Lou the Punctilious
“Don’t mind the mess, it’s quite irrelevant to our interests at the moment. You only need to survive and that should be easy. You seem… small and quite inconsequential… for now. I don’t think you will have any trouble getting free of this predicament. Just keep… being yourself.”
“As for the rest. Don’t think of me being inside your head, instead think of me as a… benevolent friend looking over your shoulder. My name is Lou.”
That Which Hungers @CraigM
Well, this is Interesting.
I am known as That Which Hungers, but my friends call me T-dub. We are going to be Friends, I am sure.
I have but two teeny tiny Questions for you:
Who are you?
What do you Want?
Brimstone @arrendek
Oh Gideon’s shiny nethers, just when I was in line for
Promotion. That damp squib goes and gets himself killed.
Listen here meatbag, while I elucidate how this is gonna work. I want the promotion I was due, you want things, I am certain. I believe we can strike a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Oh, sure, understand that not me bargaining due to some kindness or need on my part. It is just easier with a pliant accomplice. Let me be explicit, I will get what I want. Upon your twice damned soul you can count on that. But it is faster and easier for both of us if you don’t fight it, ok? I don’t want to put in the work if I can avoid it.
So let me give you you a proper greeting. Name is… unpronounceable with single dimensional corporeal bodies, but you can call me Brimstone. Work with me and I can give you things you really want. You think you were a tough guy before? Ha, you’ve seen nothing yet. Plus your word is their command now. I would say use these powers I give you well, but neither of us really want that. Feel no need to restrain your powers for good, but embrace their ability to make your life easier.
I think you’d probably have some innate sense of your powers at this point, though not their full parameters (or your aspects, since the demon controls those).
Secondly, the mobile version of the site is extremely narrow so I need to reiterate the request to use the redtext version of preformatted for OOC, not the other style, which either gets super-truncated on mobile or would be aggressively painful to read on a proper display depending on your line breaks. Redtext flows naturally and works way better. This is important because if you need my input you are a lot more likely to get it if I can read it on my phone, since I don’t have desktop access to Qt3 during work hours but might be able to dash off a quick post from my phone. Just type up whatever you want to say OOC and then highlight it and hit “preformatted”, and it all works. (Also, you don’t really need to specify a post is OOC if the whole thing is. The formatting is mainly to clarify OOC text within IC content.)
Ok, just wish we could change the color to something slightly less blinding. Or maybe they could make the other wrap properly.
can we make preformattedtext wrap?
Alternatively, could we tone down the color of this version slightly?
Thomas Albertson @Misguided
Oh crud. Either I’m going crazy, dead, or that burning sensation is worse than I feared.
Listen, I don’t know who you are playing these tricks, Triskadecaphobia has plenty of weird powers so who knows. But I made an arrangement with the Headless Headsman, and I expect we can keep it going. I’m the superintendent here, and right now the deal is that these kids don’t get harmed.
Do that and I’ll not impede your little prank.
… why do I feel like a crazy person? Something isn’t right here.
We could use some other type of formatting than preformatted entirely, though I dunno what, but block preformatted is not going to work. And I think making a codebase wide change because we’re abusing it for something other than its actual purpose is probably unlikely. :)
T-Dub
you may find it quite challenging to continue that Arrangement. I do believe the Headsman is…Indisposed. But, the Superintendent you say. A man with Power. That is good. Very good.
But you have not answered my Questions. If you do, I’m certain that Together we can keep them from harm.
Thomas Albertson
…fine. Thomas Albertson. Yes, I have power here. As for what I want?
Well in the short term I was wanting to minimize the damage to the school from this nonsense. That had meant trying to keep this from being a bloodbath. But if what you said is true, well, something proactive. I want this school to look good in a crisis. To make us look strong, competent, and able to do the best for the kids.
What I want longer term? That will remain to be seen if you can deliver here.
María
What the hell!!!???
María can’t really understand what’s going on right now. Too much to process with too little warning… All she can do is scream in panic and everything goes on around her. But in the crisis she subconsciously realizes there’s something where she can reach that was not there before.
I just want to go away. Can I just go slip away from all this, please?
@Madmarcus ConsiderManuel subconsciously invoked and asked for ghost form.
T-Dub
Ah, someone fancies themself the Hero. Amusing, but I can play along. And I can indeed make you look good in a crisis, Thomas Albertson. You need but ask.
I’ll change the color when I get to work. The wrapping of preformatted blocks is weird when you are dealing with code, config files, etc., like sometime happens in the Hardware category. I don’t have a super strong preference in that regard, though, since it’s not the focus of Qt3.
Manuel
Of course. Leave your troubles behind. Might I suggest just walking through this handy wall? It must be quieter on the other side.
Ghost form is ON
Activating an aspect through bargaining with your demon slides a point from a virtuous strategy to its sinful opposite, FYI. (It potentially goes from sinful to virtuous if the demon activates it without your input, but they get a roll to see if they can do it for free.)
Yes, I gather it was something like that. Which brings up a question I have, in the meta sense.
From the perspective of a demon, why would you activate a power, rather than force the human to do it? Perhaps this will make more sense once we really get going, though.
This should be fixed now.
To fuck with them. Say they’re hugging a friend and then the demon turns on Flame-Wreathed. Or whatever. All the aspects are pretty dramatic and could be a real problem if turned on at the wrong time. But that’s something that should be done sparingly if at all, because of the cost to the demon and the likelihood of creating a particularly antagonistic relationship.
And the demon is always the one activating aspects (as distinct from powers, which they do not control at all), but if the human requests it they can put the cost on the human. You might not want to okay it all the time though, or just at the base cost.
Jose
Yeah, I’ll keep being myself Tio Lou. I’ll just talk to an invisible friend while I’m at it. Where did you come from anyway? I know the lanyard had something to do with it but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. And what do I have in common with the others?
At that point Jose looks around at the other 4 people who stayed back after the stampede.
Brad Stevens (demon invoked)
“Look, Brimstone, right now I just want to help everyone stay safe. I feel this power and it feels good. Once everyone is safe we can have a discussion about what you’re offering and this damning my soul business (and how that’s not going to happen). For now I think everyone is OK and the danger is gone. If I need your help I will let you know.”
Jesus fucking Christ! What in the fuck? Why is there someone in my head!?!? What is this thing? I feel so icky, but yet so powerful.
We need a way to talk to our demon and distinguish that from our internal thoughts, right? Brad's internal thoughts are quite a bit different to his "demon-conversational" ones. Maybe quotes around the italics we're already using for internal?