Misspent Youth: Goop!

Context: There's an art piece in the Misspent Youth book advertising "Goop":

All things blorphy kind of became relevant in yesterday's session, too. Here's last time.

As last time, we were down a player. This time Quinn wasn't with the YOs, as her player was getting a truly sick tattoo. But lo! Here are our Authority Figures!

• Aunt Lydia: A very prim, proper, buttoned-up woman who is capable of administering the Torpor Timeout
• Figgis: A higher-up Tendril, sent in to clean things up
• Smedley Winter: A worker for the Tangle, a longtime Tendril
• Fruiting season: An event based on time of year or spore distribution where things...bloom

And our Friendship Questions:

• Sandy asks Perry: "Why did I find you alone in the woods the other night?" Perry: "I was looking for supplies for my slingshot, like you showed me."
• Perry asks Sparky: "Why did you pick up those poison plants?" Answer: "I'm used to manicured grass!"
• Sparky asks Tate: "How did you resolve being grounded by your mom?" Answer: "Now that Dad and I are more open, he's willing to run interference for me with mom. I'm technically still grounded."
• Tate asks Sandy: "How are you feeling after the conversation about your parents' food restrictions and your frustrations about them?" Answer: "Sometimes I'm cheating if I know it's safe."

Scene One: What's Up

Tate's player set this up, and chose Perry's question to Sparky: "Why did you pick up those poison plants?" Answer: "I'm used to manicured grass!"

We open after a baseball practice, on the aforementioned manicured grass. Sparky and Tate talk about sports practice and about what kind of stamina it takes to throw a ball repeatedly; Tate opines that he really doesn't understand sports, especially when the term "floating objects in one's elbow" gets used. The YOs talk about their next moves and fill Perry in on some of what he missed, and they decide to go to the woods and gather some more ingredients. 

But when they get there, this section of woods just...isn't there. It's all short, uniform, manicured grass. Sparky is baffled how this happened this quickly, with no crews or anything, but Sandy is fully freaking out. The check the edges of the area, and realize that it's spreading, slowly but perceptibly, towards the section of woods where Sandy's parents live. 

They run to the area and Sandy sees her face's face pressed up against the glass. He mouths as her to "RUN!" and Sandy, trained for years to be ready to bug out, tries, but Perry and Sparky pull her back and say that the clique can save them! They try; Sandy stands up and uses her knowledge as a Forager to tell the others where to step and which spaces seem to be immune, but Perry stands up and loses and winds up running around and stepping in those spaces and badly infected spaces and soon the whole area is covered in the stuff. The geodesic dome that Sandy's parents were building cracks and collapses, covered in "grass", and while their trailer can still move (and does!), the whole area is covered. 

And here we have our Kickoff: The Tangle is spreading. 

Scene Two: Fighting Back

I set up this scene, and I chose Tate's question to Sandy: "How are you feeling after the conversation about your parents' food restrictions and your frustrations about them?" Answer: "Sometimes I'm cheating if I know it's safe."

This scene begins right after the last one. Sandy's parents open the door to the trailer and tell everyone that they're taking off, and that Sandy needs to get in. It's time to go. Sandy is about ready to agree, but realizes that the "grass" is spreading wherever the YOs step - clearly something on their shoes is doing it, and it's spreading through the woods and heading towards the area where the YOs Clean Room is! 

Perry stands up and embraces the Thrills; he takes the Tendril Tonic and goes spritzing the "grass" in the woods, trying to push it back. Sparky stands up and tries to talk Sandy's parents into sticking around (he is, after all, Trusted). But then Sandy stands up and loses!

Rather than allow the "grass" to infect her parents' trailer (and probably her parents), though, Sandy sells out Smart to Pedantic, taking the Tonic and treating the area in the right way and making sure everyone knows it. The clique gets Sandy's parents out safely, and the YOs head for the Clean Room.

Our first Beat is a Complication: The "grass" spreads via foot traffic. Our Question for the episode: "What does this 'grass' precede?"

Scene Three: Heating Up

Sandy's player set this scene up, and chose Sparky's question to Tate: "How did you resolve being grounded by your mom?" Answer: "Now that Dad and I are more open, he's willing to run interference for me with mom. I'm technically still grounded."

We open at the Clean Room. Sandy is feverishly working on a way to combat this "grass", and isn't much interested in stopping or resting. As night starts to fall, she asks Tate to get more supplies from his dad, and Tate gently (kinda) reminds Sandy that they have lives that they'll be missed from if they stay here forever. Sandy isn't interested, and she needs more dry supplies (coffee filters and the like) from Guy McGibb's restaurant. 

The other three YOs finally agree to go get some stuff, and head to the restaurant. When they arrive, though, they see Tate's mom's (Charlotte) car in the lot, which means she's probably already aware that Tate isn't home. Sparky gives Tate his bike and tells him to head for home; he and Perry will get the stuff they need. 

