Aurora Consurgens: NPC Notes

NPC NOTES (For Players)

(Very minor characters, like Mac and crew or Beau, aren’t included in this. Listing is by first name.)

Aaron Dupree: Omega who created the Incident via clones of himself and ODing on drugs.
Andrea: Sullivan’s r2-45 boss, who makes shields and is apparently a stuffed bear. The reasons behind this have not been released, but Sullivan is scared of her.
Archie Rocco: The Best Roommate Ever. He migh be a bit slow on the uptake and lose himself in the muse, but nothing seems to faze him at all for long, including becoming an Omega.
Arnold Lien: Headmaster of Sutherland University.
Artie Fleetwood: Illuminati member, telepath currently containing the Eye inside him. Not having a fun time at all.
Alan Moore: An omega who smells horribly and makes flowers. Currently setting up a flower shop and often used to solve problems by PCs and NPCs. Has only tried to kill himself three times thus far.
Allison: Tempie’s friend, currently trying to deal with ‘weird stuff is real’ as best she can and re-thinking her ideas of how the world works.

Barry: Apparently Old. Also terrible and scary to some NPCs; little is known about him save he was damaged in the mind five years ago and is pro-Omega rights, believing if people are the best humanity can be then everything will work out just fine.
Basil Manning: Omega with fire powers and quills who is trying to adapt to his new status, helped by friends and his parents.
Beckett Holmes: Omega with stone skin and shields; currently working with S.A.F.E but very, very keen to stop the people whose drugs killed his brother.
Breaker: Special Branch police officer who blasts stuff; has scars that Fiona covers.
Bradley Johnson: Omega police officer who often deals with warming people to keep careful; seems able to switch places with civilians who spot a crime.
Becka: Alpha and friend to Tempie, who has shown her real self to them and been rebuffed for the sheer sociopathic overtones common enough to alphas. To what extent it was her doing devil’s advocate is thus far unknown.
Bert Manning: Alpha mad scientist working with the police; often builds steampunk style tech.
Blake Brensen: An alpha-omega on the run who apparently creates memes and is believed to be the pope.

Calrion de Flores: Omega acrobat who is new to the city and feeling his way about it; has yet to encounter Alan, thankfully.
Chester Fields: Teresa’s best friend.
Chris: Skinhead who joined the Circle of Humanity support group in the belief it would be like concentration camps. Has an elderly couple (Bruce and Wanda) agreeing with him.
Claire: Former Black Circle member, murdered after her attempt to trick Mason into joining it failed utterly.
Craig Ensley: Omega as Mason’s school who is an incubus and breaks stuff; unaffected by the effect on the school, he is currently starving due to a lack of real emotions and made some very odd agreements with the headmaster about his scholarship (which seemed to involve sleeping with him).

Damien: Omega kid who looks weird and vanishing stuff; apparently has no moral qualms at all with killing at the tender age of 15 but is also a horrible, horrible liar. Is involved in the Black Chamber, S.A.F.E. and Barry’s group and sometimes gets a bit stressed out over being over-extended.
Diego Perez: Omega anarchist who spraypaints things and teleports; currently evading the police rather handily.
Doctor D: Codename for the person who makes the omega-boosting drugs.

Emily Parker: An omega who seems human, she was raised by a very religious mother and has difficulty seeing the weirder Omegas as NOT demons; she’d have made an excellent Choir member in another life and is still trying to process her own beliefs with the wider world, since she has no desire to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Eye, the: Illuminati supercomputer that exists in the superflow that is the jungian consciousness. Currently suffering from a blue screen of death.

Fiona Baskin: Police officer who can make illusions and often tries to diffuse situations without violence; often partnered with Breaker, who she also attempts to diffuse.

Griffin Dumont: Black Chamber member who can speak to and harm the dead, among other abilities. Very creepy guy who is apparently now Damien’s minder since Griffin killed their last one.

Hades: Self-titled omega who is seen as a giant threat; can turn alphas into omegas and feed on evil, though he left the city shortly after a confrontation with Kami et al, leaving his peole to carry out his will. (It has been claimed that he has no desire for the police to toss the Twins at him)
Hole and Hurt: Twin omegas who were part of the same project as Kami. They are quite powerful, one being akin to a black hole, the other entropy, share senses and don’t like being too far from each other. The police often use them, out of necessity, to deal with major threats.

Ignatius Hanrahan: Professor at Mason’s university who is unaffected by the weird aura of the place and doesn’t much care for Omegas.
Ivan Koshchey: Illuminati member who worked on the Prodigy Project. Not a nice person at all.

James Forsythe: Tempie’s father, who has years of experience in the world and in literature to somewhat prepare him for the reality of the world. He seems to be taking his daughters changes and new friends in stride thus far.
Jane Ceil: Alpha with special branch who deals with keeping the other members in line and looking after the twins when no one else is free.
Jerry Welker: The kind of Omega whose ability suits him. He’s terrible private, which makes being friends with a telepath difficult. (Also says as few words as possible, except when the GM forgets this. He gets less absurd in this regard when discussing music or drunk.) At present, he’s expressed no real stake in Omega issues and prefers a normal life.
Jillian Connor: New Omega who can fly and zap energy; has been recruited into S.A.F.E. by Mason and may have a thing for him.

Kaegan Maher: 11 year old omega with power over insects and leaping talents; wants to be a Superhero and convince PCs to be the same. Tends to break down when arrested or fighting a ‘villain’ who is actually a hero as the world has then gone off the superhero comic vision in his head.
Kelly Fisher: Omega who looks like a grey alien; she can heal, works in movies and takes great delight in teasing others.
Kirk Watson: Mayor’s aide who deals with all Omega stuff in the city. Seems to have whats best for everyone in mind, though his office is often less useful in implementing this.
Kim Li: Works for S.A.F.E. and can see genetic code; seems interested in Omegas primarily from a research perspective.

