September 28, 2013
Clowning Around

I'm tired and it's late, so I don't know how long of a post this will be. The team and I have been running live field exercises this week. Orders came down from above to get some live, in the public eye but staying out of trouble, experience. Technically speaking there wasn't any heavy lifting, and the danger was sort of minimal. Though certainly our own actions always have the possibility of getting us in hot water.

We didn't simulate any kind of mission. Instead it was a matter of making a spectacle, then dealing with the clean up. Jack and I provided the spectacle. Jack made the illusion of a clown. Together the two of us made it juggle real balls in the air--we gave them out at the end. The clown reached into his pocket and pulled out the balls one by one. Really big balls considering the pocket. This was out on the street. People stopped to watch. I tried to make the juggling look as real as possible. Jack had to keep the hand movements and positions matching. I gave him a bit of a hard time the one day, only partially by accident.

The clown would walk out into the crowd and apologize to anyone he bumped into, thanks to me gently shoving people or making bits of them move as if bumped. I think it was Thursday that a little girl tugged on the clown's pant leg. I was prepared for that and had a piece of cloth in my pocket. At first the girl didn't feel anything and she looked at her hand confused. I caught sight of her then. She tried again and I made her hand feel the cloth in my hand.

When it was done Myron would talk to some of the witnesses and make them forget the clown even though they knew they were in the vicinity when the show went on. Melvin tracked people on their Socialmabob pages and on Gabbl to see who remembered and who didn't. He also helped Myron target people who hadn't taken pictures or videos, and we were extra careful of the one or two people, seemingly each day, who had Lookered Lens.

Each day Sarah had my back and soothed the fears of people with a fear of clowns. Jenny was always a discreet distance away looking out for police, O.S.I.R. agents, and reporters. The news reported only on three of the days. They missed us Monday, and on Friday Myron convinced the pair they were in the wrong location. We moved around quite a bit day to day to make it harder for them to track us. We also kept out of the sight of the news cameras unless we were caught in a wide crowd shot.

Tags: empathy (psychic), Gabbl, illusion, Jack Tourmaline, Jenny Brumal, Lookered Lens, Melvin Klein, Myron Nath, news, O.S.I.R., police, psychokinesis, Sarah Jayne, Socialmabob, sympathy (psychic).

September 21, 2013
Hold Them, But Don't Fold Them

My name is Jack Tourmaline. Josh has let me speak to you today. Very kind of him. I'll try to keep this short. The team and I recently met with a small group of people who know about the gifted, but there are only one or two with them. They don't like the treatment that we gifted get from other people. Frightened people. They want to do something about it. To do that they have to let more people know about us.

I know something about racism and bigotry. I am partly Ojibwe. I am barely not enough Ojibwe to be included though. I've been shunned by both sides. That is without anyone knowing about my gifts. I hid that even from my parents. There were some trouble times here and there where they had no idea what was going on. I know the trouble that being different or in the minority brings, especially when you're the even more minor bit in the minority. I agree totally with Josh in the past saying we don't need more people knowing we exist.

I'm not a big Internet guy. I can Lookered things. I learn stuff on here. There is a thing going on right now where people want to hide stuff from being on the Internet. Josh tells me I mean to say block things. Law people far away from here are really into blocking things and soon more people will do it too. They have a big list and people will lose a lot of stuff they could learn. Don't let them do that. There are things to hide, and things not to hide. We the gifted are not going away. We just keep to ourselves. People blocking things are like Tommy Dearing and his men, taking things away forever. Neither is right. Speak up about the blocking while you can.

Thanks to Josh for fixing anything I said wrong that didn't get a red line under it. Thanks to Melvin for doing the other stuff so you can see who said what about things someone else said before me. Bye.

Tags: bigotry, censorship, Jack Tourmaline, Joshua Rhoads, law, learning, Lookered, Melvin Klein, Minnesota, Native Americans, Ojibwe, racism, Tommy Dearing, OSIR.

