Nomadic:Sessions:20041120
Track 1 – Carrollton Nights – November 20, 2004
GM: BobbyJ
Write-up: MaryK
GM Notes: No
Carrollton Nights
A120 Track 1 Assignment
MISSION TEAM
- Argus Armstrong
- Vincente Carbone
- Rick Jorg
- Dr. Jeremiah "JT" Trust
- Valerie Vaughn
- Max Whittle
{11/20/2004}
INTRODUCTION/RECRUITMENT PROCESS
A moment of intense pain....
disorientation...
A room. A mahogany conference table, polished to a dark glow. Bookcases lining the walls, filled with leather-bound books. Beautiful light fixtures suspended from the patterned ceiling. Rich wood paneling. No doors visible.
An audio-visual suite at one end of the table, a screen on the far wall. The screen is blank.
Six people standing around the table. Behind each is a comfortable leather chair. Their names are unknown to each other as yet, but I will list them as I describe their first impressions.
- Jeremiah "JT" Trust - 5'10", mousy brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a lab coat and a Baltimore Police Department badge. His eyes gleam and in a satisfied, nasal monotone he says, "Contact."
- Argus Armstrong - 6'1", slim, sun-lightened brown hair, blue eyes, tanned, wearing desert camouflage with US Army insignia and warrant officer bars. He looks around the room as he pats his clothing.
- Vicente Carbone - 6', husky, attractive, racially-mixed features, nappy hair, one eye brown, the other gray. Blue jeans, expensive (though ugly) shirt, black blazer. He reaches behind himself, then pats down his clothes. For a long moment he becomes very still. Then he seats himself.
- Rick Jorg - A few inches over 6', on the husky side, thinning light brown hair, brown eyes, ruddy outdoorsy tan. He wears a hunting outfit, complete with blaze orange vest.
- Max Whittle - A little over 6', broad-shouldered, muscular, short brown hair, brown eyes, tanned. Dressed in dungarees and a long-sleeved shirt.
- Valerie Vaughn - An inch or two under 6', slender but athletic-looking. Dark brown eyes, short dark hair, milk chocolate skin. Her jeans and short-sleeved shirt are ripped and stained.
Argus is the next to speak, asking JT: "Contact with what?" JT: "Aliens! Don't worry, they're friendly!"
Valerie brushes at the front of her clothing, scans the other faces, then sits down quietly. Vicente checks his shirt for bloodstains, then mutters something to himself and makes odd gestures with his fingers. Argus ducks down, looking for something under the table; he finds a compartment, but can't locate the latch to open it. JT, walking with a pronounced limp, goes over to examine the bookshelves; he pulls out and opens a first-edition copy of Tom Sawyer. On the other side of the room, Rick looks over some books as well.
JT asks if everyone's okay, receiving answers in the affirmative. Argus asks if we were all in a life-threatening situation just before we got here. Yes, that seems to be the case. Vicente, for example, says he had been stabbed in the heart. JT had just opened a large envelope. Valerie had just set off a pyrotechnic effect. Max had been taping a "reality TV" show. Rick had just heard shots fired from close by.
As the people in the room start talking to one another, the AV projector clicks on. On the screen against a sky-blue background there is a white infinity symbol. On the lower right appears the word "Solutions", then fading in on the upper left, the word "Infinite." (Rick makes a disparaging comment about bad PowerPoint presentations.)
One after another, everyone introduces themselves. Argus, thinking that Valerie looks very familiar, asks if she has ever heard of an actress named Halle Berry; Valerie replies in a soft voice that he must be thinking of her sister, the famous actress Vanessa Vaughn. In the course of conversation, everyone learns a little about everyone else. A hypothesis is formed that we are all from different versions of the same Earth.
A door appears in the far wall. Valerie springs up and heads for it as a man steps through, barring her way. The man is short and bald, wearing a charcoal-gray suit, a burgundy tie with an infinity-symbol tietack, and highly-polished wingtips. He gives his name as Enigma. Valerie insists she must get going to her next shoot. Enigma informs her solemnly, "In the world you came from, you have been pulled from the moment of your death. To that world, you are dead." As he comes fully into the room, the door behind him vanishes.
