[Game: Alpha Game: 2] - The end of the world is coming they said, and then tomorrow turned into yesterday
Do you know that feeling you have when you can't see anyone, but you know they are watching you? That is the feeling that John Smith was having as he was standing at the scene of a murder that happened a week ago.
This Post is a turn in the Alpha Game: Anyone can jump in or jump out at any time. If you think you might be interested please read the rules and join us. Alpha Game - Original Rules Template
The Setting: Urban Fantasy world where elves, monsters, and conspiracy theories all could be facts. The story could run to fantasy, sci-fi, horror, or where your mind might decide to go.
The turns of the game so far: - visit the past two posts if you want to see where it began and help shape where it will go.
Alpha Game: Turn 0: - Yesterday the world was understandable... today... you tell me... - host: @dwinblood
Alpha Game: Turn 1: - Yesterday the world was understandable... today... you tell me... - host: @virtualgrowth
At the scene of the crime
Source:giphy.com
Just last week this spot up Shadow Canyon near Boulder, Colorado was the scene of an apparently brutal attack. Private Investigator John Smith stood a ways off of the hiking trail and could see stains from blood, and the police tape is loose and lying on the ground and in the bushes. John found himself in thought. I wonder if the police get fined for littering too, and then shrugs as he kneels down to see if he can see anything. This is not very likely, and the police are not being forthcoming.
That feeling of being watched will not go away. The feeling is that of a little tingling sensation or pressure in the middle of John's back.
"You don't look like a cop," a deep male voice comes from behind John. John's hand reflexively goes to the 45 revolver he has concealed inside his jacket, as he turns slowly around.
Source: www.charlottestories.com
"You won't need that," says a very fit man as he points at where John's hand has come to rest behind his jacket. Something about the calmness of this man and how he doesn't seem concerned about a person reaching for a gun causes John's eyebrows to rise and twitch just a bit.
Source: breakingmuscle.com
"And you are?"
"Sam, I run through here every day."
"You do realize this is a crime scene right?"
"It was the other day. I saw it."
Sensing an opportunity John relaxes a bit and instead reaches into an interior pocket to extract a business card. He then walks a little closer to 'Sam' and holds out the card.
Source: smallbusiness.chron.com
"John Smith, Actually Private Investigations"
The big man laughs lightly with a deep rumble down in his chest.
"Actually private? How do you manage that?"
John opens his mouth to speak and his cell phone beeps at him. He makes a motion to indicate just a moment and looks at the phone.
Source: boap.dvrlists.com
It looks like another email from [email protected]. Now is not the time to read it, but he will as soon as he is done talking to this person that may have seen the actual crime scene. As he is putting the phone away he does notice a few other news headlines from a news app.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/iceland-unearths-rock-appease-angry-elves-195326271.html
http://rememberbuilding7.org/7-facts-about-building-7/
https://www.intellihub.com/exclusive-secret-underground-base-beneath-denver-international-airport-now-revealed-whistle-blower/
"So you saw the scene of the murder?", John asks as he looks back at this big man named 'Sam'.
"Place was crawlin' with cops when I came jogging by, but I saw enough" he says and still seems very calm.
"Can you tell me about it?"
"Depends, how come your agency is called Actually Private?"
"I am not a fan of privacy being forsaken for security, it seemed like a good name at the time."
Sam looks at John for a moment and then chuckles as he says "all right, I'll tell you what I seen."
Source: www.freedomphoenix.com
"There was one body that they were covering up. It looked like at least one limb was severed too as I saw them put somethin' in the body bag. It was quick so I don't know if it were an arm or a leg."
"Can you give me anymore details?"
"Not so much, there was the smell of blood in the air."
Source: giphy.com
"You saw no more details?"
"They saw me standing there and asked me to leave."
"Who told you to leave?"
"Cops."
Source: videohive.net
"Do you have a way I can reach you in the future if I have more questions?"
"Sure, let me see that there cell phone of yours and I will type my number in."
John hands Sam his cell phone, but keeps an eye on him. Sam types a few things and swipes here and there and hands the phone back.
Sam 303-555-1970
"I best be running, my blood is cooling down", says Sam as he starts doing a little jogging in place.
"Thank you, I'll be in touch" says John as Sam turns and starts to jog easily up the steep incline of the trail.
This crime scene is not very helpful it seems. The little extra information that has been gained is that this strange big person witnessed the crime, smelled blood, and thinks a limb was severed from the body.
John decides he needs to get back to civilization and see if any more information is forthcoming from Mr. O. and take a moment to read the email from [email protected].
Source: rideshareapps.com
The room was filled with the ghosts of the dead. A mechanical sphere that hovered in the center of the room was white with projected light, throwing images on every wall and object, bathing the apartment in history. Colette walked as if she was underwater, barely breathing as she assembled the few objects that would accompany her into the next life. She bathed, tucked her hair up out of her face, dressed in her most sensible outfit for fleeing for her life, all to the ghosts of the past; photographs of her parents, their parents, and their parents milled around silently acting out their lives.
“Servo, stop the projection," she said once she had her fill of nostalgia. "then delete all non-essential data.” There was no room for nostalgia, in the bot's database or in her heart. Obediently, the luminous sphere darkened to its former golden hue. Servo, she had named it, floated before his mistress. The bot was constructed from a fusion of Fae Magic and Cimmerian technology. It was the finest encapsulated sentience that money could buy. The robotic shell was a top secret domestic model. As soon as it had arrived she had scooped out the software and reknit the esoteric programming that bound the soul to its vessel. Everything had to be reconstructed. Her initial fear had been that it would relay their lives back to the Corporation. In reflection she identified those fears as the first seeds of doubt that had now blossomed into her treason.
