Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

[Icelander]

Special Agent William Dunbar nods sympathetically to Danny O’Toole as Holden glares at him with naked hostility. Neither man is taking notes, but a blinking light on a camera set up to capture the interview indicates that it is being recorded.

Dunbar: “No doubt it was very confusing, Danny. Firefights are. The movies always make it seem like there was a clear narrative, heroes and villains, but it’s never like that. It’s just an awful mess that never makes sense to you afterward. ‘Who stood where?’ ‘What happened then?’ Our minds aren’t really built to process near-death experiences in those terms. And that’s not even accounting for the effects of flashbangs and gunshots in an enclosed tunnel!”
O’Toole: “Uh, yah. I mean, I can tell you what happened, but some of it, you know, it’s more of a blur. Not a lot of detail.”
Dunbar: “And that’s okay, Danny. It’s just that we’re the sorry sons-of-bitches who get the job of trying to make sense of the blur. So we’re going to go over it from all angles, see if we can’t help you figure it out.”
O’Toole: “Sure. Not a problem.”

Smiling reassuringly, Agent Dunbar pours himself a San Pellegrino. He offers O’Toole some, which he accepts gratefully, having finished his soda. Holden shakes his head in disgust and tops up his coffee cup from a Thermos, without any visible desire to share his beverage with anyone else.

Dunbar: “For instance, Danny, let’s back up to the point where you return fire. You used an M9 pistol, right?”
O’Toole: “Yeah, that’s right. One we’d captured from a guard who was attacking us.”
Dunbar: “What I was wondering, Danny, is why you had the M9? By this time, you had captured two M16A2 rifles, hadn’t you? Col. Burr was carrying one. Why weren’t you carrying the other?”
O’Toole: “We felt that Taylor would be more effective with the rifle, having been a Weapon Sergeant in the Special Forces, a sniper and a small unit tactics specialist.”
Dunbar: “I see, Danny. Who made that decision?”
O’Toole: “After some discussion, it was unanimous.”
Dunbar: “So Col. Burr didn’t just give orders? You had discussions about what to do?”
O’Toole: “Yeah, sure. We weren’t exactly a military unit. If we hadn’t gotten the civilians on board, we could have been in a situation where everybody ran off on their own, leaving us in even more trouble.”
Dunbar: “But you did, in fact, get separated? After the tunnels firefight?

Danny O’Toole is somehow managing to maintain a professional bearing and even look directly into Agent Dunbar’s eyes, like an honest man with nothing to hide. This is made even more impressive in light of the open contempt and disbelief that Holden projects through his baleful glare at O’Toole, regarding him as he might a particularly bloated leech on his own scrotum.

O’Toole: “We did get separated, yes. I managed to reach the Coast Guard and call for assistance. The situation in the tunnels became untenable. When the guards threatened to throw grenades into our position unless we gave up Ms. Bell, I decided to surrender in order to win time to allow rescue to arrive. By providing a distraction, I allowed Ms. Bell to escape in the direction where we had last seen Taylor, hoping they’d find a way to contact the Coast Guard again. Unfortunately, as I knelt to surrender, flashbangs went off and the guards started firing.”
Dunbar: “That must have been very frightening.”
O’Toole: “Agh, it was mostly just confusing, you know? I didn’t really have time to be afraid, it was just this, like, assault on all the senses. I couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think. Somehow, I don’t know how, I managed to throw myself into cover.”
Dunbar: “And that’s when the guards captured Col. Burr and the others?”
O’Toole: “Yeah. They must’ve missed me, I was in a side tunnel maybe thirty or forty feet off. Just lucky, I guess.”
Dunbar: “Very fortunate. And once the shooting had stopped, what did you do?”
O’Toole: “Well, when I could, I moved after them, you know. Trying to see if I could find out where they were taken, let the rescue know.”

Holden snickers. Agent Dunbar looks at him with faint annoyance, but then looks over some papers on the desk.

