Pfan 2 - The inherent cost of fame

This story is involves a GMPC called Ephiphany Santini. She is working a job as a virtual tag manager in the entertainment sector while trying to break into the memeticist market. A colleague of hers got shot recently, and her employer has cautioned all v-tag managers to be on the lookout for danger. She intends to fight back.

Pfan Santini, aspiring memeticist

Legend:

• black - Narrative
• grey - GURPS specific details (feel free to skip)
• purple - Pfan teleoperating a cybershell
• orange - Pfan perspective in a virtual environment
• green - Other GMPC's view through teleoperation

timestamp: Mar 5 2100, Montreal, Terra

Yvon survived the assault, but his spine had to be reconnected after taking a freak needle to his spinal chord. The killer was hunted down and found by daylight on the following day. No details are forthcoming. Pfan intends to find more about the meme linking memeticists and a mind-control conspiracy.

Duty check: 15 vs 9. Available.
Job check: Internet as Contact(14 vs 15), 10 vs Area Knowledge(Montreal)-15

Memetic Analysis
6 vs Expert Skills(memetics)-15
base:11; crit fail:-2; 5 hours: +5; Software: +1

Pfan rushes through her work that night from home. She launches ParadigmMaker and gets a profile of this medium-sized meme. Importantly, she realizes that she had been working on false assumption all this time. The meme has a fringe penetration and is associated to poorly educated and mentally unstable people. She commits to memory the profile of more than 30 such people propagating the meme in their weblife. She also identifies a systematic source for this meme from a small preservationist groups of blogs.

6 vs Computer Operation-12 

[base:14; difficulty:-2]

Missed sleep: 6FP out of 8FP

Pfan finds out that all of the blogs appears to be owned and operated by the same individual. But by then, she has stayed up for the best of her night and is very tired.

timestamp: Mar 6 2100, Montreal, Terra

Max borrowing power: 20 X 10% of $6K = $120K

Pfan decides that she will teleoperate into work for the time being. She scans the market for second hand cyberdolls. A brand new one costs $160K: completely out of price for someone living in a waterstained 1-bedroom apartment.  She decides to rent party shells at $80 a night, but buys a buzzbot that gets delivered by TeleOp to her doorstep about 30 minutes later.

She wakes in the buzzbot and flies out of her window. She stares back inside and sees her body looking asleep on the couch. She takes off high into the sky and gets to see Montreal from a brand new perspective. The sky is busy with shells like her, milling about their own business. Her informorph, Vittorio, starts labelling outstanding items on her TODO list directly on the city. She is most excited about getting a glimpse of the coffee shop where the anti-memetics blogger likes to hangout. 

Every hours or so, she needs to land on an induction recharger for a few minutes. During one of these, she swaps with Vittorio and tasks her NAI to monitor the business. 

Vittorio takes off and buzz around to the location. There, he lands on an induction recharger with a view on the coffee shop's patio. He builds files on each of the patron and cross references against social media, possible weblife profiles, and Pfan's list of wackos. As a non-sapiens AI (NAI), Vittorio is good at learning tasks, but not at improvising when needed. Some patron remains untagged in the end.

Vittorio gains [1] in Observation and [1] in Intelligence-Analysis, and [+1] Current-Affairs(social)

timestamp: Mar 8 2100, Montreal, Terra

Job check for March: Internet as contact (8 vs 15), 10 vs Current-Affairs(social)-15.

Enemy: 14 vs 12. Not.

Memetic campaign 

Population: College top social influencers (4,000). Will-11

Payload: 1 simple meme "Pfan is a great entertainment manager" (+0)

Vector: AR 

Durability: normal (+0)

Infectiousness: normal (+0)

Campaign time: 1 week (+4)

Cost: $400

10 vs Expert Skills (memetics)-16: MoS=+6

resistance check: 8 vs Will-11: MoS=+3

3% of 4,000 people are carrier: 120 individuals.

Duration: 9 weeks for ~100 (mid-June), permanent for ~12

Reputation as skilled entertainment manager +1, small group, CR6

Influencers may be used as a free vector in subsequent campaign

A campaign may run itself through the influencer: 4 vs CR6. Astoundingly, yes!

Pfan  ran her job using rented party cybershells for two days, but this soon will be eating up her food budget. She decides to use Vittorio in the buzzbot as an eye in the sky instead. She devises an augmented reality strategy to build her personal brand over the coming week. She pays a fee to be visible on the AR display of these 4000 people as the "fun girl with bengal fire in her hairs". By the end of the week, she ends up being featured on lifestyle feeds and promoted by a small core of 12 influencers and a second layer of about 100 others. Pfan becomes the viral flavour of the week for partygoers.

Bonus memetic campaign 

Population: College crowd (40,000). Will-9

Payload: 1 simple meme "Pfan is a great entertainment manager" (+0)

memetic fit: +3

Vector: word-of-mouth from influencers 

Durability: normal (+0)

Infectiousness: high (-4)

Campaign time: 1 week (+4)

Cost: $0

13 vs Expert Skills (memetics)-15: MoS=+2

resistance check: 8 vs Will-9: MoS=+1

2% of 40,000 people are carrier: 800 individuals.

