conversations.from: system
conversations.value: *6/3/2014 Update: We're live with our first in-character scene!*
  
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  Our near-future setting begins on the cusp of the Singularity - or something like it.  Brain/machine interfaces are increasingly common in San Francisco.  The technology, sold under the brand name "neuronetics", is billed as a high-end consumer productivity tool.  Neuronetic products are pill-sized dosages of nanomachines that supply brains and muscles with thousands of hours of memories.  Learn a new programming language overnight!  Memorize millions of lines of code!  Or recover a backup of your past self from before this grind of a tech job, or look into the mind of a Hawaiian adrenaline junkie for a quick vacation.  All these are tantalizingly possible within the technocratic bubble of the Bay Area.  Like caffeine on caffeine, neuronetics help the fast-thinking engineers at Google and Amazon think even faster than ever.
  
  Neuronetic Labs knows this is only the beginning.  Business is booming, the product is getting mainstream international attention, and it's time to invest.  The owners face a crossroads.  With this amazing technology they have a handle on the future - so where do they steer?  They have enough money to massively produce neuronetic pills to teach self-reliance and practical job skills to millions of Americans, revolutionizing the economy overnight.  Or, says one board member, they could sponsor free "bot farms" around the world and help machine-assisted learning become a global phenomenon.  Or, says a third, the technology could fall into the wrong hands, and a mislabeled product could be used to infect and condition its consumers into devoted disciples of the pill's creator - willing to do anything they are instructed to - organized crime, fanaticism, or even devoted, spineless complacency.
  
  The idealistic potential of neuronetics are chilled by the reality they have the power to combat - a real world of greed and corruption, of insurrection and control.  As our players take on roles in this new world - as Neuronetic Labs researchers, or as agents of technocratic power, revolutionaries, or even ordinary people in an ominous "pilot program" - what future will they create?  Whatever they do, they'll have to act fast - technology is accelerating faster than ever before, and you don't want to be on the losing side when the Singularity hits.
  
