Character Creation: Lichoma

I had Cael pick a letter, and they gave me 'L', so I grabbed this game. I mentioned the name, and Cael opined that it sounds like something you get diagnosed with in your 80s. The game says that the title is a portmanteau of "lich" and "carcinoma," so Cael wasn't far off.

The Game: Lichoma
The Publisher: Bogfolk
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, though "book" may be the wrong word

It's a box, actually, containing play mats and cards and other cards and other other cards and a couple of little booklets. Figuring out where you're supposed to start took some time (and frankly would have been easier with the PDFs, but I was sitting on the couch with the physical game), but I got there. 

So, Lichoma is a "meatpunk" game, and what's interesting is that this isn't the first or even the second such game I've read; you've also got Extreme Meatpunks Forever and Bilge. Actually, Belly of the Beast, too, has some meatpunk aspects, though more "meat" and less "punk." 

Basically there's this city called Wen, this all takes place in a horrifically dystopian world where people are harvested for their bodies, I think? See, the setting is not especially well-described. It's very strong on vibes, but, as I've said with other games, I did feel a little adrift while reading it. I'm not the only one, either. One of the comments on the game's itch page is someone saying "I don't know how to play this game." 

I could wax philosophical about how part of a game being accessible is a strong explanation of what the hell it actually is, and whether or not that's necessary for a game that is 100% not going to be someone's first foray in TTRPGs. I don't think I will, though, because I'd rather just make a character and then go sit on the couch some more. 

There is an actual play (linked here) in which the first four minutes explain the game better than the game itself, so that's...not great, I think.

Right, so there are six factions, each of which corresponds to a district of Wen. Now, what does it imply that I'm a member of one faction but have body parts from others? No idea. Let's just pick a faction randomly. Joytown! Suits me. 

Right, so now we pick a card for each of the factions, which makes up my "faction deck." "Faction" was a weird word choice here, I think.

OK, there we go. And then there are some tables I can roll on, so I'll do that. Game even includes dice, that's nice of it. I am a...Naive Thieving Nobody. Given the cards I drew, that sounds about right.

I confess...my room is a mess. I am addicted to...Mutilation (ew). Using the handy list of random words, my name is...Grub Lord. 

Now, there's a slot for "job" on the character "sheet", but no slots for addition or confession or any of the other stuff I'm asked to roll for, so y'know what? I'm going to assume none of that is important, because if it were, it would be on the sheet and it would matter in the game. HOPE I'M NOT A FACSIST OR SOMETHING. 

The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced that playing this without one of the game's creators there to show you how the fuck it's supposed to work would be, though not impossible, extremely trying, and frankly I don't have the spoons. Grub Lord feels like a spindly, sneaky fucker to me, but probably with some kind of delusion of importance. Maybe he's got a blazer.

Movie #960: The Music Man

The Music Man is the 1962 film version of the eponymous musical, starring Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford, Pert Kelton, The Buffalo Bills (a barbershop quartet; they have names but they're credited by the group name and frankly their individual characters don't really mean much), Susan Luckey, Timmy Everett, and Ron Howard.

Harold Hill (Preston) is a con-man and traveling salesman who goes to little towns, whips up a moral panic, and then sells a "boy band" (which meant something very different in 1962, although a contemporary version of this story set in the 90s that had Hill trying to start a N'sync knockoff or whatever would be amazing), complete with uniforms and instruments and all, to fix it. Of course he doesn't know the first thing about music, but he's an amazing fast-talker and knows how to play to people's vanities. He rolls into River City, IA and starts his rap, and tries to cozy up to Marian Paroo (Jones), the local piano teacher and librarian, because he knows she'll be able to expose her.

This doesn't really work, but he manages to shuck and jive long enough to milk money out of the town, but just when he's about to be exposed by another, rather scummy but completely in the right salesman (Harry Hickcox), Marian demonstrates that she's in love with him, he falls in love back, and the boy band actually manages to squeak out a kind of recognizable version of Beethoven's Minuet in G, which is good, because the town was quite literally ready to murder him. 

Of course, all of this is intercut with songs (it's always interesting to me how little actually happens in musicals of this era, because most of the run time is taken up by song and dance. Same principle applies to action movies like John Wick or porn movies). And a lot of the songs are really staples of the era and the genre - "76 Trombones," "Til There was You", and "Gary, Indiana", off the top of my head. I worked crew for a production of The Music Man in college, so it brought back a lot of memories to see the movie. 

