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[notquitethere]

"Oh, sure. Here you go."

Give her my ID. As she goes to copy it, pretend to cough and whisper: "Lawa ala."

The photocopier's control unit just happens to be jammed. Such unluck! Hopefully she'll get frustrated enough to just skip copying the ID.

You whisper the words for steering nothingness, focusing your mind on the photocopier. The clerk puts your ID under the scanner and the printer whirs into action, printing a completely blank page. She tries a few more times, each time it comes out blank.

"Huh, must be out of ink," she says. "Well, I got targets to reach so I'm going to ring the crowbar up as a broom on the receipt."

She rings through the items and hands you your change. "Now, you better not be up to any funny business with the stuff. I could lose my job if it got back to me."

Wait in the bathroom until the store closes. If told to leave, say "Ken Ali". When everyone is out of the building (or if only the janitor remains, and he's in a different room), pour the cup into the lemonade in the soda machine. Collect my reward from the mages.

You pull yourself up over the cubicle wall into one of the out of order stalls. The toilet basin is cracked but the stall appears to be cleaner than the rest of the diner. You wait there for hours, hearing people come in and out the bathroom. While you're there you have plenty of time to think. You remember the name of the place, DoZee's 25 Hour Beverages, was a result of increased competition in the late-night bar and diner businesses. It started with Malik's 18 Hour Drive-Thru, the Kevak's 19 Hour Moonshine Parlour, all the way up to Casen's 24 Hour Diner. Not wishing to be outdone, Dorlin Zeeber opened his establishment 25 hours of the day: "Open Every Hour and One For Luck!" This place never shuts and it gets properly cleaned very infrequently. Definitely not an elite restaurant.

You're about to leave, when you hear a number of people walk into the bathroom and open the broken stall besides you. You see the wall behind the stall partition creak open, the last person shuts the hidden wall but inexactly, leaving a small gap.

"It's okay! When I was young, people used to call me "Plain Shay", and I had braces, glasses, and a somewhat horrific overbite. However, I don't think she meant to hurt your feelings. Ask her why she did that. If she's angry, then she's no real friend to you.
Sympathize with the young woman, and ask her to ask Getty why she said that. Also, ask for her name.

You talk a while and she introduces herself as Lin. She opens up about her friend. "I guess she said it cause she doesn't think I get angry about things. She's always mad about her job, the curfew, the clothing rules, you name it. I don't like that stuff. Who does? But I don't see the point in getting so wound up about things but she just can't get that. She's probably over at DoZee's but my folks won't let me go there. Well it's a long shot, but if you see a girl with green eyebrows called Getty then tell her I still wanna throw stones with her."

[notquitethere]

Hey Salsa Cookie, do you want to head out any where?

[ATHATH]

Put the cup down, and wash my hands at the sink. Then, enter the hole. If spotted, say "Ken Ali".

[IcyTea31]

Grab my things, including my ID. Stow them in my wallet and backpack that I totally had the whole time on my character whose appearance or clothing I didn't define.

"Well, pulling some really big nails out so I can replace them with stronger screws and reinforce the structure can be pretty funny. Ha! But anyway, thanks, bye!"

Go back to the warehouse and case the leaving trucks more thoroughly. Do they drive through any convenient turn where the truck might fall into the dock's waters? If not, any similar points where to stage unfortunate accidents?

((Wipeout1024's turn took seconds, mine took minutes, and ATHATH's took hours of in-game time. Do Sewi Jan exist in some sort of localized time warp?))

[notquitethere]

Put the cup down, and wash my hands at the sink. Then, enter the hole. If spotted, say "Ken Ali".

You wash your hands and then wash them again, eking out the last of the liquid soap from the depressed plastic dispenser. Steeling yourself, wiping your wet hands on the back of your trousers, you head into the other broken stall.

The hidden door is usually flush in the blue tiles of the restroom, but now it is slightly set in wards. You curl your fingers round the gap and push. Inside is a narrow space between two walls with the ground forming a rough slope downwards. You sneak towards the dim glow below. The passage terminates in what appears to be a large pump room. At a long bench in the centre of the room, dozens of men and women covered in plastic overalls, wearing breathing masks, are loading blocks of white powder into mixing machines. On the far end, a girl with green hair is packing wrapped cakes of the powder into a cart set on rails that lead deeper underground. A man in a mustard yellow suit and matching bowler hat looks at you as you enter.

"Ken Ali," you blurt out, feeling a wave of acceptance wash over the room.

"Expecting you we were," he says with a nasal whine. He points to a set of plastic overalls on a free space at the bench.

