.”

With a pleasant grunt, the loyal follower turned around and-

Po.

>>6112255
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c21Uvj0KS-I

The squatter is airborne.

A white trail follows the underdweller’s heels as pneumatic jets propel him above you. He walks as if on the moon, large steps punctuated by the bubbling hydrogen po as the falling man is pushed into the air once again. He's become a fantastically awkward man to hit; even if you would hit him now, he could boost any which way - except onto the ground, you figure. You've no idea how good he is with these thrusters, and you've no idea how he may dodge your attacks. You're going to have to be quick with your attacks.

The leader steps forward, and with a po po po he bursts into a breakneck speed at Saemus, club over his shoulder and ready to crack the Irishman’s head.

The one that is stepping through the air toward the engineers finally notices you mid-stride. His confidence breaks down into heavy cautiousness as he tries to stop himself to address how he is going to deal with you.

Squatters with Pneumatic Thrusters have a DC of 1, but they may use boosts increasing their DCs by 1d4. A roll of 4 makes them successfully disengage, but they land hard, becoming unable to act or defend themselves for one turn. They do have a limited number of boosts.
>Shoot the unsuspecting leader (Engage: 7d6t?!)
>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)
>Jump and tackle the fucker out of the air (Strength: 8d6t?!)
>Write in

>>6112261
>>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)
I told you guys we should've hit em ahead of time.
Now they can fly (wtf)

>>6112268
+1 this is still good intel if we survive and don't fail the mission

>>6112261
>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)
Use inertia against him! Shoot where he's going to be!

>>6112261
>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)

>>6112261
>>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)

>>6112261
>Jump and tackle the fucker out of the air (Strength: 8d6t?!)

>>6112261
>>Protect yourself and shoot the pneumatic underdweller (Engage: 6d6t?!)

Seems pretty unanimous!
Roll to engage the target that's approached you. Under normal circumstances, this would be a trivial attack...
Two anons, roll 3d6.

Rolled 4, 1, 4 = 9 (3d6)

>>6112771

Rolled 4, 3, 2 = 9 (3d6)

>>6112771
GUNS GUNS GUNS

Rolled 2 (1d4)

>>6112785
>>6112794
lovely
time for him to go flying into a wall

Rolled 3, 4, 2, 1, 6, 2, 4, 5 = 27 (8d6)

Oh, and as this is happening, let me resolve Fahy's engagement.

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Rolled 2 (1d4)

>make a typo
>delete the post to fix it
>realize that deletes the roll too
whoops lmao
it was a 1, Fahy beats the DC 2 check

He could go anywhere. Forward, backward, up, down, he could even just delay his flight. Seeing his legs angle themselves aside, you try and line up a shot where he will fly toward.

Phooooooo-

Despite the ripping of pneumatic thrusters, the man was not given an immediate burst of speed like how your axe receives when you actuate its jets. Sending loose the crossbow as soon as you heard the decompression, the bolt flies over his shoulder before he immediately flew in the direction you had shot.

Inertia creates a crucial delay that you did not account for. The thrusters don’t give them nearly as much freedom over themselves as you’d imagined; perhaps being hurt while airborne would send them spiraling out of control?

You only had time to throw yourself to your feet before he had begun to maneuver through the air with something resembling grace; controlling the momentum, he spun himself around and burst himself at you, bat swinging. The crossbow’s stock and gasmask visor soften part of the blow but it is a damning attack nevertheless. You’re sent reeling backward and back onto your knees as he spirals past you. Metal grinds against the concrete as he skids to a halt a great distance away, club propped upon his shoulder and wearing a stupid smug grin.

>>6114933
In the distance, Fahy brings his machete blades together to have the tempered crystalline glass ring through the air as the leader comes close. With the speed he was heading at, even a tackle would be a dangerous attack. There was no safe way to perform a normal attack against him.

So Fahy threw a machete at the squatter.

It didn’t have to land deep; base instincts betrayed the squatter leader. Coiling to avoid the attack once it had been launched had already set him off-balance, and being struck only served to bring him to the ground, bounding and rolling into the water, the machete falling out along the way.

The other squatter had been rushing up on foot, but Fahy had turned and sought to tear into the leader as he was recovering. The knife from Belfast was in his element.

You on the other hand have been having some trouble.

In the time between the seconds, your radio crackles on. “L3 Eugen, checking in." The voice is a very welcome one. Quick, utilitarian, easily metered and well understood. "Engineer team, I need your bodycam footage on these fights. I need more eyes here. Fiona, he would not survive your axe’s blade as he flies past you, you know that right?”

You rub your face. Your crossbow is still in working condition, the visor has a crack in it but there’s no shards yet. That club is dangerous, but indeed, your axe could do far worse...

“Cut him in half.”

It seems any strike that lands against a boosting target will render them vulnerable. Generally attacking with the crossbow would be safer, but the axe would obviously do more damage.
>Create some space so you can safely fire another bolt. (Engage, 6d6t1+?!)
>Wait until you see the whites of his eyes as he boosts toward you to sink a shot between them! (Brave, 9d6t1+?!)
>Do your best to sneak a cut with your axe in as he slips past. (Engage, 6d6t1+?!)
>Eugen is right, cleave his empty skull wide open as he tries that shit again! (Brave, 9d6t1+?!)
>Spend some time trying to goad the squatter into fucking up with his boosters; he’s clearly not got Stormwatch grade stuff. (Fast, 8d6t1+?!)
>Write in (grappling, Arcane rites, attacking a different target, etc.)

>>6114934
>Wait until you see the whites of his eyes as he boosts toward you to sink a shot between them! (Brave, 9d6t1+?!)
Doesn't do to become a one-trick pony.

>>6114954
+1
Always the same with beasts... The eyes have it.

>>6114934
>>Wait until you see the whites of his eyes as he boosts toward you to sink a shot between them! (Brave, 9d6t1+?!)

>>6114934
>Spend some time trying to goad the squatter into fucking up with his boosters; he’s clearly not got Stormwatch grade stuff. (Fast, 8d6t1+?!)

>>6114934
>>Wait until you see the whites of his eyes as he boosts toward you to sink a shot between them! (Brave, 9d6t1+?!)

Rolled 3 (1d4)

>>6114954
>>6114967
>>6115038
>>6115148
Alright.
Three anons, roll 3d6. Target is 1 plus this post's roll amount.
Rolling for the squatter's boost bonus of 1d4. A 4 is an automatic failure and self-inflicted stagger.

Rolled 2, 6, 3 = 11 (3d6)

>>6115483

Rolled 6, 1, 3 = 10 (3d6)

>>6115483

Rolled 6, 4, 6 = 16 (3d6)

>>6115483
fucka you i roll

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>>6115584
Well shit, you sure do.

>>6115584
From the jaws of rather significant inconvenience, you snatch victory. Writing.

