[Desolation] Chapter 1: Digging In

Red Bean, Fauci, & Hooper


"It's Balls. I am sure you will recognize him. Not sure if he will recognize you." Balls was on his way out when Red Bean had arrived. She didn't have much interaction with the man. Same with Fauci. Just enough to know he was bad news.
 
Everyone


Lip, the survivor from the caravan that Koch knows, is being treated by Saw Bones.


An eccentric "Professor" of biology.


His "Lab" is in a converted storage shacks at the back of the grounds.


Koch


Choose 1:

  • where’s my best escape route / way in / way past?
  • which enemy is most vulnerable to me?
  • which enemy is the biggest threat?
  • what should I be on the lookout for?
  • what’s my enemy’s true position?
  • who’s in control here?



Graves & Ryoma


Other than her soped hunting rifle, Twee has a revolver, a knife, a worn and torn kevlar vest, and a pack of cigarettes.


You take her crap and drag her down into the main building.


The door to her cell slams shut.


She's still unconscious.


The deed done, you both stand there.


What do you do?


Red Bean, Fauci, & Hooper


Hooper, Red Bean is going on about Balls.


You remember that he was a prick to almost everyone.


He did some crazy shit.


The final straw was that he hadn't paid his tribute to Graves.


So, Graves kicked him and his two-bit whore, Twee, out.


What do you do?
 
Graves.


It finally dawns on Graves how hungry he is.


"I'm having my damn breakfast. You want to come?"
 
"With pleasure," says Ryoma, pleasantly, taking his arm. To spread the dharma, one must move adroitly through the world of men. If that meant attaching herself to a leader, then so be it: becoming a useful sword for Graves could be a step into turning him into a seed of enlightenment... whether he knows it or not.


And, if she got more tranquil quarters out of it, a happy bonus!
 
Graves


Graves makes for the canteen. He could head for his quarters and have something brought to them, but he can't read Ryoma. An odd fish, but pleasant.


"So are people learnin' what you've been teachin'? That was some mighty fine work today, and if you can teach some of my gang moves like that..."
 
Hooper


She figures Balls is being brazen enough to not need to ask for directions before lumbering out of the bar and back into the yard. The bodies from earlier are gone but the dried crimson remains on the ground and several walls. If she was still able to feel a sense of joy, she would have been smiling at the stains.


She starts wheezing and realizes no one will talk or reveal the whereabouts of Balls. She shrugs and decides to ask her face...


I open my brain to the malestrom
 
She smiles sweetly. "Some are, some are not. It finds purchase in the strangest people... like Skags. Perhaps I should make my stay here more permanent... I could teach your soldiers, if you would give me more pleasant quarters and a place to teach..."
 
Graves


Graves strokes his stubbled chin.


"Perhaps I can arrange something like that. I'll have to see. Space is at a premium, you know? I'm not saying you haven't earned it, but..."
 
"You're a clever man," she says, gently, watching his fingers move across the fine bristle of hair. "I'm sure you already have something in mind."
 
It isn't that Red Bean spends a lot of her time listening to the Maelstrom, but she knows when others are listening in. Seeing Hooper pause for a moment, she knows the look from the times she has reached out before. She opens her mind lightly, hoping to keep the maelstrom from taking a shot at the unprotected mind of Hooper.
 
Koch


You need to be on the lookout for a booby-trap.


There is a hidden stash under one of pickup truck's beds.


It's trapped.


You step up to the row of vehicles--three pickups and two RVs--in the yard.


You notice someone eyeing the goods.


Theo.


A dirty kid in a hoodie.


He has a pump-shotty resting over his shoulder.


Part of Grave's gang.


He looks at you, Koch.


"You gonna tell us what all this shit is, 'K'?"


What do you do?


Hooper


Roll+weird.


Add +1 for Red Bean's aid.


You're looking for Balls in the Maelstrom, right?


What does the Maelstrom like?


What do you see as you slip into it?


Red Bean


You do manage to help control Hooper's entrance into the Maelstrom.


