The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

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FuzzyBoots
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Pratfall
HP: 2
Status: Settled


Everything was wrapped up, including subtly intimidating the criminal clown into compliance by summoning his mallet and placing it over his shoulder before dispelling the invisible barrier and offering discount coupons for further shows to everyone involved in compensation for the unexpected incident. Not that there was much I could do other than to handle it gracefully... good thing that I'm not dependent on this income. Always seems like something keeps happening, especially post-Merge. I'm going to have to print out more coupons. Maybe some that say "I had my crime foiled by a clown and all I got was a lousy discount coupon for a birthday show"? Meh, probably too flippant.

Outside, as he settled into the driver's seat of his colorfully painted Smart car -- Couldn't make a better clown car if they tried... -- Paul took his phone out of DND mode, and scanned through his messages.
Hearing voices, huh? Still, the name sounded familiar, if horribly generic, and something in him suggested it was a good idea to follow up. Hopefully, this isn't my comedy sense tingling... it wouldn't be so bad knowing that a cream pie was coming at me if the warning didn't seem timed so that it catches me square on.

He dialed John's number. "Hello, John? Paul Stubbs here. What can I do you for?"
Flynnarrel
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Flynnarrel »

John Smith

"Well, that was my question to you. I... really only got a voice saying I was supposed to contact you. There was this computer-brained meta and the Umbrella Corporation logo and... look, I'm in San Fransokyo as well and, I normally don't get involved with all this... power sh.. stuff but... I wouldn't have felt right if there was some warning I was supposed to give and then... so, maybe just... watch yourself, I mean, if you don't already know why a freaky digiware voice wanted me to get in touch..." John hesitates only a moment.

"I mean, you don't know why, do you? Cuz I'd really not like for that to just pop up randomly again. Maybe we can... figure it out?"
"Something pithy this way comes."
kirinke
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by kirinke »

Upon recognizing them, his face lights up. " Amy?! It's been forever! How are you? And...Alice? Wow...where did you two come from all of a sudden? Please...make yourselves feel comfortable! As much as that is possible, of course...things are still a bit sparse, haven't had time to really think about what interior design we need for the future...but say...how has life been treating you?"
Alice

"We've actually been following a series of coincidences and wound up here." she said with a chuckle and described her day. "Actually, things have steadied somewhat, enough so that my bosses decided I needed a bit of a busman's holiday." she said mildly. "I work for Dream and the Halloween King right now and we've been hearing rumors of Halloween monsters and nightmares not following the rules." she shrugged. "Jack doesn't like it when kids get hurt or killed and neither does Dream. Especially when it's linked to them." she smiled a little.

"So they tapped me to look into things and get it squared if necessary."
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jmucchiello
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by jmucchiello »

Amy

"I just work at the hospital up the street. When I was drawn to find Alicia here." Amy says. "Funny you were nearby all this time."
kirinke
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by kirinke »

Alice

"In the worlds I usually walk, coincidences don't exist. Especially ones that are so obviously contrived." she said dryly. "There are powers at work here, why I don't know and I suspect they're being relatively subtle to casual observance so as not to attract too much attention." she said. "I also don't know why they're being so sneaky." she sighed.

She looked honestly confused. "This entire situation is decidedly odd." she then smiled. "Which is par for the course when you follow the Rabbit." you get the distinct feeling she's not really all that used to talking to humans, or rather she's fallen out of being used to talking to humans. That and her idea of logic isn't.... Normal.

