I found myself hyper aware of the compulsions that had overcome me in my time within the Eternal Savers Club.

I stared at my cart with items literally stacked up over the rim, and while I didn’t feel like I was under the effects of mind control, and if my infection indicator was going off, I didn’t notice it at the time, all the same, I knew something was going on.

It was a feeling, a desire to have whatever I wanted pumped straight into my brain from somewhere dark and ancient. I didn’t want groceries or doodads, not especially. I did, however, feel extremely compelled to act on my desires. It was magic. It was spiritual. The things I wanted weren’t in arm’s reach, but lots of products were, so I instinctively grabbed them.

Either that or I was really vulnerable to marketing.

Whatever the case, I left. I pushed my cart toward the back of the store, where there were restrooms next to the pharmacy. Beyond that, there was a door, simple and white, labeled Employee Lounge, and I could see all of the Eternal Savers Club stockers and cashiers going in and out of that door as I watched while pretending to check out the reading glasses display.

I was On-Screen and Off-Screen, back and forth, the whole while, but eventually I struck paydirt when the Night Stocker I recognized finally emerged from the lounge, looking pale and lethargic.

He was sweating and didn’t notice me in the slightest, probably because I was wearing glasses. It also helped that Kimberly established that I wasn’t a recognizable figure.

As he walked toward the front of the store, another employee came out of the lounge and called out to him, calling him Fritz, which wasn’t even his name on the red wallpaper. He was just called Checkout Clerk.

It didn’t make sense, since I knew he was a Night Stocker. I should have seen him as an enemy, but apparently, he wasn’t considered one without his cloak.

All the other employee said was, “Just be back for the meeting tonight, Fritz,” and then he looked around to see if anyone was listening. He didn’t seem to notice me as I shuffled through the different reading glasses available.

Hopefully, it was the same meeting that Bobby had gotten invited to, because I had seemingly failed to get myself brought in.

After he left, I didn’t see much point in being there. I was Off-Screen more than I was On, so the next time I went Off-Screen, I just left my cart behind and marched toward the exit at a heightened pace, trying to make myself a bad candidate for screen time.

My Call Sheet trope was changing with every decision I made. It worked best when I wasn’t being so indecisive or when other things were going on.

That utterly failed because Carousel still picked up footage of me leaving my cart behind and making it to the exit. Still, since I was there for reconnaissance anyway, it was probably okay for my character.

As soon as I made it out of the store and I felt the temperature change, I was suddenly free of whatever strange magnetism existed inside the store. I went Off-Screen and walked toward my car.

I didn’t make it very far before I felt someone grab me from behind, gripping my throat in one hand and pressing something that felt a whole lot like the barrel of a gun into my lower back, causing me to lean backward out of pain.

They had a firm grip.

“What the hell are you doing here?” a woman said, trying to make her voice sound deep.

I was still Off-Screen, so I didn’t think it was one of the bad guys, but when something like that happens to you, what else are you supposed to think? How many options were there?

Was there like a glitch in the system where there was a chance of getting mugged within a storyline, just randomly?

“I was shopping,” I said. “Just checking the store out.”

I held up my hands in surrender without even having to be asked to, which I hoped would earn me brownie points.

I was pushed forward, giving me the ability to turn to see my attacker while still being close enough that there was no chance they would miss with their gun.

“Oh, it’s you,” I said. “I was wondering if you’d still be alive.”

Standing before me was someone I had not seen in around nine months. Someone I didn’t know very well to begin with.

Kelsey Van Note.

She was one of the Vets from Camp Dyer. Looked young enough to play a teenager, but was at least five years my senior.

According to the script, she should have been dead, but trope interactions could be a little tricky. Since she was a Final Girl and had the trope Last One Alive, she had survived her original death in the storyline. Maybe we had even prevented it altogether somehow.

She was taking all her anger out on me, apparently.

She dressed like Buffy the Vampire Slayer on one of her slaying missions: hair up, leather jacket, practical shoes, intense look on her face. She and Dina probably shopped at the same store.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“It should be fairly obvious, right?” I said. I wasn’t trying to sound like a smartass. I just figured if she worked it out on her own, I wouldn’t have to work as hard to gain her trust.

“If it’s obvious, it should be easy to explain,” she said.

