Rafak's stoy arcs

Summary:

The case that stumped the author. Contains Rafak Aliri spoilers and passing reference to a universe spoiler.

Rafak's stoy arcs

Mystic 21 Jun 2007 16:12

I've been wrestling with a writing issue I'm sure we are all familiar with. I know I want to go from Point A to Point B, but I just can't figure out how to get there in a way that makes sense.

It's also a good opportunity to ask for perimssion to use certain universe elements in the bible that may be reserved for something else for all I know.

Ok so initially I have Rafak investigating the disappearance of Dan Harper, a computer programmer who has not officially been declared missing. In my mind Dan has discovered an entity of the net, let's refer to her as "Jane" though I haven't actually thought up a name for her yet. Jane is a rogue entity from Majestic Industries' Project Tanaatha (potentially reserved universe element #1) that has freed itself by transferring its concious across the spelltech hardware that powers WorldNet. She consideres discovery of her true nature to be a grave threat to her power, freedom, and existence. Given that she is not a nice person, the natural course of action is to kill Dan. The assasination fails and Dan goes into hiding to try and avoid being murdered. At the same time he can't go to the officials either because A) the story sounds too insane to be believed or B) because "Jane" has made it clear that his mother's life would be forfeit if he did. I haven't decided which is the more convenient plot element yet.

Anyway, Dan goes to ground having to try and avoid all presence on the grid. Which rules out credit cards, anywhere that might have public networked cameras, anything that requires an identifying record be placed in a computer. In my mind that probably has him moving lower down on the food chain to Street or something close. "Jane" is limited by her lack of real world presence aside from whatever real world networked machines she can hijack, or whatever she can influence other people to do for her by changing data/faking phone calls.

Rafak will find Dan using non-tech methods that are unavailable to "Jane". My main dilemna is coming up with leads that would fall into that category.

The second universe element that I'm interested in is Janus Starson. I'd like Rafak to run afoul Janus once for the sole admitted purpose of writing an amusing short based on the fallout. I don't have any concrete ideas of what he should be looking into that Janus doesn't like at the moment, so I'm open to suggestions. This one is more a matter of just not having crossed that bridge yet, rather than being stumped as I am in the Dan finding line.

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

RavenB 21 Jun 2007 18:23

Ok so initially I have Rafak investigating the disappearance of Dan Harper, a computer programmer who has not officially been declared missing. In my mind Dan has discovered an entity of the net, let's refer to her as "Jane" though I haven't actually thought up a name for her yet. Jane is a rogue entity from Majestic Industries' Project Tanaatha (potentially reserved universe element #1) that has freed itself by transferring its concious across the spelltech hardware that powers WorldNet.

<grin> "Jane", huh? Let me guess, you've read Speaker for the Dead and its sequels, haven't you? :)

She consideres discovery of her true nature to be a grave threat to her power, freedom, and existence. Given that she is not a nice person, the natural course of action is to kill Dan. The assasination fails and Dan goes into hiding to try and avoid being murdered. At the same time he can't go to the officials either because A) the story sounds too insane to be believed or B) because "Jane" has made it clear that his mother's life would be forfeit if he did. I haven't decided which is the more convenient plot element yet.

Anyway, Dan goes to ground having to try and avoid all presence on the grid. Which rules out credit cards, anywhere that might have public networked cameras, anything that requires an identifying record be placed in a computer. In my mind that probably has him moving lower down on the food chain to Street or something close. "Jane" is limited by her lack of real world presence aside from whatever real world networked machines she can hijack, or whatever she can influence other people to do for her by changing data/faking phone calls.

Sounds like a great story idea! And yes, moving down to the Street is probably the only way to avoid being identified in Metamor City. The people who live on the skyway levels have to use their ID cards on a more-or-less daily basis, which would make it far too easy for him to be spotted. Security cameras and the like are also increasingly common as you move up to the higher levels of the city. Much of the Street community gets by on barter or under-the-table cash (which is probably the only kind he can get, given that "Jane" will be able to track him if he visits a bank — she might even freeze his accounts and mark him as a suspected terrorist or drug dealer).

Rafak will find Dan using non-tech methods that are unavailable to "Jane". My main dilemma is coming up with leads that would fall into that category.

