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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[X] Watch spirits in the ballpark. And more than that, watch her uncle influence spirits in order to demonstrate their uses on people. But will he be the only one there with an agenda?

Man we got some nice rolls there.
It sounds like he has some mage politics involved here as well, which I'd love to see
 
[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?
 
"Yes, that is true," Meadowlark said. "Be wary about what is and isn't a spirit. Even the weakest spirit can be dangerous."
How do we know what is and isn't a spirit? Experience? Magic vision?
"You could make it so that a person was impossible to gain essence from. If you did it carefully enough, suddenly the wrong sorts of spirits are starving unless they change, unless they start eating things that change them. Hopefully not for the worse. And spirits like anything can be made to sleep."
Not sure what she means. Are the capable of influencing Shadow by making people/their essense 'ineadible' to wrong kinds of spirits? Are they capable of doing it en masse? Otherwise spirits would just feed off the 'unprotected' people without really changing anything.
"I don't doubt it," Meadowlark said, "It isn't human, and Hopemore has learned only what people can teach it.[1] I don't know you, but I do know that hopes such as that, ambitions such as that...their dark sides do not register with a being like that."
Okay, I will freely admit that I have not the slightest clue what she is talking about here.

What did that roll affect?

I am still mostly interested in the Spirits, so there.

[x] Watch spirits in the ballpark. And more than that, watch her uncle influence spirits in order to demonstrate their uses on people. But will he be the only one there with an agenda?
 
How do we know what is and isn't a spirit? Experience? Magic vision?

Not sure what she means. Are the capable of influencing Shadow by making people/their essense 'ineadible' to wrong kinds of spirits? Are they capable of doing it en masse? Otherwise spirits would just feed off the 'unprotected' people without really changing anything.

Okay, I will freely admit that I have not the slightest clue what she is talking about here.


What did that roll affect?

I am still mostly interested in the Spirits, so there.
[x] Watch spirits in the ballpark. And more than that, watch her uncle influence spirits in order to demonstrate their uses on people. But will he be the only one there with an agenda?

The way the spirit judges good and evil isn't the way humans would, and it doesn't think about a lot of things you should think about, morally, when you're considering grand ambitions like that, or the emotions that might *cause* them. All it sees is that the hopes are "unselfish" on the surface of it, and it goes from there to say that this makes them good and therefore it doesn't peck you for a little damage.
 
[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?

No idea what this does, so voting to poke it.
 
What did that roll affect?
I'm guessing meeting Hopemore, and not huge spider spirit monster ready to bite our head off.

[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?
Dream stuff!
 
Oh. I thought it was something pre-planned, since The Laurent mentioned the Hope's test as a mage tradition, but I guess a chance meeting is more plausible.
 
[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?

She already has dots in mind with it being her favored skill, and apparently has a merit that makes it even easier so I'll go with this.
 
The way the spirit judges good and evil isn't the way humans would, and it doesn't think about a lot of things you should think about, morally, when you're considering grand ambitions like that, or the emotions that might *cause* them. All it sees is that the hopes are "unselfish" on the surface of it, and it goes from there to say that this makes them good and therefore it doesn't peck you for a little damage.
Basically they're kind of simpleminded. Selfless Hope can include racial cleansing. Selfish Hope can be an aspiration to be a doctor so you can get out of the slums.
It's not really smart in the human way, and as a spirit of emotions, it can only see what YOU really feel about said emotion.
 
[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?
 
Basically they're kind of simpleminded. Selfless Hope can include racial cleansing. Selfish Hope can be an aspiration to be a doctor so you can get out of the slums.
It's not really smart in the human way, and as a spirit of emotions, it can only see what YOU really feel about said emotion.

Mechanically, you take 1B for every 'selfish hope' you have (as it pecks you. If you run, obviously, it stops and you get nothing). And as long as you're still conscious at the end the first time you confront them, you get the 1/5th XP.

Vote closes tonight.

Edit: Another thing is, a source is a source. A spirit of happiness can feed on someone happy that their worst enemy died in a 'mysterious' car crash just as it can feed on the happiness someone hears at hearing that their loved one made it through the surgery and is going to be just fine. Hence, why one of the life-cycle stories in the Book of Spirits is a girl who was accepted to college, she felt overwhelming joy to get out of this shithole, it created a weak spirit that ate enough spirits to get strong, but then wanted to feed more, so it tried to convince her (influence) to steal alcohol. She did, got drunk, and bam! Happiness!

