Chapter 467: Chapter 467

Carousel must have really liked my plan because, in part due to this being a rescue, I earned four stat tickets. I was thrilled because it made me feel like I was slingshotting past the doldrums at Level Forty.

I got two tropes, and that was about it, other than the money that everyone got. It wasn’t a big rewards session for me, but the tropes I got, well, they were nothing to complain about.

Props Department Requisition

Aspect: -- Thɪs chapter is updated by N()velFire.net

In the Props Department, they read the script like a to-do list. Every scene needs to be filled, every object or plot device needs to be worked up to spec. It can be hard work, but that touch of authenticity really makes a movie shine.

Allows the user to Improvise custom props that the user’s character could reasonably have assembled or built in the narrative without the normal amount of build-up or support required. Even allows research to be compiled. Only works during periods of low tension before Second Blood.

And you’ll love it more because you did it yourself.

This was a very powerful trope. Being able to collect research, build props, or even just fabricate set decorations with little to no setup was like a superpower. I could think of a dozen tropes that could only do a fraction of what this trope was capable of.

That time skip really was worth it.

The movie has been going on for a while. You could use a break. When is intermission again?

Grants Deathwatch as defined by the user’s Aspect Trope.

While on Deathwatch, the user can pause the movie to explore the theater, greet other viewers, or even get refreshments. When the viewing resumes, the storyline will pick up a few moments (determined by Savvy) before the trope is used, to make sure you didn’t miss anything. Other Deathwatch tropes will still be usable during this time.

This trope appeared to be an upgrade to Director’s Monitor with the added benefit of having to deal with the Manifest Consortium while in the theater. Had I earned this, or were they just going to charge some guests for face time with me?

But that ability to essentially rewind a few moments on Deathwatch and still use tropes was tremendously powerful, even with how limited my current Deathwatch tropes were.

It was strange. I hadn’t used Deathwatch in this storyline, but I had used the Insert Shot in my final moments. Maybe that was the reason I got the trope.

Kimberly had also managed to make out well, given the fact that she was not only the main fighter in the story, but that it was her subplot that resolved in the end to earn us the win. She also got four stat tickets and two tropes, as well as an Enemy Collector ticket.

The Collector tickets were probably the most depressing ones we had gotten yet.

The fans came to watch their favorite actor kick butt and survive, not to watch them die, but that might be when death hits the hardest.

The user’s Dying Acts will be buffed in effectiveness.

Who’s cutting onions?

That was a hell of a parachute cord to be able to pull. Death was powerful in Carousel. The Vets always said it was the most important strategic decision you could make in a storyline.

Watching a legacy character or genre actor mentor new actors on the big screen can show real growth, even if they are training their replacement.

The user can pass buffs and trope-given skills onto protégés within the film using a training montage. The user will get more money than usual.

Passing the torch. More like putting you on an ice floe.

It was kind of funny that Kimberly got this because of her character’s relationship with Kelsey, seeing as Kelsey was not only older than us but had also been in Carousel years longer.

Clearance Sale Cultist

They say he came to Carousel looking for work, and he found it at the Eternal Savers Club, where the linoleum hums and the pallets shift on their own after dark. But Burke wasn’t hired for his efficiency. He was chosen. Deep beneath the bulk aisles and bargain rotisserie, a god sleeps, dreaming of cleaner slates. And Burke, hollowed by grief, chants along with the others in back rooms that smell of ammonia and incense, offering what’s left of the world to whatever wakes.

He does not want power. He does not want revenge. He wants to see his children again. To hold them in a world without sirens, without loss, without the woman whose negligence took them away. He’s willing to burn everything else away to make that world real. And when the shelves collapse and the lights go out, when the ground splits open to let something through, he’ll still be reaching out with open arms, hoping that whatever crawls out of the pit wears their faces.

How sad. And his wasn’t even the worst. I didn’t know if these were real people or if they were just written to be extra depressing after we had crushed their dreams.

Antoine pulled in a respectable three stat tickets, which really meant something, as he didn’t get as much to do in this storyline. But he was important to Kimberly’s storyline, and he was also the bait.

He also got two tropes, but no Enemy Collector ticket because, apparently, his sole attack against a cultist was not fatal.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

When a victim in a horror movie is full of life, their death can hit even harder. Their sacrifice can inspire tremendous things.

