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So where I live our hounds are less disposable and less… human. Basically all of them have had their skulls de-lidded to install a neural interface helm, and most of them don’t still have their eyes. That’s ignoring all the other augments and cybernetics often installed. Our handlers keep the hound pointing in the right direction and make sure they stay calm and sane with all their augments and meds.

The presentation with the hound was limited to a smaller number of people due to all the waivers, and because overwhelming a hound in a public space would… be bad.

Anyways, a small number of students that included me showed up in basically a gymnasium at the designated time and signed all the waivers.

The handler and hound were… REALLY cool. It seemed like a few other people were uncomfortable, but mostly they left early. A lot of it was the hound showing off and relaxing with its handler while the handler talked about the program. A couple people left after the hound snapped at them for getting too close to it or it’s handler. Near the end, we were given the opportunity to feed the hound from our hands.

This hound had omnicameras, but I swear it was staring me dead in the eyes as it grabbed the nutricube off my hand with sharp teeth, and threaded a long tongue through my fingers to grab the crumbs. It dutifully ate off the other student’s hands, but then it went back to staring at me while its handler talked.

It took about ten seconds for it to decide on something. We were strongly advised to let the hound do what it wanted if it decided to do something strange, so when it picked me up, I froze. Its limbs were like solid iron, and I could tell it was putting in effort to not claw me as it unceremoniously dumped me in the lap of its handler.

They, the handler, honestly looked like they had seen this before. They were sitting on a gym mat with the group arranged in a circle. Everyone else was clearly startled, not sure what to do, but looking at the handler’s calm face.

“It thinks you’re a packmate. Just… lay there, you’ll be fine.” The handler spoke as if this was normal. I was laying in… a quite compromising position, my head was on the handler’s thigh, facing towards their crotch. My body was laid between their legs, with my knees towards my chest. Everyone was definitely staring. “Hey, just relax, you’re okay.” The handler gently pet my hair. “You’re doing such a good job.” I don’t think the hound was the only one who thought I was a packmate, but I hate how well that worked for calming me down.

The handler kept answering questions as if nothing happened. They… smelled really good >\\\\<. I wasn’t really listening anymore. Their hand absentmindedly carded through my hair. The hound eventually got bored and flopped down next to its handler. And right next to me.

“Awwww.” The handler cooed as they scratched under their hound’s chin. The hound ran hot, I could feel it as a heavy arm draped over me and it got comfortable next to its handler.

I was pinned. “Just relax. You don’t have to worry.” Handler cooed at the two of us. I swear that hound was proud of itself. I felt the other gazes start to ignore me again. My blush must have been thermonuclear. Fuck, my face was right against Handler’s crotch.

I laid there for what felt like hours. At some point the hound started… purring? It made a soft rumble of satisfaction.

I must have fallen asleep there. When I awoke, everyone but Handler and the hound was gone. “Cmon, time to get up.” The hound was on its feet in a flash of whining servos. Handler sounded like they were smiling. I groaned, blinking heavily as I regained consciousness.

“Oh, fuck.”

I was tired of coming up with big godzilla fights, so I asked everyone to come up with a bunch of NPC's and show up in a gala. For me this was going to be a low effort mission to allow myself some time to rest and recharge.

Everyone made a few NPC's and I wanted to encourage my players to play them during. The highlights here: - Bonan D. Orion, Out of touch talkshow host. - Drake, Ultracentrist ultraliberal - Alexander Encz, Brother of a Foundation superstar scientist, mockingbird fetishist.

Anika gives the mission briefing: This is Rampage's big outing. Hematoma, for the love of God, don't say anything to anyone. Vestige, Rose, please just act normal and MUABAWR, please keep it in your pants. ("Yes, mommy.")

Anika orders Vestige to leave Dullahan behind on account of it being a colossal horror machine. Hematoma leaves Kardia behind on account of it being as large as an aircraft carrier and you can't park that thing safely. Anika, Hematoma and Vestige will be taking the car to the city. The other pilots can wow the crowds by flying in and shaking hands with the mayor.