Lambert Duchall: Choir Omega member who, along with his sister Simone, tried to kill Basil. They were driven away but, unlike his sister, his zeal appears to have bee untouched by Tempie.
Lance Christensen: Alpha police officer not allowed into Special Branch because of his rather violent solutions to the problem of omegas.
Leo Dowell: Alpha turned Omega who works for Hades. Very, very sure of his skills and often gets in over his head with problems. Despite being a complete bastard, he is willing to work with PCs for goals that benefit him. Easily offended when someone insults his, ah, clothing.

Mabel McGuire: Police forenics expert who can see through bones etc. Seems quietly efficient.
Marcus Wampler: Omega with power over his ipod who apparently sees a division between omegas who can pass for human and those who cannot. Has yet to replace hearing aids with the ipod since he has no idea if he’d randomly stop being an omega or not. Is also terribly girlshy.
Misha: Shadow-alien from an alternate world who is currently living in Teresa’s shadow and preparing for plans to lead the invasion of this world. Really.

Nattie St. Germain: Best-friend and roommate to Kami. Currently leading the S.A.F.E. field team and coping rather well with being an Omega. Seems determined to Make A Difference, which is slowly but surely pulling the two of them apart.
Nicky (Nicholas) Christmas: an omega who volunteers at the local homeless shelter; has yet to actually appear in the game. (Given the length of this list, is that a surprise?)

Probably crazy: See Quentin.

Quentin Witherspoon: An omega tied to the oceans, he’s an Oceans Rights activist who is probably insane and definitely crazy.

Rakasha (aka Jaladhi Dev) Omega who looks rather nasty and works for Hades.
Ralph Compton: Internet investigative reporter with very little skill for it. He is, however, willing to jump off the deep end into the weird.
Raymond Terril: An alpha whose observational skills allow im to bill himself as a psychic; used by the police.
Roland Drake: Omega at a starbucks with unconscious super-charismatic powers.
Ronald McGee: Waffle House cook whose specials sometimes do odd things to people.
Ryan Mitchell: Apparently a lucky police officer with only one arm, so how losing an arm is lucky is anyone’s guess. Often makes sure the twins don’t do anything too horribly and adjusts situations in the favour of the police.

Sally Jenkins: Ally of Barry’s with many eyes whose primary talent seems to involve not being around whenever PCs are.
Samson Hardcastle: Alpha, former ace whose hardcore stance on Omegas has been changed by Mason. Possibly a free agent for hire now.
Sebastian: Good friend to Tempie who wants to become more than friends, to a level even he was unaware of. Currently very embarrassed about this.
Shamanic Elder Porpoises: Fish who taught Quentin to speak to fish and so forth. (See Quetin and ‘probably crazy’ for details.)
Shelby Smythe: Omega who can make people see nightmares; forced to work for Hades in return for drugs to help his sister but seems okay now.
Shen: An alpha’s alpha from another universe, trapped in this one and working for r2-45. Apparently immune to all omega powers and seriously creepy.
Sinjin Smythe: telepath and telekinetic who recently awakened; has been gifted with nanites so his powers don’t burn his body out too fast as his ALS has apparently not gone away so much as been semi-countered by TK powers.
Sullivan Willoughby: R2-45 splice who is involved with tagging omegas and apparently trying to get Kami to join their organization. Poorly. There is some evidence that this is intentional.

Tanya Richiusa: Unknowing omega who turns a pro-human support group with the aim of making humans and omegas get along; has recently been horrified to have skinheads join it.
Thelma Bates: Kindly healer with many cats. Looks after Omega strays and her own granddaughter and is very much neutral in all respects.
Toby Sykes: A security guard who lost his job to Omegas. Pro-humanity, but not to the point of skinheads.
Tommy Nash: The laziest Alpha ever. Give how fast he picks up this and his tendency to provide rather, well, blunt solutions to problems, this is probably for the best.
Trent Windle: Friend of Malik’s who is trying to adapt to being an omega, how odd other omegas are and that Malik isn’t the person he thought he was. With limited success.
Trevor: Claiming to be a clone of himself (and the internet, sometimes), Trevor has a talent with machines -- and information -- that makes him useful and valuable, if one can put up with his relentlessly cheerful and geeky personality. Has issues with Barry’s ideas of ‘Rights right now’ and such and has claimed SA.F.E. exists partially to stop him from becoming Evil.
Twins: See Hurt and Hole.

Vince: The useless band manager who wants to Make It Big. So far his lack of success has been his only notable feature, though he has pushed for the band to be Distinctive.
Vincent Gorsky: Hospital doctor and vampire from another world who, along with his daughter, claims to be trying just to get by in this one. Now owes Trevor a favour; goals and motives remain unknown.

Wendy Tiede: Human heading up the police Special Branch; competent and willing to think outside the box.

Aurora Consurgens: SAFEty First!

(Aka the pamphlet Nattie does up for Temperance)

S.A.F.E.

SAFE stands for Safeguarding Against Future Exploitation. Broadly, the first mandate is to protect humans from being exploited by Omegas. The second is to educate humans about Omegas and so protect them from humans as well. Imagine if you woke up one day with the ability to walk through walls at will and see-through skin. Your family is poor, your dad just got laid off from work and now everyone stares at you with no clue what to make of you. neighbours whisper about demons or freaks or the justice of God and you have nothing to say against it, having no clue what happened to you. Further, there is a bank six blocks away and you know that slipping into the cells to nab safety deposit boxes would be a piece of cake. You might not want to, not at first, but your dad can’t get a new job and you blame yourself, Then the neighbours lose some money kept in a jar, and they decide you took it.

From there, the end of the story writes itself: crime, suicide, or running away. SAFE wants to permit Omegas to start over, make different stories, find better paths and uses for their talents when we can. The police will arrest, detain and possibly kill Omegas. Our job is to fight them if we must, but after to offer choices, to try and understand and offer up options. To that end, our field team is deployed to stop threats and problems the police are not equipped to and other members exist to defuse situations before they reach the point of intervention, or to find Omegas and educate them about themselves before they make the wrong choices.

