Real Magic
Marshall has proposed bringing Jocasta to the SCANATE dinner at Victor’s, which will be attended by Pat Price.
Leonard
Not to knock the numerology vibes into the negative zone, but if this is formally proposed, Jocasta will restate her opinion that it is a very bad idea to put her in the same room as Pat Price until he has had a significant amount of "debriefing"
Michael
Definitely noted. We can talk about that in-character if you like before Marshall and Mitch meet with the SCANATE team Friday morning.
Brant
I am down to debate it.
Leonard
Yeah, I think it's pretty important. If Price turns out to be an antagonist to us, finding out about Jo will only motivate him further, and if he turns out to be an ally, we should break it to him kinda gently that one of the pivotal moments of his life was a lie.
Brant
Marshall will say, pacing around the conference room: "You are thinking about this wrong. Think about it differently. First: my read of Price is that he desperately wants to be part of the 'club'. He craves inclusion at the adults' table. Right now he thinks that is the Company. I see no reason not to keep him suspended in that mistaken assumption for a long time."
"Second: we are the ones who control people's perceptions. We can make Price think whatever we want. He sees you and he thinks, 'My God, it's the Virgin Mary who came to me in a vision!' Why do you think he will put two-and-six together and think: 'The whole thing was an elaborate op and this woman somehow traveled back in time to deceive me'? Maybe he will simply think that the Virgin Mary took on a form he would recognize because he would need to recognize you in the future. Alternately, let's say he does immediately jump to the conclusion that the defining moment in his life was a time-traveling drug-addicted spy attempting to play him — he has no way of knowing if that's even happened yet. As far as he knows, you — present day you — have not yet done the thing that you did. It could still be years down the road. And if all else fails, we can restructure his perception of … things."
"Third: never underestimate the power of just unsettling people. Price is ours now. Even if he is a mole, or an enemy agent, which I do not believe, he is ours. We run him. Part of running him is going to entail him learning that he is not in control. We are in control. The best way to show someone you are in control is to utterly destabilize their understanding of the situation. We used to do that with, you know, truncheons. I'm thinking now we can do that with you."
Leonard
"I get what you're saying, Marshall," Jocasta replies, hissing out a weak flat line of white Virginia burley. "But for one thing, his vision isn't the only time he's 'seen' me. He caught a glimpse of me when I was first staking out SRI, and while I was in disguise, he might be sharp enough to make the connection. And his wife is one repressed memory away from knowing that I invaded their house in Tahoe. That's an awful lot of trout in the milk."
"But beyond that, why so casually dismiss my ability to control him as an asset? If I contacted him once and convinced him that I was the literal mother of God, it feels pretty cavalier to throw that level of connection away just for a show of force that doesn't get us anything."
Brant
"Well, I mean, you didn't convince him you were anything. He thought you were the Mother of God because that is the narrative frame his mind adopted to help him understand the situation. Either way, you left him with the impression that what he was experiencing was the defining moment of his life -- and that's still true. Whoever the messenger was, the message he received was that this event was the seminal event in his life. It was! It brought him into our orbit. SANDMAN's orbit. Anyway: your points are taken. If you think it will not advance our goals to attend the dinner with Price there, that's fine. I am sure I can handle a dinner. We'll have Roger downstairs."
Leonard
Jocasta smiles a little, crinkling the corners of her eyes. "Hey, you're in charge. If you want me there, I'll be there. I'm just doing my due diligence. And it's not like I'm afraid of him -- I just don't want to create a situation we have more to clean up." She crushes out her Slim. "My experience with cops, which is deeper than I'd care for it to be, is that they hate loose ends. Now, most cops deal with that by just ignoring them and pretending they don't exist. But there's another kind that just...chases them down relentlessly, going at them like a dog trying to chew through rawhide. Price doesn't strike me as the former kind, and I just want us to be ready for that, is all."
Brant
Marshall waves his hand. “No, I don’t give orders. I am just trying to think about what they want — whoever is running this honeypot, as Roger put it. Their plan probably assumes that you will not be there — it makes sense for you not to be there, after all. So my thinking is to have you there, to throw them off. Do the unexpected. Whatever. Find me this weekend at the Mission. We will need to talk about what I am planning to do with you and Harman.” He leaves.
