November 27, 2017 :: Today's Words: 775 :: Total Words: 30,257

A new character arrives, wearing a papaya whip piece of clothing, and carrying some more random entries for the 'items' table, that we'll have to sort through later.

It was time for the fall school fundraiser, and Timothy, Lila, and Sophie were all excited to be running the rummage sale table. Miss Carter was helping them, but they were still the ones in charge of the signs and taking money and putting things in bags for people.

They were slowly getting their three tables organized when a man in a pale pink shirt came into the gym.

Lila took one look and whispered to the others, “That colour is called ‘papaya whip,’ my mom has nail polish that colour.” Timothy rolled his eyes.

The man had three huge bags and one box of stuff with him, which he set down on one of their tables.

“Can we help you?” asked Sophie politely.

“Yeah, I brought this stuff for the rummage sale. Is that you?”

The children nodded. Just then, Miss Carter walked into the gym with her clipboard. She saw the man and came right over to him.

“Oh, Stan, it’s good to see you!” she said.

“Well, it’s always good to see you, Shirley,” he replied.

Miss Carter blushed and the children exchanged glances. Timothy reached up and took hold of the box. “Thank you for bringing us all of these things,” he said. “We’ll sort it out and get it ready for the sale.”

The girls rushed to help him lift the box to the floor; it was heavy. Stan didn’t even notice: he was too busy looking at Miss Carter.

Introduce a character who worships Davlin.

Sesuna led Florian through the tunnels under the city. Numenor had left them after the encounter with Ohnmar.

They entered a large room, likely another basement, and Florian expected Sesuna to continue as she had for the last few basements, but she turned and opened a door that had some stairs on the other side.

“Up?” he asked, confused.

“Up,” she responded, nodding firmly.

Florian went through the door and Sesuna followed. She closed the door behind them and made sure it was locked, then led him up the stairs and outside into the street.

“I thought we were going to travel below-ground the whole time,” he said.

Sesuna shook her head. “That makes no sense. Why would we do that?”

Florian shrugged. “I don’t know, but since you aren’t telling me anything and I don’t know where we’re going, it was a reasonable assumption to make.”

Sesuna nodded. “I understand.” She walked in silence for a few moments, then said, “We are going to find the women.”

“I gathered that,” he said. “I just don’t know where they are or anything. I don’t even really understand why you’re helping me.”

She stopped and turned to face him. “My god, Thanatos, sent me to you. I know that you do not believe in him, but that is the truth. I am helping you because he wills it.”

Florian shrugged. “Okay.”

Sesuna sighed and began walking again. “There is someone I want you to meet.”

“If they’re anything like the last two people I met, I’ll pass.”

Sesuna grinned. “Numenor does take some getting used to, I know. And Ohnmar is unsettling. But I think you will like Yadana. She is friendlier.”

Florian looked around the city. He had no idea where they were. “Okay, sure, let’s meet her.”

Sesuna nodded and took a sharp right turn. Florian followed her down an alley and up a fire escape. She knocked three times on a window and let herself in. They stood in the kitchen of a small apartment.

Yadana was a little shorter than Florian. Her black hair was cropped short in a pixie cut, and her fine cheekbones were set off by her large brown eyes. “Hello Sesuna,” she said in a throaty alto. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Sesuna smiled and nodded a greeting. She took Florian by the shoulder and pulled him forward. “I have brought my charge to meet you,” she said.

Yadana looked Florian over from head to toe. “I am not impressed.”

“He’s not much to look at, I know. He has survived Numenor and Ohnmar. I thought you would be the next logical choice.”

Yadana raised an eyebrow and looked at Florian again. “I may have underestimated you,” she said. “Come with me.” She turned and walked away.

Florian glanced at Sesuna, who nodded. He followed Yadana into what must be the living room. She sat down in a chair and gestured for him to do the same.

November 26, 2017 :: Today's Words: 755 :: Total Words: 29,482

“I know that,” replied Florian. “I’m just frustrated.”

The old man didn’t say anything more, he just sat in his chair and looked at Florian.

Florian looked around the room again. Nothing had changed. He looked up at the window, which was below ground level and only revealed a window well and people’s feet walking past. It seemed to be daytime outside.

Florian looked back at the old man. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Ohnmar.”

Someone knocked at the door. “Enter,” called Ohnmar.

Sesuna opened the door. “Has there been progress?” she asked.

“He is closed to me,” said Ohnmar. “The geong si will struggle to use him.”

Florian frowned at Ohnmar. “Geong si? What’s that?”

Sesuna shook her head at him and gestured toward the door. “Do not worry about that. Come with me.”

Reluctantly, Florian rose and exited the room. Sesuna followed.

“What was that about?” he asked her once the door was closed again.

She looked around, then took hold of his arm and dragged him down another tunnel. “Ohnmar communes with the geong si.”

“But what is it?”

“You would call them zombies. The undead. Thanatos rules over them.”

Florian rolled his eyes. “Zombies aren’t real.”

Sesuna was deadly serious in her response. “Indeed, they are. And you will be sorry if you meet them. Stay close. I can help you if we run into the geong si, but only if you are with me.”

Did your character just see Porygon? Or was it something else?

Timothy, Lila, and Sophie were having an intense discussion in the park about their missing things when they saw the Porygon. It looked like a blue and red duck made out of huge sheets of origami paper. It didn’t walk, but rather slid along on legs that looked rather like tank tires.

“How do we find out why we’re seeing these?” asked Sophie.

Timothy shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Maybe we can find an adult who can see them,” said Lila.

Sophie rolled her eyes. “This seems like something most adults aren’t going to even care about, or believe. Anyway, we need to find our stuff more than we need to know why we’re seeing Pokémon.”

“Yeah, I guess,” said Timothy. “So let’s go over the list again. What are you guys missing?”

Sophie sighed. “Adam Levine.”

Lila nodded. “My teddies.”

Timothy frowned. “Anything else?”

The girls shook their heads. “Not yet. What about you?” Lila asked.

“I haven’t lost anything else since the pirates.”

“But you got those back.”

Timothy nodded. “They were in my closet.”

“How did they get there?” asked Sophie.

“I don’t know,” said Timothy. “They were just… there.”

The kids all looked at each other.

“Maybe we need to look in a weird place,” said Lila.

“Right. But, like, where?” asked Sophie.

They all put their chins in their hands and started trying to think of something.

Your character just received a delivery from Albaldah. When they open it, they find enough rum so she does not care about the time any more. Why was it sent to them?

Timothy found another package on the doorstep when he went home after the meeting in the park. This one was addressed to his mother. He dragged it into the living room and called her.

She took one look at the package and called Jill, who again arrived with a team to assess the package. It said it had come from Albaldah, which was another star. Nobody knew why it had that address on it. It was shortly assessed as safe, and so she opened it.

It was a large wooden crate, and when the lid was pried off they all pulled out packing material and bottles.

There were a lot of bottles.

All told, close to fifty of them.

Of rum.

Your character enters Ain al Rami. There see jello.. How do they react?

Alaina travelled to Ain al Rami that night. The trip was similar to all of her other star travels to date: she found herself in a large room and got up to explore. This time the room was lime green and slightly translucent. When she stood up, she could see that the walls were also slightly jiggly, kind of like Jell-O. The entire room shook with each step, and she soon realized that it was actually made of Jell-O.

The sensation was very disorienting, and she returned to her bed in short order. A Jell-O room was definitely not on the list of things she wanted to deal with.

