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] Concepts have power, and in the Astral they are rampant.
-[X] The Civil War, the realm that is a microcosm of the whole.
 
Page 34: The Dream of Belonging, Part 2
Page 34: The Dream of Belonging, Part 2

Imagine a city. What do you imagine? What could you imagine. Miriam imagined people, hopes, dreams, work and industry and faith and churches and everyday lives and--yes, distantly, dates and marriages--most of all a thriving, living thing. Cities were not dead, and nobody who had walked through South Side could imagine that. They were not just buildings, and she knew that there had been so much history in any one building that even it was alive in a sense. Certainly in the spirit world, and there were other layers of reality that overlapped with it, depths and eddies of 'cityness' that she hadn't considered.

From what she remembered, spirits in the city were intimately linked to humans thoughts and emotions, to the way people lived and the way the spirits fed on that. She'd seen it, and so she added that layer as she stood there, arm outstretched. The world molded beneath and above her will, as Virginia watched with something like awe.

"Wow," she said, "What are those?"

Miriam's imagination could only be so vivid, and she was sure that this was an exercise in decorative futility, but she was imagining the spirits of trumpets, the spirits of happiness and gaity, food spirits and music spirits and all sorts of other things, and though the forms she was picturing seemed a little too pat, a little too clean, she peopled the space as she reached out with her will. It was like threading your mind through a needle, but she felt as if the air just beyond the castles in the clouds that she had created was tight, taut with potential. Just beyond it, as if they were in an egg, was the city proper. The South-side. That's what she felt as she walked the path, as she moved with her mind.

The ground unsettled beneath her feet as cars ran past her, going into her and then coming out the other side, as if she were a ghost, and she imagined what it was doing the day. The stroll, it was called, and yes it was a place of running the numbers and running the stills, a place where women and men went to buffet flats or slightly classier places, a line of debauchery and sin and prostitution and cabarets where the races mingled, or where black girls performed for the satisfaction of white men.

It was a lot of things, but during the daytime, it was none of those at all. It was a line of shops and convenience, of BBQ stands and buskers.

She liked it during the day, and wished that the night life wasn't such a big draw. She added a little bit of a sea of white faces, coming to gawk during the day and night, but even more during the night. The night life, the stereotypes, the assumptions about what it is that people did. What people were.

Jazz musicians and cabaret girls, loose women and footloose men. And then most everyone lived and made their way and worked as hard as they could. It was unfair, the kind of unfair that could get under a person's skin and drive them crazy. Biting, stinging gnats compared to the hard glares and doubt of some of the whites she'd met.

"Yeah," Virginia said.

"What?" Miriam asked. She definitely hadn't said that aloud.

"Yeah, that looks like it. You have a mind for detail," Virginia admitted, "Not surprising, Miriam, but I didn't know you were so visual."

She could have drawn on her magic to remember details, but she didn't need it. "You wouldn't do as well?"

"I couldn't get the white faces right," Virginia admitted, stretching a little, green eyes glinting, "Honestly, y'know, sometimes it's hard to tell the features apart. Back down south, we only rarely saw white people."

Miriam frowned. Virginia didn't usually like talking about the south, but she seemed to be in a certain mood. Relaxed, or trying to come off as it for Miriam? Either way, she appreciated it in a way. "I know it was bad down south."

"Yeah, much better up north, despite anything and everything." Virginia said, "So...what now?"

Miriam tried to imagine stepping through, focusing on the distance, and then the layers seemed to peel, and she saw, beyond it, the street as it was in Metropolis.

It was remarkably similar, except it was somehow straddled between night and day. Red BBQ stalls, fruit sellers, drunk partygoers and sober moviegoers all seemed to mingle in an impossible mass on the streets. As busy as it ever was, and more, their features plain and normal, nothing to say they weren't real, though she knew from her uncle that some of them were like people, some were like scenery...and some were stronger than normal people. If she was guessing on the matter of stronger, then she'd suppose that the four men standing on a street corner might be part of them.

