The Roaring Age (nWoD)

The Laurent · Dec 22, 2016

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.

Broken25 · Mar 8, 2017

@Scia, you forgot to fill the [].

The Laurent · Mar 8, 2017

Update might take a while. Sunday or Monday, most likely.

The Laurent · Mar 10, 2017

Also, apologies for the long wait, the one that's still ongoing.

The Laurent · Mar 12, 2017

Update tomorrow. Procedure tomorrow. Disappointment at not writing anything today.

NemoMarx · Mar 12, 2017

You've been updating consistently at a pace of like, once every 3-4 days for a while. Don't sweat a break in that, considering how many plates you're already spinning.

The Laurent · Mar 12, 2017

Also, btw, @Andelevion , once she gets more Path tools/something special to help distinguish her even more, I might want to order/commission a picture or something. Since I know you're here.

*waves*

But yeah:

NemoMarx said:
You've been updating consistently at a pace of like, once every 3-4 days for a while. Don't sweat a break in that, considering how many plates you're already spinning.

I was hoping that I'd make a lot of progress on Skitter Studies, but the sugar overdose, lack of food, and just plain laziness sorta got me down.

Andelevion · Mar 12, 2017

The Laurent said:
Also, btw, @Andelevion , once she gets more Path tools/something special to help distinguish her even more, I might want to order/commission a picture or something. Since I know you're here.

*waves*

But yeah:

Omg I gotchu. Good thing this is a bit later though cause I'm dying of overwork at school right now.

The Laurent · Mar 12, 2017

Andelevion said:
Omg I gotchu. Good thing this is a bit later though cause I'm dying of overwork at school right now.

She needs a Dedicated Magical Tool first, for one. You can't be on a ~~magical girl team~~ cabal without one, at least not if you want to be able to do cool poses.

NemoMarx · Mar 12, 2017

The Laurent said:
She needs a Dedicated Magical Tool first, for one. You can't be on a ~~magical girl team~~ cabal without one, at least not if you want to be able to do cool poses.

You clearly just aren't posing hard enough! If you do like a hand to hand style, you can get away with doing a pose based on that and fitting into a meguca team pretty well.

Buttt, the audience expects you to have a more overdesigned outfit then, to make up for the lack of an overcomplicated gunblade or something.

The Laurent · Mar 12, 2017

NemoMarx said:
You clearly just aren't posing hard enough! If you do like a hand to hand style, you can get away with doing a pose based on that and fitting into a meguca team pretty well.

Buttt, the audience expects you to have a more overdesigned outfit then, to make up for the lack of an overcomplicated gunblade or something.

You seem to know a lot about this. Did you used to be a magical girl? What's the pay like?

The Laurent · Mar 13, 2017

Page 21: Lessons In The Strange House

The one she knew as Hone opened the door, his face as blank as a slate as he took them in. Though he wasn't tall, he loomed in a way that could make people nervous. Especially, she'd noted, having seen other people like him, white people. And he didn't seem to be trying to look any less imposing. His eyes, though, they were moving left and right and up and down in a rapid, hard to follow pattern, and only after a dozen moments of this did a smile begin to slip onto his face, polite and thoughtful. "You're clean."

"Course I am, Hone. Am I never not clean?"

"You've come in here before quite unclean," Hone said, drolly, glancing over at Miriam. "Drunk."

Jack shook his head, his face darkening with a blush, but he merely said, "And you haven't drunk?"

"Not in a year, no," Hone pointed out, nodding to Miriam as if she had something to do with it. His tone was dire, as if the fate of the republic rested on each word, but she thought that perhaps that was just his way, and he certainly didn't seem, despite the tone, to be in a bad mood.

"Either way, is everything else here?" Jack asked.

"Yes. You're late, Shadow." Hone paused and reached up to tip his hat for Miriam. "Afternoon, Ruth, nice to see you in the flesh.". He was dressed well, if not as well as Jack, and his bowler hat certainly looked smart.