Now, does it hold up? Is it "good"? If you like musicals, you're off to a good start. If not, don't bother. I think it's worth noting that this was a Best Picture nominee - film adaptations of Broadway musicals was a reliable moneymaker for a while (see also Oliver!, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Guys & Dolls, Oklahoma!, and hey, Chicago - not so much Cats, of course). As musical adaptations go, it's fairly snappy - these films can get overlong pretty easily. The music and lyrics require some pretty quick wordplay and Robert Preston (who originated the role on Broadway) is clearly very comfortable doing it. 

As is typical of musicals like this, you're not going in for deep characterization of intricate plots, you're going for the bright colors, the fun music, and the impressive dancing, and there definitely is all of that. And most of the comedy lands and has held up fairly well, so all in all it's a win.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium

Next up: My Soul to Take

Character Creation: Little Wolves

Ooh, these little wolfquakes. Doesn't take much to woof us into pieces.

The Game: Little Wolves
The Publisher: Dinoberry Press
Degree of Familiarity: None

Books Required: Just the one

Be honest, if not for the fact that I already said the name of this game, you'd never be able to read that title, right? 

Anyway, Little Wolves has you playing...well, they say werewolves, but are you really? The werewolf legend is about losing control and becoming a violent, hungry animal, and that's not what's happening here. Here, you're playing characters that can turn into wolves (kind of, we'll get to that), but they're generally good-hearted subjects of one of four faerie queens. Really, it's a cozy fantasy game; there's kind of a sliding scale to make it less cozy and more...edgy, I guess, but even at the harsh end it's still pretty mild as these things go.

None of this is a complaint, mind. I think the game is pretty interesting, and the big gimmick - you make paper masks and put them on when you change into wolf form - is cute and I think would be very cool at the right table. I think the lore is a little dense and the game doesn't have an easy hook (again, you're playing "werewolves" but I'm pretty sure if I said to most gamers "it's a game where you play werewolves" they'd imagine an experience more like Bite Marks). 

PDF isn't bookmarked, that's annoying. Anyway.

I'm gonna skip making a mask, however, which means the first thing we're gonna tackle is step two, name, description, etc. And...OK.

Name, pronouns and appearance all seem to be one aspect. Court, Shadows, and mask is three. That makes four. Or are name, pronouns, and appearance separate aspects? But that makes six. You get two Shadows, maybe each one is an "aspect?" It's not clear. Just bad phrasing probably. 

Also, as long as I'm bitching, I don't love this character sheet. Well, OK, actually I think it would be very useful at the table because it's got a bunch of rules references on it, but I'd much rather have an easy PDF of the smaller one in the book for my purposes. But I don't care enough to try to make one. 

Ugh, OK, for reals this time. I'm actually going to jump to Shadows (prior experiences that have shaped the character) first, because that'll give me a little starting inspiration. These are random (using a d66), so first off I get 3, 4, which gives me..."You were given a faerie-blessed trinket, but it was dropped and broken. How could it be repaired?" Let's say that my character was very young and was given this beautiful glass figurine of a wolf...which he immediately dropped and broke, because he was too young to be given something that delicate. He still blames himself for breaking it, because like, he dropped it. He has the pieces it broke into (three; it broke into chunks, not shattered into splinters or anything) in a cloth bag and is trying to find a way to fix it, but it's not like you can smelt glass back together. 

That to me suggests my character is still on the young side, maybe adolescent or young adult. Let's roll our second Shadow (in play, I'd keep one of these to myself, but y'know). 4,4 gives me: "A member of the Witch Court once brewed a delicious tea with magical properties. What three ingredients would you need to create it again?" Eh, I don't know if I like that one. Let's reroll. 5,4 (what's with the 4s) gives me: "You negotiated a truce between two families in your hometown. Why were they feuding and how did you settle it?" Much better.

Let's say that my hometown is Candlewick, in the Court of the Pumpkin. The Saltseed family and the Worsenall family were fighting over what turned out to be a misunderstanding; Aloysius Saltseed had said something mean to Licoria Worsenall and in context it was clearly meant to be funny, but it fell flat and Licoria took it as an insult and everyone just started taking sides. My character - let's name him Fell Sweetwicker - stood between everyone and howled "SHUT UP", and then pointed at Aloysius and had him explain what happened, and then at Licoria and had her explain what happened, and then asked Aloysius "was that really what you meant?" and everyone kind of had an "ohhh, OK" kind of moment. 

