Charley and the Chip
Melanie
It's a lovely spring morning in early April, but you wouldn't know it down in the bowels of Lawrence Livermore Labs. However, glimpses of sunshine and green Charley caught on the drive into work with Archie stayed with her. Aside from Sophie, Archie and Charley are typically the first to arrive at the office. But, not so today, Mitch is here and looks to be enjoying a bit of coffee. It reminds Charley that she has a question she has meant to ask, but it never seemed the right time, but now seems a good a time as any. She plops herself down on an ugly orange chair next to him and asks, "How's yer cup of Joe Mitch?". (Hobo Stan has left his mark)
Jeff
Mitch looks up from the newspapers spread in front of him, modestly nonplussed to see Charley sitting next to him. “It’s all right. I think I prefer the experience of knowing I’ve had a cup of coffee first thing, to the experience of actually drinking the coffee. Well, not actually. You know.” He shrugs.
Melanie
Now Charley is nonplussed but pretends to get it. "Yeah, I dig. So, man, I've been meaning to ask you. What's this whole thing 'bout a chip in my head? Was that just some kind of joke?" (The spring weather has put her in a silly mood.)
Jeff
“A joke?” Mitch mulls this over for a moment. “I guess. Maybe. Like, in the sense that everything is a big cosmic joke and none of this is real. But not in the sense of, I made it up because I thought it would be funny.”
Melanie
Her mood no longer mirrors the season. "Oh, I don't understand? Why do you think that!? If I had one I think I should know."
Jeff
"Hold on, I'll look again. Would you mind taking my hand for a moment?" Mitch extends his hand as he tries to read Charley's aura.
I know Charley has antipsi of some kind, is that a factor?
Michael
Given that she's electing to let you in to read her aura this time, she wouldn't be using Mind Block (or Mental Strength).
>>SUCCESS by 4 (activate)
>>SUCCESS by 5 (skill roll)
>>CRITICAL SUCCESS (interpret)
Michael
Oh boy.
One second please.
Okay, so everything about your initial analysis of Charley's aura is the same as last time: deep indigo color of a type you've never seen before, hall of mirrors effect reflecting her past lives, etc. Her physical health still looks good, and her mood is a mix of playfulness and increasing comfort with being part of URIEL, mixed with the uncertainty and suspicion surrounding her relationship with SANDMAN and this whole "chip in head" thing.
So yes, that chip. It's there. Mitch has never been more certain of anything in his life. What's more, with more time and ability to concentrate, Mitch takes a much closer look at it than before.
The chip is smaller than any integrated circuit you've ever seen before; it's a quarter the size of Mitch's thumbnail. This has to be secret Granite Peak type tech; bleeding edge, not yet for the hoi polloi. And Mitch's concentration of his aura sight on this one tiny site deep in Charley's brain reveals more than his glancing observation of it last month. The circuit has a couple of wires leading into Charlie's brain; this brain-electronic side of things is well beyond Mitch's tech knowledge but the chip seems to be powered by Charley's own electrical brain impulses. They're wired into a section of the brain near the center of her brain. But even given all the uncertainty about what this chip is doing, its layout makes Mitch think it's built for storing data.
But that's not the most important thing about this chip. Microscopically etched into the very gold wires of the chip's circuitry is an Anunnaki glyph. One we used a matter of a week or so ago on our mission. It is GU.SHUB: Neglect. This chip was designed to be invisible to x-rays and other scans. But your critical success on Aura Reading for detail this time defeated the glyph's effect and revealed the glyph.
Can Mitch give me an Electronics Operation (Surveillance) roll at a minus 2 to his skill?
Jeff
>>SUCCESS (rolled a 5)
Michael
Whoof. Mitch is on fire this morning
Jeff
Mitch stares at Charley for several seconds. “You’re right,” he says. “You should know.”
“Okay, so, uh...” Mitch looks pained; he’s trying to figure out how to explain this. “You know how I see things that aren’t there, sometimes, right? Or, no, I mean, none of this is actually there. Let me try again. History-A isn’t... okay, okay. I can see a chip in your head. I can see it clearly.”
“It exists in the same way that this coffee cup exists.” Mitch bangs the coffee cup on the tabletop in front of him.
“It’s very small and sci-fi and it’s got a teeny tiny GU.SHUB glyph on it that makes it so people don’t see it on x-rays and junk like that.”
“I don’t know what it does, maybe data storage? It’s wired right in there, way in, like, no idea how it got put there.”