Tate tries to ride off, but has never actually ridden a bike before and promptly falls. As he does, he realizes that the "grass" is in the gravel of the driveway and growing up through it. He stands up (literally and figuratively) and draws on his Family Ties to spur him on to get home. Inside, Sparky and Perry go in and Sparky asks Guy for more filters and so on; Guy points him toward the dry stock. Sparky gets some coffee filters, but also notices a transparent, gelatinous sheen sloughing off his shoes. He asks Guy what he uses to clean the floor, and because he's Trusted, Guy tells him (briefly) about the mixture he uses before getting called back into the madness of dinner rush.

But about then, Charlotte notices Sparky and grills him about where Tate is. Perry stands up...and loses. But he sells out Orphan to Helpless, and collapses before Charlotte and does a full-on Oliver Twist routine, and Charlotte falls all over herself to take care of him. She takes him home and finds Tate already there (if a little bruised), and insists that Perry stay. 

Scene Four: We Won

Sparky's player set this up, and chose Fruiting Season. 

The clique is back at school the next day. Perry is chipper because he actually got to sleep in a bed last night. Sandy is pretty stressed, but the discovery that the floor cleaner at Guy's restaurant can be used to clean the "grass" off everyone's shoes is very useful. They meet up by the bleachers after school, and decide that they need to go big, and if they're going to do that it better be on their terms. They also realize that this grass isn't grass. Each blade is an individual fungal body, and the tops of them seem to be plumper than they were. Sort of engorged. 

Sparky points out the groundskeeper's shack, where the sprinkler controls are. If they put this floor cleaner into the sprinkler...

They move over to the shack and Sandy goes in with a bottle of the stuff, but the groundskeeper, Roger, spots her and calls her out. Sparky stands up and, once again, leans on his Trusted Conviction, but while Roger doesn't think Sparky is involved, he tries to pull Sandy out. Tate stands up and yells at Roger, calling him an ass-bucket (because he's a Bad Seed, you see), and Roger yells for help from other staff, but still isn't letting Sandy get away with this. Perry stands up and darts in to help, seeing as how he's Always Underestimated, and Roger's attention wavers for a moment, but the YOs notice that the "grass" is developing little marshmallow-like bulbs on the tops of the blades. 

Sandy stands up and loses, but decides this is too important and sells out Pleasing to Cloying. She pushes past Roger and dumps this stuff into the water, and turns on the sprinkler. The sprinklers distribute the chemical all over the school grounds and it melts the "grass" into a viscous brown goop, but the chemicals also splash Sandy and change her. She always had a natural odor that the Tangle found, well, pleasing and inoffensive, but it's changed now to something artificial and overly sweet. 

Scene Five: We're Fucked

Perry's player set this up, and chose Figgis. 

The YOs fall back to the Clean Room and talk about their victory. The discovery of the floor cleaner and what it does to the fruiting grass is a good step. As they're talking, Sparky's phone starts blowing up. His team group chat is up in arms because baseball season has been cancelled. He asks why, and no one really knows, but the name "Figgis" gets mentioned. No one's heard of him, though.

Tate's phone buzzes - it's his mother, but he ignores it. And then Sandy's phone rings (wind chimes). She answers, and her mother asks her to come to the restaurant. She talks with her for a moment, and then hangs up. Her mother has been compromised, she says. She hasn't used a sentence without the word "like" in it, ever.

The YOs gear up (there was an A-Team montage moment) and head for the restaurant, and when they get there they see that Sandy's parents' trailer is parked nearby. A thick blanket of fruiting grass covers the area, each with those awful little white bulbs on the end, and a tall, thin man with an inoffensive, almost surprised look on his face walks through the parking lot. That must be Figgis, and he's looking for them. 

Perry stands up and embraces the Thrills of squirting Tonic and floor cleaner, cutting big brown swaths of goop, but Figgis reaches down and swipes at the grass, and the bulbs begin to burst, releasing spores into the air. Sandy stands up and, as a Sun-Lover, tries to expose more of the area and kill off the Tangle, but then Tate stands up and wins on Perry's Thrills Conviction. Throwing caution to the wind, he rushes in and throws the floor cleaner on Figgis...and Figgis throws his head back and screams. His head cracks in half at the jaw and the top part falls off, a long, pink fruiting body erupts from his esophagus before melting away. In a moment, there's nothing left but clothes and brown sludge. 

So we have our second Beat, a Reversal: Figgis melts. And answer to the Question: What does the fruiting grass precede? Figgis (or rather, a more aggressive advance by the Tangle).

Scene Six: Who Wins?

Tate set this scene up, and chose Smedley Winter.

