Dossier: Dr. Serafina Rosario, Joint Union/Reality Deviant Operations
FACADE Personnel Records: Dr. Serafina Rosario
Birthdate: July 8, 1978
Genetic Enhancements: Enhanced metabolism, brain activity, genetics sanitized for enhanced attractiveness. Moderately improved physical endurance, significant intelligence ('real' and 'social') augmentation.
Postnatal Augmentations: None
Valid Clearances:
Dr. Serafina Rosario is the daughter of Daniel and Pia Rosario, both famous and high-level Progenitors who have made waves in their respective fields via revolutionary scientific theories. Like many children of Technocratic parents, Dr. Rosario attended the Damien Academy for Exceptional Youth for her entire primary schooling, graduating in 1995 with the equivalent of a Ph.D in biology and a M.D. Her behavior in the school was exceptionally rebellious, although there were never any questions of actual loyalty. However, she was threatened with expulsion for several incidents, including one involving misuse of advanced bioengineering equipment, and several incidents of encouraging students to flout the Academy's rules on good order. This misbehavior peaked in 1992, and for her last few years she became a significantly more well-behaved student, possibly out of embarrassment from the results of the incident involving bioengineering equipment misuse.
Using the Ivory Tower's Academic Reciprocity Program (ARP), she was provided a M.D from Harvard Medical School, which she used to practice for a short period of time with Medicins Sans Frontiers, eventually joining Medicins Sans Superstition (the Progenitor program to improve medical care in less-developed areas alongside an anti-superstitionist program to eliminate alternative medical workings). Encouragement by colleagues led her to test out a short-lived transfer from this to Damage Control in late 1997, wherein she spent a year working alongside several NWO agents until her transfer, for "job stress" and "different opportunities", led to her transfer to FACADE's research and development programs.
As a FACADE researcher she has had a few of her own projects, although she flits from project to project in an almost hyperactive fashion, giving assistance and advice whenever she finds it necessary or interesting. Her assistance is often welcomed, but her short attention span on research has impacted her promotion chances-it is almost certain that a gifted scientist of her caliber, possessing her social ability, would have become a head researcher if it was not for her habit of simply finding hard problems to solve, solving those issues, and then flitting off to another problem.
One of the exceptions to this has been her participation in EXEMPLAR II and III, wherein she was an incredibly dedicated and studious worker to the point of obsession. It is not known what drove her to see this as her life's work, but during her work in EXEMPLAR II and III, she was exceptionally dedicated with the project itself, having temporarily incorporated transgenic mods to remove her need for rest and further augment her intellect. However, with the end of the project due to the failure of EXEMPLAR III, she has largely retired to Sleeper-improvement work, apparently to aid in the acclimatization and schooling of the last EXEMPLAR III survivor, Rose Ashford (EXEMPLAR-R-528-S-3).
Although Progenitor leadership, including her parents, have encouraged her to take a more active role on projects requiring significantly more than basic hyperbiological understanding and patience, she has largely ignored such suggestions, even though they have reduced her profile in the Progenitors, a heavily research-focused Convention. Her latest choice to transfer to a cross-Convention field Amalgam is likely for similar reasons, to keep close to her surrogate daughter. However, as this sabbatical from academia may assist her in recovering her old Genius, this transfer has been approved.
Better The Devil You Know... Joint Technocracy/Reality Deviant Operations
By Operative Jianguo Bai, NWO
As the readers of this article may well know, it is extremely common, especially in the Post-Anomaly world, for loyal Union members and Reality Deviants to work on temporary joint projects, some officially sanctioned, some not. This article will list some of the more exceptional Union/RD cooperative endeavors, as well as providing tests for the validity of such a joint operation. A valid, non-sanctionable joint operation is one where the benefit of working with Reality Deviants exceeds the expense of working with Reality Deviants, both tangible (equipment losses and any other expenses taken) and intangible (promotion of incorrect thought). It also helps significantly if the Technocracy benefits significantly more than the Reality Deviants do. It is, of course, safest to undertake a joint operation with Reality Deviants when you lack the resources to accomplish the task another way. Note that not all of these have to be justified in front of a board of review-minor cooperation with Reality Deviants and allowing Reality Deviants to act unmolested should their actions advance a Technocratic goal are prima facie justifiable. Furthermore, constant use of Reality Deviants may not, in fact, be desirable for all but the most senior agents. Agent John Courage is a hero to us all, but he's not a very good role model given that he spends most of his time hiding from the Technocracy (also, using a non-doctrinal pseudonym).
