Active The Maching Dead CYOA: Chapter 8 - B Team

Colonel Thunder

Renowned Blunderer & Dishonorary Czech
Member
Eat breakfast with Tag Ross and lynexer: 5 (Tolvan, Null, Req, Stealthy, Tirin)
See how Jeb and Lumpy are handling guard duty: 1 (Coolpool)
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Stealthy walks down the stairs onto the ground floor of the ski lodge. There are bits of dissembled Shadowbots strewn across the large, open area on the floor. Danny must have left to taken care of something.

Stealthy sits next to Lyn at the snack bar's counter. Lyn is dressed very warmly, and his face is barely visible. Tag Ross cooks on a small grill behind the counter. He wears a dirty apron.

"What's for breakfast today, Tag?" asks Stealthy. He already knew of course, but Stealthy knew Tag Ross appreciated small talk once in awhile. Plus, it gave the displaced forumer the pleasant illusion that he was in control of something.

"Eggs and chorizo," says Tag Ross, scrambling some eggs and ground meat in a frying pan.

"Chorizo?" asks Lyn. "What's that, some kind of off-brand Mexico meat?"

"Pretty much," says Stealthy as Tag Ross serves them both. "It's not too bad though. You might not get sick."

Tag Ross mumbles something in his native Mexican as Stealthy and Lyn eat.

"So how's the summit?" asks Stealthy.

"No sign of Recon yet," says Lyn. He unwraps a scarf from around his neck and face, and takes off his snow goggles. "Hexagonal barrier is still there."

"Yeah, it's not going away," says Stealthy, taking another bite.

Lyn and Stealthy continue eating.

"Snowmobile's getting low on fuel, too," says Lyn, fanning his mouth due to the spiciness.

"I told you to only take it when the weather's bad," says Stealthy. The spice doesn't bother him.

"The weather's always bad," says Lyn, only half joking.

Stealthy gives a single chuckle as he finishes his meal. He hands Tag Ross the plate and gets up from his seat. Stealthy looks around the lodge. He looks at the large analog clock above the fireplace. It denotes the hour and minute, as well as the day of the year. It's behind by a couple of days.

"Hey Tag," says Stealthy.

"Si?" answers Tag Ross.

"See if you can fix that clock later," says Stealthy. "I want everyone to know what day it is."

Tag mumbles something in Mexican as he cleans the frying pan.

Stealthy stretches.

"Oh, and one more thing," says Stealthy. "When you get done with breakfast..."

What does Stealthy tell Tag Ross to do?
________________________________________________________________________________________
-Help Danny with the Shadowbots
-Help Jeb and Lumpy on guard
-Help Frilzer with Zircom


ALSO

What does Stealthy do next?
________________________________________________________________________________________

-see how Danny's doing on reprogramming Shadowbots
-check up on Dr. Frilzer and his patient, Zircom
-see how Jeb and Lumpy are handling guard duty
-eat breakfast with Tag Ross and lynexer
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Stealthy checks up on the patient, and tells Tag Ross to help with the Shadowbots. As one of those, uh... ethnic types, he's probably something resembling a mechanic.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Lab work could always use more assistants, but things can get catastrophic if you've got them mixing up the reagents because they can't read English properly. Have him help with the Shadowbots.
 

Colonel Thunder

Renowned Blunderer & Dishonorary Czech
Member
-Tell Tag to help Danny with the Shadowbots: (erryone)
-check up on Dr. Frilzer and his patient, Zircom: (erryone)
__________________________________________________________________________________________

"Help Danny with the Shadowbots," says Stealthy. "I want those things up and running within a week or so, and I know you can help speed things along."

Tag Ross grumbles something in Mexican.

Stealthy sees Danny come inside as he goes into one of the lodge's front rooms. Inside, Frilzer charts some data on a clipboard. There are some health monitors and various first aid kits scattered throughout the room. Frilzer is wearing a surprisingly clean lab coat.

"Hello, Stealthy!" says Frilzer. "Any news? I heard Milamber getting all excited about finding Easy."

"Easy, Req, and several others are making their way through the woods," says Stealthy. "They'll be here in a week, hopefully."

Frilzer looks nervous.

"I hope they're better supplied than our friend here," says Frilzer, motioning towards Zircom.

Zircom was laying nearby on a bed with an IV in his arm. He was covered in a warm blanket. His exposed feet showed heavy frostbite on the toes.

"They're well supplied," Stealthy assures him. "And how's he looking?"

"We may have to amputate several toes," says Frilzer slowly. "Aside from that, several days rest with warm food and water, and I expect him to make a full recovery."

