Let's All Go to the Lobby

In the ballroom, the individual con attendees who have responded to the Call of Atlantis begin working with Genevieve and her inner circle on finding their heart's paths as members of the Atlantean cultural mission.

Some take on the personae of native Atlanteans: these tend to be the people most familiar with Andy's books. They are crystal mages, "emotional irrigators" (Andy's term for Atlantean memeticists, they bring the "healing waters" of sanity to people driven un-sane by modernity), hive-queens (the word for Atlantean "project managers") and soul-singers (Atlanteans who look through the mists of time for past lives in non-Atlanteans' lineages).

The guests who take on the roles of San Franciscans/Yerba Buenans who've come over to the Atlanteans' side are the usual spread of individuals you might expect to be drawn to Atlantis's mission in America—musicians, poets, painters, authors, dancers, occultists—and many of the people eagerly take on roles that match their own creative pursuits in our world. Some, it seems apparent to Viv, even take on personae that do not match their own artistic areas of interest in Real Life.

Mandy

Genevieve has tasked as many of them as possible with cultivating a vibe. Asking them to get extra drapes and sheets to tuck up in the drop ceiling of the ballroom to make soft dividers. Pillows and blankets for cozy floor nests. Arranging the petals of the flowers that won't be given to the Atlantean volunteers (as a symbol of peace and good will and accepting the role) into mandalas on the floor. She's on the look out for musicians with instruments here and makes sure to mention it, but she hasn't seen those kids from last night even though she's sure they're great candidates for this healing.

Viv herself is in her element in a way even she didn't expect. She greets every individual warmly with a forehead to forehead touch, her arms on their arms, whispering a credo of unity. She then asks them to show her their deepest desire and fears before gifting them the personality and objectives of their Atlantean mind guest.

So I am fine with Mitch finding a quiet corner of the ballroom in which to try to deal with the ramifications of what has happened to him at the con (alone)—man, can I relate to that. I think that the next person to make their way to the first floor will be Archie, and then Charley because all those rolls at the machine room will likely have taken a good long while. All while Genevieve is greeting and speaking with the last remainders of the 100 or so loyal Atlanteans.

Jocasta sits Roger down in a corner of the ballroom; Roger feels like he's just run a marathon, his body taken to its limits in channeling this new (and unexpected!) loa. He'll need about a half-hour to get back to ambulatory; Agent Double Zero will flee him in the process; there will be residual effects from the kulullû barb but I'll have you make another HT roll when Roger wakes.

In the center of the ballroom, Jocasta can see Genevieve speaking individually to every Atlantean in the room, giving them heartfelt greetings, speaking with them about their role in the Atlantean Cultural Mission, and then letting them depart with another heartfelt forehead to forehead touch.

If Jocasta really looks for Mitch she might be able to see him sitting in a faraway corner of the room away from most of the Atlanteans.

Leonard

Jocasta still isn’t sure about Genevieve’s involvement and does t want to further burden Roger or Mitch. She’ll wait until she sees Archie, Charley, or even Marshall -- or they see her -- for a quick debrief.

(damn, shit must be bad if Jo is actively looking for the possibility of Marshall)

Jeff

Yeah, it's the 70s, right, Mitch is smoking in the corner, in an otherwise empty little conversational grouping of chairs that some well-meaning Atlantean arranged before he came in. He's staring at the people as they move through the room, not acknowledging any of the rest of URIEL until/unless someone approaches him (or he's been there for like 45 minutes at which time he'll move on).

Mitch has come to some conclusions w/r/t human nature and fascism and the interrelationship between the two.

(That human nature tends naturally towards it ...?)

Mel

Charley has been wanting to see Mitch since having her dream. So I would say she goes over to him.

“Hi Mitch. You OK?”

Jeff

"Charley. Do you think human nature bends inevitably towards fascism?"

Mel

“Oh? Umm fascism?.....?.......” Charley sits down next to Mitch.

