King Reality Collapse and Combat - Sat, Oct 26, 2019

The Handler opened with a recap of the previous session:

• MASTICATE had taken over handling a fatal accident on the side of a rural Maine highway.

• While the team was deciding what to do with Matthew McCarter’s dead body, Frank Booth received a phone call from someone who sounded exactly like McCarter.

• The caller told Frank to clear the IDs off the body lying on the road and asked to meet at a Denny’s.

• The man who arrived at the Denny’s appeared to be McCarter: same face, voice, and bearing, but noticeably different.

  • He was colder and more controlled than the McCarter they knew.
  • He had a scar that their Matthew had never had.

• This alternate McCarter said he had been sent from another world and that their McCarter’s death had served as an anchor.

• He explained that, in his world, organizations like Delta Green had gone public in the mid-1990s.

• He briefed the team on Picky Eater:

  • Picky Eater was a ritual embedded in hardware.
  • It profiled its user.
  • It fed the user a confirming worldview.
  • Eventually, it drew the user into the reality from which that worldview originated.
  • It spread through any device an infected person touched.
  • The longer it ran, the more it weakened the walls between worlds.
  • It had originated in the team’s reality.

• Alternate McCarter’s mission aligned with MASTICATE’s: find the source of Picky Eater and shut it down.

• Frank updated Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonia Pitzerelli.

  • Pitzerelli did not ask to be convinced.
  • She asked whether alternate McCarter was useful.
  • Frank answered that he was.

• The team drove south toward Kick Springs, Pennsylvania, looking for Vicki King:

  • A former MIT graduate student.
  • A Penn State IT worker.
  • A single mother of twin girls.
  • She had stopped showing up to work in early 2018.
  • Her house was locked in foreclosure limbo with no confirmed eviction.
  • The water was still running.

• Upon reaching the property, the investigation split into two realities:

  • Justin and alternate McCarter reached the front door of the actual house.
  • After a raccoon ambushed them from the roof, they forced their way in.
  • Inside, they found two girls who appeared older than Vicki King’s twins should have been.
  • One girl backed into a corner.
  • The other held a kitchen knife.
  • The girls asked whether Justin and McCarter were “Reapers.”
  • They also reasoned that, if Justin and McCarter were Reapers, they would have killed them already.

• Frank and Philomena did not reach the same front door.

  • They stepped or fell out of their car into a different version of the property.
  • This version was a boarded Victorian house under official sanction.
  • A notice declared Vicki King excommunicated for failure to surrender “the fruit” to lawful custodial authorities.
  • Inside, power came from a generator running in the basement.
  • The living room had been torn apart by a methodical search.

• Both teams were now inside different versions of the same house.

The session picked up with Justin and alternate McCarter in the house with the two girls:

• The girls had accused them of being Reapers.

• The girls had given conflicting accounts of where their mother was:

  • She was upstairs.
  • She was in the basement.
  • She was busy.
  • They should not bother her.

• Justin and McCarter had previously asked about computers, phones, and other electronics that might contain Picky Eater, but the girls had deflected instead of answering.

Alternate McCarter began clearing the house:

• He moved through the first floor professionally, checking the living room, kitchen, garage, and other rooms.

• The kitchen had a back door leading into an overgrown backyard.

• The attached garage was dusty, cobwebbed, and mostly empty except for old moving boxes that looked like they had never been unpacked.

• A circuit breaker box was visible in the garage.

• Justin noted the breaker box as a possible way to cut power to the house if needed.

• The house was completely quiet:

  • There were no sounds of someone moving around.
  • There was no music or speaker noise.
  • There was no sign of activity upstairs.

• Justin stayed relatively close to McCarter:

  • He wanted to observe this new version of McCarter.
  • He also wanted to avoid being stabbed from behind by one of the girls.

• McCarter and Justin found the basement door:

  • The door was closed but unlocked.
  • It led down to an unfinished basement.
  • A light switch at the top of the stairs did not work because the house had no power.
  • The basement was dark and quiet.

• Justin called down into the basement for Vicki King, but there was no response.