“And I know what you’re thinking,” Mitch continues without pausing to let any of this sink in for Charley, “you’re thinking I’m mistaken, like, what I’m seeing is a physical representation of the higher-level iconic truth that you’re, like, special and that specialness can be expressed with a microchip the same way, like, strength can be expressed with a bunch of sticks. That’s not this, though.”
Michael
I gotta line up some Fright Checks here.
Jeff, can you start with a control roll for Pyrokinesis?
Jeff
>>SUCCESS by 2
Michael
Cool. Now Fright Checks for the both of you at the baseline 14.
And then I'll do any necessary Disad rolls.
Jeff
>>SUCCESS by 3
Melanie
>>SUCCESS by 8
Michael
You're both cool, but Charley DOES have to roll a 12 or less to avoid regressing to a past life.
Melanie
(I think you could use phantom voices if you wanted? And was my Fright check for past life stuff?)
Michael
No, the Fright Check was just a fright check. And this is a stressful situation that could set off your Stress Atavism.
It triggers whether or not you pass or fail a Fright Check.
You don't have to make a Phantom Voices check on a passed Fright Check (unless you pass it spot on). Mitch has them too.
Melanie
>>SUCCESS by 1
Michael
Okay, Charley and Mitch are both even-keeled as Mitch makes Ye Awfule Revelation
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 1:38 PM
"Ah, OK." Charley pushes back down the panic she is feeling. " So, you're 100% sure it's there and the reason I can't sense it, is because it can't been seen thanks to the glyph?"
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 1:38 PM
(It's true, your Machine Empathy should have given you the ability to sense if a chip was in your body somewhere.)
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 1:41 PM
“I’m not sure what you mean by sense exactly but, yeah, I think so. I mean, I think the answer to what you’re asking me is yes. I’m more certain about the chip being there and... as real as this coffee cup.”
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 1:41 PM
"And you said you don't know what it does?"
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 1:42 PM
“It looks a little like...” I don’t know if Mitch would say RAM chip because I think that’s anachronistic technology? Whatever the correct technical term is for the kind of data storage chip he thinks it looks kinda like, he uses it. “But not exactly, so, I could be wrong. It’s not technology I’m familiar with.”
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 1:43 PM
"Who put it there, Mitch!?"
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 1:44 PM
Mitch throws up his hands. “Somebody at Granite Peak, I guess! The glyph points to it being SANDMAN tech. Or, I guess, one of the Red King cells, but, you were never captured and experimented on by ISOCLINE, so, probably not them.”
[1:46 PM]
“And your brain is, like, growing around it, I guess, so, maybe it’s been there since... I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what your medical history is, either the official story or the fake truth or the secret truth, I don’t know.”
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 1:54 PM
Charley makes a muffled, and pitchy animalistic noise while rocking back and forth a little. Then squints her eyes and tightly grabs hold of the arms of the chair. She stays like that for a bit as she tries to steady her breathing. After she collects herself as best she can she says, "OK, thanks." Then makes her way to the nearest bathroom.
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 1:55 PM
Sophie peeks out of the library at the sound of that. "Charley?" she shouts down the hall. "What happened?" she says to Mitch.
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 1:57 PM
She calls back to her. "I'm OK!" Even though clearly she isn't.
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 2:00 PM
Mitch stammers, briefly at a loss for words. “She asked me what I saw in her aura and I told her. I thought she deserved honesty, and... I don’t know, I didn’t realize she’d take it like this.”
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 2:12 PM
Sophie levels a gaze at Mitch. "What did you see, Mitch?"
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 2:13 PM
"She has a microchip implanted deep in her brain, with a hiding-glyph etched on it so it doesn't show up on x-rays."
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 2:14 PM
Sophie just sort of stares open-mouthed at Mitch. "Fuck."
1
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 2:14 PM
(I know @Raven_Hare is offline and it may not need to be a scene, but if Archie becomes aware of any of this (either through Rapport with Charley or just by overhearing from his office) he'll go to the bathroom door to ask Charley if she is ok)
1
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 2:15 PM
Yeah, I feel like the Rapport was sealed in the scene with the puppets, if that's good with you two.
[2:15 PM]
And this is happening after that.
2
Dr. Cronk — 10/10/20, 2:18 PM
"To be honest, the way she'd been talking about it I thought maybe she knew about it already and was just being cagey..." Mitch winces.
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 3:57 PM
She can't answer right now. She is crying sitting on the bathroom floor hiding her face on her knees. It's too much. She wants to be left alone and also wants to be consoled.