Some of the more famous or infamous Union/RD operations are listed below, as well as brief descriptions.
Demonhunters: Very few anti-Nephandic task forces exist without some sort of contact with the other side. Before the end of the Ascension War, this was extremely useful, as you could generally tell hostile parties from the other faction to kill your own Nephandi, saving resources and creating fewer ethical conundrums. At the end of the Ascension War, these networks often became open friendships, and although nonsanctioned, attempting to remove a Nephandi-hunter for their Reality Deviant friendships is often a very, very short step to being accused of Neffandery yourself, which has made them essentially immune to prosecution. Many of them act all but openly in concert with the other side. To be fair to these men and women, their loyalty is to the preservation of this world and of humanity, something entirely admirable and something everyone can agree on. However, friendship and alliance is often a short step away from defection.
INVICTUS: Invictus apparently started as a secret cabal of Syndicate Enforcers who realized the existence of corruption in the Special Projects Division was long-standing and difficult to root out. With the exposure of this corruption, they essentially 'went open', but in the early days did not have sufficient resources. This led them to make a temporary alliance with shapeshifter tribes to attack sequestrated SPD holdings, often associated with the megacorporation Pentex. Post Dimensional Anomaly, Enforcer Ryan Whitman, one of the original founders of the INVICTUS cabal, inherited a leadership position due to the removal of almost all high-ranking Syndicate executives, and essentially turned INVICTUS into a fully authorized subproject of the Enforcers. This did not change their cooperation with shapeshifters, but altered it significantly such that they largely deal with the more controllable ones, such as the "Glass Walkers".
Marauder Containment Unit: The MCU is a joint Iteration X/Progenitor/Etherite operation that attempts to contain risky Marauders before they do something particularly dangerous. Although Iteration X and the Progenitors are generally hardline, and would have run the MCU by themselves, they have found that Etherite pseudoscience provides a significantly increased level of effectiveness against Marauders in their bubbles of altered reality where conventional physics may have issues functioning. The Etherites, on their part, would also prefer to go it alone, but have found that the resources of Iteration X and the Progenitors provide a fantastic level of backup when a mad scientist threatens to unleash an unstoppable horde of 10 meter long fire-breathing atomic ants on North America, and both sides would prefer human civilization remain largely intact, even if one side has distasteful views on what this civilization would entail.
Project J: The Syndicate, as one of the humanist conventions, has often had issues with manpower or tasking. They, however, have had very few issues with tasks such as valuation of labor. Project J is quite literally pushing the edge of valid cooperation between Technocrats and Superstitionists, as it is paying Superstitionists to do tasks that the Syndicate wishes accomplished. The reason that Project J has not been sanctioned as of now is that those people involved in it have a moderately higher-than-normal chance of defecting to our side, turning it into an impromptu recruitment method, as well as the cost-benefit equations showing that it was often much easier for the Syndicate to pay the Reality Deviants to accomplish the task than to achieve it via cross-Convention means. Even so, all other Conventions save the Void Engineers see it as politically dangerous, and have been lobbying to have it shut down. Its continued existence is questionable given this significant lobbying.
The Children's Crusade: Started by a high-ranking member of the Cult of Ecstasy who was horrified at Nephandic influence in child slavery and trafficking, the Children's Crusade started as an exclusively-RD run operation until several NWO and Syndicate operatives on similar investigative trails ended up running their own program. The two ran into each other, and nothing was ever the same. Much like any other anti-Nephandi operations, cooperation was quick. The Children's Crusade became more or less an official Cross-Convention/Traditions operation, taking personnel from every Convention or Superstitionist Tradition, and due to the perfidy and depth of Nephandic corruption, has not disbanded or been threatened with disbandment from either side. Some say that the Children's Crusade and the Demonhunters in general, both of which often lead to extended and friendly relationships between nominal foes (some of which even blossom into full-fledged romances), are much of the reason why the fragile peace after the Dimensional Anomaly has not collapsed, even after 15 years and more than a few low-level skirmishes.
