WillGM: --------------------- Interlude Game Start ----------------------- WillGM: It is the evening of November 5th. Each of you have received from the StoneWorks angels -- and, for the sake of events, we will assume accepted -- an invitation to an evening of "instruction and general strategizing" for representatives of Words in the Philadelphia area. Edward: ooo, fun. WillGM: The meeting is being held at a typical conference hotel, under the guise of the "Common Ground Political Organizing Committee." Nicole nods, and packs a textbook in case things get slow. Fearless goes, with laptop in hand, still working on the "real" story of what happened Halloween weekend, as was related to him. WillGM: Several burly (and a few disturbingly intelligent-looking) guards in suits ID'ed you at the door, but inside the place is controlled chaos. Rath points out a few people he is going to meet, and splits up, urging all the StoneWorks angels to meet for Isaiah's presentation later at 10. Edward packs his PDA. WillGM: There are several side rooms in which presentations are going on, and a number of small curtained-off squares in which people are giving presentations touching almost every conceivable broad class of human endeavour. Bruce goes as well, though he's not really sure why. Call it curiosity. Nicole looks up at Ed, and smiles quietly. Edward grins back. WillGM: Pete stays with you, offering to be your guide and introducer. Nicole: "Smart idea." Edward accepts the offer. Get the quick guided tour now. Rubberneck later. :) Fearless takes it all in, waving to the others as he approaches. Edward also plays guess-the-choir in his head.:) WillGM: Ed: Fulmeniel shows up and greets you. He also mentions to Nicole that the Seraph nicknamed Annie is around as well. Fearless: *snicker* Nicole grins s'more. WillGM: 2 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for WillGM (2 3d6) and gets 12 10. Fearless looks to Nic about that grin. "Annie?" Nicole: "Someone I've met in dreamland." Bruce enters not long after Fearless, though still comparatively new to the whole War thing, he tends to look rather out of his element and for the moment just sort of drifts by himself. Fearless: "Ah." Nicole: "And BA still owes me over those poodles." *makes a face* WillGM: Ed: A passer-by taps you on the shoulder and hands you your device. "Nice PDA, dude." Fearless: "You *still* have to tell me about those." Edward blinks. "Uh, thanks." .oO(... wind.) Nicole: "Mebbe." WillGM: "So. Anything look immediately interesting, or should we wander?" Edward checks the rest of his pockets. Wallet, bike keys, pen... Hey, where'd my pen go? Nicole looks around s'more and follows Pete, intending to catch up with Annie later. Fearless: "I mean, he always bragged about enjoying nightmares, and he did have this thing against poodles, so I can figure out part of it. but I'll want details sooner or later." Nicole: "Give us the tour. We're still newbies..." Nicole closes her hand again, and looks at it. WillGM: "Okay." He starts leading you around, explaining the setup. Fearless looks around, noticing Bruce looking a little lost. "Might want to offer him a tour as well." He points Bruce out to Pete. Fearless: "He looks a little lost here." WillGM: This conference is mostly organized by Stone and Judgment, who are the two big players in the region. The angel Philadelphia almost always makes a point of dropping by -- though it's unlikely you'll get to meet him personally, it'll be good to see him. WillGM: Nearly every Word is represented, though Animals usually has problems finding someone to show up and Faith refuses to have an overt presence. Fearless: *idly* "I wonder if Spitz is gonna show." Nicole shrugs. WillGM: Fearless: "Unlikely. Security looks tight, but is a lot tighter than it looks... the place is supposed to look like a regular political conference. Any obvious gathering would be a serious target, of course." Edward nods at Pete's comment. Edward: "One nice big bomb and every non-malakite angel in town is out of action for a few weeks." Nicole: "Yeah...and those of us unlucky enough to be mortal are dead." :P WillGM: Booths have presentations ranging from: "Art Programs in Philadelphia Schools: are nudes part of sex education?" staffed by a fellow in a tie-dye shirt to "Zero Tolerance Professional Drug