Handler Nether

Hey everyone you can call me Nether. I currently run a Girl frame campaign every week and I also play as a player in another campaign every week.

The two campaigns take place in the same universe on opposite ends of the world, so it may be interesting to read both, if you'd like. I will update this masterpost every time I write another post.

Norway Campaign:

Dramatis Personae

Season 2, session 1

Season 2, session 2

Season 2, session 3

New Zealand Campaign:

Dramatis Personae

Season 2, Recap and Prologue

Season 2, Session 1

Season 2, session 2

Session 2 memes

Season 2, session 3

Session 3 memes

Season 2, session 4

Season 2, session 5

Extra Creative Writing

A Maul Shaped Hole, part 1

A Maul Shaped Hole, part 2

A Maul Shaped Hole, part 3

A Maul Shaped Hole, part 4

Price: Debt-ridden former ace pilot who managed to get out of the game. But the Foundation stays with you. You can gamble it all away and before you know it, someone owns your debt once again. On a streamer contract, having no dignity and self-ownership, Price has joined the ranks of the Foundation.

Blondie: Horrible rap sheet, dozens of missions under its belt, Blondie has experience, guts and arrogance to match it. There is no other way to say it: Blondie is a bully. There is no situation that can't be improved by life-altering violence or at least the threat of it. It seems to get along all right with Anika for now. It pilots an enforcer, name pending.

We continue the party straight to the talk show host segment. I had Bonan D. Orion ask some questions that were more uncomfortable than funny and I feel like the players didn't have a lot to work with. Background is that I was in a time intensive and emotionally exhausting business trip abroad, but I wanted to make this session really strong as I feel like we were building up to a finale.

I asked the players if they had some interesting questions to be asked. My main takeaway is: ask them some open-ended questions so they can express themselves however they like by waffling. An easy one I remember was: "Do you like doing this?"

Also: "Do you hope to be an inspiration for other young girls?" Then I had the big reveal. I had a player actually listening with us for the last couple sessions: the wife of Vestige's player! Surprise!

I had asked her earlier if she would like play an ancillary character with us, this is a character with a one-off playbook with limited character development. We worked on that, but we seemingly had a full house every session since I suggested it, so she never really got to play. Then I had this wonderful idea: ask her to come in and play as a Harpy. Crash the party as a boss monster.

Her backstory tied in to Vestige's and Rampage's character. Prophet was a pilot who harpified in the past and was a member of their cadre.

I pushed a little bit for a two stage fight: 2 pilots fight the harpy outside their frame. 2 pilots rush towards their frame. For each play a player makes, I let the harpy make a play back. This went pretty okay, but I think in the future I should let a player play as literally anything that is not the final boss first, because this is putting a heavy burden on a new player. For what it's worth, I think our first-time player did an amazing job anyway.

THEN! DISCORD FUCKING DIED. I pushed the fight to be resolved through play by post, because I had a big change in scheduling and so I had to say goodbye to one player. I fought tooth and nail and cried tears blood to host this session on a business trip and then discord died.

We played it out through post. Anika almost died. Rose, MUABAWR, Hematoma and Rampage lived and stayed behind and the harpy kidnapped Vestige. I think that was cute. Apparently Vetige's player and his wife agreed for this to happen, because Vestige's player wanted to leave. We had to say goodbye to Hematoma's player as well, due to aforementioned scheduling issues.

It turns out Vestige's player didn't have a lot of fun in the game and regretted making Vestige a bit of a coward. Vestige's player had limited play space and development and not a lot of fun moments, according to the player.

I wish I had noticed this sooner. I feel I could have found a more interesting angle or maybe put Vestige in a Situation, so the player could have a better time. I told the player this and they agreed that we could have talked about this, but they'd prefer to split on good terms at this point. I agree and I definitely don't want people to feel as if they have an obligation to stay and play in my "open tables" girl frame game, so we end it there.

And so with the Vestige getting kidnapped to the moon and Hematoma being taken away from Anika, we have a three pilot cadre once again and I think that is the end of season 2 of the Norway campaign.