"I don't know? But if so, I don't think we would be here. I mean, the Ontoclysm happened because people are so much more than that."

And at that moment, one of the Atlanteans dressed as a redshirt wanders by, leading Charley to say, " Captain Kirk says," 'To be human is to be complex. You can't avoid a little ugliness — from within — and from without.'

"But Mitch, why are you asking?"

(Good answer. Mitch should've started with Charley. Which is not to say I haven't been thinking about Archie's answer to this question for a week now. Unless the conversation in the Livermore cafeteria was Archie's opportunity - but I don't think the fascism question came up there.)

Jeff

"I've had a pretty lousy week, Charley. Your Uncle Mitch has some very... I've got a lot to think about. Met this guy over the weekend, he was a jerk, tried to convince me History-B was, is, real. Like it's a place you could walk to. And if that were true, if some version of that were true..."

"It'd have to have something going for it that none of the other tales did. All the other worlds that aren't real. So, what could that be?"

Mitch is not waiting for Charley to respond, he's unspooling.

"Something inside us. Something inside us that makes us make History-B real."

"But we can't change human nature, that's a mug's game, if people are going to spontaneously make History-B leaks wherever they gather forevermore, then all SANDMAN does is stuff fingers in dikes."

"Keep the whatever from spilling out on us. Changing what's behind the dam ... "

Mitch gestures with his cigarette.

"I'll tell you one thing, Charley. History-B is kind of dumb. Its champions are not razor wits with knowledge of the classics who can cite chapter and verse defending their arguments. They're just a bunch of magic mind-control demons who couldn't sell ice to Eskimos."

(I love the idea of most of the (male*) Trekkers gravitating to MARPA but a single redshirt—who knows the deal when it comes to the class dynamics of Star Trek away teams—deciding to leave the Enterprise and join the Space Hippies.)

(*The women Trek slashfic writers at the con would be Atlanteans, most definitely.)

Well, until they saw Roger and Mitch interacting, then they’d be all over watching that slash action.

Rob

Archie peeks in to the ballroom, a little shyly maybe, bemused by the hanging bedsheets and flower mandalas. (But not unhappy! He's reassured the memes are working.) It sounds like he might see Jocasta with an out-of-it looking Roger; if so, he will approach them right away.

"Jocasta! Roger! Are you alright? What's the situation on the upper floors?" He's not in character as a MARPA boss, just being himself. (How do they look to him? Aren't they both tripping on various strains of Irruptor venom?)

Leonard

"Hey, chief," Jocasta says, sidling up and trying to look as together as possible.

"Multiple irruptor action throughout. Took one out in the basement, another in the art room, one more upstairs. Roger and Mitch did great but they're a little drained at the moment."

Rob

"You've taken out three irruptors? Golly."

Leonard

"B transformation pouring down from upstairs, trickling down from the top of the building. I'm headed back up to see if I can flush out any more," she says. "Trying to keep the civvies safe. Unless you need anything down here? Roger and Mitch can fill in the blanks for me."

Rob

"No, hold on, you can't go back up there alone." Archie's not inclined to let yet another team member blurt out two sentences to him and then run off somewhere. "It makes sense that the contamination is worse on the upper floors. The memetics are doing their work down here, but there's not enough human density up there for our belief structures to take hold."

Archie looks around the ballroom. "We need to get a big group of these ... game players upstairs. Either 'team,' it doesn't matter. We need them up on the upper floors, witnessing the reality distortions and interpreting them according to our design. I want you to escort a bunch of these 'Atlanteans' up there. If Roger or Mitch are well enough to move, they can take a 'MARPA' team."

Leonard

"Yes, sir," Jocasta responds.

"Roger needs a little rest -- he had a new, uh, manifestation -- and I think he might have gotten a little toxin from one of the irruptors. The kind that we saw overseas at the end, with the washer woman. Mitch had a, uh, psychic confrontation with the bull upstairs, he could probably just use some time to get his head together."

(Nah, she respects the chain o' command).