I set the scene. Big theater building, classical nude statues of Greek gods, etc. Rose's player heard me say "nude" but didn't connect that to the word statues and assumed all the guests were in the nude, instead. I only managed to clear up this misconception at the end of the session. Rose was also slowly going insane, because its playbook slowly starts to unravel, if it doesn't regularly get re-educated by the Foundation. Rose gets out of its ominous frame covered in eyes and immediately starts stripping.

I have Alex immediately step in, pretending to be Foundation personnel and uses that opportunity to take Rose with him to drug her and rape her. Rose voluntarily dosed up on whatever Alex handed to it and forcefed Alex half of what was offered. This resulted in both being naked and entangled in the bathroom and unconscious.

The other pilots land. MUABAWR is actually the model pilot on the scene and so is Rampage. Rampage is worried when she does not see Rose on the premises and goes to find her, stumbling on the awkward situation in the bathroom. Rose's gun is nowhere to be seen, which I thought would be a funny narrative complication. Rampage power washes the intoxicated girl and tries to clean up the scene the best she can.

Anika arrives on the scene in her limo. Hematoma and Vestige as arm candy. Anika orders Vestige to please keep Hematoma in check. As there was already a small PR problem (Why did that pilot randomly strip for the crowd, Anika?) Anika needed to shake hands, grease palms and manage the media, leaving all the girls by themselves to mingle at the gala.

I invite the players to play NPC's that are chatting up random pilots. Highlight here for me is Hematoma looking at Bonan D. Orion and telling him that "you are small." This is a great vocal stim for the 7'2" Mockingbird. Bonan was suitably creeped out and left quickly after.

Rampage makes a pass at Anika, who politely declines. Anika only has eyes for MUABAWR at this point, it seems, though she would never admit it.

The players wrangle rose into a semi-awake state and seat it at a table to be watched over by MUABAWR. Our next NPC is Drake Nielsen, our ultraliberal moneyman. He doesn't really approve of the Foundation's methods, but if they don't torture girls into fighting Godzilla how else will the world government maintain price stability?

Highlight in this exchange is Rose babbling random nonsense and MUABAWR trying to intimidate it into shutting up. At the same time, MUABAWR attempts to placate Drake by saying that Rose has "terminal autism" on account of "all the vaccines" that girls get in the Foundation. Drake has never heard of this, but agrees that people are vaccinated too much nowadays. As this scene keeps escalating, MUABAWR is practically holding Rose in a headlock. MUABAWR basically just stops short of beating Rose unconscious here.

To make matters worse, Hematoma has escaped Vestige's watchful eye and has come to inform Drake that "You are small." Drake, suitably creeped out by everything, absconds and after a staring contest between MUABAWR, Rose and Hematoma, a full-on brawl breaks out where Rose beats the crap out of MUABAWR and Hematoma doesn't do much except look.

Rose overshoots the All out Assault roll which has the following result: "Combat stims mess with your head, Handler makes a play." In response to this, I reveal that Anika has the Hidden Weapon advancement. The Hidden Weapon can either kill a girl or can be revealed to a girl. If it is revealed, a girl can change its mind or be killed anyway.

"As the confusion clears, Rose feels the cold assured sensation of steel as Anika pushes the barrel of her pistol in its mouth. She tells it to get off of MUABAWR or Rose's head will be turned into fine red mist."

This actually de-escalates the situation.

But you know, two Foundation pilots got into an all-out brawl in a public event and a Foundation officer was seen threatening to end the life of a Girl with terminal autism. That's not a good look. This Gala is basically a huge failure at this point. Rampage has had zero opportunity to shine.

Revealing the hidden weapon was dramatically appropriate, but now that the players know Anika has it, they can take that element into account for their future plans. Oh well, what can you do.

Time was running out in the session, so I poll my players on how we start the next session.

Eventually, we settled on the surprise interview with Bonan, followed up by the surprise monster. A comedy bit right before a big fight always goes well.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy this session. One comment I might give is that this session went from zero to one hundred really quick over a misconception. Next time it probably would be best to ask my players about strange actions their characters take if I don't quite understand their motivations. But it all worked out in the end. On to prepare a talk show segment.