Egress: Act 1, Act 1, Scene 2
It’s Thursday morning, April 13, in a major North American metropolis called New Neo City. There’s a cool late spring breeze, the dogwalkers are out, and Ruby Goslyn has woken up early to play Egress before school.
Ruby wakes up fresh from dreams of flying and falling. Convoke is down, which is weird, but she doesn’t have time to chat this morning anyway. Once the software is installed on the fancy smartphone her mom gave her two birthdays ago, she clicks through the TOSes and is taken straight to a cosmic-looking title screen.
[[My idea for this phase of play was for each PC to introduce one of the core game concepts in detail: Objects, Links, and Nodes. Once I gave one of these actions full screentime, I could just say “Ruby captured an Object” in the future, which is what I did next.
Like Pony, Ruby starts with two Relationship Conditions at 1 each. Passive Protege stands for Pony, whom she likes and knows she can get to do stuff with (or for) her, but doesn’t show much initiative. Annoying Asshole stands for Axel, whom she’s been close to for a while but is totally fed up with right now after some bullshit ze said about her clothes. Ruby also has a Trauma at 1: Grudge. When people wrong her, she holds it for a long time. Lately, she’s been holding enough to weigh her down.]]
Her room is smaller and more crowded than Pony’s, and messier. Her fourth-story window, next to the radiator, looks out into the neat tiled courtyard of her Grandma’s apartment building. Her variety of INTERESTS is on display.
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a poster for the 2001 French film AMÉLIE, framed alongside a poster for the 2000 French-Hong Kong film IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
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a shrine-like triptych of melodramatic DARKWING DUCK FAN ART, created in homage to a DOCFUTURE VIDEO that speaks to her on a deep level
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her obsolete ghost-themed MACBOO, accompanied by STATIONERY and marked with color-coded notes about HISTORICAL FASHION YOUTUBE DRAMA
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a FIVE-DISC CD PLAYER she won from a school contest: the BTS, BLUR, and BEYONCÉ CDs she then had to buy to go with the CAKES DA KILLA and ZEBRA KATZ she had already
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a CRT TV with DREAMCAST, a gift from Axel after ze deduced through close questioning that she had never actually played SPACE CHANNEL FIVE
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a secondhand DRESS MANNEQUIN (a gift from Grandma), loosely wearing a PLUSH GOOSE (a gift from Pony) in homage to BJÖRK’S SWAN DRESS (a gift to this world)
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a PILE OF UNWASHED CLOTHES on a FOLDING CHAIR
For now she only needs her wardrobe, which she studies while picking out clothes from a wheel of thought bubbles, then spins into her new outfit and poses. She does this every morning.
She reaches the Capture Mode interface, but doesn’t Capture anything: her Grandma forbids her from taking photos of things in her home for any kind of social media or game or whatever, and also roasts her without pity for looking at her own bedroom through her phone. Ruby flees, defeated.
She stops at the Snack Corner by the train station for a [MiceTea], and while the older teen wearing a Rick and Morty shirt whom she knows from church rings her up, she spots a flier on the rack. It’s a promotional poster for the touring production of Bacchanalia, that corny satyrical musical Pony is into for some reason. Smiling, Ruby takes it, and once she’s down in the station, folds it into a paper crane as she waits for the train. She clicks it in Capture Mode and it’s gone.
[[While Ruby is on the train to school, I roll for a Drama Move. These are just Egress’ PbtA GM Moves, with some encouragement to roll them randomly and be surprised. I roll someone takes notice. But who? I roll a Those Who Act motif for something nice and mythical and get The Ruler of the Hosts of Air. A holy and energetic ruler under a starry sky, bearing a wicked shield. Cool! I roll a Personality and Goal as well: I believe + devotion to great work, with a goal of sacrifice. We’ve got something. You have to know what you’re giving up and why for it to be a sacrifice.]]
Convoke is down, but the encrypted messaging app Thoth is still online. Ruby realizes this when she gets a message from an unknown sender. For maximum security, supposedly, Thoth represents users as an iconic avatar rather than a text cognomen as Convoke does. Ruby’s icon is a sphinx playing trumpet. The unknown sender appears as a shield emblazoned with a stylized gust of wind. (The style evokes the FORMAL HELMET on Pony’s shelf.)
Ruby is deeply weirded out and peers around herself on the train car, but no one is giving her a second glance. If someone saw her capture the crane at the station, they’d be long gone by now. She doesn’t reply. WTAF…?
[[I give her a Condition named Unsettled-1 from that hard move.]]
