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The Assassination of Albert Treskis
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DeadManWalking



Joined: 24 May 2006
Posts: 1005

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 1:12 am    Post subject: The Assassination of Albert Treskis  

Before I actually start, I want to make it clear that this is actually yet another contest. It is, however, of a slightly different format than ones I've run before (and somewhat iffy in genre) so I'm putting it in Experimental. Rules will come after this introduction.


Hubert Dry was enjoying being in the black. It really didn’t happen enough, (really only after big jobs) but when it did, it was nice. It meant he could show up to work and just ignore whatever crazy jobs people sent in next, instead of jumping around looking for whatever decent-paying assassinations he could find. Benefits of being self-employed. He leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on his desk.

A knock on his door (newly glazed with Hubert Dry’s Wetwork Agency in big impressive letters) interrupted his long-awaited reverie. Hubert considered ignoring it, but he only had about a second before it swung open anyways. A red mane of hair bobbed in at about waist high, just barely in Hubert’s line of sight.

Silarney made a vault of Olympic proportions, considering her height, and popped her diminutive leprechaun backside onto the desk. Hubert was forced to shield his eyes as the sun flashed off her cochlear implant. Her entire right ear was crafted in the shape of a metal wing, apparently because Silarney thought it was cool. It was a weird contrast, between the obvious Valkyrie reference and her own Irish roots. Shielding his eyes, though, did give him a pretty good excuse to eyeball her assets again. He didn’t know if it was a genetic leprechaun thing or some kind of blarney magic, but she always looked good.

“If you’re done relaxing, Hu, you’ve got a message,” she said. “Anonymous, but he’s offering 200 fatbacks to kill one…” A small AR screen popped out of her earpiece. “…Albert Treskis, in New Francisco. That’s pretty great money.”

Hubert Dry sat up at that number. Two hundred fables was a crazy amount of money. An unreasonable amount of money. What kind of job warranted that kind of fee?

A chime sounded from Silarney’s ear, and a red light popped up on the AR screen. “Hold on, we’ve got another message for you. It’s actually from Treskis. He’s offering a bounty 50 fatbacks for the head of each assassin taken down. Payable only when the assassinations stop and he’s still alive.” Her hand twitched in her lap, and the red light vanished, replaced by massive lengths of scrolling text. “Both messages also went out to both the interwebs and the Magi Network. But I guess both parties wanted to make sure you got the invitation.” She glanced at his face for a response.

Whatever this was, it was going to be a madhouse, and Hubert said as much. “You’re going to have people coming from out of country for this kind of cash,” he said. “Hell, you’re going to get people who aren’t even in the business. Ex-special forces. Maybe some government guys. Everyone with a cause who wants to raise some capital. Maybe even some coming out from their graves.” Maybe literally. Some would be the secretive types, gone into retirement but back again for a chance at this many fatbacks. But others…. Well necromancy and necrotech were both officially banned, but there were always rumors.

“So who you gonna call?” Silarney said. She raised an eyebrow. “I mean, you are getting involved in this whole mess, aren’t you?”

“Look, Sil,” he replied, eyes roaming from his nails to the map on the wall, to his souvenir case. “I’d have to be crazy to get into this mess. I mean, you have the chaos already there from the 200 fatbacks. For that, wetboys will be offing each other just to get rid of the competition. Add on to that the hunters going for the bounty on the wetboys, and wetboys offing hunters to defend themselves, and then hunters killing each other to ease up on competition, and the whole things a crapshoot.

“You’d have to be crazy to get into this mess, Sil,” he repeated, meeting her eyes again.

She returned his gaze, deadpan. “So you’re getting involved in this whole mess, aren’t you?”

Hubert sighed. “Get me a background check on Treskis. He’s got a lot of fatbacks, and I want to know how. If he’s a major mage or some kind of techhead, it changes things. And see if you can trace the first message. He probably scrubbed it pretty clean, but check it with the one he sent to the nets to see if you can’t put any data remnants together. And talk to Kyoric about mystical traces on the message to the MagiNet”

Sil flashed him a hundred-watt smile and hopped off the desk, her left hand already twitching as data scrolled through the AR screen. The woman was a treasure. Hubert had been in the market for a receptionist, but instead he got marketing, hacker, a little useful magic and a great coordinator, all rolled into one small package. Hell, without her watching his back, he’d have croaked a dozen times over, on jobs all around the world.

He had a feeling she’d need to work overtime on this one.



THE RULES:
1. Pretty standard tourney sg. You against another writer. Both of you write a version of events, and voters will decide what's canon.

2. The way we decide who fights is by region. Each round, you will pick somewhere to go and if others are there, you may fight. Something new I'm changing though is that you don't have to fight people in your region. I'll inform people who else is in their region, and they can decide to fight or not. The reason this comes up is that two people on the same 'side' (see rule 3) might want to fight or might not want to. Fighting each other reduces competition, but it also means there are less people on your side. Depending on information, (see rule 5) I may give only one person the choice to initiate a fight.

