In reply to The Traveller (msg # 76):

Stanley reads the message. "Peet? Don't know who he is, but I think that Smoke Alarm may have mentioned him before. LnF...yeah don't know what that means either. This one I know: Ware F31S is, supposed to be "Beware Fists". The 1 looks a bit like the letter T."

Stanley turns back to Nadia. "Nadia, weird question but have you heard anything about a mysterious blue sphere used by the Fists?"

Smoke Alarm comes at last to the wheel-door that she found with Peet, back when.  There are a couple of scraps of cardboard arranged that obscure it a bit, and when she pokes them aside to get a better look at the door, she detects a faint scent of oil.  Next to the floor and the steel surfaces around it, the door is warm to the touch.

"Blue sphere?"  Nadia shakes her head.  "I haven't heard about anything like that," she says.  "I know that they've set up a special administrative zone around the Ultiplex and the Justice Center there."  She quickly describes the Justice Center -- from what she says, it's fenced off from casual observation, and to Stanley it sounds like it might be about as secure as a minimum-security prison back in the twenty-first century.

"But of course, they couldn't keep anyone from getting a look inside if they were determined, and had a good magnifier.  Not here on Arsuran."  Nadia holds up her forefinger vertically, then moves her arm to describe a big loop.

Smoke Alarm looked Traveller's response, and couldn't make tail or head of it. Face eyespout? What was that? It sounded horrible. Well, she'd work it out later.

Smoke Alarm eyespied the wheel-door all over, as well as sniffled at it. Oil made things less squeaky-clan, and the wheel-door had been all screechy when she'd lost-and-found it with Peet. Caretakers would put oil or grease on it, but wouldn't leave it covered with rubbish. Had Peet out-come here?  Smoke Alarm looked back up and down the carrydoor in case the Fist caretakers out-came back, then put her ear to the wheel-door, earspying for whatever was in inside.


OOC: Listening at the door:
09:42, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 14 using 2d6+9 with rolls of 4,1. awareness + ingenuity + keen senses

Smoke Alarm can hear a constant humming sound behind the wheely-door, though she can't easily imagine what it might be besides machinery of some kind.  But then there's another noise.  Something bumps and clanks, and then, muffled by the door, there's a voice making an exclamation.

Being so far down into the city basements, Smoke Alarm wondered if what she'd found was a waste disposal chute into a trash compactor or incinerator, with a Great Architect lurking within, devouring Kangs and the street-people. Or mayhaps it was like with the Meeps. Either way, Peet had left her the TM wallscrawl in the spark-box for a reason. Brave and bold. She grabbed the wheel and turned and turned it around and around.

When Smoke Alarm feels the wheely-door disengage from its stops and pulls it open, warmth and golden light spill upwards from the ground.  The machine noises get louder, and she can see where a metal ladder extends down.  And at the base of the ladder stands Peet, aiming his shot-sling at her!

"Wha?" he says.  "Hey!  Hey, it's Smoke Alarm!  Hsst!  Smoke, get down here before any of the Feets see ya!"

Down inside the wheely-door, there's an open space stuffed in and among a lot of humming machines.  Even with the machinery, the amount of space is bigger than the old Blue Kang brainquarters from the Towers.  There are about a dozen people down here, including Peet (who lowers his shot-sling and backs away from the ladder) and Old Gaross (who is holding himself up with a long length of metal pipe).  Scattered around are piles of blankets for sleeping and a number of boxes with food tins, cans of fizzade and jugs of water, and other supplies.  Light is given off by glaring yellow panels that illuminate the readings on the machinery, and Smoke Alarm can also see light being given off by what looks like a cracked picturespout panel plugged into a power outlet.

"We thought sure you'd been caught by the Feets," Peet exclaims.  "Didja find my sign?  Huh?  Didja?"

Smoke Alarm grinned wide as she saw Peet down the bottom of the hole. She climbed in, latched onto the ladder, and pulled the wheel-door down on top of her. Then she jumped down the rest of the way. 'I didja eyespy your wallscrawl!' she exclaimed happily, glad her friends were safe. She looked around, taking in the space under the wheel-door, with sleep-tights and shopping and even a picturespout, together with Gaross and Stinky and Miss Filla and the rest and others didn't know. 'How you do. You have an icehot hide-in brainquarters.' she complimented politely.