OK, cool, that gives me Shadows, a name, and as far as description I think Fell has just hit a growth spurt and is very tall. He's got unkempt brown hair, and when he turns into Wolf Form he's a big, chunky, bipedal wolf creature with sharp teeth (werewolves in this game either turn into bipedal wolf-creatures or literal wolves). He looks scary and he's got a big howl, but his bark is definitely worse than his bite.

I'm from Candlewick, so my loyalty is with the Court of the Pumpkin. I did my Shadows (which gives me two XP, but I'll deal with that later). Fae Skills! In Wolf Form, I get access to Sniff, Bark, and Claw Skills, and I get 0, 1, 1 in those in what distribution. I think Sniff can be the 0 Skill, and as I get a +1 to any of them (due to my Court), I'm gonna put it in Bark. 

OK, now I get to spend my XP, as I don't get Spellsongs or Mortal Powers unless I buy them (this is not made particularly clear in the text). I think I'll spend my 2 XP and buy the Song of Resilience; I can get all my allies a bonus until out of danger/combat. 

And...that's actually it! I'll make a couple of marks on the mask on the sheet, a jagged broken line to represent the broken figurine and some embellishment to the ears to represent solving a feud by listening. Fell is big, brown fur, big teeth, and all talk. Well, all howl. 

Movie #959: Mortal Kombat (2021)

Mortal Kombat is an action/fantasy/martial arts movie based on the titular video game series and starring Lewis Tan, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Mechad Brooks, Tadanobu Asano, Ludi Lin, Chin Han, Joe Taslim, and Hiroyuki Sakai. 

In the distant past, Hanzo Hasashi (Sakai) is murdered by Bi-Han (Taslim), along with his wife (Yukiko Shinohara) and son (Ren Miyagawa). Flash forward to now, and Cole Young (Tan) is struggling to make it as an MMA fighter, but is suddenly attacked by Bi-Han, but saved by Jax Briggs (Brooks), who survives but loses his arms. Young stashes his wife (Laura Brent) and daughter (Matilida Kimber) and goes to find Sonya Blade (McNamee), who informs him about Mortal Kombat and introduces him to her captive, Kano (Lawson), explaining the significance of the Midichlorians dragon markings.

One of the things that the film versions of Mortal Kombat struggled with before was the fact that a lot of the characters have superpowers, and rather than just say "yeah it be like that sometimes", in the 1995 movie they just had the bad guys have the powers (there's a brief flash of Liu Kang throwing a fireball but it's blink and you'll miss it). Here, they try to give it some context by saying that in order to unlock one's "arcana" you need a dragon marking, which you only get from killing someone who has such a marking, and having a marking identifies you as a champion for Earthrealm. As justifications go it's not terrible, but the sequel just ignores it entirely, because somebody apparently looked around the writers room and said "hey, guys, you know that anybody who sees this movie isn't going to care why Sonya can shoot zappies from her hands, right?"

Anyway, the tournament doesn't even happen during this movie, because Shang Tsung (Han) is trying to whittle down Earthrealm's champions to make sure that there's no one left to fight said tournament (Outworld is kind of like MAGA in this way; they know they can't win fair and square so they gleefully cheat, knowing that no one is going to physically stop them). Raiden (Asano) looks after the Earthrealm fighters but can't intervene directly (except when he does, but that's an old trope). Kano unlocks his arcana, Cole eventually unlocks his by beating Goro (voiced by Angus Sampson), they fight and kill the Outworld folks and then Cole beats Bi-Han by channeling his ancestor, Hasashi, now reincarnated as Scorpion!

You know, typing all this out, I'm realizing how fucking dense all this lore is if you haven't played the games. I'm not saying someone with no understanding of these characters couldn't get it - it's not like the themes involved are particularly hard to grasp - but just terms like "Earthrealm" and "Elder Gods" and so forth aren't really given any explanation. Do they need it? I don't think they do. Did we need Cole as a POV character? I think we could have focused entirely on Sonya, given her a little backstory, and skipped the Cole Young plotline entirely and the movie would have worked just fine.

That said, I don't think Cole is a bad character, and Lewis Tan makes him likeable enough. I think McNamee is perfectly strong enough as an actress to be our lead, but like, she's a girl, so how would that have worked. Actually, the actor with the strongest presence in the movie is far and away Lawson as Kano, and it's actually a bummer that he switches sides, even though it obviously had to happen to give Sonya a reason to kill him (and thus gain his dragon marking). 

