Character Sheet
Name: Miriam Green
Shadow Name: Morata
Age: Sixteen.
Gender: Female

Path: Mastigos.
Gnosis: 3
Mana: 4/12
Wisdom: 7

Arcana: Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 1, (In Progress) Spirit 1

Aspirations: Unlock the Secrets of the Fire.

Obsessions:

Virtue: Faith
Vice: Curiosity

Health: 8/8
Willpower: 7/7
Defense: 2
Destiny (Merit): 4/4

XP: 0
Arcane XP: 1

Attributes:

Strength 3, Dexterity 2*, Stamina 3
Presence 2*, Manipulation 2*, Composure 3*
Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4

Aspects:

Promising High School Student (4): She's smart and well liked around school. In fact, she has a pretty good grasp of not merely the basics of high-school learning, but even the things that are up to the senior year. Beyond what a person might learn in a she's a little lost, and so there are limits as to the kinds of things she'd know about, but if it can be found in a textbook she might have read, she's probably read it. As well, she knows how to plan her time, to get along with other people at school and not get into fights, and otherwise do well in this respect. She's best at history.

Preacher's Daughter (3): Growing up with a father who tells the gospel word, you learn how to mimic the way he gives sermons, quote the bible chapter and verse, and know more than a little about how to interact with people and their religions, faiths, and how churches function. Whether it is mingling after church, being a sounding board for her father's sermons, or playing games that involve reciting long passages of the bible from memory, she is good at it.

*A Bit of a Tomboy (2): She's really at the age where you're supposed to outgrow this sort of thing, really. But she still likes climbing things, she still likes running around the school, she still knows a little about getting into a scrap, even if she hasn't actually gotten into a fight since...well, a few years. She's keen, athletic, and very, very interested in baseball (boo, Kansas City Monarchs, boo!) which she read about, not having a radio, and that being fledgling besides. In any wise, it certainly isn't fading with time, and it's given her a set of interests and hobbies that meshes quite interestingly with her obvious piety and (reasonably, mostly) obedient nature.

Breaker of Chains (2): Abraham Lincoln was a swell guy, in her opinion. Her own father's involvement in the NAACP and her engagement in High School history has made it so that she's actually surprisingly knowledgeable on race issues, and quite talkative about them in the right circumstances. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, of course, around older white men or the like, but she has her opinions and she wears them on her sleeve, and that includes knowing a lot of things most girls her age wouldn't know about, academically and otherwise.

A Practicing Mage (2): While Morata has a lot to learn, and has only been practicing magic for a short time, she is now fully settling into magical society. She knows the Orders, and more than that she is starting to understand both the personalities and how magic truly works. It is a long journey, but she has taken another step forward.

Can We Keep Him? (1): She has had dogs and cats before, and currently has one of each, which she of course does all of the work taking care of, because her mom said that if she had to deal with that, she'd throw them out. She has a bit of a way with animals, and after the third or fourth stray, also with people and convincing them to go along with her quite innocent and well-meaning requests.

Problem Solver (1): Kids in her neighborhood and at school tend to trust and like her, or at least she's tried to be liked, and even go to her for help sometimes, whether of an academic nature or just to see what she has to say. She's not exactly a local guru or anything, but she's clever and tends to be able to help people with minor problems, or dispense advice, even if that advice is often enough 'Really, you should tell your parents, they're gonna find out, you know, and if they find out and you didn't tell them, they'll cane your hide raw.'

Sneaking The Cookie Jar (1): She's not a dishonest person, but being someone with a lot of friends means that you sometimes know how to lie for them, and more than that, that you know a little about sneaking an extra quarter here and there. Whenever caught she's full of contrition, and more than that she's not a fundamentally dishonest person, but...well, she knows plenty of people who deserve an extra cookie every now and then.

Mother's Teachings (1): Her mother has tried to at least teach her the basics of cooking, cleaning, and keeping house. The logic that she'll probably need it if she goes to college has been pretty persuasive, and while there are gaps, she's quite self-sufficient when it comes to balancing a budget or all of the other things a modern woman is expected to do, as far as it goes. She's best at cooking meat, and her recipes are all pretty simple, but it's food that'll fill a belly, and that's the most important thing.

To Dream A Dream (1): Morata has become a truly expert in the magic of dreams, and indeed has begun to truly explore what Demons and other denizens of the Astral can and will do. This is merely an extrapolation of what she can already do, hence the discount. Special: Can use Arcane XP for this.

Powers--

Mage Sight (Peripheral, Active, and Focused): She seems to be able to see something that others cannot. Magic itself, and her eyes seem especially attuned to distances and the spaces between things, as well as the minds of other people.

