Arc II, Chapter 90: Harless Automotive

Arc II, Chapter 90: Harless Automotive

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

"Gym Rat" buffs Mettle and Hustle by revealing athletic backstory.

"It's Part of the Uniform" gives him higher Mettle when attacking with sports equipment.

Brandishing a weapon is “Like a Security Blanket,” buffing his Grit and soothing his and his allies’ fear.

Swinging it will cause his opponents to falter, if only for a moment, based on Moxie because of “Swing Away.”

"Off the Bench" the player feels more rested for each scene they are not in. Eventually buffs Hustle and Moxie.

“Better Make it Count” greatly buffs the last round of ammunition the player has available in a fight.

"Everyone Loves a Winner" the user's character will have some previous success that endears them to NPCs. Failure reverses this.

"The Playbook" the user will be able to see when it is their turn to act in an established plan.

"Play it Cool" suppresses mental trauma if the user acts calm and collected.

He did not bring “Time Out!”, “Just Walk It Off”, “Knight in Shining Armor”, “You were having a nightmare...”, “Reload After Cut”, “A Race Against Time”, “Coyote in a Trap”, “Bad Luck Magnet”, “In Bed By Nine”, and “Arm Candy”.

~

Kimberly Madison is the Eye Candy.

No aspect has been chosen.

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.

"When in Rome" buffs her Grit until Rebirth if her performance matches the tone of the movie.

“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.

“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.

"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.

She is borrowing Bobby’s “Craft Services Are The Real Heroes” which ensures there is edible food and water on set during the storyline in hopes it will boost their bounty when looting food after the storyline.

~

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.

Current Trope Limit: 8

"Guarded Personality" resists all insight abilities.

"An Outsider's Perspective" alerts her to new, out-of-place, or unusual information.

"A Haunted Past" A background trope that gives her character some past trauma that haunts her and gives her access to various tropes.

"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.

"No Return Address" gives the user insight from anonymous letters and allows them to send similar letters to allies.

"Out-of-Town Cousin" makes the user's character related to important NPCs and gives them perks and insight based on that.

~

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.

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.

Home Street: Oakwood Drive

Phone: (555) 667-5840

If you have any information, please contact:

Eastern Carousel Sheriff’s Department

Sheriff: Jonathan Miller

Phone: (555) 667-9210

Address: 300 Jefferson Street, Eastern Carousel

ANY INFORMATION CAN HELP. PLEASE REPORT IMMEDIATELY IF SEEN.

"Let's get to work," I said. My suit jacket had become my metaphorical bag of holding in place of my hoodie, and I fished out a pen that I had left there.

"All right, let's see. The little girl leaves school on Thurgood Ave., and she is next seen on Best Street.," I said as I fanned out the map onto the trunk next to the poster.

I examined the map of Eastern Carousel. This map made it look like Eastern Carousel wasn't just a part of Carousel but was rather its own small municipality with a few stores, a few neighborhoods, a quarry, a junkyard, and all the other things that you might find in a small rural town where this story took place.

"Her home was on Oakwood Drive," Kimberly said.

I circled it and traced the most logical path between her school and her home.

"Well, if she was going home, there's no reason she should ever come near Best Street," I said.

"Riley," Kimberly said, pointing to a nearby stop sign. Above it was a little green sign that said Best Street. We were, in fact, on the street where she was last seen.

"I'm hurrying," Nick said, as if we had just told him to start the car so we could leave. I'm doing the best I can. I was hired to work cameras, not fix cars."

"All right," I said. If we're on Best Street and she was last seen at Harless Automotive on Best Street, I would bet that we're here to interview whoever saw her, wouldn't you say?"

"That sounds right to me," Kimberly agreed. "I guess that means we need to figure out what questions to ask."

We sat and took notes and came up with a few solid questions, most of which were more designed to elicit information than they were to present information on film as journalists might normally do. We continued to talk and prepare for the interview.

