Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I was wondering when that was coming.

Vampires gonna vamp.

[Icelander]

For his nocturnal adventures, Dr. Anderson is armed with a list of all the inhabitants of Jewell Island, their current locations and their status. He is especially concerned with those who were unconscious or otherwise prevented from hearing during Dr. Cotton’s speech over the radios and intercom. As Dr. Cotton’s final address seemed to contain a coded post-hypnotic phrase that triggered a block or modification of memories, Dr. Anderson is very interested in what he may find out from the minds of those not affected.

Taking a deep breath and positioning himself comfortably on the bed, Dr. Anderson focuses his entire being on experiencing dreams. He isn’t sure whether his consciousness visits a separate dream-realm that all dreamers share or whether he merely exercises a sense most people do not have, but the end result is the same. With concentration, Dr. Anderson slips into an altered state where he can sense sleepers around him, gauge their state in the sleep cycle and even catch glimpses of their dreams.

By orientating his awareness toward these flickering dreamlights, Dr. Anderson can enter the dreamscapes of anyone close enough for him to sense. Once inside the mental tapestry of a dream, Dr. Anderson can learn much about the current emotional state of the individual simply by observing in silence, but he can also alter the flow of the dream and introduce new elements when he wishes to study the reaction of the dreamer to certain stimuli. Using the dream as his medium, Dr. Anderson can access the subconscious of the dreamer and eventually learn anything that the dreamer knows.

Dr. Anderson’s mastery of dreams also has darker possibilities than mere information gathering. Altering the substance of dreams can allow him to condition his subjects in their sleep, associating positive or negative emotional responses to certain stimuli, blocking off certain memories or causing them to be perceived as dreams, introducing new memories as vivid experiences and even implanting compulsions to do or avoid certain things upon awakening.

Dr. Anderson knows that even this is not the limit of his potential control. If, while visiting someone’s dreams, he slips beneath the surface elements of the dream, beneath even the subconscious layer of meaning to the dream, he is able to go one layer deeper and enter the most primitive layer of the dreaming mind. Should Dr. Anderson do so, he could control the body of the dreamer as a somnambulist, with the subject experiencing what they did under his control only as elements of a confusing dream.

Of course, Dr. Anderson would never do that. Not if there was the slightest chance of getting caught. Everything Chase Taylor told Ms. Bell about the risks and terror-induced rage of the Powers That Be toward her if they discovered she could implant illusions in their mind applies many times over should anyone connected to the government find out about Dr. Anderson’s dreamweaving. The ability to discover any secret from a nocturnal dream-visit and mind control any person who sleeps within a few blocks from him, is something that any military or government will regard as a deadly threat to the status quo.

Which really makes it only sensible for Dr. Anderson to gather any information he can on anyone who displays abilities in the least bit similar, before Onyx Rain or other government agencies learn more. The late Dr. Cotton likely had much fascinating data to impart, but three bullets from Chase Taylor’s gun through Dr. Cotton’s central-nervous system have forevermore stilled that lamented research doctor’s tongue. The best hope is finding his notes; which he seems to have hid somewhere. The best chance of discovering where probably lies with his assistant, that charming young woman from Texas, Dr. Emma King.

Dr. Anderson accordingly reaches out in the esoteric realm of dreams, his consciousness emitting opaque tentacles of hyper-natural awareness seeking the dreams of Dr. Emma King. A twinge of annoyance shows on Dr. Anderson’s face when he does not find her. He checks to see that he has her assigned sleeping quarters correct and searches for a while close by, if she should have dozed off on a couch or in a chair, but eventually determines that Dr. King is probably having trouble sleeping and thus temporarily out of his reach.

With a sigh, Dr. Anderson resolves to delay the delightful task of exploring Dr. King’s fertile mind for its wonderful secrets and move on to other dreamers. The guards with the worst injuries, such as Tucker, Pierce, Lamb and Hewitt are all heavily medicated and in enough pain that it is doubtful that they are sleeping soundly enough for coherent dreams. Dr. Anderson decides to check on them later, give their drug-induced unconsciousness a chance to turn to healthy sleep.

