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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You can also resurrect people by draggin their minds from the past and sticking it in a new body.

(You also need a soul, but generally that's easy to get).

Also, I'm surprised you haven't figured Jack out yet. I mean, he's a Mastigos who also has Spirit as a 'third specialty'.

But yeah, Mind 1 and Space 1 can already approximate some of the cool things you can do with Second Sight for a cost of jack shit, and Mages just keep on ramping up infinitely from there, as far as Thaumaturges and the like go.

But yeah, the next update will be...Sunday? Monday? Not sure. I've literally written nothing so far today because I suck.
 
You can also resurrect people by draggin their minds from the past and sticking it in a new body.

(You also need a soul, but generally that's easy to get).
Eh, changing souls may have personality impact. Besides, if you're already reaching into the past, it's probably easier to just re-route around them dying. And if you need to fake their death, by the level of Death needed for that kind of soul manipulation its easier to just replace them with a disguised corpse
 
Caught up.

Virginia's thing is strange because a person is supposed to have one defining Virtue/Vice pair, right? So what we are catching is, perhaps, the sign that there is more than one person involved in Virginia's actions/state of mind? The explanations can vary from some sleeping/unrealized potential that is able to change the person once they become aware of it, to magical influence, to a 'neighbour' of some sort (split personality, possession, voice in the head).

Either way, learning about her deal should be interesting.

Josiah and Jack continue to be favorites among our acquaintances. Hm, Confident/Indulgent and Unflappable/Lazy. Must be soul brothers.
 
Page 10: Shadow Plays, Part 1
Page 10: Shadow Plays, Part 1

Miriam felt a sort of tension in her guts. Nervousness, yes, but more than that. Excitement. She hadn't thought she'd feel it so strongly, but everything she was hearing, as bizarre and unnerving as it was, also felt new. Even exciting. It felt like something she wanted to know more about, and if he said that seeing was believing, then it was best to see in person. She sat up, leaning forward a little bit as she looked across at her Uncle. He was watching her, thoughtfully, no shadows dancing, no spells now. Just her uncle.

"I want to visit this 'Shadow' and see it for myself," Miriam said, quietly, "If you can do that?"

"I can, actually," Jack said, after a moment. he was staring at her, and he said, "You know that it will be dangerous."

"Yes, I do. But I'd like to see it as soon as possible. I understand if you need to prepare for it." She cleared her throat, "I'm aware that there's a lot I don't know--"

"But that only makes you want to know it all the more, doesn't it?" Jack asked, shaking his head. "It's a good instinct, but it will get you in trouble one day." He laughed, a rich, short sound and said, "Not that I'm going to discourage it. Feed that fire, but step carefully."

"So when can we go?" Miriam asked.

Jack frowned, standing up, glancing at his carpet bag for a moment. "Now, actually, if you want. Though I'll have to set a few rules, first. And you'll have to follow me, because we need privacy in order to do this. I know of a quiet location that we can use."

He was looking at her with hard, careful eyes, and she nodded.

"Follow, then, and listen carefully."

She got up, brushing herself off, nervous and yet excited, as he clutched his bag tighter and began to walk down. She breathed in and out, slowly, as he began to speak.

"First off, the Shadow is a parody of sorts of the world. Ruined buildings where whole ones were, a few trees turning into a vast forest in the Shadow, or an entire city block reduced to one large building. It will not seem normal, and it's not...not a place where people are meant to live. We can visit, but we're not welcome, not without a few tricks. Which we do have, actually, and they can help with a few things. But, it's not a place to live in, even if you're a Thyrsus."

Miriam nodded as they walked out into the street. It wasn't dusk yet, but it was getting close to it, even in summer. The sun would be down in an hour or two, and so the night life would begin in earnest. She kept close to him, glancing around at the young people, finely dressed, moving from their houses onto the street, hailing the streetcar, or sometimes just walking.

Jack slowed down, glancing at a woman in a rather fine white nightdress, for whatever reason, before shaking his head and speeding up again, walking almost fast enough that she fell behind.

"At least, I wouldn't want to live there. Everyone has their own opinions. Other rules: stick close to me, listen to nothing they say, or rather do nothing they ask you to do without my permission, and do not give them your name. There are illnesses that can form. Similarly, don't eat anything."

"I can do that," Miriam said, quietly, as they stopped in front of a squat, one story house, that looked as if it was falling apart. It certainly wasn't where she'd want to live, though she knew that there were apartments and other such buildings, tenements and all, that were worse. Still, there was something lonely about the house, or at least the outside, despite the lights that were on.

