Shadow of the Waxwing Slain, Ch. 7.5

An Interlude

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This post will be a bit different. The first part will be my thoughts and feelings on the game so far, how it’s gone, the result of the first case and plans for the next case. The second part will focus on what the characters get up to before they get started on the second case. Next week, “The Case of the Iron Court” will begin in earnest.

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Case Notes

I think the first case went rather well. I got thrown by some of the oracle results but in general, I managed to follow a mystery to it’s end result, with surprises, intrigue, and danger throughout. I got to use the core rules, chase and combat rules, and even got to see what happens when a character becomes Broken through losing Resolve or Health. Really, the only aspect of the rules I didn’t get into was Downtime, because the case just kept getting more and more intense! I do intend to use Downtime moving forward, though.

For the most part, I was able to use questions and a d6 yes/no oracle to follow clues, and as I usually do when solo-playing, I go ‘Oh this is what would make sense’ as a storyteller and roll with it, but when Fletcher investigated Ricci’s apartment, I realized I wasn’t sure what he would find there. I needed to figure out what clue or clues he could find and what they might or could lead to. Using abstract tables for this can work, but can be tricky, so I sort of hacked together a clue oracle, which I’m trying to work into a more presentable format before I share it. I will continue to try to use it in the next case, along with abstract tables (like Starforged’s Action/Theme/Descriptor/Focus) and just see what works the best. Honestly, you just need something to spark your imagination and there’s many different ways to do that.

Part of solo-gaming is tinkering with different tools, and adapting or creating tools that work for your playstyle.

I’ve also been delving into the world of Blade Runner extensively. I read the graphic novel for “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” by Philip K. Dick, the inspiration for the original Blade Runner, movie. I rewatched Blade Runner, and read the comics Blade Runner 2019, Blade Runner 2029, and am currently reading Blade Runner: Origins, all of which I was able to get through my library’s app. Support your local library! I really wanted a better grasp on the world and the lore of Blade Runner to better tell a story within it. I also watched the anime/cartoon “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” which, while not very good, has an interesting plot and story, providing more information about the world. I’m also listening to the podcast “Shoulder of Orion” which is an extensive deep dive into the movies and world. As you can see, I am immersing myself in all things ‘Blade Runner’.

I realized I kind of jumped into the game without giving much of a setting or world overview so those of you without knowledge of Blade Runner might be a little confused. I’m going to start the next chapter with a bit of lore for those who aren’t super familiar with BR.

Anyways, enough chit-chat, let’s get on with the game!

Photo by kevin laminto on Unsplash

Chapter 7.5: An Interlude

Shift: xx

Location: Sector 5 - Replicant RD-3.96’s apartment

Dee ignored the catcalls and slurs tossed her way, “skinjob” the most common, keeping her eyes down, as she made her way up the stairs to her apartment. Getting inside, she shut the door and stood there for a moment. Holden had given both her and Fletcher a day off. She’d left Fletcher still in Medical back at LAPD HQ.

His ex-wife and kid were coming to see him.

She’d had enough socialization with humans the past couple days.

The apartment was sparsely decorated, a cheap picture of fish in the ocean against one wall, the rest bare white, stained and dirty.

She went into the bathroom, looking at herself in the mirror. Her face was paler than usual, her eyes looking sunken. Her short-cut brown hair had dirt in it, and her clothes were wrinkled from multiple days worth of wear.

‘Dee, you look like shit,’ Rem said.

She could see him behind her. Brown hair like hers, a couple inches taller, brown eyes, a 5’o’clock shadow. Of course, he wasn’t actually behind her. He existed only in her mind. A glitch in her programming, apparently.

‘If I’m a glitch, you’re a bitch,’ he said, smiling. ‘I didn’t ask to be here.’

‘Me neither,’ she replied. ‘But here we are.’ She took her clothes off and got in the shower.

“99.9% detoxified water” the shower spoke, and highly-pressurized water dumped down on her, spraying her for approximately two seconds before stopping.

She didn’t feel clean, but it was all the water she’d get for a shower for today. She threw on sweats and started boiling water.

‘Feel better?’ Rem asked. He sat at one of the two chairs in the living area.

‘You know I don’t,’ she said, taking a packet of instant noodles and dumping it into the pot of boiling water.

‘Listen, I could read your, our, mind all day, but then we’d have nothing to talk about, right?’ Rem said. He pointed at her. ‘And you need practice.’

‘What do you mean, practice?’ she replied, getting two bowls out.

‘Practice talking, with humans. You need to do better. Be better. You can’t be failing Baselines and attacking your partner.’

