Every Time at a Table: March 2020 Madness Begins

So, last night, 7.Mar.20, the Scrap Pile group, got together to play part two of the prequel Scrapiverse of the two part mini-series. Well, what they got was a flashback, within the second part of the prequel, that might or might not have anything to do with the story line established by the first part of the two-part prequel of the Scrapiverse. A part of me did this my players because of the hard time scheduling the second scenario in the series because all the players were busy booking their own play sessions on my earlier suggested, but not formalized, times. The real reason though is that we've all watched DC Universe's Doom Patrol since it came out last year and I was alternately frustrated and impressed with its flipping conventional superhero story-arc on its back. So I've decided that What Price Buffalo, Part II would take my emotions and turn them into inspiration.

Sabrina will never let you see a picture of her as a human, let alone as a kid.

Giving the late 90s dark heroes a chance to meet outside a used bookstore, and save a woman from having her purse stolen by a thug of Irish-American descent, oh I hate those gingers, I threw the players into a flashback. But only one of the players can have a flashback at one time, right? So the other two players had to develop two new PCs in ten minutes. And those Characters had to be 11 years-old as this was Wisp's (Peryton's) episode. Curtis and Wylie Coyote had to fight over who got the name Francis or Drake. To my delight, they argued over it.

Twelve years earlier in 1987, Wisp got to relive her just about adolescent days back at Madam Bobari's Boarding School for Children Suffering from Creepy Child Syndrome just east of New Orleans, Louisiana. Francis (Curtis) would be a latent shape-shifter, that always turned into a red panda when he had epileptic seizures. Coyote would have Drake be a mute child that liked to examine floor tiles, while his inner self raged to attain its telepathy and precognitive powers.

Sam, the magic janitor

Of course, our trio of misfits in a schools filled almost entirely of misfits, started a food fight in Home Economics class and ended up in detention, their task to clean up the class room by 6:30pm before Mister Feinman came back. Sam the magical janitor appeared and just didn't think it right that his favorite kids had to toil away their childhoods on such a nice day. He'd let them sneak out the back and he'd clean the classroom for them. While sneaking out, they'd see the purple '84 Ford Fairmont station wagon, with a gold star on the back passenger-side door, that could only mean something officious. Three adults would step out and make their way to Mdm. Bobari's office.

1987 Professor Hemm, pre-doctorate Gonzo, and Shazahim
The Meddlers of the 80-90s mystical Scrapiverse

The trio of pre-teen angst decided that heading to the arcade in town to play Atari's Joust was too far away to get back on time.  So they decided to walk through a hitherto unnoticed nature trail that adjoined their prison-like school with the nearby Valley Beach, also nicknamed "Voodoo Bay." At the beach, they'd meet the slightly older, probably around 14 or 15 year-old, Rachel. She'd offer them a joint, which only Francis would accept. She'd also introduce them to her Surf Shop-owning boyfriend Charlie Boy.

Now Charlie Boy being over 21 wouldn't allow the tweens showing up at his shop to smoke pot or grab a beer like his girlfriend Rachel did as she walked into the store. He would though insist that everyone learn how to surf, the tide was just right. Only Sabrina, Wisp, would be able to resist the man's charms and don a swimsuit and grab a kid-sized board. While surfing Francis would show amazing skill at surfing avoiding a shark that would appear out of nowhere. It was Drake though that would actually have to jump that same shark and score even more cool points. Even Sabrina, skulking on the beach, had to admit that they were having a good time. It was time to head back to the school as not to get caught being away and getting Sam, the magical janitor, in trouble. Charlie Boy would move in a little too close to Sabrina inviting the three back to their "New Moon Sock Hop" the next night.  The younger, burgeoning woman remembered that he had a girlfriend already, supposedly, and nonchalantly say, "Maybe."

