NaNoWriMo 2010, Part Sixteeen

Rose eventually woke up and crawled out of bed. She was still tired but when she looked at her bedside clock and saw that it was already eleven. She yawned and began putting on her clothes. Finally she managed to stumble into the living room still yawning. “Oh Lynn, Emiray, I see you are both already up. Did you have a good nights sleep, where you able to find something to eat this morning.”

Emiray looked up from a book that she had taken from one of the shelves around the room. Rose had a surprisingly large collection of history and culture books, probably a result of being a Phantom Thief. A Phantom Thief needed to know what was valuable to select correct targets, “Yes, everything was fine. Also, your shirt is on backward.”

Rose looked down at her shirt and realized that Emiray was right. “I’ll change it later, first I need to get something to eat. I’m starving.” Rose moved into the kitchen and past Lynn who was sitting on one of the stools starting off into space. “What is wrong with you Lynn, you seem about of it. Did you not get enough sleep.”

Lynn turned surprised before responding, “Oh, Rose, good morning. No I had enough sleep, I got to bed before both of you after all. I was just thinking that is all. I was just thinking about that a stronger teleport then me would be able to do that I can’t.”

“Huh, Aren’t you the strongest teleporter? Someone capable of doing things that is stronger then you? Would that really be teleportation at that point?” Asked Rose as she open up the fridge an looked inside. Eggs sounded good, Rose usually liked eggs. She pulled them out and began making herself some breakfast. “Did either of you want some eggs?”

Lynn was looking at Rose as Emiray mumbled an affirmative from across the room. “What do you mean they wouldn’t be a teleporter?” Asked Lynn.

“What, are you taking me seriously?” Rose tried pondering the question to find a real answer while she continued cooking the eggs. “I suppose, Well, since you are the strongest teleporter then you must know everything about teleportation. If there was a teleporter that was capable of doing something that you couldn’t then that person wouldn’t really be a teleporter. I mean, I can’t think of anything a teleporter could do that you aren’t capable of doing. The University District says it is impossible but wouldn’t somebody like that be a multi-powered person. Then they would be a Teleporter and still be able to do things that you aren’t capable of doing.”

Lynn sighed, she had hoped that Rose would be able to see something in the problem that Lynn couldn’t but she guessed that wasn’t going to happen. “So your saying that to get more powerful I would need to become a multitalent.” She laughed softly, “You are right about something, multitalent is impossible…” She paused for a moment considering. Sure, multitalents were supposed to be impossible but hadn’t she already done something that was impossible. Even if it was a strange possibility she would need to file it away for future study.

“Don’t give it too much though.” Said Rose. “I’m hardly an expert on theses things. I’m only really good at stealing things. The way to be a better thief is not luck or quicker reflexes. It isn’t the ability to pick locks or outrun police officers. If a thief only has those skills then they would get caught eventually. The skill a good thief needs to have to do heist after heist is to be able to plan. They need to know what could go wrong and how to deal with it if it does. So when you can’t pick the lock or outrun the police officers you are still able to pull it off.”

Rose pushed some of the finished eggs off onto a plate and handed it to Lynn, “I suspect that the same can work for you. Even if there is somebody more powerful then you then if is still possible to pull off a win. You just have to know what you plan to do when you finally meet them.”

Lynn hurumphed as she took the plate, “Both of you just seem so full of advice today.”

“If you didn’t want to head it then don’t ask for it. I’ll give you that advice for free.” Laughed Rose as she took two more plates into the living room and handed one to Emiray. “Eat while you can. Peaceful things never last for long and you want to keep your strength up for when the bad stuff happens.”

It wasn’t very long after that that Rose’s watch began to beep. She looked down at it and smiled softly. She clapped her hands together and said, “Alright everyone. It is time to get ready. We will be heading out soon.”
Lynn furrowed her brow before saying, “It is only around noon. There is still another eleven hours to until your given time of theft. Didn’t you say that was when it was going to happen. While it might take a while to arrive there if we went the normal route, I will be able to get us there in half an hour without hurrying.”

“NO, SHE MEANS THAT THEY ARE ON TO US.” Said R08. It had been keeping out of the way for a while and Lynn had almost forgotten about it.

“What do you mean they are on to us?” Asked Lynn.

Emiray was looking at Rose’s watch, “She means that since the letter was delivered to the University District they have come looking for us. They know we are with the Phantom Thief Rose so it was only a matter of time before they found us.”

“But isn’t this a secret hideout? How would they know this is where she lives?” Said Lynn.

“No honest Entertainment District citizen would even think of coming and looking for me here.” Said Rose, “However, these are probably University Security who are blatantly ignoring tradition. Sadly I’ve lived here long enough that it probably didn’t take them too long to discover this location.”

Lynn went over it, “I see. An Entertainment District secret won’t hold water when you are threatening to steal from the University District. The Entertainment District can’t also legally stop them because you are tenically a wanted criminal here.”

“Grab the bags we will need. We need to get out of here quickly to avoid being caught. Lynn, I believe I can trust in you to make sure we can make our get away.” Said Rose.

“No problem. Once all our stuff is here it won’t take me but a minute to get far away from these people. However I could go deal with them now if you want me to. I handful of University Security shouldn’t be a problem.” Said Lynn.

“Ah, but they almost certainly have a high level Esper with them. It would be crazy to go against you without some sort of plan do deal with you. Since they know you are here with me they have a plan. We just need our plan to be better. That is why we need everything prepared before they get here. Emiray, Rob, have you gotten what we need?”