Justin and McCarter moved toward the stairs to the second floor:

• Justin rolled poorly on a check and did not notice much beyond the obvious.
• The Handler described that the girls had been following them around the house, but not closely.
• The girls had been watching them from corners.
• By the time Justin and McCarter returned to the stairs, the girls were no longer behind them.
• Justin and McCarter did not know where the girls had gone.

The focus shifted to Frank and Philomena in the other version of the house:

• The house had been broken into, damaged, and thoroughly searched.

• The search had been conducted with little regard for the owner’s property or rights.

• The living room and kitchen area had been torn up.

• Frank and Philomena made Alertness checks at a bonus.

• Frank succeeded.

  • Over the thrum of the generator in the basement, Frank heard music playing from the second floor.
  • The music was country music from roughly the late 1990s or around 2000.
  • The sound was tinny, like it was coming from a small radio.

• Philomena did not make out the music over the generator.

• Frank indicated silently to Philomena that someone or something was upstairs.

• Frank drew his gun.

• Frank and Philomena attempted to move quietly upstairs.

  • Philomena achieved a critical success on Stealth.
  • Frank also moved quietly.

• They reached the top landing:

  • There appeared to be several rooms upstairs.
  • One open room looked like a child’s bedroom.
  • Like the living room, the child’s bedroom had been torn apart.
  • There was also a small bathroom, a narrow linen closet or similar small door, and another bedroom door that was closed.
  • The music was coming from behind the closed bedroom door.
  • The closed door had a deadbolt with a keyhole on the outside.
  • The door itself did not look recently forced or damaged.

• Frank checked the time:

  • His watch still showed the time from when they arrived at the Pennsylvania house, which had been mid-afternoon.
  • The outside of the house, however, was now clearly dark.

• Philomena checked her phone:

  • It showed 9:15 p.m.
  • Her phone still showed the network she had been using since arriving in the United States.

Frank investigated the locked bedroom door:

• He quietly tried the knob.

• The knob turned, but the deadbolt held the door shut.

• Frank believed he could pick the lock, which appeared to be a standard residential deadbolt of decent quality.

• The difficulty would be doing it silently.

• Frank holstered his gun and began picking the lock.

• Frank failed the Stealth check for quiet lockpicking by a narrow margin.

• From inside the room, a panicked adult woman yelled:

  • “Who are you?”
  • “I have a gun!”
  • “Go away!”

• The woman’s voice sounded adult, not like a child.

Philomena began talking to the woman through the door:

• Philomena identified herself and Frank.
• She said they were not there to harm her.
• She said they were there to help.
• Philomena told the woman they were “from where you should be.”
• The woman did not understand and asked what Philomena meant.
• Philomena said they were there to help her and get her home, “home to where you truly belong.”
• The woman asked whether they were there to help her find her girls.
• Philomena immediately answered yes.
• Philomena told her that this world was not right.
• The woman replied that this world was “the way they made it.”
• She asked whether Philomena and Frank were from “the underground,” suggesting they helped hide children away.
• Philomena said yes.
• The woman told them to stand away from the door.
• Frank stepped to the side, drew his gun again, and positioned himself out of sight while remaining ready.
• Philomena held her hands up.

The woman opened the locked bedroom door:

• She was a tired, harried woman in her mid-to-late 30s.

• She held a small pistol close to her chest, not aimed directly at Philomena.

• Frank remained just out of sight, very close to the woman.

• The woman was wary and aware that someone else might be nearby.

• Philomena told her there was just herself and her partner.

• Philomena brought up the USB drive sent to her cousin Cordell Wallace and said it had Picky Eater on it.

• Vicki initially looked confused when Philomena mentioned the USB drive.

• When Philomena mentioned Picky Eater, the name registered with Vicki.

• Vicki said Picky Eater had been a long time ago.

• Philomena realized or stated that time may move differently between dimensions:

  • What seemed recent for them might have been a long time for Vicki.

• Vicki did not understand the explanation.

• Philomena asked whether Vicki was still running Picky Eater.

• Vicki said yes.