She curtsied in reply, and then stuck out a hand to shake his, looking him over, curious, but not so curious as to use her magic to test what he was like. A solid handshake would tell something already, she thought, looking up at the stairs leading up and down. Stairs right by the door, and then a hallway leading towards the main part, a strange design choice, she thought. There wasn't really a foyer, or an entry place, and if the living room was around here, it was far enough back from the front for...what reason?

She wasn't sure.

He shook it firmly, and then nodded, turning.

"She'll want to go out and see the Hallow," Jack said, as they followed him into the house, closing and locking the door behind them. The hallway seemed to branch off into what looked like a small study, and another hallway. From that hallway, she could hear the sounds of discussion. The floors were wood, the walls were bare of paint, though there were a few photographs hanging here and there, never of anyone she knew, or anyone in the cabal from what she could tell.

On she went, until they came to a door that opened to the back. A whole cluster of trees, some of them the sort that might bear a little fruit, all startlingly healthy look. City girl or no, staring at them gave her the urge to climb them, or run around them, use them as a base for tag, or...something.

Hone opened the door, and gestured for her to step out.

It smelled of pollen, and she glanced back to see that her uncle wasn't going out with her. So she stepped forward again, warding the sunshine with her hand, looking this way and that, wondering what a Hallow--

Oh, there it was. She felt it, as much as she saw it. Felt not dimensions, but presence. Saw it, too, but almost as an after-effect. Beyond the small cluster of trees was a larger one, that bore no fruit at all. Massive, scarred with lightning on one side, and yet growing healthy towards the sky, its leaves the sort of green that made her think of money. And beneath it was Wat, tall and muscular and, in this case, for whatever reason, lacking a shirt.

She wondered why, a little confused. Certainly, he had an impressive physique, as he ran through what looked like moves of a dance, or something like that? She wasn't sure. He was breathing in and out, and she stepped forward, afraid of disturbing him. This felt as if it was ritualistic, or at least planned.

Yet he noticed her immediately, "Oh! You're here, Ruth. This isn't the Hallow. You think it is, but if you look more closely, behind it is the real Hallow." He gestured, and she walked around the tree to see a bush. An ordinary, plain look bush, though it looked surprisingly hearty, and when she touched it, she felt a short shock, a little like...well, like the lightning that had once hit the tree.

"Oh," she said, frowning, "Are you using magic to mislead, or is it just that people expect a tree?" Certainly, having looked at all these trees, it made sense that the Hallow would be centered in one, whatever it was and however it was created.

"Expectation." Wat grinned and wandered over to her, "It's the best weapon we have." He was huge, and while she was tall for a girl her age, that didn't keep him from towering over her. She saw that his shirt was wadded up next to the bush, and in the heat, he was starting to sweat. She'd seen men go without their shirts when doing heavy labor, and perhaps that was what he was doing?

"What do you do to gain...mana from a hallow?" she asked, still trying to get used to the strange new terminology.

"You have to do a ritual of some sort. You could get down on your knees next to it and pray. Or you could do a ritual dance. Y'ken do any number of things," Wat said, voice slipping back towards in the slow butter accent that she associated with the south, even though Virginia told her that it was actually a bunch of different accents.

"Should I do it now? How long does it take?"

"An hour. You can't just draw it like well water. It's sacred, an hour is the least you can give it. Course, a strong enough Obrimos could just make one if they were willing to push and work at it, but this, this one is natural. What matters is focus, and meditation, and that it's gonna take time, but it's worth it for what it gives you. Can only give so much in a day, though. This one still has a little left for today, don't want to take too much or you'll run it down."

"Alright," Miriam said, frowning thoughtfully, deciding that she would need to really focus for this, then. She wasn't going to make a mistake, and she knew that all sorts of good things took time.

"First, though, are you safe? You know if anybody been following you?" Wat asked.

"Why? Do you think someone is?" Miriam said, biting her lip. She had cause to be afraid, she thought, after what she'd seen that Mages could do to other people.

"Never know with the Seers. They ain't anyone to mess around with." Wat spit on the ground and then stretched, "They can be beat for a while, but they have their tentacles into everythin'. The unions are theirs, the bosses are theirs. The Democrats and the Republicans, to one extent or another. Powerful slaves, the kind that report on the doin's of anyone trying to escape the plantation."