Michael
Leonard
For Michael: I think Jocasta will plan on going, under a cover -- whichever Marshall is most comfortable with -- but without any real physical disguise. She'll be hoping Price won't recognize her as herself, since when he saw her at SRI she was wearing a stern red wig and big sunglasses and when she was at Tahoe she was wearing a ski mask. And if he does, well, hopefully Marshall's right and it'll just confuse him.
Brant
Wait, so like she is coming to the dinner? Or are you saying she’ll just be at the restaurant in disguise?
Leonard
No, she'll come to the dinner, not in disguise.
Brant
But like why? She doesn’t have to! Marshall really isn’t ordering her to do anything. I mean to be clear I want her to go to the dinner. I’m just confused.
Leonard
She was convinced by your argument! She just had concerns she wanted to raise if things go awry.
Brant
Ah! CYA. “Just wanted it noted for the record.” Gotcha.
This’ll be good! Maybe it’s what Jo and Marshall need, a high stakes fancy dinner with a bunch of weirdos and psychics. Maybe they’ll start having a torrid office affair!
At around 10 am, a call from the front desk of the Engineering Building rings in the SCANATE bullpen. Hal picks it up. "Yeah. Yeah. All right, send them up." Hal turns to the group — Russ, Pat, Ingo, Mitch, Marshall, Mary-Lynn, and says, "Uri and the gang are here."
A minute or so later Uri, Andrija, Andrija, Shipi, and Hannah knock on the door and come into the bullpen. Uri immediately greets Hal and Russ, the only two people he knows here (other than Ingo). Uri shakes hands, greets Ingo, and introductions go around.
Puthoff says, "Uri, you know Ingo, of course, this here is Pat, Mitch, and Mary-Lynn, they're also part of the program now," as handshakes go around, "and I'm not sure if you all know Dr. Redgrave? He's our new, uh, independent advisor. You know, from the Budget Boys." A knowing glance passes between Andrija and Hal as Uri shakes Marshall's hand. "I know Dr. Redgrave only by reputation, and what a reputation at that," Uri says. "Good morning, it is wonderful to finally meet you!"
(If Mitch wants to have Aura Reading and Detect (History B) up for this scene, go ahead and activate them, and for Marshall's part, I could use a Will+5 roll, that would be against 21.)
Brant
>>>> SUCCESS by 12
Jeff
Sure, sure
Detect first
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 6
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 7
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 5
Aura sight second
>>>> ACTIVATE … SUCCESS by 1
>>>> DETECT … SUCCESS by 4
>>>> ANALYZE … SUCCESS by 8
Solid non-critical margins of success
Michael
So the only thing that differs from the aura sight/Detect combo from last night at the airport is that as Uri is talking to Marshall there's a little twinkle in Uri's aura; I'm not sure if Mitch has ever watched Marshall practice any of his Enthrallment/NLP methods live with Aura Reading and/or Detect but Mitch is a smart enough cookie; he feels like Uri is pouring on the capital-C charm with Marshall and Marshall specifically by using NLP. (Marshall, with his Will roll success by 12, is able to cotton to it immediately.) But both Mitch and Marshall can tell he's got zero Anunnaki source code oomph behind it. Much like Genevieve, Uri is just a regular dude who's managed between his natural charisma, maybe some training, and/or some kind of natural proficiency, to figure out how to subtly push people into liking him, paying attention to what he wants them to pay attention to, etc. etc. And he's using it to make a good first impression on Marshall.
Brant
Marshall's fit.
Marshall smiles his biggest wolf-smile and shakes hands, but doesn't say anything. He's going to let Hal and Russ take the lead for a few minutes.
Jeff
Mitch considers signaling this information to Marshall but nah, he's got it well in hand no doubt
Clod that he is, Mitch is also probably a little distracted eyeing Mary-Lynn and her response to Geller's charm
In fact, Mitch lowers the ambient temperature on a 15+
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Michael
Russ pipes up, "Uri, we're so glad you decided to drop by this weekend; the program really has grown by leaps and bounds since you were last here."
Uri: "Yes, I can see that, you have a whole team here now, the press notices have been, uh, something else... I've been following you all in the papers and Andrija showed me some of the notes from Edgar and the new Institute of Noetic Sciences? Very encouraging. Hal, Ingo, how was Prague by the way?"
