Regarding the developments of the witch network: as well as Constantinople 1203, we also sought KCWs in a range of intermediate eras and locations where we perceived it would be easier for us to conduct operations (or, as I might have said before I learned to talk the talk, “do things”). New ODECs were being built, but as we had only one witch—who was temperamental on the best of days—we had to “leverage” (General Frink’s term) Erszebet by having her Send DOers to familiar locations: pre-1851 safe houses where we had KCWs who could then forward our agents onward through the network.
The “trunk line” of the network, so to speak, was to be anchored at one end in 1203 Constantinople and on the other in 1602 London, where we had re-established connections with Gráinne and her friend Rose. Thanks to Rose’s intercession, we now had access to a secure safe house on the outskirts of the city, equipped with clothes, weapons, and other DOer resources. The other major stop on the line needed to be Antwerp circa 1560, for reasons beyond the scope of this narrative. I had attempted to cultivate a relationship there with one Winnifred Dutton, an English witch resident in that DTAP. Knowing her own worth (she had admirably influential family relations and appeared capable of Wending), she was standoffish toward my initial queries; eventually she decided she would assist us in exchange for a certain hard-to-find herb known as kalonji.
Rather conveniently for us, kalonji grew in profusion in the palace garden of Blachernae . . . in thirteenth-century Constantinople.
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins to Dr. Melisande Stokes
on private ODIN channel, 15:32:37
DAY 584 (EARLY MARCH, YEAR 2)
Dr. Stokes:
...
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins to Dr. Melisande Stokes
on private ODIN channel, 15:32:59
DAY 584 (EARLY MARCH, YEAR 2)
Dr. Stokes:
...
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins to Dr. Melisande Stokes
on private ODIN channel, 15:33:07
DAY 584 (EARLY MARCH, YEAR 2)
Dr. Stokes:
...
Post by Dr. Roger Blevins to Dr. Melisande Stokes
on private ODIN channel, 15:52:34
DAY 584 (EARLY MARCH, YEAR 2)
Dr. Stokes:
Disregard previous posts. I had to find Mortimer Shore (on the roof of the building engaging in what appeared to be a sword duel) and get him to explain to me the proper usage, in the modern world, of what I call the “return,” and he denominates the “enter,” key.
I’m losing track of the different types of DOers. Could I trouble you or Lieutenant Colonel Lyons to post a canonical taxonomy?
Cordially,
Roger
DODO MEMORANDUM
CANONICAL TAXONOMY OF DIACHRONIC OPERATIVE TYPES
BY LTC TRISTAN LYONS
POSTED Day 585
For clarity in internal communication and record-keeping, please employ these terms, and these terms ONLY, when referring to different types or categories of DOers. If you think of some other new category that needs to be added, please see me or Dr. Stokes before editing this list.
FORERUNNER
(deprecated synonyms: SUICIDE BOMBER, DEAD MAN RUNNING, SCHNEIDER)
One who is Sent to a DTAP in which DODO has no Known Compliant Witch, safe house, or other contacts/infrastructure whatsoever. Considered the most elite and difficult-to-recruit subclass of DOer, Forerunners must possess all the skills of a STRIDER (see below) combined with those of a FIGHTER, LOVER, or CLOSER.
FIGHTER
(deprecated synonyms: CONAN, WARRIOR)
One who specializes in missions where, to put it politely, martial attributes are of the essence. Since every DTAP has a unique environment surrounding weapons, fighting styles, and martial culture, competence in fighting is only a part of the skill set required to be a successful Fighter. It is equally important to know how and when to fight.
LOVER
(deprecated synonyms: REDACTED)
Seems self-explanatory. But to counter some misconceptions, actually having sex is not part of the job description. We prefer to focus on the unique combination of personal charm, appearance, and social skills needed to influence historical decision makers who have been identified as “libido-motivated.”
CLOSER
A new category best described as LOVER without the carnal element. One who is highly skilled at changing someone’s mind without hurting or seducing them.
STRIDER
(deprecated synonyms: SNAKE EATER)
Wilderness survival expert.
SPY
Specialist in stealthy, unobtrusive observation and (since we can’t bring notes/sketches home with us) memorization.