"What are the Seers?" she asked, frowning. It was certainly a vivid metaphor, and she could picture it, picture how it could be true. But if so, then who were the masters.

"Seers of the Throne. They're a bunch of orders that believe all sorts of crazy things, but what matters is that they say, and they have some proof, sometimes, that they work for these beings called the Exarchs, that are supposed to rule the whole world, keep it enslaved and keep as many people from Awakening or trying to get rid of them as possible. I've seen enough that there's somethin' up there, for sure, and it's something that needs to be done away with. But they're powerful, they control the plantation, and the Seers get rich and tear people apart. Start riots…"

He frowned, and again his voice slipped back down away from the plain northern accent that he'd been using, though it felt oddly trustworthy, this strange accent, in a way that wasn't supernatural, or at least didn't show in his nimbus. "Wars. Make Protestants and Catholics go a'killin' each other so that they don't ever pay attention to what they're doing up in the Supernal, tryin' to choke off the last bits of truth there is. They're Mages who'd rather be rich slaves than poor rebels hidin' away and planning against the master."

That, that made her stomach churn. "They're powerful?"

"Powerful enough to be everyone, but not powerful enough to stomp us out. We survive, y'know? We rise up, no matter what they throw at us, because we have the strength of ten--"

"Because your hearts are pure?" Miriam asked, smiling despite her sinking heart. It sounded dangerous, it sounded insane. "How do the Exarchs...do they talk to them?"

"Hear visions, sometimes. See things, they say. Most of the time they just do what benefits them, and say it's the will of the Exarchs. Least, that's how I see it." Wat spat on the ground, an angry, violent gesture.

But she felt the meaning behind it, and if he was right, then he was right to do that. Right to fight it. She wasn't someone who could imagine using violence, but if they really did control as much, then surely they fought in all sorts of ways. "So, why were...were they behind the Thread-Shearers?" She thought about it, tried to think in a way she wasn't used to, in a way that saw people as objects, in a way she imagined a plantation master would. "Was it because destinies are dangerous, too capable of shaking things up, changing things?"

"You got it right on," Wat said, stretching a little and glancing around, "They want to take away everything that makes people more than just animals. They want to beat us, they want to break us. Got captured by a Seer once, during the war. Not even that long." He turned, and for the first time she saw that his back was a knot of scars. They seemed to form whirls and eddies, like looking at a river closer up, but then there were knots and breaks, places where the flesh seemed to have knit almost-wrong. "He tried to make me a slave, but we done with that forever. Never again."

"Is it…" Miriam hesitated, considered her question, and then reformulated it. "Is there a lot of racism among Mages?"

"Not sure it was racism, so much as just being the sort of people who like hurting others." He touched his back, seemingly amused at the look on her face. "Some are racist, but there's Negro Seers like everything else. People want power, and among Mages, y'gotta learn not to look at the outside. You're weaker than me, but in a decade, if you're still around, you'll be a Mage worth knowing, and you might be twenty years younger, and not white and not a man, but you'd still be better, at magic at least, than the banker who recently Awakened 'cause he was worrying about money so much. Magic's the great leveler. Even racists, they're like...Dancing Shadow said it once, his first Master, the one that got him in the Silver Ladder before he knew about everything else, he said, and I remember this because it's pretty stark, right? The sort of thing that calls for revolution, that calls for a change in the world."

She listened, thinking about what her uncle had said. He'd not wanted her to get pushed into an order without knowing all of them first. And this master, he'd done that. She knew he had to mean master as in master-and-apprentice. The first person to teach him the ropes, and he'd said something enough to make Jack remember it? To make it worth sharing?

"He said: 'Ain't no negroes once you're Awakened.'"

She winced at the word, so full of bile, even in a throat that was clearly just quoting another throat. "Which means that the people who hadn't become Mages…?"

