A.Journal

Checks

Easy

An uncanny buzz in the air, as though a director might pop out of any one of those doorways, yelling 'Cut!'.

Medium

But no one jumps out of anything. No one appears to fix your hair or tell you exactly what to say. It's just you, the man with the box for a heart, and a few metres off, the maintenance man going about his lonely offices.

Trivial

The strange fax. The one that was waiting for you at Foto 24.

Medium

A bead of cold sweat slides down your back, whispering 'no'.

Easy

You're not really about to spill your guts to a null entity, are you?

Formidable

He's not a null entity, he's our number-one fan!

Trivial

You haven't yet emerged from the fog of sodium thiopental. There's no deflecting just now.

Trivial

Wow! This truth sauce is strong. Hahaha! But ooohh, should you really be saying all this?

Easy

Face it, gäng is döömed.

Easy

WHY ARE YOU SPILLING THE PEOPLE'S SECRETS TO A NULL ENTITY HAHAHA OH IT'S THE LUNAR CADMIUM MINES FOR YOU.

Challenging

A note of genuine disappointment. He wishes he could think better of his former employer.

Challenging

An unplumbed abyss, haunted by strange and incomprehensible monsters.

Easy

A brief reminder that you don't know anything about this man.

Easy

The girl. The paper heart.

Easy

You know your role, operant. Play it.

Medium

Cue your main theme -- synth-driven, with a few woodwinds and an upright bass tossed in for organic effect.

Medium

Spoken like an old coach haunting the edge of a pitch.

Medium

Grounded, wet trail, retreated into his shell... not bad at all.

Easy

A phantom itch. He's scratching at something that hasn't happened yet.

Easy

A brief sniff. Total lack of interest.

Medium

B diminished. Phantasmal. Soul rattling.

Easy

Disturbingly topical.

Medium

Easy

THE PUNISHMENT FOR DESERTION IN-THEATRE IS REASSIGNMENT TO THE LUNAR CADMIUM MINES.

Medium

Your inner ear fills with the groans of ancient machinery, hydraulic mechanisms, your nostrils with the smell of exhaust and heavy fuel oils.

Medium

A place where the gäng can do gäng-stuff undisturbed.

Medium

One must think of multi-tiered privileges. Access granted or withheld via radio wave. Most likely off-the-shelf.

Easy

You had all the pieces, you only needed to slot them together.

Easy

A damaged heart, longing to redeem itself.

Easy

A fevered mind, desperate to order the world around it.

Easy

A tool for a task, nothing more or less.

Easy

Another plaything of the stars, impelled by processes beyond its comprehension.

Medium

He's slightly baffled by your timing. That leaves him open for a follow-up.

Easy

You could ask about his motivations -- casually, as he asked about yours.

Easy

Tempo was laying low from the Weeping Eye, not EMTERR. It would be very bad news if both the Operant Bureau's ancient enemies were mixed up in this.

Easy

Everything you know has directed you to the Bazaar thus far. Doesn't exactly scream The Bank.

Trivial

EMTERR, a.k.a. L'Empire sans Territoire, a.k.a. 'The Bank'. Equal parts global development fund and spy service. Linchpin of the Developed World.

Medium

THE BLOODY HAND OF TRANSNATIONAL CAPITAL.

Medium

Nothing at all, like a bell struck in a vacuum.

Trivial

The Weeping Eye -- La Luz's secret police. The dark subconscious of the state.

Trivial

La Luz. Once a powerful empire, now reconstituted as a modern techno-fascist state, the rising military and cultural power of the day.

Trivial

EMTERR, a.k.a. L'Empire sans Territoire, a.k.a. 'The Bank'. Equal parts global development fund and spy service. Linchpin of the Developed World.

Medium

THE BLOODY HAND OF TRANSNATIONAL CAPITAL.

Medium

The Luzian high caste known to be a box of scorpions. Internal elimination virtually assured.

Formidable

The genius loci, rising to speak.

Medium

Like the fresh scent of stone after rain.

Medium

And no one else to attest to what he saw. Over years the memory has smudged into dream.

Medium

In other words, he was in three places simultaneously, each separated by thousands of kilometres. A physical impossibility, unless...

Easy

Comically vague. Very little to work with.

Medium

A message to the world's intelligence agencies.