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[ESC] Good Morning, Raleigh
Hello Raleigh. It is your appointed alarm time on a Monday morning. When is your alarm setting? What do you use for an alarm?
You awake alone. It is work time. What is your favorite part of your morning routine?
There is another meeting for Venture Capital funding on your newest venture this morning. Why haven't you backed this project with your own money?
Do you have a pet?
You awake alone. It is work time. What is your favorite part of your morning routine?
There is another meeting for Venture Capital funding on your newest venture this morning. Why haven't you backed this project with your own money?
Do you have a pet?
Comments
I'm a creature of habit. Every day I wake up, shit, shower, shave, feed Ray, eat a bowl of Frosted Flakes (they're grrrreat!) while I go through my emails and feeds, take Ray out to shit, then head to the office. I've noticed recently that I was half way to work by the time Ada finished my feeds though, so I've started getting up earlier. That, as it turns out, was a mistake. Sleep = important. Especially with meetings for those Venture Capitalists...
Speaking of, have you ever backed something with Venture Capital? Those guys play for keeps... An old college friend of mine had this idea for a distributed-computing health-tracker VR app that would have kicked some serious ass if they could have worked out the bugs before their 8th quarter — we're talking big-name buyers chomping at the bit for it... But VC lost faith, and recouped their losses... Now she's some product designer at Apple, or ... No wait, I think Google sniped her. Yeah. She's working on that 10th gen Glass project I think.
Anyway, I let Ray out of his cage for the morning, and scratch behind his ears... He's a cutie, isn't he?
"That's a good boy! You hungry? C'mon."
Ray's elated to see you, of course. After licking you and jumping around excitedly, he scampers over to his bowl, practically knocking it over in his excitement. He scarfs down his food while you munch on your Frosted Flakes
Ada says, "Raleigh, there is one voice mail message on your phone. Shall I play it for you?"
Who do you hope it will be? Who is it probably?
Anyway... Approve the banner ads, decline to the requests for interviews until after SXSW ... Though maybe I'll say yes to that journalist for the Maker Blog... She was pretty nice last time, if a little eager.
I have a voice mail? I hope it's Qing with the updated contract and approval for payment for the integration of his new headset into our flagship product, but It's probably Jenni – the woman is sweeter than honey, but she needs to learn to sleep! "Play it through, Ada."
Do you remember Erin? What was it that stood out about her? Has your mom ever pawned numbers off to women before?
I walk over to my lounge and sit down in my chair, then dim the lights to fire up my VR. I really shouldn't, because I know I'm going to have messages out the wazoo, but I'll avoid the usual networks and stay on task: time to do a little social network stalking, and send a message to Erin.
I wouldn't want her to die of embarrassment after all, and my Mom did go or of her way to give her my phone number after I explicitly told her to do a little quality control.
This will be a simple Overcome Action. If you wish to determine your approach, you can make a 4dF roll plus that Approach benefit. You currently have 3 Fate points. If, after the roll, you want to use an Aspect, you can do that. But let's see how you roll first.
... I swear this is less creepy than it sounds...
(Rolled: 4dF. Rolls: +, -, -, 0)
Do you text her?
Anything else in the morning?
Erin, Looks like you caught me just after I hit the hay — bad luck, I guess — but no worries about the hour. I drink far more coffee than is healthy for me, so you've got your pick of times and dates. Let me know when you're free and I'll squeeze you in! -R P.S. Please don't die on my account — there are far better things to be embarrassed about. ;)I bat wildly at the air to dissolve the VR, and bring back up the lights. I take a second to relax in the chair before whistling for Ray. I don't have anything else to do at home before the office. "C'mon boy, let's get to the office."
Weather's pretty wonderful this morning, but Ada informs you it will be quite hot until 6. You're dressed to impress for the VC meeting, of course.
Tell me a bit about the office itself. What's the vibe? What are you most proud of? What still needs to be done, and what's preventing you from doing it?
Why do you even have an office, anyways? Why not have staff telecommute? You do run a VR, right?