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 4:15 PM
(I'm going to say that Sophie's Low Empathy is going to make it hard for her to do that unfortunately, but she will be standing outside the bathroom door looking concerned.)
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 4:16 PM
Archie gives Mitch a big "i'm not mad, just disappointed" look, then goes into the bathroom, kneels down next to Charley and hugs her.
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 4:56 PM
She moves into the hug burrowing into the space between his arm and chest. Archie's safety and being held allows her to tell his now tear-stained shirt the horror of it all. His shirt does it's best to silence this private exchange, but what could be deciphered by Archie if he listened closely would sound like, "Dad, Dad, Dad, I'm sorry, Dad."
1
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 5:27 PM
(aw jeez) Archie just holds her there, does his best to comfort her, certainly doesn't ask about the chip or any of that. But he knows now he's going to have to start asking up the chain of command about her whole story, unraveling all those threads.
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 5:30 PM
(If you let her know that she would try and stop you.)
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 5:40 PM
(I wonder if Special Rapport would give each of you—at this moment of high emotions—a sense of both of these impulses: Charley would sense that Archie feels like he needs to address this with his superiors, and Archie would sense Charley's intense reluctance for him to do so.)
[5:42 PM]
I mean, it's not ESP. It's just a hyper-charged Empathy. But I dunno, this might be a fun moment for both of you to realize there's... something weird being forged there.
2
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 5:48 PM
(My first thought is after suitably calmed it might "occur" to her that he might look into it and would ask. Does, that work Rob? Do you have a better idea?)
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 5:52 PM
(Yeah, that all sounds good to me.)
1
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 6:01 PM
After Charley has been still for some time I assume Archie would help her get up from the bathroom floor and maybe wash her face with some cool water. At this point a thought suddenly occurs to her, what if he looks into this?! Whoever could do something like this could do something worse, something to Archie! "Mr. Ransom, you aren't going to talk to anyone at SANDMAN about this are you?!" (edited)
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 6:21 PM
Archie's caught off guard because of course that's exactly what he was going to do. "Well, I-- I mean-- IF what Mitch THINKS he saw is true, then we need to know what-- or, why--" He pulls himself together. "I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this, Charley. And the folks at Granite Peak, who would have the answers if not them?" But he recognizes her anxiety. "Why don't you want me to talk to anybody about this?"
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 6:41 PM
Charley looks pained she was trying to avoid this exact conversation. "I wanted to look into things quietly. I know not everyone with SANDMAN is bad. That it's complicated. But something happened to my mother, an agent, and the story I've been told doesn't make sense from what I can remember. I think SAMDMAN killed her. And now this, my head. My head. We lie to people for their own good or to protect the agency. Protect the agency at all costs, right?! It's too dangerous to let them know we know!! They could kill you! They would! They would if they thought they had to! You see that, don't you, Dad!! You can't tell them! Promise, you won't!! Don't let Sophie or Mitch either! Please!!" (edited)
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 7:27 PM
"Ok, ok. It's alright, honey, it's alright. We'll figure this all out. We'll get this all sorted. Nobody's going to get hurt. Nobody's going to do anything hasty. Everything's going to be OK." (nothing like a crying child to make you write checks you can't cash)
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 7:42 PM
“So, you promise you won’t talk to the agency about this?”
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 8:01 PM
"Charley, there are people we can talk to. People I know, people I trust. We can get hold of your file. We can get to the bottom of this." (deep breath) "This is a terrible question to ask, and I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't important. Why do you think SANDMAN hurt your mother?" (edited)
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 8:33 PM
“But what if you’re wrong? It’s not worth risking. Why can’t I?” Charley pauses and reverses course. “ You would ask for my file? But don’t you already have it? So, maybe there is a more detailed report. What will be your approach to getting it? Who do you know to ask and what would be your reason for asking?”
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 8:55 PM
Asked point blank like that, Archie responds directly, without going through his normal "protect Charley" filter. "The file we have lays out your training, some of the tests they ran on you, but doesn't say much about your background. All they really told us is that your mother was a SANDMAN agent, code name RAVEN. But that was the file they gave us when you were coming here for a week. If you're going to stay on permanently, if Mel and I are going to adopt you" [not sure if Archie's said that a-word yet, but he just blows by it without thinking] "they'll have to tell me everything they can, about your abilities, your background, about how to keep you safe." He names some of the people he could ask: Dr. Stanton, but hopefully some other names represented by his Security Rank and Security Clearance. Not that everyone he names is somebody he trusts 100%, but he's just thinking aloud.
[8:57 PM]
(but if Charley has her own ideas about how to investigate this, he's actually quite open to that)
Raven_Hare — 10/10/20, 9:12 PM
“Well, if you ask for a complete file as part of my adoption (brief smile) then that should be fine. But, please don’t give them cause for concern.”
Rob MacD — 10/10/20, 10:35 PM
(that's what Archie will do, then - that, and give Mitch mild shit for traumatizing Charley)
1
MutantsMichael — 10/10/20, 10:36 PM
I'll put together some next steps tomorrow.
October 11, 2020
Raven_Hare — 10/11/20, 6:23 AM
Feeling that Archie is respecting her wishes she says, “My mother.” (I’ll come back to this during my morning break at work)
1
MutantsMichael — 10/11/20, 7:50 AM
(Just FYI on the meta level, @Raven_Hare and @Rob MacD, I may want to slow-roll this plotline over the next 2-3 missions, give out the information that Archie (and possibly Charley: she is a hacker after all!) discovers in dribs and drabs about the mysteries behind Charley coming to Granite Peak. I mean, at some point we might devote an entire mission to it but I want to keep it boiling away in the background if that's all right.)
1
Rob MacD — 10/11/20, 9:03 AM
(Yeah, that makes sense: this all escalated very quickly! I'm not sure if this particular scene is over, or if there's more you want to do, Mel? (Or if anyone else wants to interject themselves - I didn't really mean to hijack Mitch's scene.)
[9:04 AM]
(At some point, Archie will ask Mitch for more details on what he saw and how he saw it, because whatever Archie thinks of aura sensing, he didn't think it involved seeing actual physical objects inside somebody's skull. Going forward, Archie is going to want to ask Charley more about what she remembers about her mother, the red-haired man, all that stuff, but he wouldn't press that now when she's upset. At some point I could imagine us getting Marshall to unlock her memories with hypnosis, but that suggestion's probably not going to come from Archie. And he is going to go through channels to get more of Charley's file, and find out more about the Indigo program generally, but he'll do it discreetly and just under cover of needing to know about her, not mentioning brain implants or causing a stink about anything.) (edited)
2
Raven_Hare — 10/11/20, 1:22 PM
Charley sits where Archie placed her, dead center of the bathroom counter, flanked by two mint green sinks and several sickly yellow fluorescent lights humming above her. Reassured by Archie and by the plan, she attempts to tell him about her mother. She closes her eyes and whispers, “My mother.” Her eyes tighten and the lights begin to flicker as she tries to summon up more than the usual bits and pieces of clouded memory. As she searches her mind the room feels increasingly hot and the smell of smoke starts to burn her nose and lungs. A voice shouts, “Not there! Here!” Startled she opens her eyes to see a woman with bloodied and blackened skin, standing behind Archie, with a knife to his throat! Charley screams in terror and at that moment the humming lights above them burst! She frantically looks about the now darken room, but the phantom woman is gone. (edited)
2
2
1
[1:23 PM]
( hope I didn’t go too far)
Rob MacD — 10/11/20, 1:47 PM
(eek!) (does Archie experience any of that: the flickering lights, the heat, the smoke, the ghost?)
MutantsMichael — 10/11/20, 1:48 PM
No, other than a simultaneous surprising authentic jab of panic that comes from Archie's newfound Special Rapport with Charley.
[1:50 PM]
The lights flickering/bursting, though, that's real. (edited)
2
October 14, 2020
Raven_Hare — 10/14/20, 9:37 PM
(I've been meaning to mention that I wasn't expecting that Charley would have a chip in her head! I was reasonably sure Mitch was mistaken. Mike, telling me Charley would know if she had one. That was quite the set-up!)
1
Rob MacD — 10/14/20, 11:04 PM
hey, maybe we all have chips in our heads
1
October 15, 2020
MutantsMichael — 10/15/20, 5:42 AM
(I've been meaning to mention that I wasn't expecting that Charley would have a chip in her head! I was reasonably sure Mitch was mistaken. Mike, telling me Charley would know if she had one. That was quite the set-up!)
@Raven_Hare I knew the eventual reveal could have been considered annoying or unfair but given we just spent a mission using SANGUSH pretty liberally, I also had a feeling that the payoff would be poetic. I did roll a Will resistance roll for Charley vs. the glyph when you first asked about it; whoever etched that glyph on the circuitry was exceptionally skilled. It was not done by computer; it was done by hand.