Dunbar: “I’m wondering, Danny, whether you might be mixing up the timeline a little. Is there anything else you can remember after the firefight in the tunnels?”
O’Toole: “Oh. I came across a wounded patient there. She looked seriously injured and I didn’t have any medical gear, so I told her that I would fetch her help.”
Dunbar: “That was nice of you, Danny.”
O’Toole: “Yeah, well, I felt it was my duty. I mean, she was a wounded civilian.”
Dunbar: “Very commendable. This would be Mrs. York. Judith York?”
O’Toole: “Yeah.”
Dunbar: “Says here she was suffering from the after-effects of a serious head blow, malnutrition and a long list of medical issues that were not as likely to kill her. Her worst wounds were two bullet wounds on her abdomen. Exit wounds on her back, too. I'm guessing .223 caliber.
O’Toole: “Yeah, that could be.”
Dunbar: “And did you, Danny?”
O’Toole: “What?”
Dunbar: “Fetch her help?”
O’Toole: “Yeah, Doc Anderson took care of her. She made it out. I carried her stretcher to the main complex, the Coast Guard paramedics took over her there.”
Dunbar: “Just to help me get the timeline straight, Danny, you informed Dr. Anderson about her location at what point?”
O’Toole: “Well, by the time I did, he had already independently located her.”
Dunbar: “I see. And that was when?”
O’Toole: “I notified him as soon as I saw him, at the main complex.”
Dunbar: “You didn’t see him again in the tunnels?”
O’Toole: “Nah, like I told you, we got separated.”

Consulting his papers again, Agent Dunbar falls silent for a while. Holden takes a sip of coffee, puts his mug on the table and then feels compelled to address O’Toole, his tone of voice every bit as hostile as his expression.

Holden: “Agent Dunbar, out of Catholic guilt or whatever, may care about the level of care you provided some dying dried-up fossil [female sexual organ] in the tunnels. I don’t. You’re not on our books as an EMT. You are, however, supposed to be a field agent. Complete with spine, [penis] and balls! Not a [faeces]-swallowing invertebrate who lets convicts and crazy people decide what to do for him. Man, you were there to provide backup for Special Agent Banks and mother[fornicating] security over Mackenzie [fornicating] Chase goddamned Taylor!”

Holden stands up and slams both hands on the table, almost spilling his coffee.

Holden: “Instead, you let Banks be captured. What you then decide, in your ignorant, potato-eating, Southie-trash ‘Momma smoked and drank all through pregnancy’ fetal-alcohol inspired way, is to give [fornicating] Taylor a gun and leave him behind!”

Red in the face, alarmingly so for his blood pressure, Zachary Holden is shaking with anger.

Holden: “And if I understood your mealy-mouthed, self-serving, CYOA Beltway-bureacucrat bull[faces] right, Taylor also had a [fornicating] grenade and was going to to burn down the barracks! To which you didn’t have a single everloving objection! Don’t you get it?! This is a murderous terrorist, trained to kill by the best in the US [fornicating] Army! You armed him and left him to his devices and what the [fornication] do you know, he killed two people! Hell, the only other person to die in this whole cluster-goat[fornication] was supposedly killed by Inmate Bell, a criminally insane person, who you also gave a gun!!!”

Agent Dunbar lays his hand placatingly on Holden’s shoulder. Reluctantly, Holden sits down again.

Dunbar: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Holden. It was a fluid situation and we aren’t interested in assigning blame. We’re just charged with finding out what happened.”
Holden: “Mother[fornicator] would lie to you as soon as look at you. Turn off the [fornicating] camera and we’ll [fornicating] find out what happened, damn straight!”
O’Toole: “I’m telling you exactly what happened. And Ms. Bell shot a knife-wielding psychopath in self-defence. It was a legit shoot, no matter her status.”
Dunbar: “I am sure it was, Danny. Now, do you mind if we go back to where we were?”
O’Toole: “Yeah, okay.”
Dunbar: “What I’m wondering, Danny, is why you didn’t try to rejoin Dr. Anderson, Taylor and Ms. Bell after the firefight? How far was it from the side tunnel to the entrance to the barracks cellar? A hundred feet? Hundred and fifty? And you’d just been there. You knew there were medical supplies, stretchers, IV racks, fluids and everything you’d need to care for Mrs. York in the cellar. Dr. Anderson is board certified as a GP and I believe that Taylor is quite good at battlefield medicine.”
O’Toole: “Well, Taylor was left behind to set a fire and we knew that the guards were coming for his position. Considering I hadn’t seen him come out, I thought he’d either been captured, killed or that he’d left by another way.”
Dunbar: “Yet you sent Ms. Bell to rejoin him?”
O’Toole: “That was earlier, when I believed that he would be coming that way directly. After the firefight, I was pretty sure he was not coming that way, since he hadn’t responded to the noise.”
Dunbar: “He did, however, come back that way. Along with Dr. Anderson and Bell.”
O’Toole: “Yeah, I guess I made the wrong call. It felt like the best bet, given the information I had, to follow the guards who had captured Col. Burr and the others. All in all, it seems to have worked out okay in the end.”
Holden: “[Faeces]! Can you believe this guy, Dunbar? He’s applying for a [fornicating] medal here!”