Testing: Outside Interference With Connotations" staffed by a suit with Powerpoint. WillGM: Pete points out that last one and mentions the code phrase for Infernal interference. Not that that word gets said much, in case the exhibits get seen. Bruce sighs nasally, and closes the gap between himself and the group, finally joining up. "Hey... so this is a divine seminar? Looks pretty average to me." Edward grins. Nicole shakes her head. "Heaven's more diverse than I imagined." Fearless: "Hi, Bruce. I guess that's how they want it to look." Edward just grins and rubbernecks some more. WillGM: "Nicole!" Edward: Input, input, INPUT! WillGM: Annie works her way through the crowd. Bruce: "Mm, yeah. I guess flaming swords and wings would draw undue attention." Fearless joins in the rubbernecking, looking for people that he's seen before. WillGM: "So much of the stuff we want to do is meant to look normal, because we want it to be an example." Nicole waves. Edward looks around for obvious Lightning booths... And for the Wind congregation so he can ask for his pen back. Nicole grins quietly s'more. Fearless: 3d6 Dicesuke throws the bones for Fearless (3d6) and gets 10. Fearless hands Ed his pen. "Looking for this?" Bruce: Really, how likely is a Wind 'congregation'? ;) Fearless: (sleight of hand) WillGM: Annie comes to Nicole's side. "That circumstance I was keeping watch over finally faded. I should be more available to you in the future." Edward: ".. Thanks." Nicole: "Cool." Nicole grins impishly. "By the way, it's nice to meet in person." Bruce cocks an eyebrow, but doesn't ask. WillGM: Annie wrinkles her nose in a quick smile. "Yes, it is. There's a certain quality to it." Bruce scratches the back of his neck and looks around in that "I'm so out of my element" kind of way. WillGM: Ed: You're definitely coming up to the Lightning booth. It's brightly lit and has several workstations in the back. Most of the front, though, is taken up with a series of catalogs. There is "Immediate Order," "Unclassified Order", and the thickest one, "Implication Reports." Nicole grins and flexes her hand idly. "Yeah. I need to get in touch with you again there, 'cause I think I need a bit more practice." Edward leafs through them. Ooooo, gadgets. :) Edward waves at Fulmeniel while leafing. Fearless heads over to where Ed is leafing through stuff. "Nifty gadgets, I take it?" He starts paging through the implication reports catalog WillGM: Nicole: "I'd be happy to oblige. It's very much up to an individual teacher and her student to work out the course of learning." Nicole nods. WillGM: "Immediate Order" is obviously mundane items. There are prices, shipping times, and usual availabilities. Many are from commercial outlets, with a stamp of approval. Nicole grins s'more. Edward nods. Edward recognizes some of the computer hardware as stuff he's been trying to get funding for for months now. WillGM: "Unclassified Order" has many of the items you've seen in the "Released Items" database. Not all of them are computerized; in fact, not all of them are electrical. They don't have prices, but order codes, and people are requested to see a "representative" for acquisition. Edward goes 'ooo' and 'mmm' at the appropriate points when Interesting Things come up. WillGM: Fearless, "Implication Reports" is not a catalog of goods per se. It is instead a catalog of reports /about/ goods that you recognize as either having recently entered the market or being rumored around. The reports purport to describe estimates of societal implications for various advances, tools, and gadgets. WillGM: A lot of the things in here aren't even technological. Some are new ideas in economics, or in politics. Edward: Oh, neat. What do they say about Discordianism? Nicole flexes her hand again, and looks around. Fearless starts paging through it at a slower pace... WillGM: *flipflip* *lookup* Listed as a small fad group meant for entertainment. No apparent relation to any actual worship of the goddess Eris. Fearless: which is how the Discordians wish it to appear. :) WillGM: Implications, minor. More details available from comparative religion specialists. Fearless: what year is this again? '01? WillGM: Oh yeah. That'll be coming into play shortly, in fact... Nicole: haw haw. %) Fearless looks to see what they have to say about the