The fight choreography, script, story, and adaptation are all worlds better than the 1995 movie, and this one had the balls to be rated R, so it actually feels like Mortal Kombat. Lots of nice callbacks to the games, we get to see some classic Fatalities, and the movie makes good use of the fact that there's such a deep roster of characters that you can kill a few off and there are still plenty to show up in the sequel. 

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium-high

Next up: The Music Man

Chill: The Legal System

In the criminal justice system, the people of Seward, Alaska are protected by three distinct, but equally important groups: The police, who investigate crime, the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders, and SAVE, which tries like hell to keep creatures of the Unknown from eating, maiming, or driving to murder the citizens. These are their stories (mostly just SAVE). CHUNG-CHUNG.

Last time, you'll recall, our envoys got arrested. Tuulugaak Hanta and Mercy Williams are taken to the hospital (Tul is showing signs of a concussion, Mercy needs stitches on her leg). Khalil Barnes is treated on-scene, and Arlo Miller and Amelia Rostov are unharmed. The police attempt to talk to all of them, but SAVE policy and Khalil's reminder to shut up and ask for a lawyer stick with all of them. It's Sunday, however, so they're just sitting tight and waiting to be arraigned. 

Dr. Kirby Bellman, their HQ coordinator, visits Tul in the hospital and checks in on him, asks what he remembers and so on. He then drops in on Mercy as well, but curiously says that he heard Tul talking to a cop and is worried he might have said something damaging. He also gives Mercy a tablet so she can do a little research, and she looks up djinn. Without access to SAVE files, she only gets what's available - to wit, djinn or jinn are supernatural beings from Arabic folklore. Islam holds that they have free will and can therefore accept God's judgment, but there are older stories (since djinn predate the Islamic faith) that cast them in more monstrous roles. Nowadays, you mostly hear about them in the context of the "genie" that grants wishes, whether that's in a "friend like me" kind of way or a "twisted the wish and make you suffer" kind of way. 

Meanwhile at the jail, Arlo and Khalil talk briefly and then get a visit from Detective Lance Winslow. He, too, asks what the envoys remember about what happened and gives them a little rundown on how the cops are leaning. Khalil reveals that he asked his brother Hamza to come down to Seward, and Winslow offers to make contact with him and make sure he's all right. Khalil gives him the name of a hotel, but lies - Winslow is being cagey and not revealing anything that Khalil didn't already know, and he knows that the djinn seems to be able to take on others' forms. Plus, you don't talk to cops. 

Winslow drops in on Amelia, as well, and tries to get her to talk about what exactly is going on. Amelia is careful to avoid saying "SAVE," but does mention QCOM and gives Winslow her card. She notes that when he asks about QCOM, he gets the street name wrong. Might just be a mistake, but...

In the morning, a woman named Alison Bauman visits the envoys, first at the hospital, then at the jail. She tells them that she's an attorney sent by SAVE to get them out of this, and as such she's defended people who have been in weird, violent situations before. She's relieved to hear no guns were discharged, reminds them not to talk to anyone, and mentions that she talked to Dr. Bellman this morning and he said he hadn't talked to any of the envoys. "Son of a bitch," mutters Mercy, realizing the conversation she had was probably with the djinn.

The envoys are brought to the courthouse and arraigned, and Bauman gets them all out on bail. She takes them all to lunch and kind of lays out the situation: There's probably no way Amelia and Arlo are getting convicted of anything, certainly not anything serious. There's probably no way they're connecting any of the envoys to the death of Monte Noble; forensics say he died Thursday afternoon or evening, so if they all have alibis for that time that can be verified, they're clear of that. Now, why was Monte's corpse in the hallway and apparently walking? "Nice thing about being a defense attorney is I don't have to answer that."

The murder of Tim Straw, the other barber, is a bigger problem. Both Tul and Khalil have enough forensic involvement in the scene, and are not-white enough, that they might wind up the scapegoats here, and Alison is under no illusions: in cases like this, often the powers-that-be find a way to make the problem go away before anyone gets too uncomfortable. She'll do her best, and it's not like anyone got possessed any actually killed someone, but she needs them to be good while they're out on bail. 

"But, of course, you have to figure this out," says Dr. Bellman. "Because that thing is still killing people." They talk a little about creatures that can take other people's forms. Clearly the djinn doesn't have to kill someone to impersonate them, since Bellman is still alive, so that's good. Likewise, Khalil doesn't think it gains any kind of knowledge about a person by taking their form, because it was clearly fishing for information before. The envoys come up with a code word ("artichoke") and then split up. Khalil goes to find his brother. Amelia and Tul go to see John Petty's mother. Mercy and Arlo go to do some more research (mostly Mercy, Arlo goes along as backup and using the Protective Art).

