Dramatis Personae

• Derrick K. Ratnam aka Legerdemain (NPC Ally): Spin doctor and media liaison for Project VANGUARD. Twin to Bo. Tagline: “Well, actually that’s not how it happened…”
• Layla A. de Blackburn aka Nox (NPC): CIA-trained child assassin all grown up to be Daddy’s Little Monster. Maybe a little mad. Argues with her shadow often. Tagline: “No, we shouldn’t do that…should we?”
• Stainless Steel Rat aka “Sir” (NPC Ally): Bo’s best friend and assistant. A sentient drone in the shape of a stylized shiny metal rat mindlinked to Bo. Specialties are rapid repair construction and modifications. Imagine if K-9 and R2D2 made a baby and it looks a bit like a rodent. Tagline: “Repairs and upgrades in progress.”

Previously . . .

With things happening, the groups have been patrolling while Wirerat manages to cobble together a very glitchy wormhole detection device that’s about the size of a small water tower that was set up on the roof that he keeps having to send SSR to fix up. There’s a random amount of a dimensional holes that have opened up and at least one police report regarding a weird fog that made everything look like a weird inverted photograph. Other than that, most things are fairly quiet at the moment.

Lynched

Nyx, Threshold, Whisper, and Wirerat
Old FDNY Engine 299/Ladder 152 Building aka New Base
 Sunday, May 17th, 2020, 1200 hours (EST)
61-20 Utopia Pkwy, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365

Between folks looking around and Prodigy collating data, they’re pretty sure they’ve got the soft spots mapped out. Some of which are where they fought Erebus earlier and where they’ve noticed the spiders and one large one in the middle of the harbour that may be getting larger as Threshold keeps doing the math to try to find a pattern in all the openings while continuing to close as many of the holes as he can.

Whisper, in the meantime, has been reviewing all the information she’s made hard copies of to refresh her memory only to find that all the pages are blank. She goes to Wirerat and shows him the blank pages noting that there’s a problem. She’s ticked off by the fact that she no longer has the information in hard copy and threatens that she’s going to find whoever did it and throw boiling hot cayenne pepper grits in their face before going to find Threshold and calling for him over the earpieces. She notes that she keeps handwritten notes and that someone has been riffling through them because her notes are now blank. Threshold asks if she has spoken to L, which Whisper assumes is Legerdemain and goes to find him in his office to complain to him as she shows him page after empty page. He’s far more confused than she is ticked as she asks him to put him through people with powers program to figure out who erased it. She demands that he be the one to look through the database as she’s too pissed by the violation of her privacy to do it.

Legerdemain notes down that there’s people that can control paper, but they’re on the hero side. There’s also someone that can control the concept of information in there. However there’s no one person in that database that can do what has occurred and notes that it’s not his job to be doing this as he’s there to deal with paperwork and public relations and starts grumbling under his breath. She contacts Wirerat and asks for Lynch’s location only to learn that he’s in the team’s ready room going over maps.

She tells Lynch heads up and tosses the book at him. Noting, same as Legerdemain, that it appears to be a blank book but she says that it didn’t use to be. That she knows exactly was written down in there and could rewrite it only to start realizing that there’s holes in her memory like a missing tooth in her mouth, she didn’t realize it was gone until she started to probe at it. She asks him how much she remembers about her service and when things happened. He gives her the information that he’s aware of as she mentions that she’s missing information and can’t remember things. He asks if she can remember what she can’t remember or if it’s completely gone. She knows that it was the information that came from the SCIF, that she knows what it was but cannot think what it was. That she can remember everything around it. Lynch pulls out a piece of paper, starts writing something down, stops, and tells her that they got him too. Saying that someone hacked their personal noosphere where Whisper asks he translates it to something easier.

He explains that there’s dimensions where everything is and can be quantifiable. That someone can reach out and pluck out the information from someone’s brain that they’re looking for and remove it. There’s only one person that he knows of that has that sort of ability and they’re on their side of High Command. He says that it’s hard to detect unless they’re thinking about it directly and if there’s no reason to think about it then they don’t think about it. Whisper is still ticked and mentions something about a black bag operation while Lynch suggests asking others around what they can remember. She starts with Threshold, who also finds things missing from his memory. They’re just gone. Everything that he’s learned from the SCIF.

Wirerat starts investigating things around the brains and brainstates about how things have been affected and how it affects everything around them and by going down that road it may be possible to reconstruct the information. Threshold theorizes that it may be that there’s people there that just don’t want them to know what they knew and it could be a good guy trying to resecure the information or it’s a bad guy trying to cover their tracks. Either way, it means that good guys aren’t off the lists. Wirerat sighs and invites Lynch down to his lab which Lynch mocks a bit before heading down where Nox waves at him under his desk which Wirerat shoos away where she grabs some of his yogurt and teleports away.

