OOC:
Okay, so we have Lynn and Gunther starting out on the service tray.  You need one more.

Also, before things get...complicated...remember to do the following:
1) Review your character sheet:  strengths, weaknesses, mutations, secret societies

2) Review your encounter with your secret society contact.  Were you supposed to do something here?  Wait for something?

3) Plan how you will accomplish the service service among those who are not serving from the trays.

4) Remember that anything you do to help your secret society will improve your status among them

5) Remember that this is PARANOIA!  Keep on your toes.  You might need to check around the termination center for possible...escape routes.

I'll go

So we have Lynn, Joseph and Gunther starting out on the cart.

Let me know what the others are doing.

The team leader may want to make some assignments, keeping in mind the combat robots all around the room may keep him in check if his orders go too far.

The robots will also be keeping people in check who are not gracious enough when serving the prisoners/fishbait.

The stink of the busted restroom is in the northeast corner (see map).

There is also a janitor wandering around cleaning, but he hasn't approached you yet and the prisoners are not talking to or approaching him.

OOC: FYI, I'm going back out of town today for a few days.  Will post if I can.  In the meantime, try to get everyone's plan of action straight.  Otherwise, we'll just jump into things.

If you have any final questions (OOC or IC), now's the time to let me know.

Joseph, Lynn and Gunther begin serving drinks, and CL goes to investigate the smell.  You remember your equipment to help with your service service.

(Is anyone going with CL?  What is everyone doing who isn't serving drinks?)

Lynn happily serves drinks with a smile, making sure Gunther and Joseph do the same.  She tells the others, "You better get on zat service service or vee'll all be in trouble."  She is looking at Seth as she says this, not meanly, but imploringly.

CL is careful to avoid the semi-clean things in the room as he heads to the bathroom and draws forth some spray from his cleaning kit and begins to apply it to the bathroom to get rid of the smell.

Joseph hands out the drinks as he searches for his signal

Bruce cracks his neck as he waits for the leader to get moving.

"Shall we begin the service service now? We won't finish in a timely manner if we don't start soon."

He takes a look around the room as the three volunteers start to work on their own service.

Seth spent a moment deeply in thought then turned to his team with orders.  The smell of the broken latrine is difficult to bear, and Seth has to blink his eyes several times to clear them.

"Gunther, I appreciate your enthusiasm to serve others, but we can't have you working the cart until you have executed your duties as equipment guy and fixed the headsweeper.  Joseph can go with you to assist."

"CL, repair the latrines as quickly as possible.  Solicit supplies from the janitor if necessary."

"Lynn and Bruce, you are with me. Lets get some cups prepared so the beverages are ready to be served when the inmates arrive. Bruce will set up the PerkyLators and mix and pour the drinks. As the morale officer (and by far one the most gracious clones I have had the pleasure of working with) Lynn will be the one serving the drinks. Also, Lynn, see if you can do anything to cheer up Jessica-G-RFA-6... it could be very detrimental to our mission for a member of the termination center staff to be so unhappy. Perhaps you could offer her some pharmaceuticals?  I will take care of the documentation and stand by to deal with any problems that might arise."

With that, Seth sees to the final details.  He ensures that the carts are arrayed in an esthetically pleasing manner and neatly covered with the provided tablecloths, reviews the provided VWV/CL-TS-BBB/TC-1A forms (and makes sure his pen works and that he has a spare), then gives everyone a final looking over to ensure they are wearing their aprons and apron pins properly.

Everyone starts following Seth's orders and service of the prisoners begins immediately.  Jessica leaves the floor, not interested in help from RED Clearance Troubleshooters.  As you serve, the prisoners are somewhat chatty.  Some even walk over to watch the cleaning for the service service, despite the smell.  The janitor also watches from a distance, and no one goes near him.

Of the 222 prisoners, about half are sitting in their cells and half are in the waiting room with you, jammed together at combot gunpoint.  Dispite the greenish lighting, it's a colorful sight, unique in Alpha Complex:  Prisoners of all security clearances (almost all RED and above) stand or crouch together in their clearance-appropriate jumpsuit hues, variously fearful, desperate, surly or sullen depending on how often their clones have been through this before.