Jocasta will also say we had to kayo the Special Ones for their own safety, but she's gonna hold off for a bit on saying anything about the Marshall video or statue.

Rob

"Yes, I saw Roger dispatch the thing in the art room... and get hit. How about you, Jo? How are you holding up?"

(If Archie sees Mitch & Charley too, he contrives to pull the groups together. And of course Viv can spot us at any time.)

Mel

Charley waves as they approach. And will give her report to them as well. Not including the Queen.

Leonard

"Took a little beating, but still on my feet," she replies. "Got a little toxin but I shook it off, I think. Field-ready, regardless."

Rob

Archie is skeptical, assumes that Jo is minimizing her injuries, but has little choice but to let that slide.

"You look a little banged up to me, but I'm afraid it's all hands on deck right now. And the phones don't seem to be working, so there's no telling when we'll have backup."

"There's Charley, thank goodness. Let's check in with her and Mitch ... and, ah, the Queen of Atlantis."

Jeff

Mitch turns and seems to notice Charley for the first time.

"What are you doing here?"

Mel

“We’ll ... Dad came to save Eddie and I came along to help. Good thing too!” Gestures over at the clearly exhausted Roger and Jo.

“But I was in the basement adjusting the power input. And before I left, I tried to communicate with the dead scorpion guy’s spirit. You know, like a seance ... Crazy thing is it worked! Houdini didn’t think it would. But I said we should at least try. Right?!” She proceeds to tell Mitch everything the creature said.

Jeff

Mitch fishes the reality shard coin from his pocket, shows it to Charley et al. "So this is from History-C and they don't like it, huh? Think we can use it somehow?"

Mel

“I hope so. Why don’t you give it to Jo? Maybe she can see how it can be used.”

Rob

"Charley, I'm so glad you're safe. You scared me, running off like that. Mitch, I'm glad to see you safe too. I understand you had a close encounter with the opposition. Are you holding it together?"

Mel

Charley’s reaction to Archie.

She will interject, “I had a run in with the opposition too.”

“Well mine was dead.”

(parenting is an endless string of opportunities to disappoint the ones we love)

Rob

(Let's assume we do a basic info-dump of what we each can report is going on, minus any creepy bits that any paranoids among us want to hold back. Archie doesn't explain his presence here unless asked about it, but he does report what happened when he tried to use the phone).

Re: the phone, Archie tells the group: "That means I may have been exposed to memetic contamination. I believe my judgment remains sound but you are authorized to countermand any instruction from me that seems dubious or out of character." (This is like boilerplate text out of a SANDMAN manual somewhere; Archie isn't super concerned about Ace of Bass contamination right now but he is trying to model responsible mental hygiene).

"Charley, I wonder if you might have better luck getting the phones to work than I did. Maybe we could put you at the hotel switchboard, see if you could make contact with Marshall and Sophie."

Mel

“Ok. I’ll see if I can reach them... But after if you need more players spreading the meme, I should be available.”

Rob

To Mitch and Jo (and is Roger conscious?): "I was just telling Jocasta, I want to get more of these game players, as many as we can, up to the upper floors where the contamination is worse. Our memetics can't do their work without human terrain. We may need Abeille for this -- is she here?"

(I'm not trying to forestall discussion of the reality shard and how to use it; by all means continue; but Archie's trying to keep the group moving and he's not going to be much help in operationalizing a magic coin)

Bill

Roger is and isn’t used to hallucinations— usually there’s more structure to them, as they’re organized by gods. He’s lost in his little brain for a bit.

Leonard

Jocasta is on board but will probably want to give the game materials a quick look-see, since she hasn't really been involved with that side of the planning. She might want to do a quick Intelligence Analysis or Tactics roll to see what the best way of integrating the game play into actual recon of the upper floors would be, with the overarching goal of flushing out any irruptors but also keeping the civilians involved but extremely safe (can't have them getting hurt, or hurting each other).

YES TO BOTH, but I want to wait to do the Sensitive roll for a bit, let a little more RP go on before I do all that.