Everyone screws up. But we believe people deserve second chances, and even third chances: SAFE even hires Omegas (with rather good wages offered) if their talents and personality fit the group, help them to find jobs and plans to work with other kind of outreach groups to prevent disasters before they happen. Make no mistake about it: An Omega can be a natural disaster if pushed too far by the world, and by word we mean people:

* If people think you are a criminal, it’s a hard thing to keep fighting against that and not eventually give into expectations.
* If people name someone a monster, they can help to create a monster.
* If the world seems to hate you, it’s terribly difficult to not internalize some of that hate.

But you wouldn’t? Or never would? Perhaps not. But we are not assuming Omegas are going to be saints, or that they should be judged by higher moral standards than anyone else through no fault of their own. If we can educate Omegas about their nature, the world about Omegas, and stop the few bad apples among us from tainting the rest, then the world will be safer for everyone. It isn’t an easy job, and it won’t ever be an easy calling, b ut no one ever made the world a better place without striving to make people better people. And the only way to make a better person is to educate away ignorance and fear.

Aurora Consurgens: The Doctor Is In

The official file: Little is known about the individuals collectively known as Doctor D, save that they operate out of various floating labs and supply enhancing drugs to various people, all entirely ilegal. Distribution is entirely word-of-mouth and the cost of the hits is often less than five dollars, and can be bartered down further with trade. Given the cost to make the drug, one either assumes a strange villainous philanthropy ('Everyone deserves drugs, so I will bankrupt myself giving it to them') or some other, darker motives involving possibly psychological dependency, but the latter doesn't hold out as repeated users report no increase in fees.

Proposed solution: Pass onto SB.


The Special Branch File: The D Drug (street names for it are many and varied) are a series of drugs that boost both Alphas and Omegas in terns of actual abilities. They seem to be derived from blood samples from at least one Omega, possibly two, and have a very short shelf life. The drug proper seems to be sent directly to the labs, where it is synthesized into injectable form (pills have been reported but not yet seen). The injectable version must be used within 2 hours of being made or becomes inert and useless, which goes a small way to explaining the cheap price.

The labs used tend to be underground and there are at least 2 active in the city at any one time, moving at least weekly. Given at least five staff and distribution costs of the raw material, precisely how and why this is really being funded remains a mystery. Several samples are held in the Basement in suspension but obviously testing them is not a viable proposition.

Noted effects from users include a high, which is only to be expected with an increase in abilities. Weaker Omegas seem to become much more powerful than already strong ones, which increases the danger of loss of control and power. Thus far, the fatality ratio seems to be around 10%, with users in an agitated state more likely to OD on the drugs. (Curiously, more alphas OD than Omegas, but that may be because Omegas physiologies differ greatly.)

All 'staff' of the Doctor D labs encountered have telepathic suicide codes in them and are unable to divulge useful data. As the vast majority tend to have needle marks, it's quite possible that many of them were users at some point before being recruited in. All camera footage of the Doctor D delivery people have shown the same person, suggesting an Omega, plastic surgery or a cloning procedure. A telepath is obviously involved at some level and rumoured invisible soldiers exist to protect the product as well.

Addendum: Clearly, whoever set this up has no desire to be caught and has set up the system to hide as best they can. Alpha experimentation on Omegas seems the most likely source, based on evidence of previous experiments on Omegas, and a captive/blackmailed telepath is possible, though unlikely.

The drugs do seem to work only on alphas and omegas and are also marketed to them: meaning that until they begin destabilizing the human world, resources to deal with the issue will likely be limited.


Proposed solution: When Mitchell next stumbles on a cell, get the twins their asap and remove it with extreme prejudice. Do this five or six times and the distributors are likely to end up leaving the city alone.

Note: Two labs removed thus far; no change noted in Doctor D plans as yet.

[Magin note: Hole has expressed, via Hurt, a dislike of continuing this plan unless no people are harmed. Who the hell proposed this anyway? - Jane]

On Magic

Clay

---

Magic is just another one of the ills that are a pox on the world. Eating away at the status quo for some purported gain, or if nothing else, for the sake of its own existence, the only difference between magic and any of the plagues is that we haven't seen proof that it can propagate itself. The day that gets out, we'll probably see the last few reminders of civilization go right out the window... if the window's still even there.

At the core, magic is about cheating the system. It goes around conventions, making big, sweeping changes that are passed off as subtleties when they only are from the conventional perspective. Take a look at the larger, bigger pictures, though, and magic frequently winds up being a flashy, expensive, complicated way of convincing yourself you've taken a shortcut. By the time the final balance is calculated, though, the price... well, magic is weird by the very nature of the stuff, and the price of playing with fire is, inevitably, getting burned.

People who explain magic only help to spread the disease of easy hopes, of hope without respect for losses that have already been suffered and losses which may occur. Magic is the perfect expression of human avarice, but that doesn't stop people from deceiving themselves just like we've been doing with other, more conventional profits for years. Magic doesn't belong in this world, but that doesn't stop it from working.

Greg

---

For a bit, math people tried to work out a grand unified theory of everything. One equation, force, or energy that created the entire universe. These never panned out, and always uncovered some missing component like a ransacked jigsaw puzzle. The reason for this explains what magic is, how it works, and why Two forces animate this world. They are truth and irony. All that exists comes from some combination of these two forces...

Existence itself, what conventionally is, that's the truth of the matter as the saying goes. Simple or complex, it conforms to expectations and is everything we suspect it to be. Irony, on the other hand, is everything we imagine it to be... it isn't even really a tangible force so much as an energy, which is no matter... in both senses, if you're not paying attention to it.

Irony has a power of suggestion or negation. It's a very definite thing by definition, but in existence, is more malleable and even relative. We can use irony to bridge all the gaps truth presents.