  • She said it had kept her safe from the Reapers for years.
  • She thought that meant Philomena and Frank were probably not Reapers.

• Vicki began raising the gun slightly and demanded real answers.

• She asked where Philomena’s partner was and whether he was wandering around her house.

• She said her girls were not there if that was what they were looking for.

Frank disarmed Vicki:

• Frank saw enough of the gun’s movement or shadow through the doorway to act.
• He lunged from the side and grabbed Vicki’s gun arm.
• Frank succeeded on an Unarmed Combat check.
• Vicki did not resist effectively because she had not known Frank was there.
• Frank twisted the gun away and took it from her.
• Vicki’s finger had been on the trigger, but Frank moved quickly enough that the gun did not fire.
• Frank made sure to block the door so Vicki could not close it again.
• Vicki backed away into the bedroom.
• The bedroom was covered in maps, newspaper articles, and conspiracy-board-like materials.
• A desktop PC was humming in the corner.

The focus returned to Justin and alternate McCarter:

• They were climbing the stairs toward the second floor.

• As they neared the top, they heard the girls shrieking from behind them.

• The girls ran up the stairs after them, screaming “no.”

• One girl still had the kitchen knife and was running with it pointed outward.

• Justin was behind McCarter, allowing McCarter to conduct the sweep.

• Justin raised his empty hands and tried to calm the girl down.

• He told her he would come down the stairs and asked her to put the knife down.

• Justin was prepared to kick her down the stairs if she lunged at him.

• McCarter assessed that the girl was running with the knife and did not know how to fight with it.

• McCarter intervened preemptively:

  • He stepped past Justin.
  • He kicked the girl’s forearm.
  • The knife flew out of her hand and across the room.
  • The girl spun and fell down the stairs.
  • She was knocked hard and winded, but did not appear to suffer obvious broken bones or serious lasting injury.

• The second girl stopped and stared at them, terrified and crying.

• McCarter told the girl not to run at someone with a knife and asked whether her mother had taught her that.

• He failed a Human Intelligence or Psychotherapy-type check.

• The girl stared blankly at him.

• The injured girl looked to her sister for comfort or guidance.

• Seeing her sister’s blank stare, the injured girl’s eyes rolled slightly back and she curled into a fetal position.

• Justin retrieved the knife from where it had landed.

• The girls were temporarily incapacitated and no longer screaming.

Justin and McCarter finished checking the second floor:

• McCarter cleared the rooms.

• The upper floor had two bedrooms, a bathroom, and possibly a linen closet.

• One bedroom was an infant nursery with a crib and supplies for newborn children.

• Another bedroom appeared to be an adult bedroom.

• The upstairs rooms were filthy and dusty.

• In the master bedroom, they found a computer.

• The computer was completely torn apart:

  • Internal components were outside the case.
  • Boards were snapped.
  • The monitor was broken and gouged.
  • It looked impossible for it to function.

• Justin searched through the broken electronics.

• He found a lab-assembled Picky Eater component:

  • It looked like an early or prototype-style electronics assembly, likely made in a real lab.
  • It included a chip or board mounted in a way that suggested laboratory construction, with ribbon cables and debugging-style hardware.
  • The component had been pulled loose but was not deliberately smashed to pieces.

• Justin pocketed the Picky Eater component.

• The room and the broken computer area were dusty.

• It did not look as though anyone had been in the upstairs rooms for quite some time.

• No one else was found upstairs.

• No other electronics were visible upstairs.

The girls recovered enough to react again:

• After several minutes, the girls came out of their stunned state.

• They began clambering back up the stairs.

• They asked what Justin and McCarter were doing.

• They insisted that Justin and McCarter could not bother “mommy” because she was working.

• When confronted with the fact that Vicki was not upstairs, the girls contradicted themselves again.

  • One said Vicki was in the basement.
  • They claimed she had gone downstairs after lunch.
  • One said she was fixing a fan.
  • They both agreed with and reinforced each other’s story.

• Justin pointed out that the house had no power, so fixing a fan would not be useful.

• The girls reacted badly:

  • One clenched her teeth, widened her eyes, and began hyperventilating.
  • The other began making a high-pitched tone.
  • They began screaming and crying.

