>>633322
You don't look very dead to me. Or am I just mistaken?

So, how did you get to this sorry point? Backtrack, analyze, figure out where the spider's thread is...

>>633322
What will you do now?

Well that sticks, better distract yourself with art, sweets, and magic.

regret 2015/04/07(Tue)23:28 No. 633347 ID: bf3c2f
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>You don't look very dead to me.
You don't look dead because you aren't dead. Not yet.

You're not Pyetr. You're not people.

Thank the gods.


>Backtrack, analyze, figure out where the spider's thread is...
Backtrack? You knew this was coming-- Pyetr dying. You knew just as well as she did. The pustules, the color... it wasn't hard to figure out. Squall doesn't sneak up on anyone.

The spider's thread. Cute. You wish there was such a thing-- some reason behind everything. Your sister believed that.

Your sister's the reason you're in the Eaves-- if that's a thread. Some guy saw her waitressing back home. Asked if she wanted to be a star-- if she wanted to see her name in the sky.

Saul-- your sister-- she wasn't the brightest. You couldn't stop her from going; you followed her. Consoled her when her "manager" stuck her down here in the Eaves, where you still live.

Your sister trusted people-- her gods-- enough for the both of you. Too much for her own good.

...you hope that hasn't killed her, wherever she is.


>What will you do now?
You promised your sister you'd take care of Pyetr; not a problem, anymore.

You want to leave the Eaves, Haust above it; everyone wants to get out of the Eaves. But it's not that easy. You have... obligations. You're obligated. And the people? Your debtors? They're not what you'd call forgiving.

You could just go. Pick someone's pocket at the station, catch the first rail out of the Eaves. Out of Haust. You're good at running; you're not scared.

It'd just be... dangerous, and you're tired. But it's not like there's anything left for you here...

Welp

regret 2015/04/07(Tue)23:44 No. 633350 ID: bf3c2f
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>Distract self with arts, sweets, and magic.
You activate your latent lizard powers & HOLY SHIT. THIS IS AWESOME. WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THIS SOONER?

regret 2015/04/07(Tue)23:46 No. 633351 ID: bf3c2f
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...you promptly realize you're woefully under level to utilize your lizard powers (lizjyyk, in some circles). better knock it off before the lizard cops see.

:'(

>>633347
Well, if you don't know where your sister is...

Who are your debtors? Also, what is your name?

>>633350
>>633351

wat

plz to explain lizard powers, and lizard cops, plz

Well, I guess questions like making a run for it ultimately boil down to what you want out of life. If you would enjoy living on a farm or in the wilderness or whatever significantly more than your life here than go for it if you have a decent chance of success. (The chances of success depend on things like your resources and how much your debtors are willing to expend to go after you, but that is only relevant if making your escape is worthwhile to begin with.)

>>633347
Well you know what? We can weigh our options.

What seems more dangerous? Running or Fighting? Those are the two primal instincts you know. Fight or Flight. Honestly, if you're up to it, it's totally cooler to fight. Like a wise anime man once told me: "RO! RO! Fight the power!"

>>633347
.... Do you want to find your sister?
Fight or flight is a good metaphor, but perhaps we could do both. We can find her, and get out. Maybe get a bonus if we manage to trick our debtors into fighting over us as we ride the railway into what I assume would be a sunset though we may be in space or the void or heck if I know.

regret 2015/04/08(Wed)03:41 No. 633378 ID: bf3c2f
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>Who are your debtors?
You've never met them, personally. Only agents.

They... helped you out. One of their agents found you in a Compromising Situation, a year or two ago. Strung out.

You had the same problem as most people in the Eaves... Q. Quell. Quelalicit Liver... Lilly... Lact-- whatever the scientific name is. It kept you up. Made your feet stop hurting. Let you swim through each of your three jobs like... whatever swims though shit easily.

And then you had a Reaction. One of the agents found you. Took care of you. Got you off Q.

That's the first debt, you guess. The clean up-- your clean up, and the clean up re: your Reaction.

You don't have much in the way of money-- never have-- so you repay them... other ways. Dragons were almost exterminated for a reason. You might not be able to fly, or breathe fire, or have some glamorous hoard of treasure, but you... your parents taught you how to defend yourself before they disappeared.

Turns out your debtors are the kind of people who can always use another executioner more defense.


>What's your name?
Names have power. People call you what they like.


