Sugar Shack 36: Exile Contact Missions: Grisaille: Generic Violence
Grisaille quietly holds a lonely court in a corner of one of MegaCity’s most swinging clubs, The Succubus, at -676, -6, 157. He seems young, confident, and violent, as though he’s trying to prove something. Yet he has little personality, really. He is a dapper cipher: mayhem wrapped in mystery in a suit. Unlike many clubs, Succubus has real personality in décor and theme, with its sultry candles and festive tombstones, and much could have been done with this to give him a backstory, or some motivation. For example:
“Silver once ragged on me, saying I was the most lifeless noob he had ever seen. Well, there is life in lifelessness, and I set out to be as energetically lifeless as possible. That’s why I have the tombstones and the mood candles. They burn forever without going out. That’s me! Have a drink!”
Or
“I saw all the undead and the vampires and the lupines, and stuff, and I wanted something that would attract them in for parties and off-site business meetings. So I went with the succubus theme, the tombstones, the red lights, and the candles and all. It’s way classier than some dump like Parallaxis or Jacob’s Ladder, don’t you think?”
1. Fade Away
Word, it seems, has gotten around (“Ah, so you’re that Sugaree person I’ve been hearing so much about. Well, time to prove your worth”) and he is ready to give me something substantial to do. No simple drop off a package mission here! Like many an Exile, Grisaille has a low boiling point, and the instant you talk to him, he starts blathering about revenge, “take them out, chip chop”. The targets have been tailed from Club Dante to some no-name place, where they are unknowingly waiting for their doom, perhaps planning their IRA contributions for the year. As the dust settles at the end, Grisaille nods approvingly, “Very well done, Sugaree. If you can do that, you can do anything.” Yah! Say it again!
2. A Quiet Conversation
Grisaille needs to have an Exile brought to him for a conversation about some information. As usual, the target is confident in her guards, and as usual her confidence is misplaced. She acquiesces, accompanies you, and soon finds herself in front of one of Grisaille’s agents. Fear dawns across her face. “Don’t fret, love. It’ll be over soon” he reassures her. Grisaille tells me to rest up and come to see him soon. What a guy! If you think that this mission is almost identical to Thallia’s last mission, you would be right.
3. Silent Scream
Nice title! This is perhaps the most ostensibly ambitious mission Grisaille gives you, but also the easiest. No that I am complaining, mind you! The target is Dynamic Network Products, guarded by machine enforcers. All we have to do is drop off a package, get a virus, drop off the virus, and flee. Quite straightforward, and you do not even have to kill everyone there! What’s not to like? The only thing is, what does Grisaille have against DNP? It all seemed quite unmotivated, like someone took a standard mish and threw it in here as filler. Perhaps he is doing this for someone else? As a favor? Because he owes them? Alas, there is no sign that such depth exists in Grisaille.
4. The Rest Is Silence
Remember the Exile we brought in two missions ago? Well, her value has come and gone, and now it is time for her to return to the Source. I fought my way through her new crop of guards only to be confronted by Grisaille’s sister, Rose! She has taken my target under her protection, it seems, and gives me a message for my employer: he cannot make his problems go away by killing innocents. Then, politely: “I suggest you leave, Sugaree…there is no reason for you to come to harm because of my brother’s actions.” After working with so many psychos and sociopaths recently, it was exquisite to bump into compassion. It must be a bug. Grisaille reassured me, “Not your fault”. Reasonableness must run in their family!
5. The Quiet Place
Like every Exile, Grisaille seems to have an inexhaustible supply of enemies, and now the time has come for the Crow Bars to embrace eternity. They all talked big, and they all went down noisily. I walked out into the smoky Stamos moonlight, carefully putting away my guns, smoothing my coat, thinking what to do next. Drinks? Gossip? Perhaps some blue rezzing? I decided to start with a smoke as I contemplated our unknown future. After the first, best long drag, I took a final call from Grisaille: “Feels good to work out your frustrations, huh?” He’s unflappable!
So, in conclusion, Grisaille’s missions lack any sort of a theme or driving pre-occupation as so many others do, such as the Chef and Lotus. No connection between him and his setting seems evident at all; this is true though, for most Exiles, and may not be held against him. It is merely a generic missed opportunity. On the positive side, the escort mission was not as diabolically difficult as so many others are, and the surprising conclusion of the fourth mission was pleasant. As most people doing missions are looking for action, Grisaille will certainly not disappoint them.
This review may be found at manifoldmischief.blogspot.com, along with other reviews and writings relevant to MxO.