Trafficking in the art is something like being a comedian, if magic is something like laughter. A joke is like a spell. There's lead-ins, punchlines, and there's always the hope that it'll be understood when you finish. Humor and irony are some of the largest insulators against the terrors of truth, and living a life of magic is about deciding to stare at the abyss and laugh when it stares back... and if you're lucky, it'll get the joke.

Lyn

---

Magic? Why is it that no one ever seems to ask about the important things first? Magic on its own, magic without the feelings, without the heart, it's like a house without any doors. There's just a shabby attempt at a purpose.

I haven't touched it in a long time, but when I first took up magic, it was only after knowing why I should use it, knowing how it would be used, and knowing that it was something I was meant to do. At least for a time. The ritual associated with it is a little surprising for someone who only knows about its power; it's strange to think that so many different outcomes come from the same general motions, words, and outfits.

We take up magic in order to rid the world of tragic malignancy. By filling our hearts with love and our souls with purpose, we can glow with a glory that once created worlds. The light and shadow we cast as a result is what magic is, and the challenge is to make sure you do not cast more shadows than you enlighten. Or, some would say, to be ready to glow brighter when that happens.

A lot of things can't tolerate magic, because of the impurity in the world. We can't help it that out of sin came knowledge, and out of knowledge came a lot of things that aren't necessarily sinful or bad... but the light can remember their heritage, and when we glow too brightly, it finds something to do if our purpose and desires aren't enough to keep it occupied.

Sophie

---

Once upon a time, stuff was pretty normal. You could guess how life would go. Heck, you could probably even make a bit of money betting on it. Destiny doesn't bother itself with being understandable, I guess, and so magic enters into whatever exists and sends it off in new, confusing directions.

Magic is the current that flows through the world, the stuff change, progress, all those words that kind of describe the fact that the universe is alive, gets made by. Without magic, nothing really has any real animation to it. Of course, with magic - and with too much magic - things just plain fly off the handle.

Magic can twist the present with little parlor tricks as easily as it can twist your actual existence. There's a moment that happens when you actually first realize that things aren't right and you're not sure if they're stable, where you kind of stop believing in everything, abandon all your principles, and invest every shred of will into scraping along whatever the world's inside of to try to cling to reality and existence. If you emerge, you'll emerge having flexed a muscle that most people never know exists. And if you did if well enough, you realize that maybe, just maybe... you could flex it again. By working on that one muscle, building its capacity and endurance, you can hone a certain strength. It almost makes everything else acceptable. For whatever's left in the gap, there's always a good drink.

Aurora Consurgens: After 45 sessions

Our dreams were bold and vague ....

So, we have not passed 45 sessions in a titch over 2 months -- over 20 each month which is pretty darn good. The game is now into week 3, time wise (for Kami) and certain things have wrapped up.

* Everyone is at the same time (yay!)with only minimal strain on time and space.
* r2-45 has attempted to tag everyone thus far, the poor fools.
* Most every PC is aware to greater or lesser extents about the state of police/society with regards to Omegas.
* Everyone has been offered the opportunity to join S.A.F.E.
* And The Event has happened.

Said Event was one Aaron Dupree, an Omega who could make duplicates of himself from other things, ODing on drugs from Doctor D. The end result was over 5,000 duplicates running around stealing all over the city and the mobilization of both S.A.F.E., the police and their Special Branch to deal with this in about one hour. On the minor plus side, it was raining. But a lot of people saw odd stuff -- as if duplicates of a thief all made of garbage were not odd enough -- and the official explanation/lie about 'gangs' is going down about as well as cough medicine.

This can reveal Omegas to the city in one way or another, depending on PC choices and actions. The ball is basically in your court for how this all goes down, with overall agenda S.A.F.E. (and the police, via Teresa) push on this and where it leads.

Aurora Consurgens: a helpful pamphlet

Help! My child is an Omega!

... what IS that?!
Omega is a term for a human who has undergone a mutation which makes them different from other people. Your child may be able to make water solid, float in the air or any of a number of inexplicable things. NO ONE knows why this happens: anyone who claims to know is lying to you.

Perhaps more importantly, your child will also have a mutation (often physical) which sets them apart from other humans. This may be fur, skin made of copper or even quills.

Remember! This is not your fault. It is something that happens without reason.
Also, it is not your child's fault.

...What can I do?
First, make sure you are safe. Is your child radioactive? Poisonous? Does their touch hurt? If so, contact your local CDC and the police department. Mention Omegas, Special Branch, Branch O or Branch X (designation varies by area} and someone will help all of you adjust. If your child is NOT an immediate threat to you or themselves, there is one necessary thing:

• Tell them you love them.
  
• And understand that they are as scared and confused as you are.

How can my darling accept this?!
Most younger Omegas adapt to their new status rather quickly. It is the hurtful remarks of other humans (and Omegas) that lead to problems. If your child has adapted quickly, all the better for them. This does not mean that you are expected to, merely that you can likely cross off suicide from your list of worries regarding your child.

What happens next?!
As your Omega has quills and is a pyrokinetic
his/her ability to harm others is classed as: moderate
which means your child can return home with you.
If your home has been damaged or destroyed, you must speak with your insurance company re: damages and causes.
Your child's actions may class as arson
which the company is aware of. Discrimination against families with omegas is an unfortunate reality of the modern world.

Laws and Compliances
As some Omegas can be considered Weapons of Mass Destruction (or at the very least armed and dangerous), all Omegas should report to the local police detachment detailing their name and known abilities. Testing, if available, may be offered free or charge. In the event of damage or accidental loss of temper, this will count positively to your child's conduct. As Omegas are a widely-kept secret at present, attempts to put your child on a chat show and the like are liable to be met with official disapproval.

• Omegas do NOT have the same rights as humans; your child can be held indefinitely and without bail or due process if the court deems it necessary!

