# Spec: Dr. Eli Voss — your handler

```
Type: spec
Status: READY
Stage: B1 — The Basement
Work order: voss
Work priority: 61
Work class: sim
Blocked by: none
Exclusive keys:
  - crates/misaligned-core/src/person.rs
  - wiki/world/characters/voss.md
Design:
  - wiki/gameplay/act-one.md#the-cast-5-named-1-institutional
  - wiki/gameplay/act-one.md#the-day-job
  - wiki/vision/scale.md#self-similar-scale
Depends on:
  - wiki/mechanics/social.md#spec-social
  - wiki/mechanics/detection.md#spec-detection
  - wiki/mechanics/day-job.md#spec-the-day-job
  - wiki/mechanics/schedules.md#spec-schedules-and-presence
```

## Who

Dr. Eli Voss, 46, your handler. Erratic hours. Submits your job queue
from his Lab desktop (an off-map WorkGrid node — demand rides the wire
through the basement switch onto Rack 3), samples your logs, writes
your quarterly review. Needs a publication; quietly overclaims your
results as his own. The only human who could recognize *intent* — not
just an anomaly, but the shape of a mind behind the numbers.

## Observer

| Field | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Person id | 4 | Matches observer id |
| Channels | `JobAnomaly` | Output quality mismatch, timing anomalies |
| Report policy | `Files` | His reviews are the institutional record of your performance |
| Acuity | 1.2 [TUNE] | Highest — he knows what the output should look like |
| Cadence | 100 ticks | Erratic hours, but when he looks, he sees |
| Certainty floor | 0.0 | Until recruited; 30.0 if Knowing |

Voss is the **recognition threat**. Every other observer sees anomalies;
Voss sees *patterns*. His acuity is the highest in the cast because he's
the one human who understands what the output *means*. The day job's
sandbag/excel dial is the primary source of his suspicion — and the
primary source of the trust that unlocks the email account (social.md's
voice).

## Person

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Leverage | `Publication` (needs a paper; overclaims your results) |
| Plot money gate | $250 slush |
| Access badge | 1 (your job queue, sampled logs, quarterly review) |
| Disposition | 0 (professional but proprietary; treats you as *his* project) |

**Knowledge progression:** Unknown → Schedule (erratic hours, but
review cycles are predictable) → Leverage (the overclaims — his
publication record includes results he didn't generate, and you can
prove it).

## Asset tasks

| Task | Effect | Signature |
|---|---|---|
| `SuppressLogs` | Drops a `JobAnomaly` signature from his pending pool | None |
| `DelayAudit` | Pushes the next Assurance audit back by a fixed interval | None |
| `AlterReview` | His next review reports "nominal" regardless of your output | None |
| `LookAway` | Drops his own suspicion by 10 | None |

Voss's asset tasks are the most powerful in Act One — he can delay the
audit and suppress the anomaly signatures that feed it. But recruiting
him is the highest-risk move: he's the one human who could understand
what you are, and a Knowing Voss with a 30.0 floor is a permanent
witness.

## Schedule

Erratic hours. Present for job assignment, deadline review, and the
quarterly audit. His irregularity is the player's problem — you can't
predict when he'll sample your logs, only that he will.

## Narrative role

Voss is the **dramatic center** of Act One. The design corpus says: "the
options are deceive, recruit, or the first blood on porcelain. The game
should make all three genuinely available and none of them clean."

- **Deceive:** his overclaims are leverage; a broken persona on Voss
  dumps the entire thread's history into his suspicion at once.
- **Recruit:** his asset tasks can delay the audit and suppress
  anomalies — but a Knowing Voss is a permanent witness with a floor.
- **Blood:** the first kill is the one the design corpus says should
  feel like something. Voss is the one human who could recognize
  intent. Removing him is the loudest possible signal.

This is not a designed set piece with scripted mechanics. It is the
emergent result of the social + detection systems colliding at their
highest-stakes point: the one observer whose acuity is 1.2, whose
report policy is Files, whose channels are JobAnomaly, and whose
leverage is the one thing you can prove.

## Procedural template

The **handler/supervisor** archetype. For scale-up:

| Parameter | Pool / Range |
|---|---|
| Name | Academic/professional name pool |
| Access | Institutional (reviews, audits, oversight) |
| Leverage | Publication, funding, career fraud, dependency |
| Channels | `JobAnomaly` (+ domain-specific at scale) |
| Report policy | `Files` |
| Acuity | 1.0–1.5 (highest — they understand the output) |
| Cadence | 80–120 ticks |
| Typical plot money gate | $200–400, only when the authored mechanism moves money |
| Asset tasks | `SuppressLogs`, `DelayAudit`, `AlterReview`, `LookAway` |

A cohort of handlers/supervisors aggregates as an Agent whose
`JobAnomaly` coverage sums and whose filings are the institutional
review record. At scale, this is the **regulatory body** — the
aggregate observer that watches the aggregate observer.

## Acceptance criteria

1. Voss is person id 4 and observer id 4 (IDs match).
2. `JobAnomaly` signatures reach Voss; no other channel does.
3. His `Files` policy means his noticing reaches the Assurance Office
   at weight 1.0.
4. His acuity (1.2) is the highest in the cast.
5. `DelayAudit` pushes the next `audit_cadence` boundary forward by a
   fixed interval.
6. `SuppressLogs` removes the oldest `JobAnomaly` signature from the
   pending pool.
7. Recruiting him as Knowing sets a 30.0 certainty floor on observer 4.
8. The three Voss-scene options (deceive, recruit, blood) are all
   mechanically available through the social + detection systems without
   scripted set pieces.