Overall thoughts: I wish I pushed for more sessions when one or more players couldn't make it and I wish I informed my players that a change in schedule was coming up. I think there were great dramatic moments and memorable fights. I feel like I tried to do some setups but unfortunately I also waited maybe a little too long on the payoffs.

Last session was a blur for me, as I was recovering from a cold.

Syllogism opted to stay with the cadre, as it was made clear to the player that escaping with Vive means curtains for the character. I wish I could think of a way to make the situation more interesting here, but we choose to block off this route for the story to continue.

The pilots get picked up with the new flying base that Jo acquired with her new advancement from harpifying another character. I think that's rad as hell and I hope we get to explore this thing more in future sessions.

My replacement character gets introduced. Its name is Applesauce, a Vatgrown from a private lab focused on cloning companions for the ultra-rich. I was taken aback by the way this was presented. In my head, Applesauce would get an interview first or would be introduced in some way. I should ask next time I have a new character how we plan to introduce it to avoid this.

I have been burning to play Applesauce for about two months now, so I had some stupid jokes prepared. I want it to bring some levity to the roster. Syllogism is a ball of depression and angst, Jawbreaker is a ball of anger and cannibalism and Max's story is bending towards realizing it is working for NERV under fem!Gendo Ikari, so I wanted to introduce someone that shamelessly believes in the Foundation, the pilots, saving the world, and being a good person. I also wanted this character to be stupid in an endearing way and to have so much kindness that it's hard to hate it.

It's a fine line to walk, because I think Applesauce can easily come off as "My special little girl that everyone has to love" or otherwise one note and boring. Time will tell if I succeed.

We have a Starship Troopers-esque shower scene where the characters banter. Applesauce is all starry eyed and full of admiration to the other pilots and how it hopes to be just like them. Apps tells them of all the things it learned at boot camp and it hopes to be able to live up to Foundation values.

Syllogism: "Foundation values? That's news to me." Applesauce: "Yes, they can be remembered by saying the word APPLE. First you need to be ALERT, so you can watch out for any enemies. Second you need to be PLEASANT, because we care for all of humanity. Third, you must be PLEASANT again, because it's nice to be nice. Then you must also show LOVE to humanity and finally one must always remember to be ETHICAL." Syllogism and Jawbreaker:

Max: Girls, it's true. APPLE is real.

Syllogism and Jawbreaker:

I really enjoyed that bit.

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFO I NEGLECTED TO MENTION IN MY PREVIOUS SESSION REPORT, BECAUSE I AM DUMB: Max has been really dissatisfied with all the half-answers and non-answers it's been getting every time something doesn't make sense. The solution to this has been talking to Another Straw, Maul's old CONSUME frame. This means sneaking into parts of the facility Max shouldn't have access to. This means talking to effectively half of what Maul used to be, a manipulative monstrous thing that wants to be free and eat people and can tell Max that it is made of the same things as Maul.

After a serious heart-to-heart, Max allowed Another Straw On A Camel's Back Crawling Through The Eye Of A Needle to lobotomize it to become a better pilot for her, erasing the personality override that Azalea inflicted upon Max. This made it so Max had very limited resources (because of brain damage and ego death) in the fight with Vive in the previous session, but also allowed Max to be effectively its own person again. Insofar Foundation pilots can be people. And insofar a pilot can be said to own itself.

END OF BACKGROUND INFO

Max gets to go under void observation, because it took void corruption in the fight with Vive.

Max had a controller that controlled Project 1's pain meds and pressed it during the fight with Vive to try and disable her. Vive, being a harpy, was of course free from these meds, but it transported the two of them to a twin peaks-esque scene where they were in a room together. Vive as her fully realized horrible and beautiful self with a Max who had never seen Vivienne before. The two talk for a bit, Vivienne trying to coax Max into choosing not to fight, Max completely confused and dissociated, politely going along with what this naked woman is telling her. But Vive did not take into account who Max is.

Vive: "Then why don't you go home with me?" Max, with implanted memories of being abused and neglected by her parents: "No fucking way!"

This snapped Max out of the dream and allowed it to savage Vive. Out of the dream, Max took a piece of voidspace along with it and received the voided asset "feral body."

Back to the present.