Jo will need some time to observe everyone in order to use Sensitive in any event. As far as reading the game materials go, let's have you first give us a Will roll to resist the meme. So the way this will work is your Will of 14, minus 12, plus 5 for your SANDMAN anti-Anunnaki programming training, plus another 2 because you're ready for there to be a memetic payload in this game material. So Will-9, and even if you fail you're not going to, like, go off with either of the Pied Pipers on either side of the story. The success/failure will make the difference as to how Jo responds when being asked to be involved in the game or not.

Once Jo reads the game in detail I'll decide on what roll is appropriate for game-related recon.

WILL // ... failure

Leonard

Rolled a 13. Damn, the memes are good!

Yeah.

Jo's going to be ... generally more amenable to playing a role in the game architecture at this point. In fact, Jo's probably just sort of getting the tiiiiiniest bit obsessed with character concepts she could play in this universe

Hah, I'm actually going to say that failure gives you a bonus on how to implement recon strategy upstairs. It's going to be the rarer Strategy roll, at a 14.

STRATEGY // ... success

1. It's perfect that Jocasta would be the one to get most caught up in the game (was it on here that somebody posted that tweet about new RPG players being like, "eh, whatever, my character is named "Chalupa [Sillyname]," then seven days later: "I've written 12 pages of Chalupa's backstory!" anyway that's Jocasta)

2. But Archie's standing right there thinking, "erm, those flyers are like loaded with Anunnaki mind poison, I could've just summarized the plot for you."

Leonard

Jocasta is doing the classic reading something wide-eyed and rapt and then doing an exaggerated eyeroll if anyone is watching her bit.

Rob

But the $64 question: which team does Jocasta want to be on?

Leonard

It's a tough one! Of course her inclination is to be on the all-American, hit the streets to fight Atlanteanism in all its forms, action brigade. But she could use other aspects of her training in the Natural Guard to chill with the undersea hippies!

I guess she will go where assigned and if she lives through this she'll go home and covertly roll up a version of herself that's on the other side

Rob

Well, we have a couple of leaders on each side already, and we're building to a both-sides-have-to-work-together twist... maybe Jo somehow straddles the line. ... A deadly Atlantean commando-princess who falls for the suave American secret agent ... Can their star-crossed love pull the two sides back from the brink of war?

IF YOU ASSUME THAT ROGER HAS ALREADY MADE HIMSELF "AGENT DOUBLE ZERO" AND ARCHIE HAS ASSUMED "CONTROL" THEN IT'S JO AND MITCH AND CHARLEY WHO NEED AN ALTER EGO.

Oh Leonard, what this makes me realize is that if Jocasta hadn't exposed herself to the meme, she wouldn't have had the strategic insight for how to deploy the gameplayers on the upper floors. So the strategy will need to explicitly tie in the game somehow.

I mean, for ritual purposes I figured we were doing that anyway but now there's an in-game reason for it.

Rob

Re: tactics, Archie won't say this in so many words, but in his mind, some risk to the, er, human terrain is acceptable. We are in a fight to save the much larger population outside the hotel. He doesn't, mind you, mention without prompting that his own son is on the 4th floor.

I was wondering when this might come up. :)

Rob

Eddie's being here is not secret - Roger saw him, and Charley told Mitch that's why we're here -- but Archie is compartmentalizing

I was talking more about the implicit human sacrifice at the top of a Sumerian ziggurat.

But hey, Jimmy Trocano is important too I guess.

the hell he is

Mandy

Viv is kind of pointedly ignoring you all, although she is stealing glances (is that Mr. Ransom again? Still no sign of Redgrave though ... And JANE? ...if that even IS her real name?) it has gotten harder since Charley came into the ballroom. Viv keeps her attention focused, giving full presence to each of the last handful of Atlanteans being assigned. When she finishes with that she hovers for a moment. While she's curious about the mission, aware everyone looks worn down and beat up, she feels like the agents will come to her if there's anything she Needs to Know™️ and that the better part of valor is to wait for them to do so.