• Justin was adapted to helplessness, so watching their distress did not require a Sanity check for him.

• McCarter was not adapted to helplessness, but since he had not caused the immediate distress, the situation did not require a Sanity check for him.

• The upstairs rooms still appeared unused and dusty.

• Justin reasoned aloud that the Picky Eater device keeping them in another dimension might be located in that other dimension, not in this version of the house.

Justin and McCarter checked the basement:

• The girls remained in a manic, screaming state in the living room.

• Justin and McCarter went downstairs.

• They found no phones or computers.

• They did find a hand-crank camping or survivalist charger:

  • It had a USB block and a charging cable.
  • It looked like it could charge a phone.
  • No phone was attached.
  • Unlike many items on the basement workbench, the charger had no real dust on it.
  • It appeared to have been used regularly.

• Justin rendered the charger nonfunctional by cutting the charging cable.

• Justin considered asking the girls for their mother’s cell phone number.

• He reintroduced himself and told them he had a phone and could try calling their mother if they knew her number.

• The girl McCarter had kicked said, “Mom doesn’t keep no phone. Reapers follow phones.”

• Justin asked about “a phone with Picky Eater.”

• Justin failed to read the girl’s reaction.

• McCarter succeeded at reading her:

  • The girl glanced furtively toward her sister.
  • Her body language suggested guilt or shame.
  • She did not answer Justin’s question.

The focus returned to Frank, Philomena, and Vicki:

• Frank unloaded Vicki’s gun:

  • He ejected the chambered round.
  • He removed the magazine or cartridges.
  • He put the unloaded gun down.

• Frank told Vicki they were not there to hurt her, but he could not let her hurt them.

• Frank critically failed a Persuade check.

• Vicki ignored his attempt to reassure her.

• She froze briefly, then jolted into action.

• Vicki ran to the walls and began tearing down maps, articles, and papers.

• She shredded whatever she could while screaming that they would never find “them” and could not take “them.”

• Philomena tried to calm her:

  • Philomena told Vicki they were not there to harm her or her children.
  • She said they wanted to help get Vicki and themselves back where they belonged.
  • She asked Vicki to take a breath and sit down.

• Philomena succeeded on a Persuade check.

• Vicki, exhausted and defeated, slumped against the wall and slid down, holding torn papers.

• Philomena asked when Vicki had last seen her children.

• Vicki said it had been a long time.

• She said she did not know what had happened.

• She thought they had left the house and had not been taken because she had not received her “hush check” from the government.

• Vicki said that meant they were safe.

Frank and Philomena questioned Vicki about Picky Eater:

• Frank asked whether Vicki built Picky Eater.
• Vicki said she worked on it.
• She asked whether the underground used Picky Eater.
• Frank said they were trying to stop what Picky Eater did because it was harming too many people.
• Philomena added that it was harming Vicki as well.
• Vicki denied this and said Picky Eater was the only way children could evade “health and family services.”
• Vicki said she did not know anyone else had Picky Eater and believed she was the only one who had it.
• Frank told her she had sent it to her cousin and that his son distributed it to people.
• Vicki became tense and confused.
• Frank identified himself as being with the FBI and showed a badge.
• Vicki’s eyes widened and she asked whether they were Reapers.
• Philomena denied that they were Reapers.
• At that moment, the downstairs front door was violently thrown open.
• Frank ran to the computer and unplugged it.
• Philomena closed or moved to secure the bedroom door with the deadbolt.

Pulling the plug on Vicki’s computer caused a shift:

• Frank unplugged the desktop computer.

• The running computer suddenly became a broken, dusty heap on the floor.

• The room changed to match the abandoned version of the house.

• It was now daylight rather than night.

• Frank and Philomena were now in the same version of the house as Justin and alternate McCarter.

• Downstairs, Justin and McCarter saw sunlight streaming through the front door.

• Figures entered the house:

  • Two men in dark suits.
  • They looked like alternate McCarter and Justin.
  • They wore thick, rough leather hoods or cowls with shoulder-covering cloak-like pieces.
  • The cowls were cinched at the throat.

