The Alien Doctors
Mel
Charley shuts her eyes and writes a note to Jo.
After lunch, find me on the couch. Use your psychometry on my head. I need to know who put the chip there. I am afraid it might not be SANDMAN. Be careful! I think they can see and hear what I do. Use this code (example given) to update me on what you learn. You can find out how to use the code in the library. Please help me Jo!
Leonard
Jocasta will find Charley sleeping and, quietly and gently, do another quick meditation on what is the right thing to do for her. If it leads in that direction, she well remove her glove and do a psychometry read around the area where she thinks the chip is located.
Michael
Roll Meditation, Leonard, that's brilliant, I love it.
>>>> FAILURE by 1
Leonard
Sigh.
Well I mean it's not like today has been a series of revelations and distractions that fuel Jocasta's paranoia, abandonment issues, and general sense of inadequacy, tra la.
Michael
So are we going ahead with Psychometry or do we want to wait for Charley/Mel to wake up/come back?
Leonard
Jocasta considers it, after her mind makes a total wreck of trying to reach clarity. She wants to do the right thing the right way, but Charley's note had an obvious sense of urgency, so she'll go ahead with the read. She is, however, expecting the worst. She's in the mindset of someone about to trip while in a very bad mood.
Michael
Jocasta places her hand lightly upon Charley's brow, finding a peaceful location of interface at Charley's ajna, and lets go of her own consciousness. Jocasta finds herself in a brightly-lit room. An operating theatre. Everything is suffused in a bright white haze, making details nearly impossible to work out. But Charley is there. Younger than she is now. Maybe three or four? Her skull is open; her brain tissue exposed around a sanitary cordon. Snaking around the unconscious three-year-old on the operation table are long, sinuous, robotic-looking limbs ending in multi-"fingered" grasping appendages which utilize a startling array of incomprehensible tools, but as Jocasta concentrates, she realizes some resemble clamps, some resemble scalpels, some resemble cameras with exceedingly tiny lenses... and one is quite clearly a laser, because it zaps away some of Charley's brain tissue. Two snaking robotic limbs come in to suction the wound (although it is mostly cauterized by the laser) and to implant the infamous chip. Jocasta tries reaching further out, away from Charley's poor unconscious body on the operating table. Who's working these fucking robots? Jocasta's subconscious fairly screams in an effort to protect her little girl from such a grotesque violation. And Jo manages to extend her psychometric senses out just a tiny bit from the hazy bubble of the operating table, to an "observation window" set high in this white clean room. The window is dark, but there are figures there, three of them. Are they... are they men in dark masks? Maybe. Their faces are incomprehensible in any kind of normal pattern-recognition manner of conscious cognition. But Jo knows their eyes are large, the lenses of their giant... eyes? goggles? sunglasses? bulging forth blackly. The Observers' mouths are seemingly tiny slits. Are they... are they even human? One turns to the other and communicates wholly silently; the other nods and its tiny mouth—if it is a mouth and not merely a crinkle in its dark grey surgical mask—curls up in an expression of pleasure and approval. Jocasta wakes up. Fright check, 12 or less to pass.
>>>> FAILURE by 2
Just stunned for one second. Make a Will check to snap out of it, this would be at a straight 14 or less.
>>>> SUCCESS by 6
Just a split second of staring off into space, and Jocasta is back none the worse for wear.
Leonard
Okay. Excellent. I think at this point she's just gonna tinker around with Charley's cipher and try to figure it out, with the idea of (as gently as possible) writing down what she saw. She won't do anything else until Charley wakes up.
Once she susses the cipher and leaves a message for Charley (with a coda to come and see her privately, or slip her another coded note), she'll head back to the main area.
Michael
oh, one more thing
Charley Self-Control roll for Nightmares:
>>>> FAILURE by 3
Charley doesn't wake up right away when Jo leaves, but a little more than a half-hour later, she wakes up (having lost a Fatigue Point) from a Nightmare that bears a vague resemblance to the psychometric vision that Jocasta had.
Mel
Charley reads Jo's coded letter …
Leonard
It'll say, in code:
We should talk, away from others. Saw some things you should know. Don't talk to anyone else. Don't use this code too much, GP will learn it. We will figure this out! Be brave. Come find me or put a note in my inbox.
Mel
Charlie finds tin foil, makes a hat and calls for Jo to come to her lab.
Leonard
Jocasta will come in, betraying no special knowledge if they're being observed. "Good morning, Charley! How are you today?"
Mel
A weary Charley says, "It's okay, Jocasta. We can talk freely as long as I'm wearing this." Then gestures to her hat.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why I didn't look into the purpose of this chip sooner?"
"Sophie, is the one who drew my attention to it again. She left a coded message for me before she left."
Leonard
With a sort of resigned, cat's-out-of-the-bag demeanor, Jocasta says, "Charley, please don't blame yourself. This is a very extraordinary thing that's happening — none of us could have figured out all the angles. The important thing, I think, is that we're careful about figuring out what to do about it, who did it, and who to tell. What's this message Sophie left?" While she's saying this, she's going to write, in their cipher, a quick note that says "I read you while you slept. Strange vision of who put chip in. Did not look human." It will be accompanied by a small sketch of the faces of the observers.
