Tome 4 - Conviction

Template:Unreleased Archive Content Tome 4 - Conviction is the Tome that accompanies the Fourth Rift in Template:IconLink and is to be released on 29 July 2020.

Overview

The Characters chosen for this Tome are Ace Visconti, Meg Thomas, Philip Ojomo (The Template:IconLink), and Lisa Sherwood (The Template:IconLink).

Memories & Logs

Lisa Sherwood: Stroke of Luck

Memory 1702

"Don't play with powers you don't understand!" Lisa's grandmother scolds her for scratching a symbol into her textbook for good luck. Lisa apologises for snooping through her things. She just wanted to know more about the old village-town and the stories of witches and cannibals that were burned alive or chased out. She heard her mother say her grandmother had come across several books written in an unknown language with strange symbols.

Her grandmother warns her to stay away from her books. "You can attract great misfortune to yourself and others!" Lisa wants to laugh but doesn't. She was just messing around and doesn't really believe in all this superstitious nonsense. "No such thing as witches and cannibals, Gran. I was just hoping for a little luck on my algebra test. No harm, no foul." Her grandmother tells her the symbol she sketched was the very one she had used long ago to turn a cannibal into a gnarled, twisted, swamp tree covered in putrid, black ooze. It's so ridiculous Lisa wants to burst out laughing, but she contains herself as she listens to her tale of cannibals and missing children. When her grandmother finishes her story, Lisa hugs her and kisses her soft, wrinkled forehead. "Don't worry, Gran... I'm not going to turn into a swamp-tree or be kidnapped by a bunch of cannibals."

Memory 1703

Lisa doesn't know if it's the symbols on her book or some kind of placebo effect... but her maths scores are improving. Not as much as they should be, but still... she's passing, and passing is an improvement. Her friend Pam says it's all malarkey. There's no such thing as lucky symbols that can raise your grade. It's all smoke and mirrors. Unfounded, ancient superstition. Jokingly Pam says she wants better marks, too. She grabs Lisa's textbook and copies the symbol in her school agenda several times. Lisa feels a tug in her gut, and she stares at the symbols with concern. "You really shouldn't do that!" She yanks her textbook back from Pam. "You shouldn't mess with powers you don't understand!" Pam laughs. "What's the problem, Lisa? If these things can help you pass maths, they can help me pass English, too. No big deal!"

Memory 1704

Pam begs for another symbol or charm to help her on a test she isn't ready for with a teacher she despises. A teacher she ridicules for being an overweight, pill-popping bore. Lisa refuses to entertain the idea and tells her she's not allowed to look at her grandmother's secret book, let alone share its contents with strangers. Pam shrugs and proceeds to scratch a symbol on her arm with a toothpick. She asks if Lisa heard what happened to the woman near the school. Lisa shakes her head. Pam laughs as she draws blood with the toothpick. "Dumb ass walked into the street while reading and splat! Crushed by a truck! Come!" She flicks the toothpick to the ground, grabs Lisa's wrist and leads her to a road a few blocks from the school. Lisa covers her nose and can smell the fermenting human fluids in the cracks of the pavement. Pam points out blood stains and clumps of hair in the road and makes jokes at the dead girl's expense. Lisa grabs her wrist angrily. "You mustn't laugh at the dead!" Pam yanks her wrist away. "Stop being creepy, Lisa. It's not like she's still around to get offended... besides... your symbols got me covered with all kinds of luck!"

Lisa stares at Pam's arm with concern and hopes the dead girl's spirit didn't take offence. Her grandmother says sometimes spirits linger, especially when they don't want to be dead. Last thing she needs is some dark force following her for the rest of her life.

Memory 1705

Pam's English teacher died of unknown causes and Pam's dancing with joy, relieved she doesn't have to do his stupid test on some irrelevant dead author. "I don't care what English teachers say, James is unreadable and confusing - a pseudo-intellectual who kept everything vague because he didn't actually know what the hell he was talking about!" Lisa shrugs, disagrees, but doesn't want to get into it with her friend - her annoying friend. She likes his books, the way his style allows her to live in his character's head for a little while. She finds his novel about an artist to be a fun, formless, dream-like stew with plenty of style and substance. But what does she know, she's only sixteen, and her English marks are below average. Pam hoots and hollers, and with a mischievous smile, she reveals a hand covered with ink-smudged, symbols. "Best luck in the world! No test! No lard ass! No dead authors for the rest of the year! Thanks, Lisa!" Lisa stares at the symbols on her hand and wants to yell at her for being so careless with things they both don't fully understand. She closes her eyes and hopes her English teacher wants to be dead and that he isn't lurking about.

Memory 1706

The class is at the funeral out of respect for their beloved English teacher. The pallbearers struggle and strain under the weight of the coffin. Pam leans toward Lisa and whispers how lucky she is and how unlucky the poor pallbearers are to have to lift such a heavy coffin. "Imagine having to carry that lard-ass to his grave!" Lisa nudges Pam and tells her to quit it. As the pallbearers approach them she feels a sudden tug in her gut. An instinct tells her to take some distance from her friend. An image of lightning striking Pam flashes through her mind. She wonders if an angry spirit could make that happen. Every muscle, organ, vessel, fried in an instant for her hubris. Pam snaps Lisa out of her thoughts with another tactless comment. Lisa hears her grandmother's voice in her head, telling her that her friend has tempted fate by laughing at someone else's misfortune. For having laughed at the dead. She doesn't really believe in all her grandmother's superstitions... and yet... she inches away from her friend, staring at the darkening clouds, waiting for lightning to strike Pam down.