Holden half stands up and leans close to O’Toole, pointing his finger in his face like a loaded pistol.

Holden: “All you deserve, you bog-trotting, Dropkick Murphy listening degenerate, is being sent to guard our Canadian border. In Alaska!”

[johndallman]

Holden's language may be intemperate, but he spots holes in stories pretty well.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Holden's language may be intemperate, but he spots holes in stories pretty well.

Zachary Holden is supposed to be a pretty salty covert operator. Experience in the CIA's wilder and woolier activities ever since the 70s, after a short stint in 'Nam as a teenage chopper door pilot. SAD/SOG operator until he retired from active commando duties due to age, ailing knees and a desire to climb the CIA equivalency of the corporate ladder. Became Chief of Security at Project Jade Serenity in 1998. Which backfired, as after the Incident of 2000, Holden was quietly 'encouraged' to retire from the CIA, which, to add insult to injury, claimed that they had no knowledge of anything that went on at Camp Mackall during that time.

Holden might have sunk into drunken misery as a security guard of some sort, but after 9/11, the demands for experienced covert operatives ensured that he could get work as a contractor for various alphabet-soup entities, teaching a new generation the techniques of dirty wars and applying enhanced interrogation to high-value detainees. And he somehow made it to Onyx Rain. Not as chief of security, it is true, but still in a relatively senior consultant position.

Holden's Interrogation skill might have an Optional Specialty in Coercive Methods, but it's been a primary job skill for more than three decades, as a CIA case officer, instructor in dirty wars and as a security contractor in his later, less enjoyable years. He is usually an expert interviewer (and a truly masterful torturer).

The problem is that for the past two decades, he has fallen ever deeper into Alcoholism (intermittently of the non-practising variety), Bad Temper, Intolerance, some Disadvantages geared toward jealousy of success and what amounts to Obssession (Destroy Chase Taylor), i.e. a single-target monomaniac rage toward the man he blames for the Incident in 2000 that ended his previous career.

When his various Disadvantages trigger, he may accidentally reveal more information during an interview than he gets.

Note that the holes and inconsistencies in O'Toole's story are glaringly obvious to even a blind seeing-eye dog. So Special Agent William Dunbar most assuredly sees them as well. But because Dunbar is professional, disciplined and sensible, he avoids any emotional outbursts and continues to conduct the interview in a manner that yields reliable intelligence.

*Characteristically, Holden doesn't really hold any outsized grudges against Raul Vargas or Cherry Bell, the people who actually subverted his security and caused a catastrophic security failure. No, Vargas merely revealed his true colours, as a drug-running violent rapist best kept in Mexico (nevermind that he's born in LA) and Bell simply proved yet against the inherent untrustworthy nature and weak mind of the female of the species. It was really Chase Taylor's fault, for encouraging them, socialising in mixed race groups, befriending Mexicans and not keeping a tight leash on his woman.

[Icelander]

Zachary Holden‘s small, beady eyes blaze with the snarling fury of his embittered soul as he lashes Special Agent Danny O‘Toole with his raging contempt. Punctuating his profanity-laced tirade, his pointing finger comes closer and closer to O’Toole’s nose as Holden leans over the table.

Holden: “From the sound of it, even Alaska would be too good for you. You belong in a [excrement]hole filled with cowards, pinkos, homos and lefties. Maybe you could guard the Charles River border to the [fornicating] Hahvahd Yahd and the rest of the People’s Republic of Cambridge, huh! I guess that’s about your mother[fornicating] speed!”