• One of the men, the version who looked like McCarter, had a salt-and-pepper red-haired beard.

• The second, younger man resembled Justin.

• Alternate McCarter shouted “Freeze!”

• The McCarter-looking intruder yelled, “Yield the fruit!”

• The intruders seemed to be agents of National Child and Family Services from the other reality.

• The intruders had not clearly spotted the children yet.

Alternate McCarter confronted the Reaper version of himself:

• The bad McCarter raised his empty hands.

• Alternate McCarter shouted, “Get on the fucking ground!”

• Bad McCarter did not comply.

• He said, “Surrender by the authority of Family Services.”

• Alternate McCarter shot at him.

• Alternate McCarter failed the Firearms roll:

  • His shots struck the doorframe and possibly a window.

• Bad McCarter raised his hand.

• A mouth was visible in his palm.

• The mouth opened, and a long blood-red, toothy tongue-like tendril lashed out toward alternate McCarter.

• The tendril missed:

  • It whipped through the doorway.
  • It tore part of the doorframe or wall.
  • It failed to hit McCarter.

Combat began against “bad Justin” and “bad Matthew”:

• The bad Justin was faster than Justin.

• Alternate McCarter was faster than bad Matthew.

• Bad Justin used hypergeometry or magic against alternate McCarter:

  • Bad Justin raised his hands, pricked his fingers, traced a symbol, and screamed words in an unknown language.
  • Alternate McCarter failed a Willpower roll.
  • McCarter felt a flare of heat and excruciating pain.
  • The flesh on his left pinky and part of his left hand began to melt, char, and render fat.
  • McCarter succeeded on his Sanity roll and held himself together.
  • He took 2 damage.

• Justin tried to throw the kitchen knife at the attackers and dive behind the couch.

  • Because the knife was not balanced for throwing, he rolled at a penalty.
  • The result became a critical failure.
  • Justin realized that, if he released the knife, he would throw it into alternate McCarter’s shoulder as McCarter lurched forward in pain.
  • Justin held onto the knife too long, cutting his own hand badly.
  • Justin took 2 damage.

• Alternate McCarter fired at bad Justin.

  • He succeeded with a Firearms roll.
  • He dealt 7 damage.
  • He put several rounds into bad Justin’s chest.

• Bad Matthew lashed out again with the tongue tendril.

  • It whipped through the doorway and raked the wall.
  • It missed alternate McCarter again.

• Philomena, upstairs, saw the red tendril whipping around below and called for Frank.

• Frank moved downstairs with his gun up, ready to shoot when he had a target.

• Philomena noticed daylight around the upstairs curtains and pulled them back in the bedroom.

  • Outside, she saw the same semi-rural street the team had arrived on.
  • She believed or at least suspected they were back in their normal world.

Bad Justin attempted to seize one of Vicki’s daughters:

• Bad Justin shifted his gaze from alternate McCarter.
• He made another hand sign and spoke more strange words.
• The girl who had been slumped at the base of the stairs arched her back, flew into the air, and hurtled through the room toward the Reapers.
• Alternate McCarter used his action to grab her out of the air.
• He succeeded on an Unarmed Combat check.
• McCarter caught her by the arm and held her.
• A force continued pulling her toward the Reapers, leaving her stretched painfully between McCarter and the unseen force.
• She screamed.
• McCarter moved her out of the Reapers’ line of sight.
• Once she was around the doorframe and out of sight, the pulling force broke.
• McCarter ended up holding her in his arms.

Justin attacked bad Matthew directly:

• Justin ran at bad Matthew and tackled him.
• Bad Matthew was standing in front.
• Justin achieved a critical success on Unarmed Combat.
• He slammed into bad Matthew with full weight and momentum.
• Bad Matthew tried to raise his mouth-hand and tongue tendril, but Justin hit him first.
• Justin knocked bad Matthew off his feet and drove him to the ground.
• Justin landed hard on him, catching him in the throat with an elbow.
• Justin dealt 3 damage.
• Bad Matthew was temporarily controlled on the floor.