"Yep. They were inferior. Sharecroppers. Not like Shadow. He left when he could, went up north because he had family and friends and he didn't like that sort of attitude towards sleepers. Most of the Ladder isn't like that, it's against a lot of what they believe, or try to believe, but some of them can be nasty, especially down south. Some of everyone can be nasty, but they learn not to do it to anyone's face. Polite society, but an armed one too. You saw what we did to that creation of the Shearers?"

"I did," Miriam admitted. Thinking about it made her a little sick. They'd devastated it. But it had deserved it, and she had to guess that he knew what to say to get her on the right side. But nothing she'd seen or heard about the Seers, including the very first thing, about the riots in '19, gave her any faith that they were any better than anyone was saying.

"It was the right thing. It's the only thing you can do, with a lot of them. Now, Seers have factions and groups and so on, worshipping different Exarchs or doing different things with themselves. Most of them are young compared to the Orders, though age doesn't mean much." Wat smiled, "What matters is that we've put them on the rope. As many Seers as we've driven out and killed, we know they're weaker than they used to be...but even then, that doesn't mean they don't have a bite."

"How many of them are there?" Miriam asked, "You talked as if they controlled the world."

"They do, I suppose, just for having the Exarchs on their side. But, I dunno, they keep secret, but we can tell things about them. For instance, we've just about torn apart the start of a network, and now we know how they were keeping on, all secret-like." He shook his head, stepping over to the tree, "But now that they've lost the network, if I were them, I'd scramble. Hide, cause we're going to come in and cause them trouble."

"So, we've hurt them?" Miriam asked.

"Well, we captured one potential recruit, another killed himself, so that's down two, and it had to have taken an awfully long time to get everything in place. Takes years to build a network, but like I'm sure you've been told, it doesn't take long to ruin a lot of hard work. Then it all comes crashing down. Think on that, think about it, all that work to create, all that work to make something, whether it's bad or good, and yet any idiot with a wrench can gum up the works. It's the way things are, but it doesn't have to be that way," Wat said, "People can change and so can the world."

"I believe that too," Miriam said.

"Believin' ain't anything. It's knowing," Wat said, "Knowing deeper than deep. It's a conversion experience, y'know?"

Miriam had never gone through one, but she heard stories about them. It was a popular story to tell, the moment Jesus knocked on the door and the moment you let them in, but she'd not had that. She'd believed and known and all of that from the start. Came with her father, and her mother. "Maybe," she said.

"Either way, you haven't seen that much magic, have you? Just heard about it? Haven't done much? Shadow's being awfully careful about you."

"A little caution doesn't hurt," she said, but while she meant the words, that didn't mean she wasn't eager to see more and do more. Because magic was far too interesting to just leave lying around. But she knew that as dangerous as paradox was, to herself and others, she couldn't just leap into it.

"Well, here's a place where you can see a little caution," he said, gesturing around, "No sleepers in sight. So…"

She saw it, a sort of flash, a sheen across his form for a moment, and then he held up a scaled hand. Dark green scales, running up and down one arm, but nowhere else. They looked oddly, bizarrely natural. As if they were always meant to be there.

"Weaving?" she asked, frowning, thinking of all one could do, "Giving yourself the features of an animal?"

"Claws. Jaws. Legs like a grasshopper, writ large," Wat said, gesturing again. "Gills and scales. If you know animals, I'm sure you could imagine even more."

She nodded, thinking about it. All sorts of animals had all sorts of useful traits. A dog had a nose that could smell everything, she could change her vocal cords, she thought, if she wanted to make birdsong, for whatever reason. And she could probably give an animal, if she wanted, the features of another. Or herself a tail for balance, or as an extra grip.

She stared at the scales, and then at his other hand, where the sheen moved up, and suddenly there were the claws. Long, sharp and thin. The scales retreated after another few moments, but the claws clung on, and she was surprised, again, at how natural they looked. It didn't look grotesque on him, and she had to assume that it could.

Miriam frowned, nodding to herself, "That's very impressive. Is that something I could learn to do?"

"With time and effort, yes," Wat said, "Next thing, I'll need to get behind a tree for, because if I'm going to turn into, say, a wolf, I'll need to take off my clothes, briefly." He paused, and for a moment she saw embarrassment, "Sorry if I discomforted you with the whole 'no shirt' thing, I was in the middle of something, and didn't want to get distracted."

