Episode 3

The crew of the Terpsichore head onward towards Ceres.

Mack's Lasers

Four days remain to reach Ceres.

Mack spent the previous night browsing the feeds (space Internet) for old turn-of-the-millennium RPG rulesets, and finally comes across Lasers and Feelings. Enamored by the extremely simple ruleset, he decides the next morning that everyone is going to play it with him.

That morning, Zuko dodges the invitation, making up an excuse about needing to take a call.

Mack turns down the lights to get everybody else in the zone. "Alright," he says, "so I've been doing some thinking on what the Protomolecule is. Also I've decided I'm going to call it the Protomolecule, because Protogen made it. And it's a molecule... I think. And if we're going to defeat it, we need to be prepared."

He reveals that he stayed up all night making a special Hand Terminal app for his game. It includes a dice roller and a character sheet.

The Game-Within-A-Game

Mack begins his RPG oneshot with the following exposition:

Captain's Log, Stardate: 27483

The solar system stands at the precipice of an unprecedented crisis. As the United Nations of Earth struggles to maintain control, the influence of the Protogen Empire rapidly grows. During a recent battle, a group of OPA spies managed to steal a clandestine Protogen intelligence report, revealing the location of The ProtoStar: an unassuming asteroid, and Protogen’s only manufacturing station for their signature weapon: the Protomolecule. Witnesses claim wielders of this powerful substance can levitate objects as if moved by invisible force. Numerous accounts also suggest the ability to alter the emotions and memories of others, and even the ability to peer into the immediate future.

Disguised as ProtoStar assembly line workers, our intrepid OPA crew of the Ame-no-Uzume have successfully reached the center of the manufacturing facility and armed the thermonuclear warhead which will detonate in one hour. Just as they are preparing to make their escape, they are spotted by a ProtoDroid. “You’re not allowed to be here. Explain yourselves immediately,” he says, as he raises a weapon.

Mack put his own custom races and classes into the app, and everyone makes a character. Nikki wants to be a plain-old cat, but Mack insists that she plays as one of the character concepts he spent all night coming up with, so she settles on cat girl. Nearly everyone protests about having to play as OPA.

They create their characters:

Nikki: an Empathetic Cat Girl Doctor named Hello Kitty
Kova: an Android Explorer named Pip
Lu: a Robot Pilot named Beep Boop Beep Boop
Alfie: a Belter Soldier named Alfie
No.: a Detective Cat Girl named Nyancy DarkDreams, with a sexy dress made of swords

(As an aside, while figuring out how to GM Lasers & Feelings, I got a fair bit of my inspiration from this excellent one-shot where one of the players was, in fact, some kind of cat-creature.)

Next, Mack presents a map of the ProtoStar.

He then repeats the game prompt:

"...You're spotted by a ProtoDroid. 'You’re not allowed to be here. Explain yourselves immediately,' he says, as he raises a weapon."

Number's character Nyancy is the first to respond, saying, "We... being... who we are... from the organization that we're in... are just as cold and calculating as you are. So you should let us pass." Nikki's character Doctor Hello Kitty adds, "Yeah! We're all robots," and then does a little robot dance. Pip (the Lasers & Feelings character, based on the loveable Expanse RPG character, played by Kova) joins in, and they both give Nyancy an assist to her feelings roll.

But the droid replies, "Not all of you are robots. Those are cat girls. One might just be a cat," while now pointing his gun directly at them. Alfie (the Lasers & Feelings character played by Alfie, the loveable Expanse RPG character) responds with, "I also have a gun. Don't you know? I carry a gun. I'm a soldier," and points it at the mustachioed robot, making a feelings roll to intimidate him.

"Back off, or... I have a gun," Alfie shouts.

"Wait," the robot replies monotonally, "don't shoot!"

"Let us through!"

The robot backs up against the wall, saying, "I will report you!"

Alfie replies with "no," and shoots him, with a lasers roll with a minor complication. Others definitely heard the shot, as Alfie carries a bullet gun, not a laser gun.

The group decides to run. Pip makes an expert roll to find an air vent, and just in time, the group squeezes inside just before Protogen patrol arrives. They escape through the vent to the far side of the ring containing the Operating Room.