Dreaming logic is vastly different from the logic of the Human realms. After all in the Dreaming, two plus two can equal potato or an Ace of Diamonds, instead of four.
Kirinke's Compendium of Wondrous Creatures
Kirinke's Conversions (D&D Items to M&M3E Rules)

Battle Init
Viv: 24
Ren:22
Peekaboo: 20
Deutschritter: 19
Amy: 15
Angrboda: 15
Adeleth: 14
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Lilly: 7
Alma: 5
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

Image
Elizabeth "Eli" Walsh
HP: 2
Status: Normal
~^v~~v^~

The young woman shuffled her feet a little awkwardly at the question. Cat would've known that Eli was never one to get the best grades in class, she just never really had that type of aptitude. For as much as she wanted to be a detective like her father, deduction just wasn't her strong suit naturally. "Uhm... None to much. Mostly physical conditioning and drilling procedures so far. I should probably get a head start before we do."
Am I dead? Am I alive? The answer may surprise you!
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FuzzyBoots
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Pratfall
HP: 2
Status: Curious


"Come to think of it," Pratfall said, scratching the side of his nose, engendering a comedically loud squeaking sound, "It's kind of weird that I get a clown-based villain crashing my party. It's like synecdoche, right? Kismet? Anyhow, he seemed like a normal kind of criminal, nothing earth-shattering, just a total traitor to the grease-paint, you know?"

After a pause, he asked, "Just to be clear, being this close to San Francisco, this investigation talk isn't a coded reference, right? You're not asking me out on a date? I mean, it's fine you're like that, but my wife would probably object, of course." He feebly grinned at the other end of the line. Small talk was so much easier when he could insert punchlines.

"Anyhow, things wrapped up here pretty quickly with the criminal and all, so I could meet up with you. You can buy me a drink. Er... not that way. Right. Have you got a favorite watering hole? Ryan's Pub is generally pretty nice. And the nightly karaoke means we probably won't be overheard. Only problem is, well, the karaoke."
OOC wrote:It's not "synecdoche". :-P Pratfall is likely grasping for "serendipity".
Neo-Paladin
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Neo-Paladin »

Samuel

Samuel listens to them closely and calmly - something he had found out he was actually quite good at. Providence was a thing in the end.
And it was that train of thought which prodded him to ask, " Do these coincidences have anything to do with people spontaneously combusting?"
At the mention of the hospital, he nods. " Actually, one of the nurses is a member of our community. Mayfield, Sandra Mayfield."
Flynnarrel
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Flynnarrel »

John Smith

John chose not to correct it if the clown meant 'synchronicity' or 'serendipity'. For all John knew, Paul's goblinization manifests as some kind of malapropism.
FuzzyBoots wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:51 am After a pause, he asked, "Just to be clear, being this close to San Francisco, this investigation talk isn't a coded reference, right? You're not asking me out on a date? I mean, it's fine you're like that, but my wife would probably object, of course."
"Uh... no. Although I think attraction for either sex is a spectrum of it's own, independent of one another, though highly subject to cultural norms and biases often at war with biological proclivities... sorry, I was remembering the time I was substitute teach for a sex-ed class. Anyway, my dating app profile is set to look for women exclusively." It was true, though there were several John Smiths who preferred men to women none of them seemed to be in the 'only men' camp and the collective could reach a rare consensus.

"Let's meet at this 'Ryan's Pub'. Isn't it down by that 'Superman Church'? I can head there now." he offers, starting up his Geekmobile.
"Something pithy this way comes."
kirinke
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by kirinke »

Neo-Paladin wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:18 pm Samuel

Samuel listens to them closely and calmly - something he had found out he was actually quite good at. Providence was a thing in the end.
And it was that train of thought which prodded him to ask, " Do these coincidences have anything to do with people spontaneously combusting?"
At the mention of the hospital, he nods. " Actually, one of the nurses is a member of our community. Mayfield, Sandra Mayfield."
Alice

"Not that I am aware of. The Rabbit always leads me to where I need to be. Finding out why is my problem to solve." she said with a wry grin. "It can be... Challenging at times to find out why." she looked at the priest curiously. "So spontaneous combusting? I know of a few Nightmares and Dream Demons that can cause physical damage to dreamers and even kill them, but they are thankfully rare. I've never heard of them causing anyone to catch on fire and burn up though. So what is that all about?" she asked politely as the White Rabbit pointed his finger at the priest and danced around the group.
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pathfinderq1
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by pathfinderq1 »