All were dressed in white, but different shades of it, their hair conked out, two of them shorter, one tall and thin, and one huge. Trombone in the hand of the huge man, as the second short man sat before a small piano, and another played the drums, while the last expertly played the viol as if he had been born for it. Each of them seemed sunk deep into their music, and the sound they put out made even Miriam want to dance, and she didn't know the steps at all.

"Huh," she said. The smells hit her too. Fried food, yes, but also the scent of crowded humanity, smoke, and the definite smell of what Miriam had to guess was alcohol. Her eyes darted one way and another, and the alleys certainly didn't seem like welcoming places, dark and oddly empty, the shadows too long, but the rest of the street, and the streets she could see beyond, was all too inviting, sometimes, she didn't doubt, in the worst way.

She looked around, and Virginia was looking with appreciation. "I wonder whose...vision this is?" she asked, frowning.

"Hrm?" Virginia asked.

"I mean, you told me that all of this is how people perceive something, right?" Virginia asked. Miriam had explained the basics of what she knew about the Astral to Virginia.

"Yes," Miriam said, uncertainly.

"Then where's the racism?" Virginia asked, with a sly look on her face, gesturing around.

Miriam realized that...yeah. There were more white people here than there would be on an ordinary day, but the various residents and passersby didn't like like caricatures, and while there was a little bit of that in the way that the stroll was viewed as a place of clubs and jazz, but…

Miriam knew what people could say. What they could think. There were no rioters here, none of the men who passed her by had comically oversized lips. It was...not a fair vision of the south side, she thought, looking at the open shops and windows, at the people laughing and talking and passing the time, but it wasn't the worst she'd ever thought she'd hear. "It's there, but maybe this is the vision of the people living here? And the people who come here?"

"That'd make sense," Virginia said, a little more chipper, "So where should we go?"

"I'm still thinking," a voice said, and Miriam half-jumped as she turned to see her own uncle in a dark suit with ivory buttons, and a low, broad banded hat that made him look as if he might start selling something at any moment. It was quite the outfit, and Miriam looked down at what she was wearing, and then blinked.

Her clothes were mostly the same, a skirt, stockings, shoes, a plain blouse, but they seemed a little different, the material finer, the skirt slightly looser and just a little bit shorter, though not so much as to be improper. And Virginia's clothing seemed even more different.

Miriam realized that Virginia was wearing a white slip dress and white stockings, the skirt of the dress shorter than Miriam would have thought proper.

"Your costume changes depending on where you are," Jack said, "To blend in. If you went to, say, Mars, then you might have a suit to deal with the cold vacuum of space. If you went beneath the ocean, you might have a diving suit. What matters is that you keep what you bring with you--"

Miriam had her mirror, her pen, and a pocket knife her uncle had temporarily given her as a weapon, a focus for any offensive magic she might have to try. She hoped she'd never have to use it, and she wasn't sure how she'd use what she knew to make a weapon, actually. Mind and Space did not exactly seem overflowing with ways to attack, at least as good as she was with either of them. But she supposed as a worst-case scenario, she could just use it in its normal fashion.

"Oh, yeah," Miriam said.

"So, you don't know where we're going?" Virginia asked, frowning.

"It's your show. I'm just here for security and to make sure nobody does anything to you."

"Well, that music sounds nice," Virginia said, "Let's go that way?" She looked over at Miriam.

"That sounds fine," Miriam said.

They walked through the crowd, which didn't part easily for any of them. Some of the people continued onward in a dim way that made her think of scenery, while others turned in shock or interest. It was an oddly personal feeling, and as they got closer to the music, it seemed to only grow stronger and stronger in her blood. It felt almost similar to the way that God had moved her to stand up and dance, during the church service.

She'd kept up church, and they'd talked about Isaac, and her father's preaching had been as good as always, but it had made her think about the emotionalism of the other service. It wasn't necessary to reach God, and yet sometimes it could be beautiful. And that music had the same feeling as she approached, glancing into a shop where a strange faceless man was having his measurements taken.

He turned to her, and somehow Miriam felt his attention. She could use magic to see whether there was more, but...she didn't want to. Instead she shuttered and kept on walking.