Jo reveals that she knew that Max had snuck into Another Straw and talked with it and so must be demoted and punished. Max will go through extensive surgeries to have the void dealt with. Max will still have a void-ridden body and Max won't be under void observation anymore. Max is the dog for only a short period of time, however.

Applesauce gets placed into the status hierarchy as the dog again as advised by Syllogism. So Max gets bumped up once again to Second Wing.

AAAAAAH WHY IS MY CHARACTER STARTING OFF AS THE DOG AGAIN, WHY ALWAYS THE DOG. APPLESAUCE HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG AND IS FULLY LOYAL. EVERY TIME.

I feel like Applesauce maybe didn't need to start as the dog.

Applesauce: "Does that mean I have to wear a dog costume?" Jo: "Do you want to wear a dog costume?" Syllogism: "You don't have to wear a dog costume." Applesauce: "Then I won't wear a dog costume."

I can accept it, but I do feel it is robbing other players the chance of being the dog and facing consistent punishment for traitorous actions.

Anyway, Max confronts Jo again later, demanding answers. Jo keeps dismissing Max and explaining nothing, not caring about anything. It's like Gendo with Shinji. It's interesting that from my perspective, Handler Jo isn't trying to maintain order or placate her pilots.

I appreciate the angle here, but I think the Handler could benefit a little from giving some players a little more to play off of? Cold indifference can only be answered with further and further escalation and I think no-selling traitorous actions can both be unsatisfying from a player perspective and can make it feel as if whatever you do during the game doesn't matter and can cause players to disengage.

Syllogism has very much the same scene with Jo, where Jo tells Syllogism that she intentionally turned Project 1 into a harpy and she planned this all along. Jo tells Syllogism that she plans to make more harpies and send them out to kill rebels. Jo will make endless harpies and end the world.

Syllogism is paying attention.

Jawbreaker meanwhile sneaks into the cockpit of Follow Down to speak with Azalea. Jawbreaker is asking nicely: Stop putting your fingers in people's brains, stop scheming and doing evil shit and I will grant you a favor. Azalea happily agrees: I will be out of your hair forever if you give me Gorgon parts, bones and the like. Jawbreaker agrees. Incredible.

Applesauce has a scene with an investor. Jo's daughter, Adelaide. Adelaide was worried and horrified to be Applesauce's investor. She didn't really ask anything of Apps. I think I should talk a little with the handler and with the player who plays Adelaide what we are hoping to achieve with Adelaide as an investor here, because I didn't quite know how to shape that scene. An interesting question here: What did handler Jo tell Adelaide when she handed her a stake in a legal slave?

We round off with a nice little after credits scene that isn't part of any downtime activity. Applesauce storms into Jawbreaker's room, needing help with hanging up its clothes. Jawbreaker was listening to a recording of daily "Your are a weapon" affirmations or something. Very little sister bothering her moody big sister kind of scene. Jawbreaker explains Apps how to fold clothes. Apps notices that JB is very moody and spontaneously hugs it. JB smacks this 100 pound stick girl to the ground. Applesauce tries again for a big hug, telling Jawbreaker that it can take all it can give. Jawbreaker feeling weirdly bad for smacking Apps down, relents.

The two have a nice conversation where Jawbreaker tells its diminutive friend that it grieves over an old friend who was big and strong. Applesauce tells Jawbreaker that it is a big and strong friend for Applesauce now. And Applesauce hopes to be big and strong for Jawbreaker too at some point.

Excerpt from an interview with Max:

I *would* say that's a weird question, but I guess at this point it's really not. All right. I can try to put together an answer for you.

Obviously my relationship with Maul is one-sided. I never knew Maul. I was supposed to be its replacement after it died - I mean, I *am* its replacement. Literally, right? We've got the same genetic material. I... I mean, I probably shouldn't get too into the weeds here, but as I understand it, we both come from the same source. So we're kind of like siblings, in a way.

Maul was a lot older and stronger and experienced than me, and... well, those are big shoes, and they're mine to try to fill. I can't really say that I know what I'm doing, at least not compared to Maul. But I'm trying my best. Some days are really hard, but others are easier. I sit down to eat, and people look up and still expect to see Maul. I walk into a room, and I see the disappointment when people realize it's only me. I deploy on a mission, and whatever happens, Maul would've done better than I did.

