The cast:
- Brace (Brainer): the ship's pilot and also a spook, that despised part of humanity touched by the weird. His psychic powers have been expanding lately.
- Midnight Storm (Skinner): teenage post apocalyptic rock star who has been sleeping around without understanding the consequences. The cult was obsessed with him.
- Nightingale (a.k.a. "Gale") (Angel): the ship's doctor with a crush on Midnight Storm. She is hunting her brother Bluejay. She also is trying to save everyone affected by the toxic dust from the last stop.
- Vivek (Savvyhead): drug dealer/maker who experiments with his own product. He bought a woman on the last stop named Donna.
Threat: The Void
Kind: Landscape: Furnace
Impulse: to consume things
Description: the big empty preys on the minds of those out there. Some go mad. Others just get depressed. Those who stare too long at the abyss see things. Worse sometimes they find things.
Custom Moves:
- When alone for a while or opening your mind in the Void, roll +Cool. On a 10+, you are fine. On a 7-9 you contract space madness. On a miss, treat as a miss on Space Madness.
- While in space you can sense danger using +Weird. On a 10+ you are aware of any danger. On a 7-9 you sense any danger and contract space madness. On a miss, treat as a miss on Space Madness with any danger incorporated into the delusion.
Kind: Affliction: Condition
Impulse: dominate people's choice and actions
Description: Space Madness is a psychological condition. It doesn't kill, it just distorts the perceptions of those afflicted. These delusions often lead to hostile or dangerous acts on others.
Custom Moves: Whenever you are alone for a while roll +Cool. On a 10+ you are okay. On a 7-9, the MC can choose 1:
- You hear something that isn't there
- Answer a question about your prejudices
- You see something that isn't there
These threats did not impinge on my character at all. Midnight Storm never needs to be alone and never opens his brain. His weird is -2 (ouch).
The Bottle Episode
Nightingale's box of blood samples clinked as she walked. Engineering was next to be tested for Krypton Dioxide poisoning. She found the crew playing cards and betting food rations.
"Who wants to be first?' she asked the men.
"First for what?" Tatters said squirming back in his seat.
"For a blood test," she said, opening the box and revealing several empty syringes. "If you are clean I won't need to treat you for the toxic dust."
"Um, I'd rather take care of that later. I'll meet you at the infirmary."
"Fine, but don't be long. Brace, how about you?"
The pilot looked up from his cards. "I will swing by after the game. I'm on a streak."
Gale looked at Bigs and Bullet. "Anybody ready to give some blood now or am I seeing everyone at the medbay?"
Bullet laid down his cards. "I'm not having much luck. Might as well get this out of the way."
Gale painlessly extracts his blood.
Rum entered the mess hall sniffling.
Midnight looked up the strings of his guitar. "What's wrong, little guy?"
"That big bald man yelled at me."
"Shiv?"
"I guess." The child sat down on the bench beside him.
"What happened?"
"I was just playing with a ball and he shouted at me. He said I was worthless."
Midnight put down his instrument. "I'll have a talk with him."
A short while later, the musician found Shiv in his bunk. "Hey, why did you yell at Rum? He's just a little kid."
"Who?" he said barely looking at Midnight. "I haven't yelled at anyone since take off."
Midnight studied the engineer but he appeared to be telling the truth.
Pretty sure I failed a Read a Person here.
Vivek jotted down some of his feelings and symptoms as he came down from a new batch of drugs. Elation. slight dizziness, a weird crinkly feeling to his skin.
Something moved in the darkness outside.
Vivek peered into the hallway. Someone, perhaps several people, crept away. He grabbed his gear and headed after them.
Space madness...
Nightingale encountered Brace in the medbay as he presented Tally with several extra days worth of rations. The weakened woman accepted them with a smile.
Brace turned to the doctor. "I'm ready to get my blood checked."
As Tally drifted off, Gale said, "That was a nice thing you did."
"It was nothing."