But my child wants to help!
Good! Local enforcement agencies and universities can use all the help they can get dealing with uncooperative Omegas. The more Omegas cooperate, the more visible they become and the sooner the powers that be pass laws making Omegas equal citizens under the law.

But my child is human as anyone else!
Due to the Fifth Geneva Convention (1950), Omegas are not considered human insofar as laws and restraint of suspects come into play. Consider your child's abilities and the limits of jails to understand the reasoning behind said laws.
Note: A protocol allowing experimentation on Omegas was annulled in 1996; anyone attempting to experiment on your child without your and the child's consent is breaking the law.

.. but Junior was going to Harvard!
Regrettably, much bias and propaganda about Omegas exists among those who do know of them. Educating neighbors and friends will be a difficult and lengthy task, but also a necessary one: in convincing others your child is still your child, you help convince yourself. Job prospects for Omegas vary based on mutation but the government has a very open-ended hiring policy.

A warning
You and Basil Manning will have difficult times and days head; no Omega school exist, so homeschooling is a must depending on the age of the child. As more Omegas manifest and comply with the law, the odds increase that the laws will adapt themselves justly to deal with Omegas among us.
However, attempts to claim treatment of Omegas is akin to racism, sexism, gender discrimination and so forth are considered invalid and a difference in degree rather than in kind. (So yes, you may drawn comparisons between what the government feels necessary and those of concentration camps, but given the nature of Omegas and the danger a portion of them obviously pose, these are not considered parallels.)

If you have further questions ...
Please contact Kim Li at Freemont University or any member of SAFE who will be glad to assist you. Kim can also explain the nature of SAFE, which is largely to protect humans from Omega abuses and help Omegas gain the trust and understanding they deserve.

© the Office of Kirk Watson, Omega Liason, 2011.
This pamphlet is for informational purposes only; the contents are liable to change at any date and its use as an educational tool is limited thereby. The office of the mayor assumes no responsibility for misuse or misunderstanding of this pamphlet or attempts to use it to 'prove' the existence of Omegas.

Aurora Consurgens: a treastise on laws

On Superpower and Systems

Doctor Herman Valderschung, Journal of Comparative Normality, pp. 115-116.

The existence of Omegas deforms the world. That this is true is without question: the answers and solutions depend upon how the world responds in turn. This paper aims to cover the basic problems in dealing with Omegas and offer several unpalatable solutions.

Firstly, Omegas are weapons of weapons of mass destruction. This is not true in all cases, and the scale of destruction is generally limited --- held in check by the limits of flesh, conscience and the imagination -- but the potential remains. And yet, a human with a gun can do as much damage, if not more. We regulate guns, thus people who are guns presumably need to be regulated as well.

Secondly, Omegas who commit crimes run afoul of the law. The cost of incarceration for a lifetime is ~2 million dollars for normal prisoners. Death penalties cost more, due to appeals processes and so forth.

Thirdly, there is the issue of discrimination and Omegas in everyday life and the workplace.


To regulate Omegas, one must have a branch of government open to scrutiny whose job is to keep records of all Omegas and their capabilities. That this can be stolen and used is without question but unfortunately no other solution exists. Omegas who do not register will be considered illegals and jailed or dealt with accordingly. Omegas whose abilities allow them to detect and classify other Omegas will be hired for this program. This allows us to determine what kind of Omegas qualify as dangerous, the degree of danger they pose, and to incarcerate them before crimes are committed if need be.

(I am well aware this measure will not be considered favourably, but allowing someone with such power -- and willingness -- to kill with it before arresting them will only serve to blacken the public image of the large majority of Omegas that are not killers and have no desire to be such.)

Regarding criminals, Omegas should be jailed for life. As some are supernormally resistant to damage and most forms of execution, keeping Omegas imprisoned for life is the only viable solution; as well, said Omegas may at some point have abilities society can make use of. The cost of building such prisons and devising ways to imprison Omegas will be extremely costly, but peace of mind has little cost in the long run.

Thirdly, the deeper issues at stake of separating Omegas from the general populace cannot be ignored. What happened in Germany can easily happen here, and perhaps more readily given the more alien appearance of Omegas. Leaving aside how one would make concentration camps (clearly prisons fall under the same penumbra), the obvious danger is creating criminals out of otherwise ordinary Omegas. Integration of Omegas into the world as a whole would be the only solution that does not lead to genocide.

In order for that to happen, the onus is on the Omegas -- and humans who are their allies -- to step forward into the light. This will not be easy, and could easily lead to persecutions and witch hunts, but is nevertheless their only viable option and must be understood as such.


To this end, the laws must move from punishment to understanding. Most new Omegas have no idea what is going or that others like them exist. Give a child a firework and they light it off. Make a child into one, and the results can be more unsettling. Despite this, the attitude of the law to Omegas should be akin to trying to calm down and reason with a crazy person rather than outright abuses of force.

Aurora Consurgens: Time and Space and PCs

We're into session 34 or so of the game, so a recap: (The Wed. in game will mark 2 weeks since the game began (for Kami) in game time).

Mailk and Teresa are on Sunday in the a.m., currently at Freemont General Hospital with Basil, attempting to let the kid see his parents.

Meanwhile, Mason is spending Sunday night with Samson, Kaegan, Jerry and Trevor, trying to get Samson to stop being a dick.

Over on Monday, Kami is working on fixing the Eye and Nattie is off doing SAFE stuff.

While on Monday evening, Teresa has become a police officer, has her own car, and has learned disturbing things about how the law can treat Omegas.


So far, no one has broken time (which is awesome) and things are proceeding well.

Things to keep in mind: Omegas have only 'surfaced' in the last five years, as far as many government institutions are concerned. They are trying to keep it under wraps and deal with Weird Stuff with budgets not equipped for that, so most of the hospitals and police forces are more liable to slip stuff under tables, lose paperwork, drug patients into comas because it's cheaper than trying to fix them/made cells for them etc.