Ace Visconti: Go For Broke

Memory 2478

Ace rushes into Uh, Ohs sports bar still pumped with the excitement of the mixed martial art title defence he just watched. Female lightweight MMA champion Mika James knocked the challenger out in the first round and now Ace is ready for another thrill. He sits with his buddy Wallace. "Did I miss anything?" Wallace shakes his head. "Nah... they're preparing the bowl now!" Ace laughs out loud: "hilarious! The guy's going to try to swallow a bowl of slugs. Only at Uh, Ohs would they hold such a ridiculous bet!" Wallace nudges Ace and levels a wager. "Ten to one he pukes it out!" Ace looks at the idiot and the bowl of living slugs in front of him. His instincts tell him this guy's actually going to do it. Ace just cleaned Wallace at the MMA fight and he doesn't mind taking more of his money. Ace scrutinises the idiot just to make sure his gut isn't leading him astray. Most people would puke trying to swallow the first slug. But not this guy. This guy knows what he's doing. He's a winning horse. A sure thing. "All right... let's say double our last bet!"

Wallace nods and assures him he's going to lose. Ace smirks. "We'll see about that!" As he stares beyond the idiot preparing to swallow slugs, he's amazed to see Mika James at the bar in her signature tracksuit. They exchange a look. He points at his fan shirt and extends a thumbs-up for a great title defence, but she looks past him as she nurses a beer. Wallace sees Mika and nudges Ace. "She could kick your ass in two licks!" Ace scoffs. "That's a bet you would lose, asshole. I'm double her size and strength!" Wallace snickers. "I say you don't last ten minutes... nah... you wouldn't even last five minutes!" Wallace is talking shit just to talk shit. Before Ace can respond, a bell sounds and everyone goes silent as the idiot lifts the bowl of thick, moist slugs to his trembling lips. Ace stops breathing, narrows his gaze, pulls out his lucky alligator tooth, holds it in his fist, and just knows he's got a winner. In a few short minutes he'll be laughing all the way to the bank. Come on, idiot... swallow those slugs.

Memory 2479

Ace doesn't understand what happened. He had Wallace dead to rights. His winning horse confidently slurped down the slugs one at a time as though he were enjoying a bowl of fresh sushi. Then he stops with the last one dangling out of his mouth... cocky little shit... He smiles and swallows... but the damn slug doesn't go down... not as he planned. Ace can see a lump oozing and squirming down his throat. It slithers down... but it must have tickled his gag reflex or something... because he instantly loses his smile. There's a silence. The idiot begins to squirm uncomfortably in his seat. The crowd goes... Uhh-ohh... and all of a sudden... a projectile of slug-chum shoots out his mouth and Ace hangs his head realising he just lost everything.

Wallace laughs out loud and slaps his back. "Told you so!" Ace doesn't say anything. "Tell you what... double or nothing if you last five minutes with Mika James!" Ace stares up at Wallace. "What's in it for you?" Wallace narrows his gaze. "Your lucky alligator's tooth!" Ace hesitates. Wallace smiles. "What? Thought you were double her size and stronger?" Ace looks at Mika, at Wallace, at Mika again and nods. "I'll knock her out in two minutes and then buy her a drink!" Wallace smiles, stands, and heads over to the manager of the club to make the arrangements. Ace stands and figures he may as well introduce himself to the champ.

Memory 2480

"What the hell was I thinking?" Ace staggers to his wobbly feet. "Oh yeah... I wasn't!" Mika steps toward him. He throws a desperate right. She ducks with a grin. He follows with a left. She sidesteps and he sees black and a few stars fading in and out of existence. "What the hell did she hit me with?" He doesn't know. All he knows is he's on his ass again and his eyelids feel like cement. He forces them open and stares up at the timer. Thirty seconds. "How can that just be thirty-seconds! Either the timer is rigged or time itself has slowed down to an impossible crawl. Shit! I'm in trouble, but I ain't losing my lucky gator's tooth!" He doesn't know much right now, but he knows Mika's got him outclassed in every way except guts and luck. Ace stands on wobbly legs and smiles at one of the dozen Mikas swirling around him. He regards a dozen clocks, narrows his gaze, and calculates. "Four more minutes... I can do this..."

Memory 2481

To be revealed in subsequent Tome Levels.

Memory 2482

To be revealed in subsequent Tome Levels.

Memory 2483

To be revealed in subsequent Tome Levels.

Memory 2484

To be revealed in subsequent Tome Levels.

Meg Thomas: Eat Dust

Memory 548

"Slash tires? Sounds a bit extreme!" Meg regrets showing Coach Jenny how fast she could run during Phys Ed class. She saw something she liked, asked Meg to run, and now she wants her to race at the State Championships. From a virtual nobody to glorified jock almost overnight. New friends, bitter rivals and rumours abound. "Why Meg? Why does she get a free ticket? She never practised, sucked up, or took diet pills to keep her weight in check. Why her? What makes her so special?" The idea of a free ticket makes Meg laugh. No free ticket for her. She's always loved to run, just not in an organised way, and she's quite certain she put more hours into her passion than anyone else on the team.

The team dresses Meg up in bandit costume with black and white stripes like a criminal in a silent film. It's so stupid she wants to scream. Two team members argue over the costume and finally decide on dropping the cliché bandit look for a more contemporary super-villain costume. They make a mask and tell her to slash tires near the police station. Then they exchange anxious looks with one another. Sounds less like initiation and more like a way to get her off the team and into a prison cell. Dana gives her a strange look, a dirty look. Seems like she has an upset stomach, gas even. She hates Meg for beating her time and probably wants to see her locked up. The rest of the team thinks up super-villain names for Meg. "Street Rusher? Super Blaster? Dare Diva? Whatever, they're all stupid! Just choose a name already!"