Errand Boy

Light jazz plays softly, muffled by several layers of concrete. You open your eyes and the room slowly comes into focus. It sounds like Ryo Fukui. He was one of Donny's favorites, but you're not sure. You pick yourself up off the floor and take a second to stretch and enjoy some fine art. Soft morning light filters in through small cracks in your ceiling and a slightly larger one in your wall.



You begin making your way down the hallway to Donny's room, the piano steadily grows louder. Yes, you're sure now, it's Fukui, some of his earlier work.



Stopping outside Donny's door, crack, whatever, you notice the room's nearly empty. Donny must be between deliveries right now. You step through the doorway, Donny's already up, pacing back and forth. He stop's when he sees you.



"Good, yer up. Was about ready to go in there, kick you awake. Got stuff to do today, ben waitin' fer the next delivery, and i can't do nothing 'til they come. So you gotta grab me some stuff, run me some errands. 'Kinda why I keep yeh around. First things first, we got some customers that need to pay off their tabs. Jack's been stayin' away for about two weeks now, yer goin' to need to find him and persuade him to pay what he owes. Winston's got some debt racked up too, but e's usually piss drunk at Alby's so e'll be easy to find. Grab some needles at the market on the way back. 'opefully the delivery'll be here by then, but I'll handle that part on my own."

The music comes to a stop switching to some contemporary jazz you do not recognize. Donny resumes his pacing, "Oh, and kid, if you even think about runnin' off with my money, I will find you. Ain't no one can hide from Donny fer long. Jest remember that."

You are the errand boy. What will you do?

Get Ye debt-collecting equipment.

eat donny, absorb all the moneys for yourself

> Get ready to find Jack.

Posted by Schazer - Today 12:04 PM
Get Ye debt-collecting equipment.

You leave Donny's room, and the light jazz is muffled again. Reaching your hand into a sizable crack in your wall, you ruffle around until you find what you're looking for, your inventory just where you left it the night before. You pop it open and and take a quick look inside. You've got your hat, knife, wig, and seven open spaces. Your knife and hat are already equipped, but your wig can stay where it is for now, it tends to rub against the low ceiling of your room, and there's no need to dirty it unnecessarily. With everything in place, you're ready for anything.

Posted by ICan'tGiveCredit - Today 02:14 PM
eat donny, absorb all the moneys for yourself

Yes! Why hadn't you thought of this sooner? Then you can keep his money and glorious hair all to to yourself. You'll take over the business, and run it better than Donny ever has! You sneak back into Donny's room, knife in hand and ...



"Kid, what're you doin'?"



"Look at me. Kiddo, look me in the eyes."



"Whatever you were jest thinkin'. Whatever was up there plannin' in yer head."



"Get it the fuck outta there, you got work to be doin' , and I can't have you sneakin' around like. Go on now, get goin'."

Donny continues to mutter to himself as you slink out of the room.

"Fuckin' scary ass kid, sneakin' around all sinister like. The fuck was he thinkin'? Wasn't thinkin' is more like."





Any other good ideas?

Posted by Kíeros - Today 04:20 PM
> Get ready to find Jack.

Okay, no more bright ideas. Maybe you'll take Donny's hair for yourself one day, but not today. Today, you have to finish the list of chores he gave you. Tracking down Jack is going to take the most time and effort so you might as well do it first. You make sure everything's in your inventory, and begin walking to your front door. Donny's still muttering to himself and pacing as you pass his room.



Stopping at the front door, you open up your inventory and equip the wig. In order to be equipped the wig can no longer be combined with the mannequin head. The mannequin head is moved to the next slot over. You now have six open slots.



It's time to go looking for Jack. He's hiding, but you're pretty confident he hasn't left the city. What will you do?

Start the search with his friends and family?

Posted by Whimbrel - Today 12:51 AM
Start the search with his friends and family?

You're about to begin tracking down Jack's friends and relatives when you realize you know absolutely nothing about Jack, and you can't just stand here all day without any purpose or direction. Fortunately, you know where Donny keeps all the records of his customers. Donny won't mind if you flip through them very quickly. No record about friends or family, all he has is the address where Jack was staying until recently, a list of everything he owes, and an old picture of him.



As good a place to start as any, you add the picture to your inventory and head off.



The address leads to a small apartment at the edge of the city. There's no running water or electricity this far out. Jack's apartment stands in front of you, but the door is currently blocked by someone.



What will you do?

Tell him "delivery for Jack" and see how far that gets you

> Tell them you have an important message to deliver to Jack in person.

