Casey Jones Rumor Chart
The ornate door creaked pointedly as it opened, and a warm light bled onto the street from the Seven Association’s outpost office, beside the harsh
aroma of a bitter tea. The inside is a gentle if stuffy place, decorated in a formal green, until an electronic crackle breaks through to intrude on its tranquil atmosphere. “Hello? Is this the place for the fixer interviews?”
“…Yes. You’re Mr. Jones, Grade 2, aren’t you? We’re willing to offer payment if you’ll answer a few questions regarding other notable fixers, and general points of interest. Please, take a seat.“
A lopsided dull chrome head pushes through the doorway, taking several clattering steps before letting out a synthetic sigh as Casey sat in the upholstered armchair. Two sets of arms unfurl, the lower resting down on the cushioned frame while the upper met to furl together in front of his chest.
“Right then, what do you need to know?”
Fixers
Mars Valentinus (Office of the Same Name)
“That’s about the first question to ask, isn’t it? He’s really not so bad as people think. A little worse sometimes, a lot worse every so often, but it’s not like he kills everyone he meets.”
A static chuckle breaks through the center of his cone.
"I wish I could say he's a good one under all the grime, especially after he dug me out of my own mess, but... Hey. He's a Color. Colors are what Colors do."
Something approximate to a sigh crackles out.
“It’s funny really, working right beside one of them. My Ma told me stories about them when I was little, hyped them up as bogeymen to keep me from doing bad in school and getting shipped off to the Backstreets. Well, here we are now. Shipped off to the Backstreets, to find out those stories weren’t the half of it.”
One of his arms turns inward, pressed against his chest as his head bows for a moment.
“Sorry Ma. I know you did your best.”
And then, almost inaudibly-
“But I just had to aim for more.”
Shiina (Shi Association)
“Too close to be a coincidence, isn’t it? That ‘Shiina’ works for the ‘Shi’ Association, that they 'just so happened’ to see potential in her off a chance meeting? Here’s my theory, there’s no way they didn’t make her. You’ve heard the lengths those folks’ll go to get a clean kill, haven’t you? I don’t know who founded the group or if they’re still around, probably by design, but if you were an elite organization of killers for hire, wouldn’t you want another copy of the guy who started it? Or... the girl?” The siren tilted slightly, as if to mime a raised eyebrow. "Hence, the hokey back story. They can't let it get to the Head that they're cloning living people, but they can't pass up the opportunity."
“… And your feelings on Shiina herself, Mr. Jones?”
“Oh. She’s a swell girl. Cannonball found her on a walk once and they hit it off. I’d trust his gut more than I’d trust my own eyes somedays. Met her on the field a little while after, and she had eyes like a devil. Wide as dinner plates, y’know? Seemed jittery. You think those Shi guys drug themselves up before a fight? A couple of my friends back in the ‘Corp used to.”
His shoulders slump, creaking slightly.
“Though, I guess they didn’t do it just to fight better.”
Natalie (Dove Office)
“I dabble in a bit of unarmed CQC, more popular than you’d think back in the ‘Corp, but I wouldn’t bank on it like the Doves do. Hard to wrap your head around, making it all the way up to a Color fighting like that. Or maybe it’s only natural that someone swinging Fixer work with fists would get strong enough? Doesn’t really matter. What does matter though, is that ‘left hook’ of hers. I’ve seen some messed up lookin’ meat while I was-”
He… coughs? A blunt, metallic sound that his raised elbow does nothing to cushion, eclipsed as it is by his ‘mouth’.
“-while on the job with Mars I mean. That is, just to say that I’m familiar with the such, y’know? Just forget about it. Girls got a chip on her shoulder bigger than any freaky-deaky mutant arm could cover for anyway.”
Alma, The Blue Ringmaster
“New Blue, same as the old Blue. I kid, I kid, but it’s kinda funny how that goes sometimes, isn’t it? Good on her for having compassion, but there’s no hope in it. Even a thinking monster is still just a monster. Best thing to do is return them to the soil, and hope they'll be born again as people in the next go around.”
Alm Claude “Penumbra” Faith (Zwei)
“It’s kinda like cheating, isn’t it? Calling yourself a shade of light so no one calls you a Color? Ain’t colors, literal colors I mean, just shades of light to begin with?” Waving his top right and bottom left arms, he dismisses the thought.
“Sorry, sorry. I get distracted sometimes. Mars likes to gossip from time to time, and he doesn’t think too highly of her. Thinks she’s scared, and I halfway believe him. I don’t know a lot of Grade 1 Fixers who wear full plate armor, after all.” He peels back a sleeve and taps the exposed metal, sounding off a slight ‘ting’ that bounces off the mellow green walls. “Not like I can talk though, eh?”
Leaning back on that comment, he finishes his thoughts simply.
“She probably just wants to see her kids make some grandkids before she kicks it. Nothing wrong with that, just a weird profession if you want a happy family. She is married, ain’t she? Maybe that’s why she’s so krickity, never got to live the Wing dream.”
A brief pause as the interviewer lets him ramble, confused but professional, before Casey continues with a self-amused tone.
“Think I could set her up for dinner with Mars? Might mellow them both out.”
Ji Jeong-Hui
“Ji… Ji…”
He appeared lost in thought for a moment, before snapping upwards with a finger pointed forward at the realization.
“OH! Ji Jeong! The hammerhead!”
His faux-maw let out a shrill whistle before continuing.
“It’s a nasty business, Nail addiction. I’ve got… my own personal issues with N-Corp of course, but even if it weren’t for the chrome-dome I’d still have an open bone to pick over that. Seen too many buds back at the ‘Corp go nutty chasing lives they never lived, people they never met, to ever touch the stuff. As for the guy himself…”
The interview gestured for him to continue, hoping to hear something she didn’t already know.
