NOVEL NEXT Book Five, Chapter 25: Itch
Antoine Stone is the Athlete.
No aspect has been chosen.
Antoine has a Plot Armor score of 26, Mettle of 7, Moxie of 4, Hustle of 5, Savvy of 3, and Grit of 7.
Current Trope Limit: 9
"Off the Bench" the player feels more rested for each scene they are not in. Eventually buffs Hustle and Moxie.
"The Playbook" the user will be able to see when it is their turn to act in an established plan.
“Time Out!” allows him to send a fight scene Off-Screen for a set time.
“You were having a nightmare…” reduces traumatic memories to nothing but a lingering dream and can undo much of a storyline at a very high level.
“In Bed By Nine” allows the player to incorporate a restorative sleeping break into the shoot.
"Play it Cool" suppresses mental trauma if the user acts calm and collected."Gym Rat" buffs Mettle and Hustle by revealing athletic backstory.
Swinging it will cause his opponents to falter, if only for a moment, based on Moxie because of “Swing Away.”
Borrowed from Riley: “Out Like a Light” allows him to fall asleep instantly.
~
Kimberly Madison is the Eye Candy.
Her aspect is Celebrity
Celebrity: The Celebrity aspect treats the player like an actor and the storylines like films they sign on to. Using meta tropes to create hype, fan favoritism, and larger than life roles, the Celebrity is the most versatile of the Eye Candy aspects. Using past roles to help their “career”, the Celebrity can specialize in virtually anything if they have long enough to build a career.
Kimberly has a Plot Armor score of 26, Mettle of 5, Moxie of 10, Hustle of 5, Savvy of 1, and Grit of 6.
Current Trope Limit: 9
"Convenient Backstory" allows her to believably change her backstory to assist with the current task, buffing the relevant stat.
"Social Awareness" allows her to see the Moxie stat of all enemies and NPCs and intuit relationship dynamics.
“Does anyone have a scrunchie?” allows her to shift Moxie's points into another stat by putting her hair up.
“Carousel Academy Awards” buffs her Moxie based on the quality of her performance in the previous storyline.
"The Penthouse" The character will get the nicest, safest accommodations in a multiday storyline.
"Contract Negotiations" the user will get a buff to an Improvisation after "discussing" an improvisation with Carousel.
“Breaking the Veil of Silence,” the user will get warnings from knowledgeable NPCs. Outside of storylines, NPCs will warn of dangers to women and hint at storyline rewards.
“A Lip Cease” allows her to take the story Off-Screen by halting the conversation while exploring and then picking it back up in a different setting.
"When in Rome" buffs her Grit until Rebirth if her performance matches the tone of the movie.
~
Dina Cano is the Outsider.
No aspect has been chosen.
Dina has a Plot Armor score of 21, Mettle of 3, Moxie of 3, Hustle of 5, Savvy of 3, and Grit of 7.
Free Background Trope: "A Haunted Past" A background trope that gives her character some past trauma that haunts her, often literally.
Current Trope Limit: 8
"Guarded Personality" resists all insight abilities.
"An Outsider's Perspective" alerts her to new, out-of-place, or unusual information.
"Encouragement from Beyond" soothes her when stressed, scared, or in pain and may provide useful information in the form of communication from the beyond.
“They Fell Off” allows her to quickly get out of handcuffs and similar restraints.
“Light Fingers” buffs the player’s attempts at stealing items from the set.
"Savvy Safecracker" tells the character how long it will take to pick a lock of some kind. Buffs Hustle in the attempt.
“You don’t know me, but…” creates a rescue that allows the player to guide NPC surrogates through the storyline from the shadows. If the surrogates survive, their postered player counterparts are rescued.
"Outside Looking In" grants her the ability to discern ideal spots to linger and observe events without actively participating in the narrative.
~
Riley Lawrence is the Film Buff.
His aspect is Filmmaker.
Filmmaker: The Filmmaker has a comprehensive understanding of the filmmaking process. They can manipulate the game environment effectively, altering the game's dynamics in subtle but impactful ways. Their abilities are a mixture of meta-Insight and meta-Rule tropes. They have higher Hustle, reflecting their ability to stay out of the way, stay alive, and remain unseen as they manipulate meta-movie elements.
Riley has a Plot Armor score of 28, Mettle of 3, Moxie of 7, Hustle of 7, Savvy of 7, and Grit of 4.
Free Background Trope: "My Grandmother Had the Gift…" A background trope that gives Riley’s character some ambiguous connection to “The Gift” through his heritage.
Current Trope Limit: 9
"Trope Master" grants him the ability to perceive enemy tropes, but at the cost of sacrificing half of his Plot Armor.
