FOG Prologue: First Record

It all begins with a one-eyed detective named Cassius waking up in his abandoned apartment after six long months of sleep.

## Characters

### Major Appearances

* Cassius
* Arche
* Frelia

### Minor Appearances

* Sarissa
* Gallav
* Alcott

## Summary

### Short Summary

Cassius, our first player character, wakes up "for the first time" with amnesia. Stumbling around his apartment, he finds it scrubbed clean of any indication of who he was. Following his Red String of Fate, he makes his way outside, following it to a strange shop run by a woman named Arche. Inside, he finds the string tied to a beaten-up badge, regaining a faded memory of who it belonged to-- and how much they meant to him.

A year and a half later, Cassius and Arche are friends, sharing their off-time together with their similar "weirdnesses." The two part ways, and we follow Cassius as he goes along his day. After a vaguely ominous yet ultimately disregarded comment from a strange woman, Cassius finds himself before a slowly-growing riot over the malfunction of electronics. As he ponders what to do, some Tempest members approach him. He expects some sort of confrontation, but the superior, Sarissa, simply thanks him for keeping their ranks on their toes by causing trouble. Everyone seems surprised by this. Confusedly flattered, Cassius shakes her hand, which catches her off guard. Something in her demeanor shifts, and she dispels the rowdy crowd with a single command, taking her leave. Cassius feels like he may have just made a mistake.

Heading off, he runs into another figure at the market, a woman named Frelia. Recognizing her as the waitress from his favorite diner, he offers to help her carry her groceries to the church. On their way there, however, they find more Tempest guards harassing some street punks and immediately decide to intervene, disrupting them and helping the punks escape. They make it seem like an accident, but the Tempest don't seem to care too much and almost escalate the situation before another figure, Gallav, swoops in to help. He challenges the Tempest, who seem to be raring for a fight, but Frelia steps in again, announcing her status as the Archbishop and very quickly diffusing the situation, leading her accomplices away.

After chattering about their recent encounter, Gallav decides to run off to buy Cassius juice boxes as thanks for his help around the city as he and Frelia continue to the church. The two talk a bit about their mutual desires to help the city before Frelia remembers she'd forgotten to lock up the diner, and Cassius agrees to go do that for her. There, he finds Arche asleep at one of the otherwise empty tables, and opts to clean the place up a bit. She wakes up just as Cassius finishes, and the two reminisce over their first meeting-- and Cassius reflects on who he's become. He feels proud.

### Extended Summary

The episode starts in a mysterious, ruined space, completely empty other than scattered debris and what appears to be a destroyed building. There, an unknown character begins narrating their situation as they lie on the ground, dying. They seem frustrated but resigned to their fate, yet thankful that their task was done and they were the only casualty.
There, they notice the presence of someone standing over them, almost disappointed. The narrator listens as heated conversation picks up, then someone else speaks up, mentioning that "You know it won't be him, right? Well, *if* it's him. *Because* it's him. He'll be all right." The narrator notices something cold being pressed against them, and their sense of self begins to fade into fog. Their last notion before the flashback stops is: "It was nice working with you, partner."

Cassius wakes up in an empty apartment, completely paralyzed. He notes the strange thought of this being the first time he'd woken up, yet having the understanding of many awakenings before. He notices a strange figure with a deer mask across the room, who makes eye contact with him. The figure motions to him to be quiet, and places a flower on the table before leaving. Cassius watches as the flower ages, and eventually dies, unsure of how much time truly passed. Eventually, he regains the ability to move.

He explores around the apartment, investigating the state of things. As he goes, he notices that he seems to have inherent memory and opinions of where he is, yet knows that the knowledge is not his own. It becomes quickly apparent that his apartment was tampered with while he was out of commission-- it was unusually clean, and some video tapes he'd kept were missing. He was also unable to locate his keys, wallet, phone, or any other necessities.

On his way out, Cassius catches a glance of himself in the mirror and notes that, despite his physical appearance being fundamentally correct, small details seemed inherently *wrong.* His clothes also seemed unnaturally clean, which he notes was generally uncomfortable. He spends a few minutes looking at himself in the mirror, unsettled, before leaving his apartment. He notes that, because of the absence of a key anywhere he felt he would've kept it, someone he knew must've taken it. Yet, he has no memory of anyone within the city.

In the hallway, he notices a door slightly ajar, which leads to an empty room split by a heavy curtain. Peeking behind it, he notices a massive amount of papers scattered about the floor-- tax forms. It appears to be gone through in a rush. Cassius notes that this was "super illegal." He also notices there seemed to be a painting missing on the wall. Unable to do anything more, he left the room.

