Roger and Charley Dance
Bill
After a bit of a cool-off period following the morning meeting, Roger sticks his head in the door of the lab. "Hey, Charley: been meaning to drop by. We should set up another talk with Papa Legba and finish your questions."
(By saying 'your questions', seems like Roger is a little bit behind on who's asking/answering questions right now.)
Mel
Still on a sugar high Charley rushes over to the Priest. “Roger! Roger! Roger! Boy do I have something to tell you!!! Guess who came to see me?! Papa Legba and some of his cousins!”
Bill
“You saw Papa Legba in another cheval? Who was this person?” Roger looks a little worried.
Mel
“Cheval? Oh no it was when I was asleep. He showed up in the land of dreams. By the Gates. You know. Right? The Gates of Horn and Ivory.”
Bill
Roger doesn't stop looking worried, but his type of worry seems to adjust. "Papa Legba came to you — es bendecida, wonderful, Charley! But did I hear you, right, his 'cousins' were with him? Who were those, did he say?"
Mel
Charley is very proud of herself for making ‘contact’ as Jack would say. “Three Barons! La Croix, Criminel and Samdi. I recognized them from some drawings and photos I found in a few books I’ve been studying.”
Bill
Roger tries to keep a pleasant look on his face, and that clearly slips as he crosses himself and "Ay yi yi" escapes his lips. He's at a temporary loss for words after that one.
Mel
Here is a big question Charley has been dying to ask.
“Have you ever asked them how to defeat the Red Kings? They must know!”
Bill
Roger plasters the smile back on his face, if a little weakly. "Uh. Yeah, that's a complicated question. Charley, I'm gonna need to sit down, and then we kinda have to have a little more of a talk, I think." He settles himself down the couch. "So, yes, I have asked them — carefully, very carefully — some things about that. Well, Papa, sure, and a little of Baron Samdi sometimes, that is, but not the others. But no, Charley, I'm not sure they do know. Or, maybe the more important thing to say is, they might not tell us fully if they did, because they have other, uh, agendas."
"See, mi amiga, it's kinda like asking a tiger about how to get through the jungle safely, you catch my drift? That tiger gonna know a lot about the jungle and how it's not safe, and about her competition like the bears and things, si. But if that tiger wants to eat you, you shouldn't be so sure about any instruction she gives you."
"Now, Papa Legba, he's a good help, but he's also a little bit Elegba and a little bit Eshu and sometimes there's some mischief there. And the Guede, " and here he crosses himself again, "well, they have some terrible things they want, and will take from the unwary. There's a reason they're behind Papa Legba, that you go through the Guardian first to talk to them, ¿verás?"
"Ay yi yi. Charley, it's clear they got some interest in you, so I can't tell you to stay away. But, see, people train on this kind of thing, among people, from other people, because you can trust people, somewhat, and what they teach you. When I was your age, I got earfuls from my grandmothers. I'm not so strict as they would be, but I gotta tell you: you don't go making deals with the loa alone. You need a community, you need some lessons, from some kind of houngan, a priest, for sure before you start talking to the Guede. In your dream, did you say anything to them, promise anything to them?"
Mel
Solemnly, “Just to Papa Legba” The air from Charley’s balloon is quickly deflating as she begins to understand what the loa are and capable of..”
Bill
“OK. Well, the loa are interested in you, that’s for sure. You can use that, you can maybe find out something to fight the Kings. You just gotta be careful, and check in with me. Or maybe a friend I’ll introduce you to.”
“So, what did Papa Legba say?”
Mel
“Ah, he said what he would ask if he was me. And that was umm, ‘What payment of mine, given freely and of my own will, without bond of servitude, bond of soul, or harm to myself or others — a payment possible for me alone to pay in my lifetime — would you, Papa Legba, Guardian of the Threshold, require of me, to teach me the skills to find the fate of my family and protect us from the repercussions of that search?’ Then he gave me the price of his tutelage. BUT he also wanted me to have you do something for him. He said that you need to look into my eyes and tell me who my patron loa is and he will uh … bare witness though you. He said not to worry. I’m not going to be a shovel (Charley’s French needs work) but it will be like a baptism.”
Charley quickly adds, “Can’t you be the priest for me?”