The Musicians all gestured to a hat on the ground, and Jack smiled, his expression easy, as he threw a whole dollar into the hat. They started playing louder, and then, from one of the alleys, a man stepped up.

He was a short negro man, his face wrinkled, in his fifties at the least, and balding, but wearing a blue suit with gold-buttons, and a green ring on his right hand. His every movement seemed as if it flowed from one to the other as he shuffled forward, and there was something about him that didn't seem quite right. Perhaps it was his eyes, which looked far too young and far too hungry, or maybe it was the smile on his face. "Ah, so it seems we have someone. Someone and...oh. Oh wow." His voice was old and weathered, with a strong southern accent, "A new demon-child, barely a sinner and very guilty indeed."

"What?" Virginia asked, taking a step back. "Who are you?"

"Me? You can call me Mr. Gilt. I'm just like you, actually...but rather more experienced. And not in the company of these strange beings that invade the dreams and respect nothing except their own power."

"Excuse me?" Miriam asked, frowning.

"You are not excused," Mr. Gilt said, "Your very presence leads to distortion. To ruin. But--"

"She is my friend," Virginia said, firmly.

Mr. Gilt frowned for a moment, and Virginia smelled something like rust, and something like pennies. "I dare say she is. As I said, a new Demon-Child, still full of Guilt. I bet you've never actually reached your Actualization yet."

"Actualization?" Miriam asked, as a part of her mind, still split off, was recording what he said. Gilt, as in the act of covering something with gold that...isn't.

"Not any of your business, Wizard," Mr. Gilt said, "Whoever you are, new girl, Actualization is your true form--"

Miriam didn't have to think for more than a moment, "Then she's entered it before. Though I'm not sure if I'd call it her true form."

Jack held up a hand, "This is all well and good, but really, can't we all get along, here? You and your...group, are here for a reason, I assume?"

"Our Psyche has been tasked with dealing with a few annoyances. The local leaders are competing with a few different...factions."

Miriam frowned, but didn't speak out, listening to the man as he talked.

"If you came with me, I could tell you more about what it means to be a Demon-Spawn, Ms…"

"Virginia," Virginia said, with a nod. The look in her eyes, though was a little dubious, not least because of how Miriam had been treated.

"You should think of a coded name at some point. To allow some safety. But either way, the problem is that the god botherers are trying to impute the good name of certain individuals as corrupt," Mr. Gilt said, "The local politicians, and the black-and-tan owners here are annoyed, and so we need to talk the churches around into paying a little less attention. Or at least into not being so open in their denunciation."

Miriam frowned, looking at him with suspicion. It was far from a worthy task, especially when she knew how it worked. By changing things in the dream world, you didn't change what was actually going on. But you did change how people thought about it. If you did, that could have big consequences.

"I'm not sure I can go with you," Virginia said, "At least, not without the others."

"My Psyche can stand them, I suppose. Not all of them think as I do," Mr. Gilt said.

"Why are you doing this?" Miriam asked, "What did they do that made you want to alter public perception?"

"What, you care?"

"Yes, I do," Miriam said, "So, what is it about the black-and-tan cabarets?"

"The new mayor is going to shut them down, before too long, and that means that Jazz won't have a place to go, that's the worry, and it's why we were paid to do what we could. Talk people around, threaten people around, don't run afoul of any of the more powerful beings here." Mr. Gilt said it all simply, as if talking to a child, "The cabarets are an important part of the atmosphere here, and I have investments in one of them."

"Which one?" Jack asked, suddenly curious.

"Do you think I'm going to reveal my hand so easily?"

"Hopefully the Sunset, that's a good one," Jack said.

Mr. Gilt blinked, as if he hadn't expected someone to know the names of the cabarets. And yet if there was one thing that she could say about her uncle's habits it was that he was dedicated to them. Miriam had never been in such a cabaret and knew that it was highly improper, but Jack? Jack knew them all by name.

"Dreamland isn't bad, either," Jack said. "And yes, I know that they're under threat, and some of it is that they do break some laws."