There, they witness doctors experimenting with their Protomolecule-given force grab abilities on human subjects. Suddenly, one of them senses the characters' presence.

Pip informs everyone with a "Hey. Guys. I think there's a problem."

Alfie reassures everyone that he has a gun, and Robot Beep Boop chimes in that they have a laser. Nyancy removes one of the knives from her dress. When Mack suggests that she have a gun instead of a knife, Nyancy responds with an upset "Nyo..."

Mack continues to not-so-subtly hint that he would prefer Nyancy carried a gyun, but Nyancy insists that cat girls carry knyives not gyuns, to which Mack eventually acquiesces.

The characters see the Protomolecule-force-sensitive doctors reaching for a big red emergency button, and Nyancy throws her knife, with a critical success. The knife hits a doctor square between the eyes. The rest freeze and put their hands up, backing against a wall. Nyancy prepares to kill them, and when asked for clarification, she says, "Yes, even the hostages."

Mack announces that there's about 45 minutes remaining until the bomb goes off.

Robot Beep Boop (played by Lu) pleads with Nyancy: "Don't do that... Let's just run!" Number looks to Mack, asking if she has to listen to Lu. Mack says it's up to her.

Doctor Hello Kitty interjects and says she wants to harness the power of the Protomolecule herself, and makes a roll to find some in the Operating Room. She finds a syringe lying on a table, most likely periodically used by the doctors to top off their powers. Doctor Hello Kitty uses it and now has force powers.

Nikki asks Mack what she can do with them and Mack goes over all of the different things you can do with Star Wars force powers in excruciating detail. Number wants Doctor Hello Kitty to join her as a murder hobo and become the "cat girl murder squad." But instead, Nikki rolls to use her force powers to convince the remaining doctors that they were never there. She rolls LASER FEELINGS. Rolling LASER FEELINGS means Nikki gets to ask Mack a question and he will answer honestly, clarifying immediately and nervously that the question has to be about the campaign. At that, Number looks disappointed.

Nikki's question is "Am I like... a superhero now?" and Mack says, "You're more like a Jedi," which only confuses Nikki, until he clarifies, "Space wizard." Nikki is excited that her character is now Doctor Wizard Hello Kitty.

Nyancy is upset that Nikki's critical success means she now has no excuse to myurder. Everyone wants to move on, so eventually she assents, insisting that she gets to murder the next doctor that they see.

The group heads up through the corridors, through the dorm area leading to the Research HQ area. They get some suspicious glances, but nothing more, because they're still in disguises. Nyancy announces that she already shed her disguise, stating, "I only want to wear all of my knives. So that when I throw knives there's like... less clothes. So it's like... hot." Mack is clearly very into that and does not protest at all. He wonders aloud why he didn't make "knife-dress cat" one of the archetypes for players to choose from. Then he says, "Why didn't I make that the only archetype?"

Nikki jumps in and tries instead to sell Number and Mack on the "allure of the unknown," to which Number counters, "But what if you were like, a cat girl covered in blood, and no clothes?" Now Alfie is getting into it but Mack suddenly seems a little squeamish at the mention of blood.

The players choose to avoid the random milling employees and go back to their ship to escape, but this would also involve ignoring a room full of test subject hostages to the south. Robot Beep Boop tries to convince the group to stop and save the hostages first.

Without much convincing, they all envision reasons to save the test subjects. Doctor Wizard Hello Kitty imagines the hostages could all be other space wizards. Mack reminds Nikki that all of the space wizards around here want to kill them. Nyancy thinks they might be hot and fall in love with her because she'll save them. She rolls Feelings to find the hot ones and gets a few assists, and Number asks Mack if Nyancy is an expert at hot people, to which Mack replies "Yeah... Obviously. Takes one to know one, right?" Robot Beep Boop muses about how despite their lack of emotions, robots are probably the best at logically discerning objective hotness through a series of scans and procedures.

After Number makes their roll, Mack describes the scene. "You roll by the first one. No hotties. ...continue on by. The second one? No hotties :(. The last one? Nothin. You think, most likely, the hotties must be in the other proto molecule operating room, not the test subject cells."

Nyancy makes a beeline for it. Mack relays, "There's like... two hotties in there getting force choked," receiving a "that's hottt" from Number.