SAGE
Subject matter expert, such as a historian or linguist, sent to a DTAP to investigate a specific question of interest to DODO.
MACGYVER
Typically a biologist, chemist, materials scientist, or engineer with exceptional aptitude for building devices, concocting medicines, etc., using natural and man-made substances available in a given DTAP.
MEDIC
Medical professional with additional training required for practice in pre-modern conditions.
A final note: the above are not mutually exclusive. More often than not, a given DOer will fit into more than one of these categories.
Post by LTC Tristan Lyons on
“Recruiting” ODIN channel
DAY 620 (EARLY APRIL, YEAR 2)
As has been noted repeatedly by Dr. Blevins and others higher up the chain of command, recruitment of DOers has proceeded more slowly than we would like. Finding people with the right combination of security clearance, skill set, and physical attributes is a very demanding challenge. I’ve lost track of the number of promising candidates we’ve had to reject because of dental work alone.
As DORC continues to staff up new HOSMAs (Historical Operations Subject Matter Authorities) and trainers, we’ll increasingly be able to “grow our own” DOers by selecting promising candidates and training them in the requisite languages and skills. We’ve already seen progress in that area with new HOSMAs coming online almost daily, specializing in the languages and cultures of late medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire. But a DOer can only learn a language so fast.
In the meantime, we are therefore going to have to rely on a small number of extremely exceptional people who just happen to walk in the door with all the capabilities we need—needles in a very large haystack. Fortunately, General Frink and Dr. Rudge have been active in connecting us to the existing recruitment networks that the United States Government and its allies have established in the military and intelligence sectors, giving us broader access to the aforementioned haystack and enabling us to search through it more efficiently.
I’m pleased to announce that today we have signed our first two DOer recruits: Chira Lajani and Felix Dorn. Both were recruited specifically with an eye towards the upcoming kalonji DEDEs, which as you all know is the linchpin of our plan for establishing a really solid safe house in 1562 Antwerp. Because of her unusual linguistic skill set, we also believe that Chira will be DODO’s pathfinder in 1200 Constantinople, which is projected to be the focal point of many diachronic operations in the first year or two of DODO’s operations.
Chira and Felix came to us through very different recruitment pathways. Chira first came to the attention of U.S. Intelligence talent scouts active in the Syrian refugee community. Considered too physically conspicuous for conventional intelligence work, she was brought to our attention as someone fitting the “Lover” profile. Felix, by contrast, is an old friend and mentor of mine whom I recruited over a beer. Their dossiers are available on the ODIN system for those of you curious to know more about our newest colleagues. Please join me in making Chira and Felix feel welcome in the Department of Diachronic Operations!
—Tristan
DODO HUMAN RESOURCES
PERSONNEL DOSSIER
FAMILY NAME: Lajani
/> GIVEN NAME(S): Chira Yasin
ALIAS(ES): Cyl
AGE: 24
CLASS: Lover
HEIGHT: 5′3″
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Brown
COMPLEXION: Medium/olive
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Mole near left clavicle
ETHNICITY: Kurd
NATIONALITY: Syrian
LANGUAGE FLUENCY RATINGS:
Kurdish: 5
English, Zaza-Gorani, Turkish: 4
Farsi, Syrian, and Iranian Arabic: 3
Bulgarian, Greek: 2
NOTE: Following immersive training in medieval Hebrew as preparation for kalonji DEDE, subject scored 2.5 fluency rating in that language, however the score is at best speculative given our uncertain knowledge base.
RELIGION: Non-observant Muslim
CITIZENSHIP: Stateless, being fast-tracked for U.S. citizenship
BIOGRAPHY: Upper-middle class secular Muslim from Kobani (Ayn al-Arab). At the age of 16, lived in United States (Issaquah, Washington) for 9 months as part of a foreign exchange program. Attended Cornell University. Psychology major, Dance minor. Dropped out in sophomore year when parents publicly decapitated by IS forces. Pretended to be ISIS sympathizer on social media, flew to Istanbul, traveled overland to border region with intention of crossing Syrian border. En route, fell in with and entered into sexual relationship with male MI6 agent also masquerading as ISIS recruit. With him, crossed border into Syria and returned to Kobani to protect younger sister (15) and brother (13). During subsequent military operations, escaped from Kobani with her siblings and crossed back into Turkey, made way overland to Bodrum, crossed over to Greek island of Kos in inflatable boat, joined refugee community on Kos. There recognized the body language of American DODO recruiter who was posing as a refugee. Approached him. Her story cross-checked with accounts on file from the MI6 agent. Agreed to work for DODO in exchange for her and her siblings being fast-tracked for American citizenship.