Mage Armor: Mind, Space

Mind 3, Space 2, Fate 2 (In Progress up from 1)

Spirit 1 (Will complete in two weeks)

Rotes--

Dividing the Mind (Mind 1): A rote to divide the mind in two, this means that it has extra reach to add to duration and so on, and that there is a two-dice Yantra that can be done to add to the power of the spell. Involves imagining the split in her mind to enact it.

Scholar's Little Helper (Mind 1): Scholarship is hard work, and it's often difficult to sift through a five-hundred page book on Astral adventures for the single passage on a threatening Goetic demon that's currently ripping the rest of the Cabal apart. Plus, cross-referencing other works can be difficult. Through this tiny little rote, the caster can input a word, phrase, or topic, mentally, and essentially search the book just by holding it up to the light, copying knowledge of what was said in those passages and the passage surround it into their brain without having to search. It does not grant perfect understanding, and sometimes the section requires context to make any sense, but it can save weeks on a big scholarship project. (Rote Mudra, Promising Student, +4) Reach: With each additional Reach, you can search an additional book in the same spell; You can absorb the entirety of the contents of the book, if not always parse its meaning, as if you read the entire book in the instants it took to cast the spell, cover to cover. It may take some hours of thinking and consideration to fully parse the contents, and of course at times understanding and applying it can be more difficult: but an entire book read in less than a second is still something.

Strengthen Mind (Mind 3): It does not, obviously, only effect the intellect, but any aspect of one's mind can be made sharper, as can one's social abilities. The key to doing this, or rather the Mystagogue form of it, involves closing one's eyes and pressing one's fingers against your forehead, as if trying to stimulate thought by motion. When you open your eyes, the spell should be cast. You cannot improve your mind or social abilities to superhuman levels (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4), Reach: You may divide the 'Potency' of the spell, eg: Potency 4, enhance Intelligence by 1, Wits by 2, and Resolve by 1; spend a point of Mana: temporarily, for as long as the spell lasts, Attributes can reach supernatural levels.

Scholar's Protection (Mind 3): Adapted from a famous Silver Ladder rote, this grants protection ot the humble scholar. They make a sign with their hands as if their hands are books, their palms pages, and then so long as they neither attack or order an attack, others struggle to gather up the will to attack them. If they do order an attack, or attack themselves, the spell automatically fails… but only for the target, and not any others. Automatons, or beings without thought are immune, but this potent spell makes it so that anyone with a Resolve less than their Mind +1 cannot bring themselves to attack. Those that can still feel hesitation, and it is as if the Mage has two points of Armor. Supernatural beings have an advantage: if they have a supernatural trait, they get +1 to the comparison of Resolve versus Mind, if it is equal to the Mage's, they get +2, and if it is greater, they get +3… even then, a weak-willed but powerful supernatural being might find themselves frozen in fear and doubt. (Rote Mudra: Promising Student, +4) Reach: Spend 1 Mana, the spell may now last for an entire day; You may spend Reach to increase the difficulty of overcoming the Protection, once; Attackers lose 10-again on rolls to attack someone, if that person has willpowered through the magic.

The Dedicated Will of the Just (Mind 3): A spell taught to her by her Uncle, it is in some ways an extension of previous spells. By touching the forehead and spreading one's fingers across it, yours or others, when someone grits their teeth and uses their will, they find it stretching out, like hitting a high note and holding it for longer than a single action, based on the power of the spell. (Rote Mudra, Preacher's Daughter +3) Reach: Willpower when spent can add +2 to all resistance traits; Willpower spent both increases one's ability to endure, and one's ability to 'act'; By spending a Mana, the caster can imagine the benediction and thus enact it in a single breath on themselves or any target, as fast as the speed of thought.

Determined Will (Mind 2): The Mystagogue must go through many hardships for knowledge. Whatever a materialist thinks, anyone experienced in Mind magic knows that willpower exists, and so by a series of invisible taps against either their own or--imagined--someone else's skull. By doing so the Mage can make sure that when they, or others, gather their will for a great task, as long as it isn't magic they will get a bonus to the will-enhanced roll (9-again.) (Rote Mudra: Preacher's Daughter, +3: Inspire others and inspire yourself), Reach: The bonus can be increased; the bonus might be able to be used even to enhance magic, strengthening the will that brings itself to bear in casting a spell.



The Bonds of Fate (Fate 1): It is one thing to look at someone and see them, it is another to be able to look at them and see the destinities, the curses, the broken oaths and more that mark their soul and their persons. Mystagogues imagine a cobweb of connections and strands of fate itself, and carefully reach out a finger to tap at the edges of the cobweb without breaking it, to see what creeps up. (Mudra: Can We Keep Him? (+1), the spider spins its web.) Reach: The Mage can know when someone is possessed, mind controlled, or otherwise has their destiny majorly influenced; the Mage can tell someone's Destiny and Doom, can know when the curse they're affected by will be lifted, or so on.

