35 Suns

--- Jon ---

“Hey, kid I just wanted you to… tell me about all plants?” His ma asked, trailing off from her initial question.

“Oh, uh, I sort of got into gardening back in Blackwell.” He answered while making sure Pix had ducked out of sight. “Miss Edna has this whole garden thing on the border of the camp and the forest, and she gave me some of the plants to bring back with me when I asked.”

“Huh, well, looks like you’ve got a green thumb I never did.” His Ma admitted, taking a closer look at the small garden, before frowning at a few of the plants closer to the window. “Aren’t these poisonous?”

“Mildly.” He nodded. “They’re good for keeping pests away and making sure nothing sneaks in if I open the window for some fresh air.”

“As fresh as you can get in the city anyway.” His ma accepted, before seeming to consider something. “There’s an idea.”

“What is?” He asked curiously.

“Nah, nothing worth worrying about.” His ma assured him dusting her hands off. “But anyways, I was just coming to let you know they wanted me in early at the station so you’re on your own for morning training.”

“Is something wrong?” He couldn’t help but frown with some concern.

“No, it’s just a follow-up on the whole October madness this city supposedly gets.” His Ma shrugged. “Though hopefully that raid last weekend will help curb the worst of it.”

“Hopefully.” He agreed with a nod. “Though that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down.”

“Of course not kiddo.” His Ma smirked. “After all, I’m the one they should be paranoid about.”

He gave her a huff of amusement at that. “You’re supposed to make the criminals paranoid, not your co-workers.”

“I can do both.”

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to Ma.

---

Given how he and his ma were beginning to plot out their designs for their haunted house he began going through a series of videos and internet articles in search of new ideas for said haunted house. And while the majority of what he found was stuff he already understood, there were still aspects of it he felt were good review, such as when he went over the different types of scares one could generate and hit their target with.

First there was the atmospheric horror which was usually generated by making things dark and quiet, with the occasional creaking sound or footsteps, creepy props, and lots of subtly moving shadows, with the occasional bright light to guide people through the darkness. The problem with this style of horror though was of course the fact that it took a lot of space that most haunted houses couldn’t handle due to building constraints.

(Then again, I’ve seen more than a few spatial expansion spell-effects…) He and his Ma had never used them before, but he felt that was more due to his hometown’s lack of open magic users than actual dismissal of the idea. (Wonder how much it would cost to get Ms. Delacroix to expand the station for the night…)

Marking the idea down for further consideration, he moved onto the next type of horror camouflage and jump scares. Due to personal class he and his ma refused to use the cheap and mundane jumpscares of their lessers, and instead only used high quality scares that were hidden behind other scares, or creeping sounds that built up tension. Or his favorite method of building up a false sense of tension that right as their targets released their held breath would have them hit with the actual scare, usually from an angle they’d previously dismissed as safe. (Such as directly behind them.)

Which led him into his and his Ma’s actual favorite method of scaring people, ‘the antagonist’ a method they reserved for the groups without any minors that revolved around having a figure dressed to scare chasing after the group while ghosting the groups members into a haunted hallway of horrors for them to escape.

He still enjoyed the memory of that one year where a group had opened a pounding door to find an empty room, and then while they were looking around his Ma quietly dropped from the ceiling before creeping up behind the group’s leader and whispering in their ear while wearing her own macabre garb and throwing pig’s blood to cement the realism. (And keep the group running of course.)

Of course they were sporting about the whole thing, giving several methods for them to either fend off ‘the antagonist’ such as real looking paintball guns or if they didn’t want to escape, they could solve a handful of puzzles and escape the building without a real fight. (It’s a shame no one ever manages either of those options.)

Scene Choice and Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Trap Making and Psych warfare.

--Currently: Trap Making Lv. 8 (16/18).

--*Skill Rank Up* Psych Warfare Lv. 4 (0/10)

For ranking up Psych Warfare please choose a perk.

[]- Mental Conditioning (III)- Take a rank in mental conditioning increasing Max Mental Health and Focus a small bit each rank.

[]- Psychological Exploitation (I)- Whoever this character targets has their Willpower reduced by a small amount for each rank.

---

Wolf laid spread out panting in satisfaction on the floor where she’d collapsed after being stuffed full of all she could handle, and just a little more than that.