aftereffects of 9/11 in this report.... Nicole waves again, and wanders over to see what Ed and Fearless are up to. WillGM: "Hey, it's about 10. Isaiah's presentation is coming up. Rath wanted us all to meet..." Edward nods, and tears himself away from all the pretty gadgets with an effort of will. WillGM: Fearless: 9/11 isn't mentioned in the catalog. However, you quickly see where it is being mentioned... Nicole hears Pete and turns herself around. Fearless turns around at Pete's voice. WillGM: ... Isaiah's presentation is, according to the sign outside the side room in which it's being held, entitled "USA PATRIOT: New Opportunities, Unforeseen Consequences." Fearless eyebrowraises at that. WillGM: Several of the other scheduled talks appear to be dealing with this event and its repercussions. Nicole shakes her head at the sign. "grr." WillGM: Annie looks up at the sign. "Mm? Is this something I should know about?" Fearless: any focusing on the Islamic belief system and mindset, by any chance? WillGM: Fearless: In fact, no. Specific religions seem to be almost entirely absent from any of the discourse. Nicole: "Stupid law, that's all." WillGM: Inside the room, Rath is waiting by the door and leads you all to a reserved set of seats. The room is whispering in conversations, no speaker being on the stage yet. Most of the people are in suits here, though some are not. Many are holding notepads. Fearless tries to listen in on a few whispered convos, out of idle curiosity Edward fields that question. "After 9/11, a number of new - and in the opinion of a number of us, highly oppressive and unconstitutional - laws were enacted, ostensibly to combat terrorism, and called the 'patriot act' so that the proponents could easily denounce anyone opposing it as unpatriotic." WillGM: "Ah. If that's how you feel, it's important for you to express it. However, political matters are a very delicate issue with us, pertaining as they do to matters very close to human self-determination. We're reluctant to interfere." Nicole nods. "I'm not sure you really could, unless Bush really does have a direct hotline to the guy upstairs..." *grin* Edward nods. "It's not quite self-determination. A whole crudload of people are running scared in shell shock, and they're blindly supporting anyone promising to do something about it loudly enough." WillGM: Annie twitches. "He doesn't. As far as I know, no head of state does. I'm including the Pope..." Zibblsnrt: "Annie twitches." Hee Nicole: "Yeah, I didn't think so." Edward: "I tended to go by the assumption that anyone claiming to hear God speaking to him is most likely just listening to the voices in his own head that say what he wants to hear... Guess that's not entirely accurate, but I think my point stands." Edward is thinking Falwell right now, not Habbalah. :) WillGM: Fulmeniel makes a wry expression. "Oh, I think any Gabrielites in the room would disagree..." WillGM: The stage lights come up and the room hushes. Bruce sidles away from the emerging discussion of theology, taking his seat, sure and certain that he will probably only have a vague understanding of anything to be said. :) Fearless whispers, "I'd like to get information on the Islamic mindset, to put things into perspective that way. Comparitive religion and comparitive societis and all that." Edward: "Point taken." Nicole shushes and listens. Edward shushes likewise Fearless: +e Fearless falls silent as well, while clicking on his tape recorder WillGM: Isaiah comes on stage and begins a slide presentation. There is no time wasted with applause. Bruce, you actually get quite a bit out of the first part of the presentation: he focuses on the new implications for law enforcement officials, relating both to what they can do and to what people can expect to be done to them. WillGM: He succinctly places a 200-page act of Congress into its historical and legal contexts in an unbiased way, though he does make it clear at several points that the Act parallels previous American laws later struck down. Bruce listens with interest. Fearless does as well. Edward listens Nicole listens, nodding occassionally. WillGM: In the latter half of the presentation, he talks about some of the more abusable provisions, especially those relating to military tribunals and imprisonment clauses. He pauses, and