Leonard

Anyway, she's going to just drop any subtlety at this point and, when Genevieve looks like she's at a break in organized adulation of the spirits, haul over there, looking quite the opposite of Jane Smith in demeanor, and say, "Doctor. Good to see you again. If you have a moment, we have a lot to talk about."

Mandy

"Yes, of course." Genevieve excuses herself and follows Jocasta. She does not correct the assumption that she has a PhD.

Rob

Archie (re)introduces himself with a handshake. "Mrs. Abeille, Archie Ransom. It's good to see you safe. And it looks like your end of the, ah, scenario has gotten going like gangbusters! I knew you'd be a natural."

Mandy

"Thank you Mr. Ransom, Archie." A bit of a question in her inflection here -- which would he prefer?

"People seem really excited about what we're offering them. I deeply appreciated what you and Andy came up for us to work with." She glances around the group. Mike, I'd like to have Viv make some rolls for passive first aid and psychological assessment, anything else that's appropriate, just from her observations of the gang since they've come into the ballroom.

THAT'S FAIR.

Let's start with Empathy because URIEL is definitely in very different condition than each of them was when you first met them. Roll against 16.

EMPATHY // ... success

Superb, that will give you a +3 to your Psychology assessments in this scene so let's have you roll Psychology at 21.

PSYCHOLOGY // ... success

Success by 6.

I mean, one way to interpret this roll is that Genevieve, upon observing the social and physical dynamics of all the URIEL team members, doesn't even know where to begin.

Roger's issue definitely seems to be physical fatigue; without his being conscious, Viv is not sure what caused it but he is out for the count for the moment.

Mitch, whom Genevieve met very briefly earlier this afternoon, is on his own, his body language guarded (even while talking to "Jane"), eyeing the thinning crowd of Atlanteans in the ballroom.

"Jane" herself seems oddly delighted to be here; if she does know what is happening, that attitude is fairly strange in and of itself.

Jocasta seems mildly physically wounded, in the left arm, and seems much more closed off than she did as "Mrs. Smith."

Even Archie's bonhomie seems to hide a deep and profound anxiety and concern that he's having trouble covering up for.

Basically while Genevieve can't really "sense" Corruption, it's clear all these people have been through some serious trauma today, of a whole lot of different varieties it looks like.

Leonard

And maybe ... not Psychology, but maybe just an Observation or Sensitive roll to see if she feels like the rest of the team are able to carry on and not compromised? I know she can't read auras like Mitch but this has been a hellacious day with lots of chances for corruption and/or malign influence and she just wants to quietly do due diligence.

SENSITIVE // ... success

Is the team able to carry on and are they not compromised?

YES AND YES.

But Jocasta gets a moderately bad vibe from Archie, Mitch, and Charley (to a lesser extent Roger but he probably has bigger fish to fry at the moment) at the moment. She feels pretty sure that all three of them have been in proximity to History B energies that have drained them of the ability to relate to History A over the past few hours. No, there is no reason to suspect any of them of "turning" or being compromised. They are still Jocasta's teammates and comrades. But man, have they been through some shit.

("Corruption" could definitely be on Jo's mind here, as she conceives of it, given Hidden Lore (History B)).

Leonard

Yeah, she’s got no suspicions of anyone being turned. Just wanted to sense how clearly everyone is thinking for the task ahead, particularly since her own self-doubt is high ATM.

Everyone could use some mental and physical rest, I think it's fairly uncontroversial to say that.

(survivors of the St. Francis Hotel win an all-expense paid three day retreat at The Mission! Set amid the rolling hills of Sonoma, The Mission caters to all your mental and spiritual health needs and is definitely NOT a CIA front.)

Mandy

"How are things going with the, ah, situation?" With a pointed look at the definitely worse for wear team.

Rob

To the first question: "Please, call me Archie."