I just wished we knew who had actually seen her. Our questions thus far were mostly things like, “Can you tell us what you told the police?” which would probably be helpful, but still felt like too little

From somewhere in the car, there was a staticky sound and then a voice, like that over an old radio, started to say, "The search near the brewery didn't turn up anything. Over."

The voice sounded familiar, but the static made it hard to be sure.

"Thank you, Officer Stone," the person on the other end of the radio said. "We'll keep that in our notes. Where are you headed next? Over."

"Next is the quarry, and then I'm off. Over," the officer said. It was Antoine. As we had predicted, he was cast as a police officer.

"Godspeed. Over," the dispatcher said.

On-Screen

Suddenly, we were On-Screen; I started with my prepared lines.

"I'm telling you, Kimberly, I have a feeling about this one,” I said enthusiastically. “After this, there's going to be no more specials on hit and runs or fender benders or mysterious cabals passing bad checks. With this one, we're actually going to help people. We find this girl, and I'm telling you, good things will follow. We'll be taken seriously as investigative journalists and we'll make the world a better place. It’ll be just like in the movies.

"Riley," Kimberly responded, "this isn't a movie. We're not here to be action heroes. We're here to help spread awareness about a missing girl. The truth is all that matters, not glory."

I shrugged.

"A little glory," I said.

"Fine, a little glory,” she said with a smile, “but mostly we're here to spread awareness and to get the truth out.”

With that, the engine of the green sedan roared to life.

"Told you all I needed to do was tweak some things," Nick said as he closed the hood.

Off-Screen

He had just started the car from under the hood. I didn't know enough about cars to tell if that was actually a thing or if it was just something you saw in movies.

We climbed into the green sedan, and in a sequence so comical I almost laughed out loud, Nick drove the car approximately 500 feet over a hill, and we found ourselves next to a vast stretch of farmland. At the place where that farmland met the road was a building with a sign that said Harless Automotive. Next to it was a well-kept farmhouse. The viewers at home (or wherever they were) would never know that our destination was within walking distance.

As we approached, I tried to get a sense of the place. It was a humble and well-kept lot. I was used to seeing places like this run down and covered in rust, but not this one. This was 1966, and everything here was new and pristine.

In fact, the only thing that was dirty was the coveralls worn by the balding man who stood outside the shop running a rag over the windshield of a wicked-looking car that could have been a cousin to the haunted car, Christine, of Stephen King fame.

As Nick pulled his green car into the mechanic shop's lot, the mechanic turned his attention toward us with a sour look, as if the sound of the car's engine was causing his ears to bleed.

Nick shut off the engine and we got out. Kimberly was the first to go shake the man's hand.

"Hello, sir. My name is Kimberly Madison. I'm a reporter with Carousel News 9, and I'm looking for the witness who saw Tamara Cano last."

The man stopped side-eyeing Nick's car long enough to express sympathy, saying, "Yes, ma'am, that's me. It was me and my son who saw her."

Nick strolled up behind us with a huge case that I soon learned contained a portable camera that looked just as much like one of Dr. Evil's space lasers as it did a piece of recording equipment. The camera even had finishing not so different from the cars in the lot. It was candy green with ivory trimmings, and it must have weighed sixty pounds if not more.

"Whoever's car that is, is really asking for trouble," the man in the grease-stained coveralls said. "That car sounds like the oil hadn't been changed in at least a year, and if I'm not wrong, the transmission is having trouble. And there was something else... something else," the man said as he tried to focus on his memory of the sound of the engine. "Oh, I'll have to take a look at it," he eventually said. “It’s all going to tarnation.”

He turned back to Kimberly. "You all are looking for that little girl?" he asked.

Kimberly smiled and nodded and went on to explain that they were trying to get the word out, much of what she had said to me, but I could see that she was at least a little spooked.

So was I.

The man's name on the red wallpaper was Benjamin Harless. The name tag sewn into his coveralls read "Benny." Those were the same exact coveralls that we had seen flying through a cornfield, stuffed full of straw and being worn by a haunted scarecrow.