Frank joined the fight downstairs:

• From the stairs, Frank could see Justin wrestling one hooded figure and another hooded figure still standing.
• Frank chose not to shoot into the grapple.
• He aimed at the standing hooded figure, bad Justin.
• Frank fired and hit.
• Frank dealt 10 damage.
• Bad Justin dropped dead in the doorway after Frank put multiple rounds into him.
• After the gunfire, Frank heard scuffling and choking sounds upstairs.

Vicki attacked Philomena upstairs:

• While Frank was downstairs, Vicki grabbed Philomena from behind.
• Vicki put her hands or arm around Philomena’s throat and screamed, “You’ll never find them!”
• Philomena tried to strike Vicki with the butt of her gun.
• Vicki fought back and prevented the blow from landing.
• Vicki shifted into a better chokehold.
• Philomena took 2 damage.
• Philomena shouted at Vicki to get off her.

Justin, alternate McCarter, and bad Matthew continued fighting:

• Justin attempted to choke out bad Matthew.
• Justin succeeded on Unarmed Combat.
• Bad Matthew fought back but lost by a narrow margin.
• Justin pressed his weight into bad Matthew’s throat and began choking him.
• Bad Matthew started to turn blue.
• Alternate McCarter moved to pin bad Matthew’s mouth-hand under his boot.
• McCarter succeeded on Unarmed Combat with a bonus because Justin had control of the grapple.
• The toothy tongue lurched from under bad Matthew’s pinned hand and slapped across the room, but could not reach McCarter properly.

Frank interrupted Vicki’s attack on Philomena:

• Frank looked upstairs and saw Vicki choking Philomena.
• He aimed his gun toward the struggle.
• Frank had seen at least one of Vicki’s daughters downstairs.
• He told Vicki, “Your daughter’s downstairs. Let her go.”
• Vicki’s body language immediately changed.
• She began releasing Philomena.
• The hope that her children were downstairs completely changed her focus.
• Philomena wanted to strike Vicki but restrained herself.

The fight with bad Matthew ended:

• Justin tried to finish choking bad Matthew.
• Justin critically failed the Unarmed Combat roll.
• Because his hand was bleeding from the knife cut, his grip slipped.
• Bad Matthew took advantage and got on top of Justin.
• Bad Matthew began trying to press his weight into Justin’s throat.
• Alternate McCarter was standing right there.
• McCarter put his gun to the side of bad Matthew’s head and fired.
• Bad Matthew was killed instantly.
• Blood sprayed on the doorway and nearby wall.
• Bad Matthew’s body slumped down on top of Justin.

Vicki reunited with her daughters:

• Vicki ran past Philomena and down the stairs.
• Vicki saw her daughter.
• Vicki and the girl cried out with a mixture of joy and anguish.
• The other girl, who had scrambled away during the chaos, returned at the sound of her mother’s voice.
• Vicki and both girls held each other and sobbed.

The team secured the immediate scene:

• Frank wanted to pull the bodies inside and close the front door.

• The bodies were dragged inside.

• The front door was closed, though there was blood on it.

• Frank recognized that the dead bodies were versions of Justin and Matthew.

• The bodies wore thick cowls made of rough leather.

• The leather cowls were covered in runic marks, drawings, and shapes.

• The marks seemed to be in the leather rather than painted on.

• Frank told Philomena that the cowls seemed like something for her to examine.

• Frank and Philomena attempted Occult checks.

  • Philomena critically failed.
  • Frank failed.

• Philomena was angry and disgusted by the whole situation.

• She grabbed the cowls and carried them out to the car to cool off.

• The team searched the bodies:

  • They found no electronic devices.
  • They found badge wallets.
  • The IDs identified them as part of the National Child and Family Services.
  • Their names were Matthew McCarter and Justin Smith.

• Frank covered the bodies’ faces with a quilt so Vicki would not have to see dead doppelgängers of their allies.

Alternate McCarter processed the appearance of the dead doppelgängers:

• The Handler called for a Sanity roll from alternate McCarter.
• McCarter succeeded.
• The briefing he had received had warned him that the barrier between worlds was thinning.
• Seeing another version of himself so soon was disturbing but not beyond what he had been warned might happen.