In order to rescue the hotties, the crew will need to dispatch two droids and two Protogen employees, with about 35 minutes remaining. In tandem, Robot Beep Boop lasers one of the force chokers, while Nyancy knifes the other one. Robot Beep Boop rolls first, getting LASER FEELINGS. The question Lu asks Mack is: "What is the safest way to get back to the Ame-no-Uzume. Mack says the safest way is to go through Central Command, as shift change is occurring soon, and people will be milling about, making it easier to blend in. Alfie wants to make a detour to Antony Dresden's ProtoStar Vacation pool. Nyancy DarkDreams rolls to knife the second guy, critically missing, hitting a hot one. Number gets upset and shouts "I hate this game". Mack states that the one she misses turns around and starts force choking Nyancy. Robot Beep Boop shoots at the one force choking Nyancy, while Number continues to be upset that Nyancy is good at knives so she shouldn't have missed. Alfie turns the crews attention again to Antony Dresden's ProtoStar Vacation pool, suggesting that it might contain pool hotties. The two robots work together to dispatch the second protogen baddie, with another LASER FEELINGS. This time Lu's question is "are there hotties at the pool". Mack responds "There are *absolutely* hotties at the pool. There are *only* hotties at the pool. And... also maybe Antony Dresden. He goes there sometimes."

Nikki want's to use Doctor Wizard Hello Kitty's space magic on the two remaining droids in the room, but find out it only seems to work on biological lifeforms. Alfie shoots one while Pip starts opening the test subject cells to let the average looking hostages out of their cells. Nikki makes a semi-successful feelings roll to force-throw one of the dispatched humanoid protogen employees at the robots, succeeding but injuring one of the remaining hottie hostages in the process.

Number decides to hack the terminal screen displaying Mack's map of the ProtoStar to say "Lame ass mid hotties" over the cells.

After successfully rescuing the mid hostages, there's about 20 minutes remaining. Alfie is getting concerned that there won't be time to go to the pool. The character players' characters all book it for the pool, successfully rolling for all of Protogen to not notice them as they visit the pool. With 15 minutes remaining, Pip opts to take the remaining hostages to the ship while the rest of them visit the pool.

Nikki tries to persuade Mack into giving them extra time for the pool party. Saying, "Well, we want to have some fun but it wouuldn't be fair if we blew up just because we wanted to have fun at a pool party."

At this point Zuko wanders back into the room and begins intently watching everybody play Lasers & Feelings. He seems a little annoyed by how people are playing. Mack acquiesces to Nikki, saying "okay you actually have 25 minutes, and you could probably run to the ship in about 5 minutes, giving you about 15 minutes at the pool. Because you want to be a little ways away before it explodes."

Pip gets spotted by a group of droids while escorting the prisoners back to the ship, and rolls Lasers to attempt to hack it, but the droid notices and attempts to counter-hack. Pip rolls to successfully lasers the droids, but loses a couple of prisoners, making it back to the ship and dropping off the remaining prisoners.

Meanwhile, at the pool party, Robot Beep Boop makes a lasers roll to decide who is the hottest at the pool party. Mack says "You're not an expert, but you are prepared. You have all of the equipment necessary to scan faces." With a perfect success, Robot Beep Boop begins confidently rating each party goer, out loud, on a scale of 1 to 10, as well as some droids. Mack explains "some of the droids are sexier than others". The first person is very proud of their 8/10, but the smile quickly subsides when the next rating is a 9. Alfie hits on the 9. "Do you wanna get off this space... place... station." they reply "oh... uh... my shift starts in an hour." Alfie tries really hard to remember to not announce that the station is about to blow up, replying "My ship is more fun." with flirty smile. Alfie rolls feelings for flirting, and Mack states "And you have two cat girls with you, which I'm going to count as an assist." Alfie rolls LASER FEELINGS, and asks Mack if the hottie likes him. Mack thinks for a moment before saying "yeah! she's super into it. she wants to go back to the ship so badly, she is already getting out of the pool." she keeps repeating "so... show me the ship" and "c'mon, I wanna see your ship".

Nyancy rolls a prepared expert lasers to entice one of the other hotties, getting a LASER FEELINGS. She asks Mack "How many girls here could I get to fall in love with me? with knives."