I don't want to sound bitter and ungrateful. I'm not. I'm really not. I'm doing my best for the Foundation, and I'm dedicated to my team - despite all our difficulties. It's a high-stress environment, after all. But no matter what I do, I just feel like that people are looking for the per- the pilot they still know and still remember... and that's a lot to live up to. I wonder if anyone could ever live up to it. I wonder if Maul could. Supposedly I'm made out of the same stuff, so... I have to have it in me, right? We can't be that different. At least that's what I'm told.

I think it's interesting how legends like Maul are... contagious. And maybe they're good for morale, for motivation, for inspiring a new recruit like me to get out there, roll my sleeves up, and get dirty. We all need heroes. And maybe Maul's the hero we need right now. Maybe Maul's the hero **I** need. I don't know. I don't know what I need.

I don't know what I need. Maybe I need a hero. Or maybe I already have a hero, and I need someoen that's... just a friend, or a teacher, or a sibling. Maybe I'm looking for a missing piece. Maybe there's something deeply wrong with me that nobody can understand. Nah, I'm kidding, but you know what I mean, right? I feel alone in a crowd. Everyone's always looking for Maul, even when they're looking me straight in my eyes.

I... I really just wish I could talk to Maul. Just once. Just take Maul's hand, and... sit down with it and say "Hey... it's me."

I'd really like that.

Recording pulled from inside the Monte Cristo as piloted by Project 1:

"I never expected that this would happen. Maul always followed orders, never fought me, never disobeyed... I am going to be honest, I should have paid more attention. I was negligent. Fraternizing with the other pilots, that snake Jo probably set her up against me. Syllogism and Jawbreaker were all well taken care of. Maul, the most loyal soldier of the Foundation never had any issues with me. It was great.

We had a great thing going. The media loved me again. Mademoiselle Tierney, no longer "London Bridge is Falling down" in the headlines, no more stupid "My fair lady what did you do?" questions during interviews. We killed several existential level Gorgons, captured one. It was public and on the news. We rehabilitated a Harpy and turned it into an ace pilot with friends. An entire cadre of washed-up pilots got together and showed the world what the Foundation was capable of. What I was capable of. And she snuffed it all out, all dancing to someone else's tune and she got killed, too, for her troubles. She gets to have a nice funeral. And they're all crying for her. Because of her, they put Jo in charge now. JO! She will end the world. She'll tell anyone. Good fucking joke, Jo. Anyway, back to the fucking lab.

We could have done so much together. All of us together. And I was weak. I trusted that snake, felt like I needed her. And now I am an abandoned husk, here at the end of the world.

I hope that bitch rests in peace. The rest of us will get to enjoy cleaning up after her."

The session opened on finishing off the off-duty. The group is tense, because we closed last time on Azalea essentially sticking her harpy fingers in Max's brain. Well, that is actually not coming up at all this session!

We go to Project 1 knocking at Syllogism's door. Azalea isn't there. Project 1 has decided to use her permissions to acquire some memorabilia for Syllogism. Back when Project 1 was Vivienne Tierny, she would give Syllogism old recordings of Syllogism's life back when it was Emeline Audubon, rockstar rebel pilot. And Project 1 is hoping to build a similar relationship with Syllogism again, where Project 1 can watch Syllogism reacting to who it used to be.

It was a copy of Plato's symposium with scribbles of Emeline Audubon inside it, her passion. There's a bookmark in it as well: a polaroid picture of Emeline, taken by Azalea way back when.

Syllogism shuts this down: "How many little bits and pieces of my past are you going to keep feeding me?" It's true of course. Even now, Project 1 wants to be a savior and healer of the girl it has abused so many times in the past. They fight. Project 1 argues it is just trying to help and be nice, that it has nothing but this. Syllogism retorts it has nothing at all and Project 1 should shut the fuck up.

Hands are flying! Project 1 wrestles Syllogism onto the bed, its mechanical hands on its throat, in its mouth. To paraphrase: "You at least get to feel this. I could rip each and every one of your teeth out right now and you get to enjoy the sweet sensation of something, anything at all, you ungrateful brat. I would gladly trade all my memories for feeling something, anything at all that isn't dull unrelenting pain." Ungrateful brat sticks as a tag.