Pix laid on one of the kitchen counters passed out, despite occasionally groaning in a mix of pain and pleasure after insisting on fitting everything she could -and couldn’t- inside of her ten inch body.

Ying was the only one of the three girls he’d involved himself with not currently sleeping it off, instead letting out a moan as she wiped up some of the cream that had spilt in the middle of the frenzy. “Delicious~”

“Glad you enjoyed yourself.” He smirked, beginning to clean up so the girls wouldn’t have to.

“Oh, I more than enjoyed myself.” Ying admitted, grinning in satisfaction. “In fact this is absolutely something we have to do again, Jon.”

“Just let me know where and when.” He told her, glad his friends enjoyed his still developing skills.

“Hmm, in that case how about you come by my school for lunch?” Ying asked, gaining that fanged smirk she did whenever she was plotting something. “I’m sure both of my friends there would love to… fill up on dessert. I’ll even pay you for your services if I must.”

“I already told you I’m not going to charge a friend for something I enjoy just as much.” He reminded her with a roll of his eyes.

“Perhaps but you’ve a talent absolutely worth paying for Jon.” Ying assured him, moving to help him at the sink. “Besides I doubt the work for three of these cream pies is easy, especially if I were to request something less… vanilla.”

“Three? Isn’t that a bit much?” He had to ask putting one of his pie tins under the faucet. “I mean, I get you’re splitting them with your friends but still…”

Ying laughed, accepting the tin to dry it. “What can I say, I’m insatiable.”

Scene Consequences

-Gained 2XP to Cooking.

--Currently: Lv 9 (5/20)

-Grown a bit closer to Pix, Wolf, and Ying.

-Due to feeding all of the snacks to the girls, no profits were made.

---

Having finally cleaned up the mess he’d made with the girls, he couldn’t help but jump as the apartment door slammed shut sending both him and Brutus on edge as the old dog jumped to his feet.

With a knife in hand he moved towards the living room to see his Ma throwing her work bag onto the couch with far more hostility than normal.

“Um, is everything alright?” He asked, knowing how much it took to get his Ma this angry.

“No, because those fucking-!” His Ma stopped realizing she was yelling, before taking a deep breath and forcing her anger under control. “When they warned me about the problems in October, I didn’t realize it was a problem they were allowing.” His Ma tried to calmly explain, though not quite able to keep from gritting her teeth at that last word.

“What?” He frowned.

“Just… give me a second.” His Ma told him before grabbing the TV remote and turning it to a news station. “Supposedly it’s been on the news all day… and here it is.”

“Hello and welcome all you gamer boys and girls!” A red-headed woman called in a commercial ad. “It’s time of the year again, as we of the leet Gamer’s Guild bring you our famous Halloween Dungeon!”

“What.” He repeated flatly as the commercial continued.

“My reaction exactly.” His Ma admitted with bitter amusement. “Apparently a big portion of the city’s problems this month is caused by them allowing one of the city’s fucking gangs to run a massive tourist event, inviting Deviants from the tri-state area!”

“W-why would they allow that?” He just had to ask in disbelief.

“Like I said it’s a massive tourist event that apparently draws in a ton of revenue each year, since the dungeon isn’t just limited to Deviants.” His Ma elaborated, clearly frustrated with the entire situation.

“But, but that can’t be safe.”

“According to the other officers they apparently give out these little power ups that give people video game powers while they’re in the dungeon or some shit.” His Ma told him shaking her head in disgust.

“Wait…” His mind flashed back to Blackwell, namely to the cult that worshipped the Beast and ‘fed’ it in exchange for powers.

(The cultist spasmed his body twitching before he began to vomit a black liquid that Jon was growing all too familiar with.)

(Powers that always bite them back.)

Shaking his head he turned back to his Ma and voiced that very concern, pointing out, “Isn’t that the same as letting themselves be Corrupted by a Deviant?”

“They say there’s no side effects.” His Ma scoffed, telling him exactly what she thought of that. “As if Madness isn’t the most corrupting and subtle of all the Deviant energies. Hell, they aren’t even concerned with the fact that November has the highest growth in the gang’s recruitment numbers each year!”

“That… definitely sounds like something to be concerned about.” He agreed, his eyes drifting towards the grinning face of the red-headed DM of the Dungeon.

“So, if you feel like trying your luck come on down to play. We guarantee one insanely good time!”

Scene Consequences

-Gamer’s Guild Dungeon is now open until Turn 50.