Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
I was wondering what Dr. Anderson had done to earn this reputation?
|
Well, there were several other things:
- In the very first session, Dr. Anderson used his power to detect sleepers and rolled a critical success. He detected a lot of sleeping people, including a terrified, traumatised woman in the tunnels under Manhanock Asylum, having nightmares about the hungry dark and monsters. I don't know exactly how his character was facing at the time, but the evidence suggests that he was detecting Mrs. York, long before O'Toole found her. It might also have been Cindy, the patient that Robert the Orderly was protecting, or even yet another character we haven't rescued. He didn't mention this person to anyone, specifically saying OOC that he knew that Chase Taylor would insist on going to rescue her and thus making everyone's life more complicated. So, really, Dr. Anderson callously left someone in the tunnels way before O'Toole ever did.
- Dr. Anderson has drained Fatigue Points from every injured person we've encountered. He's a vampire in all but name. OOC, the player is investigating the point cost of Powers that allow him to use the drained Fatigue to power himself.
- Dr. Anderson has been surreptiously 'testing' his companions, in particular their mental capabilities, willpower and any potential mental powers. He allows Cherry Bell to touch him in order to determine whether or not she can control when she uses her mental powers and also because he's certain that he'll learn more about her powers if she does try than she'll get from him. And he's used his powers to inflict drowsiness over an area when the only people he was certain were within range were Bell and Taylor, it seems mostly to get an idea of how good their mental defences were.*
- Oh, and his most recent use of his Detect (Sleepers) power has provided him with two rooms where it is likely that the hostages that they are looking for might be kept. One of them explicitly has someone who is angry at O'Toole and is thus very likely to be Burr or Townsend. Is Dr. Anderson telling anyone else about this? No, he is not. Would knowing about it make it more likely that the hostages were rescued? Of course it would.
Granted, some of Dr. Anderson's unwillingness to tell Taylor or anyone else about the things he finds out with his powers is obviously due to the fact that the extent of Dr. Anderson's mastery over sleep and the subconscious
is a deep dark secret. Nevertheless, he
could always pretend to nap for a while and use his cover story, that he sometimes gets limited flashes of ESP or someting similar while sleeping.
Or, you know, just use the fact that he's the one with Area Knowledge (Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane) to pretend to 'guess' that a given room would be a good place to keep hostages and guide us to where he has detected wounded, sleeping people who are angry at O'Toole!
*Good, it turns out. At least they didn't show any signs of wanting to fall asleep. Unless, of course, that being drowsy made them less able to resist their subconscious desires, as the time when he did this was post #69 'Crash Into Me'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
I understand now. . . Ew.
|
He doesn't sleep and instead must roam the dreams of others. Which, being an intellectually curious psychiatrist, he uses for 'therapy'. Note that the consent of his patients seems irrelevant to him personally, it's just something he has to worry about in cases where he actually might be personally liable.* If no one will ever find out, he can and obviously
will ignore it happily.
He
was telling the truth when he was offended at the idea that he'd experiment on children or harm them in any way in post #93
'Rejoice with Me for I have Found My Sheep which Was Lost'. Dr. Anderson loves children.
He just seems to have a rather detached, intellectual, catlike curiousity toward everyone else. You know, Mad Scientist style.
*So far, Dr. Anderson has rolled Law (US Medical) several times to determine how he can best avoid any liability concerns on his adventures. All of these were occasions where he wanted to prevent being held responsible for the possible death or permanent trauma of people he was asked to provide first aid to upon finding them severely injured.