indicates quite bluntly that Judgment considers oversight of the matter preventing such abuses to fall into their jurisdiction, but welcomes aid and support. Fearless: .oO(Okay, that part is definitely gonna need to get edited, if I do an article on this.) WillGM: He opens the floor to questions and comments. Nicole can't think of any, so will sit down and try to absorb any that come up. Bruce sits back, and hmms. Edward OOCly doesn't recall enough of the letter of the act to ask actual questions about it, but doesn't it essentially trample over the constitutional right of no search without a warrant? WillGM: Quite a few of them come. Bruce, you recognize an acquaintance from the station, a beat cop that most of the guys in your precinct know. He was caught in a bad fire at a meth lab a few years ago, and people thought it was sheerest luck that he survived. Went on to be a great cop, though he preferred street work and always turned down promotions. WillGM: Among (biased protester) many other things. Fearless: and a few others... indefinite detainment without trial for terrorism suspects, and all that. WillGM: After almost another hour of questions, the session breaks up. Rath signals that his people should stay together when they get outside. Edward does so Bruce is somewhat surprised to see him, but can now sort of understand how he survived, if he's here under the same sort of invitation. "Huh. I'll be da--" He stops himself and glances around self-consciously. "..blessed." ;) Fearless raises a hand. "So in essense, the law allows the police to violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and parts of the Sixth, with regard to terrorism suspects. Is that correct?" Edward: fearless: Add "without having to specify what constitutes 'suspected terrorism'" Fearless: yeah, add that to the question. :) WillGM: Fearless: "Certainly conflict arises with respect to all the named Amendments, as I spoke of earlier. Municipal police, however, are generally constrained to act within the boundaries of a federal mission, as most of the authority given is granted to federal agencies such as..." *five-minute answer in exacting detail* Fearless makes notes of the details dealing with the FBI, and the conglomerate alphabet soup agency named as the OHS. [ snip discussion of DHS and OHS and whether, and in what form, they existed at this time, leading to minor edits in the log ] WillGM: Bruce: You were doing something? Bruce: Nah. Just inwardly boggling. WillGM: Bruce: He sees you boggling, waves and walks over. "Hey. Grapevine said another one of us had woken up." Nicole shakes her head quietly and looks for Rath when she goes out. Bruce gives a weak grin. "Woken up? Half the time it feel like I'm still dreaming." WillGM: Another guy comes up behind you. "Hey, I was born there, and it still feels like that to us sometimes." He and the other guy sit down on chairbacks simultaneously and grin at you. Edward: Fun with Kyrios. :) Fearless heads over to Nic. "Hey, Nicole. One question. Think you could show me how those lockpicks work? I'm thinking of moving from reporting to private investigation, helping out in that way. Especially after what happened with the Swami." Nicole: "It's not easy, and we're hitting the busy time of the semester." Bruce glances between the two of them, showing his usual level of confusion. "It's, uh.. just gonna take some getting used to, I guess." WillGM: Bruce: they nod. "If you need any help with the legal end," says the new guy, "don't hesitate to ask me," says the cop. "That's what I'm there for. Sometimes stuff happens that's better off the books, you know?" Fearless: "Anything I could help with?" Bruce feels like a ping-pong ball. "Yeah, so I've been told. Still not sure how I feel about that, yet." Nicole: "You know linear algebra or programming operating systems?" Edward pointedly studies his fingernails. Fearless: "No, I think Ed would be better suited for that, actually." Fearless: "I barely passed Calculus." Nicole: "Right. And first priority is passing finals in those classes." WillGM: The cop shrugs, and the other guy walks off. "I know what you mean. I wouldn't do anything to dishonor the force either. I just meant, you know, if it gets too grey. Sometimes it helps to talk things out with someone who's also a cop, and knows what's going