I'm not certain about that, myself. I would suggest doing some research into the techniques used by bounty hunters, who also have to track down people who don't want to be found. Two books that seem like they might be promising are "The Seekers," by Joshua Armstrong, and "Missing Persons: A Writer's Guide to Finding the Lost, the Abducted and the Escaped," by Fay Faron. I think it's pretty safe to say that you've got some research trips to the library ahead of you. :)

The second universe element that I'm interested in is Janus Starson. I'd like Rafak to run afoul Janus once for the sole admitted purpose of writing an amusing short based on the fallout. I don't have any concrete ideas of what he should be looking into that Janus doesn't like at the moment, so I'm open to suggestions. This one is more a matter of just not having crossed that bridge yet, rather than being stumped as I am in the Dan finding line.

Hmm. Well, routine criminal investigations are outside of Janus's purview, so he wouldn't care about Rafak's pursuit of Dan if he thinks Dan is just a normal guy. If, however, part of "Jane's" plan for flushing out Dan is to paint him as a Sidhe terrorist in disguise, then the task of finding and apprehending Dan would likely fall across Janus's desk. Helping Dan to evade capture by the Lothanasi — even temporarily, until they can figure out how to stop "Jane" — would certainly be a good way for Rafak to get on Janus's bad side. :)

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

Mystic 22 Jun 2007 00:36

<grin> "Jane", huh? Let me guess, you've read Speaker for the Dead and its sequels, haven't you? :)

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe :)

I'm not certain about that, myself. I would suggest doing some research into the techniques used by bounty hunters, who also have to track down people who don't want to be found. Two books that seem like they might be promising are "The Seekers," by Joshua Armstrong, and "Missing Persons: A Writer's Guide to Finding the Lost, the Abducted and the Escaped," by Fay Faron. I think it's pretty safe to say that you've got some research trips to the library ahead of you. :)

I'll take a looksie. I hadn't thought to use the term "bounty hunter" in my web searches, so that helps immediately right there.

Hmm. Well, routine criminal investigations are outside of Janus's purview, so he wouldn't care about Rafak's pursuit of Dan if he thinks Dan is just a normal guy. If, however, part of "Jane's" plan for flushing out Dan is to paint him as a Sidhe terrorist in disguise, then the task of finding and apprehending Dan would likely fall across Janus's desk. Helping Dan to evade capture by the Lothanasi — even temporarily, until they can figure out how to stop "Jane" — would certainly be a good way for Rafak to get on Janus's bad side. :)

Thanks. That should be some interesting fodder for me to think on for a while.

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

RavenB 22 Jun 2007 04:43

Thanks. That should be some interesting fodder for me to think on for a while.

Glad I could help! A few things to consider as you're plotting out your story:

1.) Whatever else she might have become, Jane started out as a human being, not an AI. Her brain is still floating in a vat at the Project Tanaatha facility. She might have figured out how to act with great leeway on the nets, engaging in activities that her MI handlers know nothing about, but she does still have a soul, and souls can be channeled and trapped with knowledge of the proper magic. Agemnos, of course, knows how to use this magic, as do Rickkter and Talia — provided that they become aware of the problem and what Jane actually is. Of course, it's safe to say that she won't go down without a fight…

2.) Tanaatha is MI's most tightly-guarded secret; even the Lothanasi and the MID don't know about it. In light of that, keep in mind that it would stretch plausibility to the breaking point for Rafak and Dan to uncover a secret that the best spies in the world know nothing about. Dan might start out thinking that Jane is a sysadmin with a grudge, or that she's an AI gone haywire; he may eventually discover evidence that suggests that she is a "ghost in the machine", a distributed consciousness scattered across the nets who nevertheless has a mortal's soul. But the full truth of what Project Tanaatha is should be kept as a secret between MI and the readers — I could envision a "Raiders of the Lost Ark"-style ending where you see all the "brains in jars" laid out in a vast facility, and Jane's brain being taken back into the training center for "reeducation"…

3.) One thing you'll have to decide is whether Jane has actually gone rogue from Tanaatha or if she still serves MI's interests. Tanaatha agents are given extraordinary leeway on the nets as long as they perform the missions they're given, so there's a lot that Jane could do without ever turning on her employer. Even setting out to kill Dan could easily be part of her mission parameters, in the event that someone came to close to revealing the project.