As an "Oblivious Bystander," Riley remains untargeted by enemies as he convincingly acts oblivious to their presence.
"Escape Artist" buffs his Hustle to help enact plausible escape plans.
"The Insert Shot" makes allies aware of an object the player chooses. The object will be shown to the audience and its use will be buffed in the Finale.
“What Doesn’t Kill Them Makes Them Angry” allows the user to antagonize the enemy into attacking and lowers their Savvy.
"The Dailies” allows him to see a selection of raw footage from the day's shoot.
“Cinema Seer” allows him to buff allies’ Grit and Savvy when making big meta predicitons.
“Just Out of Shot” allows him to see ‘cameras’ when sneaking near an enemy to avoid being seen.
“Method to the Madness” allows him to have increased in-character conversations with enemies Off-Screen.
~
Bobby Gill is The Wallflower.
No aspect has been chosen.
Bobby has a Plot Armor score of 24, Mettle of 3, Moxie of 7, Hustle of 5, Savvy of 5, and Grit of 4.
Free Background Trope: “Actually, I'm a Veterinarian” changes his character’s background to being an animal doctor.
Current Trope Limit: 8
“Background Noise” allows him to get background information from NPCs when Off-Screen.
“The Good Samaritan” buffs his Mettle and Grit for helping allies in a crisis if they have not met On-Screen and are strangers.
“Last-Minute Casting” recasts him as an NPC that is moderately involved in the plot. The selection is seemingly random. He will get some limited background information for the character and some access to the NPC script.
“From Humble Beginnings” debuffs the player’s stats 30% in the Party, then but buffs them 15% in Rebirth, the Finale, and the Final Battle resulting in a net 15% buff by the end of the story.
“Craft Services Are The Real Heroes” ensures that there is edible food and water on set somewhere during the storyline.
“My Only Role is Exposition” gives him some useful information to be relayed On-Screen but takes it away if he starts to bore the audience.
“If you Can't see it, it Won't Bleed” allows him to temporarily mend wounds by covering them from the audience’s view.
"Act Like You Belong" lets the user blend into any scene by quickly adopting small, fitting elements like props or attire. However, all these elements must work together to maintain their cover.
~
Cassie Hughes is The Psychic.
No aspect has been chosen.
Cassie has a Plot Armor score of 23, Mettle of 3, Moxie of 10, Hustle of 5, Savvy of 4, and Grit of 1.
Trope Limit: 8
“The Anguish” lets her see her allies’ health stats from anywhere and lets her take some of their pain by feeling it herself. This can reduce their overall injuries.
“We are not abandoned…” can keep her allies’ spirits high by weaving a narrative of some higher power in control. When done well, this trope can heal Incapacitation, certain forms of spiritual Infection, and even buff Grit.
“Reflective Jump Scare” allows her to get a glimpse of the enemy when she looks in a mirror, giving her some small insight into what is in store.
“Foreboding Signs” gives her insight into who will die next and how in character, allowing her to prepare for what is to come.
"Empathic Shield" buffs an imperiled ally’s Grit by expressing genuine concern for them On-Screen.
"At Your Own Peril" debuffs characters’ Grit and Effective Plot Armor if they ignore her psychic warnings.
"Clarity of Purpose" lets the user substitute Moxie for Grit when enduring tasks that cause constant pain, like handling dangerous objects.
“The Road Not Taken” allows her to get a sense of whether a certain choice will result in powerful emotions, but not what those emotions are.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
~
Isaac Hughes is The Comedian.
No aspect has been chosen.
Isaac has a Plot Armor score of 18, Mettle of 3, Moxie of 4, Hustle of 3, Savvy of 4, and Grit of 4.
Trope Limit: 8
“If he’s still cracking jokes…” allows the player to reduce or eliminate injuries by using humor the next time he is On-Screen before the audience know how injured he is. Works on allies situationally.
“Weapons of Mass Absurdity” using humorous weapons Buffs his Mettle and Hustle. The buff extends to weapons that are used if the original weapon fails.
“Blood Loss Delirium” gives the player a pleasant drunken stupor when they have major blood loss and provides cover for antics.
“Gallows Humor” allows him to ease mental pain with dark humor related to a dreadful relevant topic.
"Trash Talk" allows him to debuff the enemy’s Mettle by insulting them.
"Hindsight is 20/20" allows the user to recognize mistakes they've made after the fact, helping them or their allies avoid similar errors in the future. Commenting on these mistakes increases the success of future plans based on the lesson learned.
"Lights Gone Out" grants the user a tragic backstory that makes them emotionally dead inside, providing resistance against mental manipulations and false hope that would affect a normal person.
