Symbiosis [RPG]

[Flipz]

==internet==
The coat of arms belongs to an English noble family, one that is disproportionately influential for its small size and (lack of) notoriety.  The name is Regulus...why does that ring a bell?

==Roughly seventy years ago==
Arthur Regulus III broke into a cold sweat.  Hawks' execution date had been moved up.  That never happened to politicians; their time of punishment always seemed to move backwards.  Regulus cursed himself for letting his guard down.  They obviously do not want me to finish the equation, even an unstable form of it.  He marched down the hallway at top speed.  Bullets ripped through him, but they weren't even close to vital organs, and most of them healed quickly.  Still, he was losing blood, and if--

I'm here.  As Regulus approached his destination: the execution room.  The chair had been set up, the audience was here--a quick psionic touch to each ensured they would not remember anything they saw once they left--and there was only one thing missing: the disgraced Prime Minister.

Regulus cursed.  Where was he?  As he peered into the sealed room, he saw the body of a guard on the floor, behind the chair.  The chains had been snapped.

Regulus whirled--*THUNK--then blackness.

[mtmerrick]

Something's very wrong with this...... he said, deciding to do more research on the current lord Regulus.

[Flipz]

==Wikipedia==

Lord of Regulus
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  (Redirected from Lord Regulus)

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The Lord of Regulus was from the 19th century until 2006 the hereditary holder of several covert scientific facilities located on English royal land.  It was held by the descendants of Arthur J. Regulus, Duke of Regulus.

The title has been considered controversial since its conception, though its very existence is scarcely known outside of the top-secret intelligence communities, and the few other noble houses with which it has occasionally interacted.

As Lord Regulus, it is a subsidiary title of the Dukes of Regulus.  It is one of the few dukedoms named for its for its founder rather than the location of the dukedom^{[citation needed]}, most likely due to the highly sensitive and secret location of the facilities formerly under its control^{[citation needed]}.

[image]
An image of the Regulus coat of arms.

Table of Contents _[show]

In 2006, MI5 confiscated almost all public records on this noble house^[Source?], leaving only information on the ancestral lineage.  The exact dates, locations, and means of death for the Lords of Regulus have all been obscured by some form of damage to the original records^[1], which some^[who?] claim to be evidence that the house is involved in some sort of illicit "dirty work" for the British nobility, or even the Royal Family itself^{[citation needed]}.

The current Lord Regulus is Amarus Zagrene, a writer and friend of the Regulus family^[2].  He inherited the title after the sudden death of the previous Lord Regulus, Arthur J. Regulus VI, in 2006^[2], as Regulus' son is too young to inherit the title^[3].  The full contents of the late Lord Regulus' will are considered classified by MI5^{[4][dead link]}, so it is unclear whether or not Zagrene will surrender the title to the young Arthur Regulus VII when he comes of age.

[image]
The current Lord Regulus, Amarus Zagrene, seen here with the young Master Regulus at the late Lord Regulus' funeral.
This file is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy.
 Please share your thoughts on the matter at this file's entry on the Files for deletion page.
 
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This biography of a duke or duchess in the peerage of England is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

==Roughly seventy years ago==
Regulus awoke mere minutes later, but by then he knew he was already dead.  Indeed, Hawks had produced a shiv and was busily cutting up his host's chest.  A pity, but it would have happened sooner or later.  At least Hawks has been kind enough to give me direct access to himself.

"Quickly, Hawks!  Get it out and kill it before someone sees!"

OK, that was an unexpected complication.

As Regulus felt light strike his true body, he heard the voice address him directly.  "Hello, Regulus.  Making things complicated for our kind as usual, I see."

Hawks whirled in surprise.  "Your kind??"  It was exactly the sort of opening that he shouldn't have given the symbiote.  In a flash, Regulus had clamped on to the man's spinal cord.  Under the symbiote's control, he hurled the shiv into the chest of the man who had been speaking--the guard Regulus had assumed Hawks had overcome.  He heard the alien screech that meant he had mortally wounded his counterpart.  "Stupid, stupid, stupid," he said through Hawks to the dying creature.  "I won't make that mistake again."  Feeling Hawks' attempt to reclaim control over his body, Regulus quickly extracted the thoughts he had been seeking for the past three decades, then, for good measure, had the man snap his own neck.  Detatching from the man's spine, Regulus crawled toward the nearest air vent, and from there, out into the bog surrounding the place.  A few days of patience, and his next host would be here to pick up his predecessor's body.  He would once again have human form--but this time, he'd be careful.  This time, he'd be ready before he made his next move--no matter how long it took.