Doctor Malsyn wrote: Sat Jun 15, 2019 4:02 pm The young woman shuffled her feet a little awkwardly at the question. Cat would've known that Eli was never one to get the best grades in class, she just never really had that type of aptitude. For as much as she wanted to be a detective like her father, deduction just wasn't her strong suit naturally. "Uhm... None to much. Mostly physical conditioning and drilling procedures so far. I should probably get a head start before we do."
Cat McKenzie
HP: 2; LP: 1; Condition- Normal

Cat shook her head lightly. "Well, you have to start with something, I guess. I've picked up a little, but I certainly wouldn't count it as formal training." with a last wave to Willow and Gabriella, she headed for the door. "Come on, we'll do a little bit of a walkabout..."

>OOC: Ready to head to the Church of El
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Bladewind
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Bladewind »

The young man speaking with Samuel adds, just before the others arrive.

"I did notice one other thing - although I don't know if it's statistically significant yet - all of the victims so far have been 'pure' Earthers. No powers - metagene or otherwise - no MGS, nothing..."

The group - with perhaps the exception thus far of Smith and Pratfall (perhaps the oddest pairing in the history of odd pairings...) find themselves converging at the Church of El in series of coincidences that cannot possibly be coincidences, and in a series of leads that are too tight and neat to be chance - or even more than one source.

As for John and Paul, it's easy to verify that the Umbrella Corporation - and any activity that they might pursue - is actively blocked by almost every world power, individual power and sane person for that matter. Too many have seen the movies and know what's behind them. They're too afraid of the implications of a Red Queen, Isaacs, Wesker and all the rest. Any activity related to the various viruses has been underground. No one in their right mind would use the Umbrella Corporation logo openly...

In another non-coincidence, Pratfall will find himself passing by a comic shop at some point with a trade paperback of Captain Britain and the spitting image of the clown he encountered (as well as, unbeknownst to him, the fleeting image that Alice had of a certain queen...):

Image
Thorpocalypse wrote: Sun Oct 07, 2018 6:01 pm Building to be comics "accurate" is different than building to run a PC or building something to challenge a group.
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Flynnarrel
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by Flynnarrel »

Smith's Geekmobile drives up to the karaoke bar, but finding no place to park there he drives over the Church of El nearby. He frowns at the result of the search into the Umbrella Corp he was conducting (while driving, and watching a sitcom, and being a buff-support/healer on a raid of the Orc King's Barrows)

"But no rest for the weary." he reminds himself and pulls himself together, mostly. One of John Smith goes to wait for Paul in the bar, and also to check that no crazy people are in there with chainsaws. One of him stays with the van, watching out so it doesn't get a ticket for taking up one whole space and a little of the space next to it (the Geekmobile is big), and, because he has his priorities right, John stays on the raid as well.
"Something pithy this way comes."
kirinke
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by kirinke »

Alice
The young man speaking with Samuel adds, just before the others arrive.

"I did notice one other thing - although I don't know if it's statistically significant yet - all of the victims so far have been 'pure' Earthers. No powers - metagene or otherwise - no MGS, nothing...
"

"Curiouser and Curioser." she said dryly. "So this is obviously why we are here. To find out who or what is causing this."
Kirinke's Compendium of Wondrous Creatures
Kirinke's Conversions (D&D Items to M&M3E Rules)

Battle Init
Viv: 24
Ren:22
Peekaboo: 20
Deutschritter: 19
Amy: 15
Angrboda: 15
Adeleth: 14
Thugs: 12
Lilly: 7
Alma: 5
jmucchiello
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Re: The Merge - Gestalt Syndrome (M&M 3rd ED) - IC

Post by jmucchiello »

Amy

Amy looks worried. "I d-d-don't know if I can help with that. Unless we need to fight fire with f-fire." She holds up her hand and fire appears on her fingertip for moment before she turns it off.
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