Special Agent William Dunbar clears his throat.

Holden: “Too good for you or not, I’m not sending you to [fornicating] Alaska. For the simple [fornicating] reason that I don’t have any [act of defecation] control over what the mother[fornicating] U.S. Customs and Border Protection does with its so-called officers once they get thrown off my precious task force! I’ll write my recommendation in your personnel jacket and you’ll probably go back to whatever Greaseball-Beantown border check-point you used to park your worthless pogue [posterior]. Hell, my [fornicating] memo will be so [fornicating] classified that you won’t even have a black mark in your file, on account of your clueless greaser-combing superiors not being cleared to know why you’re being sent back!”
Dunbar: “I’m afraid he does have a point, Danny. While we aren’t really looking for blame here, Holden does have a remit to evaluate Onyx Rain field personnel. Anyone who doesn’t meet standards is returned to their prior assignment.”
Holden: “So, sonny boy, unless you mean to reveal a previously unknown kinship with the Baby Jesus or a U.S. Senator, you’d best prepare for a long [fornicating] career in a glorified tollbooth. You got your superior kidnapped and three people killed. You didn’t just screw the pooch, you raped the [fornicating] Chihuahua in all three holes and wiped your [excrement]-encrusted [penis] on the curtains!”
O’Toole: “If you believe that there was something I could have done to prevent Agent Banks being captured, before we had any reason to suspect that Deputy Warden Tyrrell was in mutiny against the United States, I’d really like to know what that would have been.”

Special Agent Dunbar looks over at Holden.

Dunbar: “To be fair, Holden, there is something in that.”
Holden: “Hell-[fornicating]-no! Don’t even pretend you are listening to this bull[excrement]. You may be a vestment-lifting altar-boy nancy who’s swallowed more Holy Jizz than communion wafers, Dunbar, but somehow, miraculously, you’ve managed to retain some semblance of ballsack. You were an Army Ranger. You were Secret Service. You pledged to take a bullet for the mother[fornicating] President, even while he was a ni…”

Alarmed by something he sees in Dunbar’s eyes, Holden hastily backtracks.

Holden: “… even while the President was a black fellow you didn’t vote for. My point is, Dunbar, even if you’re prettier than is good for a man, have probably had more ‘Sacred Scepters’ in you than you’ve had hot dinners and you’ve got tender ears when it comes to former Commanders-in-Chief, at least you’re a man. You hate abortion, draft dodgers and atheist Communist [homosexuals]. If you’d have been born earlier, you’d have voted Reagan and America, all the way. I bet you didn’t vote Slick Willie nor his wife, neither, and I know for a fact that you voted for Bush. Both Bushes! [excrement], Dunbar, you’re not a liberal [female sex organ]. I know you hate this yellow-bellied snake as much as I do!”
Dunbar: “I very much doubt I hate anyone as much as you do, Holden.”

Holden abruptly turns from Dunbar and addresses O’Toole again.

Holden: “And what about [fornicating] Taylor? Are you gonna tell me he was just following your orders, in some carefully thought out escape plan? Or will you tell the [fornicating] truth about how he was out of control from the start, bullied and threatened you and Col. Burr with the weapons he took from guards and how he murdered two people!?”
O’Toole: “From what I witnessed, Taylor acted under the orders of Col. Burr, and after he was captured, in accordance with the plans that had been made. As for murder, I cannot speak to that. I was not present during the deaths of Deputy Warden Tyrrell or Dr. Cotton. As far as Warden Tyrrell goes, however, I was close enough to hear shots being fired during the approximate time of the altercation and several weapons were found on the ground near his body.”
Holden [screaming]: “What about Dr. Cotton! Are you gonna deny that Taylor murdered him in cold blood?!”
O’Toole: “I’m gonna tell you I didn’t see Dr. Cotton die.”
Holden: “Yeah, and I suppose you never [fornicating] heard Townsend say how he died?”
O’Toole: “We have all heard Townsend’s testimony. I cannot add anything material to it and I assumed you were interested in evidence, not hearsay.”
Dunbar: “We’re looking for anything you want to tell us. This is to help us understand, as much as it is for evidence.”
Holden: “So you can just stop with the pretending and tell us what we all know, that Taylor is a murderous [fornicating] wild dog, who needs to be treated as one! Not a [fornicating] asset or goat-sucking consultant! You don’t embrace [fornicating] snakes, because then you get your stupid [rear] bit! We don’t want or need him at Onyx Rain and we don’t [fornicating] want or need some half-[rear]ed plan using a criminally insane person on a field op.”
O’Toole: “All I can tell you is that both Taylor and Bell seemed able to follow directions. I saw neither of them doing anything illegal or unsafe.”
Dunbar: “That seems clear enough.”
Holden: “It’s a mother[fornicating] lie.”