[mtmerrick]

OOC: that was awesome.

IC: This is bad..... he thought, and downloaded the HTML file of the page.
"Daniel, are you sure about staying with me?"
he knows too much..... he's in danger. poor kid.

[Flipz]

==Wikipedia==
In downloading the HTML, Tyler also gets the edit history.  It seems the same anonymous user repeatedly deleted large portions of the article whenever they were written (and somehow managed to wipe the information itself off the edit history), campaigned repeatedly for the total deletion of the article, made sure it was never indexed and remained orphaned, and filled the page with ^{[citation needed]} tags.  Oddly, he'd never been banned for this behavior.  Clearly, someone didn't want anyone elst to know about this family.

[mtmerrick]

He also saved the edits, and started googling Regulus.

[Darth Rexus]

IC (Viktor): Victor chewed his pencil musingly and pondered the meaning of the phone call. For years it had been tradition for the neighbourhood children to try and play a practical joke on Infinitus when they reached the age of 12, but little Charlie was only 11 last August...

OOC: I won't be active for a while, just set me a aside in an orderly fashion until my much expected return (there will be fireworks).

[Flipz]

==internet==
Aside from the news article--from a rather oddball, tabloid-esque source, at that--alleging several deaths at secret labs under the dukedom of Regulus, there were the cited sources for the Wikipedia article, mostly official records with missing details.  Arthur Regulus VII had a Facebook page and a Twitter, but no contact info on either and nothing out of place for a teenage boy, aside from a few questionable choices in film and magazine tastes--you suspect he may bat for more than one team.  There is a mention of record that Zagrene and the boy had attended the Royal Wedding, but the only photo shows the boy alone.

Digging a bit deeper, you manage to find a phone number for one of the laboratories--hopefully, MI5 isn't monitoring you now because of that.  A (highly illegal) search of that facility's phone records indicates just one call in the past month--to Infinitus Security, about a day ago--at the exact time you were in the CEO's office.

[mtmerrick]

Tyler walked to another room, opened SpoofApp and called the number, using the director of MI5's personal cell phone number.

OOC: check out the link. yes it exists, and yes it works, flawlessly.

[Darth Rexus]

OOC: I'm guessing you're calling me?

[mtmerrick]

OOC:

Digging a bit deeper, you manage to find a phone number for one of the laboratories--hopefully, MI5 isn't monitoring you now because of that.  A (highly illegal) search of that facility's phone records indicates just one call in the past month--to Infinitus Security, about a day ago--at the exact time you were in the CEO's office.

i'm calling the regulus lab.

[mtmerrick]

OOC: lets say i went to call right after you said that, ok?

IC: As the phone rang, Tyler began getting Daniel a passport

OOC: hey KZ, you want a legit passport or a fake identity?

[Flipz]

==Regulus Office==
"Sir, there's a call for you."

"Put it through, put the laboratory on low alert.  Then, clear out your workspace.  You're fired."

"..."

"Is there a problem?"

"...no, Lord Regulus."

"Good.  Get out of my sight."  Regulus signed.  Zagrene's body was good at that.  Still, his fairly anonymous looks were serving him well.  Perhaps if the boy doesn't work out... But there would be time for that later.  He looked at the caller I.D.  Head of MI5.  Interesting.  Clearly, either they had suddenly become competent, or there was a serious breach in security that allowed them to get it.  He decided to bank on the latter, and quickly began formulating a plan to flush out the leak.  He picked up the phone.  "Hello, idiot.  I hope you're not calling a number I distinctly remember never giving you just to wast my time with your usual pointless drivel.  I've got a meeting on the other side of the world in two days, and I have to spend that time figuring out exactly how to tell this consultant everything he needs to know without telling him anything he shouldn't know."  That last part was a lie, a simple mind-rub would be a trivial thing in case something went wrong, but even the Queen's own security team did not know the true nature of his existence.  Even within the royal family, those who knew the truth were few and far between.  **** it, he was doing it again.  Narrating his own life.  The perils of merging with a writer...with effort, he dragged his wandering mind back to the phone call.  "I don't appreciate being interrupted, especially by an incompetent fool like yourself.  Do you remember 2006?  How many more like that since then, hmm?  A man was killed, a man I was closer to than you'll ever understand."  In more than one sense.  "It's been six years, and with all your resources you can't catch a single killer?  And now, three more of my staff are dead." Eight, if you include the five candidates I was researching.  Hopefully at least some of them really were of his kind, he'd hate to see their knowledge vanish forever.  "Know this, fool.  Until you catch this sonofa***** and bring him to me so I can personally execute him with my own personal flair, this will be our last conversation.  Now, what did you think was important enough to disturb me."

