The Found Arcana - Chapter 11 [IC] Options

[Tecumseh]

The kid still looks bewildered.

"Um, yeah," he gulps. "We probably have that here.

"But do you even know the name you're looking for? Because saying someone was here 'before 2.0' only narrows it down to a few hundred thousand people."

He breaks eye contact and bids you to follow. He walks guides you through dusty corridors until you reach a long-forgotten door. Inside is a large room the size of a basketball court that's all dust and history. There's a maze of filing cabinets (!) inside, along with some ancient desktop terminals that might have been modern 30 years ago. They don't look like they've been touched in 10 years or more.

"So, uh, are there any other cLuEs?" he squeaks.

[Thanee]

Rachel looks around. Is this what an ancient wizard's library was like? Well, more or less.

"Wow! I have never seen something like that before. Crazy, right? And, of course there are some more clues. We have the initials, I think. P and C. Or was it C and P? And we can narrow it down to a certain range of years. Have to look those up, don't know them inside out. But it is the kind of clue, that you have to see to actually make sense of it, if you know what I mean. There are so many here. This might take a while. Do you need to be at your desk? I promise, we will be on our best behaviour down here. Or do you need to supervise us? Totally fine, of course. Just don't want you to get into any trouble for leaving your post, you know."

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby kept his eyes trained on the assistant, but used the time to learn what he could about the woman's device - for example if it was protected by a host.

[ Spoiler ]

Matrix Perception

Matrix Perception: 8d6t5 4

[Tecumseh]

The assistant's commlink doesn't seem to be protected by the office's formidable host. Of course, it doesn't seem like she's done any real work either. Maybe she's intentionally keeping her commlink out of the host so that the host isn't tracking her work habits. (Of course, the host might still note the absence of actual work being done on the host itself, but that would be a concern for Phillips to address.)

Other than that, the commlink looks like a standard Transys Avalon (R6). The persona has been customized to look like her, but everything else appears to be stock.

[Beta]

Tamarind has followed along behind the elves, happy enough to be ignored by the kid since she'd struggle more to keep up with Rachel's story. Looking at the equipment in the archives she does quietly comment "Looks similar to what they had when I was in army, newer than what I used in school. I'm rusty, but I can probably manage to use the things."

[Gilga]

AM just looks around and is not say much, she is wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans with a coat and despite her extensive understanding in fashions the combinations appear to be so-so. Either she does not care or she is rooting for the did not pay attention kind of vibe.

"We know the field of study and roughly the year... I think we'll have to be here for a while but it is not infinite right?" I add.

[Jack_Spade]

Meanwhile. Bobby kept his watch, waiting for the Duck to make an appearance - personally he expected it around noon...

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 09:44 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

AM easily slices into the assistant's commlink where she finds... not a trace of work.

Well, not office work anyway. Her P2.1 account has a thousand unread messages. Checking her message history indicates a long game of cat-and-mouse with several suitors. It's not entirely certain who is the cat and who is the mouse. She's more attentive to advertisers who contact her, looking for her to promote their brands in her P2.1 feed.

There's also a great deal of browsing history around fashion sites and shopping sites. Much of it is for beachwear but some of it is for exercise classes and exercise equipment; the assistant seems to be taking the upcoming swimsuit season (which, in Seattle, is about two months) very seriously.

AM can't even find any messages between the assistant and Lucky Duck Phillips. Either there's no communication between them, or the assistant has a different commlink that she uses for work. (Bobby has seen no evidence of a secondary commlink.)

~~~

<<Monday Morning - 10:10 - April 10, 2079 - Printing Office - University of Washington>>

Tamarind is pretty sure she recognizes the desktop terminals. Many of them still have physical input devices, like keyboards. The knowledge is ancient in her mind but muscle memory may take over when it comes to keying in commands.

"So, uh... what are you looking for?" the young man asks, still bewildered by what's happening.

~~~

<<Monday Morning - 11:33 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Bobby's guess is pretty close. Phillips shows up about half past 11 driving a hot red Saeder-Krupp-Bentley Concordat with a custom paint job. Not only that, but it's a newer one, certainly less than a year old. The car is a popular status symbol; it's the kind of car that simstars and orxploitation rappers drive.

And, indeed, Phillips' suit is so loud that Bobby looks for garish gold chains around his neck. He's wearing bright white billowy pants (a month and half before Memorial Day!), a pink shirt with the top buttons open and his chest hair hanging out (no gold chains though), and a sky-blue blazer that has a metallic sheen to it. Everything says "look at me, look at me!" If Bobby is staring at him then that's not suspicious: that's the goal.

