The Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPG

Our next stop was Happened A-Pawn. I had hoped it would have some answers—or maybe even the omen for the Werewolf storyline itself—but that was a little too much to hope for.

"So, normally, it's a lot different than this," I said as the group filtered into the pawn shop, looking around at the mostly barren shelves.

Behind the counter stood a tall, bald, heavily muscled man named Tar Bellows, a Paragon, one of the Bruisers, as far as I understood it.

"I can only stock used goods. Business hasn't been good," he said, barely looking up from his newspaper.

Typically, the pawn shop was stocked with items related to recently run storylines, and since the reset, there hadn’t been many storylines, so the shelves were nearly empty. What little inventory remained included some gardening implements from The Final Straw, some astronaut food from Itch, and a bunch of other items that might have been from storylines in the fake tutorial. A very small amount had tropes attached.

Seriously, the place looked like it was either just opening or about to go out of business. When we had been here previously, there was a ton of stuff—props that could be used for various purposes, even before trope items existed.

There were all kinds of electronics and supplies and weapons.

"A lot of competition has been moving into my neighborhood," Tar said, pretending that our arrival wasn't the most exciting thing to happen to him in weeks. “Just can’t keep up.”

"What's going on?" Antoine asked. "Are you allowed to tell us?"

"Seems like everybody's in the business of selling specialty items these days," Tar replied. "Nobody needs to come to the pawn shop anymore."

And then I understood.

Until recently, most of the stores in Carousel only held props and survival supplies. Trope items didn't exist, so the pawn shop had been a kind of one-stop shop for most of the props someone could need. While the concept of having tropes that worked well with props—or that required props—existed, for the most part, the things you bought and brought into a storyline were for narrative purposes.

Or weapons. You always needed weapons. Weapons didn't need tropes to be useful. Still, the pawn shop’s supply of guns and knives had dwindled.

"We're gonna look around," Antoine said.

"Knock yourself out," Tar replied.

There were a few Omens for sale: a haunted cuckoo clock, or perhaps just an Omen for a haunting that happened to be a cuckoo clock; a glove with dried, sticky blood on it, which could not have been legal to sell even at a pawn shop and would throw you into a murder mystery; a golf ball that bewilderingly launched you into an alligator-based horror film (or maybe it was a crocodile—I couldn't tell from the poster).

But no werewolves.

A broken Silas, the mechanical showman, stood in the corner as he always did, doing nothing, as broken things usually do.

It didn’t take five minutes to cover the entire store. There was just nothing there. The camera used in The Final Straw was for sale, but it was so big and bulky that it wasn't ideal for me to use as a prop.

One thing the pawn shop did have, however, was tropes. The selection of tropes changed with every visit. Sometimes, there were powerful, game-changing tropes; other times, there weren’t.

This time, it seemed like a mixed bag.

I'm Your Biggest Fan | Film Buff | Fanatic | Savvy |Insight: The user obtains information about characters who are famous or celebrities by acting as a fan.

Hold the Door | Bruiser | Gentle Giant | Mettle |Action: When the user blockades or holds a door, it will hold for a time. Timer: Indicates how long the door will hold.

Out in Left Field | Athlete | Sport | Hustle |Buff: All projectile attacks using a bat or similar object to launch a projectile receive a buff.

Knock on Wood | Psychic | Exorcist | Moxie |Action: The user can "un-jinx" a pessimistic prediction, creating alternative outcomes or potentially debuffing the enemy's attempt to fulfill the prediction.

There Was One Thing | Detective | -- | Moxie |Insight: Witnesses of a crime will remember one unique detail that, if used effectively, will help solve the case or lead to a breakthrough.

Duck and Cover | Hysteric | Craven | Grit |

Rule: The user will not be targeted in an all-out brawl as long as they stay low to the ground in a defensive position, allowing them to crawl safely.

Won’t Waste a Tear | Bruiser | Bully | Moxie |Rule: When the user bullies an ally set to be targeted by an enemy, the enemy will target the user instead.

Keep Pressure On It | Doctor | Medic | Moxie |Healing: The user commands an ally to apply pressure on a wound, which will be treated as cured as long as pressure is maintained.

Why Me | Final Girl | Scream Queen | Moxie |Buff: If the user wonders why they end up in dangerous situations during the Rebirth phase, they receive a buff to a plan or action in the Finale, showcasing their capability to handle such dangers.