You know Jenni will be there. Hitesh will be there about the same time as you, right? How many employees are there in the office?
The office is very minimalist chic — it's a rented space out of a larger complex for small businesses in downtown Vancouver. It's a bit big for the five of us, but I'm expecting a bit of expansion in the next couple of years, so it'll even out. The vibe around the office is very casual. On the rare occasions I slap a blazer on over my t-shirt, I get teased. I'm particularly proud of the corporate culture we've cultivated — the people here love what they do, and they get along like extended family. I've been meaning to install a proper VR projector in the conference room forever, but it just doesn't make sense to drop the cash for it until we've got a product to test on it. Headsets work better for development anyway...
The only reason we don't do telecommuting because of ISP contract limitations. Residential units have a lot of limitations placed on them about bandwidth and traffic types. Not to mention that VR shell providers have bullshit rules about owning the data you store on their shells, so I needed to host my own shell for the business, or risk them denying us access to our data at some crucial moment.
I could circumvent the protections, but I want this business to be above board — so I leased the commercial space, installed and leased a commercial connection to the backbone, paid out the ass for a commercial VR shell, and set up shop about a block away from the Starbucks we used to hold our daily meetings at. The office was so nice, we just started hanging out there.
Go figure. ISPs are a pain in my ass, but at least they're helping the commercial office space market.
Ray leads you out of the elevator, eager to get into the office, which is open. Jenni's here already.
Here she is:
You smell fresh baked pastries. Does Jenni actually bake, or does someone pick them up at the ground level bakery you pass each morning?
As you take off Ray's lead and let him run through the office free, checking for, I dunno, burglars or new smells or something, Jenni closes her Macbook Air and gives you a good morning hello, "Hi Raleigh, thanks for approving those banner ads, I sent them off this morning, should be up in an hour. VCs are en route. Are you handling this one?" Has Jenni ever taken over a presentation before?
Hitesh is here, you see him at the big table, three empty recycled paper cups nearby, beside that a half pot of black coffee on a pot-holder. He's got his back to you, he likes to work facing the sun.
Jenni runs lots of presentations, but they're mostly related to public relations. The VCs like talking to the man in charge – they like feeling important – so I spearhead those presentations, and Jenni sits in as my second. She knows the top level details of the business as well as I do, but I know more about the guts, and what our technology is capable of.
"I've got this one Jenni – thanks though. Are we treating them to lunch after?"
"Raleigh, good morning," Hitesh says distractedly. He's working things out on paper, which means he's frustrated and wants to "get in the code" for a bit.
Five employees? Jenni is PR, Hitesh is your main architect, well, partnered with you. What other niches have you filled?
That's right, we're five employees — Jenni in PR, Hitesh is our lead programmer. Greg is our graphics and layout artist. He's been in the industry forever, and keeps getting shuffled around by being "too experienced" — it's the industry's way of saying he's too old fashioned. I don't mind paying extra to have a skilled designer on hand. We've also got Mindy, who's our entry level programmer, and of course myself. I've been thinking of hiring on an intern to try our hand at some hardware development, but we just don't have the capital right now.
Oh, and there's Ray of course... He's something of the company mascot, but really he just keeps laps warm.
"Good morning Hitesh," I call back, getting comfortable, "are we on track for internal alpha next week?"
This is Hitesh, by the by:
He looks back up, and gives a fuller answer, "Alpha on schedule, but it isn't a full run-through. There's some code on the transactional db that isn't smooth enough. Too many steps. We need a GUI expert, you know. Someone who has done this type of work before. We're reinventing the wheel on these secondary and tertiary systems, Raleigh."
A few minutes pass as you sift through any remaining emails, messages, the like. Hitesh is back to his notes, Jenni is tapping away on her iPad.
"Good morning, all," Greg says as he enters the office with his bike and moves it to his little designated spot. He grabs a little pastry, a coffee cup, then comes over to the table with his messenger bag, un-slings it and brings out his oversized laptop. The thing is insanely big, but he insists on using "something with enough horsepower to push real polygons", and yeah, he's proud of the damn thing.