"Oh, it was a... hotbed of intrigue," Ingo says with a smirk. Hal says, "It was fine, we presented on our work and Ingo talked about uh, you know, the work that the Church is doing. It was a fine trip. The word is out there and scientists everywhere are taking the work seriously."
Andrija takes a moment to take all this in and then says to Hal and Russ, "We honestly can't thank you enough for all you've done since last winter. SRI has put itself on the map and has done such a wonderful job building desperately-needed credibility for the field. It's very heartening." Andrija's got a pretty strong Chicago accent.
With this said he'll then nod to Marshall. "Having friends in high places who believe in us and what we want to achieve … it's priceless, really."
Mitch watches Mary-Lynn during this whole exchange (and Pat, given they're sitting next to each other) and both of their body language are giving off waves of coldness to Uri and Andrija after the initial pleasantries. (Apparently Hannah and Shipi, both silent, are just tagging along in Uri/Andrija's wake for now.) If anything Pat looks more askance at Uri than Mary-Lynn does, both neither of them seem too impressed, unlike Ingo, Hal, and Russ.
Brant
OOC question — what was the ostensible purpose of this meeting? Is Uri here for testing? Is it just a polite meet-and-greet prior to dinner later? A prep meeting for the upcoming Carson appearance?
Michael
It was a casual drop-by with the possibility of maybe Uri doing some quick testing here with the new folks today, or even over this weekend. It was all pretty agenda-less even when Kit Green was in charge. What happens next is pretty much what is about to be decided right now.
Brant
OK. Well then, Marshall — still just smiling absolute daggers — reaches into his pocket and pulls out his car keys. He holds them out. "Alright. Let's see it."
Michael
Uri laughs, a quiet, self-satisfied sort of chuckle. "Are you sure, doctor? Those look like your car keys and I'd hate to deprive you of transportation to dinner tonight." Smiling, he holds out his hand waiting for Marshall to drop them in his palm.
Brant
Marshall obliges. "I have someone coming to pick us all up later for dinner. It's really no worry."
Michael
Uri nods, smiling. "Well let's see first if the vibrations are right, yes? I don't know what kind of energies might be attached to these, although I suppose a man with such an... esteemed reputation for healing those who come to him seeking guidance and wisdom must be one who imparts those positive feelings upon his possessions." With this he does a little bit of his usual preparatory work in glaring at the keys in his palm, looking around the room, all while keeping up a minimal level of patter. He's definitely trying to fold in NLP while he talks about how wonderful Marshall is, what a great healer he is, and then moves onto rubbing the place on the key where the head of the key meets the shoulder all while talking about how receptive the key might be. "Yes, yes, I think you will now begin to see, the key is becoming plastic, see? Right here," while pointing with his other hand at the key's weakest point and as the rubbing intensifies I need both Mitch and Marshall to give me Will+5 rolls.
Jeff
Will-19 (with the +5, I think)
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
Brant
>>>> SUCCESS by 7
Michael
For just a moment—just the briefest of split seconds—both Mitch and Marshall can see the key superimposed over itself: one version ever-so-slightly bent at the shoulder, the other totally untouched and pristine. But their SANDMAN training renders them well-protected from the NLP suggestion and in the end even if their senses are fooled briefly or if Uri did manage to press hard enough with one mere finger to bend the car key ever so slightly, it's clear that it's not the dramatic sort of bend he usually manages with spoons which end up snapping off in his video and television appearances.
Whatever the case, Mitch and Marshall now know how he manages his close-up work: a combination of sleight-of-hand, preparation and substitution when able (this is probably how he does everything on TV), and NLP. But everyone in the room, from Uri's party to Hal and Russ to Mary-Lynn to Ingo raise their eyebrows and are impressed with even the minimal bend Uri's NLP has convinced them they see. Everyone but Pat. Mitch, who's had more time to get to know Pat, knows his smirk of disbelief pretty well by this point and Marshall's mastery of body language (crit!) tells Marshall he's sure Pat has not been fooled but that Pat is trying to be polite with a grudging smirk and an almost-sarcastic slow clap as the rest of the room erupts in NLP-derived near-unanimity and surprise at the "bend." Marshall can see how belief in Uri builds on itself, how the "hive mind" tendencies of humanity under assault from NLP cyclically reinforce belief and how Uri has managed to do this with small groups of people. Little did he know he was going to go up against two Sandmen and a prodigy in the form of Pat.