Book Report | Scholar | Researcher | Savvy |Insight: The user gains knowledge from having read a scholarly text that becomes relevant to the plot, if applicable, giving them hints about what is to come.

You Look Thirsty | Soldier | GI | -- |Perk: If the user has a canteen or sealed drink container, they can gift an ally a drink, which will always contain pure water. Healing: The drink refreshes the recipient and may heal minor pain and status ailments, depending on the context.

Mano y Mano | Bruiser | Brute | Mettle |Action: By challenging a melee-based enemy in one-on-one combat, the user ensures the enemy will not use weapons as long as the user does not.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Fellow Traveler | Outsider | Criminal | Moxie |Scene: The user will be led to an early, mundane interaction with a disguised enemy. Insight: The user, through gut instinct or experience, learns details about the enemy's criminal background, possibly including their Mettle stat or enemy tropes.

Flag Them Down | -- | -- | Moxie |Scene: When the user is running from an enemy and comes across a road, a car will stop to help if flagged down, either distracting the enemy or offering assistance.

Couldn't Pray It Away | -- | -- | -- |Background: The user’s character was neglected or abused as a child because their caretaker sensed something different, something paranormal, about them. Equip: Allows the user to equip a variety of tropes, including Animal Whisperer-Adventurer, Past Life Biography-Medium, Telekinetic Nudge-Psychic, House Sense-Departed, and A Bat Out of Hell-Hysteric.

It's Been Twenty Years | -- | -- | -- |Background: The user’s character has been in a coma for many years and has just woken up to a world that has changed dramatically—and they themselves have changed with it. Equip: Allows the user to equip ghost or Psychic-related tropes, such as I don’t like it here…-Hysteric, Forgotten Memories-Psychic, Eerie Touch-Psychic, Silent Whisper-Eldritch Conduit, and It’s Nice to Catch up-Outsider.

Scathing Review | Eye Candy | Celebrity | Savvy |Insight: If this trope is equipped before the newspaper runs, a scathing, no-holds-barred review of the user’s previous storyline performance will appear in the paper.

Cliffhanger | Action Hero | -- | Grit |Scene

: The user initiates a major battle that ends in a cliffhanger over several scenes. Buff: During the cliffhanger, allies receive buffs for their pursuits. The user must survive and maintain the cliffhanger until they return On-Screen, at which point they are buffed to survive the situation.

I stared at the selection. There were a few specimens we could pick up: a trope for a Film Buff, one for an athlete, one for a Celebrity-Eye Candy, and two very overpriced background tropes that would otherwise be obvious picks because they granted pseudo psychicness, similar to my background trope.

Not all storylines cared if you were psychic, but those that did care cared a lot, so it would be useful to have a background trope like that. But they were selling them for 50 dollars apiece.

Kimberly, Antoine, and I debated purchasing one or both.

"Does being psychic help?" Kimberly asked. "I know that it's come up a lot."

I shrugged. "It does come up a lot," I said. "I'm not going to say it's crucial, and we certainly don't want to be running an all-psychic team. Plus, those backgrounds—aside from the psychic parts—seem kind of heavy, narratively."

One of the background tropes would change your character's backstory to being an abused child, and the other would make it so you were in a coma for a long time.

That could be tricky to work into a story, especially with as much improvisation as we like to use. How powerful could Convenient Backstory be for Kimberly if she also had to squeeze in that she was an unloved child? Especially when one of her favorite ways to use Convenient Backstory was to say her rich father had paid for her to have a niche lesson.

"I don't need it," Antoine said. "And I really don't need the baseball trope, either. More times than not, my bat is hidden somewhere in a storyline where I can't find it. I don't want to rely on it more than I already do."

Antoine’s characters probably wouldn’t care much about being psychic. Plus, those backgrounds would really get in the way of the healthy, energetic aspect of an Athlete.

"I’ll take that Celebrity trope, though," Kimberly said, eyeing a trope that would give her a review of her performances.

It was 20 dollars, but I could see how useful it would be; understanding the audience's response could help her enormously.

I got the Film Buff trope, though I didn't really want to fan boy for anyone, I would if I had to.

