#1 of 7 games played at GenCon:

I started out the weekend with a nice, small game with two other players.  I'm pretty dang sure that I know their names, but somewhere in the many names that I think I know I'm sure to have made a mistake, so I'm going to leave everyone anonymous in all my reports.  Anyway, I got a chance to pitch Misery Bubblegum, which is always fun:  Basically, it's shojo manga fun, with the romance and the uncertainty, and the tragic inaction and shy reserve.  Whee!  

We decided, mutually, that though the game isn't about bang-smash violence, we wanted to play out our story in the presence of bang-smash violence.  As such, we decided that we would play teenagers who had been trained from an early age (quite possibly from birth) to be assassins and all around covert-ops.  We made up our characters:  (1) Junoichi, our in-your face kung-fu guy.  (2) Ryu, our reserved but determined guns-guy and all around sniper and (3) my character, Reika, the girl who sits back in the panel van and coordinates the movements with her real-time hacking of security systems and electronics.

Junoichi's dream was to fight someone for fun/recreation, rather than having to kill them ... and specifically, he wanted to fight Ryu.  He blamed Reika for making that impossible, since she was always being controlling and mission oriented.  Reika's dream was to have just one date with Junoichi and do normal teenage stuff ... maybe even a kiss!  She blamed Ryu for making that impossible, since he was always there, stopping them from having any private time.  Ryu's dream was to get Reika and himself entirely out of Company control, and make a life with her.  He blamed Reika for making this impossible, because she's too uptight.

We had three scenes, a few flashbacks, and three major heartbreak moments.

First scene:  We assaulted the living hell out of a corporate office tower, which may (or may not) have actually had bad-guys in it.  Folks were charmingly unconcerned with the really questionable briefing that I handed them, and that was cool.  Junoichi immediately went off plan and got into a big fight.  Reika freaked out at the danger he was putting himself into, and started yelling in Ryu's ear to shoot pretty much everything that moved.  Junoichi told Ryu that it was under control, and Ryu held off, letting Junoichi kick ass and take risks.  When Junoichi actually fought his way clear, Reika expressed her immense relief over the headsets.  "Oh, thank God you're all right, you had me so worried," etc., etc.  Junoichi just responded "Ryu ... thank you for understanding me."  Gah!  SCREW YOU JUNOICHI!  REIKA LOVES YOU, YOU DOLT!

I always want to protect ... well ... pretty much everyone in my Misery Bubblegum games.  And yet, they all get so hurt.  WAH!

Second scene, some bad guys (probably connected) counter-attacked the van and kidnapped Reika.  Junoichi and Ryu abandoned the mission and went after her.  They had a brief radio conversation (before her earpiece got snatched) in which Ryu expressed that nothing could possibly stop them from coming to her rescue.  Ryu even snapped Junoichi back into place when the brawler was about to diverge from their plan:  "This isn't for your fun, this is for Reika."  When the pair broke into her holding cell, largely due to Ryu's efforts, Reika immediately said "Oh, Junoichi!  I knew you'd come for me!"  Gah!  SCREW YOU REIKA!  RYU LOVES YOU, YOU DOLT!

Third scene, as they watch the burning warehouse:  Reika points out that they are entirely out of Company surveillance ... that they could do anything.  They could be normal kids for a while ... hint, hint.  Junoichi looks knowingly at her and at Ryu, and is quiet.  Ryu says that they could be normal kids for much more than a while, and Reika is resistant.  But he insists, and she can't quite marshall her arguments for wanting more than nothing, but less than everything.  So she agrees that the three of them should escape ... and Junoichi refuses, saying that it's not the life he wants.  Ryu takes a confused and hurt Reika, and leaves Junoichi behind.  Gah!  SCREW YOU RYU!  JUNOICHI IS SACRIFICING HIMSELF SO THAT YOU'LL HAVE A CHANCE WITH REIKA, YOU DOLT!

Fun session.  Lots of sad, lots of sweet.  Start to finish (including explaining rules and making characters) took ~90 minutes.