Wallace Residence Search - Fri, Oct 25, 2019

The session opened with a recap of the previous events involving MASTICATE and the aftermath of Audra Powell’s shooting spree.

• By the time police released the scene and the team got back upstairs, the afternoon was already gone.

• Taylor was still present, badly shaken and caught between denial and the realization that the people he had been rationalizing away for more than a week were likely never coming back.

• Taylor had checked in with his handler and confirmed that the names he had been given were real, that the working group had actually existed, and that now everyone in it except Taylor was either missing or dead.

• The team questioned Special Agent Taylor and pieced together their best working understanding of Picky Eater:

  • Picky Eater functioned as an anchor.
  • It pulled someone into an alternate reality.
  • If the host computer remained running, that alternate world persisted.
  • If power to the host computer was cut, the alternate world collapsed.

• Taylor’s people may have been present when Audra’s machine was still running, and when Frank unplugged it, those people may have snapped back to baseline reality somewhere else.

• Taylor refused to speculate beyond that and only wanted someone to be held responsible.

• Justin opened the recovered server and inspected the chip directly.

  • The hardware was stamped “Department of Defense, 2021, PE-003.”
  • That date was two years in the future relative to the campaign’s current year.
  • The device appeared to be a third iteration of the technology.
  • This indicated that whatever McKay had been running in his dorm room was not some crude prototype, but that someone with major resources had developed a mature, manufactured version of the same phenomenon.

• Frank called Antonia Pitzerelli from the road and summarized the discovery.

  • Pitzerelli immediately asked whether Kim Bowyer might be involved.
  • Frank’s answer was that it was possible.
  • Pitzerelli said she would pursue that lead.

The team then drove six hours through fall foliage with the stolen server in the back of the SUV and arrived outside Bangor, Maine, around mid-afternoon at Frosty Oaks Trailer Park.

• The trailer park matched the run-down description from their records.
• Robert Wallace’s trailer was located about halfway back from the highway.
• The team pulled up the drive.
• Then, without anyone consciously noticing the moment it happened, Matthew McCarter was gone.
• Frank’s mind immediately tried to supply a plausible explanation, something about Matthew having stayed behind to query local law enforcement.
• Frank recognized the sensation as familiar: Picky Eater smoothing over the gap and replacing it with a believable false memory.
• Frank had experienced that cognitive manipulation before and knew something was wrong, though the contradiction had not yet fully broken through.

Matthew’s perspective shifted completely.

• The faded sign for Frosty Oaks Trailer Park was now a clean, professionally styled sign for “Frosty Pines Trailer Park.”
• The trailers were all identical, neat, and carefully maintained.
• The grounds were green, fenced with white pickets, and lined with brand-new cars.
• Massive white wind turbines turned overhead.
• No people were visible.
• Matthew realized he was inside Robert Wallace’s running Picky Eater world, alone.

Before continuing the scene, the group performed skill improvements.

• Frank gained +4 Persuade.
• Robert noted that McCarter’s Alertness had risen above 50.
• Robert also noted that his Occult had risen above 50.
• McCarter’s Persuade had climbed to 67.
• The team joked about not having failed enough rolls in varied categories, but the important in-game consequence was that several key investigative skills improved.

Back at Robert Wallace’s real-world trailer, Frank, Philomena, and Justin approached the residence.

• The trailer had a Confederate flag flying from the porch, which stood out sharply in Maine.
• The residence was a run-down single-wide with a rusty pickup truck and a porch in poor repair.
• The team discussed whether Robert Wallace himself would be present or whether they might find some other occupant.
• They also discussed the possibility that Wallace might have his own running Picky Eater setup and that cutting power to it might cause him to “come back.”

After only ten or fifteen seconds of waiting outside, the trailer door opened.

• A large, burly man stepped into view under the porch shadows.
• He wore a ball cap, jeans with oil on them, and a flannel shirt.
• Before the team could introduce themselves, he demanded, “What the hell do you want?”
• Frank identified them as federal agents and said they were there because Robert Wallace had sold some computer hardware online and some of it had wound up in a bad situation.
• The man responded that Robert was not there and that he knew nothing about it.
• When Justin asked whether Robert’s computer was there, the man immediately became resistant and demanded to know who they were.
• He said the Bangor police hassled him “all the time” and specifically complained that they harassed “a good white man.”
• Frank presented his FBI credentials.
• The man looked at them, grimaced, and made a racist, sexist remark about “foreigners and women” being in the FBI now.
• He said Robert had not been around for about a month and that he assumed the boy had found some girl to “shack up with.”
• He insisted Robert would not be found there.
• When the team again asked about Robert’s computer, he demanded to know whether they had a warrant.

