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Hey, sorry for ghosting. I've been having trouble keeping up with my games while my kids are on summer break from school. I'd like to say that things will be better in a couple weeks but I'm in a master's program that starts back up right around that same time so I'm not sure what my workload is going to be like... I can go back to posting once in a while if you'd like or you can write me out, whichever you prefer. Just let me know.
Sir Humphrey- I ninja’d you (in gameplay) I haven’t read the post because I wanted to get this up while you were hopefully still on, so maybe it won’t matter, but you might want to double check you don’t want/need to edit your post...
Thom, who had been staring off at nothing in particular, suddenly snaps back to the present. ”Wait, who’s leaving?” he asks. ”Stand down C. We all know that despite signing up for a parachronic security force tasked with the wellbeing of the entire multiverse you’re unwilling to take one life for the good of billions. That’s fine; you don’t have to kill anyone. There’s a chance nobody will have to kill anyone... I’ve been running probabilities while you all where discussing things. There’s way too many variables to establish concrete odds for any one action but analyzing the aggregate trends, I think Ezekiel’s on the right track. Finding and trailing the women is the starting point that seems most likely to yield success. The biggest danger is scaring off the ripper if he makes us, but worst case scenario we send C to the bar and handle that. Best case scenario, we make op-for while they’re tailing; then we might be able to capture or scare them off—no killing—or, they resist, or make us first, and we engage them somewhere clear of the targets which should leave everything else following its projected path, hopefully. If we don’t make them and they don’t make us, then we protect the targets from the shadows until the appropriate murder occurs. Any questions.”
Sorry- I’m here... things have been crazy transitioning into summer (I have 2 kids who are out of school now and haven’t started summer activities yet) and when I’m low on time I usually start with my most active games and work down to the slowest ones as I have time. I’m going to post right now.
"Quanta-shift causality is incredibly complex," Thom adds as quietly as possible, "it could be predicated by any or all of the things Mei mentioned, or none of them... maybe these two deaths change the traffic patterns in London enough for one day that two people meet, or don't meet, causing or preventing the eventual birth of someone of huge importance." "As far as our work is concerned, the 'who' doesn't matter, and the 'why' doesn't matter; we just do the 'what' that we're told to do and everyone gets to go home without this line deviating so far that we can't get back."
”Smythe was looking to get some info from a local,” Thom whispers to the two women, ”sounds like she’s a lost tourist, though.”
Thom nods to Smythe at the corpulent gentleman's suggestion. He makes a quick motion of his head to prompt Mei to accompany him as he heads into the alley. "Are you alright, miss?" he asks the understandably shaken woman.
Thom quietly shakes his head. nothing like a little light vigilante work to make sure we don’t attract unwanted attention... maybe we can just use ourselves as bait once we’re found out... Stopping at the entrance to the alley, he signals Mei to stand with him. Leaning in quite close and laying one hand on her hip, he whispers ”We can stand watch here. We’ll make sure whoever they’re confronting doesn’t escape this way, and we can also try to limit how much attention they attract.”
well, calculating the unix time is simple enough but without knowing when 'the AI became aware' that's useless... Thom pinches the bridge of his nose while Iban explains the complex and convoluted tracking of time in his homeworld. "Alright, if you sense any thoughts that involve technology beyond a steam engine or a light bulb, or anyone who's thinking about other dimensions or timelines let us know. Subtly."
"Agreed," Thom answers with a nod, "we need to get out of here and get to work." Consulting the map on his palmtop he continues, "this address is closer, lets head over there and see if we can locate this woman. Everyone keep your eyes peeled for any signs of people who don't belong, they could be Centrum agents. Iban, scan minds- look for anyone who's thoughts seem anachronistic... actually, what year is it in your homeworld, Iban?"
Thom looks at the motley crew and frowns. ”An Indian man might not be as uncommon in the streets as a Chinese or Japanes woman, but Iban is still the only one I’ve seen so far... and Anders looks like he was sown together from pieces recovered from a bombing at a cross-fit convention... individually they might not draw that much attention, but when you group everyone together and stick a big personality like Smythe at the center of it people are going to notice. Especially people who are on the lookout for anything unusual.” why couldn’t they give me a team of Homeline professionals... all these crazy abilities on the team are great but for my money you can’t do better than a homegrown American veteran... Like I said, let’s put it to a vote. My vote is to lean into the skid- travel together, accept that we’re going to attract attention, trust our cover story, and bet on the Centrum team assuming that a group making so little effort at keeping a low profile couldn’t possibly be covert ops...”