They seem to want one thing mostly:  freedom.  And they are not shy about talking about it, although you understand that helping them would be treason.  They each seem to have their angle to get free.

The smell that wafts through the bodies is doubtlessly troubling to your hygiene officer.

Please note that you do not have to follow the orders of a condemned, no matter their rank.  However, an order from a secret society member of a higher degree than you is something you must follow to remain in good standing.

11:45 a.m.
Prisoners Served: 30
Prisoners Not Served: 292
Prisoners Per Minute Served: 6

SUSAN (INFRARED)

One woman approaches.  She says her name is Susan, an INFRARED with medium-length chestnut hair that she has an unconscious habit of smoothing around her ear.  She's earnest, friendly, helpful and naive.  If you intend to anthing...traitor-like...she would make the perfect fall guy (or gal).  She says she is innocent and was framed for bugging, then rumpling the sheets of, the neatly made bed of an ORANGE Clearance citizen.


INGA (YELLOW)
Inga is a chunky copper blonde with rosy cheeks and plump lips.  She says she was convicted for being a cyborg.  (Unauthorized cyborging, the implantation of cybernetic machine parts in humans, is illegal.)  Termination center staff removed a bioplate from the nape of her neck, revealing some circuitry, so she cannot even pretend to be human anymore.

Inga says to those at the cart as she sips coffee (so is apparently not ALL machine), "If you guys find a way to get me my freedom, I'll give you a fortune in bot brains, worth as much as five years of a GREEN-Clearance salary."

MARTIN (GREEN)
Martin seems a super nice guy:  tall, dark, good-looking.  He's affable and likes to guide people, like the other inmates, by their elbows to help them to the coffee stand.  But you can tell, with impending termination, that his ordinarily relaxed smile is a tight grin.


MARY (ORANGE)
Mary seems laid back and spacey, projecting an air of world-weariness, like the day after a jag.  But she seems, under the surface, to want to get out of the termination center alive.

Mary stands there with her coffee and starts a rambling story of her past exploits, particularly how she was recycled in her previous clone forms.  Then, out of the blue, she suddenly says, "Get me out of this place, and I'll give you my cache of Benetridin ("Videoland") and Rolactin ("Happy Life") stashed away in a distant maintenance locker.  If you like vids, you can't miss those!  Plus, they're worth a fortune in the black market."

DAN (BLUE)
Dan is a compact man of medium height with frighteningly intense stell blue eyes.  He is military to the bone.  He's furious at "thos Internal Security vatslimes" for catching him.  When you look in his eyes, you know he could kill you without a second thought.


CLARENCE (YELLOW)
Clarence is a skinny red-haired guy with crooked teeeth but a strangely compelling stream of blarney.  Clarence has a deep fascination with "Oola-Hoops."  He bemoans his impending death because he'll be missing the monthly Second Twosday Secret Hooping Congress.

Clarence lowers his voice to a whisper, continuing on about Oola-Hoops, and suddenly offers to provie the location of a cache of priceless Old Reckoning artifacts, including a vintage pink Oola-Hoop and a "pay phone," whatever that is, if one of you can just get him to the Hooping Congress tonight.

LAURA (ORANGE)
Laura is tall and athletic.  She nervously picks at her styrofoam cup.  Her eyes are wide and panicked, darting about as if she's trying to think of something.  She's brusque in conversation but, as the last clone in her pack, she tries to overlay that tendency with pleasant conversation to convince you she's worth saving.  "I'm the last of my clones," she says.  "This is really, really termination for me."  She rambles on, somehow turning the conversation into an offhanded and aloof converstaion about the temperature controls.

Then she stops and whispers at the cart, "I know a way to get Outside. You know, to THE Outside.  I know of a base out there where I stay.  If you free me, I'll bring you to the base and you can be free of Alpha Complex forever.  Imagine that!  No more colors, no more followingn orders.  Small price to pay for letting one innocent clone go free before the last termination she'll ever face."