Phillips is talking when he gets out of his car. However, Bobby can't pick out any evidence of active devices on Phillips. So either he's got a good Sleaze dongle or... he's talking to himself?

Inside, Phillips leans on the desk and talks to his assistant for about a minute. They smile and laugh and don't seem to be saying a thing about work.

Phillips then wanders back to his desk, where he sits down and promptly puts his cowboy boots (made of alligator?) on his desk. He puts on AR gloves and starts waving them through the air. Bobby doesn't see any devices come online, so whatever Phillips is doing must be through the office's host.

[Jack_Spade]

<<Philips looks like a distraction, if ever I've seen one. We need to get access to a host protected device for a direct connection. Otherwise, this feels like a dead end. I'll infiltrate the park as a local critter and wait for her to jog by. Maybe I can rig a piece of razor blade on a low hanging stalk to get a little cut and a blood sample from her.>>

Bobby sent to the team as he looked on Phillips doing a whole lot of nothing

[Gilga]

Not wanting to confess to a felony on the link, I send Trouble to Bobby as a messenger . "Comlink is boring... it is all models and swimsuits and romances. She has an active social account and is making a bit extra from advertising content on her site. " The cat manifests and tells Bobby. (staying in the astral but making Bobby aware of him rather than turning into a cat, which would prevent communication).


I grin and say "A hidden treasure!" being friendly but not precisely revealing information. So, how does one search this archive database?" I ask. Unknown to keyboards and physical interfaces, I could probably find the answer in the Trix, but perhaps the kid wants to show me?

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 10:12 - April 10, 2079 - Printing Office - University of Washington>>

"How does one search?" the kid asks, still very confused. "Search for what?

"Listen, most of this stuff hasn't been turned on in 10 years, probably since I was in grade school. I don't know how it works. I've never used it. I don't even know how to turn it on. I don't even know if it will turn on."

Tamarind is more familiar with the equipment. She knows that it won't turn on, if only because it isn't plugged in. That would be the first step.

"Look, I gotta get back to my desk. I'd say don't break anything, but honestly I'm not sure it would matter if you do."

He walks out, casting one last stray glance at Raven before retreating to the front desk.

~~~

<<Monday Morning - 11:57 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Around noon, Phillips does something! He leaves his office and walks over to the Chinese noodle place that's next door and buys some lunch.

Through the window, Bobby can see Phillips laughing with the proprietors. He gets a white takeout box and walks off with a pair of disposable chopsticks, shoveling what looks like chow mein into his mouth.

He makes the rounds of the complex, dropping in and visiting with people. He works his way through the laundromat, shaking hands and glad-handling constituents. He goes to shoot the drek with the people in the body piercing shop and the nail salon too. Bobby notes Phillips' skill with chop sticks; he manages to walk and eat at the same time without getting anything on his jacket, shirt, or tie. Bobby can see that his mood is good. He seems to genuinely enjoy interacting with the public.

Also at noon, Bobby's commlink dings with a message: the DNA results are available to be picked up. The tech declines to send them electronically, citing the digital trail, but will provide them in person at the same location as before (the back of a DocWagon clinic).

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby decided he had earned himself lunch. He ignored the message for now - after the last interaction, he doubted he should be the one to fetch the results. Instead he forwarded the task to his female coworkers.
Before exiting the car, he changed his appearance to a middle aged Caucasian man.

Moving towards Phillips he casually asks him: "Hey, are the noodles of this shop any good?"

[ Spoiler ]

Body Boost: 10d6t5 3
Physical Mask F3: 18d6t5 9
Drain Resist: 14d6t5 6

No drain

[Tecumseh]

"Great?" Phillips asks rhetorically. "No! But any port in a storm, amirite?"

He laughs jovially, and elbows Bobby in the ribs if he's close enough.

He looks down at his takeout container. "It's hot, it's calories, it's readily available. Ain't gonna eat at the body piercing shop, I'll tell you that much!" He laughs at his own joke.

Bobby can tell that he's getting Phillips' is acting like "the common man". It's a bit of a juxtaposition with his garish suit and his flashy car, but evidently he picks and chooses where to be gaudy and where to be relatable.

He stabs his chopsticks into what's left of the chow mein. He holds out his hand to Bobby.

"Hey, what's your name? I'm Lucky Duck Phillips, nice to meet you." He smiles, assuming that you will recognize him.

[Thanee]

Rachel winks at the boy. "See you later! We will be careful that we won't break anything." - Hopefully!

When he is gone, she smiles. That went pretty well, and they have the place to themselves.

She takes a look around, takes it all in. And also keeps her eyes out for any security cameras.

[ Spoiler ]

Perception 4 hits

Speaking of which, her little spy cam will be handy to review anything they come across here, so she keeps it running now.

Then it is off to look for how the stuff is organized here. They need to find 'P' and probably the more recent years before the Crash.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby smiles back, partly to ingratiate and partly because he actually likes the man's charm:
"Garry, Garry Roberts. Hey, you are the Philips? Wow, so cool!" He snapped his fingers. "Sorry, I didn't recognize you right away. You look way better than your trid image. Would have loved to vote for you - I really appreciate your style.
Why did you step back? I was rooting for you. That Potter woman can't hold a candle to you, in my opinion."

Bobby observed the man's aura closely while he said that.

[ Spoiler ]

Aura reading: 12d6t5 4

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 10:20 - April 10, 2079 - Printing Office - University of Washington>>

Raven notices that the boy's knees buckle a bit when she winks.

Looking around, she doesn't notice any security cameras. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any visible security except maglocks on the doors, and it didn't even seem like those were activated. At least, it didn't sound like anything was unlocking when you passed through.

The immensity of the task is daunting. Not only are there multiple data terminals, but there are hundreds of filing cabinets. And, exploring a few you find a couple unfortunately truths:

1) The filing cabinets aren't labeled; and,
2) The filing cabinets aren't in any sort of logical order.

It seems like the cabinets were hauled here from somewhere else and dropped off in haphazard fashion, with no effort to maintain any sort of sequence or order. If anything it's a miracle that there's a maze winding between them rather than having them all smooshed together in a giant block.

Tamarind manages to find a power connection to plug in the data terminals. They slowly spin to life, creaking and groaning along the way. Once they're up and running, there's a text prompt to give the operating system instructions about what you want to do. The user GUI is decidedly lacking; it's not visual at all. It seems almost deliberately draconian. Luckily, Tamarind feels like she will remember her way around.

