“Jason,” Numina asks as the plane lifts, “did you have a knack for invention when you were younger?”
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009018
He throws her a quick glance. He’s continuing to monitor the systems, waiting for something sabotaged to fail catastrophically. The contingent thoughts that he may be under some emotion-influencing attack that may be spiking his adrenaline production, or that, alternately, he’s just losing it, fail to reassure. _Go now. Think later.
_“Not particularly. I mean, you pick up some stuff up having a genius science adventurer dad and being thrown into life-or-death sitches that force you to build a crossbow out of a magnet, duct tape, and a slotted spoon. But I didn’t really get into tinkering with stuff until … I dunno, a few years back?” He’s a bit quiet – partly distraction, partly memory – as he flips a switch off, then back on again. The light’s still green. “It gave me something to kill time after Dad and Rusty – all that.”
“Except excuses about why I needed another ice cream for dessert. I was good at inventing those. Amir was better.” He wants to talk about what just happened – but not yet. Go now, chat later.
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009386
*** Dave H. said:
“Not particularly.”
She nods, willing to wait, but not concealing a small thoughtful frown. She sensed something was off.
“Just so you know,” she says, “I’ve got more than enough in common with Leo to happily solve a problem with punching.” She tosses her - you notice - now short, shaggy, pixie-cut hair. “If it comes up.”
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009473
“I --” Swelp me, Jason Quill, if you her she’s too fragile a flower to risk getting into a fight I’ll beat you up myself. He’s unsure if that’s his own inner dialog, or Li’lycia or if there’s that much of a difference at this point, but … “-- think that’s good to know. Though we should probably do some practice sparring with you to get a sense of your strengths and weaknesses before getting into a melee. That pod is pretty well armored, but I’m not sure about the emitters, either how well the hard light constructs will deal with combat-level impact, or how the emitters themselves will, given how we installed them. That might take some work, anchoring the – anyway, also --”
_Say something!
“–_ I was worried about bombs, or something done to the plane before we left. Which don’t lend themselves to punching. And --”
_Say something!
_"-- I like the hair. It’s – different. It’s you."
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009531
She grins. “It is, isn’t it? I’ll keep it short for now, I think.”
She sits back in her chair. “You know, I think I can keep from clipping so much if we just strengthen the push-back on the emitters to prevent object overlap with my paperdoll. It’ll use more juice than only having them go solid when I want to intentionally interact with something, but I think it’ll be a net gain in usability.” She squints. “Actually, if we do that, and set the pod to default to a hover height of about a hundred fifty centimeters, I could ‘carry’ it, and walk for real. As a bonus, I could still fly by overriding the default.” She tilts her head. “You think the current power plant can handle all that? I don’t really want to be on a charging cable more than my phone.”
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009559
A technology discussion is always a welcome distraction. At least for a moment.
“So carry the pod like a hardcase “backpack”? Though you can decorate it as you like – yeah, that makes some sense. I’m not worried about the juice it will pull – Chin designed that thing for long-term infiltration, on a least a trickle of charge all the time for the sensors. And if prolonged drain has a problem in some scenario, I can always carry you – um, find some way to deal with that. Maybe even put some real straps on it, or a handle like a suitcase. A bit heavier than that, but the nanobots can handle it. Hmmm.”
He looks down at the console. “Okay, we’re out of airspace around the Key, past any reasonable SAM targeting, and low enough that we’re just over the horizon for purposes of beam weapons. What the hell just happened back there?”
He takes a deep breath. If a bomb was possible, a bug was possible. But he can’t just not talk. There are some decisions to make. “There was something deeply squirrelly going on with Amir. At first he seemed just like he should be, and his story fit all the details it should. But then he started asking questions more insistently than felt quite right, and there was all that stuff with this book --” He waves the volume. “-- and meeting this Valerie Randal, and then … he didn’t get your Sneakers reference. He’s heard that line a dozen dozen times, we’d even say it to each other, imitating Ben Kingsley’s weird East Coast accent.” He shakes his head. “I thought he was being coy, a nudge and a wink. Then Li’lycia started suggesting that Amir was more of a Cosmo than … I dunno, Liz. Not the lost sheep of the team, but the guy who always remembered, always plotted, so get out fast.”
He runs his fingers through his hair again. “I don’t know know how many layers of paranoia I’m laying down myself vs digging through. But the number one question is: do we go to Harvard and visit Ms Randal, as Amir was so insistent we should do? I’m inclined yes, because it’s the only clear direction to take, even if it’s a trap.”