She heard laughter, but it seemed...she didn't know. Far off.

"You can feel it, can't you?" he asked. "This...is a verge controlled by the Folk, a place that has the resonance of spirits itself. Pay attention."

She stepped towards the door, just behind him, and he knocked once.

A short woman, her skin almost sandy in color, opened the door. She seemed a riot of colors, dancing at the edge of her body and at the edge of Miriam's vision. "You need the root cellar?" she asked, her voice husky and low.

"Yes'm," Jack said.

The woman glanced at Miriam, and seemed to see right through him as she turned and walked away.

In they stepped, to find...drinking. Partying. Eight or nine people were sprawled out on couches, talking, laughing. Joking. Alcohol in hands, cigarettes in hand. It wasn't even the weekend, and she turned away, frowning, already discomforted. And...on the walls it seemed as if there were hard, dark knots, like on a tree. And the wooden floor seemed oddly damp.

One man was laying out tarot cards, laughing as he saw each card, one after another. Miriam closed her eyes as the smoke stung at it. She opened them again to see Jack holding a bottle of alcohol as he stepped towards...a trapdoor.

Moss covered it, and he leaned down. It smelled strange to her, half-rotten and yet also unfamiliar. He pulled it open with a single, strong heave, and there was a ladder.

It seemed to be made of twisting roots and branches, still moving even at that point, and yet he gripped it with certainty and Miriam had no choice but to follow him down, down into the bowels of a cellar that shouldn't exist, logically.

And she followed. The grip with slippery, almost slimey even, and had to hold her breath as there was this musty smell that got worse and worse as she went down, until suddenly it was past and her feet hit the ground.

She turned just as Jack began to light a candelabra in the center of the room, and so she could see it. It felt like the inside hollow of a tree, wooden and rounded at the edges, moss growing in patches here and there. In the center, next to the candles, was a table, and on it was some form of board.

Now suddenly she felt almost charged with life. Every ache and pain and all of the excess energy she still had seemed to double and redouble as he breathed out and said, "Now watch."

He grabbed the bottle from under his arms and opened it quickly, pouring some of it on the ground as he began to dance. Or at least, he moved a little, shifting in the motions of a waltz that brought him near Miriam for a moment and then past, back to the board. Spirit board, she remembered, or at least that was a guess as he bent over and said, in the 'High Speech', "Make a door between the world and the Shadow, in this room only, for three hours, and may only libations open it, from one side or another." Each word seemed to nail itself to reality.

She watched as...it seemed for a moment almost as if nothing happened, and then she saw shadows racing from his body, gathering at a far wall and then spreading, faster and faster. She stepped forward, as if trying to get out of its way, but the smell was filling the room. Alcohol smelled disgusting, and she covered her nose and when she blinked again, they were standing in…

Another cellar, this one far more normal. Only...not. It looked far more normal in the sense that it was large, and not at all the inside of a tree, but there were dozens and dozens of bottles of wine on racks, and each of the bottles was whispering.

She couldn't understand what they said, and she took a step back, glancing at a window that seemed fogged over.

Jack was walking over, his steps seeming to echo as he tapped her on the shoulder. And suddenly she could hear the bottles.

'Drink me, drink me' they seemed to be whispering. 'Indulge eat drink drink drink drink.'

She shied away from them, glancing at the stairs and saying, "Is there anything up there?"

"No, this place is safe enough, but some spirits can't be driven out, and the...well, we call them Bottle Mosquitoes, the whole type of them, are not really that harmful. You drink them, and they buzz inside of you, encouraging you to indulge because indulgence is what they eat."

"The essence, right?" Miriam asked.

"Yes. That and each other. You can pour the contents of one into another, mixing your wines, and it kills one," he said, "They keep on coming back."

Miriam frowned, "This is a buffet flat?"

"Yes. Upstairs there are sometimes spirits of joy or...other sorts of emotions," Jack said, "But it should be a straight shot out of here, and then we can walk around a little. There's somewhere I want to show you, I suppose, if we're going to do a real tour."

He stepped up the stairs, carpet bag still clung to fiercely as she followed. Upstairs was...no different. Or at least, it seemed like the same place, but arranged differently. A few tables that weren't there before, but a few less couches, and the lights seemed to be flickering, a little uncertainly.

The smell, though. Alcohol so strong she almost fell over, feeling almost dizzy just to be in this place, and faint laughter coming from nowhere as he continued walking and she hurried to keep up.