But, in doing so, you can feel yourself being dragged in as well.


You'll need to act under fire not to get dragged into the Maelstrom.


Roll+cool.


Graves & Ryoma


You both head down to the mess.


There's actually a decent number of people here, this morning.


Mrs. Agnes is wiping glasses behind the bar.


She nods to you as you enter.


Sitting at the bar, Barker, the armory watchman is slugging shots.


In a corner, Hooper, Red Bean, Fauci, and some kid with a burnt face stand together.


Hooper and Red Bean look like they're having some kind of seizure.


What do you do?
 
Roll completed earlier!


Hooper


For Hooper, entering the malestrom is something quite different. She's detached from it mostly, the only thing telling her what was happening is her face. The silver mask seems to be radiating violence in the real world, Hooper somewhat blinded as her face navigates the malestrom for her.


For Hooper, the malestrom is a place of animalistic scents and raw primal energies. The very stuff her face fed her to make her strong. In this primeval world, Her face searches for the scent of her prey. The man she seeks.


Feeling someone else in the void, her face tries to scare it away. Thoughts of the nearly infite acts of violence perpetrated by Hooper are fed into the malestrom.
 
A Buddhist, a machinist, a mayor, a slasher villain, and a new age guru walk into a bar...


Take Graves' reserved table, I'd imagine. He does have a reserved table, yes?
 
Sister Red recognizes the problem almost immediately. Hooper is part of the problem. Her anger and aggression feed the maelstrom. She has been preaching a still soul, and Hooper is quite the opposite. She had hoped that Hooper, deep inside was quieted, but it appears that she was wrong.


She braces for impact and Hooper slams the maelstrom back to her. If she can, she also tries to push the idea of where Hooper is back into her face, trying to assist, but mostly being the lightning rod for the ange that swirls around Hooper. (Thought it seems the dice roller is trying to kill her more than Hooper)
 
Graves


Of course I've got a damned table. Sometimes need it for negotiations. Over by fallen section of wall so it gets sunlight - there's glass haphazardly attached over it to keep the wind out.
 
She slides in beside Graves, but finds herself gazing out the window. There are no routines in the wasteland. Yesterday is as different from today as today will be from tomorrow: here, in the badlands, sand shifts and dust gathers, covering and uncovering the markers of old tombs. Old graves, if you will. Our 'being,' the aggregation of ideas and instincts and unformed assumptions, is no more permanent than an arrangement of dust.


Yes, she is definitely hungry. A battle and a capture will do that!
 
Koch


To explain further.


You approach the three pickups and two RVs.


As you move toward the first pickup, your trained eye picks up something unusual.


Amid the junk in the back of the pickup, there is a thin aisle down the middle of the bed.


You see a tripwire running across that aisle.


Strange to have a tripwire where no one can trip.


What do you do?


Hooper


Nice roll.


Your mind is enveloped in blood.


The warm metallic liquid flows through you senses.


You can smell it, taste it, feel it.


Through it, you hear a torrent of sounds.


Screams of agony.


Gunfire.


A knife cutting flesh.


Images swirl, come into focus, then fade to blood:


First, you see a man screaming and gurgling as his throat is opened by a knife.


Second, an image of a woman screaming.


She puts her hands in front of her as boiling water is poured over her face, melting her flesh.


Third, you see a man's spine flattened with a sledge hammer.


Finally, a face comes into view.


Ugly.


Bald.


Angry.


Balls.


You see the asshole clearly.


He's frantic, searching, upset.


Then, he passes something and you recognize it immediately.


A rain catcher on the roof.


You know exactly where he is.


What do you do?


Now, a question for you:


Who were you BEFORE you were enslaved and turned into a masked murdere?


Red Bean


This time, the rage is too much.


You feel it swallow you whole.


A million razors tear your flesh apart.


You're trapped under a storm of pain.


You know, somehow, you've gone too far.


Filling in the gaps, your brain gives you the feeling you're falling.