Jeff
Mitch shoots Pat a can you believe this guy disdainful eyebrow-raise
Michael
"Well, you know, maybe it's my vibes that are a little lacking, doctor, I have the jet lag, you know, but here you go, not too bad, you should still be able to get it in the ignition," he says as he hands back the key to Marshall with a little flourish of Sleight of Hand to put it out of view quickly so it's not seen once his patter is over.
(He also consistently undercuts his own performance which increases credulity, Marshall and Mitch realize.)
Pat does a little eye roll and grimace very quickly back at Mitch and takes a sip of his coffee.
Brant
"Not bad. Not bad," Marshall says, smiling so broad he's almost all smile. "But let me show you some real magic." He takes the key Uri bent and hands it to Mitch. "Do your thing."
Jeff
"If you want."
Mitch attempts to activate his Pyrokinesis (level 1) and succeeds on a 14-
>>>> SUCCESS by 4
Quick contest between Mitch's Pyrokinesis skill of … 14? and the car key's HT I guess?
>>>> SUCCESS by 0
If necessary he'll try again, it only takes one literal second.
>>>> 3d6 … 9
2 HP of damage per second to the key until it's on fire or melted. Mitch holds the ring by the tip of a different key, or the fob or something, and flicks it into the nearby sink if it's too much to hold onto
Michael
Yeah, it's HT, which is miniscule, and its Flammability Class minus 1, which I'm looking up now.
So it goes from metal to "green wood, flesh." So it burns like flesh which is a little creepy
Jeff
IIRC FC runs from 0 (flash paper) to 3 (metal and stone) so reducing the FC by one means that things that don't normally burn will ignite eventually
Michael
So this feels like it will fairly quickly melt given it has few HP and a small HT.
Jeff
Lots of steaming and popping like wet logs on the fire?
Michael
Yeah, flicking it into the sink or onto the round folding table around which SCANATE has its coffee is fine. Uri raises his eyebrow dramatically at this development but his overall emotional tenor doesn't change much in Mitch's aura sight; he's still confident, calm, and still trying to keep broadly concentrating and focused on his NLP deployment. Mitch watches Andrija's aura turn a sickly green: anxiety … or maybe even envy? Hannah is shocked … and Shipi's aura turns beet red. Anger. Anger at being showed up.
Uri speaks directly to Mitch. "Localized pyrokinesis. And the intensity, to melt steel … that must mean temperatures in the hundreds of degrees!" Again, Mitch can feel the tingle of neurolinguistic "smoothing" coming from Uri's words. "Hal, Russ … MJ? You have created something amazing here. This program! This program could be the future." At that Andrija clears his throat. Uri is quite pointedly not speaking to Marshall; Marshall senses (I secretly rolled a Psychology roll success for Marshall by 14, almost a crit) that Uri has been able to figure out Marshall is not affected by his NLP. This has to be a common enough occurrence for Uri — among debunkers, the strong-willed, etc. — that Uri knows when to cut his losses with someone. But he knows he can get Hal and Russ to eat out of his hand and even if Mitch is a talented psychic and telekinetic, well … Uri must figure selfishly it's best to get on his good side one way or the other.
Andrija speaks. "How did you discover your powers, MJ? Have you had contact with any … higher beings? Spirits, channeling guides, UFOs … brain trauma in early childhood? Oxygen deprivation?" Yes, Andrija is the kind of person to just come out and say shit like this. "Have you been able to quantify any of this yet?" Andrija says to Hal and Russ and Marshall before even waiting for an answer. (Hal and Russ will likely give some very general non-specific reports of the weird EKGs unless Marshall or Mitch stop them.)
Jeff
"I dunno," Mitch says with a shrug. "I used to tell fortunes with cards down in the canyon," he adds, as if this should be sufficient explanation.
Brant
Marshall will interject before Hal and Russ can speak, cutting them off if he needs to. “Well, we can’t be giving away state secrets, can we?” He’s going to try to make eye contact with Uri.
Jeff
"It's like they say," Mitch says in English, then continues in Danbe. "This liar must suffer."
Brant
Assuming Marshall can catch Uri’s eye, he’s going to wink at him and stop smiling. Then he looks at his Rolex. “Be right back — just going to make a call to see if my drivers are on route.” He’ll head to a private office and dial Jocasta first.
Michael
Dr. Cronk"It's like they say," Mitch says in English, then continues in Danbe. "This liar must suffer."
