Eclipse Phase: Devoted

[FatherJack]

I don't know the swiftest mechanism, but Usagi would have shared all the info she got from searching.

[Joose]

I don't know the swiftest mechanism, but Usagi would have shared all the info she got from searching.

All of you have mesh implants or equivalent, so you can just shoot any relevant information you found directly into their meshes. Think of it as a bit like all having your own little private chat system which you can copy/past links into. As long as you all stay within mesh distance of each other (things like bulkheads getting in the way will be more of an issue than distance) then you can do this with a reasonable assurance of privacy, as someone would need to directly target you with a hack to find out what you are saying. You can do it long distance too, but then you are piggybacking the messages on the local mesh, which opens you up a bit more for nosy people snooping on you.

The paper is a hand written note, from someone called Kyoshi Katsurou, asking you to meet them in Peristyle for a "business opportunity".

[Dog Pants]

I'll poke Ignacio again and see what's out there for Kyosi Katsurou. Peristyle and Psychopomp are in opposite directions, so we either make straight for our man in Psychopomp and try to get out of here as soon as possible, or we try to maintain our cover and see what Kyosi has to say. I reckon that the chances of us just chatting to Timoti and walking out again aren't high, so option 2 might be a better option while we scout the place out.

Investigation 30:
3, 6: 36 Failure!

I don't know why I keep you around Ignacio.

[Dog Pants]

C'mon Ignacio. Not even a 404?

[Joose]

*squark-bleep*

Its a high enough roll to get basic info, but there isnt a lot of basic info there. Katsurou is a reasonably skilled psychosurgeon that Nazon hired on to the station to be part of his Houngan, his personal team of psychosurgeons. No info on what he did before he arrived here though.

[Dog Pants]

He sounds like he's going to be a pleasure. Shall we go meet him then?*



*Yes, we'll go see him unless someone objects.

[Joose]

I should probably point out: Psychosurgeons are people who edit Egos (like doing surgery on your psyches), not surgeons who are psychos

[Dog Pants]

In this place I'm expecting him to be both.

[Joose]

The local mesh provides a guide to how to get to Peristyle, its about 11 minutes to get there through a couple of airlocks and a number of micrograv tunnels lined with grab-loops for you to pull yourself along on. You pass a bunch of Nine Lives members along the way, ranging from thugs to guys in labcoats. You notice a number of them sport vaguely voodoo themed adornments to their muses; tattoos, necklaces, feathery things. A few times you see people wearing necklaces with cortical stacks hanging from them. Some of the stacks don't look like they were cleaned after being popped out of someones head.

Peristyle itself is a torus/tin-can hybrid hab stickout out from the surface of the asteroid. Nazons private quarters are at the far end. Peristyle looks familiar to anyone who has ever been in a modern lab, all white walls and fellas in labcoats. Although it could be better maintained from a cosmetic point of view its otherwise a pretty high end affair. Big corps would probably sneer at it, but its well above average.

Groups of scientists are wandering the hab, many of them deep in debate with each other about something. You can do me a perception roll to see how much of it you can pick up on as they go past.

An excited looking japanese man in a splicer morph is striding towards you, big smile on his face and a small, portable server in his hand. Your Muses inform you that he matches the records for Katsurou.

My friends! You got my message! Welcome! Come, you must see what I have been working on, here.

He is offering a jack cable to you, connected at the other end to the portable server he has with him.

[FatherJack]

Um, Perception 65:
Roll(1d100)+0:
57,+0
Total:57

[fabyak]

Thanks, nanging aku ora njaluk iki adoh ing gesang tanpa kang sethitik wary saka rakyat anyar. Aku bakal nglilani sampeyan ngomong babagan iki tinimbang.

Sampeyan kasebut kesempatan bisnis. Care kanggo njlimet utawa ngirim kita kabeh nindakake ing ngadeg babagan waving kabel kita ing siji liyane?

[Dog Pants]

What he said.

Perception 45:
2, 1: 21 Success!

Hey, there's my successful roll for this mission. It's all downhill from here.

[Joose]

Haha, oh you! Such a tease! Have I ever failed you in our dealings before?

Do me a kinesics roll before you reply to that.

Pants, FJ: people are moving around too much for you to catch a full conversation without obviously following them, but you manage to pick up some snippets:

...and we don't yet know the effects of AWE on ego components scheduled for the next ascension...

...its too early to consider using an untested program, but it may solve the D.I.D problem?

Until we get some theories tested on AWE tomorrow, its fruitless to argue the point. When are they due to go through?

Uuuh, just under 30 hours from now.

You can do a psychosurgery + 20 test to see if you have any idea what they are talking about.

[FatherJack]

Pyschosurgery+20 = 45
Roll(1d100)+0:
85,+0
Total:85

whoops

Not very good at kinesics, but do speak the language the guy is talking, so can I see if there is anything in his voice that hints something is wrong and let Unlabelled know?

Language: Japanese - 95
Roll(1d100)+0:
11,+0
Total:11

[Dog Pants]

Can I do a kinesics roll? I'm there listening in. Just in case:

Kinesics 55:
5, 2: 52 Success!

No wasted effort.

And the much less likely to succeed Psychosurgery roll:

Psychosurgery 25:
1, 9: 19 Success!

Ooh!

[Joose]

Can I do a kinesics roll? I'm there listening in. Just in case:

Kinesics 55:
5, 2: 52 Success!

You certainly can, and reasonably effectively too. He seems sort of sincere; he is putting on an act but it seems to be for the other people in the room, not you. To you guys he is giving a very subtle "please just go with this" look.

And the much less likely to succeed Psychosurgery roll:

Psychosurgery 25:
1, 9: 19 Success!

Ooh!

Nice! You have no idea what AWE or D.I.D means, but ascension is the bizarre practise of merging the Egos of more than one person. Normally, merging is used to take a fork you have made at some point and absorbing it back into your original self, resulting in one person with the memories of both the original Ego and the fork. The idea behind ascension is that you take good memories and personality traits of someone else and graft them into your own Ego. Its very much not a perfected art, and as such the end result is usually psychological problems. If Nazons Hougan have been using ascension on him he ought to be a dribbling lunatic.

[fabyak]

Missed the perception roll:

Perception: 19

Roll(1d100)+0:
99,+0
Total:99

an off the scale fail!

Apa NN THE ARE wong THINGS LONG Lagi Tumeka OUT OF THE TOP OF SHOES MY?

Pffft, even my translation failed

[Dog Pants]

DCOM steps forward and takes the cable. He quietly growls to Kyoshi;

If this goes bad my friend here is going to twist your head off.

Looking Kyoshi straight in the eye, he plugs in.

[Joose]

When you plug in, you are given access to a simulspace environment. Its completely empty apart from an avatar of a female bouncer morph. It looks distressed.

Oh thank god, I was worried you were going to walk away then. My name isnt Katsurou, and I am not a work for hire psychosurgeon. My name is Rokuzawa Chi, i'm a researcher from Titan, specialising in studies on forking. I had heard Nazons group had achieved fantastic things and thought I might be able to smuggle out some of their results, but... god, this place is too much. This AWE thing...shit...

Look, im no spy, i'm not cut out for this. I just want out of here. Ive been watching Zombi for days waiting for outsiders to come through. I want passage off this rock; I can organise my own transport back to Titan after that. Just drop me off somewhere friendly. You guys are Ultimates, right? Mercenaries? I can pay, my rep is good.

[Dog Pants]

There's no warmth or humanity to DCOM's avatar. He looks as blank as his morph.

We did not come here looking for work. What do you know of AWE?