Posted by Kíeros - Today 07:38 PM
> Tell them you have an important message to deliver to Jack in person.

You approach the man, carefully stepping around the garbage spilling out from the alleyway, and confidently tell him, "Message for Jack, to be delivered directly," or, at least, you would have if you had a mouth, or some way of verbal communication. You have neither. Instead you now stand in front of the man completely silent, berating yourself for having forgotten something so obvious.



"What's up man? Can I help you?"

You gesticulate wildly, trying to explain through hand motions and interpretive dance. The man grows steadily more bewildered.

"You alright man? Damn you been hittin' something too hard."

Posted by Schazer - Today 08:45 AM
Tell him "delivery for Jack" and see how far that gets you

Maybe if you change your story to something more understandable, you'll be able to get the guy to understand. You mime carrying a box and point towards the doorway.

"Damn man, you're hilarious. I don't have any money or rock or anything, man. I'm sorry. I'd give you something if I did."

This is going nowhere. This guy clearly isn't going to get it, and you need to get into the apartment. Time for some more drastic measures. You pull up your fight screen, and set your target on the guy.



What will you do?

> See what special things you have.

You scroll your cursor down down to specials and ...



God damn it! What happened to your specials fight card? It looks like someone spilled something all over it. Is that even possible with a two dimensional abstraction only you can see? You can't see any of your special moves. The cursor still seems to be working though.



You're going to have to go by memory. What were your special moves again?

> Who cares, just pick that long one. It has to be good, right?

> Ponder why you don't keep at least something you could carve a message into. Even a few basic phrases to carry around would likely make life tremendously easier.

Posted by Heyoceama - Today 05:44 AM
> Ponder why you don't keep at least something you could carve a message into. Even a few basic phrases to carry around would likely make life tremendously easier.

You ponder why you don't carry around something to write your messages with. It wouldn't be useful with most of the city's population considering they don't know how to read, but maybe pictures would better illustrate your message than hand motions.

"Man you're funny and all, but I can't have you hanging out around here all day. Security and stuff you know."

Maybe just a couple of images you carry around with you would help. It would at least give you more options than pantomiming when you needed to communicate.

"Hey man, you listening? I said you gotta' step off now."

They would take up an extra slot in your inventory though , and ..."

"Look man, I said it's time to go."

Man uses Shove!
- 15 HP
Man has lost his unaware status.



Now is the not the time for pondering! You're in the middle of a battle.

You still have the problem of this ruined special screen to take care of. You can't seem to remember any of your moves.

Posted by Kíeros - Today 01:35 AM
> Who cares, just pick that long one. It has to be good, right?

Who cares? You'll just pick the longest one. That pretty much has to be good, right? You select the longest one and ...



Holy Shit! That guy got super old. You were expecting a double slash or something. You definitely don't remember that particular move.



"What have you done to me?"

Confused guy uses flee.

The gentleman, now elderly and enfeebled, stumbles down the street babbling incoherently.

You'll worry about the ruined special's card and the odd move later. Right now, you enter the building. Most of the apartment are unoccupied. Jack's on the third floor. Without electricity, most of the building is completely dark. A couple junkies lie on the ground or propped against walls, but no one bothers you. The apartment is hard to miss, bold letters are printed on the door, "Jack's Place."

The door is unlocked, probably not the best idea in a place like this.



The inside is sparse, but big and bright. Jack's cut himself several windows into the walls, and opened up several holes to other apartments. It's clear he left in a hurry.

You need some hints as to where Jack is. It's clear he left in a hurry, and he may have left something that could help you. Where do you look first?

> The shelf.

Anyone else noticed we started injured by 7? Whats that about?

> check the windows

> Under his bed, if he has one.

This isn't the first time you've had to search a place to find where someone's hiding. You know where to look, and what to look for.

Posted by Heyoceama - Yesterday 02:56 AM
> The shelf.

You start with the shelf in the front room. It's empty, but you weren't checking the shelves in the first place. You tip the whole thing over.



No trapdoor, but this could be useful none the less. The hicard is for a local strip club, apparently someone's taken a shining to Jack. That, or the girl's trying to make an extra buck. You add the card to your inventory. It could definitely be worth checking out.

Posted by ICan'tGiveCredit - Yesterday 03:57 AM
> check the windows

The windows are odd. They leave the place exposed. Plus, who would want all this sunlight? It's not nearly dark and damp enough in here. You start inspecting the windows, looking for any abnormality or reason behind the decision to cut so many into the walls. You find your answer at the end of the hall.



