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

[dropoffs]

Comments

[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? ]

[inequals]

[ You can tell because they're talking about beans. No I'm kidding. Well, the plans Saude left you with definitely says that this area is generally the Tingtang's base grounds, and they definitely have on Hawaiian shirts.

Nobody seems to be doing anything like, uniquely suspicious or anything. They really are just hanging around! Crushing time, doing their normal squad activities.

Saude and Effie cannot be seen.

Are you guys just standing out in the open staring at them or. ]

[thematics]

[

we're cartooning it. ]

Why is everyone else's world completely insane? And if Saude and Eiffie aren't here, do we just need to find the right clothes on our own?

[riverbeans]

We're not late, are we...? I didn't think saving me from, uh, dying took up that much time.

[peers...]

Maybe they're deeper in? We could just walk with extreme confidence and hope no one thinks we're out of place. [a beat] Not that that went well for us last time.

[solesuccess]

It would've gone well if we didn't stop to meddle with other things. [ friendly reminder. ] We already know Captain's clothes aren't the right uniform, so she might stick out even if we do walk confidently. But we can't keep standing here either. So...we can just walk really fast and hope they're busy? If we don't stop, we might reach the pagoda.

[ ...he will take a few steps forward like he's just passing through and seeing if that gathers attention honestly. he's dressed right? everyone seems busy so don't mind him... ]

[inequals]

[ Well I rolled for Tingtang perception and it's just a 10 so I guess maybe someone sees you doing the cartoon over here but doesn't think it's important enough to investigate. But at least one person does think you're kind of being weird. They're just going about their day, what are YOU doing.

If it helps, the casino is like, right there. It does seem like they just so happen to make their territory right in front of it, but it's not like you can do a big ol' loop around to avoid them just to end up trying to get in through the back end or something, and that would take some time.

When Shoma steps out though, someone calls out to him. It's just some rando Tingtanger. Let's name him Jimmibob. ]

Oi, you back from a job or what? The hell you doing, faffin' around the towers?

[thematics]

[ it's shoma's time to shine! they're talking to him, after all.

lovelace is not going to hide anymore, though. she'll try the 'just look confident and like you belong here' thing and just kind of wander out too. perhaps less effective after just having been spotted being a cartoon but it's. i'm sure it's fine. ]

[riverbeans]

[it's fine. charles will also just casually stroll out and head to the casino with the confidence of someone who didn't just almost die a moment ago (although he'll also look back to make sure shoma isn't about to get into deep shit or anything).]

[solesuccess]

[ hi jimmibob. this is fucking terrible. but he's fine with talking apparently, still continuing to walk to keep attention on him while lovelace and charles stroll over to the casino. goodbye friends. ]

The hell're you doing standin' around playing cards? [ said in a way of "what's it matter, you just asked a stupid question." ] Finished a job and was just headin' to Boss. Should I be explaining I'm late because you got nosy my shoelace came untied?

[inequals]

Tingtanger C (Jimmibob)

Huh?! The fuck you say... you little beansprout...

[ Jimmibob is very upset at you being so mean right out the gate. In fact. His voice immediately starts breaking. His feelings are evidently hurt.

Also, fuck it. We're just committing to this NPC text now, especially since I'm RPing more random Tingtangers than I expected to and I also don't expect the number of minor randos to actually go down anytime soon anyways. Does this for legibility and lessen the confusion on which minor rando is which. ]

Tingtanger C (Jimmibob)

Are you mad 'cause we didn't invite you last time? Ayo, I'm sorry, man.

[ The roaming Tingtang Gang members don't, like. Stop Isabel, really. They think it's kind of weird you're swaggering your way to the casino but they've seen all types of guests. Someone else calls out to Charles though because he's in 'uniform'. ]

Tingtanger D

Oi, you can't just leave to go roll some slots! Get this car cleaned out, dude!

[thematics]

[ well no one is hassling her, but she can't just go in alone. so she finds a car that isn't being used as a table already and hops up to sit on top of the hood. observing! ]

[riverbeans]

[GETTING REALLY TIRED OF THESE TINGTANGERS!!]

C'mon, really? All right, fine... How do I clean a car, though...

[but he will. wander over to this car? help.]

[solesuccess]

[ oh. oops. he just kind of seamlessly swaps to a little easygoing grin, a "bygones be bygones" kind of expression as he shrugs. sorry. no harm no foul my dude? just keep focusing on him and ignore isabel, though he's watching charles out of the corner of his eye like he's surveying the entire area. ]

Deal me in next time and we'll call it even.

[inequals]

[ Isabel... yeah, go on. You can enter the casino. Though security at the front gate will gruffly ask her who she's with or what's her business. Just checking her credentials or something.

Jimmibob just cries and nods. Yeah man. You're totally invited next time. Even though he is absolutely going to tear your babyhands up at the next gang-sanctioned game of UNO.

The car... it's dirty. It's dusty. There is probably blood on the hood. Welcome to your first close-up of a modern death machine. You don't actually have to commit to cleaning a car, and yet you are here. ]

[thematics]

Oh, I'm meeting some friends here in a minute. Don't mind me, I'll just wait for them out front.

[ she is loitering just outside. trying to keep an eye on shoma and charles! ]

[riverbeans]

[makes some attempt at cleaning this car but is also definitely on the lookout to see if the tingtangers stop paying attention to him so he can sneak away]

[solesuccess]

[ cool. he's just gonna clap jimmibob on the arm before turning to walk toward where isabel is, trying to also collect charles. good work, man, let's go back to what we were doing.

where the FUCK are saude and effie, actually? he's back to looking for them as he goes. ]

[inequals]

[ Someone from inside the casino exits -- you hear the loud sound of fun music from within, and the beautiful and almost gaudy interior of the first floor of the casino, fully lined with slot machines and more. Briefly... if you squint hard enough... you can see Saude anxiously at a table dealing cards, glancing towards the door, brows rising as she sees Isabel.

The security guard just huffs meanwhile, and waves Isabel away. No loitering at the entrance, it's a nuisance. Go play cards with the Tingtang Gang if you really want to waste time outside, etc.

Charles. The Tingtanger that went to annoy you has returned back to fucking around and is not paying attention to you in particular. You can sneak away from the job with Shoma in tow if you'd like, though I'm not sure where you wish to go from here.

Shoma. You are now also looking at a car that someone definitely died on. Saude and Effie are not outside it seems, they moved in for their shifts while Charles was dying. ]