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  "A Neuronetic Future" is a game of possibilities.  Players will be asked to contribute creatively to the setting world as it evolves with rapidly changing technology.  Whether selling new tech, pushing an agenda, or inciting unrest, players should feel the setting world is theirs to mess with.  Rest assured it will mess with them right back.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Quill Recycling: Reduce, reuse, RTFM!  Sorry about that, gang.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Henry Spencer: Effusive, energetic, charming.  Henry is the vocal head of marketing at Neuronetic Labs.  His new money connections in San Francisco culture have helped catapult the company to success.  He tests his ideas on people constantly to see what will stick, especially Dr. Adonai.  The doctor avoids him whenever possible.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Free Lunch: Vegetarian option: sauteed mushrooms with bean sprouts
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Free Lunch: Turkey salad with lettuce on brioche with dijon mustard; side of vegetable medley
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Ingrid's Business Card: A phone number is penned on the back in perfect cursive.  Seems no one can write like that anymore.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Secret Phone Call: You get on the phone with someone you shouldn't be talking to, to give or receive ill-gotten information.  Tsk, tsk.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Wild Quill: The power to rewrite history once – and only once. Good for one wish, one miracle – one twist that could only happen in a story game.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Free Lunch: Turkey salad with lettuce on brioche with dijon mustard; side of vegetable medley
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Ingrid's Business Card: A phone number is penned on the back in perfect cursive. Seems no one can write like that anymore.   
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Eyes and Ears: The human costs of NL's tech have been untold until now.  Discover shocking facts about the trial program at Neuronetic Labs.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Wild Quill: The power to rewrite history once - and only once.  Good for one wish, one miracle - one twist that could only happen in a story game.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Identify Suspects: Someone is spilling secrets related to the nanobots.  Round up suspects - but do not let anyone know what you're up to, especially them.  Secrecy, not time, is of the essence.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Free Lunch: Vegetarian option: tomato panini with sauteed mushrooms and bean sprouts, side of grapes
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The Next Big Thing: Whether you get famous by backing the right horse in the project race or you simply depose your boss, find a way to advance in the company.  Just think of what that power can do for you!
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Trial-Ready Foresight: Clear the way for your project to enter human trials safely and by the book.  If this goal is completed, Foresight will be ready soon for limited human testing.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Closed-Minded: Every now and again you shut down, hard.  The world is changing too rapidly; the people around you are amoral; you are in over your head.  You'd give up sooner than change and you are fine with that.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Vindictive: You get mad *and* you get even.  If you don't burn a relationship to the ground after a slight, you start a grudge that will boil over days, even months later.  You way over-do standing up for yourself.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Doggedly Stupid: There is a subject you are very ignorant about and you do nothing to change it.  Maybe you think you're an expert already; maybe you blithely don't care.  But some day your willful stupidity is going to hurt others (and you).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Foot-Mouth Disease: Your gift of gab, if you have any, abandons you at the worst times.  Just when a situation is tidily wrapping up you'll slip up - say a secret, or give a back-handed remark - and watch your victory evaporate.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Cowardly: Some people are just tough.  They can take stress, they can take pain, they can take loss.  You can't.  The moment you realize how hard your road ahead is, the promise of success becomes a fool's errand and you retreat.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Leave a Legacy: Leaving this world without your mark on it terrifies you.  You are a towering figure in your own mind.  One way or another you have to prove that to the world.  Make an impact; make sure others know it.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Save the Company: Neuronetic Labs means everything to you.  You believe deeply in its purpose and potential to make the world permanently better.  Save the company so it can save the world.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Destroy the Technology: You see Neuronetic Labs as the culmination of technocratic greed run rampant.  All roads end with neuronetic tools oppressing and enslaving the majority of humanity.  You must fight that with everything you have.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Survive for Them: You have someone to live for - like family or a lover.  Idealism is all well and good, but you're not taking a bullet for anyone, and you wouldn't ask them to either.  You didn't start the fire - don't let anyone tell you to go put it out.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The Welcome Party: This takes place in the rec hall of the clinical dormitory, where trial patients live.  The dormitory is part of a large, multi-building campus called the R&D Complex.  The complex includes the dormitory buildings, the lab facilities, and an on-site hospital.  The perimeter is heavily guarded.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: NL Facility "Rumple": Somewhere outside Santa Cruz, CA.  Neuronetic fabrication facility.  Front office meeting rooms, main factory floor, clean rooms, isolated test rooms, assembly lines and warehouse.  Encircled by a heavy security compound with fencing, surveillance, and 24/7 armed patrols.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Helen Chambers: Assistant office manager at the Neuronetic Labs corporate building.  She has exactly zero time for your shit.  Though she has been known to warm up to people who are smart enough not to ruin her draconic reputation.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Egger Smith Jr.: Late night, entry-level security guard on Neuronetic Labs grounds.  Studied kinesthesiology, certified public middle school teacher.  Has a 'tude about his debt and this being the best job he could find.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Arcadia Green: Highly influential in some hidden circles, Arcadia is a thought-leader on black-hat hacking, trans-humanism and post-geographic social structures.  Her vision of the future is startlingly clear, but when she explains it, most people just hear static.  The present day world only sees an enigmatic girl with a weird haircut.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Technical Genius: Some situations seem impossible.  An uncrackable code, a logistic hurdle, or daunting odds against you.  Just when there's no answer, your brain steps up and serves it right to you.  Eureka!
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Political Cunning: You are very good at: getting others into commitments; staying out of them yourself; deflecting blame, or even outright creating it; smelling of roses and reeking of credibility.  You're a peach.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Spoon Bending: You have supernatural powers of concentration.  You can forego rest for days in the single-minded pursuit of a goal.  You can tune the world out to silence while you do.  Inside, you are a zen garden.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Ingrid Deloitte: A senior journalist for the New York Times.  Her top ambition is covering Neuronetic Labs, holding their feet to the fire on public accountability.  Her interest seems more than just professional and her agenda is unclear.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Working Lunch: Looking for support, Linda visits Morgan to review her "Canary Island" project plan.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Profound Caring: You need other people; their well-being affects you.  It shows, too.  You learn everyone's personal story, and you know how to treat every person in your life as the individual they are.  You lift spirits and inspire confidence.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: NL Trial Applicant: You have been unemployed for a decade.  When this company offered paid medical trials, you signed up.  You're in a very special test group, landing you in a national media spotlight.  What will you say to them?
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Tampering (copy): Your PC meddles with equipment, locks, doors.  Maybe you're getting into a place, or getting out of it - or trying to catch someone else where they shouldn't be.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: "Crypto Key" Hackerspace: Downtown San Francisco, CA.  At 600 square feet, Crypto Key is a workshop offering soldering irons, a laser cutter, circuitry tools, and plenty of other gear for hackers to play with.  It's also a flophouse for the occasional couch-surfing anarchist.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: NL Executive: Whether a new hire or an early pioneer, you have a key role at Neuronetic Labs.  You procure funds and team willpower to follow through on world-changing goals.  But are they the right ones?
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Mole at NL: You are embedded in Neuronetic Labs, working an ordinary cover job.  Your real masters may be aligned with or against the company.  Your only real power is what you report and to whom.  How long can you balance it all?
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: NL Researcher: Nanolearning fascinates you; the more you learn, the more you understand the potential.  While others speculate, you're hard at work growing new strains... but for who?
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: NL Press Agent: You help the lab's public image.  Between press releases and deflecting loaded allegations you have a busy job.  Still, your work keeps you in touch with some very well-connected people.  How will you help each other?
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: NL Secretary: You do odd jobs in strict confidence.  Finding and losing documents, special deliveries, rides to the airport, that kind of thing.  Sometimes you're bored; sometimes you rub elbows with industrial spies.  Is the job worth your faith?
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: NL Bodyguard: It's a living.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Luck and Guts: You're unsure.  You're idealistic.  You're exposed.  But no matter what, you are not going to let that stop you.  More often than not your guts alone make the difference.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Steven Darren: Senior researcher at NL.  Shy, nice guy.  He's saving himself for the right woman.  In the meantime, he's determined to make his career at Neuronetic Labs as secure as possible.  Sometimes though, he thinks his job is to make cheat-code pills that let people skip hard work.  It's hard work that makes you successful, right?  Works that way for him, after all.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Dr. Adonai: The head of research at Neuronetic Labs.  Laconic, strange, brilliant.  He resembles Salvador Dali.  His office is plastered with classic movie posters depicting Bela Lugosi.  Has never been known to voice a moral or ethical position on his work.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: NL Corporate Building: Downtown San Francisco, CA.  In the front office: press room, board room, company cafeteria, and showroom.  In the back office: cubicle farm, staff kitchen, parking lot.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: NL Facility "Gretel": Somewhere outside Modesto, CA.  Clinical trial dormitory.  Lounges, private rooms, common rooms, library, courtyard, walking paths, gardens.  Small, attached teaching hospital with emergency room.  Encircled by light security perimeter with fencing and surveillance.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Reverie Cafe: Downtown San Francisco, CA.  A coffee house just outside Golden Gate Park.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Out of Character: A pleasant place - out of time, out of space.  Think of it as a daydream.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Linda Thomas: Linda is a head researcher on the Cognitive Enhancement team.  She's young, conventionally attractive, and calculating.  She is a treacherous friend and deadly enemy.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Dr. Adonai: Half-baked plans for the next generation of neuronetics are all falling short.  If R&D gives him a solid plan, he'll fight through hell and high water for it.
  