>What's more dangerous? Running or Fighting?
You know enough to say your debtors run the Eaves. Can guess at them having their hands in politics up in Haust-- maybe farther.

Fighting's suicide. Ridiculously cool, blaze-of-glory, put-it-on-a-poster suicide maybe, but suicide. You're just one debt they collect on-- not counting whatever agents are on call.

Running... running's probably not suicide. You don't know enough to say where you rank on your debtor's totem pole-- just enough to say they think you're useful enough to offer a place that's actually above the smog. So high up in the Eaves it practically kisses the machinery that keeps Haust pollution free.

Running seems less dangerous.


>...do you want to find your sister?
...you're not sure she wants to be found. Least of all by you.


In addition to a course of action, you may also suggest a name.
>_

Staying here suicide too; boring and slow suicide. Running is your best bet for life.

>name
How about... Felix? Hopefully you'll live up to that name considering what you're trying.

The name Nero sounds like it could work.
But about this debt, how hard would it be to just pay it off? Stay in the city work the ladder and try to take over or just vanish at our own convenience once everything is done.

Lavalines. Got called that by some kid once, and it stuck.
Anyhow...The trouble with staying, beyond being unpleasant? Running's tempting and all the more so, but the alternative's gotta suck if that's what's on your mind.

How about notapeni.

how about jean? pronounced like john

>You're not people.
That seems an important distinction. You're considered a non-person? Do you mean your race, or that as a servant / debtor you fall below a certain level of responsibility or autonomy?

Who was Pyetr to your sister to you, besides someone you owed via promise? What did you do for her?

What do you do, period? I notice you've had that earpiece UI on the whole time.

>what do
Besides running or fighting, I can see other options.

The obvious one to stay put. Accept your role, try to improve or stabilize your position here.

Then there's trying to beat the system instead of fighting it. Become a debt holder instead of a debtor. Work your way up to a position of power.

Or, instead of running, leaving. Settle your debts, and walk out on your own terms instead of running away. Possibly less dangerous than running, but still tricky. Since presumably they don't want anyone to settle up and get out.

I'd favor the later, myself.

>>633378
If you feel like having a cool nickname, how about Bastion? It means castle in whatever language. Pretty cool, no?

Well, Felix, fighting kills everybody eventually.
just gotta know when to stop.

So you say you work for these people, huh? They are responsible for your relative well-being? And running has good chances of not getting you dead fast?

Then make yourself important enough for them to give you more, make your life easier. You can see your options better from higher up.

And maybe you cant fly, but a whole hell of a lot of people can glide if the start from high up enough.
Should give you a running start, anyway.

>>633466
>settle your debts

I have the feeling this is the kind of debt that will never be accepted as paid off.

If that is a feasible option though then it would be good!

1/3 regret 2015/04/16(Thu)01:20 No. 634736 ID: bf3c2f
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>How hard would it be to just pay your debt off?
You don't have a number attached to it-- haven't ever been close enough to your debtors to ask for one.


>I have the feeling this is the kind of debt that will never be accepted as paid off.
You have a funny feeling that's probably right. Assholes.


>You have other options. Stay put. Accept your role, try to improve or stabilize your position here.
Your position's pretty stable-- shitty apartment, shitty odd-jobs, shitty food, sure, but definitely stable. Although... maybe it doesn't have to be.


>Or work the ladder and try to take over.
Your debtors pull all the strings in the Eaves. You rejected their offers-- the apartment closer to Haust-- because you wanted out of their business, not further in. Now that you're mulling over the logistics of leaving-- now that you're realizing there's nothing to leave for...

...well.

Taking over? You've... never thought about that. But it makes your gizzard warm, makes you lick your lips. All that money, all that control-- swiping it for yourself... call yourself a cultural stereotype, but that...

You like to think you're a realist-- real enough to see that a hostile takeover of a Mysterious Shadowy Collective of Predatory Lenders and Organized Crime is probably not going to be a rollicking good time. Even so?

You can't deny the appeal.

You'd need more bodies for something like that, though. A lot more.


>Or vanish at our own convenience once everything is done.
Sticking around in the bowls of Haust just to wind up in the wind again? No thanks. You'll take a life of looking over your shoulder over a life under their thumb any day. You'll leave or you'll... what? Instigate some kind of gang war? You don't know enough about your debtors to even say what you'll start, but you're not letting them use you. Pyter's gone. You can take risks, now.