”We can vote on that if you guys want but it sounds like a terrible idea to me,” Thom answers. ”Two groups would each attract less attention than one large group, yes, but both groups will still be noticeable... two unusual groups that are constantly going the same way despite not associating will look a lot more suspicious than one large of strange people traveling together.”
"Let's stick with this form for now," Thom answers C, "I think, in a way, it makes Mei stand out slightly less." Nodding to Mei and Iban, he continues, "Alright, one team it is. There's no chatter on any frequency I can scan with this equipment, so the Centrum team either suspects we're coming or is operating like we could be... in either case, that means they'll be on their guard- so be careful. Iban, can you extract information from people's minds subtly or will it be obvious that you're doing it?"
...we should have done some more planning on the walk through the country... Ducking into whatever boarding house or brothel is nearest the station, Thom secures a private room and leads the team into the cramped quarters. "If the Centrum team have any idea we might be coming, they'll be maintaining radio silence," he quietly shares, "but I can write a simple program for my palmtop pretty quickly to just continually sweep communication frequencies for any signals, maybe we'll get lucky. We have two potential targets to locate... and two groups worth of cover stories... should we separate and each pursue one, or stick together?" As he listens to the responses, he pulls his palmtop from its hiding place in the inside pocket of his waistcoat and begins writing the simpe program.
if we went straight to a hotel in Whitechapel we could spare the time... for our cover, it would be good for our cover... get it together- save this world from a massive quanta shift first and then you can find out whether or not she’s willing to back up all this talk... ”That’s a marvelous suggestion, Mei,” Thom answers as they board the rattling death trap which will transport them to their destination, ”but sadly we have business to attend to first...”
...oh, for f#ck’s sake, we’re back on this lung thing again... ”Forget about my lungs, Chou, and do what I hired you for,” Thom answers as they head for the train, ”keeping my yang up despite Miss Mei’s efforts to deplete it.”
cats from other planets... Thom buries his face in his palm. "I don't seem like my humors are out of balance, because my excellent oriental doctor here is very good at her job," he replies with a bit of barely suppressed frustration, "they don't call them humors in the orient, though- she calls it a yin-yang imbalance, but I've felt great since she started treatments. Ok?" "Iban, if anyone starts asking too many questions about our identities make them suddenly very curious about the weather, or something. Now, let's get walking..."
Totally your call. Squad Leader would be more accurate but Captain might be more comfortable for a born and bred military man like yourself... either's fine with me.
Thom looks with bemusement at C's little display. With a dismissive chuckle he answers, ”Well, if anyone asks why I don’t seem to have any symptoms I’ll just tell them it’s because you’re doing your job...”
”Uh, that’s not necessary,” Thom insists, holding up a hand to stop C before she injects him with anything. ”I don’t need real symptoms, we’ll just tell people my humors are off. Their medical knowledge will be pretty limited.”
Squad Leader? I didn’t buy any of the rank advantage on this version of Thom. I would most likely have been a captain or maybe a major when I left the Air Force.
"Iban," Thom calls as the psychic begins to wander off, "we're too far out for that to be practical. Plus, I have the coordinates right here..." Quickly consulting the map on his palmtop, he continues, "there's a road just beyond those trees over there that will take us right into London; we're about 7 miles from Whitechapel right now." As Ezekiel finishes his natural camouflaging of the conveyor, and Mei finalizes the illusions that supplement it, he sorts some appropriate currency out of the hodgepodge of money in conveyor. "This map doesn't seem to show train stations but once we hit the edge of the city we can look for signs of one... we may have to be careful about what we ask though, I don't know how developed the rail technology is in this timeline." "Well, it looks like everyone's ready, right? Iban, signal Anders to rendezvous with us on the road. And, have him leave himself some kind of sign for finding the way back to the conveyor... I marked it on my palmtop map, but we better have an old-fashioned backup in case something goes sideways. Once we get Anders at the road, we'll head left and walk until we hit the city or something comes up."
"Amos, yes," Thom answers, "run a sweep about a hundred yards out, and then look for a position with good sight lines to keep a watch from." I don't remember seeing camo netting on the supply-list... I could have overlooked it, or forgotten about it with all the distractions this morning... "C... or, Chou- we should start using your cover... why don't you see if you can find that netting. In the meantime, Ezekiel, see what natural materials you can find to aid in the hiding. Mei, if you did cloak the conveyor with magic how long would that last?"