"It's fine," she said. A little baffled, in a way. Not at his embarrassment, but at the possibility of taking offense. Admittedly, if a man off the street took off his shirt in front of her, she'd think him a drunken lout, but she'd assumed that he had a reason for it, and it hadn't really elicited that much attention, all things considered.

"Well, right then. Be right back." He hurried behind a tree, and she listened to him undress.

Certainly, he was far faster at it than a woman would be, with the stockings and the skirt and the blouse and the bra, all of the this-and-that of clothing. It was well under a minute that a large, shaggy wolf stepped out from behind the tree. She hesitated, crushing the small twinge of doubt and fear that she felt. It was more a matter of instinct. Humans feared wolves, and probably for good reasons, she thought. Though as a city girl, who'd never seen a wolf up close, she had to admit her first thought had to do with dogs.

And of course, this was Wat, a member of her uncle's cabal, not a wild animal. He was a big man, and a big wolf for that matter. Not unusually large, as far as she could guess, but certainly the kind of wolf that, were it among its fellows, would strut and growl and lead.

She stepped forward, holding out a hand, and saw the sheen of power, shivering up him, and then heard words in her head. 'Any form that can be imagined can be gained. Including those of birds in fight. It's a joy, though there are still instincts. One wears the flesh, and the flesh wears you back.

' She hesitated for a second, surprised at the words, and at the voice. But this was magic, and more than that, this was mind magic. This was something she could do, eventually. Send thoughts to other people, communicate with them with a closed mouth.

The she stepped forward, and the wolf licked her palm, like it was any ordinary dog. The tongue too, felt familiar, and she patted him on the head, smiling a little. The smile kept on growing, growing beyond its bounds, because this was really something. She loved animals, liked taking care of them, even if she'd never really had a pet long term. Nurse a cat into health, and then give her away to someone else. That sort of pattern. There had not been much need of a pet, and so she'd never really gotten one for a long time, for more than a little, while seeing where it should go.

So she allowed herself to enjoy the strange moment. Wind singing through the breeze, trees swaying, and her hand running over the fur on the head of a wolf. A wolf that was in fact a man. 'Try it now. The oblation. Whatever helps you meditate.'

She moved towards the bush, and he followed, and then she kneeled and he lay down next to her, like a dog on a rug. She remembered when she was little, eight or nine, and she'd had a stray for a while, and the mutt would roll up against her for warmth on the ground, and she'd smile and put away the book so it didn't get dog hair on it.

She closed her eyes, and began to pray. She ran through it again and again, and then reached a hand out to stroke his belly, absently. And she got into the rhythm, got into it until she could feel the coolness coming from the bush. Until she could feel only what she needed to feel, her prayers trailing off for something deeper than prayer. The difference between believing and knowing, perhaps, the way that thoughts weren't needed.

She knew that time passed, and not a little time, but how long didn't really matter that much. And so eventually, in the fullness of time, she felt some of that coolness flow into her, filling her as she let out a long, satisfied sigh, her thoughts coming back at all once. Her stockings were no doubt dirty from kneeling in the dust, and when she opened her eyes, Wat was gone. She stood up slowly, looking around.

She blinked as if waking from a dream, and then, somewhat disheveled, Wat stepped out from behind a tree. "And that, that was getting mana from a Hallow. It's just about tapped for today. Any day you don't use it, it builds up what we call tass. Solid mana. Berries in the bush, usually, or sometimes other forms. There's more to it, a lot more to it, even, but that's about it. Most hallows are owned by someone, so you'll have to ask permission to use them. Unless you wanna try poaching."

He gestured towards the door, "They're probably done talking about the Astral work, which means we're moving into the part where I can do more."

"What does the cabal do?" she asked.

"This and that. Work with spirits and the Temeros, helping sleepers and fighting the good fight," he said, and she knew that he was definitely being vague with the specifics. Because she wouldn't understand them, or because she wouldn't like them? Or because it was something she didn't need to know?