And over time that tainted it until it was some sort of spirit of narcotic joy or whatever, the girl never went to college, and eventually it just outright possessed her as she stumbled around in a narcotic haze.
 
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[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?

The ball game would be cool, but ultimately I'm more interested in Mastigos brain stuff.
 
Vote Tally : The Roaring Age (nWoD) | Page 48 | Sufficient Velocity
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[X] Learn to access the inner realms of her mind. Her Oneiros, as he will soon teach her to call it. But in one's own mind, what will she find?
No. of Votes: 18

[X] Watch spirits in the ballpark. And more than that, watch her uncle influence spirits in order to demonstrate their uses on people. But will he be the only one there with an agenda?
No. of Votes: 2

Total No. of Voters: 20
 
Page 12: A Journey Inward, Part 1
Page 12: A Journey Inward, Part 1

"What is this Astral Realm?" Miriam asked.

Her uncle coughed, glancing around. "It's more like realms. From your dreams to your mind to what Jung might call the collective unconscious--"

"The collective unconscious?" Miriam asked. She frowned, trying to commit new ideas to her mind.

"All humans, and in some ways all things, dream and have ideas. The Astral is the realm of ideas. You can find, in the unconscious, people's visions of what God is like, or what a city is, about what the meaning of democracy is and about what waits for you after your idea. Ideas alone, shared among many people. Meanwhile, the Oneiros, as it is called, is merely your mind. In it you can find your memories, hopes, dreams, emotions." He shrugged. "It's not a place that someone else should snoop around unless they have a good reason."

"And you can learn about someone that way?" Miriam asked, frowning. She imagined some unscrupulous person digging around in someone's memories, somehow, to get some piece of information. She imagined it rather differently than she knew it would be. She imagined someone reaching into a person's head, hand sinking right in as if the other person's head was water. Without a ripple.

"Yes, you can. You can also learn about yourself. It's something I have some talent for, though not quite your natural affinity for it. I can also summon the figments of my imagination to fight for me." Uncle Jack chuckled, "And talk to them, for that matter. Beings from the Astral can be summoned here, but at your level of skill...it's best to just stick to visiting them, for a while."

"What happens if you pull something out of the Astral?" Miriam asked, having a sudden thought.

"It's gone."

"Wait, then if you went into your mind and pulled out your anger?" Miriam began, trying to wrap her head around the rather stunning implications. It seemed impossible, but she had already made up her mind to not be credulous, but to accept that the seemingly impossible could happen with startling regularity where magic was involved.

"You'd no longer be able to feel angry. And you'd have a representation of your anger under your control. It might have strength, or strange powers. It could make other people angry, or perhaps possess peoiple to lash out at, say, umpires that make bad calls."

"And, can you dismiss it?"

"Yes, and then you can feel anger again. That's why the collective unconscious, the Temenos, is often a safer place to draw from. But…" Uncle Jack smiled and leaned in. "Sometimes I've drawn out my own fear and told it to go somewhere else, because I was too busy to be scared. You can do a lot with goetic beings."

"Goetic?" she asked, considering it. "Sounds somewhat greek?" She didn't know any languages other than English, but she'd seen enough of Greek and Latin to sort of have a feel for how their words sounded.

"It's a corruption of a Greek word for magic-users, among other things. Strange how the words we use enter from such differing places," Jack said. "Either way, the first step is to meditate into the Astral. That is to say, you must clear your mind, and in your case, you must have a ceremony. A means that focuses you and represents your journey."

"Represents my journey into my mind?"

"Yes. Such as a ritual. Perhaps a prayer, or it could be a set of movements, or even just something you imagine in your head," Jack said, "It takes time to enter the right state."

"Are you going to tell me anything else?" she asked.

"I want to see if you can do it on your own. Once you're in your own mind, I'll tell you more about this whole process," he said, "I'll have to leave to find somewhere I can meditate from. I'm not you, after all."

"What if I didn't give permission to look in my mind?" Miriam asked, flushing slightly. Her mind: what would he see in there?

"Then I'd listen. Are you refusing permission?" Jack asked, tilting his head as he watched her.