>>6115485
>>6115498
>>6115584
Target 4: Success!

No, no, you have something much better in mind.

This rat thinks you’re an easy target. But it’s not about how easy you are to hit. You know he isn’t going to take this next hit very well.

With a growl you rack the strings on the crossbow back; the wheels and exotic woods give smoothly, and the bolt finds its place snugly in its seat. Raising your head to the squatter, you wish you didn’t have your mask on. You want to pass that smug grin right back to him.

But he’s only glad to get back into the fight. Man’s given one toy and he’s getting a power trip. He begins rushing forward, pneumatic jets firing under his feet like he’s skating on ice. It makes him snake back and forth, left, right, higher, lower. Raising your crossbow toward him, you realize that would be awful trying to keep up with his movements while aiming. It would be easier to wait until the right moment to even begin to line up a shot. Feel when he makes his commitment.

Leave it all to instinct.

The squatter began flying more wildly around, shooting up and around. Just how long they’ve had this if they’re able to practice this much? But you keep your eyes on him, legs braced and tense.

With a spin he directs himself at you. He’s angle downward, past you and down the ramp. He wants to send you flying off, and then probably deal with the engineers.

There’s a moment, where he has to redirect his momentum, where he begins flying toward you in a straight line.

That’s it.

Driven by raw feeling alone, you level the crossbow and send the bolt flying.

The bolt sinks into his collar and immediately the recoil of pain shot through his body. His trajectory changed entirely, and he went curving out of the way wildly. You manage to duck his flailing legs as he rockets past you and into the concrete ramp. Whatever mechanism that caused his thrusters to fire finally stopped, but not before he smashed into the wall.

There is not a chance he is recovering from that anytime soon. No chance at all.

Rolled 3, 4, 3, 6, 2, 2, 5, 5 = 30 (8d6)

>>6116241
Fahy makes his aggression against the leader of this rabble. He’s trying to recover from the distress of landing, but worse than being caught on the ground…

He’s covered in water.

Copper starts flying from his machetes.

This was less than trivial before Fahy decided to taze. This is made with horrifically lethal intent.
Rolling for Fahy’s attack: 8d6.

>>6116244
I hate d6

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hello
numerous issues happening right now
the update is big because frankly combat is over and other things are transpiring, but also because it's getting close to the few weeks where I can't be doing weekday updates like usual so I was hoping to get other things
hopefully ready tomorrow
i swear i'm not dead

>>6118466
Thanks for the update, Mo. Waiting warmly!

>>6118466
Take care. Enjoy Don's canto

>>6118466
and just like that the quest stops for a solid month.

>>6118466
Don't worry, we're all waiting patiently for you.

Nw and take care.

Your life (And Dons canto) are more important then making a bunch of random strangers happy even if your writing is really awesome.

The rushing waters of drain water addled the underdweller as he tried to rise with the force of a river, a thing he will never see.

The copper specks don’t glimmer in the murky mist. What little lights shine down are faded and weak from the shifting clouds made as the monsoon crashes through the grates to funnel everything down here.

So as Fahy pulled the triggers on the machetes, levin rippled through more than just the copper, but the water and the mist. In a single flash grew a tree of lightning, and just as quickly was gone. Whatever material Fahy’s suit was made of is clearly nonconductive. You can tell because he is still moving. The volt cloud was so massive that even the one without the thruster setup stopped in his tracks and fell to his knees.

As the leader slumped into the water, Fahy walked up, stepped on his waterlogged body and formed scissors with his machetes somewhere above the stunned man’s neck. Not a sound could be heard as the blades slashed past each other, blood washed from the weapons as he drew them from the water.

The last one, caught perfectly between you reloading and Fahy stomping through the water at him, begins to run. You think to shoot, but consider that it would waste the bolt. Someone already has to come here later to try and find the bolt you shot and missed before, you don’t want to have them do it twice with this kind of torrent ongoing.

“Fahy, run him down,” L3 Eugen goads.

The man in the exotic tech suit glances down at his legs. You don’t think he has a typical body camera with that helmet; it probably provides a direct live feed from his own view. He looks back up at the man, scrambling over the deepest parts of the water to keep up a good pace away from his would-be pursuer.

You realize that this new Undercroft suit does have its own set of pneumatic thrusters.

But Eugen doesn’t know that.

“Not worth the trouble,” Saemus replies. “We’re here to make sure these guys can work in peace. Not to chase rats.”

Sigrun sighs, understanding but disappointed all the same.

In less than an hour, they finished installing the drone nest. Watching this man tied to the ceiling pull up important parts by a pulley and do his careful work upside down was making you incredibly anxious, imagining scenes of the parts or the man himself plummeting down to the concrete below… but he seems to get it done all the same. His coming back down takes less than ten minutes, sealing the holes as he left them, and before you know it, they were done and ready for the trip back to the surface.

The walk back is uneventful for the time being. The man seems to have run far away, and good. You were not interested in reinforcements from more jet powered homeless people.

Fahy and Eugen are chatting. “So what happened with our other operator? She told us she had to leave for something.”

“I’ve not seen her,” she answers. “All from what I’ve heard is that a Deathwatch agent showed up and demanded to talk to Ms. Jousten.”

Fahy rolled his head up in wonder. “A Deathwatch agent? A single agent?”

You could imagine Sigrun giving a shrug. “We only saw one, coming through the office.”

“They’ve been here a few days now, haven’t they,” he remarked.

“I’m sure they’ve been at work.”

Stepping out from the channels of rainwater onto the earth of the underground garden again, you feel a bit at peace. You’re safe here, and after that waiting and tension, it’s a very welcome feeling.

Curiously, you see a rabbit scurry into the bushes. You’ve never imagined a rabbit would be in a place like this! Ah, if only you could stick around.

You mean, you could.

Fahy, in the lead with the two engineers behind him, make their way forward, not paying much mind. His eyes are set ahead, because he knows there’s nothing dangerous in here, and in the well-watched region up ahead, they're home free.

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As the others pass, the rabbit steps forth from its hiding. It hops up to you, gazing at you with its beady little eyes and scruffy little nose…!

Then it hops over to a gap in some foliage and stops to look back at you.

It wants to show you something!

And indeed, there is something to find here. There is more than just this rabbit in this sanctuary, and though ordinarily when you sense things lurking in the corners out of sight, it comes with a thick sense of malice. Here, you feel caution, curiosity, and perhaps a twinge of shyness.

>You’re going to have to decline, Mister Rabbit. You’re at work.
>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
>+Turn off your body camera. The rabbit wants you to see, not all the Stormwatch.

>>6119601
>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
Follow the white rabbit, Alice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IDT3MpSCKI

>>6119601
>>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
>>+Turn off your body camera. The rabbit wants you to see, not all the Stormwatch.

