A Dark And Quiet Room

Our story doesn’t have a cool title, though perhaps we could invent one. Regardless, here goes.

[Kanjo—Scene 1]
Kanjo is not doing well at work. She is far too happy, and the Litox tends to wear off before the lunchtime dose. So, today, at work, she is called into her superior’s office and lectured about her unintentional broadcasting.

Conflict—4 Credits
[Protag: Escape her temper being noticed—Personal Happiness—Lost
[Antag: Get Kanjo to stop broadcasting—Corporate Responsibility—Lost
So, despite her best efforts, Kanjo is unable to keep her annoyed thoughts from leaking out to her superior, who continues to drone on and on and on. And then, when Kanjo leaves, she litters her annoyance in his office.

[Mirrim—Scene 1]
Mirrim is also at work, where she is taking joy in her job as a snake breeder. (Aside: in real life, this is apparently much more challenging than it seems. Certain species, like the king snake, need to be in just the right mood, or they will attack each other instead of mating. Fun fact for the day.) Her joy spills out as litter. Immediately, Alan is there, using this infraction to force her to have sex with him.

Conflict—5 credits
[Protag: Stop Alan from reporting littering—Sex—Lost
[Antag: Force Mirrim to have sex with him—Sex—Won

(Traumatic sexuality: check)

We agreed that, if this were a movie, the shot would be of him dragging her down behind one of the snake cages, where you saw the two snakes entwined. Icky.

And then, Alan says that he was still going to report her.

[Martin—Scene 1]
Martin is street-preaching, as he often does, when a woman comes up to him to talk. She calls herself Gladys, but she says that’s not her real name. She has no thoughts that Martin can see, but he doesn’t care. His enthusiasm is infectious (literally) and he decides to convert her.

Conflict—4 Credits
[Protag: Convert Gladys to my cause—Politics—win
[Antag: Gain information on Martin’s supporters—Corporate Responsibility—win

Martin wins over Gladys, who comes with him to the next meeting of his supporters. In victory, Martin litters “Freedom!” on the walk where he was standing.

Unknown to both of them, the Karma Police are watching everything through the cameras implanted in Gladys’s eyes.

[Kanjo—Scene 2]
Things are getting more serious for Kanjo. While she is eating, Kanjo is approached by the Building Medical Officer and instructed to report to the Medical Cubicle. Once there, Kanjo is taken into another room, where the BMO administers a variety of drugs and runs a number of medical tests. Then, Kanjo is returned to the office environment. But now, her thought sense is radically expanded, while her sense of reality is fading. Without really knowing what she is doing, she leaves the office building and begins to walk down the street.

She finds two people arguing with each other. Their bodies are peaceful, but their thoughts are roilng. So Kanjo intervenes.

Conflict—4 Credits
[Protag: Teach these people to understand each other—Sex—Win
[Antag: Kanjo flees in terror to her office—Corporate Responsibility—Lose

So Kanjo touches them, which forms a stronger telepathic bond. Suddenly, the arguing people are able to understand each other. They stop their fighting and leave in peace.

Kanjo walks off. In her head, she is laughing and singing, skipping in the sunlight. Outwardly, she is dressed in her grey robes, and she trudges along the ground. Behind her, she is trailing happy thoughts.

From a window far above, the BMO observes and makes a note on her clipboard.

[Mirrim—Scene 2]
Mirrim is at her apartment. At first, she is traumatized by her experience, but that begins to shift to rage. So she returns to her workplace and enters Alan’s office. There, she spends half an hour crafting a dark bubble of pain and hurt and violation and despair, which she then leaves on Alan’s chair.

Then, as she returns to her work, Alan comes back with a Karma Policeman. As threatened, he has reported Mirrim. Then he stands on the balcony outside his office to watch.

Conflict—6 Credits
[Protag: Drive Alan insane—Sex—Win
[Antag: Have Mirrim arrested—Corporate Responsibility—win

So, Mirrin is arrested. But, as she is being carted off, she catches the edge of Alan’s shriek.

[Martin—Scene 2]
Martin and Glady make it to the meeting, where Martin’s supporters tell him of the sighting of a healer who is walking the streets of the city. (They mean Kanjo.) Martin is excited and dashes off to meet her and try to recruit her to his cause.

The streets are a wreck. Kanjo’s touch and presence is violently releasing people from the effects of the Litox, and their emotions are overwhelming. Some are dancing. Some are curled up in the fetal position. Others are fighting or screaming or crying. It’s pandemonium.

Martin catches up with Kanjo, just as the Karma Police make their move.