Confused, Mack says "uhh... well... you have about... fifteen minutes... five of which you're going to need to spend going back to the ship... another five you're going to need to spend leaving the station..."

"Just answer the question," Number interjects.

"Right... uh.. there's about twenty hot babes at this pool party, and you think that maybe if you had more time uh... maybe all of them... but with the time remaining probably about three."

Kova says "aren't these the people doing experiments??" to which Number replies "Yeah. but I'm fucking OPA scum, so this is cool for me, I guess."

Doctor Wizard Hello Kitty, trying to get the party rolling, yells "Free booze at the dock!" rolling a prepared expert feelings check, rolling LASER FEELINGS. She asks "Do we actually have enough space for this number of people on our ship" to which Mack immediately responds "No. No. You have a pretty small ship. It was meant to sneak five of you onto a secret space station. It's like a closet. You're lucky it has a bathroom on it."

Nikki replies that that was not explained to her beforehand, so she's just going to take as many of them as she can back to the ship. And starts a conga line with a bunch of Protogen swimsuit babes.

Everyone makes a final roll to get back to the ship. Alfie critically fails, Robot Beep Boop succeeds with complications, Robot Wizard Hello Kitty succeeds with complications, finally Nyancy DarkDreams uses all of her knives except for three to intimidate people in the hallway. Nyancy gets a critical success, causing other hotties to break from the conga line and follow Nyancy, who dismisses them to impress her three hotties.

Lasers & Feelings Alfie gets caught in the conga line crossfire and doesn't make it back to the ship. He jumps in front of a bullet to save Robot Beep Boop. Robot Beep Boop says "Oh my god. You saved my non-living non-flesh with your living flesh. Why the hell would you do that?! I have no soul." Alfie lets out a "don't... forget... me..."

Robot Beep Boop replies "I do not forget. I have a very strong memory with lots of storage"

Alfie replies "excellent! I died in peace."

Mack says "And with that, with five minutes remaining you ... do you sardine the babes in the ship? ... Okay, you clown car the babes into the ship, and you fly off, and they're all very, very glad, that they didn't just blow up on the protostar, and you save the world. And the protomolecule can't be used anymore, except... for the sample that you have with you."

Zuko's Feelings

Zuko is fuming in the corner, says "Do you all think this is a game?!" to which everyone confusedly replies "...yes?"

At this point, Kova gets up and heads towards her room.

Zuko beckons Mack into a nearby room and the crew can see angrily making orders to Mack, who begins to look concerned but seems to be complying. He hands his hand terminal over to Zuko.

Nikki, concerned, goes to check on Kova, who does not answer her door.

Zuko says "This time, you get fifteen minutes. And I'm setting a timer."

Number is also at Kova's door now saying "Hey, Zuko is doing the same thing as Mack but... he's being mean about it..."

Number successfully makes a hacking attempt to open Kova's door. Kova tries to look like she's sleeping. Nikki thinks Kova opened her door and is confused to find her asleep, facing away from the door.

Nikki attempts empathy, telling Kova "You don't have to come back and play with us, but... I'm sorry if things didn't go... how you wanted them to."

Kova replies "It's okay, just play the rest without me."

Nikki asks if Kova wants her to bring anything, like Popcorn or Cheesy poofs.

(Note to editor: I think the missing context here is that Kova is ex OPA, and for a reason. She felt overwhelmed RPing as OPA blowing up a bunch of semi-innocent people)

On Nikki's way back, she crosses paths with Lu, who says that she's never been terribly good at bed-side manner. Nikki replies that it's not a medical issue, and Kova is just upset and there's nothing they can do besides giving her some space. Lu, with a confused stare, says "everything can be fixed," but ultimately decides not to pay Kova a visit.

Meanwhile, Alfie is telling riddles to Zuko in the common area of the ship.

Alfie: "I go on red but stop on green, what am I doing?"

Zuko stares at him.

Alfie: "I'm eating a watermelon!"

Zuko: "...what's a water melon?"

Alfie: "I... don't know. I'm just reading it out of this old book. What goes up but never comes down?"

Zuko: "...what?"

Alfie: "Your age."

Zuko doesn't seem to like that one.