Still sensing the infirmary, Dr. Anderson selects Cole Walker, the SRT guard who lost an eye to Taylor’s beanbag round in the long corridor of the main building. Walker is dreaming about a warm summer evening in a well-cared for green garden, by a white house with a white fence. Hot dogs and burgers are grilling on an outdoor grill, balloons and decorations hang on the white fence and there is a small horde of young children, chaperoned by a smaller number of adults who might be their parents. It is the sixth birthday of someone named ‘Dave’ and Dr. Anderson senses that ‘Dave’ is very dear to Walker.

Walker is not physically present at the birthday party. Like Dr. Anderson, he witnesses events as a disembodied consciousness. Unlike Dr. Anderson, Cole Walker has a strong emotional response to the mundane scene he is witnessing; anger, disappointment, guilt, loss, shame, regret.

There is a dark-haired, pleasantly smiling woman walking out of the house with a pitcher of lemonade and a plate of Brownies and with the intuitive sense so common in dreams, Dr. Anderson knows that she is ‘Phyllis’, the mother of birthday boy ‘Dave’ and wife to Cole Walker. After she places her burdens on an outdoor table, she ruffles Dave’s hair and speaks to him, telling him that Daddy couldn’t get away from work. Her voice is full of sympathy for Dave, but anger at his father can be heard as well.

There is a man by the grill, turning over hot dogs. He’s wearing a suit, but in concession to the heat, he’s taken off his tie and hung his jacket on a fence post. He looks sympathetically at Phyllis after she speaks with Dave and she comes over to him. The man takes her hand reassuringly. Phyllis hesitates and then moves closer to the man, leaning in close for a short moment. Powerless, Cole Walker’s disembodied consciousness stares into the eyes of the man, even after Phyllis has walked away to deal with some of her younger guests. The eyes are warm, brown, ordinary, if anything, perhaps they could be called kind. Walker sees them as yellow reptile eyes that lurk behind the warm brown eyes.

Deciding that he has no time for unfocused exploration of the psyches of various Manhanock Asylum employees, Dr. Anderson begins his experimentation. He wants to know what the code phrase that Dr. Cotton spoke was and how it works. Cole Walker was unconscious when Dr. Cotton spoke and should not have been affected initially. He therefore represents a chance to watch the operation in process.

To that end, Dr. Anderson introduces a new element to the dream. At the end of the garden, he crafts a stage, suitable for a magician or a troupe of clowns. A massive Dr. Cotton sloughs toward the stage with his arms full of mannequins. Each mannequin is the size of a person, with strings attached to it so it can be controlled like a puppet. The giant Dr. Cotton starts to make his first mannequin dance. It is a smaller Cotton-figure, leading figures dressed as Manhanock Security guards in a dervish dance. One of the smaller figures is Cole Walker. The others, aside from their uniforms, all have Dr. Cotton’s face. They speak in unison.

Cotton mannequins: “Officers, I would like to state that you have acted courageously in the defense of Manhanock. I royally salute your efforts, but now is the time to give up arms and give up. This exercise gets top marks, but do the right thing and surrender.”

All the mannequins collapse as if their strings have been cut. The garden, house and guests disappear. There is only the empty stage, now surrounded by an abandoned amusement park. Using the decrepit amusement rides as triggers, Dr. Anderson examines Walker’s memories. He doesn’t seem to remember Dr. Cotton anymore, no matter what Dr. Anderson tries. At best, when Dr. Anderson succeeds in bringing up memories where Dr. Cotton could be expected to be, there is a vaguely man-shaped shadow there instead.

In the memories where Dr. Anderson would expect Dr. Cotton to be, however, there are other people. Sometimes he can see Deputy Warden Tyrrell, providing security or even applying restraint. On occasion he sees Dr. Emma King, watching closely without expression. And almost always, there is Sherilyn Bell. The memories are most often set within what looks like some form of operating theatre and she is nearly always present, watching intently. She never touches Walker and rarely speaks, but simply watches him. He is afraid of her, but it is not clear what he fears from her.

His other fears are more easily grasped. Snakes and reptiles crawl around him, driving him mad with terror. Cole Walker tries desperately to escape the secure chair he is bound to as the creeping horrors cover his body. His mouth is covered with a leather strap, so his screams are muffled, but his eyes look accusingly at Bell.

Dr. Anderson: “Is she doing this to you?”

Cole Walker nods affirmatively, even as he tries to scream while a large cottonmouth licks his cheek, idly hissing.

