STEP FOUR
Leon arrives late, triggering the team’s memory of his previous failure. Leon manages to analyse the skin’s personality, but is distracted by his recent Abstract experience. He leaves Princess and the skin while Leon infiltrates the Skin’s apartment with Jemmy to absorb his living context. Leon insists Jemmy retrieve the Skin’s Abstract footprint herself. He doesn’t trust himself to dive without Nort, which raises her suspicions of his addiction. Leon must return to Nort to decipher the Skln’s Abstract footprint and find a way to regain control of himself in The Abstract.
Leon Sequence One
Leon is contacted by a worried Jem who is unable to contact Suunto. Leon tries to explain the changing terms of the job as he rushes though the city streets, while setting up his AI to enhance his capacity to analyse the ‘skin’s’ personality. Leon scrambles to organise Princess, Jem and Fix to run a scam on the skin, but all assume he has let them down again. He is late and needs to reach the skin before he leaves.
CDQ -
Will Leon make the interview on time and get the information he needs from the skin, and convince everyone he has not messed up again?
‘skin’ - the person Leon will pretend to be for the job
‘Abstract Imprint’ - like an internet search history, but for The Abstract.
Leon Sequence Two
Leon arrives as the skin is leaving. The skin refuses his short term work offers. Leon, Jem and Fix consult in his mind pocket in an attempt to arrange a solution, but have none. Jem and Fix squarely blame Leon’s tardiness. Leon’s AI is struggling and his observation skills are rusty. He needs to access more intimate information, by getting access to the Skin’s apartment and analysing his Abstract Imprint.
Leon Sequence Three
Leon and Jem break into the skin’s apartment as Princess distracts him. Leon insists Jem copy the skin’s Abstract Imprint, which raises her suspicions about his addiction. Leon manages to absorb some of the skin’s living context in The Real and calls the skin to make a new offer, which he accepts. Princess tells them to get out before he can finish and they narrowly escape. Leon knows he does not know enough of the skin to impersonate him and must return to Nort and use The Abstract to develop the skin.
Leon CDQ Answer
Yes. Leon makes his meeting, but being late has made it difficult to ascertain the required information. The team still have doubts about his ability to prioritise The Real over The Abstract.
Character Arc
Leon moves from panicked and stressed — to — slightly concerned over having to go back to The Abstract so soon, but pleased he has a way to quickly develop the skin.
Moral Dilemma
Leon has to decide between checking on Suunto and defending himself against accusations of failing the team and making the meeting with the skin.
Ms Penumbra: Sequence One
Ms. Penumbra returns to The Real. Rats scurry from her. Her past and present merge in pieces, but she has enough sense to realise she is exposed. She uses a recent medical procedure as an excuse. Hamelin says the rats detect more than dementia - a parasite is ‘eating’ her mind. Internally, she is enraged by her trust in him, more than his betrayal. She leaves Suunto, knowing she has given up more than she wanted. Feeling compromised, she must to Variel, despite knowing she is pushing her already faltering mind by doing so.
Ms. Penumbra CDQ
Can Ms. Penumbra find out who has poisoned her mind from Variel?
Ms. Penumbra: Sequence Two.
Ms. Penumbra is exhausted and angry. She finds Variel in his church and they muse over God and forgiveness, before she reveals she knows he was unintentionally responsible for his wife’s death, and blames him for the parasite in her mind. He says he was silenced, he tried to help her and he suspects it was the Catholics. She is surprised. She thought it was an ImpCorp Executive. She kills Variel and isolates him from The Abstract. Ms. Penumbra must now counter a Catholic plot, while executing her plan to get Leon into ImpCorp.
Ms. Penumbra CDQ
No. But she has established Variel’s betrayal and knows she has a new enemy looking to destroy her.
Character Arc
Ms. Penumbra moves from the bliss of her memory, to feeling incredibly compromised — to — surprised, concerned and intrigued by the Catholic plot against her.
Moral Dilemma
Telling Suunto the truth now that her dementia is exposed or trying to deflect and deny in order to conceal her weakness. She feels the remnants of her faith niggle at her when she making the decision to kill Variel.