November 25, 2017 :: Today's Words: 3,158 :: Total Words: 28,727

Your character has a sudden craving for peppermint chocolate ice-cream.

The women were sitting in a pub, eating dinner and checking out the locals, when Robin looked at Paula and sighed.

“Again?”

She nodded. “Again.”

Paula stood up. “I’ll go to the bar. What do you need?”

“Peppermint chocolate ice cream.”

Paula nodded and headed off to place the order.

“You’re eating a lot of ice cream,” said Alaina.

“I know.” Robin looked down at her stomach. “Too bad I don’t know why. I hope it doesn’t go to my waistline.”

“It won’t. You’re getting plenty of exercise, and I’ve noticed you aren’t eating much of anything else.”

Robin poked at the food on her plate with her fork. “You noticed.”

“Sure I noticed. What’s going on?”

“I just…” Robin set down her fork and looked at Alaina. “I really liked my job, you know? I didn’t want to go back to this.”

Alaina sat back in her seat. “I know what you mean. I was perfectly happy in my cabin in the woods.”

Paula returned. “I ordered some for each of us,” she said, “and added it to our tab. What are you talking about?”

“Our lives before we got called back into service,” said Alaina.

“Oh, that.” Paula shrugged. “I like being a housewife and all, but it’s not very exciting, you know?”

“You were a housewife?” asked Robin.

“Yup. Married well. Independently wealthy. Have house staff back home. Two kids, two cars.” Paula shrugged.

“Don’t you miss them?”

She nodded. “Of course. My family. My cats, my dogs, all of that. But my country needed me, so here I am.”

“And here I am,” replied Alaina.

“Here we all are,” said Robin.

They sat in silence until the server brought their ice cream.

Your character enters Syria. There see Numenor. How do they react?

Florian followed Sesuna out of their hotel in Naypyidaw and down the street. Every time he tried to catch up with her, she somehow put more distance between them without ever changing her pace.

The flight from Eritrea to Burma had been uneventful, though Florian had been relegated to Coach while Sesuna had been seated in First Class.

“Where are we going?” he asked, trying to keep up.

“To find the women,” she replied curtly.

Florian sighed and focused on maintaining his pace.

After a few blocks, Sesuna turned the corner. Halfway down that street, there was a small nightclub with a lit up sign that said “Syria.”

“Syria?” Florian asked. “Why is there a nightclub called Syria?”

Sesuna shrugged. “It is our destination. Come.”

Florian tagged along as she went inside.

She nodded at the bouncer when he stepped forward to block Florian’s entry. “He’s with me,” she said, and the bouncer stepped aside.

They found a table and sat down, and Florian looked around the club inquiringly. It did look like pretty much every other club he’d ever been to, with tables around the outer ring and a large dance floor in the centre. The lighting was dim but not so dark that you couldn’t see very well, and the music was loud enough to dance to but quiet enough to talk normally and still be heard.

A tall man approached the table. “Sesuna,” he said in a deep voice. “Thanatos told me to expect you.”

Sesuna extended her open hand toward an empty seat. “Numenor. We seek the women.”

He sat down and nodded. “I am aware.” He glanced at Florian. “Must he be here for this?”

“Thanatos has ordained his participation.”

Numenor inclined his head. “I understand.”

Florian was entranced by Numenor. He had shaved his head and wore his facial hair in a long, thin moustache that hung past his shoulders and a short, thick beard that covered only the point of his chin and was trimmed and styled into a point. Florian reached up and touched his own chin, which was beginning to show stubble. Maybe he should grow some facial hair or something.

Sesuna drew a long box out of her jacket. Florian squinted at her, trying to figure out where she had been keeping it. The jacket fit too tight; he was certain he would have seen sign of it earlier.

She set the box down on the table and slowly lifted the lid. “I require your expertise to use this,” she said.

Numenor reached out a hand and paused. He looked up at Sesuna. “May I?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said.

The item in the box was about 12 inches long. It was an opaque piece of glass or plastic that was a deep royal blue mottled with violet. Or perhaps it was violet mottled with royal blue. It was difficult to know for certain. One end of the item was wide and egg-shaped, with designs that looked a lot like the script he’d seen in Eritrea on the street signs carved into it. The end of the egg was pointed, and it swirled so that it appeared to imitate fire. The length of the item was shaped like a long triangular prism, and at the egg-end of the prism were more symbols. The rest of the prism was smooth and level, and it sparkled from inside. The tip of the item looked like a butterfly about to take off.

Florian reached out a hand to touch it. “What is that?” he breathed.

Sesuna slapped his hand away. “It is the sacred sceptre of Thanatos. You are not to touch it. Only true believers may touch it and live, and only those with knowledge and experience may put it to use.”

“What does it do?” asked Florian, settling his hands in his lap.

“Sit and watch, and you will see.”

Numenor settled the sceptre in his hands so that the butterfly was in his left hand and the egg/fire was in his right. He held his hands up so that the sceptre was level with his nose, closed his eyes, and rested his forehead on one plane of the prism.

“Thanatos, god of death,” he intoned, “pray hear your servants Sesuna and Numenor. We are seeking those whom you have sent us after. Show us where to go.”

Numenor lifted his forehead and opened his eyes. He looked directly at Florian. His eyes were flaming purple and blue, just like the sceptre. The pupils were gold.

“Florian,” he said in a voice that echoed through Florian’s skull, “you are worthy of Sesuna’s confidence in you?”

Florian nodded. “I—I think so. I mean—that is, I will do my best.”

“Someone is looking for you, Florian,” the voice said.

“There is someone after me, yes.” Florian thought of Chuck Norris and touched his eye, which was still slightly swollen.

“You will need to face your fears in order to deal with that situation.”

Florian nodded. “I understand.” He didn’t really understand, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

Numenor turned to Sesuna. “You have done well, Sesuna,” he said. “Continue your search. Those whom you seek are nearby. If you climb the mountain, you will find the snow.”

Sesuna inclined her head slightly and nodded. “I understand, master.”

Numenor lifted the egg/fire end of the sceptre and slid his left hand up to grasp the prism just above the butterfly. He turned his left hand so that the prism was resting on his index finger and hand, with his thumb curled up around the prism, and moved his right hand so that it was bracing the prism just below the egg/fire. He put the butterfly up to his left eye and pointed the other end of the sceptre at the nearest wall. He blew air out softly between his lips, whistling quietly.

A beam of golden light shot across the aisle and hit the wall. A puddle of gold formed on the wall and expanded slowly across the entire plane.

When the entire wall was covered in gold, Numenor clamped his mouth shut and lowered the sceptre. He held it with the butterfly in his right hand and the egg/fire in his left. He lowered his forehead to touch one plane of the prism and closed his eyes. He began to hum, a tuneless hum in that same voice that echoed through Florian’s head. After a few seconds the voice changed and became a normal human voice.

Numenor raised his head and looked at Sesuna. “Powerful,” he said, smiling. He laid the sceptre gently back into its box.

Sesuna replaced the lid and picked up the box. “Stay here and rest,” she said quietly. She stood up and took hold of Florian’s shirt. “Come with me.”

Florian stood up and went with Sesuna, smiling apologetically at Numenor, who looked kind of dazed. “Are you sure he’s all right?” he asked.

Sesuna nodded once. “He is well. Channeling the god always leaves one tired.”

Florian looked at the wall. “So what’s with this, anyway?” he asked. The gold that had covered the wall was fading, but some of it was staying put. It looked like the same kind of script that was on the sceptre.