>>6119644
+1 to turning the camera off

>>6119601
>>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
oh boy I sure hope we don't end up in a vampiric wonderland

>>6119601
>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
>+Turn off your body camera. The rabbit wants you to see, not all the Stormwatch.

>>6119601

>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
>+Turn off your body camera. The rabbit wants you to see, not all the Stormwatch.

>>6119601
>You’re going to have to decline, Mister Rabbit. You’re at work.

>>6119601

>Gleefully follow the rabbit to whatever it has to show you!
>+Turn off your body camera. The rabbit wants you to see, not all the Stormwatch.

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Okay, votes closed. Now I can't write for a few days. I should return Tuesday.
See you all then! Enjoy Dontent until then, but remind yourself this isn't a vidya general.

>>6120254
See you in a few!

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I am returned
Satan tried to kill me with his most vile sober drivers, but I survived
I was hoping to *be* home today rather than have just gotten here, but nevertheless, I write

>>6123748
Welcome back, OP!

>>6123748
How did you like the barber fight OP?

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Ah! But it is not on you to betray the trust of someone you had just met. They wished to show you something.

But first, an excuse.

“Miss Eugen, ma’am? I would like to spend some time taking a look around this leht-ah, corridor here.” You mind your words to not confuse the cold blooded manhunter on the line.

She doesn’t seem very interested. “Reasoning, L2 Jarnafeldt?”

“There was a once a tree growing here, based on some reports and um, obvious signs,” you say, leaning over away from the bushes to capture the giant tree-root shaped crater in the dirt in the center of the lehto on bodycam. A surprised hm can be heard from the L3 serving as operator. “It must have been taken for resources, so, I want to see if this was used as something as a botanical garden for other things. Perhaps poison.”

Eugen’s voice spoke slowly, measuring various ideas of what could be happening. “And this wouldn’t have been picked up in botany reports?”

As a Trollslayer, especially of your sect, you are aware that Lehtos are supposed to be sanctuaries devoid of conflict. Fighting here, or otherwise causing its destruction, would be inviting ill fortune to you. If there was something beneficial to the people of the undercity here, the Stormwatch as a whole must not know, because people like Sigrun would want to burn it down on sight. And you feel it here; though you feel it was once stronger, nature’s heart still beats here. It should not be destroyed.

So between what you know about this place, and knowing what you don’t know about this place, you make a daring guess.

“The botany reports for this corridor are classified and not to be recorded digitally,” you answer.

“Struntprat,” Sigrun barks back calling bullshit. Immediately she begins feverishly clicking through menus in her software. After a few seconds, the clicks begin to slow down, and her brows furrow.

After a moment of stunned silence, she finds her words. “Permission granted. What the hell? I’m giving you thirty minutes.”

>>6124386
As Sigrun guides Fahy and the engineers out of the stormdrain, you turn off your camera, mute your microphone, and finally follow that rabbit.

It led you through the bushes, and into a rather interesting formation; a literal wall of foliage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZoOztvUTNo

Not a simple thick section of brambles, a dense amalgamation of vines supported by a cable trellis. It’s not dissimilar to the kind of structure vineyards use at all. Behind natural bushes, it was very easy to overlook this section as simply a group of more sporadic bushes or just natural vines, but the moment you began to approach the illusion fell apart.

This wall of vines is sloped and forms something of a box. There’s a small but traversable hole where the rabbit slips through. Before you go in, though, you stop, put a hand to the ground, and begin to sense what could be within.

You hear breathing. Quick sharp breaths, followed by long periods of silent exhalation. The light rustle of leaves jostling, slightly, gently, but sometimes flicked around.

You feel tension and fear of those within, seeping from the hole into the secluded area like steam from an oven. They think you are a wolf, a monster outside the rules of the world that has come to take their lives and those of everyone they love. But they may also be brave, too.

The rabbit did not seem to be trying to trick you. You think it was looking for help.

Preparing yourself for whatever lies within, you stick your head inside.

>>6124391
And immediately duck out of the way of the crystal blue blade of a damaged Volt Machete swung at your hat. It clips the visor, and does nothing more.

“Wait, stop!” Cried a young girl’s voice from behind the wall of vines. “Y-you shouldn’t do that, she might be nice!”

A young boy grunts. “She’s the one sent by the lady! The one that wanted to take you away!”

“But I told her no!"

Are those… kids? A boy heroically defending a girl?

The stiff face you made as you jumped back melted into a warm smile.

They seem very defensive at the moment, and the boy will slash at you if you try to get close without trying to defuse their fear. Choose one.
>”I’m not trying to hurt you, honest! I just saw a rabbit come this way.”
>”A tall lady told me it’s rude to fight in a place this peaceful.”
>”What do you mean, ‘the lady’? What did she look like?”
>Go in and the boy, he shouldn’t be swinging around things like that. (Engage, 8d6)
>Write In

>>6124396
>”I’m not trying to hurt you, honest! I just saw a rabbit come this way.”
>>”A tall lady told me it’s rude to fight in a place this peaceful.”
We need to leave now, these kids should be left alone.

>>6124422
+1 to all of this except leaving the kids alone, yet. I want to know more. Why did the rabbit bring us here? Also, since we can only choose one according to QM...

>>6124396
>”A tall lady told me it’s rude to fight in a place this peaceful.”

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and for comments
>>6123894
A bit delayed, but now that Part 2 is out, I can gladly say I really enjoy the boss fights. Red Coins aren't that bad, a good player can play around them. The bleed nearly killed some sinners but I tanked it cause I'm cool like that.
>>6123759
Thanks! I'll try to get as much in as I can this week. Starting the 25th I'm off again for a week. I'd run remotely, but just having the trip isn't enough to assume "ownership" of the thread when traveling. In all honesty I expected this thread to be dead by now, but /qst/ has been very slow recently that my starting a thread early as to resolve whatever stuff I had in mind before the trips so it could die in peace was an unnecessary precaution. Hopefully while the archives are down it will continue to be slow, so those who still need to archive their threads can do so when it gets fixed.

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>>6124396
>Go in and the boy, he shouldn’t be swinging around things like that. (Engage, 8d6)

>>6124422
+1

>>6124635
how did i forget the key word
"disarm"

>>6124396
>Go in and the boy, he shouldn’t be swinging around things like that. (Engage, 8d6)

>>6124760
Considering this vote would make it a tie and I usually operate off a 16 hour vote timer which ended a couple hours before you voted, I'm going to exclude this vote. Sorry anon.
Writing!

>>6124547
Archive's back up!

>>6124422
>>6124650
You go to undo your jacket, preparing to use it as a means to catch and bind the boy’s weapon, when you reconsider that approach altogether. The boy probably feels much safer if he did have that blade, even if he shouldn’t be swinging it around at just about everyone he sees, especially here. And, who knows what else he might run into down here? It is dangerous. There’s lots of bad things down here, like Lorppo. Well, that won't help against Lorppo. Those weird fleshy mutt things, perhaps?