Thom raises an eyebrow at C's words, and nods in understanding. I knew from her file that she could change forms, but thinking practically about it now is something else... if anyone sees her change we'll almost certainly have to kill them... I wonder what it looks like when she changes... it's so weird that the face, and now body, I've always associated with her aren't really hers... I wonder what she looks like in her own form... "How long does your transformation take?" he asks.
"Everyone alright?" Thom asks as he quickly looks over his squadmates after their jump.
Thom looks dubiously at Mei for a moment. ”Are you saying ‘let us go’ to private instruction right now, or to the mission?”
”Uh, yeah, you can brief us further on the mindlink after we jump. We won’t be able to drive any vehicles there, so we’ll have time while we’re walking, or riding carriages, to evaluate whether we want to use it and when,” Thom replies. Observing how Iban continues to look over the small selection of suits, he adds, ”Smythe, why don’t you pick an outfit for your steward; it’ll be a little bit of practice for your covers...”
”Hong Chou, it is,” Thom says with a nod, choosing to ignore the escalating discussion on sexual taboos and broader philosophies. ”Ezekiel has some skill with horses and some woodland skills... we can say he’s your assistant, Smythe.” ”Anything else before we leave?”
”no... I wasn’t... I mean...” Thom stammers. well, this is off to a tremendous start... get your sh!t together and say a real sentence or nobody’s going to take you seriously as squad leader... Taking a deep breath, he assumes a more military posture and answers, ”I’m never one to refuse lessons from an expert, in any field, Mei. If you’re offering instruction I’d be glad to learn under you”...or on top of you, or behind you, or wherever you like...”but C is correct, we better attend to the matter at hand first. And, actually, C probably won’t work as an alias, not with anyone who’s read anything about the orient at least... how about Zhi, or Feng?”
Thom freezes like a deer in headlights when the two women simply strip in the staging room. should I look away? I should look away... would that make it more awkward though? Smythe's looking away, I should probably look away... I know Mei uses her appeal as a weapon, but oh my gosh- that's one weapon I wouldn't mind getting taken down by... His face suddenly goes flush and he seems to recover enough to grab himself an appropriate side arm as well. "Good thinking," he comments, "having cover stories in place ahead of time will save us from having to improvise. So, Iban will be Sir Humphrey's steward and Amos an American hunter he hired for his most recent excursion to, where, South Africa? I can be an American inventor... recently arrived in London from the orient where I was researching materials for a new light bulb. C'Deth, you can be my research assistant, and Mei... my mistress, I guess?"
Thom looks around at the now quieter members of the team. this is going to be... interesting... "Alright," he announces when it seems there are no more relevant questions being asked, "you all heard the man- ten minutes to change and grab any mission-approved personal items you need and then we fire up the parachronic reactor." He quickly changes into a smart gray suit with a black waist coat. Then, he downloads some maps onto his palmtop, and hides it in an inside waistcoat pocket.
what on earth have I gotten myself into... field tech, they said... a nice, relatively cushy position operating and maintaining 'parachronic' equipment in the field... and now here I am responsible for this 'team'... this is going to be like herding cats... cats from different planets... "We know who they're most likely after, Sir Humphrey, if we can find those women first then Centrum will come to us," Thom answers, "and of course, C'Deth, you won't be required to murder anyone, although we may require your help in staging a corpse if we fail to stop Centrum directly." "Dr. Pearson, do we have a residence for either woman, or any actionable intel to point us in the right direction on arrival?"
Thom considers several scenarios and then asks, ”what about extra murders?” When surprised eyes turn his way, he clarifies, ”You’ve determined that failure to have one of the murders carried out is sufficient to cause a shift but would a third murder be within tolerances or would that cause a shift as well? Say, for example, we have to replicate one of the murders; would we have to also ensure that the real ripper didn’t choose an additional victim?”
I hadn’t really planned on Thom being a big leader, but I suppose that as the only one from Homeline, and a former Air Force officer, it would make some sense for me to take the team leader spot... I don’t want to just lay claim to that without some group consensus... I guess I’m nominating myself? If you vote for me I promise to do my best to defer to each of you in your own area of expertise, and to try to suggest tactically sound plans that let you use your skills...
I'm sorry if these were answered somewhere and I missed it, but OOC I have questions... some of which might become IC questions depending on the answers... 1) I gather from context that Centrum is a rival parachronic organization whose moitves are nefarious (because they're different then our own organization's), but how much do we know about them in game? 2) Have we worked with each other before? How well do we know each other? Have we received files on each other with like a list of strengths/skills/etc? What about each other's personalities/backgrounds/etc? 3) Is there any kind of rank or chain of command within the unit? Some of us seem to have picked out specific roles (C'Deth is the medic, I'm the field technician...); does everyone have an assigned role or are some of us just generic agents? Is someone assigned the role of team leader?