Project 1 realizes she is brutalising Syllogism once again and steps back, apologising and horrified. The two are interrupted by handler Jo. Jo offers a devil's bargain: The foundation can take you up on that actually, the whole trading memories for a real body thing. Project 1 accepts this offer. There was a discussion, which I will summarise like this: Syllogism won't ask for Project 1 to stay as it is, so Project 1 will discard it all.

The scientist handler makes a harpy out of Project 1! Wonderful moment for everyone. The scientist handler gets to do mad science, Project 1 gets to become Vivienne once again (Pardonnez-moi: Vive!) and the rest of the cadre gets to fight their first harpy.

I was nervous. As the Harpy player, I think it's largely my duty to direct the fight with assistance from the Handler and this is a tough balancing act.

First: The Rundown. Jawbreaker gets shot down from the sky as the girls arrive to duke it out with Vive. The Foundation artillery strikes Vive's position. Vive has an asset where anyone or anything that hurts her gets to feel the exact same thing. That puts an end to artillery strikes, as the entire control room is dead.

Max goes blow for blow, beat for beat against Vive. Vive manages to administer compliance virus both to Max and Syllogism and disables Max and forces Syllogism to obey. This seemed close to a victory in Vive's eyes, but OFF THE TOP ROPE!

"You always did forget about me." Says Jawbreaker as Vive and Monte Cristo get supplexed into the rocky terrain. This triggers Vive's defeat play as she flees. She offers Syllogism to flee with her. We end the session there to allow Syllogism's player think this decision over.

My thoughts: Casualty/ Enforcer being turned into a harpy is mechanically a menace (effectively 4 extra assets and it has compliance virus). It's also hard to be in an adversarial situation between players and not rely a lot on the mechanics. Mechanics are seemingly neutral and if they are neutral, it's easy to continue the game without bogging it down in discussion.

The conversational aspect of the game relies on all players working towards the same goal. I experience a lot of friction when I try to build in the conversation where not everyone has the same goal. I want Vive to down another pilot at least. The other players would like to defeat Vive right without losing their character, right?

I think Harpies are narratively strong, but mechanically are not that much more dangerous than girls. Vive did not manage to trigger any defeat plays or foist void on the other players. Not exactly sure what the correct lesson to take from here is. Will keep a close eye on more examples of play that I can find.

You just did your third session of vampire or whatever and while everyone was looking at their phone and nodding and saying wow this is so much better than getting hammered while playing chess in the park, you all agree you should play again next weekend or something.

You actually have learned that getting a next session together with your players will never work, because they all would rather paint their house or crash their car in an underground parking lot, rather than volunteer a date and a time. Okay, so you all agree same time same place, next week, screw the consequences. We will actually play.

So okay, this is where you always go wrong: You need to stop getting sick. You need to stop getting a massive head ache and you need to stop coughing a storm as you are lying sickly in your bed. Have you ever thought about that?

No, you haven't. You decided to get sick so you have to cancel your Triangle Agency game too. And your game of MAID RPG. There were so many things you could be doing, but you have decided to do none of those and got sick instead. Instead of getting your freak on with some rpg sickos, you became sick (Oh!)

And now your friends are probably getting sick in two weeks, or married, and then you probably have to travel somewhere and before you know it your vampire campaign is (deservedly) dead and buried. A twinkle in your eye as you talk with your friends. "Oh, this was such an epic game. The Catharsis, the structure... The muses were really singing to us. Really, it could have been a book." You tell yourself this instead of playing the game.

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.

I love it when my players make mid-session memes. I will post them here with no further comment.

In between sessions we were asked to characterise some Mothers of Eden characters, who we would play as the rebels in a flashback. This was literally cute! Rebels get to have she/ her pronouns, too!

The quick Roster:

Peter: Good pilot, but abused by the organisation and always abused by the ace.

Constantine: Ace of the squad, tactician. Vicious woman that beats and berates the others to keep them down. Played by me!

Lucy: Most recent joiner, most reasonable member. Always asks Connie to lay it off and gets beaten in response.

