Chapter Eighty-Four: Worker's Compensation
As I walked out onto the sidewalk where my friends and Silas were, I noticed right away that Kimberly and Anna were having an emotional moment.
“I’m so sorry!” Kimberly said.
“Don’t. I said it was okay,” Anna responded gently. She had been crying. Her eyes had that empty look that I now associated with dying in a storyline.
They continued their conversation with Kimberly continuously apologizing through tears.
As I approached the others, I asked, “What’s going on? Are they okay?”
Camden turned to me with a concerned look on his face. “I’m… not sure,” he said. “I was asleep for the final battle.”
Antoine had moved closer to them and was trying to comfort Kimberly, so I looked to Dina for answers. She was watching over the conversation with an intentional detachment.
She took a deep breath.
“The plan was for Kimberly to become the host of the monster and then try to control it because of her buffs and stuff. They thought it might work.” Dina explained. “She got scared of dying so the other one became the host instead and got shot in the head.”
Antoine overheard Dina’s explanation. “No. I took us off-screen," He said, attempting to be a gentle diplomat, "We talked it over. It was something we all decided.”
I understood. Kimberly had always been very afraid of dying in a storyline. Couldn't really blame her. We had to all but promised that we would never put her in the position of dying until she was ready. It was the reason she left her most powerful trope, Looks Don’t Last, at home even though it could be very useful.
I didn’t care as long as she contributed, which she did. It wasn’t like I could complain to anyone. Anna was her best friend and Antoine was her boyfriend. Camden wasn’t going to cause a fuss even if it did bother him.
It made more sense that Kimberly was originally the one who was supposed to be the host. She might have been able to control it completely. So much had been set up for that moment. It probably would have worked.
Anna rushing in and taking her place wasn't as well set up, even with the flashbacks Carousel used to try to explain it away, but it worked pretty well too.
I wasn’t going to get involved just yet, but her decision to back down had undermined a lot of narrative momentum. Eventually, we would have to deal with it.
“Smart thinking with the sedatives,” I said.
“Thanks,” Camden responded. “I just realized that if the sedative worked to stop the manifestation, it might also work to stop the tethe—Wait. How do you know about the syringes?”
I smirked and took out my Director’s Monitor trope. I told him about Deathwatch and seeing the story from the point of view of the audience.
Our conversation even managed to distract the others from their apologies and I had to repeat it all so they could all hear. I told them about the other people cheering and clapping in the audience.
"And Kimberly," I said, "You did great. I couldn't even tell that something had happened."
I wasn't sure if that did anything to make her feel better but I had to take a shot.
“So that’s how we get aspects,” Camden said. “We have to die?”
“I don’t think so. That’s how it works for Film Buffs. It’s probably different for other archetypes. Todd said something about it a long time ago, but I didn’t really understand it at the time.”
“What did the people in the audience look like?” Anna asked. She was tired but trying to sound interested and concerned.
“I couldn’t tell,” I answered. “I couldn't make myself look that direction in time.”
We took some time to discuss who it could be. Dead Film Buffs? Some eldritch audience that we have been enslaved to entertain? Maybe they were just random NPCs. We didn’t get too long to talk about it because Silas the Showman was getting impatient.
“I’d say you're really pushing my buttons,” Silas said. “But that’s exactly what you’re not doing! Hehehe.”
Antoine walked up to the mechanical fortune teller and slapped his red button. There was a moment of hesitation as his hand got close, but he pushed through it.
He received three tropes, two stat tickets, and a monster card for one of the KRSL Agents he killed. He had gotten his bat back and intact, as well as an unloaded handgun that he pulled off a guard and three syringes of the sedative that he had taken from the guards after finding Camden. He never used them, so that part got cut from the movie.
That was an easy buff and a great perk. Easing fear might not be so useful on paper, but as Carousel started to wear on us, every mental health perk we could get was a godsend.
and to have more bullets to load.
Arthur had this same trope. I was glad to see it. When Antoine had the ability to bring guns into a storyline, we would have another way to go Off-Screen. I wasn’t sure if it was better than his Time-Out trope or not.
This seemed like an easy way for some temporary invulnerability. Antoine would have to use it well.
His monster card was the following:
Kimberly was next. She got two tropes and one stat ticket. This was a surprise for me. I thought she did awesome. Apparently, her panicking in the Final Battle cost her a lot. With Anna's Shared Experience trope helping her out, she still did okay.
A basic buff in a good stat for Kimberly. She would have to wait to use it until she got a better performance.
This was interesting. An action that could redistribute stats. The Eye Candy appeared to have a lot of ways to buff stats based on the situation. That could really work well with her Convenient Backstory trope.
Anna soldiered through her mental fatigue and pushed the button. She got two tropes and two stat tickets.
This was a game-changer. We needed to be careful though. It could cause some resentment.
our thunder.”
Given the fact that Anna had, in fact, taken Kimberly’s place in this recent storyline, it made sense that she would receive this. It was ripe for strategizing.
Camden received two tropes and two stat tickets.
Eureka!
Solid but situational.
That was a great way to get around his low Moxie. Interesting.
Dina received two tropes and two stat tickets.
That made sense. Could be useful.
At least we would have some way of talking to her about whatever plotline she had been assigned. I felt like this was most useful for very specific scenarios and settings where we wouldn’t get many scene breaks.
I received two tropes and one stat ticket as well as a monster ticket. I expected my sacrifice to net me more than that, but I was a higher level than my teammates technically.
At least I would have something to do while dead. It could really be useful.
This was a strong contender for my favorite trope I had ever received.
My monster ticket didn’t have a monster on its face or an enemy at all. It had an image of an old man wearing a white gown putting a puzzle together. It was the patient I had accidentally killed when I attacked the Poltergeist.
That made me feel kind of bad.
All I knew was that I would be testing out my sleeping trope as soon as we got back to the Lodge. I had been healed, so my body wasn’t tired, but my mind had not rested in days. More than that. I hadn’t slept well once.
I actually smiled as we began our trek home.
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