Out in the streets, the Shadow too looked both...not at all different and very different. Strange black cars drove by at high speeds on the road, which seemed to twist and turn far too much. Some of the houses she remembered simply weren't there, and there was a large house sitting across the way that wasn't there before.

The weeds were higher, everywhere, choking out life, and yet it seemed almost recognizable. That was it, wasn't it? It was a reflection of the world, but it seemed, she decided, breathing in and out, staring at everything, trying to take it all in, to be a cracked reflection.

She nodded to herself and followed him along. The cars kept on speeding, and he pointed at them and said, "Look closely, and you'll see that…"

She frowned, and stared at a car as it sped past, and then when she realized it she felt sick. What she'd thought was black metal instead looked almost like...skin? Skin stretched tight as a drum over the body of an automobile.

"Pride. Pride of ownership combining with the cars," he said, quietly, "So they often have names like Fast-Black, or--"

Which is when he stopped dead in his tracks. "Oh...oh come on. Here? Well, that's annoying."

In the distance, as the fading sun cast its shadows overhead, something approached.

It looked, from a distance, like a shimmering streak of red and green, and yet the closer it got the more it seemed to be instead some form of bubbling liquid, charged with other colors: here white, here black, all of them shifting faster and faster as it got closer.

"Hey buddy, hey," it said. Its voice sounded foreign in some way, and she felt as if she was somehow...she couldn't even know. It was male though.

"Bemerry,"Jack said, and it took a moment for her to realize that this had to be a name.

"Give a buddy some juice?" it said, and it sounded female and husky as it slipped closer to Jack, who held out a hand in warding.

Miriam moved behind Jack, but the thing seemed to alight on her. "Gotta new girl now? Introduce me introduce me, and maybe…"

It slipped closer, and Jack held out a hand. "If you take a step closer, I'll hurt you, despite the fact that you have helped me on occasion."

"Helped me?" the spirit asked, with a giggle, her voice suddenly different again. "Is that any way to talllk." It slid up, and Miriam felt strange. Oddly warm, like someone was hugging her, or something. It passed rather quickly, though.

Jack, meanwhile, looked uncomfortable. "This is Bemerry. I sort of created it last year after a...party or three. Or four. And I've sort of been using it on occasion to learn more about the Shadow, talk to other spirits...that sort of thing."

"And who is the dame?" Bemerry asked, and suddenly 'his' voice was gruff. It twisted into a shape that looked almost like a face, to stare at her.

"Ruth," Jack said. "Now if you could be along…"

"Had a drink before want to indulge it tastes good you'll like it I swear--" the spirit said rapidly, flashing as it tried to move closer to her.

"No." Jack waved his hand and said, "Move back."

"No fun anymore, Jack. We could be so good together," it purred, its voice female now, but younger.

Miriam stared, somewhere between confused and worried, and all around her she saw a few strange figures stop or slow down.

The head of a man peeked out of one building, almost out of reach, that she knew was a life insurance place, only to pop back out and emerge…

The man's head rested, fat and almost hanging limp, on the body of a great black spider as it slipped down the street, and rats seemed to swarm and gather near one of the houses. The cars slowed down, and there was a whistling sound that came from one of them, briefly.

"Fa-mi-liar," it said, only the last syllable was said like 'liar.' Only it felt like an interpretation, like she was hearing something else and merely thinking it was english.

"No, I've bound more than enough and done more than enough for one lifetime. I don't even know why I haven't found something to do with you--"

"The girl's weird," Bemerry said, and then it slipped past, but not towards Miriam, instead circling. It left behind hints of bright color for just a moment as it moved, on the ground like footprints.

"Weird?"

"I'm hitting her with my--"

"Don't," Jack said, his voice a rumble of anger.

"C'mon, c'mon, you can share, and she can--" it began.

"Begone," Jack said, "We'll talk later."

He stalked away, and Bemerry didn't follow, and Miriam was able to easily keep up with him, now keeping a wary eye for anything else unusual here.

Of course, one had to just begin listing things. The rats that scurried in packs and seemed to run as he approached, the flashes of bright lights in the sky, the way the air smelled thick with smoke at places as they walked down tangled up streets. Some buildings were there and others weren't, and some of the shops seemed filled with goods very different from what she was used to. She licked her dry lips, wishing she'd been able to grab a drink of water before she'd arrived.