Calming down slightly, Holden takes a seat again. Then he sighs and shakes his head.

Holden: “Can’t you get through your thick Irish skull that if you stop trying to cover up for your murderous friends, maybe that [fornicating] memo I write might mention your helpful [fornicating] nature?”
Dunbar: “Hey, there, Captain Ahab! Don’t you think, Holden, we should try to stick to what actually happened? In any case, we aren’t here to help you collect evidence against your White Whale. We want actual evidence and realistic estimates about Bell and Taylor, not suborned testimony.”
Holden: “[fornicate] that! As if there’s anything of use coming out that foul [fornicating] lie-spout. The only reason, Dunbar, that you aren’t tearing this potato-sniffler a new [rear]hole, is that you’re trying to look professional for the [fornicating] camera.”
Dunbar: “So you do know what the red light means?”
Holden: “Careful, boy. You don’t outrank me. I’m GS-15 equivalent around here, says so in my contract.”
Dunbar: “You’re quite right. When it comes to personnel decisions for Onyx Rain, you outrank me. I’ll write a memo and you’ll write a memo, with your memo being much more important. But I still have orders to take statements here and I’m a federal law enforcement officer, while you are here as an observer. Considering your probable expertise in bureaucratic in-fighting, I won’t even try to throw you out of here. I’m just going to ask you to allow me to do my job.”

Holden sneers and turns toward Special Agent Dunbar. Before he answers, however, he looks again at the camera. Obviously thinking, he stops for several seconds. Then he a grin slowly starts forming on his ill-tempered face.

Holden: “Well played, pretty boy. [Fornicating] outmanoeuvred. I knew there was a reason I rated you adequate for field work.”
Dunbar: “I always assumed you nursed an unnatural passion for me.”

Holden lets out a short, sharp bark of a laugh. As if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred, Special Agent Dunbar proceeds to walk O’Toole through the rest of the events in Manhanock Asylum. O’Toole continues to be evasive and unclear on the exact responsibility for any decisions, not to mention entirely silent about any superpowers or suggestions thereof, but otherwise gives a fairly serviceable account of what he experienced from the firefight in the tunnels until he was relieved by Curtis Ford.

Dunbar: “Thank you, Danny. That was excellent.”
Holden: “He means you made him puke a little. In his mouth. [Fornicating] degenerate.”
Dunbar: “I’ve just got a few more questions.”
O’Toole: “Yeah, no problem.”
Dunbar: “What can you tell me about the relationship between Bell and Taylor?”
O’Toole: “Well, uh, like the briefing said, they were close friends back in 2000. I thought they still seemed close.”
Dunbar: “Close in what way?”
O’Toole: “You know, they seemed to like and trust each other.”
Dunbar: “Did you observe any sexual contact between them?”
O’Toole: “Sexual? There wasn’t exactly time to stop for a quickie!”
Dunbar: “So was it your impression that under other circumstances, they might have had sex?”
O’Toole: “Well, I guess they seemed attracted to each other. I saw them hugging and once or twice I noticed that Bell was rubbing her… her behind against Taylor.”
Dunbar: “And what did Taylor do then?”
O’Toole: “Nothing, I guess. I mean, he didn’t seem to mind it, but he didn’t grab her or anything.”
Dunbar: “Did you ever see Taylor initiate sexual contact or make any suggestions of a sexual nature toward Ms. Bell?”
O’Toole: “No, not that I could see. Ms. Bell seemed very… flirtatious. You might even say sexually aggressive. She flirted with others, too.”
Dunbar: “With whom else?”
O’Toole: “Look, with everyone. You’ll have to ask her therapist about it, though, because I don’t have a clue what it means or why it’s relevant.”
Holden (savage grin): “It’s [fornicating] relevant because little Cherry Bell is accusing precious liberal white knight Chase Taylor of sexual assault.”