Mel
Charley will ASL: "Aliens? You think they might be extraterrestrials?"
Leonard
"I don't know," Jo admits. "Maybe, or maybe our old familiar enemy in an unfamiliar form. It's beyond me, Charley, I am sorry to say. I think we need to talk to someone with more knowledge than I have, but I want you to feel completely safe. Who do you trust most in URIEL?"
Mel
"Dad … but I don't want to tell him. He seems too … " She shakes her head at a loss for words closes her eyes and says, "Roger or Mitch."
(This reminds me Archie may get a feeling that Charlie is scared)
Michael
(That's true, Special Rapport, of course)
Mel
(Are aliens covered in GP training?)
Michael
Not at all, although I would imagine that, again, parallel to Viv's diving into the Irruptor theories in the library, that some SANDMAN theorists believe that the Anunnaki are ancient astronauts.
Like, they came here from another planet or star back 6-10 thousand years ago and... began manipulating us.
But I wouldn't imagine that theory has gotten much traction at GP or the Duncorne Foundation. Fringe stuff.
Mel
Then her mind drifts to who else could possibly help. And says, “Roger, bring me Roger.”
“And get me some rum Jo.”
Leonard
“Looking to go back to sleep for a good long while, Charley?” She smiles. “I’ll, uh, see what I can do.” She tries to raise Roger on the phone and hopes Charley forgets about the rum.
Mel
Charley laughs (and it’s not creepy at all) “No, Jo not for me! For Roger’s ah friend.”
Leonard
"Oooooh, I get it," Jo replies, genuinely surprised. "You're always a step ahead of me, kiddo. Let's see if we can't get hold of him."
Michael
You guys wanna call Roger from Charley's lab? Bill, this would be around 3, 4 in the afternoon Thursday fyi.
Leonard
Yeah, I don’t see why not.
She's probably got better ECM than the rest of Livermore
Bill
Roger picks up the line in his house. "Hello, you've reached Roger."
Leonard
"Hi, Roger, It's Jo. Sorry to bother you, but is there any way you can come in to the office today? Charley's asking for you, and I think it's pretty important. We've also had some, uh, personnel issues, which you've probably heard about," Jocasta says.
Bill
"Charley?" Roger takes a little longer than usual beat. "If it's got to be today, it'll have to be in the evening. Just trying to get over the Bridge right now would get me there after seven anyway. What's the situation? Do you need me to talk to him?"
Leonard
"I can put her on the phone if you like. It's … well, you know how it is with Charley. It's complicated." She'll cup her hand over the speaker and talk to Charley. "Charley, it might be a bit before Roger can get here. Do you feel okay talking to him on the phone?"
Bill
(You know, the phone, where they're surely listening.)
Mel
“No. I’ll wait.”
Leonard
"Roger? She'd rather not talk on the phone. Not sure I blame her, things are a bit hectic today," Jocasta says, lifting her hand. "Come when you can. And bring your friend, the one we talked about at the Hotsy Totsy."
Mel
“Jo, I think I need candles and dice too.”
Leonard
"And some candles and dice." She sighs a bit. "And, before you ask, I don't know either." Jocasta hangs up, figuring it's going to be a long night after the holiday weekend.
Bill
Agent 00 feels like this might be important enough that Roger would want to know, so he writes a note out and puts it under a magnet on the fridge before heading out.
Michael
Should we do an Acting vs. Detect Lies roll for Agent 00 vs. Jocasta just now? See if Jo gets off the phone with a funny feeling?
Bill
(Yeah, calling 'Charlie' 'him' was a mistake, too.)
Leonard
(Rolled a 12. Empathy adds a bonus to both Psychology and Detect Lies but it might only work in person — I’m too tired to look it up now but I’ll check it in the AM.)
Michael
It just says "+3" under Detect Lies so that means you succeed but not by Roger/Agent 00's MoS.
So I dunno, maybe there's a vague unease at the back of Jo's head but not enough to be like, "Hey that wasn't really Roger!" More like Jo thinks Roger is having a rough time of it, maybe?
Leonard
Sure, makes sense. Jo has a vague unease about a lot of things.
Michael
Generally speaking what are our next steps on the Charley chip plotline? Mel, Leonard, Bill... feel free to spitball scene ideas in here.
Leonard
Jocasta will want to talk to Roger and Mitch separately about this and the Sophie situation, Charley about what she wants to do about the chip, and, contingent on that, to Marshall and Archie about what she learned about the chip. She'll spend the intervening time coming up with some infosec just for existing around the lab, too, which probably won't deepen her paranoia or anything.
Michael
That's all great. I could see us starting any of those 1-on-1 conversations based on availability.
Bill
I’ve got plenty of ideas for Papa and Roger to get across to Jo, and see what happens. The hard part is keeping Charley (and her possible observers) out of the loop until we’re sure we’ll get it before they could get an upload.