IC-Chapter 1-Comfortably Numb(Barney Brainstorm/Bill Johns)

[ImpInTraining]

Barney noticed the man following behind and went to his cupboards, pulling out a tea pot. He filled it about half-full of water from the tap and and set it on the stove top, lighting it with a match. "Won't be but a couple minutes."

He got back into the cupboard and got out the tea and a couple cups, placing them down at the table. "So tell me, officer... you were at the bar, right? I mean... you were there when ... well, when Brian got there and all the excitement happened?"

[Philulhu]

Bill eyed Barney cautiously. "Yeah, I was there," he conceded. "What of it?"

[ImpInTraining]

"Then you know where he is..." Barney responded. "He was arrested right in front of you."

[Philulhu]

"You're not with the programme, are you?" said Bill abruptly, "His lawyer got him bail. He's out and he's playing games with us. So you're saying you haven't seen him since the night in the bar?"

[ImpInTraining]

"We went to the police station to see if we could get some answers from him. I was only helping, mind you. But there are some genuinely curious people wondering what is going on with Brian ... and this sleep study thing," Barney confides. "I haven't seen him since then. Didn't know he was out from the clink." The tea pot whistles. "Ah... water's ready." He poured the water into two tea cups and brought the tea and all the condiments over to the table. "There is something strange going on, and we are a curious lot. Is there anything I can do to help you with finding Brian?"

[Philulhu]

Bill studied Barney carefully, wondering how much he could trust the Englishman. "Perhaps you could start by telling me how you know Brian Anderson, he said.

[ImpInTraining]

Barney shook his head, "I never saw him before today. Do you take cream with your tea? Sugar?"

[Philulhu]

Bill sighed and wondered if he wasn't on a wild goose chase. He nodded to cream and sugar and said, "So what's your interest in Anderson?"

[ImpInTraining]

Barney shook his head, "None, really. Well... I mean aside from just helping some chaps with their interests. Like I said, this whole sleep experiment, and the drugs that Brian had, it just doesn't sit right, man. Something distinctly non-groovy with it." He set up Bill's tea to the man's liking and put some sugar in his own, before sitting down and enjoying the tea. "Look man, I don't know why you'd think Brian came here. At the station, I passed off that I was an agent looking for his talent, it was how we all got in to see him. But he wanted nothing to do with me or the ruse. Downright ungrateful about it if you ask me." He lifted his eyebrow and looked like he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar for a moment. "What a downer man. I think I said too much." He shrugged. "I suck at lying." He shrugged and half-smiled, "You'd probably had seen through it all eventually anyway once you went back through the reports that the other officers undoubtedly made after we left. You seem like you're with it."

[Philulhu]

Bill let that one slide. He took a sip of tea and remembered why the Brits drank it with milk instead of cream. He set his cup down and tapped his fingers on the table.

"I don't get it," he said to Barney. "Who is it you're working for and why are you interested in Brian - and the sleep experiments? Whoever it was is playing a risky game. My lieutenant finds out that someone's messing him around and he'll be down on them like a ton of bricks."

[ImpInTraining]

"My business is entertainment, friend. I'd say my part in this is nothing more than a passing fancy. What does your Lieutenant have to do with the sleep experiments that he'd be so shagged out about some people just trying to look into it?" Barney returned to the copper.

[Philulhu]

"Because there's obviously something going down and we're not being told the truth," snapped Bill. "Now who are these 'chaps'" - he mimicked Braithwaite's British accent - "And what are the drugs they are interested in?"

[ImpInTraining]

Barney lifted an eyebrow and said, "You've got it all wrong, man. It's the institute you need to be checking on. Dr. Gregory Anderson - that's the brain man you need to look into. Of course with his background, you probably won't get anywhere with that. He is a highly decorated war vet with contacts in the CIA. But man... I couldn't make heads nor tails of all that thesis, biology mumbo-jumbo I found in the library." He leaned back and took another sip of his tea and said, "Only thing I know about drugs involved is the stuff that Brian brought to the bar - that Morpheus shit, man. Supposed to be something they used in the lab for the sleep studies. And that Brian was arrested on trumped up charges. So if I were you, officer... I'd be asking if I'm working on the right side of this investigation. I'll bet there are interested parties out there that have offices in DC, if you dig what I mean."

ooc,Honestly - I personally have no idea why Barney would have been so inclined to go to the police station with the others when he did. I've no idea what is so suspicious about these sleep studies or the Morpheus drug. I'm clueless to Barney's motivation - so hopefully someone can clear me up on what it is exactly that Barney knows. There was some stuff that Bill overheard Barney and a woman (probably Maxine) at a library where she said "All of this stuff is just too weird. I know this Professor Anderson is up to something shady. What we've found out points in that direction, but we can't prove anything. And even if we could, he's bound to have connections." - I don't know what she was talking about specifically.