Wirerat shuts down his surveillance devices and asks about the man that Lynch knows and if they can ask them if he was the guy that did it. However the person that he knows hasn’t been seen in years, he’s been in deep cover and no clue how to contact the guy. He mentions there’s times before then that he’s had an entire operation excised in the 80s or 90s, something about Russia. Lynch notes that Wirerat’s plan isn’t likely to work at all because things don’t work the way that he thinks that it does.

Robbery and Pizza

Nyx
Ambrose-Reed’s Snacks and Things
Sunday, May 17th, 2020, 2000 hours (EST)
Somewhere in Downtown Flushing

Nox, meanwhile has been eating yogurt and walking behind Nyx who has been wandering around on a kind of double time patrol asking Nyx to grab some pizza and a movie with her when he says there’s some more important stuff than that going on.

With great coincidence, a man bursts out running from a local store much to Nox’s excitement. Nyx, on the other hand, waits for the alarms and yelling to start before tackling the guy and getting Nox to help with arresting the guy, getting the evidence processed. Calling for Five Stars. The owner of the store asks for the money back, or at least a hundred dollars from it which Nyx can’t actually give the guy, though he does record the numbers and tells Nox to pay the guy which she agrees to, though she’s also going to buy some of the pizza from the store. After Five Stars has taken care of the guy, he moves on with nothing more happening.

Seagull’s Aren’t Bad Company

Threshold
Various
Monday, May 18th, 2020, 0100 hours (EST)
Somewhere in Downtown Flushing

Threshold goes back out on patrol and notices a weird looking seagull who reads as a seagull with his scans though he starts to speak when Threshold moves to touch it and it gets indignant and tells him to back off. Noting that there’s some folks that don’t like scratches. When asked what the seagull is doing, he notes that he’s just watching Threshold and has been for some time now. Threshold accepts the answer and keeps moving while mentioning it to Wirerat who agrees that there’s a talking seagull speaking to him. As Threshold passes a convenience store, the seagull suggests buying some doughnuts for him and that he’s partial to the cinnamon types which he agrees to and buys a dozen.

Sitting down on a bench to feed the seagull who tells him that Disney movies are propaganda and that isn’t how they actually act. When offered donuts, the seagull mentions that he’s not actually there and that he can’t really tell Threshold what he is though through some crosstalk he blatantly tells Threshold he’s an extrusion of a being from a higher dimension of reality that has been keeping an eye on them. He doesn’t say which dimension he’s from, just a higher one. When asked why, he tells Threshold to think of him like an archaeology or anthropologist, just there to observe. Though some folks like to write themselves into the story, the seagull is not quite that sort. After getting a cigarette, the seagull says to call him Al and says that Threshold is going to be having some fun real soon, saying something about Krakatoa and Pompeii being real amazing though they’ve also done a lot of damage. That they’re at a tipping point, lots of options, lots of elevations to go through and while Al can’t say what the options are, the act of telling Threshold that there’s options can change things. Threshold says that it’s time for him to get back at patrol and Al thanks him for the donuts and starts humming a Bad Company song as Threshold leaves.

Get on Your Bikes and Ride

Whisper
Various
Monday, May 18th, 2020, 0000 hours (EST)
Somewhere in Downtown Flushing

Whisper, meanwhile, gets dressed up like a biker and heads out to clear her head, riding around on her Harley. Wirerat keeps an eye on the people on patrol and the other on the wormhole sensor operating and doing data sorting during the dull spots and morning rolls around.

Lynched

Nyx, Threshold, Whisper, and Wirerat
Old FDNY Engine 299/Ladder 152 Building aka New Base
Monday, May 18th, 2020, 1000 hours (EST)
61-20 Utopia Pkwy, Fresh Meadows, NY 11365

Lynch is tinkering with something on Wirerat’s workbench as he tells Wirerat he needs the micromanipulator tools. Wirerat is a bit offended that Lynch is using his stuff and says to just leave it to him only for Lynch to tell him that some things are just beyond his understanding, but if Wirerat wants to try then just sit down and watch and try not to jostle Lynch’s elbow. Watching stuff, he can somewhat tell what Lynch is doing. It’s some kind of sensor that’s emitting wavelengths into a nearby dimension, detecting things that are out of phase.