Pope: Always dissociating, obsessed with numbers, counting and predictions.

The Mothers of Eden return from a mission. Peter took the brunt of a gorgon attack during an underseas mission and almost drowned in the cockpit as it flooded with seawater. Connie tells Peter that if that is what God had in store for her, then that is what she deserved. They return to a huge underwater base and meet with their Handler, Jebediah.

Communal shower scene. Not much happening. The Mothers of Eden are these repressed christofascist pilots, so any flirting can only be done with plausible deniability. Connie really seems obsessed with holding hands during prayer and is visibly seething when another girl is washing another girl's hair.

Peter gets to talk with Jebediah and a man in a golden suit with a skull motif? I forget if it was a mask or Peter just saw this man in her delusions as a skull-faced golden demon. Later it will be revealed that this meeting is something that Pope imagined happening, so we can't fully rely on that being a real event. Peter was handed a powerful and expensive Prince frame to fight as well as gifted an AM (An Artifical Mind) that seemed to be omniscient and even reality warping.

Peter takes over as leader of the cadre, using the AM, mind controlling Constantine into agreeing with everything that Peter says. Together they go on a mission to capture a submarine stocked with nuclear war heads. This concludes the prelude to last session's mission.

End scene where we reveal the characters were all looking through the eyes of the captured prisoner, Pope. Pope is obsessed with predictions and counting and time. Which is why it made educated guesses on the parts where Pope wasn't there. Strange.

This part was a little long, but it was fun to step out of our characters for a bit. Funnily enough I made a completely psychotic asshole that loves bullying people, an archetype I seem to veer towards while playing Girl Frame. But it's fun to inhabit someone that couches everything in the language of sin and virtue and still have that character try and do whatever she wants.

The cadre theorizes on what the next step is that the last remaining Mother of Eden pilot would take. Constantine with a nuclear submarine is a horrible thing to be able to show up in a future mission.

We proceed to roll off-duty. Project 1 has obvious void corruption on its frame, so it gets to watch its frame get flayed and tortured to no longer be under void observation. Void observation is really rough now. That is a rule that was recently changed. It used to be up to the Handler's discretion, but if a character has obvious void now, it will lose rank and get punished and lose valuable assets. The best move is to excise void parts immediately to no longer be under observation.

While that happened, Project 1 asked for a favor: Can it get memorabilia relating to Syllogism? Project 1 wants to bond with Syllogism by showing it more and more of Syllogism's past. And I was willing to use permissions to get those to play out more scenes between Syllogism and Project 1.

This scene had a small issue, because our Handler did not really understand what I was going for and I had to re-explain what I wanted. I it would be better if I had discussed the premise of the scene with the Handler beforehand or explained my intention before we went into the scene.

Then we had another scene where Jawbreaker, Max and Syllogism, along with Azalea, Syllogism's harpy girlfriend were bonding in the room together.

Syllogism accidentally called Max by the name of the former cadre member who died: Maul. And this stirred up a whole discussion about Maul and Max's origin again.

Here it became apparent that Max is older than Maul has been enlisted with the Foundation. This means that Max being a clone of Maul is a little fraught.

Project 1 passed by. Syllogism told it to get out. Max knew that Project 1 was a former Foundation Handler. It asks Project 1 about its origin. Keeping in mind that Project 1 has been ordered to be nice to Max on multiple occasions and that it really does not want to rock the boat. So! Project 1 made up a lie: Obviously Max and Maul are from the same genetic stock from a 2055 pilot that the Foundation often makes pilots from.

Syllogism threatens to reveal that Project 1 raped it when Project 1 was still Vivienne Tierny. Project 1 decides that if it truly is remorseful and wants to come clean with the cadre, it should confess. Project 1 confesses to raping Syllogism and nearly killing Jawbreaker. This also makes it that these events cannot be held over its head in the future. I rolled to keep Project 1's head and everyone else rolled to keep their head.

As an aside: The keep your head play is great, if you are unsure how you want to continue the scene.