Go back to the warehouse and case the leaving trucks more thoroughly. Do they drive through any convenient turn where the truck might fall into the dock's waters? If not, any similar points where to stage unfortunate accidents?

You perch yourself up on an overlooking rooftop and spend a few hours watching the trucks move back and forth through the city. You think you've worked out two good spots. There's the corner by the Bridge of Tears which is closest to the waterfront but could be tricky to set things up without someone seeing. Several trucks pass that way a day at reliable times. Then there's the Old Town Tunnel, an under-maintained passage through one of the many rocky hills that jut out of the basin the city sprawls across. The trucks take the passage infrequently. Basically, only when the traffic is bad elsewhere. But it would be easy for you to remain there unnoticed.

((Wipeout1024's turn took seconds, mine took minutes, and ATHATH's took hours of in-game time. Do Sewi Jan exist in some sort of localized time warp?))

((Hah, no, I figure things will even out in terms of time, and it will be taking you different amounts of time to get around the city in any case. Things work on a sort of film logic where times are fudged to allow for the maximum number of coincidences.))

[IcyTea31]

((Do the trucks move in convoys or one at a time?))

[notquitethere]

((Typically one at a time: you see them heading out to replace and repair watch boxes throughout the city. Often though, several will travel together for some way before splitting off.))

[wipeout1024]

"Oh, Lin? Do you want to go with me. Dearie, I think it would help if you were there with me.
Ask Lin to come with me, and then try to find Getty at DoZee's.

[IcyTea31]

Wait until dark. Wear the t-shirt as a mask and raise my coat's hood. When there is nobody around, use the crowbar to loosen the safety barriers around the corner near the Bridge of Tears, so that they'll dislodge if crashed into. Go back to a vantage point, lower my hood and mask and wait until one of the watch box trucks starts approaching.

[ATHATH]

As I'm putting on the uniform (including the gas mask), ask the boss person what I should do, and what we are doing.

[notquitethere]

As I'm putting on the uniform (including the gas mask), ask the boss person what I should do, and what we are doing.

You slip on the gear and step up to the bench. You're grateful of the mask as the air is thick with powder.

"It's one part cake to three parts benzocaine," says the man in yellow, "blend 'em up and bag 'em."

He leaves you by the bench and moves over to the corner where he starts counting out stacks of shilling notes and taking notes in a small book produced from his inner jacket pocket.

Wait until dark. Wear the t-shirt as a mask and raise my coat's hood. When there is nobody around, use the crowbar to loosen the safety barriers around the corner near the Bridge of Tears, so that they'll dislodge if crashed into. Go back to a vantage point, lower my hood and mask and wait until one of the watch box trucks starts approaching.

In the dark you're pretty sure no one notices you loosen the safety barriers. You throw the dislodged nuts into the river and make your way up to the roof. Within the hour, you spot the tell-tale shape of one of the trucks three streets over and heading your way.

"Oh, Lin? Do you want to go with me. Dearie, I think it would help if you were there with me.
Ask Lin to come with me, and then try to find Getty at DoZee's.

"Well, if I'm not putting you out too much..." she says. Together you travel to the lower east end to the all night bar and diner, DoZee's. The sun is low in the sky by the time you've arrived and on the way Lin has told you all about how she's the best shot with a stone in the whole east side. Together you walk into the place, your feet pulling slightly as they step upon the sticky linoleum. There's a long bar on the inside wall behind which the bar staff bustle back and forth. On your right there are booths all along the outerwall, some of which are free. Many are taken, with workers, families and poets. There's no sign of anyone with green eyebrows. As you walk in, several men and women in plastic overalls walk past you into the unisex toilets all at once.

[IcyTea31]

"Lawa ala."

Stop the truck from braking, and if possible, steering, so that it falls into the water. Hope the driver jumps out in time.

((What are the limitations to magic, beyond having to keep it secret? You said knowing more words gives it more power, but general pointers on use frequency, range and such would be nice.))

[wipeout1024]

"Oh Lin, dearie, can you please help me spot Getty, thank you so very much."
Try to spot Getty, if I can't ask Lin where else she goes.

[ATHATH]

Lace one cake (fulfilling my quest).

"I just realized that I need to pee. I'll be right back. Ken Ali."

Take off the uniform, wash my hands upstairs, and return to the wizards to collect my reward.

[IcyTea31]

Lace one cake (fulfilling my quest).

((I'm preeeeetty sure the 'cakes' aren't 'meals of a stranger', or food, for that matter. And technically, you've been spotted.))