Gale put her samples away and gathered her equipment. "What spurred that generosity?"
There was opposed Read a Person rolls here but we forgot to record the substance it.
Brace attempted to deflect her questions with some of his own. "You've never talked to me about your brother."
As she drew his blood, Gale explained her relationship with Bluejay and subsequent search for her missing brother. Brace in turn described his feelings towards Tally.
"You know, I could call your brother here," Brace said. "My powers reach that far."
"Really?"
"I think so."
The intercom crackled to life. "Brace, I need you up here."
"Coming Captain," Brace buzzed in.
Once at the bridge, Farley pointed to the monitor. A dense nebula dominated the view.
Brace reached out with his mind. He felt the cold clouds of gas, the jagged hunks of rock, and something else. The burn of impulse drives at max power. Radioactive craft, their systems overclocked, hunted a doomed spaceship. Reavers.
Opening his brain and getting a hard hit.
"We should go around," Brace said coldly.
"How much time will we lose?"
"A week," he calculated. "But it will be safer."
"Plot the course."
Outside the medbay, Midnight ran into Rum. "I talked to Shiv but he said he didn't yell at you. What really happened?"
Rum's face frowned. "He did! He did yell at me! You don't believe me!"
Midnight watched helplessly as the child ran off.
"Hello, Midnight," Gale said as he entered.
The young man notices the doctor is out of her usual space suit and in a more form-fitting dress.
"Uh, hi," he says.
I'm not sure I've mentioned it but during the Hx phase of character creation, Midnight stated Gale was in love with him. She finally decided to act on that.
"Please sit here."
As Gale talked to him as she gently drew and tested his blood. She hinted at her attraction and Midnight responded with his usual eagerness.
"Let's go into the quarantine room," Gale suggested.
The pair moved to the screened and isolated chamber, away any distractions.
Suddenly Tally's health monitor went crazy. Alarms sounded and Gale rushed to her side.
"Her blood pressure is dropping. Midnight get me that med kit on the counter." Gale slapped Tally's face. "Stay with me."
Gale threw herself into her work, applying drugs and whatever tools she could.
"Vivek, wake up!"
Vivek opened one eye.
"We need that blood purifier now!"
He looked at the panel on the wall and pressed a red button. "What is the rush, Gale?"
"The rush is that Tally is dying. We need to clean her system of the Krypton Dioxide."
"Is she stable? I'm not sure you should be taking a break if she's not."
Gale fumed on the other end. "I'll be over in a minute."
Five minutes later, Gale bursts into his room. "Did you see what Brace was doing in your workspace?"
"What!?" Vivek said as he hurried into the next room.
The door clanged shut behind him.
"I know you have everything to build the purifier," Gale called to him. "I'll let you out when you are done."
Vivek sighed. He grabbed an old vacuum system, a centrifuge, and some other odds and ends.
As he worked he heard Midnight's muffled voice.
"So it worked?"
"Yes of course. You know how protective he is of the grow room."
"I took-" Vivek dropped a pipe with a clatter. "-from Vivek’s stash.”
The voice receded, leaving a tired inventor to his work.
Pretty sure that last item was also space madness.
Midnight groggily realized he wasn't alone in bed. Warm skin pressed up against him. She mounted and rocked his body.
He blinked and pushes Donna off of him.
She moved to embrace Midnight but he stumbled to his feet.
"How did you get in here?" he asked.
"The door was unlocked. You look so amaz-"
"No, how did you get on the ship?" She smiled and he smiled back. "I mean I just wanted to know if any other fans came aboard as well."
Using some of my hold from entrancing her earlier.
"I came through an open hatch on the left side of the ship. Two people opened it as the engines powered up. I slipped in after them."
"Who were they?"
"They had thick cloaks on and there was a lot of dust. I couldn't tell."
"Okay, stay here. I need to tell the Captain. I'll be back soon."
"Okay," she said stretching out on his bunk.
"Captain?" Midnight called as he entered the bridge.