The YOs pile into the trailer and get moving. They've treated Sandy's parents and Tate's mom with the Tonic, just like they did Tate's dad, and the three of them are out cold as the spores work themselves out of their bodies. Sparky calls his mom and leaves a message, but his parents are pretty checked out generally (and probably more heavily spored, meaning they're not sure what effect the Tonic would have). They tell Guy to head for the Clean Room, but as he does, they hear sirens. There's a Jeep behind them, like a forest ranger's.

Guy pulls over and a man they recognize as Smedley Winter walks up, puts his hand on the door and asks for Guy's license and registration. The YOs realize that his fingertips are leaking spores into the van!

Sandy stands up and Pedantically exclaims that they need to go, now, and activates the window. It closes and severs the tops of Smedley's fingers (ew), which tumble into the van and start fruiting (EW). Tate stands up...and wins on Sandy's Pedantic! He lectures the others briefly on how gross this is and why they need to keep the spores out, and sprays them with Tonic to melt them. Guy floors it, and they pull away, go off road, and make it back to the Clean Room.

The YOs have won the episode. They make the restaurant their new Exploit, giving them a wider base of operations and some more adults that are willing to help. 

Scene Seven: Dust Settles

I set this up and chose the last remaining Friendship Question, Sandy's to Perry: "Why did I find you alone in the woods the other night?" Perry: "I was looking for supplies for my slingshot, like you showed me."

Later that night, everyone is asleep except Perry, who is far too keyed up. He's outside practicing with his slingshot, and realizes that there are still bits of the fruiting grass popping up in the woods. He runs inside and grabs some of the cleaner (waking the others in the process), and runs back out and starts spraying. He figures he can fix all this, even if he's Always Underestimated. 

What he doesn't realize is that the cleaner is making the other plant life in the area brittle! A squirrel jumps on a branch and it cracks, and Sandy, a Forager, realizes the impact it'll have if animals get infected, too. She catches the poor rodent and tosses it to a safer tree. Sparky, now awake, wakes up and starts treating the areas that have fruiting grass Fast, and Tate stands up and wins on his Fast Conviction (following suit). 

The YOs have managed to avert a major escalation from the Tangle...but things are clearly getting worse and the Tangle is bringing in bigger guns. What next?

Misspent Youth: Father to Son (to Mushroom)

Last night we played some Misspent Youth! Here's last time. We were missing Perry's player; perchance the mushrooms got her.

Our Authority Figures for the day: 

• Melody: A teenager who's part of the Silver Spores. She's a very dedicated recruiter and happy to use unsavory tactics - guilt, flirtation - to bring in other teens
• Gil: The kind of local "district commander," somewhere in the power structure of the Tangle, and one of the Tendrils
• Chad: Melody's boyfriend. Plays football, drives an IROC, is kind of a dick. 
• ???: One of the Slumbering. The whole point of the Slumbering is that even they don't know if the fungus is in them, so the players wanted this kept secret until it happened.

And our Friendship Questions:

• Tate asks Quinn: "Who was the first person we roughed up together after we became friends?" Answer: "Chad, 'cause he's a dick."
• Quinn asks Sparky: "Who's the leader of this group?" Answer: "We don't know yet, it hasn't been tested."
• Sparky asks Sandy: "How did you know what we needed to make the Tonic?" Answer: "I looked for plants that didn't have fungus growing around them."
• Sandy asks Tate: "What's the thing I see you stuff in your pocket and deny you have?" Answer: "It's a paring knife I stole from my dad's restaurant."

Scene One: What's Up

Sandy's player kicks us off and chooses Melody as the Authority Figure. 

We start at the football game for the local high school (go Morels!). The YOs are all under the bleachers, listening to the people up above them stomp and cheer. They talk about the Tonic and what they might be able to do with it, but they aren't quite sure what it's going to do to, say, someone who isn't quite as deeply infected as a Tendril. Tate hears Melody cheering and mocks her annoying laugh, and someone points out that the table with the cheerleaders' water bottles is right there. They could spike Melody's water and see what that does. 

Sparky takes the Tonic and sneaks toward the table. The cheerleaders start heading back over to the table, and Tate stands up (Bad Seed), blocks their way, and starts mocking them. They poke back, but are still heading for water and Sparky isn't quite there yet, so Quinn joins in (Tough). One of the cheerleaders whines for coach Markus and he goes to chase Quinn and Tate away, but Sparky stands up and wins on Tate's Bad Seed Conviction and "accidentally" knocks over the water table.

The clique allows itself to be shooed away, Melody drinks the water, goes out on the field to lead a cheer, and then pitches over and starts expelling fungus from her mouth. She's taken away in an ambulance, clearly alive but...cured? It was a pretty dramatic response. 

Our Kickoff: The clique has discovered that tonic makes people expel spores. 

Scene Two: Fighting Back

Sparky's players set this up, and chooses Sparky's question to Sandy: "How did you know what we needed to make the Tonic?" Answer: "I looked for plants that didn't have fungus growing around them."