"Laws that nobody cares about, and that we're being paid not to care about," Mr. Gilt pointed out. "If you come with us, Virginia, I can teach you how to use your powers."

"Only if the others want to come," Virginia said after a moment's thought. She bit her lip, her delicate facial features radiating uncertainty. "There's plenty of other things here to explore if not, and if you really want to tell me, you could just tell me here. You know you can tell me here. I'm a new Demon-Spawn. That means I have power, and if you're like me, you know it. You can feel it. Miriam told me that someone tried to get at me before I even fully embraced it, for whatever reason. It means I'm more important than some mission that you're already doing. A psyche, that's...a team or something? If so, then why are you needed there?"

"Because I have money. I can see when someone values something. I can tell what someone values most. I saw what you valued most, Virginia, at the moment. Prices change, stocks rise and fall, and we don't judge. We're all demons here, in one way or another. How old are you? Not old enough for guilt, or even worry," Gilt said, leaning forward.

"Maybe, maybe not. It's my own choice," Virginia said, her voice firm and hard, "It's my choice to think about what to do, and what not to do, and it's down to you to either respect that or not. I'm here to explore this Astral space with my friend and a guardian, and if you want to come along, that's fine. If not, then we'll meet again some day, no doubt, when I'm more experienced and you can't take me for a ride as if I'm some naive girl to be wooed by the first person to ask me to dance."

Virginia's voice grew firmer as she spoke, and the look on both Gilt and Jack's face grew speculative, though in different sorts of directions. Gilt looked like he'd swallowed a lemon, but was trying to figure out if he could use it, while Jack seemed openly impressed with her.

"You make an interesting argument," Mr. Gilt said. "And that leaves us to look to the liars and thieves, the people who cause discord with their very powers."

What to do?

[] Go with Mr. Gilt to shake down the church leaders, and meet the rest of the Psyche.
[] Explore the shops, see if there is anything or anyone interesting in them. Mr. Gilt will come along.
[] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.
[] Search for one of the politicians mentioned. An alderman or similar figure as exists in real life. In fact, from what her uncle tells her, it would be a real-life figure. The representation of how people view them.
[] Stroll around the streets, see what there is to see, and where all of this leads to. There's the larger Metropolis, after all.
[] Write-in.

*****

Visualization: 4 (Int)+5 (A Lifetime)=5 sux

Socialize: Failure

4 (Int)+1 (Magical knowledge)=2 sux

3 (Preacher's daughter)+2 (Presence)+3 (Willpower)=4 sux

WP ⅚

Virginia's Argument: 3 (Presence)+2 (Arguments)+3 (WP)=6 sux

A/N: And here we go. A little short, but yeah, hope you enjoyed it.
 
Both Virginia and Miriam rolled exceptionally there, and I guess it's a rather good thing that Virginia can have access to people who can teach her about her nature. Unfortunately, I don't think Miriam's the type to shake down the church type so that option is IMO ill advised.

[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr.Gilt will come along.

Thus I'll go with this, considering it's the issue in the first place. Also Jack has experience there and Mr Gilt would obviously have information, enabling us to use both of their knowledge.
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.

Should always make up our minds and opinions for ourselves. This is no different. What laws are being broken, what are thriving. These are important things. See the ones who make the place and then see the one who want to quash them.
 
Well having jack with us in the sin realm would have been awkward ..especially as he might recognise some of Virginia's signs.

He probably already knows because he has Mind...5, I believe, and is somewhat cautious (he is still alive so he should be :V).

[] Go with Mr. Gilt to shake down the church leaders, and meet the rest of the Psyche.

We do have Jack as a backup, so may as well investigate.

[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.

Gotta check it out.

[] Search for one of the politicians mentioned. An alderman or similar figure as exists in real life. In fact, from what her uncle tells her, it would be a real-life figure. The representation of how people view them.

That's...hm. Maybe useful too.
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr.Gilt will come along.
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.
 
[x] Go with Mr. Gilt to shake down the church leaders, and meet the rest of the Psyche.​
 
[X] Visit a Cabaret. Perhaps not proper, but there is something about it that makes Miriam curious...Mr. Gilt will come along.
 
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