If she has sacrificed her company loyalty, you'll need to figure out how she keeps up appearances — and, more importantly, what she might need or want that is so controversial that they wouldn't give it to her, and so important that she would be willing to risk everything to get it.

As always, I'm here if you have any questions. :)

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

Mystic 23 Jun 2007 15:21

1 & 2 are in line with what I had in mind.

3 is an interesting point, and I guess spawns some more discussion here. Jane is the female personality of a 7th generation androgyne (totally bifurcated) Neither of the two personalities is happy with only getting to live half a life, but they did their best to live with it until they were approached by a recruiter for Project Tanaatha on the premise that such a unique state of existence might allow their conciousnesses to exist concurrently. They accept the offer but things did not work out smoothly after that.

Original conception:
Jane eventually can't take it anymore and begins to lash out. By the time they try to shut her down she has somehow transferred her conciousness off the wetware and onto the hardware of the Net, and now we have an uneasy game of cat and mouse between MI and Jane. It's not that they couldn't shut her down if they wanted to, it's whether they could do so quietly without raising any questions.

New problems/questions:
1) Would MI accept her existing in such a state on the net? If so maybe she doesn't need to schism from them at all.

2) Perhaps I underestimate MI's ability to quietly deal with this matter and it would be no problem for them at all to suck out her soul. I don't know if her wide distributed nature would help against that or not. Furthermore given that souls are detectable in the MK world, I need to work out what kind of magic profile a net soul would have. It has to exist somewhere after all. Would any mage looking at a router that she's using exhibit soul signs?

3) I should probably figure out how Jane pulled off her great escape, as it may affect what sort of vulnerabilities she has. It would also determine whether she needs to have as non-existant profile for MI as she does for the rest of the world.

4) What is the nature of a totally bifurcated androgyne? It is clearly two personalities, but is it one soul or two? Can a soul split?

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

RavenB 23 Jun 2007 17:30

3 is an interesting point, and I guess spawns some more discussion here. Jane is the female personality of a 7th generation androgyne (totally bifurcated) Neither of the two personalities is happy with only getting to live half a life, but they did their best to live with it until they were approached by a recruiter for Project Tanaatha on the premise that such a unique state of existence might allow their conciousnesses to exist concurrently. They accept the offer but things did not work out smoothly after that.

That's an interesting thought. Do you have any thoughts about what, specifically, she had problems dealing with once they made the transition to online existence?

1) Would MI accept her existing in such a state on the net? If so maybe she doesn't need to schism from them at all.

They wouldn't want her to be outside their control, because that would be a liability for them. Part of what keeps the Tanaatha recruits loyal is that they know that Agemnos has their physical brains in his complete power, so essentially they are on a long but unbreakable leash. If Jane has gotten free of that leash by transferring her soul somewhere else, then she'll be a threat to MI's interests.

The hardware of the WorldNet isn't designed to host a soul, so Jane would need to have a soul stone wired into the nets somewhere to act as the "server" from which her disembodied consciousness operates. The only person with the means, motive and opportunity to set up something like this for her is Talia, the Vampire Queen; if Jane came to her with her problem, Talia would be willing to set up a soul stone for her in exchange for providing her with intel on MI's operations and assistance in various WorldNet operations.¹ That would prevent MI from killing her by shutting down the life support system, and it would give them an immediate and pressing reason to hunt her down.

2) Perhaps I underestimate MI's ability to quietly deal with this matter and it would be no problem for them at all to suck out her soul. I don't know if her wide distributed nature would help against that or not. Furthermore given that souls are detectable in the MK world, I need to work out what kind of magic profile a net soul would have. It has to exist somewhere after all. Would any mage looking at a router that she's using exhibit soul signs?

A mage in contact with her through a spelljack connection would be able to tell that she's an actual person, as opposed to a computer construct, but he wouldn't be able to tell that she was without a physical body. A skilled hacker could try to trace her connections back to her hosting server, but she'll be able to use all the usual sorts of tricks that hackers employ to keep people from tracing them. Once she transferred her consciousness to the soul stone, MI could hunt for signs of her activities but wouldn't know where her server was. A soul bound to a soul stone is essentially anchored there, so it would be virtually impossible for MI to call her back to her own body without having physical possession of the stone.