When Nikki and Lu return to the common area, on the ship, Zuko has returned Mack's hand terminal and Mack appears to be rolling up his own Lasers & Feelings character, and Alfie reads one of his riddles to her.

Alfie: "Hey Nikki. People buy me to eat, but never eat me. What am I?"

Nikki: "A fork?"

Alfie: "cutlery! ... is Kova alright?"

The Second Game

(Note to editor: I'm moving the part where Zuko makes the app alterations down here for better flow, originally it happened before Nikki checks on Kova, and then everyone went off and did their own thing for a bit.

Once everyone except for Kova is back in the common area, Zuko announces "Okay I'm going to show you how this really goes." He says "My rules are different. You can't roll 'laser feelings' in my game," Zuko says while making mocking air quotes, "And if your left most die matches your number, well... just hope that it doesn't because the outcome will be unpleasant."

"You start in the same place as last time, but this time you only have fifteen minutes starting... now." He says this with an emotionless gaze, as he sizes up the crew.

Nikki immediately interjects, "okay! holy shit we run!"

"Where are you running?" Zuko prompts seemingly in exasperation.

"The same ... air vent... there?" Someone replies.

"No. There's no air vent."

Alfie says "ookay... let's run."

Lu says "Didn't we start with droids pointing guns at us last time?"

Zuko, who wasn't around the first time, quickly adapts. "Yeah. There's a droid. He's pointing a gun at you. What do you do?"

Everyone in unison replies "shoot him and run!"

Zuko asks who is shooting first, and asks for a guns roll.

Alfie goes first and barely makes his roll, receiving a complication. The droid manages to shoot him in the shoulder, but Zuko adds "But not your shooting shoulder. This time."

The crew keeps running, they turn the corner and encounter five more droids.

The crew once again says "we all shoot!"

Zuko states flatly, and coldly. "They're all droids. With impeccable aim."

Number, audibly and visibly upset, asks Zuko if he's sure he understands the vibe of a tabletop RPG, and Nikki agrees he's not making sure that this is fun for everyone.

"Fun?! This. This is not about fun. If we ever wind up in this kind of situation, we need to be prepared."

Number says "yeah. well. I knife them. All."

"You don't have a knife, you have a gun." Zuko replies.

Number, now even more upset, doesn't even respond. After a long pause, Alfie breaks the silence, matching Zuko's seriousness, as if a switch has flipped, and on some level he understands and maybe even agrees with what Zuko is doing. "There's no time. We shoot them.

"Make me a shooting roll"

Number interjects. "Give me a knife."

To which Zuko replies "Fine. You have one knife."

Number replies "Just one? Fine then. Which nipple?"

After a long pause and a quizzical stare, Zuko says "I think I... must have missed something."

And once again Alfie breaks the silence. "There's no time for this. We have to move."

Number attempts to hack the timer and add more time. Zuko is looking right at it and sets it back.

Alfie rolls another critical failure, managing to take out only one of the five before his gun breaks entirely.

Zuko asks "Now... Do any of you have actual military training?"

Having spent countless years as a combat medic in the UNN, Lu raises her hand.

"Good." Zuko replies. "Then you already know the first thing to do in this situation is find cover. You definitely don't want to be just standing around letting them take pot shots at you. So, I suggest you all find some cover if you want to make it through this fight alive."

Number says "I don't like this. This seems fucking stupid."

Lu responds "I like this. It's realistic." In a way that was surely meant as an exclamation, but came out in the same relatively matter of fact tone that Lu always tends to speak in.

"Did we win the fight?" Somebody asks.

"Not until somebody makes me a shooting roll to kill those four droids while you're behind cover." Zuko replies.

Lu says "I will do that. Am I an expert?"

"You are a robot. You are always an expert at shooting." Zuko replies, without a hint of humor.

Lu manages to take out all of the droids, but not without suffering a complication. Lu's gun is destroyed in the fight.

Lu and Alfie ask if they can take guns off the droids but Zuko says they are built in, and can't be detached as there is no trigger mechanism.

"I walk over to the robots and re-wire them. If we're going to play this your fucking asshat way, I'm going to rewire them to work for us. That's what I do on a job." Number says.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Zuko responds positively, as if he didn't notice the venom in Number's voice. "Very good. Roll me lasers. Are you any good at this?"

