Scion – Petro Campaign – Session 42
This account was originally found on Livejournal, I am not the original author—I am just a fan of the journal and have found reading it on livejournal clunky to navigate and rife with errors/instability (such as having to refresh multiple times due to the page in questions becoming unavailable often requiring multiple refreshes. The original post can be found here, published by DJ-Yomi, and was published on Jan 1st 2009
The last few hours have been pretty eventful for the group in general, even if I wasn’t actually around to participate in most of it. The others tightened the noose on the Tallyman, but I ended up back at Pierre’s estate. See, while Adam and Ray were investigating the rest of the Tallyman’s oil rig and Pierre (encouraged by Elisa) sank into the depths of the ocean to retrieve the kraken’s carcass, I got a call from Keiko. Echo had become extremely needy as she’d recovered from the birth, and was on the verge of tears begging me to come be with her. She’s normally a lot more stable than that, but then again, she did expend a lot of her energy (physically and emotionally) giving birth to our darling daughter Rose, so I guess it makes sense that she’d be a little out of sorts. Keiko wanted to do what she could to comfort Echo, but was understandably anxious about that…which may not make sense to most of my readers but makes perfect sense to me, given what I know about those two.
That, added to the fact that someone needed to escort my shikome back to the estate (they were a great help killing zombies on the oil rig, but wouldn’t be much use at the offices we were planning to raid next), meant that Tabby, Audrey, and I found our way back to the estate with the rest of the shikome while the others went on to investigate some offices belonging to the Tallyman, which Adam learned about from the rig’s computers. The computers also contained info on some sort of dark, evil entity trapped within a sort of pocket realm within Hiroshima. Daitokuji may have been drawing some of the power from this entity for his wicked city stuff. The Tallyman seemed to believe that the entity would wreak great havoc over Japan and beyond if it were freed. Yuck. >_<
When I heard that, things started adding up in my mind. Could such an entity have to do with the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? It seems likely. And isn’t Hinako’s group investigating some odd ley line activity in that area? I have a feeling we’re going to need to check this out before long. I know Ray added it to his list of things to deal with later.
Oh, I should definitely mention that we seem to have gotten a step or two ahead of the Tallyman. At least, we seem to be treading on ground he didn’t plan on. Yum! ^_^
Anyway, while I was on the phone, the others plundered the kraken’s carcass and found a relic cutlass that granted mastery over water and battle, an eye that allows one to see through the eyes of a ghost if placed in the ghost’s corpse, some old Spanish gold, and a few other more mundane bits of flotsam. When I learned of the eye, I was very interested—I could certainly use an item that lets me see through the eyes of ghosts. But Adam had already claimed it. That’s okay, I’m sure I can get him to let me borrow it anytime. *wink* ^_O
The others then went on to investigate the Tallyman’s offices, which were part of a complex of offices belonging to a variety of businesses, most unconnected to our quarry. There they finally discovered the Tallyman’s home address and headed there immediately.
As they approached, Adam intercepted a call from the Tallyman to his lover, who was in the house. It seems that he’s heading off to Africa, where he plans to lie low until the heat dies down (it’s nice to know we have him on the run ^_^). He encouraged her to do the same so as to deny us any further victories…but it was too late. Ray and the others broke into the house and confronted the Tallyman’s lover, who is turns out was a vampire named Oiseau, one of Suchette’s lieutenants! >_< Needless to say, Suchette was furious, and Elisa lost no time in killing Oiseau with one well placed sun bullet to the head. A few Daitokuji security services robots and a couple of Macout showed up at that point, but they were no match for our team.
While all that was going on, I spent time with Echo and Rose. I have to admit, I was actually glad to have an excuse to come back and be with my wife and daughter. I’ve been so busy since Rose was born, I feel like I haven’t been there when she and Echo need me most. But Pierre and Elisa—and their child—are important as well…I can’t ignore their troubles. In any event, once I was with her, Echo was fine, if a bit clingy. That’s okay though. It was nice to feel needed. ^_^
As a side note, I discovered a report from Kimiyo in my email when I got back. She and Dahlia have been scoping out potential shikome for me since I’m looking to round out my coterie with three more elites to bring my…honor guard, for lack of a better term, up to a round ten. I’m going about this a bit differently that I have in the past, though.
See, I’ve actually developed a rather large and devoted fan-following (Spin magazine is actually running an interview about it their next issue!). I mean, if I’m becoming a goddess, then these are the people who worship me, right? And there are definitely those among them who occupy roles of leadership in the almost religious hierarchy that’s beginning to form around me. Volunteer promoters, fan club and forum members, fans that attend every club date and concert they possibly can…it’s really no different than the following any other rock star has, but it’s also different. Unlike so many other rock stars, I really am a god (getting there, anyway ^_^ ). And even though my following is still limited to a musical sub-culture (which is as it should be, if you ask me), my music, and what I represent, really means something to these people. These aren’t fair-weather pop star fan; these are people whose lives are touched and inspired by the music that they treasure. My music. So it’s no surprise that it’s taken on somewhat religious proportions for many of them.
Anyway, I have a lot of fans who really help promote me. It try to reward them whenever possible with backstage visits, merchandise, and such. I need them, and they’re doing exactly what they should be doing. But there are a few who don’t really get involved in the business of promoting me. For them, devotion to me and my music is something more personal. Some of these people are, naturally, just weak-willed follower types who are looking for something to fill the emptiness inside. But others are strong-willed people who have found an echo of themselves in what I represent and have latched on to it out of a heartfelt desire to resonate and grow with it. They love me and my music out of a sense of self-expression. These are the people I’m looking for. They are people who want to become something more. People whose passions for the things I represent might make them willing candidates to become elite shikome. And I do emphasize elite shikome, because I’m not looking for unrestrained madness. I’m looking for people who can be imbued with the wonderful and terrible passions of the shikome yet also retain the control and lucidity that I’ve come to prize in Tabby and Audrey.
Anyway, sorry for the long, pseudo-philosophical rambling on the subject. I’m pretty excited about all of this, so it’s easy for me to go on and on about it. Basically, Kimiyo and Dahlia have been checking out certain people who fit the criteria I gave above, and they’ve reported on their findings. I haven’t had a chance to look it over in detail yet, but at first glance it looks like they’ve identified some very promising devotees. ^__^
Anyway, back to Trinidad… ^_^
With the Tallyman more-or-less routed, everyone returned to the estate. Suchette was still agitated about Oiseau, so I spent time trying to calm her down until almost dawn (when she had to sleep). And now we’re trying to figure out just how to deal with that Aztec dragon and the Son of Ciptali…not to mention the host of tzitzimime and the giant squad >_<. Well, I’m sure we’ll deal with it somehow.