Khalil meets up with Hamza and explains more or less what's happening, but doesn't tell him about SAVE in any great detail. Hamza tells him about the same thing as Mercy learned earlier: Islam teaches that beings like djinn and angels are real but that they can submit to Allah the same as people. Legends about djinn tend to really be about the dangers of getting everything you want or cautionary tales about temptation. Hamza even mentions the Wishmaster films ("Dad didn't let us watch those," says Khalil. "Yeah, I think he was actually right about that."). Hamza does also mention that in the stories, djinn are often defeated by returning them to their vessels (bottles, lamps, boxes, he's even heard of stories where they're trapped in rings). 

Meanwhile, Mercy dives into SAVE archives on the subject, and winds up reading the some of the writings of Mafuz El-Hasham. El-Hasham talks about an encounter with a djinn and notes that it seemed to want to entice others into doing horrible things (like, say, shooting their friends?). Mercy also finds parts of Ruby Garrett's Report on Monsters (excerpted in the Chill sourcebook Monsters), and El-Hasham's addenda, which talks about "spirits" and incorporeal creatures that fit the definition of monsters. The information doesn't offer an easy method of defeat for djinn, however, but the idea of putting it back in a bottle and closing said bottle does recur. They need to find that vessel.

Amelia and Tul arrive at the home of Elle Petty. She lets them in; she's obviously in poor health and the place is in some disarray, just because she's having trouble keeping it up. She's also obviously distraught because of what happened to John. Amelia sits her down and talks about what services QCOM could hook her up with, and Tul checks out John's room.

John's room is pretty neat and Tul doesn't find much (and no djinn bottle), but he does find a receipt on a desk from someplace called Alaska Fast Cash Anchorage - the receipt indicates that John sold something for $2400. Amelia learns from Elle that John paid one of her medical bills, and that the day he left to go to Houston Spears' house (the day he wound up dying), he said that he was going to be able to pay off all their bills once he talked to Houston. 

Amelia and Tul help her clean up a bit, and then check John's workshop downstairs. John was trying to fix his Playstation, apparently, but tucked behind the bench, wrapped in a cloth, they find a long, slender, blue glass bottle...with no stopper. 

A moment later, they hear a knock at the door, and then Elle talking to someone. Tul wraps the bottle back in the cloth and puts it in his jacket, and they go back upstairs to find Detective Winslow talking with Mrs. Petty. Amelia is immediately suspicious, of course. She asks if Winslow is here about what they talked about, and he says he is, could they talk outside? As they leave the house, Tul pulls out his phone to text the others, but Winslow looks at him and says, "hey, that's rude, put that away." And Tul immediately does, because that sounds very reasonable. 

They talk a bit, and it becomes clear fairly quickly that this ain't really Winslow. He tells Tul to put the bottle back and Tul starts heading for the house, but Amelia touches him and uses Disrupt, breaking the control. The djinn tells them to give back the bottle, that from here it gets unpleasant, and it starts to rain blood. 

Tul runs, but the djinn raises a hand and blows on his palm, like blowing out a candle. Wisps of smoke rise up, and Tul collapses, screaming in pain, as his flesh starts to blister. Amelia calls him to the car and raises a Sphere of Protection. The djinn pokes at the Sphere, and he and Amelia exchange some banter - he asks Tul nicely to return the bottle, and Tul refuses. Amelia asks what he wants, and he muses that seeing John's face when he realized what he'd done was pleasant. Amelia says that this is just mean, and the djinn corrects her: "No, the word you want is 'cruel.'" Amelia also asks about Allah, and the djinn replies, "He had His chance." And then he disintegrates into smoke.

Amelia drives Tul to the HQ, and he texts the others. Mercy, of course, is already there, and cuts Tul's shirt off. There are burns over his whole body; they look like brands. Amelia wards the room, and then runs to the bathroom, trying to get the smell of burnt flesh out of her nose.

Mercy takes a picture and then uses Heal, and the wounds close (Tul heals quickly, as it happens). Hamza and Khalil arrive shortly thereafter, and Hamza looks at the picture and recognizes the pattern as Arabic writing, albeit an old form. It basically says that this person is a thief and will burn.

Khalil decides to head to Anchorage and find out what John pawned at that store - maybe it was the stopper? Arlo and Hamza goes with him, Tul settles back to rest, and Amelia crashes on the couch. 