The team tried to understand what had happened:

• Frank addressed alternate McCarter and asked what was going on.
• Alternate McCarter asked which world they were in: theirs or the Reapers’ world.
• Frank said it had been nighttime where he and Philomena were, and now it was daytime again, like when they originally arrived.
• Frank and Philomena had appeared upstairs when Frank unplugged Vicki’s computer.
• Justin and McCarter reported that upstairs they had found only broken electronics.
• Frank explained that, in the other world, the computer had been running.
• The group questioned how the girls had returned and how the Reapers came through.
• Justin questioned whether there should be doppelgängers of the children and how the girls knew about Reapers if they had been in the other dimension.
• Frank asked Vicki how she had gotten her children out.
• Vicki, still holding her girls, said Frank and the others had brought them back.
• Vicki thanked them for killing the Reapers.
• She said more Reapers would be sent and they needed somewhere safe to hide.
• Frank asked whether Vicki remembered working for Penn State.
• Vicki said that was ten years ago.
• Frank showed her the date on his phone and said it had been months ago.
• Vicki was confused and said it did not make sense.
• Frank told her Picky Eater had taken her somewhere and that she had done something to let her girls come back.
• Vicki denied doing that and said the team had brought them back.
• Frank told Vicki to go look in her room and see that nothing was on the walls, and that it had been nighttime while they were talking but daytime now.
• Vicki went upstairs with an iron grip on both girls.
• After seeing the room, she howled and broke down.

Frank followed Vicki and the girls upstairs:

• Frank succeeded on an Alertness check.

• Vicki was kneeling or collapsed, undergoing a complete breakdown.

• The girls knelt beside her and held her hands.

• Frank noticed what looked like a cell phone sticking out of one girl’s back pocket.

• Frank grabbed the phone.

• The girl turned and saw he had taken it.

• She cried and apologized.

• She said they had only wanted to know about their dad.

• Frank told the girls they were safe and asked what they had done.

• The girl explained, between crying, what had happened:

  • Their mother had told them Picky Eater kept them safe.
  • They found plans on their mother’s computer to make their own Picky Eater.
  • They wanted to learn about their father because their mother had never told them about him.
  • They thought Picky Eater could help them find out.
  • They made their own Picky Eater and put it into their mother’s old phone, which Vicki had hidden away.
  • When they turned it on, they went to a different place.
  • The sky there was strange and had colors they had never seen before.
  • There was an old, confused man near a strange machine and big stone blocks.
  • The man seemed to be waiting for someone.
  • A very tall man in a strange robe came from the mist.
  • The old man tried to tell the girls something, but the tall man held up a long finger and went, “shush.”
  • The tall man spoke strangely.
  • The girls told him they wanted to know more about where they came from.
  • Then they were back in the house, but their mother was gone.
  • They hid so the Reapers would not find them.
  • Their mother had told them not to use the computer when she was not watching.

• Vicki responded to the girls’ confession by telling them it was okay.

Frank asked Vicki for more information:

• Frank asked what department she worked for, referring to the “government hush checks” she had mentioned.
• Vicki explained that when family services people took children, they sent money so parents would not say anything.
• The Handler noted that getting more useful information from Vicki at that point would likely require Psychotherapy.
• Frank had some ability in Psychotherapy but not enough to get useful results then.

The team examined the girls’ phone and the remaining Picky Eater devices:

