Facebook discussion with Emily about Ruan's escape from Locke
(E) The REAL important thing I was thinking about today is how did Ruan end up with such an enormous step bonus while resisting Locke on Ezra.
(J) Well, we discussed part of the mission was killing children, you were thinking one of them reminded him of River who he had a crush on?
Actually, I was thinking along a different line. More like River beat the crap out of him while they were in school. And because of the whole going through puberty thing, he was thinking "She's actually kind of cute". It was a side thing. Nothing to do with Locke. And thinking a 12 year old is cute is creepy. She might have still beat the crap out of him though.
She was a prodigy.
There you go. Maybe she did. Because getting back to how he resisted Locke so effectively… I've been thinking about the way the handlers worked with their kids. It seems unimportant because it's in the past, but it is because it's the only real relationship Ruan's ever had. It shapes how he relates to the other characters. Which I'm only now figuring out as we play.
I agree, your history makes you.
It's why everybody could play Lennon as well as I could by the end of the campaign. I had his history down.
This is still going to be a little complicated, on the other hand, Lennon's history grew a little as time went on.
Yeah. And if could now retcon the whole thing there would be things I'd change. Some would be more important and other things not as much. So, I've been trying to build the history first so I don't have the same thing happen. So I've had to think about Locke a lot more than I thought I would.
Understandable.
I guess I want to hand off a fully realized NPC to you. Since he's going to actually matter. I've always pictured Locke as this giant jarhead ex-marine special forces looking tough guy.
See, I pictured him as another cadet, maybe older, trained, but not a big jarhead.
But it occurs to me, why so tough? Isn't he technically the brain and Ruan is the muscle. What if he's a little spooky guy like the hands of blue guys looked.
Yes!
I realized that in the last game. (I have no idea how, but I did.) So, that could make sense too. But not too creepy because they actually had a decent warm working relationship.
That was why I had the older cadet image. They don't handle the assassins physically, but mentally.
Yeah. So it could be either one. But not as spooky as the hands guys. I will accept a Kevin Spacey level of spookiness but not more than that.
More like the "he always knows what I was going to say" spooky.
Yeah. More like that. Actually, if I'm going to let go of the Jarhead (Ron Perlman), I will accept Kevin Spacey as a substitute.
Acceptable. There's a character I'm thinking of, but just can't place it
Let me know if you think of it. It can also be Agent Coulson from the movies since he's really just a poor man's Kevin Spacey.
He's spookier on the TV show, but too old.
Yeah. Young Kevin spacey with hair.
I was thinking about your text earlier, if Ruan is going to confess to the captain, we need to make sure the captain has a good reason to keep Ruan around. After the Niska job, really he ought to be thinking of giving Ruan the boot.
I know!
I was thinking Ruan needs to save the day in a big way, maybe something dealing with multiple casualties.
Sure.
Also, he might need something to prove his story is true. Being psychic and a demonstration of his combat skill would go a long way.
But I've been playing it like Ruan doesn't know he's psychic.
True
Because basically I'm imagining that he only really lucidly remembers the last 2 years of his life. All his previous past is a jumbled collection memories because of the way he was manipulated by the Academy. So he remembers the events of jobs he worked but not the places or targets. They might be remembered in the right order but they could have been days or years apart. He knows he's younger than his ID says he is, but he's not sure exactly how young. So, when he's talking to the Captain (or anyone for that matter) he's not lying - he really isn't sure.
Be sure to include that point in your explanation.
The first thing he really remembers is the job on Ezra. Well, it's an important point. Because I'm trying to play him like he's a kid. He makes mistakes and errors in judgement that a teenager might make.
You don't want to fog it too much, he needs to know what he's running from.
In my head, he's been spending the last 2 years figuring it out. Putting the events and half remembered places and people in his head together.
Makes sense, away from the Academy, his mind will clear.
So, it's more like "I'm pretty sure those Academy conspiracy theories are true because … I was in some weird paramilitary training institute and I remember actually assassinating people. And I'm pretty sure I'm not crazy…" So yeah, you got it. The longer he's away the better it all gets. But right now, he's in a really new environment. I think he had it together at medic school because that was familiar and controlled. And on Gonghe he enjoyed working at his job and started making friends. And in my little brain universe, what happened is Locke when to Gonghe (either on purpose or on accident). And that was the first time Ruan had to "leave really really quickly". But I think he over-estimated his ability to cope and now he's fucking up. I just have to not have him fuck up his way off the crew.
Right. I have a scene with a boobytrap bomb planned, Naomi's Things don't go Smooth may result in casualties for Ruan to save.
Okay. I'm not worried about it though. I've basically got it down to Ruan having to ask for help. I was actually planning that all along, but things escalated quickly.
Here, dig on this for a minute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR1bWhdoIXM
Every character I make has a song. This has been Ruan's song since the Big Damn Medic's campaign. He just wants to be free.
Not working, is there a title I can search for?