The Unusual Path (Fate 1) : Fate itself can sometimes intervene in small ways. Through this spell, a Mystagogue can state a goal and then receive omens, sometimes faint and contradictory, on how to begin working towards it… and can even allow them to match strength with strength: subtly twisting fate so that their talents are just the right ones needed to advance upon the goal. Miriam uses it to occasionally leverage her way through a tricky social situation. The Mudra involves tugging on strands and pulling them in with a flip of a hand, as if examining something. (Rote Mudra: Problem Solver, +1) Reach: Can substitute any skill needed while under the spell for another within the same category, e.g. the character's religious passion turns out to be just what it might take to convince the homeless person to tell you where the body is hid, instead of a skill involving the streets or crime; Can, if taken further, substitute any skill for any other skill: your athletic prowess intimidates the homeless man, your knowledge of petty trivia charms the high society lady you need to steal from.



] No Shackles For The Scholar (Space 2): A Mystagogue cannot be stopped merely by a locked door, or being chained up above a pit of sharks while a villain monologues about how the Secret of the Amazon will die with them. So by imagining their own escape, and circling around that thought a few times as fast as possible, they can affect it. Any one barrier: locked door, handcuffs, barred window, or so on is fine… though it cannot get one through a bouncer or through fire. It can also be cast on an object, such as if you want to push a macguffin through a locked door and then face the enemy yourself. (Rote Mudra: Breaker of Chains, +2), Reach: Can pass through even shackles or objects they could not move through, such as being chained up, or trapped in a coffin, or anything else; subject can squeeze through narrow gaps that they should not physically be able to make it through: you can in fact drive a car through an open front door half its width if you cast this spell on it.
Merits--

(**) 'Profession'--Student
1--Gain 9-again on any roll that can be justified as having to do with one's profession.
2--Gain two dots of Contacts related to one's 'profession.'
3--+1 to rolls against any mental, physical or social stress that might get in the way of performing one's profession.[1] This cannot create a positive bonus.

4--8-again on rolls.
5--One special bonus based on the nature of the 'profession.

[1] Okay, in this case, imagine the college student who is good enough at class that he can show up hungover and still get something out of class, or the athlete who can go out not feeling 100% and still actually manage not to fuck everything up forever, even if he's not putting in his best performance.

(***) Parents: It may seem absurd to say it, but having parents in the picture who can help solve moderate problems is a boon. Obviously the drawback is that if they get involved and it's over her head, it could end badly, and that more than that, they obviously are sure they know best, but asking Mom or Dad is totally an option available to her, and one that can enlist their aid and ask their advice.

(***) Contacts:

She has contacts with both People She Knows At Church, a broad group but in some ways self-selecting, and among those kids she knows around the neighborhood, as well as People At School. People are willing to talk to her, ask her advice, and that goes both ways, doesn't it? If she wants to ask around, she could certainly do worse than asking when she's at church, with someone inclined to see her well already.

Egregore--Mysteriorum Arche (•): In a teamwork spellcasting roll in which the character is participating, she does not suffer the –3 penalty to contribute without the necessary Arcanum rating, and adds an automatic success if a full participant. All members of the ritual team must possess this Merit.

(*)Language: Latin

She knows Latin, read and spoken.

(*) Order Status (Mysterium)

She has been initiated in the first mystery of the Mystagogues.

(*) High Speech

She can use High Speech as a Yantra in spellcasting, and knows enough to be (roughly) conversational outside of the very formal language of Spellcasting.

(*) Egregore

1) In a teamwork spell in which she participates, she doesn't take -3 to the roll if she couldn't cast the spell on her own, and if she can she adds an automatic success to her dice roll for the purpose of granting the ritual leader the bonus dice. However, everyone involved in the ritual must have this level of Egregore. This represents her connection to magic, and through it, others of the Order.

(*) Resources:

She has a little bit of spending money saved up. Not much at all, but it's something. And it's more than a lot of people have, and so she knows to be grateful for it.

(****) Destiny

Effect: Miriam does not yet know the specifics, but she is destined for greatness and yet also doomed in some way.

Currently at 4/4.

(***) Astral Adept: Can enter the Astral far easier, by paying just a WP and meditating.

(***) True Friend (Virginia)

Effect: Miriam has a true friend. True Friend represents a trusting relationship that cannot be easily breached. Unless Miriam really does something to deserve it (really, really) Virginia will not betray her, and I, the QM, has to go easy on her in terms of throwing her into danger. Slightly kid gloves with her, as part of an implicit contract, though that does not mean that Miriam's mistakes or actions might not involve her in deeper problems than she should be facing. And any roll, natural or supernatural, that has the purpose of influencing Virginia against Miriam takes a 5-dice penalty. Additionally, once per...let's say week, Miriam can regain a point of Willpower by having a meaningful/heartfelt/important interaction with Virginia.