Jack seemed nervous, tense, in fact more worried than her, and she was the one who had seen a spider with a human's head wandering around. When they got closer to the Strand, there were men here and there, dressed as carnival barkers, who seemed not to notice them at all as they walked along.

"Uncle, what was that?" she finally asked.

"Not anyone's business. Bemerry is a spirit, and that means it doesn't understand things that normal humans would. They don't--"

A cat rat in between Jack's legs and went right up to Miriam, meowing quietly and snuggling itself against her leg. She stiffened for a moment, and then hesitantly leaned down, "May I--?"

The cat looked normal, after all. Though when she looked down and met its eyes, she saw that they were in fact glowing red.

"It's fine, in fact, it's a familiar. Meadowlark must be about."

"You smell of hope," the cat said, its voice a scratchy growl. She stared, shocked.

"I...smell of hope?"

"Or something like it. I can smell it on you. Cat." It paused, looking up at Miriam, and for some reason Miriam's mind supplied 'she' even though there was no obvious gender to the feline.

"Pet me, pet me."

She blinked and leaned down, running her hand over the cat's soft fur. It was orange-red, a tabby, and yet not at all as mangy as it looked at first glance. Its claws certainly looked sharp, though. She smiled softly, and then saw a woman stepping forward, at the end of the street. As she moved, all of the spirits paused briefly to stare at her, taken aback in some way, before they turned back to their business.

Rats scurried, a pigeon whose beak was red with blood took the chance to flee as fast as it could. The carnival barkers ran back into their shops, with undue haste.

The woman was white, her hair long and almost silvery, going down her back as she strode forward, wearing what looked to be a robe. Her face was lined with age, her eyes dark and almost clouded, but her lips were tugged up into a soft smile that seemed to stretch on forever, and made up for her rather too large nose. In one hand she held a walking staff, and in the other what looked like a bell, though she must have been somehow muffling it.

"Ah, Meadowlark, so good to see you. How goes the work?"

"Unrest," she said, her voice old and wispy as she stepped forward, "Unrest everywhere. Some spirits are on the warpath, down near the stockyards. Where are you taking...whoever this is?"

"Good person," the cat purred, ignoring the conversation."My name's Sunclaw, human. What is yours?"

"You can call me Ruth, I guess."

"Well then, Ruth-I-Guess," the cat said, grinning in a way that felt not just cattish, but almost archetypically feline. "Are you one of the whatsits? Mages?"

"Yes," she said. "And you're a familiar?"

"Something like that, yes," Sunclaw said. "Hopeful human, do you have any milk?"

"This is Ruth, I'm showing her around the Shadow. I was going to take her to Fort Dearborn--" Jack began

Wait, wasn't that burned down and destroyed decades and decades ago? "No, sorry, no milk. If I meet you again in the real wor--"

Sunclaw started to hiss. "Real world? What is with you humans. It's the Shadow and you're the thing casting the shadow, but the shadow isn't fake, is it?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean," Miriam said, blushing, aware of how rude it might have come across.

"Oh, to talk to the Arrows, see the place? Most of them will be gone, but I suppose you could, but if you're showing her around, I could go and talk to her about the Shadow, since I'm a Thyrsus and you…" Meadowlark said.

"Know almost as much as you about spirits?" Jack asked, with a smirk, crossing his arms.

"He does have a point, you know," Sunclaw said, butting into the conversation.

"Still, there are a few things he wouldn't understand about spirit magic that he wouldn't," Meadowlark said gently.

"This might be true. Or we could turn back, if trouble's really going on," Jack said. "If not, we'll be taking a streetcar, because a walk...I'd want my whole cabal here if we were really going on such a brisk walk as to step into a warzone. Do you know what it is?"

"Spirits are angry, and there seems to be the Abyss involved," she said, "We're looking into it. It might be a simple incursion riling spirits up, but there's no such thing as a simple incursion, when it comes to such...beings."

"Of course there isn't," Jack said, turning to Miriam. "What do you say?"

"She's deciding?" Meadowlark asked, her old face wrinkling from certainty to confusion.

"It is her education. Not mine," Jack said, spreading his hands.

What to do?

[] Go with Meadowlark and talk about spirits and see some demonstrations of Spirit and the like.
[] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.
[] Go back. Either way, being in the Shadow presents at least some dangers if there is a crisis, so obviously turning around would be safer, all things being equal.

*****

Spirit Spell--Reaching

4 (Spirit)+??? (Gnosis)+2 (Verge)+3 (Rote Aspect activated)+2 (High Speech)-2 (Small room)-1 (Two hours)=6 sux

Spell automatically because it is a Rote has 5 Reach. But he's gonna grab some more, because there's no chance of Paradox.