Enigma tells the people gathered in the room that he is Managing Director of Infinite Solutions. He explains that he assembles teams like them to solve various problems in the multiverse. Each person is free to choose whether or not to join Infinite Solutions; however, if they choose not, they still cannot return to their own place and time.
Enigma mentions that there is a problem that he feels this group of people would be uniquely suited to handle, but there is little time left to prepare. He asks each person in turn if they accept his offer. With varying degrees of assuredness, we all do.
Another door appears. Enigma explains that through that door is a room containing what he refers to as his "junkpile". Each person may choose one item if they want. While several of the others seem to agonize over their choices, Valerie, murmuring "Vanessa would like this," quickly picks out a small pin in the form of a realistic-looking lizard. Vicente swaps his footwear for a pair of expensive crocodile boots, only slightly scuffed, which fit him perfectly. JT eventually chooses a sealed bottle of "Dr Meldon's Fortifying Elixir" dated 1888.
Once everyone has returned to the conference room, Enigma starts giving out the specifications for their "mission". We will be sent to the town of Carrollton, Kentucky (population 4000) on May 8, 1972. Teenagers from the local high school had come up missing; weird things were seen in the woods. Though the mana level is below normal, the "mystical forces" there are quite high. The mission is to find out what the unusual/weird thing is; if it is dangerous, do what is necessary to protect the world from it. We are not to reveal that we are from out-dimension. Each of us will be given a driver's license and a hunting license; Argus will get a pilot license, and JT a medical license. We will each be given $100,000 in US currency, as well as a Master Charge credit card.
Another door opens, and Enigma directs us to pick out clothing and equipment to take with them.
Enigma gathers us once again, and after he wishes us good luck...
From the mind of Vicente Carbone
Knife to the heart, then a very quick movement. I am standing at a table. I see five other people. A very attractive woman and four other men. I am sure that I am in a waiting room. If I am dead then this is probably purgatory. If I'm not dead then this is interesting. I check my weapons which are not with me, and I check the mana level which is low. I sit down in the chair behind me.
The little guy (who I will learn later is JT - Jeremiah Trust) says with a smile "Contact." I see a badge on him, so he is probably law enforcement. The gentleman in the army clothes (Argus Armstrong) asks "Contact with what?" JT answers "Aliens." Argus checks for his weapons. The attractive lady (Valerie Vaughn) is some kind of famous actress. An athletic guy’s name is Max Whittle. I think he is a T.V. star. The hunter’s name is Rick Jorg. He is smarter than he looks.
After listening to the others, I conclude that we all died or should have died just before we ended up here. None of them are ghosts, but if I’m a ghost maybe I can't tell.
The room has no doors. A door appears and a small man who gives his name as Enigma enters the room. He gives a choice of working for him or going to a new world to be a zero. We all choose not to be zeros.
Valerie's thoughts:
That pyro went off a second or two early. I told Darrell the charge was too heavy. He didn't pay attention to me. Well, he's the lead rigger, and he doesn't like anyone to forget it.
[I don't remember entering this conference room. Maybe the pyro blast made me black out for a bit. According to the shooting schedule, I have to get over to Lot 23, and makeup doesn't like to be kept waiting. What is the holdup here?
I don't know any of these people. I thought they were Vanessa's friends, but when I said her name most of them got this blank expression, like they never heard of her. Why, there's no place in the world where they don't know Vanessa Vaughn.
Oh, I think I get it. This is some kind of method acting class. The short man in the gray suit wants me to act like I almost died but then got transported to another world to start a new life. It's Vanessa that should be here, though. Vanessa's the actress; she'd know what he was talking about.
People often confuse me for Vanessa, but it usually doesn't take this long for them to figure it out. I guess I've got to play along until the short man realizes his mistake.
DAY 3 – Wednesday May 10, 1972
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