Jawbreaker beats Project 1 to pieces. Project 1 begs for mercy and pathetically apologizes for everything and promises to do whatever Jawbreaker needs of it. Max and Syllogism tell Jawbreaker not to kill Project 1. Project 1, out of sheer terror, confesses that Max is probably a 1 year old clone with implanted memories, but it can't prove it. Everyone is in shock from all these revelations and Project 1 takes the chance to retreat to its wheelchair and escape before it gets more than its legs ripped off.

As the rest of the cadre sits in their sorrow, Azalea manages to break out of its straightjacket and inserts her fingers inside Max's head. Max gets to be reprogrammed into being confident and Max also is infused with Azalea's fond memories of Syllogism.

At the time this bothered me: that Syllogism's monster girlfriend mostly did "nice things" to the character it caught. In hindsight, I think the Azalea player, who is also the Handler, is playing a longer game now in hindsight.

I was annoyed here, because I felt that the Harpy being nice was tonally not the game we were playing. I waited until I calmed down a little and then talked with the Handler player about this. I said something like: "I trust you, but I was disappointed with how the last scene played out." We talked it over a little and I had some time to think about it and I think this scene actually had some subtle horror to it. Max's identity as a person was entirely overwritten by a monster and the monster's girlfriend is supporting it all the way.

The only pilot in the room that opposes this situation is Jawbreaker. Project 1 wasn't there and Max has been rewritten to sympathise with Azalea and Syllogism. I think Project 1 and Jawbreaker might have to discuss what the hell happened last session, after Project 1 escaped to lick its wounds.

[STATEMENT EXTRACTED FROM PILOT 'JAWBREAKER' DURING ROUTINE PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATION]

I'm not built to feel. Barely built to think. A weapon and damn proud of it. Maul understood that. Now that it's gone, I don't think anyone else ever will.

I was happy before this, if you could believe that. Nobody asked me to be anything other than Jawbreaker. I fought, I ate, I won. If I didn't win, the handler took care of the rest. Life made sense. Then I hit Quadrant 12 and everything just- broke. Everyone just… wanted more. Everyone except me and Maul.

Takes practice to read eyes. Fear, anger, those are easy, but there are subtler things to pick up on too. There's one that I'm real good at picking up on, and that's the not-enough look. Seen it from handlers plenty, but to get that look from a pilot makes you wish you were dead. Maul gave me the enough look. No matter how broken down I got, no matter how weak I was, it knew I was a good weapon even when I didn't

We loved each other, I think. Can't imagine it as anything else. I had its back and it had mine. We ate together. Fought together. We didn't have to pretend to be anything more than pilots. Hell, even Girl Crush liked it by the end and 'Crush hates everyone. It was the only thing that made sense in this place. Like gravity. It made me feel like I was doing something right. Even after everything the Colonel did to- did for me, standing next to Maul still felt like home.

When Crush spat me back out after my link failed, Maul was there. Had my back one last time. Made me feel like I was worth a damn one last time. I don't know what happened after that but by the time the pain stopped it was time to get set for a funeral.

The not-enough look is everywhere now. I see it in Wing lead and Handler all the time. They all want a Maul, but Maul was the only one of them who wanted Jawbreaker.

I want to eat with Maul again. I want to look it in the eyes and feel like enough again.

I want to go home.

[STATEMENT ENDS]

From Syllogism, the current ace pilot and, what historians will later describe, "A close friend" to Maul: "It would be too simple and predictable to just say that I miss Maul terribly. That is true, of course, but there's more to it.

Maul died to protect me, so I feel guilt for needing to be protected, and for not just staying silent. Maul said it loved me before it died, and made me realize that I loved it back. I wanted to so badly, but didn't have the time, to tell it so many things.

To share who I was with it. To give it the opportunity to tell me who I am. I wanted it to be the first one to say my old human name. If it did that, I thought that would be some way of restoring some of the humanity I had lost to me.

I thought it would be what it took to accept that I am the same person I used to be, not just a new mind in her dead body. But it left before I could say those things, so I had to whisper them to a fresh grave.

And then Vivienne of all people was the first to use that name with me, and now it feels wrong.

It's very lonely, not having the only person who seemed to understand me around. But I can't wish for another person out there to understand what Maul and I have been through. That's a very cruel and selfish thing to wish for."