She did a casual how-you-do with Peet, ending with a fist-bump. 'After the Fist sky-flies sploded my box, I ran to the spaceport and footed onto a sky-fly outgoing to Farhaven, to the Buddha Tower with the Orange ones. I met some icehot people with a talkiphone box and we outcame back to Arsuran to make the Fists go home. We're going to start a to-do!'

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 81):

"Of course: Arsuran is ring-shaped." Stanley lowers his voice. "We suspect that the Fists might be using a blue spherical device to mind-control some people. So this administrative zone is probably where they are hiding it."

Peet seems incredulous.  "Make the Feets go home?  WOW!  How are you going to make that happen?"

Gaross and some of the others frown at that.  "Don' know just how you think these friends of yours are like to t'do that," Gaross says.  "Less'n you got hundreds of 'em.  Or less'n that is one heck of a 'talkiphone box'."

He points to the screen.  "I got us a tap in to the news net now.  Did some tech work back in the Big War, fig'red it'd help us to lay low, keep track of what they were up to.  There's a place here if'n you want to stay, Kang-girl.  Don't know you should if'n you've got a mind to go poking at the Fists, though."

'It is! It can fly through the sky and tick-tocks and it's smaller on the outside and has fish in the walls and it's icehot!' Smoke Alarm exclaimed passionately, getting into what she imagined was a rousing great speech. 'Sereth is the Dragonian Leg-it. He's going to have the egg-heads get pushy with the Feets. And the Traveller lady is BFFs with the icehot Doctor who helped us put my home-sweet-home Paradise Towers to rights, downstairs with the Caretakers and the Cleaners. She has the knowhow what to-do and lots of plans.' Smoke Alarm boasted proudly. 'And I'm going to teach you Kang Fu, to go catch-me-if-you-can with the Feets. We'll start a to-do, tell the Feets they're scaredy-cats and meanie-heads. We'll wallscrawl their towers and chase them down carrydoors and steal their stuff and invade their brainquarters, and tell them to take their stuff and go home!'
This message was last edited by the player at 02:58, Thu 13 Feb 2014.

Smoke Alarm can make a roll with her mighty Presence + Convince here if she wants to rouse her friends to the cause.  Good place to throw a Story Point, I should think.

OOC: Can I add Brave to that, as Smoke is showing her courage and trying to inspire it in others?
Spending 1 SP to add +2d6, as per “We only get one shot at this.” as getting local help was our aim.
2d6 + 2d6 + Presence + Convince + Brave: 15
13:33, Today: Smoke Alarm rolled 15 using 4d6+4 with rolls of 2,5,1,3. presence + convince + brave + SP.

"I'll guess I am going to take a look around the Justice Centre." Stanley looks at the Traveller. "Unless Nadia needs me here or Trav wants to do something else. Your original plan mentioned setting up a pirate radio station thing, spread Kang-Fu and learn more about the blue spheres. The blue sphere or spheres are probably somewhere in that heavily secured area so getting to them isn't going to be easy but at least we know where they are. About that radio station: I don't the technical details but maybe we can put the equipment in a room here and "quarantine" that room."

This message was deleted by the player at 23:55, Wed 12 Feb 2014.

"Sounds groovy, and like trouble. Let me work up a list of stuff that we can use. I was originally considering running the pirate radio from the TARDIS, but it would be better if someone from Arsuran ran the show. I'd like to actually set up a string of stations so that if one of the gets hit, another one picks up the slack, or better yet, we have whole network of untraceable content creators. Nadia, how does that sound to you? It'll be like the old Anonymous movement back on Earth in the 21st century. Wanna tell the fists how you really feel?"

Smoke Alarm's audience stares at her for a couple of breathless moments, and then Peet exclaims, "Yeah!  I'm in!"

Gaross cocks his head, then says, "Ayup.  I want t'talk to these friends of yours, Kang-girl, but we can sure use this as a hidey-hole and start puttin' things into motion."  The others all chime in one by one in support of Smoke Alarm.
This message was last updated by the GM at 02:23, Thu 13 Feb 2014.

Trav's phone signals her with a couple of bars of "America the Beautiful."  It's Amanda.

"Trav?  Wanted to know what the plan was.  Sereth is starting to spread the word to his people and, well, you saw what Smoke is getting up to.  We settling in for the long haul, or what?"

'Icehot!' Smoke Alarm cheered as she got everyone to play along, Peet and Gaross and all the rest. After all, none of the street-people of Arsuran would be sound and safe with Fist caretakers. And they knew all the hide-ins and unseen ways and how to survive with nothing. 'We're going to put Arsuran Orbital Prime to rights!'

