Delta Green, PISCES North Jam Entry

 

There was a jam or a not-a-contest on the Night of the Opera discord.  The jam’s prompt was to create a character for a PISCES outpost in the North, specifically Inverness, Scotland.  

For those who are not familiar, PISCES is the UK dark mirror of American Delta Green that defends Great Briton from supernatural threats. Their acronym stands for the Paranormal Intelligence Section for Counterintelligence, Espionage, and Sabotage.

The jam’s author posits that PISCES North is a backwater posting, and it is suggested that the characters must scrape together their own resources to deal with supernatural threats that their handlers hand them at arm’s length. 

I must thank fellow Delta Green aficionado, Sammy J, for helping me make a very silly idea into a character I actually enjoyed writing. 

Character: Mortimer 'Mort' Milton. Bureaucrat and Project Manager

Quote: “Have you seen my stapler?”

Someone has to do it.  In any organization, large or small, there is at least one individual who has a talent with filing, organizing, collating and stapling; a caretaker of the paper skeleton of that organization.  Without them, everything would grind to a screeching halt.  Mortimer 'Mort' Milton is that person for PISCES Scotland. 

Mort has been affectionately described as a turtle.  A bald man in his mid-fifties, Mort sports coke-bottle thick glasses that would have been only passingly acceptable in the 80s and the ubiquitous paunch and stoop of a desk worker whose exercise is occasionally going to the vending machine in between breaks.

Mort doesn’t believe in breaks. They interrupt his important work of collating. You see, to Mort, filing and organizing isn’t just a job. It is a walled castle where he can be absolutely certain that things are logical, concrete and absolutely not messy or terrifying like the outside world. 

You see, Mort saw Something. He will absolutely not talk about it (he may be unable to) but it is clear he is using the only tool he has, being a fiendishly excellent bureaucrat, to keep him from thinking about The Bad Thing. His survival in the face of unlikely odds and the strange twinge of compassion from PISCES staff landed him in the PICES pipeline … and his odd, almost OCD demeanor about filing got him sent to up north PISCES.     

Against all odds, Mort has “flourished”.  Absolutely indispensable at finding piles of hidden funds in the government for north PISCES operations and with the ability to layer meters upon meters of agonizingly boring red tape upon secret projects Man Was Not Meant To Know, Mort is the sole person holding the illegal conspiracy together with white-out and staples, albeit shakily.

Despite his off-putting social skills, Mort is fiercely loyal to PISCES and if treated gently and with empathy could be a very useful ally for PISCES Agents.  As long as they keep him close to his red Swingline stapler. That heavy and irreplaceable piece of office equipment has been with Mort as long as he has been employed by PISCES.  And its heavy enough to be used as a weapon to kill someone. Which it was on the fateful night Mort became subject to PISCES scrutiny.

Mort’s Mechanics
Mort has the following special rule: Fight, Flight or File. Fight (Struggle) and Flight (Flee) are described on page 69 of the Agent’s Handbook. File is a special rule for Mort. While most people would Freeze or shut down upon going temporarily insane, Mort externalizes his actions, immediately seeking to make more orderly and thus controllable.  He will begin to catalogue, organize, or alphabetize objects in the scene around him where he has gone temporarily insane, regardless of the danger to his person.  This is a very strong compulsion he must do because Mort feels that once he can categorize the environment, he can control it, and thus himself.  He is so very wrong though.

Mort also has a Totemic Compulsion with the focus of his personal Red Swingline Stapler.  This heavy metal stapler is a source of calm and focus for him and he will not willingly part with it. Also, it may hold evidence to Mort’s only crime of homicide just that one time that brought him to the awareness of PISCES.  If Mort flies into a violent rage, he will use the stapler as a club in preference to other weapons.  The heavy metal stapler does 1d6-1 damage.