The Competition for Hypermathematics and Hyperprogramming: This competition between Iteration X, the Virtual Adepts, and the Etherites was originally an internal Technocratic competition. However, even when the Etherites and VAs defected, they used clever tricks to enter it. Iteration X strongly lobbied to have the award and competition continued even when their competitors ended up on the superstitionist side. This is rumored to be one of the very few times where Iteration X did not directly obey the Computer's orders, which may show you the importance of this game. The competition itself is a grueling test of advanced computer knowledge and mathematical know-how, often involving artificial realms where the goals require figuring out a completely unknown set of physics from base principles. A 9-strong panel of judges, 3 from each Convention or Tradition, judge the winner, whose award is a significant windfall of Prime Energy ('tass', in the words of the Reality Deviants). During some of the most hardline eras of the Ascension War, the judge panel was the only time you could see Iteration X members near Reality Deviants without some sort of armed conflict going on.
Birthdate: July 8, 1978
Genetic Enhancements: Enhanced metabolism, brain activity, genetics sanitized for enhanced attractiveness. Moderately improved physical endurance, significant intelligence ('real' and 'social') augmentation.
Postnatal Augmentations: None
Valid Clearances:
Experimental Medical Treatment Clearance
Pharmaceutical Deployment Authorization
Local and Theater Biowarfare Clearances
Deployment of Combat Homonculi
Background Notes: Dr. Serafina Rosario is the daughter of Daniel and Pia Rosario, both famous and high-level Progenitors who have made waves in their respective fields via revolutionary scientific theories. Like many children of Technocratic parents, Dr. Rosario attended the Damien Academy for Exceptional Youth for her entire primary schooling, graduating in 1995 with the equivalent of a Ph.D in biology and a M.D. Her behavior in the school was exceptionally rebellious, although there were never any questions of actual loyalty. However, she was threatened with expulsion for several incidents, including one involving misuse of advanced bioengineering equipment, and several incidents of encouraging students to flout the Academy's rules on good order. This misbehavior peaked in 1992, and for her last few years she became a significantly more well-behaved student, possibly out of embarrassment from the results of the incident involving bioengineering equipment misuse.
Using the Ivory Tower's Academic Reciprocity Program (ARP), she was provided a M.D from Harvard Medical School, which she used to practice for a short period of time with Medicins Sans Frontiers, eventually joining Medicins Sans Superstition (the Progenitor program to improve medical care in less-developed areas alongside an anti-superstitionist program to eliminate alternative medical workings). Encouragement by colleagues led her to test out a short-lived transfer from this to Damage Control in late 1997, wherein she spent a year working alongside several NWO agents until her transfer, for "job stress" and "different opportunities", led to her transfer to FACADE's research and development programs.
As a FACADE researcher she has had a few of her own projects, although she flits from project to project in an almost hyperactive fashion, giving assistance and advice whenever she finds it necessary or interesting. Her assistance is often welcomed, but her short attention span on research has impacted her promotion chances-it is almost certain that a gifted scientist of her caliber, possessing her social ability, would have become a head researcher if it was not for her habit of simply finding hard problems to solve, solving those issues, and then flitting off to another problem.
One of the exceptions to this has been her participation in EXEMPLAR II and III, wherein she was an incredibly dedicated and studious worker to the point of obsession. It is not known what drove her to see this as her life's work, but during her work in EXEMPLAR II and III, she was exceptionally dedicated with the project itself, having temporarily incorporated transgenic mods to remove her need for rest and further augment her intellect. However, with the end of the project due to the failure of EXEMPLAR III, she has largely retired to Sleeper-improvement work, apparently to aid in the acclimatization and schooling of the last EXEMPLAR III survivor, Rose Ashford (EXEMPLAR-R-528-S-3).
Although Progenitor leadership, including her parents, have encouraged her to take a more active role on projects requiring significantly more than basic hyperbiological understanding and patience, she has largely ignored such suggestions, even though they have reduced her profile in the Progenitors, a heavily research-focused Convention. Her latest choice to transfer to a cross-Convention field Amalgam is likely for similar reasons, to keep close to her surrogate daughter. However, as this sabbatical from academia may assist her in recovering her old Genius, this transfer has been approved.
Further Investigation: Okay, JB, you asked me to get a psych profile on her, and her basic dossier files are pretty much fluff (I guess when you can engineer everyone to have perfect meat-memory you don't keep all that much on your computers, eh) so I looked further into their internal affairs and psych stuff. FYI: If EC kicks my door down, this is all your fault and you mind-controlled me to do it. You know she's sleeping with one of them, right? I owe you for getting me out of that little clusterfuck of wizards, though, especially after what went down a year later.