Cthul... err Charlie Boy

Of course the kids would sneak out the next day, a moonless Friday the 13th. And the party would be awesome. Rachel was the hostess while Charlie Boy was dealing with some rough edge older types on the other side of the surfboard-laden alcove. Even I was enjoying the teen drama of beach party inhibitions, dancing, and almost some teen first kiss romance going on. As things started to move into the deep party after midnight, Charlie Boy would saddle up to the fire where all the kids where at, and Rachel would fold into his arms and then on his lap, while Drake would get his first taste of adult emotional control-- he wouldn't be jealous and pout. After a few laughs Rachel would produce a guitar and start singing. Her man would find his bongos and accompany her. Any tenseness would be released from everybody around the fire pit.

Francis would be able to shape-shift for the first time under his own control. Sabrina would be making illusions and even smiling once in a while. Drake would find his telepathy powers and he and Sabrina would remake the Aha music video Take On Me. Everyone was exploring their powers for the first as they danced, entranced by the beautiful yet degenerate music of Rachel Song of Ryleh and Charlie Cthulhu Boy. Sadly, Drake would notice what time it was, AFTER 3 AM, and drag the other two back to their boarding school. Francis was particularly recalcitrant. Sabrina would tease him about this by giving him a Charlie Brown head.
And it would be that big head that was the key to the next act.


As our protagonists would be sneaking back, the three odd balls from the purple Fairmont, a Professor Hemm and his two associates, would show back up at the Boarding School. They were metaphysicians looking for the transdimensional vandals that were seeking to weaken our dimension's boundaries. The three of them were employed as sub-contractors for Reagan Era meta-human truancy agency, so a few collections of errant school kids wouldn't hurt.  In short, they were looking for Cthulhu Boy and Song of Ryleh and bringing in troubled kids on the verge of delinquency only helped their paychecks. They saw the enormous head of Francis Beast Boy waddling through the foliage just beyond the football field of the school, and knew they were onto something. Gonzo, Professor Hemm's intern, would break down into five different human forms and start the operational skirmish.

What was supposed to happen:
The kids were supposed to flee back to the beach, leaving the door to the psychic pathway that they had found to Cthulhu Boy and Song of Ryleh open. The Meddlers, Professor Hemm, Gonzo, and Shazahim, would follow them through it. On the beach a metaphysical battle would ensue. Shazahim would transform into Cosmo (Shazam without a cape) and start fist fighting the juggernaut Cthulhu Boy. Professor Hemm and Song of Ryleh could work their more mental magicks against one another. Gonzo would provide the five body guards for the riff-raff around the seductive duo of the villains of the episode.
If our protagonists started trying to help Cthulhu Boy and Song of Ryleh, Sam the magical janitor would appear. He'd explain to them that he was Samedi Sam, a one time hoodlum now destined to guard of the gates of life while dwelling in the paths of death. He had to use the PCs as bait for the dimensional criminals of Cthulhu Boy and Song, as Song of Ryleh prefers to be called. The Baron of Saturdays would profusely apologize, and try to get the kids to follow him back to the boarding school. Upon any resistance two white vans would pull up and a gaggle of clowns would apprehend the PCs to get them out of harm's way.

Samedi Sam is a complicated man

As it happened:
Our PCs recognizing authority figures on the school grounds, went not only into stealth mode, but stealth and get back to bed before getting caught mode. Only Francis, who would've thought that would happen to him, would get caught. And Professor Hemm, Gonzo, and Shazahim would convince the lad into showing them where the path was. That is instead of mind-raping him, which I as the GM was totally going to do to develop "character". Meanwhile Drake would be trying to mentally telegraph warnings to to Rachel and Charlie Boy, using his still very new powers.

Drake would fall into sleep. He'd dream out a scene where Shazahim and Cthulhu Boy duked things out, Gonzo'z clones fought any nearby followers, while Song and Professor Hemm slung spells at each other. In the end, the authorities won, and Cthulhu Dawn never happens. He'd then be awakened to be summoned to Prinicpal's office for sneaking out the night before.  He'd be there with Sabrina and Francis.

Francis, becoming quite the cable ruffian, would concoct a true 90s yarn about the the three of them being convinced to leave their beds by Professor Hemm.  We'd then go into abbreviate role-playing, called roll playing, that go into the next few months of media exposure and how things panned out. Calling on his Reagan Administration and IPAC contacts Shazahim, would get all charges dropped. Gonzo and Drake would have a special psychic link from then on though. It would not be based on friendship either...