This is Greg:
As he tethers it to the hi-speed and plugs it in, he starts chatting about sports, his favorite subject outside of work. He's got a couple kids, they're more into sports than coding, or even video games. He's eaten up with it. He coaches their teeball team and he's assitant coach for their soccer team, too. One of his favorite parts of the job, he tells you, is the flex time. Being able to take off early for games, putting in the hours later at night, or coming back to the office, if needed. His work's good, too, right?
How did you snare him? Did he up and apply, did you get a head-hunter or did you know him somehow?
Mindy rattles off everyone's name, like normal, "Hey Raleigh, hey Hitesh. Hi Jenni. Hi Greg."She heads over to the small office cabinet in the corner, unlocks it, and pulls out her work laptop, which isn't hers, and brings it to the conference table to plug in and get to work.
This is Mindy.
Hitesh gives her a few of his notes, detailing the changes to the code. She's nodding vigorously as she takes it in, trying to keep up with Hitesh's marks and his notes. How's she doing, Raleigh? Is she keeping up? What caught your eye about her an an intern?
I smile up at Mindy and kick a chair out for her. "Hey Mindy — thanks for out-dressing me." Mindy is of the opinion that dressing for the job you want, rather than the job you have, is a good way to get ahead in the world... I like to tease her, because if she wants a job where she looks that good every day, then she's clearly not after my job. She is really devoted though, and a quick learner. I'm sure someone will come in one day and scoop her up out of my clutches with a higher paying job and some good benefits — that's the nature of being a small business: we train them, big business steals them.
"Thanks for getting in early today guys — are you ready to run through the demos before the VIPs get in?"
Let's make this a challenge here. Let the dice decide how "ready for primetime" this demo is.
First, you need to review the presentation to work out the kinks, check data accuracy, see how the slides flow into each other, are they consistent, do they tell the same story? This is an Easy Task (diff 0), since you've been through this demo numerous times.
Let's see the results of the first step before you proceed. Don't forget that you can create an Aspect here to fill out an empty slot if it feels appropriate. Same for a stunt, if you want Raleigh to be an awesome public speaker, or a great eye for detail.
The idea here is that I'm not just a good businessman, but rather a Visionary leading us through uncharted territory. We aren't there yet, but I know how to get there, and we're going to look good doing it. I've convinced a fair number of people to do some amazing things in the years since I've left university, and this mesh networking product is one of them... Ulterior motives aside.
(Rolled: 4dF. Rolls: +, +, -, 0)
You run through the demo, sell the team on the inspiration for the unnamed VR world. It's impressive, you see it in their eyes, their reactions. Hitesh hits you with some probing questions, and you redirect to the vision. Jenni pokes with some market data, and you rattle off trends and analysis.
Everyone agrees that the pitch is excellent.
Now, the pudding. You know the core data isn't fully ready, but you need to show off enough. You have to prove this isn't vaporware. The VCs aren't nearly as technical as you, but they've been down this road before. They've made and lost fortunes on products not too dissimilar to yours.
Let's see you show off the specs. Take this team into VR, show them around. It's a moderately difficult task to do this successfully. That's a Fair success required, or a +2.
Good luck.
"Ada, can you start up the mesh VR in debug mode please?" You may be asking yourself why I patched Ada in... Well, because she has twice the processing power of any computer in the office for one — but mostly because she can invisibly execute and debug hiccups faster than I ever could. Pretty Clever, no?
(Rolled: 4dF. Rolls: -, +, 0, +)
The team slips on their headsets. Who's the slowest? Who is the most eager?
You bring up the VR World, broadcast it through the mesh. Everyone sees it. Where did you bring them in, what sector? What's the background framework?
So you may be familiar with VR technology — the fully immersive experience — when you first enter a VR network, you're placed in a staging room. It's kind of like the loading screen of the VR world. You enter your user information (unless the network is anonymous) and program your gate to go where you want to go. Our office staging room is designed to be a point of quick reference for pretty much anything we may need in our day-to-day here.
