Prehistory 101 [TWS]

Venture forth into the darkness.

Venture forth into the darkness.

You venture forth into the darkness.

Slowly, in front of you, a light begins to glow. A faint, cool breeze touches your cheek, entwines in the scraggly hairs of your beard, and dashes off, gagging at the filth in there.

Suddenly, the fluorescent lights above you flicker on, followed by the next set down the wide corridor, and the next, and the next, and the next.

The last one illuminates a sign, a prominent crack in the wall splitting the gedan and ken.

Under it are several doors, all dark and forbidding except for one; the exception has a weakly glowing blue light underneath it.

You make your way there. For a second, you hesitate. You barely understand what's about to happen. Fear, your old friend, entwines his serpentine body about your heart and whispers horror stories of the monsters lurking in the light. You welcome his presence. You know his touch every day, and you never complain when he takes what he wants from you.

But...

Curiosity. She is beautiful. From the tips of her feline ears to the twining, twisting tail that carefully nudges Fear's familiar tendrils aside, winding her own path around your puzzled, disheartened heart, she is beautiful. She takes your other ear, and sings a soft, sweet melody: the song of understanding, the song of knowledge. The song of a lake's reflective clarity where Fear's raking of the surface and muddying of the bottom has subsided - no, been defeated by a long forgotten urge of humanity's. Curiosity. She is its totem, as Fear is of fear, and her voice, smooth and silver and velvet, guides your hand as you pull the door open along rusty, complaining tracks and step into the little gedanken chamber. Your fingers tremble. But not with fear. With anticipation.

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Joseph (bb3421[jijj17]1421bi):

[memscan...]

Lesson Plan: June 12th, 2042 - Commissioner Brown's House Party [UIN009910|d1|oV]

Welcome to today's gedankenexperiment. As this is your first session, a brief tutorial is in order.

Tutorial

A gedankenexperiment (lit. thought experiment) is a form of simulation designed to train students of practical prehistory. A historically understood event is presented in immersive simulation to the student, to be prehistorically simulated in an experimental manner. Following a set number of world-line deviations, the simulation will be locked, presenting a grade, consequent prehistory, desired prehistory and final history.

Commissioner Brown's House Party [UIN009910|d1|oV]

You are SAMUEL BLACKBURN, STEEL MAGNATE. You have been invited to COMMISSIONER HAROLD BROWN'S ANNUAL HOUSE PARTY, a highly prestigious black-tie affair. At the party, billed as one of the great international events of the 2040s, representatives of many governments will mingle with those of high society, creating a gigantic PREHISTORICAL NEXUS.

You are not in fact SAMUEL BLACKBURN, even though the scanners identify you as such when you pass through security checks. Samuel Blackburn does not, in any actual fact, exist. Other than a collection of bits in a global database, a comprehensive record of witnesses and relationships, the steel manufacturing giant known as Blackburn Industries and your physical presence, you might say that Blackburn may as well be a complete and utter fiction. And since every piece of evidence there (excluding your presence) is a fabrication, you'd be right!

You are in fact one of many COVERT AGENTS of the PREHISTORICAL ORGANIZATION, here to direct the future as it needs to turn out. 'Today creates Tomorrow', as they say. And at the moment, the future looks awfully dire, especially with the thing in -

"Champagne, sir?" A carefully modulated voice from a carefully modulated humanoid WAITERBOT, patiently standing by your side with glasses balanced on its outstretched tray.

"Thanks." You pick up a glass of CHAMPAGNE from a helpful waiterbot and cast a gaze like a fishing line across the semi-crowded hall. You spot some likely targets to start in on.

THE LADY ARDEFINE - With her red, pampered frilly dress and simpering attitude, you'd never guess that she's the power woman behind some of the biggest fish in the sea. Not a big player in
politics or economics, but in behind-the-scenes puppeteering? You bet she knows someone who knows someone who knows something about someone's wife. Anything she decides? Probably a new world line right there. Fortunately (or unfortunately) she's awful stubborn, and doesn't do anything for nothing.

SENATOR KILROY - A young man, just starting into politics, but definitely going places. His decisions could hold some weight, especially down the line, but it wouldn't look good at all if he was seen talking to a multibillionaire corporate investor like you. Which...kind of limits his choice of conversation partner, to be honest. Still, maybe you could send him a message or get a private word in later.

THE SHEIK AL-KHARIZARD EN AL BINBUN - Not a real sheik. He's Arabic by blood, but so out of touch with his culture that he may as well be from New York. He's both an oil magnate and the current head of the United Arabic Alliance, so he may as well run what's left of the Emirates. Rumor has it he won't be coming to many more of these parties, what with the world hurtling towards peak oil. He certainly looks nervous underneath that blanket of a hat.

>_

> Approach Lady Ardefine, casually flirt, if you gain her interest then you've gained the interest of everyone there.