Dr. Anderson: “What is the worst thing Ms. Bell ever did to you?”

[evileeyore]

We're still waiting in suspense!

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

We're still waiting in suspense!

Many apologies. When I didn't have daily briefs to write, I just tended to let the computer languish unattended. Cocktails tend to get keyboards sticky anyway.

The summer vacation is over, though, so I might as well get back to work. Finish up the funky dreamscapes, visit some consequences on the deserving and undeserving alike and set up the next season, with any survivors* as well as new characters.

*Interpreting 'survivors' to mean not only those technically still alive, but more narrowly defined as those who are still capable of adventuring, i.e. those who are alive, have functioning minds and aren't buried deep within a secret experimental supermax facility.

[Icelander]

In response to Dr. Anderson‘s question, Cole Walker‘s dream becomes an image of the front side of the white house with the white fence where the barbeque was held. Standing outside the living room window, Cole can see his wife, Phyllis, locked in a passionate embrace with the brown-eyed ordinary man he saw wearing a suit in the garden in the earlier dream.

During the intimate exchange, the man in the suit sheds his jacket by extending his arms with impossible dexterity and engulfs Phyllis with long sinuous limbs. Turning his head slowly, the man then looks out the window, meeting Cole‘s eyes with a knowing leer. The face of the man in the suit is now halfway between reptile and human, his long tongue cleft in twain and his eyes yellow horrors. The serpentine tongue caresses Phyllis’ ear and the snake-man winks at his tormented audience of one.

Cole Walker wails in abject horror and loss, falling to his knees in despair. As he does, he can hear the bright silver giggles of Ms. Bell ringing in his ears, echoing all around him. To Cole Walker, it sounds like the tinkling of crystal shards, tiny fragments of his shattered self. There are no sounds or images in the rest of the dream, only emotions. Impotent rage, helpless terror, bottomless self-loathing and bitterness. With an effort of will, Dr. Anderson pushes himself away from Walker’s dream, all too aware of the effects on his own mental health should he get sucked into that black hole of negative emotions.

As far as Dr. Anderson can tell, the memory in the dream is extremely real to Cole Walker, but that doesn’t mean that the events that Walker experienced actually took place. Even if there were snake people living underground on Jewell Island, something Anderson has by no means accepted as true, it seemed even more unlikely that one of them had infiltrated mainland society for the sole purpose of seducing Cole Walker’s neglected wife.

A more plausible explanation would be memories that had been tampered with in some manner, possibly in order to isolate the guards from anyone they might otherwise feel able to confide in. In that case, it was unlikely that Ms. Bell had tampered with Walker’s memories on her own initiative. If she was guided by Dr. Cotton in creating this nightmare for Walker, however, the hypnotic trigger phase that Dr. Anderson used had effectively scraped evidence of it from Walker’s mind.

Deftly shaping the dreamscape to disassociate Walker’s emotions from the terrible memory to give himself a more peaceful area to work, Dr. Anderson attempts to examine how memories of Dr. Cotton had been removed and thus how the code phrase worked. As he suspected, no memories had been removed, but instead, simply psychological blocks made the conscious mind shy away from identifiable personal details of Cotton. Dr. Anderson was interested to see that these blocks appeared to affect the unconscious mind as well, albeit less perfectly, and were quite intricate.

After spending a long time admiring the marvellous facility for sculpting minds that Dr. Cotton had somehow achieved, working from scattered notes, without access to prior experimental data, with little resources and without any qualified sympathetic colleagues, Dr. Anderson realises that he is going to have to decide what to do about Cole Walker. Left to his own devices, he has been doing a good job of drinking himself into an early grave, if he doesn’t decide to hasten the process by swallowing his own gun.

Before Cole Walker will have the chance to put the final punctuation to the sad story of his life, however, he is likely to tell interrogators from Onyx Rain some things that will almost certainly result in the death of Ms. Bell, either immediately or after an extended period of destructive experimentation culminating in vivisection of her brain.

Dr. Anderson is aware that logically, the potential near future death of Ms. Bell ought not to concern him any more than the probable near future death of the guard Cole Walker. It would be an absurd piece of hypocritical sentimentality to value her life higher than others simply because she is aesthetically exceptional and possessed of a full suite of all the ill-defined aspects above and beyond measurable facial symmetry and physical signs of health that are calculated to appeal to potential mates. In any event, as a man not bound to the flesh, but master of the infinite astral plane of dreams, it is not as if he himself were subject to such considerations.

