View topic - Chapter 2: Skiver [solved]

unforum
a.r.g.b.b

Welcome!

New users, PLEASE read these forum guidelines. New posters, SEARCH before posting and read these rules before posting your killer new campaign. New players may also wish to peruse the ARG Player Tutorial.

All users must abide by the Terms of Service.

Website Restoration Project

This archiving project is a collaboration between Unfiction and Sean Stacey (SpaceBass), Brian Enigma (BrianEnigma), and Laura E. Hall (lehall) with
the Center for Immersive Arts.

Announcements

This is a static snapshot of the
Unfiction forums, as of
July 23, 2017.

This site is intended as an archive to chronicle the history of Alternate Reality Games.

Our Esteemed Contributors

The time now is Thu Nov 14, 2024 3:22 am
All times are UTC - 4 (DST in action)

View posts in this forum since last visit
View unanswered posts in this forum

Calendar

Forum index » Archive » Archive: Deus City » DC: Deus City

Chapter 2: Skiver [solved]

Page 1 of 1 [5 Posts]

Author

Message

TGI Fridays
Veteran

Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123

Chapter 2: Skiver [solved]
Red Line Bridge in Grey District

A grey Transcorp magnetic monorail train with a green stripe zooms past at incredible speed without stopping, and is gone. The sun is setting with a green and purple glow behind the lights of the Grey District's city skyline. The rain has lightened up. It falls in a mist over the platform and its two parallel tracks where on the other line, a train with a dark blue stripe sits, its sliding doors wide open. It's the rush hour, and the platform is full of businessmen and women in suits, the aforementioned train having just belched them out to finish their daily commute on foot. They are chameleons, the odd few who have somehow scratched their way up from the factory floor in some I-corp fab plant to middle management across town. They are the ones who are playing the game the way it's meant to be played. The ones who society calls a success. Who am I to judge?

Each suit walks through the turnstile checkpoint, passing their right hand under the scanner as they do so, scanning, tracking, cataloging. The numerous advertisements and billboards shift to display the most demographically appropriate benefits of the grey district's corporate providers: Intellicorp Communications, N-Corp industries, and Transcorp rail lines.

A light wind swirls various papers and trash around the platform as the bulk of the crowd filters out. I'm standing with my arms crossed leaning against an out of the way pillar on the rail-side of the checkpoint. I'm wearing my favorite brown fedora pulled low over my brow. Bishop says I'm a walking clich�, I say whatever works, works.

I've never been much for mysterious messages. Waste of time by my book. There are a few basic rules for good detective work, and the first is "don't waste time." I pull back my right coat sleeve and check my watch. That's one hour wasted. I'm considering how much longer I'm actually going to stand here, when a second train pulls in from the other direction on the other track. It's the Red Line express. Right on time. My watch changes from 4:59 to 5:00 with a digital pip.

Of course on a slow week, there's always an exception to the rules. Anything to take your mind off of bad times and bad dreams. Plus the red line train only has one stop in Grey District. No surprise considering that the Upper Crust typically doesn't find its way down to where the crumbs fall. Then it happens.

A woman in the crowd screams. I snap back to attention, but there is confusion, nothing obvious other than a small crowd quickly forming at the edge of the platform. I make my way over to the crowd. Two of Grey district's Transcorp Security men are already there. They are wearing the same grey officer uniforms as the clueless sods in Bishop's video; from their confused expression to the shield badges clipped to their shirts. I spot a Lieutenant among them. His badge is a not-too-subtle variant emblazoned with golden rays pinned to his flat-topped hat. I take note of their belts, each equipped with a gun, cuffs and other typical police paraphernalia and make a mental not to tick any of them off.

"Transcorp Security! Step aside please!" One of them bellows. "What happened here?" This time it is the Lieutenant.
"He slipped!" I hear somebody say.
"The rain" says someone else. "He fell!"

Looking down past the heads of those peering down the side of the station in the gap between the platform and the rail, I see the dead broken body a few stories below the closest track. The man is face-down, but I can still make out that he is a thin, dark skinned Latino in his mid-thirties with oily jet black hair. Blood is oozing away from him. He has obviously just fallen. An odd sense of deja vu washes over me that I can't shake, but I'm able to step back a few feet before the dizziness makes me the sequel. I look towards the sky instead and let the cold mist hit my face.