“Bleeping Censors” allows him to take a scene he is in Off-Screen by cursing in an inappropriate way.
~
Ramona Mercer is the Hysteric.
No aspect has been chosen.
Ramona has a Plot Armor score of 13, Mettle of 1, Moxie of 3, Hustle of 3, Savvy of 3, and Grit of 3.
Current Trope Limit: 5
“Just Us Monsters” buffs her Mettle and Grit when she lets loose fighting against a monster alone.
“Afraid for Others” allows her to harness fear to use Moxie as Mettle when protecting or saving loved ones.
“Close-up Scream” allows the user to become the sole On-Screen character when screaming about something they see.
“Just the Jitters” allows the user to avoid feeling nervousness or unease by acting out those emotions intentionally.
“Before you get us killed” allows the user to divide the party, sending their group mostly Off-Screen and guaranteeing some success to the surviving group.
~-~
Walking into the unknown, I was forced to lead the way because I was the best at detecting Omens—what a life I was leading.
As we walked down the long stretches of gravel roads toward the mountain where the power station was, I had no idea what was in store.
This was a strange run. The priorities were different. The Atlas told us that Dina's rescue trope, You don’t know me, but... was full of eccentricities. The story would not be about us. We would be trying to babysit player surrogates who would each represent one of the fallen players—Andrew, Michael, and Lila. If we led them to safety and completed the storyline, the players would survive. If not, they stayed dead.
We would be safe. That's something that got repeated a lot. On this rescue, we would be as safe as we let ourselves be. But then, without taking risks, how could we possibly win?
If one of us died and the survivors did not complete the storyline, they would stay dead. They would be another face on another poster needing to be rescued.
I asked myself if I secretly wanted to use Dina's trope instead of Antoine's because I was afraid to take risks. I didn't know the answer.
If it was just my life at risk, I might have chosen Antoine's trope. What little we knew suggested it would be more action-oriented. I had never been in a situation where I had to risk someone else's life and might be forced to live with the consequences. Typically, if my teammates died, I would die, too. It was all or nothing.
Neither Antoine's nor Dina's rescue trope carried that standard all-or-nothing promise. We could get picked off one at a time doing these rescues. Given that, I chose Dina's. It gave us the option of disengaging to be safe.
But in the end, could we ever be safe in Carousel?
“They really put it all the way out here, didn’t they?” Bobby asked as he wrangled his dogs, who were mostly obedient but still acted like dogs and tugged their leashes toward exciting smells.
I felt nauseous in the pit of my stomach. I tried not to think about what was coming up—all of the unknowns. We passed by the strange junkyard, but this time, we didn’t stop to stare; we pressed forward.
“Bobby, watch out. We’re approaching the forest with the monster lair,” I said as we approached the compound of the power station.
“Roger that,” he said.
I didn’t know if the dogs would react to the werewolves lurking in the woods, but I noted that they became very vigilant as we passed it.
I noticed that Isaac and Cassie were silently encouraging each other behind me as they stared at their brother's missing poster.
They were lucky in a way—to get answers so fast and to rescue their loved one so soon. I was jealous, but at the same time, I was happy for them because I was ready for people to start having wins.
Other than the sound of our footsteps, we didn't make a sound as we approached the compound.
We nervously looked over the entrance. We paused for an electric minute of shaking breaths.
“It’s so big,” Cassie said under her breath.
It was. It was a huge campus with tons of buildings, and none of them were small, other than the booth where you could buy a tour for 5 dollars—if only someone were there to accept your money.
“What do we do to trigger it?” Antoine asked.
“We walk toward the spray paint on the wall over there and then past that through the alley. Do not touch or interact with anything else. Stay close to each other,” I said.
The spray paint read: “Death to Scabs.”
Isaac read it aloud. “What can that mean?” he asked.
It could mean several things, I thought, but didn’t answer. Perhaps scabs were the enemies we were facing. It would certainly make sense for a storyline called Itch. I envisioned zombie-like creatures with large claws and swollen tumors all over their bodies. I immediately stopped myself from picturing that because I really didn’t want to confront a creature like that.
We got to the spray paint.
“It’s fresh,” Antoine said, noting that it looked like it had just been painted.
And then we walked further down through the alleyway. The plot cycle appeared, and our choice was made. We were on to the Party Phase.
I could see that we had successfully triggered a rescue because the word Rescue was on the red wallpaper along with all three of the missing posters for players who had died in Itch.
Behind us, we started to hear screams and taunts, and fear rose up in me because I worried that those scabs I made up were about to start chasing us. But when I looked behind us, I saw that the screams were not coming from inhuman parasites but from ordinary humans holding up signs and pickets, screaming “Death to Scabs” and other phrases that I couldn’t quite make out.