"Yeah I'm the best in the fucking world."

"Then roll as an expert. And you're prepared too."

"Yeah, I better be." Number replies, paying absolutely no notice to Zuko's shift from an exasperated demeanor to an inquisitive one.

"Alright, you re-wire all four robots, and they'll now follow you around with their guns."

"No I have them lead."

Once again Zuko looks impressed, "Alright. You follow them, with their guns."

Alfie states "We need to go out toward the research HQ."

"Alright, as you're heading towards the Research HQ, there's already people waiting for you in... this area." He states, as he gestures to the map on the nearby terminal screen. "It's another gun fight. What do you do first?"

"I'm gonna take cover." Alfie says

"That's right. You take cover."

"This is a space station, right?" Number asks

"This is a space station."

"I hack into the fucking airlocks and open them in every room we're not in."

"Uhh... it is... not that kind of space station." Zuko replies.

"So it's not... in space?"

"...uh... It's... Alright fine then. Give me a roll."

Number succeeds.

Nikki reiterates "Our room is sealed though... right?"

"Our room is sealed." Zuko replies. "However-- Now what do you do?"

"Well now everyone else in this fucking station is dead, let's go to our ship."

"Except now there's no air between you and the ship."

"Kay... well... fuck." Number says.

"You have 8 minutes and 55 seconds. Better think of something." Zuko says as he taps his wrist. His inquisitiveness shifts further. Now it might even be impressed amusement.

"Okay, I'll just close the airlocks. How does air come into the station?"

"It normally just ... doesn't leave. New air is not produced at a rate that will be breathable in the next 8 minutes and change."

Zuko gestures on the map to the entire dormitory region between the Protomolecule Operting Room and the Research HQ, explaining that the entire section they inhabit still has air.

The crew decides that whatever they're going to do, they might as well start the re-oxygenation process.

Zuko begins to say how long the station indicates it will take before the rooms they care about become breathable, but pauses.

"Actually, I'm going to have you make a roll Number. You can have three dice again."

Number succeeds handily on their roll.

"Alright, you manage to put the oxygenation system in to overdrive without overheating it. It says the other rooms will be stable in approximately 7 minutes. Prior to that there is a risk of rupturing your lungs if you open the doors."

"The robots are still able to get through, right?" Number asks-- at this point significantly calmer, maybe even a little excited by her own ingenuity. Now everyone seems to be playing along, and even Zuko appears to be having a good time.

"Yes. The two rooms adjacent to you have airlocks between them, so robots can safely move between them without any risk to the rest of the crew."

"Yeah, all we have to do is let the robots out to find some suits. In fact, they can get the ones from our ship."

Lu asks "Would I have enough time to go all the way over there and then..."

"To the ship? No." Zuko interrupts, but the interruption was entirely out of respect for little time they have remaining.

Nikki suggests that the suits might be near the airlocks, perhaps even right on the other side, and Lu agrees to search for them.

"Okay. Give me a lasers roll."

"Can my other droids assist?"

"Absolutely. I'm going to call that an assist, and prepared."

Lu rolls another success.

"Alright!" Zuko says, with a long pause. "You... find... suits... it takes you... a little... while... to find them... and... when you... finally do... find them... you are around... this area..." Zuko says, slowly gesturing to the map, this time intentionally running down the clock. "You find them in a storage bay just off Antony's little... wing... over here, and on your way to and fro, you pass a lot of suffocated corpses laying around. Some of them look truly horrified. But you do finally make it around, and back into the oxygenated dormitory wing."

"They were going to blow up, anyway." Alfie states, still in business mode.

"...And you provide the suits, to... your compatriots who need them. They do all fit, luckily."

"Okay *now* it's time to book it." Alfie says.

"Yep. You book it. You make it out. You fly away, and the station explodes. I have to say, from the way this started, I did not expect this level of performance out of you, Number, and I'm very impressed. I call this a success. I thought for sure you would all die... but I'm glad to be wrong."

Number replies, still in a much calmer manner than she was in when Zuko started the one-shot. "Yeah, I mean, we've all had shitty times before. All of us have done things ... this bad... like you brought the mood down a little. We got four more days on this ship together, let's have like a *good* time."

