LogBrink-Jason-5

Game log for the 2014/11/02 session of Brink, as taken by Jason

Swan has been salvaging stuff for Mouse, who runs a makeshift zero-g hydroponic bay in Ring 23. Unfortuntately, it doesn't work out well, and Swan ends up having to deliver a bunch of crap to Mouse out of his personal stash. That leaves Swan impoverished, but with his reputation for upholding deals intact.

Swan reminds Torch that he needs to deliver Cutter up to the Woots, and asks him to get with Absinthe on that. See, he wants Cutter delivered alive, which means that sending Torch out solo won't work at all. They agree to meet at Fusty's. Absinthe's on board and suggests that Cipher might be a valuable source of intel.

The two of them end up in the Waxing Gibbous. Cipher cuts right to the chase - what's in it for him? Torch calls Swan and Swan says we can all meet in the hangar. Swan explains what he wants, Cipher dickers with him, and Abner makes unhelpful asides. Swan ends up offering to loan Cipher his pistol, since he's utterly tapped out otherwise, and replace it when Swan comes up with something better. In exchange, Cipher will help Absinthe and Torch deliver Cutter to Ring 25. Swan also offers up all information he has on Dr Oculus in exchange for everything Cipher can find out about the Woots.

Cipher takes Swan's Woot-decorated pillow and consults the psychic maelstrom. He sees himself in a mental ceiling mirror as a little stick figure. After a moment, the mirror fades away and he finds himself looking at a hangar. It's full of stuff, but all the stuff has meaning to him. He can't decode the meaning, but he knows it's there. Then he sees a bright light, movement in his peripheral vision, and then sudden, blinding pain, his sight goes black, and then it comes back, and he realizes that his doll-self has just been stomped on... by Swan. Then he goes adrift, as though he was no longer tied to the movement of the station, and though people try to grab on to him, they fail. Woot paintings on the walls keep him from drifting through, and he can talk to the souls in other Woot statues. He thinks about the Woot mother and he knows that she looks out for all of her people. He tries to ask her why the sun pulses, but all she can say is, "because it is time." Then he wakes up. When he looks back at the Woot pillow, he knows that he made the pattern drawn on the pillow. Time is a flat circle, man. Cipher tells Swan that his experience was awesome and that he and Swan are solid.

Meanwhile, Swan and Absinthe discuss the reasons Swan wants Cutter. They aren't complicated.

Cipher, Absinthe, and Torch head to the Shell to see if they can find Cutter. Cipher immediately feels that something is not right here. Something has created tension in the area. It's like there's about to be a fight. He starts thinking about maybe getting out of the room and going EVA to evade whatever happens. Turf and Cato are over there ripping apart some dude's stall. Torch's mask wants Torch to go get them, and Torch doesn't feel like arguing with it. Absinthe, more alert, spots three more guys coming in at Turf and Cato, murder in their eyes.

Torch calls out a warning to Cato. Absinthe tries to make eye contact with the incoming troops and suddenly two of them only have eyes for her. The third, though, is headed for our quarry. Shooting starts, and one of the attackers kills Cato. Absinthe shoots the one she couldn't make eye contact with and takes him out. Torch goes after Turf with his usual bellowing battle cry, and Turf unloads on him. Torch cars not for your petty buckshot but gets nudged off course and has to find something to pivot off. All hell is breaking loose as the fight snowballs. Cipher keeps looking for his way out, but the nearest spot is the pod door, which would vent atmo while it was open. He decides to tuck in near an airlock door and keep his eyes open, hoping to stay out of trouble. Absinthe tries to tell the nameless attackers to hold up since we might all be on the same side, and they hesitate. One trains his gun on her with intent to shoot, while the other remains focused on Turf. Absinthe tries to yell out that they can work together but gets shot at and has to evade. She gets behind cover but loses sight of Turf and the rest of the furball.

Meanwhile, two girls and a guy are trying to reach the airlock, padding through the air furiously. Cipher lets them pass.

Torch drifts past Turf, redirects himself, crashes through some light zero-g construction, and erupts onto Turf's location. Turf tries to shoot him but Torch overwhelms him with ferocity and a vicious punch to the face. He then uses Turf's shotgun to blast the crap out of one attacker, then throws down on the other and shreds his cover, forcing him to flee. The shotgun then runs empty.