Duration: 3 weeks for ~640 (mid-June), permanent for ~160

Effect: Bonus of $5K for this month, increase of monthly income by 20%

Reputation +1 for "Skilled entertainment manager" expanded to include wider group, CR9

The unexpected effects brings all sort of new clients to her, most of it on a trial basis. The bright side is that she now has a brand, and commonly gets the nod from the odd individual at social events. That spontaneous virality saved her almost $4K in operational fees! Drunk with success, she forgets maybe a bit too much that there is a target painted on her back.

timestamp: Mar 27 2100, Montreal, Terra

Enemy check: 6 vs CR12. Active.

Reputation check: 13 vs 9. Nope.

The Metropolis is alive with the energy of spring break. Pfan is on the lookout for a few minor celebrities that would create a buzz for some of her clients. The fears of two weeks ago had taken a backseat to the momentum that she had gained with her memetic campaign. Still mostly unsung, she is nonetheless terribly busy with the expanded client base. Vittorio, operating the buzzbot just outside of the bar, notifies her that a pair of limousines are parked outside a nearby restaurant. Vittorio can't get access into the place as a buzzbot. Pfan tasks Vittorio to keep an eye on the front door while she slips out of the Metropolis and rushes to the new location. 

Sebastian's 12 vs Stealth-9

Global monitoring system: 11 vs Observation-13

Sebastian's resist obsession with 15 vs Will-9. Fail.

Sebastian know well that Pfan is in the Metropolis. He rented a party cybershell, picked up a needler gun that he had hidden in the dirt under a bush in a park. It is raining, the shell reports to be cold and wet. The rain is somewhere between ice and water. He meant to squeeze through the crowd and shoot her in the back, quietly, then to slip away. He didn't expect that she'd rush out toward a secondary street. His sudden change in behaviour is picked up by the global monitoring network. He can tell that he had been tagged by GMS-N, and should have backed down. However, it is his first chance in weeks to reach his goal. He know that the consequence would be dire, but he had reached the point of no return. 

Turn 1: 

Pfan is surprised. 11 vs Per-(12-2). Failure.

Sebastian move and fire 4 shots: 10 vs Gun(pistol)-(10 -2 dark, -2 move)

Turn 2: 

Pfan 12 vs IQ-12. No longer surprised. Readies her penlight.

Sebastian takes an aim action.

Turn 3:

GMS-N fires dazzler laser to Sebastian: 8 vs Gun(laser)-(11 -4 10 yds +1 determined)

Sebastian's dodge 5 vs Dodge-8

Pfan shoots penlight in dazzling mode 9 vs DX-(10 -4 default, -2 darkness)

Sebastian 11 vs Gun(pistol)-(10 -1 range, -2 dark, +1 acc)

Turn 4: 

GMS-N fires dazzler laser to Sebastian's shell 8 vs Guns(laser)-(11 -3 8 yds, +1 determined)

Sebastian's 18 vs Dodge-8.  Drops gun.

Sebastian's 10 vs HT-6. Blinded.

Before Vittorio could notify Pfan, Sebastian's shell had reached point blank. The shell fires 4 needles that whizz by Pfan's torso as she pulls her defensive dazzler penlight (which is legal). The GMS-N drone is also zooming down, firing sweeps of laser to the cybershell's eyes. Pfan remains in place, waving her penlight ineffectually. The GMS-N strikes the cybershell in the face, blinding the visual sensors. The shell accidentally drops the needler, remains idle a second or so while another GMS-N shell instructs Pfan to take cover behind a parked car.

The assailant's shell appears to revert to minimal controls: a sign that the teleoperator has logged off. The third GMS-N shell picks up the needler from the ground and flies away. Livenews buzzbots are on the scene quickly to collect testimonies from bystanders. They attempts to interrogate Pfan, but she is lead away by the GMS-N and two doormen that just arrived. 

Pfan 14 vs Will-12, effect 12: loose her lunch.

Pfan excuses herself to the bathroom and vomits profusely. She sits on the ground beside the toilet bowl until a barmaid cybershell comes to check on her. The shell, teleoperated by a an low-sapien informorph (LAI), isn't quite as empathic as it should, but it is well trained in making people feel better. Pfan is grateful for its kind words.  

timestamp: Mar 28 2100, Montreal, Terra

The Montreal Regional Police collects Pfan's testimony in a virtual environment. She is first seen by a counselor to assess how the incident affected her, then a pair of officers meet with her. Pfan decided to meet them on the bank of a lake, near a cottage. The atmosphere is relaxed, the agents' avatar are wearing fishing tacks. A loom is chanting in the distance as the sun angles down in the golden light of September. The lead agent explains that the cottage is a common interview location for victims: because the place is so peaceful. 

Supporting 8 vs Psychology(applied)-10

Influence check 5 vs Fast-talk-(12 +1 support). MoS=+8

Resistance 16 vs Will-12. MoS=-4

Pfan cooperates with the interview and plays around with the officers a bit to gauge their reactions. Againt their original intent, she manages to get them to share details on the investigations. The attacker is a known troublemaker with an untreated mental affliction. His name is Sebastian Perrot. He teleoperated from a Bell TelOps Kiosk. He slipped out of sight shortly after disconnecting, but his funds and all digital credentials are now frozen. 

She passes along the information to Vittorio who is listening in. Vittorio returns a match between Sebastian and the patrons at the coffee shop. The agents soon regret communicating this information and hope that no one will audit the recording of the interview.

Sebastian as an Enemy is has its frequency of apparition downgraded to 6 until it reactivates once more.