Give the Sheik a lot of Champagne, if he's already nervous maybe it'll make him tell you things

...Especially with the thing in what? This sounds important, and we've got future president Kilroy here. Only flirt with Lady Ardefine if you think you've got the skills to pull it off. She sounds hard to impress.

> Approach Lady Ardefine, casually flirt, if you gain her interest then you've gained the interest of everyone there.

Not quite true. Samuel Blackburn and a lot of the party here is nouveau riche, whereas the Ardefine family dates back to before the turn of the millenium. It's said they were one of the few aristrocracies to come out of the dotcom bubble back then. Ancient History. Besides, 'interest' does not guarantee 'leverage'.

...Especially with the thing in what? This sounds important, and we've got future president Kilroy here. Only flirt with Lady Ardefine if you think you've got the skills to pull it off. She sounds hard to impress.

Kazakhstan. Well, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, what's left of Kyrgyzstan. Not that there's much there anymore in all three of them anyway. Nasty business. Nasty, nasty business, not least because of the uranium.

"I'm of the opinion that the Kazakh-Uzbek Conflict would have gone very much differently," you mention offhandedly as you pass the cluster surrounding the Lady, "if it hadn't been for the intervention of the Kyrgyzstanis."

"Oh, my dear Samuel! Do come here and tell us more." The Lady Ardefine's voice has a surprising heft to it - in another time and age she could have made a life as an opera singer.

Give the Sheik a lot of Champagne, if he's already nervous maybe it'll make him tell you things

"Actually, my lady, I'd quite like to introduce you to a friend of mine, who has a somewhat personal stake in the subject. I assume you've heard of the Sheik En Al Binbun."

She smiles and places her champagne glass on a waiterbot. "Yes, quite! I spoke to him just now. He was very...ebullient." She turns her piercing gaze onto you in full, and there's no doubt as to what it says: Your move, buster.

Your move, buster.

All right... all right.

"Oh? Did he tell you the one about his flight delay?"

Ladies like Ardefine feed off of gossip, and the prospect of a nibble proves too tempting. You quickly spin off a half-remembered story about a nosy anti-oil customs officer and set it free into the world. Hopefully the... the... damn it, why can't you think today?

In any case, THE SHEIK is heading your way.

"Haha! I see you heard!" So your guess was halfway decent after all. The Sheik En Al Binbun seems delighted that someone's paid enough attention to the day-to-day travails of a multibillionaire oil magnate to spread stories about them. "The moron didn't want to let me through! Goddamn greenies. I had him fired, as you say!"

"Very, very good, Khazzie dear! Disrespect is such a terrible trait among the lower classes. Good on you on doing your part to weed it out."

You're beginning to feel very strange.

"Sammy here was just telling us about the Kazakh-Uzbek conflict and the Kyrgyzstani influence..."

"The fuck-ing Kyrgyzstanis!" The Sheik screams, cutting her off. You get the idea he's going to pay for that later. You do not interrupt the Lady Ardefine. "If they'd just fuck-ing stayed out of it, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"Well, surely the oil sales..."

"Fuck the oil sales!" The Sheik is in hysterics at this point, but he somehow gathers together a calmer facade. "Sorry - sorry, Sam. Forgot you were a steel man. Not really in the energy sector."

"Don't worry about it." Strange feeling is getting stranger. It's like...no, you can't find the words. You don't think that... you know the words.

[Unheard to you, the EduChair begins to rev up some more.]

"The fuck-ing Kazakh-Uzbek thing - well, okay, have mercy on their souls, one-hundred-per-fuck-ing cent casualty rate, whatever, basically put - put - put, fuck, I don't know, something on the order of a million tons of fuel-grade uranium on the market. One and a half? Two million?"

It's starting to come to you. This is what the Organization calls a DIVERGENCE POINT. This is one of several you'll be tested on during this Nexus. Your actions here will almost certainly affect the world-line, which you'll be graded on after the gedankenexperiment ends.

How could you have forgotten all these facts? It's like you've been out for just under three years.

Quickly, you review your options:

Looks like the Sheik is pretty unbalanced right now. He's looking for a savior, or a solution, and he's ready to accept some pretty radical input right now. Not only that, he might just act on it. Price war on oil to keep it the favored energy source? Bidding contest on the ex-Kazakh deposits? Diversify into superfracking? The sky's the limit on this one.

Speaking of unbalanced... he's also standing at the top of these really steep marble stairs. One wrong step - or push - and he won't have to worry about uranium prices ever again. No one would have to know it was you.

Or maybe something else?

>_

Today makes tomorrow.

-- Prehistorical Organization Motto

push... bye bye oil

SUPER-FRACKING
Let's get some seismic activity into motion B]

push... bye bye oil

You consider MURDER for a moment, but decide that it's against your nature. Instead you opt for...