September 14, 2013
In the System, Sort Of

I got arrested this week. The charge was breaking and entering. The problem was that for once I wasn't breaking and entering. I'll admit I do things, sure it's to save lives ultimately, but I am doing illegal things as required. Anyway, I have a key to Myron's apartment. It's not the best copy so you have to fiddle with it. That didn't matter to the officer. She thought it was that trick you read about online. I don't blame her. I know I said a few choice words to the lock while trying to get it open.

It maybe wasn't the best of ideas, but I let her take me in. I mean right to the precinct. They processed me in before I got to call Myron. I got him to come in as my lawyer, as well as the owner of the apartment.How, you ask? I made like I was talking to a secretary first. He came and we cleared things up, however that was not the end of it. I had to get Melvin (later) to obscure the arrest records including switching the photos and fingerprints. The physical copies were another matter. I don't know how it went in the past, before the practicality of the Mericratic Party affected all levels of law. Now however, even in cases like mine, the records of the arrest remain, and the evidence, even though no charges were ultimately filed.

To deal with the pertinent paperwork, I made a ruckus in another room by splitting my attention off remotely and throwing things around, while I pocketed the fingerprint card from the completed but unfiled pile. The arrest papers I tore the file number off of the corners and slipped into another officer's completed pile--they're printed off after the arresting officer plugs in the information into the computer.

I had a notion to leave the fingerprints as is. The computer files pointing to a different person owning those prints influences juries. It shows a level of incompetence that then almost immediately makes people believe that other errors were made, especially in cases lacking direct witnesses. Calling out that the database has been hacked is even worse leading people to wonder how many files have been altered or destroyed and throwing even more doubt onto the legal system--one that people already see as swinging wildly between incompetent and corrupt. Some people might want to try to bring the legal system down, but I fear for what may happen if such a thing were to succeed. What we have is better than anarchy and chaos.

Myron and I hung around a safe distance away and waited for the O.S.I.R. to show up. We didn't wait too long, sadly. They are pretty efficient all told. If I had remained detained they would have had me. Had Myron taken too long they also would have had me.

Tags: law, Melvin Klein, Myron Nath, O.S.I.R., police.

September 7, 2013
Reeling Deconstruction

In some ways I am still reeling from the events of last week. What has stayed with me the strongest is Mr. Peterson warning the mobsters off of coming after me. Granted they may have turned their focus more to him for killing their leader. Her brother is actually free now. News of his sister's death caused him to give up and do as he was told. Back to Mr. Peterson though, I have no real idea how I should feel. Maybe confused is the correct response though. Here's a man whom I blinded in one eye, pounded the crap out of, and nearly tore his arm off and he barely managed not to be crippled by that assault, and he defended me. I mean he's obviously a man with his own code of honour, and I saved his niece--not last week, but currently by getting her help and protection. I just can't parse it. Maybe his professional choice aside he's a better man than I am.

I have to consider his position now, though. He sends gifted men and women to their deaths because he believes it is the only way to keep others safe. It doesn't matter if some of them have been harmless until now. They could, at any time, turn against the people around them and use their unfair advantage to, well, do anything they feel like doing. Then along comes a family member, someone of his flesh and blood who is one of these dangerous people. Not only is she gifted, but she has turned it to doing destructive things. I don't want to get into the details right now, but the earlier fires were tests, or dry runs to hone her skills at using her gift.

On a different note, I also can't quite shake thinking about the efficiency of Mr. Peterson's operation. The fire alarm that got the Fauxtein workers out of the warehouse was pulled by one of the O.S.I.R agents.. Once the workers were out they were moved away from the building and kept busy with some kind of cover story about a threat inside the building, rather than that there was a fire. The fire department and other police forces were kept away using I can only assume the same cover story. Meanwhile the riot geared agents entered the building, or were conceivably there before the alarm was triggered and before the arrival of my team and I. Even while I was there they moved about without being detected on the security cameras. That little trick was pretty low tech. Another agent switched back and forth between live and recorded footage of the hallways, monitored the movements of the mobsters, and let us see the mobsters movements.

I feel more lucky and more frightened that the O.S.I.R. has not already collected me and sent me to my death.

Tags: agents, control, Fauxtein, fear, , mafia, O.S.I.R., Mr. Peterson, OSIR, police, surveillance, Susan D'Amico.