  --- NPC INFO
  
  The head of research at Neuronetic Labs.  Laconic, strange, brilliant.  He resembles Salvador Dali.  His office is plastered with classic movie posters depicting Bela Lugosi.  Has never been known to voice a moral or ethical position on his work.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Henry Spencer: He's had better days.  No firm product plans means no marketing message.  If Ingrid Deloitte weasels him into an interview today, he'll need to have some talking points.
  
  --- NPC INFO
  
  Effusive, energetic, charming.  Henry is the vocal head of marketing at Neuronetic Labs.  His new money connections in San Francisco culture have helped catapult the company to success.  He tests his ideas on people constantly to see what will stick, especially Dr. Adonai.  The doctor avoids him whenever possible.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Ingrid Deloitte: Ingrid and her staff from the NYT are here to cover the "orientation."  She has the power to herald Neuronetic Labs or burn their reputation to the ground, and seems evenly willing to do either.
  
  --- NPC INFO
  
  A senior journalist for the New York Times.  Her top ambition is covering Neuronetic Labs, holding their feet to the fire on public accountability.  Her interest seems more than just professional and her agenda is unclear.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Fire Alarm: Someone pulls a fire alarm at a fateful moment.  Talk about a distraction.  But why do it, and what happens?
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Derp: derp
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Break-in: Your PC breaks into a restricted area looking for incriminating evidence or valuable documents.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Tampering: Your PC meddles with equipment, locks, doors.  Maybe you're getting into a place, or getting out of it - or trying to catch someone else where they shouldn't be.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Secret Call: You call/are called by someone you shouldn't be talking to and give or receive ill-gotten data.  Tsk, tsk.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Skullduggery: Surveillance: You stake-out and watch for a suspicious character.  This may be remotely via camera, eavesdropping, or watching for suspicious activity from a casual location.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: The Caller: She asks the questions.  Do you have what she needs?  If so, she just might be able to help you.  If not...
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: NL Buildings: Across the NL corporate offices in San Francisco and the rural research complex where the clinical trial patients reside.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Gigantic Chip: Right there on your shoulder. You're carrying a grudge, and *man* do you know how to nurse it. Your anger and desire to rebel color pretty much everything you do.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Make a Difference: Let's face it: the world is pretty fucked up. Corporate oligarchies, privatized security, the same old patriarchal bullshit, and now they're going to start making people *better*? You've got to do *something*.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Rebel With A Cause: You always stand up for your beliefs, even if the blowback damages your career and your relationships.  You consider yourself an idealist, but other may write you off as a zealot.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Poker Face: Nobody can ever tell what's really going on in your head. Most people can't, anyways. You'd clean up in Vegas, if you weren't so busy here.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Detail Oriented: You do things right the first time, even if it takes a little longer.  It takes less time to do it right once than it does to re-do a sloppy job.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: The Wrong Crowd: Cassie's always been a troublemaker and a rabble-rouser, but her time spent with activists and eco-terrorists taught her some valuable skills that she makes use of to this day. She's a dangerous woman when she puts her mind to it.
conversations.from: gpt
conversations.value: Last Good Nerve: Patience and professionalism can only take so much.  When you finally snap, people better duck and cover