GM advice needed - Reality check this backstory for me, please?

[ericthered]

The attitude of local law enforcement will change things a lot. Law enforcement generally has a lot of leeway in how it handles things like this. Different communities and different states will have different overarching attitudes as well.

You've said "Rural". How rural and what kind of rural matter. The response in a 100 person town will be different than that of a 10,000 person town. The distance to the nearest big city matters as well: they're more likely to take responsibility for such a thing if they're more isolated.

I suspect the people who initially find and report the girl matter: the matter will be handled differently if she's arrives at the station wrapped in a blanket in the back of a respected citizen's car than if she's arrested for shoplifting in order to eat.

[Mark Caliber]

A couple of years ago, I was entertaining a novel based on this premise and reached out to my sister who is also social worker dealing with troubled teens.

What I learned is that the medical screening will likely be cursory and the testing for linguistic capability will be extensive. They have Federal resources and can get ahold of pretty much ANY language there is on Earth. It's a time consuming process, but that's were the focus will be.

However, if the medical scan (including a blood draw) yields something very unusual, than the response may be . . . elevated? As for which alphabet soup government agencies get involved? NASA's Exobiologists or Xenobiologists may be top on that list.

Another variable to take into account is the girl. Who is she really? How did she get 'here?' Why is she on Earth? What's motivating her to stay in the game? How will she react to the locals? How well is she at adapting to this new environment?

[Aldric]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

Do I read this right, if it's NOT fluorescent it will summon the CDC faster than if it is?

There should have been a prriod in there somewhere. But I was typing from my phone, so things don't always come out as they should

[tshiggins]

I worked three years for a newspaper in rural Colorado, and covered a couple of different cop-beats. So, take this for what it's worth.

The police blotter does get printed, every day, and discovery of a lost girl would certainly make the news. However, because she's a minor, the paper would only run a photo if the sheriff asked for help identifying her -- which they might, after a few days.

Swabs and samples will probably go to the state crime lab, and would get top priority. A lost kid is pretty important.

At least some results would come back within the week. Any weird results would probably trigger a phone call from the state crime lab to the sheriff's office to get another sample.

If the second sample showed the same results, it would trigger a "WTF?" call from the lab to the nearest state university biology department or medical school (if it had one). The lab would keep the sheriff in the loop.

If the university also went "WTF?" they'd probably send some researchers out to meet the subject, and put in a, "you ever seen...?" call to the CDC.

If the CDC also says, "WTF?!", expect a geneticist to show up, along with a bored agent from the local FBI field office, mostly just along for the ride.

All of this should take place within 4-6 weeks from the time of discovery. Violence or weird phenomena would shorten the timeline.

Don't believe what you see on TV. Once a minor child is "in the system," it's tough for them to fall through the cracks because, if one does and then something happens to that child, somebody's ass goes on the chopping block.

The way to avoid all this is to have the child found by someone who wants to keep knowledge of him or her from the authorities.

That person may have one of any number of motives for that, but few of those motives qualify as pleasant, wholesome, or in the best interests of the child.

[CeeDub]

Thank you, everyone, and especially to tshiggins for the detailed and informative reply.

Originally Posted by tshiggins

At least some results would come back within the week. Any weird results would probably trigger a phone call from the state crime lab to the sheriff's office to get another sample.

If the second sample showed the same results, it would trigger a "WTF?" call from the lab to the nearest state university biology department or medical school (if it had one). The lab would keep the sheriff in the loop.

If the university also went "WTF?" they'd probably send some researchers out to meet the subject, and put in a, "you ever seen...?" call to the CDC.

If the CDC also says, "WTF?!", expect a geneticist to show up, along with a bored agent from the local FBI field office, mostly just along for the ride.

Suppose a sympathetic (Reaction bonus from Appearance and Pitiable) sheriff, social worker or foster parent were to say "enough of this, leave the girl alone, she's obviously been through enough without all your poking and prodding" at some point in the WTF chain, could that stop the escalation?

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Don't believe what you see on TV. Once a minor child is "in the system," it's tough for them to fall through the cracks because, if one does and then something happens to that child, somebody's ass goes on the chopping block.

I'm not sure what you mean by "fall through the cracks" in this context. If she runs away, I don't think the foster parents would be held accountable for that - kids, including foster kids, run away every day, and it's not necessarily the parents' (or anyone's) fault. They'd obviously search for a runaway minor, but unless she'd have to run very soon (weeks instead of months), she'll be difficult to catch by then.

Basically, she's supposed to learn some English (100 days for Broken, if my math is right) and enough (lower-case) cultural familiarity to decide that she's unlikely and/or unwilling to truly "go native" and give up. By then, her alien powers will have emerged. Too optimistic?

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

... it's remotely possible that she might be sent to a concentration camp

Good heavens. Is this an IW campaign?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

Good heavens. Is this an IW campaign?

It depends on how you define the detention camps that the government has been sending illegal aliens (and some US citizens) to before deporting them. 'Concentration camp' is a very loaded term, but could be applied if you use the basic definition, without overlapping it with 'extermination camp.'

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

T
Suppose a sympathetic (Reaction bonus from Appearance and Pitiable) sheriff, social worker or foster parent were to say "enough of this, leave the girl alone, she's obviously been through enough without all your poking and prodding" at some point in the WTF chain, could that stop the escalation?

This depends not on some (possibly temporary) guardian appealing to some bureacrat's humanity but rather on the humanity/common sense/whatever of the bureaucrat in question. A real by-the-book type can say "I'm sorry but I have no discretion here. We will have to follow Agency proceedures." forever.

A court order might be possible but it's also possible that repeated but simple blood draws would not amount to the sort of thing some judge thought was child abuse.

You might get your adaptation period if the girl is found by some Sanctuary movement activist who mistakes her for an illegal immigrtion case and hides her from the authorities for the necessary time.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Mark Caliber

What I learned is that the medical screening will likely be cursory and the testing for linguistic capability will be extensive. They have Federal resources and can get ahold of pretty much ANY language there is on Earth. It's a time consuming process, but that's were the focus will be.

What happens when the language identification fails? Does an audio recording end up leaking out as it is sent to an increasingly large list of linguists trying to find someone who recognizes it? Eventually including anyone who might know some conlang from some author that only a dozen people ever read?

Do they decide she was raised by some weird cult with its own conlang?

Is she an actual extraterrestrial alien whose language has no connection to any known human language? Or is just from far enough back that it can't even be identified as Indo-European or whatever?

If people keep looking hard enough, a linguist may come up with some theory of how it relates to known languages, just by pulling a false signal out of noise.

Maybe she speaks the Voynich Manuscript language? 8-)}

Of course once she is out on her own, does a conspiracy theory or cult develop around the legend of her appearance and disappearance?

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

(SNIP)

You might get your adaptation period if the girl is found by some Sanctuary movement activist who mistakes her for an illegal immigrtion case and hides her from the authorities for the necessary time.

That's a good option.

If you wanted to go the other extreme, then have her dropped in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, and get discovered by a misanthropic patriot/militia family who has no interest in notifying the "gubmit" of anything -- but could use an extra farm-hand.

If they home-school their own children, and don't get along with the local sheriff, it could be months before anybody knows an extra kid has shown up.

That keeps her out of the system long enough to learn the basics of communication.

If she then runs away and makes it as far as Boise, she could be anywhere in the U.S. within four days, and if she makes it to Los Angeles metro area, she can just disappear.

Moreover, the family would never report her as a runaway, so she's just gone.