Bill
Roger thinks about all the words that just got said. "Sorry, I'm still working on the question you got, and I guess you asked? Heh, I was just talking about him being a crafty one — telling you things in dreams, where you can't remember. But you seemed to get that very precise — is this a thing with you, that you can remember words precisely in dreams? You could recite that again? Maybe the blessed saint underestimated you … "
"Yes, Charley, it looks like I'm your priest, for now. I started it, I guess, so we can keep going this way. But, see, who your patron is (he gives it a different pronunciation), well, that might lead you to another priest after me. Especially if it's a female one, or something more: they can be very select in who is cheval or houngan for them. For you, I don't know."
"But tell me: can you say precisely what Papa Legba asked of you, his price? I'm not too worried, since he gave you the "without bond" clauses, but it's still important." (You don't need to repeat it all here, unless you want to change something about it.)
Mel
“Yes. I remember the true dreams really well! And I remember that too … ”
(Not changing anything)
Bill
After Charley relates Legba's price, Roger looks bit relieved, and visibly relaxes into the lab couch. "Man, Charley. You too cool for school. Now I'm the curious one! But ay, those questions, they're for you only. I'll be good and not ask."
"Well, I guess you really are in it, now. They really want something from you. You can't go any longer without a guide, on both sides." Roger gets up from the couch, and paces a bit, drumming his hands against his thighs, making a beat to think to. He mutters a bit, in a bunch of languages. "Well, Charley, it's clear, you need an initiation. But what kind, well, I don't think it'd be right to take you out to any tradition I know. You been reading, I see, but going and doing, that's different. You'd be an outsider, for sure, and that would change the spirit of it all. Plus, I have a feeling the loa have their eyes on you because of how new you are, and wanna see what you do to meet them. Heh, just like the loa to want to get in on the new game early."
"So, you and me, let's build this initiation together. First off … what do you have for making music? And I mean, with a beat, baby!"
Mel
“Oh … I don’t have much but this is similar to a Theremin. Do you know what that is? It’s the first electronic instrument. This one I built it myself!”
Michael
So hacking into ARCNET, a preliminary expedition to see what we can see, sounds like a good plan for Charley on Monday afternoon. Obviously Charley (and Roger) will be wary of any Irruptor so here's what I'm thinking. As Charley uses ARPANET connections with SRI to test trying to get into the ARCNET intranet, both she and Roger will be wary of signs of Irruption or otherwise evidence of History B. I think, Bill, if you want to assist with Hidden Lore (History B)-11 (this will be essentially a combination of Hidden Lore and a penalized Electronic Operation (Security) roll), once you've rolled that and we get whether Roger gives a bonus or a penalty, Charley will try to hack with Computer Hacking.
Bill
>>>> SUCCESS
Made it by one.
Michael
Nice. I figure this is Roger just keeping an eye over Charley's shoulder for anything untoward or unusual during the hacking process.
Mel, give me a Computer Hacking-15 roll when you get a chance.
Bill
On hearing the Theremin, Roger is weirded out. “That does put a shiver down my spine. Kinda Baron music, I gotta admit. And you got a very old soul. But we gotta reach out to them all, and see.”
“What kind of music puts you in a meditative mood?”
Michael
Mel: Yes, I think it's been long enough to use Second Chance again. First roll Second Chance-14. If that succeeds, reroll Computer Hacking-15 twice and take the best of the three.
Mel
>>>> SUCCESS
Done. Made it by 7 with the best computer hacking.
Michael
As Charley tests a few backdoors in the SRI ARPANET node in order to gain admittance to the ARC's internal intranet, she detects very minimal security measures. ARC isn't too concerned with anyone being able to get into their systems, it seems. On first approach, Charley can see all the publicly-available system messages; there's a lot of data here, a couple of years' worth of forum posts, messages, RFCs, documentation, newsletters, etc. Charley quickly navigates to a timeline where she succeeds in creating a dummy account immediately after cracking into the system and gives herself as high admin privileges as possible, so she can go through private messages as well. It's a lot of data, and in order to get it to download without leaving traces, Charley will need one more roll, a Computer Programming-16 to scrub her presence here and allow the download to happen slowly over the next 24 to 48 hours without detection (the ARCNET data will all go on the massive hard drive we took from the Ransoms' house and take up a truly minuscule amount of the drive). And then once the data is obtained, we'll need to pore through it with Research (or more Computer rolls). But this way Charley can minimize and eliminate the signs of the system having been hacked.