“It is a message from Thanatos,” said Sesuna. “I will decipher it. You tell me what he meant by someone being after you.” She pulled out a notebook and began copying down symbols.

Florian shrugged. “It’s nothing,” he said, “just, I got on Chuck Norris’s bad side a few years back, and now he’s always wherever I am.”

Sesuna paused in her work with the wall and made eye contact with him. “Chuck Norris is after you?”

Florian nodded.

Sesuna went back to work. “Good luck with that. Why is he after you?”

Florian kicked at the floor. “We were in line for a movie and I butted in front of him.”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

“Yeah, but then I hit on his wife in the concession lineup.”

Sesuna paused and raised an eyebrow.

“In my defense, I didn’t know she was with him.” Florian sighed. “And then during the movie, I wound up sitting right in front of him, and I kept standing up.”

“You kept standing up.” Sesuna moved along the wall and began working on the next section.

“Yeah, my leg was bugging me. And someone had put something on my seat, so it wasn’t comfortable.”

“You could have moved to a different seat.”

“There weren’t any available.”

“That doesn’t explain why he’s after you. Does he hold a grudge this long?”

“No, but then the next day I got hired to rob a bank, and Chuck Norris was there when I arrived.”

“You robbed a bank?”

“Well, not with Chuck Norris there, I didn’t.”

Sesuna moved down to the next section of the wall. “Tell me more. This is not all there is to it.”

Florian sighed. “Okay, look, the real reason he’s after me is that his family was at risk during a mission I did for someone two years ago. He found out that I was involved, and I guess I’m the last person from that team who’s still alive and kicking.”

“And the other things you said?”

“None of them is true.”

Sesuna nodded. She finished copying down the symbols and closed her notebook. “We will return to the table now and discuss with Numenor. He may know something that will help with Chuck Norris.”

Your character has a sudden craving for mashed porkchops ice-cream.

On their way out of the pub, Robin suddenly stopped and turned back toward the bar. “You go ahead,” she said to Paula and Alaina. “I’ll catch up.”

“What is it this time?” asked Paula.

“You don’t want to know,” said Robin. “I’ll just go get directions to a grocery store and save you the disgust factor.”

Paula shrugged and Robin went over to the bar. The bartender came over. “I thought you ladies were leaving,” he said.

“Oh, we are. I was just wondering if you could tell me where the nearest grocery store is? I need to pick up some things.”

The man nodded and gave her directions, then moved on to the next customer. Robin returned to the others. “Okay, let’s go get what I need,” she said.

“Not until you tell us what you need,” said Paula.

Robin sighed and looked around, then leaned in. “Ice cream and pork chops.”

“What’s weird about that?”

“I’m going to cook the meat, then put it through a blender and mix it with the ice cream.

Paula frowned. “That sounds horrible.”

“Yeah, well, it’s what I need, so let’s go.”

Paula and Alaina followed Robin as she headed towards the grocery store.

Your character dreams about a pile of kittens and a bowl of Oreos.

That night, Alaina dreamed that she was, again, in her cabin. She was lying in bed. It was dark, but there was moonlight coming in through the window. She could hear an odd sound coming from under her bed, so she got up and looked underneath.

It was too dark to really see what was there, so she padded across the cabin to get a flashlight. On the way, she nearly tripped over a large blue bowl. She picked it up and realized that it was full of Oreos. She set the bowl on the table and took one of the cookies back to the bed with her.

She knelt down beside the bed and shone the flashlight underneath.

The sound was a lot of scrabbling and scratching, and some odd mewling sounds that she recognized but couldn’t quite place.

She located the source of the sounds: a cardboard box. She pulled out the box and looked inside.

It was full of tiny kittens, who were crawling over each other and trying to climb out of the box. The sides were too high, so they weren’t making any progress.

She reached into the box and lifted out one of the kittens. She held it up and touched its nose to hers. Suddenly the kitten bit her nose and dug its claws into her palm. She dropped it back into the box.

And then she woke up.

Your character finds the only remaining example of a polyester pantsuit on the entire planet. What do they do with it?

Mark Masterson woke up early and went to his closet, which he lovingly called “Clothing Planet.” He had a desire to wear something truly audacious to the office, but he couldn’t decide just what it should be.

Finally, he found it.

A bright pink polyester pantsuit, the last item of polyester in his closet, paired with a fluorescent purple frilly shirt, a pair of brown and white saddle shoes, and a neon green velvet trilby with an orange feather tucked into its turquoise band.

The perfect outfit for the office.

He couldn’t wait to see Fred’s face when he turned up at the lab.

A new character arrives, wearing a synthetic ultramarine piece of clothing, and carrying softdrink.

Travis and Apollo mostly stayed at the hotel in Burma. They weren’t really field agents, after all, and Travis reasoned that this way they were close enough to the airport to be able to ready the plane in a flash if the ladies needed to hightail it out of the country suddenly.

While Apollo spent a lot of time noodling around on the internet, Travis hung out a lot at the pool. On the second afternoon, a man entered the pool area wearing an ultramarine bathing costume that was the full-body style popular in the early 1900s and carrying a soft-sided cooler. He came over to where Travis was sitting, watching the swimmers, and sat down in an empty chair. He opened the cooler and pulled out a can.

Travis looked over at the hiss of the can being opened. “You know you aren’t supposed to have that here,” he said.

The man shrugged. “They won’t care.” He leaned down and pulled out another can. “Want one?” he asked, holding it out.

Travis shrugged and took it. “Sure, why not?”

He opened the can and took a sip. It was pretty decent pop. Orange Fanta, if he wasn’t mistaken.

Travis leaned back in his chair and set the can on the little table next to him. He closed his eyes. He suddenly felt sleepy.

Nobody noticed the two men walking out of the pool area together, though the cleaning staff were rather put out when they found the can of orange Fanta spilled all over the deck later that night.

Introduce a character who worships Geong Si.

Numenor brought Florian to the basement of the club while Sesuna went and checked them out of the hotel.

There were tunnels that led out of the basement, and Numenor showed Florian the way through the underground maze. “This space is sacred,” he told Florian. “It is not to be defaced in any way. It was built to allow us to move about unseen, in safety.”

Florian nodded and followed the larger man in silence. He didn’t dare speak in the dank depths of the city.

Eventually they emerged into the basement area of another building. The room was quite large and had a red carpet.

Numenor pointed at a red door. “You must enter there.”

Florian looked at the door and looked up at Numenor. “By myself?”

Numenor raised one eyebrow and pointed again at the door. Florian sighed and walked over to the door. He opened it slowly, half-expecting Chuck Norris to be waiting for him.

Instead, he found an elderly Asian man sitting in a large, overstuffed, navy blue chair.

The man looked up at Florian and nodded. “I knew you would come,” he said.

Florian stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “I’ve been getting that a lot lately,” he said.

“Come, sit,” the old man said, gesturing to a similar chair directly across from him. “We will talk.”

Florian took his seat and looked around the room. It was bare except for a single book case on one wall, the two chairs they were sitting in, and a bedroll below the window. “What will we talk about?”

The man shrugged. “What do you wish to talk about?”

“I don’t know. Thanatos said something about my fears? Sesuna seemed to think I needed to deal with Chuck Norris. Numenor doesn’t seem to care.”

“And what about you?”

Florian sighed. “Me? I don’t know, I mean, I’m not exactly valued for my brains, you know? I’m muscle. People hire me to get other people out of their way.”

The man nodded but didn’t say anything.