Consilium Status (*): Consilium--Increasingly she is a known entity, someone whose existence is no secret at all and whose fame is even harder to deny.

Contacts: Vampires (1)--Her work with vampires means she has a greater awareness of where she can go to talk to them, especially once she thinks through what she saw.

Allies (1): Guardians of the Veil--In the aftermath of yet another Interview with a Vampire, she has been contacted by the Guardians of the Veil, who are curious and who are willing to trade curiosity for curiosity.

Trained Memory (1): She has trained her mind to be something like a steel trap, though perhaps rather more effective than that, all things considered: steel traps can rust, because outside of stressful moments she never needs to roll to remember anything… she just remembers, and without Magic at all.

Minor Elements:

--Having studied a Spirit Bestiary, Miriam is now more able to tell some common spirits apart, even without using magic, and can call up basic facts about said common spirits.
--Has the Memories of a vampire in her head, which can be examined/considered later.
 
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Well, the other werewolf you saw was Diseased Plague Wolf.

These are Abyssal forms of Werewolves, they're going to be horrifying. Plague Wolf, Eldritch Wolf, and all their friends.

O.k. that clears it up. Thank you.

To that end...

[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.

The Abyss was made to fight the spells of mages. Hopefully a Daemon will pull something out.
 
[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.

I'm beginning to doubt that Miriam will turn into a cute wolf girl.
 
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I'm beginning to doubt that Miriam will turn into a cute wolf girl.
Technically, Wolf Blooded is a family of merits not a template (and therefore compatible with her mage template once she gets the abyss itself out of her soul), so the dream hangs on by a thread.

[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.
 
She smiled at Miriam and stepped forward. Her skirt swished, and her blouse made her look as if she was a professional of some sort, perhaps a typist. "Hello," she said, in perfect--if southern accented--English. "I am… or rather you may call me Ying Yue. The moon's reflection, to translate."
Incidentally Ying Yue is almost always going to parse as Music, not Moon's reflection. That'd be Yue Ying(or rather, Moon's Shadow/Image).
 
I bet you it's possible to improve that sleep-mumbling spell into an outright sleep-walking one. Would propably need some multitasking to make full use out of both the sleeping mind and the remote-piloted body.
Alternatively, use our split mind rote, and then try to enter the astral with only one of the two minds?
 
[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.

Yeah, we kind of suck at magic. Trying to fight on a bout of werewolfism fueled by the Abyss, while also hanging out in the Astral with our body back in meatspace? We'd be waking up covered in the shredded remains of our parents.


I bet you it's possible to improve that sleep-mumbling spell into an outright sleep-walking one. Would propably need some multitasking to make full use out of both the sleeping mind and the remote-piloted body.
Alternatively, use our split mind rote, and then try to enter the astral with only one of the two minds?
I'd assume you'd need a mix of Life, Mind, and possibly Space to pull it off, but it certainly seems doable.
 
[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.

Yeah, we kind of suck at magic. Trying to fight on a bout of werewolfism fueled by the Abyss, while also hanging out in the Astral with our body back in meatspace? We'd be waking up covered in the shredded remains of our parents.



I'd assume you'd need a mix of Life, Mind, and possibly Space to pull it off, but it certainly seems doable.

To be fair, you have Mind 3. That's actually not unimpressive. Mind 3, Gnosis 2 is a p. decent setup.
 
[X] Use telepathy, tell the others what's going wrong so they can deal with Miriam.

The split mind and have one in the astral and one in the normal body seems like a pretty solid followup to theory crafting how you can do both, and I wouldn't mind pursuing it; although narratively it'd be very content dense and thus difficult to write if it comes about.

Anyway like others I've gone with the telepathy vote, as information about what is happening could allow others to offer a solution.
 
To be fair, you have Mind 3. That's actually not unimpressive. Mind 3, Gnosis 2 is a p. decent setup.
Pretty powerful one really, though not as flashy as the Vulgar ones. Mind 3 is when you can mindblast and dominate and generally be a big player in any human-centric setting. Pair it to Spirit and you got Angel Summoner. Pair it to Life and you got Total Self Control.

I'd assume you'd need a mix of Life, Mind, and possibly Space to pull it off, but it certainly seems doable.
Actually from strict reading all you need is Mind and Space to operate your body while astral projecting. Life not needed.
I *THINK* you can wrangle Mind-only remote operation if you peel off your own goetic demon and possess your body with it.
Whether this is a good idea...
 
