W2 🛸 PLAYER CYOA: HIGH ROLLERS (LOWE) 🚀 CHARLES, LOVELACE, SHOMA

[dropoffs]

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[solesuccess]

[ no pause, just rolling. ]

And y'know, we're being real lenient with you right now even having this conversation. So why don't ya keep your nose out of our business and run along? Ya know Boss hates having precious time wasted with simple shit.

[inequals]

[ I thought it would be funny for this guy to potentially be cowed by your triple onslaught of scolding him, but he rolled a nat20, so he just gets angry instead. ]

The fuck?! You think you're a buncha smart-ass beans, well! I'm gonna put you loafers back down into the ground where you belong! Don't get all cocky when your names are Jim and Jab, 'cause I'm 'bout to dim and stab you into the ground!

[ I have to work harder on this freak language than I have worked on literally any other part of this CYOA. Anyway I guess you're just suddenly thrown into Encounter #2. For what it's worth, your attempts at convincing him were REALLY good, because he does think you're actually a part of the Tingtangers. Just that being fellow gangmates doesn't necessarily mean you don't piss him off, I guess.

The dice also decreed that even though Isabel is the one with a gun, he's going for a direct stab at Charles. Again. He's just incredibly stabbable.

Effie and Saude are just going to take this opportunity to book it. ]

Saude

Ah, meet us at the car pagodas if you would. It should be in the paperwork. Please don't be late!

[thematics]

What is it with you guys and beans?

[ we have charles so maybe she can't ask that... anyway she is going to hold action until charles gets his chance to react.

... but if he seems like he is losing a fight she will try to knock this guy out with the butt of her gun. again. she's not actually as trigger happy as she acts. 😔

otherwise she will just observe because it seemed like he did fine on his own last encounter even when two people were attacking him at once. ]

[riverbeans]

[january 🏞🫘 charles Request: [1d20] Roll: [2] Result: 2

WELL

I GUESS CHARLES WRONGFULLY ASSUMES THIS GUY WOULD GO FOR ISABEL, WHO HAS A GUN, so he is caught off-guard by this tingtanger stabbing HIM instead. which is to say, he can't fully dodge it, getting a little stabby as a treat maybe before he jumps back. he is apparently losing so yeah please bonk this dude, isabel.





either way this doesn't seem good but while he theoretically has full positive energy (despite the stab) he's going to take a risk and try activating his e.g.o.? can he have fire? HOW DOES THIS WORK.]

We said to leave.

[solesuccess]

[ OH MY GOD WHY. there go saude and effie? charles is getting stabbed? isabel's trying to hit a man?

and he's just here, sadly drowning in a tacky luau shirt. ]

Seriously.

[inequals]

[ Okay well, unfortunately for Charles. He does get stabbed. You are now bleeding really badly. From the neck.

Ummm.

Slightly fortunate is the way that Isabel does hit the guy with the butt of her gun, which doesn't quite knock him out but he does decide to take a second separate swing at her instead -- but he misses quite pathetically so she's alright.

Meanwhile, you get to witness Charles's fists and sword suddenly lighting up in flames as he temporarily changes out his Hawaiian get-up for a matador outfit. You can think of it as like, a temporary illusion, fit-wise, pretty much. You basically have temporary fire enveloping your physical attacks yeah!

What you do. While you're bleeding out, I mean. ]

[thematics]

[ okay obviously i am going to let charles do his e.g.o. thing first. imagine stealing his thunder immediately.

... but then she is going to shoot this man. even if he's already down. don't care. need him out of the way so we can tend to an injury. ]

Enda. Go get bandages from the pawnbroker. [ THE GOOD NEWS IS WE ARE ONLY LIKE TWO STEPS OUT THE DOOR ]

[riverbeans]

[ISABEL JUST SHOOTS A MAN I SEE]

—Ow! Ow, ow, okay, not good!

[charles still regrets nothing though except not rolling higher!!! anyway, he feels like a flaming sword and fists should be at least a somewhat unusual sight, so if getting shot does not scare this gangster off, charles is hoping that like. swinging a sword on fire at him will. and maybe scare anyone else who might come along to check out the situation.]

[solesuccess]

And this is why we mind our own business when we have a plan we should be trying to follow! [ but he does immediately move to scuttle over to fetch bandages. listen old man, please assist. are there anything like bandages around or are we going to have to cut up overcoats to stop charles' neck from bleeding. ]

[inequals]

[ You are going through every experience possible, possibly, right off the bat,

but

Yeah between getting shot and getting basically done the equivalent of being run over by a flaming bull condensed into the form of a guy's punch and sword, this Tingtanger is solidly going down. He's yelling indescribably until he's just straight up shot, and all you get is the sound of licking flames and the gun's echo. You can hear shouts all around the alleyway at the commotion, so it's probably smart to get out of dodge.

Shoma can come back in to grab bandages, or what kinda passes for bandages because the pawnbroker doesn't have a medkit but I'm sure you can find some scraps of cloth that are worth more than to be used as bandages but use what you got! The old man is obviously startled at you returning back in but I don't think you're going to exactly stop and chatter.