Servo hung motionless before her, soft light pulsing from the seams. She turned it in its orbit and with a finger; she traced a ritual pattern; half computer program, half fae magic to reinforce the privacy screens.
Colette, previously soft and gentle, hardened like amber as she tapped into this great well of power. Her turbulent emotion drained from her psyche at the brush of the great pool of magic just outside her grasp. Those fragments of emotion were now frozen in the light of introspection. She dismissed the sentimentality, the longing, and embraced the relief of escapism. There was no going back for she had sold her soul to the devil and the devil was on his tonight way to collect.
She had failed again and again to produce an heir for their great houses. Her marriage to a Cimmerian was the family’s last attempt to buy some time and influence in the changing world. Not just the Outing. These were trends going on for decades. The Waymire’s Empire of ancient secret networks was nothing compared to machine learning algorithms at the disposal of the Cimmerians and their new corporate friends. The Corporation was the perfect expression of their lust for power and the perchance for violence.
Her next steps had to proceed perfectly, or she would be at the forefront of every ounce of ruthlessness and barbarism she’d seen her husband devote to his work over the last decade. He had killed to get where he was, and he would kill to protect it. “Access Corporation database under my husband’s personal encryption key, and download the folder, “One World Trade Excavation Data” into portable storage. Check the file for errors and then delete the original”
“Accessing and Downloading “One World Trade Excavation Data” the bot echoed in a synthesized voice. She had seen the files many times before and imagined the photograph of the muddy pit, and the construction workers crowded around ancient worked stone. She remembered the plans and sketches of ruins as they were uncovered. Everything about the project would soon be stored only in her little companion.
Artemis had worked rabidly on the excavation of what was discovered entwined with the foundations of the World Trade Center. When the charade could go one no longer and the building had to be erected. He made sure the Corporation had its command center at its heart. “Give the humans their monument” she recalled him saying with a snarl. It was the project, he hoped, that would send him straight to the top. He’d let nothing stand in his way. The Executives above him had given him a good deal of command and had a couple hundred loyal officers under him that would obey him before the next in the command chain.
She had to get out of the city tonight and surrender the data to the Elven Council of Ancients. Even in their weakened state, they were the only organization that could mount a defense. If the Cimmerians had really discovered the Foundations of the World…and if her husband’s team was as close to accessing its power as she feared, then the entire world was in more trouble than they could fathom. Her contact with for elves, her transport out of the city, was due to call any second with the instructions for her flight. How long would it take the Corporation to begin to notice the data was missing, one minute? five? She gathered her jacket and a bag big enough for her bot as she considered her options. If the elves betrayed her she would have to make her own way into the night.
[OCC] - Bravo... you might have to host the game tomorrow at this rate. I didn't post a continuation of the story for people to vote on for me. If you are uncomfortable with running lead if you were to win tomorrow, and I'll continue my MURDER investigation. I do have ideas where it is going, but I'd intentionally not been finishing it so other players could hijack it if they want.
[OCC] I'm not uncomfortable, but I'll let you take the lead tomorrow.
[OCC] - If I am the host tomorrow... AFTER I post the next turn, or whomever does I am going to post another post consolidating ALL of our writings into some big mega post that kind of can maybe suck people into our crowd sourced story. If it makes some SBD I'll split it amongst those of us that contributed. The goal being to get MORE interest maybe in this project. I am enjoying it. You have exceptional writing by the way. Good stuff. I am also liking where you seem to be heading with WTC site. :)
[OOC] I'm happy to have ooc on steemit.chat to try and weave our personal stories together more... super easy to have a murder victim know something about a site in NYC, etc. I'm illuminaughti over there.
I'll see what I can do about the steemit.chat thing. They have a private thegame channel they invited me to. I read their ideas. Came up with the rules for this alpha test on the same day I joined that channel, and started the alpha game on that day.
So I am a newbie to their channel I'll see what I can do about getting you in there (not my channel)... if not maybe I'll make one for this style of game
Something has happened!...
... WELCOME TO THEGAME ...
https://steemit.com/steemit/@thegame/what-in-the-world-what-in-the-game-andrarchy-meets-more-of-thegame
the eye - 34°15'07.8'S 58°49'47.4"W
ootin awoke with a startle. the alarms were sounding.
he rushed to the foyer where he met his brother.
"The file has been accessed brother."
"Yes, I know" replied ootin
"I only hope our system can hold of their alarms long enough for us to save her. Send her protection immediately, and call for the Elders"
ootins' mind wash rushing - it had been eons it seems (well , at least one) , since there was this much at stake.
He found his way to the library stairs, this would require some research.
Yes even the age of computers some things cannot be stored digitaly.
He called for one of his servants - "Musho, send carl a pizza - he is going to need energy"
[OOC] you guys are good , i was trying to brain storm some stuff but had a brain fart today
alphagame
dwinblood
+1
:)
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Carl's laptop battery is about to die...
Carl logs in to check his email to get back on track with all the new information and findings! Carl thinking he'll have to use his notebook again. Hoping to find a better place to work from. The last hotel didn't have wifi and not comfortable to be at or sleep at.
Please email pizza Carl is getting hungry!
[OCC] - @reneenouveau will be hosting the next turn. Keep an eye open you never know who might be watching you.