Considering how the kids must be feeling; knowing what you are to them, what that voice on the radio told you… you take a deep breath, and calm yourself from the shot of adrenaline that went through you.

“Hey. I’m not trying to hurt you. Honest!” You laugh as you take a step to peer through the gap from outside, hoping to see something. “I just saw a rabbit come this way. I thought it was an adorable creature.”

The two children are quiet for a moment, murmuring to each other.

“Neitikäni!” The girl exclaims. Miss... Rabbit, must be.

“She’s not real!” The boy yells back. “You don’t even see her half the time.”

“She is!” The little lady yells back with pouting frustration. “Let go of me! Neitikani wanted her to talk to me!”

After some bumping around and struggling, you think she broke free.

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>>6125149
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7GnAq6Znw
From the trellis hideaway, out marches the stubborn girl. A messy light brown haired mädel, eyes proudly shut behind big round and cracked glasses. What little fat and color the underworld’s meager diet could afford her was stored in rosy chubby cheeks. The adorable girl’s face warmed your heart, only for the sight of her arm to stick a knife into it. Her left hand was gone, either amputated to prevent disease or outright cut off in an attack. Only a bandaged stub remained. Her clothes were much too large for her, the jacket and pants rolled up greatly at their ends to let her hands out. She must be nine, or ten years old.

The brown rabbit sits on her head. You think is a rabbit, at least. It looks like it was scrappily painted into your vision with an artist’s brush. Blurry and unfocused, as though you were seeing it through someone else’s glasses. Its left foreleg is injured, too. It wears an expression of measured concern, of someone who has pertinent information to share… for a rabbit.

“Hi, I’m Tahti,” she announces with gusto in her odd underdweller accent whilst offering her good hand to shake yours. From the first impression you can feel she’s like a little Sigrun with her attitude, but unlike the swede there is no hate in her heart. Just fear, pain, and sadness. Through it all, she still wants to hold her head high and be somebody. Her name means “star.” You hope she gets to see one.

Tahti seems oblivious to the rab-Miss Rabbit, sitting on top of her head. The strange creature adjusts her footing on top of the thrown-back head of little lady’s head, and Tahti’s hair doesn’t seem to be rustled by the rabbit’s paws.

The boy steps through the doorway to the hide-out, shattered blade of a Stormwatch agent in hand. The black haired boy wearing a tough mug is not wearing a shirt, but a discarded blanket as a cape over his outright gaunt body. He wears the hard woods of Stormwatch canteens across his forearms. They have visible scratches, as do the arms beneath them. He’s a few inches taller than the girl, a foot shorter than you, and yet you think he feels much taller. He’s maybe eleven. Twelve.

“You saw Miss Rabbit?” Tahti goes on. The little lady seems so smug. “I only see her sometimes, but that’s better than Sisu. Did she say anything yet?”

They’re too cute, you can’t help but giggle. “No, I-”

“Get away from her!” The boy named Sisu yells. His name means guts, grit, and determination. You hope he stays young enough to never need those things. “AURINGON KOSKETTAMA PAHOLAINEN!” His speech is so warped by his strange accent and attempts to seem tough that you sincerely cannot understand it.

The two begin bickering with each other, with your attempts to interject without screaming and scaring them falling flat. Ah, they're so cute together!~

>>6125154
The rab-Miss Rabbit! Casts you a gaze while the young darlings prattle among each other. She seems to have important business, but also some empathy. The glee you are feeling and smile you are wearing must be infectious, as Miss Rabbit silently nods at you, letting you have this moment.

“Look, if she lifts a finger, you can beat her up, okay?” The little Tahti’s words and swinging head drag you back to the conversation.

The boy sighs. “Fiiine!” He's trying so hard, bless his heart.

Tahti looks at you with her big ol’ eyes made bigger by the distortion of the huge glass lenses. “So? You can see Miss Rabbit? Can you see other people animals?”

You have time, but eventually you have places to be. Though these children feel safe around you for the time, they still see you as an enemy and won’t disclose anything serious - though one would wonder what serious secrets a child would know to begin with. Choose three options.
>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>There’s a whole missing tree in the middle of the lehto, you’re sure these kids would know something about it.
>Ask after their paren-CARETAKERS, please gods above let these children have someone looking after them.
>Kids like these ought to have friends! You hope they aren’t alone down here, what kind of adventures do these two get up to?!
>Write in!

>>6125154
>“AURINGON KOSKETTAMA PAHOLAINEN!” His speech is so warped by his strange accent and attempts to seem tough that you sincerely cannot understand it.
Is this an ONDORU RAGITA DESUKA reference?

>>6125155
>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>There’s a whole missing tree in the middle of the lehto, you’re sure these kids would know something about it.

>>6124841
Glad to hear it. I was looking into a more manual means of archival, but I've been noticing my browser hasn't been properly loading locally saved webpages. I used to do that with my Akun quest and it worked fine, images, css, scripts and all, as good as local can be. But that was years ago and now I don't even get css. I can't fathom why this shit has regressed besides "news pages don't want people breaking the paywall" or something equally stupid. Whatever, I'm glad we have a functional archive again.
>>6125160
i'll be real i put "sun touched devil" in google translate to reference how underdwellers never see daylight

>>6125164
Ah I see. I figured it was a subtle reference to this meme
https://youtu.be/zY3ZznIq5LM

>>6125155
>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>There’s a whole missing tree in the middle of the lehto, you’re sure these kids would know something about it.

>>6125155
>>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>>There’s a whole missing tree in the middle of the lehto, you’re sure these kids would know something about

....Sancho....

>>6125331
....Donqui....

>>6125155
>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>Ask after their paren-CARETAKERS, please gods above let these children have someone looking after them.

I'll call the votes here.
>Luonto 4
>Lady 4
>Tree 3
>Caretakers 1
Hopefully I'll have something in a few, if not, then by morning!

>>6125155
>Ask after their paren-CARETAKERS, please gods above let these children have someone looking after them.
my (late) vote

>>6125155
>Admit you have seen a luonto before. It was a strange, cold, mean looking creature, not at all like Tahti’s timid little fuzzy friend.
>Ask about the lady that Sisu mentioned. He has every right to be concerned, so hear him out.
>Ask after their paren-CARETAKERS, please gods above let these children have someone looking after them.

Oh my god, this thread is going to host an anniversary. How the hell did a year of this quest pass so quickly? It was meant to last six months tops I swear.
I still enjoy it, but wow. Not doing live sessions really tanks the pace of a quest, I am now well aware. I am not the hooped up Ritalin fiend I was back when I was writing Iron.

