82

After struggling with it, a year after I fled my parents’ ship, I used my new access and
knowledge to set up a secure terminal and send one message--just one--to the only relative I
still trusted: My slightly-older FAVORITE SISTER (I buy a new Descriptor for two Revisions,
justified by this Vignette), who had helped take care of me when our parents were being
particularly harsh.
Her name is (Rei) Rei Morikai, and when I recorded the message I set up a secure
one-time dropbox so she could reply. I told her I was still alive, but that I couldn’t live with what
our parents were doing, and I missed her but was doing well.
She replied, simply, “I love you. I understand.”
She shouldn’t have been able to trace the call, or find out where I was, but somehow....
END VIGNETTE: Back to the wreckage!
...somehow she is here, and hurt, and has just killed someone--probably!
So, the last Yes/No draw indicated the speeder I found was damaged. Fortunately, I’m a
TALENTED ENGINEER. I try to repair it! Can I?
(It seems likely that there are basic tools salvageable here, and I can scrap spare parts
from the ship. I’d call that two points of circumstances in my favor. TALENTED ENGINEER is
worth a point, and because Rei is my FAVORITE SISTER I’m working especially hard, and
gain one more! That adds up to four points for my character total. The difficulty may start at a
default of one for the DAMAGED SPEEDER because that default Descriptor is always worth 1,
but I decide that I’d like to draw a random DiffGen number to represent the random extent of
the damage, and then add one for the problems caused by HAVING A BAD FEELING ABOUT
THIS. I draw a random 4, so 5 total, counting the negative Descriptor; the speeder is banged
up pretty badly, but it’s all here, at least! That gives a 4 for me and a 5 for the difficulty; since
we’re within one point, we use the Even Odds, and I decide to use qualified answers this time,
just for the heck of it. The moment of truth: E:Y, T5vsS8. With qualified answers, that ‘Yes’
becomes a ‘Yes, but…’)
Excellent! Sort of!
Can I repair the bike? I can get it working… but I have to dismantle key components of
the ship. This will make the ship much harder to repair in the long run, since using its parts in
the speeder will overload them, destroying them AND the speeder. That sounds fair, so I don’t
bother drawing a card. No ship for me, for a while yet, but as I rev the bike and it finally hovers
off the ground a reasonable distance--sparking and sputtering, going to burn out after this
trip--I think, “But I’ll bet Rei has an interesting story to tell…”
I drive off, homeward, with Rei strapped into the speeder behind me. I wonder what
Sarala and her family are going to think of this development…
As this feels like the end to a narrative chapter, albeit a short one, I grant myself one
new Revision. I make sure to update my game sheet: I spent two Revisions and then gained
one, so my new total is four; I gained the Descriptor FAVORITE SISTER and I add Rei Morikai
to the game sheet as a new NPC; and now I reduce the Tension from five to four, to represent
the much less dangerous situation. Time to move on to the next Beat, which will probably be
about bringing Rei back into the estate, and either hiding her or seeking help for her--or both!