MARTIN 2 (GREEN)
Here's another guy named Martin.  He is tall with a long, thin face, dark eyes, and trim black doorknocker beard.  His manner is arrogant, threatening and supercilious to those he sees as mutants.

Lynn walks over and whispers something to Clarence.  After a moment of talking, she slaps him on the back and they both erupt in raucous laughter.  "See," she says, "now vee are all happy, no?"

Do any of the prisoners have stripes on their jumpsuits, or are registered mutants terminated somewhere else?

CL walks over to a person in a cell with his hygiene kit in front of him.
"There are some weird hygiene signals coming from this guy," CL says.

They are all terminated together without any indication of registered mutations.

PL

Lynn says to Mary, "Happy Life pills could be very helpful to us, no?  As Happiness Officer, it is my duty to find vare they are."  She does a little twirling thing with her finger and smiles.

Tension levels of Happy Homecoming areas:


Waiting room: Tension level 10
Lookout: Tension level 10
Homecoming cells: Tension level 10


Anteroom: Tension level 14
Director George-B's Office: Tension level 16


Note that tension levels can change if the security devices are disabled, but the risk is that you are discovered disabling them, which is treason.

Lynn makes some coffee and steps away from the service tray to serve some clones near Mary.  She glances back to make sure the other Troubleshooters are smiling.

Bruce smiles brightly at the nearby prisoners as he goes about his job.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:23, Fri 24 Apr 2009.

CL is smiling, he loves serving the computer.

Anyone else going to do anything?  Remember, this is your time to follow up on your secret society's requirements...that is, if you don't want to be blacklisted and want a promotion within the society...

The key is to find a way to approach your contacts without drawing attention and see what needs to be done.

And then...

...don't worry, opportunities will come around when the "time" is right.

Sorry for the delays.  Life has gotten crazier than a clone meeting his own clone in the bathroom with Tension Level 20...

This probably is much easier in real time, so I'll see how I can push it along.

Things to remember:

(1) Only three can man the cart at any given time, leaving three of you to wander about and "help."  You can also step away from the cart to help "serve" (and secretly talk to) people/The Condemned.

(2) There are 8 people talking to you, and only 6 of you.  That means not everyone is a contact with one of you.  Feel free to branch out and talk to others.

(3) Please read the previous post I made before reading this one so that your continuity of the story is not lost over the two weeks or so since it was posted.


Tension level 10

11:50 a.m.
Prisoners Served: 60
Prisoners Not Served: 262
Prisoners Per Minute Served: 6


You continue serving coffee and tea in a cheerful manner.

Lynn goes over and talks to Clarence.

CL begins examining Martin 2.

Bruce interacts kindly with the other Martin.

Seth walks away to help serve the nervous girl Susan.  As he talks to her, Seth finds that Susan is beginning to weep.  "Please help me," she says loud enough so everyone can hear.  "I don't have money, but you'll have my eternal gratitude."  (Which is not the most popular currency in Alpha Complex.)  She seems truly upset, innocent and kind.

Gunther gets busy helping with the service service.  Joseph goes off to help him.  CL has apparently decided to check out the strange man before working on cleaning the latrines.

The janitor makes his way around the side of the walls, cleaning as he does so.  The prisoners give him a clear berth, not going very near him but not making a big deal of it.

Lynn tries to trade places with Joseph so he can serve at the cart for a bit, and she goes to investigate the cells of the prisoners to make sure everyone knows about the coffee and tea being served to make them happy.  After all, it would be a shame if any of them missed out just before their termination.

CL uses what looks to be a weird satellite module to scan Martin 2 for any unsatisfactory dirt or grim. He smiles wider than before and then takes out a little watsamahuzit to take Martin 2's temperature.

You continue with your duties.  Joseph takes over for Lynn, who goes off to the cells.

Tension level 10

11:55 a.m.
Prisoners Served: 90
Prisoners Not Served: 232
Prisoners Per Minute Served: 6

OOC: I'm not getting many posts, so I'm just going to advance the game 5 minutes every few days, assuming you're doing nothing but your duties in the meantime.