Oh yeah, about that, Zuko interrupts, as if the remaining time was the only thing he had heard. "We have been asked to make a milk run over to Eros. If we burn pretty hard right now we should get there around tomorrow morning."

"And what exactly are we doing there?" Captain Nikki, asks.

"Boss wants us to pick somebody up, and bring him over to Ceres."

"Another person. And who is this?"

"Let's see... Log says Lionel Polanski. Any one have any idea who that is?"

Lu asks "Is this guy sketchy?"

"I... It wasn't a pop quiz. I ain't heard of em either. They might be nobody. Boss just asked me to pick them up on our way back."

( Aside: Nikki's player asked if they can roll to know who he is, to which I replied "Oh, yeah! you can roll." And before the dice hit the table I replied "You've never heard of them." Maybe you had to be there but I cracked myself up on re-listening. )

Nikki resumes her Captainly duties and quizzes Zuko once more. "Does this change our bottom line?"

"I'm sure he'll pay you for it."

"Alright, strap in." Alfie says, heading for the intercom to let Kova know the Terpsichore is going to be pulling high Gs for a couple hours.

As they strap into their crash couches, Number shoots dagger eyes at Zuko, but the look he gives in response is one of both relief and respect. He already knew Number was a skilled hacker, but he was glad to see she's also a fairly quick thinker, under pressure, even if that pressure is self-created.

Nikki on the other hand is mulling over her own feelings about Number's cold, and wholly un-calculated decision to suffocate everyone else on the station, knowing full well that there were innocents in the mix. She grapples with the quandary of whether or not it was the right thing to do, given that they wouldn't have had time to rescue them from the explosion, anyway.

Everyone makes constitution rolls to avoid the hangover caused by the low-quality juice aboard the Terpsichore. Everyone fails except for Alfie, who always seems mysteriously unaffected.

They burn through the sleep schedule leaving them feeling wired but tired.

The next morning, about an hour out from Eros, the ship is back down to a leisurely 0.3Gs. With about a half hour to nap, post-juice, for those who so choose, Nikki makes some coffee in the recently repaired coffee machine.

Nikki sits alone stirring her coffee, but not for long before Alfie sits down across from her.

"Nikki, listen. If we're ever in that kind of danger... I consider you a friend, so I'm telling you in advance. If it's ever a choice between my life and the crew-- My life and yours... I'm choosing mine." He says with an unnerving matter-of-factness.

But the next thing that comes out of his mouth was quiet, and tinged with a shame that he couldn't hide. "I don't wanna die."

"Well then," Nikki replies, pausing to wipe her tired eyes and take a sip of her freshly brewed coffee, "Let's hope it never comes to that."

Eros: Dock 2A

TL;DR: Zuko wanders off, and Nikki, Alfie, and Number notice there's a ton of fresh CPM security employees milling about. Kova mentions it used to just be called Protogen Security.

The Terpsichore coasts into a large hanger bay entrance carved into the side of an oblong rock twice the length and four times the width of Manhattan. Matching its rotation with that of the asteroid, large mechanical arms reach out to guide into its berth.

Inside the ship, Alfie looks to Zuko and asks, "So. Where are we meeting this guy?"

"I haven't been given a meeting point yet. But they're scheduled to arrive in about 18 hours. Not a bad time to tour Eros if you've never been."

As they disembark through the airlock jetway, Nikki turns to Kova.

"You're from here, right Kova? Do you have any folks you want to check in on or anything?"

"No," She says, "It's just me."

"Surely there must be something you want to do." Alfie prompts.

"Nothing in particular..." Kova replies. "It's kind of just... a big trash heap to me... I guess we could check out Old Town-- see if there's anything going on."

They hop on the train from Dock 2A to dock 2B, at this point Zuko parts ways to go take care of some business, and from there, the players board the train that will pass by Agatoor, Cutty, and Tuggs Stations before finally arriving at Main Seteshang in Old Town. But as soon as they board the second train, everyone notices an abundance of CPM security, on the train and at each stop, many of them meandering about rather than posting up somewhere.

Standing huddled in the packed train, Alfie turns and whispers. "Uh, Kova, I don't remember Eros having this many cops, do you?"

"Definitely not." And after a pause, "Also, I don't want to profile but..."