She’s rattled as she emerges with the wave of commuters at Centennial Station. Downtown skyscrapers loom as she turns the corner into the campus building.
Ruby attends the Kristin Chenoweth High School of Performing Arts and Musical Arts and Arts, a public magnet school and one of the most fiercely sought after in the city. They usually just call it Chenoweth. Former lunch-debtor students like her attend the same classes and work in the same studios as the heirs of the rich and famous, although “side by side” would be naive: the school has a byzantine and often quite formal social hierarchy of clubs, cliques, mentorships and rivalries, under the active direction of a feared and powerful Student Council. It’s an anime high school.
[[The goof for me is that there’s a whole complicated system of rules and obligations and Cromartie/Balamb/Shujin/Asticassia drama that everyone takes deadly seriously and which Ruby is totally not read into but has to engage with to get anything done. I assume people are constantly blocking and scheming and dueling and betraying each other over hall passes, but writing out good details was harder than just imagining the vibe and giggling. The Egress fan wiki would have multiple pages describing it. For the game, I call this an Obstacle Condition: Social Labyrinth-1 at the start. I’ll keep the labyrinth in mind for the fiction, but it doesn’t directly affect rolls yet.]]
On her way into homeroom, walking past an interior garden and an uplifting mural as well-dressed students flow around her, Ruby discreetly checks Egress again. The app has moved onto a new screen.
She puts her phone away with a frown. She’s stumped.
[[Soft move: unwelcome truth. Ruby doesn’t have any IRL friends. Not anymore. She can’t think of anyone to Link with.]]
Chenoweth is an arts high school, but fashion design has been the black sheep for a long time. Its students are poached for other tracks in the games of more powerful departments, and the one who aren’t leave on their own, demoralized by the winnowing out of their little program. Actually, by this time in April, she’s the only one left. Her and the program head, Ms. Wheeler, into whose otherwise empty class-lounge she files to begin the day.
[[I draw an elemental motif to find out who this person is. Queen of Diamonds: Empress. Generosity (Generosity with Strings.) Parlay from a position of power. Elemental motifs are information-dense for oracles, and that Thesis (Antithesis) represents opposed interpretations to pick or roll for. I want Ruby to have a character who’s genuinely on her side, so I use Generosity. Wheeler is a deposed Empress with a fallen kingdom, but she’s still a program head, and she uses her toehold in the labyrinth to fight for her students, even when there’s only one.]]
Wheeler looks up from portfolio review on her colorful abstract-furniture throne, smiles slightly. “I don’t have to make up an excuse for you being late this morning. Nice!”
Ruby, still Unsettled, takes a seat where she can see the door. “haha. yeh”
Her teacher picks up on it, sets her green tea down. “What’s up? I see you thinking hard.”
Ruby’s shades flash. Oh no — a supportive adult! If she finds out about Egress and the weird text and everything else, she could send her to the office. Send a letter home. Call Grandma. No way in hell is Ruby going back to that therapist. Gotta throw her off the trail.
“…i’m good.”
Still in Capture Mode, Egress plays tense music and overlays locks and strings over Ruby and Wheeler. A charged exchange of probes and evasions plays out in dialog boxes.
[[Strive! Roll Teenager 1 to keep an authority figure off her trail.
Goal: Conceal Egress from her.
Danger: Wheeler takes an interest in Ruby’s trouble. [building off her Unsettled Condition.]
7-9: achieve goal, but danger hits. Ruby doesn’t mention anything about an alternate reality game, but her evasion only makes Wheeler worry Ruby’s in trouble.
Not only that, Ruby finds that having a sincere conversation while Egress is active has unintentionally recorded Wheeler as a Link. I am thou, thou art I…]]
The room grows shadowy, and the music tremolos. Suddenly backlit by color, she appears in this light as a splendidly attired peacock sovereign: the [EMPRESS of THREADS].
And just as suddenly the interface fades, and she’s back to normal. Wheeler sips her mug of tea. “It’s 8:02 already. Let’s get our day started.”
[[In addition to her new Link, Ruby hits the Key of the Mundane for describing her school life, plus her room decoration and interests. +1 Dark Die, taking her to 1.]]
In a break between classes, dreading the looming threat of a call home, Ruby compulsively checks Egress again. Now that she’s been made readable to the game, could she somehow use the Link system to shut this down, convince her teacher she’s fine, and make this go away? An attention-grabbing icon blinks on the Link Grid UI…
[[Conditions: Passive Protege •, Annoying Asshole •, Unsettled •
Trauma: Grudge •
Light Dice: [Perfect Drip]
Dark Dice: 1]]