It's later that night and the YOs are talking about how to make more Tonic and what it all means. Sparky asks Sandy to teach them what to look for, but it's dark and Sandy doesn't think that right now is the best time. She points out, though, that they need other supplies - coffee filters, containers, and suchlike. Quinn points out that all of this could be found at Tate's dad's restaurant. 

Tate grumbles a bit - the restaurant is called Tate's, but it's not named after him, he's named after the restaurant. It's French fusion and everything has so, so much butter, to the point that Tate hates the smell of butter cooking (Quinn is baffled by this). Tate is willing to let them in to the currently-closed restaurant (he has a key, though his parents don't know it). 

Tate lets them in and the silent alarm starts tripping. Tate stands up and disarms it (Family Ties), and the YOs spread out and get to work. They see a light go on across the street and a woman steps out and stares, possibly with a thin, white, fungi-beard growing? But Sparky stands up (Fast) and shuts the blinds. The woman is clearly still listening, so Quinn stands up (Sneaky), gets everything together in a little wagon she brought, and gets ready to go.

Just then, Tate's phone rings - it's his dad. "Hey, are you at the restaurant?" Sandy stands up and wins on Sparky's Fast Conviction and hustles everyone out while Tate lies to his dad ("no, just hanging out with Quinn!").

We've therefore had our first Beat, a Complication: Tate's parents are keeping tabs on him. Our Question for the episode is: "Does Tate keep his parents' trust?"

Scene Three: Heating Up

Quinn's player sets this up, and chooses the mysterious Slumbering person.

The YOs are out in the field the next day, and Sandy is teaching them to forage and find the stuff they need. They talk a little more about last night and Tate's dad, and how he doesn't cook heavily buttered stuff at home - he's actually a really good cook and he's really nice and it makes Tate mad. Sandy shows everyone how to avoid poison plants (whereupon Sparky comes up holding a bundle of them and asking "Is this poison ivy?").

While they working, they find a man sitting under a tree, apparently snoozing. As Tate approaches he wakes up, and greets them, but is just a little off in his cadence. He recognizes Tate because of his dad's restaurant and Sparky as the pitcher for the Morels, and they all talk a little about being in the Great Outdoors. The YOs start to feel a little creeped out, and start heading home...but the man follows, just a little ways behind them, not always visible but moving steadily. 

Quinn stands up (The One Who Will Set Fire to It All) and tosses some firecrackers behind her, just being a rowdy kid, but the light from the firecrackers occasionally illuminates the man's silhouette. Tate stands up (Pride) and starts bragging and going along with Quinn, furthering the notion that these are just dumb teenagers, and Sandy stands up (Forager) and keeps them moving in the right direction. But they they realize that they're finding handprint-shaped fungal patterns in front of them.

Sparky stands up and loses. The man pops out from behind a tree and Sparky panics and throws Tonic in his face. He staggers backwards and his lips split open, revealing mushroom-like gills. Fruiting bodies emerge from his eyes. He falls against a tree and just continues emitting fast-growing fungus until he's nothing but clothes and mushrooms in a large, man-shaped smear on the trunk.

The YOs leg it back to their clean room.

Scene Four: We Won

Tate's player sets this one up, and picks Quinn's question to Sparky: "Who's the leader of this group?" Answer: "We don't know yet, it hasn't been tested."

Later that night the YOs meet up at the movie theater. They might or might not choose to see a movie, but it's a good excuse to go out. Sparky's arm has started itching due to the poison stuff he touched, and the clique talks about what they saw earlier, how Tonic seems to affect people dramatically differently, and what their next step is. Quinn notes that maybe Sparky should put some on his arm and see if it helps, and Tate suggests drinking it. 

Sparky, never one to not be impulsive, does the little bottle of Tonic like a shot. He doesn't die or explode into fungus, but starts coughing up little chunks of spore-filled mucus (ew). 

People in line start turning to look at him. Tate and Quinn try and put them back in their place ("What? He just has a cough!") but as Sparky keeps coughing, they move out of line and start boxing him in. They start suggesting he get medical attention, and the YOs note that these people are speaking in the stilted, calm-yet-eerie manner than more heavily infected people do.

Sparky stands up and, using his Optimistic Conviction, tries to play this off, but the folks keep moving in. Tate stands up and, because he's Influential, tells them they'll get Sparky to a doctor and tries to move on. The citizens are trying to separate Sparky from the others, however. Quinn stands up (Relentless) and tries to get everyone moving away, but the effect seems to be spreading and other passers-by are taking notice.

Sandy stands up and fails, but sells out Altruism to Unctuous. She explains to the people listening that Sparky just took something that they mixed up and it's reacting with the spores but he'll be fine and right back to being a Silver Spore in no time. The YOs escape and the Tangle-at-large buys that explanation.