SUPER-FRACKING
Let's get some seismic activity into motion B]

"Have you heard of the recent developments in superfracking, Kharizard - may I call you Kharizard?"

The Sheik looks up at you with puzzled eyes. "Superfracking? Read an article about it a few months ago..."

"The Russians have taken their own spin on it, as usual. They've reopened Kola - where they got the funding we'll never know - and they're using the borehole to test... well." Your mind suddenly goes blank, and you realize you don't even know how you knew that to begin with. This is just like that bit when you got introspective.

"Well?" The Lady Ardefine is leaning into the conversation, too, you realize. You'd better choose your words carefully.

Your voice grows conspiratorial. "Have you heard of the IMPUlSe project - short for Inter-Mantle Perturbation Ultrasensitive Sensor?"

"Oh my! Not at all, Sammy!" Her voice is beginning to grate, but you're determined not to show it. She's already been dead for hundreds of years, after all.

"The only reason I got wind of this was because of the massive order of heat alloys Blackburn Steel got last year."

"Get to the fuck-ing point, Sam." The Sheik pulls another flute of champagne from a waiterbot, and downs it in one go. Some comes out of his nose.

"My people," yes, everyone talked like this then, in a time where corporate espionage was basically normal, "my people with the Russians have told me that the Kola team are using nuclear charges to vitrify their borehole walls, then pushing a supercritical water/acid solution from the top instead of at the drill head. The development in techniques alone could recoup your oil losses and allow you to buy up the free uranium on the market..." You drone on about cost-benefits of early adoption and how Blackburn Steel would be glad to supply any new demand, but you see the Sheik has already made his decision; as he saunters unsteadily away, he pulls out his phone and begins slurring into it.

"That was very kind of you, Sammy, to give him that help when he needed it." Kind. You have no doubt that the word 'kind' has multiple, contradictory meanings when it comes to Lady Ardefine, but she seems, at least, to be genuinely complimenting you this time. "That we were all so lucky."

"Ah, it served my bottom line as well as his. What's not to love?"

"Well said, Sammy! I think I should introduce you to some friends of mine who have something of the same philosophy!" Her carmine-swathed bulk takes your arm and begins to steer you towards another clot of murmurers on the mezzanine balcony - one of which, you note, is SENATOR KILROY. He doesn't look comfortable at all.

>_

Make some small talk with some jokes about corruption

>Engage with someone who is not Kilroy first before Ardefine gets a word in.

> Look for a chance to talk to the Senator in Private

>Engage with someone who is not Kilroy first before Ardefine gets a word in.

Be tactical. A brief scan over the rest of the little clot of conversation betrays several banking representatives, an executive from a military R&D think tank, and the Senator.

You're not going to have a lot to say to any of these other fat cats. Despite what their egos might think, none of them will ever affect history in the way Kilroy will.

But you do your best, making small talk and passing drinks around and chummying up to people long since dead in your time, when you turn around and come face to face with Kilroy himself. He looks as if he wants to say something.

Make some small talk with some jokes about corruption

So of course, you intercept him first. It's what Samuel Blackburn would do.

"Oh hello, Senator Kilroy. Congratulations on your appointment to the United Senate." The senator turns to look at you. His face is neutral, but a slight quivering of the fingers betrays his discomfort. "I hope you and I can have a profitable relationship together - after all, the role of government is the betterment of the people, that is to say..." you pause, "the right people, am I right?"

"As right as Reagan, my darling!" Lady Ardefine trills loudly, punctuating the conversation with her shrill giggle.

"Would you care for a drink, Senator?"

"Please..." He manages to choke out. You notice a fine beading of sweat on his forehead, and it's no wonder. He probably shouldn't even be up here with the bankers and the magnates; image is everything to politicals.

> Look for a chance to talk to the Senator in Private

"Here you go, Senator." You hand him a glass of glitteringly dark red wine - with a surreptitous note hidden underneath. "From my family's own estate - Chateau Blackburn. Bottled... 2024. An excellent year."

"Samuel..." He hesitates, then quietly pulls out the note, unfolds it, and reads it quickly. He nods. "All right. At the hedge maze, ten minutes."

"Excellent. We-"

He holds up a hand to stop you, then drains the glass. You watch it go down like red satin. "Samuel Blackburn. I know that's not your real name."

What? "What? Senator, I'm sure the wine isn't all that strong."

"I know who you are," he says in barely a whisper. "You're from the Prehistorical Society."

>_

Ah no, did you mix up your business card and your bribe card again

Well, okay sure, still go to the meeting anyway. Sometimes the easiest way to do prehistory and affect the future is to just ask nicely!

Laugh loudly, to draw some uncomfortable attention to the senator and diffuse the situation.

"Haha! You have some interesting notions, Senator. You'll have to tell me more about them once you get the chance."

and with a hardy, if not threatening pat on the back, excuse yourself from the conversation until your meeting.