We had planned for this possibility.

“Fair enough,” I said. With a gun to my head, I wasn’t going to try to worry about her feelings or letting her down easy. I just needed to talk fast. “Your storyline failed. Rescue tropes are back, and we’re here to revive you.”

She stared at me. I got the distinct impression that she had already figured most of that out. She just wanted me to be the first one to say it.

“Damn it, I knew it,” she said. “Everything was going wrong. What the hell happened out there?”

She wasn’t asking me exactly, but she had stopped pointing the gun at me, and I was certain now that she remembered me, even though we didn’t know each other that well.

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“Look,” I said. “We’ve kind of got a thing going here, trying to win this storyline. So how about we just catch each other up to speed and try not to be enemies, huh?”

She had other things on her mind, but she did put the gun away.

“What about Lorne or Molly?” she asked. “Those bastards got to my brother and Nicole already. They were onto us so fast, at first I thought they were just going to kidnap us, but when we fought back, they just killed them.”

I nodded.

“Yeah, the storyline changed,” I said. I wasn’t prepared to explain everything that had happened, or at least not the reasons they had happened. Project Rewind was a lot to take in, and I hoped to put that explanation off until after the storyline.

But I could tell her something.

“You guys were supposed to bond with the bad guys over your dead dad, or your character’s dead dad. That would have allowed you to stick around a little longer. But when you didn’t do that, you reached a fail state. That’s the best I can figure. Molly was killed last night. Lorne must have been killed Off-Screen sometime after that because the script we got doesn’t explain his death. Maybe he was written off, I don’t know.”

She paced back and forth, tightening the ties on her hair.

“That doesn’t make sense,” she said. “This story adapts to the players. If you stay away from this sentimental stuff, it ends up being easy. The first time we did it, it was the toys in the toy section coming to life. I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, I don’t have explanations,” I said. “Not right now. We need to focus on getting to the end of this storyline, or else we’re all dead again. And your brother and aunt stay dead forever.”

She thought for a moment, biting on her tongue as she did. She nodded rapidly, as if psyching herself up.

“Alright, take me to whoever is in charge of this run,” she said.

Somehow, I knew she was going to be upset when she found out the leader was basically me.

~

~

Kelsey Van Note is the Final Girl

Her aspect is Scream Queen

Scream Queen: The Scream Queen has been through this before and lived to tell the tale. Blending genre savvy with raw endurance, she recognizes the beats of horror as they unfold, knowing when to run, when to fight, and when to flip the script. A lightning rod for terror and spectacle, she draws the spotlight and survives by making it look good. In the Scream Queen’s world, fear is fuel, pain is power, and no one dies without giving her one last close-up.

Kelsey has a Plot Armor score of 35, Mettle of 11, Moxie of 4, Hustle of 4, Savvy of 6, and Grit of 10.

Free Background Trope: “Girl Detective” makes the user an amateur detective with some level of renown, though adults often underestimate her.

Current Trope Limit: 10

“Last One Alive” prevents death until the rest of the party is killed.

“Fight Dirty” buffs attacks that are considered unfair in sporting combat.

“Bad Reputation” NPCs will spread rumors about the user’s troubling past. As rumors circulate, actions the user takes consistent with their alleged past will have a higher likelihood of succeeding, including actions in combat.

“Tom Boy” buffs the user’s Mettle for showing traditionally masculine traits. Can learn “masculine” skills by playing into this characterization.

“Shoot First,” the user will not be penalized for attacking disguised enemies before they have been revealed as long as they have collected evidence of the truth On-Screen. All other enemies in the area will scatter rather than retaliate immediately.

“Hardboiled Detective’s Kit” Allows the player to bring items that a detective might use, such as a camera or gun.

“Take Them In Alive” Greatly improves chances of inflicting debilitating, but non-lethal injuries. Works best on humanoids.

“Dust in Sunlight” ensures there will be clues hidden in dust, such as fingerprints, which items were used, hidden objects, etc.

“The Rumors are True” NPCs who have heard stories about the user’s past run-ins will clamor to find out if the user’s fabled survival is true. Revealing the truth will gain dedicated allies.