“Oh,” Isaac said. “Scabs. I think we just crossed a picket line.”
“Scab” was a mean way to describe a person who worked the job of a striking worker, preventing the strike from having an effect.
We continued walking forward, and the campus that we had seen before—the lonely place filled with creepy, abandoned aesthetics—had changed to a beautiful campus with bright green grass, statues, and large towering buildings that didn't look like they contained nuclear bombs as before, but instead looked like they held the wonders of science. There were banners and balloons.
We approached a red carpet where an NPC named Tripp was waiting for us. He was clapping his hands, excited as all get out. He was wearing a tweed jacket and a piano-key necktie.
“Oh, joy,” he said as we approached. “Today is an auspicious day, don’t you think?” he asked.
“Took the words out of my mouth,” Isaac said.
All around us, NPCs were busy with hustle and bustle, wearing hard hats and shiny uniforms that scientists would wear in movies to keep themselves sterile. And yet, bewilderingly, they were wearing them outside.
“As our seven lucky winners, you are certainly in for a treat,” Tripp said. “But really, this is bigger than just one experience. This is about giving other people the confidence to explore without fear. Did you like that slogan—‘explore without fear’? My bosses say we shouldn't be putting the word ‘fear’ into people's minds, but I think it suggests courage. ‘Explore without fear,’” he said as he opened and closed his hands, letting his fingers splay out.
He shook his body as if that phrase was just so good. We all just kind of nodded because we noticed, first, that we were not on-screen, and second, we still had no idea what was happening.
Luckily, our ringer, Bobby, had already been taken off to his place somewhere in the storyline, and when we found him, he could fill us in on anything we missed along the way. His dogs were gone, too.
Then again, it quickly became apparent that everything we had brought had been confiscated. Without our noticing, we were each holding a small duffel bag with “KRSL Astronautical” on the side. As I read those words, I stopped breathing automatically and had to force myself to take in air.
Astronautical... Oh dear.
We all looked at each other with clear alarm. Even Ramona seemed properly hysterical as we realized that this was not an ordinary power station.
“Where's the power generator?” Antoine asked. “Isn't there a power station around here?”
“We're pure nuclear,” Tripp said, “I know, I know. It’s old-fashioned, but you should see the project we are building on the other side of campus. Fusion reaction. Who thought we'd get that in Carousel, huh? Finally catching up to the rest of the world.”
Exactly how advanced was this storyline?
“Now, if you'll follow me, I'll take you to the flight deck.”
He led us into a large building, bigger than a football stadium, with a covered dome that began opening as we walked inside.
This gave us a beautiful view of the sunset-colored sky.
“The stars are coming out to say hello,” Tripp said. “Don't you worry; you'll be meeting them soon enough.”
As he led us into the building, we realized that the entire ground-level floor was mostly carved out, and there were multiple lower floors beneath us. At the very bottom was a white object the size of a large airplane. As we stared over the side of the railing down at the object, none of us could speak.
We were off-screen, so we didn't have to worry about breaking character, so I just went for it.
“Can you explain exactly what our duties entail?” I asked.
“Just enjoy yourself,” Tripp said. “It's testimonials from ordinary people like you that keep us in business. Trust me, if we could get space tourism to be as big as deep-sea tourism was 20 years ago—why, just imagine the possibilities.”
“What year is it?” Antoine asked as he stared at the white object down on the ground beneath us.
“I know, right?” Tripp asked. “It feels like we're living in the future like we somehow beamed that ship right out of the year 2000.”
“Yes,” Isaac said. “Who knows what they'll come up with in the year 2000.”
“Who knows, indeed,” Tripp said. “Just know that KRSL will be leading the charge, and in some small way, your feedback could help decide that question.”
“It looks like the ship from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,” Dina said quietly to me.
She was right. It looked just like the Nautilus, the ship from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Except it was eggshell white, and the edges were all rounded. It definitely had spherical porthole windows and an aquatic animal look to it. Of course, it also had the obvious thrusters and wings that made an X shape when we looked down on it from above, but it didn't really look like a rocket.
It looked organic, like the dried bones of some cosmic being.
And it didn't fit in with anything else in the building. While it was white and rounded and looked like a 1960s vision of the future, all of the tech around it looked brutalist and early cyberpunk.
The computers looked like props from a 1980s sci-fi movie, and all of the partial rockets and other spacecraft that surrounded the white ship had exposed metal features.
“It doesn't quite look like it belongs here,” I said under my breath, without really understanding why I felt that beyond basic aesthetics.