Alfie immediately picks up on what she's getting at. They are all in CPM uniforms, But none of these cops have the professional appearance that Protogen would've expected from their officers. In fact they look more like petty criminals than anything else.

Number found a seat to occupy, and has been occupied with her terminal since they left the ship. Also picking up on the vibe, she begins scanning the local proximity for unsecured terminals. After gaining access to one of the CPM security guards terminals, a series of DMs reveal that many of the newly hired security guards are in fact hired straight out of prison. She shows the DMs to Nikki and they devise a plan to find a club where off-duty cops go, and ply them with alcohol in exchange for information.

Kova and Alfie go to the Arcade

TL;DR: Kova wins a stuffed alien plushie from a claw machine. Lu gets hooked on VR House of the Dead 97. Alfie and Kova play competitive ski-ball. Kova gets kicked out for tilting the pachinko machine, but she does win a possibly antique ford model-T hotwheel toy. And then Kova and Alfie bond a little over some white kibble.

Kova decides to stop off at the arcade (note to editor: give it a fun name) with Alfie and Lu in tow. She wins an alien plushie from a claw machine. Kova is an expert with a claw machine and gets it on her fifth try. A small child is upset that his dad tried over twenty times and failed. The kid tries to buy it from Kova but she won't sell it to him. Then Kova and Alfie compete at .3g ski-ball.

Lu gets way too into a zombie shooting VR arcade game. She gets a pretty high score but isn't very familiar with VR arcade shooters and ends up feeding it quite a few credits.

Kova finds a broken Pachinko machine that she can influence by tilting the machine. The employee catches her and begins escorting her out while she insists that everyone does it so she shouldn't get in trouble. He tells her to come back tomorrow but then realizes he recognizes her.

"Wait a minute. Kova?"

She doesn't recognize him because she wouldn't have known him from coming to the arcade previously. He recognizes her from her childhood, back before her parents died. He talks her ear off about her childhood until she finally cuts him off.

"You know... you could let me back in?" She says grinning.

"Listen, they have cameras here now, and I'll get fired if I don't kick you out. But you can come back tomorrow."

Alfie and Lu are both oblivious to Kova getting kicked out.

Kova tries to send them messages, but the VR helmet notifications conveniently blend in with Lu's game hud so that she doesn't get distracted from spending credits.

The employee comes back out and hands her the prize she got from cheating at the Pachinko machine. Kova isn't sure what it is but it looks kind of like a very rudimentary car. And the keychain itself looks like it might be an antique repurposed as an arcade prize.

Alfie is too engrossed in a new arcade game he's never played before and accidentally left his terminal on do not disturb.

Once Kova finally manages to get their attention, she wants to go for some classic Belter comfort food, and only Alfie tags along. Lu is still to engrossed with the VR game. Kova describes it as the only other good thing on Eros besides the arcade. The restaurant is called called Gold Star Kibble. Alfie and Kova both have the white kibble at Kova's recommendation.

Mack's new threads

TL;DR: Mack gets an outfit with a leather jacket.

Nikki, wearing skinny jeans and a white crop top with a light pink jacket. heads off to scout out cop bars to get more information on the CPM situation, while Number takes Mack shopping for new clothes. So far he has only been wearing crew coveralls, and his bloody CPM uniform with the logo ripped off.

Number applies some temporary tattoos and buys a top with a mesh sleeve, pairing it with a short skirt.

Mack spends quite a while looking for clothes. He tells Number that he really wants something that stands out and makes him look good, but he also wants to blend in. Eventually he picks out a leather jacket.

Nikki and NoDot go phishing

TL;DR:

While Mack and Number were shopping, Nikki scopes out a cop bar and starts pre-gaming on vodka red-bulls, but has had a few too many. She doesn't have a lot of luck seducing anyone before Mack and Nikki show up, but one guy drunkenly states to his friend that he thinks Nikki is a cop before his friend reminds him that he's a cop.

Number and Mack find a table and while they wait for Nikki to come over from the dance floor, Mack tries on his new persona, going between acting like a guy who always wears a leather jacket, and being a guy who doesn't feel cool enough to be wearing a leather jacket. Nikki wanders up to the table and recalls back to when she was nineteen, and used to date guys just like Mack, cringing.