Someone grabs Absinthe from behind, putting a hand on her shoulder and her left hand. She intuits where the enemy must be and shoots whoever it is.

Cipher takes his bearings and begins to see how the fight is shaking out between different groups. The guy who escaped Torch seems to be getting orders from some other dude, who Cipher does not recognize, but thinks may be a Shell local. Three more of Cutter's men arrive via elevators. Cipher uses his brain mojo to make the officer giving the orders feel a little poorly, and that causes the guy to yell for all his people to get down.

Torch demands Turf's ammo, looks for a way out, and sees Cipher hanging out near an airlock. Torch pushes off with Turf in tow and gets Turf to cough up a few rounds for the shotgun. Absinthe heads the same way and finds a way to give Torch a bit of a push, which helps since he's basically lugging Turf as deadweight.

A guy with a kid in tow comes toward the airlock Cipher's at. If Cipher lets him through, our gang is going to be stuck there for the airlock's cycle time. Cipher offers a hand and pulls the guy in next to the airlock, but yanks him away from the airlock door, telling the guy that they have to wait for Cipher's friends. Cipher tries to put the psychic wammy on the guy but gets punched in the face for his pains. Cipher tolls with the punch and isn't hurt, but he gets knocked away from the airlock. Sure enough, the guy starts cycling the lock.

Now we're stuck for thirty seconds or so, and an increasing number of people seem to be directing hostile gazes at us. Turf seems really unpopular around here. The other three guys from Cutter's crew are already engaged in a firefight. The attackers to get organized to take us on, but Torch dissuades them with shotgun fire. The airlock finishes cycling, we cram in, and we're out of the fight and now we're EVA.

Cipher leads us to the nearest available airlock. There's a bit of a relative speed differential but we can latch on to an elevator arm and swing around, and pretty soon we're in an elevator headed for the inner part of the Shell's ring. We head for the core and a lift back to Ring 23. In the elevator, Turf looks all terrified, but we try to reassure him that this isn't going to go south on him. We end up agreeing to let him go, but he's instructed to carry a message to Cutter that he needs to meet us tonight at the Waxing Gibbous. We then notify Swan that we passed that message off to Swan.

Swan goes to see Fletch and asks for a little help. Fletch hooks him up with roofies and some intel. He then goes and hires on some more muscle, because things around the station seem to be getting more violent lately.

The Waxing Gibbous has a new bouncer, Fungus. Peanut's waiting on our table. It also has all of us, there waiting and hoping Cutter will show up. Swan and Torch go to a far corner so that Cutter can meet with Cipher without being spooked. Cutter arrives with four muscle in tow. Cutter sits down with Cipher and Absinthe, while the other guys sit at the next table. Cutter mentions that he might have some work for Absinthe, a situation he needs resolved. He also seems to be pretty attracted to her, so his motives may not be all of a piece. Cipher asks Cutter about the device he planted in Woottown; Cutter says he was getting paid by "people." Cipher presses him. Cutter says it was a guy from station maintenance who wanted monitoring re-established. Cutter also explains that he can't talk freely with Swan; their lack of an established relationship means he just can't talk to Swan. Cipher suggests that he'd happily be Cutter's cutout man with Swan, but Cutter likes Absinthe better for the job. The guy from station maintenance turns out to be Savage. Hey, these two plot strands have made contact!

Cipher orders drinks over. Absinthe offers Cutter a little alone time. He's surprised - as in Penthouse letters, things like this never happen to him. Cipher's a little taken aback but he realizes that her play will provide an excuse for Cutter to leave all his men behind. This plan rocks except that Swan has no idea it's in place, so there's a little confusion. Cipher goes to the men's room so he can chat with Swan, and Rocko follows Cipher. That will ruin the chance to talk, to Swan heads for door instead. One of Cutter's guys points to Swan and mutters something, and one of the muscle men comes screaming around the corner to notify Cutter that Swan's here. Cutter immediately tries to press Absinthe's face into the wall and ask whether this is some trick. She stays calm and tells him that Waxing Gibbous is a popular place and lots of people go there. Sure, she knows Swan, but he knew that, that's why she's his go-between for Swan. Cutter stops squishing her but tells her that she's going to stay between him and Swan, and that her pants stay down.

