The Merge: Agents and Powers Chapter 2: Agents Abroad

[kirinke]

Amy

The girl nods in agreement with Adeleth. "There's an old saying on earth. Knowledge is power. Darkseid kept you ignorant, so he could exert even more power over you. The more you know, the better your odds of not only surviving, but thriving." she said. "The trick is, having the wisdom to not go overboard with it." she shrugged. "Also another good reason to run with responsible adults."

[jmucchiello]

"No, Amy, thriving is the whole point." Adeleth says. "I'm saying surviving is a low-level need. Once you satisfy basic things like survival (nourishment, protection from the elements), you need to move on to higher needs- emotional support, creativity, arts. Everything cannot be about surviving. Lilly has her singing. That is something that is important."

[kirinke]

Amy

"True. But when you've been deprived of even the most basic things for much of your life, being able to survive easily is like ambrosia. I know when I'm off a week in the wilderness, having a hot shower is beyond heavenly." Amy noted. "We just have to let Lilly go at her own pace, so she doesn't get overwhelmed by it all. I mean you can't go from basic math to quantum physics overnight. At least, non super-geniuses can't anyway." she said, savoring her stew and downing it with a gulp of soda.

"I'm not disagreeing with you Adeleth, but you gotta remember that everyone learns in different ways and at different paces." she hrmed. "If we get a chance, maybe we can go to a museum after this is over. That'd be a fun learning experience and a way to unwind a little. I'm sure we'll all need it too. Maybe an art museum would be a good place to start?" she offered. "I haven't been to one in awhile."

"What do you think Lilly?" she asked as she showed the girl what art museums were online. "It's a whole different experience in person and there's all different kinds." she flipped through some online travel guides. "There's even some about music."

"Adeleth is right though. Creativity and the arts are fun and are an important part of being a well-rounded person." she said. "Art museums are a good way to start to figure out what you like and experience what other people like as well."

[Tony Jones]

"You are right Amy, just being able to survive easily on your world is pleasant. And I think I understand what you mean, Adeleth, about growing beyond that. But I do not think I am ready to do so yet. I think I have been here for perhaps half of one of your years. And the shadow of where I come from still hangs over me. I do not feel I can ... relax? ... enough to begin to move past that at this point. Yet, anyway. I hope one day. But not yet. Though I certainly feel like I am thriving more than I did when I arrived here."

"And I think I understand what you mean by knowledge being power. Grim Darkseid and his hateful Elite do know so much more than they allow the Hunger Dogs to know. They must fear what they might do with such knowledge..."

"I would certainly go to an art museum. I have not been to one. If there is a music on then that one? The opportunity to listen to the singing of others might be pleasant as well. I have heard some, mostly buskers in Essen and Berlin, but as I understand it there are many other singers who do not sing on the streets?"

She takes a bite of gateau.

[jmucchiello]

"There are concerts where extremely popular performs play to tens of thousands at once and there are small clubs where performers play to audiences of under one hundred. It depneds on what kind of music or singing you want to hear," Adeleth says. "When he get back to base for some downtime, I'll play some recordings of various kinds of music so we can find out what styles you enjoy."

[kirinke]

Amy

"That'd be fun too." she agreed cheerfully. "I've always personally liked jazz music. It's something special when heard live."

[Tony Jones]

"Yes, listening to different recordings sounds like a very good idea," nods Lilly. "If we were to see a performer I think I would prefer something with smaller audiences though."

[jmucchiello]

"Oh, I would not take you to a stadium concert now," Adeleth says. "I don't think you're ready for being around so many people is such a smallish space."

[Tony Jones]

Lilly nods in definite agreement.

[kirinke]

Amy

"A jazz club would be a good way to introduce her to live music, if she likes that sort of thing." Amy offered hopefully. "I'm sure there's some around here."

[Tony Jones]

"Perhaps this evening?" suggests Lilly.

[pathfinderq1]

Viv DeLaCourte (Harbinger)
HP: 1; LP: 0; Condition: Normal

During a pause between calls, Viv leaned across into the conversation for a moment. "There might be another sort of opportunity as well. Remember, if we haven't found our mad scientist by thsi evening, we'll be heading to a nightclub in search of Clarity. There might be some interesting music there- certainly a strong dance beat if nothing else..."

>OOC: Not to mention other forms of experience, if the Merged version of Wunderbar is similar to ours...

[kirinke]

Amy

The girl nodded. "Hopefully, we'll nab him before then." she said.

[Neo-Paladin]

Viv DeLaCourte (Harbinger)
HP: 1; LP: 0; Condition: Normal

Viv seemed to ignore the conversation that her teammates were wrapped up in- in fact, it made admirable audio cover. Even before they entered the restaurant, Viv was on her phone, going down the informational rabbit hole in search of information. She had a few crumbs to start with, but this sort of thing was, after all, her specialty.

Over the course of several calls, she touched base with a few contacts, who led her to a few more. From people back at the Ministry, to local contacts from Spengler's organization, to local school officials and various Merge-tracking agencies (formal and not so), she began to put the pieces together- hopefully the picture would make sense when she was done...

>OOC: Viv is using her Contacts advantage to do the Gather Information function of the Investigate skill, which takes a few minutes (or likely longer in this case, as she is knitting togther information from multiple sources). Using her Skill Mastery- Investigate, that nets a 26, enough for 4 degrees of success on the base DC 10, which in turn should be enough for Protected information, the highest category (some of the time involves finding people with the right information access). In this case, she is cross-referencing local Merge data and both police and school info (the thought is that our 'young cyber-genius would have 'tested out' of his schooling and maybe been the subject of non-criminal nuisance calls- he would likely have arranged to hack his criminal records but maybe not the non-criminal ones.

Hopefully, this makes sense- it is, after all, Viv "in her element". If the GM feels that this is too much of a short circuit of the intended investigative elements of the plot, maybe she could find where he USED TO be, but he has now moved to a secret lair (as mad scientist types are known to do)- that is, she gets something to move us along a bit, but not enough to short circuit the whole process.

Her search takes a while but eventually she gets a name: Markus Dibbern, aged 14, still living with his parents in Hamburg, currently working on a doctorate in Medical Engineering. IQ most likely around 180+ or so. And, apparently, he was a little genius even before the Merge.
From what you can glean, he's a loner, the kind of person who is more interested in devices than people.
There is, however, a vindictive streak there, as he had problems being bullied at school and apparently got his revenge in a creative way: by maneuvering things so that one of his bullies got their hands on a firecracker he had " upgraded". Needless to say, fingers were lost but despite everyone having strong suspicions, it was never traced back to him.

[pathfinderq1]

Viv DeLaCourte (Harbinger)
HP: 1; LP: 0; Condition: Normal

Viv put her phone down on the table, and took a sip of her tea. She looked around the group and gave a brief smile. "Hopefully everyone has enjoyed their lunch- now we must get back to work. We have a lead. One young mister Markus Dibbern- just your age Amy, perhaps you can make a new friend. We should pay him a call to discuss matters..."

She waved to their waitress, signaling for the check.