Excerpts From A Small, Worn Composition Notebook
(02/27/18)
Hello.
If you are reading this, there's a very good chance that you're either me, or you just plucked this journal off of my corpse. Should you happen to be responsible for my death, then I sincerely hope that you choke to death on your own blood, dickweed. However, if you, dear reader, are not actually responsible for my death, then I sincerely apologize. I have to make sure that all my bases are covered in these opening pages, likely for reasons you are already aware of.
My name isn't important, and I'm not going to tell you what it was. I did not carry identification, and although you may yet identify me through dental records or other such forensic investigation, I have instructed my family and friends not to come forward in the event of my premature death, for their own safety.
All you need to know about me are these two facts:
- I am a vigilante that originally operated in Southern California.
- I left Southern California behind to hunt an extremely dangerous empowered criminal by the name of Jessica Johnson.
My first encounter with Jessica was in my hometown, which will go unnamed. At the time, I had been keeping tabs on numerous empowered criminals in the area, subtly observing them and only interfering when it proved necessary to save lives. My own Gift allowed me to predict the immediate future, which served me well for these purposes. Initially, I did not consider Jessica a notable threat compared to the other nuisances, since she initially only committed petty theft with a teleporting partner who she referred to as "Am". This changed when I witnessed a police officer attempting to arrest her, only for her to completely talk her way out of the arrest with a single sentence. Seeing the potential threat she could pose, I opted to tail her specifically, leaving the rest of the nuisances to my partners in the area.
While I have been able to track her via various methods (such as spying and cheap tracking devices), I have, unfortunately, been unable to catch her to this date.
(Note to self: cross this out if you manage to catch her. You should likely also get a new journal.)
While I have considered direct engagement in the past, I have decided that due to the nature of her Gift and my lack of knowledge on its limitations (if it has any at all), I will only engage her under the most dire circumstances. I have seen far too many "suicides" of police officers left behind in her wake to be willing to take that risk as of yet.
Confounding my efforts of observation are the fact that, in recent years, Jessica has begun to move around the country very aggressively. Outside of her initial crime sprees in my hometown, I have yet to see her stay at a single location for very long. Instead, she travels in an RV* across the country, robbing convenience stores on her path with her partner before laying low in medium-sized towns for weeks at a time. She has safehouses throughout the country that she uses for this purpose, most often squatting in abandoned or condemned buildings in economically disadvantaged areas.
(*Addendum 11/14/19: or more recently, in a caravan of vehicles, see below.)
I have left numerous anonymous tips to the police to investigate these locations as I have seen her pass through them, though this usually only results in Jessica "negotiating" her way out of the arrest, or if that fails, the deaths of the officers that were sent to investigate. While I have a heavy disdain for the institution of policing, I still do not wish for these officers to senselessly die. As a result, I have opted to continue to track and monitor Jessica, and intervene only when I am given a safe chance to do so, and not to involve others unnecessarily.
—
Update (04/16/19):
This situation has grown significantly more dire. Jessica seems to have begun to collect individuals with useful or powerful Gifts, likely through the use of her own Gift, and to this date has added 2 3 4 individuals to her gang that I am aware of. They have begun to travel together in a caravan of vehicles, including both a black sedan and an illegally obtained semi-tractor-trailer truck. Directly engaging any of her cohorts is likely to require intense preparations, and is liable to be extremely hazardous, even with extensive use of my own Gift.
Having directly or indirectly witnessed much of her prior activities and the growing scale of her actions, I fear what would happen if she is able to recruit even more individuals with notable Gifts. Previously, as a result of my panic and in a moment of particular weakness, I directed a local SWAT team to one of her hideouts to hopefully forcefully eliminate her as a threat.
Unfortunately, the aftermath of that particular incident has left me mentally and emotionally scarred. Every single officer that entered that warehouse on that day did not leave alive, and Jessica along with every single one of her cohorts escaped without being caught. Upon examination of the bodies, I found that roughly half of them were killed by single, precisely-aimed bullets (suggests a weapon-usage related Gift? or were they incapacitated prior to being killed?) while the others sustained heavy shrapnel wounds, with their limbs contorted into odd positions (explosive-related Gift? possible neurotoxin?).
I have since decided not to send any more law enforcement in the direction of Jessica and her cohorts, and also that any direct engagement must only be done as a last resort, under the most dire circumstances.
—
Update (09/19/21):
Jessica's recent activity has been anomalous. She is very suddenly getting much bolder with her actions. Up to this point she has kept primarily to her pattern of robbing dozens of convenience stores and then laying low, but the most recent robbery was a massive escalation in scale and scope. Her and her cohorts staged a massive casino heist, and according to the news, successfully made away with several million dollars in cash.
While I initially believed that they would simply take the money and hide, I have noticed that they seem to be using the money to amass large volumes of equipment. While I do not yet know the full details of what they have been amassing, I do know that the largest bulk purchases were for solar powered cameras. This has left me wondering – why? What could they possibly need these for?
I am going to continue to patiently observe until the time is right to intervene. This has, unfortunately, become more difficult as of late, even with the tracking devices that I have attached to her vehicles. The movements of her and her cohorts have become more and more erratic, and I am currently unable to predict their next moves.
—
Update (09/26/21):
They seem to have found my trackers.
Their last known location was in Bend, Oregon.
I do not know their present location. Tracking them back down will be difficult.
I fear the worst if Jessica is left to her own devices.