Nevertheless, Dr. Anderson finds himself unwilling to allow events to take their course as regards Ms. Bell. For one thing, a world where the Powers That Be merely suspect that the Mātariśvan substance tested in Project Jade Serenity can grant more mysterious powers than enhanced physical attributes seems to Anderson a much superior world to one where it is known for a fact by Onyx Rain that some subjects can manipulate thoughts or memories.

If Onyx Rain can quantify the way Cherry Bell can perform her minor sensory illusion tricks, it brings them one step closer to detecting Dr. Anderson’s vastly superior dreamweaving. That alone seems like a good idea to prevent anyone associated with Onyx Rain from suspecting what the girl can do. They would be sure to keep all interesting findings to themselves and be more interested in preventing anyone with similar powers from being able to get anywhere close to people with security clearances than in truly exploring the possibilities. Alive, Ms. Bell remains a fascinating subject, and if he takes care to keep knowledge of her from Onyx Rain, one only Dr. Anderson is able to study.

Besides, the Taylor boy has developed that ridiculously dramatic infatuation with Ms. Bell. He would be heartbroken if she were taken away for vivisection. Probably try and prevent it, in fact, getting himself killed in the process. That would be a shame, as Taylor could be extremely useful in securing the cooperation of more test subjects, not to mention ensuring that Dr. Anderson remains safe during his researches.

Dr. Anderson also admits to himself that he does not dislike Taylor and, in fact, that disliking Taylor would be something like disliking a particularly engaging puppy. Too bad that Taylor’s infatuation with Ms. Bell probably doomed him to a future of vicious pain and inevitable heartbreak. From an artistic point of view, however, anyone capable of feeling that deeply at short acquaintance might well dream vividly enough to make all of his pain worthwhile, to Dr. Anderson, at least.

Having determined that the world will be more interesting if young love is allowed to blossom while Onyx Rain is kept in as much ignorance as possible, Dr. Anderson sets out to imitate the techniques that Dr. Cotton used on his subjects, albeit more subtly.

Dr. Anderson begins by emphasising to Walker’s subconscious the presence of the dark, shadowy shape of the excised Dr. Cotton, that lurks near Ms. Bell in most of Cole Walker’s memories having to do with her, and suggesting that the blind spots in the memories are evidence that they are unreliable. Where he can, he removes Ms. Bell from memories entirely, but where that would be too obvious, he implants the suggestion that she was under the control of the unseen shadowy figure, a fellow sufferer, instead of a threatening figure.

Once Dr. Anderson finishes with Cole Walker’s memories, he moves on to other guards at Manhanock Asylum. Those of them who were unconscious during Dr. Cotton’s speech are the most interesting, in that their memory has not been wiped clear of him. As far as Dr. Anderson can tell, Dr. Cotton was assisted in his work by Deputy Warden Tyrrell and Dr. Emma King, both of them apparently working with him of their own free will. Of course, the memories of the victims provide no way to determine whether either Tyrrell and King may have been manipulated with hypnotic suggestions of their own.

Guard Harold Lamb has memories where he was in the operating theatre with Dr. Cotton and Ms. Bell, strapped in a restraining chair. Spiders crawled over his face, swarmed all over his body, while he screamed, desperately trying to keep his mouth closed. For Harry Vane, a sharpshooter in the guard force SRT, it was clowns. The operating theatre had been decorated to look like a circus tent and dancing clowns came out of mirrors all around him.

Many of the guards fear the rats and lizards from below the ground, some of them apparently believing that Cherry Bell controlled lizard-esque commando death squads with high-tech weaponry that would target their families if they ever went against Warden Tyrrell or Dr. Cotton. Her rumoured affiliation with secret government experiments before she was committed to Manhanock no doubt helped sell such fears.

Confronting guards with sources of their phobias appears to have been either a disciplinary method or a common experiment for Dr. Cotton. In nearly every case where he does so, Ms. Bell is also present and often appears to enjoy the experience. While Dr. Anderson allows all instances of Dr. Cotton using hypnosis to torture guards and staff of Manhanock Asylum to stand unmodified, he does his best to use his mastery of dreams to remove memories of Ms. Bell taking part in this from his subjects, or, when that would be too unsubtle, re-contextualise Ms. Bell as an unwilling participant.