Swan and Torch walk past but Swan susses the situation enough to not get involved. Then he loops back throgh a different alley to sneak up on Cutter. By the time we get back to the scene of the regrettable incident, Cutter's got his pants up, and he's sadly realizing that whatever is between him and Absinthe, it's not true love. Swan tries to grab Cutter's arms so Torch can dose him, but he keeps getting in Torch's way, so finally Torch just punches Cutter in the kidneys and the pours the drug into his mouth when he screams.

Cutter comes out of the bathroom with Rocko and sees Cutter is gone, but his goons are still there. Cipher returns to his table and chills out for a bit. A while later, Cutter's guys finally realize bad stuff has happened to their boss. Rocko grabs Cipher and demands an explanation. Cipher complains that he just got cut out of a deal and he's working with them just to set that right. The guy punches him and knocks him to the floor, at which point the gang starts to curb-stomp him. He uses his mojo to Fist a nosebleed but that's small consolation. He whips out his painwave projector and that scatters the gang immediately. Fist was already doing a little poorly and now he suffers some sort of stroke. Everyone else runs away, though Willie sticks a knife into his leg as he tries to get away. The pain causes him to hesitate and then someone kicks the painwave projector away. Cipher gives Willie a mental blast in response and sends him to the floor with a hemorrhage. That gets him away, at which point he flees to Swan's place, planning to steal his Woot pillow.

Meanwhile, Swan, Absinthe, and Torch are carrying an unconscious Cutter to the Woots. The elevator opens and we find a Woot waiting for us, beckoning us in. We cross the bay to the first airlock door that leads to the really crazy hallway. This time we all watch our steps. Occasionally doors open and Woots look at us through them, then close the door. Eventually one of the Woots gestures in a way that makes it clear that Swan and Cutter have to come in, and they won't allow Torch to follow. Swan says it's cool and leaves Torch and Absinthe behind.

Swan takes a moment to look at this place through The Red. In that world, the Witch is three people. She pokes a Cipher a little and then tells Swan that this is as agreed. He turns to go but she tells him to wait, and informs him that he is always welcome there. "Thank you," he says, and hastens to leave. As they leave, Swan asks Absinthe to promise never to tell anyone about this. She promises.

At Swan's house, Flail tells Cipher he's not allowed to sleep in Swan's bunk. Table tries to tell her that Cipher's known here, but she's not interested, she wants him gone, and chases him off.

Absinthe decides to go to home. Swan and Torch follow at a distance, with comms open. Absinthe actually sees them looking for her and evades them, then arrives home before they get there. Sure enough, people come knocking on her door. "Open up, bitch! We know you're in there!" She opens the door and fixes one of them in her gaze, rendering him speechless. The guy behind the knocker, a short wiry guy, was with Cutter at the bar and now has horrible bloodshot eyes. He says, "Hey! Where's the boss? We saw you leave with him." She explains that they did their thing and departed separately, by themselves. She invites them in to look for him. They're game. She specifies that only one of them's allowed in. They're about to accept then when Cooze yells some threats down the hall. Absinthe convinces them that Cutter isn't here and that they should go away forever. Torch tries to convince Swan to let him waste Cutter's men as they leave, but Swan wants peace. Cooze steps in to check on Absinthe.

Cipher's feeling ill-used by this whole situation. He piles into Fletch's place for medical attention and gets charged 2-barter for treatment.

On the ride back, Swan tries to hyponotize Torch, but totally fails. Torch ends up with 2-hold on him and tells him to quit the shit. When they arrive home, Flail tells Swan that she showed Cipher the door. She does't know him but his description is unmistakeable. Swan tells her that Cipher's allowed on prem but not in his bedroom, and goes to take a nap.

Cipher, thoroughly unconscious, goes to visit the psychic maelstrom. He wants to know about the pulsing sun. He sees the sun doing its thing, and just at the edge of his vision, he sees a little arc line. Every door he opens, the arc line ges a little longer.

Swan tries the same gimmick, taking a little mental stroll through the Red, but it goes poorly for him. He has a nightmarish vision of being in a crytube on Ring 8. Torch and Flail wake him, and Swan brushes it off as a nightmare.

Torch opens his mind to the uncontrolled and unfiltered emotions of the bay, hoping to suss out a way to get at Table. He has a moment of double vision and sees Table with black eyes, saying, "Look into my eyes." He actully hears two voices, one Table's, the other one he doesn't recognize. Torch is convinced that Table must be involved with the guys who took Honey out.