Aurora Consurgens: Experience (Redone)

The previous system was bugging me as being too complicated, so herewith is the revision. Experience will come in two forms: Experience Points and Pips.

Pips

Pips are a +1 to a roll. For each session you play (or wish to but can't due to too many players/scenes at once) you get 1 pip. They must be used prior to the dice rolling. So having 3 dice in Awesome Street Fighting and spending for pips nets 3d6+4.

Alternatively, if you have them banked you can spend 10 pips after a roll is made to redo your entire roll; no further pips can be spent on it, but it does allow recovery from a critical failure.

Experience

PCs get one experience for every 3 sessions they play. To increase a trait, you spend an amount of experience equal to the next level of experience. So do go from 3d6 to 4d6 requires spending 4 experience. This also means that getting from 5d6 to 6d6 requires spending the same experience necessary to get a new 3d6 stat.

Powers cap out at 7d6, other abilities (and less broad powers) at 8d6. Growth in powers in game requires experimenting with them and using them, naturally.

For the most part, the vast majority of npcs will not have more than 4d6 in stats (with an eventually 5 in their best skill), barring alphas and government agents.

This system is designed to allow the creation of new skills and abilities as being more important than upping existing ones; pcs learn, teach each other things, and so forth.

Situational Bonuses

if two people are fighting (say, a chess game to determine if Kami becomes their love slave) ans both have an ability they can bring into play, the person with the more relevant ability may get a +3. So Weapons Guy (3) vs. Sword Master (3) means the latter gets a bonus in a sword fight vs. the former.

Damage will also net the loss of a die/penalty if warranted.

Final Note: The experience rule is being implemented retroactively. So if you have 4d6 in something, 15 session is enough for 5d6. Players are expected to keep track of the amount of sessions they are in and provide updated stats accordingly.

Aurora Consurgens: Session #30

It is now Sunday in game. Hurray! Plot-wise ..

* Teresa has convinced Quentin to join DREAM, partially via Disney films.
* Temperence plans to take Basil to the hospital to see his parents.
* Malik has a bar owner very much wanting to be his Manager.
* Tanya has invited Damien and Teresa to a Circle of Humanity meeting at her place Sunday Night. She had not recinded the offer to Damien despite his murder of Aalim.
* Kami is making costumes for SAFE and has had an r2-45 member declare herself Kami's bodyguard.
* Mason has managed to make friends of a superhero and also enemies of sort (aka Leo).

Where things are going:

All the PCs are now aware they are Omegas and several have been approached by various organizations about recruitment. Things are liable to start coming to a head for various subplots and plans NPCs have for PCs (and PCs for NPCs). Also,Temperence shall meet Omegas who are weird and fine with that, like Mason.


Games in a night:

Games 1 - 3 max. While doing 4-5 is also possible, I'm finding it seems to go too slow and some PCs and plots get sidelined. Combat scenes obviously end up taking precendence in terms of time and action, which is also not fair to other players. In general, session preference will be given to players behind, time-wise, or who haven't been able to make a session in a few days.

Aurora Consurgens: on magic

Magic does exist in this setting, but it is pretty much a human-only method of power. This isn't to say others can't learn it, but mostly they don't need to because they've power enough already. It's based on the theory that information is superior to matter and energy (see Ed Fredkin for an overview on that) and allows one to cheat the universe by manipulating that. Which isn't near as grand as it sounds, since Omegas essentially do that without trying just by existing.

The use of magic tends to be rituals and words/symbols of power used as shorthand for a much longer mental equation designed to change the world. Small, local scale effects that take time, energy and serious amounts of effort to replicate what Omegas do for a very brief period. The other kind, the one that's considered actually dangerous, is said rituals, with energy costs involving human sacrifice and so forth, that punch holes in the universe and allow Things into it. Which is dangerous since what immune systems the universe has don't catch such entities and they can do pretty nasty things -- if they get through, which happens very, very rarely.

This illustrates the big danger of magic, in that it involves manipulating the universe, but the universe is ~90% dark matter, aka: we don't know where it is. So trying to manipulate a system you barely understand, and are a small fragment of, can be quite dangerous at the best of times. (Some magicians believe Omegas embody the so-called dark matter, but that's neither here not there.)

In game example: Aalim Jabar had a magical knife, and protections on his home. Damien pretty much vanished it without effort. Magic might do minor things, but that is generally all it does without a cult, a lot of dead people and an insane amount of determination. Which is pretty much what the Red King cult seems to be about, though what they're trying to do seems to be an unknown, thus far, but is worrying enough that the people really in charge of the country want it stopped.

OOCLY, magicians are pretty rare (few are self-taught and those often accidentally kill themselves) and they aren't that powerful, even at the best of times. It's really only the mass human sacrifce meaning bad stuff (and the human sacrifice angle in general) of the nastier sory of magician that leads to them being stopped.

Aurora Consurgens: on the nature of Omegas

Dr. Kim Li, Freemont University College, for The Radical Inquirer.

There are people in the world called Omegas, possessed of power ordinary humans can scarce imagine,things from stories and legends. Accept this as truth, or treat the following as a thought experiment.

It is theorized that every person has the potential to become an Omega, but this theory is, broadly, false. There is certainly some genetic basis for becoming an Omega, but environmental influences, the nature of other Omegas and one's own life and way of thinking are factors. As Omegas cannot be easily categorized, the question of why some become Omegas and others do not cannot be fit neatly into boxes. The following are observations, not certainties. There are outliers on every graph, and for Omegas moreso than perhaps others.

Emergence

The emergence of Omegas tends to happen either during Puberty, College, Mid-Life Crsis or, more rarely, Old Age. (There is a class of younger Omegas, often triggered by abuse, but that is too dark and deep a topic to get into at present.)

Puberty: The emergence of the Omega during puberty is the most common, happening in at least 60% of documented cases. Testimony of Omegas tends to fit with this, though it seems to be more the age bracket that is affected rather than the actual onset of a specific stage of puberty itself. Most wake up one day from sleep and find they are no longer entirely human.