An odd device sits pointed out a small window at an adjacent building. You take a quick look through the lens.



This raises a lot more questions than it answers. Looks like Jack's been spying on a dead man. Is this why there are all these windows cut into the walls. Has Jack been looking through them too? You could probably get into the apartment if you wanted to check it out. You note the approximate location of the apartment, top floor, corner apartment, and move on.

Time to find where Jack's been sleeping.



Christ, the stench coming from this room nearly overwhelms you. You're no stranger to bad smells, but this is something different. This is unholy. The fact it's managed to stay contained to this one room is a miracle.

Posted by Kíeros - Yesterday 04:33 AM
> Under his bed, if he has one.

The mattress is the clear source of the smell. You should probably investigate. There could definitely be something of use hidden underneath it, but you'd really prefer not too.

You take a deep breath, step forward, and a sharp rapping breaks the silence in the apartment. You leap away from the mattress in confusion. The rapping continues.

The sound's coming from the front room. Someone's at the door. What will you do?

> See if you can get a look at them without being seen.

Hide under the mattress!

> Ignore the noise and continue on with what you were doing.

Posted by Kíeros - 08-16-2016 05:23 PM
> Ignore the noise and continue on with what you were doing.

You don't have time for this. You've got to find Jack. You ignore the noises coming from the front room even as they become more insistent.

It's time to deal with this mattress and get out of here. The air is becoming progressively thicker with the smell. Something is very wrong in here. You firmly grasp the mattress and shift it aside. Underneath there is a small compartment in the floor.



The rapping in the front room has stopped. The sound of splintering wood has replaced it. You're pretty sure you didn't lock the door. Clearly, someone forgot to check the knob.

There's nothing extraordinary in the compartment, a Luger, a small stash of rock, and a few papers. The paper's contain nothing interesting except for one which has an address and what you guess is a password. A little too convenient, you're suspicious but add the address to your inventory anyways. You leave the rest. Robbing Donny's clients without permission is a good way to get yourself killed.

A loud crash echoes throughout the apartment from the front room. Whoever was at the front door has gotten tired of waiting. Dammit, there's no ignoring it anymore, you're going to need to deal with this.

Posted by Heyoceama - 08-15-2016 09:15 PM
> See if you can get a look at them without being seen.

Whoever it is, they're not very stealthy. You can hear them slamming into walls and furniture. It's hard to stay unseen when half of the walls have holes in them, but you think you manage pretty well. You take a quick look through one of the numerous windows carved in the walls.



No wonder this guy is slamming into everything. You watch with some amusement as he runs full tilt into a wall, bounces off and immediately changes direction, running full speed into another. You'd crack a smile if you could. The guy reminds you of a confused insect, flying into walls over and over again trying to find a way out.

He's clearly out of it, hopped up on something. You're not sure what you're worried about. Anyone living out here is a nobody. No one gives a shit about break ins. Shit, you could probably burn the place to the ground and no one would mention it.

You begin walking towards the front room, careful to avoid the rampaging man. As you pass, the man slows and then stops. He stands in the center of the room, dead still.

Nope, you don't got time for this. He was kind of funny before, but now he's just standing there. As soon as you begin moving towards the front room, he begins moving again. He sprints straight at you, forcing you to jump out of the way and away from the door. He bounces off the wall, and immediately comes at you again.

Posted by Schazer - 08-15-2016 11:40 PM
Hide under the mattress!

You run back into the apartment, but as soon as you cross the doorway that smell hits you again. You stumble backwards gagging. How in god's name has that smell gotten even worse? You can almost see it now in the air. There's no way you can re-enter the room. You're not going to be able to hide in there. The man continues to sprint towards you, bouncing off of walls and stumbling over loose debris. What will you do?

> Move in front of a window.

Posted by Heyoceama - Yesterday 06:45 PM
> Move in front of a window.

You back into an adjacent room, carefully positioning yourself in front of an open window. The man slows, and stops in the doorway. He slowly rotates until he's directly facing you and charges. You step aside and he goes straight through the window. A small piece of rebar catches his leg and takes off a chunk as he sails through.



Okay, that was a lot easier than you expected. You take a quick look to make sure the job's finished. All that's left of the guy is a pile of meat and bones, an unusual amount of blood, and some camouflage stretch pants.

With that taken care of, it's time to get back to get back to the search. It's time to find Jack. You kick aside the shattered remains of the apartment door as you step back into the hallway. Where to?