Emiray and R08 were both bringing large bags in from the secret workshop. Rose nodded and said to Lynn, “Good, take these, Rob, and Emiray three blocks north. I’ll meet you there in three hours.” Rose pulled out a flashdrive and tossed it to Lynn, “If I’m not there then then use these plans. It will be more difficult with one less person but you should be able to accomplish it without me.”

“Wait, what are you doing then? I could just take you with me. Why are you staying behind.”

“Didn’t I tell you Lynn? The most important thing about being a Phantom Thief is the plan.” Rose tapped her head with a finger. “The plan is all in here and ready to begin. Once you leave and I go out there the steps will be in motion to bring us to the Euclidian Key. You have to trust me on this one, I don’t have time to explain.”

Lynn glared at Rose. Then why hadn’t she explained earlier when they did have time. Was that part of the plan too? “Alright, I’ll wait three hours but you had better be there.” Then without waiting for everyone to get close to her she just open up the spacial tunnels and move all of them except for Rose outside of the building. Sixteen quick teleports later she was certain what nobody would be able to know where they had gone from the building.

“What is that woman thinking? If there is a plan here then I don’t know what is it.”

“Neither do I, but that is probably part of the plan. Right now we just have to trust Rose and follow her instructions.” Said Emiray, “So right now we need to find a place to hide for the next three hours while we wait for Rose to come join us.”

Three Hours Later

Emiray, Lynn, and R08 were waiting at the corner three blocks north of Rose’s apartment. “She isn’t head yet. We can not continue to wait for her any longer. We only have 8 hours to take the Euclidian Key back.” Lynn said as she held up the flash-drive that Rose had given her before they parted.

“Rose packed her laptop among the gear we were supposed to bring with us. We can use that to access the drive.” Said Emiray as she pulled out the laptop. It was a small laptop, most suitable for traveling. Lynn nodded and took the laptop from her, turning it on and inserted in flash drive.

The drive contained a large list of files. Maps, security guard routes and many other things. Lynn pulled up the plan and began reading through it. “This is strange.”

“How so?” Asked Emiray as she looked over Lynn’s shoulder to read the file with her.

“These plans only refer to me, you, and R08. Rose isn’t anywhere in them. It is like she never actually planned to do the job herself. I bet she is just leaving all the real work to us so that she can get more sleep.” Grumbled Lynn.

“Why would she go through the trouble of making such detailed instructions if she knew that she wasn’t going to be able to join us. No, that actually makes more sense, if she knew she wasn’t going to be able to join us then she would have to create more detailed instructions so that we would be able to accurately follow them.”

Lynn scowled as she scrolled through the instructions. ‘Well, I guess we should start at the beginning then. Since it recommends that we relocate to the University District we should do that. If we keep waiting around here then some more of the University Security might fine us and that would be annoying and would delay us.”

Then why began their journey back to the University District. Lynn took the trip slower then she had on the way to the Entertainment District to kept I easy on Emiray. She also kept the very high in the sky so that if anyone was looking up then they wouldn’t be able to notice the three of them.

She finally landed on the edge of the University District, far enough away from the Ark Tunnel Reactor that there couldn’t possible be any guards watching for them here. She checked her watch again when they stopped. Only 7 hours left, reading through the instructions and the trip over here too longer then she had expected.

Looking over the instructions she saw that they were still on time for the timetable that Rose had devised.

Organization Fractal [Trappings and Stunts Part 1]

I've been playing Starblazer Adventures recently and a post over on the FATE blog got me thinking about how the different Fractals interact with each other.

In particular I wanted to be able to describe the different organizations in the game in a manner which provides rules for their interaction with characters. I'll try to provide updates as I add Trappings and Stunts.

Arms (Type)

Many organizations have armed forces. The skill level roughly represents size and quality. Organizations with more than one military arm (such as land or space forces) select this skill more than once to indicate the relative strength of each. This is my first draft at providing Trappings and Stunts to the Organization skills which explain both how they deal with other Organizations and how they deal with Characters.

[T] Armed Forces

When Characters deal with the organization, the default minion quality is your Arms. You can generally muster 10 minions per rank of arms in any region you Control, Sway, or Influence. Mustering more then that requires troop redeployment. [DESIGN - How many minions a organization should be able to bring against Characters is just a guesstimate.]

[T] Warfare

As a combat skill, Arms is rolled to make attacks and maneuvers against other Organizations when you are using skilled soldiers to get the job done. This deals physical stress to the organization.

[T] Military Defense

Arms may be rolled as a defense against Arms attack of the same or similar type.

[S] Special Forces

You have several groups of elite forces within this branch of your armed forces. Once per session you may either: Gain +2 to any one Arms roll, as if you had spend a Fate point to invoke an Aspect or gain +1 to minion Quality for one scene.

[S] Large Armies

You have large amount of soldiers. You can take an extra minor physical consequence which represents your extra forces. Also your Armed Forces are considered two ranks higher for the purposes of how many minions you can bring to bear.

Technology

A measure of how advanced the organization is in relation to another. A higher technology represents no just access to advance technology but how widespread it is in the organization.

[T] Research Facilities

The organization controls Labs and Workshops capable of creating and repairing technology. The organization can provide Characters with access to Labs and Workshops with a quality equal to their Technology. [DESIGN - Maybe just Workshops and put Labs somewhere else]

[S] Cutting Edge Workshops

The organization has highly advanced Labs and Workshops, granting a +1 bonus to the quality of both facilities. For even more advanced workshops, consider either the Capitol Ship or Stronghold stunts.