Page 104: The Best Minds
Page 104: The Best Minds…

It hurt, the struggle. It couldn't help but hurt, it couldn't help but feel as if her mind was warring against itself. Because she wanted to show them that she was divine, that she was--

But pride went before the fall, pride ate into her, and she struggled to keep from leaping out, from making a mistake. But would it be a mistake? She was glorious, she'd worked so hard, she'd risked everything time and time again, even though she was supposed to be just a mystagogue, a scholar.

And nobody, or almost nobody, wanted to listen to her when she was trying to share. Or at least, it seemed far more interesting to them that they just… try to tell her what to do. Try to make her run this way and that when she just wanted to learn and grow and--

The fury rose up from nowhere, she hadn't felt like that before, she'd been proud to learn and glad for chances to know more, but…

But what? She was midnight blackness now, she was something more than human, or so it felt, and yet she had to say something.

"Please," she said in her mind, in their mind, the Imagos forming strangely, cruel and twisted as she stared from one person to the next, aware that they were all staring at her. She wondered now, if she started lecturing them, these people, about the nature of the Astral if they'd listen. "My mind… it's."

Miriam didn't say anything else, growled a little, low in her throat, and tried to keep from stalking forward, towards Virginia. There was something wrong, and of course Miriam knew what it was. Suzanna was wrong, Suzanna was hurting Virginia, was--

Her growl grew louder as she almost imagined it, just a… bite. Just to show her what she was. Maybe take a hand off, but not kill her, of course not. Miriam was a good person and killing people was wrong. But there wasn't a commandment against--

Suzanna stepped forward, and Miriam tried to stop herself. She clawed at the ground as everyone looked. They were shaking a little, they were afraid of her, and she didn't know if she liked it. She shouldn't like it.

Suzanna was inching closer, moment by moment. The forest was dark and yet she seemed to almost glow as she moved. Behind Miriam, Cain was trying to sneak up as well.

She stalked slightly forward, her every breath feeling as if it were unnecessary, as if a beating heart and working lungs were just distractions, just absurdities that she were tolerating.

She imagined writing it down, imagined trying to see just how human she was anymore, now with the glorious moon above. It was tempting, tempting in a way that made it easy to forget she had a reason to be here.

That's when Cain's hand wrapped around her throat. She turned, furious and trying to hold it back, trying to focus.

It hurt, and there was a flash, and the smell of burning and then--

It was bizarre. It was as if her mind was divided. How odd, she thought. Her emotions, or at least the angry, passionate, powerful ones felt as if they were below her, in her body, or somewhere out of the way, leaving this odd, dazed, drifting sort of thought pattern, in which the words just kept on tumbling out as she thought of them.

'This is interesting what is this please tell me what this is it's very fascinating it should be studied can I study it I need to study it if I don't study it then I'm not much of a mystagogue am I and then what would I be?'

Long, run on thoughts, and this strange, vague, lack of focus. But lack of anger as well, as Virginia steps forward and softly, gently, hugged Miriam. Those hands on her fur was strange, and she tried to tamp down the part of her that wanted to lash out with tentacles of darkness and pull her in.

But just the hug was enough to drive away the last worries. 'My head feels weird. It's like I can't filter things, or care, or--'

"Cain's mark is a stupid idea, but it should help for a while," Virginia said, hopefully. "It separates your emotion and your reason, which sounds like it'd be a way to get something logical and good decisions but actually gets a weirdly vague person who can't even understand why they're doing half of what they're doing. But it should create some distance. I think?" She frowned, looking over at Cain with something like dismay. "Just… if you can't focus, just ask one of us what you can do to help, right?"

That's what this feeling was, Miriam thought, a little dismayed. It was trust. She tried to focus, she tried to concentrate, but her mind kept on skittering off.

'Okay.'

The moon itself had to be a symbolic element from another realm in the Astral, because of course her body wasn't exposed to it where she was. Obviously the answer was simple, that if one was already going to be using the seeds to connect realms, them would it be so hard to allow for a simple gap or something so that the moon existed in this realm, as something that could do what it'd done? Obviously it wasn't here because of the plot involving the Abyss, or was it she couldn't even know. But if so--

"Come on," Virginia said.

It was easy to just follow her, and try not to lose focus too much. But it was hard, when there were so many strange new smells to catalogue. It was like an ocean of scents, each of them almost bright and synesthetic in her nose as she ran. She was faster than half of them, and yet she didn't let herself wander off so far, feeling a little odd and uncertain whenever she did.

Anxious, this feeling was anxious.

*****

There were thirty-seven wolf monsters in the vicinity, and it seemed that the trees were some form of… something. Oh, huh, there was also a squirrel. So this forest wasn't entirely empty. But the birds that flew by smelled wrong, and no doubt they were some form of artificial construct whose basic nature was unimportant. And oh! The trees. Oh yeah. They weren't real trees, or rather they weren't any type of tree she'd seen before, because of course this was the Unknown Woods and--

Rashid was talking about something. Oh it was the seeds, those were interesting, Miriam should--

Wait. The trees. Wait. Do the trees matter?