 

Scene Five: We're Fucked

I set this up, and picked Sandy's question to Tate: "What's the thing I see you stuff in your pocket and deny you have?" Answer: "It's a paring knife I stole from my dad's restaurant."

The YOs get the hell away from this area and wind up near Tate's (the restaurant). They're standing nearby and chatting when they notice Tate's dad standing outside having a smoke. Quinn makes the mistake of mentioning that she's hungry and Tate ushers them all inside!

He puts them at a table in the break room and asks if there are any dietary issues. Sandy is vegan, of course, and Dad nods and disappears into the kitchen, and then returns with four plates of risotto and a cutting board with fresh bread and butter. He tells Sandy that he had to put this on the menu because they needed some vegan options, but it's pretty good (kind of a primavera flavor profile).

Everyone agrees that it's really good, and Sandy explains that her parents don't let her eat food that they don't prepare - she shows them a bag of the granola they make. She's really tied of sunflower oil and agave syrup as a sweetener. Tate relates, only for him it's butter. Sparky says for him it's pine tar resin - you don't eat it, no, but it's a constant and a reminder of what he's supposed to be. Quinn just kind of feels like the ubiquitous stuff she has to deal with is mushrooms.

Tate's dad reappears and gives them all a cup of tea (really, it's an infusion, since there's not actually tea in it). Sandy stands up and uses her Forager knowledge to run down everything in said tea and make sure it's safe. Quinn stands up and loses, but sells out Sneaky to Untrustworthy and spikes Dad's tea with a little Tonic. Tate notices, but doesn't say anything. This Reversal becomes out second Beat, because Dad collapses a second later. They YOs hustle him into his office without anyone noticing, but this answers our Question: Does Tate keep his parents' trust? Not really.

Scene Six: Who Wins?

Sandy's player set this up, and picks Gil. We pick up immediately after the last scene, in Dad's office. He isn't getting better, and Tate splashes some water in his face. He chokes and spits up some midnight blue gunk. The YOs scrape it up and decide to fake like Dad is drunk so they have an excuse to get out of here. Sparky slips out to the bar to steal a bottle of booze, but gets noticed.

Sandy stands up (Unctuous) and explains that Dad wanted the bottle for a recipe and sent them to get it. They head back to the office, but right then Dad's cell phone rings. Tate checks it - Gil. They realize that Dad may have disappear from the Tangle's "network." Tate stands up (Family Ties) and tries to get Dad moving, and Sparky stands up (Fast) and notices Gil standing outside the restaurant door a moment later. Quinn stands up and confronts Gil, splashing his face with Tonic, and half of said face starts blooming. Gil turns away and the YOs get Dad out of there; Tate stands up and wins on Family Ties. The YOs win the episode!

Scene Seven: Dust Settles/Aftermath

Sparky's player establishes this scene, and picks Tate's question to Quinn: "Who was the first person we roughed up together after we became friends?" Answer: "Chad, 'cause he's a dick." (Though actually, this was only peripherally related to the scene we wound up having, but it was a good scene.)

It's the next day, and they've gotten Dad back to the Clean Room. He's improving, is able to talk again, and has lost his connection to the Tangle. Tate argues with him, pointing out that he's free now, but Dad says that freedom isn't necessarily as good as the sense of connection and belonging he had. Tate stands up and leans on his Family Ties, saying that he doesn't want the Tangle as his Dad, he wants his Dad as his Dad. Sparky stands up and says that, as an Ex-Silver Spore, he knows the price of this "connection." Sandy stands up and wins on Family Ties, and mimics the speech patterns of the people outside the theater who tried to get Sparky to come with them. That's less "connection" and more "assimilation," she says.

Tate's day (his first name is Guy, by the way), finally agrees, and says that he'll help the clique and not reconnect with the Tangle. This makes him the characters' new Exploit. And honestly, if you're fighting mushrooms, you could do worse than having a French chef on your side. 

Misspent Youth: Tonic For What Ails Ya

Last night we had our first episode of our new Misspent Youth game! Check it out.

Our Authority Figures:

• Mal: One of the Slumbering, an orphan. People trust him, he's pretty ubiquitous
• Edith, the Bag Lady: An old woman who hangs out on the fringes of society and seems to know a lot, but she has the Graveyard Mark on her
• Melody: A teenager who's part of the Silver Spores. She's a very dedicated recruiter and happy to use unsavory tactics - guilt, flirtation - to bring in other teens
• Aunt Lydia: A very prim, proper, buttoned-up woman who is capable of administering the Torpor Timeout
• Gil: The kind of local "district commander," somewhere in the power structure of the Tangle, and one of the Tendrils

Our Friendship Questions:

• Sandy asks Perry: "What do you keep asking me to bring back from foraging?" Answer: "Some sturdy twigs and the stretchy bendy plants from the lake."
• Perry asks Sparky: "Why did you let me go on the raid last night?" Answer: "I wanted to keep you safe."
• Sparky asks Quinn: "What can I do to help your leg heal up?" Answer: "It's fine, and it wasn't your fault."
• Quinn asks Tate: "How was I the cause of that scar you have?" Answer: "Before you knew I wasn't a loyalist, we got in a fight and you pushed me down and I hit my head."
• Tate asks Sandy: "Why don't you ever wear the bracelet I gave you?" Answer: "I'm in the woods a lot and I don't want it to get snagged and lost."