on. I've been six different kind of cops for two hundred years, and Philly's a great place to be one." He sticks out a hand. Fearless nods. *** Ellis (Aris_TGD@c023h089.dorm.reed.edu) has joined channel #gurps Edward: "I didn't actually finish college, so you might wind up knowing more programming theory than me. OS programming was one of the fun parts, though Nicole: "So, it'll have to wait." WillGM: Someone fill in Aris on the setting in the bar? Fearless: Will: anyone in attendance that Fearless would have met in the past? Maybe someone working for one of the papers? Bruce shakes the hand. "Oh, you're one of them, aren't you. That explains some things." Nicole nods at Ed. "I'm really liking it actually. But I'm more into crypto." :) WillGM: He shakes. "You betcha. Well, this guy *was* a human, but when he died, well, my Boss doesn't let a good cop's life go to waste. And believe me -- he was a really good cop. I have objective evidence. Well, I'll see you around the station." He moves off. Fearless: Natural Role Takeover! :) Bruce watches him go, shaking his head slightly, and then catches up with the rest of the gang. WillGM: Fearless: A few of these people are presences around town. You definitely recognize one of the big names of the city's social set, moving down the hall and greeting people who seem to be eager to speak to him. Edward: Will: wouldn't that be "he move off" ? Seeing as there's two of he? WillGM: Kyrios and tenses, man. I take the point of view that it's impossible to get it wrong. ;^) Bruce: (Nah, the first one left to spare my sanity.) ;) Bruce: they moves, man. Bruce: *gollum* WillGM: Outside, Rath is gathering you all. "We have a room at our disposal as well. It's for a few minutes, but we will have some privacy." He leads you to a small conference room, not nearly so well-appointed as the one back at the Works but this one does have cushioned chairs and a normal-height wooden table. Nicole files in, and finds a place to park. Bruce pulls up a seat. Mm, comfychair. Fearless nods, sitting in one of the chairs and opening his laptop. Edward pulls aside a chair to make room for 'cole, then pulls up a seat to seat his seat on Nicole: "Thanks, Ed." WillGM: Len is not here, nor is Wes, both of whom, Rath explains, are back keeping an eye on things at the 'Works. The rest of them are here. Ellis assumes he's here. WillGM: Ellis: Yeah, you've just been quiet until now. Nicole: :) Ellis: Okee. WillGM: "As you know, of course, tomorrow is a general election day." Fearless nods. "And hell to cover... we don't want to name the wrong person as getting elected in the papers, like that one year." Edward fails his save vs Will to resist making the remark. "Which, 2000?" Nicole nods. WillGM: "It is our policy to aid humans as best we can in making their own decisions. Of course, this also means that you have considerably more latitude. This year, since we have a number of people available to us, I was hoping that we could undertake a variety of missions aimed at ensuring fairness and objectivity in the year's elections." Fearless snickers at Ed. "Well, we've a running bet in the office as to how long Bush will survive in office. Remember the old curse that Reagan supposedly broke?" Nicole just shakes her head. Edward gets back to listening to what Rath has to say Nicole has been listening. Fearless quiets, but continues to type and listen at the same time. WillGM: "Well, the somewhat-more dangerous mission is snooping around making sure that there is no demonic interference in the counting process. A somewhat-safer one is more in line with advancing Stone's ideals rather than inhibiting Infernal activity: instilling community spirit. In particular, a voting drive." WillGM: "When people are invested in their community, they are less likely to undertake actions that are damaging to it." Nicole nods. "True." Fearless: "Well, I've already got a standard get-out-and-vote article half-written, the Chief's expecting it to hit the press tonight." WillGM: Rath smiles slightly. "Well, it's obvious which mission you prefer..." Nicole: "I think I'd be slightly obvious for the former, Rath." Fearless: "Actually, that's my job... and I'm putting the finishing touches on it, now." *taptaptap* Edward: "I'd like to help if I can, but both my snooping-around and community-encouragement