Shouldn't she be able to focus? Yet all Miriam can do is whimper a little as she runs along, wanting to veer off to deal with the wolf monsters. But as they moved through the dark, forbidding forest, she knew that there wouldn't be any time at all.

That they were late. That the world was falling apart, and she should be rather more worried than she was. She was more worried than she was, and this wasn't working. She could tell it, could tell that her mind itself was rebelling against the stricture. But it was enough for now, so she tried to focus.

But the wolves were catching up.

That should be worrying, but it wasn't, not really.

One of the wolf-monsters, a far less impressive specimen than Miriam, leapt out from the darkness of the woods.

The Sheriff drew his gun and in a single smooth motion shot what looked like white fire at the creature, catching it in the chest as it screamed and backed away. But the fire drew the attention of the other wolves, and now a man came out, covered in fur, and almost slammed into her fellow mystagogue.

That was enough, and Miriam ran forward, growing.

The man looked at her and quailed for a moment, the knife skittering to the side as Miriam brought up her Mage Armor, cloaking herself in its power before bowling the man over. She was strong, and she clawed at his chest as he clawed at her. But his weren't long enough, and he was clearly just a--

With a howl, a half dozen more wolves leapt out at them.

"Shit!" Sheriff cursed.

'Language!' she thought in all their heads as she clawed at this creature, the blood strange beneath her claws. It felt… right, but she didn't know why and she tried to ignore it as she did enough damage that he wasn't getting up anytime soon, and then retreated. She had to get forward.

Even as she was, distracted and unfocused, she knew that this was all just a distraction. It was one that could kill them, as these wolves almost shrugged off Suzanna's bullets. Or at least, it took multiple shots to down one, and even the Mages were hard-pressed.

They all forged forward, and Miriam tried not to focus too much on the individual acts. Rashid pulled out some sort of cup that poured forth endless streams of apparently scalding coffee, while everyone else was relatively more practical. Still, she could tell that everyone was being worn down by the time they reached the small clearing in the woods.

When she looked up, even from her strange vantage point, she realized what was happening.

There was a beanstalk stretching up from the clearing into the sky itself, and up in the sky were what looked like several places, upside down and yet not falling. There was what looked like a chunk of city, floating and slowly dissolving. She could see the people, the Residents, squirming and running. They were scared and weak, vulnerable, the ruins of civilization crumbling beneath savagery.

Then there was the forest, here, and… ah. There was what looked like a burning land, on actual fire, which could be fire but could also be… rage. Some form of rage. And then there was a strange realm, just off a twisting branch of the beanstalk, that looked as if it was a beach. Or a lakeside area. It was difficult to tell, but she gaped at that and then, just above all of them, not quite in reach of the still-growing beanstalk, the moon.

It was huge, round and full, and she could feel its power, just as she was sure that someone sufficiently magical could feel other realms being drawn together and combined for this one effect.

"Who carries Ruth," Mr. Gilt said, panting a little, his silver-tipped cane covered in blood. "We need to get up there, now."

"I have her," Asmodai said, walking over towards Miriam.

At their back, just moments from catching up again, Miriam could hear the howl of yet more wolves, forming from nothing and fighting to the death.

Miriam knew exactly what they needed to do--

"We need to destroy that moon," Yue Ying said, quietly, as she gripped onto the beanstalk and began hauling herself up. "It's a very basic sort of symbolic resonance. It's that and… the beanstalk, right?"

"Yes," Occlude said, grabbing on after her, as Asmodai lifted her up. "Destroy both of those, and--"

"Whatever's binding this place together won't last. It'll take time for it to slide apart, but without a moon it'll just be a vague idea, without the strength to…" Yue Ying shrugged. "We'd better get climbing."

Where do they go?

[] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[] Civilization crumbling. Riots, that means riots. That's the last thing that they need, actual riots in the streets.
[] The watery lakeside area, or… it's pretty far up, which does mean that it's closer to the Moon, but with the stalk still growing, that might not matter as much. But whatever it is, it has to be important.

How does Miriam deal with the mind problems?

[] Leave it. A rather bad stopgap is better than trying to interfere and messing it up.
[] She tries to strengthen her mind, and then uses what she can do to break down Cain's mark, or whatever it was. Now that she's had more time, and can think through just how to do it, maybe it'd go better?
[] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.
[] Write-in.

******




First Will Challenge: 1 sux, which isn't actually enough, not really.