To the second: "Well, I won't deny we're in a tight spot. But we've got a great team here, and all things considered, I'd say we're holding our own. The team has taken care of several adversaries already. Top notch work. And -" (looking around) "- the memetics are already kicking in. Take-up is good. Consensus reality seems stable." "But the upper floors are more dicey. There aren't enough minds up there, yet, for our memetics to take hold."

"I'd like to get a delegation of game players up to the upper floors, with our people escorting them 'in character'. Both 'teams,' as many as possible, as soon as possible, up there believing our counternarratives. That should go a long way to calming the waters."

Mandy

"This is very very dangerous, isn't it, Archie? Roger told me there were demons, and I haven't seen anything but your people, and I don't say this glibly, have a PTSD air about them. You can tell me. I need to know what we're up against if I'm going to be able to chose the right players and keep them inoculated from the incursion." A pause, weighing her options before going all in.

"I just connected with every Atlantean player; If I know what the challenges are I will know who to bring."

Rob

(ah but PTSD would imply that we are POST trauma )

"There is a level of risk, that's true. But everybody in this hotel is already in danger, and, well, this is the play we have." Like Mike says, Archie is determined to project optimism in front of his team, in front of Charley, in front of the Atlanteans.

"Jo, what's the tactical situation on the upper floors? Is there a safe place -- I mean safe, comparatively speaking -- that you could take a group of 'Atlanteans'? Or a route you could lead them along?"

Leonard

“The first few of the upper floors are clear as far we’ve been able to ascertain, and I should be able to guide them through. If we really want to sell with exposure, one of the downed targets may still be there — they’ve been, well, persistent, which is bad generally but might help us push the scenario,” Jocasta responds.

“The very top we haven’t seen yet and I have reason to suspect it might be a treacherous situation.” She takes a breath and looks directly at Genevieve.

“I do want to make it clear that we can’t have the factions engaging in any actual violence against either the hostiles or one another. The former is too dangerous for the untrained and the latter will just make our position more precarious.”

Behind all the military jargon and bravado, though, she gives a loose shrug: shit’s fucked up, it says.

Rob

"Oh no, of course we don't want any civilians engaged in violence!" (Perish the thought.)

"Or even to encounter the competition, if we can help it. Their role is just to be up there, thinking it's a game, believing the counter-reality we are constructing. Maybe, if possible, to dis-believe the contaminating delusions." "Meanwhile, Charley's going to try to reestablish contact with our people outside."

"But first, this coin. Mitch, Charley: you think this is a genuine pragmaclast? Is there anything we can ... do with it? Or ... with what used to be the clock? I'm afraid I'm out of my depth on this whole front."

Jeff

Mitch holds the coin up to eye level, shrugs. "I have no idea." He'll hand the coin over to the first person who indicates they want it, either verbally or just reaching for it.

"Makes me feel nostalgic for a place I've never been, but then, so does Hawaii Five-Oh."

Mel

Charley, now called upon, says, "Hi Viv, nice to see you again."

Then to Archie: "From what my source told me, the coin is a reality shard but not from our time or B. I don't know how it can be used, but B is scared of it. The clock, they were planning to use it as we suspected. I would have loved to have recruited it and used it against them, but we are here, and it's not."

Mandy

"Hi sweetie, Charley, it's good to see you again. Uh, pragmaclast? Reality shard?" She's talking to everyone.

"I don't really know this cosmology ... "

Meanwhile Mike, can Viv get a roll for thinking of which Atlanteans to bring, or who specifically to leave behind if that's a better way to frame it considering we need numbers. I could even use a psychometry game to get the ones with desirable characteristics to self select.

this is a sociology roll!

(Given that Genevieve does not have Esmology ... yet.)

THE SKILL DESCRIPTION IS SPOT-ON FOR PREDICTING HOW LARGER GROUPS OF PEOPLE WILL RESPOND TO PRESSURES. SOCIOLOGY AT 18. YOU COULD USE A GAME TO HAVE THEM SELF-SELECT; THAT WOULD USE PUBLIC SPEAKING (STORYTELLING) WHICH IS A FAIR BIT BETTER AT 22, BUT THAT PROCESS WOULD DEFINITELY TAKE LONGER.