Miriam shook her head and moved to the bible by her bed and knelt, opening it up. "Set your mind on things that are above," she whispered, "Not things that are on earth."

"Continue chanting like that. Or...flipping through the book. Close your eyes if that helps. Let the world drift away. Focus on it. Don't think."

She repeated the words, and the second time they felt smoother, as if they were rounded of their edges. She thought about how a person concentrated, and took a deep breath before repeating it. The bible was a comforting presence in her hand, and being on her knees like this was not that much of a bother once she'd started to focus.

"Set your mind…"

Time passed with impossible slowness, or perhaps with unmeasurable speed, as she repeated the words, trying at once to mean them and yet not linger on them specifically. She felt warm, and then she felt nothing at all, and yet she kept on repeating the words. Again and again they echoed through her thoughts.

She discarded everything that was not God. This was...this was strange and she felt herself slipping under, and yet didn't feel anything at all. It was a sort of warmth, and then a sort of chill, and she shivered but did not let it stop her. She kept on repeating the words, and at last she felt something change.

A breeze blew past her skin, and she felt her bones almost ache with the coldness. And then she opened her eyes to see that she was on a flat, level plane, stretching endlessly in all directions. She was kneeling on a tiled floor, mostly black, but with a long line of white tiles stretching straight ahead. Above was nothing more than blackness.

Darkness on all sides as she uncertainly rose to her feet. Tired, suddenly. She stepped forward, and then again, her steps echoing in the empty vastness of this space. Was this her mind?

She wondered how she'd even know. He hadn't told her anything, really, about what she'd find. She had to assume it was safe, though...if she did get hurt here, what would happen? It wasn't her body, was it?

But that didn't mean anything. Minds were hurt all the time. Would it be a head injury if she got--

It wasn't worth it to worry, she thought, standing and walking ahead. The path was long, and soon it began to wind as she walked ahead. Until, a minute into it, she saw what looked like a light in the distance. Bright, and shining, shimmering red-green. She turned off the path to follow it, and then follow it some more.

She frowned, trying to think. Did it symbolize something, or?

Then there was another light, blue and bright like the sky on a clear day, and she turned to go after this one two, trying to consider it. Was each light a thought? Was she supposed to catch them?

She wandered for some time, aware after a certain point that each light flickered away as she neared it, and yet sure that if she just moved fast enough she could catch it. So she started running, cursing her skirts, and yet they still disappeared, until she finally stopped and realized something.

"Will O' The Wisps," she muttered, thinking of things she'd heard of before, that Virginia had mentioned in passing. This was a distraction, she thought, moving back to the white path, and following it.

A yellow light flashed right next to her head, but she ignored it, continuing forward until at last she came to a door. She tugged on the door, and it rattled, the doorknob even turning, but it didn't open.

She frowned, stymied and confused, standing there for what felt like minutes, until she stretched her hand out and thought. This was her mind, right? Even if it didn't look anything like what she imagined it'd be.

Her mind, her rules. And so she focused on the light. Blue and red-green and white and black, dozens and dozens of lights, and she imagined them all coming here. And when she opened her eyes, they drifted in front of her.

She pointed at the door, and each of them flew into it, again and again and again as the door glowed, brighter and brighter, a rainbow of colors.

And then there was no door at all, just an incredibly bright door-shape in the world.

And Miriam stepped through.

*****

Without even blinking, she was transported. She stood before a huge crowd, leaning over a pulpit, in a massive, high-roofed church. Glancing up, she couldn't even see the top of it, though there was light coming in from there. She glanced down at herself, and saw she was adorned in white robes. Like some clergy wore, sometimes.

She frowned, uncertainly, and looked over the crowd. It was odd, she thought, gripping the pulpit, almost feeling words want to come out of her mouth. They looked familiar, but she only recognized a few of the hundred or so dark-skinned faces. And they were all chattering, babbling almost endlessly.

"What trick is this?" A lean-faced man demanded, "That he doesn't even explain--"

"I did it I did it!" another yelled.

""He is testing us," a well-dressed woman muttered.

"All is dust before god and--"

"Hey, what is this and what is that and what is--" a young boy shouted out, swaying in his seat, eyes wide.

Each voice overlapped with each other, and the church was large enough to have an echo. There were many empty pews.