“I guess… I’m mostly just confused about what’s going on here. I mean, what are we doing in Burma? I know we’re looking for the CSIS operatives, and I’m all for that, but I don’t even know why any of this is happening.”

“Things sometimes happen that we cannot understand,” said the old man. 

November 23, 2017 :: Today's Words: 1,479 :: Total Words: 25,569

She looked around but there was nothing new in the cabin. She stood up and found that the closer she got to the window, the stronger the lemon scent was. Finally she figured out that it was the sunbeams shining in through the window.

Somehow the smell got her motivated to clean out the trunk at the foot of her bed. She dug through all of the items in it, settling them into piles of things to keep and things to get rid of. Then she re-packed the trunk carefully, making sure that everything was set so that nothing would break.

She picked up the trash and carried it outside. The sun outside smelled like lemons. She put everything into her trash barrel for burning and started the fire.

Your character has won a vacation to Polaris Australis, to visit a temple of Ares.

Fred stared blankly at his e-mail. Someone was obviously having a laugh at his expense.

Supposedly he’d won a trip to Polaris Australis (the south pole star), to visit a temple of Ares.

Nobody lived at the South Pole, he knew that. So it was highly unlikely that there would be a temple to Ares there.

He sighed and deleted the message.

A new character arrives, wearing a resolution blue piece of clothing, and carrying a nice toasty fire with marshmallows.

The hand slapped a photo of a camp fire with marshmallows being toasted over it against the window of his cell door. Achird stood up and called out, “What do you need?”

The guard who entered was wearing the typical resolution blue uniform of the prison. He stopped in the doorway and frowned.

“Achird.”

“Yes?” he asked impatiently. This was highly unusual.

“You need to come with me.”

“What for?”

“Safety and freedom,” said the guard.

Achird went to his desk and retrieved his holy book. The photo had been part of the code; the phrase was the rest.

He would go with the guard.

Your character loses their prized possession: Adam Levine. How do they react?

Sophie sat on her bed, reading the script for the Christmas play at school. It was a normal kind of Christmas play for a public school, and each class was doing a play and a couple of songs. She was going to be Mrs Claus.

She was halfway through the page when she thought it might be helpful to act it out with her Barbie dolls.

She went over to her toy shelf and pulled out the Barbie bin.

A few moments later, she was scouring her room, pulling everything out from under the bed, and trying to climb up into her closet to check the top shelf.

Her mother came into the room to see what all the noise was about. “Sophie, what is going on?”

Sophie stopped jumping and turned to face her mother. “I’m trying to find Adam Levine.”

“Adam Levine?”

“Yes, you remember, the rock star Ken doll? I named him Adam Levine, like the singer from Maroon 5.”

“Oh, Adam Levine.” Her mother nodded and looked around the room. “I haven’t seen him, and you are demolishing your room.”

“I’m just trying to check the closet shelf, then I’ll put everything away, I promise,” said Sophie.

Her mother reached up and pulled down the boxes from the top shelf in the closet, then took a quick scan of the shelf herself. “There’s nothing else up here, honey.”

Sophie dug through the boxes and found nothing. Her mother put them back on the shelf. “I’m sorry you didn’t find him,” she said.

Sophie sighed and began putting her room back together. “Maybe he’s in the play room or something,” she said.

“You can look there once you’ve finished tidying up your bedroom.”

Sophie nodded. “Okay, thanks, Mom.”

Her mother left the room, closing the door behind her. Sophie continued working on her room.

Introduce a character who worships Thanatos.

Back in Eritrea, Florian was nursing his bruised face in the hotel restaurant when a young woman approached his table. She smiled and bobbed her head in greeting.

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t smile back,” he said wryly.

The woman sat down across from him. “I am Sesuna,” she said softly. “Thanatos has sent me.”

Florian raised an eyebrow. “Thanatos?”

She nodded. “Yes, the god of death. He has told me to seek you out and offer my services.”

“What services do you offer?”

“Those that serve my master.”

“And you master is…”

“Thanatos.”

“Of course, of course,” he said, nodding. “Tell me more.”

“I am an experienced assassin,” she explained. “I can track people and kill them. Any people.”

“Even spies?”

“I tracked you.”

“I’m not really a spy.” Florian took a sip of water. “I’m more a hired thug. I do what I’m told, what I’m paid to do. The people I’m after, they’re spies.”

“You have encountered them before.”

“Not all of them.”

“I see.”

Florian shrugged. “If you want to come with me, or if you want to help me deal with all of them, you’re more than welcome.”

She inclined her head. “This is acceptable to Thanatos. We will begin tomorrow. Be ready.”

She left before Florian could ask where to meet her, or even when, and he sighed. Intrigue was one thing; this was baffling.

A new character arrives, wearing a taupe piece of clothing, and carrying a NaNoWriMo sweatshirt.

Timothy, Lila, and Sophie were at the library doing their homework when they saw a woman come in with a German shepherd dog.

“Aren’t dogs not allowed?” Timothy asked.

“This one’s a service dog,” said Lila. “It’s wearing a vest.”

“But she isn’t blind,” said Sophie.

“Not all service dogs are guide dogs, silly,” said Lila. She got up and went over to the lady. The other two followed close behind.

The lady was wearing taupe pants and white and black running shoes, and she was holding a t-shirt in her hand.

“Excuse me,” said Lila, “we were wondering if we could ask you some questions.”

The lady turned to them and smiled. She was wearing glasses and her shoulder-length black hair was loose around her face. “Sure, but I might not answer.”

Lila smiled back. “I’m Lila, and this is Timothy and Sophie. We were wondering what kind of service dog you have.”

“Oh, well, I’m Josie, and this is Kaylee. Kaylee is a mobility dog. She helps me get around when I’m having trouble walking.”

“Why do you have trouble walking?” asked Timothy, and Sophie elbowed him in the gut.

Josie smiled again. “I have cerebral palsy. That means that when I was born, something happened that damaged my brain, and it made it so some things don’t work quite right. Like my legs.”

The children looked at Josie’s legs and then at the dog, who was sitting patiently nearby.

“Would you like to pet Kaylee?” Josie asked.

The children all nodded enthusiastically.

“Just one moment, okay?” Josie said. She ran through some commands with Kaylee, then turned to the children. “Okay, you can pet her now. Just for a little while, though.”

The children crowded around the dog and started petting her. Josie completed her business at the desk—she was booking a room for something—and then dropped the t-shirt she was holding.

Sophie picked it up. The t-shirt was bright blue and very soft. It had white writing on it. She handed it back to Josie. “What does it say?”

Josie opened up the shirt and showed her the front and the back. “I’m a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo,” she said. “Do you know what NaNoWriMo is?”

Sophie shook her head.

“It’s a writing challenge. Every year in November, a bunch of people all over the world try to write a whole novel in one month. It’s called National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. I organize events for the people here in Calgary who are writing novels. It’s a lot of fun.”

The other two stood up and stared at Josie. “You write novels every year?” asked Timothy.

“I sure do.” Josie reached into her purse and pulled out a little card. “Here, get your parents to help you look it up. There’s a version for kids that you can do called the Young Writers’ Program. You can talk to your teachers about it and maybe your whole class can do it at school!”

Timothy took the card and looked at it. It said Josie’s name and gave an e-mail address and a web site address. “Thanks!” he said, putting it in his pocket.

Josie smiled. “No problem.” She leaned over and spoke to Kaylee, and the dog got up. “I’ve got to go now. Thank you for the conversation!”

The children waved and watched as Josie and Kaylee left, then headed back to their table to do more homework.