The team attempted to keep him talking.

• Brian/Frank asked whether he got along with his neighbors.
• The man said he did not, and complained that the neighbors called the cops on him all the time.
• Frank needled him by pointing out that the team was federal and therefore from “the winning side,” and then by calling the Confederate flag a foreign flag over his house.
• This bait worked and kept him from retreating back inside.
• He launched into a loud rant about “heroes,” “states’ rights,” and the South rising again.

While this confrontation was unfolding outside, Matthew began investigating Robert Wallace’s trailer inside the alternate Frosty Pines world.

• Matthew remembered being in the SUV on the way to the trailer park, and recognized that the world had simply changed around him without warning, just like the earlier museum incident.

• He rolled Alertness and failed.

  • The park remained eerily quiet.
  • Apart from the hum of the wind turbines, he detected no movement or activity.

• He approached the trailer corresponding positionally to Robert Wallace’s address.

• He noted that the license plate on the vehicle there was not the same number he remembered from reality.

  • He succeeded on an INTx5-style memory check and recognized enough of the original plate to know this one was different.
  • It was also not a Maine plate.
  • The overall design looked more European.
  • At the bottom it said “Global Caliphate.”

• Matthew, who knows Arabic, examined the script on the plate and nearby markings.

  • At first glance it looked like Arabic.
  • On closer inspection it was nonsense.
  • Some characters resembled Arabic shapes, but others were meaningless scribbles.

• He knocked on the trailer door.

  • A frightened male voice inside, speaking English with a Maine accent, told him to go away.
  • Matthew said he only wanted to talk.
  • The man answered that he was a good citizen and did not want trouble.

• Matthew decided to force entry.

  • He was armed with his sidearm.
  • He went to kick or force the door, but found it unlocked when he tested the knob.
  • He entered and cleared the room with his weapon drawn.

Inside the alternate-world trailer, Matthew found a terrified adult male occupant.

• As soon as the door opened, the man backed away, turned his back, knelt in a corner, and put his hands behind his head.

• He repeated, “You are welcome in my home. I am complying with all requests.”

• Matthew told him to be quiet.

• Once Matthew’s eyes adjusted, he saw:

  • The man wore a plain white jumpsuit.
  • The man had a clearly visible barcode tattoo on the back of his neck.
  • The room was starkly furnished.
  • There was a simple plastic chair and a flimsy TV tray.
  • On the tray sat a plate holding a formless block of green gelatin with bits in it, half-eaten, with a spoon beside it.
  • A television was on, though muted.

• Matthew rolled Sanity and failed, losing 1 SAN, when he saw the television’s content.

  • The TV displayed recognizable branded cartoon characters.
  • Those characters had grotesque genitalia.
  • They were molesting and butchering each other on screen.
  • A chevron on the screen displayed “mandated watch time remaining,” counting down.

• Matthew asked whether the man was Robert Wallace.

  • The man denied it.
  • He said his name was not Robert Wallace.
  • He claimed he had attended “Lewiston sensitivity camp” for three years.
  • He insisted he was “reformed.”
  • He denied knowing Robert Wallace.
  • He nervously asked whether Matthew was “with the Patriots.”

Back in the real world, the confrontation outside Robert Wallace’s trailer escalated.

• Philomena began goading the racist occupant with historical comments about Robert E. Lee’s generalship, including Gettysburg and Pickett’s Charge.

• Luke called for a History or Persuade check.

• Philomena rolled a 3 and succeeded decisively.

• Her criticism enraged the man.

  • He surged off the porch and down the steps toward the team.
  • As soon as he committed to the aggressive movement, the agents drew down on him.

• Frank ordered him to the ground.

• The man realized immediately that he had made a mistake.

  • He dropped to his knees.
  • He put his hands behind his head.
  • He protested that he had not done anything and that it was “free speech.”

• Frank declared that he was assaulting a federal officer.

• Philomena moved to handcuff him.

  • She had never cuffed anyone before and the procedure was clumsy.
  • The man noticed this and mocked her for not having done it before.
  • Philomena completed the cuffing anyway and apparently double-locked them correctly.
  • The man grunted in pain as the cuffs bit into his wrists.