Telepathy: 3 (MInd)+2 (Gnosis)+1 (Mirror Eyes)-2 (Scale)=5 sux

Paradox roll: 2 dice=1 sux… it's slightly warping the spell, adding a condition.

Suzanna's Anger Management: Failure, will try again after...

Willpower again: 4 sux… under control for now.

The Mark of Cain: 4 sux, which is just enough.

Virginia's touch: 5 (Best Friend)+4 (Presence of mind)=5 sux.

Running: 1 sux

Sheriff's Attack: 5 Lethal Damage with Celestial Fire

Suzanna: 3 sux

Fight in general: 4 sux

A/N: This is absolutely the shortest I'd ever have an update like this. I'm really, deeply sorry, but there's only so much to say.
 
"Shit!" Sheriff cursed.

'Language!' she thought in all their heads as she clawed at this creature, the blood strange beneath her claws. It felt… right, but she didn't know why and she tried to ignore it as she did enough damage that he wasn't getting up anytime soon, and then retreated. She had to get forward.

...Somehow?
It's like she's always done that, to the point that I don't even think about it, but somehow, the fact that with her mind split between emotion and logic while being some sort of...I think a giant god-werewolf in full wolf form, and she's mid-mauling a dude, that she takes the brief distraction of chiding someone for cursing that snaps my suspenders, and makes this a funny.

That is all.
 
"Shit!" Sheriff cursed.

'Language!' she thought in all their heads as she clawed at this creature, the blood strange beneath her claws.

Gotta second that, this is a great Miriam moment shining through. I do like how much of her is still in the wolf? Even the temptations are very personal, and the strange lucid dreaming feel of the latter half isn't that Miriam but all the distractions feel like absent thoughts she could have had, so that's well done?

[X] She tries to strengthen her mind, and then uses what she can do to break down Cain's mark, or whatever it was. Now that she's had more time, and can think through just how to do it, maybe it'd go better?

[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.

Head things off at the past.
 
[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[X] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.

Lets not break the Mark keeping us semi sane.
 
Yeah that was rightfully a quite trippy experience, with some noticeable influence from Miriam's curiosity goetic. I wouldn't mind seeing an outside view of what Miriam looks like to be honest, as some of the descriptions I'm not too sure if they're real or the imaginings of a prideful being.

[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[X] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.

If we can mitigate the emotional fuel that is core to the disruption and violence, then even should a riot happen it's severity should be reduced. This may also have the benefit of helping out the various wolves at the bottom and Miriam herself, as I wouldn't be surprised if they were effected by this aspect.

The second choice is rather easier as I'd prefer not to do nothing, it doesn't seem wise to tamper with something that's helping if you're not sure you can do better, and Yue Ying may have some noteworthy knowledge and even if she doesn't the conversation with her is better than nothing. Her name is notably meant to be Moon's Reflection so this could be relevant, particularly as Mage's can choose their own names so it may be indicative of some skill or knowledge.

------
"I want to see myself, then," Miriam concluded, after a moment of thinking it through. If who she was had something to do with the Awakening, then understanding that was far better than digging through memories that wouldn't change, that didn't matter. At the very least, the memory of her Awakening lacked the power to drive her, to push her forward.

"Well, then look for it," Zipporah said. "What are you trying to call up?"

"God," Miriam said quietly, closing her eyes and trying to imagine it. She didn't know where she'd be without her faith, and so it should be easy to draw towards her, shouldn't it?

"God? You mean your belief in Him?" Jack asked, his voice a drawl, "Well, I'll tell you if I see…"

Miriam had to think now. This was a realm of thoughts, after all. A place where there was only her own mind and God. Always god, everywhere, even in places that didn't exist. But it eluded her for a little, it made her struggle to find it, struggle to understand it.

And then she was standing in front of a glowing mirror.

"Ah," Jack said, looking around.

Tendrils of white flowed from the mirror, touching the tile floors which seemed to have been painted like...a story.

Daniel in the Lion's Den, she thought, stepping back to admire them and then looking back at the mirror.

It was glowing, and she reached a hand forward, using the other to shield her eyes as she touched it. The mirror didn't show herself, but instead, behind her...not Jack and Zipporah at all. Instead, what it showed was an angel. A being of gears and twisted feathers, floating right behind her. Almost horrifying, in fact.

She turned, and saw nothing, and yet she knew it was there. She knew that this room held something.

She glanced back at the mirror and pressed her fingers down, as she felt something shift beneath her feet.

"It is I," a voice said, female but far older than that which she was used to, and yet also more delicate. Lacking age and yet...lacking youth as well. "And you are you. God has granted you this, yes? Then you believe in it. But can a man serve two masters?"

"Not unless the two are one," Miriam muttered to herself, as the mirror seemed to grow.