Movie #958: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is an urban fantasy movie starring Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Lena Headey, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Turner, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, CCH Pounder, Kevin Zegers, and Jemima West. 

In New York City, Clary (Collins) turns 18 and celebrates by going drinking at clubs, so like, pretty realistic so far. But we already know weird shit is in the offing, because her mom Jocelyn (Headey) is agonizing over "telling her the truth" and realizing that she's seeing this weird symbol everywhere. And then while she's out dancing with her best bud Simon (Sheehan), she witnesses a hawt blond tattooed guy (Campbell) stab another dude, but no one else can see them. (Spooky.)

Anyway, just to keep things quick, it turns out that Clary, hawt blond guy Jace, and his hawt tattooed friends Alec (Zegers) and Isabelle (West) are "Shadowhunters," a society of demon hunters that Muggles mundanes can't see. There are also vampires and werewolves and warlocks, but not zombies (I have no idea why the movie saw fit to point that out specifically, but there are actually a lot of somewhat baffling choices here). Shadowhunters become thus either through heredity or by drinking from a magical cup that an angel once bled into, but Clary's mom stole the cup because Voldemort Valentine (Meyers) is looking for it to do demonic stuff? And Clary has magic that only her mother had. And there are werewolves and vampires, did I mention that? Also a hawt bisexual warlock. And Clary and Jace make out, but might be siblings. 

This movie is based on the first in a long series of novels by Cassandra Clare, and I have no idea how good the books are, but the movie is kind of a mess. This movie came out in the mid 2010s, along with Hunger Games and Divergent and The Host and The Maze Runner, after Harry Potter and Twilight were firmly established but just as Hollywood was trying desperate to find whatever the next big thing was going to be (other than the MCU, of course). 

The problem is that these books tend to have long, intricate mythologies and that's hard to explain in a film. It's not impossible, but it requires a defter touch at the screenplay and director level than this has. As it is, this movie is pretty, though very CGI heavy. I've played (and written) enough World of Darkness content to be able to get into the right headspace to grok it, but even I was kind of waiting for the "you're a wizard, Harry" moment so I could understand just what the hell was going on, and it kind of never arrives. Hell, the titular City of Bones features in one sequence of about two minutes, and is probably the least significant thing in the movie. 

The movie just throws so much at you: Jace and Clary's relationship, Simon getting bitten by a vampire (which goes nowhere), Alec having the hots for Jace but that not being allowed (which the movie leads you to think is because Alec is gay, but according to the summaries I've read that's not really the case), the question of Clary and Jace's parentage, Jocelyn putting herself into a coma, on and on and on. 

This movie bombed at the box office, and was later made into a series, which makes a lot more sense but I have no idea if it was any better and I'm in no particular hurry to find out. I think when I was about 16 I would have loved this book series, though. 

My Grade: C-
Rewatch Value: Low

Next up: Mortal Kombat (2021)

Misspent Youth: Attack Fungus

The Tangle continues to bring in horrific, fungus-based methods of subjugation, and the YOs continue to beat them back. Here's last time! Read on!

Our Authority Figures:

• The Aminita: The Tangle's assassins
• The Caretakers: The Tendrils who were supposed to be raising the sporelings, before the clique burned them all
• Smedley Winter: A worker for the Tangle, a longtime Tendril
• The Caretakers' Hounds: Tracker fungus-creatures

And our Friendship Questions:

• Sandy asks Tate: "Why aren't your talking to your mom?" Answer: "She was hiding something before the Tangle ever happened, I don't trust her."
• Sparky asks Quinn: "What was it like to drive?" Answer: "I knew I had skillz."
• Quinn asks Sandy: "How are we going to avenge Perry?" Answer: "With FIRE."
• Tate asks Sparky: "What about your parents?" Answer: "They're deep in the Tangle, the only way I'm saving them is to fix all of this."

Scene One: What's Up

Sandy's player set this up, and chose Sparky's question to Quinn: "What was it like to drive?" Answer: "I knew I had skillz."

We open on a backroad outside of town. Quinn is driving a pickup truck the YOs stole from a hardware store (a rental truck). Sparky is riding shotgun asking questions ("what's that?" "The radio." "What's that mean?" "Speedometer."), while Sandy and Tate are in the bed of the truck bouncing a bit. The road isn't great, there's the occasional pothole, but Quinn is getting a handle on things. 