SKILL SET: Besides languages (above) and keen assessment of body language (above), extremely fit, hardy, able to stay calm in high-stress and physically challenging circumstances; dancer (modern, jazz, bellydance); history and affect suggests aptitude for emotional/psychological persuasiveness and manipulation. Well-spoken with broad Western-style liberal arts education. Appealing face and figure by most cultures’ metrics.
LIMITATIONS: Minimal self-defense or martial arts experience. Incapable of being inconspicuous or subtle, even when wearing burka. Do not send on missions requiring stealth or delicate negotiations. Comfortable in cosmopolitan and suburban settings; rural and slum settings not so good.
DODO HUMAN RESOURCES
PERSONNEL DOSSIER
FAMILY NAME: Dorn
GIVEN NAME(S): Felix John
ALIAS(ES): N/A
AGE: 31
CLASS: Strider
HEIGHT: 5′9″
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Brown
COMPLEXION: Light
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES: Appears to squint (actually has 20/15 vision); slight stutter on the letter L
ETHNICITY: American of Austrian/German/Dutch heritage
NATIONALITY: U.S.
LANGUAGE FLUENCY RATINGS:
American English: 5
German: 4
French, Spanish: 3
NOTE: As part of preparation for kalonji DEDE, underwent immersive training in medieval Hebrew (fluency rating 1.5), Byzantine Greek (2), and medieval Dutch (2).
RELIGION: Non-observant Lutheran
CITIZENSHIP: American
BIOGRAPHY: Raised in middle-class home in CT, father owned auto shop, mother a nurse, formerly for Médecins Sans Frontières. Dyslexic. Majored in PhysEd at UConn, emphasis on cross-country and wilderness survival skills. Former USA Olympic track & field team, took bronze in Marathon. Worked at Outward Bound, involved in various “extreme sports” activities including cliff jumping, rock climbing, Parkour.
RECRUITMENT: Personal contact by LTC Tristan Lyons, whom he met while leading a rock-climbing expedition (Lyons 14 at the time). They became friends, and continued to engage in wilderness-oriented athletic activities together.
SKILL SET: Extremely fit, hardy, capable of functioning under punishing physical circumstances (natural or man-made). Physically nondescript enough to “blend into crowd” in most Caucasian populations. Decent MacGyver-like capabilities. Loyalty unshakable.
LIMITATIONS: Dyslexic, not comfortable in conversationally dependent situations. More comfortable in rural than urban/suburban surroundings.
Post by Mortimer Shore on
“General” ODIN channel
DAY 622
Hey all,
In the wake of yesterday’s incident in the cafeteria line, Macy Stoll has asked me to post a few safety tips that y’all should keep in mind until such time as we can print up posters, establish training programs, etc.
Just as background, the requirement for Fighter-class Diachronic Operatives (DOers) to achieve and maintain proficiency in various historical martial arts styles entails wearing, transporting, storing, and using a wide range of historical weapons and weapon simulators on premises. No single, blanket policy can cover all such cases, but here are some general rules:
- Scabbards are trip hazards! Glance down before stepping behind a swordfighter.
- Assume all blades are razor sharp.
- If you see something falling out of a scabbard, don’t try to catch it.
DODO WHITE PAPER
UDET: OR, DIACHRONIC MISSION DURATION
BY REBECCA EAST-ODA
Submitted to ODIN archive, Day 622
The recent influx of funding and new personnel has led DODO staff to look more deeply into certain aspects of how diachronic operations are conducted that hitherto we had just taken for granted. In particular, the need to schedule complex missions, such as the upcoming kalonji-related DEDEs, has forced us to think in greater detail about the duration of missions and how many can be scheduled in a given span of time.