>>6125623
Good to know you still enjoy it, that's the most important part. Let's be honest live sessions are usually better but if this works for you stick to it.
One could argue the slower pace perfectly fits the board anyway.

>>6125623
its incredible how Don did all this.
Truly a dream come true.
No way this dream will end.

>>6125160
>>6125228
>>6125267
>>6125435
People animals? As in… ah! She means luonto! You have an honest answer to give.

“I haven’t seen many, but I saw one once!” You tell the little girl with a cheerful ring in your voice. “A friend of mine has one! I have been told it was a rather… unique one? Not usual? Yes, it would have been the subject of study… if he hadn’t taken some offense at the description of the animal.”

The bespectacled girl pinches her lips and thinks. “Hmm. Miss Rabbit says people animals are a reflection of the people.”

You nod. “He told me his luonto was a cold snake, constantly shedding its skin. Peeling like an onion, to a core yet unknown…”

Tahti seems incredibly distraught by the description. “Are you sure… that it’s a snake?”

“Uh, yea?”

The underdweller girl racks her head with her knuckles. “Okay, but… what if it’s… a butterfly? In a cocoon? That kinda just looks like a snake?”

She seems to be aware that luonto are a reflection of those they are bound to. Her optimism of Kiikoinen’s character, despite knowing only your description of his luonto, is palpable. She doesn’t even know he is a Stormwatch agent. She just heard “friend” and assumed the best.

But at the same time, if Kiikoinen’s luonto is supernatural in nature, who are you to judge how strange is too strange? Where the supernatural creature ceases to defy your expectations? What inch is a mile too far?

“I don’t think it is,” you answer plainly. “It might just be a snake.”

“Is your friend a snake?”

Lalli is… many things. Physically he is a far cry from a slender snake. You are very well aware that he is built like a horse, with big pillowy chest muscles and-stop it, get your mind out of the gutter. At work, Lalli has never lied; or at least he’s never tried to mislead you. If he was ever wrong, it was an honest mistake. Outside of work… you don’t know what he is. Maybe he doesn’t know, either.

“No,” you honestly reply.

She seems to mull over what you said in response. A bit interested, but unsure of what to say. She is no expert, either.

>>6126185
In the recess of the little girl’s questioning over people she would fear if she ever met, you feel the gaze of the bold boy. Ah! He had a valid concern. You should start addressing that.

“So who was this lady you mentioned before? I was keeping people safe as they set up cameras… No lady sent me.” The nature of the job is true. It doesn’t matter if they know what you did. They can’t exactly break the drone nest from the ground.

The boy stepped forward, gripping his sword tightly. “S-she was tall, and wore black, and had a golden mask. Like that other guy!”

Unless there’s someone else involved… L5 Jousten visits this place?

The boy rose his voice and stepped forward. His distrust of you, and all other people who have an ounce of the sun’s kiss upon their skin, is readily apparent. “She tried getting Tahti to come with her! She said… she said something like… she wouldn’t ever have to be cold, or hungry, or sick, ever again. She could get her hand back! And, and, she said that if Tahti came along, that she, that Tahti wouldn’t have to worry about being overpop…? Something! She wouldn’t be hunted any more!”

Definitely Jousten, but…?

“I told Tahti not to listen, and… the lady got mad! Or upset. She didn’t like it. She started… started trying to trick us! She cried really loud! I told her to go away, and she did! She couldn’t fight me, cause I had a sword, and she didn’t. So she left, but she said that she would try and ask us again.”

Miss Jousten went into the stormdrain unarmed!? Does she have any clue how dangerous that is? How much the underdwellers would try and kill her, just to put a blow in the pride of the Stormwatch? Maybe she does. Maybe the squatters don’t think they can hurt her. Still… Lorppo is still around, isn’t he?

>>6126186
Your radio sparks to life. “L3 Sigrun Eugen, handing operator status back to L4 Nonoka Sumika.”

After a few moments, someone tries to get comfortable at the chair of the computer table far too small for them. You can hear in their voice and in their heart it was not successful. “Hello, Fiona. Botany work, I heard?”

“We should be leaving,” the boy groans. “This place isn’t nice anymore…”

You try and cut him off. “Yeah, I noticed. A tree is gone now, right…? It must have been nice with it here.”

“It wasn’t always here,” he replies. “But now it won’t ever come back. And now this place feels…” Sisu sighs, looking down. “We just wanted to come out to somewhere quiet and peaceful. We can’t even have that now. Why do you do this to us?”

That is a question you really don’t want to answer. You sneak in an acknowledgement to Sumika as you reply to the child. “Yea, yea, uh… The tree got moved around?”

“… Duh?” There’s honest concern in his voice over how stupid your question sounded to him.

The voice in your earpiece booms. “Fiona.”

You scratch your ear and unmute your earpiece in the same motion. “What?” Double conversations are confusing.

“Don’t panic, but a jotunn is closing in on your position.”

Scheisse.

You start blatantly communicating on your radio with Sumika in front of the children. “A jotunn?”

With a sharp inhale, she admits the full gravity of the situation. “It’s Lorppo.”

SCHEISSE

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>>6126187
It was not detected earlier due to… poor surveillance coverage of its route,” the tall nipponese woman tells you. “It has only now entered visual range, and now it could cut you off from your normal extraction route if you tried to run.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Your heart starts to pick up a rapid pace. Your body wanting to move, but where? What do you do? How can you-
You've seen the footage.
It spoke poetry as it slaughtered eight agents, caught on a shaky bodycam.
In a flight of adrenaline, but a lack of good ways to direct it, you flip your cam back on. You need to do something.

“Don’t panic,” she pressures you, just as anyone would when they aren’t being targeted by a fifteen foot tall mountain of mutated teratoma tumor clad monstrosity. “If you want to leave, you will have to leave from the east corridor exit, and head south a section. It's unsecured territory, but Lorppo won't see you.”

Tahti leans in. “Miss? What’s wrong?”

As you try and figure out the route in your head so you can make the maddest dash away from here, Sumika spends some time calculating the various unseen variables. Then, before you begin to run, she speaks up.

“My recommendation?”

“Stay.”

“Lorppo will honor the pact.”

Choose a max of two.
>Book it straight back to your planned extract.
>Flee through unknown territory
>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

>>6126194
>>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

>>6126257
+1
Do NOT violate Finnish NAP

>>6126194
"Fiona Jarnafeldt will honor the promise."

>>6126194
>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

>>6126194
>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

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>>6125761
True.

>>6125623
Thanks for sticking with it, QM!

>>6126185
Fiona, you horndog. Maybe he's built like a horse but PACKING an anaconda?

>>6126186
Damn, she's more baby-crazy than we are. Poor lady.

>>6126194
>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

>>6126428
Don't worry guys, I will take one for the team and give her(binah) the child she always wanted.

>>6126194
>Breathe a lungful of unfiltered natural air, steel yourself, and stay in the Lehto as instructed.

