It's night

[S] Wake

 

[✓] Do the Harlem Wake

 

You know what getting tazed and then chloroformed feels like now. That's what the coat was for. You're not going to pretend that you're good at noticing these things. You're good at reading people, but not when it comes to combat tricks. You make deals not war. So you're here with your hands cuffed together and your feet cuffed to a chair in some basement looking area and Ahomega is talking to someone on the phone on the other side of a glazed glass door. You can't hear it, but she looks like she's talking to her boss from how she's bobbing her head up and down. Silly Japanese.

You're in front of a table, or behind it, let's just go with at it. And there's an industrial printer not far from it and it's making printing noises. Okay, so you're kidnapped again. That's clear, but why? What made that pure sweet looking girl decide to turn this into a weird rape scenario? Maybe she's a cultist. That's possible. You heard that there are a lot of Japanese kids joining cults these days. Something about the recession. Ahomega walks in before hanging up, big mistake. The last thing you hear her say equates to, "Yes, FB." So that's her boss. Eff Bee. She looks at you and apologizes for the rough methods. You tell her that you're fine with her being rough with you. She doesn't get it. How innocent, you just want to do dirty things to her now. After you are free and are certain she's unarmed. Yes. After that.

She picks up the papers from the printer and slides them across the table to you and says to read. You do so. So the man you're working for is called Chris Thorsen or Thorsen Technologies. He's a big player in info selling and illegal arms deals and has been known to kick puppies. FB is coercing you into using your position in his employ to do some spying for him/her/it. Well, coercing and paying. So if you think about it, it's actually not that bad if you don't get caught. If you don't get caught. Last page is a contract. Figures they'd want it in writing even though they're a shadow organization.

You ask who FB is. Ahomega says it's her boss. You knew that. She doesn't care. Okay, so why is FB looking to take down Thorsen? She doesn't know. Does she care? No. Alright, so why doesn't she care? It's none of your business, apparently. What's the penalty for just taking your chair and hopping out of here ungracefully. None, the door's locked and there are stairs. Touche.

She looks kind of stressed out. You tell her that she needs to get used to killing people if she's going to be doing this kind of thing. She says that she'll keep you alive if she's allowed. How sweet. You feel like you're the kitten she found in the park and brought home now. She says that you should just sign it and get on with it, Thorsen is a bad guy and it's not like you're much worse off if you decide to double cross him, he's not exactly trustworthy. You ask her why she trusts someone who won't even give her a name? She frowns and stays quiet. You should...

[] Push.
[] Sign.

 

Sign the contract and try to get her to do more cute things. Also get a little more information about Facebook FB if possible.​

 

Time to die, Thorsen. SIgn that ****.

 

[ ♥ ] S I G N ; Boy, can't wait to see the results of this one.​

 

What you do next surprises her. Rather than pushing the issue and trying to get her to break down and accept that she's just a worthless little kid without a greater understanding of the world you ask for a pen. Seriously, she's dumbstruck. Starts to say something, stops. Starts again, stops. Starts a third time and just hands you a pen. With a confident internal scoff you sign the papers and receive a text message on your phone. It links to a website where you can download an AR application. Apparently, this is how FB communicates with its agents. Yeah, you're an agent now. There's no helping the unfortunate facts here, you're now officially a twice crossing, double thinking, some other duplicity related descriptor kind of guy. No helping it really. The key to being a hostage negotiator is to know when you're allowed to give up and when you're allowed to keep fighting.

You ask if the handcuffs can go. She says you're gonna wake up without them. Really? This basement is kind of a secret. Kind of? Yes, kind of. So you ask if you should get the chloroform now or wait until you're feeling drowsy. She says that you have a flight to catch so it's gotta be now. You ask if this is how FB always communicates. She doesn't know. She only knows that the chloroform and the handcuffs were her mother's at one point. Nothing to it but to do it.

 

Wake up again.​

 

You're now officially a twice crossing, double thinking, duo times waking kind of guy.

 

It's night. You haven't been to England for a while. The food is terrible, the people are rude, the criminals are armed and you're about to spend two years here. Glorious. Well, actually, you're probably just here for a layover. Your real job is probably gonna be somewhere in Asia or back in America even. You're sighing a lot apparently, because the guy next to you asks you if you're doing alright. You tell him to kindly fuck himself off without using any of that language. In fact it sounds more like you're just saying that you're fine and planes just make you sigh. He just shuts up. By the accent you can tell that he's Texan. Southerners are terrible. You can't believe you're one of them sometimes. Your accent doesn't betray you that fact though. You spent hours trying to ditch it when you first dropped out of school. You sigh again, when is this flight going to end? You've been feeling decent accelerations for a while. It's not like there's a way to know until you're below the clouds.

When you're disembarking the same guy does that annoying thing where he stands out of your way and waves his arm asking you to go ahead of him despite the fact that he should be ahead of you. Fuck him. You want to just shove him in front of you and tell him to move on but you thank him and rush off as fast as possible.

Alright, so you're here in Bristol somewhere. You should...

[] Check around the airport.
[] AR application.
[] Go to a hotel.

 

checkoutheairport .

 

Look for something or someone in the airport.​

 

Alright so for the two or three of you responding and the hypothetical silent audience as well, I think it's finally time I give a brief reader's manual. Because let's be honest, quest threads aren't a thing on khv and when they are everyone does them differently.