OOC: I decided to change the original version of "execute him with my own personal flair", it was VERY graphic, far too violent even for a PG-13 rated RPG.

[mtmerrick]

Tyler smiled. very interesting. Glad im recording this. Guess im winging it tho.

Sounding exactoly like the real director (whom he know personally) Tyler responded "I don't really care what you think, the facts are the facts. And something new has come up, that I know is related. Of course, most wouldn't believe what I found out, but what your crest means is no secret to anyone here, ill leave it at that."

[Flipz]

==Regulus Office==
Regulus froze.  He quietly pressed a button under his desk, one that one of his more paranoid previous host had had installed.  Perhaps he should listen to that part of him a little more closely in the future.  "It does, does it?  I wonder when you were approached about it."  The way he said "approached" would leave no doubt as to what he meant, at least to another of his kind.  "If what you say is true, then you now have even more reason than I to want this monster--not dead, but alive.  You know as well as I that the dead cannot suffer."  He paused for effect--something he had picked up from his host.  It occurred to him that he had probably said more than he should have, if the director was not, in fact, joined to a symbiote like mihself.  He would have to work on suppressing this host a bit, lest his melodramatic tendencies get them both killed permanently.  "If you think you are truly...suited...to the task, you may call the constellation."  He hoped this symbiote was old enough, and experienced enough, to know of the practice of converting stars to numbers...and to know of the constellation noticed only by his kind, and perhaps the few who had seen them.  A message to the world, hidden in plain sight...and potentially, too difficult for the director to solve.  A symbiote stupid enough to choose that idiot as a host--clearly a sign of inexperience.  He decided to drop another clue.  "If you are...unprepared...but still have our best interests at heart--" Nice implication of common interest, he thought idly, I should use that in a novel "--then I may allow you to hold my coat.  Have a nice day, sir," he finished, his "farewell" dripping with venom.

He sat back in his chair, brooding.  Worst case scenario, he's not one of us, and I have to somehow murder the entire upper division of MI5 and wipe out the computer databases for the past three months--there was no dangerous data there last time I hacked.  Best case scenario...I'm dealing with an inexperienced rookie with a bad taste in hosts, who is in a prime position to accidentally expose us all to the most dangerous people on earth--the covert intelligence community.  And I won't be able to insult the director anymore.  He sighed once more.  Neither scenario really appealed to him.  He hoped there was a third option.  "Jarvis?"

A young, thin, light blonde-haired man, not much older than Zagrene but with the voice of a 60-year old, walked in.  "Yes, sir?"

"Trouble," Regulus said in Demotic.  "Someone not only found the line I used to contact Infinitus, but MI5 got a hold of it, and the director knows something.  About us."

Jarvis inclined his head before replying in the same language.  "Shall I cancel the Colorado meeting?"

"No.  But have people posted.  Even if Infinitus has betrayed us, there is no way he could know about us...unless..."

"[Regulus' true, unpronounceable name]?"

"I have to check something.  Get me Infinitus' CEO's visitor list for the past three days."

"Yes, sir."

Half an hour later, Jarvis returned with a partial list of the past 24 hours' worth of visitors, promising to bring the rest in later.  Regulus began Googling them...

[mtmerrick]

Tyler looked at his phone in mild annoyance. That had completely confirmed what he thought, Regulus was a Symboyant. And, if he had played his cards right, he would be on a wiled goose chase. Still.....

He quickly got online and checked what there was about him online. A simple biologist, nothing more. However, the inheritance of a massive irish estate from a CERN scientist to a distant relative (him) was in one local news site. He ran an app and the site went down, while a computer virus strong enough to take down DARPA chewed through their servers. He then jumped into the UK government's site and created a new alternate identity for both him and Daniel. 