"Wow, I sure am glad this quest is almost up to it's first anniversary!'
Fionna gets pasted by Lorppo because we stayed put.
"Fuck."

After a day of rest and a unanimous vote, writing.
>>6126959
Anon, please. Would Sumika lie to you like this?
:^)

>>6126257
>>6126290
>>6126259
>>6126401
>>6126959
Your heart goes cold. “Stay!?”

Sumika tries to hasten her slow, breathy speech to quickly address your very fucking merited concerns. “Lorppo is… well, they-it likes to talk. It’s been around for years, it was less violent before the incident… I even managed to speak with it, back then.”

Really?

Your operator goes on. “We keep records of which sections and chambers Stormwatch agents die, a heatmap… and every Stormwatch agent that has refrained from hostilities here has been safe.”

“Miss? Who are you talking to?” The little girl chimes in, a bit worried at your sudden change of tone and the vanishing of color from your face.

Suddenly the woman on your line speaks quietly. “Who was that?”

Uncomfortable with talking more, you turn over toward the kids here, and wait for her response. Waiting is killing you. You can’t imagine how you aren’t running, you can’t imagine-

“A-ah. Orphans of the undercity.” L4 Sumika seems much more calm now. “This is… good. You weren’t being mean to those little ones, I hope?” You give a quick nuh-uh to get her to keep talking. “Tell them that their caretakers are coming. And you wish to depart in peace.”

You try to smile, and kneel down to Tahti. “H-hallo. I need some help. Someone told me your caretaker is coming over here, and… I’d like to leave without getting into any trouble.”

Tahti leans in, a bit elated to hear. “Oooa!? Is it She? Iida and Iika?”

You’ve no idea who any of those people are. “It’s the chatterbox.”

After sniffing the air, Miss Rabbit hops from the young Tahti’s head onto your shoulder. Your anxiety made you jump a bit, but after it settled down, it was frankly far more reassuring than anything Sumika said.

Time seems to slow down as you feel footsteps approach.

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>>6127062
>>6127062
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrywcvaVag

The wet layer of earth beneath your feet ripples with tremors. With each subtle rumble, tension builds, from your toes, to your fingers, to the top of your heart, to the backs of your eyes.

You’ve seen the footage. A veritable mountain, standing twelve feet tall, covered in muscles, teeth, mouths, eyes. Not just a mutated abomination, one that came from a long line; its mutations proved effective enough for generations upon generations of creatures much like it to survive from the days of the post-calamity dark age to today. Disgusting it may look, evolution has decided that its warped nature is not something you should call “malformed.” Whatever fell forces that had a hand in its design had done so with malicious intent.

As it bashed and battered a team of Stormwatch agents, some your better, it prattled on and on; you couldn’t quite tell what, back then. But perhaps now, with your studies of the strange phenomenon of natural attunement humanity has been feeling, you have an idea.

Was it a prayer? A poetic appeal from the two heads together to the Gods? A request for strength, or the downfall of its enemies?

Could such a thing really earn their favor…?

Before you could wonder any more, a mass turns the corner at the end of the verdant chamber.

The jotunn, a testament to the folly of man. A perfect lingering reminder of their greatest mistake, but an improper judgement to be rendered upon them; for this jotunn only breaks the fingers of the hand which strikes it. The powers that be are perfectly safe from this hellspawn horror; no, it is not they who are to be crushed under the heel of the titan. The lords of this world have cast you and many others like you into this pit with this creature. Your betters don’t care if you live; such would be one space more for another. And you are certain all those in this pit with you would cheer as the jotunn tears their oppressors to pieces - even if it’s merely their finger.

LORPPO
JOTUNN - HIGH VALUE TARGET
! ENGAGEMENT NOT ADVISED !

It slowly walked through the Lehto, covered in blood.

… Its own?

>>6127074
Holes pockmarked across its front, dripping a faint layer of sanguine red as rainwater watered it down. It’s been shot, numerous times. From its stride, it has plenty of strength yet. As it stepped forward, the earth giving underneath its feet, the two heads laid their eyes upon you, dripping with unveiled contempt and disgust.

Reflexively you step back; you know you are supposed to stay here, but can you really trust it?

Sumika’s voice is low and calm, but still filled with surprise. “It’s been… Ah. So the other one is attacking anything that moves…” You’ve no idea what the [I]fuck[/i] she is talking about and don’t care right now.

“IIKA?! IIDA!” Tahti bolts at the aberration, and, though your heart skipped a beat, she hugged the monster. More than that, the monster let her hug it. Sisu stepped forward with his sword, flustered by the injuries the jotunn was experiencing, definitely thinking of some way to blame you.

With a hand on Tahti’s shoulder, the heads looked at you. You and the rabbit on your shoulder. Its contempt did not fade.

“Overdweller,” a voice spits from the masculine head. “You have some nerve.”
“You better respect the peace,” the feminine one mutters. “We have no time for more games.”
“It would only take a second.”
“A second better not wasted.”

“Iika! She’s… she said she saw Miss Rabbit! Miss Rabbit wouldn’t like it if you hurt her.”

The male head groans. “I can see she likes her. What for? Many overdwellers can see. More and more as time goes on.”
The girl head squints her eyes to examine you. “She doesn’t have that soulless look in her eyes, that murderous glint. No, no, a bit fragile, she seems.”
“In body and spirit.”
“Yes, yes.”

The rabbit passes a stern look at the aberration, stopping its further banter. The jotunn seems to be withholding its immense violence, for the moment.

Choose as many as you feel comfortable doing. As a Gentle Soul of Noble demeanor, you cannot freely break the peace of the Lehto and attack.
>Thank the two children for the lovely conversation and politely get the fuck out
>Offer your soifood as a small token of peace
>Ask Lorppo why it’s covered in gunshot wounds
>Say Tahti and Sisu are precious, and if Lorppo had any part in their upbringing, praise it
>Ask if she had ever met Miss Jousten, and if she comes down here unarmed often
>Write In

Bringing up Jousten is a massive trap since we're being recorded live RIGHT NOW

>>6127075
>>Ask Lorppo why it’s covered in gunshot wounds
we already know the answer, but this is the safest question to ask rn

>>6127075
>>Say Tahti and Sisu are precious, and if Lorppo had any part in their upbringing, praise it

>>6127111
>>6127114
+1 both

>>6127075
>Say Tahti and Sisu are precious, and if Lorppo had any part in their upbringing, praise it
then
>Thank the two children for the lovely conversation and politely get the fuck out

>>6127075
>>Ask Lorppo why it’s covered in gunshot wounds
>>Say Tahti and Sisu are precious, and if Lorppo had any part in their upbringing, praise it

>>6127075
>Offer your soifood as a small token of peace
>Say Tahti and Sisu are precious, and if Lorppo had any part in their upbringing, praise it

votes tallied, busywork around the house might make the update happen tomorrow, but it'll be big besides

>>6127545
One last off topic post because today was special.