[johndallman]

Bell is crazy, but not stupid. She's realised that Taylor is a risk to her plan to run off with Vargas, and is trying to remove him from that scenario. That's my guess.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Bell is crazy, but not stupid. She's realised that Taylor is a risk to her plan to run off with Vargas, and is trying to remove him from that scenario. That's my guess.

Bell is quite bright, actually. And her social and emotional intelligence is usually off-the-charts genius level, with obvious caveats when it comes to stuff that runs up against her psychological issues. She intuitively understands how to influence most people and is quite capable of coming up with elaborate manipulation schemes.

Considered from the 'rational' point of view that her only goal is running off with Vargas*, it makes reasonable sense to get rid of Taylor. Even in light of his obvious feelings for her, which are certainly a lever she can use to manipulate him, he is in many ways an undesirable complication. Even after all the years that have passed, he knows her well enough to read her better than the vast majority of handlers she could be assigned.

And, well, Taylor having Per 20, Discriminatory Senses and Empathy with Hypersensory means that deceiving him is like trying to deceive an actual, genuine, almost-mind-reading superhero, like Marvel's Daredevil. His Body Language and Detect Lies skills are crazy high. He even has Psychology (Applied) at a decent level, albeit a folksy version absent most of the sophisticated academic vocabulary.

Cherry Bell might be one of the best liars and manipulators in the world** and Taylor might be a lot more vulnerable to her than any other person, but her chances of carrying out a sustained deception are still worse against him than against a random Homeland Security Investigations agent or some special operator from JSOC. So getting another handler assigned from Onyx Rain in place of Taylor will probably mean getting someone much easier to keep in the dark about whatever she plans to do.

On the other hand, Taylor explicitly promised to help her to be free, even if it meant her living with Vargas. And Bell is 100% confident that she could spot any hint of deception in Taylor***. And her emotional intelligence, intuition for people and experience all should tell her that Taylor will keep his word. So for all intents and purposes, she ought to know that she can rely on Taylor to help her, even against Onyx Rain, if they prove unwilling to just allow her freedom with Vargas.

From a tactical perspective, unless Bell has resources and allies we don't know about, having Taylor among the Onyx Rain people assigned to her should be a huge advantage for her. And from everything the PCs know, it's unlikely that Bell has been in recent enough contact with anyone outside Manhanock Asylum to be able to get much help from anyone outside Onyx Rain, at least in the short term.

Nevertheless, a very plausible explanation is that Bell does indeed have a plan of escape for which she feels that Taylor would be a liability. In that case, she would either have resources of which we are unaware or, even more likely, her Disadvantages have led her to wrongly calculate her position and resources.****

We'll call that option a).

Option b) is that Bell isn't acting rationally, not even within her own skewed perspective.

Due to the confused events on Manhanock Asylum, Dr. Anderson has had limited opportunity to access her medical records. What records there are seem mostly to be the falsified ones that were filed to keep her out of a courtroom, as Dr. Cotton's office burned with all computers and records that were kept there. From the copied memos and periodic filings that Onyx Rain has gleaned so far, however, it's clear that the mental health professionals who have had contact with her have proposed a wide range of diagnoses, with little consensus.

Some symptoms that seem pretty common to most evaluations of Bell, however, are that she is extremely prone to idealization and devaluation. She also has severe problems with rejection and abandonment. Her sense of self is also fragile and she can easily fall into deep depression, guilt and self-loathing.

Bell also seems to regard herself in some sense as in a committed relationship with Vargas, however delusional that is. Or at least, her ideal image of herself is defined by her love for Vargas. If she experienced actual feelings of affection and attraction to Taylor, that could create a nasty conflict in her mind. A situation where she deflects feelings of guilt by transference is far from implausible.