When the user is killed, especially in First or Second Blood or in a ritualistic or carnivorousmanner, the narrative weight of that death will be heavier. The death might be enough in itself to satisfy Second Blood, even for a storyline with an otherwise high death count.

He was in the Grade A Prime of his life.

For stories that were heavily plotted, the Fatted Calf could actually be remarkably potent. Making one character’s death worth multiple was quite meaningful, although I doubted that Antoine wanted to make that a regular thing.

Still, it was nice to have it in his back pocket, even if I expected it to stay there.

Captive’s Best Resort & Spa

In some movies, captivity serves as nothing more than a training ground. The heroes leave stronger than they came in.

While the user is Captured, they will not be harmed until the enemy reaches their end goal for the capture. A longer captivity will provide opportunities for exercise and healing. Co-Captives will be able to provide wisdom that propels the character when they leave. The user will be buffed depending on what happens during captivity.

There’s probably someone on the internet who would pay good money for this experience.

That was a classic ticket. I had seen it everywhere, from The Dark Knight Rises to The Count of Monte Cristo. It could be a game-changer in a storyline, but again, it relied on Antoine getting captured, which was a pretty tricky situation to engineer without further support tropes.

Bad guys tend to kill fighters unless they’re pretty blondes.

Dina turned in a competent performance and got three stat tickets for it. It probably helped that she was the most under-leveled player in the storyline. She also got two tropes.

Death isn’t the end for those that are bound by earthly tethers. Sometimes, those tethers can be stronger than death itself.

Upon Death, the user will remain as a player, kept around as a ghost or by similar supernatural powers. They are still bound by the gameplay limits of the Dead status. They may communicate with allies through lore-friendly or trope-assisted means. The user will guide players to finish the user’s subplot, though that plot may be elevated and expanded.

Finish the Job is now a Win Condition if at all narratively possible. This will be confirmed on the red wallpaper.

Death isn’t the end. It’s much more boring than all that.

This trope was one of those enabled by her background trope, and it was going to be interesting to play with, as it allowed her to return as a full-on ghost. The Departed advanced archetype had lots of different versions of that mechanic. This was one of the weaker ones, but its ability to add an additional win condition made it a contender for her build.

She also had several tropes for sending messages to players Off-Screen that would probably work to make her extremely useful as a ghost.

You’re Probably Wondering Why

It is so helpful of bad guys and other antagonistic characters to explain their goals to the heroes and audience alike. Otherwise, they’d have to figure it out themselves.

Intelligent, verbal enemies will always explain their motives before acting on them to a witness that the user has access to, if not to the user themselves. Note: this explanation might happen Off-Screen.

I should have made a presentation. Darn.

This was a standard trope. Low-level villains did this already. I wasn’t sure whether or not it would earn a spot on her loadout, but it would probably save her a lot of time talking to non-player characters.

Lorne didn’t actually get a stat ticket. That was probably because he was a little over-leveled and seemed not to get the benefit of the rescue, seeing as he was one of the players being rescued. He wasn’t under-leveled the way that Anna and Camden were when they participated in their own rescue.

He did get a trope and an Enemy Collector ticket.

I’m Not Supposed To Die

Sometimes the protagonist is not the one pushing the story forward. Sometimes, they are just following orders from a no-nonsense commander or a headstrong tough guy. But by the end of the movie, the true hero has to shine even if that means their leader must go.

When the user succumbs during Second Blood or later, they can pass their buffs to a remaining main character that has previously been following their orders by expressing fear or hubris about their own death. The user’s demise will often be brutal.

They probably wouldn’t have been so Gung-ho if they knew they weren’t going to walk away in the end.

It was fun reading bruiser tropes. They always had powerful effects with specific use cases, and being able to transfer buffs was quite a powerful ability.

Jessika, Perfume Counter Associate

Clearance Sale Cultist

Jessika was never late for a shift at Eternal Savers Club. She stocked shelves with purpose, recited chants beneath the hum of the freezers, and waited for the god below to stir. She didn’t join the cult for glory or even salvation. She joined for her sister, cursed with paralysis from the neck down, sentenced to a life she never chose. Jessika only wanted to build a world where that sentence could be undone.