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009627
[Distracting conversation]
“I meant ‘carry it inside my paperdoll,’ actually. Let it rest on the inside of the shell and let my legs do something useful.”
[Real conversation]
“I thought something was wrong when he didn’t get that reference.”
[and]
“Well, it’s not the only clear direction to take, is it? You could go after Charlotte in the Sepiaverse [assume, here, that Leo communicated to the team about Charlotte’s note], which would also hopefully bring you in contact with your Father which, no offense, seemed like something your brother was steering you away from, at least a little bit.”
She shrugs. “Or you can try to find Alycia. Somehow, she was obviously never affected by whatever aversion effect kept you and Amir from trying to reach your family.” She squints, one eye closing entirely, almost as if she’s aiming with the other. “Honestly - and please don’t take this and add it to guilt-you-feel-for-something-you-didn’t-do-even-though-the-option-was-forcibly-taken-out-of-your-hands-two-years-ago, because then I’ll feel guilty, and that’s ex_haust_ing - what I’ve always heard described as her ‘obsessively pursuing any clue about her father’ seems more like ‘what any child would try to do in that situation.’”
She gestures with both hands, almost a shrug. “That’s not to say the book’s author might not be a useful lead, too. Even if Amir was lying, it was probably mostly truthful.” Her expression sobers. “That’s the most effective way to lie, as demonstrated by Leo’s father any number of times.”
She shakes the thought away. “So. Many options. Which of them are both important, and something only you can do?”
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009711
Leo did immediately relay that information.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Masks 22.1 - Sepiatoned Images of Florida [Cutscene] [RP] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
“Charlotte. Crap. Forgot about her.” He presses the palms of his hands against his eyes. “She’s been there too long without word. Rrg. Team mate. Priority.”
He snorts. “It occured to me, the other day, we’ve been focusing on the portal in the graveyard – hold on a sec: Memo: transcribe and pass on to the team information that Amir told me about keynomes and Vyortovians – it occured to me that I did that whole Create A Portal to Anywhere thing the other day – sorry about that, again – and maybe I could use that to get directly to Dad. Or at least to the Sepiaverse. The generators on the Key would have maybe worked for that. But if I’m actually thinking with my brain instead of with – whatever, I could do that at home, in Halcyon, without causing so many problems. Maybe. I haven’t spent much time experimenting with this stuff obviously.”
_Breathe. Focus.
_“Alycia --” He stop. Breathes again. “I’m not sure she wasn’t affected. Maybe something that just kept her away from me. I dunno. That would explain why she’s been so close and still hasn’t tried to reach out. Or maybe she saw me not doing anything, and – no I am not saying this to feel guilty, just observing, because, yes, someone fucked with my head and --” Not sure feeling that surge of murderous rage each time instead of a flood of guilt is any more productive, but … “-- and that might have made her think I was … not someone who would help. Someone who didn’t actually want to find Dad and Rusty.” _Okay, the rage isn’t any more comforting, or productive, or conducive to clear thought, but it sure feels better than nothing.
_“Anyway, I’ve tried to find her. Multiple times. I know she’s in the city. I’ve been advised --” He taps his temple, shoots a finger gun at Numina. “-- that she should be reaching out to me. Hell, for all I know, though, she’s already in the Sepiaverse. She has all the information for it. I have to … let that happen when it happens for the moment.”
He looks at Numina, gives a small, almost sad, smile. “You know, I really enjoyed just working in the lab with you the past few days on your new body. It was fun. It was gob-smacking difficult, but a technology-puzzle-difficult, a creativity-difficult, not grand-moral-decision-difficult or big-strategy-difficult or life-and-death-difficult. Fun. And good company. I wonder sometimes --”
He whooshes some air. “Hahvahd will have to wait, too. Gives me a chance to read the book first, at least. Try to figure out why Amir was sending me toward her. Let’s go figure out what’s happening with our favorite friendly ghost.” He sets course for Halcyon.
[Jason’s intent on the flight is to:
a. Let Leo and the others know he’s checking into Charlotte, check back with them soon with an update.
b. Write up his notes on what Amir said about the Quill/Chin plans, as well as warning info about something squirelly about Amir, in case his brother reaches out to them, and transmits that back to the others, too (email, or texted link to a QDoc at the Foundation)
c. Memo to self to chat with Barbara about Amir.
d. Read the book.
e. Probably get distracted from at least some of the above by chatting with Numina.
f. Head to the cemetery. He toys with the idea of landing the VTOL there directly, but it’s probably not that urgent of a crisis, and while there’s plenty of trampled ground from the Vees’ incursion the other evening, adding to it would probably not be cool.]
