Content Warning: Strong Language
Thursday, October 17th, 1996. 1:50am
Scene Chaos Factor: 6
Expected Scene: Inside the target house in Barstow
Testing the Expected Scene: 9 - Expected Scene
The old guy entered the room and moved over to the table I'd climbed across, I could only see a vague silhouette in the dark, so I stood up and snuck up behind him. I jammed the barrel of my Berreta into his kidney and clamped my left hand over his mouth.
"Don't make a sound, and you won't get hurt", I snarled in his ear.
Empathy Check: Does Eamon intimidate the old guy? Five dice + 1 for using the pistol - 1, 1, 4, 5, 5, 6 - One success.
The old guy nodded weakly, and I took my hand away from his mouth, although I left the pistol pressed up against his side.
"Please do not be hurting me," he said. "There is very little in the house, and I am just trying to take care of my son." His breathing was a little shallow and ragged, and there was the stink of stale vomit about him.
"Where is your son?" I asked.
"He is in the living room, near the front of the house."
I slipped my backpack off, and pulled a zip tie out with my left hand. Sticking the Beretta back into my waistband, I zip tied his wrists together, so he couldn't pull any funny business.
"I'm really not after anything you might have here," I said. "I'm after information that I think might be in this house. I get that, and I'm gone. Do you understand me?"
He just nodded slightly.
"Take me to your son, and don't try anything stupid, OK?"
He just nodded again, and led me into into the hallway.
It was a little lighter in here, as there was a flickering light from a small candle coming from a doorway down the hall. The hallway also smelled fairly strongly of incense and stale piss as we moved towards the front of the house. It wasn't particularly pleasant, and made me wonder if the lack of hygiene here was what was making the old guy sick.
He led me into the living room, where the first thing I saw was an emaciated looking man in a Stimulus TLE-Pro neurocaster lying on the couch. His breathing was very shallow, but he appeared to be alive. He was practically naked, only wearing some sort of loincloth. His skin was shiny from sweat, and god only knows what other bodily fluids. The smell of incense tried hard to cover it, but not all that well.
The rest of the room was surprisingly clean. There was no sign of garbage, and next to the couch sat a plastic bucket with a damp cloth hung over one edge. Over on an old dining table at the other side of the room lay the disassembled parts of a home made drone, similar to the ones outside. I guess the guy in the 'caster was the one who was driving them after all.
On a shelf above the couch was a small shrine, where a small ceramic statue of Ganesha - the Hindu elephant headed god - was flanked on either side by two smouldering incense sticks. I guess the old man was doing his best under the circumstances to purify the room, even if it was an uphill battle.
I nodded towards the guy on the couch. "Is this your son?"
The old man nodded.
"What's his name?"
"His name is Nym," he said. "He has been trapped inside that thing for a week now, and I am worried I am losing him."
I felt the blood drain out of my face, and my head whipped around to stare at the old man. "Nym? Nym Shani?"
The old man's eyes went wide, and he looked at me. "Do you know my son?"
Fuck. Me. Of all the houses in Barstow, I happen to bust into the place my target was hiding. Unbelievable.
"No, I've never met him. But I was asked to see if I could find him."
"Can you help him, sir?" the old man asked. "Can you free him from whatever has trapped him inside that machine?" He had placed his palms together - despite the zip ties around his wrists - and looked as if he was praying.
I squatted down next to the old guy. "Have you tried taking his 'caster off?"
"Oh no!" he said, shaking his head. "My son made me promise that I would never do that to him. I was just to look after him, and he would come out periodically of his own volition. He did that for a while, but he has not come up for a week now. He hasn't eaten anything, and I can barely get him to drink. I am worried that if he does not come out soon, he will be trapped in there forever and he will die."
Judging by the look of him, he's not far off that now.
"What's your name?" I said to the old guy.
"Vinit. Vinit Shani."
"Unfortunately, Vinit," I said, "you are right there. Your son is lost in the neuroscape, and can't come out of his own choice at the moment."
"Is there nothing you can do? Can you not go in after him and guide him out again?"
Given how shocked and stressed I was feeling at the moment, I wasn't going to the 'scape again right now. Not to mention trying to take Shani out in his home territory. So to get him out, I was going to have to dump him out. This was not going to be pretty.
Before Vinit could react, I grabbed another zip tie from my backpack and snapped it around Shani's bony wrists.
As I reached for Shani's neurocaster, Vinit realised what I was about to do, and lunged forward trying to stop me. "Please! No! Don't do that!"
Opposed Agility Test: Vinit's Agility is four, reduced by -2 due to his sitting position and bound wrists, but he still trying to stop Eamon from taking the caster off.
Vinit: Two dice - 1, 4 - No successes.
Eamon: Four dice - 1, 3, 4, 4 - No successes.
I had planned on powering down Shani's caster first, to make his ejection a little gentler, but Vinit lunged into my arm as I was reaching for it. He pulled on my arm and pulled on it, which in turn yanked the neurocaster off Shani's head completely without powering it down first.
Shani screamed weakly and curled up into a ball on the couch, sobbing hysterically. I'd seen people forcibly ejected from the neuroscape a few times, and it was always heart breaking. But sometimes, it's really the only way to do it.
Shani's Hope score immediately drops to zero, and I need to roll d66 on the Mental Trauma table: 41- Confused - 01 die on Wits rolls.
Vinit pushed past me and tried to wrap his arms around his son. He was sobbing as well, clutching his son's head to his chest and rocking back and forth gently.
At that point, I felt the best thing to do was just sit back against the wall and give them the space.
End of Scene Bookkeeping
Eamon was mostly in control, so the Chaos Factor decreases to five.
Added Vinit Shani to the Character List.
End of Scene Notes
A fairly short scene, where Eamon catches up with the knowledge that we learn out-of-character a couple of scenes back. It also introduces Vinit Shani properly.
I’ll admit that it’s a bit weak sauce to have Eamon just find Shani right away, but that was the way the fate questions came out, and I vowed to myself when I started this that I’d play the dice rolls as they lay.