SOCIOLOGY // ... c-c-c-critical success!

That's a crit and I need to think about this.

So Genevieve knows innately and intimately the different social currents, personality traits, and personal gifts at play within the contingent of Atlanteans she's met and talked with so far. What she really needs to know is which personality qualities and personal gifts are going to be needed up on the Upper Floors.

And that's something she'd need to consult with Archie on, vis-a-vis closing down History B. Archie's done a lot of general talk about counter-belief and such, but Viv's knowledge of the sociology of this group is compelling her to ask what precise kind and mix of people are going to have the most profound effect on the areas of the hotel that are now slipping away?

Mandy

"I can see the social dynamics of this group really clearly and pied piper whoever you need to wherever they are needed, Archie, but what type of minds do you want to hold the reality incursion at bay from the upper floors? What's coming in and who can fend it off?"

Rob

(seriously, though, does Archie have an answer to that? Esmology or History-B rolls? Or is one warm brain as good as the next?)

Well, there's a couple of ways Archie could approach that question.

This whole idea for the game germinated out of wanting to keep this hotbed of belief under control, not getting sucked into belief-games with the Irruptors in the hotel. More Atlanteans and MARPA agents, fewer hot jazz parties and cults of Queen Minerva.

So Archie wants strong believers. And, sure, in some sense one believer is as good as the other and certainly with Viv's sociological data Archie could come up with some very effective on-the-fly esmological calculations that would be efficient and maximize our impact and treat all these wonderful people at the con as a bunch of faceless units that can tip the balance on the top floors most effectively. That's an Esmology roll, and will of course possibly incur a little Corruption.

But Archie's also taken a lot of Corruption today. He's deployed a lot of blunt instruments on a lot of populations. And after seeing Genevieve take her time with every single Atlantean and end up with something approaching esmological understanding of them as a dynamic whole made up of individuals? Archie realizes he has a bunch of talented actors, musicians, costumers, artists, writers, believers on his hands. A bunch of imaginative adults with the kinds of talents he used to love inculcating in kids while he was working on Ransom Roundup.

And he realizes that each of the Atlanteans—and the MARPA agents!—have their own unique self to offer... and one of them, one of their portrayals of their characters in the game might hold the perfect key of belief to reversing the temblor. This approach would be a much longer-duration set of rolls, probably some combination of Performance, Public Speaking, and Teaching.

Also? Archie realizes that given the URIEL team's knowledge of History B and their effectiveness in seeing through Anunnaki illusions, the Sandmen are going to need strong, resilient personae to inhabit as part of the game when we go up to the Upper Floors. They'll need to be equipped with a strong memetic identity to help lead the attempt to reverse the slippage into History B.

Basically, it boils down to taking a big, quickly-and-esmologically-selected group up to the top floors, or taking a smaller, but more selectively-chosen, emotionally/creatively-talented cadre of talented believers to the top floors.

(From Jocasta's—and also from Archie's!—tactical and moral calculus perspective, the fewer innocents we have to take into the upper floors' temblor zone the better, while the game happening on the lower floors will help keep the entire hotel from slipping as well. But if we're going to win back the rest of the hotel before our four days expires, and do it with a small crew, they'll need to be exceptional.)

(Aw... pulling Archie back from the Corruption slide with talk of Ransom Roundup. Sniff. OK, let me think of a good response.)

(Regarding the Emperor Norton Bridge coin: one of the reasons we're currently in the dark about anything but the broadest knowledge about its purpose/operation is because iirc Mitch did not get anything off it information-wise with Detect (History B), other than the general sense it's meant to help build figurative bridges. Charley had a go with necromancy, and that gave us a little more info... but Jocasta has Psychometry, and if she were to succeed well enough, we might know exactly what this thing does and how to use it.)