She knows what the god demands. She gives it gladly. But when the foundations of the earth start to crack and the new world draws breath, Jessika may learn that even mercy has a price. And the sister she prayed for might not recognize what’s been made in her name.

It was strange. I couldn’t remember more than a couple of the cultists’ names other than Tom. They just didn’t have speaking roles, and even in my character’s notes about his experiences infiltrating the cult, he didn’t really seem to pick up their names. He also didn’t describe what they looked like, which was very inconvenient and made them hard to picture. Everyone knows descriptions are important.

Kelsey got two stat tickets for her trouble, as she was barely under-leveled and didn’t end up being as crucial to the plot. She got a trope and an Enemy Collector ticket.

Archetype: Final Girl

Blood has power in story and magic. Where those two meet, the shedding of blood can carry more meaning than just the presence of an injury.

When the user suffers an injury On-Screen that causes bloody carnage, any magic or meta-powered weapon, plot device, or spell that gets soaked will be debuffed in its ability to harm. This effect may be explained in the lore or the meta.

Don’t injure the queen unless you can kill her.

That was pretty solid. Being able to basically depower any weapon that damages you, assuming that it was powered by magic or something meta like a trope or stats or whatever, was useful. Pretty cool.

Shambri, Clothing Department Attendant

Clearance Sale Cultist

She never asked for the world to burn. She only asked for someone to listen. Shambri came to the Eternal Savers Club looking for answers, for justice against a name the courts would not speak and a face that never saw consequence. The cult offered something better. Not prison. Not retribution. Correction. A ritual that could unmake the story entirely and write one where he never hurt her at all.

Shambri is not cruel. She is not broken. She is tired of being told to heal in a world that never cared about the wound. When the chanting ends and the shelves fall and the sky goes red with revelation, she will be waiting. Not to be forgiven. Only to be freed.

Not exactly a trophy I would want to have. I was very glad that I hadn’t actually killed any of the cultists. They seemed like desperate, broken people. It wasn’t my fault they died; I was only giving orders.

Bobby ended up with a solid subplot despite himself, and his character’s abandonment of both sides was actually pretty interesting. If it hadn’t been a betrayal that risked us losing the storyline, it would have been a pretty good plan. I just wished he had told us about it.

Of course, the reason he couldn’t tell us about it was because it wasn’t really a plan for his character; it was a plan for him and his new throughline.

He got three stat tickets and a bunch of money. He only got one trope.

A Meaningful Sacrifice

Archetype: Wallflower

Sacrifice without lasting stakes is not enough.

If the user has fulfilled their On-Screen role as it was originally written before they were recast in that role, they can leave the story without any ill effect or risk of death. They can just walk away.

If they stay instead, any character they sacrifice themselves for will not die even if the storyline is failed, and will have buffed stats for the rest of the storyline.

Trust is difficult to earn and easy to lose.

Say what you will about Carousel, but it sure did know how to twist the knife in a clever way. Bobby had won a betrayal trope that could also be used to save allies. It made sense under Carousel’s logic—sacrificing yourself to save an ally, to literally save them from dying in a storyline that failed, was only meaningful if you had the choice to survive yourself.

And now Bobby had that choice. But which of us would ever trust him to equip this trope?

As soon as Bobby pressed the button, a new throughline appeared on his throughline tracker. None of the rest of us had it. It had four pips out of ten already filled out, which meant that Bobby must have been working on this for a while without telling us.

Saving Janet: The Darkest Secret | ● ● ● ● ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌

If I wasn’t sure before, I was after seeing his new throughline. Janet wasn’t real. She was a stepping stone to the real thing.

What would happen when he got there? I didn’t want to even think about it.

As we went to leave, Janet had serious problems with us just walking off with our carts.

“I promise you,” Bobby said, “they will come get them.”

She didn’t seem so sure, but once we were out of the parking lot, it was like she didn’t even notice anything was strange anymore. She held on to Bobby’s arm, and as I guided the group back home with my scouting trope, she didn’t even seem to care about the odd things around us—not the tentacles coming out of the sewers, not the aggressive dog, not the shadows from the tree underneath the streetlight that seemed to stretch and move on their own, that we had to cross several blocks to avoid.

She didn’t seem to mind. She just looked up at Bobby and smiled.

And he smiled back without a trace of doubt.