She stepped into the hallway, just as she saw a few others, including her uncle, step out of the room. "So, that's about that. We should," Civitas said, the older man's voice quite formal, "Convene on the matter within the next week to see how it is going. Ah, Wat, and...Ruth, was it?"

He turned to look at her, and there was that same feeling of scrutiny with Hone, as she glanced over at him, and Jack, and Aerie. The only person not there was Coniunctio, or at least he was not standing with the rest of them.

"So, we were going to talk about the new spirits that're moving into the packing?" Wat asked.

"Yes, of course," Civitas said, "Shadow, you'll join us, I assume? And Aerie?"

"Well, maybe, but I want to chat a little, and I'm sure we shouldn't leave Ruth alone," Aerie said, a smile slipping across his pale face. He was dressed in a rather more casual way than before, like he was a laborer coming home from work, rather than the wizard-like robe she'd seen before. His hair was just as frazzled, though, and he smiled at Wat. "Looks like we're all trying out new styles, today. Where's that necklace of yours?"

"At the cleaners," Wat said, shaking his head.

"Oh," Aerie said, momentarily taken aback, and she wondered what that meant. "So, Miriam, would you like something to eat? Being a bachelor means I can cook, and Hone's probably going to be watching for trouble."

"Sure," she said, nodding, "Thank you, sir."

"Me, a sir? I perish the thought, and then Hone brings it back," Aerie said, gesturing for her to follow him.

*******

The kitchen was pretty normal, if rather larger than any she was used to. The color scheme seemed eclectic, none of it matching, and it was disorganized enough to have caused her mother to groan and roll her eyes, but as she sat at the dinner table, a sandwich began to materialize, ham and tomatoes and lettuce and cheese.

"So, you have an education in philosophy?" Aerie asked.

"Some, I suppose. I've read a little," Miriam said, not wanting to brag.

"And now you're magic. Now you're a witch, suffered not to live, or so some books might say," Aerie said, "Do you believe magic is evil?"

"How can I? How can anyone?"

"You would be surprised. But what is magic, if it's not evil, is it a tool? If I use my magic to tear someone's mind apart, and another man uses a hammer to tear someone's mind apart and end their life, is one act the worse than the other? What is acceptable with magic?" Aerie asked, "Thou shall not kill? But then, isn't there the Christian philosophy of the just war? Is that just an excuse for war?"

"Do you think it is?" Miriam asked, frowning. She knew this style of conversation, the way he was, like Jack, dropping ideas and possibilities without ever committing to one.

"Do you know what I mean by just war?"

"I haven't read Augustine in a while," Miriam admitted, "It hasn't really been a focus, but if just war doesn't exist, then it calls into question quite a few things. Yet I'm not someone who would ever go to war." She hesitated, "Would ever go to war. It seems to me that using magic to do something might be worse if it does something impossible that harms others, but if it does something simple, then maybe it's merely as bad as the act?"

"Yet, the simple things can be the hardest. Any man who is strong enough might murder another, but if I use mind magic to give myself the skills, and life to give myself the strength, then am I doing anything worse than if I'd instead gone exercising, run around and practiced killing the man?"

"It seems like it'd be worse," Miriam admitted, frowning. "Or at least, it's using a lot of potent magic to do something that maybe shouldn't be done in the first place."

"Does it taint you? Magic done like that. People get used to power, but souls? Did you know that you can extract a soul? Buy and sell it if you're the right sort, or the wrong sort, of Mage?"

Miriam stared in horror, she'd heard that magic could do something with souls, but it was one thing to hear it as part of a lesson, and another to hear it like...that. "I...I do not think anyone who does that would be accepted in any polite society."

"But if souls can be bought and sold, then what are they? Even we wise don't have every single answer," Aerie said, "But if you don't' ask the questions, if you don't open your mind to explore, and explore the possibility that you might be wrong, then what's the point of waking up? I'm with the Mysterium, we're Mages who seek to understand, I guess you'd say. Not recruiting you, just telling you to think about it. That's what we do, at our best, try to understand the hidden knowledge of the world."

"Does that involve stealing souls?" Miriam asked, glancing at him.

