Recruitment #04
Lacuna Part I. The Creation of Mystery and the Girl from Blue City.
The fourth session was held a few hours after the third. While I had originally hoped to have five players, the three others (from the first three sessions) realized they had to be fair and give time to the other storytellers in their lives. So I ended up with two new players for this session. As before, snacks and drinks were permitted with a bit of small talk before we started the session. I used the same music as in the previous games to begin the game, and shifted the lights as before. I realize now I love making the room during sessions in the Blue City look and feel different. From the use of lights, incense, music, and props, the Blue City scenes should always feel surreal. Or dark. Or at least different. And since I run this game in real time, at any point when interruptions or breaks are necessary (such as when my dog, Yoshi, makes a mess on the floor that needs to be cleaned up, or when someone knocks at the door), I switch out of Blue City mode, shift music to Control meeting, and turn back on the lights.
Agent Smith and Agent Kaufman were to be our new set of candidates. Smith was trained by Senior Agent Chambers, and opted for the Caller technique. Kaufman had the Contact technique.
Their mission was tricky:
1) Locate the Personality named Candy.
2) Identify her contact.
3) Locate her Shelter.
4) Acquire Device from Control.
5) Plant "Device" in her Shelter.
6) Exit via rooftop.
7) Eject.
Smith opened his eyes to find himself lying in a playground, with the swing set above his face. He got up, headed for the street and quickly communicated with Control his whereabouts. Kaufman had been chosen as Team Leader, and Smith was denied the mission parameters until Kaufman gave explicit permissions. A man was lying by the see-saw. Smith evaded his notice, headed down the road, and hoped to get information soon.
Kaufman in a room with a barred door, inside some building. Using the nearby hammer to pry the board away, he realized his hands were calloused from using the hammer before. He had no recollection of this. Heading down, he saw two squirrels in the stairwell, that were arguing in a very humanistic manner. Prying the nearby wall open with the hammer, he finds them filled with nuts. He pulls a few out, but the squirrels seemingly come to a true before he could offer them. He shoves them back.
Smith reaches a crossroad and notices the street he is on is "The Mission" and the cross streets are "Left" and "Right." Calling Kaufman, Kaufman finally finds a hard line and calls Control. He gets the mission parameters and tells Smith to head down the Right way. Kaufman promises to catch up. Smith notices at the far end of the street, a massive building called "The Cafe" awaits. There, he meets the waiter up front who misindentifies him as "Ma'am." When he corrects him, the waiter admits he thought he was "Candy" who loves to surprise them and wear disguises. Smith realizes he's in the right place and asks to be brought to where Candy usually waits. He decides to wing it and tells the cafe owner he is Candy, and convinces him he's just her in disguise. The owner mentions that agents have been looking around for her and Smith tells the owner "she's" expecting an imposter to show up today.
On his way, Kaufman is intercepted by a patrol. The cops are spidermen, and this fact unnerves the new recruit. He leaps into a basement doorway and runs, hoping to evade the spidermen. The corridor ends at a door, which Kaufman bashes open to reveal a wine cellar. There, he breaks a few cases to delay the spidermen, and finds the locked passage leading out. He starts slamming the hammer against it to breach the wood.
Smith sees Candy finally arrive on a red motorcycle, and she seems unsettled about something. Smith keeps watch of her but nearly loses his cover when the waiter earlier nearly blurts something out. Candy jangles her charm bracelet over the staff and they vanish, as if the were merely illusions. Candy tells the customers to leave. Smith heads out casually, pretending to be one of the customers. Smith notices the charms in the bracelet increase in number. Thunder rumbles overhead.
Kaufman slides up the hatch to find himself in a kitchen. Grabbing the closest knife he can, he hears someone trying to follow up the hatch and slams the hammer down on a spiderman's head! He quickly heads out of the kitchen and finds himself back in the street. Smith contacts him and informs him Candy is in his vicinity. Smith is still waiting to see who her contact is, but seems to think the Cafe itself is "the shelter." Kaufman stays in the shadows and sees the Spiderman return to the car. Bleeding from the forehead, the other spiderman approaches him to apologise. The bleeding one instead grabs the other, then devours its head. The wound begins to heal. Kaufman quietly opts to sneak into the car and look for anything important while the Spiderman makes for the Cafe. He finds a brown envelop and slides it under his arm. He sadly finds nothing else.Smith spies on Candy, who meets the Spiderman like a lover. As the two share a long intimate kiss, Candy mentions something about having to move. About things no longer being safe. But as Candy heads to the roof deck once more, the Spiderman turns around and admits to the room that he knows "You are watching.." Smith opts to act, flinging the heavy metal chair at the Spiderman. The chaos eventually ends with the Spiderman brought down.
*
Control thanks them for their assistance. Control does admit that they were not successful in their mission. Control however tells them such failures do happen, and that if they ever opt to attempt again, to contact her as soon as possible. Kaufman wonders if he should tell the Smith, but he had peeked at the brown envelop and found it to be files on them. Their pictures were on the pages. As to what this meant, however, remained unclear as he could not make out the words.
*
This game wasn't as intense as the first three, but still had its moments. A pity none of the original three nor the fourth player were present or they would have figured out the riddle of what exactly "static" is. The game also featured a second time that a file contained interesting information that seemed to relate to the players themselves. Time will tell when more answers will be revealed.
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