The Tyrant's Crew - Enter Miss Kitty (An Episode 1 Interlude)

Saturday's session was a stupid amount of fun. I can't stress what a great job Barb did on the thing, especially at the short notice he had to get it running. His love for the subject matter is clear, and he and he and I riff off each other ridiculously well as it is.

But I have a confession to make. I left a chat window open during the game. Yes, this is horrible, terrible, unforgivable behavior for a player of a tabletop game.. but I did.. and I'm not sorry.

I'm not sorry mostly because the resulting chat was hilarious. I was messaging back and forth with a girl named Kate. The resulting transcript of that conversation is as follows:

Kate:
Fix your goddamned spaceship.
WHY DON'T YOU FIX THE SPACESHIP I NEED TO GET MY HAIR DID.

Me:
Yes dear.

Kate:
THANKS, JEEZ.
Oh that made me laugh too much.

Me:
We're supposed to get paid 200k for this job, you know, if we don't all die.

Kate:
WHY DIDN'T YOU HAVE A JOB BEFORE NOW.

Kate:
YOU'RE THE WORST SPACE PIRATE.
MY MOTHER WAS RIGHT ABOUT YOU.
I'm so sorry.

Me:
You wanna leave, woman, the airlock's right there. Your ass can hitchhike back to Dixie for all I care.

Kate:
YOU RUINED MY ONLY SPACESUIT IN YOUR LAST JOB.

Me:
IT MADE YOU LOOK FAT ANYWAY.

Kate:
WHY SHOULD I CARE WHAT I LOOK LIKE WHEN YOU ALWAYS WEAR THAT HAT.

Me:
Woman, you come between a man and his hat you won't like the answer.

Kate:
Wow.
I have no comeback.

I'm pretty sure that means I won.

I confessed my chatting-during-the-game sins to the group and pasted it to them. They got a kick out of the conversation though. And then the magic happened.

What I love about this group is how quickly we come up with canon. It was quickly established that Kate was, in fact, an NPC in our game. After kicking some stuff back and forth with Barbarossa, we wound up making her the Madam of a brothel and saloon -- that was one giant space station, kept completely off any official records or charts. She pays good money to keep it that way. As a result, it's a popular and lucrative watering hole for pirates, outlaws, smugglers and other ne'er-do-wells to blow off steam, indulge in a few vices, pick up jobs and stock up on uncommon goods. We wound up dubbing the station The La Grange, which happens to be both an astronomical term and a ZZ Top song about a whorehouse. Sealing the deal, we wound up calling her Miss Kitty, which is both the most cliche possible name for an old west prostitute and fairly close to the name of the inspiration anyway.

The relationship between her character and mine is just what one might expect given what started the idea. The characters both love each other—and hate each others guts. It's always a warm reception on arrival followed shortly after by one of us threatening to shoot the other. I have a thing for damaged relationships.

Further backstory revealed that it as actually Miss Kitty who gave me The Tyrant's Fear in the first place. She was in some (currently undefined but potentially life-threatening) trouble with the law (or perhaps Hegemony forces?) that I saved her from. She acquired the ship herself after a man mistreated one of her girls and she had him thrown in an airlock. Turns out he liked breathing more than flying, and offered to turn her over by way of recompense. Not being one who liked feeling as though she remained in anyone's debt, she passed the the ship on to me to square our account.

The La Grange is now unofficial home port of The Tyrant's Fear, Miss Kitty some cross between patroness, ally, and walking plot-hook.

I look forward to seeing what Barb has in store.