—
Update (10/21/21):
While I knew Jessica to be a depraved individual, this latest act of insanity has surpassed even my wildest fears. I just saw the news about the missing students from Duniway High School. There's no way that this isn't related to her.
I need to find them, and fast.
—
Update (10/21/21):
I arrived at the wreckage of the bus under the cover of darkness. Law enforcement does not seem to have found it, yet, though I imagine they will soon, and I do not plan to stick around for that. While I was initially going to investigate the wreckage directly to look for any clues as to the whereabouts of the missing students, I instead ran into a person sitting amongst the carnage.
This new person initially disappeared as soon as I came upon him, but after calling out to him and explaining that I was not a member of law enforcement, he eventually reemerged next to me. After some initial questioning, I learned the following from him:
- He claimed to be the bus driver for the missing students, who apparently witnessed both the attack and the immediate aftermath.
- When pressed as to how he survived the attack, he explained that his Gift allows him to "step out of reality and into a space beside it".
- While I do not know exactly what that means, the evidence and details that he provided me were complex enough that I took him at face value.
- While I will not condense my notes into something more coherent right now for the sake of urgency, the summary is that most of the students were kidnapped alive by individuals matching the description of Jessica and her cohorts, and that they traveled south from the wreckage, in the direction of Nevada.
I am not confident in my ability to do this alone.
Unknown Time, Friday, October 22nd, 2021: Undisclosed Location
OWL: "...Why have none of them killed each other yet?"
CROCODILE: "Hey, have some compassion. The first time ain't easy."
SHARK: "It wasn't hard for me."
CROCODILE: "And you're a fucking psychopath. Your point?"
SHARK: "Simple. They need an extra push."
BEAR: "Wasn't killing their teacher in front of them enough?"
WOLF: "Clearly not."
OWL: "Hum, alright. In that case, I think I've got an idea."
2:34 PM, Friday, October 22nd, 2021: Great Basin Desert
With a sudden, sharp screech followed by an electronic crackle, speakers flare to life all around the arena.
"Hello everyone," spoke the voice of the owl-masked woman. "It has come to our attention that none of you have killed each other yet, despite there being a few fights here and there."
There was a pause, and the sound of the woman clearing her throat.
"I just wanted to remind you all that you have five days to be the last person standing. If more than one of you is alive by the end of the fifth day, then we will just pop all of you like balloons and call it a wrap."
Another pause, and sounds of shuffling.
"However, I want to provide you all a little bit more of an immediate incentive. We all know how hard it is to quantify far-off problems, right? So let's make this more immediate. If at least one of you hasn't killed someone else by the end of today, then we're going to start popping one of you at random every hour on the dot until someone finally nuts up and gets their hands dirty."
There was a moment of silence, the previous statement given the chance to hang in the air.
"Now, I hope the seriousness of this situation is understood. Try not to dawdle. And remember, have fun, this'll be the last chance that most of you will get."
Then, another crackle, and the speakers fell to silence.
Dread it... run from it... rolls still arrive all the same. And now they're here.
Before we get down to business, a reminder of etiquette surrounding the rolls and posting in the thread:
Additionally, a reminder about the AU's death deadlines, per the Supers rules:The handler of a rolled character may post one and only one time per thread in which they are rolled to request that their character be saved. They may post more than that to request death ideas, but staff would prefer that threads not be cluttered with repeated requests for saves, and in general it's fairly clear that a handler who has requested their character be saved still wants that unless they say otherwise. The only exception to this is if a handler is noting that they have selected a death idea and want no more PMs; in that case, they may toss in a quick "Would still love a save, though," as stating that the death is settled might imply otherwise.
Handlers may not start threads in other parts of the board requesting Heroes. They are not allowed to PM other handlers asking for Heroes. If you receive unsolicited PMs requesting Heroes, please report them to the staff. Handlers should not agitate for Heroes in the Discord channel.
Handlers who are not rolled should not post to the rolls thread to commiserate, to gloat, or to discuss the rolls. If something merits discussion, a thread may be started in RP Discussion for that (though these may not be started to request Heroes). Handlers who are not rolled are allowed to post in the rolls thread only if they have business related to the announcement, such as if they are playing a Hero Card.
If you have not been rolled, please do not post in the rolls thread except to use cards. Keep discussion in chat and other parts of the board respectful (no gloating about not getting rolled, etc.).
- Activity and its enforcement is the same as under Mini's normal activity rules. The sole change/exception is how going over death deadlines are handled.
- After each announcement, handlers will be given 28 days to write their character's deaths once the card period of 72 hours ends.
- There will be no extensions granted for these death deadlines, and the handler of any character that goes over will receive an activity warning (if they have not received one already) and be given one additional week to finish the death.
- Should a character still be alive by the end of the week after their handler receives a warning, or their handler previously received an inactivity warning prior to going over deadline, they will be considered terminally inactive and be inactive killed.
With that out of the way, here are the kids for whom destiny will soon arrive:
- Sayuna Lewis (Cicadan)
- Rajender "Raja" Narang (backslash)
- Yvette Monday (MurderWeasel)
- Tamara "Toma" Jeung (Kotorikun) Sydney Stone (EMPeace, Hero Card Used)
- Orion Williams (Aster)
- Cecilia Moreno (Gundham) Moose Humphreys (RC, Hero Card Used)
- Jenelle Greene (Lilith)
- Cyrus Vähi (WorldFat)
!
be around a bit longer than that, so I wouldn't say no to a hero. Otherwise, everyone is welcome to send death proposals in the meanwhile.