You're not against changing your mind later-- adaptability's always been your gift; you aren't just going to wait for your debtors to get tired of you.


>You work for these people, huh? They are responsible for your relative well-being?
You work for them, sure. Sometimes... when you have to. They give you something to do-- usually to other people--, you do it, and they leave you alone for a while.

Agents are a very particular breed, in your experience: fucked up, you think is the technical term. In the beginning, you asked them questions about why you had the jobs you did. They answered. Now? Now you've generally learned to stop asking questions you aren't going to like the answer to.

You hardly think your debtors are responsible for you. You're one of the tools in their belt, if you're anything-- you can only guess at being that much.


>Fighting kills everybody eventually.
...you'll keep that in mind.


>You're considered a non-person?
You guess that depends on who you ask. To the people in Haust you're a pest. Down here in the Eaves... well, you might still be a pest, but so is everyone else-- it evens out. You're a person, sure. Maybe not fully self possessed or whatever-- maybe obligated-- but not a slave.

Dragons haven't ever been slaves, that you know of. Not like hares, or canids. Dragons actually did their share of enslaving, if you're remembering primary history right. Which has something to do with the Almost Exterminated thing. History, right.

You're a person, but not a people. Not human.


>Who was Pyetr to your sister and you? What did you do for her?
She was... nice. Honest. She showed you and your sister around-- helped you learn which smog exhausts could cause cancer, and which ones where mostly steam. Gutter mom, her type is-- was-- called sometimes; you never called her mom.

She was old when you first came to the Eaves, older when your sister left. It's hard for you to say how old-- humans sag, sure, but you can never the ratio of sag to age. You took care of her.

Lived with her.

That's part of why you're on the roof. You're waiting for disposal to move the body her. You don't want to see them zip her up-- ship her off to burn.


>What do you do, period? I notice you've had that earpiece UI the whole time.
Your UI. It's been flashing for an hour or two, hasn't it? You turn the alert off. As for what you do? Odd-jobs, when they're about. Otherwise? It's whatever--

2/3 regret 2015/04/16(Thu)01:21 No. 634737 ID: bf3c2f
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what the-- oh. Gods damn it. Not this again. "I told you to leave me alone."

3/3 regret 2015/04/16(Thu)01:32 No. 634740 ID: bf3c2f
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"Lavalines!" You could've gone your whole life and never heard that voice again. "That is no way to greet a friend!"
"Because we're not friends."
"What would you call us?"
"I'd call you nettling."
"Potatos."

Uri. Of course it's Uri. She's an agent. She's probably here because your debtors have been pinging you all night; they don't like being ignored. That's what your UI is for: collecting.

Your debtors send you a wire when they want something done, and you do it. Whatever it is. They tell you to jump, and it's yes sir, how high sir. Not because you're afraid-- because you're tired. Just tired.

>The trouble with staying?
...you don't like being taken advantage of. Your parents would be disgusted.

"What do you want."
"Just a little chat with my favorite newtling." Lavalines. Newtling. Stealing your smoke. She's pushing all of your buttons today. "There is my favorite sneer~. You are so cute when you bother showing emotions of your face."
"Bite me."
"No thank you. Instead: you guess why I am here. Telling you is boring."

You may suggest dialogue in addition to a course of action; silence is a valid option.
>_

>>634740
Was that ghostly dragon over your shoulder just representation of your thoughts? Or are you literally haunted?

She's here to suck your dick. No? Okay she wants you to kill someone. Is it her?

Sarcastically guess that she's here to console you over the loss of a loved one, because her and hers have such big hearts.

Or perhaps she wants to go on a nice moonlit dinner? Or she wants you to go off someone.

Are we going hunting in the concrete jungle? Are we transporting some powerful mystery item in a briefcase? Are you here to tell us about a VR game where we can win our way to wealth and power through wit, virtual combat, and teamwork? Or, final guess here, are you here to ruin our well earned smoke break.

you were passing by, saw me, and thought "hey, he looks like he's having a shitty day, let's make it worse."

so what's the damn job.

regret 2015/04/22(Wed)23:19 No. 635987 ID: bf3c2f
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>Was that ghostly dragon over your shoulder just representation of your thoughts? Or are you literally haunted?
You're not haunted.