Brace looked up from a glowing monitor. "He's down in the Gallery. What is going on?"
Midnight explained the situation as Brace climbed up to the upper level to brew some tea.
"Would you like some?" the pilot said.
"Thanks."
The tea contains drugs that make it easier for Brace to probe people.
I also think there was some opposed Read a Person rolls here.
"I've always wondered, what keeps you going?"
"I don't know. I guess I just like making music."
"Why?"
"It helps people be happy. I like to make people's lives better. What about you?"
Brace looked out the transparent aluminum wall into space. "I'm not sure."
Midnight found Farley amid the paintings and books of the Gallery. "Captain there's trouble. We have stowaways."
"Who? How many?"
"At least three. One of which is a woman named Donna from the asteroid base. I have her in my cabin."
"I'll alert the rest of the crew."
Midnight opened the door to his bunkroom. No one was there. As he rushed inside, the door closed behind him.
Donna cringed beside Visage. The older man leveled a shotgun at Midnight’s side.
Then Midnight seized by force. The target: Visage's life.
Barely thinking Midnight Storm twitched his wrist. The spring on his sleeve pistol released and the gun landed in his hand. He fired. So did Visage.
Visage's clothing darkened around his chest. He stumbled back and collapsed. The shotgun landed at Midnight's feet. Donna screamed.
Only winged, Midnight stooped down to the dying man. Visage breathlessly said something, something about the third stowaway. Then the cult leader went still.
Visage has no armor and takes 2-harm +1 for terrible harm. He dies.
Midnight has 1-armor for Divine Protection, a new move he picked up. He takes 3-harm from the shotgun, -1 for armor, -1 for little harm.
The gunfire attracted the rest of the crew. Within minutes they removed the body and dragged Donna to a holding cell in the ship's lower levels.
Vivek left the medbay with the whir of the blood purifier filling the air. Gale checked Tally's vitals and leaned back. Tally slept, color returning to her face.
Midnight entered. "I was looking for some patching up. Our stowaway got the drop on me."
"Let me see," she said steering him to a bed. "You are lucky. Just some abrasions."
She patched him up and then invited him into the quarantine room.
Afterwards as they lay in the isolation chamber, she told him, "I love you."
"Um, I love you too."
Gale's face hardened as she saw through his weak lie.
Reading a person doesn't always help you.
Sex moves also triggered here so Gale is Hypnotized and both of us raised our Hx.
"Just go!" Gale said as Midnight stumbled out of the medbay.
Vivek watched from the hallway as the teen walked away slowly. Then he entered the infirmary himself. Inside Gale studied Tally's vital signs, blinking away some tears.
"Hey, do you need anything? I can watch Tally for a while if you need a bite to eat or something."
"That sounds like a good idea," she sniffed. "Do you want any?"
"Sure," he said settling into a chair.
She returned ten minutes later, a few cans in hand. Gale grimaced as she smelled the cat food. Vivek took a quick vape of his latest product to cover his own disgust.
"How are you doing?" she asked. "Any side effects?"
"No new ones."
"You know if you ever want to kick the habit I can help. We have a lot of detoxification drugs in stock."
"Maybe someday," he mumbled. "It looks like we are coming up on the next round of blood purification."
"Yes," she yawned.
"You rest, I'll take care of it."
I love these scenes of inter-character banter, probing their motivation and history.
Midnight slurped up some heavily spiced rations and tried to understand what he did wrong.
Bigs walked into the mess hall. "We've begun a search for the third stowaway Captain. But there's a problem."
Midnight looked up.
"What?" Farley asked.
"Tatters is missing."
Farley sighed. "Make sure people look for him as well. No one goes anywhere alone until this stowaway is found."
Midnight joined Bigs and his wife, Ula, on the search. The three of them lit up the dark corridors with the help of three heavy flashlights.
As they moved to the next level down, the musician stopped. Something rustled in the ventilation duct above his head. He gestured to the others as he followed the sound into a side room and then to another corridor.
