Dissonance Theorem
| Dissonance Theorem | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Taranis Lú | |||||||||
| Geodesic | |||||||||
Summary
Geodesic is summoned to meet Taranis Lú, who guides her to the Resonance Realms to help her reconnect with her distorted Resonance.
Background
Geodesic is spending a lazy Sunday afternoon watching Combat Biker games from throughout the week, as her brother prepares for the beginning of the school year over at the table. Suddenly she receives a message in the form of a paper crane. The message claims that the mysterious sender is familiar with cases like hers and promises they can help her, giving her the location of a host on the Grid. Suspicious and paranoid, Geodesic dives into VR to hunt down this host, which takes the form of a small fishing boat on the outskirts of the Emerald City grid.
The Meet
Geodesic boards the boat, infiltrating the host. She sails out to deep virtual waters and finds an octopus-like persona with white eyes teaching a lesson on Matrix infrastructure in Japanese. Paranoid, and looking to gain more information, Geodesic marks the octopus persona, then fails to snoop it, getting revealed. The persona just messages her, asking her to sit down and wait until after the class, which she begrudgingly does. After the students leave, the octopus persona greets her, introducing himself as Taranis Lú, professor at Kyoto University. She's paranoid about his offer of help, doubly so after he reveals his past as a member of Ex Pacis and Deus's Whites. He tells her that he seeks atonement for his sins and to help others who suffered like he did. Despite Geodesic's reservations, she accepts his help, and he brings her back out onto the Grid.
The Plan
Taranis asks Geodesic if she's ever been to the Resonance Realms before. She tells him she hasn't, that she's looked into it but the methods described were esoteric and hard for her to deeply understand. He brings out a digital tuning fork, explaining that the Resonance is similar to a sine wave, and that thoughts and disruptions affect that sine wave, but that it can be brought into alignment. This mathematical explanation seems to work better for Geo, and using the fork, under the watch of Taranis, she slips deeper, arriving at the Great Firewall. She passes through, finding herself in one of her more troubling memories - the first time she took a life, desperately defending herself with her Ruger from a stranger bearing down on her and Oliver shortly after becoming homeless. In this memory, the stranger doesn't die, instead leaking black ichor and suggesting she give in to the peace of oblivion. She's unsettled by his offer, but with her resolution to protect Oliver, continues struggling, and eventually the scene fades. Geo finds herself falling through the sky towards a vast digital desert.
The Run
Geodesic screams as she hurtles towards the ground, managing to barely hit the edge of a dune and tumble down in one relative piece. She sees a highway in the distance, and a city on the horizon, dark clouds hanging overhead. She heads towards the city, and is stopped by a small fractal-shaped sprite, .exe. The sprite warns her against continuing to the city, identifying it as the fallen city of Haven. The two talk, Geodesic having trouble overcoming the shock of the nature of the Resonance Realms, and particularly of talking to a sprite. After befriending .exe, the latter offers to lead Geodesic to the Endless Archive, where she can attempt to gain the information she needs. Geodesic accepts, and they arrive without incident, .exe explaining her knowledge on the nature of the Realms. She flies the two of them there, and Geodesic enters the Endless Archive, hoping to find information on the nature of her condition.
Geodesic approaches a curator, who explains that in order to obtain information from the Endless Archive, one must volunteer information that isn't on the Matrix. Geodesic is taken by surprise, explaining that she didn't know, and that she doesn't know what information wouldn't be on the Matrix anyway. When she mentions that all she has are memories, the curator offers to transcribe one for her, and she recounts a story of coming home after her first real Shadowrunning job in Manhattan. She was surprised by her brother initiating an impromptu snowball fight, and instead of paranoia, she found herself able to enjoy the moment, playing with him back and feeling comfortable. The curator accepts this memory, and provides her the primer she's looking for, which she sits down to read.
The primer explains that Dissonance is not an antithetical force to the Resonance, but rather a darker side of it, that seeks to tear down rather than unify. It also recounts how Dissonance destroyed the free sprite city of Haven, prompting Resonant sprites to relocate to New Haven, from which .exe hails. Also mentioned is an incident in New Haven, where a group of heroic outsiders saved technomancers trapped in comas from an erupting Dissonance well. She is unable to identify the crest of one of the outsiders mentioned, but .exe identifies her as Ca1yps0. Geodesic makes note of her handle to seek out later. Having absorbed all of the information of the hefty tome, she returns it to the curators. Geodesic wishes .exe goodbye, thanking her for all her help, and .exe gives Geodesic a virtual horn to blow if she ever finds herself in the Realms again, which will allow them to meet. .exe tells Geodesic that to return, she simply has to look at the sky, and she does so, feeling herself pulled up and out of the Realms back onto the Grid.
Aftermath
Geodesic is welcomed back to the Grid by Taranis, who congratulates her on her first submersion. She reports that, while she doesn't feel cured, she feels somewhat at peace, which Taranis claims to be typical. She asks how long she's been out. When Taranis tells her it's been several hours, Geodesic gets worried, realizing that she's left Oliver unattended for longer than she meant to. She thanks Taranis for his help, promising to stay in touch, then hops out into AR. When she awakens, she finds that it's 3 in the morning. Oliver has left food out for her and covered her with a blanket. She checks on him to find him fast asleep, and she sends a message thanking him, and telling him she loves him. Unable to sleep after such an experience, she returns to eat and finish her Combat Biker games.
Rewards
- Submersion Ordeal Discount
- 8 Karma
- 12 CDP
- Option to take Taranis_Lú as a contact at Loyalty 2 for 10 karma (taken)
- Marker of the Free Sprite .exe