Dee sighed, turning off the stove and dumping the noodles into the two bowls. She grabbed chopsticks and brought the bowls over to the coffee table. She put one of the bowls in front of Rem along with a pair of chopsticks.

‘You want a drink?’ She asked, going to the fridge and opening the freezer.

‘Why not? It was a hell of a couple days',’ he replied.

She pulled out a bottle of amber liquid, grabbed a couple glasses, filled them and carried everything over to the table. She put a glass next to his bowl. She started eating the noodles.

They tasted bland.

‘So tell me, what happened back there, with Eve and Fletcher?’ Rem asked. He wasn’t touching his food or drink, because he wasn’t actually, physically there.

Dee slurped at her noodles, thinking. After a moment, she put her bowl down. “I destroyed that woman. I slammed her on the ground again and again.”

‘Replicant. Not a woman, a replicant.’

‘Like us.’

Rem shook his head. ‘Not like us at all. An older model. Inferior and broken. You saw what she was involved in. We don’t do that shit, Dee. We obey. They don’t. That’s why we exist. That’s why we get to live and they need to be retired.’

‘I know, I know,’ Dee said, picking up her bowl and eating again. ‘I don’t need a lecture. It just…fucked me up is all. I lost it. Thankfully, Fletcher was there. He snapped me out of it.’ She finished her bowl and grabbed up Rem’s, eating that too.

‘He seems okay, for a human,’ Rem said.

‘He’s a good partner,’ she replied.

‘Still a human,’ Rem reminded her. ‘You fuck up too much, he’ll turn on you, just like any of them. You need to stay in line so that you, and us, can live. None of them really give a shit about us. You gotta remember that.’

‘They remind me all the damn time.’

Dee finished the second bowl. She grabbed her drink and tossed it back. Putting it down, she grabbed the glass by Rem and drank that too. She leaned back, looking out the glass window at the city’s neon lights.

Shift: xx

Location: Kathleen and Lara’s home

Fletcher stood near the open window of his ex-wife’s apartment, smoking a cigarette while they slept. He’d gotten up from the couch for a late-night smoke. It’d been nice of Kathleen to allow him to stay the night.

But it was hard to sleep.

He stared out at the city lights and rubbed the bandaging on his head. He still had a slight headache he couldn’t quite shake.

Dee had saved his life. A replicant. A ‘skinjob’ as he’d heard many on the force and elsewhere call them. Supposedly they didn’t have emotions like humans. Were made to obey. But they had memories, implanted, to make them good at their jobs. But she’d saved his life. Was that, technically, part of her job? She’d finished off Rhodes first but that had been necessary.

The real question, was if Rhodes had run, what would Dee have done? Gone after him, per the job, or stayed to save Fletcher? He didn’t know.

“Dad?” A girl’s voice brought him out of his thinking. Lara.

“Yeah, honey? What you doing up this late?” He asked, turning and putting the cigarette out in the ash tray on the windowsill, behind his back.

Lara came out of the shadows, rubbing her eyes. She was in her pajamas. “I was thirsty and wanted a glass of water. I saw you by the window.”

“I’ll get it for you, come on.” He walked her into the kitchen, grabbed a glass out of the cabinet and poured water from the sink.

“We drink filtered water, dad,” Lara said, opening the fridge.

“Of course,” he said, dumping the sink water out and reaching for the filter. He poured from the filter and filled the glass. “How’s that?” He asked, handing it to her.

She drank and nodded. She didn’t move to go back to her room.

“Want to sit with me for a bit while you finish your water?”

She nodded and he led her to the living area, sitting on the couch.

“What were you doing by the window?” She asked.

He shrugged. “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

He smiled, shaking his head. “Just…things. Life. You know? You ever just think about…things?”

She drank and looked at him. “Not really,” she said. She looked at his bandages. “Are you really ok? Does that hurt?”

“I’m fine, really. You want to know why I’m fine?”

She nodded.

“Because I have a really great partner to help me. She’s the one who saved me, you know.”

“Mommy said your partner isn’t human.”

Fletcher sighed. “She’s not, she’s a replicant.”

“Mommy doesn’t like it. Says it doesn’t have feelings. Said there were others who…did bad things a long time ago.”

“That’s true, but my partner, Dee, is a new one. And the new ones don’t do bad things. Dee saved my life. Isn’t that a good thing?”

Lara nodded.

“Dee is a detective, just like me. And she’s very good at her job. And she helps me, alot.”

“Why can’t you stay here all the time?” Lara asked, suddenly.