November 21, 2017 :: Today's Words: 2,651 :: Total Words: 24,090

Your character finds the only remaining example of Coordination on the entire planet. What do they do with it?

Timothy and Lila were playing the video game together—the one that his mother had gotten him a little while ago and where he found the last boot in the planet. They were progressing quite well as a team when they came upon a small pouch.

Timothy picked it up and looked inside.

“You have found the last Coordination Talisman on the planet. Do you want to sell (◦) or keep (X)?”

Timothy looked at Lila. “I sold the boot and got attacked.”

Lila shrugged. “Keep it and see what happens.”

Timothy pressed the X button. The screen faded to black. When the picture came back, he was standing on the edge of a cliff. The caption across the bottom of the screen read, “You have chosen to keep the Coordination Talisman! You must now fight your way down from this cliff to demonstrate your worth!”

Timothy sighed and began the tedious work of beating off the attackers. At least this time he had a partner.

“This is weird,” said Lila as she battled one of the warriors.

“Yeah, I feel like it should have done something different.”

“Oh well. More XP at least.”

Timothy grinned and defeated his fifth attacker. Together their characters moved down the mountain, ploughing down the offensive force as they went.

Your character has a sudden craving for coffee ice-cream.

Robin, Paula, and Alaina returned to the plane Alaina had arrived on. They explained the situation to Apollo and Travis, who quickly confirmed that they, too, had been cut off from their contacts with CSIS. They were on their own.

“Now what?” asked Robin, then put a hand on her stomach. “Crud.”

Paula looked over sympathetically. “What is it this time?”

“Coffee ice cream.” Robin sighed. “Is there ice cream on this thing?”

Travis nodded. “Just vanilla, though.”

Robin stood up and headed for the galley. “I can make coffee and add it. I’m getting pretty good at this.” She started digging around, setting the coffee to brew. “Anyone else want coffee? To drink, I mean,” she added when she saw their faces.

Everyone nodded, so she made sure there was enough for five, then returned to the group. “Anyway, like I said, now what? We don’t even know for sure what the mission is.”

Apollo shrugged. “Pool our information about the mission and see if we can piece it together, I guess.”

Alaina nodded. “That makes the most sense. You guys do that. I’ll see if I can hack the servers and get some more information from HQ.” She pulled out her laptop and booted it up.

Robin got her tablet and made sure it was in airplane mode, then opened up the notes app. “I can take notes and stuff but I’ll have to deal with the coffee and ice cream when the coffee’s ready.”

Paula held out her hand. “I can do the notes. You deal with the ice cream and coffee. I take two sugars and two creams.”

Robin handed over the tablet and Paula got it set up so she could type as everyone talked. “Who wants to start?” she asked.

A mysterious stranger gives your character a quest. They must deliver some more chocolate to Burma.

Paula sat back and scrolled through her notes. “Okay, so it looks like we needed to get the nuclear power plant plans, which Alaina did, and the iPad, which Robin has, to the same place. Not sure yet why the iPad was to go to Armenia and the plans to Eritrea. Do we know where this Achird fellow is?”

They all exchanged confused looks.

“I guess that’s what you need to find out, Alaina,” said Robin. She pushed her ice cream bowl—licked clean—out of the way and took her tablet back from Paula. “Are you in yet?”

Alaina bit her lip. “Almost. Just give me a few more minutes and I’ll have it.”

Robin took the dirty dishes to the galley and set them in the sink. “Anyone want more coffee?”

Everyone did, so she put on another pot and returned to her seat.

Alaina suddenly pushed the computer away and clapped her hands together once. “In!”

Apollo came around and stood behind her. “Okay, the case file is number 5287B69J589.”

Alaina found the file and downloaded it, then disconnected her computer from the internet. “This will make it easier to stay under the radar,” she said. She opened the folder and began to read file names.

Apollo pointed to one of the files. “This one.”

She nodded and opened the file. It was the one they needed. Alaina scrolled through the file, scanning as she did so. “It looks like Achird may be in prison in Burma?”

Robin went to the galley to retrieve the full coffee pot and began refilling everyone’s cups at the table. “So we’re going to Burma?”

Alaina shrugged. “I guess?”

Travis stood up and headed for the cockpit. “I’ll start getting ready to go. We refueled already, so just pre-flight checks.”

Alaina closed out the file and looked through the rest of the folder. “Hm, looks like we may be missing someone,” she said, clicking on one of the files.

Robin’s phone buzzed and she looked down at the screen. She had a text.

“Bring chocolate to Burma.” She didn’t recognize the number.

“Um, guys?” She held up her phone. “We need chocolate. And we need to identify this number.”

Alaina looked back at the file she’d just opened. “Michelle von Stratten,” she said.

The women looked at each other in surprise. “I thought she’d died,” said Paula.

“Says here she’s divorced and has a kid. They live in Calgary.”

“Well then. I guess we’re bringing chocolate to Burma.”

Your character finds the only remaining example of chocolate for their hard work on the entire planet. What do they do with it?

Timothy was playing his video game by himself when he found a large chunk of chocolate. It was larger than his character. He chose to sell it this time, and again had to fight his way down from the edge of a cliff. He was getting good at the challenge, at least.

Your character enters Eritrea. There see Chuck Norris. How do they react?

Florian ambled along the tarmac at the airport in Asmara. He had it on good authority that the women were all holed up in a hotel there, and he was looking forward to seeing Paula again—and pounding her into the ground.

He found the hotel easily enough since it was the tallest one near the airport. He approached the front desk and put on his friendliest attitude.

“Hi there, I’m looking for some friends. Three women, about forty, one is blonde, one has brown hair, the other black.”

The clerk stared at him blankly for a moment, then said, “I’m sorry, sir, we can’t offer the whereabouts of our guests, especially not based on a simple description.” He returned to his computer work.

Florian scowled and turned away from the clerk. Direct was his favourite approach, but it didn’t always work out. He’d have to try and find them some other way.

He looked up at the entrance to see a delegation coming into the building. Near the centre of the crowd of people was a figure he thought he recognized.

There was a break in the crowd, and Florian got a clear view of the rugged man they were gathered around.

“Crap,” he muttered as the man’s eyes met his.

Florian turned and ran down a hallway. He took the first turn he saw and found an open closet to hide in. He held his breath as the footsteps pounded past… then stopped… and came back to the closet.

“Florian, you may as well come out,” came the man’s voice. “You know it’s not worth it to put this off.”

Florian sighed and opened the door a crack. “I suppose you’re right.” He pulled the door back and then pushed it quickly outward, hoping to catch his pursuer off-guard.

Alas, he was ready for it and grabbed the door out of Florian’s hands. “That’s an old trick,” he said.

Florian ducked the roundhouse kick but was unprepared for the follow-up right hook. He stumbled back into the closet and knocked over some brooms and mops.

“Look, man, I didn’t know you’d be here, okay?” he said.

His assailant grabbed him by the shirt and hauled him out of the closet. “Florian, you know that doesn’t matter. You know that wherever you go, I will be there waiting for you, ready to dish out the punishment you deserve.”

Florian hooked his right leg around the other man’s left knee and pulled sharply to the side. “How can you even know where I’m going to be? I only know when I get a communication from my boss.”

“I’m Chuck Norris.” The man punched him in the jaw. “I know everything you’re going to do before you do it.”

Florian tried to punch Chuck Norris in the nose but his target moved at the last second.

“Just like that,” said Chuck Norris.

