aberrantangels | Entries tagged with aberrants

And the debate continues.

June 20
[Aberrant] The "Opinion Forum" segment of N!'s Nova News Now! features a debate over Slider's murder between Chad "The Living Wreck" Berger (Chicago's franchised public defender) and alleged Calcutta cop Edgar Rhys.

I don't know whether Greg Stolze (author of Exposé: Aberrants) was trying to present a parody of our he-said/she-said media and the way it sets the limits of acceptable discourse, but that's the effect achieved, with Rhys treating Corbin as guilty until proven so and Berger unable to do more than poke a few holes in the case without coming across as a conspiracy nut. The closest he comes to speaking the unspeakable truth is in this exchange:

Rhys: If Corbin is innocent, why is he running?
Berger: Maybe he's afraid. Someone who could kill Jennifer could probably kill André too.

I find it worth mentioning at this point that the Aberrants, like Gaul, are divided into three parts. Berger, Renaissance Man, telepath/precog Mina Takamura, and a handful of others who worked with Utopia continue to do so, hiding their sympathies. Rousseau coordinates these Hidden with all the cunning at her disposal, as they attempt to determine the extent of Proteus' control and to (hopefully) shut it down without destroying Utopia, in whose goals they still believe. They're the smallest faction, according to E:A.

The largest (with nearly half of the allegiance's 40 or so members) is the Quarry, the Quitters who left Utopia after they got hints of Proteus, and as such find themselves on the run with no idea where to run to and only a vague notion of what they're running from. Corbin leads them, and leads them surprisingly well. Proteus' winged monkey may think of the Scotsman as the Scarecrow and/or Tin Man, but he's showing himself to have plenty of heart, and courage too.

And then there are the Rebels, the Radicals who were already on Utopia's bad side, either because (like Dr. Worm, their leader) they considered the Project "a kinder, gentler fascism" from the word Go, or because they "just don't play well with others." I suspect many of them would be Terats if Cargill hadn't gotten to them ahead of a Teragen spokesman.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Alpha, "South"

I'm running late, but I'm running.

June 15
[Aberrant] official beginning of the Aberrant timeframe. There are approximately 40 Aberrants worldwide, all in either deep cover or hiding. To date, neither Corbin nor Rousseau has been captured, and the identity of Slider's assassin remains an official mystery.

Happy birthday,

aeonaberrant!

The Democratic Party, searching for a candidate who will make their two major PR liabilities (the "character" issue, still lingering from the Clinton years, and the similarity of their program to the Utopian plan) meaningless, concludes that a nova candidate would solve both problems, and begins scouting Randel Portman.

etherlad has mentioned this as actually happening slightly earlier, but my obsession with every last detail of the TU isn't so deep as to cover every individual date of the 2008 (TU) primary season.

Charlotte "Ghostdancer" Holden, ex-Utopian and one of Slider's contacts, retreats to Ibiza, where she is hunted by Chiraben. A group of Aberrants seeks to find her before Proteus can disappear her. Utopian agents are sent to bring her into custody. Additional Proteus personnel are sent to capture Holden and keep Chiraben in line.

All this in "Permanent Vacation", the mini-adventure story arc included in the ~~Aberrant Storytellers Companion~~ book that came with the Aberrant Storytellers Screen.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Sepultura, "Sepulnation"

I've edited the entries for May 30 and June 3 to incorporate various relevant factors.

June 4
[Aberrant] Project Utopia begins an internal investigation for remaining allies of Corbin within its own ranks.

So yeah.

Synapse hands Saxon over to the Apostle to have his memories wiped (presumably Delorimier's real purpose in wanting Graham captured).

Per the edited version of yesterday's post, that actually happens on the second day of Saxon's captivity, whenever that really was. But the Apostle takes possession of Byron Graham through an intermediary: Jesse "Turncoat" Hooks, who can emulate anyone, body and mind. He reads Saxon's memories and discovers ( what eruption has done to the Utopian's sexuality (suggested for mature readers) )

Hooks goes through a number of impersonations of fellow Terats, and baseline yokels, in discoursing on the movement's internal strains. Then Delorimier comes to "take the pain away" with the same pharmacological secretions that allow Turncoat to maintain a presence within driving distance of sanity:

The prostitutes' cracking bodies will trouble you no more. Yes, your actions in Kashmir, they too are gone. So many dismembered civilians, how quaint that you still feel guilt.... Do not worry, Mister Hooks has been in your mind, he will remember all that you are until the day he dies, the poor thing.

Also, this is the second day of the Pantheon meeting, the one where they actually get down to overviewing the various cliques: the Primacy, the Companions of Allah, the Cult of Mal, the Casablancas, Nova Vigilance, the Harvesters, and the Pandaimonion, in roughly that order. Those who remembered Trinity, the hard-psience space opera to which Aberrant is the prequel, presumably got a frisson when the Apothecary told of Heartland, the community he'd set up in Nebraska to study taint — specifically of Marshal Jeb Wycoff, especially devoted to protecting the town's novas and their baseline families, and Jeb's son Calvert, "one of my most interesting cases. The boy is a most... promising specimen."

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Lisa Stansfield, "Live Together"

Separated for now.

June 1
[Aberrant] In response to Rousseau's telecom virus, the initial roster of the Aberrants (including Jacques Angel, Chad "The Living Wreck" Berger, Toren "Dr. Worm" Cargill, Danielle Coleridge, Edda Cznievski, Kimberly Dame, Diane "Intergalactic" Holm and Asa "Renaissance Man" Karadakas) meets in the Amp Room. Corbin is pointedly absent, on the grounds that bringing an emotional broadcaster/amplifier into a room full of anxious novas can only end in fire.