• The team now had the man under control outside while Frank stayed with him and Justin and Philomena went inside to search.

Justin and Philomena searched the real-world trailer.

• The trailer interior contained worn furniture, a flat-screen TV, dinged-up tables, and multiple surrealist prints resembling knockoff Salvador Dalí works with melting clocks and fractal animals.

• Family photographs were visible in the living room, including at least one with a younger man who appeared to be Robert Wallace.

• The layout consisted of:

  • A living room, dining nook, and kitchen in the front half.
  • A hallway with a small bathroom.
  • A larger bedroom at the end with an adult man’s aesthetic.
  • A smaller, filthier hallway bedroom with a teenage vibe.

• The hallway bedroom was cluttered and dirty.

• Inside it they found:

  • A PC in an old, dinged-up case covered with stickers.
  • The PC was perched precariously on a TV tray beside the bed.
  • A cheap desk covered in empty soda cans.
  • Boxes and loose computer components.
  • Flags and posters described as crypto-fascist, only one step removed from overt Nazi imagery.

• Justin photographed the family photo and the room.

• He first considered simply unplugging the PC, but quickly realized:

  • It was not making any sound.
  • The front power light was not on.
  • It did not appear operational.

• Justin opened the case and examined the internals.

  • He saw an out-of-place chip integrated into the motherboard.
  • The component looked professional, not improvised.
  • He used a close inspection tool to read the etching.

• Justin rolled Sanity, failed, and lost 1 SAN when he read the chip.

  • The chip was marked “Trump Industries Electronics Division.”
  • That name was wrong in multiple ways and instantly indicated an alternate-reality origin.

• Justin also noted physical heat damage on the drive and motherboard.

  • The machine appeared to have been burned out and was nonfunctional.

• He removed the motherboard containing the chip as evidence and bagged it.

• He also looked for receipts or paperwork indicating how the chip had been obtained, though nothing significant was found during the search.

Outside, while the search continued, the handcuffed man kept talking.

• He complained continuously that the search was illegal.
• He said he would sue the government.
• He threatened that the agents’ careers were over.
• Frank mostly let him talk while keeping an eye on him.
• Frank succeeded on an earlier Alertness check and had already noticed a shotgun leaning just inside the door.
• After Justin came back out briefly, Frank asked him to move that shotgun far away from the entry.
• Justin later slid it under furniture inside the trailer so it would not be quickly accessible.

Back in the alternate world, Matthew left the first trailer and attempted to continue investigating.

• He saw no computer inside that first unit.

• As he stepped back out, he saw a large black pickup truck with roll bars and floodlights racing up the paved drive toward him.

• He concluded it had likely already spotted him.

• He briefly considered fleeing around the trailers, but instead chose to run back inside the first trailer and watch through the window.

• The white-jumpsuit occupant had begun to rise, but Matthew pointed his gun at him again and ordered him to stay quiet.

• The man resumed cowering and muttering that he was reformed and did not know Matthew.

• From the window, Matthew observed:

  • Only one person in the truck.
  • A fit, good-looking man in roughly his 40s.
  • The man had a slightly idealized, action-hero appearance with a streak of gray at the front of his hair.
  • He wore cobbled-together tactical gear and carried a rifle at the ready.

• The man came halfway up the trailer steps and called out that he had seen Matthew outside.

• He said that Picky Eater had “picked” Matthew up.

• He claimed to be a friend.

• He said he could get Matthew into “the underground.”

• He warned that they had to move immediately.

Matthew confronted the newcomer and learned that the man claimed to be Robert Wallace.

• When Matthew asked if he was Robert Wallace, the man did not answer directly at first, instead saying he could help Matthew escape.

• He came inside, went over to the kneeling white-jumpsuit man, and kicked him in the back contemptuously.

• He referred to the kneeling man as a “race traitor.”

• He looked Matthew over and noted that Matthew did not have a barcode.

• He said they needed to do “a little something good” before leaving.

• He ordered Matthew to kill the kneeling man.

• He claimed the man and others like him were too brainwashed to save.

• Matthew refused, saying that as pathetic as the man was, he would not kill a defenseless white man.

• Robert Wallace immediately raised his rifle and shot the kneeling man twice in the head himself.

  • Blood and brain matter spattered the wall.
  • Matthew succeeded on his Violence adaptation Sanity check, but still lost 1 SAN as required.

• Wallace then announced that “Antifa” would be arriving soon and that they had to leave.