Florian couldn’t just give up. He kept trying to defend himself, but Chuck Norris was by far the better fighter.

When the fight was over, Chuck Norris nudged Florian with his toe. “You should probably find a different line of work, Florian. It might be safer.” Then he walked away.

Florian groaned and lay on his back on the floor in the hallway. The speaker in his ear crackled to life, and his handler spoke. “Florian, the women aren’t at the hotel anymore. They checked out this morning. We’re in the process of finding them. I’ll be in touch.”

Florian sighed.

Just his luck.

Did your character just see Lampent? Or was it something else?

Sophie got into the habit of walking home from school with Timothy and Lila so they could look for more Pokémon. It was a lot of fun, and her mother was so happy that she didn’t have to listen to her daughter babble on about Liza Minnelli for hours every day anymore, so once she established that Sophie was spending time with kids from her class at school and had met Timothy’s mother, who seemed nice if a bit distracted, she had no problem with it.

One afternoon they spotted a Lampent. Sophie saw it first and pointed it out to the others. It was glowing eerily as it floated across the park. Nobody else seemed to notice it.

The three children followed the Lampent over to a large oak tree that had a big hole in the trunk. Squirrels occasionally set up house in the hole, storing *nuts for the winter and playing tag and hide-and-seek in the branches of the tree.

The Lampent sailed into the hole and the glow suddenly went out.

The children looked at each other confusedly. Lila ran over to the tree and stood on her tip-toes to see inside the hole. “It’s not here anymore!” she called out.

The other two joined her and they all jostled for a spot at the opening.

The Lampent was definitely gone.

Your character sees a news report that 92 examples of a grilled cheese sandwich have disappeared. What's going on?

Alaina was trawling the web, looking for something diverting (her location expertly concealed) and she landed on the perfect thing: a news report with the most ludicrous headline.

“Hey, look at this! Apparently someone stole 92 grilled cheese sandwiches from the annual grilled cheese festival in Wisconsin!”

Robin and Paula came over and looked at the article over her shoulder. “You know, I saw a news report about cider being stolen from Frankfurt when I was in Armenia,” said Robin.

Alaina looked up that story as well. “Hm. Do you suppose it was the same people?”

Paula giggled. “Maybe they’re having a party.”

Alaina elbowed her. “Maybe you’ve been in the cider.”

“No more than you have, hon.”

Your character loses their prized possession: teddybears. How do they react?

Lila went home after seeing the Lampent and went to her room to read.

She emerged a few seconds later, her eyes wide. “Daddy?” she called.

Her father came out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on a towel. “What’s up?”

“Where are my teddy bears?”

Her father frowned. “You teddy bears?”

Lila went back into her room, and he followed. She pointed to her bed, where she always lined up all of her teddies before she went to school in the morning. “My teddy bears.”

Her father got down and looked under the bed, but there was nothing there. “I don’t know, honey,” he said. “Maybe they went to a picnic.”

Lila put her hands on her hips. “Daddy!”

He smiled. “I know, I know.” He sat down on her bed. “I’m sorry they’re gone, honey. I don’t know what happened to them. Why don’t you think about places we can look for them, and I’ll help you look after dinner.”

Lila nodded and went to her desk. She pulled out a notebook and took a pen from the cup, then went back to her bed. Her father stood up and started to leave, then paused in the doorway. “I hope we can find them. Make sure your list has lots of places on it.”

Lila nodded and started making her list. After writing three things down, she remembered what Timothy had said about his pirates. She went to her closet and opened it up, but her teddies weren’t there. They weren’t in her dresser drawers, either. Not even under the bathroom sink. She sighed and returned to her list. She wasn’t sure where they could be, but at least she could make a long list of places to look.

Your character has won a vacation to Brachium, to visit a temple of Uzume.

Fred opened the letter with trembling hands. He had entered a contest several weeks ago, and this had come from the contest headquarters.

He scanned the contents and his heart stopped as he saw the words “We are pleased to inform you that you have won…” but then he kept reading and his heart started beating again and he began to sag.

A trip to Brachium? There was no way he was going to a star in the constellation of Libra. And no way there was a temple there for Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto, the Shinto goddess of the dawn. Obviously the contest was a hoax.

He sighed and returned to his work, dropping the letter and envelope into the recycling bin.

Your character sees a news report that 46 examples of fluffy blanket and a cup of tea. have disappeared. What's going on?

Alaina was still monitoring the news reports for odd goings-on when they landed in Burma. She was rewarded with a ping on her phone as they deplaned.

“Oh, wait, check this out!” she said, and the others gathered around, jostling to see the small screen.

“Does that say… 46 fluffy blankets missing from a historic site in England?” asked Paula.

Robin nodded. “And a cup… of tea?” she added.

Alaina skimmed the article. “The cup was over 100 years old and belonged to the Queen.”

“But it had tea in it?”

“Yeah, they brew a fresh pot every morning and pour her a cup.”

Paula snorted. “That’s really weird.”

Alaina shrugged and turned off her phone. “Yeah, well, they’re British.”

Your character dreams about some motivation and lemon scented sunbeams.

The entire team found a place to rent that was off-grid so that they wouldn’t alert anyone to their presence. There were two bedrooms so the women took one and the men took the other.

That night, Alaina had another weird dream.

She was sitting in her rocking chair again, in her cabin, next to the stove. And she could smell lemons for some reason.

November 20, 2017 :: Today's Words: 3,494 :: Total Words: 21,439

Lila made a face. “That’s weird.”

“Yeah.” Timothy sighed. “Mom’s been acting weird lately too.”

“Parents are weird, though.”

“Yeah, but this is weirder than usual.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.”

A new character arrives, wearing an orange peel piece of clothing, and carrying a stuffed unicorn.

Mark Masterson finished typing the e-mail and hit “Send.” Then he went to the closet door and put on his beige trench coat.

On his way out of the building, he nodded at several employees and smiled reassuringly where possible. He wasn’t sure why people reacted to him the way they did, but he was glad that his position in the company meant that he wasn’t bullied or anything. His childhood had been disastrous.

The blue Subaru was waiting for him by the curb. He opened the front passenger side door and slid into the seat. His brother, Matthew, turned and smiled at him. “Have a good day?”

Mark shrugged. “It was okay. The fridge is missing.”

Matthew rolled his eyes and started the car. “I told you not to do that project.”

“We need to find out if this… thing… is fatal.”

They pulled into traffic and Matthew wiped his palm on his pants. Mark looked down. “Something new, I see.”

Matthew grinned. “Of course. I had to try it as soon as Chine showed it to me.”

Mark sighed and settled back into his seat resignedly. “Tell me.”

Matthew launched into an explanation of how the fabric the pants were made of was created from a unique method of fibre creation that used flax and orange peels to make the thread.

“That’s why the car reeks,” was Mark’s response to this news. Matthew glared at his brother and Mark waved his hand in acquiescence. “Go on,” he said.

As they pulled into the long driveway at the house, Mark happened to glance in the back seat of the car. “What the—Matthew, you didn’t!”

Matthew looked at him innocently. “What do you mean?”

“It’s huge. Where are you going to put it?”

“I’ll find space. I couldn’t leave it behind, once I spotted it on the shelf at the store.”

Mark just shook his head. His brother’s collection of unicorns had filled two rooms in their home already, and he’d recently started on a third. This new one was easily five feet long, practically life-sized, and it had a blue, green, and purple mane and tail, a crystalline horn, large white wings, and huge, soulful purple eyes. There was a gold sun on its withers and it was wearing a gold crown and torc with a purple stone in each.

