sketchquis

Phew! This is a long one! A lot of setting up to get through. Please enjoy at your leisure.

DISCOVERY SOLIS (they/he/any): The Flake.

On Monday we meet Disco, a grandparent in their 60s with dark skin and long, braided grey hair, usually under a yellow sunhat or a headscarf while they work in the garden. Today they're taking care of their gaggle of grandkids and two dogs, Bao and Pierogi, when the phone rings. His wife Hartley is on the other end and says that he has a letter from the House of Accords:

Congratulations on your successful application to the Venture Office. You have been selected from a pool of literally dozens of similarly unknowing individuals to be a part of the new Venture Office Away Team. Bang! Please report to Rashomon Noa at the VO on Saturday next at wanetide for your mandatory induction. In the event that this telegram reaches you after Saturday next, please report to the VO last Saturday. Yours by mandate, Rashomon Noa, Venture Office Administrator

Disco is somewhat suprised as they never applied for this new position. But later in the week, at the Yesterwhile Museum where they work as an archivist, their colleague Gravity Song admits that she signed him up, since it's such an important job, but one she can't do herself as she's "frail as fuck." Disco, although upset that Gravity didn't ask, agrees to go along so long as Gravity takes on more responsibilities around the museum, particularly the training of Aldrin Rasputin, the new apprentice.

FLEETWOOD NOX (they/them): The Jury-Rigger

On Tuesday we meet Fleetwood Nox at their work at the rocketyard. They have long neon-green hair that's shaved on one side, and wear a white vest top, blue cargo pants, fingerless gloves - and headphones. All the time. After an uneventful day (except for the apprentice, Rover, sticking a rivet through his hand), they head home to find the postwoman, Clancey Feng, sitting on their step with 63 "i-fucking-dentical" messages, which all came in yesterday. When they open them, they find each one the same: a successful application to the Venture Office. Except they didn't apply either. They fling the letters down on their workbench.

Later we learn that it was Fin Lepeck who applied on their behalf, among other colleagues, since Fleetwood has a reputation for the things around them exploding. It's never their fault, apparently, but it does make them a little bit of a liability when you're working in a rocketyard.

KUROSAWA CLAXON (they/them): The Professional

On Wednesday, Kurosawa Claxon walks home from their work as a location scout for the Syn Dramatic Society. They have long black hair in twin ponytails, and wear all black t-shirts, cargo pants and gun and knife holsters (it's a dangerous business) - but their bomber jacket and heart shaped sunglasses are pink. Their dads are playing ping-pong with the neighbours and their little sibling Cuaron is playing Pong in their room. Kurosawa convinces them to come out for lemonade and they point out the letter for Kurosawa: an invitation to the VO away team on Saturday night. Funny, because Kurosawa's been applying for a lot of stuff, all in the Dramatic Society, but not this. They assume it's another bid from their dads to get their life together, and decide to go along since maybe they'll spot some good spots for shooting on the way.

The next day, they meet their boss, the location manager Bruce Man, outside the foley studio where they're recording for a cyborg vampire romance. Bruce gives them a script for Snake Apocalypse 2 [a bare-faced reference to our old D&D campaign], tells them they can't read it but need to find 40 locations by next Tuesday. Kurosawa tries to play off the concern by saying they could use the weekend gig with the VO to find locations. Bruce reveals that he signed them up, because the VO have a spaceship - one that they can use for the benefit of the Dramatic Society.

BLUES-JAZZ DANGO (he/they): The Spooky

On Thursday evening, Blues-Jazz sits in their house in the middle of nowhere, making his daily broadcast which, today, is about gardening. They have hunched shoulders, shadowed eyes, bitten nails, long and tangled hair, and they wear cloaks and loose, patched clothes. After he finishes recording, he hears a yelp outside and gets a terrible premonition: something awful is going to happen. They hide under the bed.

There's a knock at the door and eventually Blues-Jazz opens the half a dozen locks to Clancey, the postwoman, who checks their identity before handing them a telegram just like the others. Clancey asks what he's doing all the way out here and tells them their family was asking after them. Blues-Jazz shuts the door.

Later, while he walks around the house and garden watering plants, he hears a voice. Jeeves, a man with a bushy mustache, appears sitting in the windowsill, at a kitchen chair, lying on the ceiling, and asks if he's going. Blues-Jazz says no, it's dangerous, they got a premonition and they don't know who signed them up for this, and throws the letter into the fire.

SISTER MARY BLESS BOWIE (she/her): The Expert

On Saturday morning, Sister Mary wakes up to the call to prayer of the Avant-Catholic church. She claims to be 42 but looks extremely elderly, and dresses in a full velvet black habit and a sequinned eyepatch. She's well renowned in the community for her actions during the UFO incident 30 years ago. She and her unwitting host, Ghibli Keller, eat breakfast before heading up to the satellite church.

The service is held in part of an old spaceship which orbits the planet of Syn, with fortified-stained-glass windows and a wall of amps for the band and choir. After the ceremony the Other Superior (Janet) approaches to exchange passive-aggressive insults and give Sister Mary a lettter, like the ones the others received, and one Sister Mary herself has gotten more than once over the years. Janet has signed her up to let her see more of the world and do more good in the community.

On Saturday at wanetide, Disco, Fleetwood, Kurosawa and SMBB meet at the Venture Office - all of them are late. When Disco raises his hand to knock, several miles away, Blues-Jazz gets a horrible feeling, another premonition of something awful [aka Bats got a snake-eyes on the first roll of the campaign].

Rashomon Noa, a tall lanky guy with a ginger combover, invites the four of them into a room full of precarious metal cabinets creakingly full of paperwork. This is where people file forms when they explore on the weekend, so that they can be rescued if necessary. This search-and-rescue is our new side gig, since we're the "most competent, most available people on the planet!" according to our colleagues. Rashomon says we have access to the Moondog, a small spaceship, strictly for emergencies only but open to modifications, with a look at Fleetwood. Kurosawa implores them not to blow up the ship, to which Fleetwood says "People don't really die on these things, none of us are going to die."

[I, X, want it on record that they said that in session 0 when it all inevitably goes south.]

Rashomon also mentions that a letter was sent to Blues-Jazz Dango, who none of the rest of the party know - unusal in a town of this size. They head out to track them down and get them onboard too, the more the merrier.

Speaking of Blues-Jazz, he's panicking about this intuitive bad feeling and calls home. Their mum picks up and reveals that she sent the application: "It needed someone who's willing to be a good person, who's thoughtful and considerate." They reply, "I don't want to hurt anyone again... this might lead to more of that." His mum says, "Bluejay, you never meant to hurt anyone." [half of the players are crying at this point.] Blues-Jazz hangs up, but not before agreeing when his mum asks if she can call again.

Meanwhile, the rest of the new VO Away Team take the tram out and trek through the forest to find Blues-Jazz's house/radio station, out in the boondocks where Fleetwood often scavenges and experiments.

When the team calls out, Beejee panics, looking for an escape route. Jeeves says he'd help, but he's "about as useful as a figment of your imagination." Beejee insists they aren't interested, but eventually the team talks them around, with the idea that they can at least make some fun mistakes in this line of work.

As Beejee steps out of the house, a young person with a red mohawk mullet, goth clothes, huge clompy-stompies and a bajillion piercings jumps from the roof: Oddity Ng, the presenter of Black Body Radio, the pirate radio station, asks for an interview: "how do you feel about starting a job which has a survival rate of one person, ever?"