First, all quest threads are actually eroge. You can, and I sorta encourage, you to search out pairings in the cast. It's a small thing that won't go anywhere more often than not, but the power of love is a huge thing in fiction and it can greatly affect the story if you want to try and do it right.

Also, I give you choices to outline the types of thoughts the character might be having, but **** in between or totally outside of that is also valid provided you can get some people to support it or get me to like it. So take the options with the knowledge that I do have some character traits outlined for each person but you shape them and they can end up totally different from how they start. Eventually, I start just giving no options anyway.

Alright, so next is arguing with other people. You should try to get people to change their votes to yours if there's ever a tie. Tiebreaker votes are cool and all but fighting figures it out faster sometimes and it's just more amusing for everyone involved.

Next, keywords and parallel situations. Since there are a bunch of characters running in parallel, you have to control which one gets time. So I have keywords. Be the other guy is an easy one. Switch characters. It usually comes up as an option when a line is slowing down or transitioning. It means you cut out the end of that line and pick up somewhere else earlier in that line. Another is do the time warp. It means you get to skip over an event in some way shape or form. I use it mostly to keep within a single line but skip over things like flashbacks or sleeping. So last is be yourself. Self explanatory, if you would switch, you don't. So there are tons of other possible keywords but those are the three that I can think of.

Finally, spread the plague. Soon everyone will care about the least interesting time of day or something.



Updates begin again tomorrow.

 

(post because double-posts are ugly)​

 

You haven't been to this particular airport in the past so you decide to take a look about and see if there's anything of note that you might need to know later. Sundollars, McFonald's, Panda Dynasty; it's like you never even left America. Well, there were the rude Limey punks at customs. That was new. Even though America is supposed to be the security obsessed asshats, it's the Brits that found a way to perfect pissing you off. Speaking of people who you don't like, Wesson should be here also. You look around for him a bit on your way through baggage pickup. Not there. Not anywhere. That's problematic. You don't like it when people know where you are but you don't know where they are. That information deficiency just irks and annoys you. You're about ready to go pick up the Anzio and whatever else it was you sent. It feels like months ago that you were chasing down Sour and thinking about your apartment burning down. Still, now's not the time to be thinking of the past. Now is the time to be planning the future. According to the contract, you're going to be on a job for the next two years with eight people including Sour and Wesson. You have no clue who the others are and you have no leads. You should...

[] Stay at the airport and look more.
[] Go get your stuff.

 

go get your stuff​

 

everyone needs more stuff. get your stuff.

 

The path to victory isn't in the footsteps of your opponents. You decide to take your things and head over to pick up your stuff. You had it send to one of your contacts who'd take care of the equivalent the underworld has for customs. Essentially, he checks for live explosives and then holds onto things until someone pays him enough to betray you or you show up. It's a good system because most people are smart enough to know who to not cross and you're one of those whos. Being famous is kinda nice sometimes. The place you're going is downtown, so you get yourself into a cab and move it.

The cab driver is this Indian guy in his forties; really, really, touchy feely in a verbal way. Where are you from? America. But where are you from? America. Family's been there since the fifteenth century. How old are you? Twenty four. What are you doing here? Tourism. Are you married? And divorced. How recently? Last week. I have a son, you know. This is the place, here's the money. You find another, less annoying cabbie to finish out the trip. This one is another middle aged dude but you think he might be some kind of southeast Asian. Maybe he's a flip. His English is pretty horrible so you spend a lot of time pretending to listen and looking out the window for potential threats. He does ask one thing that catches your attention though. He says that Thorsen Tech is making a big announcement at a trade show soon and if you're in town for that. Thorsen Technologies is well known for being a corrupt hive of evil. So when you hear that you're in the same town as those guys, you wonder if it's related.

The pick up is at a growhouse. Yeah, marijuana, weed, pot. Whatever you want to say, these guys keep it on lock down in there. Door made of three and a quarter inch solid steel on hinges to match. There's a gate through that door that you have to pass a metal detector and general security in to just enter the place. From there they've got a sniper's perch up a flight of stairs where they can hit you if you do anything funny. Finally, you can get to the actual grow rooms. in the basement, though, is the place you're looking for. The deals and exports room is where they keep your shipments when you come into the UK. Your contact, Rory Breaker is a mean sonuvabitch. No other way to put it. If you hold back anything, he'll kill you. If you bend the truth or he thinks your bending the truth, he'll kill you. If you forget anything, he'll kill you. In fact, talking to him is basically just working very hard to stay alive.

He greets you with the warmth of a three day old corpse and then asks for his pay. You drop the payment, as usual. He looks kind of angry. Like not normal, "I'll kill ya." business. Something else is bugging him. You drop a little extra and hold your hand out expectantly. He hands you the stuff you shipped and tells you to scram. You aren't about to do anything but get as far away from this nut as possible. Unlike you, he has a tendency to take things personally. Back on the street it's starting to get on in the hours. Even in English latitudes the sun's beginning to droop in the sky. Time to...

[] Find a hotel and book.
[] Look into Thorsen Tech.
[] Look into Breaker.

 

Go get booked at a fancy hotel. Not some run-down, smelly hotel, but a really fancy one. Like $1,000 a night fancy. Just check into Thorsen Tech later, after your beauty sleep.​