"That's unfortunate about the amputating," says Stealthy, grabbing a spare first aid kit from the room. "He'll still be of use though."

"Uh, yeah," stumbles Frilzer. "Useful."

"Anyways, I was wondering about synthesizing a cure for this Fuse zombie thing," says Stealthy. "I'm going to be grabbing a bunch of medial supplies on this run, I was wondering what you might need to work on a cure."

"Um, that's quite a project to tackle," admits Frilzer. "But of course it's very important. Probably the most important thing I can do here."

"I would agree," says Stealthy.

"Here, I'll write up a list of supplies that could help," says Frilzer. "But it's all very obscure serums and equipment. I don't think they'd have it in stock at any hospital."

"Oh, we're not going to a hospital," says Stealthy, accepting the list from Frilzer and looking it over. "We're heading to my mansion. I think we'll have everything there."

"Even then it would be a long shot," says Frilzer. "Oh, and Stealthy, I was thinking about your idea of holding one of those...things as prisoner, for medical studies."

"And?" asks Stealthy.

"I'm really not comfortable with the idea of working closely with one of them," says Frilzer. "It seems like an unnecessary risk, and we still don't know if it would help in synthesizing a cure."

"Even if we don't learn anything medically," counters Stealthy. "We could learn an incredible amount about their behavior."

"I'm just not sure it's a good idea," says Frilzer, looking uncomfortable.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

What does Stealthy do?

-ask Frilzer to reconsider the benefits of running studies on a live Fuse clone
-forcefully assert that studying the Fuse clones in person is the only way to overcome them
-agree with Frilzer that studies on a live specimen is too dangerous
 

Requiem

Well-Known Member
Member
Eh. There's no way for us to know which is the right answer beyond our own individual conjecture.

Agree with Frilzer.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
Ask Frilzer to reconsider, provided that the clone is captured safely and examined remotely, in an environment where neither human nor electronic error can result in its escape.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Well... Frilzer's wrong. It could be not only helpful, but actually downright essential. Get the live capture.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Risky for a regular forumer, yes, but Stealthy's physical and mental abilities are top-tier. He can get that shit done, no problem.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
Can remove the limbs and teeth of the clones if restraining them proves difficult. But anyway, initial work isn't going to need the lab techs to interact with intact corpses - just fresh tissue samples, cell cultures, etc. So we'll be needing a live body to get them from.
 

Requiem

Well-Known Member
Member
My thing is, and why I said only individual conjecture can make our own individual decisions here, is that the right answer depends entirely on the plot. It could be that asking Frilzer to reconsider isn't enough to convince him and we never get the information we need and suffer for it. It could be that using force to convince him isn't the right answer because Frilzer then sabotages the research when we really need it and then suffer for it. It could be that agreeing with Frilzer is the worst choice because then we have no research at all.

Then we can do the opposites of each of these choices. Frilzer might be easily persuaded and then he agrees. We get information from the study and everything works out on that end, awesome! It could be that forcefully asserting ourselves is the way to go and Frilzer falls in line and simply does what he's told from then on, regardless of the information gained from the study. Then there's the chance that agreeing with Frilzer prevents any form of disaster from befalling the lodge because a zombie is never brought in. Which leads me to my overall point:

No matter what we choose, the ultimate choice we're making is whether or not to bring a Fuze clone into the lodge. That comes with its risks and its rewards. We can't know what bringing a clone in will do for the plot. So there's essentially two choices: err on the side of caution and agree with Fuse or risk it all for the bacon and bring a clone in, either nicely or forcefully.

Which circles us back to my original point. We can't know either way which is the right option. If the clone kills or hurts people all comes down to TC's plot. We can't know what to do. I err in the side of caution just because trying to study zombie things doesn't generally work out for most groups in pop culture/fiction. Those voting to bring the clone in, however, aren't wrong for doing so as the risks might come with many rewards. It simply depends on what TC has planned from this branching point.

Shit, long post. Sorry guys. Vote how it makes sense to you specifically.
 

coolpool2

Savage AF
The Original Gangster
I'm almost certain that it will backfire if they get a zombie, and I'm certain they will gain something if they capture it.
 

Tirin

God-Emperor of Tealkind
Moderator
The plot metagame is for fucking bitches. The important thing is for Stealthy to try and get a cure together - it's not like anyone else is getting anywhere in that regard.
 

Easy

Right Honorable Justice
Member
That's a metagame concern, though. Stealthy's concerns are research concerns, as they should be.
 
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