She answered Gaross, saying 'I'll get Traveller and Sereth and Stanley on the talkiphone or bring them here, they can give you the knowhow.' She took out her talkiphone handset and wandered up to the picturespout, wondering if it had a noisespout to connect the talkiphone to. She eyespied the knews, all yawny now the Feets were caretakers. She was touched by Gaross's offer to stay here in the basement brainquarters. She could have food and a bed and a good hide-in, and be with her friend Peet. It could be a good home-sweet-home. But she also wanted to track back to Paradise Towers and her sister Kangs, and she needed Traveller and the talkiphone box for that. And she could eyespy and do so many fun things on the way.

Then she remembered 'There's two Feets upstairs footing the carrydoors. They're eyespying for you. For us. They want you to become Feets. 'Ware them.'


OOC: I moved part of my last post here as it better fit continuity.

"Moshi moshi, hey babe. Yes we are. Gonna have sweet boy drop in and out place to place so we don't have to worry about being found by the Fist's mundane resources. But the information rebellion starts apace."

"Hey, let me get you Sereth on the line.  His friend Szezak here is an electronics tech, with some time on his hands while the ring's on lockdown.  I bet he could be pretty useful in putting together a batch of quick and dirty transmitters."

"Wonderful, babe. I'll forward you some plans to work into tech of this time period. If he follows these notes, we should be able to broadcast from the TARDIS. If he needs help, I'll help him out with transmitters."

About a week has gone by.  The civil restrictions in place on Arsuran have been relaxed slightly: although there is still a curfew in place, more businesses have reopened, and there's a fair amount of commerce going on during the day.  The comm net has carried several new sets of regulations over the course of that time.  Space traffic to and from Arsuran is still restricted to official Order ships.

Repairs and clean-up around the Miszere district have proceeded as well.  At the Miszere clinic, the initial flow of injuries has dried up and they are down to a fairly normal workload, although the Fist "minders" have remained in residence.  Nadia has helped Stanley to work up a cover identity which has held up so far, but this has meant that he has been required to report for the Fists' regular training sessions.  So far, that has just meant following some of the introductory physical exercises and reading some of the Journey of Mind, which Stanley already had some exposure to.

The Fist who seems to be the overseer for the others at the clinic is an older man named Davron Selmer.  He's kind of unnerving to be around: Stanley will often turn around to find the man observing him silently, although Selmer doesn't hesitate to assist with physical work or sorting out logistical issues as he is able.

On the eighth day, Stanley is taking a break and having a coffee with Nadia in the clinic's tiny break room when Selmer appears at the doorway.  He's consulting a comm unit.

"Doctor.  Doctor."  He nods to each of them.  "I'd like to request your assistance.  You may know that the Order has been using the prior regime's detention facility to house and watch over some of the more uncooperative residents of the habitat while we try to help them accept the new state of affairs.  I've just been told that there has been an altercation at the Justice Center, resulting in a number of injuries -- mostly minor, but a few serious ones, and the trained medical staff at the center could use assistance.  Would you be willing to come to the Center with me and help us treat these people?"

Trav, I have an idea of what you're planning from your OOC post.  You can narrate what you're doing better than I can, of course, but it seems there are a couple of rolls in there:

- An Ingenuity + Technology roll to get the network up and keep it from being shut down

- A Presence + Convince roll to express your message and determine how effective it's going to be.

Over the last week, Smoke Alarm has made contact with different refugees and hide-aways from about half of the Asuran ring.  By now there are about thirty people in nine different groups that she has met up with and put into some sort of contact with each other.  (Sometimes this is with improvised or commandeered tech, sometime it's just by finding safe message drops -- for instance, she has found that Mrs. Maglup is still safely ensconced in her shabby little apartment and is always happy to give perfectly innocent passersby a cup of tea, a frapple pie and a few minutes of conversation.)

With Szezak's reluctant assent, Fadreen has joined up with Smoke Alarm and is acting as another go-between in between kang-fu training.

The hardest part of all this for Smoke Alarm has been in trying to impress upon her new proteges the proper Ware 'Fists! philosophy.  Kangs are not made overnight, apparently.

Give me a roll to represent how your training regime is being carried out.  My first inclination is to call this Presence + Athletics + Kang Fu + Brave, to represent a good mix of the Kangly virtues, but you may try to sell me something else if you have a better idea.