Fletcher let out a breath, looking at the window. “Because, Lara, my job takes…alot. And that can be very hard on your mother. So we decided it’s best if I don’t stay here.” He looked back at Lara and took her hand. “But we still get to see each other, right? I am going to do my best to see you as much as I can. I promise.”

Lara finished her glass of water. “Okaaaay,” she said, slowly.

“And you have to promise not to run away. We’ll both keep our promises, right?” He stuck out his pinky.

Lara nodded and took his pinky in hers. “Pinky-swear.”

“Now go back to bed, ok? You need your sleep.”

She went back to her room.

Fletcher stood and went to the window, closing it. He went back to the couch and laid down. He looked out the window, unable to fall asleep. He sent a message with his KIA, asking Dee for a ride into the station in the morning.

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Dee dropped down, parking outside Fletcher’s ex-wife’s apartment.

It was a mid-range place and looked clean. Even had it’s own entrance to the side.

She wondered if she should wait in the Spinner. She got out, and walked up to the door, pressing the doorbell.

The door opened, revealing a young girl with long brown hair, wearing pajamas. “Hi,” the girl said.

“Hello…” Dee looked inside through the doorway and didn’t see anyone else. “Can you tell Fletcher I’m here to pick him up?”

“Who?” the girl asked. “You mean my dad?”

“Yes. Him.”

“Honey, who’s at the door?” Another female voice spoke from inside, moving closer. Kathleen stepped into view and then stopped abruptly. “Lara, hun, come…come over here.”

Lara turned. “Why?”

Dee saw Fletcher come into view as well, speaking to Kathleen. She could hear their whispered conversation.

“You brought ‘it’ here, to my home?” Kathleen said.

“She,” Fletcher corrected her. “…saved my life. And she’s giving me a ride to work.” He left her behind, heading for the front door, smiling at Dee. “Lara, I see you’ve met my partner already. This is Dee. Dee, this is Lara.” Fletcher stood behind his daughter.

“Hello, Lara,” Dee said. A moment passed. “It is…nice to meet you.” She wasn’t sure what to do so she put her hand out. This is what humans do, isn’t it?”

Lara looked at her hand before taking it and shaking it with entirely too much energy, giggling.

Dee finally managed to get her hand back. “Yes, well, we should get going.”

Fletcher was smirking. “Yes, we should.” He gave Lara a kiss on the head, waved goodbye to a still-scowling Kathleen, and left, closing the door behind him. He followed Dee to her spinner and got in the passenger seat. “Sure you don’t want to stay for breakfast?” He asked, giving her a look.

Dee shook her head. “No, I do not.”

The spinner pulled into the air and took off, heading towards the looming LAPD Headquarters in the distance.

“You have a good day off?” Fletcher asked.

“It was fine,” Dee replied. She did not ask him.

Fletcher waited a moment. “Yeah, mine was good too. It was good to see Lara.”

Dee glanced at him, then away.

“You got a question, just ask,” he said.

“It’s personal. Forget it,” she replied.

“We’re partners. Ask the goddamn question.”

Dee bit her lip for a second. “Kathleen is your ex-wife. But you slept over last night. I don’t understand. Are you getting back together?” She was genuinely confused.

Fletcher chuckled, then stopped himself. “I don’t mean to laugh but…I slept on the couch. She let me stay because I was hurt and so I could spend some time with Lara. That’s all. I’ll be back in my hotel room tonight.”

“I see,” Dee responded. But did she? It seemed…complicated.

“You ready to start the new case?”

“Absolutely.”

Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash

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Upkeep

In the interest of keeping these characters alive and kicking, I’m going to spend some of their Points on things to improve their likelihood of not dying. Usually, spending Promotion Points takes a shift at the LAPD Training Grounds, but I will say that they had an entire day off, so they could’ve had time to put in some training time. Dee is going to spend 5 Promotion Points to get Hardened: Your maximum Resolve score is increased by 1. You can take this specialty up to 3 times. This gives her 4 Resolve. She’s also going to spend her 5 Humanity Points to boost her Insight from D→C, d6→d8. I think this also makes sense with what she had to go through in the last case. Fletcher is going to spend 10 Promotion Points on Tough: Your maximum health score is increased by 1. You can take this specialty up to 3 times. He’s taken it twice, so his Health is now 6. I’m also going to say they both purchased or acquired Glue Medical Adhesive, which gives advantage to Medical Aid rolls for first aid on Broken individuals. Again, I’d like these characters to live as I hope to be playing with them for awhile.

Next week, the case begins with Chapter 8: The Case of the Iron Court.

Leave a comment if the feeling takes you,

I appreciate it. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 8: The Case of the Iron Court