• Frank gave the girls’ phone to Justin and said they had built their own Picky Eater.
• Frank asked Justin whether he could figure out what it was doing.
• Justin believed the goal was to destroy all Picky Eater devices.
• Alternate McCarter said he had been told to cut them off at the source, but he did not know what the source was.
• Frank questioned whether they might still be inside the girls’ Picky Eater reality and what would happen if they simply yanked it.
• Justin argued they should keep pulling or disabling Picky Eaters until they reached the bottom of the “turtle stack.”
• Justin pulled the battery out of the girls’ phone.
• Nothing obvious changed.
• The phone was identified as a BlackBerry.
• The team debated whether they were truly back in their own reality.
• Philomena suggested verifying reality by checking whether brands, books, or technology in the house looked out of place.
• The team looked around the house at appliances, books, and other objects.
• Nothing seemed out of place.
• Frank checked his Delta Green burner phone and found Picky Eater on it.
• Justin checked his own phone and also found Picky Eater.
• The team pulled batteries or powered down their devices.
• Nothing changed.
• The Handler noted that alternate McCarter still had his hardened dedicated Picky Eater hardware, which had been shielded to prevent Picky Eater from spreading.
• The team discussed whether Picky Eater had appeared on their phones before or whether they had simply not noticed it because it was on app pages they did not usually check.

The group discussed whether to smash Picky Eater devices:

• Justin asked whether they had previously smashed Picky Eater chips.

• The Handler said they had not smashed them; they had only powered them down and confiscated them.

• Frank asked whether the Picky Eater chip from upstairs was destroyed or only ripped out.

• The Handler said it had been ripped out and that the components around it were badly damaged, but the Picky Eater component itself might still be functional.

• Alternate McCarter recalled that he had been told:

  • Without power, Picky Eater should not function.
  • If power was restored, it would resume where it left off.
  • The only way to ensure it never functioned again was to smash it to bits.

• Philomena wanted to smash the Picky Eater device.

Philomena questioned the girls about their father:

• Philomena went upstairs and asked whether they had been trying to find their dad.

• The girls nodded meekly.

• Philomena asked their father’s name.

• Vicki answered for them:

  • His name was Wesley Kuhl.
  • He was a professor at MIT.

• Vicki said Wesley Kuhl was not her advisor.

  • Vicki had been in computer science.
  • Wesley Kuhl was in mathematics.

• Philomena returned downstairs and reported:

  • The girls’ father was Wesley Kuhl.
  • He was an MIT mathematics professor.

• The name and connection caused concern among the team.

• Frank asked whether the other Picky Eater professor had also been at MIT.

• The Handler confirmed that Kim Boyer, the theater professor, was also connected to MIT.

• The Handler also reminded the group of other MIT connections:

  • Kim Boyer and Nora Bridget were from MIT.
  • They intersected with the persistent visual drone incident.
  • Frank had previously reached out to Pitzerelli, who said she would try to connect him with Boyer and Bridget.

• The Handler also reminded the group that Anthony Cooper had knowledge of things similar to the current situation and was supposedly in Program custody.

• Frank noted that he was now the only surviving member of the group who knew about the drone-related events from God’s Eye and Reno.

The session ended with unresolved next steps:

• The team had Vicki King and her daughters alive but deeply traumatized.

• Two National Child and Family Services “Reaper” doppelgängers, bad Justin and bad Matthew, were dead in the house.

• The team had recovered the Reapers’ leather cowls.

• The team had recovered or identified multiple Picky Eater devices:

  • The lab-built Picky Eater component from Vicki’s broken upstairs computer.
  • The girls’ BlackBerry containing their homemade Picky Eater.
  • Picky Eater appearing on the agents’ phones.
  • Alternate McCarter’s shielded dedicated Picky Eater hardware.

• The team had learned that Vicki’s daughters made their own Picky Eater to learn about their father.

• The team had learned that the girls encountered:

  • A strange place with impossible colors.
  • Stone blocks.
  • A strange machine.
  • An old confused man waiting beside the machine.
  • A very tall robed man who silenced the old man.

• The team had learned the girls’ father was Wesley Kuhl, an MIT mathematics professor.

• The team identified MIT as a recurring connection in the investigation.

• The team needed to decide what to do with:

  • Vicki and the girls.
  • The bodies.
  • The Picky Eater devices.
  • The cowls.
  • The next investigative threads involving MIT, Wesley Kuhl, Kim Boyer, Nora Bridget, and Anthony Cooper.

• Justin had a hand wound from gripping the knife and likely needed urgent care or stitches.

• The team discussed needing less vulnerable phones, such as dumb phones, because Picky Eater had appeared on their devices.