“…Eh. Only saw him once. I was out with Mars at the time and he gave him this real funny look, the kind you give a funny looking bug you’ve never seen before, then just laughed it off. I’m pretty sure there’s something hinky going on there, but the guy’s got his own things to deal with. No good in chasing another man’s ghosts for him.”
Syndicate
Ava (The Scales)
“I’m not much of a gambling man, and I wouldn’t like to end up one, so I try to keep away from her end of the world. There’s been a few close calls though, because for some reason Cannonball keeps running off to beg for food whenever he sees one of her lackeys. I know they keep coins for good luck, so maybe it’s the smell?”
“Of… the coins?”
“Yeah, he gets in a mood sometimes, starts licking at metal. I think getting fed by prosthetic hands did something to his instincts.”
Artificer (Singular)
Milo (Back-of-a-Van Workshop. Milo Atelier)
“Pft. No. I’ve never called him for a check-up. Don’t intend to neither. I’ve heard what he gets up to on his off hours, and if he’s scamming people as a side hustle, he’ll be scamming people in his main gig too.” He leaned back again, brushing off his coupled shoulder.
“I don’t like the folks behind it, but W-Corp engineering is the finest in the City. No doubting it. A two-bit conman like him would be lost like a butcher in a ballroom poking around under this chassis.”
Instructions were to allow the subject to speak with minimal prompting, but there was a curiosity sparked by such blunt refusal to an otherwise reputable business. It deserved a quick question.
“Are you referring to his work as a Fixer, Mr. Jones? His work with-“
Distortions
“Ain’t real. Simple as.”
The interviewer paused for a moment.
“Sir?”
“Distortions. They ain’t real. Just hallucinations, or freaky critters the ‘Corps cook up, or drugged out nutjobs, plus a few full on monsters that fall out of… y’know. Here or there. Each and every one has a reasonable answer that ain’t ‘some fry-cook had a reeeeeeeeeally bad day, so he turned into a chicken made of teeth. No, it was a K-Corp GMO gone wrong. Just makes more sense, doesn’t it?”
His Mycelial Majesty
“Probably some kind of fungal bioweapon, or just a bad strain of hallucinogens. It’s no surprise they’d see a man in a two-piece after konkin’ out, everyone important and anyone else is wearing one these days, but after the first few appearances the story gets out and now everyone is primed to hallucinate him. It’s just psychology.”
Emma, The Shadow Queen
“Spooky story, but is there any proof of it being something supernatural? Stepping back, it just seems like an especially clever butcher’s honeypot. Send out a lady with no weapons, let good Samaritans and rival butchers follow her back to you. Explains the “monstrous shadow” too, it’s just the big guy behind her closing the lid on his goose trap.”
Funeral Rites
“I… I’m not sure why she’s listed here on the question sheet with the rest of these. Funny title, but she’s just a young lady with some funny ideas about death. Well, “just a young lady” is a bit off the mark, she can swing pretty high cuff from what I’ve heard, but still. Dressing fancy and hosting the occasional tea-party doesn’t make you a monster.”
Skin Bible
“Psycho cultists. That’s all it is. Just the thing the District needed though, right? First they’re eating each other for fun, now they’re tanning hides to scribe biblature into. At least the cannibals are getting something material out of their degeneracy, whoever’s printing these is seemingly just doing it for fun.”
Feathers
Wilfrid (W-Corp)
“Right. Old boss. Not quite the same as the new boss. Well, I call him the ‘old boss’, but I never worked directly under him or anything. I don’t know if anyone did or where he actually worked, but he’d be around every so often. Presented a couple employee of the month rewards too. I can’t really go into what he did in a day, non-disclosure and all, but he always made me a little uneasy. Felt like he always knew the right thing to say, even to people he’d never met. Freaky.”
Haneul Vierodt (W-Corp)
“Yeah, the butcher of butchers. A real Samaritan, ain’t she?”
“Mr. Jones, you are aware that her policies specify live capture, aren’t you?”
“And what do you think she does with them after she catches them? Three square meals a day with parole on good behavior? Most merciful thing a man can do is chop up the cooks before she finds them herself.”
He makes a sharp sideways gesture with both right hands.
“Don’t tell anyone I said that, off the record and all. Heard she’s lobbying for new taboo’s, and I don’t want it coming down on the Office.”
A pause, before a light record scratch. A scoff?
“The Backstreets ain’t gonna get better without some real help. And it’s real rich to think change will come from W-Corp of all places.”
Another pause, before he continues quietly.
“…She has a cute cat though. Saw it on the internet. Handsome little guy.”
Azrael (X-Corp)
He glanced from side to side for a moment, making a show of faux conspiracy, before gesturing the interviewer forward.
“…Alright. Lean in close for this, I’ve got some insider info on this one. You know how W-Corp partners with R-Corp, yeah? I only ever fought beside them once, but I’ve still got a feel for how they operate, and how they flunk out!”
He snaps his fingers, the long digits scraping over one another with excitement.
“That’s the important bit here. Because I ~recognize~ something there, it’s the horns, brother. Big old skull tumors, same as the Reindeers have, just shaved down. Y’know what those horns do? That’s where all the funky powers come from. They can rip a man in half with their minds, but it’ll split their own head in half- metaphorically that is. They're wracked by migraines, all hours of the day. Honest, I’ve seen born killers bent over themselves, clutching their heads and screaming death in the breakin’ room. Freaky.”
“Don’t you mean the ‘breakroom’?”
“…Nah. Don’t worry about it. ‘Corp business.”