Not to mention that after what she must have experienced as rejection, compounded by the argument Bell and Taylor had in the corridor of the main complex of Manhanock Asylum, it would be entirely consistent with her pathology to enter a negative spiral where she dramatically exaggerates their differences and devalues Taylor. Massively disproportionate retribution would be perfectly in character.

Personally, I'm leaning toward a little from column a), a little from column b).

*Given the evidence, concluding that she has an Obsession with him is not a big diagnostic leap.
**It is pretty much what her superpower is about.
***Which... is probably an accurate enough assessment of her Body Language and Detect Lies against his mediocre Acting and non-existent Fast-Talk.
****It doesn't take Dr. Anderson's nearly godlike Psychology skill levels to diagnose that Bell has what appears to be a delusional level of belief in Vargas' affection for her, despite there being little evidence that he has ever cared much for any of his conquests, let alone seventeen years after he left them behind to face the music.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Personally, I'm leaning toward a little from column a), a little from column b).

And a seasoning of Trickster.

A loose end, so far. The jamming was apparently done by "the freak," who has nit so far come to light. Somebody able to do that is way outside the ability spectrum that Onyx Rain knows it's dealing with, so far.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

And a seasoning of Trickster.

Exactly so!

Any plan that Bell has to allow her freedom is likely to be much more complicated than it needs to be, designed to validate her self-esteemed by proving that she is able to manipulate not only Taylor, but also everyone at Onyx Rain.

Originally Posted by johndallman

A loose end, so far. The jamming was apparently done by "the freak," who has nit so far come to light. Somebody able to do that is way outside the ability spectrum that Onyx Rain knows it's dealing with, so far.

Ah, yes. Inmate Allen. If he survived the heavy dosage of whatever sedative was being injected into him in the Deputy Warden's office, Onyx Rain is certainly going to learn new things from him. Which... is probably scary to us PCs. All in all, Onyx Rain is scary. Though, considering the potential threat from people with powers who are actively malicious on a large scale, as opposed to just awful people in their personal lives, maybe there is no way to deal with the fallout of Project Jade Serenity and Jewell Island that isn't scary.

Incidentally, it is worrying how many of the people exhibiting powers we've seen in the campaign so far are extremely morally challenged. Let's leave aside making any kind of judgment on the twelve US Army Special Forces operators who deserted in Mexico, at least until they've appeared 'on screen'. That leaves, I think, eleven people with superpowers we've either encountered in play or know enough about to judge.

First, let's take Raul Vargas, Dr. Bruce Cotton, Deputy Warden Brad Tyrrell, Danny O'Toole, Cherry Bell, Dr. Anderson, Terry Amiti and that crazy knife-wielding psychopath called 'Derek'. That's eight superpowered people who range from awful to 'merely' amoral. Out of eleven. Unless I've forgotten someone else who had been established as having powers.

Judith York and poor drooling Allen have morality that is either hard to determine or hard to judge, given that we don't know what they did or how volitional it might have been. If we were really charitable, we could put Terry Amiti here too, but no matter how unfair and unfortunate the treatment that led to his current state, he was still a cannibal serial killer who hunted humans for food and sport.

And, well, Chase Taylor is certainly not amoral, but I suppose milage may vary on his morality, according to readers' personal views on ethics.

All in all, it doesn't seem like the former test subjects of Project Jade Serenity and related experiments have great track records on mental health or moral centers. Over half of them already seem to be actual supervillains, of varying scope, and another 20-25% show troubling indicators of maybe becoming supervillains in the future. And the rest are drooling idiots, basketcases or PCs, which is almost as bad.

So maybe there is a place for Onyx Rain, even if it is unconstitutional, unlawful, ruthless and by its very nature prone to gross abuses of authority and concealment of its own mistakes under the veil of secrecy. The PCs certainly don't have any better ideas at the moment...

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Incidentally, it is worrying how many of the people exhibiting powers we've seen in the campaign so far are extremely morally challenged.

"Power corrupts, and absolute power is even more fun!"

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"Power corrupts, and absolute power is even more fun!"

The PCs in Facets are similarly ethically-challenged. I wonder if the sudden access to sekrit powurz just does that?