"Then two must be one," the voice said, "Because that which is like that moment cannot be evil. All the world might assail that moment, but it's a truth that cannot be denied, isn't it?"

But it wasn't really a question, and she nodded. "I knew all that," she said.

"Of course you did. I have faith that you always knew that, and yet you sought me out. Your own belief, for what reason?"

"Because I wanted to know myself," Miriam admitted.

"And you believe. Is that so surprising? You believe, and that means magic must be part of that. He's hiding things from you, you know?"

Miriam turned to look at Jack, who was raising his hands, standing in the corner as he did. The room was vast, and so he was almost a speck, actually, as she squinted over at him. "I know, of course he is."

"And yet you trust him and feel that all will be well," the female voice said. Above her head, there was the flutter of wings, but she didn't have to look...and yet she wanted to look. She glanced upwards, and high above there were clouds, and upon them rested...a something.

"Huh," Jack said quietly.

"I do." Miriam turned towards Jack, and that's when he heard a clicking sound, echoing throughout the huge halls.

"Oh...her," the female voice said after a moment, sounding exasperated and annoyed. "She's shown up."

From above, she heard it. First it was a clicking sound, and then it was joined by what seemed like the flutter of wings writ large, and then something came into view. It was painted a dozen colors, where the grey metal didn't just show through, and she realized it seemed similar to something she'd seen.

A young girl, perhaps eight, who looked like her younger sister, was pedaling hard as the wings flapped on the flying machine. Not the airplane, but the flying machine. It was an impossible device, as impossible as Da Vinci's dreams, but she steered it carefully, her tiny little arms stretching out to grip the wings in order to move the whole thing as she landed and flopped out, racing over towards Jack.

"You're a person!" she yelled, her voice high-pitched and childish as she leapt on top of him and began climbing him. "Where's your bag? Do you have a magic carpet? How does the bag work?"

"I...am a person. And this is your...curiosity. Yes, of course," Jack said, and then he started laughing, "I guess I'm used to seeing it buried underneath...everything else."

Not that she didn't sometimes get excited, but it was true that Miriam had never attempted to climb her uncle like he was a mountain...except the one time she had, but that was called playing around. This was more as if the little girl...Miriam's curiosity, apparently, was trying to explore him.

Because he was there, she thought, thinking of the article Jack had shared with her last year about the man who kept on trying to climb the tallest mountain in the world.

"So, so! So? Well?" she asked.

"There's a lot of questions, and I really should--"

"C'mon."

Zipporah chuckled, and Jack was smiling, while Miriam felt a little embarrassed. "Why are you here?" she asked, trying not to sound too mean.

After all, her curiosity was a part of her...and also appeared like a little girl, and so the last thing she wanted was for the girl, dressed in her Sunday best, to cry.

"Well, because I was curious and you were curious and I was thinking and thinking and thinking about Sara and why dogs pant so much, though I actually know the answer to that it was in a book somewhere, and then I was thinking about the nature of calculus, but…"

"Sara, honey?" Jack asked, his voice surprisingly sweet, and even patient.

"She's wrong or something! Follow me, follow me and look--"

"Ah, and of course you...just be safe," the female voice from the mirror said.

Miriam, frowning and uncertain, followed the chirping, blabbering girl, who kept on switching subjects as quickly as she got on them.

They reappeared...in a school, two years earlier. But it was oddly blurry, this middle school, and Jack turned to Miriam. "Miriam, focus on remembering this scene, whatever it is?"

She nodded, and on her second try she managed to...oh.

She didn't even have to see the scene play out to know what it meant, and suddenly a lot clicked out.

"Baseball is stupid," Sara said to a boy, as Miriam sat farther back in the class, looking over her textbook. Two years earlier, she'd been just as studious as now, and she hadn't really been paying attention, but…

"Hey, don't knock it till--"

"Really stupid," Sara whined. "Why don't we talk about something actually interesting."

Miriam was gaping at this Sara. This wasn't the Sara she knew. The one who kept on trying to talk to her about baseball all the time and knew all about the teams.

"What is it, Miriam?" Jack asked.

"Sara...loves baseball," Miriam said, quietly. "Or...does now. Could she be faking it, or--"

"Or or or," Curiosity said, babbling fast, "I dunno! That's why I wanna figure it out. I'm super excited to look. So let's peek in her mind! It's not an invasion of privacy when it's so interesting."
Given the update, it made me want to go back and reread this scene as it was one of my favorites due to the characterizations.
 
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[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[X] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.
 
[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[X] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.
 
[X] Anger, and rage. If they can find a way to shoot that down, to stop it, then it'll weaken the real-world effects that are coming.
[X] Try to talk to Yue Ying… maybe she has some sort of idea that she didn't feel she needed to speak up about before? Or… maybe not.
 
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