The books are information we've collected off the network, we've got favored entertainment storage, and personal sections off to the side, and the front door is our gateway out into the network proper. Our software isn't the rendering, so much as the connectivity and networking means. We're the backbone that makes this possible. We're an emergent network from a sea of people broadcasting to the world.
I've pre-programmed a script that takes us through a circuit of publicly accessible spaces on the network — the market stream, the entertainment streams, the social streams, and then finally to our mesh stream — the stream unique to our application, which renders all previous mesh networking apps obsolete. It's the visualization center each user has for controlling their connectivity to the network. There, we'll run through a few tests to see how well the network can handle spontaneous disconnects, and other unexpected problems.
Jenni answers quickly, "If we put our VC hats on, then they'll ask about the markets."
"But, if we want to wow them," Mindy interjects, "We corral them to the mesh, and show them something truly unique. Visual representation of the data is outdated already. That's not our bread and butter."
Greg chuckles, "Hah, Mindy. You just want to see if my response relay will handle a five person strain... to be honest, so do I." He cracks his knuckles, in real-life, it echoes slightly here. In the lobby, things can be odd, with both sets of experiences overlapping.
Once you step through those doors, you're fully immersed.
It's your train, Raleigh. Where are you taking them?
That swirling moment where the meat-space falls away, it happens. It's getting smoother every time. Easier.
Market is currently a series of "streets" with big signs and billboards equivalent to the banners and popularity of online e-tailers. "Current visuals on Market are very gaudy, Raleigh." Hitesh says, like an apology.
Mindy comments, "Proximity is a problem, too. Is it valuable to highlight stores that are nearby when you're online?"
"Guys, just let the man show off the goods!" Jenni admonishes as she strolls over to a kiosk and pulls up the online menu for the nearby bistro and puts in the order with swipes of her virtual hand.
Does everyone look the same here as they do IRL?
Who are you looking for here, Raleigh?
Avatars in a VR are very fluid things... You can project whatever avatar you like, to whoever you like, at any point in time according to your user preferences. There are default avatars that are ghost-like apparitions (with expressive faces, thanks to Greg's new tech), there are "acquaintance" level permissions that default to your real-life appearance (if you want to have a 3D model of yourself made by one of the scan-shops), as well as completely custom avatars... I could be a buxom, scantily clad, 45 kilo japanese girl to Hitesh, and a muscled lifeguard to Jenni. Hell, for all I know Greg might have hacked our Avatar IDs to render as dragons for him. It's all immensely personal.
For business purposes though, I've put an override in place to default to our IRL appearances — this is also to avoid confusion.
While giving the tour, I'm keeping an eye out for one of my acquaintances online. They're all immensely interested in privacy, and I let drop that our company was going to be testing the product live this morning. I want him to try and hack the security protocols. If he succeeds, then I'll pay him out for his services in identifying loopholes — if he fails, then we've got a rock-solid platform to protect our little community from the prying eyes of the telecom companies.
As you're finishing up with Marketplace, you feel a tickle at the back of your neck. Argon is here. Your mobile phone rings, which it isn't set to ring on the outside, since it's an avatar. He must be contacting you, being cute.
Jenni looks over from the kiosk at you, surprised by the phone.
What do you do?
Hitesh is moving close, trying to eavesdrop without looking like he is. The rest of the team is pretending this isn't something weird. Well, Jenni figures this is some flair you've added.
Time to see if Hitesh's defenses are all he's cracked them up to be.
If you got the highest result, you win the exchange—you score a victory (which you can represent with a note in the post) and describe how you take the lead. If you succeed with style, you mark two victories.
Whichever side gets three victories wins.
Argon is Average (+1) Forceful.
He has a stunt called L33t hacker, that gives him a +2 to Forcefully overcome when he is attacking a program.
That means he's +3 on the roll.
(Rolled: 4df. Rolls: +, +, -, 0)
(Rolled: 4dF. Rolls: +, 0, +, +)
I mean, a DDOS attack? Please. It's the hacking equivalent of a toddler throwing a tantrum. We just need to keep it together long enough so we can find him, and shut him down. "Ada, get ready to trace Jenni's logs."
