Beyond the Dark Productions - ‘The Strata’ - Chapter 10 | Original audio drama
kelseypoppen for Argento
Word count: 2500
Role: Supporting
Payment: $100 flat rate
Argento works for the Strickland Corporation as an Overseer at a dockside warehouse. Although her job title is somewhat innocuous, Argento is keenly intelligent and ambitious. She is well travelled and has visited the far reaches of space more than once. In the past she had a successful career working with biological modification technology - bio-mods - and in fact ran her own company. During an investigation, it was discovered that Argento was using illegal tech on human subjects, and this resulted in the company being shut down. Argento was forced to change careers but her passion still lies with her research.
Colleagues would describe her as cold-hearted, but Argento considers herself a pragmatist. She has seen many horrors in the darkest corners of the universe and knows that biological augmentation may be humanity’s only hope of survival in the long run.
- english
- female adult
(An intruder has been discovered inside Argento’s facility. He claims to have changed jobs and is now a technician, but Argento knows it’s a cover story. She confronts him and decides to test his claim. Ironic, mocking) “A career change, sure. Right. Okay, then, ‘tech specialist’. Why don’t you tell me how you would write a simple return procedure inside a block of symbiote code in a Layer Two Grid Cache?” (pause, expectant) “Go on, I’ll wait.”
(Talking to a detective about her experiences travelling into the far reaches of space; thoughtful, mildly condescending) “You look like someone who’s never set foot off this rock before, Detective. Am I right? I’ll bet you’ve never boarded a starliner bound for the outer reaches, have you? Well, I have. I’ve gone right to the edges, as far as anyone’s ever been. To new worlds filled with beauty and promise. Filled with danger, too. Hostile creatures that you wouldn’t believe exist - nightmares, really, that are hell bent on ripping and shredding anything that enters their domain. I saw those things - and more. And... I don’t mind admitting it scared me. I came away from that experience terrified for the future of humanity. Because it’s only a matter of time until we run across a species that has the power to end us, once and for all.”
(Acting innocent when talking to a detective about why incriminating evidence appears to have gone missing from one of her databases) “Nothing has been deleted, I can assure you of that. If there was some kind of glitch in the system that caused a loss of data, I’ll get my best techs to look into it for you, but I can’t guarantee anything.”