As Roger keeps a careful eye over Charley's shoulder during the hack and download, he sees no signs of odd behavior out of any of the text flashing across the screen (that he can understand). No mysterious chatters, no alerts, no embedded code that holds a virtual Anunnaki glyph like we dealt with at Brougham Castle. Both Roger and Joshua are satisfied the system (or at least the data records that Charley is stealing) is clean.
(And of course don't let me interrupt the music discussion going on at the same time as the hack)
Mel
Charley stops playing with the theremin and stares blankly for second. “Ohhhh, we’ll I really like Donovan’s ‘Hurdy Gurdy Man.’ I made a looped tape of just that song. It’s very relaxing.” Charley is grinning thinking about the song.
Bill
“That’s good, real good. Now, what really gets your blood pumping? Make you just need to get up and move and throw your body about? I’m talkin’ uncontrollable.” Roger‘s not sure he’s ever seen Charley like that. “Music that just strips the order of your life away. You got any tracks like that?”
Mel
Charley likes this game. “Yes! ‘QUESTION’ by the Moody Blues!!!”
Bill
“Take a break and put it on! We can pick up anything you knock over. You got a stereo in here somewhere, right?”
Mel
“Yes, just a sec.” Excitedly she goes through a stack of cassettes until she finds the right one. Pops it in and turns it up and is lost to the song. It begins with the guitar, fast and frenzied. Charley knows all the words and is singing/yelling along. She jumps about and punches the air. And when the song becomes a soft and gentle plea she cries, “I'm looking for someone to change my life! I'm looking for a miracle in my life!! And if you could see what it's done to me. To lose the love I knew. Could safely lead me to. The land that I once knew. To learn as we grow old. The secrets of our soul.”
Bill
Roger bops his head a little during the fast, frenzied start. But when the soft part hits, he just stops and watches Charley caught up in it. In his way, Roger is rising to Dickinson's challenge: he dares to see a soul at the white heat. Charley's still running merely red, but then, he gets that her soul is old, and like many-folded steel, will take greater work to fire. Roger lets Charley run the music show for a bit. He tries to keep her going, prompting with "What else you got?" She picks what she picks.
But a song or two down this road, Roger confesses: "Charley, you're smart, so you know what I'm doing. The loa love emotions, and they adore a supplicant who brings them their favorite. To know your patron, you will need to show your many sides, many feelings, right? Now, it don't need to be a murderous rage, like some would like; you don't have to go there … unless that is what you most truly feel. You have showed peace. You showed me frenzy. The music seems a good guide. So, (and he drops his voice more soft) … what song gives you a warm, safe feeling? Like being home in your own bed, cared for. La Sirène, Erzulie Dantor, these might be your allies if you seek such sanctuary. Play something that brings you home."
Mel
With her sugar rush all but spent Charley simply nods at Roger's request. The cassette turns and a dreamy melody fills the room. Within the notes are memories of the sea, her mother and the gentle sunlight of late afternoon. The bright florescent light seems to dim a little as she sits in front of the priest. At first she retreats into the music falling further inward until Papa Legba's whisper reminds her of something they are to do. Charley reaches for Roger's hands and having found them, holds them until she opens her eyes to let him see.
Bill
Roger quietly mutters a prayer "Mami Wata, maman des eaux, pitié de nous." He looks into Charley's eyes as she opens them. And, thinking of them like windows, he knows that it's time. Time to open the way through them and look beyond. He gently takes his right hand from Charley's grip, squeezing with the left, and reaches into his inner jacket pocket for his little printed vever for Papa Legba. He doesn't call for Legba to ride, but just glances at the symbol, and gently evokes his presence. He uses English for Charley's sake: "Papa Legba, we stand at the threshold. Open the way … "
Michael
(I just made a Religious Ritual roll for Roger and a Racial Memory roll for Charley in secret.)