[So, presumably, that gets Jason stuck in the Sepiaverse for next issue. I’m not sure if it makes sense to have Numina come/get stuck with – happy to have her along, if that adds some zaniness or GM voice for the jaunt over there, but Jason can also wave her back from getting too close to the crypt with the understandable concern that there are weirdities with tech in that zone that might cause her problems, and he is happy to put his foot down about that as needed for plot. (How all that affects his nanobots is another question.)]
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6009913
Leo reported that his suit returned to normal when leaving the portal area. The bots’ brains aren’t dependent on electrical charge to retain state, just to operate, so Numina should be able to pass through the zone. She’d probably black out, then come to on the other side. Whether she chooses to risk it (and the rest) is up to her.
Doyce, the other doc is done and polished, let me know if/when you are ready for that to hit.
author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Masks 22.1 - Sepiatoned Images of Florida [Cutscene] [RP] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Good to know, thanks, Bill.
Also, g. Pet the dog.
Given it’s VTOL, I’m assuming the jet lands at the Quill Block. He’ll take an extra minute to get Brigand set up in a garden with some water and [still fresh in vacuum pack!] kibble in bowls before running off in the hoverdisc to the cemetery. (Yay, Jason! More obligations!)
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010004
Also, g.1 Contemplate that it was weird that Amir was so quick to give up Brigand. It makes perfect sense as a way to disarm Jason if Amir himself didn’t care about the dog – but he clearly did, which is why Amir ended up with Brigand in the first place. Nothing radical. It was just a weird anomaly.
(Or there’s a bug planted in his stomach. Which, by the sound of things, will catch lots of digestive noises and not much else. Enough triple-think, Jason!)
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010039
>> He is, with a young, not-Brigand corgi, standing (with a cane) by the front patio doors of the house as you roll up in the plane.
This was an honest mistake on my part - I forgot Amir was unable to walk due to his injuries. That said, it’s explained easily enough, and points to some interaction between Amir and the great Quill organization that wasn’t making it onto Jason’s radar (probably at Amir’s request, while hinting at a brotherly squabble).
>> Amir’s eyes flit to Numina, a hint of confusion ghosting across his expression.
Nothing Amir knows about Jason - and nothing anyone pretending to be Amir who would have researched Jason - explains Numina. It doesn’t match any previous behavior, inventions, et cetera. (Of course it doesn’t, as it’s more reflective of Link in terms of inception.) Really recent video footage of the team might sometimes show Pneuma, so it starts to track, but again, that points back to Link, not Jason. Understandable reaction, either way you slice your Amir-paranoia.
>> Brigand burrows his silvery muzzle under your hand and licks your fingers but, after a moment’s hesitation and a tilted head, backs away from Numina, growling uncertainly, his eyes fixed on her torso, where Chin’s repurposed assassin bot floats within Numina’s hard-light shell.
>> “Odd reaction,” Amir murmurs, already sitting down. “Please, the host would like to rest his leg.”
Whatever about Numina put Brigand on edge - the Chin components, in this case - didn’t ping Amir’s radar. Not that they would, but they clearly didn’t.
-–
As Jason noted, everything Amir said about what happened on 2015/7/4 checks out against what you know, and also doesn’t include anything he wouldn’t know (calling it the Sepiaverse or something, I guess).
That said, somewhere during the flight to Halcyon, it would have occurred to Jason that the Dragonfly’s cabin camera might have recorded much of the briefing Amir recounted, so it’s POSSIBLE that all this is true… but Amir still is not what he seems.
And yes, between Jason’s aversion to investigating that event in any way, plus Quill Foundation’s well-established “no AEGIS, you don’t get to look at our stuff” position, it’s entirely possible that recording has been gathering dust in the Dragonfly for 2 years. Or backed up on servers you never looked at.
>> "You’ve been to the other side? Or your teammates have? Do you know – " He closes his eyes, then speaks in a rush. “I survived. Is there any - do we know anything about Father and Rusty?”
Hindsight analysis says: this is either Amir’s honest reaction, or him trying to see if you know things that will poke holes in his story.
>> “It seems impossible for it not to be related to the Veil falling,” Amir says. "Ever since it happened, there was always some reason not to talk with you, some distraction demanding my attention away from working to find Father and Rusty, or some overwhelming resentment and confusion at my memory of your behavior toward me.
Hindsight analysis says: this is either the voice of someone who’s suffered through the same thing Jason did, or someone intimately familiar with whatever caused the effect.
>> “for that matter, what did you do to bring the Veil down?”