Did you have a good dream at last Don?

>>6127111
>>6127114
>>6127233
>>6127252
>>6127312
>>6127343
Well, first of all, you did turn your camera back on. Saying something stupid about the director, or even implying an interest in it, would have some serious repurcussions. These aren’t simply recorded. Your camera feed is being watched by half a dozen underpaid clerks and an Operator with their hand on their weapon all with their eyes glued to your feed because on it is the incredibly unmistakable Lorppo. You imagine that they would forgive your dialogue with the several ton monster if it meant calming it down and walking away alive; if not, Nonoka would.

Well, to begin. Manners, first. “U-uh, um… was it… Eeka?”

“I am Iika,” said the male.
“I am Iida,” said the female.

“A-and, together, you are…?”

“I don’t understand,”” Iika says.
Iida thought about it. “We’re Iida and Iika. We’re us. We’re inseparable, but yet I am I, and he is he.”

“Ah, I see. I-I had heard tell that you are-you BOTH are… a caretaker of these little ones? Did you raise them?”

Iika shook his head. “No, we did not. We keep them safe.”
“The city is cruel to little ones; as above, so below,” IIida continues.
“Abandoned little ones are common, but so are their disappearances. What a horrible world you enforce.”
“What a terrible world in which we abide. It’s more than not other underdwellers. Sometimes it’s the servants of overdweller merchants. Sometimes it’s cannibals.”
“Our lot has driven us to madness and desperation.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Disgusting.”
“Revolting.”

“… Awful,” you breathe in agreement. You understand that as overpopulation these people are not protected by the law, and are not tracked as well by the law unless it means to be rid of them. But you hadn’t considered trafficking would be so easy to commit against them, and now it just seems so obvious. “So you protect the children from harm?”

“Yes,” they say in unison.

A big, sincere smile comes across your face, though wracked with anxiety of being before this giant. “This might come with some surprise to you, but… Thank you.” Before you have to explain yourself further to them or the little people in your bodycam, you segue into something very relevant. “Did you need to protect some today? Why are you so wounded?”

“Tree went bad,” Iika answers.

>>6129087
You blink. “What?”

“There was a tree that protected us. It doesn’t anymore. It shot at us on sight.”
“Shot everything in sight.”
“We came to bring the little ones to the town. It’s safer there than out here now. Despite the others.”

That doesn’t make much sense, you think to yourself, before recalling something Leshy had said during your visit.

The Old Oak claimed that he had control over trees loaded with cameras meant to serve as undetectable scouting posts. Leshy had only told you that much, but it would not surprise you if some of these trees had weapons attached as a sort of turret or sentry gun.

But something that continues to make little sense is the fact that it used to protect them. Not only is it weird that they were protected, it’s even weirder that it’s only now that it’s acting differently.

“Why would he do that!?” Tahti explodes. “This was his place!”

“I-”
“We don’t know.”
“And that’s more than enough to take you back.”

Well, none of this concerns you right now, so you’re going to excuse yourself. “I’ll head my own way out.”

The children are either too distressed or too busy posturing to bid you a farewell. Lorppo, the two of them, turn as you step widely past them.

“If you cared, Overdweller, you’d quit while you were ahead,” Iida warned.
“While your hands are clean,” Iika commented.
“Know we of the blue-suit plight. The choking lack of freedom.”
“That raffle.”
“Keep your chances with the lottery. If I see you again, you will have none.”
“And the one behind you will be alone.”
“With all the others that lay just out of reach.”

That last remark made you step forward to defend someone who isn't there. But you know not to bare weapons here. Wordlessly, you begin walking away backwards, ready to be quit of here…

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>>6129088
In the height of your worry, Miss Rabbit pokes your face. It was a rather odd feeling, deep pins and needles where the feeling of touch should have been.

And then.

“the matter of the newcomer will resolve itself.
but for you, I have a request.
i have seen the black swan’s eye.
spiraling, panicked, jittery.
looking for any way to escape.
today it was still spiraling. still mad.
but steady. focused.
she thinks she has found something.
she is going to do something drastic.
please help her.
help her face her fear, if you must.
it’s the most pointless fear of all.
it is not worth upsetting her betters.”

Miss Rabbit rubs her nose.

Blood rushes to your head, and as you shake your head to regain your senses, the rabbit hopes from your shoulder and melts into the flora of the lehto.

Having seen, felt, and heard plenty, your stride turns from a jog to a haphazard scramble as you begin making a dash to safety.

>>6129092
Finally seeing the light of the sun again, however obscured it is by rainclouds it may be, you take a well earned breath of relief. You heard this is not even the peak of the rainfall. It wasn't always like this, but since the calamity, Helsinki has developed something similar to the Lake Effect. As it gets colder, the rain will only get worse and worse. So you appreciate this moment, as your nerves cool themselves down.

The others did not wait for you, and so you sit out front of the Stormwatch outpost under a canopy, watching the rain. A man in black approaches you. You remember him; one of the Red Dogs men... Derrick? You forget. The black coated man tells you that you are requested back at Stormwatch by both your boss and his.

Words come from his mouth, and you follow his orders, but your mind is still stuck back there. Thinking about Lorppo, that ugly two-headed jotunn, and the children they-it protects. Obviously the people of the underground will be perfect themselves, obviously some use the fact they are dead men to their advantage. But what Lorppo does, that creature with mouths and teeth and eyes and heads everywhere it shouldn't, that murderer of those before you, doing that the Stormwatch doesn't...

There is a part of you that does not regard Lorppo with disgust or fear or anger.

You walk in the rain, ferrying a ghost under the flap of your coat. You wish she was real, obviously, but more than that. You wish there was something there for you to protect, like that jotunn had.

Of Iida and Iika, you are jealous.

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And with that I have to take my trip
Might be the last update besides an intermission
If I have anything for the anniversary it will have to be done on my phone with probably a hangover
But at least this thread has been archived

Thanks for reading! I hope you all know I'm open for any questions, comments, criticism, etc.
I won't have my IP or probably trip because filthy phoneposting, but I'll be watching the thread!
also the dontent was amazing, as expected, hopegods won

>>6129095
I was genuinely moved during the final joust. The music, unprecedented animation upgrade and the weight of the entire Canto all condensed into that moment actually got a few tears out of me. Don (forma el padre)'s death was a letdown but hey that's just life in the City.
Thanks for the thread man. For what it's worth I'll stick around for as long as you run. You have the gift, so to speak.

>>6129092
very funny png title op
also we must help not!binah

>>6129150
We can simply walk up to her and give her a big hug completely unprompted in her office, can't we? We've yet to ask Micolash/Percival about the little girl spirit that's stuck with Fiona, that may or may not be her future daughter

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>>6126954
anon...