Guessing. Fun. "You're here to suck my dick."
"I was not aware you had a dick."
"You've been looking?"
"You are going to blame me?"
"You've got a girlfriend." You have no idea how you know that.
"Nora looks too." Uri's fiddling with her palm. "Would you be interested in dinner?" You don't answer that; Uri doesn't seem to mind. She manages to get the display embedded in her hand working. It displays three profiles: a bird; a crocodile; a human woman.

You know why she's showing them to you. You'd really like to be wrong.

"The bird is Cyril. He lives in Haust; he will be visiting very soon. He is collecting 'sensitive documents' from a data mill. I do not know what is sensitive about these. They would not tell me. They want the documents as much as they want him. A smart man would take care of both.
"The crocodile child they tell me is Jo. He stays at an inn in the Marina, but the owner has not seen him. You will find him staying above the Torpor bar, along the gully. I think he is trying to hide but is very bad at it. Almost as bad as you.
"The human is Lettice Schultz. She owns a nursery."
What? "I thought Yule ran the orphanage." Did something happen to him?
"I do not know an Yule." What a lucky guy. That's a relief. "Schultz owns nursery of a plant. Herbs, not young. It is a nice place. I will be very sad to see its owner die." Uri's voice sure sounds sad. If by 'sad' you mean 'totally flat and also mostly indifferent'.
"I can tell." Getting specifics from Uri is like pulling teeth. "What do you want."

"You are funny, Lavalines." Every time you think you forget about how Uri's fondness makes the back of your throat twist into knots, she seems to wrap it back around her voice. You can usually stomach Uri's friendliness-- call it her being inflammatory and move on; you're beginning to think she might not just be fucking with you. "I will let you choose which you take care of."
"You're telling me to pick who dies," you say, slowly. English isn't Uri's first language, it's possible she's confused. She isn't, of course-- it's possible.
"Yes. This is what friends do." You have an uncanny feeling that Uri's never had "friends". "They give each other options."

>>635987
Go for the bird. Priority is the documents. Read them, of course.

"Let me guess, the others die anyway from you or someone else. I'll take the human, I suppose."

>>635987
Three options.
Bird is best for gaining information to use as you would, for advancement or getting out.
Croc is best to gain allies.
Human is wildcard, probs a mix of both.

I'm gonna vote human. She's the one that doesn't have any obvious connections so this will be interesting at the very least.

...also if you're not sure if she's just messing with you, ask her directly.

Bird

Might have useful information that YOU can use and out of the three sounds like the one I'd lose less sleep over. The way she phrased his bio though, she want the bird dead or alive?

Let's go with the human.

>Every time you think you forget about how Uri's fondness makes the back of your throat twist into knots, she seems to wrap it back around her voice. You can usually stomach Uri's friendliness-- call it her being inflammatory and move on; you're beginning to think she might not just be fucking with you.
If she creeps you out in that way, maybe "you're here to suck my dick" wasn't the smartest play. Doesn't seem like you came out on top of that exchange.

>you're beginning to think she might not just be fucking with you.
>You have an uncanny feeling that Uri's never had "friends".
On the other hand, I have to point out this is an angle. If she honestly has some kind of interest in you, and she's lonely or isolated, that's a mean to gain influence with her. A sympathetic (or better, loyal) agent gives you more power in the organization you're currently at the bottom of. (Remains to be seen if we manuver a way to get out, or to climb the ladder, but options are good).

>who kill
...I suppose it's too early in the game not to kill anyone. We couldn't get away with it, or cover it up, even if we could turn the would be target into a useful asset.

*sigh*. Go for the bird. The human's just gardening (at worst she's growing drugs), the croc's trying to hide from something. The bird at least actually accepted being put at risk when he took a sensitive courier's mission. Doubt he planned on dying for it, but oh well.

DON'T KILL THE HUMAN GIRL

JUST. WOW. Do you want to lose the last scrap of humanity dragonity that you may or may not have? I sure hope not.

Go for the birb. A little dirt won't hurt anyone. Except for maybe the people that it directly impacts, in which case, they probably have it coming... More so than anyone else here I think.

I vote birb. Yes.

>>636573
the croc is the kid, the human is an adult who runs a greenhouse.

Deal with the bird and see what info he's got. Help out the croc if you can. Small chance he might be young enough to have a future outside of here.

Sure, let's take up the bird. He chose the wrong time to descend into the pit.