“It looks like a My Little Pony,” Mark said.

“I believe that you are correct,” Matthew replied. “It’s Celestia.”

Introduce a character who worships Liza.

Sophie threw herself dramatically into the chair in the living room. “My life is over!” she exclaimed.

Her mother looked up briefly from the sock she was darning but didn’t say anything.

Sophie flipped around so that she was lying half in the chair and half off of it. “It’s just never going to happen!” she continued.

Her mother stifled a sigh. “What’s never going to happen, dear?” she asked, though she knew exactly what her daughter was talking about.

Sophie stood up and flung her hands into the air. “Why, my acting career, of course!” She dropped her hands to her sides and launched back into the chair. “It’s just never going to happen!”

“You have lots of time to become an actress, Sophie.”

“But I don’t! Mother, Liza was in her first film when she was three years old!”

Her mother set the sock down in her lap. “Liza Minnelli’s mother was Judy Garland, who was also an actress. If I recall correctly, that first film appearance consisted of exactly one scene, in which she played the child of her own mother. Not much acting required for that.”

Sophie sighed dramatically. “But, mother.”

“But, Sophie,” replied her mother. “Go outside, I don’t have time to deal with this today.”

Sophie stood up and stomped to the door. “You’ll be sorry you didn’t encourage my acting career when I’m famous and my tell-all memoir comes out.”

“You don’t have an acting career, and any tell-all memoir will simply describe what a loving family you had as a child, so I’m not exactly concerned.”

Sophie grumbled as she left the house and headed for the park. Maybe Timothy would be there. He was usually willing to help her run lines, at least.

Introduce a character who worships Athtart.

Robin arrived in Eritrea and set about finding a place to stay. She had no contacts with CSIS anymore; it was obvious that Bob had been compromised, and she needed to ensure that her whereabouts remained as secret as possible to ensure her safety.

She finally located a hotel in the capital city, Asmara, and registered under an alias, Lisette Pinta. Once settled into her hotel room, she changed from her traveling clothes into something more formal, did her hair and makeup, and brought her purse down to the hotel’s restaurant.

Sitting at a table perusing her menu, she couldn’t help but notice two women at a nearby table. They were a little older than she was, and she was certain she recognized one of them.

Suddenly it hit her: Alaina Martlett.

She took her wine glass over to the women’s table and cleared her throat. They looked up. Recognition swept across Alaina’s face, replaced immediately by a blank look of curiosity.

“I was just thinking that it would be lovely to have a friend along on this trip,” she said in character. “Since I haven’t got that, I was wondering if you might like to have a third?”

Alaina reached toward her empty table. “Oh, of course! Please join us!”

Robin was about to bring over a chair when her server appeared. “Oh, yes, I am going to join these ladies.”

The server looked at the three and then suggested a larger table. Enthusiastically, the three women agreed.

Once they were ensconced in a booth, Alaina leaned across the table and hissed, “What are you doing here?”

Robin leaned forward as well. “Following a lead. You?”

“Doing as I was told.”

“Bob was compromised.”

Alaina’s eyes widened. “What?”

“My contact was killed and I had to kill another agent to get away. I’m here following something that agent said.”

“Holy…”

Their server returned to take their orders just then, so they each ordered something to eat and some more wine. Then Robin explained her alias and Alaina introduced Paula.

When the server returned, he had a bottle of wine and a note for them. Paula looked at the note and shook her head.

“Some dork paid for the wine, wants us to go meet him.”

Alaina rolled her eyes. “Which one?”

Paula pointed.

The man was black, well-built, and dressed in white silk. He was sitting at the bar and raised his glass to them when he noticed them looking at him.

Paula shoved Alaina. “Let me go over.”

Alaina let her out. “Fine, go for it. We’ll keep an eye out for mischief.”

Paula sauntered over to the man and Robin and Alaina discussed the events of their respective missions thus far, while also keeping an eye on Paula.

A few minutes later, Paula returned to their table with the man in tow. He was taller than she was, probably about six feet.

“Everyone, this is Isaias.”

He smiled, and his teeth were the same white as his shirt. Paula slid into the booth next to Alaina, and Robin slid over to allow Isaias to sit down next to her.

“Ladies, it is lovely to make your acquaintance,” he said, bowing his head briefly. “Athtart bid me come tonight and I can see why. Obviously she wished for me to meet you.”

Robin frowned. “Athtart?”

“Ah, perhaps you would know her by another name… Ashtoreth, perhaps?”

Robin shook her head.

“No matter. She is the goddess of fertility and war.”

“War?” asked Alaina.

He nodded. “Indeed, war. I have a message for you.” He reached into his shirt pocket and withdrew a flash drive. “You will need this information.”

With that, Isaias rose from their table. Alaina slipped the flash drive into her purse as the server returned with their meals.

Introduce a character who worships Khepri.

Up in Alaina’s room, Robin and Paula waited while Alaina booted up her laptop. “This is the weirdest crap I’ve ever been involved with, you guys,” she said.

Paula raised an eyebrow. “Weirder than that time you—?”

Alaina broke in with an emphatic “YES.”

Paula giggled and whispered to Robin, “She doesn’t like to admit to a lot of the stuff we did way back when.”

Robin smiled uncomfortably. She wasn’t totally sure what their relationship was, but at least it seemed that Paula was also an agent.

Alaina made sure her computer was disconnected from the internet and plugged the new flash drive into it. Once it was loaded, she clicked through to the file listings and scanned the titles.

“They’re numbered,” she announced. “I’m going to guess that we’re supposed to open them in order.”

“Good guess,” said Paula, shifting to get a better view of the screen. “Let’s go for it.”

Alaina opened the first file, which was a series of sketches and plans for some kind of device. “Not the nuclear plant,” she said. “Not sure what that is.”

They continued through the files. There were more plans and several e-mail exchanges. There was one in particular that seemed very strange. It was between two people who were talking about whatever the plans were for, but one of them kept talking about Khepri.

“Who’s Khepri, anyway?” asked Paula finally.

Robin pulled out her tablet and connected to the wi-fi. She did a quick search on Wikipedia. “It’s an Egyptian god. So either someone is named after a god, or these people are talking about the god.”

They kept reading and found a section where the person talked about praying to Khepri. “Definitely the god,” said Robin.

The last file was a series of mug shots with basic information about each person. “This could be useful,” said Alaina, “But only if we can figure out why that guy gave us this information.”

Robin pointed at one of the pictures. “Isn’t that the guy who was talking about Khepri?”

Alaina squinted at the name. “Yes, it is.”

“Okay, so I’m going to guess that these are all people we don’t want to deal with.”

Paula nodded. “I agree. And now the big question is, what do we do next?”

Your character enters Zuben Elakrab. There see a can of soda. How do they react?

Hours after the women had concluded that they needed more information and should probably talk to Apollo and Travis before doing anything else, Alaina lay awake in her bed, listening to Paula snore across the room.

She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, and whispered, “Kraz, chariot, draw me in.”

When she opened her eyes she was in a bright red room that had black gridlines on all of the walls. She frowned. This wasn’t Kraz.

She got up from the bed she was lying on and walked towards a strange brown structure that looked like it could be a door, though it was curvier than she would expect a door to be. It slid open as she approached, and she stood in the doorway and looked around.

There was a sign directly in front of her that announced “Welcome to Zuben Elakrab!” and a table underneath that which held a can of orange Fanta.

Alaina frowned and stepped back into the room. She retraced her steps and lay back down on the bed. She needed to stop traveling to stars.