"Of course, sir," Ada replies to your command.
You won the first victory in this contest. Great job! Why don't you make the next move here, Raleigh? A counterattack that Argon will have to defend against.
(Rolled: 4dF-1. Total: 2. Rolls: 0, +, +, +)
"Where arrre youuuu??" Argon calls through the phone.
Jenni looks over at you, Raleigh. She must have noticed some of what just happened, and now Argon is saying weird stuff on your phone.
(Rolled: 4dF+1. Total: 0. Rolls: 0, -, -, +)
(you gain one more Victory, that's two out of three. One more, and you're the victor.)
Jenni asks curiously, "Raleigh? Is something wrong?"
Hitesh is watching you closely.
He's trying to hide his attacks and probes behind several layers of identity, and he's very good at being Careful (+3). He is, as you know, a l33t hacker.
(Rolled: 4dF+3. Total: 3. Rolls: +, +, -, -)
(Rolled: 4dF. Total: 0. Rolls: -, +, 0, 0)
(score one victory for Argon)
Jenni nods, but she seems wary, sensing Argon's tone.
"I am tired of looking for a side door, my friend," Argon says over the communicator. "I'm going to knock really loud instead, see what falls out. Maybe one of your team is more vulnerable than the others? Let's see who doesn't cover their tracks."
Hitesh responds to your compliment with, "Good. That code took twice as long as the original or the source."
This time, though, he's trying to beat on a weakness in your system, one that one of your team members brought through.
Argon is Average (+1) Forceful.
He has a stunt called L33t hacker, that gives him a +2 to Forcefully overcome when he is attacking a program.
That means he's +3 on the roll.
(Rolled: 4dF+3. Total: 6. Rolls: +, +, 0, +)
... I hope he's not piggybacking off of an ISP's blacklisted backbone, because this could set off some major red flags...
(Rolled: 4dF+3. Total: 1. Rolls: +, -, -, -)
(Argon got a second victory in this contest. It's tied. Whoever wins this next round wins the contest!)
He's found a hole, or what looks like one, in your defenses. Why don't you let me know how you're going toclose the door in his face?
Presuming, of course, that there are no holes in our software — and we've been extra Careful about checksuming the shit out of that portion of the software — after all, I'm using this software to spearhead a grassroots campaign against major telecom companies.
(Rolled: 4dF+1. Total: 3. Rolls: 0, 0, +, +)
Argon is attempting to quickly slide in on that rail and get in.
(Rolled: 4dF+1. Total: 2. Rolls: -, +, +, 0)
"Oh man! Nice trick, Raleigh." Argon calls, a bit irritated at "losing", but overall a good sport. "You got me this time, man."
I look to the group and nod, "looks like we're in one piece. Good work everyone!" Then to Greg, "change your password. Something that takes a computer longer than 10 microseconds to crack would be nice."
Jenni cuts in, not letting that uncomfortable moment linger, "That was an interesting exchange! Raleigh, how are you feeling about the VC presentation now?"
Hitesh is watching your reaction, and he's also searching along the code that was recently under attack. Mindy's just keeping track of what's what.
Greg chats with Mindy for a bit, like they're comparing notes on the code. You're rather sure he's asked her for advice on better passwords, maybe too embarrassed to ask you or Hitesh.
Ada speaks up, "Raleigh, GPS locator on the Uber service shuttling the VCs arrives in ten minutes."
The VCs arrive, both of them quick-rising VPs in FutureForth, a international venture capitalist firm. Have you worked with them before?
Luke Wright:
Beatriz Camino Arribas
Jenni lets everyone know the Uber car has pulled up to the curb, then she rushes over to wait near the door.
What do you do?
I slip into my fancy blazer, and step outside to meet them at the curb. When they step out of the shuttle I offer them both a friendly handshake. "Mr. Wright, Mrs. Arribas, good to finally meet you both!"