“Oh, she's state-of-the-art,” Tripp said. “You're so lucky to be able to go up on her.”
Tripp led us forward, but truthfully, all of my muscles were numb as we made our way through the facility and over to an elevator with glass panels that would lower us down.
It didn't feel real.
We passed by blinking and beeping machinery that looked very much like the control panel I had seen on the movie poster.
Were we really about to go in a spaceship?
The vets had said that Carousel plays its role too. That's how we explain that sometimes small-town Carousel had skyscrapers, and other times, the river that ran east to west instead ran northwest to southeast.
But a space program?
A corporate space program that KRSL seemed to run from their mountain hideaway. What the heck?
While most of us were increasingly nervous, Antoine seemed to be getting excited. It was almost like he liked the idea of going up in space. What a freak.
“In space, they can't hear you scream,” I said to him.
“I don’t plan on screaming,” he answered. I wasn't sure if he got the reference.
I really wanted to take a break and contemplate what we were about to do, but there was no break to be had.
We were off-screen, and we were background characters. Everything seemed to be running at top speed to get us to our positions, and little things like stopping to reflect didn't fit into that time frame.
“All right, if you'll walk through there, you'll be given your uniforms. In a few hours, you'll be looking back down at us from up there,” he said, looking up.
He pointed us in the direction of what appeared to be locker rooms—but not the kind of locker room I preferred, which usually had walls to stop people from peeking at you. As we looked over there, we saw NPCs getting dressed right out there in the open in front of their lockers.
Men and women.
“Oh my God,” Kimberly said as she realized how little privacy we were going to get. “I bet it's going to be even worse on the ship,” she added.
“Well, you don't get rocket ships and fusion energy without coed locker rooms,” I said. “It's the rule of science fiction.”
Because we were off-screen, NPCs didn't stop to talk to us or give us information. That was going to be a problem.
We were basically Wallflowers without the tropes to go along with it, but even worse, people who had used this rescue trope made it clear that you were not going to be directed to scenes where you could interact with the story. You would have to find your openings on your own.
This was going to be work.
And Antoine got right on it.
“Hey, buddy,” he said to an unclothed, hairy guy who had no shame standing in the locker room.
The man turned to us; his name was Rudy, and he had a big, wide smile.
“You must be the prize winners,” he said. He stuck out his hand for Antoine to shake, and Antoine did.
“I was just wondering,” Antoine said, “what were all those people protesting outside?”
“Happiness,” he said. “A bright tomorrow, you know, the normal things that people like that protest.”
I didn't know what -ism was going on in this story, but it was one of them. Whether it was fascism or corporatism, something was up.
“No, really,” Antoine said.
“I'm telling you,” Rudy insisted. “They were too picky, didn't want to go up, and now they don't get to.”
He continued getting dressed.
The problem was that Antoine did not have a whole lot of Moxie.
I had plenty, though.
“Come on, man, give me the dirt. Don't trash-talk them without letting us in on it,” I said.
“Okay, okay,” Rudy said. “Those sad suckers out there, they would have been rich, but they went to their union over some minor issues, went on strike, and got replaced.”
“I didn't realize that astronauts could unionize,” I said.
“Them? Astronauts?” Rudy asked. “No, those are miners.”
“I guess they couldn't get their parents to sign their permission slips,” Isaac said.
Rudy laughed generously. “They're space miners, supposed to be professionally trained, but apparently, they weren't too enthusiastic about keeping their jobs, so they've been picketing us for the last 18 months or so, if you believe it. If they don't have to work for 18 months, then they must not need jobs.”
“Space mining,” Antoine said, impressed. “Will we be seeing any of that?”
Rudy shook his head. “No, no, that ship already sailed about 13 months ago. We will probably be doing a quick flyby of the ship they're on, seeing as the Helio is so much faster, but I doubt that we're going to be looking at the new mining colonies. There's not much to see, just a bunch of mindless robots.”
“Wait,” Isaac asked as he started to change his clothes. “If you have robots who can mine, why do you need people?”
“Well, the humans aren't mindless, technically, but they're still basically robots if you ask me. There are some things that AI just can't figure out yet, like what to do when everything goes wrong.”
Rudy finished getting dressed and said, “I'll see you on the ship. Don't forget to get sanitized.” As he left, he wore a gray uniform with orange stripes. The uniforms we had been given were very similar, except ours had black stripes.
The sanitizers were not gentle. NPCs came to collect us and put us in a machine that doused us from head to toe with chemicals. It felt like we were in a car wash. All of our belongings were searched, and then we were led back into the locker rooms wearing nothing but towels.
I quickly changed, hoping that none of the NPCs got a peek at me.