He entered the cargo bay. As he strained to hear the sound, he noticed one of the storage containers was open. He shone a light inside. Tatters huddled on the metal floor in a fetal position. Blood and bruises covered every bit of his skin.
Brace prowled around outside Sun's quarters before knocking on the door.
The short angular woman answered. "What do you want, Brace?"
"I'm working on the electronics in the drive system. I thought you might want to help."
Sun smiles. "Sure, is something broken?"
"Not really I just want to fine tune things. In case we ever need to outrun someone."
As I expand these notes, I'm finding a lot of cryptic passages. For instance "Elsewhere, seeking companionship, Brace turns his eyes to Sun, inviting her to look at some electronic matters in the drive-room."
Now obviously there was a scene played out here but neither the notes nor my memory provide any clue to what that was.
So I may be crediting Brace with more guile than he had.
The pair went down into the tight confines of the drive room. As he helped her climb down to a subserver, he carefully scanned her mind.
Using his violation glove again and getting a hard hit on Deep Brain Scan.
A vision of blood, violence and death surfaced. Sun argued with a man named Grome outside her bunkroom. Grome had been messing with her stuff. She killed him.
"After we are done here," he said casually, "how about we have some tea?"
"Sure."
Later over tea, he enticed her with his unearthly grace. As she fell under his spell, he slipped a hand on her shoulder and sank his hooks into her mind.
So he succeeds at a number of Weird rolls here. First he used Unnatural lust fixation to seduce Sun. Then using a +1 bonus from the drugs in the tea, he used In-Brain Puppet Strings.
Forgive yourself, he sent into her mind. Sun stiffened. Then Brace let go of his remaining power over her.
"What? What did you do?"
"I hope I helped you."
As Sun cried and smiled, Brace wondered if his powers could do more good than harm.
Midnight and Bigs carried Tatters into the infirmary.
"We found him like this," Ula told Gale. "He's barely breathing."
Gale checked his heartbeat. It throbbed weakly. The medic opened herself to the void and touched the dying boy.
She blinked to find herself in a wooden church.
Tatters hung from the cross at one end. Above a bell tolled. Something scratched at the thick doors.
Voices snarled and screamed, slamming against the door.
The doors shuddered as Gale tried to pull Tatters down. The locks cracked and a mass of reavers spilled into the church.
Gale blinked again as Tatters convulsed on the table.
Gale fails her Healing Touch roll.
The medic broke out the paddles and syringes. After a half hour, she stabilized Tatters but just an inch from death. The boy remained in a coma.
"Did you hear about Tatters?" Bigs told Brace.
"They found him?"
Then Bigs explained what happened.
The pilot stormed down to the brig.
Water and blood stained the metal floor. A wadded up sheet stained red sat in a tub. Above it, the grill of a ventilation duct hung loosely.
Brace reached out his mind for Donna.
But only gets a soft hit to open his brain.
He felt fists hitting flesh. The first struck out at a towering figure. Another face came into focus as the brawler lashed out at them. Shiv.
Brace snapped back to reality. The experience reminded him of the past, of his father and of the abuse he inflicted on his mother.
Vivek's team finished their search for the stowaway an hour ago but he paced in his bunkroom unsatisfied.
He reached out with his mind.
Where could he be? Vivek sensed a space, small but just large enough by the landing gear.
A soft hit on opening his brain.
He grabbed some tools and materials. With booby trap plans on his mind, Vivek headed for the bowls of the ship.
Gale peers down from the bridge into drive room. Brace crouched by one of the drives, tweaking input parameters.
"Brace? You said you could call my brother to us?"
He looked up. "Yes."
"Please could you call Jay? I want to see him."
He stands up. "I'll put out the call."
Brace climbed up into his chair on the lower level of the bridge. He carefully booted the link-flight system and put on the peripherals.
"Bluejay," he called out into the void.
Then as I remember, he failed the roll and we ended the session.
Guess who will be my new threat?