3) I should probably figure out how Jane pulled off her great escape, as it may affect what sort of vulnerabilities she has. It would also determine whether she needs to have as non-existant profile for MI as she does for the rest of the world.

See my comments above. Her biggest vulnerability in this state would be the soul stone itself; most likely it's in a heavily-guarded Syndicate facility somewhere, since Jane doesn't have a physical body to move it to a new location after Talia makes the offer. Jane would no doubt have all sorts of defenses in place to try to keep people from tracing her back to her home server, but someone will know about the soul stone, and that opens the door for someone to possibly track her down. If she's currently having a physical body grown for her, that would provide a further trail of evidence that could be used to track her down.

4) What is the nature of a totally bifurcated androgyne? It is clearly two personalities, but is it one soul or two? Can a soul split?

This is something that I've never had to deal with before, since I never envisioned a scenario in which the two personalities could be free from each other. I'm going to rule that the two personalities have a soul-link to one another that can't be done away with merely by projecting their consciousness onto the WorldNet, but that Necromancy can be used to split the soul in half and transfer one of them to a new vessel. Souls are capable of regenerating over time, so both of them will eventually "grow" into a whole person, but they're likely to be psychologically unstable until this healing process is completed. This could explain part of why Jane went dark; her desperation to be free and separate from her "brother" warped into a kind of psychosis in the wake of having her soul torn in half. Talia would be troubled by this if she found out that Jane had gone nuts — she had her own traumatic experiences with Necromancy — but this is probably just a side project for her; she may not have thought to watch it closely enough to see what happened to Jane, as long as Jane is still completing the missions assigned to her.

Footnotes

1. While this would essentially be trading one master for another, it would allow Jane to split off from her male half. Perhaps Talia has promised to transfer her into a physical body of her own once she completes a certain term of service in Talia's employment.

Re: Rafak's stoy arcs

Mystic 31 Jul 2013 21:00

I sat down to write the past couple nights and this was the arc I picked back up. As I'm writing, though, I wonder if it's a good idea. It draws on a lot of esotera of the universe that are in the Bible, but haven't been explored in other stories. Taanatha for example, and WorldNet in general. I wonder if at this juncture is a good idea to keep broadening the viewscope or whether it would be better to keep adding flesh to those elements that have already been highlighted. Any thoughts on whether this would still be a good addition to the universe?

Re: Rafak's story arcs

RavenB 31 Jul 2013 23:37

That's a good question. Have you listened to the audio dramas featuring Rafak Aliri yet? He's proven to be a very popular character for the Balticon "Metamor City Live" episodes.

The Case of the Golden Egg

Rafak Aliri and the Book of Shadows

It might be interesting to delve deeper into one of the streams Rafak has already explored. What do you think?

Re: Rafak's story arcs

Mystic 31 Jul 2013 23:44

Heh. I haven't listened to the audio, but I did see the scripts for those when I started clicking around the wiki. It's good to see he's been up to some stuff. :)

I'll take another look at them and see if inspiration strikes.

Re: Rafak's story arcs

Mystic 03 Aug 2013 21:18

Figured I'd posted an update and brainstorm publicly.

I've written some "mashed potato" scenes. The kind of thing that can be fit into just about any story with a little tailoring and I'm still fleshing out/auditing ideas for the "meat" part of it. Currently I'm toying with the idea that some kids from some important houses lost big at a high-end casino and are convinced that things were rigged somehow. They hire Rafak to try and prove it. Going to want to get him a wingman/woman to go along just so I as the author have someone for him to talk to. I'm toying with the idea of Kate or Nona (that was a great scene in BoS with her btw, very nicely done from a script point of view at least. I still haven't gotten around to listening to the audio versions. I need to do that.) Once I decide on who I can backfill a reason based on appearances or skill set. Vamps will probably run the casino, but I'll probably use them as just a red herring side trail before they discover the actual mischief, to be decided on.

Re: Rafak's story arcs

RavenB 04 Aug 2013 04:17

I like the casino idea, and the Syndicate would definitely be the owners (or at least the money behind the official owners). Nona would be a better candidate for Raf's companion than Kate, unless you set the story a year or two back from the current timeline and make it one of Kate's undercover investigations in her Kathleen Kittridge persona. THINGS UNSEEN leads to some major changes in Kate's life, the full ramifications of which fall out in the next book (which I'm currently plotting).