Andrew purchased the Doctor trope about putting pressure on a wound or, at least, commanding someone else to. It was a solid movie trope and a good action-horror move. It made things seem intense and gave hope that someone could survive a vicious attack.

Cassie picked up the psychic trope called Knock on Wood. The truth was, she had been collecting a lot of tropes and not using many of them. That would change in the coming months, surely, but that was also an issue with psychic tropes in general. They were often powerful but offered non-specific insights or abilities that might or might not have a huge impact on the story, depending on the storyline.

Michael had no interest in the Soldier trope. Offering water made sense in very few storylines, and honestly, I never wanted to run a storyline where drinking water was a life-or-death resource.

Ramona didn't have enough money for the Hysteric trope, and I could tell she wasn't exactly thrilled about pretending to be scared—or actually being scared. But I still bought it for her. If you had to act scared and pathetic to survive, that was fine. Although, truthfully, I didn't see Ramona as the type to duck and cover or crawl away.

Dina picked up the Outsider trope because, while it seemed limited to human enemies, it was definitely valuable.

Meanwhile, Kimberly picked up Flag Them Down, which would probably work well for an Eye Candy, especially if she was using Looks Don’t Last.

All told, we spent 107 dollars at the pawn shop. And the tropes weren’t even the most valuable thing we picked up there.

"So, Tar," Kimberly said, "you seem to have your finger on the pulse of the Carousel."

"Nope," Tar said, "but go on."

"How might a player find the Omen for a storyline when all they know is where the monster's lair is?"

Tar thought for a moment.

"Gotta ask around," he said. "Aren't so many folks willing to speak candidly on that kind of thing. Aren't too many folks even allowed to."

"Do you know where any of those folks might be?" Kimberly asked, trying to seem sweet. I wasn’t sure that would work on Tar.

"There's a place you can go, and I'm not promising you'll find what you're looking for, but you will find something," Tar said. "Since you've never been there, you get a pass just once. The password is 'pyrite.' It's a place that's mostly peaceful, even in Carousel, but don't trust it too much. If there's gossip to be had about this storyline, you might be able to find it there. You always find something."

"A password?" Kimberly asked. "Is it like a club?"

"Don't let anyone there hear you say that. There's some dangerous folks that go there, but that don't mean the place is dangerous—not before closing time, that is. There's a laundromat over on the corner of Drawn and Quartered. An old place; hardly ever see anyone doing laundry in there. If you go to the back, there'll be a man standing by a door. You tell him that password, and he'll let you in."

"Sounds like a chicken-fighting ring," Isaac said.

Isaac was hardly the only person to comment on the day-to-day happenings at Carousel, yet I always seemed to remember his jokes.

"Well, if you're interested in fighting rings, there's probably someone there to steer you in the right direction. But this ain't that kind of place. This is a... peaceful sort of place. A place where all stripes go to have a drink, away from prying eyes and the law."

"So it's like a bar?" Antoine asked.

"It's like a bar," Tar said. "Although I think they use the word 'Speakeasy.' And you might want to be careful—they change the password and the meeting spot every once in a while, so use your wits. No Omens can go in the Speakeasy, but trouble has a way of finding a foolish man no matter where he goes." I couldn’t help but feel he was looking at Isaac when he said that.

"A Speakeasy?" I said. "The Atlas talks about a bar but not a Speakeasy—a place where a lot of players used to go where they wouldn’t fight."

"Well, it’s called the Speakeasy," Tar said.

I wasn't going to argue with him, but surely the bar I had read about in the Atlas couldn't be the same place as the Speakeasy. Because if it was a Speakeasy, that’s what they would call it—it’s such a cool word.

Either way, the Atlas did mention a place where players from competing groups were said to meet. In fact, by no coincidence, I was sure, the entry in the Atlas where we learned that the monster lair had werewolves had taken place at such a bar.

I had always assumed they were talking about different bars.

And maybe they were. Maybe the Speakeasy was one of Carousel's new changes, like trope items or the Throughline Tracker.

Or maybe the Speakeasy came into existence for our Omen search and had never existed before. Carousel could change things on the fly and we would never know it.

One thing I knew for certain was that we would be taking our Cry Baby doll wherever we went.

We had been given a lead, just like the last lead, and we would follow it wherever it led. The thread unravels in the direction you pull it, so we got to pulling.