Anyways, psych-wise, they fear she's got some attention span issues, but tests show she's perfectly fine. She just loses interest relatively quickly if the problem isn't hard (there is probably a sex joke in here somewhere) and decides to find another problem. So give her something challenging and she'll love it, have her do something boring (like endless surveillance) and she'll very rapidly lose interest and just fuck off and get into trouble. Presumably it might be why she isn't in Damage Control anymore, but there's not much evidence on that. Certainly outside of that operation in Japan her record was fine, and every agent has their failed missions. So I'll chalk up 'personal issues' as why she transferred out of DC.
It's actually similar in a lot of her personal relationships, from what I've pieced together from NWO and Prog intercepts-she finds someone interesting for a short period of time, and then gently leaves them. You may make jokes about 'hardness' now, except you're a humorless bitch and won't do that while I'm a terrible example of overachieving masculinity. I've been trying to draw from recorded snippets of rumors and various bragging on Facebook as to what her romantic relationships and friendships are, and it's creating a picture of someone who keeps falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat. Her only semi-long-term romantic relationship is with Alexander Cross, and there's probably some sort of ethics violation if you're sleeping with your auditors here. It's also only semi-long-term insofar as he doesn't, as far as I know, care about who she's learning about behind his back, because artificial people are weird like that and don't quite have the same social instincts we do. Hey, maybe I should find a robot girlfriend or five to call my own. I mean, now that I'm one of the James Bond types that means I should have as many girlfriends as he does, no?
Friendships are easier-she has a lot of friends, but very few close ones. Very popular, but kind of nervous around people, it seems, which makes sense, since Damien turns out real weirdos. Even when I was back with the old guys doing this kind of intel work, you could tell if someone was a Damien grad, because they didn't want to associate with normal people. Good times, good times. I wouldn't have met you if it wasn't for that one hostage situation back in Greece, and that means I probably wouldn't have defected and now I'd be dead thanks to the Golden fuckin' Chalice, but I'm just rambling here to make sure you know this is actually me and you're not reading a honeypot letter. More seriously, if you can actually get her to open up to you, you might have a shot at playing her. I know it's hard, but sometimes the truth is the best lie. She's lonely, kind of dorky, and just sort of has this practiced politeness that you tend to get when you work in a cut-throat environment full of backstabbing like the Order of Hermes... or the Progenitors (what is with academia). She's good at playing people like chess pieces, but that's more because she has an IQ of about 500 and can see what you're likely to do before you've done it. You can bullshit her, but if you're doing that make sure she can't actually do the research herself.
Also, remember to burn this before reading. If you're still printing them out. Stylistic analysis is going to catch me anyways if they read it, so I'm not even bothering to disguise my writing. Also, you need to tell me when you have some free time, because I've found this amazingly old bottle of liquor I want to share with someone, and I'd like to share it with someone I can also bitch about the Order of Hermes to. If that doesn't convince you, consider it useful for your next infiltration op.
-TurkishHarryPotter
Received. Good work. -JB.
Better The Devil You Know... Joint Technocracy/Reality Deviant Operations
By Operative Jianguo Bai, NWO
As the readers of this article may well know, it is extremely common, especially in the Post-Anomaly world, for loyal Union members and Reality Deviants to work on temporary joint projects, some officially sanctioned, some not. This article will list some of the more exceptional Union/RD cooperative endeavors, as well as providing tests for the validity of such a joint operation. A valid, non-sanctionable joint operation is one where the benefit of working with Reality Deviants exceeds the expense of working with Reality Deviants, both tangible (equipment losses and any other expenses taken) and intangible (promotion of incorrect thought). It also helps significantly if the Technocracy benefits significantly more than the Reality Deviants do. It is, of course, safest to undertake a joint operation with Reality Deviants when you lack the resources to accomplish the task another way. Note that not all of these have to be justified in front of a board of review-minor cooperation with Reality Deviants and allowing Reality Deviants to act unmolested should their actions advance a Technocratic goal are prima facie justifiable. Furthermore, constant use of Reality Deviants may not, in fact, be desirable for all but the most senior agents. Agent John Courage is a hero to us all, but he's not a very good role model given that he spends most of his time hiding from the Technocracy (also, using a non-doctrinal pseudonym).
Some of the more famous or infamous Union/RD operations are listed below, as well as brief descriptions.
