Media Blackout

## Premise

Brittney has unfinished business with Nightlight. She'll do what she needs to do to get answers.

## Cast

* Brittney Megan Bronson (Talatala)
* Nightlight (kt)
* Roadkill (Zen)

## Plot Summary

Late the night of Ask-a-lotl, Brittney sends a message to the Hellspring City blog posing as Omen and requesting another meeting with Nightlight. Brittney suggests meeting in the same alleyway, but Nightlight requests the meeting be moved to a place near the bridge in Endsville, and Brittney agrees. Both of them try to be stealthy arriving at the meeting place, but they spot each other easily. Nightlight starts backing away when they see Brittney instead of Nikola, but Brittney restrains them with her Maximilian's Earthen Grasp tentacle, which rises up out of Nightlight's shadow.

Brittney approaches the now-restrained Nightlight, who is panicking and angry. Another, sharper tendril rises from Nightlight's shadow to their throat and Brittney threatens that they shouldn't struggle or she might hurt them. Nightlight says she already has hurt them, Brittney apologizes, and the tentacles rearrange so they're not constricting Nightlight as much and they won't take more bludgeoning damage. Brittney steps forward and pulls down Nightlight's hood and the mask they have on underneath, revealing Lina, who glares at Brittney. In her thoughts, Lina wonders if Brittney is working for Bronson and why she would.

Brittney tells Lina to brace herself, then casts Detect Thoughts on her, which causes Lina's vision to become blurry and filled with hallucinated staring eyes. Brittney first asks for the other people working on the Hellspring City blog, and Lina's thoughts reveal she was the blog's only author, with Roadkill as something of an informant. Lina starts to think of another person, but then makes the Intelligence contest and breaks Brittney's Detect Thoughts. Brittney explains that her goals don't align with those of her allies, and threatens to reveal Nightlight's identity if she doesn't take down the blog, telling her that the mayor has become aware of it. Nightlight doesn't agree, and Brittney further threatens to ruin both Lina's and Roadkill's lives. Lina tries to think of a way out of this, worrying about her parents, and asks how she can trust that Brittney will keep her promise. Brittney says that Lina can't risk the consequences of not going along with her demands, and introduces herself as Penumbra. Lina mocks the name, and Brittney threatens to come find her if she doesn't delete the blog, but Lina remains stubbornly devoted to the website. Brittney casts Suggestion on Lina, instructing her to delete the blog and get rid of all the other information she has, then begins walking away and releases Lina.

Lina fails the save against Suggestion and immediately deletes the blog on her phone, then starts walking deeper into Endsville. This catches Brittney's attention, and she decides to follow Lina out of curiosity. As the two walk, Roadkill drops down behind Brittney from a nearby rooftop and tries to attack Brittney with his claw, but Brittney dodges. Roadkill demands to know what Brittney is doing, and she says she's doing what she has to, and casts Dissonant Whispers on Roadkill. Roadkill retreats, glaring, and demands to know what Brittney did to Lina. Brittney says Lina will be fine in eight hours, then runs off. Roadkill dashes to catch up to Brittney, then tackles her, successfully grappling her and demanding she undo what she did to Lina. Brittney uses her Telekinetic feat to shove Roadkill off of her, then hits him with Tasha's Mind Whip and resumes running towards the bridge. Roadkill continues chasing Brittney.

While running, Brittney hits Roadkill with Dissonant Whispers again, bringing him below half health. Roadkill dashes to catch up with Brittney again, and successfully hits her with his claw, catching her torso inside the claw and grappling her. Brittney keeps her concentration on Suggestion, and lies to Roadkill, saying that if he doesn't let her go, Lina will never recover. Roadkill sees through the deception and tightens his claw, and says that if Brittney won't undo what she did to Lina, he'll do enough damage that she can't maintain it anymore. As he squeezes, Brittney is brought to 1 HP and loses Concentration on Suggestion. Lina finds herself on the verge of burning some papers, which she quickly puts out before pulling up her hood and running back to Roadkill and Brittney.

Roadkill starts pulling Brittney back towards Lina, and Lina runs towards the pair of them. Brittney uses her telekinetic shove again to free herself from Roadkill's claw, with the sound of tearing metal. Brittney starts running away, and Roadkill hesitates to chase after her, but Lina doesn't and prompts Roadkill to also chase. Brittney and Roadkill both cast Expeditious Retreat and dash for the bridge, but with her head start, Brittney makes it there first and Roadkill does not follow her over the bridge into Wellspring City. Lina, when she catches up, also stops at the bridge and does not cross back into Wellspring City.

Brittney sneaks through the city, getting close to Bronson Tower before returning to her normal form. As she stops and the shadows of her mutant form disperse, Brittney looks down and realizes that the last wound caused by pulling free of Roadkill's claw revealed circuits and wiring under her skin. She quickly shoves down her emotions and covers the wound with a jacket before heading into Bronson Tower.

Lina asks if Roadkill is okay, and he nods before asking who Brittney was and what happened. Lina explains what happened, and reassures Roadkill that Brittney did not find out about Robbie, which reassures Roadkill. He says he has a backup drive for the website, but asks if Lina is sure she wants to keep going with the website. She says that she can't trust Penumbra to keep her secret even if she leaves the blog down, and wants to put the website back up with a warning about Penumbra, because the problems with both cities are bigger and more important than herself. Lina also says she will stay in Endsville for the time being to minimize any negative consequences of Penumbra possibly revealing her identity, and Roadkill says if Penumbra comes for Lina he won't let her get away again.

Meanwhile, Brittney makes it back to her room in Bronson Tower and takes off the jacket to get a better look at the wound. She tries to figure out what's going on, and deduces that the Catalyst-V turned her into a robot. She decides this is the rest of the group's fault, but manages to remain relatively calm. She tries to fix up her wound as best she can and then goes to sleep.

While Brittney sleeps, the Hellspring City blog goes back up in a more professional format with all the information Lina had previously taken down at the group's request restored, plus a new warning about Penumbra (though no info about the other members of the party is included).

## Notes

In her mutant form, Brittney uses tendrils from nearby shadows instead of her hands

Lina has been using stilts to make herself look taller in her Nightlight outfit

Lina mocks Brittney's hero name Penumbra by calling her "the numb bitch" instead

At 1HP, the edges of Brittney's shadow form are hazy

The jacket Brittney uses to cover the wound belonged to a former boyfriend

## Art Gallery

Title card, drawn by ktBrittney's new mutant form debuted this game, "Penumbra". Drawn by talatalaBehind the scenes of how Lina wears her Nightlight disguise, drawn by ktBrittney seeing the wiring under her wound, drawn by kt