Mitch, give me a Hidden Lore (History B)-16 roll please.
Assuming Marshall can catch Uri’s eye, he’s going to wink at him and stop smiling. Then he looks at his Rolex. “Be right back — just going to make a call to see if my drivers are on route.” He’ll head to a private office and dial Jocasta first.
In the flash that Marshall caught Uri's eye, he saw weakness in him. Weakness and fear. Especially after Mitch's uncanny use of a few Danbe words.
Jeff
>>>> SUCCESS by 5
In theory Danbe is (if anything) less uncanny than all these corrupted bad-hat Indo-European wordforms
Michael
As Mitch speaks this brief phrase in Danbe in front of non-Danbe-conversant (we're assuming) listeners, both Mary-Lynn and Pat glance at him; Pat, who's been unaffected by Uri's various works, is glancing at Mitch purposefully, maybe in a "come again?" way for the babble Mitch just spoke, but also because he maybe senses something emanating from those words. And Mary-Lynn, who like everyone else in the room was totally taken by Uri's performance, shudders after Mitch drops that Danbe phrase. She blinks and ever-so-slightly shakes the cobwebs from her head, and when she looks back up at Uri speaking with Marshall, Mitch can tell there's less belief in that gaze. The rest of the room seems relatively unaffected by the Danbe. But more profoundly, Mitch feels the ambient "History B-ness" of the room suddenly drop using his Detect; the omnipresent "potential" of the irruption that's been hovering around the Engineering building suddenly gets palpably lower. A few words of Danbe aren't enough to do that alone. But Danbe after someone just spent ages laying on non-source-code-laden neurolinguistic methods, tapping into the parts of all our ape brains that the Anunnaki tampered with millennia ago, in a highly-tense social situation? It's like a cold splash of water after a night's drinking.
Assuming Marshall can catch Uri’s eye, he’s going to wink at him and stop smiling. Then he looks at his Rolex. “Be right back — just going to make a call to see if my drivers are on route.” He’ll head to a private office and dial Jocasta first.
(Absolutely. We should do the call in here so it's all in the same scene for the wiki, so I'll go ahead and ping Leonard)
Jeff
Dang, something else to discuss with the team in general and perhaps Archie in particular
Michael
As Marshall leaves the room to "check on the drivers," Uri shifts out of performance mode to talk turkey with Hal and Russ about what the plans for today are. "Well," the amiable Russ says, aware of the ambient tension in the room after two displays of "PK" from Uri and Mitch, "that's really up to you all. We didn't have anything planned, and Ingo and Pat can tell you that we've put away the magnetometers and Faraday cages for a more concentrated approach of practicing RV." Ingo says, "We've made progress there as well, maybe not as flashy as the two of you, but the Money Men seem to be interested." Mitch can see Hal give a pointed glance to Pat, as if to say, "Hey sport, why don't you contribute, hype us up in front of Uri and Andrija, brag about yourself and your hits," but Pat merely says with a neutral affect and the classic Cop Poker Face, "We're doing all right. It's hard work but very rewarding."
Leonard
Jocasta picks up the line at Livermore. "Independent Geopolitcial Research."
Brant
"Jocasta, Marshall. Slight change of plans. Rendezvous with Roger at the Hilton. I'll call him to tell him to expect you. We're going to have you come with him to SRI. Wait in the car when you get here to avoid Price seeing you for now. You, me, Mitch, Roger — we're going to drive Geller to the restaurant alone. I'm going to have my man bring my other car and pick up the rest of his stupid entourage. Understood?"
Leonard
"Got it. See you soon."
Brant
Marshall hangs up and dials David. He asks him to pick up the Cadillac and drive to SRI — he needs Dave to help transport a few people to dinner, "this client brought some people with him who I wasn't expecting, so sorry to bug you on your day off, man," etc. etc. Then he'll hang up and call the front desk at the Hilton where Roger is. He'll tell the receptionist at the front desk: "Hey, hi. I have an urgent message I need to get to one of your guests — Uri Geller is his name. Could you take this down? 'Change of plans. JM meeting you there, will go with you to pick-up site. Don't forget my lighter.'" ("Don't forget my lighter" is company-speak for burn this note after reading).
And he'll tell the receptionist to slide the note under Geller's hotel room door.
Michael
I think we should be able to make the timing for this work out okay.