~~~

<<Monday Morning - 11:59 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

Phillips beams at Bobby's praise.

However, the smile flickers just for a moment when Bobby brings up Potter.

"What do you mean, 'step back'?" he asks, but there's some tightness in the corners of his eyes. "I'm right where I should be, making a difference for the people of Snohomish! You think you can do that from the Governor's office? Ha! You spend all your time on your knees -" He stops himself abruptly before he says anything too crass. He mimes zipping his lips.

"Let's just say I'm happy here. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down, neh?" An odd sentiment from someone so ostentatious. Bobby can tell that Phillips doesn't really believe the bulldrek he's shoveling.

[Jack_Spade]

"I totally get that, but a man of your political talents... I mean don't get me wrong, Potter and her sob story certainly has a lot of pull right now. But getting things done after the vote... That's were you need the real deal.
I mean just look at you - you are a man of the people. I went to one of Potter's meet and greets and it was all great organization, but no immediacy. I could see she wasn't really interested in what I had to tell. Doesn't help that there was so much magic drek flying around. I'm pretty sensitive and my cousin tells me that's the spirits she has around her. Just feels off to me.
Sorry, I'm rambling. I don't meet celebrities like you too often."

Bobby played up the role of enthusiastic voter a bit too much, but kept a sharp (third) eye open for his reactions in regards to the comments on magic.

[Tecumseh]

Phillips eats up Bobby's praise. His aura gets a glow of satisfaction; Bobby can tell that interactions like this is why Phillips enjoys the job.

"Hey, look, Garry, I can tell you're a smart guy. You know how these things work: it's not all up to me. The party promotes who it wants to promote. And maybe they decided that the grieving woman was too good of an opportunity to pass up. They have to strike while the iron is hot.

"Remember, Garry, the rest of the 'plex isn't like Snohomish. Oh no! What works up here and in Everett doesn't fly down south. We're country bumpkins to Downtown and Bellevue. We're embarrassing yokels."

This somewhat sidesteps the reality that Potter is campaigning out of Snohomish too, but maybe Phillips' point is more about presentation. Potter's look definitely flies better in many circles, even if she's not as put-together or as glamorous as Nikola Taul.

"Don't you worry about Lucky Duck Phillips, Garry," he says, elbowing Bobby jovially again. "They don't call me 'Lucky' for no reason. I know how to play my cards I'm dealt. I know how to make a deal." He winks conspiratorially. "Everything will work out for the great people of Snohomish!"

The comment about magic doesn't really seem to register with Phillips. He waves it off.

"Security, neh?" he says. "Nobody wants to lose another candidate, Garry. Certainly not Knight-Errant, and definitely not the Technocratic Party. And they're only going to ramp that up after the break-in at Potter's apartment. From what I hear" - he leans in to bring Bobby into his confidence - "the break-in involved some serious magic. And nothing was stolen, so they figure that the motive must have been even more nefarious than a robbery or political panty sniffing. So they're taking the magical threat very seriously now."