The terrifying visions that the victims experienced would thus hopefully be attributed to Dr. Cotton's drug-induced hypnosis by Onyx Rain investigators. All the better to keep Ms. Bell's true powers unverified.

[RogerBW]

Two excerpts in juxtaposition…

Originally Posted by Icelander

In any event, as a man not bound to the flesh, but master of the infinite astral plane of dreams, it is not as if he himself were subject to such considerations.

Nevertheless, Dr. Anderson finds himself unwilling to allow events to take their course as regards Ms. Bell.

[…]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Too bad that Taylor’s infatuation with Ms. Bell probably doomed him to a future of vicious pain and inevitable heartbreak.

Uh-huh. Yes, I see no parallels here at all. :)

[johndallman]

Does Dr. Anderson ever need normal sleep, or does visiting other people's dreams substitute for his own dreaming?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Does Dr. Anderson ever need normal sleep, or does visiting other people's dreams substitute for his own dreaming?

The latter.

He needs something in the region of 4 hours of experiencing other people's dreams per night to stay on an even keel. That's excluding time spent doing directed, focused work in other people's dreams.

Apparently, dreams have texture and taste to him. Visiting the dreams of dull, hidebound people with little imagination and narrow emotional range only barely satisfies his needs. Vivid, brightly coloured and richly textured dreams offer him much more. And intense emotional content seems to attract Dr. Anderson.

Intense negative emotions may be interesting to him, but given that he experiences some part of them himself by sharing the dream, hardly enjoyable or relaxing.

Dr. Amderson's favourite dreams are happy ones, intensely felt. Like the dreams of children or those of teenagers in love.

Which might explain why Dr. Anderson seems drawn to Chase Taylor and Cherry Bell, despite neither of them having much in common with him. Both of them display very strong emotional responses to various stimuli, which they try to conceal with coping mechanisms of variable sophistication, both are imaginative and sensual, and both could be described as immature or childlike.

So maybe it's less about attraction/affection to/for them as people and more about wanting to have access to their tasty dreams.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Two excerpts in juxtaposition…



[…]



Uh-huh. Yes, I see no parallels here at all. :)

Technically, Dr. Anderson's player has not informed anyone else playing whether the character is heterosexual, homosexual, bi, pansexual or (the current front-runner) asexual. Or, even if he should be asexual to some degree, whether he is also aromantic.

We told the player that being more-or-less immune to certain uses of Influence skills and bonuses from high Appearance was not a 0-point background Feature and if he wanted to be above the Influence of socially manipulative antagonists/allies, he'd need to buy the appropriate traits.

So he took Resistant (Social Influence) +8, the slightly weaker form of Indomitable. Reaction bonuses still affect him as normal, with the higher Appearance bonus at Beautiful applying in the case of female NPCs (as he didn't specify an alternative), but he's extremely difficult to manipulate.

However, Ms. Bell does have an awful lot of social bonuses, especially when asking for help in a situation where it does appear her rights have been flagrantly violated and she has (apparently) genuinely been unhappy, lonely and afraid.

Of course, just because the dice dictate that an NPC successfully used an Influence skill on the character, there's no rule that says Dr. Anderson's interest in Cherry Bell has to be sexual in nature. For some reason, he's going to help her and Chase Taylor. At this point in the game, the other characters, and their players, can only speculate as to why.

Dr. Anderson has pretty consistently shown concern and even affection towards Taylor, as well. Anderson risked his own life and that of everyone else in Manhanock because he was unwilling to let Taylor sacrifice himself in a guilt-induced fit of stupidity. And then Dr. Anderson played Father-Confessor, complete with holding Taylor, patting his back and making soothing noises.

If we're looking for ship-teasing, Anderson and Taylor touch, hold hands, hug and otherwise demonstrate affection a lot more often than Anderson and Bell.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

He needs something in the region of 4 hours of experiencing other people's dreams per night to stay on an even keel.

I take it he hasn't told Onyx Rain this? Does he have a limited range? If so, there's an easy way to coerce him.