>>6129093
Excellent stuff as always, OP. Thanks for running!

>>6130425
where is that pic from? it looks cool

>>6130588
A Twitter artist
https://x.com/Schmrgl/status/1849873741595148319
Not a black swan but thematically on point

>>6130425
I can fix her, trust.

>>6130425
nta, but getting got after getting it on with Don isn't a bad end of life

Happy Halloween

>>6133501
Happy Halloween anon, I will be home tomorrow and capable of writing, but mostly sleeping

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Hey! I've been back. Might post an epilogue, but I'm just not sure of what. What I have written lets on a bit too much, I feel, so I'm not very keen on it.
New thread... soon? I haven't been in a productive mood and frankly I need to divert whatever energy I have into making money because I'm not in a great spot at the moment. A family member wants me to edit their book, so I'll see how that goes. Maybe that's something I can go down.
Either way, I'm posting something before this thread dies, unless there's a fucking diluge of bullshit flooding the board in the next 24 hours. See you then.

>>6136587
Don't feel obligated, and take your time. I'm grateful (as I' sure we all are) for the quality of the quest and your continued dedication to it. As long as you keep going, a hiatus or a slowdown is totally fine and very understandable under the circumstances.

>>6136587
Exactly what >>6136626 said.
Take time for yourself, as always real life takes precedence.

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...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcbsHKeYw3A

A man sat in the interrogation room. He is riddled with old, self-treated wounds. He does not groan or wince. Instead, this broken blade stews in raw malediction.

From what others have told you, the story is that this Deathwatch member demanded to speak to the Black Swan. Ms. Jousten is undisposed at the time being, but his situation has to be addressed immediately.

He looks up at you, and sees some vile creature he doesn’t have the permission or means to kill. It’s a kind of look you are surprised to be seen leveled at you in such brazen shamelessness. He sincerely thinks you are subhuman for your unusual height.

“What is your name?” You ask.

“That’s classified,” the man answers.

Oh, how you tire of this charade. “Code name?”

He paused. “Meteion,” he answers. “We were the Birds of Hermes. Formed for this mission alone. I knew not their real names. Only code names.”

Hermes. While much is known about the old gods, there’s some information that is misinterpreted, in worst case, corrupted from insurmountable piles of fiction produced in the time before the Calamity. From what you know, he’s a messenger god of the Greek mythos, and a ferryman of souls into the afterlife. A fitting patron god for a band of assassins, though you’re not sure if the god kept birds.

“What happened to the rest of your squad?”

“We faced unexpected resistance from our target.”

You were almost hoping they had gotten slaughtered by the Jotunn that the Stormwatch has feared for nearly a year. You derive far less enjoyment from his vagueness. “Who was the target?”

“Is," he corrects. "The target is a corrupt benefactor.”

Benefactor.

Your eyes widen.

The term “Benefactor” has exceedingly precise meaning to Mother Nature’s Providence. It is handled with exceedingly profound caution. Intentionally vague, but you are privy of who it refers to.

The order of this mission has not been recorded. It has not been communicated by radio. It has not even been put to pen. This mission lives and dies only in words spoken in fleeting moments in quiet rooms, and is said no more.

Forget Top Secret. Their mission is Canard. Apocrypha. The MNP is not a church, but this is heresy. The information existing is a hazard in itself. The sooner this is forgotten, the better.

Mishandling this information will do far worse than kill you.

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>>6137634
“Do you have any suggestions for a secondary plan?” You ask. The killer remained silent. Worthless. You spitball a suggestion. “We do have a Chicago Red Dogs Mechanized Division in Helsinki for an adjacent mission. Perhaps-”

The door opened and you immediately stopped talking. Looking past your long locks of black hair, you see a man enter. The limber man stepped in, face poised with stern, stubborn strength. Dark blonde hair, hazel eyes, and a strong jawline make his ancestry of Chicago eugenics clear to even an Nipponese peasant like you. He wears silver-coated armor, far removed from anything of Finnish modesty or standard philosophies of resource efficiency. It was a suit built to last, to never be lost, recycled, nor replaced. The suit embodied the ethic of the American design philosophy and engineering, and it was the iconic armor of the highest acting combat authorities of the far city of storms.

“We are not deploying Clifford,” declared Chicago High Judge Gabriel as he entered the interrogation room.

A foreign legal authority in close works with Katriina would absolutely be given permission to access many areas of Stormwatch HQ, sure. But this quickly? “You’re aware of the situation?” You ask.

Though he only reaches up to your chest, he easily captures the room. His boots were designed to broadcast loud footfalls; all legal proceedings need to be announced. “Yes. And the last thing that that scum needs is access to more firearms than what the Deathwatch gave to him as they died. I refuse even the slightest risk of giving that bastard the Big Dog’s Rotary Cannon.”

Confusion makes itself known on your face. The lawman from Chicago doesn’t have faith in the giant robot he brought? “There is no way an Old Oak can lay low a Red Dogs mechanized suit…?”

“They can defeat the targeting computer,” Gabriel answers.

You look skyward. Of course they can. If there’s one thing an Old Oak can do, is making themselves scarce. Even if they do appear on the camera, the AIs and targeting systems would be unable to recognize them as a target.

“And besides that, I am not risking exposure to the Red Dog crew, either. It’s enough of a problem that we know.” He looks around. “Where’s that Swan?”

“Not here,” you answer.

“Typical,” the high judge groans.

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>>6137635
With a deep breath, he composes himself. “As this is an MNP mission, not a Stormwatch one, I will organize the response. I am going to contact Leshy and organize a team. You must return to Rome with your mission complete. I am sure they would not like to hear of your failure.”

The Deathwatch agent Meteion sat in silence.

“I see you understand.” He spins around, his cape slapping against you as he passes one last look upward. “You, slenderwoman-”

You suppress a sharp intake of rage to a calm breath. Though you have many slurs in kind for his ilk, he is a guest and you are civilized. He will receive respect, even if what he deserves is to be the paint staining these white walls red.

“-Find a secure place for Meteion to rest and recover. If MNP is to believe he succeeded, he will have to return alive himself. I will travel to Leshy immediately and return with a team and plan.”

With that, the high judge marched out of the room. Your eyes drilled holes in the back of his head as the door shut behind him.

Scum, the both of them think you are. Looking at the doorframe which lies beneath your head, your fingers too long to be any normal person's, your accursed frame. That you would have been in a normal form, you might have lived a normal life. But, this is your flesh, from which you cannot escape.

This past month has been dreadful, and you know, it will only be getting ever more horrific.

END OF THREAD #7

>>6137675
Poor Sumika. Is she an abhuman?

Thanks for running, QM!

>>6137675
These uberchads are men of poor taste. I know at least several dozen anons who would love Sumika