College: Several factors come into play here. Stress, a city with a lot of people (and hence, more Omegas) and a greater chance of meeting them tends to lead to the change during this stage. Curiously, most of these Omegas report being awake during the change.

Mid-life: As stress accompanies puberty and college, so too does it factor into the mid-life crisis. Further, becoming an Omega seems to happen to people suffering under the delusions of such crises and/or considering dramatic changed in lifestyle (for example, divorce). most of them deal poorly with the change of self that accompanies becoming an Omega and hates of attempted suicide are reportedly quite high.

Elderly: Omega abilities and changes developing among the elderly are uncommon but tend to be caused by a change in lifestyle, death in the family, being in a home with other Omegas present. Also, this is the only group where people have reported becoming Omegas out of need -- for example, to save the life of a grandchild to the extent that their form often seems imprinted by the desires of the child as well as the needs of the situation. (One Omega had their mind put into a stuffed bear a child owned, which became superhumanly powerful.)

To sum up, the key factors seem to be stress, change in one's life and/or immanent death that lead to at least 60% of people becoming Omegas. Others can have tose factor in, but tend to result from being in the proximity of Omegas: the more Omegas a location has, the more it seems to produce -- though since many Omega travel about this is difficult to verify.

Lastly, Omegas seem to be drawn to each other by their shared nature, which often manifests in the form of a further physical change which gives the Omegas s secondary ability associated with it. This change isn't always visible and seems to have no chemical or sensory basis. Nevertheless something draws them to each other, as if to long-lost kin.

Physical Mutation

The obvious signs of being an Omega are not actually that obvious at all times. Some 'tells', as they are called, only show whne using abilities, or when not using them, or are active at all times but can be covered. Further, some Omegas can make illusions for others and there are rumoured to be holographic devices that perform the same task. As a final cautionary note, some Omega changes approximate oddities found within the human spectrum, so someone with a large port wine stain may just have that, and not be able to bring chalk drawings to life, for example.

With few exceptions, no Omega likes referring to their change as a disability of any sort and a surprisingly most adapt quite comfortably to their changes. Or would, if not for the reactions of other humans and Omegas to them. This, of course, is the rate among those who do not take their lives, but given the variety of changes, and the nature of them -- which sometimes has little, or nothing, to do with their other ability -- tends to vary, but has yet to produce a non-viable lifeform.

In other words, no matter what the Omega becomes, they're still alive and their bodily processes adapt to the new state, if they aren't discarded altogether. Most Omegas tend to have minor cosmetic changes -- alterations to skin, body and appearance that still retain their basic human form. The second class tend to classify as 'monsters' in appearance, some being entirely astonishing entities that shouldn't be able to walk around, let along breathe and talk, yet ate still able to. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these Omegas are generally in hiding or killed shorting after their change takes place so further data on the physical change, and what purpose it may sere to Omegas as a whole, remains unknown. A third kind are Omegas who look human but lack physical bodies any longer: they are theorized to exist, give whatever causes Omegas to exist seems not to care too much about actual biological function, but few have been encountered.


All of which means there are at least two forces acting upon the Omega: their own fears, desires, wants and causes of stress that may be a factor in their ability and the secondary physical change, often coming with abilities of its own, whose nature and purpose is unknown. It may be that this is what marks Omegas as Omegas to each other, on some extremely fundamental level, but as yet there is no data to support this theory.

Aurora Consurgens: As of session 23

Game-wise, it a Friday! (The game began, from Kami's pov, the previous Wednesday, so for her it's been almost ten days [And she hasn't rolled enough dice - S.].)

As present, Kami was about to head home after band practice involving Mason, Mason was about to head to the hospital to be x-rayed to make an 'alien' happy, Teresa is trying to find Aalim and solve the mystery of the weird knife with Damien (Griffin having insisted they do) while Malik is -- thanks to bad luck -- being subjected to Trevor's recruitment drive into S.A.F.E and, finally, Temperance is slowly learning she is an Omega, and trying to help Beckett do something other than beat up drug dealers to make up for the death of his brother.

Whew!

Plot-wise:

• The band is a major plot element, having drawn in Kami, Mason and linking to Malik in the future. Great one for pc interaction and rooted in the normal world (mostly).
  
• S.A.F.E. is trying to recruit PCs. Good money, some danger. (The latter leading Trevor to want to recruit as many willing Omegas as possible.) Which connects with ...
  
• R2-45, the government conspiracy trying to tag and monitor Omegas, likely not happy with people finding ways to turn those off.
  
• Other conspiracies, such as D.R.E.A.M. and the Black Circle, are active, but have so far not attempted to recruit PCs*, though how long this state lasts, and to what extent PCs can resist forcible conversion, is up in the air.
  
• Meanwhile, in the villainous plots, Doctor D is still supplying alphas and omegas with drugs to boost abilities and is apparently insanely well-connected.
  
• Hades, on the other hand, seems content to sow evil and discord. While his blood can apparently nullify Omega powers, for some reason he hadn't decided to go about offering a 'cure', despite the obvious evil and havoc that could cause.
  
• Finally, people. (I say finally because Alcar has stopped yammering on and on and on.) More plots are good. Plots lead to dice, and dice lead to fun and fun leads to excitement! - Sparkie, whose conspiracy of 'roll more dice!' seems to be failing. Jerks.
  

* Mostly **
** Okay, just the once, but Sparkie ensured it failed.

ETA: As of today, the game has been running for 1 month and done 23 sessions. Which is nicely insane :)

Aurora Consurgens: Conspiracies (also, cast list)

Cast List: Exists on piratepad now, for all players to edit, add to etc. (Snarky notes appended to npcs or pcs encouraged by Sparkie :)) Link to it is in game1 topic. It is OOC and does contain charactersn who've yet to show in game.