Following another bit of intuition, he goes off to look for another person, finding a familiar apartment with the door also ajar. He calls out, but no one answers. Walking in, he has the strange, nostalgic sensation that he used to live there. As he investigates though, he feels the presence of someone else in the room. In a moment of incredible Common Sense, he gets the sudden, urgent instinct to run, and promptly does so, closing the door behind him. The rest of his search fruitless, he decides to head outside, unaware of a strange figure behind him.

Outside, he notes that it seemed to be very early in the morning, around twilight. As he looks around outside, however, he quickly notices something is wrong. His senses begin to almost overload, every detail of everything around him blaring all at once. He barely manages to hang on through this onslaught of information, his surroundings flickering as a line flashes within his vision. And all at once, everything clears, a distinct red line comes into focus. The thread seems to run down the street, his only hint forward. And he smiles.

It begins to storm. Following this red string, Cassius enters a strange, unlit shop. He notices someone watching him insistently from across the room. The figure, a rather diminutive woman named Arche, mentions how strange it was to see someone out so late and asks what he was doing. Looking around, Cassius notices an object on the table nearby, the red string connected to it. He feels a strange connection to it, some inherent familiarity he can't quite place. He walks over and picks it up. And he remembers a voice.

"Wow, we both got 'em at the same time, huh? Weird. Both of us? Cops? Oh, well."

"Whatever it takes to protect the city I guess. Corruption or not, people listen to people with a badge."

"I don't wanna end up like them, right? Promise me you won't either." They stumble over their words.

"What I'm saying is, you watch my back, I watch yours." They pin their badges to their chest. "I'm counting on you, Partner. Okay?"

He looks at this object, a badge with a metallic, red substance coated on the back, and a deep slash in the center. And with this memory, Cassius begins to cry.

The narrative jumps forward a year and a half as Arche steps out of a restaurant on Hull Street, a slightly trashy fast food place called The Underworld. She heads off to find Cassius, stopping in front of his apartment as he falls from a tree, completely dazed. Arche rushes over, concerned, only to find that he was completely fine, helping a girl get her balloon down from a tree. He apologizes profusely for scaring her, and they begin to talk as they share lunch.

They head over to Arche's box fort, only to notice that it had been occupied by a rather stubborn kid. The kid seemed perfectly fine with Cassius sitting in the box fort on account of him being "cool," but insists that Arche cannot as she was a "stinky adult." However, after Cassius talks to them, they (tentatively) allow Arche to sit on the fort as well. Arche notes his ability to diffuse situations, but Cassius notes that he just enjoys helping people, and that it wasn't a big deal (despite his status as a bit of a local hero.)

Arche (unsuccessfully) tries to Empathize with him, missing his stance on the services he provides. She notes that people don't tend to want her help. Cassius is entirely confused by this fact. They are, quote, "both weirdos." In turn, Cassius (successfully) Empathizes back, and as Arche notes her difficulty connecting to the citizens of the city as someone not from the country, he assures her that *someone* would appreciate what she offers, even if it's not the same thing that he does. Arche is comforted by his words, and they achieve a Bond Up! They spend more of the afternoon together, until Arche decides to head back to work.

With the day to himself, Cassius heads off to Main Street, and decides to use String of Fate to figure out where to head next. As he does, he notices two Tempest Guards passing by with strings connected to him, who talk to each other about needing to fill a quota. Another string connected to him begins to tug, leading down the street. Unrelated to the red threads, however, he feels a chill presence approach from behind, and an almost saccharine woman says, "Oh, if those memories are getting to heavy for you, I can always take 'em away. I'm friends to people like you. Don't worry about it." Before he can respond, the woman disappears, leaving Cassius rather miffed, but ultimately unbothered. Ignoring this, he heads down Main Street.

In a brief point of view change, the scene switches to a scene of the mysterious woman on the university path, giggling to herself. She seems very pleased, proud of how "cool" her interaction was with a "Good job, Alcott! You did perfectly! Bond up, Alcott!" as a Bond Up screen appears with an icon of herself on both ends. The scene cuts back.

Heading to the top of Main Street, Cassius notices an abundance of Tide's Edge folk, taking note as they seem to talk to each other as he continues following the thread to the disturbance (staving off the temptation to restock on juice boxes.) As he arrives at the scene, he notices a rowdy crowd of people facing a handful of Aranaean guards, squabbling about power issues. He also notices a group of three Tempest members, one in slightly more complex and well-used armor-- and also significantly bigger. They notice him looking and whisper that he'd been an issue to them, and Cassius quickly pretends to not notice them. He begins to walk away, but the larger Tempest member approaches him. As they do, the string Cassius was following grows weaker... and also now leads directly to him.