As Roger looks into Charley's eyes, he feels himself falling backwards in time. He sees the lives Charley has lived, more clearly than ever before. There is something about this little one's ancient gros bon ange that prevents it from residing in Ginen and assisting the Guédé after death. This little one defies the Guédé, defies the usual cycle of life and death. And yet the Guédé respect her, if Charley's dream is any indication, perhaps because her lifespan has been cut short so often. They always did have a soft spot for children. But most definitely Roger can tell respect or no, none of the Barons are fated to be her patron. Some of the individual past lives seem to be dedicated to Oggun — that rocket scientist who died in flames for sure — others like the Frenchwoman who fought for the Commune, are dedicated to Ezilí Dantor. But what about Charley, this Charley. What Roger can feel about the loa who seeks to look after Charley is that it will be a loa concerned with Charley's fate. Concerned with keeping Charley safe to fulfill that fate. Those songs, the ones Charley's subconscious chose, betrayed her desire for answers to questions, her yearning to once again be the daughter of her mother, to Charley eventually becoming the priestess herself, to greater self-understanding, understanding of her own power and potential. Charley has had that potential for tutelage, that mother-to-daughter connection, shattered. Her patron should give her that connection back in some small measure. There are very few loa that match well with that aching void in Charley's soul.
Bill
Roger begins to recite paeans to the Holy Mother in her many blessed forms. He praises the gentle Immaculate Lady, Ayida Wedo, wife of Damballa, rainbow serpent, ancient and loving. He again praises Mami Wata, mother of ocean. He praises the Black Madonna, in her form of Erzulie Mansur, the blessed, font of maternal love. But then, interrupting his stream of praise, comes a screech of a curse and a voice deep with patois.
"Wat, you forget me, little houngan? You little shit. Yeah, yeah, so many lovely mothers, ha! Some fierce, but most soft. Too soft for this little fuckah! Wat dey gonna do when she get in too deep? No, she is mine. She was mine long ago, I will have her in the end." None of this has been visible to Charley, holding Roger's hand. He's stopped chanting names, and he looks dumbstruck. Then, his face splits with a huge smile, and he laughs, a deep laugh, and says, in English.
"Praises to you, too, Maman Brigitte, who loves lost children. We praise you, who adopted Nibo, first victim and voice of the unknown dead. Yes, Maman, you are worthy mother. And who knows better the long journey of this soul, than the most patient Guédé; no impetuous Baron, you. Fierce white lady of fire, if you say she is yours, then she is. No need to strike down your humble houngan with curses."
Roger takes back Charley's hands with both of his. "Charley, it looks like you have — or maybe already had a patrona. I know her as St. Brigit, Maman Brigitte, and, while she is not the Guédé of your dream, she is the connection to many of them: as sister, as mother, to Samedi, as wife. I think … I think this will be very good indeed."
"But ayi, try not to repeat exactly what she says in front of your father. I ain't never gonna hear the end of that."
Mel
Being left out of the exchange Charley guesses as to what Roger means. “Oh okay … So, now what? Do we need to do like an offering? Oh and an alter! Do I need one like at your apartment?”
Bill
"Yes, yes. We do need to initiate you, and an altar would be a good start. You can build one here. I can help you find images, but you should find some of your own. Ayi, how to deal with rum … " Roger puts his hand to his head. "Oh, there's also hot peppers. How do you feel about hot peppers?"
"And snakes. You aren't afraid of snakes, right? Oh, maybe it can be a snake-like thing … "
Mel
Made the Computer Programming by 9.
Michael
So with the copying and packet switching/routing and download of the ARCNET data taking some time, Charley is able to effortlessly cover her tracks in the system, wiping her temporary admin account and all the traces of the download as it happens. She's even managed to write a program to prevent anyone who might be logged onto the system from detecting the unusual traffic as it happens. The packets are anonymized and disguised as normal data traffic so they won't leave records in any other ARPANET systems as they're routed through either. Everything will be at Charley's disposal by Wednesday afternoon: ARCNET's system architecture, the electronic mails, the meeting minutes, the project plans, the postings on the internal message boards, even the software running their whole network. The afternoon hangout with Roger has turned into a nifty little data heist. All praise to Papa Legba.