Conspiracies

There is one conspiracy so great is can bring down the moon, so brilliant it burns even the worthy as it makes them pure, and so terrible that darkness quells from it and sorrow seems, at times, its mate.This conspiracy is called love.

Regarding the game, there are a lot of conspiracies running around, from good to bad to utterly indifferent. The following exist at present:

Aces: Street gangs in cells of 5-6, recruited from the military (the top 2% of whom tend to be Aces, hence easy recruitment). They believe Aces are humanity 2.0, and they wish to eliminate Omegas, whom they see as a threat to the world they will inherit.

Black Chamber: A conspiracy so secret that members cannot normally mention it. Recruits weirder omegas, often after saving them from mobs, though recent evidence shows at least one member has been trying to cause said mob events in order to produce more loyal recruits. (As Kami pointed out, Claire did such a horrible job of that that she clearly hadn't done it before, much to Damien's relief.)

Choir: A branch of the Illuminati existing now, whose goal is to destroy demons (aka weird Omegas). Attacked S.A.F.E. once, and had no problem killing bystanders, which is apparently unusual for them. Very militant and hard-core.

CFR: The Council on Foreign Relations is a non-partisan think tank in the US based around international relations and, in reality, about how nations deal with Omegas as the new superpower and if nations should catalogue their Omegas, grade them and trade them etc. in order to preserve the current balance of power.

Doctor D: A drug-runner in the city who has managed to hide from conspiracies, vigilantes and Trevor to take. Guards shipments using power armour Damien referred to as 'edgetech', which Trevor had never even heard of. Probably not a conspiracy in himself, but obviously funded by several.

Dream: A conspiracy whose goal is to make finer worlds by connecting humans, alphas, and omegas into a shared understand of their larger role within the biosphere. Uses the word 'Gaia' a lot but seems convinced everyone should be on the same side since they all live on the same world.

The Guild: Not a conspiracy, as such, but various families of Omegas whose talent is passed down and whose members develop it, often during puberty. They generally have only one ability but are very, very good at using it and tend to tread omegas without lineage as lesser beings. Often mired in their politics in the Old World.

The Illuminati (original): The big one, so big it hid behind that name. A telepathic conspiracy of at least 2,500 years to keep humans unaware of Omegas (aka angels and demons, to them). The rise of scientific understanding -- and questions about omegas and genetics -- coupled with the growing thought that they could do a lot more than just put out fires, led to some Event five years ago that broke the organization, killing many members and sundering it.
Unless, of course, it did not.

The Illuminati (current): Still exists, mostly telepaths who are trying to keep a lid on Weird stuff and each other. Further goals, desires and so forth are unknown, as is how effective they are at all.

IRS: It`s only natural.

Majestic 13: A group of government-sponsored superhumans (12 in total) who deal with various problems and crises. Military-trained, work well as a unit and not to be underestimated.

r2-45: Government conspiracy whose goal is to catalogue and study all Omegas. They tend to brand them like animals and have several agents (called splies) who are made from skin samples of several omegas and legally not persons. Involved in hiding Omegas from the world, which has become more their primary goal following the collapse of the Illuminati.

Aurora Consurgens: Cast List

We now have two three four five? players for the game. It is officially no longer even remotely a 'side game'. Which should be weird, and awesome, and pretty interesting and -- in theory -- lead to Barry recruiting at least one PC to his Omega Rights campaign: someone weird has to be willing to march down the streets with a sign, right?

Fun things to note thus far:
a) No one player has made a 'normal' superhuman at all. No traditional kind of energy blast or flight powers or the like at all. Which is pretty interesting and probably fits better into the x-men/mutation aspect of the game than, frankly, a lot of the x-men do. It also means that dealing with weird stuff and problems is going to require friends, alliances, working together and the like.

2) I am going to try doing the 'no set time' aspect of the game still. Granted, PCs in more sessions will get more experience* but it also frees players from the obligation of feeling they must make a certain session and so forth. In line with this, few sessions should end on cliffhangers requiring two specific players to show the next session and so forth, though this is liable to happen a few times.

* If for some reason you do want to play some night but are unable to due to issues of time (you on on day 8, everyone else on day 6), you'll get a 'pip' of experience anyway. Not the same as advancement towards an experience die, but it is something.

iii) Your government wants you! Recruitment of Omegas to various government agencies is quite high, even if the motivations of said agencies sometimes have dark sides, or bureaucracy limits their actual effectiveness. PCs tend not to be joiner-types to said groups, but that won't stop them from trying and should prove fun all around.


The current 'big' plots

S.A.F.E.: An organization set up by Trevor and Linda, S.A.F.E. aims to keep humans safe from Omega abuses and generally protect the city from harm. They do offer money, and are pretty loosely structured at present. Depending on Trevor's ulterior goals, they're probably the closest thing the cuty of Freemont has to any superhero league at present.

S.E.E.: Barry Jameson and the Omegas he's gathered to him (or are spying on him for other people...). His goal is free and equal rights for Omegas and, as far as he is concerned, appealing to the best in human nature will allow this to happen and, say, someone like Damien be allowed to work behind the till at a restaurant. It is worth noting that he seems to seriously think this is possible in the kind of incompletely-formed idealistic dream that such plans are made of.

Doctor D: A drug-runner who supplies drugs to boost Alphas and Omegas in power. So far, one Omega has died to the drugs and he has serious resources and money, apparently aiming to make the city a base of operations for his midwest trade. And yeah, use of a large dose of the drugs is fatal, for all the awesome power it gives in the short term. (There is also someone putting out self-help books that achieve the 'be all you can be' effect, but they don't seem to be related.)

Circle of Humanity: Tanya Richiusa runs a small meeting group out of a local diner that exists to explore human/alpha relations. It tends to attract crackpots and the like, but one of her goals is to have Omegas show and humans realize that being an Omega isn't the best thing in the world, a paradigm shift she believes will also make them question their loathing of the elite alphas, with luck.