But the babble of voices had to contend with a high, loud plainsong in a language she couldn't understand. It was coming from the wall to the left, a mural of some sort. The last supper, she realized, the famous one.

It sounded like a choir, a very, very well trained one, and MIriam took a breath, stunned at how beautiful it sounded, and breathing in incense. She coughed for a moment, and suddenly she could smell oil, almost. She glanced down, and at her hands on the dark wooden pulpit wasn't a bible, but a large, red book that said. "Wendell Phillips Yearbook."

There was no such book in the real world, but--

The babble itself seemed to rise and fall, though the music was steady, and the place felt filled with something more powerful than words. The doors to the exit were flung open, letting in the bright light of noon, and when the babbling of the congregation was at a low ebb she could just barely hear laughter ,and the occasional beautiful, familiar sound of a bat meeting a ball. There was a satisfying crack that she'd always loved.

And to conclude the tour of the strange church, to her right there was a large baptismal font that seemed to be filled with a dark red liquid that almost looked like blood, bubbling softly as Miriam tried to figure out what was going on. This was her mind, but what did that even mean?

Where does Miriam Go/What Does She do? (Choose 1)

[] Check out the baptismal Font.
[] Preach to those listening here.
[] Go to the mural to check out the choir…
[] Open up the Yearbook.
[] It sounds like there's a game outside!

*****
Talking: 2 (Presence)+3 (Uncle)=1 success

Learning About Dreaming: 4 (Intellect)-1 (Obscure)=1 sux

Designing A 'Oblation?': 4 (Int)+3 (Preacher's Daughter)=1 sux, wow, not much.

Meditating Into the Astral: 4 (Resolve)+2 (Composure)-1 (Unfamiliar)=4 sux, so it's not an exceptional. So this is going to take an hour.

Willpower ⅚

The Trial of Curiosity: 4 (Resolve)+2 (Composure)-3 (Curiosity)=Failure
Trial 2: 3=failure
Trial 3 (Thirty minutes have passed now, on top of the hour)=2 sux, and you're in the Oneiros.

A/N: Sorry this is so short, but...well, at least I got it out fast? Hope it's okay.
 
Hmm, I don't have my books with me, and never really read a lot on the Mage mindscape materials...but that's never stopped me from wildly speculating before... :p

She discarded everything that was not God. This was...this was strange and she felt herself slipping under, and yet didn't feel anything at all. It was a sort of warmth, and then a sort of chill, and she shivered but did not let it stop her. She kept on repeating the words, and at last she felt something change.

A breeze blew past her skin, and she felt her bones almost ache with the coldness. And then she opened her eyes to see that she was on a flat, level plane, stretching endlessly in all directions. She was kneeling on a tiled floor, mostly black, but with a long line of white tiles stretching straight ahead. Above was nothing more than blackness.
White would be her Faith then guiding her.
Black her Self(since she seems to identify herself a lot by the color of her skin), and it's the ground below

Until, a minute into it, she saw what looked like a light in the distance. Bright, and shining, shimmering red-green. She turned off the path to follow it, and then follow it some more.
Her athletic side. Love of sports and more.
Then there was another light, blue and bright like the sky on a clear day, and she turned to go after this one two, trying to consider it. Was each light a thought? Was she supposed to catch them?
Her curiosity?
A yellow light flashed right next to her head, but she ignored it, continuing forward until at last she came to a door. She tugged on the door, and it rattled, the doorknob even turning, but it didn't open.
Her intellect?

"What trick is this?" A lean-faced man demanded, "That he doesn't even explain--"

"I did it I did it!" another yelled.

""He is testing us," a well-dressed woman muttered.

"All is dust before god and--"

"Hey, what is this and what is that and what is--" a young boy shouted out, swaying in his seat, eyes wide.
All of these are her thoughts right now.
The student, excitement, reason, faith and curiosity.

[] Check out the baptismal Font.

???
Power, possibly her manifest willpower.

[] Preach to those listening here.

Talking to herself, changing her mind?

[] Go to the mural to check out the choir…

This should be the prayer she was using to meditate on earlier. What's used to clear the thoughts.
A spell, then.

[] Open up the Yearbook.

Memories?

[] It sounds like there's a game outside!

And there's the sporty side again wanting her to go do stuff.
 
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