And then they see headlights coming toward them, and a truck hauling a horse trailer passes them. Quinn sees something move in the back, and then a cloud of spores poofs out. The clique realizes that this is some Tangle-related shit, and Quinn spins the truck around to follow. It tries to lose her, but she stands up (Relentless) and follows closely. More spores, and Sparky stands up (Fast) and tries to wipe them away, but the truck slows down. Quinn stands up again and loses, the spores cake the windshield, and she panics and drives off the road. The truck rattles to a stop, one of the wheels bent and the truck undriveable. The clique is stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

And we've got our Kickoff: The Tangle is bringing in something new.

Scene Two: Fighting Back

Sparky's player set up this scene, and chose the Caretakers' hounds.

This scene begins right after the last one (that pretty much was true all through this episode, actually). The YOs are stuck by the side of the road, and have no choice but to start walking. As they head towards town, they hear a scream up ahead, and then see a farmhouse. There are a couple of lights on, a pickup truck out in front of the house, and a barn - it's clearly still inhabited, though kind of run down.

The clique moves to check it out. Quinn grabs a pitchfork out of the barn, and Sparky checks the pickup truck. Tate sees something on the roof of the house, something fast and large, and calls the others' attention. Whatever it is starts moving through the overgrowth by the house and heading toward Sparky. Sandy stands up and lets her Cloying odor distract it, but Sparky stands up and loses. The thing - whatever it is - crashes into the front of the truck, knocking Sparky down. The truck is damaged pretty badly, and the YOs flee out into the fields, away from the house. 

Our first Beat, then, is a Complication: The clique is stranded out in the sticks. Our Question is: What is chasing the youthful offenders? 

Scene Three: Heating Up

Quinn's player set this up, and chose the Aminita.

The clique runs into the fields, and then the woods, and finds a hunter's blind. They climb up and huddle there, all wondering what in the hell just attacked them. They also don't know where they are. Sandy figures she can orient, once there's a little more light, but presently the crescent moon shines down weakly. 

Quinn tells them all to get some sleep and she'll keep watch, and they doze off. Quinn goes down to answer nature's call, and as she's walking back to the tree gets a beam of light in the face. "Hey," says a voice. 

Quinn's heart beats faster, but the voice isn't threatening. "Hey," it repeats. "You OK?" 

"Yeah, who's that?"

The man lowers the light. "Sorry. Name's Dylan. I live in the farmhouse a little ways off, but something fucked up my truck." Quinn nods, and offers him a nip from her flask (which contains Tonic, of course). He sips it. "Ugh, what is that?"

"Energy drink," she lies. 

"I was expecting gin or something."

Suddenly they hear a whistling from the tree - five notes. And then five notes responding from the other side of the clearing. Dylan collapses and lands on the ground twitched and clawing at his throat. Quinn runs up the tree and wakes the others. 

As they watch, a figure walks into the clearing. It's humanoid, but it moves...strangely. Deliberate, but jerky, almost bird-like. And it whistles, listening for the response - there's at least two of these things. As they watch, it leans down and puts its hand over Dylan's face, and they hear a sound like a dry kitchen sponge in a slow blender, and Dylan stops moving. It pulls the hand off, and they hear a soft, liquid ripping. Best not to think about it. 

Sparky stands up and directs everyone to get out of here, Fast, but then Tate stands up and loses. He slides down the ladder, douses himself in Tonic, soaks a rag in the stuff, and walks deliberately over to the creature, returning its quizzical whistling...and then shoves his entire hand (rag and all) into its mouth. The creature falls, clawing at its face, chunks of it falling away, and the YOs hear a frantic whistle from the trees as the creature's partner tries to find it. Sandy stares at Tate. "Jesus, Tate." Tate has sold out Bad to Perverse. 

Scene Four: We Won

Tate's player set this up, and chose Quinn's question to Sandy:  "How are we going to avenge Perry?" Answer: "With FIRE."

The clique moves on, but Tate suggests they hunt down and kill the other one (whatever this "one" is). If they play defense, they're already on the back foot. The others agree, after a bit of discussion, and wait for it to find them. Sandy stands up and uses her skill as a Forager to set up a pile of dried debris, and Quinn stands up (Untrustworthy) to help lure the creature in. It raises a hand and prepares to...throw? Shoot? Fruit? we'll never know, because sparky stands up and wins on Forager. He sets the kindling alight and burns the thing. It screams and parts of it burst, and it collapses into chunks of mushroom. The YOs stomp out the fire and start walking back towards the road.

Scene Five: We're Fucked

I set this up, and chose the Caretakers. 

