Suspicious of the self styled cowboy steven engages him in a glaring contest and tries to mentally determine what his possible purpose here could be. Is he paying attention to the exchange between carrie and one eighty? Does he show any signs of intimidation or surprise by the recent displays of power? Does he have a scheming expression?
You look at the cowboy. He meets your gaze. You commence the glaring, and he gladly obliges. You're not sure whether it's the mustache, the worldly wisdom of his eyes or the slight squint, but you find you can't outglare him one bit. He doesn't even seem to blink at all, man.
In addition, before glaring back at you, he did seem to look at what Carrie and One Eighty were doing, and did not seem ruffled one single bit at the way One Eighty flipped her. And his expression, with narrowed eyes and leathery features looking to be a mix of mean and thoughtful, is clearly one you would associate with a man with a plan. And he's here with a considerably younger girl who doesn't appear to particularly enjoy his company, which you think may be an attempt at misdirection on the man's part.
Selina frowns, feeling a little sad now.
"O-oh… I… I guess y-your right… th-though I always thought the n-new girl would… would tr-try and help her b-be her." Selina seems worried now… was that the kind of story she had written? She'd have to read them again to make sure but...
"Think about whether the new girl would help the shy girl outgrow their own potential relationship. I think that'd shed light on the possible motivations a little more. If she would, then that seems like a case of slightly creepy altruism or pity, which is a bit demeaning to the shy girl. And if she wouldn't, then that seems to me like the new girl treating the shy girl like you would a car or a house, like a fixer-upper, you know, and then relying on her feelings of thankfulness to keep her close and devoted in a way you can get people in need to do," she says, finishing her sandwich.
Kyle sighs.
"You're not very useful at finding jobs narrating voice in my head."
Kyle decides to see if the library is open.
The library is quite open, and also rather nearby, and seemingly undergoing some form of inventory, as when you wander in, the employees look frazzled, stressed and tasked with carrying lots of books around.
Hm. Maybe one of these people needs someone to be stabbed and is willing to pay? That librarian lady looks kind of shady, you must admit.
((Alright, so... I have problems with this. Especially since the vertebrae that are most directly in tune with the legs are lower on the spine and not in the neck. So that isn't likely unless you feel like making Carrie quadrapeligic. In which case I would like the opportunity to redo my last action or have Carrie stand up.
Also, her power makes her immune to bullets and her skin and bones rigid enough to have no issues snapping out of handcuffs, but doesn't keep her body rigid enough to avoid neck strain? Especially when she is reactivating her power at the speed of thought.
Also, the way you described it sounds like Carrie wasn't waist deep in dirt and was instead trying to hold the whole of her weight on her head instead of with her currently digging arms. Which is also largely difficult to imagine.
Also, mildly upset that you would do that.))
(Sensible objections indeed, and a bit of research failure on my part as well. So.
First off, it's a partial injury with incomplete loss of function, and no loss of sensation all around. Her legs are severely affected, the rest of the bodily regions much less so. Loss of dexterity in the fingers, impaired movement of the abdomen, all that is still there, just not as noticeable in light of the legs not working. The spine is not properly broken, since, as you've pointed out, her powers did protect her to a certain point (they don't
quite make her immune to bullets typically, only letting grazing shots at a favorable angle bounce off - she'd still have a very bad time if somebody shot her straight in the eye, the center of the abdomen or the throat or with an armor piercing bullet just about anywhere), and the handcuff thing was largely me not having figured out the exact level of power Carrie would have and instead going for the cool expository moment, which I did admittedly fuck up on in a big way, since you ended up basing a lot of your further assumptions on that one moment.
Second, she was about chest-deep in the dirt, head down, arms projecting horizontally forward - the same posture she held when she was on her hands and knees as a result of the fall, but rotated 90 degrees around the center of mass, which if I remember it right would move up along the torso when the limbs are moved closer together.
Thirdly, she was wiggling her head as per the programmed movement, probably in a slightly inadvisable manner while her body was wiggling as well, and as the dirt around her shoulders loosened and her arms came free, a lot of the stress was then put on her head, where the dirt is more densely packed and with a greater amount of weight put on it, and thus a little more difficult to wiggle out of.
Fourthly, that was the worst critical failure my current rolling system would allow (1 for action, 1 for severity, though it's on a d6), and so I assumed that whatever could go wrong in the worst possible way (bear in mind that highly sensitive internal components can be traumatized with seemingly minimal application of force if said force is very unfortunately applied) with the aforementioned movements certainly did, and spinal trauma seemed the most in line with what could go wrong in a situation like this, and incomplete spinal trauma due to the exact wrong set of movements seemed the most plausible worst thing, and I surmise that a person without heightened durability in that situation might lose the ability to move their arms, breathe and independently function.
Fifthly, even if the reactivation of powers happens at the speed of thought, that still leaves Carrie with a short, yet significant latency period, especially given the critical failure. She, unlike Alex, doesn't think any faster without the application of her power.
But, if all that does sound unfair, and I suppose I'd understand if it does, I can offer you a rewind to the point before the wiggling plan was tried as recompense for misleading you about Carrie's powers in the very beginning and being generally shit at explaining things or being consistent.)
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Topic: Worm: Edwardstown (Read 136221 times)