"All right, we'll take care of this." I hear the security man say. I blink away the moisture from my eyes and see him pull out his small comm. device. "Central, we have a possible jumper on the Mid City Red Line, please give me an S.Q. ident scan for a body about 20 meters below me." By then, the lieutenant spots me and makes a bee line. He speaks. The contempt in his voice is obvious. "Well, well. If it isn't Detective Sawyer!" Apparently my reputation has preceded me. Or at least his hasn't. I strain my revisionist's memory to find the guys name, but I draw a blank. "And what prey tell, is a Private... Dick such as yourself doing here?

"Catching a train." I tell him. "You?"
"You watch yourself Sawyer!" He says. "It's just a matter of time before they pass the law that lets me haul your scruffy hide in. Freelance license or not, I ought to cart you in now for loitering."
"At least I haven't sold my soul to the system." I say. "How many proofs of purchase did you have to send in for that nifty badge?" Oh well, so much for not ticking them off.

"Oh that's it!" he says "I'm putting you in for-" He doesn't get to finish. One of his men is shouting at him. Instead he scowls and turns. "What is it Samuels?"
"We got a skiver here, no ident chip!" The man called Samuels shouts back.

"Another one? Damn." Suddenly he forgets about me. "All right, call the Sci- and Medicorp chumps in. They can't see skivers on their network. We'll let them handle cleanup, but alert Intellicorp media first! Make sure they get first coverage. Red District's Culturecorp media would love to plaster another friggin' 'I-corp God-killer victim' on the news feeds.
The Lieutenant Turns back to me. His mouth is an obscene gash. "And as for you, why don't you go catch your train before I get too bored." He starts to turn but decides to get cute instead. "And get a shave you pathetic slob," he says "Grey doesn't suit you." I decide he's right. I turn, cock my hat and walk away from the crowd.

"Dick." I whisper under my breath. If I was paying more attention I'd have seen her there on the station. Well dressed, extremely voluptuous and quite out of place as she turned from the crowd and followed me with her icy green eyes. She is young and beautiful with fiery red lips and lush mounds of red curly hair that cascade over her shoulders. On her head is a little red hat which is held in place with large hat pins. She is wearing a very professional red coat over her short red business skirt and white stockings. She has on white elbow length gloves. Her high heeled patent leather bag and matching red shoes complete the look. She looks in every way the classic femme fatale. The kind I swore never to get involved with. If I'd been paying attention, that is.

But instead I miss it when she reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a small device. I don't notice when her eyes dart to it, then back to me. I don't know that she watches me go, oblivious to her watchful emerald eyes as I trot all the way out of the station and down the wet streets back towards Sam's and sanity. I never see her open her matching red umbrella as the rain picks back up and the last rays of sunlight are banished by the cold darkness of nighttime storms.

Yea, on a slow week there's always an exception. Unfortunately this wasn't going to be a slow week. Women have a way of doing that. Coincidentally, that's the second rule.
I tend to break it too.

Do skivers exist?

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:04 pm
Last edited by TGI Fridays on Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:09 pm; edited 1 time in total

Silent|away
Guest

Answered yes and got two prestige. Maybe if I had answered No, I could have gotten more prestige.

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:08 pm

WolfHawk
Entrenched

Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis

I guess the "ignore karma" comment somewhere was inaccurate because I have to be more red to solve this one.

_________________
Having abandoned my search for the truth I am now looking for a good fantasy.

The light at the end of the tunnel may be the headlight of an oncoming train.

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:25 pm

TGI Fridays
Veteran

Joined: 12 Jun 2007
Posts: 123

WolfHawk wrote:

I guess the "ignore karma" comment somewhere was inaccurate because I have to be more red to solve this one.

think ignore karma means more - work together, trust each other than everyone gets to solve. Since some only work for red and some only work for green we have to work together.

Spoiler (Rollover to View):

Answer can be yes or no, fyi.

[/spoiler]

Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:53 pm

Transtar
Decorated

Joined: 01 Jun 2007
Posts: 165
Location: Annapolis, MD

Silent|away wrote:

Answered yes and got two prestige. Maybe if I had answered No, I could have gotten more prestige.

No gets you 4 prestige

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:39 am

Display posts from previous: Sort by:

Page 1 of 1 [5 Posts]

Forum index » Archive » Archive: Deus City » DC: Deus City

Jump to:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum
You cannot post calendar events in this forum