Obviously.

Did your character just see Venusaur? Or was it something else?

Sophie didn’t see Timothy at first, but she wandered around the park anyway because she knew her mother would be angry if she went home too soon.

She finally spotted Timothy over by some bushes. He was crouching down next to that new girl, Lila. Well, maybe Lila would like to help run lines too. They could do a scene from Cabaret or something.

Sophie joined the other two. “Hey, whatcha doing?” she asked.

Timothy pointed toward the bushes. “Look in there,” he whispered.

Sophie leaned forward and looked through the leaves. She saw an odd, dinosaur-like creature with a pink flower growing out of its back. She leaned backward. “What is that?”

Lila gave her an annoyed look. “It’s a Venusaur, you ninny. And whisper, please. We don’t want to scare it away.”

Sophie looked again. “A… Venusaur? What’s that?”

“It’s a type of Pokémon,” said Timothy.

“Pokémon?”

Timothy nodded once. “Yes, Pokémon. Now hush and watch.”

Sophie stayed silent and watched with the other two as the Venusaur wandered around the small clearing, eating grass and pulling leaves off the bushes. After a few minutes, it looked up and locked eyes with her. Then it turned around and ambled off through the bushes.

Timothy and Lila stood up and started talking excitedly about the Venusaur. Apparently they’d been watching Pokémon for a few days, and hadn’t seen one until now.

Sophie stood up. “Wait, you’ve been watching these things? For days? I thought Pokémon were imaginary!”

“Yeah, so did we,” said Timothy. “But I guess we were wrong.”

“This is nuts.”

Lila shrugged. “Timothy’s life is weird right now. At least it’s interesting.”

Sophie’s mouth dropped open. “Interesting? Um, yeah, interesting.”

“What are you doing here, anyway?” asked Timothy. “Did your mom get mad at you again?”

Sophie kicked at the ground. “I was just telling her that Liza Minnelli was three when she was in her first film and I’m already eight, and she told me to go play outside.”

Timothy nodded. Lila frowned and looked from one to the other. “Liza… Minnelli? Who’s that?”

“You mean you don’t know? Oh, Liza is just the best entertainer ever! Her mother was Judy Garland, and—”

“Judy Garland? You mean, like, Somewhere Over the Rainbow?”

Sophie licked her lips impatiently. “Yes, that’s her.”

“Cool. But why do you care about when she was in movies and stuff? Isn’t she old?”

“Well, yeah… but I want to be an actress too!”

Lila looked at Timothy. Timothy shrugged. Lila looked back at Sophie. “Well, I don’t know anything about acting, but if you want to help us try to figure out what’s going on with the Pokémon and stuff, you can.”

Sophie considered her options. On the one hand, she could try to find something to do by herself. Running lines was boring without at least one partner. On the other hand, she could just hang out with Timothy and Lila, and possibly help solve a mystery. Given that having actual experience solving mysteries could be useful to mention on a resume and help her get a part someday, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to help the other two. She shrugged. “I can try and help. What have you figured out so far?”

Your character has a sudden craving for dark chocolate and parmesan ice-cream.

Robin, Alaina, and Paula were sitting in the restaurant again when the next craving hit. Robin sighed.

“You’re going to think this is ridiculous, but I’m having a craving. I don’t want to look nuts to the server, so can one of you order something like spaghetti with parmesan cheese?”

Alaina frowned. “Why would that look weird?”

“Because I’m going to put the parmesan cheese on the ice cream I’m about to order.”

Paula wrinkled her nose. “Ew.”

Robin sighed. “I know, but there it is. I’ve been having these weird cravings for weeks now, and I don’t know why!”

“Well, I had weird cravings when I was pregnant,” said Paula.

“That’s not a possibility,” said Robin, shaking her head. “Also, I’m pretty sure you never had a craving for orange tuna ice cream. Or Popplers ice cream.”

“What are Popplers?” asked Alaina.

“Baby aliens from Futurama. The cartoon.”

The other two nodded. “Okay, I’ll order the pasta,” said Paula.

Alaina looked at her. “Wait, did you say you were pregnant?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a kid. Two, actually.”

“No way! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because they’re done high school and I never think about them as being news to anyone anymore.”

The server arrived and they all ordered, then Alaina and Paula continued their conversation about Paula’s children. Apparently she also had a husband who didn’t know anything about her status as a CSIS operative. “I told him it was a work trip,” she said. “It wasn’t really a lie, it’s just… not the job he thinks it’s for.”

Robin spun her fork around on the table. She couldn’t wait for the dark chocolate ice cream to arrive. She hoped it would have chunks of chocolate in it.

Thoughts of the dessert she was craving soon drowned out the others’ conversation.

Your character dreams about some hot tea and some magic beans.

Their last night in the hotel, Alaina dreamed that she was back at her cabin in the woods. She was making some tea on the stove when there was a knock at the door.

She opened the door to see an old man leading an emaciated cow by a rope tied around its neck. “Can I help you?” she asked.

The man held out his hand and opened it. There were five green beans that looked kind of like lima beans. “I would like to give these to you,” he replied, “in thanks for this cow.”

Alaina looked at the cow. “But that’s not my cow,” she said.

The man set his feet and shoved his hand at her. “I would like to give these to you,” he said firmly, “in thanks for this cow.”

Alaina scooped up the beans. “Okay, okay,” she said. “What do I use them for?”

The man smiled a toothy grin that had many gaps in it where teeth had fallen out. “You will know when the time comes,” he said, and turned away. *The cow followed him dejectedly into the trees.

Alaina looked down at the beans in her hand. “I wonder what these are for?” she muttered, then closed the door and returned to her whistling kettle.

She poured the water over the tea leaves in her china teapot, and then suddenly had the urge to drop in the beans.

As soon as they hit the water, they started sizzling. Then they began to grow, long tendrils and vines curling out over the edges of the pot. One of them wrapped itself around Alaina’s wrist, and she pulled away. Another lunged for her ankle—when had it grown over the edge of the table?—and she backed away. It was growing so fast that she barely had time to get out the door and slam it closed before they hit the wood.

And then she saw tiny tendrils poking out under the door.

She turned and ran, pelting for the hot spring and her goddess for protection.

She awoke just as she reached the spring.

Your character enters Martinique. There see tea, black, 3 sugars. How do they react?

Aaron and his archaeology team left the Aztec settlement and travelled back to civilization. Aaron then boarded a plane for Martinique. He wasn’t sure what Chalchiuhtlicue wanted him to do there, but he was sure that it was the place she wanted him to go.

His plane landed and he emerged into the hot sun. He put on his straw hat and lightly patted the pouch that contained the small carving of Chalchiuhtlicue, which he had hung around his neck on a leather thong. He found a taxi and travelled to a hotel, where he checked in and found his room satisfactory.

He went out of the hotel and wandered toward the beach. He found a seaside café and sat at an outside table to watch the surf.

Then the waiter brought him a cup of black tea and a small bowl that contained three sugar cubes.

Aaron stared at the tea and the sugar. Then he slowly, deliberately, added the cubes to the tea and stirred it until the sugar had dissolved.

He drank the tea quickly, in one breath, ignoring the burn from the steaming tea. Then he stood up and dropped some bills on the table before taking off running for the ocean.

The waiter watched him go. As Aaron’s feet hit the water, he turned back to the café. “Got another one!” he called.

The cook sighed and picked up the house phone to call the Maritime Gendarmerie. Sometimes people just couldn’t take the heat.