[Philulhu]

Bill sat back and studied Barney. CIA conspiracies were commonplace where - or rather when - he came from but he really couldn't recall how the Agency were viewed back in the 60s. What Barney was telling him though sounded more than plausible. He needed to talk to Yeager and see if he could make sense of what was going on.

He wanted one more bit of information before he went though. "Tell me about the Morpheus drug," he said to Barney, "What does Brian say it does?"

OOC,I'm off on my hols. Back Thursday. I may post while I'm away but can't guarantee it! ;)

[ImpInTraining]

Barney thought back to the incident in the bar. He said, "They called Brian Anderson Candyman. He came in and offered drugs to one of the guys at the bar... had some Mary Jane, some LSD, and something he claimed would blow his mind like he wouldn't believe. Brian said it was called Morpheus, it was rare, and very expensive - but claimed it was well worth the price of admission. " He shook his head, "That's when two undercover boys put him under arrest. And then you stumbled out of the bathroom, looking a bit disoriented, claiming that Brian tried to kill you, and stole your suit. You was seeming a bit out of place... saying about your suit cost $80, and saying that wasn't very expensive but you'd like it back anyway. Seems to me, if I paid $80 for a suit, I'd be wanting it back too. That's a lot of money to be putting down on clothes, you know?" He shook his head and stated, "Brian never went in the bathroom. Why did you say he went in there, attacked you and then took your suit?"

He drank some more of his tea, then said "I don't know anything more about the drug. I have been clean for a long time. But Maxine was the one who pointed out that Morpheus is the god of dreams from Greek mythology. We soon made the relationship between Brian Anderson and his father who is doing the sleep research that they're paying students $50 to participate in this weekend. It's over a three night period. Maxine was suggesting it was some sort of CIA experiment, but I never really saw any hard evidence to support that, personally."

[Mr. Handy]

OOC,[b]Bill[/b], please roll History.

Barney Brainstorm,You may want to edit your post, as you misunderstood some things in the bar scene. The Morpheus wasn't in blotters, that was LSD. [b]Bill[/b] was the old man who had come out of the bathroom (which is one of the odd things that had first drawn his player into investigating further, I think). It was [b]Maxine[/b] in the library with you, and you were discussing the research you came up with on [b]Dr. Gregory Anderson[/b] that I provided to you, and [b]Maxine[/b]'s statements were informed by her anti-Establishment views. She has come to the conclusion that the CIA is conducting experiments using students as guinea pigs. This is why she and [b]Kathleen[/b] have decided to infiltrate the experiment as test subjects and get proof.

[ImpInTraining]

ooc,Sorry... edited. I made the assumption about the Morpheus being in blotter paper because when you mentioned Morpheus, you posted the picture. Just made the connection unofficially. As for Bill being the old man that stumbled out of the bathroom - his name was never mentioned in the bar scene, so I didn't know. You might have mentioned it at the cop station, but I didn't review that part for this post.

[Philulhu]

OOC,[url=http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3556302/]Bill takes a history test. (1d100=64)[/url] Yup, got that.

[Mr. Handy]

Bill Johns,[b]Bill[/b] knew that the CIA had conducted secret illegal experiments on American and Canadian citizens in the 1950s and 60s involving drugs (primarily LSD), mind control, and hypnosis. These experiments as a group were known as MK-ULTRA, and the test subjects often did not know what they were ingesting. They sometimes even resulted in deaths. Universities were a common place for the experiments to be done. These experiments were exposed in the mid-1970s.

[Philulhu]

Bill rubbed his hand over his brow. He knew what had happened with Brian in the bathroom - the explosion was vivid when he closed his eyes - but he couldn't account for what other people had seen, nor for him being here back in the 60s.

He remember reading the findings of the Church Committee - the Government's investigation into the CIA's illegal testing of drugs and torture techniques. They had tested drugs through a number of universities - Bill couldn't recall which ones, but he knew some of the test subjects had died.

He looked at the younger man sat across the table. Barney had said that the Morpheus tests could be a CIA experiment. Mary could be in danger! "Do you think your friend Maxine might talk to me about what she knows? I know someone who's planning to take part in the study!"