Like Alice and her fucking rabbit hole, you're falling, deeper and deeper.


Then, through the hate and rage, you feel a pistol pressed to your chest.


The feeling of helplessness fills you body.


Despite your struggling, you can't get away.


The trigger depresses.


BLAM!


A bullet tears through you lung.


BLAM!


Another though your neck.


BLAM!


Yet another through you stomach.


Three brass shells tumble past you eyes.


[1-harm, ap]


Then, you wake up, back at Agnes' bar.


You're on the ground looking up at the rafters.


Warm blood oozes from your ears.


What do you do?


Ryoma & Graves


You both sit down at Graves' table.


The strange sight of Hooper and Red Bean convulsing continues.


Fauci looks on.


The burnt kid leaves, clearly weirded out by the whole thing.


Agnes comes over and sets a water in front of you both.


She looks at each of you and asks, "What'll it be this morning?"


Then, Red Bean falls over backwards as she passes out.


Blood is running from her ears.


What do you do?
 
Who was I? Before I found my face?


I was the kid who had it all. A type of bliss you won't find any place. It was ignorance. I had a mom. A dad. A brother who laughed at my doll. I had food and water but what we didn't have was enough sense to make ourselves scarce when gangs started moving in.


It was blood red outside when they came. Tore the door down and took away my family. My parents were gone like that. My brother I never saw again. They took me from my house. I lost my doll. I was five...


Then things got blurry for a long time. Just images and chunks of time I don't usually remember. They make me hurt and my face keeps them down.


Then I found it. I saw the silver glinting through the dirt and trash that made my cell. I dug until my fingers bled, my fingernails never grew back. I made a hole and got my face. I had something again. I was whole.


That's when I started getting strong. That's when I stopped caring. That's when I started killing.


Hooper


Shrugging off the malestrom, Hooper stares at Bean with her dead eyes. She'd have to watch the sister more than she thought. Twitching, she throws open the door and leaves the bar. Balls was on the roof. She had to hurry.


Gripping the wall of the prison, Hooper starts scaling the building. Her hands grip tight enough to tear chunks from the building. Soon enough, her hands get ahold of the lip and she hauls herself up.
 
"I'll have the armadillo pie with water," says Ryoma, as she watches Red Bean spasm and bleed. Psychic maelstrom? Seems like it, and a bad jump, too. The maelstrom is a decoy, a substitute for enlightenment that entraps the foolish. Ryoma has little sympathy for the leader. She peddles an empty philosophy, teaching ideas she does not understand with the aid of a mongrel martial art. All the same... 'twould be unsanitary to let her bleed out in the cafeteria. Perhaps some of Graves' men can carry her to the doc -- where she could recover, die, or spend the rest of her short existence clawing at her ears trying to get the brain out.
 
I give Theo a solid stare, Graves gang is at least more disciplined than most but they be fucked if they knew anything about manners, or courtesy. I never addressed the Major or the Captain or even the Sergeants by name when I was younger. Different environments, whatever, fuck him.


"All this shit here Theo is obviously battlefield loot." I try to put an emphasis on saying his name, hopefully the kid'll take the hint.


I had more to ramble on about when I caught sight of the wire in the bed of the truck. I'm not familiar with the make or model, especially not civilian-made vehicles like this. Fauci would like be able to just touch the thing and tell an instant more than he should ever know about it. Not being him and not having him on hand, I figure it's best if I don't owe him by bugging him about this.


"Theo go find Saw Bones and ask him if his patient could be wheeled on back out here for a quick game of twenty questions."


Looking back at the wire I try to gauge where it goes into the truck itself and then kneel on down to the ground to get a look underneath it, trying to see where it might be. Hopefully what it's attached to as well.
 
Graves


"Fried liz- Oh, hell. Fried lizard and eggs, Agnes. Give me a second-"


He gets up and grabs a few dining gangmembers. "...Just get her to the doc, quick, right? And we were three days without a death..."


That dealt with, he slips back into his seat.


"Sorry, responsibility to the people, you know?"
 
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