Totally innocent question, or an enemy trying to figure out how their work was destroyed?
>> “Wait. She’s alive?”
>> For a half-moment, Jason thinks Amir is talking about Numina, which strikes him as being uncharacteristically impolite
Several things here. Amir’s assumption Jason would simply kill Alycia (or most people) out of hand was… a bit odd? The assumptions there seemed… off. Jason’s brain (as personified by Li’lAlycia visualizing the buffer overflow) also noted that Alycia seemed unaffected by the no-investigation-compulsion and was also someone Amir thought was already dead, so I won’t belabour that point.
His general behavior with regards to Numina was … you’re not sure if it’s off or not. He didn’t treat her like a person, of course, though he wasn’t directly insulting. I’ve been listening to how *I* talked about Pneuma and Otto in Session 2, however, when I thought I was being respectful, and if someone spoke about them that way NOW, it would be insulting, albeit unintentionally so out of ignorance, so maybe all that gets chalked up to ignorance.
That said, while Amir had a lot of questions about specific things, he did not show the general inquisitive curiosity Jason associates with memories of his brother. For whatever that’s worth.
-–
Appropos of nothing, I imagine Jason using finger-guns on Alycia when they finally talk (they have not done so, not once, yet, this whole game), as though it’s supposed to mean something, and seeing her react with total confusion.
-–
>> The book.
Warped Passages is, without a doubt, quite brilliant, and very readable, tracking the arc of scientific discovery from early twentieth-century physics to what would have been the razor’s edge of modern scientific theory (circa 2005), paying particular attention to the thesis that more physical dimensions exist than are usually acknowledged. You’re at first surprised, then not, to recognize in the book not one but several explanations your father must have cribbed and used to explain more advanced particle physics, string theory, and cosmology concepts to you and Amir, over the years. Dad seemed to have especially liked using Randal’s analogies - many of which are quite clever and creative. (You were five or so when the book was first published, and it follows your father knew Valerie Randal when you were an age you’d remember, but you have no clear memory of having met her. Her face is familiar, in a vague kind of way.)
Although it’s nominally part of the ‘publish so you can keep tenure’ category of academic texts, it’s really quite a fun read - a lot of what Randal theorizes about are things that in other contexts would still fall firmly in the realm of either science fiction, or the kind of “science” that only super teams run into. It digs into the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, and veers off for an extended tour through theories on alternate dimensions and the underpinnings of reality. Some of it - parts quoted anonymously from her sources - have (you suspect) been polished up to sound more scientific and less… mystical.
The most charming thing about the work is how she almost revels in the uncertainties that underlie her life’s work, including the possibility it may all be proved wrong one day.
>> He’s being very circumspect.
He was. Jason had some theories as to why, none of which can be confirmed or eliminated at this time. In any case, Amir didn’t seem comfortable going into much detail on this, for whatever reason.
>> Too many secrets, Marty.
The more you think on it, the more you think Amir just flat-out missed the reference. You honestly don’t know if that conclusion is real, or just accretion of doubt.
_“By the way,” says Li’l Alycia, “I don’t mind being the expression of your memory and processing overflow, but it’s not really fair to make me the voice of all cynicism and paranoia that happens to cross your mind. It’s not fair to big-me, either.” Then she sticks out her tongue and vanishes.
_
>> “You always had a knack for invention.”
Nnnnno. You didn’t. Not in the context he’s talking about.
>> Giving you custody of Brigand.
You know… thinking of it, he crossed all way back across the room, sat down, then handed you that book, rather than the far more efficient path of walking right past Brigand to hand it to you on the way to the chair.
Hell he never went very close to Brigand.
Didn’t pet him goodbye, either.
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010243
Sounds like the Sepiaverse’s Amir.
author: Bill G.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010275
Bill G. said:
Sounds like the Sepiaverse’s Amir.
Or another Chin-created hard light infiltrator like Numina is currently inhabiting, unsure of how to accomplish its mission in the face of a similarly equipped “bodyguard” accompanying Jason. Or maybe it did…
author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Masks 22.1 - Sepiatoned Images of Florida [Cutscene] [RP] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Bill G. said:
Sounds like the Sepiaverse’s Amir.
With his own corgi. That’s the weird one. Might indicate closely parallel worlds, or …
… well, I’d argue against that, since (a) doubt Sepiapolypse Amir would still be toting along a corgi. Or maybe he would . But (b) that wouldn’t create an aversion to Brigand.
author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010407
Mike said:
Bill G. said:
Sounds like the Sepiaverse’s Amir.