Scene One: What's Up

I set us up, and chose the Friendship Question from Perry to Sparky: "Why did you let me go on the raid last night?" Answer: "I wanted to keep you safe."

The clique is in the clean room that they use as a hideout. The raid last night was to the building where Gil keeps an office, and it wasn't successful. As the YOs talk, it becomes clear that Quinn and Tate tried to get in through a window but it was too small for them - Perry would have fit, though ("told ya"). Sandy was meant to be watching the perimeter but there was obviously some confusion about that. 

They decide that maybe they need to be sneakier and focus on intelligence gathering, learn a bit more about these mushroom things, and use distraction. They therefore decide to go back again tonight - with all five of them. They creep up to the building and break in, and as they're moving through the place, they hear the janitor coming down another hallway. 

Tate stands up and confronts the janitor, unleashing a stream of bullshit about how he was here for a school-related thing and got lost and locked in (Pride). The janitor seems to listen, but then Tate notices a tiny stalk of fungal matter emerging from his nose. Quinn stands up and shoves the janitor back, knocking him down (Outrage), and calls to the others to get what they need so they can get out of here. The janitor stumbles back, falls with a guttural "oof", and spews a bunch of spores into the air. Perry stands up and wins on Tate's Pride Conviction, and keeps everyone moving and focused, pulls their scarves over their faces, gets the info they need, and gets everyone out. 

Our Kickoff: The clique steals a bunch of intel on the Tangle's power structure.

Scene Two: Fighting Back

Sandy's player sets us up, and chooses Gil as the Authority Figure.

The clique takes all this info back to their clean room and goes through it, using a map of the area and little mushroom figurines to represent known Tendrils and little gnomes to represent themselves. Sandy notes that back in the day, people made spore-prints of mushrooms to learn about them and how they spread - perhaps they could do something similar? Sparky notes that Thorsen, a depot manager, reports to Gil, according to the intel they found. They decide to stake Thorsen's place out tonight and see if they can get a spore-print or something. 

The clique converges on Thorsen's house and watches him through his windows; he walks around his place, drinks water, sits on the couch and looks at a book - normal human stuff. Then they see Gil coming down the street. Gil stands in front of Thorsen's door, but doesn't knock. Thorsen stands and lets him in, and the two of them sit on the couch next to each other, not talking. "Are they...communicating?" whispers Perry. They get closer and the offenders realize that both men are growing fine, white hairs on their faces, almost like mold...

Figuring they need a distraction, Quinn goes around the back of the house and pounds on the door. Both men stand up and wipes the "mold beard" from their face, and Thorsen moves to the back door. Sparky stands up and knocks on the front door to separate them (Hubris), and Gil answers it. Sparky asks Gil if he's seen the rest of the baseball team - they were pulling a prank and kind of got separated. Gil looks around without really "looking," and then says he's happy to help Sparky find them, and extends a hand. 

Meanwhile, at the back of the house, Thorsen opens the door. Quinn stands up (Sneaky) and runs behind a bush, but makes sure Thorsen had enough time to see the movement, hoping to lead him on enough for the others to get their samples. Thorsen moves after her, and Gil starts moving around the house. Tate stands up (Bad Seed) and turns on the sprinklers, dousing both of them in water, hoping to wash some spores away and maybe confuse them. It works, momentarily, but now they know where Tate (or someone, anyway), is. They start moving towards him. Sandy stands up and wins on Sparky's Hubris Conviction, and runs right in, scoops up some spores with some adhesive, and everyone gets the heck back to the clubhouse.

Our first Beat, then, is Discovery: "The Youthful Offenders get a spore-print." The Question is: "What are mushroom-people made of?"

Scene Three: Heating Up

Perry's player sets us up and chooses Edith, the Bag Lady. 

Back at the clubhouse, the YOs look over the info they've collected and the samples they've found. Sandy does a little experimentation - putting some of the white mold with food dye to see if water destroys it - but she doesn't have the equipment she needs. Sparky points out that the high school has some of the stuff she could use, they could just go steal it. Everyone's game for that!