“I’m All Alone” The user can draw nearby enemies to attack directly by calling out to them when they are apparently by themselves. Enemies have a chance of coming in unprepared or dropping their primary tactics.

–

“You came here alone?” Kelsey asked so angrily that I thought she was going to hit me.

I was driving back to Kimberly’s place. With Kelsey around, it would be hours before I went back On-Screen.

“We were the best ones for the job,” I said.

She rejected that completely.

“Arthur, Adeline, Chance, Christian, Richard, anybody would have been,” she started to say.

Then, she paused as she stared at me on the red wallpaper.

“42…” she said as she saw my plot armor. It must not have dawned on her yet. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Did they get to the other side of the mountain? Is that how rescue tropes came back?”

“No,” I said.

“Then what happened?” she asked.

“Let’s get you to Kimberly and Antoine. They’ll explain,” I said.

She looked at me. For the first time, I didn’t see anger in her eyes. I saw fear. A fear that much of her Xena, Princess Warrior persona was designed to cover up.

“There aren’t a lot of survivors,” I said. “Please just let me get us back safely and we will expla—”

I slammed on the brakes.

We were passing by the back side of a restaurant. It had a small dumpster out back. Right as we were getting to it, the whole dumpster lurched forward into the road, right in our path.

“What the heck!” I screamed.

We were Off-Screen. Nothing should have been happening.

I was too slow on the brakes. The front of my car bumped into the dumpster, knocking it further down the road—no real damage.

Where the dumpster had been stood a large man with a well-groomed beard cut to give him a sharper chin. He wore stylish glasses and a nice suit, but that didn’t make him look any less powerful after having launched that dumpster.

I recognized him immediately.

He was Lorne Thomas. The Bully-Bruiser we were here to rescue.

“Can none of you see that I am also a player?” I screamed as Lorne ran to Kelsey’s door and pulled her out through the open window.

Lorne looked at me, then at Kelsey, and then back at me.

“Oops,” he said. “That may have been a bit brash.”

Were any of these players actually dead?

~

~

Lorne Thomas is the Bruiser

His aspect is Bully

Bully: The Bully dominates scenes through pressure, whether physical, social, or psychological. With a shove, a cutting remark, or the kind of cutthroat charisma that keeps others in line, they bend the room around them. Some Bullies hit hard. Others hit where it hurts. Their strength lies in confrontation, in pushing people to their limits, and in stirring conflict that demands a response. In every story, someone makes things worse before they get better. That someone is usually the Bully.

Lorne has a Plot Armor score of 41, Mettle of 13, Moxie of 2, Hustle of 2, Savvy of 9, and Grit of 15.

Free Background Trope: —

Current Trope Limit: 10

“Larger Than Life” prevents the user from dying to anything but Cinematic Kills and gives them a higher chance of succeeding in a dying act, but Typecasts them as their aspect.

“The Nod” allows the user to send a short message to an ally in a Fight Scene. The ally must be one of the lower Savvy players or a similar NPC.

“We’re Done Here” allows the user to end a scene mid-dialogue. Successive use leads to failure. The user will have increased agency for when they go back On-Screen.

“Rally the Authorities” allows the user to bring in the help of whatever security or police force is present in the story, bypassing opposing tropes. However, the effectiveness of this aid might only amount to a distraction.

“Barking Orders” allows the user to take control of even fleeing or cowering NPCs during a Fight Scene. The user is Hard To Kill (Bruiser aspect keyword) when surrounded by less powerful combatants.

“Rolled Up Sleeves” rolling up long sleeves boosts the user’s Mettle.

“Long Day’s Work” allows the user to skip past manual labor by making themselves appear to have just put in a lot of work on a task Off-Screen, such as undoing their shirt buttons, rolling up sleeves, looking sweaty, etc.

“Human Missile” protects the user and buffs their Mettle for attacks that involve a full-body jettison toward the enemy, such as jumping off a high object.

“Cotton Armor” provides the user a boost to their Grit in the form of their shirt, which will be gradually torn away in battle. Until the shirt is destroyed the user cannot be lethally attacked.

“Tight in the Collar” allows the user to adjust the physical, social, and mental discomfort of those around them by literally tightening their tie or wearing tight clothing. Can raise Tension if used correctly. The user can bring social situations to a boiling point to their advantage.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep