Mitch Gets Breakfast
Jeff
Friday, June 29, 1973.
At this point, bereft of answers and with the clock ticking, I'd like to have a serendipitous run-in with whatever npc if any is the secret unknown prime mover of the imminent catastrophe, but I recognize that needs some kind of minimally plausible context, so no earlier than like 9 am I imagine. Coffee drinkers by the bar, breakfast buffet, last-minute setup in the art room. Waiting until the lead up to the opening ceremony feels like waiting too long, for all we know the catastrophe happens at 11:01.
Michael
Rob
(Scrabble tiles don't lie)
Brant
(Singing “it was the graduate students all along” to the tune of “Agatha All Along.”)
Mitch heads to the elevators to head downstairs to the hotel restaurant; the con is in full swing now, the lobby full of early risers and folks just arriving and checking in. Lots of costumes, lots of animated nerdy conversations happening in clutches of three to five nerds. Mitch sort of scopes out the moderately-long line for the buffet, and slips into the last place in line. He gives his room number at the maître d' station and grabs an extra-big plate and splits off, heading towards the steam tables. And just as Mitch is about to take the tongs and grab some bacon, a man sidles up in line next to you eyeing the pancakes. Mitch immediately recognizes him from the Berkeley lab security records as Rich Talbot, one of the two harassers of Andrew H. Krane at the Caffe Med.
Jeff
Mitch doesn't say anything here at the pancakes. He loads up his plate while keeping one eye on Talbot. Does he sit down alone or at a table with others?
Michael
He's by himself when he came up next to Mitch, and if Mitch keeps his eye on him all along the buffet line, Mitch can see him find a small two-seat table near the window overlooking the street. If Mitch lingers, picking through the waffles looking for the best one, he doesn't see anyone sit next to Rich for about the first two minutes of his meal.
Jeff
Nah, Mitch will sit down across from him within twenty seconds of Talbot sitting down. "What're you trying to do here, Richie?"
Mitch's tone is that of a harried but well-meaning babysitter whose charge just keeps getting into the cookie jar
Michael
Rich looks up at Mitch through thick glasses, a piece of scrambled egg stuck to the corner of his mouth. "I'm sorry, excuse me?"
Jeff
"We got echoes up and down the line, poor Andy is beside himself … "
Mitch shakes his head sadly. "All for what?"
Michael
Rich takes a keener look at Mitch at the mention of "Andy."
"Are you with the con?" He looks at Mitch's badge.
Jeff
"Are you? I'm not asking rhetorical questions here, Richie."
Michael
Rich takes one more look at Mitch and then grabs his plate and makes to get up. "If you'll excuse me."
Jeff
Shit, I thought I had the Body Language skill and wanted to use it to gauge his reaction but examining my character sheet I do not in fact have that skill.
Michael
You could fire up Aura Reading.
Jeff
So Mitch sighs heavily. "C'mon, man. Don't make this a whole thing."
Aura reading sure why not.
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS
>>>> ANALYZE … CRITICAL SUCCESS
Jeff
Yay.
Michael
oh my
Jeff
Crit crit crit
Maybe I won't have to give him heatstroke.
Michael
Okay, his aura is Absolutely Freaked Out. He knows he's been nailed and he's absolutely shitting himself. The red-orange starburst aura of that set of emotions—Surprise, Motherfucker, essentially—is pulsating around him. Embarrassment, too. Mitch feels Rich's heartrate hitting a pretty damn high number; his system is being flooded with adrenaline.
He is now standing up and taking his plate full of bacon and eggs elsewhere, searching pointedly for a table. Trying to play it cool and failing utterly.
Jeff
"Sit down, man," Mitch tells him, still trying to play it like he's caught Talbot sneaking cookies during nap time.
Michael
Okay, given the circumstances let's make a roll here.
I'm gonna give you Intimidation at a +2, so given you're defaulting to Will-5, that's a 12.
Jeff
Mmm, okay, I never do this and a significant percentage of the time I regret it, so, I want to point out that in addition to Mitch’s awesome cool schoolmarm attitude we’re in a very public place and Mitch is trying to get Talbot to not make a scene which socialization ought to make him want to do instinctively, and therefore I deserve slightly more than a +2 bonus.
If you’ve already taken that into account and/or feel it is sufficiently reflected in the +2 bonus okay, but I never think to make this case before the fact.
I’m also eyeing his aura which ought to make it easier to for example bark out words at the right moment to disrupt his train of thought and keep him off-balance.
Michael
Oh yeah, the +2 was only situational, you should get another +2 from Aura Reading and the crit there, since it's going to give you a scene-long advantage.
Jeff
So I’m rolling against a 14?
Michael
That's right.
>>>> SUCCESS
Michael
Rich sits down, his face flushed, his heart pounding.
His expression, however, is now as neutral as he can manage.
Jeff
Mitch nods. “So man, again, what is this in aid of?”
He glances at Talbot’s tray. “Ooh, the cottage cheese has pineapple chunks in? I didn’t realize. Very fancy. I should have gotten some.”
Michael
"Look, if Ace is upset that I've been bothering Mr. Krane, I'll stop. I just have some questions to ask him.
Detect Lies please, +4.
>>>> SUCCESS
Okay, that was bullshit.
Jeff
“Bullshit you have questions.”
“Questions?”
Michael
He actually looks kind of shocked at Mitch's expletive.
Jeff
Mitch scoffs, in a can-you-believe-this kind of way, as if there was someone else here watching them whom Mitch was playing to.
Michael
"Yes. About the nature of existence as explained in his Atlantis Risen trilogy. I'm sincere and I just want some answers." A tiny whimpering enters his voice at the end of the last statement there.
"I shouldn't have bothered him in the café the other day. I'm just here to get up at the Q&A this morning, ask my question, and then I'll leave. You can even have security escort me out and take my badge if you want."
(what stage is Bargaining again)
Jeff
“Would I be here, you think, if that were all this was about?”
Michael
Rich looks blankly again at Mitch. "What?"
Jeff
“What’s your question, Richie?”
Michael
"I … I can't tell you. I can only tell him."
Jeff
How’s his aura doing? Does he think he knows what Mitch is implying?
Mitch raises an eyebrow. “Who told you you can only tell him?”
Michael
I mean, between Aura Reading and Detect Lies he had another spike of panic at "Would I be here."
Michael
"The question … think of it like an equation. I don't know all the variables yet and he can fill in some of them for me. Like I said, it's about the nature of reality and our universe. And he's the only one who can answer them." Rich reaches to his ice water. "I probably sound crazy."
"But he is a genius! He knows things, way more than what he puts in his books!"
He's sweating profusely now, moisture is starting to form at his starched white shirt's collar and under his arms.
Jeff
“I mean, he knows things, sure,” Mitch says, conceding the point, “but he’s hardly the only one. I mean, besides me and Andy there’s Vera, there’s the Oldtimer, there’s Peter Bigfoot … ”
“What do you think you’re going to accomplish, exactly?”
Michael
At that listing of people Rich gives Mitch a serious bit of quizzical side-eye.
Jeff
Well, the goal is to keep him off-balance.
Michael
"Are … are you with the government?"
Jeff
Can’t let him think he knows what I’m talking about
“Depends on what you mean by government. I don’t work for Nixon. But you dodged my question, man.”
Michael
He gets very concerned all of a sudden. "I do not wish to aid the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. I am a loyal American."
Jeff
Mitch chuckles at that. “Ain’t we all?”
Michael
"If I go missing, I have friends who will contact our own government contacts."
Jeff
“Okay.”
Michael
He's got a spot of bravery now that he thinks Mitch is a Soviet agent.
Jeff
See, him thinking things is what I need to avoid in this conversation. Mitch makes a ‘enough jokes’ gesture. “I’m not a commie, Jesus. That’s funny. Well, not funny.”
Michael
"If you're not with our government and you're not with the Reds … who are you with, then?"
Jeff
“Why would the commies care about you harassing Andy?”
“Right now I’m the guy asking you why the commies would care about you harassing Andy.”
Michael
"I told you, he knows things. Things that he'd only be able to know with an advanced degree in physics which I know for a fact he doesn't have and has never earned. And he puts them in the books!"
Jeff
“I think you’re overstating the power of credentials.”
Michael
"He could be a talented amateur, sure, an armchair enthusiast, but the math... I mean, why am I even talking about this with you, you don't understand the Many-Worlds Hypothesis, do you?"
"Quantum superposition? Waveform collapse?"
>>>> SUCCESS
Jeff
“What, the garden of forking paths?”
“Zombie cats?”
“This is a sci-if con, man.”
Michael
Rich raises an eyebrow. "Okay, so you've got a basic understanding. That's what my question has to do with, sir."
"Listen. I'm harmless. I'm not a nut." ← lie
"I can just as easily write down my question on a piece of paper and give it to him and he can send me a letter in return. I'll leave the con, I don't need to see him in person. Just please. I need to know."
Jeff
“Give it to me, I’ll give it to him.” Mitch scowls as he pulls out his pen and notepad. “If nothing else, Andy’s one of us, and he doesn’t deserve to get harassed in coffee shops, you know? So yeah, leave the con, don’t come back, keep your distance from him in the future. Tell Ace I said that, if you want.”
Michael
"Yes sir." He takes the pen and notepad from Mitch. "This may take a couple of minutes."
Jeff
Mitch nods and eats his eggs.
Michael
Rich scribbles onto Mitch's notepad, thinking pointedly about wording here, crossing out whole sentences there. As Mitch eats his eggs, Rich breathes heavily and sighs in frustration as he works on this very long question. Finally, as he finishes and folds the notepaper delicately, his aura seems to drain of its color, and Mitch senses all the adrenaline dissipate from his system all at once. Rich shudders. "It's done." Rich wipes away a tear. "I … I hope he answers me." Rich slides it across the breakfast table, leaves his uneaten meal, and stands up. "You're … you're lucky to know him. I hope you know how lucky you are."
Jeff
Mitch shrugs.
Michael
Rich walks away out of the restaurant and then by the window about a minute later.
Y'know, as a symbol of good faith that he is leaving the con.
Jeff
Assuming he keeps walking, Mitch waits until he's well out of sight, takes one bite of the guy's cottage cheese, and carries the folded paper out like it was a nuclear warhead, seeking out Roger and Jo.
Michael
They're probably both in the surveillance suite. Nothing unusual from either Krane or Abeille's suites this morning. Andrew is watching TV, Genevieve is still sleeping by the sound of it.
Oh! He also left his con badge behind as a show of faith.
Jeff
Mitch took that, sure.
"Something to call in," he says, and gives a super quick summary of his breakfast.
"I'm like halfway through Andy's trilogy, I'm thinking someone who hasn't read word one of it should be the person who checks this."
(Indicating Richie's folded note)