Demonhunters: Very few anti-Nephandic task forces exist without some sort of contact with the other side. Before the end of the Ascension War, this was extremely useful, as you could generally tell hostile parties from the other faction to kill your own Nephandi, saving resources and creating fewer ethical conundrums. At the end of the Ascension War, these networks often became open friendships, and although nonsanctioned, attempting to remove a Nephandi-hunter for their Reality Deviant friendships is often a very, very short step to being accused of Neffandery yourself, which has made them essentially immune to prosecution. Many of them act all but openly in concert with the other side. To be fair to these men and women, their loyalty is to the preservation of this world and of humanity, something entirely admirable and something everyone can agree on. However, friendship and alliance is often a short step away from defection.
INVICTUS: Invictus apparently started as a secret cabal of Syndicate Enforcers who realized the existence of corruption in the Special Projects Division was long-standing and difficult to root out. With the exposure of this corruption, they essentially 'went open', but in the early days did not have sufficient resources. This led them to make a temporary alliance with shapeshifter tribes to attack sequestrated SPD holdings, often associated with the megacorporation Pentex. Post Dimensional Anomaly, Enforcer Ryan Whitman, one of the original founders of the INVICTUS cabal, inherited a leadership position due to the removal of almost all high-ranking Syndicate executives, and essentially turned INVICTUS into a fully authorized subproject of the Enforcers. This did not change their cooperation with shapeshifters, but altered it significantly such that they largely deal with the more controllable ones, such as the "Glass Walkers".
Marauder Containment Unit: The MCU is a joint Iteration X/Progenitor/Etherite operation that attempts to contain risky Marauders before they do something particularly dangerous. Although Iteration X and the Progenitors are generally hardline, and would have run the MCU by themselves, they have found that Etherite pseudoscience provides a significantly increased level of effectiveness against Marauders in their bubbles of altered reality where conventional physics may have issues functioning. The Etherites, on their part, would also prefer to go it alone, but have found that the resources of Iteration X and the Progenitors provide a fantastic level of backup when a mad scientist threatens to unleash an unstoppable horde of 10 meter long fire-breathing atomic ants on North America, and both sides would prefer human civilization remain largely intact, even if one side has distasteful views on what this civilization would entail.
Project J: The Syndicate, as one of the humanist conventions, has often had issues with manpower or tasking. They, however, have had very few issues with tasks such as valuation of labor. Project J is quite literally pushing the edge of valid cooperation between Technocrats and Superstitionists, as it is paying Superstitionists to do tasks that the Syndicate wishes accomplished. The reason that Project J has not been sanctioned as of now is that those people involved in it have a moderately higher-than-normal chance of defecting to our side, turning it into an impromptu recruitment method, as well as the cost-benefit equations showing that it was often much easier for the Syndicate to pay the Reality Deviants to accomplish the task than to achieve it via cross-Convention means. Even so, all other Conventions save the Void Engineers see it as politically dangerous, and have been lobbying to have it shut down. Its continued existence is questionable given this significant lobbying.
The Children's Crusade: Started by a high-ranking member of the Cult of Ecstasy who was horrified at Nephandic influence in child slavery and trafficking, the Children's Crusade started as an exclusively-RD run operation until several NWO and Syndicate operatives on similar investigative trails ended up running their own program. The two ran into each other, and nothing was ever the same. Much like any other anti-Nephandi operations, cooperation was quick. The Children's Crusade became more or less an official Cross-Convention/Traditions operation, taking personnel from every Convention or Superstitionist Tradition, and due to the perfidy and depth of Nephandic corruption, has not disbanded or been threatened with disbandment from either side. Some say that the Children's Crusade and the Demonhunters in general, both of which often lead to extended and friendly relationships between nominal foes (some of which even blossom into full-fledged romances), are much of the reason why the fragile peace after the Dimensional Anomaly has not collapsed, even after 15 years and more than a few low-level skirmishes.
The Competition for Hypermathematics and Hyperprogramming: This competition between Iteration X, the Virtual Adepts, and the Etherites was originally an internal Technocratic competition. However, even when the Etherites and VAs defected, they used clever tricks to enter it. Iteration X strongly lobbied to have the award and competition continued even when their competitors ended up on the superstitionist side. This is rumored to be one of the very few times where Iteration X did not directly obey the Computer's orders, which may show you the importance of this game. The competition itself is a grueling test of advanced computer knowledge and mathematical know-how, often involving artificial realms where the goals require figuring out a completely unknown set of physics from base principles. A 9-strong panel of judges, 3 from each Convention or Tradition, judge the winner, whose award is a significant windfall of Prime Energy ('tass', in the words of the Reality Deviants). During some of the most hardline eras of the Ascension War, the judge panel was the only time you could see Iteration X members near Reality Deviants without some sort of armed conflict going on.