Notably though, you feel something hot in your pocket. This is not a euphemism or anything. Remember that pocketwatch you got earlier?

Its hands are glowing. ]

[thematics]

[ interesting. she will be ignoring the pocketwatch.

step one is tend to charles so he doesn't die. step two is to get the fuck out of this place that has just heard that gunshot. my bad everyone. ]

They started it.

[riverbeans]

[MINDING HIS OWN BUSINESS? NEVER HEARD OF HER

anyway he is busy being tended to but he will do his best to take out the pocketwatch even though presumably more than one thing feels hot right. if he still has flames.]

[solesuccess]

I literally do not care who started it, this is, like, the worst way to get in unnoticed. [ CHARLES IS BLEEDING? WE JUST ALERTED EVERYONE TO OUR LOCATION???? but he's handing over the bandages and also taking out his pocketwatch to see what the fuck is happening here. hands? you good? ]

[inequals]

[ Yeah Charles will like feel the heat but he is immune to his own flames.

The pocketwatch's hands are glowing and it's almost like, vibrating? Charles's is glowing brightest.

Speaking of Charles. You are actually dying. ]

[thematics]

[ HELLO, DISTRESS?

fine. she will also get out her pocketwatch. fine. FINE. ]

[riverbeans]

[oh. well. that's bad. THE HUBRIS OF HIS OWN ACTIONS, CATCHING UP TO HIM. unfortunately, he is not quite sure how to make himself be less dying.]

Uh... anyone know what to do here? I'm really hoping this has to do with the revive function Gregor's alluded to before.

[solesuccess]

What revive function? [ the problem with everyone thinking he's 12 is that people sure do omit a lot of information that could be real useful right about now. he's just staring at the watch. shaking it? poking it? can he like. move the hands to go backwards? what happens if he touches it and tries to do that actually? ]

[inequals]

[ Shoma can indeed move the hands backwards! Maybe just right as Charles is blacking out from rapid blood loss.

And then they can watch something neat happen, which is that his wound will seem to 'undo' itself. Just the wound -- it's not like Charles himself is suddenly moving backwards in time awkwardly.

He will feel some remnant of the pain but it's more like a lingering ghost, since your death-injury has effectively been undone.

CHARLES

ISABEL

SHOMA

You do NOT all get punted right back to the bus from the very beginning. You will not have to restart this scenario all over again. You still hear shouts from down the street and whatnot, since you're all still here.

Idk if you actually brought Charles back inside or if it was just Shoma but. If it's the former the dude is looking aghast. If it's the latter then well you just witnessed that. ]

[thematics]

Oh, thank God. I was going to scream if it was a timeloop.

[ haha!!!! anyway i feel that were all together, wherever we are. and it is very time to GO. ]

Let's get out of here. Now.

[riverbeans]

[HEY HE'S NOT DYING ANYMORE!! YAY!!]

Wow. And we didn't even need to get our manager, which I think is actually what Gregor was referring to...

[anyway. getting out of here is important, but first, charles has to direct the next bit to the pawnbroker (EITHER ALREADY BEING INSIDE OR GOING IN IG)—]

Old man, you might want to close up shop for the day, to be on the safe side. [and back to the others:] All right, let's go.

[solesuccess]

Timeloop? [ okay he's just. whatever. that's a problem for another time. he's too busy also just being baffled that this actually worked and charles is no longer dying. (hey...can they take these back to the ship with them? what if they could save more people that way?)

he's pocketing the watch and he's looking at their documents again. ] Saude said to meet them over at the car pagodas. Location should be close by. Ready when you guys are.

[ let's gogogogo. ]

[inequals]

[ The old man is just so :man_standing:. Yeah, he figures he should do that either way with all the Tingtangers roaming about. After he gets these two unconscious bodies out anyway, because the only thing worse is them waking up inside and remembering to hustle him.

You guys can flee! And if you do refer to the paperwork Saude and Effie left you with, you can also navigate your way to the 'car pagodas' she mentioned, which is marked as being towards the entrance to the infamous casino.

Once you get through the twisting and turning alleyways to somewhere more open, you can emerge out on an alleyway where you can see... this, basically. Just a lot of towering piles of automobiles and more in almost the mockery of obelisks leading up to the grand target, shaped like a towering pagoda.

You can see some more weirdos in Hawaiian shirts roaming about here and there, not doing anything really all that important. Just checking out some cars, moving stuff, probably playing cards and chips on a hood... ]

[thematics]

Not important right now.

[ cool, we are here! we are all alive and everything is fine and no one was ever Extremely Distressed at all! ... lovelace will just start looking for saude and effie, then. ]

So this place is... a junkyard?

[riverbeans]

[well, that was an interesting near-death experience. charles will lightly touch his vanished neck wound once in a while, as he looks around.

do these weirdos... seem like tingtangers... are they saying anything...]

[solesuccess]

[ he's just sticking close to them for a moment while they look and debate their next move. ]

Gregor told me about these once. He said that the cars in the towers are owned by a gang that deals in used vehicles gamblers aren't coming back for. So...wonder if these are cars people lost bets on.

[ from where they are does there seem to be anything off about the pagoda or any kind of unusual activity around? ]