The YOs are walking along the road, and see a car coming toward them - a big ol' SUV. It pulls over, and a nice, grandmotherly lady asks if they're OK. They say that they are, but could they get a ride back to town? Of course! The lady lets them in; she tells them not to mind her husband, he's asleep in the passenger side.

But almost immediately, the YOs see a few things wrong. First, the old man is "asleep" but he doesn't seem to be breathing. And also, they're heading the wrong way. Sandy points this out, and the woman kind of goes "oh dear me" and pulls in to the farmhouse up ahead, to turn around. But then she pulls in behind a dinged-up pickup truck and lowers all the windows, and taps her husband, who "wakes up" - pretty clear he wasn't asleep to begin with. From somewhere in the dark, they hear something big move.

Tate springs into action (making use of his brand new Perverse Conviction), and uses his Tonic-soaked rag as a garotte. He starts working it back and forth to try and sever the old man's head, while Quinn stands up (Tough) to try and hold him in place. Something hits the front of the truck, knocking them all for a loop, and Sandy stands up and loses. She sells out Forager to Scavenger, finding a can of disinfectant and spraying it all over the Caretakers. 

The YOs boot them both out of the SUV and steal it, driving like crazy back towards town. In the rear-view, they see two large, quadrupedal creatures chasing them, kind of dog-like in aspect, but covering in bumps and fungal growths. 

Here's our second Beat, a Discovery: The Tangle has beasts, and that's what's been chasing them.

Scene Six: Who Wins?

Sandy's player set this scene up, and chose her question to Tate: "Why aren't your talking to your mom?" Answer: "She was hiding something before the Tangle ever happened, I don't trust her."

The clique heads back into town, and Tate has them head for his place. He isn't sure if his mother is home (he figures Guy probably isn't). When they get in, Tate finds the house dark. He checks his parents' room and finds a lump in the bedding and, figuring it's his mother, asks if she's OK. She makes some non-comital noises and says something about coffee, and Tate heads for the kitchen. First, though, he sets up a chair against the bedroom door, so if it's opened it'll clatter. Just to be sure.

The YOs clean themselves up a bit (Sandy desperately wants a shower), and Tate makes coffee. His mother appears, and Tate notes that he didn't hear the chair fall. He slips a bit of Tonic into the coffee, and his mother notices the taste; Tate initially claims it's brandy and his mom appears to fall for it. 

But as they're talking, his mother reveals that she never went to be last night - she slept in the den, on her chair. Tate checks, and yep, there's a blanket there. But then what's in the bed? Rather than try and figure that out, Tate ties to bedroom door shut, and then they start heading for the car, intending to take Tate's mom out of here. But then she coughs into a tissue and Quinn notices a brown, opaque gunk...is this really her?

Tate stands up and relies on Family Ties to determine whether this is actually his mom, but if it's a ruse it's pretty convincing. Sparky stands up, however, and wins on that same Conviction, and he's able to tell - no, this is a copy (who know the Tangle could do that?!). They capture her and drag her to the backyard, intending to interrogate and then burn her. The YOs have won the episode, and Tate's mom is safe. 

Scene Seven: Dust Settles

Sparky's player set this up, and chose Smedley Winter (though he was only mentioned during the scene). The YOs have the mom-pleganger tied up in the back yard, and after some questioning she mentions that Smedley is pulling these strings, and responsible for bringing in the Aminita and the Caretaker Hounds. Figuring they've heard enough, they start dousing her in Tonic (which it turns out is flammable), but they see her hair start to go white and fluffy - she's trying to send for help!

Tate stands up and leans back on Family Ties to fight for his mother (in this case tossing a blanket over the creature). Sparky stands up (Fast) to prevent her from spitting out spores into the air, but she rocks the chair and falls over, which lets her expose more of herself to the air. Quinn stands up and lives up to her Conviction as The One to Set It on Fire, and lights up the tonic! Sandy stands up and Scavenges a tarp to prevent anything from escaping, but the creature reaches out from under the tarp and her fingers start to grow into the ground. Tate stands up again (Perverse) and stomps on the hand, mushing it onto his Tonic-covered boot. 

Spark stands up and wins on Quinn's Fire conviction, and tosses more fuel on. The creature goes up in flames, Tate's actual mom is safe, and the YOs have prevented Smedley from learning what they know. 

And, they've managed to refine the Tonic so that it works as a detection method, effectively taking the Slumbering out of play as a System of Control. The tide is turning against the mushrooms!