Beatriz Camino Arribas also shakes your hand, her grip is soft, almost imperceptible. She steps into a hug, her smile warm. With her thick Colombian accent, she purrs, "Beatriz, only Beatriz, my friend. May I call you Raleigh?" She steps back, letting go of your hand.
Lunch is delivered, and everyone sits around the conference table, chatting and eating. Well, Hitesh has his laptop out, even though Mindy is staring at him to put it away. Turns out Beatriz is Colombian, quite gregarious. She's a very touchy person, meaning she likes to touch people while talking, not sensitive feelings. She's chatty, too, mixing personal life and work talk in the same conversation.
How are you handling things?
Sitting around at lunch, chatting with Luke and Beatriz has been very lively. These venture capitalists are always interesting people — though I guess pretty much anyone who can utter the phrase, "Will 15 million get the job done? Good. Then let's get it done," has likely led more than their share of an interesting life. Luke sounds like the kind of man you could go for pints with — only the very best pints, of course — and Beatriz' energy is enthralling.
After a while of ignoring my soup, I've finally gotten through enough to come up for air and more conversation. "So how long are you two in town?"
"Beatriz, don't be silly, you know we can entertain you!" Jenni offers, looking to you for backup.
Beatriz shakes her head, "Yes, this is good. We will all go out then, for food and drinks. My expense account needs some action!" She laughs a full, throaty laugh, and Luke chuckles at her reaction, but doesn't object at all.
Luke and Beatriz finish up their lunch while Jenni calls another Uber shuttle to get them to their hotel. Beatriz smiles as they leave, "Come to my lobby at 7, yes?"
Jenni waits for the shuttle, a nice, clean white van, drives off before she says, "That went really well! What do you think?"
I start walking back towards the office, my arm still around Jenni in a playful way, "so you're really going to take the night off?" I'm teasing. She knows that.
Do you normally put your arm around, Jenni like this? I'm curious if this is the type of comfortable friendship you have, or if Beatriz has gotten everyone a little more touchy feely.
Anyway, I smile down at her and open the office door for her – slipping my arm off her as I do. "So long as they don't demand us to sell off for ROI, I'm good. I'd like to keep the software side of this project to a minimum for now, and market that hardware project to them later. One step at a time, right?"
Maybe she didn't notice anything and she's checking in with you about this? Have you two wined and dined VCs before? Any reason she'd be questioning things? Or is she being thorough?
I am a little amused by Jenni's interest in the subject though. She doesn't really prod me about this kind of stuff, so I don't know what her motives are. If this is emergent jealousy, deeply routed in sexual attraction, then we've both been blissfully ignorant to it until now. I am her meal ticket, though... So there's that. "Do I need to wear my blazer tonight?"
How does the rest of the day go?
I'd say things went pretty well this afternoon. That I snuck in a walk with Ray was just icing on the cake. I'm actually looking forward to shutting down, and getting out for some food. Maybe I can convince the group to catch a VR concert...
Jenni meets you at your house, and you drive in her car to the hotel. She's got a nice little four-door hybrid. She's dressed nice, stylish, but as usual, not at all revealing. How are you dressed, blazer or no?
"You look nice, Raleigh!" She chirps regardless of what you're wearing. "Have you picked a restaurant? I've got six reservations on Open Table ready to go if you had trouble."
I'm kidding... Unless you're from the past, in which case you probably haven't, because most of my favorite bands didn't exist then. It's a healthy variety of electronica, folk music, and various other genres that are heavily influenced by a bunch of other genres. The subscriptions I have on cost a little more, but it's worth it. What I do listen to, though, is the CBC — specifically Radio1 — with a variety of decent talk shows. Mostly educational. Completely public — no advertisements. Quirks and Quarks is on. A show about science and engineering. It's all very interesting.
She hums along to the tune as you weave in and out of traffic. As you come upon The Plaza, Jenni looks over, "Raleigh, do you want to drive when we pick her up? I can ride in the back, it's really comfy. Better than Beatriz back there, I think."