Wallace and Matthew left in the pickup truck.

• Matthew entered the truck with Wallace.
• Inside, Wallace plugged a phone into a dash charger.
• He explained that Picky Eater was running on the phone and that this was how “they hide.”
• He said Picky Eater ran the entire network.
• According to Wallace, it found information “they” did not want people to know and hid true believers from those who would suppress the truth.
• He specifically credited it with keeping him out of the hands of “Obama’s goons.”
• Wallace asked whether Matthew had a phone.
• He said he could link Matthew into the network and get him off the grid immediately.
• Matthew handed over his phone, partly to occupy Wallace’s hands and reduce his ability to reach his weapon.
• Wallace began driving one-handed, unplugging his own phone and manipulating both devices awkwardly.
• Matthew asked how fast they were going; the truck was accelerating onto the highway, roughly 30 mph and climbing.

During this ride, Matthew tried to interpret the unnatural environment through smell and bodily sensation.

• He asked whether there was any odor associated with the world, as there had been with previous Picky Eater encounters.
• Instead of the now-familiar meaty smell, he experienced a bizarre sensory displacement.
• Luke described it as the feeling of being “an elephant seal in a world where it briefly forgot elephant seals weren’t aerial creatures.”
• Matthew perceived this not as a literal smell, but as a total-body, impossible sensory contradiction.
• He understood only that this alternate reality felt profoundly wrong in a way he could not rationally parse.

Meanwhile, back in the real trailer, Philomena decided to investigate the wrongness of the space psychically or meditatively.

• She explicitly connected this effort to the earlier technique she had used in a past session to crystallize the image on a chip.

• She told Justin she needed a few minutes and asked him to inform Frank they would remain inside a bit longer.

• Justin did so, put the bagged evidence in the SUV’s trunk, moved the shotgun out of easy reach, then came back inside.

• Philomena sat quietly and focused.

• As she meditated, she felt the strange crookedness of the space.

• It was not the usual Picky Eater “smell,” but it was distinctly wrong.

• Then the sensation suddenly shifted.

  • It did not merely disappear.
  • It receded in a definite direction.

• Philomena understood that the source or retreating trace pointed toward the TV console in the living room.

Philomena and Justin investigated the TV console and discovered the real active Picky Eater node.

• Behind the TV console, tucked between it and the wall, they found a small box with multiple wires plugged into it and a cable running up into the television.

• It was a small-form-factor computer.

• An Ethernet cable was plugged into it.

• That Ethernet cable disappeared through a hole drilled down through the floor.

• There were external USB ports.

• A USB thumb drive was plugged into the device.

• Scotch tape was wrapped around the thumb drive with a handwritten label reading: “wake up cuz.”

• Justin unplugged and bagged the small computer and the USB stick.

• He then followed the Ethernet cable by going under the trailer.

  • He traced it through the crawlspace.
  • The cable ran back to Robert Wallace’s bedroom.
  • It had connected the hidden computer behind the TV to the burned-out machine in Robert’s room.

• Luke clarified that the hidden computer behind the TV had been running when Justin unplugged it.

• This meant the active Picky Eater anchor in the real trailer was not the obviously suspicious burned-out bedroom computer, but the concealed TV-connected system.

• Justin noted he would analyze the device later.

The unplugging of the active hidden machine had an immediate consequence: Matthew McCarter returned to baseline reality.

• After Justin disconnected the hidden computer, the team abruptly became aware again that Matthew had been with them when they arrived at the trailer park.
• Justin specifically remembered Matthew before unplugging the hidden machine, but once the active anchor was cut, everyone’s awareness of him settled back into place.
• This meant Matthew had snapped back to real-world existence somewhere else.

Frank, Philomena, and Justin next dealt with Robert Wallace’s father, the man they had detained.

• They showed him the USB stick labeled “wake up cuz.”

• At first he refused to cooperate and repeated that the search was illegal and that he would not tell them anything.

• Frank asked whether he would rather be left handcuffed in or near his house.

• The man remained defiant.

• Philomena then made a more explicit threat.

  • She told him she had seen one of her colleagues strangle a man and dump the body into the water.
  • She delivered this directly and successfully.
  • Luke called for a Persuade roll.
  • Philomena rolled 17 and succeeded.

• The man’s demeanor changed.

  • He became visibly less certain that the agents were bluffing.
  • He looked around and realized no one else was immediately nearby.

