Index: outline.txt ================================================================== --- outline.txt +++ outline.txt @@ -394,10 +394,151 @@ coincidence unless the coincidence is itself a key part of the theme, and not just a mechanism to use to reach the goal of illustrating the theme. ### Alley seeks answers from George. -Alley gets in touch with George and end up getting a Deliv gig to courier boxes of books to a used book store in Newport Beach before heading north into Huntington Beach to meet up at George's home again. They talk about stuff, including Alley's ex (Dalton Schaeffer-Hearst) and science fiction authors, which is actually how we learn about the ATF thing. It turns out George knows about Dalton +Alley gets in touch with George and end up getting a Deliv gig to courier boxes +of books to a used book store in Newport Beach before heading north into +Huntington Beach to meet up at George's home again. They talk about stuff, +including Alley's ex (Dalton Schaeffer-Hearst) and science fiction authors, +which is actually how we learn about the ATF thing. It turns out George knows +about Dalton, and about the COIN Corp MIBs who came to harass Alley. They're a +very serious existential threat to their targets, and George answers her +questions about what he does with his time that requires him to buy frames for +handguns by telling her that he supplies things for people whose lives largely +revolve around illegal and potentially dangerous work that, at times, includes +helping innocent people like Alley escape from shitty evil technocratic +corporate agents like those at COIN Corp. He advises her on that, and gives +her some reading material. They have dinner at the end of it. ### George helps intimidate potential problem customers for a courier gig. -Alley +Alley goes to pick up a package for delivery for a courier gig. George knows +the neighborhood, and offers to provide some backup because it might be a +little sketchy. He follows in his own car, then when she makes her pickup and +heads out they part ways before he goes home. At the other end of the +delivery, Alley finds that the people receiving the package are somewhat +respectful despite also seeming criminal, and everything goes well. She then +goes home and opens one of the books George gave her. + +### Alley reads and thinks and maybe decides to "prepare". + +* Alley finds agorism interesting, in theory, and agrees with it, in principle, + but is not comfortable with the idea of trying to dive into that head first. + +* Alley finds some of Underground OpSec pretty extreme and irrelevant to her, + but she learns some things from the stuff she thinks is more applicable and + chooses to try incorporating some basic skills from it into her life. + +* Alley is not fully convinced that the worst will happen. That was her + uncle's friend, after all! + +* Alley is still too invested in getting "back" into the mainstream economy + herself rather than going the other way like George suggested. + +### Alley goes out to do some deals. + +* Alley has stuff in her trunk in case she has to bug out, thinking that this + is a good time to prepare that even if she's trying to convince herself it's + not going to happen now. This is all just about being prepared in general, + or at least that's what she tells herself. + +* Alley makes some money, of course, and her deals edge toward the legally + sketchy side of things somewhat. She also does some more Deliv work, though, + so she's still doing work that's more on the legal side, if only gig economy. + +* The prioritizer actually advises Alley that, despite being ostensibly somehow + connected to the legal and white market world, this COIN Corp situation + really does rank in the very high risk severity realm that the prioritizer + was previously led to believe was a definite no-no for Alley's goals. This + may cause some reassessment. + +* Alley should get directed to a deal with another study participant. That + could be a problem, of course, because that other study participant's + activities won't have logs redacted as much as Alley. + +* I need to backfill some stuff in the story about Alley and the prioritizer + carefully balancing the privacy and appearance of copious logging aspects of + things. I don't think that has been properly handled, really. + +### Alley gets her hands on a secure mobile telephony device. + +* Alley needs to install MaximOS on her new secure mobile telephony device. + She actually gets one from the company that sells MaximOS, I think, or maybe + she gets one used and goes to experts for replacement of key hardware to + avoid getting screwed by potential for surveillance compromised internals. + +### Alley breaks down and goes to a mechanic while Men In Black raid her home. + +* Alley finds out the Men In Black are raiding her home. It may be that the + prioritizer has a fellow study participant in the area as a way of ensuring + the prioritizer can learn about the meatspace world around Alley's area and + keep an eye on things. It should turn out that the prioritizer has been + using other study participants to do other things to help her out without her + knowledge because Alley is being a little too willfully blind to the danger + of the Men In Black who are coming for her. + +* Once the car is fixed, the prioritizer has her searching classifieds for + something she can use, and it ends up guiding her to trade her car for a + motorcycle she can use for a while without having to register it or let + anyone in government know about it. The prioritizer also starts feeding the + Men In Black even more inaccurate log data than before as a way to protect + her from their digital surveillance and tracking. + +* Maybe Alley actually needs to abandon the car and get a ride from someone the + prioritizer directs her to find, or someone who is a fellow study + participant. This could be the beginning of the very earnest false trail in + the logs and so on. I like this idea, and it kinda sorta parallels some of + the potential for a character to become a MacGuffin without actually turning + her into one. Yeah, I really like this idea. She'll end up getting the + motorcycle later. + +* The prioritizer can arrange for a fellow study participant to pick up Alley's + car and arrange the sale of the vehicle, and get a cut of the sale price. + The remainder, then, goes to Alley, of course, and that in turn can be used + for her to get a motorcycle later. + +### Alley seeks help, but she can't get George to come. + +* Alley *might* actually get in touch with George, but get told she needs to go + to ground somewhere and he'll find her when it's safe. + +* Perhaps the George situation is that he contacts her about the time she's + just finding out about the raid and says something like "I've been burned. + My place is getting raided right now. If you're not at home, don't go back. + If you are at home, and you haven't been hit by COIN, get out now. Get out + and make absolutely sure it's safe before you ever risk going back. I'll try + to get in touch later, help you out, but right now I have to go dark. I'm + sorry. Find someone you can trust who they won't know about or who has + enough influence and money to keep them at bay." That seems like it might be + a great idea. Maybe George drops out of the story for a little while. He + might come back later, when it's time for her to start looking into + connections in the underground, the cyberpunk world, because of the + eventually need for a shadowrun to recover or liberate the prioritizer or + something like that. + +* Alley may go back to Carmen at this point. I'm not sure what that'll entail, + why she's doing it, or whatever, but it seems like a fun idea. This should + probably be fraught with danger, though. I might need to backfill something + about Alley not wanting to carry a gun with her, then perhaps deciding she + needs one after all when the fit hits the shan, so Carmen might be a good + contact for filling that need. That, however, may lead to Carmen and Cliff + getting burned, thus showing Alley that her past decisions resulted in Carmen + and Cliff getting hurt. + +### Alley goes to ground as the prioritizer mobilizes its network. + +* Alley has to figure out what she's going to do in the short term, and ends up + hunkering down somewhere with her motorcycle and the prioritizer as she tries + to figure it out. + +* The prioritizer explains to Alley that it's shifting video records between + study participants to confuse the Men In Black and create a false trail that + should help keep them off her back. + +* Alley probably needs to do some things herself at this point, and maybe she + gets a ride. + +### Dalton smuggles her to somewhere safe "for now". + +* Alley ends up having to get in touch with Dalton to get help. That should + lead to some fun and interesting scenes.