Wirerat asks how many they’re going to need, while Lynch isn’t sure if he can make even one as he’s been limited by this place’s technology for so long. Though once Wirerat proves he knows what he is talking about, he gets a list of stuff, some of which are theoretical at the moment. Confident that he’ll be able to make it from the trash pile, Wirerat immediately summons up the brain damage again. Shaking his head, Lynch asks if he’s alright as Wirerat is bleeding from the head. Lynch finishes things up, it looking like a crude sphere and mentions it should have had a neural interface but he didn’t have one handy, though Wirerat does as he passes over an ugly looking thing built off of ski goggles that might just work for what he’s doing.

MAPS HQ still hasn’t called in the group overall as they still want the NOMAD’s help with the Riker Island stuff that is still ongoing. Wirerat is still keeping together the wormhole sensor with the help of SSR who hasn’t been able to really go on patrol itself as it’s been busy keeping the sensor together.

Folks are crowded around the table, with the interns there as well. Fridge Boy has homework books open doing math and complaining about the difficulty. He’s studying for certifications that he can start when he turns 17 but he has to learn it first as Chainjacket has recommended some books for him to go through it first. Lynch is the one making breakfast, much to some folk’s concern. Fresh squeezed orange juice, many other things, even Wirerat is there though Nox is looking green around the gills, probably from the pizza she ate. Whisper doesn’t eat any of the food as she’s got a rather perturbed look on her face. Legerdemain looks around the table and asks if it feels like a last meal. Nyx, meanwhile, is wondering how the heck he’s supposed to put the fried eggs on his toast if it’s already got jam on them.

They start talking between each other, about how things might be the last time though perhaps not the last meal as Lynch says they may end up wishing they’d died instead. Threshold mentions Al, who Lynch asks about who it is and then gets annoyed by being kept out of everything. Whisper looks around the table as she makes herself a protein shake and then excuses herself, telling them she has no desire to listen about talking seagulls and mocks them as she walks out. After breakfast, Threshold moves to go visit the shop owner, Hardison, that he’d been directed towards.

Weirdo is Weird

Threshold
Hardison’s Antiques
Monday, May 18th, 2020, 1200 hours (EST)
36 E 12th St # 1, New York, NY 10003

Going inside, there’s a man behind the counter that greets him and tries to sell Threshold on lamps. Threshold passes on them and mentions he was referred to him for maps, that he’s looking for hyper-interdimensional maps, which Hardison is fresh out of. But when it comes to hypermathmatics and otherwise, he invites Threshold down to the basement where there’s a large amount of mishmash equipment around there of differing decades and a wall full of cabinets. Moving to the cabinets he asks what the map is supposed to be for when Threshold shows the pocketwatch. Hardison tells him that he doesn’t want to screw around with that stuff and shows deep claw marks on his back when Threshold asks why.

He still asks around quantum breakthroughs and interdimensional physics, anything to help him close down the reality holes better. He pulls out a book from an alchemist in the twelfth century who managed to sus out quantum mechanics but was suppressed by the church. He pulls a diagram from the book which looks like a four-dimensional figure. He’s not going to sell Threshold the book, but he’ll lend it to him as long as he brings it back, even if the world ends. Hardison has also got a map of ley lines that was done back in the seventies which Threshold takes as well and takes a picture of and sends it out to Wirerat, telling him to look over things for patterns to match up from the holes in reality, which they do. Threshold asks if there’s anything else that he could give him that he could give them to help prevent the end of the world and Hardison rambles on about it ending every year and that he once helped a bunch of kids go to another dimension.

Aftermath

Wirerat keeps working on the map, noting that some of the assumptions the map is making isn’t standard science, it’s fringe sciences which he quite enjoys. Whisper has gone out on patrol. Threshold has started to read the book that Hardison lent him. Nyx attempts to get some sleep after having pulled a double patrol while Nox stares at him.

That’s when a giant subsonic explosion reverberates through the city, harsh enough to cause rumbling in everyone and then an ear-splitting roar. Wirerat immediately looks for the source, finding the disturbance in the bay. Threshold teleports himself to see for himself while Wirerat pumps the information into folk’s headsets. A giant creature emerges from the water with immense crystals growing from it, almost a combination of cephalopods and reptilians. Threshold attempts to teleport back but it fails until he manages to get away from it at which point he gets back to base to tell them it’s time to fight a giant monster.

After Action Report (GM)

One more. Just one more to go then this era of AEON is done. This session started cinching tight the loose threads while opening up others. I didn’t get enough crossover like I wanted, but I did toss in a lot of callbacks and that’s almost as good. There was a bit of exposition too and that’s not always terrible. Overall, a good session and I’m looking forward to getting this one in the bag.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“Seagull” by Bad Company