skills are only slightly better than my grasp of Pre-Industrial Sumerian Dressing Habits... Fearless: "But come to think of it, both Bruce and I are suited for the former mission." WillGM: "A small group going around the neighborhood would be best. Since this involves closer interaction with humans, perhaps Ezekiel, Pete, and the rest of you? That would leave us... shall we say, more action-oriented Choirs... to the darker work." WillGM: Rath looks at Ed and Fearless. "Though if you'd prefer it otherwise..." Nicole nods. "I'd be cool with that, working with Zeke, I mean." Edward winces. "If I'd go out door-to-door with a group of people in my neighborhood, initial assumption is going to be it's some kind of gang or protection racket..." Bruce sighs slightly. "Well, I guess I could nose around a bit. People would be less likely to question a cop checking out the security precautions in place for the counting..." Fearless: "And you'd be surprised what a press pass can get you into." WillGM: "I'm a little unclear, Mr. Wong. Are you saying you'd rather not participate in either?" Bruce shoots Fearless a sour glance, "No, I wouldn't." Edward: "I'm sorry, but yes. Neither mission is one I feel very suited for, although if the counting process involves computers at some point I'll be available for consultation." Fearless mutters something about being glad BA's not here to inject his opinions. WillGM: "Very well. Officer Whitechurch, Fearless, you would prefer the security mission; and Nicole, the voting drive. Mr. Ellis?" Ellis looks up, frowns thoughtfully... "Security." Fearless nods. WillGM: "We seem to be chosen, then. The voter drive will be assembling at the 'Works at 9am -- we give our employees Election Day off. The vote-security group will be assembling at 5pm, two hours before the polls close." Ellis: "All right." Nicole nods, and idly flexes her hand again. Edward: is Election Day on a weekend? WillGM: First Tuesday in November, Nov. 6th in 2001. Edward will probably not have the day off other than a few hours to go to the voting booth. Bruce watches idly as Nicole flexes her hand, noticing that she's been doing that a lot. Edward: where's the booths located anyway? Come to think of it, university campus would be a good spot for one Zibblsnrt: "a typical conference hotel" Zibblsnrt: oh, wait, misparse. ne'ermind ;) Edward: the voting booths, thanks. :) WillGM: A university the size of Penn can actually have several districts, being essentially a small town of multiple thousand people living on-campus. However, your district's polling location would be near your apartment. Edward: Good point. In .nl you can arrange to vote at another district if that's more convenient for you, though Fearless: public areas like fire houses and school gymnasiums are common polling locations Nicole: Ed: can't here. If you think about it ahead of time, you can vote absentee, though. Edward: Ah well. Edward: "I'm on duty for most of election day. Call my cellphone if anything comes up I can help with - there's a booth on campus but I'll be voting in my home district." WillGM: Rath nods. WillGM: There's little else to do until tomorrow morning. Anyone have anything? Fearless: In Philly, I think there's at least a hundred different voting areas. Its a big, heavily populated area. Nicole: (in my town of 8000, we had ten or fifteen different polling places.) Edward: Yeah. Have a chat with Fulmeniel about stuff to do WillGM: Eh? Edward: aftermath of the investigation, and that music that he can't get out of his head. Nicole: (argh, forgot the OOC marks.) Cuing Shad in on US election stuffle. WillGM: Ah. WillGM: That would have actually been about four days ago, actually -- I had started gearing up for this game when there were two of you in channel. :^) Edward: heh Nicole: Can't think of anything more than my arms hurting and how much I have to do before Mom and Dad show up. WillGM: That sounds like a request to end, which is fine since this makes a good cutpoint. Edward: Sounds good. WillGM: --------------------- Session End ----------------------- WillGM: If I'm pacing this right, this will end next session. Unless, who knows, something totally random happens and we go on a yearlong exploration of Man's societal expressions and their relation to his place in the Universe or something. :^)