Sorry I'm late to the party. I'm all set now. Does the standard toolkit include everything needed for TL8 (and possibly 9) electronics repair? If not I'd like to try to requisition one of those. As far as weapons go, my military training was as a pilot so I'm proficient with pistols and mounted weapons (like the guns on an aircraft), but not rifles. So, I'll probably just use the pistol.
Thom sits in the break room sipping his morning coffee and casually leafing through the manual for an outdated portable parachronic unit that falls within his security clearance.
Alright, I should be all set. I went with original Thom but tweaked him a little bit towards the Major (dropped some of the more abstract math expertise to be a better pilot, and replaced the stutter with the Major's patriotism).
@GM- I never saw an answer to either of my questions... is it too late to make (significant) changes to our characters? And, do you have a preference between the original Thom and Major Andrews ?
Major Andrews:
ST 10 [0]
DX 14 [80] IQ 12 [40] HT 10 [0] Hot Pilot IV [20]
Code of Honor (soldier) [-10]
Quirks [-5]
The Major's Skills [26]
Background Summary: Grew up in Wilson NY, loved boating. Went to SUNY Brockport on an AFROTC scholarship; graduated with a degree in business administration (C average). Went to flight school and excelled. Flew planes for the Air Force for 6-7 years before being attached to Inifinty a few months ago. PS- feedback on which version the other players like better would be appreciated as well...
that's a terrible talent, lol. The core rulebook says not to include specializations in the talent, so that's only 3 skills... I have both versions of the character ready, obviously only one of them is in the alias right now though. And, I'd have to tweak the pilot version's skills depending on what version of piloting talent was acceptable. But I'm cool with either build for Thom... GM, other players, anyone have really strong feelings on which one would be better for the group?
Right now I have English and German, because I was stationed in Germany for a while in the Air Force... but if a bunch of other people have German I could switch that pretty easily. Depending on the geo-political landscape in Homeline when we start (aka who the NSA has been watching most) something like Arabic or Chinese would make plenty of sense for me too. @Stranger- yeah, my guy is a normal Homeline human so being an intuitive mathematician is kind of the only thing special about him. I guess if we both get picked it might make for some interesting RP as Thom finds out there really is nothing at all special about him.
I updated my talents and skills. I'll try to add a little more detail to my background, and a quick description of my appearance, later tonight. As always- feedback is welcomed (and appreciated)
Well, there's not much fluff but this alias should have all the crunch I think... I'd love feedback. edit: I just realized I forgot all about quirks! I'm definitely going to pick up a couple once I look through them. Oh, that means a few more points too... maybe I'll pick up another broken language, or grab a courtesy rank for being a retired air force officer? Wait, I'm correct in remembering that those couple points from quirks don't count towards your disadvantage total, right?
"Perhaps one of our physicians would like to stay here to keep an eye on Miss Palliver?" Thom asks in reply to Louie's questions, "they would be most qualified if she has some manner of episode?" When he sees Louie retrieve his carbine, he says, "oh, good thinking, Louie- I'll be right back..." before disappearing up the staircase. He returns a few moments later carrying a fairly fancy revolver that appears to have never been fired before.
"...ah, yes- Doctor John Kellogg. He only just graduated from the New York University School of Medicine a few months ago. I didn't know him from school though, being myself a Columbia man. No, I made his acquaintance at the Academy of Music, New York's premiere opera house. He's a very interesting man with a very interesting theory on holistic health. Some of his ideas were... well, too extreme for me, but his advice on a fiber rich diet, daily fitness routines, and time spent regularly in the sun have all proven quite effective for me..." When they arrive back at the house Thom bows and offers, "I sincerely hope that this continues to aid you. If you'd like to learn more about Dr. Kellogg's theories I'd be glad to put you in touch with him. To the best of my knowledge he's still in the city, though last time I spoke with him there was some thought that he might return to his hometown in Michigan." He thanks Mr. Wright for his attentiveness and gives his valet the correspondences he wrote last night to be delivered to the post office. After completing the remainder of his morning rituals, he freshens up and heads downstairs in his brown suit with a burgundy waistcoat and brown bowler hat. "What shall it be today, gentlemen," he asks rather cheerily, "another day of study, or shall we pay a visit to the Catholicon?"
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