Conflict
[Protag: Recruit Kanjo to the Cause—Politics—win
[Antag: Arrest all troublemakers in sight—Politics—escalate

The emotional chaos impacts the Karma Police, too. Their basic tendencies kick in, and they go berserk. The swirling emotions provoke a riot. The bystanders rise up to fight the Karma Police.

[Antag: Kill entire crowd (except PCs)—Politics—win

Martin catches up with Kanjo and seizes her hands. Suddenly he is thrown into her projection of the world. It’s a beautiful meadow and the sun is shining and they are dancing and skipping and laughing together. And of course Kanjo agrees to help Martin and then he lets go of her hands…

Bodies.

Everywhere, the bodies.

The Karma Police had slaughtered the people. Martin and Kanjo were arrested and dragged off. As they left, Martin had to step over one of the bodies. It was Gladys.

[Kanjo--Scene 3 –Final]
Kanjo is in a medical facility. They’re doing some sort of test that looks like torture, interrogation, and medical testing, all rolled into one. They’re injecting her with drugs and asking nonsense questions. And, behind a one-way mirror, the BMO is nodding and marking her clipboard.

Kanjo tries to fight back, but they are ready for her. They know what they want. They want to undo the damage that she has done.

Conflict—5 Credits
[Protag: I want to be myself—Personal Happiness—Lose
[Antag: Permanently undo the damage that Kanjo did—Politics—Win

So Kanjo risks her Link: honesty. She needs to be true to who she is.

[Protag: I want to be myself—Personal Happiness—Win

So the testing and the questions and the swirling horror go on and on.

And then, finally, the BMO enters the room. “We’re done with you. You can go now.”

They had extracted what they needed from her body. Overnight, the Karma Police sprayed the antidote to Kanjo’s abilities throughout the city. Now they were all immune to her. She walks down the street, touching people, but to no avail.

But, as she walks, she passes through some litter. “I’m free!” It tears away the remains of the drug-induced fog on her mind.

The sun is shining. So she begins to skip.

[Mirrim—Scene 3—Final]
Mirrim is hauled off into the chaos of the riot. In the confusion, she manages to get away. But then, as she is walking up the street, trying to figure out what to do next, Alan appears.

He is crazy and near-animalistic. His clothes are torn up, and he is bleeding. And, in his hands, he clutches a large metal stake. He howls and leaps at her.

Conflict—2 Credits
[Protag: Become successful thought graffiti artist—Personal Happiness—Lose
[Antag: Kill Mirrim with large metal stake—Sex—Lose

Mirrim risks her Link: my pet snake Mei-Mei
[Protag: Become successful thought graffiti artist—Personal Happiness—Win

So, as Alan charges at Mirrim, she whips out Mei-Mei from under her robe and throws her at him. Mei-Mei wraps around his neck, choking him. He stumbles backwards into the street and is trampled by rioters. Mei-Mei manages to slither free to safety.

Mirrim crafts a thought and sticks it on the wall. “I’m Free!” Then she walks away, tagging each wall as she goes.

[Martin—Scene 3—Final]
Martin is restrained in a white room, wearing a white jumpsuit. The dimensions of the room are hard to see. The only color is his red red hair.

They are playing propaganda tapes. They are drugging him. Somewhere, a pipe is dripping over and over and over. Slowly, he is wearing down.

Then someone enters the cell and sits down at a table that extrudes from the floor. “Soldier, are you ready to return to the streets and do your duty?”

Conflict—5 Credits
[Protag: Expose Hierarchy’s corruption—Personal Happiness—escalate
[Antag: Reprogram Martin as a Karma Policeman—Corporate Responsibility—Win

Martin risks his Link: long wild hair

[Protag: Start the revolution—politics—lose
[Antag: Reprogram Martin as a Karma Policeman—Corporate Responsibility—Win

Martin risks his other Link: My heresy is the truth

[Protag: Start the revolution—politics—Win

New Link: I must conform

Martin is broken. The woman in the cell nods to someone outside. “He’s ready. Take him out and buzz him. His hair will regrow its natural color.” Martin was just a brainwashed dupe all along. He was just a plant, released by the Karma Police to flush out the true revolutionaries.

They paraded him in front of the cameras. They showed how Martin had reformed. How he was now a dedicated protector of the regime.

It failed to have its proper effect. Martin’s old supporters saw this, and they became enraged. The revolution began that night.

And so, Martin found himself, drugged and brainwashed, dressed in riot gear as the revolutionaries came closer. And, for just one moment, a thought surfaced in his muddled mind.

“I was right.”

The End.