The wait for nightfall and head to the school, sneaking in and heading for the science lab. On the way, though, they see a janitor closet door slam shut. (Perry: "Are we just at war with all the janitors?") Quinn, ever the subtle one, opens the door and they find Edith, the bag lady, hiding in there. She tries to claim to be a janitor ("I was just in here...janiting"), but eventually confesses that she is hiding because of the Mark (she rolls back the collar on her shirt to show them, but they can't see anything).

They tell her that if she comes with them, they can put her in a place where the Tangle can find her, and she agrees to that. But as the YOs are gathering equipment, Edith starts to get agitated and talk about the Tangle, about how she can't escape it and she's just dirt to them. Realizing that she's becoming dangerous, Sandy stands up (Smart) and tries to get the stuff they need quickly and get out. Edith starts heading for the door, and Sparky stands up and wins on Sandy's Smart Conviction. He talks Edith down by appealing to her logical brain (whatever there is of it), and they all get back to the clean room.

Scene Four: We Won

Sparky's player sets us up, and choose Melody, the Silver Spore recruiter.

It's a couple of days later. The YOs are having lunch out in a park, and are talking about what they've found, the spore-prints, and the various things they've learned. As they do, though, they look over and see Melody sitting under a tree, writing in a journal. Quinn tells her to mind her own business, and Melody says that they're obviously up to no good and they shouldn't be doing all this nasty stuff. Quinn kicks the journal out of her hands and gets in her face, and Melody starts making a scene, which starts attracting attention from Tendrils (there are always Tendrils hanging around, and you don't always notice them right away). 

Sandy stands up (Pleasing) and tries to talk Melody down. Melody isn't receptive at first, but then Tate stands up and wins on Sandy's Pleasing Conviction. He tells Melody that if she persists, she's going to make Sandy very sad. And does she really want to do that? Make Sandy sad, when she's so pretty and smells so nice? Melody relents, and walks away, perhaps feeling some doubt about her role in recruiting people to the Tangle for the first time. However...

Scene Five: We're Fucked

Quinn's player sets up this scene directly on the heels of that one, and chooses Aunt Lydia. Lydia is sitting at a picnic table not far away, and she's been watching the YOs this whole time, specifically Quinn. Quinn starts walking away, and Lydia stands up and follows, splaying her fingers out to the sides. The YOs notice Tendrils in the area turning their heads to watch her.

Tate stands up (Influential) and runs up to Quinn and walks with her, lending his air of respectability. The Tendrils back off a little, but Lydia keeps following, and releases some spores. Tate and Quinn start to feel sleepy. Sparky stands up (Optimistic) and joins them, rallying them to stay awake and active, and they keep moving. Perry stands up (Always Underestimated) and runs up to Lydia, getting her attention and distracting her. She looks down at him and strokes his face (and he feels his cheek go numb), and says that she'll be happy to help him get wherever he's going. She reaches out a hand...but Sandy stands up and wins on Perry's Conviction! She runs over to get Perry, and in doing so manages to get a sample of the spores Lydia's dropping. Everyone scatters, and Lydia is left empty-handed.

Second Beat: Discovery (spore-print from Lydia). Answer to the Question: "Mushroom-people are different species of fungus, not a single species with different specialties."

Scene Six: Who Wins

Tate's player set this up, choosing Sparky's question to Quinn: "What can I do to help your leg heal up?" Answer: "It's fine, and it wasn't your fault."

The clique is back in the clean room, and Sandy is busily working on the samples with her new equipment. Edith is there, too, staring at the map and occasionally mutters "gnomes." Quinn is soaking her leg in an herbal bath to help the bruising heal up. 

Sandy goes over to Edith and looks at the Mark on her neck, and puts a piece of adhesive over it to maybe pull a sample or just cover it. But Edith immediately starts complaining that it hurts and asking her to get it off. Sandy pulls the tape slightly, but it hurts even worse, and she sees little yellow bits of fungus appearing under it. There's not supposed to be any fungus in the clean rooms, so what's happening here?!

Sandy stands up (Smart) and lubricates it with some aloe, but the fungus eats the aloe and turns blue. Edith pulls away and the tape comes loose, and some of the droplets of infected aloe fly through the air and land in the herbal bath! Quinn stands up (Outrage) and kicks over the bath, and the infected water starts spreading over the floor, but Sparky stands up and wins on Quinn's Outrage Conviction. He angrily dumps some disinfectant alcohol into the water and then slams a mop down, snapping about how the need to be careful here, and manages to get it cleaned up before anything terrible happens.

And eureka! The mix of aloe and alcohol proves to be a strong deterrent to the Tangle, maybe even enough to kill some of them! The YOs win this episode. 

Scene Seven: Dust Settles

I set this up, and chose Quinn's question to Tate: "How was I the cause of that scar you have?" Answer: "Before you knew I wasn't a loyalist, we got in a fight and you pushed me down and I hit my head."