Feeling good Nina Simone (lyrics) That's weird. It works on my computer. For a more modern version look for "Feeling good Muse".
Lyrics are appropriate.
Yeah. I could say I was being original. But the remake of La Femme Nikta used it the same way. It's a coincidence, but I'm sure it was in the back of my brain somewhere.
Sometimes your subconscious puts the right thing in your hand without telling you where it came from at the time.
Perhaps. It was actually the Muse version that got in my head first. So, Ruan has freedom now. He wants to keep it. He'll ask for help before he gives it up. Plus, at this point he fully understands that he must keep moving in order to survive. And he won this freedom by resisting Locke. Here's what I think went down. When the handlers direct their kids around, it's not like they're issuing psychic commands. I think the kids went in all wired up with cameras and ear pieces and mics. And the handler was at kind of a mobile command station like in Aliens. But he also had an additional linkage beyond the gadgets - a sort of empathic connection.
Sure
So he can see what Ruan sees and talk to him, but he can also "push" Ruan to do things he might not normally do or be able to do. So, if he sensed that Ruan was afraid to enter a room, he might push him in anyway.
And feel what Ruan is feeling.
Yeah. And Ruan gets feedback in the same way. He knows if he's done a good job. Or he might know his handler is disappointed and try harder.
And there's another aspect in which his handler can sort of … enhance his reactions and responses. So if Locke really really really needs Ruan to get out of a tight situation and survive he might use that push to have Ruan move faster that he normally could or shoot better.
Push his programming buttons.
Exactly. So conceivably Locke could still do this. IF Ruan trusts the connection enough to let Locke do it. Almost like a trance state. Missions always start the same, Ruan is collected by Locke, starts putting on equipment, checking weapons etc. And while he's doing this, Locke is saying coded things hidden in what sounds like small talk. Ruan's responses tell Locke that he's calibrating empathically. Once the signal is good, they're ready to go and Ruan goes in and Locke has control. Connections between handler/subject that break "blink". The handler can feel that he's losing the bond with his kid and can "re-up" it or risk having it "blank out" if he doesn't stop to fix it. Some of the kids are more prone to these "blinks" and other's aren't. One thing can be the kid is unstable. Another can be the handler continually pushes the kid harder and harder with no real reward. The handler loses trust.
I think I'll be giving you a few chips for this conversation.
lol. These are the rules. I told you I wanted to give you a playable NPC. So, Ruan was stable. He didn't blink very often if at all. And Locke was trustworthy. So, they were a good team. What happened?
Everyone has a breaking point.
I think that Locke did something untrustworthy BEFORE Ezra. Here's the reason I was asking about River. We talked about the teams sometimes working as groups. So Ruan would go in with some other kids and do a job together. What if one of the other kids blanked out? That's an expensive piece of equipment that can't be left behind.
But based on how crazy River could get, it's not an easy thing to bring back out quietly. Probably one of the most trust breaking things a handler could do is put a kid "to bed". That is to give the safeword that would knock them out entirely (what Simon did to River). There were much gentler ways a kid to be subdued. So if Ruan was working a mission with another kid who blanked out and then couldn't be put to bed, he'd be the only one who could recover the property. Which would mean Locke would have to push him really hard. And Ruan would probably take a beating in the process. So that's what I think happened prior to Ezra. Ruan was on a mission with another academy kid, she freaked out, he was forced by Locke to keep functioning beyond his capacity to bring her back. And by the time they got back, Ruan was so freaked out and out of control that Locke was forced to use that safe word. The next mission was Ezra. Ruan saw what they were doing and was like "fuck this", blanked out without warning and surprise attacked Locke.
Next talk
(E) The basics of Locke and Ruan: They had a good working relationship and were a good team. As much as their relationship allowed, they liked working together. They were involved in a pretty horrible incident during which an agent freaked out and needed to be contained. Ruan did the containment, Locke had to push him much harder than was wise. Ruan was injured, but finished the mission, got the agent out, and prevented a compromise of the program. I'd like to think that this was the worst incident on record. The agent that freaked out was "removed" from the program. Her handler was also damaged by the incident and never worked again. Locke and Ruan were "heroes" for 5 minutes and then put back to work. The problem was, Ruan never quite trusted Locke the same way since in order to complete the mission, Locke was forced to repeatedly put Ruan back in danger; basically over riding Ruan's own self preservation triggers over and over. (I actually role play this continually during our games. Because Ruan needed to suppress the other agent but not kill or damage her, he had to fight hand to hand. After that incident, Locke noticed Ruan became twitchy about using anything but his gun for jobs. In the games, Ruan is always armed and always reaches for his pistol first. He actively avoids hand to hand combat even though he's good at it.)
(J) I think Ruan has been presented as trying to save himself, he's not concerned about Locke
Well, Ruan is trying to save himself. But, lets say he was presented with the reality of the situation that the Academy isn't going to give up chasing him and now that he's been out in the 'verse a little bit, he can see that Locke isn't any freer than he was.