"No, that's illegal. There are things against laws of not only moral but political."

Miriam frowned, "But that doesn't stop people from doing it, does it?"

"Nobody in the Mysterium who did something like that would escape punishment, I'd like to think. And we're good people, locally," Aerie said. "Magic itself is something more than can be defined briefly, wouldn't you agree? It's not a tool, and you said it, and it isn't evil, as you said...but then, what is it? Where does it come from and where is it going?"

Miriam frowned, staring at him, and then at the sandwich as he presented it to her. She took a bite, and it was very good, the flavors all melding together as this thirty-something man watched her. "I don't know," Miriam said, "But whatever order I join, I do intend to keep on finding out, however I can. God willing."

"God willing," he said, quietly, "God willing. That's something else you'll have to come to a solution with. Myself, I don't believe in God the way you might, but I do believe in something. You always have to believe in something, or you'll come unmoored. Perhaps we might talk some more, later, but for now, I'm curious...what have you read, what haven't you read? I'm not sure how thorough Shadow's been, seeing as he is how he is, but--"

******

That saturday, she went to church as normal. Prayed as normal, to the extent that any prayer could be normal, and then made her way towards the church she had visited before. It was a hot, sunny day out, the good weather persisting, and so she made her way along, towards the storefront church, and from it came beautiful singing.

Singing with not only purpose, but with a lesson in it as well. Meaning. She closed her eyes, thinking through what she'd want to ask and what she wanted to know, and stepped inside.

What's she here for? (Choose 1)

[] Though she doesn't know it, rotes are an important part of magic, and there are a few rotes that are more public territory. She might learn about rotes, and even learn one (1 XP per, unlocks a training/practice session over the next week to learn/etc. More rotes means more time, and it's also, you know, costing XP)
-[] A rote for being able to do two things at once, mentally.
-[] A rote that can subtly influence someone to act in a way they've always been thinking of.
-[] To know the nature and soul of another is a divine, of dangerous, blessing.
[] The Folk are a group, as well as merely just folk, and perhaps she should ask more about their beliefs, and what they do for the world.
[] Everyone's gotta help out. Eve's going around to distribute some food and money to those who are doing poorly, and Miriam finds herself enlisted in doing the rounds, seeing more of what they do on the ground. Seeing a lot more poverty than even she's used to.
*****

1/5th XP (Debate, learning, more reading)
1/5th Arcana XP (Hallows, etc, etc)

Thought: 4 (Int)+1 (Can we keep them)=2 sux

Resolve+Composure=1 sux

Oblation: 2 (Composure)+1 (Gnosis)+1 (Setup)=2 sux, 2 Mana gained

Mana 8/10.

Miriam, in two--

Thought Portion: 4 (Intelligence)+2 (High School -2)=2 sux
Thought Portion #2: 4 (Int)+3 (Preacher's Daughter)=failure
Talking Portion: 2 (Presence)+2 (First Sux)-1 (Failure)=1 sux

Aerie: 3 sux

A/N: Alright, so here we go!

Also, having read all of the Order books, I have to say that depending on circumstances Miriam could fit in most of them. People underestimate...well, all of them, or rather base things on cliches.

veekie · Mar 13, 2017

[X] Everyone's gotta help out. Eve's going around to distribute some food and money to those who are doing poorly, and Miriam finds herself enlisted in doing the rounds, seeing more of what they do on the ground. Seeing a lot more poverty than even she's used to.

Learning experience AND also soothing to her I think.

ctulhuslp · Mar 13, 2017

[X] Though she doesn't know it, rotes are an important part of magic, and there are a few rotes that are more public territory. She might learn about rotes, and even learn one (1 XP per, unlocks a training/practice session over the next week to learn/etc. More rotes means more time, and it's also, you know, costing XP)
-[X] A rote for being able to do two things at once, mentally.

I do not like voting for shiniez, but sometimes we probably should pick something.

wingstrike96 · Mar 13, 2017

[X] The Folk are a group, as well as merely just folk, and perhaps she should ask more about their beliefs, and what they do for the world.

Neptune · Mar 13, 2017