Or another Chin-created hard light infiltrator like Numina is currently inhabiting, unsure of how to accomplish its mission in the face of a similarly equipped “bodyguard” accompanying Jason. Or maybe it did…
Dammit, Mike made the joke before I could.
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010440
*** Dave H. said:
Bill G. said:
Sounds like the Sepiaverse’s Amir.
With his own corgi. That’s the weird one. Might indicate closely parallel worlds, or …
… well, I’d argue against that, since (a) doubt Sepiapolypse Amir would still be toting along a corgi. Or maybe he would . But (b) that wouldn’t create an aversion to Brigand.
_The corgi had been barking throughout your approach, but stops as you near Amir and sits, dog-smiling and barely out of puppyhood. You’d guess it’s around two years old.
“Brigand’s fine,” Amir says, watching your gaze. “Just not as mobile as he once was. This is Buccaneer.”
_That puts Buck roughly five or six months younger than - or at worst, roughly born around the same time as - the DC/Vyortovia Event. (DCVE?)
[edit to add]
And just to keep us out of a rabbithole, he was a gift from H & B during Amir’s first year of convalescence. Hell, we can even retcon that backstory into some of the ‘pre-departure’ small talk. They got him from the Carolina Corgi Rescue.
author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Masks 22.1 - Sepiatoned Images of Florida [Cutscene] [RP] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop
Final, Logical Conclusion: Amir can’t be evil, because a cute dog likes him.
author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/6010498
Doyce:
The more you think on it, the more you think Amir just flat-out missed the reference. You honestly don’t know if that conclusion is real, or just accretion of doubt.
A good summary of many of the points that confused the snot out of Jason, as there were many moments where it sounded totally legit, and others where it sounded weirdly off. That does allow for a Sepi’amir (keeping in mind that the two most common tropes in comics are (a) mind swapping into each other’s bodies, and (b) fighting [evil] duplicates, and we’ve already done (a)), but also a good and well-briefed actor, or even a true Amir whose mind has been clouded, or an android duplicate Amir where the original forced himself to memorize something weird like “You always had a knack for invention” while being duplicated.
Thank you for clarifying all the things that remain unclarified. 
_“By the way,” says Li’l Alycia, “I don’t mind being the expression of your memory and processing overflow, but it’s not really fair to make me the voice of all cynicism and paranoia that happens to cross your mind. It’s not fair to big-me, either.” Then she sticks out her tongue and vanishes
_
Great. Now my buffer overflows are giving me sass. And justified sass, at that!
_
>> "You always had a knack for invention."Nnnnno. You didn’t. Not in the context he’s talking about.
_Thus Numina’s question on the VTOL. Except that it only proves, again, that something weird was going on, but intentional weird, or not-keeping-cover-straight weird remains to be seen.
(Another thought that occurs: Amir seems to have figured out that Numina is not who/what she appears to be by the end of their meeting. Assuming she wasn’t explicitly doing something “off” or obviously glitching, there’s a shift in Amir’s comprehension between the oddness of Brigand’s growling to his comment about her malfunctioning. Amir is no dummy, but he’s also not the technical / genius of the pair of brothers; would he have figured out Numina was a construct without offstage prompting, hidden probes that were not obvious, or more technical genius than he should have had?)
So, to sum up, the Amir Jason met was one of:
- The real Amir with a still-clouded or broken memory (assuming Jason’s own memory is a reliable test), either legit or suborned.
- The real Amir trying to send a message(s) through his odd statements and behavior.
- A fake Amir (not Jason’s actual adoptive brother) trying but failing to avoid detection as a fake, serving purposes and parties unknown.
Jason got a summary of the Quill/Chin plans and activities that was complex but sounded believable; this is not proof that it’s a real Amir, but it’s useful intel nonetheless.
The clearest messages that Jason obtained were:
- [What do you want me to do?] Strategically, Jason should really prioritise pursuing Hecate over rescuing Dad or confronting the Vyortovians.
- [What do you want me to do?] Tactically, the book’s author, Randal, can lend him a hand regarding Hecate and stuff (though the book seems to be focused on alternate dimensions, which seems to circle back to Vyortovia).
- [What do you intend to do?] “Amir” hopes to feed him information (“I hope I can be of some help in that regard, feeding my action-adventuring sibling information he can use”).
- [What are you really planning? (Numina helps)] Not specific (there’s no actual plans revealed), but Amir is just not who/how he seems, missing a movie line that should have been reflexive in his understanding.
author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Masks 22.1 - Sepiatoned Images of Florida [Cutscene] [RP] | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop