PBEM RPG Tips From: kamerym@CAM.ORG (Louis Fillion) Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 00:00:00 +0000 Hello. Part 3. To show what a two-players conversation can look like. This is not one of the best, but I would have to ask the players first for the others. This one should be harmless enough :/ By the way, nearly everything here has been copy-pasted from what the players sent me... <Allin. Oh, Allin. A-wheeeeeeee... thaaanks. *grin*> <My pleasure :> You get teamed up with Allin for watch duty. You don't like your current predicament, and you don't like the squirrel. As if you needed to team up with a snoop for the most boring and pointless duty on board. Deciding to make the best of a bad situation, and deriving some dark amusement from it, you decide to put the intel specialist in the place he probably puts the usual suspects. Pacing silent patrol, you try to keep away from him, and make it obvious. And when your patrol takes you near him, you make sure to take a pause next to him, in his blind spot. The squirrel does not seem fazed by this. He keeps an eye on you and, after the first few times, you find that he has his back to the bulkhead. You can tell that he knows what you are doing. As soon as you realize he knows what you are about, on the next pass, you flip your visor up, wink, and grin. "Sorry. Findin' it amusin' muckin' around wi' ye; 'ow else are we gonna pass seven shardin' hours?" "Well, we could quote regulations, or review suit parts..." said, trying, not very well, to keep a straight face. "Plotting revenge maybe?" "Has to be some way we can turn this around on her. Not that she'll manage to slip anything in my suit again..." "Och. What is it with this revenge bit? She's doin' her job, man, an' those o' us who had the thought t'check passed. I didn't, so ah'll take me lumps. R'venge'll just get us all in trouble." "Oh, no, nothing crazy." the squirrel says "Something subtle, some- thing humorous... Most important, something that somehow involves these regs and tests. Might as well make it an excuse for yet more studying. If all else fails at least we pass the next test." You reach up to scritch one ear, and get thwarted by the spacegloves and helmet. "Kio. I hate this thing." you squirm a bit and rub your ear cleverly against the just-for-that-purpose velcro on the inside of the helmet. You yelp and as the radio headset comes off your head and drapes itself unceremoniously over your nose. "More so." you sigh, backing up against the bulkhead and doing some serious contortions of the arm and shoulder, trying to get your arm out of the suit arm to get at the radio. If it's possible, you don't see how. "Not that I need it t'talk t'you, but it's obnoxious hangin' off o' me nose." You insert a gloved hand through your open visor, but you don't what you are doing. Allin moves over and takes a closer look at your problem, "Okay, hold still a second..." he pokes at it carefully, and actually manages to more or less sit it back in its proper position. "Well, hope that holds..." You press the side of your head up against the inside of your helmet, nudge a few times, and then straighten. "A'right. I think that did it. Thanks." "You're welcome, I wouldn't want either of us to get stuck with extra hours if our instructor should happen to hold inspection..." You continue "Besides. Ah've heard that gettin' yer spacer license is even harder at the Academy, an' that's why I didna get mine there. This is a crash course, an' there's only so mana' hours in a day she can throw stuff at us." you grin. "And, it keeps us off o' exercisin' programs." "Now that you mention it, it does have that advantage. I've been discovering muscles I never knew I had, and they seem to be unhappy about their discovery. I'm dreading the thought of the self-defense classes, not that I couldn't use some practice, but just if I'm suffering so much just from exercise..." he says, pauses, then continues. "But don't get too comfortable. Grew up space, well okay mostly on a moon, and she still caught me with that `hole'." he says, looking cha- grined. You chuckle. "Yeh. That wasnae verra fair at all. But. It did prove a point that we werena' doing suit maintenance enough. Ah'm sure the next time ah'll be checkin' it out far too often." you shrug. "True... Probably let me off lighter than I would of back home if I was caught with a hole in my suit. Still it was hardly fair, not that life it, but still." he sounds faintly affronted. "Ah'm from Arras Charka. Th'core o' the cores, rotten tho it ended up. The EDF's been my first ticket t'space, an' I hate it evera' time ah'm up. Give me a place where ah' can see the sky, an' the land as far as I can walk in a day, an' I'm happy. Give me th' smell of grass and trees...an'..." You trail off and shake your head. "Ah, ye're a Loonie. Ye'd na' understand." "Me crazy? You're the one that likes the idea of being constantly sucked down by a big chunk of rock. Still, if you ever did end up my end of nowwhere, we do have a small planetary settlement." "No, 'Loonie', as in 'lunar', laddy. Means ye live in th' moon..." You grin. "Though moons s'posed t'have gravity, just na' as much, too, last I checked." "Well, a little, but not nearly the same." Sighing, then adding a smile, "One point for you." "Planetary settlement? One o' those aghro-thingys, or just a city under glass?" "Agro for the most part. Though there are a few people who simply decide they prefer life down there. A few people have suggested that we all just move down there, but I doubt that would happen. Too much trouble..." You nod, then bring back the subject to Tylda, "...as fer revenge, well, all we'd be doin' is hurtin' ourselves in th' long run. But it occurs t'me that she's got t'keep those tests somewhere... if ye want a comps expert, that'll be Kane. He's good, but he charges in favors. Just in case ye might want t'go that route." "...if ye're looking for willin' accomplices, you might want t'talk t' Xeria. She's int' fun and happy payback." you say, quietly, "...ye did na' hear that from me, unless Xeria asks personally who tipped ye off." "Didn't here what? That I was crazy?" He gives you a hammed up wink and nudge. You chuckle. "Got ya." you clomp around a bit. "So, whatcha think o' the rest o' the crew s'far?" you ask, casting around for something to talk about... "Well, let's see. I'm fairly certain Tylda's looking for chances to make me suffer, guilty by profession. Though she does seem to at least have a sense of honor. I must admit the Doctor and I have given reason for suspicion. I'd be suspicious if I were any of you, doesn't help much that I can't think of any better way to handle it..." he says, ruefully. "I'm certainly enjoying the entertainment. Put a few things up on the board myself. Much more fun than finding reasons to not have to go outdoors was. Altough If I go outdoors here I'll need more than a good coat..." "And I think--" he stops, looking slightly embarassed, "I, am finding myself making a new friend..." Just your luck. Louis Fillion kamerym@cam.org Multiple gunshot wounds. Numerous shell fragments. A deep bayonet wound. Let's call it Natural Causes. -Dr Oscar Schneiderbunk, Phoenix Command Artillery System Up