Most of DODO’s experience has centered on the colonial Boston and Elizabethan London DEDEs conducted last year by Dr. Stokes and LTC Lyons respectively. Both of these were of relatively brief duration. Dr. Stokes was able to accomplish her tasks in the course of a single day. With the exception of the first repetition, LTC Lyons’s DEDE was a “sleepover” in which he had to spend one night at the DTAP. In all of these cases, the responsible witches (KCWs Karpathy, Fitch, and Gráinne) acted in a way that preserved “Unity of DOer-Experienced Time,” hereinafter UDET. The idea of UDET is simple and can be quickly explained: if Dr. Stokes experienced eight hours of elapsed time during her mission in colonial Boston, then the same span of time separated her being Sent by Karpathy from the ODEC to the DTAP and her reappearance in the ODEC upon being returned home by KCW Fitch. Likewise, when LTC Lyons spent approximately twenty-four hours in the 1601 London DTAP, the same amount of elapsed time occurred between his being Sent there and his being “Homed” by KCW Gráinne. UDET means that from the point of view of the DOer as well as observers in the facility, it is as if the DOer walked through a door into another room, spent eight or twenty-four hours there, and then walked back through the same door.
This does not pose a serious inconvenience for short missions. By contrast, however, the nature of the kalonji DEDE is such that it cannot be accomplished in less than approximately two months. For those unfamiliar with the premise of this DEDE, a short explanation follows: we are attempting to recruit Winnifred Dutton, a potential KCW in Antwerp circa 1560. The only way we have found to motivate her is by supplying her with samples of an herb called kalonji, which is rare and nearly unobtainable in her time and place. We have found a source for kalonji seeds in Constantinople circa 1200, which is a DTAP of interest to us anyway. The current plan of record is to send one DOer to 1200 Constantinople to obtain the seeds. She will then hand them off to a wilderness survival expert (Strider class) who will carry them overland to Belgium and sow
them in a known location where we think that they will thrive. It should then be possible to visit that location circa 1560 and harvest the herb in the wild. The plan’s primary drawback is that the overland journey from Constantinople to Belgium is projected to take two months, and it will have to be repeated on at least three Strands in order for it to “take.” Our Strider will therefore have to experience a total of at least six months of (our) elapsed time in that DTAP.
If the mission is performed in a way that preserves UDET, then the Strider will indeed be absent for a total of six months.
If, on the other hand, we can arrange for the Strider to be “Homed” from 1200 Belgium only a few minutes after he is Sent to 1200 Constantinople, then the entire series of missions could be conducted in less than a day, as time is perceived by those of us here in modern-day Boston. The Strider would still be six months older at the end of it, and would have six months’ worth of memories from his journeys, but the clock, as far as DODO is concerned, would only have advanced a few hours.
The latter procedure is obviously a more efficient use of time as far as DODO is concerned. Moreover, to the extent DODO is engaged in a competition versus the diachronic operations agencies of foreign powers, we must assume that our adversaries are making use of such optimization wherever possible and are getting their jobs done that much more quickly.
This is a topic that has been on several people’s minds for some months now and that has been brought to the front burner, as it were, by the kalonji DEDE planning process. Initial attempts to raise the question with KCW Erszebet Karpathy proved unavailing, as the very idea of it made very little sense to her and could seemingly gain no purchase on her mind; she could not make heads or tails of what it was that we were asking her to do, much less express an opinion on it, and repeatedly accused us of being de-mented or insane. As the overall emotional tone was becoming counterproductive, I was asked to work with her on the topic, since I have known her for longer than most DODO employees, and she trusts me on the basis of the belief that I am descended from witches and that I have some latent magical ability. The results of my inquiry are detailed below. A top-level summary is that DEDE time compression does not appear to be a practical option, largely because witches have great difficulty even understanding the idea, and consider it to be reckless, far-fetched, and childish. The best analogy I can think of is how a modern physicist would react if you approached him and proposed to travel at greater than the speed of light. Mixed with this is a little bit of how Chopin would react if you proposed to play a piano by striking it with a sledgehammer.