The Tempest member speaks to him, noting that he was "the one operating off of Shrine Street." They begin to reach out a hand, Cassius reaches out in kind to shake it. The two smaller guards seem confused by this notion. The bigger of the group expresses gratitude that Cassius was keeping the Tempest groups on their toes, operating where they could not. Cassius, who despises Aranea and its mercenary groups, gives a tentative thanks for the compliment.

With a successful clash against the Tempest guard (with a maximum roll, no less,) he learns that the bigger of the group was Sarissa the Red, the leader of the Calamity Tempest. She was not reaching out for a handshake, but rather a condescending pat on the head. She notes this handshake with a bit of surprised respect, and apologizes for her condescending attitude. And she turns to the growing crowd, and silences them with a single word, sitting back down as the crowd quickly sorts itself back out, leaving Cassius standing alone in the middle of the street. He notices a string connecting him and Sarissa of a peculiar variety: and he realizes she "kind of wants to fight" him. He quickly decides to go get juice boxes.

Walking into his favorite shop, he runs into a very pink woman with far too many packages-- almost literally. After avoiding knocking her over, he recognizes her as the waitress of his favorite diner, who introduces herself as Frelia. She explains that she was getting groceries for the church, and Cassius decides to help her carry her things. On the way, however, they run into some Tempest Grunts apprehending some street punks. Checking with Frelia, Cassius decides to help out, pretending to trip and spilling apples over the Tempest (with another max roll,) allowing the punks to escape. In doing so, however, the Tempest turn their attention to *them*.

Before anything can happen, though, a booming voice calls from the top of a nearby building, announcing its presence with a flourish of grandeur. A man with a crooked horn jumps down, thanking Cassius and Frelia for helping "his boys," and explains his name was Gallav the Great, the man who runs the street punks on that side of town. Frelia quietly notes that he is insufferable. After awkwardly proclaiming them part of his group, he begins to confront the Tempest guards. Thinking quickly, Frelia asks Cassius to play along with a plan to get them out of this situation by acting as confused as possible. Cassius agrees without question.

Frelia steps forward, announcing that she was the current archbishop of Indigo. Cassius is, genuinely, confused. Frelia gives him an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Announcing Cassius and Gallav her associates, she declares that this would be a factional issue if they were not allowed to pass. The Tempest quickly back off. Gallav compliments her on her lying once they were safely away from the Tempest, and Frelia reveals that it technically wasn't a lie, as she was the only one left for the position.

Continuing, albeit confusedly, on their way, Gallav and Cassius bond over their disdain for Tempest, and Gallav reveals that he knows Cassius well because of how much he helps in the area. In return for his help, Gallav offers to buy him more grape juice and runs off. Cassius and Frelia begin to chat again as they head through the 13th Ward and into the Cathedral District where their destination lies. They explore the church (complete with a very pink soup kitchen/hostel, and a cathedral full of live trees growing through the roof,) and Cassius offers to help her out after noticing how much work was on her shoulders, and she gratefully accepts.

Heading to her room (which is also incredibly pink,) they begin to talk about their encounter and Cassius' state of mind, and Frelia (unsuccessfully) attempts to Empathize with him, and to help reach out to Old Town to help ease his workload. In response, he (successfully) attempts to Empathize with her as well, as she talks about how hard she tries to help people around the city. He assures her that he appreciates her efforts, and they achieve a Bond Up! As they talk, however, Frelia realizes she forgot to lock up the diner, but has to watch the soup kitchen. Cassius offers to lock up for her, and she gratefully agrees.

On his way over, he runs into Gallav again, who is hauling a large crate in a hurry, which is revealed to be full of grape juice. After a quick back-and-forth, Gallav runs to deliver the crate to his apartment. Running over to the diner, he does a quick check to make sure everything is in line, noticing Arche asleep on the table, and Frelia's pet kirin watching him carefully. He nervously approaches and, upon being given permission by the kirin, gives it pats. He then begins to clean up the diner. The kirin approves of this. When he finishes, he and Arche begin to talk about how they first met.

As they talk, Cassius thinks back on everyone he'd helped that day, noticing that the job he takes every day to help people gives him a sense of warmth, despite everything he'd been through. He begins to feel like he's regained a part of himself, revealing his class name: Wannabe Hero. And Cassius feels proud.

End of Session.