• When they showed him the USB stick again, his expression briefly showed recognition and concern.

• He then admitted:

  • His cousin Vicky had sent it to Robert.
  • He had visited family, argued with Vicky over his political views, and afterward she had sent the USB stick and told him it would “set him straight.”
  • He had not used it himself and had simply thrown it in a drawer.
  • Vicky King was her name.
  • He believed she had moved back somewhere in Pennsylvania.
  • The town name he half-remembered was “Kick Springs.”

• The team looked it up on a phone.

  • It appeared to be a small, semi-rural place on the outskirts of State College, Pennsylvania.

• Frank asked whether the father was worried about Robert.

  • The man admitted it was unusual that Robert had been gone for a month without returning.
  • He said there had been other stretches where Robert did not come home for a while, but he had usually been staying with friends.
  • He had asked around and no one had seen Robert.
  • He had assumed Robert had found a girl and maybe gotten her pregnant, but expected him to call eventually.
  • He asked whether the agents knew something about Robert.
  • Frank said only what they had already told him.

• The man then asked whether they were done.

• Frank chose to unlock his cuffs.

  • The man rubbed his wrists, which showed red welts from the cuffs.
  • As he headed back inside, he hesitated and said that if they found Robert, he was a good kid and could they please call him.
  • Frank asked for his number.
  • The man reacted with irritation that the agents did not already have it, then identified himself as Cordell.
  • He wrote down a phone number on a notepad and handed it over.

As the team left the trailer and got back in the SUV, they tried to reconstruct what had happened to Matthew.

• They called Matthew’s phone.

  • It rang and went to voicemail.
  • This did not clarify whether he was dead, alive, or in another reality, because earlier attempts to call across altered states had also resulted in voicemail rather than an error.

• Their best option was to retrace their route back toward town.

While driving back toward Bangor, they encountered the aftermath.

• They saw emergency response vehicles, police cars, ambulances, lights, and flares closing a lane on the highway.
• Traffic was slowed.
• Two bloody bodies were being collected from the road.
• There was no visible crashed vehicle nearby.
• As they rolled past, they recognized Matthew McCarter’s body.
• The other corpse was a man in tactical gear and a ballistic vest.
• The team pulled over immediately and exited.

The highway death scene established the end of Matthew McCarter.

• Matthew’s body was obviously dead and had suffered catastrophic trauma from being thrown from a fast-moving vehicle.

• The other body appeared to be Robert Wallace’s alternate-world counterpart.

• The team all took 1 SAN from the sight.

• Local first responders already suspected the bodies had been thrown from or ejected from a fast-moving vehicle because of the trauma pattern.

• What they did not understand was where the vehicle had gone, since none was present.

• The other man carried identification describing him as “Robert Wallace, citizen of the global caliphate under President-for-Life Obama,” which made no sense to local authorities.

• The team stepped in and took control of the federal scene.

  • Matthew had FBI credentials on him.
  • Frank began shaping a cover story.
  • He deliberately let himself be overheard referring to an undercover drug operation, helping steer responders toward an explanation involving a bad criminal encounter and a vehicle-related death.

• There was some recognition of the name Robert Wallace from local authorities.

  • They knew him as a minor local troublemaker and expected he might someday escalate into bigger crimes.
  • But if anyone got a good enough look at the corpse, they did not think that body was really the local Robert Wallace.

• The team spent the remainder of the day coordinating with police and building the cover narrative.

• The death was treated as a weird traffic incident rather than something authorities became deeply invested in.

The session ended with MASTICATE, now depleted and partially rebuilt through recent losses, trying to understand what had happened.

• Frank’s immediate conclusion was that by unplugging the active hidden machine in Robert Wallace’s trailer, they had probably killed Matthew.

• The sequence of evidence available to the team was:

  • Robert Wallace’s visible bedroom machine had contained a future/alternate-reality chip but was burned out.
  • A second hidden machine behind the living-room TV had been active and linked via Ethernet to Wallace’s room.
  • That hidden machine had a USB stick labeled “wake up cuz.”
  • Vicky King, Wallace’s cousin in Pennsylvania, had sent the USB stick.
  • Unplugging the hidden machine restored everyone’s memory of Matthew.
  • Matthew was then found dead on the highway beside an alternate-world Robert Wallace.

• The session closed with the team in possession of the recovered electronics, a new lead in Pennsylvania, and the confirmed death of Matthew McCarter.