The clique is back at the school on the front steps. Tate notes that this is where he hit his head and got his scar. Quinn apologizes again, but Tate notes that she couldn't have known and besides, that's how they got started with this. Quinn agrees and says that if they hadn't had that fight, they might not have this stuff, and waggles the vial of "Tangle Tonic" that Sandy's made each of them. 

But then they spot a Tendril leaning on the flagpole (like I said, they're everywhere), and it spots the vial. It opens its mouth and leans its head back, maybe sending out a message to others! Perry stands up (Thrills) and flings his vial of Tonic at the Tendril's feet, splashing it. It reaches up behind it and starts pulling itself up the flagpole!

Tate stands up (Bad) and pulls a bolt on the flagpole, and it crashes to the ground. The Tendril opens its mouth, presumably to start releasing spores, and Quinn stands up (The One to Set It All On Fire) and pours the Tonic into the Tendril's mouth. The Tendril reaches out its hands to its sides, and its fingernails split, revealing the long, curling tendrils that end in fruiting caps...

Sparky stands up and loses! As he's running over to help, he steps on one of the Tendrils hands. It squishes like stepping on a rotten mushroom and a bunch of spores go airborne, carried away on the breeze. The Tangle knows about the Tonic now.

Aftermath

But, the clique has a new Exploit: The Tendril Tonic! They're not entirely sure what all it can do and whether it'll have different effects on different Tangle species, but we'll find that out next episode! 

Misspent Youth: The Tangle

For the third time, I am running Misspent Youth! Unlike the first game (which I'm not linking because the write-up is on RPGnet and I don't feel like triggering myself today), which was set in a more grounded version of our world, or the second game, which was this weird, trippy, space opera-adjacent kind of thing, this one has a less-human Authority. (I mean, the Celestial Bureaucracy wasn't human, but they had, like, limbs n' shit.)

So: Our Authority here is The Tangle, a network of fungus that has basically taken over the world. Its Vice is Utopianism; it wants to make the world perfect and homogeneous and quiet. Its Victim, then, is Freedom (though it certainly wouldn't see it that way). Its Visage is Systemic; it's taken over the whole world and has basically become the only higher power anyone has or needs. It also has reduced or eliminated technology on a massive scale, as it finds most tech too chaotic and disruptive. The world, therefore, has largely returned to a more primal state (go have a look at Life After People for the general vibe). 

The Tangle can infect people with its fungus, and I think what we're leaning towards is that it can exert varying levels of control once it does. Sure, it can reduce you to a Last of Us style "zombie", but that actually makes you less useful overall because you can't really think. Also, for whatever reason, it doesn't seem to be able to infect younger people (which is how our Youthful Offenders avoid becoming mushroom'd). 

The Tangle's Systems of Control are:

• The Tendrils: People who have been infected and act as spies and enforcers. They retain some of their personalities, so these are people who probably would have been cops or soldiers in our world. There aren't huge numbers of them, but they're pretty ubiquitous and they're always watching out for discord.
• The Graveyard Mark: This is a chemical mark that the Tangle can put on a person that indicates that they're not useful to the Tangle anymore. If you've got it, anyone infected knows that you're fair game - you're only useful as raw material.
• Torpor Timeout: The Tangle can produce spores that induce docility. It can't infect younger people, but it can incapacitate them for a while. The Tangle uses this stuff to put people down while they heal from illness or injury, or as a cooldown period after they do something wrong. You know, just a time out.
• The Silver Spore Movement: These are teens who have bought in. They believe that the Tangle is going to save the world, and actively go out and recruit others, basically convincing them not to resist infection when they get old enough.
• The Slumbering: These people are infected, but don't know it. The Tangle can "activate" them when it needs to.

Into this particular mushroom salad, we have our Youthful Offenders:

• Anderson "Sparky" Lee: A baseball player and Ex Silver Spore. The "ex" part probably isn't common knowledge, as he's still Trusted as far as the Tangle is concerned.
• St. Exupery: Somewhere between The Little Prince and the kid from Love, Actually. Small, impish, thrill-seeking, and Always Underestimated. St. Exupery is an Orphan, so doesn't have a lot of people looking over their shoulder.
• Tate McGibb: The Bad girl. Tate's parents are infected and loyalists, and that makes Tate Influential (we kind of had to massage a couple of the closed Convictions for them to make sense in this setting; "Rich" didn't work as written). Tate is what you call a Bad Seed. 
• Quinn Morrigan: Quinn is a goth girl, very solid and strong (what you'd call a "gym bat"). The Outrage is obvious, but even beneath that, she's The One That Will Set it on Fire. 
• Sandalwood Adams: Sandy is a skinny girl with freckles and a weird quirk that gives her a Pleasing odor to the Tangle (again, slight change from Pretty). She is a Forager and something of a hippie. 

There ya have it. We'll see where our first episode takes us in a few weeks.