Rob

So Archie was impatient to get believers up on the 11th floor, like sandbags to stop a flood, and he was about to say something about one warm brain being good as the next. But he sees the care Viv has taken with each of the people here, and (thanks to the GM's welcome intervention) the atmosphere of creativity and imagination here in the ballroom maybe does remind him of the Ransom Roundup days. And he looks over at his own team, each one banged up and bruised in a different way but hanging on and bravely girding for more punishment, and perhaps has a moment of grace, or at least Mitch-like detachment.

"Mrs. Abeille -- may I call you Viv? I enjoyed your book about Skinner's Walden. I was telling your friend Andrew this morning--my gosh, was that only this morning? -- that I thought you had misread Skinne r... but maybe it's Skinner that misread Thoreau." He's kind of talking to himself here, or at least for his own benefit: "Thoreau says, 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.' But it's the mass of men, you see? That's why Thoreau's lodestar is always self-reliance. In groups, in masses, we are so easily manipulated ... and that's by our enemies' design." (Archie tries to sum up what Mike just said above, about a dynamic whole made up of individuals.)

"We could throw a wall of wet brains at them, but that's the enemy's way. Better to send a small cadre of talented, flexible believers. Our people, of course, plus a few more folks from each side of the game. We give them all roles to play, a way to be individuals and part of the whole. We don't need the ones who believe the most. We need the ones whose belief is most flexible--creative folks, writers, actors, children--the ones who can act 'as if'."

(Mel, if Charley is listening to Archie's little monologue here, can she give me a Racial Memory roll?)

RACIAL MEMORY // ... success

Mandy

"You're a Thoreau fan, Archie?" Viv sort of whispers the following quote:

"As the least drop of wine tinges the whole goblet, so the least particle of truth colors our whole life..."

... before returning to a conversational volume.

"I'm pleased that you liked my book, that you would come around on my book when starting from the behaviorist perspective ... That's powerful creative thinking. Even in your quote Thoreau is talking about how work drains of us play, of our right action ... I wouldn't have thought the rational mind who worked with Andy to put together the original memetics for this game, all wet brains and human terrains would make these connections but I guess I should expect nothing less knowing your legacy ... "

"Do you know where Thoreau goes with that quote? After yet another diatribe on the shortcomings of the elders of the modern era," she kind of chuckles at that part; the more things change the more they stay the same, "he says:

We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once a system of earths like ours ... The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour; ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History, Poetry, Mythology! — I know of no reading of another’s experience so startling and informing as this would be.

"So, that is to say, I think Thoreau is on our side here, theoretically, that reality is perhaps TRIANGULATED from two perspectives observing the same star, and I know the exact people who will play with us from the right perspective."

Rob

Archie is a little dazzled by all that. (I do think Archie would like Thoreau, though he only knows the hits, not deep cuts like Viv. He has an affection for the American Studies canon and is that kind of middlebrow book-of-the-month club intellectual that I think ad men could be in the mid-20th century but almost certainly aren't any more.)

"Well, I'm not sure I've come all the way around on your book. Behavioral engineering does work -- all too well, that's why it's ethically perilous."

"But this makes sense, this feels right. Not a brute force approach, something more nimble and adaptive. And something else Andrew said this morning: it's important we let people choose their side, choose their own roles as much as possible. That's what the different belief layers are for -- not to fool everybody, but to give them multiple belief options, a way of cushioning their minds against the enemy's assault."

Leonard

Jocasta, whose self-doubt is deepening a bit in light of this fascinating conversation, walks over to where Mitch is sitting and takes a spot on the floor next to him.

"I don't know about you, but this is a little above my pay grade," she says, indicating Archie & Genevieve's conversation. "I'll take a look at that coin, though, if you don't mind." She betrays a little nervousness and adds, "Make sure you pull me back if this takes me anywhere ... ugly."

She then removes one of her gloves and holds out her hand.

>> SMASH CUT ! >>

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