Happy birthday to our favorite gaybortionist, sabotabby!

Once you start running, they won't let you stop.

May 16
[Aberrant] UN and Utopia investigations finger Slider's murder as the handiwork of Corbin, whom they allege is linked to the Teragen. This revelation comes as part of a worldwide public broadcast on all major news networks.

So... yeah. No "teragen" tag because they was not actually in said crime.

The precise control of thought, feeling and apparent sensory impression.

( May 15 [Aberrant] )

After yesterday, is it any wonder I'm reluctant to go on? Besides, it's all downhill from here really.

May 14
[Aberrant] Jackie from Capitola [CA] calls in to talk radio's Jordan McDevitt Show to ask what Novelty Consulting is and why Slider was working for them.

He answers as best he can.

Talk TV's Monika Show does a segment with Mary-Beth, a mother whose daughter wants to join the Teragen.

I couldn't even watch read the talk-show segment all the way through; it just rubbed me the wrong way in ways I find hard to articulate. Maybe it was because neither side seemed to know what they were talking about. (One audience member says the Teragen is a front for a white-slave ring.)

A Terat who rejoices in the sobriquet "Penetrator" sent Geryon an email about "this sensationalist crap":

We're being turned into the new goblins. Next they'll be saying we steal children's breath or hide beneath bridges and whack people across the head so we can suck their bone-marrow.

To which James replies "I can't think of a better hobby, can you? ; )"

Happy birthday, adjectivegirl and miss_yt!

The tragedy I mentioned is, inevitably, upon us.

May 13
[Aberrant] Slider is incapacitated in Calcutta by a single blow from a super-strong assailant for whom she evidently opened the door, which implies that she knew her killer (who apparently broke her neck once he'd rendered her hors de combat) or at least recognized his face. (The most popular suspect among those in the know is Chiraben, a Proteus wet-op and professional Creepy Little Fuck™ whose powers include super-strength and shapeshifting, the latter of which would have enabled him to take on a face she'd trust.)

The official report lists Apoorva Chowdiah and Edgar Rhys (the UN/Calcutta PD liaisons, both on Utopia staff) as the responding officers; in fact, the first actual cops on the scene are Prasan Mandavilli (investigating neighbors' reports of a single loud noise) and Det. Thaunanon Kalsi. The world is so shocked at the murder of its "sweetheart" that most media outlets don't dig deep enough to notice the contradiction between Utopia claiming they hadn't known where Slider was and a pair of Utopians being among the first people on the murder scene.

Kalsi later says that, if he hadn't seen nova violence before, he'd have guessed that what hit her in the back was some piece of industrial machinery. He wishes the killer had at least had the decency to close her eyes.

At 4:02 AM Calcutta time on the 14th (6:32 PM EDT today), after an eight-hour medical struggle, Jennifer Landers will die at the UN's Franklin Moran field hospital. Apoorvah Chowdiah is transferred to Utopia's European HQ; Rhys leaves no forwarding address.

And of course there'll be sport.

May 12
[Aberrant] The article "XWF: Blood Money" is posted to Details magazine's OpSite.

It's a house show at Madison Square Garden (redesigned sometime in '05 by nova architect Piotr Enrikssen), full attendance of 87,996, of all ages, classes and colors.

We've already got confirmed sightings of DJ Faiz, Senator Guiliani and... Rocky Elizondo, complete with aging diva/sugar mama Madonna in tow. I hear that none other than it-couple Lydia Divine [a nova] and Katie Holmes are watching this show from the Garden's VIP box.

( The card. )

Whom do you serve, and whom do you trust?

May 11
[Aberrant] Slider leaves a note for Rourke, a fellow Utopian with microscopic vision, telling him of her discoveries. She also goes to four others: Utopia rep Albert Petalan, somebody from the Calcutta police, an AP reporter, and her liaison with Novelty — all of whom are (she comes to believe) either openly hostile to her telling them about or part of the Proteus cover-up, whether actively or through ignorance.

The money quote is paraphrased here, in paragraphs four through seven (from "Then I took a job" through "things he needs you alive to do"). (She doesn't know for sure about Rourke, but he is either already a Proteus member or recruited shortly thereafter.)

She leaves a handwritten note for Corbin, telling him all this and more:

The bottom line is, we can't go to anyone. Get everyone together and let them know the scale of this thing, but keep it hush-hush. Obviously, if you're not part of Utopia's "solution," you're part of the problem. And Utopia's got almost everyone involved as part of the solution on some level.

The Matrix hadn't been released to cinemas when the Aberrant core-book came out, so they couldn't write Jen making that comparison. The author of the LJ I linked above is under no such disadvantage (he said modestly).

Happy belated birthday, camwyn!

Old Charlie stole the handle and the train just keeps on goin', no way to slow down.

May 8
[Aberrant] Spike in Jose Diaz' communications.

Which might have something to do with this.

second week of May
[Aberrant] An official Project Proteus audio communiqué, Clearance Beta, all field agents' priority, designates Jennifer Landers as "a threat to Utopia and Proteus longevity."

She's contacted "no fewer than 16 novas and no more than 19 novas" with what she knows. They know about Corbin, XWFer Diane "Intergalactic" Holm, fellow Utopian Christoph "Shadow Artist" Yannik, Meztiszo (yes, that really is how he spells it), "Greer... Cherpa and Fong" (I know nothing about them, save that "Fong" is obviously not Caroline Fong). They haven't yet been in touch with Sophia Rousseau that Proteus knows of, but that might change. Even as it stands, even though "Proteus secrecy has not been compromised", just from what's already in her head, Jennifer constitutes a

liability to Projects Utopia and Proteus to such a degree that her continued performance exists more as threat than mere agitation. Act per Code Omega directives, under normal Proteus visibility guidelines.

And this is the earliest verifiable mention of Sophia Rousseau. She's been around from early in the Nova Age — not as early as The Fireman or Duke "Core" Baron, but she's no Booster-come-lately either. What she is, according to one nova, is "a storm of psychic static" that he feared would destroy his powers if he got too close (which, for those of us possessing familiarity with what comes chronologically after Aberrant, calls into question her general identification as a nova). Everybody's heard of her, but nobody can quite recall where or what they first heard about her.

Dammit, how'd I miss this one? No matter; as promised, here it is now.

May 6, 2007
[Aberrant] In an interview prior to his resolution of the Corpus Christi incident, Lance Stryker advises the hostage-takers that he's about to school them in a big way: "[Y]ou're about to get Lance Stryker's boot so far up your ass that your moral superiority's gonna be fired on out your nose, and that's a damn fact!"

The Teragen tag is because I suspect his opponents to have been Terats, judging from his scoffing at their "fancy-ass press releases about how you think your sorry asses are so superior to normal people".

Happy birthday, nk1415!