[Flipz]

==Regulus Office==
Regulus swore.  One of the people whose names he had from the list had shown up in a news article...but before he could read it the whole site went down.  He quickly saved the other, more basic info he had on the man.  Yes, that fits...biologist, late 20s, good-looking by human standards... "Jarvis!  I found something!"

Jarvis rushed in, trailing papers from an opened folder.  "Sir?"

Regulus switched to Demotic.  "This man...Tyler Matthews...he's our leak.  Either MI5 planted him there, to spy on us, or he's a symbiont."

"Or both."

Regulus scowled.  "If that's the case, then we may have to kill a lot of people to protect our kind."

"To preserve our secret?  Sir, if he IS a symbiont like us, why would he expose us?  He'd expose himself, too."

"Maybe that's what he wants.  Or maybe he's got some way of staying hidden, while he gets the rest of us killed."

"...killed?"

"Yeah.  I seriously hope the guy's just a freelancer, trying to get by like the rest of us.  But if he's working for MI5, and feeding them info, then he's the guy who killed all of them."  He gestured toward a board on the wall, the kind used by police to mark the location of crimes--in this case murders.  Chris Johnson's photo was among those pinned to the board, at the CERN laboratory where he'd died, but Regulus paid little attention to it specifically.  "Get Matthews' photo and the director's to our boys.  Have them whip up a few tranqs with the special sauce, tell 'em to tranq 'em on sight if they come anywhere near Colorado while we're there.

Jarvis nodded.  Then, something came to him.  "Sir, what if Matthews is dead, and his symbiote is the one controlling the director?"

Regulus snorted.  "We don't even know if the director IS one of us, yet.  But if he is, then it can't be Matthews'.  Matthews' symbiote has developed human tastes--"

"Like you have, sir?"

"Stuff it.  I don't feel like having that conversation again right now.  Anyhow, he's got human tastes, which means he'd never in a million years pick an ugly, unlikeable slug like the director.  No, they may or may not be working together, but even if they are, they aren't one in the same."

"Yes, sir.  I'll get these to the team right away.  And sir?"

"Hmm?"

"You aren't looking well.  Two hosts in six years...well, it was hard enough keeping the project running when your last host died.  I'd hate to see it die completely if it happened again."

"Jarvis, why do you think I'm trying to catch this b******?  If he goes free, I'll be next."

"Well, don't do his job for him.  Good night, sir."

As Jarvis left, Regulus sat back in his chair and sighed, putting his hands to his face and rubbing his forehead.  Inhaling deeply, he pulled a chrome-plated Android phone, the one whose number matched the puzzle he had set the director, from his desk and set it on top.  Then, he sat back in his chair.

And waited.

[mtmerrick]

Tyler threw a passport on daniel's bed and looked him in the eyes. "You are now Carlos Adama, age 18, from Spain. I am your uncle Greg. You have lived with me since your parents died in a car crash last year, and work in my bakery on weekends, which recently suffered from a fire. There is evidence to back this up. The gas company is to blame. We are using the settlement funds to go to disneyland before rebuilding. I have claimed a twitter account in your name with some details of your new personal life. You do not exist online otherwise, nor do i. Memorize the information in the account if you want to stay safe. Any questions?"


EDIT: its been a few days so we can timeskip to later in the day or the next day if desired.

[The Truth]

OOC: I have noticed several players using *s to represent swear words. Though this is not against the rules by any means, just to be on the safe side, perhaps you can do what I do, and make sure that the number of *s does not correspond to any particular swear. -The Truth (Yes, I do plan to start playing shortly)

[Magical Girl Mimi]

-==IC: Kaze//Colorado==-

A young man walked through the busy streets of a city in Colorado, ignoring the fact that people were trying to push him out of the way, as they hurried off to where they needed to go.
Don't they realize there are more important things? Kaze thought, as he sighed, and then continued down the street, even as his eyes flashed red for a brief moment, and he smirked oddly, but when his eyes flashed back to green, the smirk vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

OOC: Quick question, it possible for Kaze to be some sort of agent...? Government agent, to be specific...? ... Ah, what the heck, I'll just say it: CIA. =P