It's Karadakas (referred to on the transcript as "Unidentified Man") who points that last bit out, when Angel is demanding to know where Corbin is and why he's not explaining things in person. Rousseau confirms that, and volunteers to take any questions.

( Q&A. )

Anatole Siervich of Nova-Express Caterers is contacted by (fellow) suspected Teragen sympathizer Eric Ballard with final information about the upcoming Pantheon meeting.

It's all about the seating and the dishes. ( Food, glorious food! )

Current Mood: geeky

I sometimes think everything important in the TU happens out of sight of the average citizen. Then again, I sometimes think that about the Primary World.

May 31
[Aberrant] Director Thetis sends a memo to Director Ozaki, informing him that it's his responsibility to track down the Aberrants and "silence them however possible" (preferably bringing them back under Utopia's wings), without letting Proteus' existence become generally known or distracting the Æon Council from their other responsibilities.

I use the Teragen icon because Thetis refers to Slider as having "put a somewhat histrionic, possibly Teragen-inspired, spin on the data," and because she suspects the movement of having arranged Jennifer's discoveries. "The good news in this situation, of course, is that the renegades have very few options at this point." They must know how wide Proteus' net is, and they'd be fools to go to the main organizations with which Utopia has "tense relations" (the US government and the Teragen). As part of the subtlety, she warns him "don't let any of your agents get too enthusiastic. Especially not Chiraben."

Sophia Rousseau meets with Giuseppe "Sloppy Joe" Benatti to get inside information on the Teragen, particularly about the Pantheon (which Benatti summarizes as "Take the Greek gods and put them on Springer").

She's stringing him along with promises of a cure, promises every bit as bogus as the ones with which Utopia lured him onto a plane bound for Bahrain. In the in-depth discussion (which she summarizes in an encoded OpCall to Meztiszo), he explained what passes for a hierarchy in the Pantheon. The first tier is those Terats who've never undergone Chrysalis, but are nonetheless important to the movement (such as Narcosis, Count Orzaiz, Sin-Eater, Synapse and Tarik). Ranked above them are those who have elevated at least once, with multiple Chrysales bringing greater standing.

Second stage: the Apothecary, Bounty, Epoch, Geryon, Leviathan, Shrapnel
Third stage: the Apostle, the Mathematician, Scripture
Fourth stage: Divis Mal

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Lisa Stansfield, "You Can't Deny It"

News from opposite sides of the divide.

May 30
[Aberrant] The mysterious Sophia Rousseau contacts the fugitive Corbin (Proteus had feared she might get in touch with Slider). Their underground organization immediately begins contacting friends and acquaintances in the nova community, as well as newly erupting novas. The group's goal is to expose the hidden corruption in Project Utopia, and Corbin dubs its members "Aberrants" in an ironic usage of the anti-nova epithet.

It starts when she calls him at a public phone terminal, identifying herself only as "[s]omeone who's well aware of who you are and what you're running from." She then says, after pointing out that this isn't necessarily a secure line,

I have resources enough to keep you hidden — but I also have resources enough to back you on a more aggressive course of action, one that stands to help you correct some of your current problems.

After that, she sends a "telecom virus" to those friends and acquaintances, stating that Corbin's folder of Slider's evidence makes a strong case "that elements within Utopia seek to subjugate or regulate, possibly even systematically eliminate, novas as a whole." But they need more than a strong case; with Utopia's presence "in every aspect of normal life", they can't go to any authorities, and "to overturn public confidence in [Utopia] could lead to catastrophic panic worldwide." They don't even know for sure to what extent Utopia is compromised. "Nonetheless, we cannot remain passive against a clear and present threat", so she's inviting "[n]ovas interested in defending their rights as individuals" to meet on Sunday at the Amp Room.

Caestus Pax fires off an angry memo to William F. Reed, director of T2M Americas, ordering him to reprimand Ana Graça Texeira and Gvuthbjörg Danielsdottir for their participation in a recent Queer Nova Alliance demonstration.

A T2M agent has no business getting involved in political or social issues. You will immediately remind them that they represent Team Tomorrow and that they do not have the authority to use their T2M status to further their own agendas without getting prior approval through the proper channels.

He recommends they be sent out on widely separate assignments (Ana to hound the Medellín in Colombia, "Guggie" to handle a matter in Ontario). "You let this kind of thing continue and your agents will start thinking they have rights."

Oh, Shelby... just because you're in the closet, you want the whole queer world to stay there with you. ("A T2M agent has no business getting involved in political or social issues"? Then what the hell business does T2M have even existing?)

[Everything from here down was added in an edit June 4.]

Jesus "Matador" Morales, a Terat mascara in Mexico City, sends an encoded message to his mentor Feathered Serpent about his recent meeting with Meztiszo, of the Aberrants, to open ties between the two anti-Upie groups.

I was thinking of posting this June 30, as it seems to make more chronological sense and be less sudden, but as Ian points out below, Aberrant: Teragen has it taking place today, so there it is. (Of course, now I come to make this edit, I can't actually find the passage in A:T.)

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Lisa Stansfield, "This is the Right Time"

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Entries tagged with aberrants

Today in the Trinity Universe: it's just one of those days

Today in the Trinity Universe: what's past is prologue

Today in the Trinity Universe: we've got to see each other for whatever we are

Today in the Trinity Universe: dystopian projections

Today in the Trinity Universe: we drive each other crazy

Today in the Trinity Universe: the light shining inside us