[Thanee]

"Guess, we could use some help with this..."

Rachel concentrates and summons a Spirit of Man, who can hopefully help looking through the ancient file cabinets. The old computer terminals will be for AM and Tamarind to figure out. Afterwards, she also casts Magic Fingers, which will make it a bit easier for her to sift through them.

[ Spoiler ]

Cast Increase Charisma F6 (buying the 4 hits and the 3 hits for the Drain), sustain with Focused Concentration

Summon Spirit of Man F6(+1) (Movement; Psychokinesis) 4 hits
Spirit's Resistance 1 hit
Drain Resistance DV 2S 3 hits (no Drain)

Cast Magic Fingers F6 7 hits
Drain Resistance DV 2S 6 hits (no Drain)

Drop Increase Charisma and sustain Magic Fingers with Focused Concentration

Then she gets to work, starting somewhere, opening up drawers and looking into files, hopefully finding at least some sort of order in there. It's the letter 'P' they are looking for in the last name. She lets her spirit friend observe for a little while, explaining to him what she is doing and looking for, before asking him to help looking through some of the other cabinets. There is plenty of them for sure.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby nodded: "I guess you are right. Damn shame, but you are right. I hope Potter at least takes your advice then." At the bit about the break in he sadly shakes his head: "Damn mages and their spirits. You just aren't safe anywhere from them. At least Potter isn't involved with magic herself."

Bobby looked for any sign that Philips disagreed with this statement.

[Tecumseh]

<<Monday Morning - 10:22 - April 10, 2079 - Printing Office - University of Washington>>

Raven gets to work on the filing cabinets. Even with magical assistance, it's probably going to take hours.

~~~

<<Monday Morning - 12:02 - April 10, 2079 - Phillips' Office - Snohomish>>

"Hey, don't say that!" Phillips objects, looking serious for a moment. "Some of my best friends are mages!"

Then his face breaks and he gives a belly laugh, bending forward and laughing at his jest.

"But, no, seriously, she could actually use a bit of magic. Maybe then she could leave the house looking like she had brushed her hair."

This refers to Potter's messy, tousled look, which is probably just as much of a calculation as Phillips' outfit. Phillips takes the opposite approach, with his hair being slicked back under a thick layer of pomade.

Bobby's comment about Potter being involved in magic doesn't generate any response in Phillips other than his bit of sass.

[Beta]

Tamarind was never a database expert or anything, but working in the motorpool she'd had to use a couple. She mentally groans as she remembers just now particular the parts database had been. But then again she'd earned drinks by being willing to take the time to get orders working.

"All right, let's try and see what is in here. Hopefully we'll find what we need, or at least some sort of indexing of the filing cabinets. And assuming that the filing cabinets made sense originally, if we can make any order out of all of this then we may be able to index them ourselves. Maybe on that side we can start by making a map of the cabinets and assign an ID to each, then attach an AR tag to each lining up with the map. Then as we gather clues we have a framework to put them into. Can you two start with mapping the cabinets? Give me a few to remember how to talk to the terminals then I can bring AM up to speed."

She was nervous that she wasn't going to be able to contribute, but to her immense relief as she started working on the terminal things started coming back to her.

[Jack_Spade]

Bobby laughed along with Philips, but thought it prudent not to overstay:
"Too true. Anyway, really great meeting you. I'll keep an eye open for your next campaign. Gotta run, or my lunch break is over before I get my food."

With a wave and a smile, Bobby hurried off to the Chinese fast food stall.

While he waited for his box, he sent to the team:
<<Just had a little chat with Philips as a great fan of his work. He doesn't show it, but he seems a bit unhappy about losing out to Potter. He seems unaware of any magic on her side. Likewise he seems uninvolved in her campaign - at least he isn't working particularly hard to promote her.
For me it feels as if he has been thoroughly sidelined. And yet he enjoys the same matrix protection. Either he has training not to show his true emotions in his aura, or I'm missing something here.>>

[Gilga]

I am happy to take a passive role and let Raven get the male attention, and then Tamarind manages the work. I make myself useful and help search for our hidden Potter files.

[Thanee]

"The one problem with finding what we need is, that we probably won't find anything... and given this mess, that won't really be much of a proof, I'm afraid, even though an indicator, that she wasn't actually here... which is what we suspect, right?" Raven comments on their search for something showing that Potter was here, since the opposite, and most likely outcome, won't really be something they can find.