3. Every character has to choose a side. They must be either an assassin/wetboy or a hunter. This side has little to do with their background, merely if the character is going to receive 50 fables for each assassin killed, or if the character will get 200 fables for killing Treskis. Each author may only have 2 characters in the tourney at any one time (submissions are free to begin, but reviving a character or entering a new character at later round has a scaling fable cost) and only one can be an assassin (and thus only one can be a hunter, just to keep things balanced.)

4. Not every round will have everybody fighting. If there are enough contestants, I'll let the regions be the sole decider, but if there are too few entrants, I'll throw in a couple of random bounty hunters or assassins. In addition, the contestants may simply choose not to fight. (Indeed, this might even be a benefit for assassins, since they gain less benefit from fighting a bounty hunter.) In any round in which your character does not fight, you may write a segment detailing his time in the city. This gives you no obvious benefit, but it does give your character face-time if you need more.

5. Something else new I will be adding to this contest is information brokering. By spreading around fatbacks (i.e. fables) you can learn information from various contacts in New Francisco. For example, you might have a local gang scout out an area for you, thus giving you an advantage against any competition in that area (priority decision on fighting) or you might gain access to an exclusive area you might not otherwise have (e.g. a possible back door to Treskis' safe house.) either to camp and wait for assassins, or to make going after Treskis easier.

6. Not all character applications are accepted. But we have a pretty wide net here, what with having both tech and magic. We accept anything from long-slumbering mummy lords to shadowy ex-government cyborg infiltrators to elven vampire swordsages to mafia thugs. Just give them a reason to be going after the fatbacks. Your character may also have support from a bigger organization, though I ask that you keep it reasonable. Also, no aliens. Just because.

7. Characters will be kept anonymous, with the sole exception of Hubert Dry, who will be in the tournament as a balancing act between assassin and bounty hunter. (Note I kept it ambiguous as to which side he was joining).

8. Character submissions will be formatted thusly:
Name:

Background/Motivation:

Personality:

Description:

Strengths(with Source):

Limitations:

9. I am hardly against teaming up, but assassins and hunters may not change sides to do so (or for any other reason, simply for clarity's sake). Additionally, rewards will be split between the team members, unless they decide to have a duel for the prize.

EDIT: 10. Treskis will be moving semi-randomly through the zones of the city round by round. Information on his movements can be found through information brokering, or you can just choose a zone and hope to find him.

I think that's everything. Any questions can be posted in the thread or PM'd to me.
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DeadManWalking



Joined: 24 May 2006
Posts: 1005

Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 9:50 am    Post subject:  

For those who want some background for character creation:

The oceans have risen, submerging many of the coastal areas of continents around the world. The United States of America, many of its most important cities now underwater, collapsed as a government, but many of the powerful corporations remained. Pulling together Canada and Mexico, the entire continent of North America became Amcorp, a governmental body run much like a corporation, based in Toledo.

In this world, law still remains, but can be ignored for a price. For example, murder, now termed legally as wetwork. Anyone can buy a license to kill, but being in possession of one of those licenses revokes your own protection from murder. (i.e. Anyone with a license to kill can kill anybody they want, but they aren't legally protected from death themselves, whether the attacker has a license or not.)

The cause of the swelling seas was the revival of the Lost City of Atlantis from the depths. As it rose from the seas, ribbons of light like auroras filled skies across the globe for months, and people found magic returning to the world. Not only did mermaids frolic in the waters around Atlantis, Valkyries flew through the skies of Northern Europe, sphinxes roamed the sands of Egypt, and dragon sightings were reported in Asia. Babies born on or around the auroras has pointed ears, or scaled skin. Rumors of the mythical changelings abounded as the aurora children grew to resemble mystical beings from regional mythologies. It was discovered later that the aurora children grew up to be in fact entirely new races, unable to breed (or only able to father mules) with humans.

Current trends have mystical enhancements and cyborg tech vying for the love of the current generation. Cyborg parts have replaced the tattoo in teenager-parent relationships, while a rising wave of magicians and mystics have created whole new industries and applications.

That's a vague overview of the world. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the thread or PM me.
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DeadManWalking



Joined: 24 May 2006
Posts: 1005

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 6:48 pm    Post subject:  

Hey, since this is a new concept (and people aren't flying to this competition) I'm going to do a short test couple of rounds to see if the concepts I'm working on are viable.

I'm thinking first four people to respond get to participate. It'll probably be only two or three rounds, and everyone participating will get some kind of bonus for the actual tournament (or maybe just a small fable prize if the advantages system proves to be flawed).

I'm thinking these test rounds will be set before the current time, and involve the tests for issuing Wetwork Licenses (i.e. the licenses to kill and be killed). It'll also be nonlethal, so that anyone who wants to use the same character here and later is able to.

EDIT: By first four people to respond, I mean first four people to send in characters.
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