Two Reach: Spend on Sensory and Instant Casting
One Reach: Duration to advanced--Paid with the Exceptional Success
One Reach: It's an Iris.
One Reach: Add a Key

Normally would be 6 Paradox dice there, if likely reduced by some factors…

Encounter Rolls:

22, 47, 82

Bemerry Tries Thing: ??? dice= Failure

Perception: 1 sux

Socialize With A Cat: 1 sux

A/N: And thus the plot...does things! Things are happening, and no, a write in of, "Let's totally put the newbie who has no offensive magical powers on the front line of a Shadow problem" is not even remotely close to being halfway to being an option.
 
[X] Go with Meadowlark and talk about spirits and see some demonstrations of Spirit and the like.

Aww, who's a good kittie

Edit: Also spirits are trippy
 
[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.

Baseball time
 
"Still, there are a few things he wouldn't understand about spirit magic that he wouldn't," Meadowlark said gently.
There is either something missing from the sentence, or some words have doubled up?

What are familiars? I guess we have an example to understand what they are broadly, but I am wondering just how much awareness Sunclaw retains back in the 'real world'. And while we are at it, how does one call a 'real world' without implying that Shadow isn't?

[X] Go with Meadowlark and talk about spirits and see some demonstrations of Spirit and the like.

New character, and a Thyrsus at that. Curiosity activate!
 
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I DIDN'T SEE THE UPDATE NOTIFICATION WHY.

Josiah and Jack continue to be favorites among our acquaintances. Hm, Confident/Indulgent and Unflappable/Lazy. Must be soul brothers.
I really like a lot of confident characters. There has been a lot of insecure characters in the media I go for, so I'm underwhelmed by them. Also, it doesn't help that I find the awful jealous character type boring and overrated, and I also attribute that to a core of insecurity ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (oh no, gonna end this here before I go on another rant about shoujo tropes....lol........)

[X] Go with Meadowlark and talk about spirits and see some demonstrations of Spirit and the like.

Bemerry was interesting, and also alarming. I'm glad they failed whatever they were trying to do, but also curious about what exactly. Given that they were something that probably appealed to Uncle's hedonistic side, probably not something good. Also, non-human values, nice.

A GOOD CAT, AN EXCELLENT CAT. PRIME CAT. Get that cat some milk. Though I'm pretty sure adult cats are also kind lactose intolerant, I suppose it may not apply to a familiar? The description of Sunclaw made me want to pet that cat. Again, a G O O D C A T.
 
She frowned, and stared at a car as it sped past, and then when she realized it she felt sick. What she'd thought was black metal instead looked almost like...skin? Skin stretched tight as a drum over the body of an automobile.

"Pride. Pride of ownership combining with the cars," he said, quietly, "So they often have names like Fast-Black, or--"

Huh. Pride is skin? So like, having skin in something, a sense of an attachment to it?

"No fun anymore, Jack. We could be so good together," it purred, its voice female now, but younger.

Bemerry is from a party, so... maybe memories of people who were there, or something? Or just the idea of people at a party and maybe not that specific one.

[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.

Meadowlark seems nice, but we don't have the lay of the land yet, and a one on one tutoring thing is a bit more personal than just asking about a faction. We don't know enough about her to really associate like that, in my opinion.

Also, her cat is too nice, and cats who are nice are usually up to something.
 
Huh. Pride is skin? So like, having skin in something, a sense of an attachment to it?



Bemerry is from a party, so... maybe memories of people who were there, or something? Or just the idea of people at a party and maybe not that specific one.

[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.

Meadowlark seems nice, but we don't have the lay of the land yet, and a one on one tutoring thing is a bit more personal than just asking about a faction. We don't know enough about her to really associate like that, in my opinion.

Also, her cat is too nice, and cats who are nice are usually up to something.

That, and identification. Like, they identify themselves with their cars, and the people it's talking about in this particular case are black people for whom a car is a big status symbol. So the cars have 'black skin' stretched over the metal, as it were. Spirits are weird. :p
 
[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.
 
[X] Go with Meadowlark and talk about spirits and see some demonstrations of Spirit and the like.
 
[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.
 
[X] Go via the Streetcars to Fort Dearborn to meet with whatever skeleton crew of Adamantine Arrows are there, and their spirits that guard the location that shouldn't exist at all.

What could possibly go wrong?
 
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